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

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Crake said:
It would quickly become about Richard being overmanaged away from traumatizing school children with excess viscera flying through the air (which isn't Grimm organs, at any rate).

Which I can write, and might be amusing, but I have to get in the mood for it.
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The answer's pretty clearly expanding the scope of the story beyond Ser Richard killing shit. Like I said earlier, I'd find him dealing with more social and magical challenges really interesting, and I can't see him bouncing off the RWBY cast as anything but amazing.
 
Duesal said:
I've been partial to Daelor myself.

Daelor Targaryen has a nice ring to it.
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What about what's their name? They're a pile of clothes now, happened with the Ice Dragon... You know, they were called, ehhhhh, Thingy!
Maybe.

We should call Viserys' firstborn "Pile of Clothes Targaryen!"

(The exclamation mark is part of their name btw)
 
Azel said:
Because the issue isn't constrained to fighter craft.

Tell me, how do you resolve a dragon fighting a ship? No, not the PCs on deck, but the actual ship.
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Deliste said:
With the rules in Stormwrack that specifically facilitate ship to ship and non-ship combat, overall AC, section AC, rigging HP, hull damage and sinking etc.
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@Azel it was quite late for me and I fell asleep during the discussion but it seems my response to your query was overlooked.

Edit:

Ahh my mistake, I didn't realise we were doing the "wilfully ignore relevant information that doesn't fit my end state" thing, carry on.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
3) It's simple to ascertain if she has "met" them "before": sense motive on things like "I don't have names to call you by".
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Viserys would have to fully disguise his awareness for the entire interaction and she'd have to come out of it happy with the result otherwise she would not ask that the N(th)ext time, or ask in a slightly different inflection etc.

Time is fucked yo.
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
Hell, "you'd have to blow up the building" vs "steel jacket ammo". Even if this is understandable as the magical community's behind the times, it's a rather glaring weakness in a time where the fastest projectiles are bullets instead of crossbow bolts.
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Considering how much iron is likely in most buildings this should actually do the job way more often even if just due to incidental shrapnel, right?
 
Crake said:
Well, thanks to some comments, I have some ideas for the RWBY series again.

So we'll see what happens.
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Prediction: @Crake does some writing, then procrastinates a bit. Snowfire punches Crake in the emotional equivalent of his dick, repeatedly. Crake retaliates in an equal manner, Snowfire attacks his lack of Omake. Crake finishes Omake as a "fuck you", and we all settle in for an awesome chapter having enjoyed the popcorn we had during the... Omake development process.

Oh, context; this take place over like 2 to 4 hours, max. :D.

Edit: Crake demands moar Hoard Thief, and there is even more rejoicing.
 
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Snowfire said:
I thought you might get that. I suspect you can lay a pretty good guess on where this is going.
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TotallyNotEvil said:
She didn't fight as much as you think? After she completely aced the fights, from the perceptive of the Formor at least, they might simply not have bothered.
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Snowfire said:
Snrk. That would be nice and neat, wouldn't it.
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It's damn near like watching David Tennant say "I don't want to go."

One might say that at least Etherealists already start with holes in their mind so they don't quite have the exact frame of reference to understand what they've lost, what they're losing. Once Kathy understood what was happening, she must have been horrified.

And then very very resolute.

For D&D, mechanically, I'd see it as Wisdom drain, but sacrificed like you sacrifice XP for Wishcraft. Ways to build it back up, maybe, but never the same as what was lost.

I'm reminded of a wide variety of Madness/Corruption score mechanics, but none of the immediately D&D compatible ones properly portray the slipping away of the mind.

Would an Item of Wisdom even help?
 
Walliseatscheese said:
I'm reminded of a wide variety of Madness/Corruption score mechanics, but none of the immediately D&D compatible ones properly portray the slipping away of the mind.
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Propably because D&D is usually not the kind of game were any affliction should have more impact than one quest to cure it, or something in that size category.

There are variants for D&D, I think particularly in Heroes of Horror, but I have no idea how good those are. You can read it up.
 
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Part MMDCXLVI: From Scattered Sparks
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    • From Scattered Sparks​

    Twentieth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC

    You and Dany find Lya waiting near the great stone doors of the Temple of Yss, curious to hear the ancient serpent god's answers regarding the nature of the divine and of the deep past. After all, many of the questions you will pay for in blood today are ones she first asked. What you had not expected was to find Svitran waiting for you.

    "The Great Serpent requires my tongue for the speaking of secrets,"     the priest explains. "I came bearing joy/triumph/renewal also," the burst of thought is almost garbled with unaccustomed excitement. "I was right in thinking that none would be Lost now what we are away from the broken city, more I have learned how to awaken those like onto beasts to the memories of the elders."

    "Soul magic of some sort?" Lya asks, at once intrigued and a touch wary. "Do your ancestors live again in the bodies of those you called the Lost?"

    "No, ancestors dead, gone, but memories remain carved in bone. How else would skulls speak secrets?" Svitran produces a skull which had been carved in strange sinuous writing, the lines inked in gold and green like sunlight on leaves. "Used man bones too for some-few."

    "Where did you get those bones?" you ask carefully, hoping you won't have to deal with a case of grave robbing of all things.

    "Bartered in market," the serpent priest shrugs. "Not many were sold of course, but some... some... enough."

    Of course there would be a market for human bones,     you hold back a sigh, making a mental note to talk to Alinor about regulations for that sort of thing considering all the unsavory uses they can be put to.

    "Why did you use human bones?" Dany asks curiously, obviously more concerned with the results than the somewhat ghoulish methods.

    Svitran is seemingly more than happy to explain: "To teach human way of thinking, way of living. That is important here among many-many humans."

    'Lost' Serpent People Gain full sentience

    Lost 11,000 IM (Research/Ritual Costs)

    Gained ritual of Elder's Insight
    Elder's Insight

    School:     Divination Level 6

    Casting Time: 60 minutes

    Material Components: Sothoryi herbs and powdered painted lizard bones and organs worth 1,200 IM, skull whose knowledge is to be imparted

    Blood Component: None

    Required Caster: Mage capable of casting at least Level 3 Divine Spells

    Secondary Casters: Up to three

    Skill Checks: Knowledge (Religion) (DC 21) 2 successes; Spellcraft (DC 19) 3 successes

    Backlash: Caster loses the ability to cast any spells from the school of necromancy for 1 day

    Effect: Subject of the Ritual gains knowledge of all languages the bearer of the skull spoke in life as well as an understanding of the cultural context needed to speak it as a native speaker; +5 Competence Bonus to Bluff and Disguise checks made to appear as a member of that culture.

    Failure: The memories contained within the skull are imperfectly imprinted upon the mind of the caster rather than the proper target of the ritual, damaging his or her mind (Suffer Level Drain).

    That will be of no small use to the Inquisition, you realize approvingly. Coin well spent, and not only for increasing the Serpent people's meager numbers. "What of Anu's project?"

    "Metal man finished too, not sure what tongue/way of thinking to teach," Svitran sounds vaguely bemused. "He said he wants to honor dead makers but he does not wish to make strangers to the world."

    Though it is somewhat difficult to parse out from the serpent priest's alien perspective, you soon discover that Anu had crafted a sort of mental template for the newly created Warforged including the virtues and values of lost Sallosh and fundamental knowledge of the world and its most commonly used tongues.

    Warforged Research complete

    "And Saenena?" Lya prompts. "She seemed hopeful when she asked me for notes last week."

    "Trace of hatchlings found in Fatespinner's web. Path is open... she must walk it, find them she must."

    Better than you had feared and worse than you had hoped, then. Saenena still has to find her children upon the path of the River of Souls, a task that might prove difficult even for one of her skill, though at least now you no longer need fear that she will seek peace in death. Lya explains that the ancient sorceress thankfully has no intention of launching herself headlong into the fray, for she understands that her children's chances to live again are contingent upon her own survival. Best to have your mother or Malarys look into her just to make sure, though.

    Expedition to the Outer Planes option to find Saenena's children opened (She will be available for assignment for any actions starting next month, on the condition that you facilitate her working towards that goal)

    Turning back to Svitran and to more immediate matters you ask: "What did you mean when you said you are here because Yss needs your tongue?"

    "You have many questions that must be answered in many words, difficult for vessel of god, like squinting eyes to count grains of sand, so he will give me answers and I will speak them," the priest replies, giving you your first insight into the nature of gods and their champions in the doing. It is easier to commune with one who is chosen without a strain on divine attention. Yet you have many more...

    Svitran explains that prayers are an acknowledgement of a god's power over the mortal's soul, creating a resonant song that amplifies the 'symphony' of the divine being, like ripples in a pool of water growing stronger as they overtake each other. The same is true true for doing deeds aligned with the nature of the god in their name, such as silently dedicating an act of kindness to Zathir. Generally speaking one must be a god or in some way god-like to gain power from prayer and sympathetic acts. For a mortal to attempt to do so would be akin to throwing rocks at a barren field, no ripples and no gathered power. However, a dry field may become a pond, or at least a mud hole if one siphons water from elsewhere. The theft or sacrifice of divine servants may aid in that.

    And so you come to speak of sacrifice, the act that has empowered so many of the gods who dwell in the Deep. Sacrifice can include prayer and ritual, but it is fundamentally distinct from acts of resonance between mortal and god. It is the act of dedicating the life or soul of the sacrificed being in whole or in part to the god, allowing the divine being to sing another note of their own choosing into their being. Under all but the most extraordinary circumstances a god will chose to strengthen his existing nature.

    "So then, through prayer gods become more what their worshipers expect them to be, and through sacrifice they become more themselves, whatever that happens to be at the moment," you muse, the final piece of an old puzzle falling into place. This then must be why the Old Gods have remained fundamentally unchanged and still foreign to mankind after so many ages of the world have passed since the First Men came to worship them.

    You learn also that there is no difference of any kind between a god which accepts sacrifice and one which does not. One could in theory abruptly reverse one's decision on one or the other, though given how slow gods are to change that is unlikely.

    "When a god is born, does consciousness come first or divine power?" Dany asks the next question, you suspect pondering Tiamat's beginnings from the dark look in her eye.

    Alas to this Svitran and thus Yss has no simple answers. It depends upon the god.

    Lastly there is the matter of miracles and their cost, which you find to be lighter than you had thought. While they do cost power from the god to enact, much of that power is echoed back as the fabric of the world resonates with the god's nature and purpose. The greater the god the more of this echo they can catch.

    What do you ask next?

    [] Write up

    OOC: I'll write up the warforged creation ritual in the morning. I need to look up some sources on them.
     
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