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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 MMDCXLV: King's Accounting
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    • King's Accounting​

    Twentieth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC

    When you speak, it is with care and sincerity: "We are two different people you and I, Sandor, but we've both experienced our own sorrows and tragedies. I can't promise what I did in response to them is the unequivocal 'right path', for I am still on it. Seeking out the threads of fate throughout our lives is what led to the war and madness that befell my House in part to the constant delusions dogging our footsteps that either the Gods are the ultimate arbitrators of such, playing with us as if we were pieces on a Cyvasse board, or else the delusion that we ourselves were Gods to be in command of the very hearts of all men. I can't command you to see that any more than Tywin Lannister can order me to die for having the temerity to escape an unchancy fate."

    The Hound looks you up and down with that same vague confusion he had show before Dany from the start, as though he can't quite fit you in some neat mental row. Finally he settles on: "The Old Lion wouldn't have called it an 'accident' for you..." He glances at your sister. "Nor for her. He would have crowed about it from the rooftops, maybe had the singers make up another song."

    "Well then, I suppose we aught to add poor taste in music to his sins," Dany snorts. She smiles looking to the Hound. "No, I'm not scared of him. There are worse things to be scared of out there than one dreadful old man who would paint the Seven Kingdoms red for the sake of his damnable pride."

    "If we are to hold ourselves both accountable to the follies of those that came before us, so too must there be people to hold them accountable," you say with quiet conviction.

    "Good luck with that." The words begin as a cynical send off, but there is a trickle of sincerity pulling at them. You suspect the Hound truly wishes you good fortune in that, but he does not believe there is enough luck for that in all the world.

    "Luck is useful, help even more so," you reply. "We are often on the lookout for allies in that task, given the many twists and turns it has led us down."

    He does not answer, but the silence does not quite have the weight of denial.

    So do you take your leave: "Good fortune in the tourney, Clegane. I really mean that. I believe if you simply look around you will witness some of the answers you are looking for... but personally, I am inclined towards finding those answers for myself."

    As you and Dany withdraw from the room Leto is of a mind to stay a while longer and Clegane to let her, a hopeful sign if a small one. The irony of trusting a wounded soul to a devil does not escape you, but there is no bitterness to it.

    ***​

    "Do you think he will listen?" your sister asks later as the two of you walk towards the Temple of Yss, the revelry of the festival a pleasant companion to the brisk evening breeze.

    "I think he might. He's certainly been shaken up enough, but... he is wounded enough to have grown accustomed to misery, seeing all the world through its eyes," you reply, knowing that in the end only Sandor can push himself back on his feet, though you might offer a helping hand for him to take.

    "I know," she sighs. "I wanted to heal his face, but I knew he would take that badly, an absolution he does not feel he deserves. Hopefully he will offer himself leniency from that cruel judgement soon."

    What do you do next?

    [] Do an interview
    -[] Write in subject

    [] Approach Mors Umber to see why the man is here so openly
    -[] Write in

    [] Speak to Yss and offer his sacrifices
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: Not entirely happy with how short this is, or how uneasy the ending is, but in the end I decided it fits more than I originally thought since Viserys and Dany are both people who like to solve problems but this problem was not in their hands ultimately so both of them are uncomfortable, feeling like they should have done more, in spite of knowing it would not have helped to push.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    OOC: Not entirely happy with how short this is, or how uneasy the ending is, but in the end I decided it fits more than I originally thought since Viserys and Dany are both people who like to solve problems but this problem was not in their hands ultimately so both of them are uncomfortable, feeling like they should have done more, in spite of knowing it would not have helped to push.
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    *EX GOOD DRAGON INTENSIFIES*
     
    DragonParadox said:
    The irony of trusting a wounded soul to a devil does not escape you, but there is no bitterness to it.
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    These little moments are what truly makes Viserys a great character. It is not defeating foes like any generic fantasy character. It is not building a kingdom by being an special snowflake that leveraged his position. No.

    What makes him special is how he constantly comes around to the established rules of the multiverse and outright defies them, sometimes even non intentionally.

    So here we have a Baatezu offering emotional support to a troubled soul who has suffered a lot on his life, by her own volition.

    Let that sink in. How far we have come.
     
    ...I am already sleepy as all fuck, and I have a plane only in 6 hours.
    *Reeeeeee intensifies*

    [X] Duesal
     
    Azel said:
    It is, because neither category fits right.
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    The more I think about how the fighters will work the more I tend to agree. After all enemies will try to take advantage of the relatively lower horizontal maneuverability while the pilots will try to maximize use of their vertical advantage, That can lead to some fun dogfights I think.

    *scribbles down notes before I forget the ideas*

    Snowfire said:
    I have just given you a way to fix that. Apply skill boosts through the chassis that makes those specific checks irrelevant. There is absolutely no reason to make a custom category for this.
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    One thing to remember is we do not technically have the fly skill here. It's 3.5 not pathfinder that is the base game.
     
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    [X] Hungry Snek
    -[X] Questions for Yss before we feed him (heavily implied that the cost of the questions is covered by the sacrifice)
    --[X] Would Yss be willing to help proofread a book written to establish a Grand Unified Religion of the Imperium? This is to help make sure we avoid stepping on any toes with him.
    --[X] On the nature of the divine.
    ---[X] How does prayer work?
    ---[X] How does Little Coatl draw power from good acts?
    ---[X] How do prayer, good-deeds and sacrifice power generation compare to each other?
    ---[X] How do they interact?
    ---[X] Does the god need a metaphysical property to be able to draw power in a given way?
    ---[X] When a god is born, comes the consciousness or the divine power first?
    ---[X] How do they grant spells and does it cost them power to do so?
    ---[X] How do Ley Lines factor into this?
    --[X] What can Yss tell us of the various types of serpentfolk that once served him, their various abilities, and where they could be found?
    --[X] Can Yss give us a map of his former worshipper's lands in Sothoryos so we can track down the ruins later?
    ---[X] On the subject of his worshippers, has he found any more suitable candidates for clerics aside from Svitran?
    ---[X] Does Yss have his holy book he can give us for our collection?
    --[X] Can Yss tell us the locations of any leylines that he's aware of and mark them on ou appropriate maps?
    --[X] What can Yss tell us of Sseth, his abilities, what methods and champions he tends to use (if there are specific names that would be great), where his former strongholds were located, etc.
    --[X] What can Yss tell us of Lolth, her abilities, what methods and champions she tends to use (if there are specific names that would be great), where her former strongholds were located, etc.
    ---[X] What can Yss tell us of the Underdark and the ruined Drow city of Zanthor on the surface? What about the "silver mountains" elsewhere in Sothoryos?
    --[X] What can Yss tell us of Zathir/Jazirian? (can be given as books IC that we read later to keep the questions short)
    --[X] Is there a way to precisely divine the location of the undead coatl godling in the Plane of Fire?
    --[X] Is there a way we could get more coatls (not godlings, just normal ones), and if so what payment and material components would we need?
    --[X] We have an Orb of Dragonkind. Does he know of a way to destroy the artifact as well as the wyrm inside? If so, how much payment would he need?
    --[X] Ask Yss if resurrecting gods of Valyria, like Syrax or Meraxes and not keeping any connections to the 15th is possible. Would he, a god with domains of Life and Death, be capable of such feat if given a sufficient infusion of energy?
    --[X] Ask Yss what his price would be for taking part in creation of an artifact out of Varys' god-denying trinket, a piece made together with other gods we manage to diplomance into this, a way to snare Tiamat's/other deity's power when it is exerted over the wearer... Like young Aegon, who is trapped in her web of lies.
    ---[X] On that vein, when the time comes, does he know of a solution to deal with the 15th? How much payment would he require if so?
    --[X] Does Yss know how to stop sleeping so much? We have lots of strong monsters to feed him and are often thwarted by the fact that he's asleep.
    -[X] After the questions are answered, sacrifice the following for Yss
    --[X] Sacrifice two Colossal Fiendish Monstrous Spiders (CR 13 each) to undo Lolth's divine curse on the two Chwidenchas and restore them to their original forms.
    --[X] Sacrifice Tor (CR 15) and Varys (CR 17 with gear, CR 16 without?) make sure to vote beforehand what reward to get out of it.

    There we go. If anyone has any more questions, now is the time to ask before Yss falls asleep for the next few months.
     
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    Snowfire said:
    I have just given you a way to fix that. Apply skill boosts through the chassis that makes those specific checks irrelevant. There is absolutely no reason to make a custom category for this.
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    That's... literally the opposite of my issue.

    Hovering in place is difficult, since the airframe has a tendency to drift around and turn slightly, requiring pilot skill to keep it stable. No impossible about it, just skill. It's like flying a helicopter, just that the controls are a lot more complicated. But neither is it trivial.

    And once you get faster, the entire profile changes anyway. At nearly Mach 1, the thing behaves like a flying brick, because that's what anything going at such speeds does.

    None of this is modelled by any of the default categories.
     
    @Duesal if your still on board for sacrificing the evil whip to moony, what are you looking to get from her?

    She should be pretty kick-ass at dream magic.

    Edit: @Azel

    Perhaps portray the skill needed in the feat hover? We can train for those after all.

    SRD:Hover - D&D Wiki
     
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    Duesal said:
    Oh, the Lolth whip? Mainly coatls for the collection. I'm not really sure what else to get from Zathir.
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    Moony is the moon singer.

    As for zathir... Really?

    community, peace, learning, and parenthood.

    couatls believed Jazirian to be the embodiment of supreme purpose and fate

    Air, Good, Law

    I can think of several dozen things he would be excellent at.

    Helping Xor write up our education system strikes me as the most blatant way to abuse his domains.

    He could also teach us about fate, and how it works. (Another thing we ignored because we hate it).

    He also has... Enough? Weather control ability to jailbreak the driftwood crown. Weather manipulation is SO good.
     
    @Duesal

    -[] On the nature of the divine.
    --[] How does prayer work?
    --[] How does Little Coatl draw power from good acts?
    --[] How do prayer, good-deeds and sacrifice power generation compare to each other?
    --[] How do they interact?
    --[] Does the god need a metaphysical property to be able to draw power in a given way?
    --[] When a god is born, comes the consciousness or the divine power first?
    --[] How do they grant spells and does it cost them power to do so?
    --[] How do Ley Lines factor into this?

    [X] Duesal
     
    @Duesal, thanks for compiling this together.

    You mind adding a question on what his price would be for such an artifact as one Snowfire proposed creating out of Varys' trinket?
    -[] Ask Yss what his price would be for taking part in creation of an artifact out of Varys' god-denying trinket, a piece made together with other gods we manage to diplomance into this, a way to snare Tiamat's/other deity's power when it is exerted over the wearer... Like young Aegon, who is trapped in her web of lies.
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    I'm not feeling quite up to finding Snowfire's quote/plan right now, sorry about that.
     
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