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

Twenty-Eight Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

Whichever cabal of Deep Ones had set the wheels of this plan in motion had been clever, subtle, and more discerning of human nature than is ordinary for their ilk. They were not, as you eventually discover, wholly immune to what Bloodraven terms 'the vices of an uncertain plotter'. In this case, observing one's work, even at the cost of potentially tipping one's hand. Even so, you never would have caught the spy had it not been for the fact that you used its like before.

A shimmer in his shadow as Lord Chester moved though the gardens on an evening walk, as though the shadow itself flinched from the thorns. There, if only for a moment, you see it, a single lidless eye wreathed in black that twists into star upon fractal star, a dizzying array of points. Far indeed from the friendly hounds Lya wrought to tread in the shadows of the Golden Company, but the underlying arcane principles remain. Shadows follow form, unseen, unheard, unfelt save perhaps for a chill in the back of the neck.


"Is that thing feeding on him?" Danelle asked worriedly, following your gaze and mimicking your magic. She had not, to your surprise, hesitated in the slightest at following a lord into his keep, and both she and Brandon had proven quite adept in navigating the corridors of the keep for ones who had not likely ever been invited under its roof.

"Just watching and listening," you reply, trying to guess how intelligent the spy might be and if it would even know anything of use. It would be most cautious to keep these watchers in the dark of anything but their instructions, though on the other hand a more intelligent construct would be able to filter useful information from the chaff without involving its handler. You cannot imagine an ilithid nor any other of the greater powers of the Deep Ones being overly fond of dull repetitive work when they could make a servant do it for them.

"Varys, can you hear anything from it?" you ask your familiar, hoping perhaps the Deep Ones had been less adept in crafting living shadows than Lya using the lore of Old Valyria.

"Only the Lord, and the candle of his wit does not shine too bright, either," she sends the thought back more broadly, drawing a snort from Lord Greyshield.

"I could have told you that much without a single spell," he snorts.

Before you can reply, you spot the figure of a page of perhaps eight rush after the lord with a wide smile on his face. "Grandfather, the Mander's Gift is coming into harbor just as you said it would. Come see, come see!"

"Why do you sound so surprised, my boy? Of course it came back. Didn't I say it would?" the lord replies ruffling the boy's hair.

"Yeah, but you told me that not even a lord can command the tides and storms," the boy replies, pulling away with the affronted dignity that only a child who had just decided he aught to be upset over tousled hair could muster.

"No earthly lord, Rolan, but by putting your faith in the Seven, all things are posibile," the lord replies. "Now let's all see if your uncle has any gifts for you from Oldtown."

Having no other lead to follow without trying to rip the shadow spy free and revealing yourself, you silently follow the pair through the air and out to the stables, and then at a slow canter down to the docks. The smiles that accompany the bows with which Lord Chester is greeted confirms that he is respected, perhaps even admired by his subjects.

At first sight, the Mander's Gift is a common ship of its sort, a large galleon with tall castles fore and aft, fit for carrying cargo over the empty waters of the Sunset Sea, but then you notice something rather peculiar about one of its masts. At its base, almost completely hidden in the dark from even your senses, is a strange knotted symbol, not quite like any marking that seems to twist and writhe as you watch it. You do not know enough to guess what it might do, but the crystal masks of the githzherai are enough to recognize as touched by mind-magic.

Reason enough to investigate the ship high and low, just as you had the keep... but you do not have to go far. The ship's captain, who is also the Lord's youngest son Lyan according to Danelle, has a tangle of psionic energies right above his heart.

What do you do?

[] Investigate the Umbral spy, its magics are the ones you most understand, though extracting it without being noticed by the lord would be difficult
-[] Write in

[] Investigate the strange mark on the ship, it is likely to the the easiest to access though by the same reason the least likely to hold valuable clues
-[] Write in

[] Investigate Lyan Chester, active use of mind magic could mean either a willing Deep One collaborator or some kind of arcane contingency
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: You could also speak to the lord directly too, but well at this point you don't have much more than your unsubstantiated word to go on regarding the Drowned God, the Deep Ones or anything of that nature. Not yet edited.