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

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We certainly need to tell Bu of recent events and I'm sure he knows the danger due his forerunners original actions of sealing Old One ruins away and making it illegal on penalty of death to try and enter them.
 
Well. This is bad, but not thay much?

I wonder where the Quori fit in all this thing. We were attacked once in a dream by one.
 
DragonParadox said:
Shadow of the Spider ​

Twenty Seventh Day of the First Month 294 AC

Once more you stand before the Great Serpent with offerings in hand, once more you ask for secrets, but on this day there is a difference. You also return to his embrace, if only for a brief span of time, a soul he had forged from the voices of the 'Pure' Fleshsmiths of Gogossos. Urak shall not enjoy his god's reckoning for having dealings with the Lady of the Lightless Depths, even at one remove, of that you are certain, but given His nature you are also just as certain he shall not consume the flesh-smith, not unless they are lost beyond all hope of recovery.

You watch as one by one the children of Lolth's dreams are consumed, otherworldly presence and chitinous form swallowed by the great coiling shadow of the World Serpent, then as you set the bottle upon the temple stone he wraps around Urak's form, coil upon counter-coil.

To your surpize it is not Yss who speaks among the embrace, but Urak. You can hear the echo of the World Serpent's power upon the almost dreamlike voice."Have you ever wondered what it would be for madness into madness to spill? For forms Beyond to taint the blackest evil distilled of mortal malice?"

Perhaps it is easier for him to express Himself at one remove from even his vessel, for you know the god's ancient thoughts do not easily fit into words as men would hear them, perhaps playing intermediary is Urak's price. Soon the question fades into insignificance beside the answers spilling forth from lipless mouths.

"Such is Leng an island upon two pillars, one sinking down into the Pit another into that which is Beyond the Spheres, and those who dwell upon it have malice for a mother and madness for a sire. But still they understand the making of mortal things more than the Deep Ones in their pools of brine. A bargain was struck... will be struck... is struck... will and forever be..." A strangled gasp escapes the flesh-smith's many mouths, not out of any malice on Yss' part, but you suspect to keep his mind from shattering.

"So it was woven, a mirror of flesh, a servant unknowing, one of mind Unshackled and fate ever bound, and in exchange the Nightmare Spinners shadow grows upon the island they took of Old..."

Jeyne and those like her were altered with the aid of the spiders of Leng, that much you could have guessed without asking the god, but the last part is a frightful reminder. You had almost forgotten down there in the depths that there are two Lengs, one a realm of nightmare and madness, another an island in the Jade Sea named by who knows what ancient ill fortune. It seems the elders and broodlords turn their attentions once more upon that place, with the aid of not only their Abyssal mother, but the Deep Ones also.

There had been more Lengi traders in Yin of late, you remember from the reports of the East. The Emperor in Yin must know.

"As flesh is spun of nightmare, so nightmares in its depths reside," the flesh-smith continues. "But it was not the nightmares that broke US, it was the dreams. The promises of more secrets, ones we never had, never could have. Now Free, free at last of the Freehold's laws, must take, must become, must grow... lost... lost... lost."

You glance at Lya to find her paler than the faint green light of the chamber would account for. This... this is worse than you had anticipated. You had thought this was simply a matter of the Deep Ones setting another enemy upon you, instead you have discovered an alliance spanning from the Realm of Dreams to the Pit to the Far Realm, from the depths beneath Sothoryos to the undersea fortresses to the realm beyond the Jade Sea, and you still do not know for certain to prevent more contamination of the sort from happening.

"Poor Jeyne," you hear Lya whisper more to herself than to you, and you know she is right. The mind mage had only just made some peace with her gifts. She will be horrified anew that the pattern of her current form hides such poisons of the mind.

"Thiss one isss wounded in mind," Yss hisses cutting through your thoughts. "The offering iss... sssufficient to mend... in two moonturnsss..."

Urak unavailable for two months as Yss pieces his mind(s) back together; Lolth-Lengi-Deep One connection discovered.

What do you do about what you have disovered?

[] Send word to Yin
-[] Secretly only for the Emperor's eyes do do with it as he sees fit
-[] Publicly through your delegation, the more people know about the threat the better

[] Secure the Flesh Forge (and fleshsmiths) against memetic attacks
-[] Light defenses (Will only include enchanter time and other background resources Cost 20,000 IM)
-[] Medium defenses (Progress 25 Research action Cost 100,000 IM)
-[] Heavy defenses (Progress 45 Research action; Cost 600,000 IM)

OOC: In terms of securing the defenses the cost of lower tier actions is included in higher ones, so for instance High is Medium+ and Medium is Light+. I'm trying to abstract away some of the specifics since that sort of thing can get really complicated with D&D magic and might be confusing in the vote. However, if you guys have specific suggestions to not hesitate to chine in. I can't even count the times you came up with something I overlooked. Not yet edited.
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Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
 
[X] Send word to Yin
-[X] Secretly only for the Emperor's eyes to do with it as he sees fit
-[X] Offer the Emperor access to some of our Aberration and Psionics detecting equipment (10 Crystal Masks of Detect Psionics and 5 Spectacles of Detect Aberration).

[X] Secure the Flesh Forge and Fleshsmiths against memetic attacks and other threats.
-[X] Light defenses (Will only include enchanter time and other background resources; Cost 20,000 IM) will be applied immediately, including Forbiddance warding of the innards of the Forges, Greater Signs of Sealing on potential weak points through which enemies could force entry, permanent Lost Passage effects on areas of the Forges which are not actively in use, and permanent Alarm spells (mental and audible) in those same areas.
--[X] Additional servitors will be grown (starting with next month's order) whose only purpose will be to guard the interior and exterior of the Forges from threats.
--[X] Heavy defenses (Progress 45 Research action; Cost 600,000 IM) will be implemented as time permits.
 
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@DragonParadox, I have taken my liberties to re-read several chapters that you have written. And I wish to give my critique.

Many a times has Viserys and co express their thoughts and sentences in metaphors that are either: A) Braavosi or Volantene in nature or B) An Outsider's view of existence.

My quandary is that, why did you not use any other sayings from other Provinces or Kingdoms all together? Why not Pentos, Myr, Lorath? And since our recent trade with Yi-Ti, it wouldn't be out of place were our illustrious Emperor speaks with Eastern smiles? If there is one place for philosophy to be a thing of great importance, it would be in such land after all.

Oh, and don't forget about Westeros (as much as it galls me) or better yet, mother Valyria herself!
 
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Jack vile Ripper said:
@DragonParadox, I have taken my liberties to re-read several chapters that you have written. And I wish to give my critique.

Many a times has Viserys and co express their thoughts and sentences in metaphors that are either: A) Braavosi or Volantene in nature or B) An Outsider's view of existence.

My quandary is that, why did you not use any other sayings from other Provinces or Kingdoms all together? Why not Pentos, Myr, Lorath? And since our recent trade with Yi-Ti, it wouldn't be out of place were our illustrious Emperor speaks with Eastern smiles? If there is one place for philosophy to be a thing of great importance, it would be in such land after all.
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That sounds really difficult to pull off, and time consuming for DP. It also makes sense for the main party members to use such phrasing since that was where most of them spent their formative years.
 
Goldfish said:
That sounds really difficult to pull off, and time consuming for DP. It also makes sense for the main party members to use such phrasing since that was where most of them spent their formative years.
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Ah, I do not mean that as a necessity for DP to accomplish. More like a niche flowery language rather than anything. And I understand that, as a place where Viserys spent most of his childhood and teenage years of course he is going to use phrasings that are native to Braavos.
 
Jack vile Ripper said:
@DragonParadox, I have taken my liberties to re-read several chapters that you have written. And I wish to give my critique.

Many a times has Viserys and co express their thoughts and sentences in metaphors that are either: A) Braavosi or Volantene in nature or B) An Outsider's view of existence.

My quandary is that, why did you not use any other sayings from other Provinces or Kingdoms all together? Why not Pentos, Myr, Lorath? And since our recent trade with Yi-Ti, it wouldn't be out of place were our illustrious Emperor speaks with Eastern smiles? If there is one place for philosophy to be a thing of great importance, it would be in such land after all.

Oh, and don't forget about Westeros (as much as it galls me) or better yet, mother Valyria herself!
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Because that metaphors you use comes down to cultural and linguistic background. For Viserys that means Braavosi or Volantine/Valyrian (the language has enough continuity to preserve most idioms Malarys' grousing nonwithstanding). Braavosi is for his time in the city and the rest is because High Valyrian is the language of his magic. He more rarely uses Westerosi similes because he was eight when he left Westeros as a child, so while it still shapes his internal discourse he does not really rech for it when it comes to complex metaphors.
 
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Goldfish said:
--[X] Heavy defenses (Progress 45 Research action; Cost 600,000 IM) will be researched and implemented as soon as possible.
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Please rephrase.
I will fight making this a priority. We have better things to focus on, and I'd rather not opt-in into something IC to only have to outvote that later.

Also, maybe look at this post regarding safety-measures.
 
egoo said:
Please rephrase.
I will fight making this a priority. We have better things to focus on, and I'd rather not opt-in into something IC to only have to outvote that later.
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I've changed the wording:
--[] Heavy defenses (Progress 45 Research action; Cost 600,000 IM) will be implemented as time permits.
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egoo said:
Also, maybe look at this post regarding safety-measures.
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Those are all items rather than actual defenses. Some of them might be useful for a handful of defenders, but they are not likely to be great for defending the Forges. We can craft and commission some of them next month, though, and distribute among guards where feasible.
 
Goldfish said:
[X] Send word to Yin
-[X] Secretly only for the Emperor's eyes to do with it as he sees fit
-[X] Offer the Emperor access to some of our Aberration and Psionics detecting equipment (10 Crystal Masks of Detect Psionics and 5 Spectacles of Detect Aberration).
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Should we maybe offer the emperor(s) contact with Gith?
It seems pretty sensible to contact someone who'd have best stockpile of lore on Eldritch if nothing else (since obv the Gith are too busy atm to do much help anywise).

Hmhm.
What a dillema.

On one hand, if the Emps get in contact with Gith, we'd have less crafting capacity for ourselves.
On the other hand, less chances for all of Yi-Ti going even deeper down the drain as well.
 
egoo said:
Should we maybe offer the emperor(s) contact with Gith?
It seems pretty sensible to contact someone who'd have best stockpile of lore on Eldritch if nothing else (since obv the Gith are too busy atm to do much help anywise).

Hmhm.
What a dillema.

On one hand, if the Emps get in contact with Gith, we'd have less crafting capacity for ourselves.
On the other hand, less chances for all of Yi-Ti going even deeper down the drain as well.
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I don't think we should. That's an extremely valuable contact I don't want to share just yet. The Githzerai are a peculiar people and I don't want to risk the Yi-Tish, or anybody they might tell, offending them or betraying them in some manner. The Court of the Azure Emperor is not a stable place, after all, and it is full of corruption and graft. There's no telling how that information could be used by some idiot trying to get ahead, since the Azure Emperor is extremely limited in what he can do personally, he would have to tell people, they would have to tell people, and so on, before contact could be established with the Githzerai.

We can certainly play intermediary, however, placing some orders on their behalf without adding a markup.
 
Goldfish said:
I don't think we should. That's an extremely valuable contact I don't want to share just yet. The Githzerai are a peculiar people and I don't want to risk the Yi-Tish, or anybody they might tell, offending them or betraying them in some manner. The Court of the Azure Emperor is not a stable place, after all, and it is full of corruption and graft. There's no telling how that information could be used by some idiot trying to get ahead, since the Azure Emperor is extremely limited in what he can do personally, he would have to tell people, they would have to tell people, and so on, before contact could be established with the Githzerai.

We can certainly play intermediary, however, placing some orders on their behalf without adding a markup.
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I'd also like to refrain on this front. That's a monopoly I don't want to lose. We worked pretty hard securing their crafting .
 
Need a few more votes, ya'll.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jun 21, 2020 at 9:28 AM, finished with 25 posts and 7 votes.
  • [X] Send word to Yin
    -[X] Secretly only for the Emperor's eyes to do with it as he sees fit
    -[X] Offer the Emperor access to some of our Aberration and Psionics detecting equipment (10 Crystal Masks of Detect Psionics and 5 Spectacles of Detect Aberration).
    [X] Secure the Flesh Forge and Fleshsmiths against memetic attacks and other threats.
    -[X] Light defenses (Will only include enchanter time and other background resources; Cost 20,000 IM) will be applied immediately, including Forbiddance warding of the innards of the Forges, Greater Signs of Sealing on potential weak points through which enemies could force entry, permanent Lost Passage effects on areas of the Forges which are not actively in use, and permanent Alarm spells (mental and audible) in those same areas.
    --[X] Additional servitors will be grown (starting with next month's order) whose only purpose will be to guard the interior and exterior of the Forges from threats.
    --[X] Heavy defenses (Progress 45 Research action; Cost 600,000 IM) will be implemented as time permits.
Click to expand...
 
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