Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Yep. I agree completely.
The story simply seems to flow better with larger, but fewer updates.
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
-
- 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
The story simply seems to flow better with larger, but fewer updates.
Well, excuse me to holding onto the hope that you will get back to usual amount of updates eventually
If nothing else, combat that lasts days would be painful.
...and Minor Actions. They can be kind of a pain to do a longer update about, can't they, DP?
I wouldn't mind having some done OOC, of course, but you yourself admitted to having few ideas when it comes to some of those.
Combat will probably be an exception. I'm not making hard and fast rules here, hell I'm not even making rules at all yet, just floating ideas.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
...sorry about that, DP.
It's hard for me to take changes to something I'm used to. Let alone something I love wholeheartedly and dedicated so much of my time to.
For all I claim to be a paragon of efficiency, I'm very retrograde in my views
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Something for everyone to consider on updates is that most quests update in a week or more as much as we get from DP in a day. Flow matters, and we've seen before how burst updates can cause a storyline to fracture. Giving our QM time to level things out in his head will mean better, bigger updates with more attention paid to how it all flows together.
That's a good thing
That's a good thing
- Location
- Here and there
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'd like to say I'll be really happy about that, especially if it results in longer voting periods. I think it might make it easier for other lurkers to participate as well.
- Location
- ?????????
Something for everyone to consider on updates is that most quests update in a week or more as much as we get from DP in a day. Flow matters, and we've seen before how burst updates can cause a storyline to fracture. Giving our QM time to level things out in his head will mean better, bigger updates with more attention paid to how it all flows together.
That's a good thing
As long as combat doesn't drag on I don't really care if I have two updates a day to 3. My main concern would be combat lasting days on end but I have reassurance that won't happen so I am good either way.
The main reason why people don't participate more is because of the sheer glut of content needed to catch up and the fact that no one seems to want to stick around. I mean I saw like at least 10 new people I have never seen before last vote and I am willing to bet that maybe 1/10th of them will stay. And that maybe isn't worth much either. In all honesty as long as the new people don't try to turn Viserys into some Paladin of goodness I am fine with more voices.
- Location
- United States
If it makes you feel better, Viserys has more than enough character inertia at this point to only be at best "ends justify the means greater good" instead of anything close to what is normally associated with the Good alignment.
And at this point, anyone new joining up is either okay with Viserys's level of "goodness" or has seen enough arguments about it to not make a fuss about it.
Update in beta.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I think it's more the former than the latter here, as there are so many complex plans in motion that it's often really hard to keep things together even for those of us who are consistently active. And even we get moments of 'wait a sec, wtf are we doing?' every now and then.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
There's a few people who are like "WTF I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS" as we reenact the plot of a JRPG big bad in the background and on the DL.
And even if it's discussed out in the open there are a lot of people who don't read everything.
For the record, there is nothing wrong with being a omnicidal flamboyant monster clown, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are persecuting you and should be ashamed.
And even if it's discussed out in the open there are a lot of people who don't read everything.
For the record, there is nothing wrong with being a omnicidal flamboyant monster clown, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are persecuting you and should be ashamed.
- Location
- Argentina
Alright DP, no offense, but half-an-hour-long(+) betaings are taking away from the experience even more for me
Where's my shock rod..?
Patience, my Aberration-devil-magpie hybrid. You are kinda used to very high standards.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Alright DP, no offense, but half-an-hour-long(+) betaings are taking away from the experience even more for me
Where's my shock rod..?
We disarmed after the Great Beta Riots of 2018.
Couldn't justify the purchase of Armored Personnel Carriers with watercannons afterwards, either.
Alright DP, no offense, but half-an-hour-long(+) betaings are taking away from the experience even more for me
Where's my shock rod..?
The updates are larger and @Duesal is not available for Beta-ing right now
- Location
- ?????????
I mean while we are here we can try and figure out what we want to ask for our interrogation? I have a few ideas as to what to ask but not much else.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I can't help much during the time I'm at work, or traveling to or from work, between 7 AM and 5:30 PM EST Monday through Friday, but I can do some beta'ing if needed.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
We went with riot canister instead.
I've got some limitations of my own, but I'm more than happy to beta as well, @DragonParadox. And my limitations are mostly nonexistent Tues-Thurs.
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- Location
- Germany
I could always help on afternoons and evenings.
About 17:00 to 23:00 by your timezone
Winning vote
[] Plan Wages of Blood
-[] The Sept
--[] The Red Abishai is to be bottled and taken for full interrogation followed by execution. Exact method to be determined, but most likely via Yss to deny Tiamat the return of her invested power.
--[] As for the cultists, examine the traces of blood magic upon them with the aim of ensuring that Tiamat may not easily pick a new focus for her power here in Oldtown from among their number. Wild Arcana a Brain Spider spell to examine their minds for any further information on the cult that might be of import, then if nothing can be found, leave them to their fate at the hands of Oldtown justice. If any have done more than simply be deceived, ensure that this information is passed on to the relevant authorities so that they might be judged for those crimes as well.
--[] Leave Malarys and the Erinyes to guard the Sept until such time as the Watch or Lantern Bearers can be brought in to take the cultists into custody.
-[] The Manse
--[] Lormar and his apprentice are our prisoners. They will be bottled and taken for full interrogation and probably one of either execution or turning.
--[] Inspect the minds of the Golden Company soldiers with the same casting of Brain Spider (it lasts 1 minute/CL and can inspect the minds of up to 8 people as a standard action) and get everything you can from them before explaining in simple terms the options available to them. Make certain that they understand that any attempts to bring the worship of Tiamat into the Night's Watch shall be met with your...poor humour. They can draw their own conclusions. They can face death or the Wall.
--[] Make sure to retrieve the 'Darkenbeast' and dispose of it completely.
-[] Deep One Containment
--[] Bottle the Greater Intellect Devourer and have it placed within a lead-lined box before securing it within your cloak. It will be used as payment for the Merling King's aid against Tiamat.
--[] Explain to the Lantern Bearers that there does exists a power utterly opposed to the Deep Ones, a God of Sea who would reward the spilling of tainted blood in his honour in ways that would not be unwholesome. The Merling King can offer many boons from the sea; cleansing the foulness of Deep One power from person and place both - make note of the Bilestone present in the city - and more besides. For abominations like these creatures, turning their deaths against their master would surely be to the aid of all that stand against them.
--[] If the Lantern Bearers accept this premise, outline the manner in which one would sacrifice these creatures safely to the Merling King, and offer to transform the lesser monsters into harmless animal forms until the time comes. Suggest that an altar (or maybe more, once the Conclave has passed) to the Merling King could bring with it many advantages in Oldtown's war against Deep One machination.
--[] Finally, be sure to fire off a few Divinations to ensure that the Deep One cell didn't drop anything into the sewers during the battle.
[] Plan Wages of Blood
-[] The Sept
--[] The Red Abishai is to be bottled and taken for full interrogation followed by execution. Exact method to be determined, but most likely via Yss to deny Tiamat the return of her invested power.
--[] As for the cultists, examine the traces of blood magic upon them with the aim of ensuring that Tiamat may not easily pick a new focus for her power here in Oldtown from among their number. Wild Arcana a Brain Spider spell to examine their minds for any further information on the cult that might be of import, then if nothing can be found, leave them to their fate at the hands of Oldtown justice. If any have done more than simply be deceived, ensure that this information is passed on to the relevant authorities so that they might be judged for those crimes as well.
--[] Leave Malarys and the Erinyes to guard the Sept until such time as the Watch or Lantern Bearers can be brought in to take the cultists into custody.
-[] The Manse
--[] Lormar and his apprentice are our prisoners. They will be bottled and taken for full interrogation and probably one of either execution or turning.
--[] Inspect the minds of the Golden Company soldiers with the same casting of Brain Spider (it lasts 1 minute/CL and can inspect the minds of up to 8 people as a standard action) and get everything you can from them before explaining in simple terms the options available to them. Make certain that they understand that any attempts to bring the worship of Tiamat into the Night's Watch shall be met with your...poor humour. They can draw their own conclusions. They can face death or the Wall.
--[] Make sure to retrieve the 'Darkenbeast' and dispose of it completely.
-[] Deep One Containment
--[] Bottle the Greater Intellect Devourer and have it placed within a lead-lined box before securing it within your cloak. It will be used as payment for the Merling King's aid against Tiamat.
--[] Explain to the Lantern Bearers that there does exists a power utterly opposed to the Deep Ones, a God of Sea who would reward the spilling of tainted blood in his honour in ways that would not be unwholesome. The Merling King can offer many boons from the sea; cleansing the foulness of Deep One power from person and place both - make note of the Bilestone present in the city - and more besides. For abominations like these creatures, turning their deaths against their master would surely be to the aid of all that stand against them.
--[] If the Lantern Bearers accept this premise, outline the manner in which one would sacrifice these creatures safely to the Merling King, and offer to transform the lesser monsters into harmless animal forms until the time comes. Suggest that an altar (or maybe more, once the Conclave has passed) to the Merling King could bring with it many advantages in Oldtown's war against Deep One machination.
--[] Finally, be sure to fire off a few Divinations to ensure that the Deep One cell didn't drop anything into the sewers during the battle.
Part MMDCCCXV: Death Gentle and Cruel
Death Gentle and Cruel
Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
Some decisions are easily made, the fiend you will keep as your prisoner, just as you will Lormar and his apprentice, the former likely to face oblivion, the latter two perhaps in the hope of persuading them to serve you, depending on their motivations and character. Fifth Circle mages are not precisely common and the Scholarum certainly has its fair share of enemies-turned friends. Before leaving the sept you move one by one through the sleeping congregation, looking through their minds for signs of blood and murder. You find them in only one, though it has nothing to do with the cult.
Three wives killed, simply because he did not wish to be seen attempting something so 'scandalous' as a divorce. At Malarys' suggestion you simply tell the Watch Captain where to look for the bodies and imply you discovered their disappearances while investigating the cult, technically true even if the investigation involved looking through the man's mind.
Thankfully the blood magic that bound them to the Abishai is visibly degrading with its defeat, or perhaps more precisely with the disappearances of the dagger with which it tried to stab Varys. Tiamat will find no easy path to restore her cult here, though you have an unpleasant feeling you will see that dagger again.
The sellswords who had been captured or surrendered present a more troubling conundrum. Beyond a trio of genuine fanatics, for whom you can unambiguously suggest a noose and not the Wall, most have faith in Tiamat in the same way a devour R'hllorite trusts in the Red God, you can see that Dany's explanations of Her true nature are getting through, but still they know more about the worship of the Mother of Wyrms than you would be comfortable allowing in say a publicly available book. Were it not for Maester Aemon's presence and Bloodraven's influence you would probably err on the side of safety over clemency, but the Wall will need strong defenders against what is to come. So you take their oaths not to spread that knowledge, making it very clear that you would take any lapses very ill indeed, and hand them off to the somewhat confused but grateful City Watch.
There is one more task to do... You take the stairs into the basement, hearing strange cries, halfway between bird and beast. Within you see Vee cradling the misshapen head of the false Darkenbeast, a startlingly human eye filed with pain looking out of a hairless canine face while the other side of the face is covered in horn-like growths, one of them growing from the eye-socket.
"Shh... shh now," Vee strokes the creature's head, pouring healing magic into it to soothe the pain that had obviously been a part of the creature as long as it had been alive, however long that had been.
"I thought it was supposed to be mindless," you say softly, finding yourself unexpectedly bereft of words at the sight of Vee's pain, the girl who could look a living god in the eye unflinchingly.
"Lormar's been working on the poor thing," the girl says, with such venom in her eyes that it recalls the first sight you had of her outside the dead bounty hunter's cabin. "Why would anyone do this, make something that is just going to hurt? She didn't ask to be born like this." Vee swallows. "I know he could be useful, that he could teach wizards or make things. but I can't stand the thought of seeing the son of a bitch. If you keep him, send him somewhere where I won't have to lay eyes on him."
Once she would have just asked for the mage's head. Vee had changed from that frightened vengeful child you met long ago. For all she still says she does not like people she puts the common good before her own desire for vengeance.
"You have my word that you won't have to lay eyes on the man," you promise solemnly. He had better be damn useful to justify keeping his head after this.
She nods, eyes still on the creature in her lap. "Can you make sure it doesn't hurt when she dies?"
You lay a hand upon the creature's head and lay a spell of death, soft and gentle as evening's shadows.
***
All three Lantern bearers are arrayed behind a table with half a dozen crystalline bottles, with one of them keeping an eye on them at all times. Tobyn looks about ready to smash them, stopped only by the knowledge that this would only free the beasts within. Good instincts... you would probably be acting the same in their place if you had only as many resources as they to face a siege by Farspawn.
"There is a way to get some use out of their deaths, to make them count towards fighting their remaining kin. A God of Sea who would reward the spilling of tainted blood in his honor in ways that would not be unwholesome. The Merling King can offer many boons from the sea, cleansing the foulness of Deep One power from person and place both, and more besides."
"Bullshit," Tobyn grunts looking up at you suspiciously. "Nothing good comes from the sea. Fire's the only cure," he says that with the near-religious conviction that makes you wonder if he had converted to worship of the Red God... no. there is something else behind his eyes, fear. Why would he be afraid of you now when you are offering him another way to fight his enemies? Certainly not base superstition of foreign gods and strange magics.
"That box he handed us wasn't bullshit," Yohn interjects before you can reply. "Neither was the kid's magic," he nods towards Waymar.
Rather than bristling at the words,the young Valeman jests: "You weren't bad either, old man."
Tobyn still looks stubborn, the strange fear even clearer on his face. "There can't be another way..."
"Things changed and they are changing all the time." The mage, Loras, says with the air of repeating an adage, perhaps one the other man uses often.
"If this bites us in the ass..." the hunter pauses, then almost painfully he nods. "Alright, let's do this."
The gaze of the Merling King is heavy as a storm cloud, his boons deep as tainted ichor transmutes to sea water blessed by his hand, flowing eternally from the flasks the hunters extend. By it might wards be anointed to bar the Deep Ones from the safe-houses of the Lantern Bearers, by its merest touch might those touched by the Far Realm be known.
Lantern Bearers gain Eternal Holy Water Flasks
The offer of the blessed spring is accepted gladly, though Yohn insists that any such people still be held responsible for their actions unless there are clear signs of direct mental control, a notion you wholeheartedly agree with.
Tobyn is silent, and grimmer than you have ever seen him.
"It was his wife," Loras sends by magic as you are about to part and with that the pieces fall in place. He had killed all the tainted, including those closest to him. Could she have been saved? you wonder, though you doubt it matters by any practical purpose. Sooner would stones speak than Master Tobyn would ask to see his wife again.
***
Oldtown is already beginning to be filled with rumors of the arrests that had taken place, of the desecration of the sept. But of them all one stands out in your mind. Brother Lucan had arrived with his train of warriors and bound mages to reconsecrate the sept, but none speak of angels. Likely he wants to keep them secret to call them forth at the Conclave itself, the better to impress the gathered Elders.
What do you do?
[] Meet with Lucan, he knows you are here after all and it is only polite to introduce yourself
-[] Write in
[] Speak with one of the other important godsworn
-[] Write in
[] Infiltrate the Citadel
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: I'm not sure about the vote. I was tempted to carry on even further and include the mechanics for influencing the Conclave, but that would feel unfocused (added to the fact that I have not made said mechanics yet).
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lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
anyone else notice that conspicuous red comma? I almost want to think it is important but it may be a typo.....
- Location
- Germany
We wanted to talk to another speaker at the conclave, right?
The one supporting Danelle?
The one supporting Danelle?
- Location
- ?????????
Oh my god do we want to meet Lucan? I kinda want to fuck with him but we made a promise not to pick a fight so maybe we could just infiltrate the Citadel?
That is indeed a typo.