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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 MCCXLIII: A Peril of Riches
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    • A Peril of Riches ​

    Seventh Day of the Twelfth Month 294 AC

    The destruction of Everfire Dale was for many a shock, a blow to the notion of Imperial invulnerability. For merchants who dealt in the many works of the Dale, it was a savage cut into their margins, enough so that a fair number of them went under sending ripples of insolvency out to their own creditors, until it was finally stopped by swift and decisive action by the Iron Bank working in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Taxation. Proposals for tax breaks were swiftly silenced as bad practice, for aid should come in the form of aid and not lifting one's dues to the state, but tax assessors were swiftly sent all across the realm to ensure that no one was still being taxed for goods which had been vaporized or melted into glass.

    All the while, the Iron Bank quietly gave lie to its fearsome reputation, with reasonable offers of reimbursement and loan restructuring, though unlike many Imperial institutions in those months they did not widely publicize their deeds, for the Keyholders did not wish to 'show weakness' in a marketplace that was growing ever more competitive, in a world that was ever more perilous.

    With the announcement that no new banks would be allowed to form west of the Narrow Sea for months yet, if not years, those same worthies breathed a sigh of relief. They had made the right choice. Uraka Breolis had presented it as the only choice, but even if she was right, that did not have to make it a good one, but it was clear now that the Imperator was willing to err on the side of professionalism and stability over favoring the folk of his birth realm. Profits would not be what they might have been, but then such was the nature of war. Only fools too blind to see farther than the tips of their noses would think that war was good for business, but still the aftermath of it could be, if one backed the winning side.

    There had been some rumblings of late about expansion into the Sea of Fire, for the last two planar expansions had been most profitable and Ring of Keys was always looking for seconds on a feast as the saying went.

    Peculiarly, Princeps Uraka was quick indeed to put paid any notions of quick profits. The new realms of the Imperium were wide and in the abstract perhaps a fair place to find new clients, but a people in the midst of a war to the knife are not inclined to buy into reconstruction loans. Still, there was one trade which Duchess Larissa was interested in making, a very straightforward trade yet still one with the potential to have consequences far reaching enough to end up on the Imperial desk.

    Although the fleet of the Cobalt Scales was non-existent, their capital pounded by enemy artillery and their people grimly determined to fight to the end, they yet possessed a reasonable treasury from more prosperous times, reasonable at least by the standards of a small state on the Sea of Fire, compared to the wealth of most nobles and magisters of the Imperium taken as individuals, it was staggering and its conversion to Imperial marks would tank the price of precious metals when the market had only just stabilized. It was estimated, and later divined that this would cause a second round of panic selling of precious metals and when the price corrected upwards to current standards eventually, it would lead to even more bad blood uniting in common outrage the fiscally incompetent from across two continents.

    What do you do about the desire of Duchess Larissa to buy a great sum of marks with precious metals?

    [] Let her do it, but spread the word that the fall in precious metal prices will be temporary this time, hopefully lightening the blow

    [] Ask her to hold off for now, you do not need to deal with more economic shocks, though this will likely upset your new citizens

    [] Have the throne buy the precious metal then slowly sell it off pane to get it out of circulation as you did to soften the first blow

    [] Write in

    OOC: I am intentionally keeping the exact sum abstracted because the concept of money has been abstracted.
     
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    • Interlude MCCXLIV: On the Clock
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    • On the Clock ​

    Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month 294 AC

    The most frustrating of failures are are those one might call 'technical successes'. There is nothing technical about then
    -Attributed to the unknown Braavosi inventor of the repeating crossbow-

    The Permeable Arcane Veil Project was one of the most well founded and visible research projects in the whole of the Imperium, drawing the best and the brightest of the innovation minded sorcerers in the realm. There were rumors of course of other avenues of study, secret projects for which you had to sign away your silence, you privacy before the diviner's eye and as the jest went your soul, but really those were more akin to the drunken musings of what the Excelsus Necros Plastes actually did in the depths of his secret lair. For Leila Goldenhammer this was the most impressive, the most prestigious project she could be a part of and she was nervous as she had been on speaking privately to the Imperator that first day...

    Well alright not quite that bad, she was a woman of means now robed in the signs and the badges of her guild, she was a Sorcerer's Deep Graduate which was quite the cachet, for all her year of graduation was technically even earlier than the First Class as she had been trained before the Tower had been set upon the green. On her left side she wore the jagged sold threaded rune of the sun, the mark of a trained rune-caster which she shared with few others in the Scholarum.

    Judging from the surprised look on the face of the face of the grey haired man who had come to greet her he had been expecting something else when he had called for rune-caster aid. "Too young or just too much of a western barbarian?" Leila asked lightly. It was always good to know if she was dealing with one of those, and she had found the best way to probe for it was to make a joke out of it and see if they bit the hook.

    "Not enough of a barbarian actually, I was expecting some sort of hoary old legacy from the far north," he replied putting out his hand forthrightly Legacy was the word that the newly trained mages since the Awakening called those who had practiced sorcery before, it was a term of many sides. On the one hand weary respect for anyone who had actually managed to draw water from stone as it were, on the other disdain for some of the methods used. It was all too often not water but blood that was being drawn. While the scholarum did practice blood magic it was in a far more structured way than that.

    "Classically trained from my first cantrip," Leila shook the offered hand. "What seems to be the trouble here, I mean not to get too technical, but I would rather not walk into my first circle meeting clueless..."

    "Law of Identity basically." He raised a hand as though seeking forbearance. "I know... I know... that is like an engineer telling you the problem with the boiler is steam pressure existing, but those are the sorts of problems we get paid the Sovereigns to solve." At Leila's raised eyebrow he corrected. "Well alright we get paid in dragons, but the budget, well you have to see to believe that."

    I hope that was not an invitation to skim off the top, getting the lawmen called on one of my new colleagues would be a rather awkward start to joining a new circle, Leila thought. Instead of pressing the matter she asked "How do you mean Law of Identity?"

    "Well we have not figured out how to get large vehicles like Wyverns though a forcefield without both sides being made by the same enchanter using the Law of Symmpathy, but obviously we can't have one enchanter make every single piece of military hardware in the whole Imperium."

    "Even the Imperatrix needs her sleep sometime," Leila joked. "I can see why you thought runes might help given the way they restructure power into predictable patterns, but I have not had a lot of experience working with force effects. I will have to take some time to familiaize myself with the underlying principles and then with what you have done here at PAVP..."

    "Of course, of course, we are only mages not miracle workers here," came the response in like tone as Leila's new colleague lead her into the main staff room assigned to the project.

    Further improvements in permeable Force Effects - Tier 3: 28 (Failure)

    Result: Project must be retried next turn

    OOC: The roll was not bad enough for any sort of radiation breach so I just took the chance to present moire about Scholarum culture. Not yet edited.
     
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    • Interlude MCCXLV: Battle of Brass and Cobalt
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    • Battle of Brass and Cobalt​
    Report on the Battle of Brass and Cobalt by Colonel Moonsong, acting commander of Battlegroup Argent

    We managed to take some of the pressure off the Cobalt Scales, but not much more than that.

    When we first arrived, the Brass Scales were in the middle of an offensive, having whittled down some of the defensive lines around the ruins of the Duchesses palace and taking some of the underground chambers. Some long-range shelling managed to stop their advance and had them hunker down again, giving the Cobalts enough breathing room to stabilize the front, though we could not keep up the pressure. It seems they knew we were coming, because the two spelljammers on their side, two older Efreeti destroyers, were hounding us the moment we got into range. They are using these huge bombards on their vessels, firing shells the size of a man, and this is the first time I feel we actually were threatened by something that isn't a god or archmage. The shells down one of our barriers in a single hit, letting other shells through before the crew can react, and the engineers who looked at the damage are pretty sure that any hit going through the Moonchasers armor might be enough to make us crash. The only good thing is that their aim is horrible, or maybe those bombards are just that imprecise, so we managed to keep the damage minimal by staying at long range.

    Unfortunately, that means we could not even attempt to land in the Cobalts fortress to drop off supplies. Whenever one of our gravjammers broke formation to go for a landing, the Brass Scales immediately started concentrating solely on that one. Seems they are really eager to down one of ours, so we stopped trying before we gave them any more opportunities to succeed. The crews got pretty rattled by that too, since nobody here is really used to getting hit at all, let alone getting shaken around whenever something makes it to the hull. Of course, that means the Cobalt Scales are running out of supplies rather fast. They've needed a lot of materials to repair the damage done by the latest assault and they are starting to run out of ammunition. Since they lost their own two spelljammers in the initial assault, there is still a large stockpile of bombard shells they are now prying apart to have their soldiers use as thrown weapons. I haven't been down there, but from the chatter on the Braziers, they won't be holding out much longer without more supplies from the Imperium. They still have a few chambers out of the Brass Scales wards range, so it might be better to open a Gate to them than to try and supply them by air.

    Our spotters have gotten a fairly good read on the enemies forces. There are about as many of them as there are Cobalt Scales, but a lot of them have a good number of these force weapons we got briefed on. They also have their spelljammers and a large number of bombard on the ground and they have a decent grip on how to use that artillery to cover their advances. Most of the bombards in a fortified hill that they keep covered in burning, oil-soaked pumice dust, and they only open small shafts in the surface whenever they want to let loose a salvo. Makes it almost impossible to hit them without flying directly in the flight path of their projectiles. The spotters are also getting a bit queasy from watching the battlefield all day. Seeing Salamanders on both sides getting ripped apart by force blasts and artillery seems to make for bad viewing. One of them even hung himself after calling out some bad coordinates, which led to the Gladius firing a few salvos at the Cobalts. We have started to rotate them out every time we shift back home to get new ammo after that. The mind healers can take care of them.

    Overall, morale is not that great. We are supposed to fly in, wave our cannons around for a bit and then graciously accept their surrender, but the Brass Scales ain't going to surrender any time soon it seems. They are dug in pretty deep and their only reaction to our presence so far has been to focus more on digging tunnels towards the Cobalts lines and chambers, and having at least one of their spelljammers ready to harass us whenever we show up. It doesn't look as if they would go for a honorable duel to end all this either. At least our Salamanders are grateful for the aid. Apparently they were ready to open their brood chambers to use their own young as war beasts when we showed up. They might have been on the loosing side, but can't fight the Cobalts for a lack of fighting spirit. If this drags on, our crews might become a weak point. Getting bombed by the Brass Scales and doing next to nothing with our own attacks is wearing on their nerves and we had a few casualties from accidents, like getting thrown into a wall by the shaking or dropping ammo while reloading. The Moonchasers crew is made of stern stuff, but the other two vessels might need a mind healer or two assigned to them if this keeps going.

    We will continue our current operations until the situation changes or you have new orders for us.

    Respectfully,
    Colononel Moonsong
    Acting Commander of Battlegroup Argent

    A note bearing the Book and Sword is attached to the report.

    Embedded Inquisition informants confirm morale problems, which are being exacerbated by Colonel Moonsongs behaviour. She is frustrated by the lack of progress in the battle and her displeasure has begun filtering down through the ranks. Her crew is too loyal to bring up the issue openly, but there are signs of possible resentment brewing. Likewise, the captains of the IAF Gladius and IAF Makhaira have apparently quietly made inquiries if they could be granted greater command authority in the battlegroup. It seems advisable to seek a fast resolution of this conflict or failing that, to assign the Colonel to other duties.

    Respectfully,
    Special Commissar Gilliam


    AN: Decent rolls for your first tentative involvement in a planar battle, but decent means only that you bought the Cobalts enough time that they have to worry about running out of ammo instead of getting outright overrun. Detailed status of the battle here.
     
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    • Part MMMDCCCLXVII: Parched Sands and Bitter Tongues
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    • Parched Sands and Bitter Tongues ​

    Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month 294 AC

    You set down the report with a sigh. Part of you had expected Moonsong to pull a miracle out of the proverbial hat, that might have even played a part in why you sent her in particular, but it seems that neither you nor she will have her way. The battle, the holding action to call it what it is had not gone terribly, the cobalt scales had not been overwhelmed thanks yo your intervention, though they will need resupply and more aid next month, next year... Gods was it the closing of the year already? Time has a habit of running too fast and too slow at the same time of late, lurching uncomfortably from small mundane problems to...

    With a wave of your hand you draw the reports into your cloak.

    That. Were Moonsong on Still Waters any other commander, no matter how decorated and valiant you could have temporarily assigned the command of the ship to someone who would not damage the morale of both your forces and your own allies, but the price of Moonsong's service was and still is command of her sip. There is actually a note on her file that she cannot be reassigned from command nor can the Moonchaser know any other captain while she lives. Thankfully not all the news is quite so grim.

    There are no armies at the gates of Qarth and little in terms of internal opposition that the Undying have not dealt with one way or another. The Thirteen are moved by greed to ascent, the ancient Guild of Spicers has little choice but to bend the knee given how much they depend on trad routes that your Imperium now commands and if the Tourmaline Brotherhood hopes that its eastern focus allows them greater independence in their position, they have been dissuaded of that fact.

    As the Queen of Cities Bows; 65 +7 (Sorrowful Men) = 75 (Success)

    The Sorrowful Men have shown their work in silken thread and gilded blade, in poisoned cup and letters on the pillow set, they have made control of Quarth's vast and baroque bureaucracy far easier than it otherwise would have been, not so much in the handful of assassinations they have performed, but in the ones they could have done and stayed their hand. It is clear the inquisition shall not lack for recruits in the city at the Jade Gates, yet that does not mean the integration shall be a simple matter, or simply an echo of the other Free Cities the Imperium has taken in war and in peace

    Like its lords the last city of the Qarthi endures on borrowed time, its aquifer all but spent, the process only growing faster as more and more people abandon the outlaying estates and towns to seek shelter behind its walls. As the economy contrasts the city expands your envoys have discovered and something has to give.

    Minister Valens warns you that to make that fact public is likely to look like an Imperial power play, an attempt to take the citizens of Qarth from their homes and to dilute the power of the local aristocracy to another. the Undying do not care one way or the other, so long as their palace endures the city may as well melt among the sands

    Qarth Water Crises discovered

    What do you do?

    [] Try to stop the exodus from the hinterlands (will involve working to keep slave keepers financially solvent)

    [] Use High level magic to help bridge the gap (risks unrest and conspiracies)

    [] Offer passage out of the city for those who are most in need (will create unrest in the city as it will be seen as the Imperium mining Qarth for people before it is even integrated)

    [] Let things stand until the integration next month, you can handle it once the city is officially in your hands

    [] Write in

    OOC: I actually rolled undying lore already, but I could not focus on getting that down in this heat so here you go water crises... this may have been influenced by the heat I am dealing with right now. Not yet edited.
     
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    • Lightning Round for the next Quest (Original setting) [Temporary Threadmark]
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    • OK I am starting to have way too many ideas for starter characters for all three proposed quests. so lightning vote 24 hours which do you want?

    [] Ice Age quest (lots of paleo art hostile tribes, the works)

    [] Redeeming the 'monstrous humanoids' quest (kobolds, goblins or more exotic beings)

    [] Historical personages transported into heroic fantasy (Roman Century is the default but I have other ideas as well)
     
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    • Vote Closed
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    • Vote closed
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Aug 5, 2021 at 2:18 PM, finished with 34 posts and 24 votes.
    Click to expand...


    The new Quest is Up

    I hope you guys enjoy.
     
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