Remove ads

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

Reader mode
silvanknight said:
Would the Scholar's Ring be a good item for Naria/our other researchers?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Marginally useful for the Comprehend Languages effect, but we already have a decent stockpile of items which can do that. The bonus to History checks is kinda situational, though the Legend Lore effect is nice.

They're pretty cheap, though. I wouldn't mind having a few of them for our researchers.
 
BronzeTongue said:
Thoughts on hypothetical curses for dealing with the fey. Instead of trying to kill them all, what if we give them what they want in the worst possible way?

They've put all this effort into making the mortal world more fey, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste. Ritual magic and fey narrativium both play games with connections, and what goes one way often goes the other as well. If the fey can make the mortal world and those who live in it more like them, why not make the fey themselves more like mortals?

Specifically by having Yss, god of the cycle of life and death, take away their agelessness in proportion to how closely they live among mortals.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nice plan. I didn't know Asmodeus had a personal pawn working on this thread. Azel is a sort of independent contractor anyway.
 
Crake said:
Might wanna unpack that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean that as a compliment to his plan. It is really creative, has a very relevant fine print, and it ensures that ancient beings are given a soul and eventually perish, so that you can harvest them after death. All perfectly in line with what you would hope of Asmodeus
 
Last edited:
Tomcost said:
I mean that as a compliment to his plan. It is really creative, has a very relevant fine print, and it ensures that ancient beings are given a soul and ventually perish, so that you can harvest them after death. All perfectly in line with what you would hope of Asmodeus
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It does seem to imply that it directly benefits Asmodeus... and in fact it might. The Fey's Blue and Orange morality doesn't matter in this case because they still die, and the normal designate soul reliquaries are out of whack, so instead everyone gets scattered like nobody's business. Now you have a group of powerful, amoral whackjobs who are looking to secure their afterlife, some of which are powerful enough to use as a wedge against Daemons and Illithids in Extraplanar wars and political brinksmanship. Chaotic Good Celestials performing abysmally or even going against your plans?

Replace them with a Fey Lord you pointed that way leading a host of contracted fiends and lesser Fey. Now your minions can provide essential services Fey used to get from mortals, who they were more likely to sell body and soul to Baator in order to regain a competent subordinate from your own clutches one way or another.

From a short term perspective, @BronzeTongue's plan works wonderfully as a threat, but it makes an awful deterrent since it plagues us equally with more enduring enmities.
 
Crake said:
It does seem to imply that it directly benefits Asmodeus... and in fact it might. The Fey's Blue and Orange morality doesn't matter in this case because they still die, and the normal designate soul reliquaries are out of whack, so instead everyone gets scattered like nobody's business. Now you have a group of powerful, amoral whackjobs who are looking to secure their afterlife, some of which are powerful enough to use as a wedge against Daemons and Illithids in Extraplanar wars and political brinksmanship. Chaotic Good Celestials performing abysmally or even going against your plans?

Replace them with a Fey Lord you pointed that way leading a host of contracted fiends and lesser Fey. Now your minions can provide essential services Fey used to get from mortals, who they were more likely to sell body and soul to Baator in order to regain a competent subordinate from your own clutches one way or another.

From a short term perspective, @BronzeTongue's plan works wonderfully as a threat, but it makes an awful deterrent since it plagues us equally with more enduring enmities.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So, it will create a lot of problems for us and it won't be really worth it, if only to keep Baator away from them. There was already this asshole courtier who pacted with Baator anyway.
 
Tomcost said:
So, it will create a lot of problems for us and it won't be really worth it, if only to keep Baator away from them. There was already this asshole courtier who pacted with Baator anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Basically, nothing Baator has interests the Fey, since they don't trade in the same currencies, or even the same moral hemisphere. Baator can't into storybook logic, basically, even if they could manipulate around it, those relationships wouldn't be lasting ones.

If you make Fey more like mortals, you make their motivations, if not exactly morals, more similar, and mortals will happily trade with Baator in ignorance or fully knowing if they have the right "perspective". Which is why we can't fucking trust the general public, let alone all mages, with the right and responsibilities of binding fiends in the first place, and why the Scholarum strictly monitors the practice in a controlled environment, and why you need proper documentation to invoke the art for experimental purposes.

Because if you take your eyes off them they will have sold their entire line into slavery to Big Red and create a subversive cult under our noses before you know it. All for the sake of temporary power.
 
Crake said:
It does seem to imply that it directly benefits Asmodeus... and in fact it might. The Fey's Blue and Orange morality doesn't matter in this case because they still die, and the normal designate soul reliquaries are out of whack, so instead everyone gets scattered like nobody's business. Now you have a group of powerful, amoral whackjobs who are looking to secure their afterlife, some of which are powerful enough to use as a wedge against Daemons and Illithids in Extraplanar wars and political brinksmanship. Chaotic Good Celestials performing abysmally or even going against your plans?

Replace them with a Fey Lord you pointed that way leading a host of contracted fiends and lesser Fey. Now your minions can provide essential services Fey used to get from mortals, who they were more likely to sell body and soul to Baator in order to regain a competent subordinate from your own clutches one way or another.

From a short term perspective, @BronzeTongue's plan works wonderfully as a threat, but it makes an awful deterrent since it plagues us equally with more enduring enmities.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Depends on how you implement it, something a little less abrupt than "suddenly mortals" would work as an actual weapon. If the curse specifically set their individual life spans as an inverse of their level of human interaction, they'd have a strong reason to avoid being involved with mortals. It could also lead to them trying to purge the reach, but thsort of conflict is obvious enough to ping divination and plays more to our strengths than theirs.

The fun thing about this particular approach is that the best way to defend against it (in so far as I understand the ideas behind rituals) is to mitigate the connections it draws upon. So they can slow down, stop, or invest heavily in imperfect and expensive anti-curse defenses.

Them knowing about the vulnerability is almost more valuable then actually using it.

edit: autocorrupt errors
 
Last edited:
Don't forget to vote, ya'll.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:04 PM, finished with 51 posts and 9 votes.
  • [X] Yes, you could always use another skilled warrior and his knowledge of the Court of Stars's intrigues in the Reach would be worth learning
    -[X] We will offer him land of his own in Draconys, along with funding and assistance to develop his new fief's infrastructure. In addition to that, we will grow him a Hedgethorn Hippogriff mount and provide him with suitable equipment, unless he already has something better or would prefer items of similar value with different properties, though such would require time to allow our crafters to enchant the equipment.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
BronzeTongue said:
Depends on how you implement it, something a little less abrupt than "suddenly mortals" would work as an actual weapon. If the curse specifically set their individual life spans as an inverse of their level of human interaction, they'd have a strong reason to avoid being involved with mortals. It could also lead to them trying to purge the reach, but thsort of conflict is obvious enough to ping divination and plays more to our strengths than theirs.

The fun thing about this particular approach is that the best way to defend against it (in so far as I understand the ideas behind rituals) is to mitigate the connections it draws upon. So they can slow down, stop, or invest heavily in imperfect and expensive anti-curse defenses.

Them knowing about the vulnerability is almost more valuable then actually using it.

edit: autocorrupt errors
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I would strongly suggest using deterrents before actually acting on such threats. It makes us seem more reasonable, for a given value of reason when you start talking about making life horrifically uncomfortable for your enemies through nasty means.
 
Crake said:
I would strongly suggest using deterrents before actually acting on such threats. It makes us seem more reasonable, for a given value of reason when you start talking about making life horrifically uncomfortable for your enemies through nasty means.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Shooting first and negotiating later isn't a terribly good idea most of the time, I just think we should be prepared and have weapons we're ready to use walking in.

Our last few negotiations with them basically ended with both parties learning that their long term goals not only didn't align, but actively conflict with each other.

The CoS's response to that appears to be stepping up their schedule even though they're fully aware that we'd eventually catch on and try to stop them. That either means they think they can blitz through to the point where we can't get rid of them, or that they're ready to do something to make sure we can't. Neither says good things about our ability to get a good deal now, or a healthy working relationship in the future if we fail to stop them.

The only peaceful result I can see from diplomacy is the fey backing off for a while until they find a new approach, not any sort of lasting bindings.
 
Just a thought, but what the CoS is doing reminds me of Viserys' mythic path. At least superficially. Hypothetically, if we deposed Robert tomorrow, formally incorporated the Seven Kingdoms into the Imperium, and passed a law outlawing the CoS, would that actually do anything? I don't expect them to up and vanish, but if we're thinking of crafting a curse as a weapon against the court it might be something to consider.
 
Last edited:
So, I take that the next month we'll actually focus on Fey courts of Westeros (and not-really-Westeros)?
I assume we'll want to put a unified front of non-CoS fey against them as soon as possible.
egoo said:
[] Courts of Wild, courts of Green: Meet with Courts of the Greenwood, known for the association with Old Gods of the North. (Tokens of Passage for Old Gods friendly courts near Harroway and Starfall available)

[] The Court of Depths: Meet with the Fey hiding beneath the Garden's waves.

[] The Court of Goldengrove: A Driad queen resides in Rowan's Nest, guarding an entrance to Feywild – and alongside her a Court of nymphs and satyrs. Go there, and learn more of what place they seek in this world of returning magic – if they can be trusted, or relied upon with deals fairly made
(Opposition: ?? Wylkfae, A Driad Queen, Satyrs, Nymphs; Rewards: ??).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As a side note, we may want to try to gun for the CoF in Feywild eventually.
Bottom line, they'll e of use against the Winter, but hopefully, they'll be amenable to fucking over the Court of Stars as well.
egoo said:
[] On the Paths of Summer Folk: Reach out through the Feywild entrance in Ifequevron – and find out what happened to the remaining Children of Forest.
(Opposition: ??, likely Fey shenanigans; Rewards: ??)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
Interregnum said:
Just a thought, but what the CoS is doing reminds me of Viserys' mythic path. At least superficially. Hypothetically, if we deposed Robert tomorrow, formally incorporated the Seven Kingdoms into the Imperium, and passed a law outlawing the CoS, would that actually do anything? I don't expect them to up and vanish, but if we're thinking of crafting a curse as a weapon against the court it might be something to consider.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I believe we'd need more Mythic oomph, and possibly some divine backing from the Imperial Deity, in order to pull that off with just a simple edict.
 
egoo said:
So, I take that the next month we'll actually focus on Fey courts of Westeros (and not-really-Westeros)?
As a side note, we may want to try to gun for the CoF in Feywild eventually. Bottom line, they'll e of use against the Winter, but hopefully, they'll be amenable to fucking over the Court of Stars as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, as it happens, with Tiamat off our backs, we can shift focus onto the Fey in Westeros next turn while preparing to deal with the Deep Ones.
 
Aight, so..?
[] Evacuating Thenns (via Moonchaser),
[] Clearing out all the barrows near the Thennlands (largely via Minions),
[] Viserys and Co dealing with Fey!courts of:
-[] Depths (with help of Ferryman's),
-[] Goldengrove (we'd have to take Rhaella-driad with us for familiarity),
-[] Wilds (OGs already largely settled that for us, iirc).
[] Viserys also meeting with the Giants past the Wall, I believe they have largely settled their "diplomacy", and with Thenns going...
[] Some Companions grabbing lots of Winter-touched Undead and Fae for Qyburn and Djinn to research respectively.
[] A large group of Companions focused on dealing with Asmodeus' plots in Slavers' Bay.
[] Any adventures not yet finished this month.

Seems fairly sensible line-up so far, aside from the fact that I'm not sure how much more we even can throw at Slavers' Bay without effectively invading.
The last few months we've gradually increased our presence to the "could take a CR 20 encounter"-battlegroup there, with little to no progress :/
 
Crake said:
I believe we'd need more Mythic oomph, and possibly some divine backing from the Imperial Deity, in order to pull that off with just a simple edict.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't mean to literally order them away. For one, I doubt we'd want to accelerate the time table on the reclamation just for the CoS alone. However, if there are parallels then maybe they could be exploited. Either by incorporating it into a curse/ritual or suss out any conditions that are required for the CoS's influence. Like how, in theory, we could lose our Longevity if the Imperium were purged of all its spellcasters.
 
Last edited:
I personally think we need to begin an actual offensive instead of only going after neutrals and mitigating CoS moves.

Our newest recruit implied that large swathes of the Crimson court are unhappy with the current leadership and only kept in line by the debts that bin them. This sounds like a good opening to loot the entire colour.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top