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

First Day of the First Month 294 AC

Menel Goldentooth was not a spy of the usual sort, he did not wear the book and sword, nor even the silver eye of Braavos that some Scholarum sorcerers still bore in memory of their time in defense of the city. What he was... well, he was a merchant of a successful sort with decades behind the wheel of a ship and a company. These days his was the hand on the tiller of Silver Serpent Enterprises and the Silver Serpent flew far indeed. The news of merchants' lips may not be as good as the ones traded or stolen in darkest night, but it was worth its fair share and it was his job to gather it for the King to judge and make use of.

Rumors from Ibben

Searching Shadows: Rare is the sailor even among the doughty whalers who would dare the Thousand Islands, their hidden shoals, treacherous currents and people even more perilous to body and soul, but in recent months the Shadow Council has launched well supplied military expeditions into the area, looking for answers of an ancient threat whose identity is not hard to guess.

Greener Pastures: With the Dothraki dealt a mortal blow by the Raising of Sarnor many of the people of New Ibbish are considering the reclaiming the ruins of Ibbish from whence their ancestors came and perhaps other fallen colonies. While some fear the dead others are willing to chance riding into the night with fire and steel.

On Southern Winds: Following Braavos' inclusion into the Empire and the profits that came with it, several Ibbenese merchant houses have been making inquiries with their Braavosi contracts magics, particularly relevant to long sea voyages, from preservation ships and barrels to divinations for safe travels.

Rumors of the Summer Islands

Blood-Stained Steel: The Red Flower Vale in western Jhala has been rocked by news of an attack upon their princess. Tarra Xho has been the target of assassins bearing northern steel. With news of prince Yanda Zaq's, Prince of Last Lament, marriage to a priestess of the rival Daa dynasty still fresh in mind many suspect the involvement of the young and impulsive Prince and his sorceress bride. The spirits of the trees have been silent, the priests' mood dire. Many expect next month's Flower War to be a far grimmer affair than anticipated.

Heart Unburnt: A hero has risen up from the obscurity of the Three Exiles to slay the tree-burner which had been plaguing Omboru. A sage who traveled with the hero described the creature as a cherufe, a strange amalgamation of stone, fire and flesh which often arises in the heart of the oldest hottest fire mounts. Thankfully, with the aid of the extensive Scholarum library, it was possible to obtain some reputable lore on the creature. That still raises the question of how such a being came to the Summer Islands and how it was able to survive in the absence of any great fount of fire. A drawing from Volantene sources is included below.


Exiles' Gathering: A odd armada is gathering in the Three Exiles, westernmost and poorest of the Summer Islands. A captain by the name of Xhahosta claims to have reached Asshai going west and passed by rich and wondrous lands along the way. Though it has been known since ancient times by scholars and mariners both that the world is round as a ball, no one has ever made such a journey and returned to tell the tale. In other times perhaps he would have been thought a madman, his wits set wandering by the sun, but how strange is word of new lands over the water when to the north there is a gate that leads beyond the world itself?

What next?

[] Another perspective on Empire Day
-[] Joran of Dragonstone
-[] Yssla Royce
-[] 'Fair' Walda Frey
-[] Renly Storm (the Changeling)
-[] Thoros of Myr
-[] Write in

[] More reports on the doings of the last month (Rumor post)

[] Continue with Viserys
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: You guys do not have much trade up north so the quality of rumors there is lower than in the Summer Islands, but with the integration of Braavos and Braavosi trade it made sense to have some awareness of the large scale movements and trends.