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

Twenty Ninth Day of the First Month 294 AC

Though sailors are certainly not hunters nor particularly adept at cutting through thick jungle to find the secrets of the island Tirael had prepared his expedition as well as he could, taking on trackers and Green Mages from the Scholarum to help him quickly get the lay of the land from speaking to the beasts, the birds, and even the land itself. The carpet of tangled green that covered the islands of Visenya and Aegon would be no veil to the Dawnchaser's eyes.

So it was that rather than charging into the woods unknowing the first news they received from the denizens of the island, akin yet not those of distant Sothoryos, was a warning: Ware the spine-mane, he of many voices, said the birds of the air, bright plumed and soft voiced. He will ware your hides and leave your meat to rot, hissed the great lizards sounding more offended at the waste than their forewarned deaths. Alas the mages could not tell what this beast was for the creatures said it had many faces.

The ship was certainly no library and its mages were not prepared to study monsters that may lurk in the darker corners of the world, but they had among them those who could cross a thousand miles in a single thought and so they did, books and lore carried back and forth while the great ship hung above the island.

Pursuing the books filled with the knowledge of distant Spheres, the wisdom of gods and wizards served nothing. Time and again the ship's diviner shook his head over what looked to be an interesting lead.

Yet even as the mages grew frustrated the captain only grew more interested. Tirael was not among the fallen, those who had lost hope or purpose, but he could be... odd when there was a mystery afoot. Observers and seekers of knowledge his kin had been forged into being long ago, and the captain could embody that to an almost obsessive degree.

"I'm going down there!" he said excitedly as actual twilight started to bleed through to the arcane shadow that fell over the Isle of Rhaenys.

And so am I so that nothing will end up wearing your feathery hide, Usizil's expression seemed to say. It was in the end a good thing she did.


It was her unwavering sight that saved the expedition from the dreadful equine beast that stalked the lower slope of Aegon's main peek. Half emaciated man half feral steed its mouth filled with a flesh-eater's teeth the creature looked like nothing so much in death as some hideous amalgamation of nightmare and man, though this was no wilder of arcane flame but subtle glamours and illusions, trickery and false paths.


What was most striking however was its lair. One could find mixed together here rusted arm-guards forged in the manner of the Iron Islands, strips of colorful silk dyed in the Summer Islands, and strangest of all works that belonged to no people sailor or scholar could recognize, most eye-catching among them a staff-head forged of bright gold untarnished by however long it had lain in the monster's 'care'.

Gained 1 Advanced Tikbalang Corpse (12 HD; CR 10)


There weren't many echoes to the gold for it had lain there in the dark for centuries and it had never been a thing of great power, but one thing the ship's wizard was able to discern was that whoever had borne it here to die at the hands of the beast had come from the west, farther even than they had come.

"Did the hunter remember anything about this?" the fury asks, lifting the gold from amid pile of fragile bones with unexpected care. "About the one it killed to earn it?"

"Alas no," the ship's wizard, a somewhat nervous former young Tyroshi mage, who in spite of being a master mage by the Scholarum's reckoning was still a touch overwhelmed by both the resources technically at his command now and the task he had been set. "It intentionally did not recall faces after it had eaten its fill. This leads me to believe it might have initially been the victim of a curse. This sort of avoidance..."

"What did it know about the other island, the one it did not frequent?" the captain interjected.

"The 'Hollow Shadow' dwells there according to the skull. Whatever that is, we can be sure it is not edible and at least somewhat dangerous to the beast."

"One of the dead then," Tirael guessed and so it was, a shadow of unlife upon the isle.

The dead could be hostile, even driven mad, but as advanced courses into death magic and the exploratory study taught every fledgling mage who cared to take the course, they could also be invaluable sources of lore or allies if approached correctly.

Tirael does not wish to risk his mostly mortal crew against an undead whose power stretches over a whole island. Who does he bring along?

[] Usizil for her skill with a bow and the sharpness of her gaze (Advanced Erinye)

[] The most experienced of the Green Mages for the magics of nature are often a balm against unlife (Druid 4)

[] The ship's mage for the depth of his lore (Wizard 5)

[] The priest of light from Mantarys to perhaps soothe the Shadow's pain (Cleric of Good 4)

OOC: I rolled the full hunt and combat for the tikbalang, but there wasn't any room to put it on screen, hopefully the update flows well even without that.