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

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Takesis said:
...you know, snakes love to eat rats. And the world's largest snake really hates cheaters...
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It's so much worse than that. Given his status and the nature of his crimes (connections to Slaver's Bay and the Westerlands) he would find Yss' justice swift, but when it involves subverting men bound to Viserys by oath?

It will demand a spectacle trial just to get across how utterly fucked anyone who pulls this nonsense again would be.
 
Crake said:
It's so much worse than that. Given his status and the nature of his crimes (connections to Slaver's Bay and the Westerlands) he would find Yss' justice swift, but when it involves subverting men bound to Viserys by oath?

It will demand a spectacle trial just to get across how utterly fucked anyone who pulls this nonsense again would be.
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You don't mess with a dragon's hoard, and it's time people would learn that the hard way.

Up until now it was the conquering phase, and all the deaths weren't exactly personal.

Now it is.
 
Oh, I'm reminded... @Duesal, when is Selyse due to give birth? This month, right?

She's having triplets!

Edit:

OH SHIT IT'S HAPPENING SOON.

SOON SOON!
 
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Very nice omake @Crake, great characterization as always, but I especially loved the world-building and intrigue in this one. It's nice to see both the loopholes someone might try to use to cheat the divination empowered system and how they may be filled in. The way the thread of the inquisition loomed over the proceedings with even Elbert not being sure just how those investigators were was also a nice touch that speaks of how the institution is regarded.
 
DragonParadox said:
Very nice omake @Crake, great characterization as always, but I especially loved the world-building and intrigue in this one. It's nice to see both the loopholes someone might try to use to cheat the divination empowered system and how they may be filled in. The way the thread of the inquisition loomed over the proceedings with even Elbert not being sure just how those investigators were was also a nice touch that speaks of how the institution is regarded.
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It also for once reuses your own characters. And even expands on their background a little. :V
 
Hm.
While we are near the topic, @DragonParadox, how is Varys' clutch is doing?

Also, you wanted to roll for more animals/Mystic Creatures being born, iirc..?
 
Crake said:
The mapping part only tracks individual anchors and provides details on the local geography, it won't tell you enemy positions, you have to mark that yourself with the illusion part of the enchantments.

The real benefits are being able to instantly communicate in real time with your officers using those anchor types, knowing where they, and thus their men are positioned, and using simple math and logistical knowledge to overlay what the battle-sphere looks like as it takes place. This combined with ravens and messengers allows you to constantly add detail from a broad view, to the general, to personal details obtained from people at the front. Combining the three allows you to issue orders either like out of a text book, the perfect solution for any problem presented all while from the comfort of a nearby hill or shaded pavilion.

Or to enjoy similar benefits and communicate with members of High Command like using a Star Wars hologram system anywhere in the realm from thousands of miles away. And some of the Anchors can be used for fixed structures for similar utility of the main hub, or mobile and while on the move. A council of generals and advisers could direct a multi-front war without ever having to lay eyes on the battlefield.

Today it is mighty titans like Robert Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, Eddard Stark, Randyl Tarly, Brynden Tully who lead and fight wars.

Tomorrow it is the accursed and ever elusive "Imperial High Command". Like the dread eye of Sauron gazing upon you.
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Sand Table does indeed track individual creatures size small or above, explicitly for the purpose of battlefield direction.

I seem to recall being told it was a duplication of functionality but if it isn't then you could fairly easily send the information along to High Command, either allowing them to scry the caster on site or more directly working it into the construction.
 
Crake said:
Forgetting the Score
​
Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

"Your Honor. Most Esteemed Council. I posit before you thus, in summary, my client's proclaimed innocence twice confirmed now, with the established evidence of no prior wrongdoing and no credible claims of maleficence, and with the testimony of the witnesses who have taken the stand and twice been tested with divination and truth compelling magic against the accounts of the accused--my client's alibi remains completely solid. And I now have solid proof of his innocence. Your Honor?"

"You may approach the stand, Solicitor," the call had a less sharp edge to it than it had at the start of this trial, Elbert thought inwardly, though he did not allow the satisfaction to show on his face. "You say you have further evidence to present before the Court?"

The shock on the face of the oh-so-smug Magister Baeros was sweet as the honeyed wine that was so popular in the Deep. His plot to erase all trace of his wrongdoings by using smuggled Memory Moss was far worse than covering up a series of murders of his business rivals and even partners.

He had been so very careful to work through intermediaries and to guide events such that no one would ask the right questions, or those divined would lead to false and twice-tangled trails with men accused of crimes they did not recall committing in earnest. No. Because of his trade ties to foreign backers from the west and east! The fool had committed high crimes of treason! His title and wealth might stave off the noose at the lower courts using the right patsies to take the fall and distance himself from the crimes committed, but to draw the attention of the Crown to his activities? Dos had named it sheer madness.

Elbert called it justice in poetry writ.

It was unfortunate, then, that Elbert had to use his connections to the higher officials through his friend, to get the right spell cast to help him turn over a niggling suspicion he had held onto the first he laid eyes upon the odious trade magnate in question, as they just could not keep the smug expression of triumph and vindictive pride off their face while offering simpering words of support to those wronged and giving testimony on the stand that was just a tad too confident of their own lack of involvement in such "vile affairs". Elbert felt guilt for abusing that friendship to aid in his own case such as he had, but then again he was likely allowed to even approach the spirit-kin mage because of his own usefulness at resolving unusual cases in the favor of the right party, such as the case may be. Men would lose their heads for this, plots of the merchant princes aside, men had betrayed their oaths to guard and monitor the Crown's holdings.

Lady Beryl was all too happy to help regardless, so the guilt did not linger long enough for him to hesitate at the last.

Magister Baeros kept his nose clean enough, to be sure, but rather than leading to the arrest of the proxies he used for his scheme to rule Sorcerer's Deep grey market from afar--as no sale of goods there could be said to be done without assent from the powers-that-be, he had led to his own downfall through sheer towering arrogance.

And it had been entirely undone and by a dozen private investigators or mercenary troubleshooters... who he couldn't be entirely sure weren't really agents of the Inquisition in some cases.

And one spell cast at the right time and place, asking the right question.

Elbert's client had been willing to pay for them and didn't seem the sort to have any far-reaching connections of that nature, but then again, a man could be a peasant or a prince and still remain a pawn.

***​

"What do you mean you want to remain a Solicitor?" Dos tried not to scream the words at him, the shock having made him shift through a myriad number of emotions before finally settling on 'disgusted amusement'. "You could be a Justice if you applied yourself. Hell, you're the one with connections at Court..."

"And I don't intend to abuse those connections," unless it's to cheat to acquire evidence for a case, he thought, somewhat troubled at doing something ethically questionable even if for a good cause. "Besides, we are helping people! Just like we intended when we set out to study and practice the law."

"Only because you couldn't make it as a playwright," Dos accused blandly, leaving unsaid how he could not either, shuffling through pages for his own work. "Legal counsel does pay better here, however, when you inflate your own reputation by helping out sea people and bull men and other strange folk for a song." For some reason, success at representing such minorities had garnered better optics for their practice than if he had spent time representing the merely poor or disadvantaged, Dos had remarked upon it cynically more than once. After all, the fantastic and unique had a wealth of their own and frivolous men of status would pay to be advised by 'the best' if not necessarily represented. It was worth noting that they could not rely on simple bribery and political connections to assure a case would be thrown out of court if they committed wrong-doings, these days.

"T-that aside... You have to admit, we are being paid unusually well. Court-room procedures here are very elaborate compared to anywhere else bar Braavos, even the lower courts are quite thorough." Proceedings in Braavos to represent the less affluent or those without high status were far more cursory affairs, working off established precedence but not as much jurisprudence as those found in the Deep or even Tyrosh. The other cities were adapting at varying speeds, though he did not doubt Braavos would hit the ground running.

"How goes your own 'courtship'?" Dos broke his train of thought with a lift of his eyebrow, expression that of stone.

"Non-existent as always," Elbert replied, barely blinking at the accusation by this point. "Do you think Companions are busy running all over the world fighting monsters and abolishing slavery and whatever else they get up to on an average week? Well, high officials are probably busier. They have to do their own paperwork, after all," Elbert finished with a smile, dropping the final stack of his own penmanship in the 'out' bin on his desk. There was a chiming of a bell signaling the approach of a new client. "You or I?" Elbert asked his partner in time-honored tradition to determine who would take the lead on a case.

Dos took out a coin stamped with the King's face and flipped it.
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Very cool, dude. I hadn't thought about Memory Moss being abused like that, at least not for criminal purposes. The magister's arrogance is easy to believe thanks to previous interactions with the various men of wealth and importance in Essos, but damn, trying to pull that shit in Sorcerer's Deep. That's ballsy.

You know, being playwrights and solicitors, Elbert and Dos are perfectly positioned to create the first crime procedural MirrorVision drama.

"Law & Order: The Deep" could focus mostly on the mundane side of the justice system, while "CTI: Criminal Thaumaturgic Investigation" deals with magically gathering and processing evidence. :V
 
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Crake said:
Oh, I'm reminded... @Duesal, when is Selyse due to give birth? This month, right?

She's having triplets!

Edit:

OH SHIT IT'S HAPPENING SOON.

SOON SOON!
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Garin, you poor bastard...

I'm going to put Selyse down for a Ring of Sustenance once I get this month's crafting schedule put together this coming weekend.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 16, 2019 at 6:30 AM, finished with 102 posts and 16 votes.
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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 16, 2019 at 6:30 AM, finished with 102 posts and 16 votes.
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Part MMMCXVIII: Making Waves
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    • Making Waves​

    Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

    As you ponder your first steps into the City of Splendid Waves Relath assures you that the locals would care see to your trade goods 'almost as well as if they were safe in your hoard chamber', high praise coming from a Dragon, but then the Guild Council of Vialesk will have long experience in dealing with the prolific brine wyrms in peace as much as in war.

    "We have gained much by making ourselves known to those in high standing among the Genies before speaking of trade," your mother adds, tactfully ignoring your first forays into otherworldly trade involving smuggling in the Bazaar of Beggars.

    Still, the point is no less fair for it. This is neither a nest of thieves and killers, nor a city under the brazen boot of the line of Iblis. The masters of a trading city, even one so vast and powerful as this, would have reason to look with favor upon a trade as vast as the one you intend to make, and perhaps even desire to purchase some of these new goods themselves for the sake of personal profit.

    The four of you set out swimming through the branching shell and coral tubes that make up the arteries of the Lower City past gardens of slowly rippling kelp and brightly colored sponges, akin to the tiny rooftop gardens one often sees in Tyrosh. There are jewelry shops filled with curling shells and fancifully carved bone besides clicking glass blown into shapes so delicate one would fear they would shatter in the hand. Magically hardened, you realize, gazing upon them with eyes sharper than those of flesh. You wonder how long it will take the artisans of the Deep to realize that the hardening chamber can do more than vastly strengthen simple goods to survive longer and take greater loads. Perhaps you should offer the suggestion to Lady Dorerah, no doubt there would be at least one Myrish artisan willing to try.

    As the passages open into small squares, or rather small intersections for there are precious few sharp edges to be found in the wave-carved city, the crowds only grow more diverse, from water mephits 'flying' through the water in defiance of all expectations as they carry messages and news, to a shelled merchant somewhere between a crab and a turtle hawking what looks to be skewers of sweetmeats, algae and spiced fish to all who pass him by. A Tojanida, the voice of memory ever present at the back of your mind whispers, spirits of water bound in shells of flesh, forever caught between seeking sensation and dreaming the broken songs of elder days.


    Judging from the stream of cheerful chatter the merchant keeps up as Breath Taker stops to buys a skewer of pale shrimp and blended algae, it is clear he is one of those who contents himself with the life he has rather than dwell upon the fractured memories of his ancestors. As you watch, a boy with pale greenish skin and hair the color of kelp snatches up a treat off the merchant's table in what you suspect he thinks is a stealthy manner, though you cannot imagine the Tojanida's ring of bright black eyes could have missed him. However, the shelled trader gives no sign of it, continuing to trade tales with Breath Taker as tiny pearl-forged coins trade hands, or claws as the case may be in this instance.

    Relath catches the same byplay as you and seems faintly scandalized that anyone would just allow theft of one's property, however minor, but he keeps his peace, motioning ahead instead on the path onward and upwards.

    ***​

    As in all cities great and small Vialesk grows grander and more stately the closer one comes to the heart of its power, shops and homes illuminated by living coral or the glint of tiny fish through kelp gardens give way to stately facades carved into the primeval stone that binds the city together, grand arches carved with arcane script and wards bright enough to seer the eye of the unwary watcher show the hand, or rather the claw, of Vialesk's erstwhile draconic masters. Though what were once the treasure chambers and residences of the Dragons' favored servants have long since given way to banks, trading houses and courthouses that mark a city that no longer answers to the whims of Brine Dragons but to a siren song far stronger, trade and wealth.

    By contrast to the structures that surround it the Chamber's Sphere seems almost humble, a ring of marble that joins the Lower City to the Upper, a half-flooded amphitheater where those who prefer the water's embrace may sit upon the lower steps while air-breathing members of the Guild Council, of which there have been no small number, may take the upper seats.

    Thanks to Relath's presence in his true form it does not take long to obtain a meeting with Deep Herald Anora, the woman who serves as permanent intermediary to visiting Brine Dragons too young or reclusive to be assigned their own diplomatic liaison. She greets all of you in spacious but simply appointed chambers filled with the glass-etched portraits of her predecessors with a courteous smile that you suspect veils relief that whatever Relath's troubles are he decided to come to the authorities rather than take justice upon the edge of his claws. Young Brine Dragons, you had gathered, do not have a reputation for restraint.


    "What can I do for you, Great Lord of the Bitter Currents?" the golden-eyed Undine asks formally.

    "My lord wishes to speak to you on matters of trade and affairs of state," the Dragon replies without a hint of resentment. In fact, you suspect he is rather amused at the spark of worry in the Herald's eye as she considers just what manner of being might secure the allegiance of a Dragon, even a young one. Somehow you suspect 'an even younger Dragon' does not occur to her.

    How do you address Herald Anora?

    [] Write in

    OOC: This will of course impact your trade.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    "My lord wishes to speak to you on matters of trade and affairs of state," the dragon replies without a hint of resentment. In fact you suspect he is rather amused the spark of worry in the Herald's eye as she considers just what manner of being might secure the aligeance of a dragon, even a young one. Somehow you suspect 'an even younger dragon' does not occur to her.
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    Brilliant. I love this so much. Just the thought of worry at the idea of an Elder Dragon having the allegiance of Relath and then Viserys, barely 16 at this point, shows up.
     
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