A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
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- Tags
- 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
- Location
- Germany
[X] Goldfish
- Location
- Brazil
The power of HT compels you!
I bet she wouldn't mind getting Veil of Undeath-ed. Probably absurdly interesting and unique, given how finicky necromancy is in DF.
@DragonParadox
Like many before me, I have come to say thank you for this wonderful quest and all the many hours of joy you have brought me.
Like many before me, I have come to say thank you for this wonderful quest and all the many hours of joy you have brought me.
Thanks Snowfire for the awesome series of omake and it is now starring my favorite villain of the series, who is also one of my favorite literary villains ever. The plan also seems like something he would do as well.
Whoo!! My favorite side character as well will be joining the fray.
- Location
- United States
I really hope we get a shot at one of these bigger raids.
We really just need one Aboleth for SCIENCE though more would certainly be appreciated. Maybe set aside a few Mindflayers so we can turn them into psionic weaponry of some sort.
Beyond that, Aboleths and Mind Flayers come with 8 HD apiece, and both benefit from that +35% aberration bonus. Even leaving aside the Old Gods, the Merling King will be very happy to be fed.
- Location
- France
This is absolutely not the way I would have responded to the crisis... And I really, really hope that there isn't a ritual to awaken magelings, because that feels setting-brealing if it's too cheap and easy.
And summoning phoenixes? Seriously? Egoo, we are ruling over millions of people. If even one tenth of a half of one percent of these people want to learn magic, we would immediately need to summon at least 140 phoenixes and enlarge the Scholarum again. Our population is huge, we are making "mage" into a good trade, and we still haven't decided who we teach or who we send away. I am predicting a massive demand, I am noting that our supply of teachers won't be able to keep up, and so I would have liked an actual vote over this issue. How will we choose? Will we summon hundreds of teachers until we can meet the demand? Will we stop levelling some classes, but keep awakening their magic? How will we spin this PR-wise?
I basically just want a vote on this issue, to have a clear policy settled IC. Same thing for our "how do we handle reincarnation" that @DragonParadox has clearly depicted as an incoming problem (eventually) IC.
Anyway, add it if you want. It will remind us that this is an issue, at least.
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Thanks.
Welcome to the 'front of the thread' as we steam though the story.
Canon Omake: An Old Knight's Reflections
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
An Old Knight's Reflections
Currently within the main yard of Dragon's Roost was a monster, a being so terrible and sadistic the stationed legionaries could only pray futilely to some power to put them out of their mercy. But there would be none.
"If you can still stand you can still spar, and if you can't we got healers to get you back up till you learn!" yelled Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms of the keep in direct service to the Dragon King and former guardian. The man was a hard taskmaster that expected all the legionaries to be at their best at all times and always work to be better, he was fair and a good teacher but that didn't mean he didn't inspire dread at the same time from his teachings.
And it had recently only gotten worse!
With the King growing the massive Weirwood tree that can be seen from anywhere on the island, from it Sorcerer's Deep people were blessed with many things, among them the most obvious was how the elderly suddenly found the burdens of age disappear from them in a way not even healing magic could accomplish. While they still wore their wizened faces they were able to stand tall where once they could only hunch, walk with their own two feet rather than rely on a cane, move and work their bodies in ways they could only do during the prime of their youth, minds clouded from their long lives now clear as a sunny day, and much much more.
While the effect only extended around the island it still resulted in a boom in many old folk actively moving around and working themselves after decades of steadily slowing down, and sadly this included the old master-at-arms.
---
Ser Darry couldn't help but have a near constant grin on his face as he wiped the training yard with various legionaries he was in charge of. Such a thing he could hardly imagine doing not too long ago but now he felt like a strapping young lad who had just been knighted again!
Just one more thing to thank his liege for on top of everyone else, from restoring him to life and even working to restore his House to it's former glory.
The children he left behind back in Braavos when the illness took him had come far indeed, and while he was quite proud of them he couldn't help but kick himself still that he wasn't strong enough to be with them when they still needed all the help they could get. He sat down with Ser Lonmouth to speak of the King's journey after his death while both he and the princess were busy with their own duties but not requiring the skilled knight at their side.
While he was not with them till a little later he was aware what they had been through and hearing it from him made Willem go through a gauntlet of emotions.
Rage at the fact that the second he died the servants turned on the siblings, stealing from them and even threatening Dany's life! If the King hadn't already killed the bastard Willem would have swam to Braavos to do the deed himself it he had to.
Despair at how the King and princess had to seek safety among thieves and gangsters, working for them just to support themselves to survive and hide themselves from the Usurper's eyes.
But most of all he felt pride at how despite everything the world had thrown at the children they had stayed strong, gathering true companions alongside them, pulling themselves out of the muck to eventually raise a kingdom through conquest just like Aegon the First did nearly three centuries ago! It hardly seemed they would need him anymore, yet they still remembered the bag of bones that spirited them away and even brought him back to retake on his duty.
Ser Lonmouth said how they were worried they had disturbed his rest but he would have nothing of it. Being dead was not very productive in the grand scheme of things and Willem was never one to turn on his duty no matter the situation, just cause he was dead didn't mean he wouldn't take chance to serve his rightful King once more and this time not fail him.
Willem was aware for all that the magic around the island made it easier to forget he was still an old man and would one day pass from this world once more, this time he would do it knowing he had served to the best of his ability and that he had earned it rather than some cold taking him out.
That was why he was not just pushing the legionaries but himself as well, for all that the King could likely fight armies on his own now he is always going to be one man and a kingdom is run by people doing their duty to the realm at large. He would make sure that each time the King came home it would be in good order and if any dared to prevent that they would meet Willem's sword.
A King should always feel comfortable coming home after all.
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Vote closed.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Didn't Marcone too have a minor problem with people hurting children?
Edit: Also, isn't that plot coming close to clueing in the mortals that something fishy (magical) is up? Because 'only firstborn are affected' will be noticed.
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Just a small one, yes. Something to do with the seed of will that won him control of the entire Chicago underworld. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.
Just like how Amanda Beckitt is both alive and in range of this drain. Oh, and that one time the Denarians kidnapped and tortured him for several days.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Thing is, there is a precedent for this kind of thing already, if not en-mass.
And even a ritual that awakens at best 1 in 10 people would make a huge difference.
Checking wouldn't hurt in any case.
I dont see the problem :/
No, really.
We have the means to summon (I calculated the stuff. Lya and Viserys have tremendous summoning capabilities, in thousands of HD, without even spending much spellslots/Mythic Power), and we have the diplomacy to talk them over.
It's a fine stop-gap measure as far as I'm concerned.
Just as fine as buying teachers from extraplanar magical empires is.
I honestly think it would make IC and OOC sense to check for all this stuff first before making any large changes as you're proposing to the way Scholarums work.
We won't fall apart in one scholarum period.
:/
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
*notes how Viserys can cast both Heal and Regenerate*
>.>
*looks at Michael*
<.<
Nothing to see here, folks
Magic is not something everyone has the aptitude for. It certainly shouldn't be something that you can just fire magic at to make more of it. It's complex and difficult and the setting just breaks if it's that easy.
- Location
- United States
*notes how Viserys can cast both Heal and Regenerate*
>.>
*looks at Michael*
<.<
Nothing to see here, folks
Ooh. That would put him in a hard situation. He'd want to serve and use the talents he's been given.
But he'd lose the protection for his family retired Knights get.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Valyrians have proven though, that with enough sacrifices, that doesn't matter.
I'm cautiously hopeful that we will find some way to awaken more people to magic out there.
I don't think it will awaken all of those who don't get magic by the end of first period of study...
But even "some" will be enough here for me.
The rest can be supplemented with more teachers.
And getting them en-mass from Djinni/Shaitan is only stopped by the war they are currently in.
Which will likely end in 2 scholarum periods anyway
Tldr: lets check all avenues before breaking the current system and making a new one on its ashes, still.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Valyrians have proven though, that with enough sacrifices, that doesn't matter.
I'm cautiously hopeful that we will find some way to awaken more people to magic out there.
And if there's any sanity to the world, doing so will require immense resource expenditure for even small groups.
Winning vote
[] Try to discover the strength of the various factions, with special attention dedicated to the Citadel.
-[] What can Baelor tell us of the current attitude of the Citadel's guiding Maesters, their apparent goals, and interactions with the Lantern Bearers, the Faith of the Seven, and the kingdom at large.
-[] Also ask:
--[] He says he got his Mind Blank from the Maesters. Which Maesters are the notable ones? Which have become skilled in arcane arts?
---[] Can he specify if the Maesters just had a stockpile of the Mind Blank items or if they know how to make them?
--[] Does Baelor happen to know of any rumors circulating the Reach he'd be willing to pass on? Places of power? Monsters popping up? Unearthed treasure?
---[] Ask the same for Westeros as a whole. What rumors is he willing to share?
[] Try to discover the strength of the various factions, with special attention dedicated to the Citadel.
-[] What can Baelor tell us of the current attitude of the Citadel's guiding Maesters, their apparent goals, and interactions with the Lantern Bearers, the Faith of the Seven, and the kingdom at large.
-[] Also ask:
--[] He says he got his Mind Blank from the Maesters. Which Maesters are the notable ones? Which have become skilled in arcane arts?
---[] Can he specify if the Maesters just had a stockpile of the Mind Blank items or if they know how to make them?
--[] Does Baelor happen to know of any rumors circulating the Reach he'd be willing to pass on? Places of power? Monsters popping up? Unearthed treasure?
---[] Ask the same for Westeros as a whole. What rumors is he willing to share?
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Part MMDCCXCIX: Of Sages and Sorcery
Of Sages and Sorcery
Sixth Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
Beyond the Lantern Bearers, whose work you can appreciate, and the Faith, for whom your plans have been made clear to the Lord of Oldtown, there is one more institution within the city, one that will likely suffer an even more unfortunate fate than fracturing in the fullness of time—the Citadel. You know it nurses a conspiracy against your House that is at least sixty years old and likely longer, one that is still thriving to judge from the attempted poisoning on Lord Brune, yet for Oldtown and House Hightower the maesters have been nothing but a boon, offering lore to protect against Deep One raids, dissecting and studying the various horrors the better to slay them later, even providing minor magic items and some not so minor like Ser Baelor's ring.
Unless he is far more skilled at mummery than you give him credit for he is not your foe, only a man trying to to what is best for his House and for his people in the face of a world gone mad. Thus you ask the questions you had been expected to—what are the factions and their positions, how do they interact with the Lantern Bearers and the Faith, and which are skilled in sorcery and of what sort? Was the gift he had been given crafted by their hands, or was it a relic of bygone times drawn from some dusty vault?
The answer to the latter question is thankfully that it had been found and not forged. If the Citadel could forge such prizes then dealing with them would have been troublesome.
According to Lord Hightower the one most involved with combating the Deep Ones has been Archmaester Ebrose, the Citadel's foremost healer, whose ring, rod, and mask are silver. A kindly man, Ebrose is often sickened by the deeds of the Deep Ones, though he had originally counseled conversing with them to discover more of their culture and motivations. After several months of fruitless attempts at reason he had finally given up and bent his full efforts to the task of making Oldtown safe, or at least as safe as it can be made when every tide brings a new scourge. In a strange coincidence Archmaester Ebrose is also famed for writing a treatise on southern illnesses including the Butterfly Fever of Naath.
If Ebrose could be said to have had any rivalries within the Citadel then it would have been the now exiled former maester Qyburn who had been stripped of his chain supposedly for vivisection, though Lord Hightower suspects darker dealings linked to rumors of the unliving that are now believed by most to be Deep One corpse-defilers. "I did not believe the rumors at first, so I know little of those early incursions save that the Citadel was involved in equipping the first Lantern Bearers, most of whom are dead," Ser Baelor finishes before moving on to other Archmaesters of note.
The man most involved in the matters of the Conclave, though supposedly more for scholarly interest than political inclination, is Archmaester Perestan, a skilled historian who bears in consequence a ring, rod, and mask of copper. Perestan is reserved and slow to pass judgments, his favorite saying being 'only history may pass true judgement'.
The Lord of the Hightower also draws your attention to Archmaester Ryam, an expert in mathematics and economics who in his younger years was instrumental in setting trade and toll policy that has enriched Lord Leyton's coffers and his son's after him. He supposedly has some quarrel with the Golden Shields, though the substance of it is not common knowledge. The hint that you might find common cause there is hardly subtle.
By contrast you are counseled to steer clear of 'Vinegar' Vaellyn, the Archmaester of astronomy who bears the ring, mask, and rod of bronze, a man of painfully stringent standards of both himself and others who would likely report any hint of your presence as far as Highgarden and King's Landing from an excessive sense of his own duty.
Lastly you come to the matter of magic. None of the Archmaesters save Ebrose publicly admit to practicing magic so as not to fall under the authority of the ill-omened Archmaester Marwyn, he who bears the ring, mask, and rod of Dragonsteel, a name you well remember from Samwell's tales. Of him Lord Hightower knows little save that he had been interested in the 'higher mysteries' for many years and traveled far in search of lore, some say as far as Qarth and Asshai. The rumors of strange pacts and distasteful doings in foreign ports have long since smeared his reputation with the order, though Lord Hightower adds that the worst he has seen from the man himself is a rough manner and a tongue like rusted iron, reason enough to be disliked by one's fellows.
Dany has questions of her own, asking of rumors in the Reach or the wider kingdoms, monsters, magic, or any other hint of the otherworldly that may have reached the ear of the Lord of Oldtown. Most of what he shares you had known already from Garth in Highgarden or else from tales you had heard in dockside taverns, but there is one tale you had not heard of before, one of an orange-cloaked mage commanding Fey in battle against villagers who had fallen under the sway of the Deep Ones on the coast near Old Oak. That mages would seek the protection of the Fey is hardly surprising, but this mage had not only been held in deep respect by the spirits she commanded, but they had supposedly called her 'elder'. Perhaps she had been just another Fey who had preferred a human seeming. Rumors are hardly the most reliable things. Still, you mark the tale well.
In parting you recount some of your own battles against the Deep Ones, though less to brag and more as a prelude to describe the fount of purification on Toad Island, asking that Ser Baelor pass on news of it to the Lantern Bearers.
"Toad Island..." He pauses in thought, likely trying to picture a map before his mind's eye. "A long journey, though worth it for those afflicted I think. Good fortune to you, my lord. May we speak again at the end of a fruitful month."
What do you do next?
[] Try to discover the strength of the various factions
[] Attempt to gain a better understanding of the objectives of one of the main factions already present
-[] Most Devout Kyle
-[] Most Devout Ollidor
-[] Most Devout Aglantine
[] Approach one of the Archmaesters
-[] Write in
[] Approach the Lantern Bearers
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: I'm not altogether comfortable with this much summarizing, but it felt like the best way to move things along.
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- Location
- Germany
It doesn't. DP confirmed that everyone with the Int score for it can become a wizard. It's just inherent casting classes that requires specific aptitude.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
That's not what I'm objecting to, though to be quite honest, learning to be a wizard should basically be somewhere in the region of an advanced degree in terms of timescale. Still, my main objection would be to the existence of a quick-e-wizard ritual that just makes the person a level in that class. That, to me, would be incredibly cheap from a narrative perspective.
And just as a nitpick, you do require a minimum Int of 10 to actually cast any spells as a wizard. Ditto most spellcasting classes, taking into account relative ability scores.
Adhoc vote count started by Snowfire on Apr 27, 2019 at 7:50 AM, finished with 81 posts and 8 votes.
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[X] Try to discover the strength of the various factions, with special attention dedicated to the Citadel.
-[X] What can Baelor tell us of the current attitude of the Citadel's guiding Maesters, their apparent goals, and interactions with the Lantern Bearers, the Faith of the Seven, and the kingdom at large.
-[X] Also ask:
--[X] He says he got his Mind Blank from the Maesters. Which Maesters are the notable ones? Which have become skilled in arcane arts?
---[X] Can he specify if the Maesters just had a stockpile of the Mind Blank items or if they know how to make them?
--[X] Does Baelor happen to know of any rumors circulating the Reach he'd be willing to pass on? Places of power? Monsters popping up? Unearthed treasure?
---[X] Ask the same for Westeros as a whole. What rumors is he willing to share?
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[X] Make a Scholarum report already, Goldfish's condition is clearly degrading from a lack of numbers
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- Location
- France
I know that many of you will want to slaughter them all, but we do need the keep the place strong enough to resist the Deep Ones until we invade!
IMO an ideal outcome involves getting friendly relations with some (and becoming their gear/alchemical supplier) while eradicating the other groups. Creating a whole lot of internal strife would also be a strong position, but if we leave them enough time they could ally once again. We gotta make sure the strife is strong...
IMO an ideal outcome involves getting friendly relations with some (and becoming their gear/alchemical supplier) while eradicating the other groups. Creating a whole lot of internal strife would also be a strong position, but if we leave them enough time they could ally once again. We gotta make sure the strife is strong...
