Remove ads

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

Reader mode
TalonofAnathrax said:
Renovations went wrong.

This isn't the first time people burn the place (Revolution!), and the building is mostly stone so it'll survive. But the statues are definitely going to take a hit, the roof is fucked, and there'll be ash everywhere. Renovations will have to be done perfectly and in the old style, so they'll probably take ages and be incredibly expensive.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

At least the revolutionaries did it on purpose, so it's something for the history books. I mean I guess you can put 'set fire while trying to renovate' in the history books but only if one is willing to provoke inappropriate laughter from entire generations of readers.

*sigh*

Part of me is glad I got to see it but then I feel guilty for thinking that.
 
Last edited:
DragonParadox said:
At least the revolutionaries did it on purpose, so it's something for the history books. I mean I guess you can put 'set fire while trying to renovate' in the history books but only if one is willing to provoke inappropriate laughter from entire generations of readers.

*sigh*

Part of me is glad I got to see it but then I feel guilty for thinking that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To give them due credit, and I'm not being snarky here. If there's one thing that the French know how to do well, it's restoring their monuments. They take that shit seriously.
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Apr 15, 2019 at 2:35 PM, finished with 199 posts and 20 votes.
  • [X] Plan Unique Opportunity
    -[X] The Erinyes guard the perimeter in case anything tries to approach. Also cast Forbiddance and Hallow spell effects around the whole area. And use a bunch of Refusal spells, too, just to be thorough.
    -[X] For the most part all Companions handle the sacrifice and making sure nothing manages to escape or kill anyone, but towards the end have the Treants bleed the Ala's before the Tree due to the nature of Ala and how they are born, Scarbrand the Winter Hag, then dispel the Amber Sacrophagus while impaling the Wight Lord as the final sacrifice.
    -[X] Take extra care with the Qartheen Lich and the Mythic Ancient Wight Lord, those are particularly dangerous. Make sure they can't teleport away (in the Lich's case) or kill anyone. Also collect all loot from the Lich and the Wight Lord after.
    -[X] Be sure to harvest bits and pieces of the monsters for trophies via Make Whole.
    -[X] Boon 1: Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Boon 2: Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok guardian for the entire island, with the possibility of being restored as a True Green later in the future after the requisite research is complete.
    -[X] Boon 3: Create a second Runestaff of the Old Gods for Vee with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item with uses of Legendary Surge equal to its wielder's uses of Mythic Power, recharging every sunrise.
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following at 3/day:
    ----[X] Treestride through weirwoods (5th), Wooden Blight (6th), Earthquake (6th), Rain of Roses (7th), Master Earth (7th), Tectonic Communication (7th) (Cast as swift action for 1 use of mythic power, alternatively make it last 5 minutes with 3 uses of mythic power).
    ---[X] Hammer of the Waters 1/?? (?th) - Mythic
    -[X] Boon 4: Turn Reva and Liset into true Greenseers.
    [X] Plan Boons
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok.
    -[X] Turn Liset and Reva into real girls Greenseers.
    [X] Goldfish
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok. to act as a guardian for not only the Heart Tree of the Dawn Age, but for the entire island on which Sorcerer's Deep rests.
    -[X] Upgrade the Runestaff of the Old Gods with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Provides constant Divine Favor effect to the wielder.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following:
    ----[X] Find the Path (5th), Earthquake (8th), Rain of Roses[reskinned to Weirwood leaves] (7th), Master Earth (7th), Undermaster (9th).
    ----[X] Include the Hammer of the Waters spell, if enough sacrifice power remains.
    [X] Plan Unique Opportunity
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok with the possibility of being restored as a True Green later in the future after the requisite research is complete.
    -[X] Upgrade the Runestaff of the Old Gods with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Provides Endure Elements to the wielder.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following at 3/day:
    ----[X] Find the Path (5th), Earthquake (6th), Rain of Roses (7th), Master Earth (7th), Wandering Weather (8th), Undermaster (9th) (Cast as swift action for 1 use of mythic power, alternatively make it last 5 minutes with 3 uses of mythic power).
    ---[X] Hammer of the Waters 1/?? (?th) - Mythic
Click to expand...
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Stopping social programs when things start to go well is a terrible idea though. You can stop increasing their funding if demand isn't increasing (or even strategically reallocate it, depending on circumstances), but IRL examples have shown that tearing down social programs wholesale is generally a bad decision on the medium term.



Also Notre-Dame Cathedral is on fire in Paris - the roof is utterly fucked (just fell in as I wrote this post!), and who knows how much damage to the inside. Thankfully the towers are still holding. I'm all for giving the finger to the Church, but this really sucks. I liked that building. It would have been damn cool as a homeless shelter... And it's also pretty damn historic architecturally.
Here's hoping they rebuild.

Here's to burning down some Septs! My inner church-burner needs to stop feeling guilty! I want to torch Septs and blame it on the other dissident Faiths!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The implication is that morale will never improve, we live on a Death World.

I mean I guess it's a mild one compared to Catachan (or Avernus) but that's more because Laws of Narrative are an actual thing warding off casual extinction type events, and you have a bunch of factions sending thoughtless city destroying rituals careening into the stratosphere of failure when it is to their direct benefit (or detriment).
 
Crake said:
The implication is that morale will never improve, we live on a Death World.

I mean I guess it's a mild one compared to Catachan (or Avernus) but that's more because Laws of Narrative are an actual thing warding off casual extinction type events, and you have a bunch of factions sending thoughtless city destroying rituals careening into the stratosphere of failure when it is to their direct benefit (or detriment).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Absolutely not!
To keep with the 40k analogy: this will (SOON) be a safe place to live for all sentient beings willing and able to live by our laws. Sure, there'll be foreign threats that could come in guns blazing... But that's like saying that every single 40k planet is a deathworld because it could be invaded by orks.

This is our objective, and I have faith that we shall achieve it.
 
So I do believe the dust has settled on the tree debate. Now I am looking forward to how DP plays the spectacle of a tree growing to heights never before seen.
 
Speech is done. Working on the specs of Vee's DomainRunestaff now. It will not take as long, I promise. Sorry about this happening again, and I hope this works for people. Critique and suggestions are as always enormously welcome. @DragonParadox I think I've given you a good space to work from with the ending, but let me know if I can change anything to help with that.

Many days have you stood before your people and trees of white, to soak their roots with blood of demons and mortal fiends and give them succour and safety in their times of need, through temples of Gods older even than Westeros as it was under the First Men. They have given you a great deal in return, much of it personal; guidance, truths and your mother returned to you. But they have also given to those who came to rest beneath your house's banner or, as some might say, the shadow of your wings. They must think you vast indeed, for that shade to stretch so far. The image is near enough to prompt a laugh, but it's quashed by the preparations before you.

Dany has woven a ward of power like that which contains the Snare around the nascent Godswood, sealing it away from the interference of beings of other realms who might wish to interfere in the great sacrifice to come. The day before, Vee undertook a ritual with the aid of the Children and, you would not be surprised, the twins who stand now a few short steps from the dead and ancient tree, to invest the place with the strength of the Old Gods for what is to come. Now you add your own strength to their defences, a flurry of spells of the Fifth Circle spreading out around you to wrap it all in an array of shorter-lived wardings of your own. Any who might wish to meddle in the affairs of this day now would have to be mighty indeed.

You turn to the small gathering before you, and call upon the power within you that is more than magic, that you might address your people for the moment to come. Gathered in the mantle of dragons and far, far more, you wait a moment for the spell to form. When you begin to speak, your voice sounds not just in the open halls of the Godswood, but across the nation you've forged. In Tyrosh, Myr, Lys, and more, a vision of you flickers into being on the enormous mirrors around which crowds have gathered again this day.

"My people."

They are the same words that you spoke almost nine months past before a city that was then almost your kingdom entire, and you have no doubt that those who were there that day will recognise the deliberate similarity.

"We have seen much in these last days. Feats of arms and magic, not seen together in a single place for many years," longer than most could truly guess. "Our friends and allies in this world and those beyond, gathered together so that we might share and come to know how we differ, and how we can be so much the same. But more than anything, we have celebrated the bounty of this place, that we have come together to create. This kingdom, born upon the waters of two shores, and you the people who without which it would not be."

The words are not only for your wider audience, but also to those before you. Different messages, yet the words remain the same. "Yet we have enemies, and I do not speak of those who look upon our kingdom across land or sea with spite or envy. Powers like those which failed to bring Mantarys low, who sought to reduce Sorcerer's Deep to ash with Wildfire, and who would see us all dragged in chains into a world of torment and darkness." You can almost feel the recoiling horror of the crowds, those who have not heard you speak of such things before, but the sense is a vague one at most. Still, you wait a moment, giving the feeling time to burn low.

"And yet, we have defeated them time and again, look only to the city you have seen these past days to know that, or to your fellows in Mantarys. We endure, through skill and courage and power untainted by the creatures that would seek our downfall. Since the very beginning, we have turned the power of those beings back on themselves to secure our world from the harm they would see to inflict upon it."

"Today, many of those beings will experience the same as has been done to their fellows, and from it will arise a blessing of power greater than any I have cast around this realm of ours. In another time, perhaps it would not be required, and it is my deepest hope to be able to greet the heralding of such an age beside you all." You know it will not be that simple, but the hope is still a powerful one, and one that you know your people have taken up in full. "Nine months past, I stood before those that were then my only people, and told them that we would stand amongst the strife of broken houses and failed kings as a beacon of unity. That promise still stands unfulfilled, but that I speak now to far more than they on this day proves that it was not one given and left to stand idle."

"Today, we take another step towards its completion. From the deaths of monsters and the madmen that would consort with them, will be reborn a memory of the Age of Dawn itself." You shake your head, expression resolute in the face of what is to come. You have long since embraced the need for it. "I regret not that its memory be returned to us, for it will grant another protection to tens of thousands of you, my people. I regret only that it is necessary."

The spell falls away as you cease your concentration on it, and you turn to those arrayed around the stony tree, far enough back to be unconcerned by the furrows dug by the Leshys to channel the blood of the hundreds of sacrifices to come. The hum of the forest is the only sound to remain, but it is a living, anticipatory thing now as you gather a spell of whirling blades to slay the scores of lesser monsters that will be the first to die, and begin the vast ritual.

It is time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Snowfire said:
Speech is done. Working on the specs of Vee's DomainRunestaff now. It will not take as long, I promise. Sorry about this happening again, and I hope this works for people. Critique and suggestions are as always enormously welcome. @DragonParadox I think I've given you a good space to work from with the ending, but let me know if I can change anything to help with that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Everything looks great.:)

I'll start writing now and I'll slot the staff in when it's done.
 
DragonParadox said:
At least the revolutionaries did it on purpose, so it's something for the history books. I mean I guess you can put 'set fire while trying to renovate' in the history books but only if one is willing to provoke inappropriate laughter from entire generations of readers.

*sigh*

Part of me is glad I got to see it but then I feel guilty for thinking that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

.... The loss to human culture and history is tragic, but I feel you should feel in no way guilty for having seen it, or appreciating that you got the opportunity to see it.

In the counterfactual* where "DP did not see the Notre Dame" (and there was no other difference), then the value of the cathedral would be (in my view) lesser than it is in reality.

*...I may be using that word wrong.

I'm skipping forward a few months here, but if the stonework isn't too damaged, I think it would be nice to use the original materials in the rebuild, where reasonable.
 
Bleh. Snowfire's speech sounds downright apologetic about daring to use sacrificial magic.
@Duesal, thoughts?

And people, I just learned that a lot of the artwork and statues had been removed from the cathedral last week. Good news amidst the ashes!
And it'll definitely be restored. The French government will push for it, and worst case the Vatican will fund it out of pocket. The real question, IMO, will be "if the French taxpayer pays for it, will we own it? Or will we get a bigger share of its ticket income?". Well, and "How long until it's fixed?"
Because fuck giving the Vatican ticket money from a French Cathedral. [There's a small fee to climb the biggest tower, but entrance is free to the rest of the Cathedral]
 
BeepSmile said:
I'm skipping forward a few months here, but if the stonework isn't too damaged, I think it would be nice to use the original materials in the rebuild, where reasonable.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Such reconstructions were done and can be done again.
Snowfire said:
You're missing the point there. It's not apologetic for using blood sacrifice. It's apologetic that there is a need to restore something that has been dead somewhere in the region of eight thousand years because the world is still fucked.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Isn't it also about being living in a world where such sacrifices are necessary?
 
Last edited:
Vote count, so I can actually see the boons
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Apr 15, 2019 at 2:35 PM, finished with 199 posts and 20 votes.
  • [X] Plan Unique Opportunity
    -[X] The Erinyes guard the perimeter in case anything tries to approach. Also cast Forbiddance and Hallow spell effects around the whole area. And use a bunch of Refusal spells, too, just to be thorough.
    -[X] For the most part all Companions handle the sacrifice and making sure nothing manages to escape or kill anyone, but towards the end have the Treants bleed the Ala's before the Tree due to the nature of Ala and how they are born, Scarbrand the Winter Hag, then dispel the Amber Sacrophagus while impaling the Wight Lord as the final sacrifice.
    -[X] Take extra care with the Qartheen Lich and the Mythic Ancient Wight Lord, those are particularly dangerous. Make sure they can't teleport away (in the Lich's case) or kill anyone. Also collect all loot from the Lich and the Wight Lord after.
    -[X] Be sure to harvest bits and pieces of the monsters for trophies via Make Whole.
    -[X] Boon 1: Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Boon 2: Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok guardian for the entire island, with the possibility of being restored as a True Green later in the future after the requisite research is complete.
    -[X] Boon 3: Create a second Runestaff of the Old Gods for Vee with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item with uses of Legendary Surge equal to its wielder's uses of Mythic Power, recharging every sunrise.
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following at 3/day:
    ----[X] Treestride through weirwoods (5th), Wooden Blight (6th), Earthquake (6th), Rain of Roses (7th), Master Earth (7th), Tectonic Communication (7th) (Cast as swift action for 1 use of mythic power, alternatively make it last 5 minutes with 3 uses of mythic power).
    ---[X] Hammer of the Waters 1/?? (?th) - Mythic
    -[X] Boon 4: Turn Reva and Liset into true Greenseers.
    [X] Plan Boons
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok.
    -[X] Turn Liset and Reva into real girls Greenseers.
    [X] Goldfish
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok. to act as a guardian for not only the Heart Tree of the Dawn Age, but for the entire island on which Sorcerer's Deep rests.
    -[X] Upgrade the Runestaff of the Old Gods with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Provides constant Divine Favor effect to the wielder.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following:
    ----[X] Find the Path (5th), Earthquake (8th), Rain of Roses[reskinned to Weirwood leaves] (7th), Master Earth (7th), Undermaster (9th).
    ----[X] Include the Hammer of the Waters spell, if enough sacrifice power remains.
    [X] Plan Unique Opportunity
    -[X] Get a bonus on all future research in the Fungus Forge by having the Old Gods aid the people working there.
    -[X] Raise the ancient Green Dragons corpse as a Zomok with the possibility of being restored as a True Green later in the future after the requisite research is complete.
    -[X] Upgrade the Runestaff of the Old Gods with the following:
    --[X] Becomes a Legendary Item
    ---[X] Has the Metamagician, Perfect Surge and Powerful abilities.
    ---[X] May have any one spell cast into it if it was a Spellstaff, as the spell of the same name.
    ---[X] Provides Endure Elements to the wielder.
    ---[X] Runestaff capabilities upgraded with the following at 3/day:
    ----[X] Find the Path (5th), Earthquake (6th), Rain of Roses (7th), Master Earth (7th), Wandering Weather (8th), Undermaster (9th) (Cast as swift action for 1 use of mythic power, alternatively make it last 5 minutes with 3 uses of mythic power).
    ---[X] Hammer of the Waters 1/?? (?th) - Mythic
Click to expand...
 
"Today, many of those beings will experience the same as has been done to their fellows, and from it will arise a blessing of power greater than any I have cast around this realm of ours. In another time, perhaps it would not be required, and it is my deepest hope to be able to greet the heralding of such an age beside you all."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
@Snowfire
Can't agree here.
At this point sacrifice is not something we have to do, it's something we do for profit and fun and shinies.
And to weaken those bastards we sacrifice a bit, so for spite's sake too.
 
Artemis1992 said:
@Snowfire
Can't agree here.
At this point sacrifice is not something we have to do, it's something we do for profit and fun and shinies.
And to weaken those bastards we sacrifice a bit, so for spite's sake too.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Please read up. This isn't blood sacrifice apologia. It's not saying we'd stop doing it. It's saying that the sheer scale of this working, which we have been told is vast even by Valyria's standards, might not be needed in the same way as it is now in a different world. And we are trying to build that world, in seeking to drive out those that would destroy what is ours.
 
DragonParadox said:
The idea is not that he regrets having to make a sacrifice, but that this is a world where one must use such means to gather power. The regret is that demons exit not that you stab them
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
But without fiends and aberrations and cultists, what would we get XP from, what would we sacrifice, what would we loot/recruit while making terrible foes beyond our power in the process?
What would we fight for fun?
From whom would we steal our federal reserves?
How would we justify our police state and oversized military budget?

Without demons and the likes of them this world would not be worth playing for.
 
@Snowfire, are you intending to show us sacrifice directly? :confused:. If so, um, max social buffs? Also, @DragonParadox, for reasoning/story-consistency, if we are showing this, you might need to edit this line in the preceding chapter somewhat:

"guests you had called here to see a part of the festival you do not wish to share directly with the whole of your lands. It would not do to spread too widely the sheer power of blood magic."


SF: Potentially make mention of the Daemons in Tyrosh also? (Unless you have already decided not to).

[but the sense is a vague one at most] <- This has exciting implications to me.
 
Last edited:
Artemis1992 said:
But without fiends and aberrations and cultists, what would we get XP from, what would we sacrifice, what would we loot/recruit while making terrible foes beyond our power in the process?
What would we fight for fun?
From whom would we steal our federal reserves?
How would we justify our police state and oversized military budget?

Without demons and the likes of them this world would not be worth playing for.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Viserys does not strike me as someone who fights devils for fun

BeepSmile said:
@Snowfire, are you intending to show us sacrifice directly? :confused:. If so, um, max social buffs? Also, @DragonParadox, for reasoning/story-consistency, if we are showing this, you might need to edit this line in the preceding chapter somewhat:

"guests you had called here to see a part of the festival you do not wish to share directly with the whole of your lands. It would not do to spread too widely the sheer power of blood magic."


SF: Potentially make mention of the Daemons in Tyrosh also? (Unless you have already decided not to).

[but the sense is a vague one at most] <- This has exciting implications to me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Most people will not see the sacrifice, just the tree rising.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top