Remove ads

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

Reader mode
das_slash said:
If he dies people will assume Maelor fell further into debt to cover his tracks, I'm sure it's a common end to would be plotters.
I do not want to replace him, I don't think we have anyone who could stomach his trade.
Well, maybe Tor.

Edit: it's seriously annoying that he thought he could get the most out of killing Maelor and presenting him to Malarys, it makes it clear he is small fish when it comes to plotting.
He could have gathered a lot more favor by either luring Maelor into debt to him by offering him more potent weapons, or by contacting Malarys and having him witness another "secret" meeting, but no, he had to try and ruin everything
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm struggling to understand what he was trying to achieve, as you outlined earlier Malarys would be within his rights to demand restitution for his property.

Treacherous describes most servants in CoB and they were relying on his goodwill? :/


Even if he wasn't aware of the plot he can bluff like he was and it's not like he has a vast network that he might need another heads up about another employee, it's a small scale discreet business and Maelor was by far the second biggest threat, the next being some minor crafters.

Edit:

If Maelor (or any Imperial Citizens) were not the price I would very much have liked to see exactly what they'd try and sell to Malarys.


Edit 2:

Sarelle is likely now known to have assisted in stopping this, we have to assume the ambush was watched.

As a result we have the opportunity to play it off like Maelor was too trusting of Sarelle while she was still loyal to Malarys.

Opens Malarys to the topic of discussion while undermining whatever leverage they think they do have.
 
Last edited:
It makes sense in context of the Fazir not ever trying to actually develop positive relations with Malarys, but merely arranging a pretext to approach him under certain circumstances from which he could be observed. He is a reclusive and powerful mage who hasn't been seen beyond establishing himself in the city, and Maelor runs a moderately profitable business that somehow manages to tread the line between "keeping its nose clean" and "but not too clean because that in itself would be suspicious".
 
das_slash said:
If he dies people will assume Maelor fell further into debt to cover his tracks, I'm sure it's a common end to would be plotters.
I do not want to replace him, I don't think we have anyone who could stomach his trade.
Well, maybe Tor.

Edit: it's seriously annoying that he thought he could get the most out of killing Maelor and presenting him to Malarys, it makes it clear he is small fish when it comes to plotting.
He could have gathered a lot more favor by either luring Maelor into debt to him by offering him more potent weapons, or by contacting Malarys and having him witness another "secret" meeting, but no, he had to try and ruin everything
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
True, but on the other hand Maelor is a 12 year old who - to his eye - was stupid enough to give away his plan rather than just hide it as a purchase from the store. It was a good plan to hide what we were doing, but it didn't make Maelor himself look terribly bright given he apparently trusted a man with no reason not to turn on him with damning information. Fazir could have just decided he was not good enough at plotting for the reveal to be worth much to Malarys and went for the more profitable "sell him for parts" option.
 
Crake said:
It makes sense in context of the Fazir not ever trying to actually develop positive relations with Malarys, but merely arranging a pretext to approach him under certain circumstances from which he could be observed. He is a reclusive and powerful mage who hasn't been seen beyond establishing himself in the city, and Maelor runs a moderately profitable business that somehow manages to tread the line between "keeping its nose clean" and "but not too clean because that in itself would be suspicious".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't believe it achieves even that, Malarys can just say "Fuck off, and after you pay me my dues at that"

"But we stopped a traitor."

"I know and don't care."

And then what?

Edit:

And honestly I'm being generous here, he could have another servant take his place in the conversation and they don't even get to see that much of him.
 
Last edited:
Crake said:
You're not wrong, but he also didn't ever think much of Maelor, beyond his skills. His value wasn't worth investing much effort into him--something tells me that someone is suspicious of Malarys, or our operation in general, which is where this plot-thread leads. The Fazir is small-time, with a puppet-master who thinks they know something.

That's not necessarily a city official or something, it's likely a gang leader, or a Devil actually acting on another Arch-Duke's orders in machinations afoot in CoB reaching out for another tool, which ties back into the plot-thread of "what convinced the Fazir to make an enemy like Malarys, because let's face it, capturing or killing Maelor was just a ploy to approach Malarys and extract all of value out of him".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mmm this is a possibility, someone playing the Fakir when he thought he could use Maelor to get closer to Malarys.
We should probably assume the worst and prepare to face agents of the Vizier.

Edit: on the other hand, this could just be a Valyrian Spike, and the Fakir really was that petty and thoughtless.
 
Last edited:
I feel like you can't be even moderately successful in the City of Brass at treachery and intrigue without being a consummate professional, and or being protected by consummate professionals from your own folly because you serve as a useful pawn.

Meaning whoever's really moving against Maelor is guaranteed to at least be so paranoid that even if not hyper-competent like we should plan for and expect, they plan enough contingencies and factor enough possibilities that they can mimic it.
 
Deliste said:
I don't believe it achieves even that, Malarys can just say "Fuck off, and after you pay me my dues at that"

"But we stopped a traitor."

"I know and don't care."

And then what?

Edit:

And honestly I'm being generous here, he could have another servant take his place in the conversation and they don't even get to see that much of him.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

At the end of the day the Fazir is unlikely to be the mastermind behind any plot actually going on or motivating him into rash action. He's a mid-level factor at best. Maybe even goading Maelor/Malarys into acting against Fazir is in itself just another means to observe how they react and operate.
 
Crake said:
At the end of the day the Fazir is unlikely to be the mastermind behind any plot actually going on or motivating him into rash action. He's a mid-level factor at best. Maybe even goading Maelor/Malarys into acting against Fazir is in itself just another means to observe how they react and operate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So we just play coy and pretend nothing happened? That would be very Maelor, I approve.

If anyone asks, the Kytons ran afoul of an escaped rust cocktrap, those things are damn lethal.
 
Last edited:
das_slash said:
There is

So we just play coy and pretend nothing happened? That would be very Maelor, I approve.

If anyone asks, the Kytons ran afoul of an escaped rust cocktrap, those things are damn lethal.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Unfortunately this is a double-edged, multi-layered trap. That's why I'm assuming the enemy acting now is either so paranoid they make every scheme achieve multiple end-state scenarios, or so competent that they account for every net-benefit possible from an enemy succeeding at something.

If Maelor disposes of the Fazir, they observe how we deal with troublesome foes while focusing on keeping our cover for our financial capabilities, exposing other capabilities in doing so.

If we let him go, it weakens the cover for Maelor having that gold, because he left an enemy with evidence of his treacherous nature at his back without visibly trying to cover his ass.

Granted as @Deliste pointed out Malarys could totally act like a Sith Lord and go "of course he was planning to betray me, that's how I taught him" and do nothing to punish him--after all, Maelor was only planning betrayal, very Sith-like and basically taken as a given at the start of any Master-Apprentice relationship. Perhaps even similar for certain circles of mages.

It is only failure while carrying out treachery that results in death, because if he moves to act and was not good enough to succeed, he proves he isn't worthy of your teachings.
 
Crake said:
Unfortunately this is a double-edged, multi-layered trap. That's why I'm assuming the enemy acting now is either so paranoid they make every scheme achieve multiple end-state scenarios, or so competent that they account for every net-benefit possible from an enemy succeeding at something.

If Maelor disposes of the Fazir, they observe how we deal with troublesome foes while focusing on keeping our cover for our financial capabilities, exposing other capabilities in doing so.

If we let him go, it weakens the cover for Maelor having that gold, because he left an enemy with evidence of his treacherous nature at his back without visibly trying to cover his ass.

Granted as @Deliste pointed out Malarys could totally act like a Sith Lord and go "of course he was planning to betray me, that's how I taught him" and do nothing to punish him--after all, Maelor was only planning betrayal, very Sith-like and basically taken as a given at the start of any Master-Apprentice relationship. Perhaps even similar for certain circles of mages.

It is only failure while carrying out treachery that results in death, because if he moves to act and was not good enough to succeed, he proves he isn't worthy of your teachings.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It could just be a Valyrian Spike tho, let us not overcomplicate things.
We could have a chat with him in the market using double meanings, or we could discreetly mindblankedly visit him and question him, then use the memory moss on him (it works on outsiders right?)

Edit: but I do think we should leave the next move to him, just have Maelor be smug about surviving the attack and he should reconsider his approach.
 
Last edited:
das_slash said:
It could just be a Valyrian Spike tho, let us not overcomplicate things.
We could have a chat with him in the market using double meanings, or we could discreetly mindblankedly visit him and question him, then use the memory moss on him (it works on outsiders right?)

Edit: but I do think we should leave the next move to him, just have Maelor be smug about surviving the attack and he should reconsider his approach.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well considering how these updates are backdated, I expect a lot has already happened.
 
Finding myself kinda keen for TNEs reaction to Quick Draw Maelor or am I misremembering who's baby that is.

As for confrontation of Fazir the only correct way is Mindscape from 1,120 feet away.

We could be having tea several blocks over because there is no requirement for line of sight.

A true captive audience that by the very nature of the spell we can force to venture deeper into the proverbial spiderweb before they can even attempt to leave with zero requirement to reveal yourself due to the many tools of proxy interaction all with our full stats and socials.

Will save just reveals the path to the exit, which has no requirement to be easy.

I've been waiting a long time to force a chat in this way and it seems appropriate now if we choose that route.

We can very convincingly demonstrate ourselves as the power behind the power without actually revealing anything.
 
@Crake, before we all forget again, could the King's Landing's inquisition be put on investigating those rat-people we saw once there?

I have a bad-unsettled feeling about them, yes-yes.
 
Speaking of intrigue I believe as we are coming to the end of the month that our Umbral Spies should be available shortly, realistically a couple should probably already be done.

It will be fun to assign those for the first time but we should really start deciding how hard we want to go with them.

I wonder if we can get permission to test them against YiTi ancient wards, they should defeat them if they're attached because they explicitly count as the target creature.
 
...shall we eventually play up Maelor actually succeeding in killing off his "master"?

In a few months, that would get us a magnificent chance to pour in a huge amount of money into his work, without much suspicion to the source.

And Maelor would get a chance to move deeper in into circles of Efreeti there...
Which is just why we set shop there. To grab info and get a way in for Shaitan/Djinn eventually.
 
egoo said:
@Crake, before we all forget again, could the King's Landing's inquisition be put on investigating those rat-people we saw once there?

I have a bad-unsettled feeling about them, yes-yes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What? Which rat-people? I see nothing of the sort. There is definitely no rat-people in Kings-Landing, ain't that right folks?

"Yes-yes, the man-thing speaks truth-truth. There's no rat-folk at all, yes-yes?"

See? I've no idea what you're talking about.
 
Last edited:
Vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Sep 13, 2019 at 5:36 AM, finished with 121 posts and 7 votes.
  • [X] Enter the Goblin Market
    -[X] Cast Ears of the City for anything said about the Hooded Lord, the baubles, and about you (since our enemies obviously talk about us)
    -[X] Use Discern Location to try to locate the bauble, or if that doesn't work, to help hunt down whatever leads you find
    [X] Enter the Goblin Market
    -[X] Cast Ears of the City for anything said about the Hooded Lord, the baubles, and about you (since our enemies obviously talk about us)
    -[X] Use Discern Location to try to locate the bauble.
    -[X] if that doesn't work, demand the hooded Lord meets you, you have accommodated their customs as much as possible, it's time for them to begin paying proper respect to the law of the realm if there is to be any hope of coexistence.
Click to expand...
 
Is Valyrian Spike now an in-thread jargon for overthinking?

What other jargons we have developed over these years?

Duesal'd is looting including the bedrock.
Goldfish'd is meticulous planning with overwhelming planning.
Faceless'd is when someone posts first than you.

Anyone else know others?
 
Takesis said:
Is Valyrian Spike now an in-thread jargon for overthinking?

What other jargons we have developed over these years?

Duesal'd is looting including the bedrock.
Goldfish'd is meticulous planning with overwhelming planning.
Faceless'd is when someone posts first than you.

Anyone else know others?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Aurane.
Or Jonny.

The stupidest and most suicidal member of any given group.
 
Crake'd. When your insightful point thunder is shanked in a dark alley minutes or seconds before you post it.

The closer to your own point having been made, the more it sustains me. :evil:
 
Takesis said:
Is Valyrian Spike now an in-thread jargon for overthinking?

What other jargons we have developed over these years?

Duesal'd is looting including the bedrock.
Goldfish'd is meticulous planning with overwhelming planning.
Faceless'd is when someone posts first than you.

Anyone else know others?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, there's Aurane Waters MAGIC COCK.

And we've got our own nicknames for people we like and dislike.

Tiamat = Bitch Queen
Mammon = Noodles
Bloodraven = Best Uncle

And all sorts of weird shit I don't even remember. Though the Magic Cock leaves quite an impression that I can't even forget about it.

...

——NO, NOT LIKE THAT GODDAMMIT!!!
 
Takesis said:
Is Valyrian Spike now an in-thread jargon for overthinking?

What other jargons we have developed over these years?

Duesal'd is looting including the bedrock.
Goldfish'd is meticulous planning with overwhelming planning.
Faceless'd is when someone posts first than you.

Anyone else know others?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Azel = Financial wizardry and hyper engineering
Salt caves = ancestral player homestead
Tiserys Vargarian = James Bond/obvious plots/ shit you don't call dragons on even if you've noticed what they're doing

Are we counting nicknames for this if they started in character?
Pond prince/lake liege/etc. = sealord

That's all I've got off the top of my head

Edit: also, renaming spells after Lya when she invents then IC, like Lya's Magnificent Mansion.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top