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

Twenty Ninth Day of the Second Month 294 AC

Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the mages who fell in Lorath against the traitor return willingly to life, as does the grey haired inquisitor. A former gang boss in Pentos, he realized which way the wind was blowing and got into the inquisition's good books early and never stopped climbing. That same ambition drives him almost to return to Lorath at once, but between Garin and yourself you manage to convince him otherwise. Dying is a delicate enough moment to be worth a few days off the job, even without losing memories to the cold embrace of the grave.

Lost 5,000 IM

Speaking of Pentos, you are relieved the see the city offers no troubles for once and some opportunities unlooked for. Not only is the inquisition base on the Andal Coast likely to come into full service ahead of schedule and possibly under budget, but the expansion of the royal messenger service into Nontelos has seemingly put spark to kindling under the feet of several towns in the region, what would have been considered large villages in a more populous region. In the absence of banditry that has plagued the region from time out of mind and the sellsword companies hired by Pentos that had been different from the bandits mostly in that they possessed their own banners, trade could flourish and ambitious ideas grow.


"Five whole villages are relocating because they are doing well?" Tyene asks as you recount the happening over breakfast that day, unsurprisingly confused at the notion after the problems in the Orange Shore on which her expertise had been asked for.

"Much of the wealth out there comes from cattle herding," you explain. "Oh, they do grow crops, but just enough not to starve when the wars heat up and they can't get the beasts to market. Now with the wars ended, and ended for good at that, founding a proper market town on the Swiftwater, that is the major river in the area, no longer looks like an invitation for brigands and raiders."

"But they are asking for a royal charter to raise the new town?" Your mother's words are barely a question. After all, settlements do not build themselves, and no amount of ambition and will from the locals can make up for the lack of silver and skills.

You nod. "They are, but according to the Treasury's estimations it might not be entirely worth it. They want to build walls for one and that is hardly worth the effort these days," you motion out the window, where the skyline of the deep shows not one hint of a wall beyond the old keep itself. The sort of foes that threaten your realm would not be troubled by walls. "On the other side of the coin, this is the sort of initiative the crown should encourage. It is one thing for local lords to invest in their lands, no more than their duty, but to see town voices, the village elders by another name, really plan out something like this is impressive."

"Maybe we could do a mirror show about it," Dany offers from your other side. "Shows about mages and lawmen are all well and good, but common citizens out on the frontier taking their fortunes into their own hands and profiting from it will really resonate with people."

"Nontelos isn't really the frontier," Tyene interjects. "It's on the coast halfway between Pentos and Tyrosh."

"On the map, certainly," you agree. "But it's poor enough that you would not be wrong to treat it as a frontier. The magisters of Pentos were no more skilled as custodians of their hinterlands than any other part of rule."

What do you do about the new town?

[] Grant them the aid they are asking for (Cost 10,000 IM 15% chance of the provincial wealth growing by a further +1)

[] Immortalise the story in an article in the Imperial Times and a mirror play

[] Give the new town some other sign of recognition
-[] Write in

OOC: It was pretty hard to come up with the fluff for +1 wealth on the crit roll given how poor the province it. Hope this works. Not yet edited.