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

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DragonParadox said:
Masks and Monsters ​

Eleventh Day of the Second Month 294 AC

"My lord would take ill to the intrusion upon my mind for my secrets are not mine to offer up," Nuri's clipped words cut the air like a knife, leaving heavy silence in their wake, broken only by the faint clink of the sellsword reaching for his blade. He might not have caught the implication of mental intrusion, but there was nothing wrong with Liomond Lashare's capacity to read a room teetering on the brink of battle. Not that Nuri was expecting to fight a battle alone, given the shadow scouts on their tail, but...

The man before her froze, not in fear or shock, nothing so human. For a moment there was simply nothing behind his eyes.

If Nuri had been other than what she was, perhaps she would have been gripped with fear or lost her way, but she was one born of flame speaking from anger that burned true beneath the pretense. "A shield upon an envoy is not an invitation to strike a blow unless you are minded to face their master's hosts entire. Rest assured that what you have done now, and whatever recompense you may or may not be minded to offer, will be reported in exacting detail."

"You are quick to offer threats," the words were deceptively soft. The sellsword had not taken his hand off his weapon and Mia's fingers were curling in the beginning of a spell.

"That was merely a statement of fact, to clarify our positions here, kaelos," Nuri proffered the honorific with a slight softening of her tone, just in case there was some way to salvage this.

"We... Are... Masters... of More... than Slaves." The words rolled over Nuri like an avalanche, no louder than she had been speaking, but a thousand times heavier in the mind. Yet whoever, whatever, was talking to her, it did not feel like an attack, more like deliberately shifting a mask to allow another to catch a glimpse underneath, a courtesy of sorts.

"Slavery is a matter of perspective, like alliance, enmity... food," the incarnate replied, keeping her balance and her lie as best she could. She privately regretted not shifting into the guise of a rakshasa under a glamor. She had been expecting mortal servants, not this.

"You and yours would find no advantage in seeking influence so close to the Heart. Consider the warning to leave your recompense for the earlier probe." The tone was almost human again, she could even recognize what might be weariness, but she did not think whatever possessing entity had been present moments ago had departed. "Seek harmonious turning where paradigms meet..."

For one horrified moment, Nuri thought she had been transported elsewhere, without her two companions, the crimson draped room replaced with the rustling green of the forest at night, a clearing and an altar. Then she recognized that she was still on the divan, though she could no longer see it beneath her. An illusion, the incarnate recognized. She was being shown where to go, without intruding on her mind. Did that mean this being couldn't break her protections, or had it simply chose no to try in light of her threats.

"Seek out the Anointed One for we have no need for that which your masters feast upon. You will not find it here." Souls, he meant souls, Nuri was reasonably sure. She was not sure what to make of the notion that there were none to claim here. Did that mean all their 'merchandise' was previously bound or perhaps that they did not have souls at all.

What do you do?

[] Go to the meeting place disguised as servants of the Bloodstone Emperor

[] Wait to see what Xor and Kira find first

[] Write in

OOC: There was a lot of psionics flying around, but there was no one here with relevant knowledge skills and while substituting Arcane equivalents can work that produces really high DCs. Not yet edited.
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Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
 
@DragonParadox , by the way, you are doing this perfectly. I love this otherwordly horror.

This is way above everyone's pay grade (excluding Garin and Xor).

Does someone remember what Shadow!Tor was supposed to be doing at this time? He would be better at playing the Rakshasa envoy.
 
Tomcost said:
So the ruse failed because they are not even selling souled beings and we were just invited to go and deal in souls with another one, on their own terms, on a secluded place of their power.

Holy shit, we really failed this time. At least they don't know who we are.
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Is it really failure when your costume is so good you get directed towards where said costume would rather go?

It's like the wolf in sheep's clothing being pointed toward the salad bar because the guy selling food saw he was about to buy chicken salad instead of actual salad.
 
[Chaotic Evil] Cheese it: Since players know OOC that no one died in Qohor by their participation in Sarnor campaign, we can do the most outrageous shit and not have permadeath be on the table!
:V
 
DragonParadox said:
"Seek out the Anointed One for we have no need for that which your masters feast upon, but you will not find it here." Souls, he meant souls, Nuri was reasonably sure. She was not sure what to make of the notion that there were none to claim here. did that mean all their 'merchandise' was previously bound or perhaps that they did not have souls at all.
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The Anointed One sounds like a prime target for sacrifice, or at the very least a foremost servant of the actual prime target for sacrifice.
egoo said:
[Chaotic Evil] Cheese it: Since players know OOC that no one died in Qohor by their participation in Sarnor campaign, we can do the most outrageous shit and not have permadeath be on the table!
:V
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Brilliant. I actually kind of want to do this now.
 
To be honest, given how long we've delayed dealing with Qohor, I'll be surprised if there's truly any measure we can take to pacify it without large collateral damage... bigger than Tyrosh, messier than Lys.

Albeit, probably not bigger than Sarnor. There's just no practical means to have created the huge armies we saw without using cheap undead creation methods. I'm expecting more than a few specially flesh-shaped elite units. As in, whole military units of high CR gribblies.

That's not too bad, though. Unless they're highly mobile, in which case we might be dealing with infestations across the entire Imperium for months. But if they mess up their big gamble with whatever "silver bullet" they prepared for the Companions and Viserys, then there's not too much they can honestly do to us.

They can't really damage the infrastructure because A) too well defended now, we've been at the flesh forging game on a bigger scale than they could ever possibly be. And B) it's not like they have alchemical foundries churning out metric tons of explosives or incendiaries. Pretty sure we've got the biggest operation of that since we took down the Alchemist's guild.

I am expecting leftover caches of Wildfire in Lannister control, tho...
 
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Crake said:
To be honest, given how long we've delayed dealing with Qohor, I'll be surprised if there's truly any measure we can take to pacify it without large collateral damage... bigger than Tyrosh, messier than Lys.

Albeit, probably not bigger than Sarnor. There's just no practical means to have created the huge armies we saw without using cheap undead creation methods. I'm expecting more than a few specially flesh-shaped elite units. As in, whole military units of high CR gribblies.

That's not too bad, though. Unless they're highly mobile, in which case we might be dealing with infestations across the entire Imperium for months. But if they mess up their big gamble with whatever "silver bullet" they prepared for the Companions and Viserys, then there's not too much they can honestly do to us.

They can't really damage the infrastructure because A) too well defended now, we've been at the flesh forging game on a bigger scale than they could ever possibly be. And B) it's not like they have alchemical foundries churning out metric tons of explosives or incendiaries. Pretty sure we've got the biggest operation of that since we took down the Alchemist's guild.

I am expecting leftover caches of Wildfire in Lannister control, tho...
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Yeah, this is absolutely worse than Tyrosh.

Tyrosh had a bunch of overambitious daemon cultists, that's it.

Qohor has pre-existing worship of Shub-Niggurath and a goddamn Flesh Forge in the heart of the city.

It's on us to make sure nothing escapes this place.

Good god the next two months are going to be nothing but an XP grind.
 
[X] Goldfish

Well that's a barrel of holding full of eldritch crap that I wasn't prepared for. Guess it's time to start hunting for cheese that pairs well with grilled whatever the fuck that was.
 
@egoo I'd say I'm about 50% done with the next month's Strategic Actions, will have a write-up sometime this weekend for sure.

@Azel I didn't forget your few requests for next month. Mind like a steel trap and all that. I will also be taking into account your allocation for Titan Tool project time (had your estimations bookmarked for how long it'll take to finish those roads, bridges and channels).
 
Crake said:
@egoo I'd say I'm about 50% done with the next month's Strategic Actions, will have a write-up sometime this weekend for sure.
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You don't have to bother yourself with that, I think?

The last turnvote's (or was it the one before it?) "Strategic Actions are assigned in GDocs and no one bothers to write them out on SV" worked well enough.

It is not like most people on the thread take note of those anyway, and the proposal for Hero Actions barely holds more attention than that.
 
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