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

Fourth Day of the Second Month 294 AC

Silent and unseen by the dead you fly over the broken walls of Mardosh, past sentinels in rusted armor and war machines held together more by spite and curses than by rusted iron and frayed ropes. Where in Sathar you saw priests and magicians, beasts and constructs, the armies of the City of Soldiers seems to be the same in death as they were in life, the bulwark of its infantry now moving with tireless strength and inhuman skill to the command of its dread lords.

The city beyond the ramparts is far more terrible to behold for its unnatural juxtaposition between the wreck and ruin stretching out as far as the eye can see and the mundane reality of countless specters moving like pale marsh lights through a world only they can see. Such is the peace of Mardosh as to make even Waymar mutter curses under his breath for the horror that was wrought here, not only by the Dothraki but by its own soldiery before that last desperate charge. No doubt those warriors who marched out with the blood of kith and kin on their hands to face the end told themselves that it would all end at least. Alas the world proved a crueler place, and so you find yourself amidst a perversion of kindness looking for an imprisoned prince who might hold the keys to the city's salvation or its doom.

"It's all over, they will come for us and then the soldiers will put us to the sword! I have dreamed of it, night after night and the gods are silent. This will be our end!" The cold and fickle wind brings up the words of a wild-eyed doomsayer sitting in a corner trying to shake passersby and being rebuffed.

Even he does not know the whole of it, that what he glimpses is the past and not the future. Still, disturbing though the words may be they give you hope that some of the people of Mardosh do not rest easy in the lie.


Alas, though you search high and low throughout most of the day you can find no hint of where a nameless prince may lie just from listening in on conversations and rumors. It is not a thing 'for decent folk to speak of' apparently. So as evening begins to fall over the city you decide to follow Dany's advice and be a touch more daring in your search, descending from on high to ask under as fine a veil as your magic can weave.

Cold unlike any you have ever experienced races from your head to the bottom of your soles and in an instant your heart stops, leaving you with a hollow silence within. The world looks at once darker and brighter to your eyes, the light of the setting sun like blood splashed across the heavens, the shadows soft as fine black silk.

None of the passersby seem to take special note of your presence and you have a few hours yet to get your answers while the others look on from above, but you still need a reason why you would be asking for a disgraced prince while the others look on from above.

You fall thus into a familiar role even in this bleak place, a merchant of Saath, an unofficial envoy wondering if perhaps the prince might be open to wed. There are cultural problems of course, but you must know, the world grows dark and the Dothraki are at the door. The words taste bitter on your lips, complicit in the lie, but the bitterness proves medicine in this instance, not just poison. You find your answer.

"You didn't hear this from me, but they moved the King's shame to the Tower of the First Watch after there was some sort of row," one woman with the impression of a wealthy merchant's rich silks around her ghostly form says. "That's just cruel if you ask me, what with him never being able to take the watch at all."

Having found the one you wished to speak to, you face one more conundrum. This 'Tower of the First Watch' is doubtless more closely watched than most other places in Mardosh. You will have to approach with caution if you are to get your answers without being revealed.

How do you approach the Nameless Prince?

[] Send in a Shadow Trace, neither living nor dead they have already proven themselves able to navigate the city

[] Walk in disguised and under a Veil of Undeath, allowing you to bring your full mundane and arcane skills to the matter

[] Write in

OOC: I decided to just roll through using Veil of Undeath the first time since it is a tried and true tactic and these were just civilians. The tower by contrast is likely to be far more closely watched.