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

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[X] Admit your involvement and your reasons
-[X] We wanted people in general to be prepared for these threats the lore is about. It saves time and effort if we don't have to travel across half the world to eliminate problems like the Golden Company befor they can reach our realm. The knowledge helps most people and only harms our foes, so we spread it.
-[X] Pol Ning in particular was in just the right position. We could give her the lore, she would be a trusted source for it to the Orange Emperor and we wouldn't have to be personally involved and thus sour other relations in these lands.
-[X] That she profited from it was good for her, and a minor advantage for us, as it would put someone who believes in our good intentions and has proof of our prior honesty in form of this lore, in a better position at her brother's court.

I see no reason to hide any of this from her.
She can profit as well, we have no particular reason to favor Pol Ning over her.
Ultimatly all that matters is shutting out mankind's mutual enemies without ruining our chances with the other two Emps here.
 
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Okay no.

Artemis1992 said:
[X] Admit your involvement and your reasons
-[X] We wanted people in general to be prepared for these threats the lore is about. It saves time and effort if we don't have to travel across half the world to eliminate problems like the Golden Company befor they can reach our realm. The knowledge helps most people and only harms our foes, so we spread it.
-[X] Pol Ning in particular was in just the right position. We could give her the lore, she would be a trusted source for it to the Orange Emperor and we wouldn't have to be personally involved and thus sour other relations in these lands.
-[X] That she profited from it was good for her, and a minor advantage for us, as it would put someone who believes in our good intentions and has proof of our prior honesty in form of this lore, in a better position at her brother's court.

I see no reason to hide any of this from her.
She can profit as well, we have no particular reason to favor Pol Ning over her.
Ultimatly all that matters is shutting mankind's mutual enemies without ruining our chances with the other two Emps here.
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The conceit here isn't totally twisted, it makes sense from the perspective of us, the thread, and even Viserys to an extent, but it discounts the fact that we are aiding Pol Ning and giving up any deniability about it. While the lore we gave them can't be used to harm Bu Gai for the most part, it does strengthen their position against internal sabotage by other powers, which does help them retain resources they might otherwise have lost that they can turn to the war against the Azure Emperor.

If you want to give the impression we helped her, there's plenty of ways to wink-wink nudge nudge about it that allow us to turn around and say "I had nothing to do with it, really".
 
[X] Artemis1992

My first instinct was to say "because when your neighbor lets his lawn overflow with pig shit you give him a shovel", but a more polite answer works too.
 
Crake said:
The conceit here isn't totally twisted, it makes sense from the perspective of us, the thread, and even Viserys to an extent, but it discounts the fact that we are aiding Pol Ning and giving up any deniability about it. While the lore we gave them can't be used to harm Bu Gai for the most part, it does strengthen their position against internal sabotage by other powers, which does help them retain resources they might otherwise have lost that they can turn to the war against the Azure Emperor.

If you want to give the impression we helped her, there's plenty of ways to wink-wink nudge nudge about it that allow us to turn around and say "I had nothing to do with it, really".
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Yeah, no.

We literally carpet-bomb our sworn enemies in Westeros with some of that lore. No joke.
Okay maybe at bit, this is the better quality, but the reason is valid anyway.
 
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I feel she is digging for something here. Probably our "actual" reasons for getting imvolved with Pol Ning.

Edit:
Do you think this would sour future relations with Pol Ning if she finds out about what we say here?
 
Artemis1992 said:
Yeah, no.

We literally carpet-bomb our sworm enemies in Westeros with some of that lore. No joke.
Okay maybe at bit, this is the better quality, but the reason is valid anyway.
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There's really no political calculus to factor in there... what relations will we tarnish by giving Golden Boy Lucan or Goody Two-Shoes Danelle our lore? In fact it hurts their reputations to associate with us in their respective circles.

It does not equivocate. False dichotomy, that's the turn of phrase.

Edit: So it's not false dichotomy either... honestly, I can't into English grammar right now, and I'm a native speaker.
 
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TalonofAnathrax said:
My first instinct was to say "because when your neighbor lets his lawn overflow with pig shit you give him a shovel", but a more polite answer works too.
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[X] Artemis1992

To be fair to her it's not like she let it overflow with pig shit, more like pigs just suddenly showed up in her backyard one day and then a maniac with a flamethrower jumped the fence and started screaming about bacon.
 
@Crake, I'm not really seeing an issue with admitting to sharing the lore with Pol Ning. Lady Xue probably only suspects us and is fishing for confirmation, but she may have more substantial evidence that we were involved. Does admitting it do more damage than denying it and being caught in a lie?

With the removal of the Golden Company, I thought our involvement in the politics of this region of Yi-Ti was going to be somewhat limited anyway?
 
Azel said:
*cough*

I decided I might as well keep going.

Myrkdreki, CR 19
This sleek dragon with scales dark as pitch moves through the air without a sound, it's wings seemingly unnecessary to keep it aloft.
LE Huge Dragon (Fey)
Init +8;
Senses dragon senses; scent, see in darkness, Perception+25;
Aura frightful presence (180 ft., DC 23)

DEFENSE
AC 32, touch 12, flat-footed 32 (+20 natural, –2 size, +4 DEX)
hp 275 (19d12+152)
Fort +19, Ref +15, Will +17
Defensive Abilities freedom of movement
Regeneration 9/good or silver
DR 10/cold iron and magic;
Immune cold, death effects, energy drain, paralysis, sleep;
Resist electricity 10, fire 10
SR 30

OFFENSE
Speed 200 ft.; air walk
Melee bite +32 (2d8+19 plus bleed/19–20), 2 claws +32 (2d6+15 plus bleed), tail slap +28 (2d6+19 plus bleed), 2 wings +28 (1d8+9 plus bleed)
Space 15 ft.;
Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with bite)

Special Attacks breath weapon (50-ft. cone, DC 27, 12d8 negative energy, DC 27), crush, shadow breath (DC 27), foreboding whispers (DC 26), bleed 2d6

Spell-like Abilities (CL 17th; concentration+22)
Constant—air walk, freedom of movement, know direction
At will—darkness, shadow walk, vampiric touch, speak with dead
3/day—stone tell

Spells Known (CL 7th; concentration +12)
3rd (5/day)—dispel magic, inflict serious wounds (DC 20)
2nd (7/day)—command undead (DC 19), invisibility, web (DC 19)
1st (8/day)—grease (DC 18), inflict light wounds (DC 18), magic missile, reduce person (DC 18), shield
0 (at will)—bleed (DC 17), detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead (DC 17), mage hand, ray of frost, read magic

STATISTICS
Str 40, Dex 18, Con 27, Int 17, Wis 22, Cha 24
Base Atk +19
Feats Critical Focus, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Multiattack, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Stealth), Snatch, Vital Strike
Skills Bluff +25, Diplomacy +25, Fly +16, Knowledge (arcana, local, planes) +25, Perception +25, Sense Motive +25, Spellcraft +25, Stealth +18, Survival +25
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Druidic
SQ ghost bane, umbral scion

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Breath Weapon (Su)
Although it deals negative energy damage, a Myrkdreki's breath weapon does not heal undead creatures.

Ghost Bane (Su)
A Myrkdreki's physical attacks deal damage to incorporeal creatures normally.

Shadow Breath (Su)
Three times per day, a Myrkdreki can breathe a cone of living shadows. Creatures who fail a Fortitude save are blinded and deafened for 1d4 rounds and take 2d6 points of Str drain. A successful save negates the blindness, deafness and reduces Str drain to 1d4 points.

Umbral Scion (Ex)
Myrkdreki have negative energy affinity and are immune to energy drain and death effects. When using shadow walk, they move at 100 miles per hour.

Foreboding Whispers (Su)
As a standard action, a Myrkdreki can create the illusion of baleful whispers all around itself. All creatures within 60 feet must succeed at a DC 23 Will save or become confused for 1d4 rounds. A creature that succeeds at this save is immune to the foreboding whispers ability of the Myrkdreki for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Rider Synergy (Su)
When a Myrkdreki carries a rider, the two act as one. If either the rider or the mount would take damage, the rider and mount decide how to divide the damage (typically splitting it equally). Additionally, the rider's movement as a part of the Myrkdreki's overrun combat maneuver does not provoke attacks of opportunity, unless that movement would also cause the Myrkdreki to provoke attacks of opportunity.

It needs some special attention from Elaheh, an Adult Shadow Dragon, the Orphen Kings current mount and probably a few barrels of Lawful and Evil juices.
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@DragonParadox, could I get an opinion on this?
 
By the way, I'm kinda confused, @DragonParadox.
Lady Xue offered using the leftover power of kami-ritual to find the GC escapees - but we seemingly have gotten them all already?
...Well, those we could have reasonably gotten, anyway?

Is she going to mop up all of the disorganized brigands that ran for their lives now, or something?

Or is she hoping to gun for the remaining Mindboanked targets (Illyrio, Blackheart) and/or GC's boltholes?
 
DragonParadox said:
It looks great, but it's definitely a one-off project that needs a fleshsmith and probably some fey magic on top of it. The difference between CR 15 and CR 19 is significant in perms of fluff and narrative weight.
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It'd totally be worthwhile. I'm assuming the Orphne King is more than willing to put in his end of the effort.
 
DragonParadox said:
It looks great, but it's definitely a one-off project that needs a fleshsmith and probably some fey magic on top of it. The difference between CR 15 and CR 19 is significant in perms of fluff and narrative weight.
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As it should be. The mount for our Shadow King (not a Sauron expy, honest) should be something special.
 
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