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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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Azel said:
I feel the large numbers kind of confound the issue, what with us fielding tons upon tons of chaff while the enemy has a few big hitters.

Imperial Forces:
- 18 / 20 Erinyes - 10% losses
- 20 / 20 Sea Drakes - 0% losses
- 36 / 40 Black Knight - 10% losses
- 161 / 200 Necro-Harpies (CR 5) - 19.5% losses
- 75 / 100 Spitter Swarm - 25% losses
- 246 / 300 Spitter - 18% losses
- 0 / 50 Fireflies - 100% losses
By Type:
- 38 / 40 Living Combatants - 5% losses
- 518 / 640 Undead Combatants - 19.06 % losses
- 0 / 50 Suicide Weapons - 100% losses

Tiamat Forces:
- 12 / 23 Drakes - 47.83% losses
- 6 / 23 Riders - 73.91% losses
Overall:
- 18 / 46 Combatants - 60.87% losses

So. Yeah. By raw count we are loosing a lot, but we are actually just spending low CR, dirt-cheap undead to tear apart their vaunted and ludicrously expensive Drake force. The GC is loosing the aerial battle. Badly.

Any sane army force would retreat with those kinds of losses, but it seems unlikely that they would want to explain that to Tiamat.

Also, it's funny to me to imagine the perspective of one of the riders. Here they are, some of the most prestigious and glorious servants of Tiamat. Knights of the sky and what have you.
So they charge that swarm of pathetic creatures to bring glory to themselves and their patron, having prismatic fire tear large gashes into the stinking cloud of monsters.
Except they don't stop because of that. They come closer.
Suddenly you are inside the cloud. Everything is dark. Everything stinks of decaying flesh. There are floating things everywhere, spewing arcane energies at your mount. You hear claws scraping over the drakes scales.
You barely dodge the blade of some sort of huge black knight that was just suddenly right there in front of you. Then he is gone again in the mess of limbs and claws and skulls. You hear screams of drakes and people. You are not sure who is screaming.
Something hits your drake and explodes. Then another. Then another. You want to get the hell our of here but drop the escape charm because something nearly tore your hand off the moment you went for your saddlebag. The drake breaths again, but it does nothing to stem the tide. Your drake screams. Something explodes again.
You feel claws dig into your armor, thankfully not piercing all the way to your flesh. You are lifted from your saddle. You scream.
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God damn I really want that Golden Company POV.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Feb 8, 2020 at 3:36 PM, finished with 107 posts and 23 votes.
  • [X] Plan Escalation - Continued
    -[X] The Wyverns and Moonchaser will continue unleashing their Teleporting Beetle Bombs on the Golden Company's Drakes, and the Moonchaser opens fire on the Ancient Nightmare Dragons with its Magic Army spell enhanced Steam Cannons, but stops firing on them before any of our allies close to melee range with them.
    -[X] Although he is unlikely to return close enough to continue participating in the battle, the Hadhayosh will use his Plane Shift charm to return to Planetos from the Elemental Plane of Fire. The Harbinger looks for an appropriate target upon which it can unleash the hidden Nekro-Kraken.
    -[X] Team Vee continues Summoning and will send their remaining Herald to retrieve the bodies of the fallen Erinyes so that we may ensure they are restored without delay after the conclusion of hostilities.
    -[X] Although the Ancient Nightmare Dragons are tempting targets, they are not our true prey. Allow Malarys, Amrelath and the rest of his team to handle the pair. None of our Dragons use their breath weapons against these Nightmare Dragons, in case they are also protected as the war elephants had been.
    --[X] Malarys targets the Nightmare Dragons with a Chain Dispel (effective caster level of 24th w/Bead of Karma and Dispelling bonus). He uses his Ring of Spell-Battle to counter the first attempt at enemy spellcasting.
    --[X] Tyene casts Assay Spell Resistance, then targets the Nightmare Dragons with a Sunburst spell using two 7th level spell slots.
    --[X] Waymar casts Assay Spell Resistance, then targets one of the Nightmare Dragons with a Born of the Three Thunders modified Lightning Lance spell, directing all three lances at a single Dragon.
    --[X] Rina casts Assay Spell Resistance then hits the Nightmare Dragon which Waymar did not target with her Fell Drain Sound Burst spell. She uses her Battlemagic Perception spell to counter the second enemy attempt at spellcasting.
    --[X] Amrelath, the Mighty Mind Dragon, and the two Fiery Dragonbeasts move in to engage the Nightmare Dragons in melee combat. Details for a fully combat-buffed Mighty Mind Dragon's combat statistics HERE.
    --[X] Nettles targets one of the Nightmare Dragons using her group's Amber Sarcophagus spell scroll, selecting whichever Dragon seems least affected by the group's opening salvo. If either of the Nightmare Dragons survive, that is. She uses a Brilliant Barrier charm to protect her group if it proves necessary.
    -[X] Viserys expends an 8th level spell slot to Summon a Greater Earth Elemental (54,000 pounds) to fall upon the Temple of Tiamat from a great height.
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Part MMMCCCXXXIII: Of Steam, Thunder and Stee
  • Threadmarks
    • Of Steam, Thunder and Steel ​

    Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

    Even among the swirling chaos of the battle the Moonchaser makes its presence known as a queen among its court. Swarms of glittering deadly beetles flicker in and out of existence striking at the Drakes, but it seems the dragon-kin have learned the trick of fading into the ether just as the alchemical payload flashes across the sky. If nothing else it seems to have broken their pattern, but the ship's main armaments have stronger foes to face. The hiss of steam, of steel cutting through the air, heralds the first blow of a steam caster fired in anger.

    Blood flies, bone shatters, one Nightmare Dragon's wing twists unnaturally under the onslaught while the other takes a bolt to the underside of its jaw sending a stream of acid mingling with the blood onto the battle below. Both Dragons roar in outrage at the pain, or perhaps at the unpleasant reality of a world where they cannot simply wish their wounds away, content in the knowledge that there are among the greatest horrors of the Deep Dream.

    Yet these are Dragons just the same, beings not only of fang, claw and sine, but magic also. Moving with the same odd synchronicity you had seen a moment before both Dragons melt into swirling black dust, like the sands of some pitiless cosmic hourglass flowing ever onward. Amrelath is more than happy to take the challenge, sweeping in with a pair of great Darkenbeasts at his side. At his side and a little bit in front of him. The Ash-Risen is not so in love with glory that he would charge heedless into the teeth of the enemy.

    His caution proves wise. As he approaches one of the foes intones a spell of unraveling, another slashes the air with blood red light, a death curse. Malarys flies across the battlefield upon a wind of his own calling, recognizing that guarding Amrelath is more urgent than remaining besides Rina, and deftly picks apart the spell that would have robbed Amrelath of his ward leaving the curse to spend itself harmlessly against the Dragon's scales.

    Still, the spell was stronger than a Dragon of their breed and age should be able to muster, the thought barely grazes the surface of your mind. It is not as though Amrelath, Relath, or yourself do not put paid any notions that a Dragon's magic cannot outpace the march of age.

    Lightning flares from Waymar's hand through the two clouds of nightmare spun and thunder almost seems to cleave one in two while leaving the other unharmed, as fickle chance would have it. Tyene's light alas has little enough effect, though Rina's fel winds sap the most wounded of your foes enough that you feel as much as see the ripple of healing power with which it mends itself anew. A contingency spell, they cannot have more than one of those, you know.

    As you begin intoning the words of a summoning in stone Amrelath and the Darkenbeasts smash into the Nightmare Wyrms, and while not all their blows are telling against the flowing sand they hit just the same. A mind dragon's slender tail darts in, once, twice, seeking the weakest of the two, the one whose healing spell is spent. Acid burns through its veins, but it does not falter, it does not fall even as your own spell reaches fruitiness, as a titanic boulder of living earth smashes into the temple of Tiamat. That its guardians had not considered... you think in satisfaction as you watch the crude vault crumble inwards.

    The broken temple opens like a maw into the heavens and from that maw there comes a call, hideous and mesmerizing at once, the voice of the Mother of Dragons calling her children home. You shake it off easily enough, besides you Dany is shaking with rage. Three of the Darkenbeasts had been ensnared, spiraling upwards on the thermals the better to attack Amrelath or you from a dive.

    What do you do?

    [] Leave your companions to handle the enchanted dragon-kin, you have business inside the temple

    [] Try to subdue the enchanted dragon-kin

    [] Write in

    OOC: I did not roll for what the forces besides the Nightmare Dragons were doing this round yet since that would have taken long enough that I do not think I could have gotten the update posted tonight. IC it's a mater of Viserys not being able to count losses with his attention focused mostly on the Nightmare Dragons.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • So, there are two nightmare dragons here. How many more dragons does she have? One red, and many drakes, and just that?
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Of Steam, Thunder, and Steel ​

    Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

    Even among the swirling chaos of the battle, the Moonchaser makes its presence known as a queen among its court. Swarms of glittering deadly beetles flicker in and out of existence striking at the drakes, but it seems the dragon-kin have learned the trick of fading into the ether just as the alchemical payload flashes across the sky. If nothing else it seems to have broken their pattern, but the ship's main armaments have stronger foes to face. The hiss of steam, of steel cutting though the air, heralds the first blow of a steam caster fired in anger.

    Blood flies, bone shatters, one dragon's wing twists unnaturally under the onslaught while the other takes a bolt to the underside of its jaw, sending a stream of acid mingling with the blood onto the battle below. Both dragons roar in outrage at the pain, or perhaps at the unpleasant reality of a world where they cannot simply wish their wounds away, content in the knowledge that they are among the greatest horrors of the Deep Dream.

    Yet these are dragons just the same, beings not only of fang, claw, and sinew, but magic also. Moving with the same odd synchronicity you had seen a moment before, both dragons melt into swirling black dust, like the sands of some pitiless cosmic hourglass flowing ever onward. Amrelath is more than happy to take the challenge sweeping in with a pair of great darken beasts at his side. At his side and a little bit in front of him. The Ash-Risen is not so in love with glory that he would charge heedlessly into the teeth of the enemy.

    His caution proves wise. As he approaches, one of the foes intones a spell of unraveling, another slashes the air with blood red light, a death curse. Malarys flies across the battlefield upon a wind of his own calling, recognizing that guarding Amrelath is more urgent than remaining besides Rina and deftly picks apart the spell that would have robbed Amrelath of his ward leaving the curse to spend itself harmlessly against the dragon's scales.

    Still the spell was stronger than a dragon of their breed and age should be able to muster, the thought barely grazes the surface of your mind. It is not as though Amrelath, Relath, or yourself do not put paid any notions that a dragon's magic cannot outpace the march of age.

    Lightning flares from Waymar's hand through the two clouds of nightmare spun. and thunder almost seems to cleave one in two while leaving the other unharmed, as fickle chance would have it. Tyene's light alas has little enough effect, though Rina's fel winds sap the most wounded of your foes enough that you feel as much as see the ripple of healing power with which it mends itself anew. A contingent spell, they cannot have more than one of those, you know.

    As you begin intoning the words of a summoning in stone, Amrelath and the darkenbeasts smash into the nightmare wyrms, and while not all their blows are telling against the flowing sand, many leave their mark. A mind dragon's slender tail darts in, once twice, seeking the weakest of the two, the one whose healing spell is spent. Acid burns though its veins, but it does not falter, it does not fall, even as your own spell reaches fruition, as a titanic boulder of living earth smashes into the temple of Tiamat. That its guardians had not considered... you think in satisfaction as you watch the crude vault crumble inwards.

    The broken temple opens like a maw into the heavens and from that maw there comes a call, hideous and mesmerizing at once the voice of the Mother of Dragons calling her children home. You shake it off easily enough, and beside you Dany is shaking with rage. Three of the darkenbeasts had been ensnared, spiraling upwards on the thermals the better to attack Amrelath or you from a dive.

    What do you do?

    [] Leave your companions to handle the enchanted dragon-kin, you have business inside the temple

    [] Try to subdue the enchanted dragon-kin

    [] Write in

    OOC: I did not roll for what the other forces besides the dragons were doing this rotund yet since that would have taken long enough that I do not think I could have gotten the update posted tonight. IC it's a mater of Viserys not being able to count losses with his attention focused mostly on the nightmare dragons. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP. Great name for the chapter, too. It totally need to be read by James Earl Jones.

    Did Tiamat's enchantment somehow ignore or burn through the Mind Blank each of the Fiery Dragonbeasts should have been protected by? Or was it a Rebuke/Command Dragon effect of some sort? If that's the case, Tiamat must have invested serious power in it to be able to affect Dragons with 30 HD.
     
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    Duesal said:
    1 Mature Adult Shadow Dragon
    3 Adult Shadow Dragons
    2 Ancient Nightmare Dragons
    1 Very Young Red Dragon

    She might have more, but these are the ones we're aware of.
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    The older shadow dragon is dead, so we have three shadow dragons, two nightmares and the young red to deal with. And we have already found the the nightmare ones.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP. Great name for the chapter, too. It totally need to be read by James Earl Jones.

    Did Tiamat's enchantment somehow ignore or burn through the Mind Blank each of the Fiery Dragonbeasts should have been protected by? Or was it a Rebuke/Command Dragon effect of some sort? If that's the case, Tiamat must have invested serious power in it to be able to affect Dragons with 30 HD.
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    It's Rebuke/Command yes and that feels more like a ritual more than direct divine intervention to Viserys. Judging by the fact that it did not affect Amrelath or Viserys himself it seems to not work on True Dragons.
     
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    Azel said:
    Also, it's funny to me to imagine the perspective of one of the riders. Here they are, some of the most prestigious and glorious servants of Tiamat. Knights of the sky and what have you.
    So they charge that swarm of pathetic creatures to bring glory to themselves and their patron, having prismatic fire tear large gashes into the stinking cloud of monsters.
    Except they don't stop because of that. They come closer.
    Suddenly you are inside the cloud. Everything is dark. Everything stinks of decaying flesh. There are floating things everywhere, spewing arcane energies at your mount. You hear claws scraping over the drakes scales.
    You barely dodge the blade of some sort of huge black knight that was just suddenly right there in front of you. Then he is gone again in the mess of limbs and claws and skulls. You hear screams of drakes and people. You are not sure who is screaming.
    Something hits your drake and explodes. Then another. Then another. You want to get the hell our of here but drop the escape charm because something nearly tore your hand off the moment you went for your saddlebag. The drake breaths again, but it does nothing to stem the tide. Your drake screams. Something explodes again.
    You feel claws dig into your armor, thankfully not piercing all the way to your flesh. You are lifted from your saddle. You scream.
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    Obligatory meme, coming right up


    Also, ahahah, I told ya'll that bringing dragon-based creatures may be a bad idea!
    Ahahah!
    *picks up the phone*


    I think we are going to face some really elite forces very, very soon.
    F!Aegon is highly unlikely to just bolt alongside all the priests, if the lies fed by Illytio (we knew of from Varys) still held up to any degree in the Varys-less months.

    Casual reminder, that we don't actually need an Avatar nor F!Aegon alive - any one of them is sufficient for our total "REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!"-plan against Tim.

    Nap time.
     
    @Goldfish So how do you deal with a rebuked ally?

    Do we disable all three? If we're not going to bother to save them from divine mind control, then we should send some of our other muscle to deal with them and take out whatever else they have cooking in there with Team Viserys. Or in the words of Stannis: "The [Goddess] has played Her little trick. [She] cannot play it again."
     
    Crake said:
    @Goldfish So how do you deal with a rebuked ally?

    Do we disable all three? If we're not going to bother to save them from divine mind control, then we should send some of our other muscle to deal with them and take out whatever else they have cooking in there with Team Viserys. Or in the words of Stannis: "The [Goddess] has played Her little trick. [She] cannot play it again."
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    I'm writing up a plan now. Part of it will involve sending other Fiery Dragonbeasts to keep them occupied. A Rebuke/Command effect has a maximum duration of 1 minute, so it's not a long-term issue.
     
    MTB said:
    Just as planned. And then, after obliterating them like the chaff they are, the avatar will come ...
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    I think it's a mistake to assume that Tiamat's elites are any kind of chaff. These are going to be a mix of her favorite slaves and the specific counters she's made for us, depending on what her exact plan is.

    Once she moves into her actual plan for this fight she isn't going to bother with anything that won't seriously hurt unless it's a distraction for something that can.
     
    Subduing the mindfucked Fiery Dragonbeasts is a distraction that can be handled by others.

    Still not much for Team Viserys, and Team Yss remains in reserve, but you have to remember that we're less than 30 seconds into this battle.

    [X] Plan Dragon Wrangling
    -[X] The Harbinger and two Fiery Dragonbeasts from Team Havoc will move to assist Amrelath and the rest of Team Malarys. The Adamantine Golem and Black Brute from Team Havoc will join Team Minotaur in guarding Team Vee while Vee continues Summoning. Her next sets of Summoned Orglash Air Elementals will be sent to assist against the Nightmare Dragons, if they are still alive at that point. Maester Qyburn will effect what field repairs he can manage on the damaged Black Brute.
    -[X] The remaining Fiery Dragonbeast which wasn't affected by the Command, but which is not part of Team Yss, will also move to assist Team Malarys.
    -[X] The Moonchaser and Wyverns will continue bombing the Drakes to keep them occupied. The Moonchaser will take some shots at the Nightmare Dragon not being melee'd by the Mighty Mind Dragon, though only if it can do so without firing lines coming too close to our other people. Otherwise, it fires on Golden Company Drakes. It's magically enhanced rounds have a good chance of affecting them even when immaterial.
    -[X] Team Viserys moves close enough to the Temple of Tiamat for Lya to target it with a Greater Black Tentacles spell (310 feet), while Viserys' Summoned Greater Earth Elemental does its best to smash what remains of it into rubble.
    --[X] With the roof collapsed, if Viserys can see anyone within the temple who appears to be using magic, he will use Wild Arcana to target them with a Maw of Chaos spell. If he cannot see anyone, he will instead target the entire temple with a Tsunami spell.
    -[X] Team Malarys and the new additions will:
    --[X] Malarys targets the Nightmare Dragons with a Chain Dispel (effective caster level of 24th w/Bead of Karma and Dispelling bonus) which he didn't get the opportunity to use last round. He uses his Ring of Spell-Battle to counter the first attempt at enemy spellcasting.
    --[X] Waymar uses all three charges from his Ring of Mystic Lightning to add +4d6 damage to his next Electricity spell, then targets one of the Nightmare Dragons with a Sudden Maximized Born of the Three Thunders modified Lightning Lance spell, directing all three lances at it (204 Electricity damage & 54 magical impact damage, DC 17 Fortitude save to reduce Electricity damage by half). He then Quickcasts another Born of the Three Thunders modified Lightning Lance spell at that same Dragon if it still lives, or the other if his first target was slain.
    --[X] Rina hits the Nightmare Dragon which Waymar did not target with her Fell Drain Sound Burst spell which she didn't have an opportunity to use last round. She uses her Battlemagic Perception spell to counter the second enemy attempt at spellcasting.
    --[X] Tyene targets the Nightmare Dragons she previously used Assay Spell Resistance on with a Destruction spell. She uses her Ring of Spell-Battle to counter the third attempt at enemy spellcasting.
    --[X] Nettles targets one of the Nightmare Dragons using her group's Amber Sarcophagus spell scroll which she wasn't able to use in the previous round. She uses a Brilliant Barrier charm to protect her group if it proves necessary, either from a Nightmare Dragon attack or a Commanded Fiery Dragonbeast.
    --[X] Teana's Shadow-Traced duplicate attempts to use a Maze scroll against one of the Commanded Fiery Dragonbeasts. She uses a Brilliant Barrier charm to protect her group if it proves necessary, either from a Nightmare Dragon attack or a Commanded Fiery Dragonbeast.
    --[X] The Mighty Mind Dragon will engage in melee combat whichever Nightmare Dragon Waymar didn't target.
    --[X] Amrelath, the Harbinger, and three Fiery Dragonbeasts will move to keep the three Commanded Fiery Dragonbeasts occupied without killing them. If possible, the three free-willed Fiery Dragonbeasts will seek to maneuver their Commanded brethren away from the battle so that Amrelath and the Harbinger can return to dealing with the Golden Company.
     
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