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

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Part MMCDLXXXII: A Name from Ether Spun
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    • A Name from Ether Spun​

    Tenth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC

    In a decision that will no doubt have Ser Richard vowing to never leave your side again, you choose to stay, pulling at the threads of silvery power to weave the most seamless glamour you have ever woven. It veils not only against sight but hearing and smell also. Still, not enough to fool the gaze of a Fury or a well-prepared sorcerer, but the best you can manage. Stepping through where the dresser would be were you back in the manse, you wait and watch. You do not have to wait for long...

    A specter walks into the chamber, seeming at first as mangled and disheveled as any of the others, missing a hand and an arm, doublet ripped and dripping silvery blood. Yet it does not take long to realize that the maiming is far older than the spirit's passing. The missing arm had been replaced with a system of ingenious metal clamps and the conceptual echo of a glass eye still stares blindly from under insubstantial brows. The gashes too look shallow to your eye, not enough to kill save if they went sour.

    "Who is here?" the specter calls in a surprisingly cheerful baritone, the sort of voice one might imagine calling for the wine barrel to be rolled out rather than upon the lips of one of the restless dead."I know you're in there. I felt the currents shift..." The ghost seems rather less certain than his words might show.

    "For a bloody looking glass..." the words descend into a barrage of curses that sound closer to High Valyrian than one might hear from the most learned Volantine noble, certainly in the midst of such a tirade. "'Course the damn thing wouldn't do much good with how little magic there's left in the world." He turns again to address the room. "How much blood did you spill to play hide and go seek, then? I'd call out one of Lucaelor's sniveling apprentices, but even they have more sense than to play that sort of game gaining nothing."

    Lucaelor... the name is unfamiliar, but still you mark it well. The implication that he teaches apprentices here means that he might be the one behind this twisted mummery. Then again, you remind yourself, even ghosts that seem lucid are lost in some manner. He might be speaking of times past and a man long in his grave.

    The phantom presents you with an interesting conundrum. On the one hand you could try to capture him in some manner, for which your current position is almost ideal, and secret him away for interrogation, though that would risk the specter turning uncooperative, leaving you with few options to compel truth. Alternatively you could show yourself, hoping that this is an ally or at the very least not involved in the heart of this evil. Though if he is a foe it would be trivial for the make enough noise to alert the servants and ultimately whoever they are reporting to.

    What do you do?

    [] Try to capture the ghost
    -[] Write in plan

    [] Speak up
    -[] Write in plan

    [] Write in

    OOC: I know this is short, I was expecting this encounter to be part of the last update since I had forgotten about Varys' mindsight giving you warning.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    He might be speaking of times past and a man long in his grave.
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    In fact he's obviously speaking of times past:
    DragonParadox said:
    "For a bloody looking glass..." the words descend into a barrage of curses that sound closer to High Valyrian than one might hear from the most learned Volantine noble, certainly in the midst of such a tirade. "'Course the damn thing wouldn't do much good with how little magic there's left in the world."
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    An outright mention of little magic, the Valyrian manners, this guy's clearly a ghost from before the Doom that is very lost.
     
    We do have the Lich's skull in the skull collection. We could probably get a few answers about this.

    I'm pretty sure that he either was directly involved in whatever happened here or he at least knew the people here.
     
    Azel said:
    Negative Energy and Positive Energy stand in for Evil and Good far too often to be reasonable. Hence undead being Always Evil, unless they are powered by Positive Energy, in which case they are Always Good.
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    This is simply true yes. Undead automatically giving off an aura of evil is too much to ignore. Even if exceptions exist.

    Azel said:
    D&D also has a hard-on for depicting any kind of alien mindset as automatically Evil, unless you can somehow equate it with some kind of human value model.
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    Eh. Most of the alien mindsets presented in DnD are what humans would call evil.

    Cthullu is still considered a dick by us even if wiping out humanity is pest control for him rather than genocide.

    Those that aren't tend to get... Approximations. Inevitables spring to mind.

    As do Aeons.

    Mothmen?

    Flumphs? (I just like flumphs ok?)

    Azel said:
    And lastly, using Morals as a kind of damage you can take, like by alignment spells or the Deimaviggas abilities.
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    Man this is actually looking more true the more I look into it.

    Azel said:
    The whole system just reeks and promotes a literally two-dimensional crusader morality in the people exposed to it. It deserves to die in a fire.
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    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    I still like it. And I'm not sure... Let's see if I can put it into words.

    Ah. Maybe?

    I like it creates a world where good actions are rewarded.

    Someone throwing themselves between a gunman and a mob and being rewarded with the strength to protect others.

    Rather than sacrificing themselves in the hope their loss will be enough.

    Though it probably comes off as disrespectful to those who did lose everything trying to do that right thing... I wish that people didn't have to

    That's probably why I don't care about the moral peculiars of "what is good" and "what is evil" for this game.

    Edit: I... hope I explained myself well enough? I'm not even sure now.

    Edit: edit:
    Azel said:
    @DragonParadox, check your PM's for why I hate this system so much.
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    Would you mind sharing? I'm curious.
     
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    zxzx24 said:
    Flumphs? (I just like flumphs ok?)
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    Frankly, I like them too. They are that one exception from the norm and despite looking a bit silly, they are likable for breaking that Evil Aberration mold.

    They are a race of Xors. We like him for the very same reason.
    zxzx24 said:
    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    I still like it. And I'm not sure... Let's see if I can put it into words.

    Ah. Maybe?

    I like it creates a world where good actions are rewarded.

    Someone throwing themselves between a gunman and a mob and being rewarded with the strength to protect others.

    Rather than sacrificing themselves in the hope their loss will be enough.

    Though it probably comes off as disrespectful to those who did lose everything trying to do that right thing... I wish that people didn't have to

    That's probably why I don't care about the moral peculiars of "what is good" and "what is evil" for this game.
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    Here is the thing though, you are devaluing the good act by making it a Good act. You are acting that way because the system tells you that it is the Right Thing To Do, not because you made a value judgement about the situation.

    Here is the brain-teaser: If Dany abolished slavery not because she considered it morally right, but because someone told her it would be morally right, is she still a good character for doing it? Or just someone who followed orders?

    Draw your parallels to other peoples "just following orders" on your own.
     
    zxzx24 said:
    Someone throwing themselves between a gunman and a mob and being rewarded with the strength to protect others.

    Rather than sacrificing themselves in the hope their loss will be enough.
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    You still have to hope for it in DnD, successfully hiding would also reward you with strength, as would assassinating the attackers or successfully persuading them that you owned the attacked individual and they owe you damages. It's all XP.

    I mostly agree with Azels more lengthy run through z my problem with the alignment system is it's simplicity and disgusting excuse of genocide etc on "acceptable targets" this is obviously in part due to my own bias and that's why fundamentally I do not believe in Good and Evil, there are only actions and reactions and the perspectives of those in that environment because I, like you, am a human and I do not believe the alignment system gets it mostly right from the perspective of a human.

    When I have argued for or against "Good"/"Evil" in the past it is with the understanding that individuals and societies do identify themselves or others that way and in doing so are somewhat more predictable in their actions, kinda Thrawny really.
     
    How does DragonParadox keep track of what titles there been for chapters, because at this point we've had god know how many thousands of updates. Is there an automatic system that says that title has already been used for a threadmark?
     
    Destrark said:
    How does DragonParadox keep track of what titles there been for chapters, because at this point we've had god know how many thousands of updates. Is there an automatic system that says that title has already been used for a threadmark?
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    He sometimes reuses one when it would parallel another one in a way. Like if something happened, and then later on, a diametrically different thing happened, etc.

    Edit: He's really good at keeping track for what it is worth.
     
    So, capture or talk?

    I think we might be better off talking in this case, but if ya'll want to capture, I'm sure we can work something out.
     
    I think it was the Eleventh month (ish)? They were uh... conceived early in the Second month.
     
    So probably at the end of the 11th or start of the 12th month, baring complications.

    Edit: Just checked. Expected date of delivery should be the 15th of the 11th month.
     
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