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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
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- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
Aerys did not have the temperament for any sort of long term planning and he got worse the older he got.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Viserys is a financial wizard because he is used to being dirt poor, knows all the barriers lack of wealth presents to anyone with ambition, and decided "well I just need to be PEFFECT at making money".
He... might have gone overboard.
Nah. The world will survive.
He... might have gone overboard.
Nah. The world will survive.
Now I want to meet Aerys master of coin. To have a full treasury with Aerys as king is a miracle. Who was he anyway and is he alive?
- Location
- Germany
Nah. The problem with Viserys economic shenanigans is just that he didn't treat trade as something disgusting like a Westerosi, nor as a over-romanticized art like the Essosi. It's a problem to be solved and so he kept solving it and looking for more problems in it to solve.
Part MMDCLXXIV: Secrets and Serendipity
Secrets and Serendipity
Twenty-Fourth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
Horas is as impressed by Sorcerer's Deep as one might expect, none of the wide-eyed awe of a new visitor but with perhaps a deeper association for the amount of work that went into many of the projects. Though he is impressed enough by the Circle of Battle, the Bathhouses, and the Houses of Healing, he reserves his most lavish praise for the docks. Horas claims you have transformed a middling harbor into one to rival the ports of Pyke or Oldtown. That he does not mention the Arbor in the same breath is hardly unexpected, but the fact that he has been to Pyke of all places surprises you. That is not a place overfond of Reachmen in your experience.
"Indeed it's not, but we had our swords out at the time," the young Redwyne heir replies as the three of you are gathered in the privacy of your solar. His usually cheerful smile grows cold for a moment.
"You must have been pretty young during the Rebellion," Waymar offers, somewhat ironically seeing as he has not yet seen his fifteenth year.
"New-made squire, so wet behind the ear I squeaked," Horas nods. "My mother wept up a storm trying to keep me home and she did manage to keep Hobber, much to his lasting regret. He used to say..." a melancholy silence falls over him. "My brother was not content with being 'the spare tucked away safe,' but the joke has grown rather stale since I breathed in a lake's worth of water."
"Fortunately for all of your House you have returned," you point out to lighten the mood. "So your brother shall not have to keep up the mummery much longer."
"If only it were so simple. The Faith..."
"The Faith shall have to deal with the world as it is, not as they wish it to be, just as the rest of us must," you say firmly. "There is certainly cause enough for alarm and foes of every sort, but the solution is not to cut off our own sword arms on the eve of battle in the vague hope that the gods will fight our battles for us."
"You told father you would speak more of these foes," Horas replies carefully, not addressing the substance of your declaration, at least for now.
"Certainly." You rise to your feet, already pondering how best to lead him to the truth by the least rocky path.
***
"When your father and I last spoke, there was much I wished to show him but could not under the circumstances. There has been good reason that my gaze has not been turned west, and good reason for my support of the Night's Watch," you conclude, the fearsome twisted figure of the Cornugon behind you a stronger argument than ten-thousand words could have been.
Horas had taken your gallery of vanquished horrors well all things considered, neither freezing nor running from the room in terror, not even momentarily giving into the temptation to count it all a lie and you its architect. No, he has seen enough magic, felt it. He knows that you speak true, however much as he might wish otherwise.
"And then there is what lurks in the Farthest North..."
After all else you have shown him, the Ancient Wight Lord bound in amber elicits only a slightly numb nod. "So those stories are true, too, eh?" He forces a smile. "I don't suppose we are lucky enough that they are all sleeping tight for another few thousand years?"
"I'm afraid not. They are coming, with the next winter's snow the dead will rise," you give again the grim news, no easier in the telling than it had been the first time. "That is why I've aligned with the Old Gods. This is why I support the Night's Watch to such an extent. It is not some ploy to win the North to my side, it's because the Night's Watch and the Wall are the only thing between us and the Long Night come again."
"Shouldn't we hurry along and get our house in order, then?" The young Reachman's voice is hushed. "The longer the matter of the Iron Throne is unsettled the greater the chance things like this," he waves vaguely around the hall, "can take root."
"Many of them are also thoroughly undeterred by two-hundred miles of saltwater, a lot less around here," you point out. "If the Daemons had won in Tyrosh the canker would have soon grown much more terrible for all of us."
"I suppose someone has to deal with Essos before the slaving bastards drown us all in shit," he sighs. Then as the three of you leave the chamber a gleam enters his eye. "Seeing as there are all those empty lands, I do not suppose..."
"Fancy a keep in the east?" Waymar asks, only a little disappointed. It had become quite clear during your discussions that Horas is far too attached to the notion of being a lord in general to make a knight's spurs his life's work as Waymar hopes the Griffin Knights will.
"No, not for me," the young Redwyne answers. "For Hobber. He..." the words trail off as he notices someone over your shoulder. "Is that Randyll Tarly?" he asks in a whisper. "What is he doing here? He would not be the sort looking to win the tourney, surely..."
Following his gaze, you indeed spot a bald 'sellsword' with a bristling grey beard and a severe bearing passing by on the street, just as the Inquisition reports had described him. There is probably an unread report on your desk even now detailing which ship he used to get from Westheaven, where the last report had placed him and his son, to Sorcerer's Deep.
Speaking of said son, it does not take you long to notice the boy of perhaps ten struggling to keep up with his father's long steps, sweating in the southern heat. 'Clever but shy' one agent had called him, though seeing him and his father in the flesh you rather suspect that is a grave understatement. The boy practically wilts when Randyll's gaze falls on him even in passing.
"I suspect he has come for much the same reason as you, though without an explicit invitation," you answer Horas.
He hesitates a moment. "Would you like me to introduce you?" At your surprised expression he shrugs. "Father probably wouldn't approve, but offering my support so you can get through to old Iron Guts is the least I can do after what I saw in there."
What do you reply?
[] Accept Horas' offer and approach Lord Tarly
-[] Write in approach
[] Refuse Horas' offer and approach Lord Tarly alone
-[] Write in approach
[] Leave him be
-[] Write in what do do next
OOC: Viserys is right by the way, there is a report on his desk recounting how Randyll and Sam got here, right down to how much they paid for passage and what the captain's name is.
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- Location
- Germany
Not really.
He always had enough money to feed and shelter himself and Dany, it took him one month to get back to decent money for a regular guy and a total of three months to buy a big house and some servants to work in it.
There really wasn't much poverty in Viserys life.
Maybe relativly, for a prince, but not in any objective view.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
No yeah, I meant for a Prince.
Keep in mind House Targaryen has pretty much always been disgustingly wealthy post conquest, and probably way more wealthy than any Westerosi House in the days of Valyria. Relative views of apparent wealth will always be skewed.
Aerys had him dipped in wildfire and burned alive for not being on board with burning King's Landing.
- Location
- Germany
True.
I'm just annoyed when people compare Viserys short drop with actual poverty.
Living for one month with the money a commoner with decent job may have and taking two more to become able to buy a reasonably wealthy merchant's house and start investing in trade endevours is not really comparable to being a regular kid on the street or beggar in the gutter.
He never had to worry if he and Dany would have a full stomach or a dry blanket by evening. There are a lot of people like that even now in Braavos.
- Location
- Goose Land
Tywin was part of it, as his rep was strong enough to ensure that people paid their taxes and paid them on time and in full. At that point he just needed to distract Aerys from his fanciful projects and set aside a "Convince Aerys his bullshit projects are actually being worked on" budget and the rest of Iron Throne's revenue could be used for Kingdom maintenance and Tournaments.
We see part of it in the "Bloodraven-advised-against Aerys Flashback Hour."
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Azel, control yourself! We know you love your functioning surveillance state but if it stays like that for much longer you really will have to see a doctor!
- Location
- Philippines
Ok, this is hilarious.
Two out of the three families that can contest Highgarden are on a covert mission, one backed by the king-in-exile and the other absolutely failing in subterfuge.
Surprise Sorcerer King? Or is it time to be Corlys Waters, Lawman to King Viserys, again?
Two out of the three families that can contest Highgarden are on a covert mission, one backed by the king-in-exile and the other absolutely failing in subterfuge.
Surprise Sorcerer King? Or is it time to be Corlys Waters, Lawman to King Viserys, again?
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
A Prince of House Targaryen ever having to resort to such methods to claw his way back to "locally presentable" standards of producing wealth is... admittedly fully believable as something that further ignited those already extant perfectionist tendencies.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Ok, this is hilarious.
Two out of the three families that can contest Highgarden are on a covert mission, one backed by the king-in-exile and the other absolutely failing in subterfuge.
Surprise Sorcerer King? Or is it time to be Corlys Waters, Lawman to King Viserys, again?
THE DEBUT OF TISERYS VARGARYEN IS NIGH!
Seriously though please don't xD
- Location
- United States
@DragonParadox, what magic items do we see on Redwyne and Tarly?
Actually he did worry about that those first few weeks in Braavos. True he had gold but he also lived in a thieves' den and the thieves knew he had it. Granted he was more worried about being stabbed in his sleep than starvation but it definitely made for some tense nights.
- Location
- France
@DragonParadox, the information on Oberyn in the "Dornish Contacts" section of the front page seems to be incorrect. Is he a Fighter 3/Swashbuckler 8 or a Fighter 4/Swashbuckler 5 ?
Was he actually destitute at any point? No. He always had enough savings to sleep in an inn, at least.
Was he in a rather desperate situation? Yes, definitely.
Viserys was homeless, had no income and no-one to turn to (well, no-one he could trust not to just kill him). He turned to crime and made enough money for his initial savings to never run out, and even made enough profits to live comfortably and lift himself out of that situation.
Was he actually destitute at any point? No. He always had enough savings to sleep in an inn, at least.
Was he in a rather desperate situation? Yes, definitely.
- Location
- Germany
Eh. My doctor assured me it was fine and perfectly normal under the circumstances.Azel, control yourself! We know you love your functioning surveillance state but if it stays like that for much longer you really will have to see a doctor!
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Those are just out of date, pure and simply.
- Faint abjuration auras that are probably protection from evil amulets on both.
- Faint illusion and transmutation for Horas
- Three more stronger abjurations for Tarly
Fighter 3/Swashbuckler 8. The information on the front page is really outdated.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Does the imagery of Viserys sitting up next to Dany's bed with his back facing the wall and staring at the door with his hand fingering a blade read as evocative to you?
Damn, no wonder she has a brother complex.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Yeah, and I remember you promising to UPDATE IT WHEN I BROUGHT IT UP.