Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Worked retail a couple years ago, though not mostly customer oriented. Can confirm, dead-eyed stare of cashiers mostly ennui and despair, not hope for tomorrow.
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
-
- Tags
- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I was a bag boy at a grocery store for about six weeks when I was 16 year old. Thinking back on it, I'm surprised the sight of my soulless gaze didn't send children running from the store while screaming about zombies, and that was just within the first week.
Inserted tally
Interlude DCCCLXX: Stealing Lost Souls
Stealing Lost Souls
Twelfth Day of the Second Month 294 AC
Distasteful as it may have been, the simplest way to acquire Unsullied in order to divine what dark blessings had been bequeathed upon them would have been to buy them. Unfortunately the 'Good Masters' of Astapor were not in the business of selling their slave soldiers by the tens as they once did, but only by the hundred or thousand 'lest they mingle with other folk and forget themselves'. Somehow that piece of mortal cruelty heaped atop all the rest had the gift of angering Tyene.
Now was not the time to be concerned with the philosophy of this miserable realm. They had a kidnapping to organize of one made twice a slave, by mortal masters and infernal powers both. The question that lay before them as they looked over the map Malarys presented to them was who to choose. Before them stretched Meereen, wrought of ink and parchment and filled with all manner of painted metal pins to mark the Great Houses and their possible allegiance, as well as the ailing trading concerns and the very richest of craftsmen who could afford to buy a hundred slaves, as much for the prestige as the protection.
"I would judge the most likely Unsullied centuries to have been empowered by their goddess' pact with Hell would be the ones assigned to keeping order in the streets or guarding the walls," Ceria offered. "The more leverage Baator can apply in a crises the more likely they are to the the last ones left standing when the dust clears, not to mention minimize harm done to the infrastructure. I'm assuming they care about that since while devils may not need to eat, their slaves do."
"They do, yes," Malarys nodded. "Alas that they will also be the most readily missed and most likely to spark a renewed search for us. While they are unlikely to find those of us here unless we want to be found the Inquisition presence in the city is far more fragile and unlikely to last long against the kind of opposition reported in Yunkai, the kind we faced last month."
"What about faking the hand of the Red Faith? They already have some idea of that thanks to the clash in Yunkai, play to their assumptions," Tyene mused aloud.
"The masters are afraid of nothing so much as a slave revolt. The threat of one with the Red God on their side will more likely that not to push them into rash action," Ting spoke up unexpectedly. "When a bear is met with a beehive, the bear might be stung and left scrambling, but the bees die in earnest."
Where do your agents attempt to kidnap an Unsullied from?
[] The garrison, most likely to be heavily watched, almost guaranteed to have who you are searching for
[] The peacekeepers, their tasks give the opportunity to make their kidnapping look like a robbery gone wrong, though there are not many robbers who would dare meddle with an Unsullied patrol
[] The great Houses, you already know of one which serves the Lord of the Ninth, perhaps they are tangled up in this
[] The merchants, least likely to raise serious hue and cry, but also least likely to be the key to what you seek
[] Write in
OOC: Power just ran out, I was concerned I could not get this out in time but it came back just in time to write this up before going to bed. Hope it does not feel rushed.
Last edited:
Good night guys, see you tomorrow with investigation into the Unsullied.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
[X] The Great Houses, as it might help you accomplish the task of killing two birds with one stone once you have interrogated and studied the slave soldier in question. The reason being that they are the mostly likely to have some besides the garrison itself, and competing interests could allow you to mask the disappearance as pre-existing internal divisions (Sons of the Harpy, Spicers, et al). And the Peacekeepers likely don't need enhanced soldiers to deal with brigandage, nor are the merchants liable to have what you're looking for.
[X] Waymar Level Up
-[X] Class: +1 Duskblade
-[X] Skills (5 points): +1 Craft (Alchemy), +2 Knowledge (Arcana), +2 Knowledge (The Planes)
-[X] Spells:
--[X] 2nd Level:
---[X] Retrained: Escalating Enfeeblement >>> Sure Strike
--[X] 5th Level: Chain Lightning
[X] Waymar Level Up
-[X] Class: +1 Duskblade
-[X] Skills (5 points): +1 Craft (Alchemy), +2 Knowledge (Arcana), +2 Knowledge (The Planes)
-[X] Spells:
--[X] 2nd Level:
---[X] Retrained: Escalating Enfeeblement >>> Sure Strike
--[X] 5th Level: Chain Lightning
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
@DragonParadox, couldn't we make a fake identity as a slave owner and purchase a few hundred Unsullied? We could be a merchant or something operating out of somewhere in the east where the slave trade isn't dead.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
@Azel, I would still greatly, greatly prefer opening with a killsquadplatoon full of Companions moving in and wack-a-mole'ing everything we can until we either kill (permadeath)/capture Tywin, or ruin every little contingency he's no doubt prepared.
I really, really do not like the prospect of fighting an enemy that had years to prepare, and a large amount of finances for that.
Their bottom line will likely be "screw everyone!~ if we ain't getting it, no one is".
And salting ground harder than Deal with Tiamat, Alignment Wars, Relath, Aberi, Morality Wars, Relath, and Conclave ever did us.
...No, I do not trust Lana and Gerion to be sensible about it. Family ties are anything but. Even if your uncle is a mad fuck.
"Wait and see what they do" is fine for our forces, unless we assume Lannsiters have a whole fuckload of dirty bombs stored off-lane that they'll hit us with.
Now, I will acquiesce to the fact we don't know shit about Lannisters so as much as y'all can't underestimate them and their pettiness, so can't I really be justifiably paranoid of them burning enough of Westeros to make the victory phyrric.
But that not gonna make me happy with us prioritising anything but actual dangerous enemies with an opening move :/
Mind, above assumes we manage to find a way to deal with or stall CoS enough before our invasion.
In case we don't, well, we're SoL and gotta split attention greatly.
I really, really do not like the prospect of fighting an enemy that had years to prepare, and a large amount of finances for that.
Their bottom line will likely be "screw everyone!~ if we ain't getting it, no one is".
And salting ground harder than Deal with Tiamat, Alignment Wars, Relath, Aberi, Morality Wars, Relath, and Conclave ever did us.
...No, I do not trust Lana and Gerion to be sensible about it. Family ties are anything but. Even if your uncle is a mad fuck.
"Wait and see what they do" is fine for our forces, unless we assume Lannsiters have a whole fuckload of dirty bombs stored off-lane that they'll hit us with.
Now, I will acquiesce to the fact we don't know shit about Lannisters so as much as y'all can't underestimate them and their pettiness, so can't I really be justifiably paranoid of them burning enough of Westeros to make the victory phyrric.
But that not gonna make me happy with us prioritising anything but actual dangerous enemies with an opening move :/
Mind, above assumes we manage to find a way to deal with or stall CoS enough before our invasion.
In case we don't, well, we're SoL and gotta split attention greatly.
Last edited:
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Okay, but consider this, @DragonParadox sort of left out the fact that who the fuck is buying Unsullied right now? Not Western Essos for the most part, they can't ship slaves oversea because of our navy patrolling those waters, and they can't really do overland travel because of the undead (until recently anyway). So they sell between Slaver's Bay cities at most.
The amount of scrutiny that Asmodeus' local lieutenants are pressuring the Astapori to place into who is approaching to buy (if they're actually even selling anymore at this point, and if that only as a mask to place spies and assassins in the households of foreigners) should be enormous.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
- Location
- Germany
They land route to Qarth has been open the entire time.
- Location
- United States
They've got to have some route open, or rather than the slow decay we've been watching the region would have completely collapsed by now.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
So they might be selling to tiger fiends and to Qartheen, then, maybe Jade Sea factions once they transport them to a more hospitable port.
I still expect it to be fairly difficult to buy them--nor can I really see the sense in selling large numbers when it's clear they're being manufactured into a super-soldier army on the sly. I feel as though you may be able to cause short term disruptions by making prominent magnates get betrayed by their new household guards, but that trick only plays once, and I believe it won't be in great enough number to have an enormous impact beyond a little chaos on a short time scale. Just not how Baator works.
Why not indeed stop sales short-term and produce your super-soldiers, so that if you want to export them later, they are universally robotic and indoctrinated, and you can pull a Harbinger from Mass Effect maybe and enhance them further by having them channel Lady of Spears energy?
This would also incidentally give you a large standing military force locally next to an intrinsically hostile enemy empire until you had a comfortable enough number of devils to make up for the lack.
- Location
- Germany
No, you are right aboutt he Unsullied not being sold. There's just no one who would really have an interst in buying them right now, since most routes between Slavers Bay and the rest of the slaver world are through deserts, the territory of the remaining and desperate Dothraki or through the mountainous Ghiscari hinterland. It would be expensive as fuck to transport them and you would likely get less then you ordered from sheer attrition.
I don't really think that Baator would restrict the sale though, since as long as the Unsullied are kept within Slavers Bay, they can still use them for their own purposes. It would just ring major red flags when suddenly some outsider bought Unsullied.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
I suppose technically we could have the Sons of the Harpy collaborate with us, but that risks them burning some asset who will likely be paid a great deal of attention more to them.
But they would be a known local, with a verifiable background.
Good analysis.
@Azel How about before the invasion feeding the fat deer to the lioness? With uncle you don't need much for this, it is enough to hear that Bobby suddenly realized that he had horns not only on the coat of arms. And then Cersei "turn everything you touch into shit" Lannister will do everything for us. But rumors had already come out of the Red Stronghold and the last beggar began to talk about vile adultery. Well, then we just had to intervene ...
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
We really need to cultivate some Slaver persona native to the area in that case. That would open up quite a few options for us, since this is no doubt going to drag out at least six months or more.
- Location
- Germany
Don't forget that the Sons of the Harpy are just as broke as everyone else. If we pay extra, they will likely gladly take the risk, since they are short on reliable ways to finance themselves.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
I like this plan the most. In the long term funding these dipshits doesn't really hurt us that much, since they will still be struggling even with more cash to spend, they will just be struggling less in the face of all the threats they are already dealing with. Which helps us in the short term.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Crake
Which level up are we voting for?
Which level up are we voting for?
- Location
- Germany
It's not as if a one-time cash infusion will do all that much for them. Slaves Bay is economically dead and even after the area joins the Imperium, that won't change. Their two claims to fame have always been rampant raiding for and breeding of slaves and that they were a useful stop-over in the spice trade. The first industry is deader then Qyburns conscience and the latter will never revitalize to a fraction of the level of before.
New Ghis and Mereen will likely see some degree of spice trade returning, but they will still have to compete with the southern route over the Basilisk Isles and the northern one through the New Sarnor region. And that assumes that we don't just plop down a Terminus in Yi-Ti and kill long-range sea trade entirely. Astapor and Yunkai will likely shrink into complete irrelevancy once slavery ends and people can actually leave, while Mereen wil likewise bleed people but retain some local significance. It might actually grow again later on, when we start exploiting minerals from the Ghiscari mountains, but the city that will grow from that industry will only bear a passing resemblance of the Mereen from 10 years ago.
So. Give it a few years and the Sons of the Harpye will be mostly a reactionary remnant that will dream of returning to some glorious past, with little political relevance and a lot of Inquisition attention.
The Lannisters are going to be using roided up feral dragons for the majority of their air forces right? I bet their saves are shit, so adding Dragon Blight to the spells available to our divine casters would be useful.
As for the Lannisters themselves? Copious Blood Ties abuse. We just need to make sure we don't use anyone we didn't plan to kill anyway as a vector. If we use salt as a material component we can get a maximum of 210 hp of damage transferred to our preferred target.
For efficiency's sake we can use Vision of Doom and Undine's Curse on anyone without protection from mind effecting affects. They'll just stop breathing in the middle of the night without waking up, and precisely zero people will have the stones to call us on it.
As for the Lannisters themselves? Copious Blood Ties abuse. We just need to make sure we don't use anyone we didn't plan to kill anyway as a vector. If we use salt as a material component we can get a maximum of 210 hp of damage transferred to our preferred target.
For efficiency's sake we can use Vision of Doom and Undine's Curse on anyone without protection from mind effecting affects. They'll just stop breathing in the middle of the night without waking up, and precisely zero people will have the stones to call us on it.
@DragonParadox could you tell us what condition the Dorne road network is in?
It was just that major road construction took place under the Jaehaerys, that is, before joining to Seven Kingdoms, which remained Dorne with the road network that he had earlier. Having or not being expensive across the desert can mean anything when planning to take over Westeros.
And could you answer the question asked earlier?
It was just that major road construction took place under the Jaehaerys, that is, before joining to Seven Kingdoms, which remained Dorne with the road network that he had earlier. Having or not being expensive across the desert can mean anything when planning to take over Westeros.
And could you answer the question asked earlier?
Last edited: