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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 MMDCLXXXVIII: Of Spite Undone
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    • Of Spite Undone ​

    Twenty-Sixth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC

    "There will be no need, Ser Erren. The devils will be dealt with before your son can come to harm," you assure the knight, your mind already speeding off, not so much planning anew as building upon what you had already done, spinning the devils' doom from conjured lore. There are three of them, including the one that had wormed its way into Highgarden. The Pleasure Devil would likely be the most subtle given that she had managed to remain undetected from not just the Tyrells but also their fey allies, but such trickery works best on one's home ground. You have no intention of giving it the option.

    "You are just going to go to Brightwater Keep, now?" The knight's words call you from your brief reverie.

    "Yes, of course," you reply simply. "Even were your son's life not obviously imperiled alongside the very future of House Florent, I cannot leave devils loose in the Reach..." Now that they likely know something has gone wrong with their plans here in the Deep, you add to yourself. Ser Erren probably would not have taken well to the notion that you knew so much about the devils, including their very names, and have been willing to leave them in place until the conclave of the Fath. Thankfully there is no reason to tell him any of that.

    You send him off with Ser Richard to borrow a weapon and armor that he may be of some use in the fights to come while you rush off, meeting Lya at the door of the Snare, as much as the sphere of stone and lead can even be said to normally have a door.

    "Alekyne Florent is out hunting, or supposedly so at least," she explains. "The verse went: ware he who hunts the hunters, of steel his sword and of parchment and wax his shield against the dread of his own heart."

    "He's hunting poachers, then," you guess, disgusted. "Soothing his conscience that the ones he is sacrificing to Mammon would have hanged in any case..."

    "While his father is probably tightening the screws on the smallfolk making them more desperate, more likely to poach and commit any of a number of transgressions for which they might be 'punished' with flame and sacrificial blade," Lya finishes, anger flashing in her eyes.

    The preliminary scrying had placed Lord Florent in his chambers in the company of only his valet, a man almost as deep in the devils' grasp as he, and his books, the sort of books you would lock far indeed from the light of day. She goes on to explain that the Brachina is moving about the Florent estate, something about 'spreading bitter hopes', while one of its guards remains at Highgarden to ensure Garth does not entertain any rebellious thoughts. An empty carriage once you summon them should not be too troublesome to explain away, certainly nothing that would point to you.

    Again, as you had done so many times before, you cast words of summoning into the dark, an inescapable lure, bound up in the fiends' very nature, echoing the tarnished melody of their souls. One after another the Bone Devils come forth to your call only to be ensnared by Lya with a touch, and for the swifter a twist in time.

    Yet when the moment comes to speak the Brachina's name, a thing of twisted syllables that sears the tongue like brimstone, the devil makes its appearance only for a moment, no fear upon its once-angelic features, but wrath and a dreadful joy... Hellfire shines through its bones, burning away the fine silks of its disguise in an instant, consuming talismans and scrolls: "You will have nothing of me!" It screeches as the wave of ruin washes towards you.

    Time stills... an instant stretched taut like a drumhead, and upon that drum rings a single note of dissolution. The deadly fire of the devil's spite fades before it can reach you, before it had even had a chance to consume its own form or any of its possessions.

    "We beg to differ," Lya says with chilling courtesy, wholly unmoved by the wall of flame that would surely have harmed her far more than you.

    Trapped and alone, its final card played, the devil struggles to will itself out of the Snare, but the wards contemptuously rebuff the attempt and soon it too joins its fellows as beasts stripped of reason.

    Captured Wizard-Creature Brachina
    Captured Two Bone Devils

    1. Devil's Spellbook
    2. 2 Cruel Fey-Bane Glaives
    3. Circlet of Intelligence +4
    4. 1 Type-II Bag of Holding
    5. Runestaff of Charming (in ring form)
    6. 5650 Gold Dragons

    You had already sent Dany, Sandor, Oberyn, and Maelor with Ser Erren to deal with the Lord of Brightwater Keep, but that still left the matter of his heir to resolve. Alekyne Florent should be far from any witnesses not already as guilty as he, but there are still blameless hunters riding through the woods to give him the cover of his hideous 'sport'.

    What do you do?

    [] Head out at once to tie off that loose end
    -[] Write in plan

    [] Wait for the party sent to Brightwater Keep to return

    [] Write in

    OOC: The hellfire self-destruct was 30d6 damage reflex save, 26 for half. It could technically have killed Lya if it hit her full on.
     
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    • Whatever we do here, I think it goes without saying that we're questioning these devils and summoning any minions/underlings they had, yes, @DragonParadox?
    I mean, not right now maybe, but in the background of a following few days.

    We shall purge Westeros of Devils.

    Also, that self-destruct was neat.
    @Goldfish, we do have measures against such in Snare, yes?
     
    Duesal said:
    Yeah, from what I understand, Magus seems superior.

    Speaking of which, when Valaena gets back from Yi Ti we need to order her to teach more minions.
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    Not quite comparable.
    A Magus is a much weaker Caster, going only up to spell-level 6.

    A Warmage is more like a Sorcerer who switched his broad arsenal of possible spells for some more toughness and firepower.
     
    One Autumn Leaf said:
    Right we need to feed him monsters to get him stronger right? It is the same with the undead corpse thing we have in the plane of hell.
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    It's Sacrifice Spear!mechanics. We can't really feed him directly, he needs to defeat and consume enemies on his own. Basically he needs to go around and adventure, presumably with his own party, to get stronger.
    Artemis1992 said:
    You can ask this one where he learned.

    If DragonParadox keeps my backstory for him he was trained in the Opaline Vault (and is still employed in service of a Shaitan-family there, so no looting him).
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    That could certainly work. We could alternatively come to an arrangement with the Shaitan family to get him as a guest lecturer.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    Why Tor?

    He's no particularly skilled mind-mage and neither a summoner. He doesn't even have Sense Motive high.
    Why would he make a good interrogator?
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    Wait, he isn't? Damn. When he made the offer to interrogate I though he was actually good at it.

    One Autumn Leaf said:
    Send him beyond the Wall maybe? Or to one of the dungeons in Westeros after getting the dungeon list?
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    Actually, sending him with the baby adventurers would be good. That or loaning him to Wyla Drekelis to use at her discretion for a month in Sothoryos. There are plenty of things for him to eat there.
     
    Duesal said:
    Actually, sending him with the baby adventurers would be good. That or loaning him to Wyla Drekelis to use at her discretion for a month in Sothoryos. There are plenty of things for him to eat there.
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    Ahh yes Southros. The land of dinosaurs and other monsters...Tor should go there. A lot of fight to be had for sure. Also we still haven't gotten the list of dungeons correct?
     
    One Autumn Leaf said:
    Ahh yes Southros. The land of dinosaurs and other monsters...Tor should go there. A lot of fight to be had for sure. Also we still haven't gotten the list of dungeons correct?
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    We got a list of dungeons from Yss. We also got a list of dungeons from Bloodraven for the North. We have lots and lots of places to send baby murderblenders.

    Also, Larder updated with the latest additions.
     
    Duesal said:
    We got a list of dungeons from Yss. We also got a list of dungeons from Bloodraven for the North. We have lots and lots of places to send baby murderblenders.
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    I thought Bloodraven gives us a dungeon map for Westeros? Was it just the North? Also yes lets us send the younglings to gain experience. We have quite a few low levels. Joran would be a fun throw to a low level dungeon.
     
    What about Garth? With the Bone Devil gone he might run and scream to everybody who will listen in Highgarden about Devil plots.

    If we want to catch on to the Conclave plotline while its hot, then it will have to be done now.
     
    One Autumn Leaf said:
    I thought Bloodraven gives us a dungeon map for Westeros? Was it just the North? Also yes lets us send the younglings to gain experience. We have quite a few low levels. Joran would be a fun throw to a low level dungeon.
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    He gave us updated maps for everywhere, but the North would be the most urgent due to the increased Other activity there.

    The second we invade we need to have our PCs absolutely swarm that kingdom and exterminate everything touched by Winter.
     
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