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

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[X] Duesal

Should we poke the Westerosi at some point? They may be behind, but they do have the wealth of a kingdom and a hefty amount of slave mages to force into bad deals to get something they think will work. It doesn't really matter if its effective if their shenanigans let in more devils, especially if they work for someone other than Mammon.

On the Yi Ti side, has there been any discussion on what (if any) specific Kami we want and what to pay them with? Some dosojin would be good for the imperial highways; we might even be able to get some for cheap if we offer them large enough sections to protect since it seems like they grow in power with the importance of their wards. Given how hyper aware of their domains they seem to be a dosojin or two per major bridge might be able to slow down or stop casual stone shape terror attacks, which is worth exploring before the deep one war starts again.
 
Artemis1992 said:
So, conference about how to handle the broken heaven issue next?

We might have to tell people something at least, can't just leave our education system plainly wrong like that.
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Definitely, willfully leaving our people ignorance about such an important aspect of the current cosmos makes us no better than the Seven.

I've gotta say @Crake and @egoo, you always seem to know just what to say and do, or at least how to modify your actions to best fuse together other people's good ideas.
 
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Negentropy said:
Definitely, willfully leaving our people ignorance about such an important aspect of the current cosmos makes us no better than the Seven.

I've gotta say @Crake and @egoo, you always seem to know just what to say and do, or at least how to modify your actions to best fuse together other people's good ideas.
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Meh, kludging together votes is mostly a community effort based upon previous discussion, at least for "what to do next".

No one ever forgets to remind me that I've totally bombed a social vote as much as 100% Aced it. :V
 
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Interlude DXLXVII: Whom the Heavens Favor
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    • Whom the Heavens Favor ​

    Twentieth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC

    The sound of shattering glass is not one most would have welcomed interrupting a quiet afternoon. Waymar Royce however surged to his feet, sword in hand almost before the last pieces had struck the ground. Finally something to do besides wait for a summons that may or may not come. Then he realized where the noise had come from. Upstairs... the girls' chambers. A surge of guilt followed in the wake of earlier excitement. He and his companions could handle any fiends that may come looking, but Coryn's family would not be so fortunate.

    "Winter, get Garin!" he called, sending the raven flying in a flurry of white feathers even as he raced up the stairs... or began to at least


    A spirit wrought of leaf and branch with a mantle of cherry blossoms upon her shoulders spun. Old she seemed but young all at once, face framed of spring grass and lined with the creases if a thousand winters. No ordinary dryad this, this but something of that kindred, Waymar guessed. "Hail, ancient one, what do you seek here?" the knight asked, dispensing with the formalities so loved by this land. One does not shatter glass and rush down steps so fast the air twists and blurs from a desire to trade pleasantries over tea.

    "Despoilers walk the halls of the Azure Palace." The voice was as a whisper of leaves in the wind. "The Heavenly Sovereign asked that we seek the aid of those who have brought news of the darkness."

    "How did you know where to seek us?" Tyene asked after rushing into the room and catching the conversation quickly.

    "The enemy has taken your shape, wishing to paint your hands in the blood of the murdered Emperor," the spirit replied, almost seeming to shimmer in place for her haste to move and to return to her charge.

    "Fuck," Waymar cursed, the spell still faithfully transposing his words into the local tongue. Somewhere to his left he heard Fen gasping, possibly at the impiety. He would have to apologize for it when they came back.

    "Do you know where the emperor is?" Garin's voice emerged from the swirling shadows cast by the swaying lantern before he did.

    "Long ages have passed since I last awoke. The Yellow Emperors preferred their own strange arts before the Long Slumber took us," came the soft sorrowful reply.

    ***​

    Mei Lin did not know what to do with herself, a absurd thought when death or salvation may yet pass through the door at any time, but true nonetheless. She had been right earlier that the Emperor would not desire lovemaking once her tale had been told in full, and truth be told even if he did she was not sure she could manage to do her duty so tense she was with fear and uncertainty. Yet she could find no words to say to keep pleasant company either, every thought in her mind yet another question. The Emperor had not saved her so she could interrogate him.

    Why had he saved her? There another question nagging at her mind, it had been the honorable thing to do perhaps but not the wise one, the sorcerer could have taken the moment to strike out at him in a way the magic of the ring would not guard against. That such a way existed she did not doubt, magic was not like the miracles of the gods, upon that the old tales agreed. It had its costs and its limitations just the same as any other work of mortal hands. Too high a cost, too great a limitation, most agreed...

    Something scratched at the door, like the claws of some great beast.

    "Who comes?" The Son of Heaven called, his voice loud and commanding. "Who dares bring violence into this place?"

    "Why your ever so helpful new allies..." a soft hideously familiar voice called out as Mei Lin caught a glimpse of golden-hair and silver armor through the gap torn through the door. "Now that you are here alone we may slay you away from all prying eyes, the girl was almost as useful as the eunuch in this."

    Another two followed in the wake of Tyene Sandviper... such a fitting name, a man shrouded in shadows, and another who was barely more than a boy in ornate bronze, though any hope of appealing to his youth for mercy was lost when he met his cold dead eyes. As soon ask a stone to weep.

    "So you revealed a valued agent within the palace and broke in as far as this chamber for the chance to murder me." The Emperor shook his head in sadness. "It seems to me you might have managed as much with a gift of gilded brass and deadly nightshade." His fingers wrapped around Mei Lin's. A farewell... no, a message. Gilded brass, a deception... and nightshade a poison, but one that could also open the eye in the hands of a healer.

    Were these not the foreigners she had met before, but some trick of the light of sorcery? The consort's mind worked swifter than it ever had in her life. Was the Emperor telling her than she was meant to survive and bear false witness? I can't ask and I can't decide that. For that brief moment Mei Lin both hated and loved the Emperor, the first for putting her in an impossible situation, the second for trusting her with it.

    "Get it over with," the sorceress said as the young warrior advanced on the Emperor. It was all Meil Lin could do not to throw herself in front of the sword to try to buy a few more seconds.

    A wall of darkness rose behind them, the lantern above burning down to an ember of light.

    "We do not need more aid," the man in black called out into the gathering gloom. His voice was strained with some unnameable emotion.

    Thunder and lightning erupted forth as though the full fury of a storm had been squeeze into the small chamber with them as the figure was hurled back into the wall and incandescent blade lodged into his... its chest and pinning it to the wall, almost seeming to sing as it did so.

    Three figures that were the twins of the ones to enter through the door stood behind them even as the clearly dead enemy revealed its true odious form, a flap of skin pulled up over its bald misshapen head, its limbs twitching like an ill made puppet.

    "The True Emperor shall reward me in death!" one of the remaining foes spoke in the voice of the treacherous eunuch. Black Fire rose again... only sputtered and die at a motion from the sorceress... Tyene she had said her name was. Why that was stuck in Mei Lin's head now of all times she could not say as she watched in shock the battle of soul and mind before her.

    "Rakshasa are indeed well known for their great loyalty to their discarded tools," the woman snorted, binding Kai Gang Ru in chains of blazing light.

    The remaining enemy, whoever or whatever it was beneath the glamour, began to fade into shadows also when a woman veiled in the scent of cherry blossoms simply appeared behind him, raking him with claws that creaked like old trees in winter. Black blood flew everywhere from a thousand slashes, painting the walls, the floor, and even Mei Lin herself.... then silence fell.

    "Your pardons, my lady, I did not mean to get the foul stuff on you," the pale man in black said, sheathing daggers forged of no earthly metal.

    "No need, it was required," she replied automatically.

    "Waymar, if you would please," the sorceress addressed the young warrior. Even through the numbness that had descended upon her Mei Lin took particular pleasure in seein Kai Gang Ru being beaten into unconsciousness with the flat of a blade.

    OOC: Finally done. I thought about having the emperor telepathically communicate his insight into who was attacking him, but I feel that would have been making him a bit too prepared so instead he had to try to subtly get it across. Fortunately for him Mei Lin has a very good Sense Motive, though of course as mentioned in the text if he had died it would have left her in a very uncomfortable position of deciding if she had understood right or not.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    "The True Emperor shall reward me in death!" one of the remaining foes spoke in the voice of the treacherous eunuch. Black Fire rose again... sputtered and died at a motion from the sorceress... Tyene she had said her name was. Why that was stuck in Mei Lin's head now of all times she could not say as she watched in shock the battle of soul and mind before her.

    "Rakshasa are indeed well known for their great loialty to their discarded tools," the woman snorted binding Kai Gang Ru in chains of blazing light.
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    Too bad.

    He was a good summoner and decent evoker, but that didn't avail him here and now.
    Now it never will.
     
    So the Bloodstone Emperor is now moving in earnest to reforge his twisted image of the Empire of the Dawn.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    Would you call one mage at court already moving in earnest?
    There are no legions of shadow besieging Asshai yet, as far as we know.
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    Yes. If he's not turtling then he's starting to expand his domain, which I consider him making his move. Also with him being basically a god at this point he's probably restricted in some manner from just outright invading.
     
    All right we have the would-be assassin. All we need to do now is rip his mind open for any secrets he might have and go from there. Also you know fuck up Tiamat's influence in this place.
     
    Duesal said:
    Yes. If he's not turtling then he's starting to expand his domain, which I consider him making his move. Also with him being basically a god at this point he's probably restricted in some manner from just outright invading.
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    I think he is restricted as long as there's an Emperor reigning. So assassination attempts will escalate.

    If he gets the title back he'll be mainlining that sweet worship
     
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    kellanved said:
    I think he is restricted as long as there's an Emperor reigning. So assassination attempts will escalate.

    If he gets the title back he'll be mainlining that sweet worship
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    Perhaps, but there's also the problem of the other claimants to the title—the Sorcerer Lord of Carcosa who claims to be a Yellow Emperor, and the Rebel General in Trader Town who names himself first of the Orange Emperors.

    By the way, the Orange Emperor dude sounds like an excellent future minion, especially given that the Golden Company wanted him assassinated.
     
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