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

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How do you legislate any of that and totally miss that it's fucking unconstitutional?!

I'm gonna go crawl back into bed now...
 
Goldfish said:
:???:

:jackiechan:

What the fuck?

Seriously, what the fuck is going on with your government, dude? I thought we in the USA had a bunch of useless politicians, but apparently the French government decided to have a "hold my beer" moment and take it to the next level...
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In the USA, the police can actually go even further to repress protesters. The French politicians have been saying things like "the Americans do this and their democracy isn't dead yet!"
And indeed, at protests like Standing Rock (fuck TigerSwan) things were worse for protesters.

Indeed, in America the government has a history of hiring private security forces to conduct spying and harassment of protesters or their families across the country, as well as accusing them of terrorism or treason to remove their rights.
Oh, and the cops (and especially private security forces) also have a history of shooting or violently attacking people who "hide their faces" by trying to shield themselves from tear gas or water cannons. At least in France you'll only be maimed and sent to prison, not killed.
Yay!
:/
 
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TalonofAnathrax said:
In the USA, the police can actually go even further to repress protesters. The French politicians have been saying things like "the Americans do this and their democracy isn't dead yet!"
And indeed, at protests like Standing Rock (fuck TigerSwan) things were worse for protesters.
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Not even close, dude. I won't argue that there have been abuses of police authority here, especially in the past, but there's nothing deliberately codified into law to penalize protestors like what you just explained is taking place in France.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
In the USA, the police can actually go even further to repress protesters. The French politicians have been saying things like "the Americans do this and their democracy isn't dead yet!"
And indeed, at protests like Standing Rock (fuck TigerSwan) things were worse for protesters.

Indeed, in America the government has a history of hiring private security forces to conduct spying and harassment of protesters or their families across the country, as well as accusing them of terrorism or treason to remove their rights.
Oh, and the cops (and especially private security forces) also have a history of shooting or violently attacking people who "hide their faces" by trying to shield themselves from tear gas or water cannons. At least in France you'll only be maimed and sent to prison, not killed.
Yay!
:/
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"Their democracy isn't dead yet" =/= "Having criminals and treasonous curs in your vaunted halls".

I'm guessing they didn't catch the mutual exclusivity clause of a functioning democratic government.

It makes sense, seeing as how they now seem to think that so long as the government shouts that they care about liberty with one breath and then denounce constitutional rights and impose tyranny with the next, they're kosher.
 
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Interlude CDXXXI: Dark Stone's Gift
  • Threadmarks
    • Dark Stone's Gift ​

    Twenty-Ninth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC

    This had to be a dream, there was no way a place like this existed under the sun, Jeyne Weaver thought as she beheld the marketplace of Sorcerer's Deep in all its vibrant colors under the blazing southern sun—saffron-gold silks from the east and tapestries so vivid one might almost think their subjects would step out from them, the smell of nutmeg, thyme, and cinnamon mingled with strange perfumes she did not even have the name for, the clink of bridle bells mingling with the cries of merchants hawking their wares and singers performing for their supper. If that had been all, the wealth that seemingly could buy whole kingdoms, then Jeyne, a daughter of Lannisport, could have accepted it, but there were stranger sights still—hulking bull-men casually carrying burdens that would have broken a man's back, traders with curling horns and forked tongues, little flitting fairy-things that sipped wine in silvered cups, and so many more uncanny sights that the eye shied away from them all.

    Yet she had never felt more awake. Her mind expanded outwards to taste, feel, and sound, filling contours she had not even known were there. Even her feet moved swifter without her knowing. She had to slow down lest she lose Ser Roger in the crowds, and yet she did not tire. And then she would remember what made her feel so light, what price she had paid for this power. I am not the same woman who was born to Margret Weaver one-and-thirty years ago, this body is a tool meant for monsters to use.

    She stopped suddenly as though struck in the gut. Her breath came quick and ragged as though she were running from some peril, but she couldn't run out of her own skin. She couldn't... couldn't...

    Jeyne looked around, desperate for something to distract her. Thankfully this was surely the best place in all the world for distractions. Before her stood a otherworldly being, three-eyed, three-limbed, and squat like a great toad as big as an ox, but dressed in fine silks and threads of gold, standing over a table alight with bright gems and gleaming metal. What were they called, Jeyne wondered, the knowledge slipping from her mind like oil on water. Instinctively she let her mind expand, fill the strange empty places her awakening had left behind.


    Xorn, that was what they were called, stone swimmers, gold-eaters, ever hungry for more. For the first time since that fateful night on the Ocean Road she remembered the song of the Deep Earth she had heard deep beneath Casterly Rock, her hand instinctively trailing along the contours of the jade statuette set upon a corner of the table, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

    "You buying?" the stone-swimmer asked impatiently, speaking Common through some sorcery, but Jeyne couldn't hear him, her fingers trailing lines of black stone almost too thin for the eyes to see, but to her mind as bright as all the gems set before her together.

    The thump of her hand echoed through the stone, the heat of her palm clung to it. Then, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, it came alive. Little jade eyes blinked up at her. "Hello, my name is Myri. You know, it would be nicer if you just set me on your shoulder. That way you could use both your hands."

    Myri, like the doll she had as a little girl, Jeyne thought in wonder at the tiny little thing she had made.

    "No taking and enchanting merchandise without pay!" the Stone Swimmer rumbled dangerously

    Jeyne did not even regret having to pay a full half of the gold the Dragon King had given her. She had made something with her power, something that was not part of any dark plan, something was that hers and no one else's.

    Gingerly, she set the little elemental on her shoulder as asked and set off to find Ser Roger, almost giggling aloud at imagining what the knight would say to see her new friend.

    Name: Jeyne Weaver
    Alias: N/A
    Age: 31
    Alignment: Lawful Neutral
    Race: Human (Medium Humanoid)
    Level: 5
    Class: Psion (Kineticist) 5
    Feats: Focused, Elemental Envoy (Geodite), Speed of Thought, Overchannel, Talented, Psionic Meditation
    Flaw: Insomniac
    Class Features: Geodite Companion (Myri)

    Languages Spoken:     Westerosi Common

    HP: 20/20
    AC: 10 +1 +2 (vs Evil) = 13/15
    Initiative: +1 (DEX)
    Attack: +2 (BaB) +1 (DEX) = +4 [1d8 Light Crossbow]
    Spell Save: 10 +3 (INT) + spell level
    Weapon Proficiency: Dagger, Short-Sword, Crossbow
    Immunities: Possession/Mental Control

    STATS:
    8( -1) Strength
    10 (+0) Dexterity
    12 (+1) Constitution
    16 (+3) Intelligence
    13 (+1) Wisdom
    14 (+2) Charisma

    SAVES
    FORTITUDE: 1 + 1 +2 = 2/4
    REFLEX: 1 +1 +2 = 2/4
    WILL: 4 + 1 +2 = 5/7

    SKILLS:
    Autohypnosis: 8 +1 (WIS) = 9
    Concentration: 8 +1 (CON) = 9
    Craft (Weaving): 4 +1 (WIS) = 5
    Knowledge (Psionics): 6 +3 (INT) = 9
    Knowledge (Arcana): 4 +3 (INT) = 7
    Knowledge (the Planes): 4 +3 (INT) = 7
    Psicraft: 8 +3 (INT) = 11

    Power Points: 32/32

    Powers Known (Manifester Level 5/6 [Overchannel]):
    Level 1: Call to Mind, Control Object, Force Screen, Inertial Armor, Vigor
    Level 2: Biofeedback, Detect Hostile Intent, Energy Missile, Zone of Alertness
    Level 3: Mental Barrier, Touchsight

    Myri the Geodite
    Diminutive elemental (earth, extraplanar, psionic)
    Hit Dice    | 3d8+3 (16 hp)
    Initiative|+1
    Speed|30 ft. (4 squares), burrow 10 ft.
    Armor Class|20 (+8 Size, +0 Dex +2), touch 12, flat-footed 12
    Base attack/Grapple| +2/-15
    Attack|N/A
    Full attack|N/A
    Space/reach|1 ft./0 ft.
    Special attacks|Psi-like Abilities
    Special qualities|DR 5/Adamantine, Darkvision, Elemental Traits
    Saves|Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +1
    Abilities|Str 4, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 12
    Skills|Concentration +7, Craft (stonemasonry) +7. Listen +0, Psicraft +7, Spot +0
    Feats| Alertness, Combat Manifestation
    Alignment: Lawful Neutral

    Psi-Like Abilities (Manifester Level 2):
    2/day Energy ray (sonic, +2 ranged touch, 2d6-2 damage), Create Sound, Stomp (DC 12)

    Equipped Magic Items: Amulet of Protection from Evil

    OOC: The dark stone Jeyne felt in the jade was bilestone, that reacted to her restored memories of her first awakening as well as her feelings of isolation and alienation by manifesting a friend and companion. Myri is something like a pseudo-psicrystal. It is going to take research to make proper ones though. Also, in case anyone's wondering, the reason most of her feats are psionic as opposed to say Skill Focus (Weaving) is that she has now bonded to a body which was originally conceived to hold much greater psionic power when the Deep Ones usurped it to their own ends.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Jeyne's power list is wonky, @DragonParadox. She should only have 11 powers, not 14.

    I don't suppose you would let me pick her powers, since I missed out on making the sheet? I'll leave Call to Mind in place, since it was used in the interlude.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Jeyne's power list is wonky, @DragonParadox. She should only have 11 powers, not 14.

    I don't suppose you would let me pick her powers, since I missed out on making the sheet? I'll leave Call to Mind in place, since it was used in the interlude.
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    Sure, this is my first time building a psion so the list is probably not that good anyway. Keep in mind she also used control object when you first met her at the inn too.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Nothing good, they should probably stay away from those effects.
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    Looks like we need to invest in beads of newt prevention for Praetorians now... this is becoming more expensive all the time.

    And sure, this may "only be a concern" when they face 5th Circle mages, and you're probably not thinking "instant death, maybe more like 4d6 damage or something". But still.
     
    Crake said:
    Looks like we need to invest in beads of newt prevention for Praetorians now... this is becoming more expensive all the time.

    And sure, this may "only be a concern" when they face 5th Circle mages, and you're probably not thinking "instant death, maybe more like 4d6 damage or something". But still.
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    Yeah pretty much, the mage would waste a fifth level slot to cause 4d6 damage fort save for half, in some ways that is a boon.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Not even close, dude. I won't argue that there have been abuses of police authority here, but there's nothing deliberately codified into law to penalize protestors like what you just explained is taking place in France.
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    *cough* Patriot act, NSA, laws surrounding security contractors *cough*
    More seriously, although the US doesn't seem to have deliberate anti-protest laws on a federal level, it certainly has laws that allow the police and security forces to utterly crush protesters when "needed", disregarding their rights and employing vastly excessive force. This is rare, but the loopholes exist and were deliberately voted in.

    You know those conspiracy theories where cops dress in plainclothes and do false flag activities or leader rioter violence themselves? Where the "accidental" uses of excessive forces are deliberate and ordered from on top? Where protest leaders mysteriously die or end up in the hospital?
    Well while those conspiracy theories are usually just that, they do happen. Now the examples I've seen proven or I was taught about at Uni make it seem like this is a fairly uncommon thing, but it does happen. Sometimes antiterrorism laws are used abusively, sometimes police violence laws are circumvented.
    Typically it's led on a state level, not by the federal government (though federal agencies of course play a role).

    Well the French government wants similar power. It wants to be able to do this kind of thing if needed. Now it promises that it will only rarely use this power, that it'll be like the American government and let most protests happen normally and will only intervene violently when it's a "real crisis". 99.99% of the time this shouldn't happen!

    Still, back in 2016 it used its emergency powers given to fight terrorist attacks to ban peaceful environmentalists from protesting (it would have been politically inconvenient to have protests that month, so it stuck the leaders on house arrest and sent the army to block the roads where the protest was planned). So these days people don't trust the executive to wield that kind of authority. And indeed, the fact that such a law is being voted in while protesters are calling for the President's resignation is definitely suspicious. Are you trying to protect public order, or yourself?

    Now this law does seem more brazen than what the US has, but that's a question of semantics. It explicitly targets "protesters who could be violent" instead of saying "suspected terrorists", basically :D
     
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    TalonofAnathrax said:
    *cough* Patriot act, NSA, laws surrounding security contractors *cough*
    More seriously, although the US doesn't seem to have deliberate anti-protest laws on a federal level, it certainly has laws that allow the police and security forces to utterly crush protesters when "needed", disregarding their rights and employing vastly excessive force. This is rare, but the loopholes exist and were deliberately voted in.

    You know those conspiracy theories where cops dress in plainclothes and do false flag activities or leader rioter violence themselves? Where the "accidental" uses of excessive forces are deliberate and ordered from on top? Where protest leaders mysteriously die or end up in the hospital?
    Well while those conspiracy theories are usually just that, they do sometimes happen. Now the examples I've seen proven or I was taught about at Uni make it seem like this is a fairly rare thing, but it does happen. Sometimes antiterrorism laws are used abusively, sometimes police violence laws are circumvented.
    This is rare, but it can happen. Typically it's led on a state level, not by the federal government (though federal agencies of course play a role).

    Well the French government wants similar power. It wants to be able to do this kind of thing if needed. Now it promises that it will only rarely use this power, that it'll be like the American government and let most protests happen normally and will only intervene violently when it's a "real crisis". 99.99% of the time this shouldn't happen!

    Still, back in 2016 it used its emergency powers given to fight terrorist attacks to ban peaceful environmentalists from protesting (it would have been politically inconvenient to have protests that month, so it stuck the leaders on house arrest and sent the army to block the roads where the protest was planned). So these days people don't trust the executive to wield that kind of authority. And indeed, the fact that such a law is being voted in while protesters are calling for the President's resignation is definitely suspicious. Are you trying to protect public order, or yourself?

    Now this law does seem more brazen than what the US has, but that's a question of semantics. It explicitly targets "protesters who could be violent" instead of saying "suspected terrorists", basically :D
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    The problem is, any protester can potentially commit violence if you apply sufficient amounts of tear gas to their faces, and make it impossible to protect those faces.

    Wouldn't you be irritable?

    Goddamnit, we're a generation of snark. I'm not just now realizing this, but that's probably why the older people in charge of everything find us so irritating.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    OOC: The dark stone Jeyne felt in the jade was bilestone, that reacted to her restored memories of her first awakening as well as her feelings of isolation and alienation by manifesting a friend and companion. Myri is something like a pseudo-psicrystal. It is going to take research to make proper ones though. Also in case anyone's wondering the reason most of her feats are psionic as opposed to say Skil Focus (Weaving) is that she has is now bonded to a body which was originally conceived to hold much greater psionic power when the Deep Ones usurped it to their own ends
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    I think I love the Deep Ones. I hope they have more useful projects like this.

    @DragonParadox, what do the Deep Ones use for their Flesh Forges? I'm going out on a limb and assuming they don't need Landwardens.
     
    Duesal said:
    I think I love the Deep Ones. I hope they have more useful projects like this.

    @DragonParadox, what do the Deep Ones use for their Flesh Forges? I'm going out on a limb and assuming they don't need Landwardens.
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    I protest this, and actually like the idea that they've got Landwardens slaved to their forge sites.

    That means we can prod the ones buried beneath them into violently tearing them apart.
     
    TalonofAnathrax said:
    *cough* Patriot act, NSA, laws surrounding security contractors *cough*
    More seriously, although the US doesn't seem to have deliberate anti-protest laws on a federal level, it certainly has laws that allow the police and security forces to utterly crush protesters when "needed", disregarding their rights and employing vastly excessive force.
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    As an actual American who knows a fair amount about this sort of thing, I can tell you it looks worse than it is in practice. Freedom of speech, right to assemble, all that Jazz - it's a HUGE FUCKING DEAL in America, and if the federal or state governments are seen as infringing upon it there is a massive shitstorm. Videos of riot police attacking innocent American citizens practicing their constitutional rights means that whoever called that is giving their opponents massive political ammunition next election, so outside of fringe cases it rarely happens unless there's, y'know, an actual riot going on. Which does happen, although not usually for expressly political reasons.

    Just be aware that there's cultural nuance to American laws and customs beyond what's expressly in paper when making judgments about this sort of thing.
     
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