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

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So I remember when Bloodraven said that the Old Gods couldn't curse the shit out of the Others because it was too small an investment of power. What if we gather more artifacts and used them in a grand ritual? Would that work?
 
Snowfire said:
Now to be clear, Heart's Ease in HT does about what it does in ASWAH proper - @DragonParadox please let me know how I've done in explaining this? Any help on your own perspective would be greatly appreciated. Still, it's enough to at least give people who've been enthralled a chance at recovery that's better than single digit percentages, and all without ever truly invading the mind of another. The reason that Viserys woke the girl up, is out of respect for the word he gave. She, in her own way, gave consent. Invasion is…a deliberate act of aggression, pushing into someone's mind without their permission. I'm not ever going to properly define where Heart's Ease lies on that scale without consent, but with it? It's no worse than what Harry asks Molly to do in Changes. Grey area, perhaps. But Dresden isn't going to argue that given the results.

I'm not entirely happy with the last third or so of this section, it feels weak to me, but it's also probably the best I'm going to get for it and fighting for perfection is just an easy way to never get anywhere. Next up, a little break from the warlock hunt in favour of some more wintry matters. I think people will enjoy seeing Viserys applying himself there.
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There should be way more effective spells for enthralling victims, DPs ruling is that Hearts Ease can't erase trauma, but artificial madness, is exactly the kind of thing mind-healing D&D spells should be most useful for.

I mean Dresden Mind manipulation, seem most like a form of ability drain to me, so a Restoration spell should break the damage the magic has done, though of course the trauma of what you were made to do, while your mind was altered should linger with you, but Dresden Mind manipulation, should work either like that or like a madness curse.

It's not like the reason Dresden mind damage is so hard to undo is conceptual, it's because it's exponentially easier in Dresden to break a mind than to put it back together, so this is one of the places, where D&Ds magic being much better at such things, should mean that it can put it together.

Also remember that DP ruled Heart's Ease, work better on cases such as staring into the Far Realm and being driven mad, than on cases of mundane trauma, and Dresden Mind magic, is more like the Far Realm madness than mundane trauma.

I get D&D magic not being able to erase black magic corruption, I don't agree with it but I get it, black magic leaves a stain on the soul that can't be erased, but mind magic has never been said to corrupt just break, and fixing broken things is something D&D magic excels at.

The thing DP nixed was Heart's ease just removing was mundane mental problems, he hasn't nixed Heart's ease removing magically caused mental problems, and that's exactly what is preventing Dresden mind magic victims from recovering, so with Heart's Ease they should be able to recover with time and help, as while they still have all the memories to keep them traumatized, the damage done by the spells themselves, as opposed to what they were made to do by the spells, has been reversed.

Of course they should still need a long time to recover, but it should be what they were made to do, and how long they were there that matter, not how much their minds were ravaged by magic.
 
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To be fair, there's far more to "privilege" than "official exemption from the law".

Take Amrelath, for example. He knows we won't take serious shit from him, because hey, that kind of serious testing of boundaries, after the relationship has been established, is the throwing down of the gauntlet in red dragon terms, aka "then try and stop me". So that works in our favor.

But we are much, much more likely to just let creative interpretations of things slide than with random merchantmen #251. Much like we do with Moonsong. Because a loyal Adult Red Dragon that makes twenty attacks a round, and promptly demonstrated in the Maharaja fight that he is probably one of our top 3 most powerful vassals, companions included, is just that much more valuable.

Similarly, we can work out under-the-table deals and implicit promises with reasonable, non-malicious big-shot fey on the same lines: be valuable, gain official privileges like any good vassal and unofficial tolerance for shenanigans.

LonelyWolf999 said:
Blood Dragon
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I love that nearly all of our enemie's names for us are fucking awesome.

A fantastic omake @LonelyWolf999 , lots of good old-fashioned intrigue and politicking in the best Game of Thrones fashion, and Monford really shines, both for what he does and how distinct his narrative is.

My one criticism would be to avoid underlining what you italicized. I too like to give weight to things like this, but the underline is excessive.

I'm wondering why he didn't drop "my daughter's dragon is growing well, last I heard" or something similar.
 
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Busy, busy, busy...

Duesal said:
More or less.

Propaganda is king.
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No it's not. At least not the usual military style propaganda.

Flooding the market with popular works matching our goal will work... Mostly.

It's about the underlying themes and tropes which shape storytelling.

Ironically fairy... Tales...

Huh.

Would be something we need to go for. It needs to be ingrained into the cultural psyche. Like chivalry is in Westeros.

Azel said:
Huh. We should commission a few books. And songs. And rev up the propaganda machine
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Yep. We also need to... Um... :thonk: codify? Tropes. We need to have somebody read, like. The vast majority of human fiction, break it down into archtypes. Once you can see the narrative patterns in fae logic they are WAY easier to handle.

LonelyWolf999 said:
Besides that he'd been focusing his efforts on preparing for the war, both in bolstering his demesne and supporting loyalists elsewhere. The men-at-arms received fresh equipment, the fleet was expanded, he'd made efforts in finding and hiring those magically inclined, although that was still a work in progress. Aurane had been spending time in Braavos to secure supplies and equipment for the fleet, while Monford had trusted men head to Crackclaw Point to inquire about getting in on whatever deal old Eustace had made with the 'tritons.'
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I totally want to pay of this guy's debt now, and hand him a huge sack of cash.

Crake said:
The bare minimum here is that they actually have to abide by Imperial Law while setting foot within the Imperium. If they're incapable of doing that @DragonParadox, they are actively undermining the law. If it doesn't apply to fey just because they're special snowflake immortals, law loses meaning.

That's the thing, if they want to interact with mortals, times have changed. We bite back, and we can either war to the knife, or they can accept that we won't just give up primacy and make them First Class and our own Second Class ones.
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Fey are aliens.

Literally. They are weird, inhuman, and unpredictable.

That's part of their story.

As much as it is also literally true.

It is not however, impossible to make them agree to stuff.

If we want fae to have to follow our laws...

Hrm. Your really going to hate it.

The easiest way to get our laws into practice would be to make a pact with fae rulers.

Ideally...

Archfey.

Which will require several things. All of which I would not even bother attempting if we weren't mythic and pushing our way to level 20 steadily.
 
Was busy.

Yes, we give special privileges to loyal and good vassals.

This is self evident.

Also, I wasn't about to suggest insulting high CR Fey, or even a court at large. We can be tactful.

That all seems pretty straight forward. Some rattling of the sabers and putting down more vicious fey might be in order, though.
 
You know, maybe we could play into the stereotype whenever some relatively minor fey lord asks why he's got to prove his worthiness, which to him is self-evident: "You are not a Dragon, are you?"
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
You know, maybe we could play into the stereotype whenever some relatively minor fey lord asks why he's got to prove his worthiness, which to him is self-evident: "You are not a Dragon, are you?"
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It would be an ironic response, though not one I would make to anyone of true importance or who actually has something of substance to contribute.

I imagine we will stop getting Fey asking these questions once the first few get mocked.
 
Well for a proper propaganda machine we need to make the printing press. We can transmit the stories to every part of Westeros in a matter of days.
 
Edit: except in Sothoys. Everyone who lives in Sothoys will learn junglerazer and never look back.
 
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