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

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Interlude CMXXXVI: False Shine
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    • False Shine ​

    Twenty Fifth Day of the Third Month 294 AC

    After a moment's pause, unseen and unheard, Garin withdrew. While there were moments when one must act on incomplete intelligence this was not one of them. There were still other auguries Marwyn could search to see if this was a settlement to greet in peace or war. And so he threaded his way back to where the hunters waited in watchful silence and then back to camp warded beneath the corpses' blades and subtle enchantment. The news made for an odd hearing, as prophecy oft did:

    The Queen onto oath and law does hold
    Twined Pledges in gold and onyx circles sold
    So are found the ant and lion
    No matter the wishes of the scion     ​

    "Enmity among our rivals is certainly desirable, though one might wish that the man-ants had better taste than to find favor with Tywin Lannister," Vargo said as he helped the former maester rise to his feet. Judging from her expression Tyene would have used stronger words, though she bit her tongue against it.

    "Formians have a very rigid sense of hierarchy," Waymar interjected. "If they are going to deal with the Lannisters at all than it makes sense to choose the highest formal authority, the Head of House."

    "It is to be hoped that cleaving his head from his body will render that bond equally broken," then of the black knights, or rather the molds that rode them, proclaimed bluntly. "Summer wars squander our strength."

    Garin did not reply, he knew the dark spirits did not object to the war of conquest and its killings on any practical level, they were just wistful about the loss of life. Every life ended before Winter's coming was one less that could be fed into the gears of that terrible war. The uncommon state of their being aside, they would do well working with the Watch.

    The High Inquisitor could not quite hold back a shake of the head at the thought of someone having to explain why these 'wights' were allies and not foes. He made a mental note to be busy reading reports that day.

    ***​

    The second path lead not through bright gilded light, but a spectacle stranger still. The long winding tunnel opened into a wide realm of shimmering sapphire, shafts of light descending from some hidden fire, made pale and distant by unimaginable depth falling upon a floor that rippled and changed like the waves of the southern seas.


    For a moment Garin froze, not wanting to think of what could be lairing in a place so much richer than veins of gold. Then he noticed one of the gems shiver like a leaf in a high wind and start shedding minuscule glittering shards. That was no sapphire nor even a gemstone, it was alive... and they were everywhere. A nursery.

    Tens, hundreds... blind and stupid though the rolling masses of crystal may be, they were perilous to everything alive and come to think of it probably everything undead as well. It was only as he was picking out the largest and most dangerous specimens that he realized one was wrapped around a common granite plinth that did not seem to belong with the impossible colors of the crystals.

    Of course it didn't belong, it was from another world. They had found an intrusion into the plane from the other side, from the stone under Casterly Rock. Now it was just a question of how to deal with the squatters.

    How do you deal with the carnivorous crystal nursery?

    [] Write in

    OOC: There are roughly 250 oozes in the cavern, including the large one advanced to 25 HD which is sitting on your portal.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • False Shine ​

    Twenty Fifth Day of the Third Month 294 AC

    After a moment's pause, unseen and unheard, Garin withdrew. While there were moments when one must act on incomplete intelligence, this was not one of them. There were still other auguries Marwyn could search to see if this was a settlement to greet in peace or war. And so he threaded his way back to where the hunters waited in watchful silence and then back to camp warded beneath the corpse's blades and subtle enchantment. The news made for odd hearing, as prophecy oft did:

    The Queen unto oath and law does hold
    Twined Pledges in gold and onyx circles sold
    So are found the ant and lion
    No matter the wishes of the scion     ​

    "Enmity among our rivals is certainly desirable, though one might wish the man-ants had better taste than to find favor with Tywin Lannister," Vargo said as he helped the former maester rise to his feet. Judging from her expression, Tyene would have used stronger words, though she bit her tongue against it.

    "Formians have a very rigid sense of hierarchy," Waymar interjected. "If they are going to deal with the Lannisters at all, then it makes sense to choose the highest formal authority, the Head of House."

    "It is to be hoped that cleaving his head from his body will render that bond equally broken," one of the black knights, or rather the molds that rode them, proclaimed bluntly. "Summer wars squander our strength."

    Garin did not reply. He knew the dark spirits did not object to the war of conquest and its killings on any practical level, they were just wistful about the loss of life. Every life ended before Winter's coming was one less that could be fed into the gears of that terrible war. The uncommon state of their being aside, they would do well working with the Watch.

    The High Inquisitor could not quite hold back a shake of the head at the thought of someone having to explain why these 'wights' were allies and not foes. He made a mental note to be busy reading reports that day.

    ***​

    The second path lead not through bright gilded light, but a spectacle stranger still. The long winding tunnel opened into a wide realm of shimmering sapphire, shafts of light descending from some hidden fire, made pale and distant by unimaginable depth, falling upon a floor that rippled and changed like the waves of the southern seas.


    For a moment Garin froze, not wanting to think of what could be lairing in a place so much richer than veins of gold. Then he noticed one of the gems shiver like a leaf in a high wind and start shedding minuscule glittering shards. That was no sapphire, nor even a gemstone, it was alive... and they were everywhere. A nursery.

    Tens, hundreds.. blind and stupid though the rolling masses of crystal may be, they were perilous to everything alive, and come to think of it probably everything undead as well. It was only as he was picking out the largest and most dangerous specimens that he realized one was wrapped around as common granite plinth that did not seem to belong with the impossible colors of the crystals.

    Of course it didn't belong, it was from another world. They had found an intrusion into the plane from the other side, from the stone under Casterly rock. Now it was just a questions of how to deal with the squatters.

    How do you deal with the Carnivorous crystal nursery?

    [] Write in

    OOC: There are roughly 250 oozes in the cavern, including the large one advanced to 25 HD which is sitting on your portal. Not yet edited.
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, @DragonParadox.
     
    Am I the only one who think those guys are too much trouble to capture for what they are? They're another localized apocalypse in the making, after all.
     
    Wow, 250-ish Crystalline Oozes. Each is CR 11 with 16 HD. If they were more easily managed, I'm sure we could come up with something useful for them.

    Viserys could use a Chained Ooze Puppet spell to take control of 20 of them per casting for up to 20 days if we wanted to relocate them. Or maybe just open a portal Gate into a fresh Demiplane and lure them all into it by dangling a nice juicy cow in front of them.

    Or Viserys could case a couple Maximized Dragon's Roar spells to kill everything in the cavern, assuming it wouldn't alert anyone on watch and that we don't want to save them for later.
     
    ryuan said:
    Am I the only one who think those guys are too much trouble to capture for what they are? They're another localized apocalypse in the making, after all.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    You have shamed Viserys' Draconic ancestry @ryuan !
    You must now seek atonement by commuting Sudoku!
    Also; the answer to your question is yes.
     
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    Here's what I've got so far. Suggestions or alternatives are welcome.

    [X] Use Divination to determine whether or not the cavern is under surveillance or warded in some manner to detect intruders.
    -[X] Also attempt to determine if there are any peculiarities with the location itself, such as a tendency toward Wild Magic or strange effects relating to Conjuration magics used for traveling, especially portals.
    --[X] If the Divinations and investigations of the area are satisfactory, we will create a Demiplane to serve as a Crystalline Ooze storage site. A temporary portal Gate from the cavern to the Demiplane will be opened and the Oozes lured into it for later disposal.
    --[X] If the Divinations and investigations are not promising, however, we will devise an alternative arrangement based on what we learn.
     
    Last edited:
    [X] Goldfish
    This seems like a way to create a Demiplane-sized King Ooze.
    Gimmie.

    :V
     
    Couldn't we just shatter all the oozes since they are particularly vulnerable to thunder based attacks?
     
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