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

Eleventh Day of the First Month 294 AC

"From the light of winter mornings bright I bind you darkling thing", the words were sharp and swift on Rina's lips like icicles shattered by morning light, but the dead fey was swifter still, moving its stolen body with obscene grace.

So laughed the outcast fey, each sound a bitter rebuke to all that lived as she spread her arms open to call forth a killing frost from the deepest blackest north.

Perhaps had Rina been alone she could have stepped back towards the dying fire to avoid the worst of it, but she was not alone. Gilly would not survive the spell and all her courage would be for naught in a frozen grave. Grasping the threads of half-formed power at once familiar and horrid she tore and tangled them until nothing but the whisper of a cold wind remained.

Her perception of the world slowed, the swirls and eddies of magic no longer as clear in her sight. I can't do that again.

Rather than attempt another spell and gamble the girl's life on striking true Rina half-pushed half-threw the child frozen with dread towards Mag Mar with all her strength: "Run!"

Gilly managed to get away not a moment too soon, but Rina was not so fortunate. A spear of Icy light struck her above the heart, through dream wrought wards and armory of frost, and for the first time in years Rina Cox knew cold, bitter and merciless, the truth of the world's ending.

Black unlight flooded through her, poison to the living and boon to the dead, yet for her it was sweet as honeyed wine, bruises fading to unblemished flesh, chills subsiding in an instant. For once the young sorceress did not resent her nature, glad for the ward that had undone her enemy's blow whatever its nature.

"Shatter!" she commanded with all the will of her stolen power and for a moment it seemed as though the distant Northern Lights had coiled down to earth, but her foe would not be so lightly undone. A bone talisman hanging from a strand of rotted hair seemed to wither and fall to dust, its magic shielding the thing from the worst of the magic as it advanced on Gilly and Mag Mar frozen, staff in hand: "First the girl, yes... then the power to kill the usurper...." The words hissed through withered lips almost too soft to hear, likely the exile had not even meant to speak them.

The giant's club bright with borrowed sorcery came crashing down upon the wight-body, crushing one foot and tearing a great grove though the earth, but the thing hardly seemed to notice as it trapped the warrior in a coffin of ice without even deigning to weave a magic into a spell.

Gilly was defenseless. Rina spoke the words on sheer instinct, a summoning from frozen dreams awaking, a giant of an elder breed, his armor of ice and eyes bright with winter's fire to stand against the crone.


Something pulled at her magic, the faintest echo of a word whispered in her ear, though in the midst of battle Rina hardly noticed, though she certainly did notice when her conjured giant did not strike the enemy but instead turned to shatter the prison that held Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg, eldest of his folk and then turned the blade, offering it to him. There's no sword for him to grasp, just a seeming of sorcery and dreams, Rina's mind insisted.

Yet in this place and in this hour an older law than the spellcraft Rina knew held sway, for when the old giant grasped the blade it did not slip through his gnarled fingers but held true, the chills that had overcome Mag Mar stilling in an instant as he brought it over his head to strike.

The blow had no grace to it, no swordsman's form or artistry, only rage ages in the making and the strength of giants.

Bone shattered, flesh tore and the exile was cast to her knees by the weight of the blow. It would not be the last. Before Rina could even utter another spell four more enchanted clubs smashed down again and again. Horn covered feet kicked and ground the body into the earth.

A familiar shadow passed overhead. "What the hell happened here?" the King's voice spoke in her mind.

Rina tried to command her conjured giant. It moved smoothly, silent and obedient to her will, empty of... whatever that had been. "I have no idea," she sent back. "It looks like it was.... good."

Rina Gains 2350 XP

What do you do next?

[] Question Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg and the other giants
-[] Write in

[] Study the strange sword
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: I hope you guys don't mind that I took some liberties with the plan in order to try to keep Gilly safe from dying to an AoE. I should have reminded you Gilly was right next to Rina last night, but it was late and I was not focusing on the next part.