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

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I should change my plan to the one where we go talk to Lucan as Dywen.

It's actually not a bad idea, imo, but it would mostly just be hilarious to see the reaction :V
 
Snowfire said:
No, um...frak it.

[X] Have your companions seek out Lucan's mages while you speak to one of the major players in the Starry Sept. They will operate with extreme caution, taking every reasonable step to remain undiscovered, including layering mundane disguises under their magical ones.
-[X] Seek out Septa Maer. After introductions are made, delicately mention her shift in stance toward the practice of magic. While we are glad to see her moderate her views, the change has been rather abrupt according to what we've heard from fellow attendees. Ask what brought about such a radical shift and how those among her faction are reacting to it. This is entirely nonjudgemental, simply the curiosity of a fellow believer, trying to understand.
--[X] If Viserys thinks it appropriate, he will broach the subject of why the Faith would need to gather so many powerful mages and turn the talents of lesser miracle workers to constructing what could be seen by others as an arsenal. For what purpose would they be gathered, and perhaps more importantly, whose? The point of this is to try and direct Maer towards the possibility of the Faith's charity being used against it, with an aim of needless war.
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So I'm assuming this is a more slow burn plan?
Since while Maer is an influential person in the Conclave, she also seems to be making the least impact out of all the influences here.

It's probably okay to be slow since we still have six days though.
 
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Ah. Got it now.
Lack of sleep kills even memes in me :confused:
 
Alright I got bored again and went back and grabbed about everything prior to the conclave arc that we knew about lucan.

First of all, the character spec:
DragonParadox said:
Lucan is not a paladin. He is a cleric with, ironically the Divine Magician ACF that I used to load him up on magic sensing and anti-magic.
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He used to be a silent brother prior to his current occupation as holy pain-in-the-ass.
DragonParadox said:
Hammer of the Faith: There is ever greater talk among the pious folk of Westeros of gathering arms against the ungodly horrors so many of the highborn seem blind to. The words 'Warrior's Sons' is not lightly spoken but often thought. The name Lucan Longfield, once a Silent Brother, now the voice of the Father himself, is often on the lips of such folk, though where precisely this champion may be found none seem to know, beyond the certainty that 'he will be where he is needed by the Seven's will.'
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Someone stole a bunch of stuff from him at some point. @egoo Any idea if we handled this?
DragonParadox said:
The Miracle of Crakehall: Angels descended upon Crakehall to slay the foul spawn of the depths which had taken root unseen among its people, and in their midst stood the Father's own Champion with his band of miracle workers. Yet even such wonder was darkened by the sins of a fallen world. A thief in a maester's grey garb stole tomes of great worth from Lucan's keeping while he conversed with Lord Roland Crakehall, some say even tempting away one of his followers to foul apostasy.
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Here's Danelle's perspective on him a while back, he seems headstrong, and treated Danellle like "something that should have been on a leash."
DragonParadox said:
"I had a dream," Danelle started, and something in her voice must have warned her friend of the gravity of the situation for she offered no quip, but instead flew off to get something to drink, spiced cider from the look of things. "I dreamed of a dragon battling an angel, of a spellsteel blade running red with its blood before a bone-white tree. I think it was the herald..."

"Oh, you mean that thing that sanctimonious bastard Lucan was trying to summon for five moon turns now," Aryssa laughed. "I tried to warn him... mostly because I knew he was too stupid to listen."

'Ravens will peck out the old king's eyes,' Aryssa had foretold to Lucan. Maybe if she had not goaded him Danelle might have been able to talk him out of his rash plan. Then again, the priestess could hardly blame her friend for being angry with the Voice of the Father. He treated her like something that should have been on a leash. 'Sow wind, reap the whirlwind,' the old saying went, and it looked like the storm was almost upon them.

"I fear failure will not make Lucan more cautious," the priestess sighed. "He has learned much of the Father's will, but not his wisdom."

"So you're going to try and speak to him again?" she asked, the question sounding almost tired. "Just let him die, and then your gods can roll the bones again."

Danelle winced at the irreverent comparison, but she did not comment on it. That she abstained from outright casual insult of the divine already made Aryssa uncommon among her own kin. "I think we're beyond that now," she swallowed. The amulet resting against her chest was still comfortingly warm. This too was the Will of the Seven Who Are One. "I think we should speak to the Three-Eyed-Raven, whoever he is. If someone does not hold out a hand of peace then there can only be war..."
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Here's bloodraven's hot pro tips on dealing with him:
DragonParadox said:
On the matter of this Lucan Longfield, said to be the Chosen of the Father of which you have begun to hear tales of late, Bloodraven suggests that you kill his reputation before you kill him. "There will be another to replace him, and then another down through the years until the Seven themselves are made to bend as the Faith once did under Maegor's chastisement and Jaehaerys' cunning council. It will thus serve you well, Your Grace, to make him appear a fraud or a monster, perhaps even..." Another brief death-rattle of a laugh falls from his withered lips. "You might see him condemned as trafficking with devils. I am certain your newest subjects would find his downfall entertaining, and in that manner you might channel their darker impulses to a productive end."
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And finally (and most importantly) here is the in character interlude that introduced him. I cannot stress enough how important it is to read this interlude if you will be voting on conclave actions, as it's the biggest insight we have into him.


DragonParadox said:
A Gardener's Path ​

Father's Wisdom Part I Next>

Fourth Day of the Third Month 291 AC

The tall shaven-haired man once called Lucan Longfield looked out silently over mudflats with a searching gaze. silence of course as an old companion. More than seven years he had kept to his vow ever since the Brothers had found him hm broken of body and naked as the day he was born carried by the river, one among those who had fallen in he service of House Targaryen at the last. In those years he had made his peace with the loss of his own life, of his worldly rank and of his love now likely long since wed to another. But of late a different sort of disquiet had been stirring in his breast. It had come upon him when he was praying in the Sept, before the feet of the Father, not for himself but for all the Children of the Seven toiling in this fallen world. In the secret places of his heart the man wondered if it was not a calling of the Divine, but even had he not sworn himself to silence he would have never spoken aloud with such presumptions.

Yet still the Silent Brother came here, to watch the tide go out and the travelers walking the Path of Faith when the feeling stirred. The other Brothers had asked him why he came here and he had truthfully replied that he was watching over the travelers. And watch over them he did. When one seemed in danger he called out warnings. Sometimes he was heeded and other times the wind snatched his words away. That too was the will of the Seven-who-are-One.

That day as the blood-red light of the setting sun flowed over the waves of the Bay of Crabs, the Brother spotted the thing that would change his life forever. A glint of silver... then another out in the mudflats. Now such things were hardly unheard of in the Quiet Isle. Where the river meet the bay, the currents and tides wrestled, one against the other, and many strange and wondrous things were pushed toward the shore. Driftwood was the least of it. The brothers had found silver cups, iron pots, sacks of wool and bolts of silk, rusted helms and shining swords and rubies. Six rubies so far, the last of them not long after the man himself had been washed ashore. One of Rheagar's rubies perhaps, now belonging to those who were enthroned forever in glory above all kings and princes.

But the glint, whatever it was, was not crimson even in the twilight. So why did it draw him so? the Brother on the shore wondered. He had no more use for worldly things than a lamb had for a fur-coat. Life was good here, but there was no striving for gold or other treasures, though as the Seven willed, sometimes such things would pass into the brothers' keeping. The call grew ever more insistent. For a time the man pondered if it was a demon set to lure him out into the flats to his death, but then he shook such folly away. What demon could have power so close to the Quiet Isle where the Seven had held sway nigh two thousand years and more.

So, trusting in his God, but cautious of his steps just the same, the man set out onto the black, clinging mud. It was an arduous and treacherous path and more than once he thought to turn back, but his heart moved him to walk on. At last he reached the thing he sought and when he pulled it from the mud he almost fell to his knees in reverence. Half-buried in the mud was a heavy wooden round shield of akin used by the Andals of yore bearing the Seven-Pointed-Star. Bound it was in iron so bright you would have thought it had only now left the smith's hands. When he touched it he shivered, as a man touching his beloved for the first time. This had been given into his guardianship, he knew as surely as he knew the sun rose in the east.

That night he placed the shield by his simple cot as he slept. And the man who-had-been-Lucan slept more deeply than he ever had and he dreamed of things great and frightful.

***​

From the west dark tendrils passed under the water stirring terrible storms. The waves were frothing red with blood and rust as hideous shapes half-glimpsed were hiding among the turmoil, ready to burst forth and devour the world of man.

To the North a blizzard like no other raged, a blizzard without end, a Sunless Winter through which marched the dead, some ancient beyond words others, most terribly of all terribly with faces the dreamer recognized. They were the comrades and friends of his other life brought back to dreadful purpose by inhuman masers.

In the hills and vales wolves howled and a raven cawed as the faces of heathen gods peered out of hidden groves, weeing the blood of the murdered faithful. Savages danced unclothed in heathen rites devouring the flesh of man, ready to sulk through the shadows and despoil all that was holy.

But most terrible of all was the east. There a great crimson Wyrm towered like a mountain, fit to overshadow the very sun in its pride and throw the world in everlasting darkness. In one claw it held a jeweled staff crackling with foul magic, and in the other a thunderbolt. A venomous viper crawled at his feet, hissing in pleasure. As it rose into the sky the man could see that under the shadow of the dragon's wings only foul and poisonous things grew, for that shadow was itself alive with dark purpose.

The man knew fear then, as he had never known it before: not in the hour before his first battle, not as he lay dying in the muck, nor even when he first understood his old life was lost to him forever. T'was then that he heard a voice at once commanding and kind spoke, resounding as much from within him as from without.

"Despair not child," it, no He said. "For though though a time of testing an turmoil such as has not been seen since Hugor's day has come upon the world, you are not alone. Ever do We walk with you for We dwell within your heart."

The man shook with reverence and fear greater than any the horrors could cause, for he knew at once the voice of the Father who was Judge of All and he was shamed by his cowardice before Divine eyes

"Turn your thoughts from such contemplation of thine own self and look instead to the world," the Face of the God said, chiding.

And the man did so. He saw the Seven Kingdoms as the Garden of the Faithful Hugor had been promised, but amid the flowers he was something that shook him to the bottom of his soul. The ghastly light of sorcery spreading like a blight, twisting men and women from the path of the Seven and their loving embrace. Sometimes they joined with the foes gathering in the distance, while others grew and grew in profane knowledge and accursed pride.

"It need not be so," the voice called Lucan from his despair a third time. "For are not the greatest of medicines gathered from the most perilous of sources? I task you do be my gardener to these you see here, tend to them and gather then onto the proper path," the Father said almost pleading. "And weed them out if you cannot," a harshness like steel was in his words now.

"Oh my God, I am not worthy," the man answered contemplating so weighty, so a holy task. "Surely there are others more learned and wise then I to tell the good stalks off grain from the weeds."

"Thinkest thou wiser than I?" the golden voice asked kindly, truly a Father speaking to a favored child. "Two things shall I offer you to aid in this path: My blessings that you may work miracles in My name and one thing which you freely gave up when you stepped on the shore of the Isle: a name now lost. Be once again Lucan, a man of the world and of the sword, a protector and Elder Brother to the most tested of My children in their time of need."

No words did Lucan speak then, for he was beyond words, but his obeisance and love for his God flowed out like a river meeting the sea. It was enough.

***​

When he awoke with the faint light of dawn Lucan felt the same sort of pull that lead him to the shield bu sharper more clear. He knew it would lead him to one who might, in the fullness of time, become a witch or a blessed servant of the Seven. It was his duty to smite the first and nourish the second. His mind was full of knowings of secret things: how to find those touched by deeper mysteries, how to lead them into the light... or break them if they would not follow. And he knew the purpose of the ancient shield he had found... to ward foul sorceries from the pious who would put their trust in the Seven above all.
OOC: Recognize anyone?
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The Sparknotes:

  • Former Targaryen soldier
    • Might actually be able to use this. He probably doesn't hold an alignment to house Targaryen anymore, but he fought in a war once, and he probably isn't eager to start another one.
  • Found a holy shield that washed up on the shore of the quiet isles
  • A vision from the father showed him 4 things:
    1. The Illithids(?), from the west
    2. The others, from the north
    3. Bloodraven, from the south(?)
    4. Viserys and Yss, to the east (congratulations guys, we officially qualify as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse)
      • Because of this, convincing him to swap sides is not going to be viable...unless we convince him that image was of something else from the east.
  • How the father tells him to treat mages:
    • "It need not be so," the voice called Lucan from his despair a third time. "For are not the greatest of medicines gathered from the most perilous of sources? I task you do be my gardener to these you see here, tend to them and gather then onto the proper path," the Father said almost pleading. "And weed them out if you cannot," a harshness like steel was in his words now.
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  • Seems to me as though even in an ideal world, magicians can only be considered a "medicine" to treat the worse evils, and not flowers in the so-called garden of the seven kingdoms. Might be able to use that.
List of plans/Buttons
  • Convince the mages around him that Lucan views them as tools, unworthy of the Seven's love.
  • Another thought is this seems like the kind of guy who will fall to pieces if we convince him that he has failed the father in his duties. If we can convince him that he has acted just as monstrous as the rest, he might throw away his life in shame. Possibly an angle for Dywin if we really push it?
  • Possible button to push:
    And he knew the purpose of the ancient shield he had found... to ward foul sorceries from the pious who would put their trust in the Seven above all.
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    Breaking this shield metaphorically (by demonstrating he has failed to protect his people) or actually physically breaking the shield would probably push him over the edge.
  • Drag him away from the conclave by attacking/threatening his herd, then placing the blame on someone convenient to us (Citadel, rival faction, devils, lord of hightower, etc.)
  • Wild big brain play: Convince him the threat to the east is Tiamat, not us. Almost impossible to do given the vision showed a snake and a dragon working with a magic scepter, but it might not be impossible, and would be a huge win condition.
  • An overall win condition would be to make Lucan fall from grace. Generic, but getting Lucan to turn on the father, or the father to turn on him is an instant win condition.
Above all else, please keep in mind that the old gods require the faith to be broken into factions for their vengeance to be sated with minimal bloodshed. Above all else, this is the objective we need to accomplish if we want to save lives further down the road.
 
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egoo said:
No, no we haven't.

I'm mildly interested, because books, but also uninterested, because Lucan and Maesters to deal with as a part of this.
:/

Great list, thanks for making it.
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No problem, I'm going to go highlight all the potential buttons to push in egoo red for your viewing convenience.

That said, we should get on finding those books, it would be pretty convenient if Lucan just wrote his master plan down and a thief stole it. Should have only been a fortnight ago I think, so the trail probably hasn't gone cold yet.
 
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[X] Snowfire

Well being held back and having to be sneaky has certainly hampered our ability to act, we also didn't expect Lucan to be reasonable and calm so first round goes to him.
 
chryssalideater said:
@Snowfire can we get some minions on tracking down the book thief in the rumor post above?
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Now's really not the time.

We'll deal with it later, I'll keep that in mind for one.
We can take on that either when taking over and disbanding Citadel, or when consolidating the full knowledge-base of Westeros under the Scholarum (and Imperial Institutes).

Or, who knows, maybe we straight up run into that thief or machinations of Maesters' conspiracy connected to it.
 
egoo said:
Now's really not the time.

We'll deal with it later, I'll keep that in mind for one.
We can take on that either when taking over and disbanding Citadel, or when consolidating the full knowledge-base of Westeros under the Scholarum (and Imperial Institutes).

Or, who knows, maybe we straight up run into that thief or machinations of Maesters' conspiracy connected to it.
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Fair enough, thought we were still using a plan where minions weren't doing anything.
 
chryssalideater said:
Above all else, please keep in mind that the old gods require the faith to be broken into factions for their vengeance to be sated with minimal bloodshed. Above all else, this is the objective we need to accomplish if we want to save lives further down the road.
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You say that, but my interpretation is that the Old Gods need the Seven to be humbled for the genocide done against them by the Andals, enough for the calmer voices to drown speak down/hold back the louder that would call for vengeance still, the ones that would never be sated.

The splintering of the faith idea is one method by which that can be achieved/enabled, but your wording leads to an unfortunate obfuscation of what our actual goal/deal is WRT the old gods and the seven situation.

Perhaps try linking to the story posts where we made the deal with the OG (via BR, or links to "Word of DP" posts?

Edit: that septon messing with Richard's mother was being influenced by a Deep One. This is known IC and OOC. Please change that bit of your post

chryssalideater said:
DP:

A septon of a most militant bent had persuaded Lucinda Lonmouth that her son was dead and that some fiend was wearing his face as part of what you can only imagine to be a plot against you. Dany suspects that this had been part of some greater covert plan. Perhaps it is, but you distrust how easy it is to blame Lucan and his fanatics, how firm the trail is.

He's an asshole, but he might have left some loose ends over here when he was messing with Richard's Mother.
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In fact, your very "DP quote" has the suspicion of "bullshit" in it right there, which was later confirmed as Deep One activity.
 
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To segue from the conversation a bit, about our Erinye's, what would it take to further change their identity from being redeemed devil's to something different? An outsider of the Imperial Dogma? Because I'm thinking this:

 
As a note guys the Furies are not redeemed, they are slightly more willing to see mortals as equals not prey some of the times but the line in their alignment is not for show, they are remorseless killers the likes of which make Gregor Clegane look like an amateur, they will fulfill the most monstrous of commands without hesitation. You guys did not hire them on out of some desire to save their souls but because they were useful and you wanted to give them a chance to become better than they were. That is all it is. As far as has been established in the story Viserys has no interest in making them better people, just people who can live in his lands in peace.
 
DragonParadox said:
As a note guys the Furies are not redeemed, they are slightly more willing to see mortals as equals not prey some of the times but the line in their alignment is not for show, they are remorseless killers the likes of which make Gregor Clegane look like an amateur, they will fulfill the most monstrous of commands without hesitation. You guys did not hire them on out of some desire to save their souls but because they were useful and you wanted to give them a chance to become better than they were. That is all it is. As far as has been established in the story Viserys has no interest in making them better people, just people who can live in his lands in peace.
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A good king turns his swords into plowshares.

A wise one keeps a few in the back for when some asshole sees all the plowshares and thinks they can steal the harvest.
 
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