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, Tyrael 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 and the birds, and 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, brightly plumed and soft-voiced. He will wear 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 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 Tyrael 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 that 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 wielder of arcane flame but subtle glamors and illusions, trickery and false paths.


What was most striking, however, was its lair. One could find here mixed together, 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 how ever 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 an object of great power, but one thing the ship's wizard was able to discern, whoever had borne it here to die at the hands of the beast had come from the west, further even than they had come.

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

"Alas no," spoke the ship's wizard, a somewhat nervous young mage formerly of Tyrosh, who in spite of being a master mage by the Scholarum's reckoning was still a touch overwhelmed by both the resources technically now at his command 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," Tyrael guessed and so it was, a shadow of un-life 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.

Tyrael 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 Erinyes)

[] 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. Not yet edited.

Fury's Scorn: This +2 Composite Long-Range Dragonbone Longbow has a +10 Strength bonus and the Splitting, Magebane, and Distance special abilities.

• Stats: Damage (1d8+12; x3 Crit, Special: Each arrow can hit twice, requiring separate Ranged Attack Rolls), Range Increment: 300 feet (130 [Dragonbone Composite Longbow] + 20 feet [Long-Range property], Doubled by Distance)
• Greater Weapon Crystal of True Death: Arrows fired from this bow inflict an additional +1d6 damage to Undead, gain the Ghost Touch property, and can be used to deliver Sneak Attack and Critical Hits against Undead as if they were living creatures.
• Silver Nocking Point: When using a weapon equipped with a Silver Nocking Point, treat penalties for wind conditions as though they were one step less severe. For example, when firing a ranged projectile in severe wind conditions the ranged penalty would be -2 instead of -4. Magical wind effects that would normally deflect the projectile (such as Fickle Winds) instead impose only a -8 penalty on the attack roll.