Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Goldfish said:
This isn't really my kind of thing, but it's a start, I guess.

[X] "While I originally hail from Qarth, I spent little time there as a child and even less as a man grown. It was but the first step on a journey spanning creation itself, one which I return to now out of familiarity and nostalgia.
-[X] "Although magic has once more flowered upon the Garden, there have long existed rare sites which somehow held a remnant of ancient power. Even more rare, however, were those places which did not so much serve as a reservoir for lingering magic, but instead acted as a timeworn bridge between disparate Planes, allowing a slow trickle of otherworldly energy to coalesce, often with unexpected results.
--[X] "It was one of these places, where the barriers of reality itself grew thin and mystical wonders were still possible, even decades ago, that I discovered as a child of just three and ten. Of course, at the time I thought myself ready to be called a man, but few are those who cannot look upon their past selves and despair at their childish naivety.
---[X] "And so I found myself in another world, where the skies shone like molten steel and the air was like the breath of a freshly stoked forge. Needless to say, it was an unpleasant introduction to the greater cosmos, and one which nearly killed me a dozen times over in my first handspan of days there.
----[X] "Life was harsh, but I persevered, aided by the awakening of my magic. With magic came power, and through the exercise of that power life grew bearable, then comfortable. I did not forget about the world of my birth, known among creation as the Plane of Balance, but neither did I let its absence rule my existence.
-----[X] "What good was it to long for that which I could not have? Luck and happenstance had brought me to the Molten Skies, but no amount of research or treasure could have opened the way for my return to the Garden. I instead contented myself exploring the many Planes, gathering power and lore, and no small amount of wealth. And then a disaster struck, or a miracle was granted, depending upon whom you ask.
------[X] "Much changed among the Planes with the realignment of the spheres, not least of all the reopening of the Plane of Balance to one such as I, who had not stepped foot on native soil for nearly two score years."
-------[X] "So to answer your question, I grew mighty not in the shadow of the Palace of Dusk, but as far from it as any man could ever hope to be."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Does anyone else have the need for more bullshit? Cause I want more bullshit.
 
Remove ads
Canon Omake: Displays of Perilous Insight
  • Threadmarks
    • Displays of Perilous Insight
    ​
    Twenty-Eighth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
    <<<Previous Next>>>

    It was true that the Stormlander mage was more than capable of cold cunning and ruthless forethought, but perhaps it was the nature of the times or the company she surrounded herself with. She could no more let a friend nurse a festering wound by ignoring the troubles lying at the nature of the heart and questing mind than she could stop the tide from coming in.

    Ceria approached the monk high in the stands of the Circle after navigating past the jostling crowds, the enormous arena lit by arcane cold fire, even as the teeming crowds had reduced to a more manageable level now that exhibition matches were occurring.​

    Criston was down in the arena, beating black and blue a few young Knights who had thought he was getting too old for their tricks and pluck, only Denys to back him up, the alchemist who kept a fourth occupied with all he had wrought of his Art, imbibed at once to keep up with a lifetime nigh-religiously upholding blade-craft. Part of Ceria wondered if the Riverlander down there thought it unfair that her friend could more than match him by consuming potions and elixirs instead of spending long hours in the training yard or at the tilt. Then again, Ceria thought, Denys spent his hours trying not to blow himself up. And at least he still practices with a sword when he's not mixing.

    "You seem troubled," Ceria told as much as guessed Ting who glanced at her, not surprised by her quiet approach in the least. The Monk breathed out a soft sigh, looking out over the sands and the cheering crowds, and Ceria could almost imagine him seeing far beyond that, to the city which even now seemed to be growing with new waves of settlers, the harbor overflowing with trade and traffic. Docks that could handle a couple hundred ships at a time and delaying naught. Though for larger cities harbors of that size often led to a demand for more docking space as travelers crowded in from farther and farther abroad, that far less impressive and indeed regulated berthing would be constructed, and the quality easily showed. She had read about Ragman's Harbor in Braavos... something tells her that the Dragon would sooner raise another harbor with magic than allow something so slapdash to mar his view of the bay from on high.

    Ting turned toward her, started and stopped a few times, before waving her closer. At once she grabbed his hand and traced a few words in something she had compared to thieves cant on his palm, a way of communicating that he had taught her, a skill kept handy from his more venturesome days as a youth. He hadn't been best pleased by the comparison, seeing as how it was another ascetic who had taught it to him, and they had certainly not encouraged him to turn it towards crime. Too dangerous?

    Ting shook his head in mild exasperation, tracing on her own palm, too shameful. Even past the look of good humor she could see the pain, enough to get her to drag him further up the stands until they were at least three rows away from the nearest person.

    Ting spoke slowly, half his attention still on the fight below, no one able to get past that spiked shield of Criston's, and the sheer force of Denys' alchemically enhanced blows put his opponent on the back-foot. "My master taught me much of what I know, yet when set loose on a world he had grown out of touch with I had turned those skills unto unworthy pursuits, hoping to regain honor for my Clan, fame and prestige as much as wealth. This led to more troubles than they solved, and many who will come to me will be the poor, the desperate, or even the foolish."

    At once Ceria had guessed why he would assume so: "Because they have no skill at arms or even much opportunity to learn, or the ability to read and parse through ancient lore and spend long hours hoping to convince some tired official why good coin should be spent to teach them either. But they'll have their own wits and used to relying only on themselves."

    "One in ten would be someone the Dragon King or his officials might send my way," Ting conceded with a nod, "I will likely take them on with little of the tests that I must arrange for the others... but I worry not for they who won't be able to learn what I have to teach, more for those that do take to the lessons but not the ones that lie beyond honing the body, or even of the mind. I ignored the spirit of those lessons and paid for it, for self mastery by walking upon the Middle Way is not much effacing, it merely reinforces what is self evident. True, wisdom to see what lies before you is necessary to simply grow more skilled, but it is not as if wisdom is merely the provenance of the elderly, kindly or compassionate." At this he smiled at her.

    "Charming," she said with a sigh. "Would you like some help? I can do that for you, at least," she said, even though the reverse wasn't quite so true. She didn't cherish her secrets above those she surrounded herself with as much these days, but there was still much someone like Ting could not do for her in return, that she could not ask them to do.

    "That would be appreciated," he said with carefully hidden relief. She left it at that, trying to let the strength he drew from her presence speak all the more toward her commitment, as that was all that she could do for him, for the moment at least.

    Below, Criston sent a man crashing into the ground with the edge of his shield, denting their helmet, while skillfully knocking aside a careful thrust in the same motion. His sword darted out twice and left the other flanking Knight bleeding on their knees. Denys and Criston danced around the last man standing, before he finally yielded with all the grace he could muster. The crowd went inordinately wild when Denys helped the worst off to his feet with words lost upon the wind and a glowing crystal vial which they hesitantly, then more hastily, drank.

    As gallant as a Galladon, Ceria thought with amusement. Only missing his Just Maid.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • /hug Ting

    You can do it, Ting. Enlighten those Muggle peasants so hard their Ki spontaneously manifests!
     
    Speed53066 said:
    My god, we may be able to do a star wars reference as well.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Hell yes we can. I bet we can even get most of it done without lying. Let's see here...

    [x] The Palace of Dusk is not known for its morality, but I was raised far from its center. My father was blessed with a bloodline of power and exalted for it, but my mother feared the intrigues and unrest of the halls of power and arranged for me to be raised by one she trusted lest I die before coming into my strength. The man she chose was a good one, who did not deal in sorcery and concealed from me many of my father's ills, giving me a somewhat rosy view of him. That was shattered rather brutally after my guardian's violent death- it turns out that it is very difficult to outrun one's past.
    -[x] With my home gone and knives in the back a constant worry, I turned to sorcery for power. It was the only tool available, yet even as I took it up I learned of one horror after another it had perpetrated. I wondered; if I began to walk down the dark path, would it forever dominate my destiny? Certainly it seemed to be the case for those in the Palace, but it is difficult to know whether a man has his nature twisted to wickedness by dark powers or simply by power alone. I could not risk it; I resolved to be better than my father, to learn arts wherever I could but bend them always to the betterment of others and reject the temptations of the darkness.
    -[x] I shall not go into my past in too much detail, but ultimately I found that power came together with the willingness to face seemingly indomitable forces while unflinching. Whether the ills I faced were simply perpetrated by the callousness and evil of those with power or a more personal legacy related to my father's many surviving enemies, a mix of careful planning and desperate will saw me rise of the occasion- though more than once a trusted friend had to save my life, and I made some mistakes I regret to this day. I grew in power and wisdom bit by bit with each victory, and by the time I had come to the attention of those in power my prowess was such that they were more interested in inviting me to join them than in paying the price for bringing me down.


    A little on the vague side there but I am pretty sure that everything I said there could apply accurately to both Viserys and Luke Skywalker, while simultaneously being a reasonably plausible backstory for a sorcerer PC who gained a lot of adventuring XP while fighting gribblies and dodging intrigue.
     
    Last edited:
    [x] The Palace of Dusk is not known for its morality, but I was raised far from its center. My father was blessed with a bloodline of power and exalted for it, but my mother feared the intrigues and unrest of the halls of power and arranged for me to be raised by one she trusted lest I die before coming into my strength. The man she chose was a good one, who did not deal in sorcery and concealed from me many of my father's ills, giving me a somewhat rosy view of him. That was shattered rather brutally after my guardian's violent death- it turns out that it is very difficult to outrun one's past.
    -[x] With my home gone and knives in the back a constant worry, I turned to sorcery for power. It was the only tool available, yet even as I took it up I learned of one horror after another it had perpetrated. I wondered; if I began to walk down the dark path, would it forever dominate my destiny? Certainly it seemed to be the case for those in the Palace, but it is difficult to know whether a man has his nature twisted to wickedness by dark powers or simply by power alone. I could not risk it; I resolved to be better than my father, to learn arts wherever I could but bend them always to the betterment of others and reject the temptations of the darkness.
    -[x] I shall not go into my past in too much detail, but ultimately I found that power came together with the willingness to face seemingly indomitable forces while unflinching. Whether the ills I faced were simply perpetrated by the callousness and evil of those with power or a more personal legacy related to my father's many surviving enemies, a mix of careful planning and desperate will saw me rise of the occasion- though more than once a trusted friend had to save my life, and I made some mistakes I regret to this day. I grew in power and wisdom bit by bit with each victory, and by the time I had come to the attention of those in power my prowess was such that they were more interested in inviting me to join them than in paying the price for bringing me down.

    ALL OF THIS.
     
    [x] The Palace of Dusk is not known for its morality, but I was raised far from its center. My father was blessed with a bloodline of power and exalted for it, but my mother feared the intrigues and unrest of the halls of power and arranged for me to be raised by one she trusted lest I die before coming into my strength. The man she chose was a good one, who did not deal in sorcery and concealed from me many of my father's ills, giving me a somewhat rosy view of him. That was shattered rather brutally after my guardian's violent death- it turns out that it is very difficult to outrun one's past.
    -[x] With my home gone and knives in the back a constant worry, I turned to sorcery for power. It was the only tool available, yet even as I took it up I learned of one horror after another it had perpetrated. I wondered; if I began to walk down the dark path, would it forever dominate my destiny? Certainly it seemed to be the case for those in the Palace, but it is difficult to know whether a man has his nature twisted to wickedness by dark powers or simply by power alone. I could not risk it; I resolved to be better than my father, to learn arts wherever I could but bend them always to the betterment of others and reject the temptations of the darkness.
    -[x] I shall not go into my past in too much detail, but ultimately I found that power came together with the willingness to face seemingly indomitable forces while unflinching. Whether the ills I faced were simply perpetrated by the callousness and evil of those with power or a more personal legacy related to my father's many surviving enemies, a mix of careful planning and desperate will saw me rise of the occasion- though more than once a trusted friend had to save my life, and I made some mistakes I regret to this day. I grew in power and wisdom bit by bit with each victory, and by the time I had come to the attention of those in power my prowess was such that they were more interested in inviting me to join them than in paying the price for bringing me down.


    I am a total nerd I will admit it now. this is one of the best moments in the quest ever for me.
     
    [x] The Palace of Dusk is not known for its morality, but I was raised far from its center. My father was blessed with a bloodline of power and exalted for it, but my mother feared the intrigues and unrest of the halls of power and arranged for me to be raised by one she trusted lest I die before coming into my strength. The man she chose was a good one, who did not deal in sorcery and concealed from me many of my father's ills, giving me a somewhat rosy view of him. That was shattered rather brutally after my guardian's violent death- it turns out that it is very difficult to outrun one's past.
    -[x] With my home gone and knives in the back a constant worry, I turned to sorcery for power. It was the only tool available, yet even as I took it up I learned of one horror after another it had perpetrated. I wondered; if I began to walk down the dark path, would it forever dominate my destiny? Certainly it seemed to be the case for those in the Palace, but it is difficult to know whether a man has his nature twisted to wickedness by dark powers or simply by power alone. I could not risk it; I resolved to be better than my father, to learn arts wherever I could but bend them always to the betterment of others and reject the temptations of the darkness.
    -[x] I shall not go into my past in too much detail, but ultimately I found that power came together with the willingness to face seemingly indomitable forces while unflinching. Whether the ills I faced were simply perpetrated by the callousness and evil of those with power or a more personal legacy related to my father's many surviving enemies, a mix of careful planning and desperate will saw me rise of the occasion- though more than once a trusted friend had to save my life, and I made some mistakes I regret to this day. I grew in power and wisdom bit by bit with each victory, and by the time I had come to the attention of those in power my prowess was such that they were more interested in inviting me to join them than in paying the price for bringing me down.

    This is everything I could have ever wanted, let's see how this goes.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top