Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
We could probably do some enchanting on it, too, if the base model doesn't do the trick.
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
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
I could use it too, my procrastination instincts really need to be stopped, they're keeping me from writing the next chapter of Falabix's story.
- Location
- Germany
The latter. Too many plot ideas and I know too many secrets.
Could we kinda stop the awkward apologizing for interacting with me?
OK guys, vote closed.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
]
My point is that if we allow Yss's influence to expand without direction Yss may not always be just a god of commerce. We've brought Yss into the Imperium because a deity that holds Freedom of Contract as sacrosanct is incredibly useful to a mercantile empire. However, just because we've used Yss to facilitate commerce doesn't mean he will always be limited to that role, especially if we start offloading duties and obligations to him. Unless plans have changed, our ultimate goal is to control all the costal waters and ocean trade routes on the Material Plane (either directly or through our allies). That means an open ended bargain would make Yss the de facto deity of the seas as the Imperium expands.
It is important for us to decide whether the duty of protecting the Imperial waters belongs to the Crown and we bargained for the Champion's aid in this specific task, or if we are asking that Yss takes over those duties in exchange for the Champion. Given Yss's nature, he won't be able to stop defending our waters once the deal is made. Doing so would mean that he accepted the Champion is exchange for nothing. And if Yss makes additional bargains based on his role as guardian of Imperial ports, he won't accept an attempt to renegotiate.
We wouldn't have direct control over the Champion. Its nature will prevent such an arrangement. The two options being discussed here are as follows:
(1) Create the Champion in exchange for the Champion acting as a guardian of Imperial ports. It would also be allowed to fulfill functions associated with Yss's priesthood, but while the Champion is 'on duty' our bargain would be exclusive and it would follow orders from the Crown.
(2) Create the Champion in exchange for Yss assuming responsibility for the safety of Imperial ports. Yss wouldn't, couldn't really, accept this bargain without the Champion because he lacks the means to fulfill his end of the bargain. But with the Champion it would be viable, assuming there is an escape clause that says that if Yss lost the capability to defend the Imperium (i.e. the Champion died) or the Imperium grew too vast Yss would no longer be liable.
The second option is more open ended. Yss could conceivably make use of the Champion in ways that benefit him without breaking his obligations to the Crown. We would have to accept this because we bargained for Yss's services, not his fealty. Also, if Yss continued to grow in power, one day he may have the ability to defend Imperial ports without the Champion. For example, Yss could establish a fleet of ships manned by his faithful at every Imperial port to serve as a line of defense. Yss would then be free to have the Champion go or do whatever he wants it to do.
Personally, I prefer the first option. If, at some point in the future, Yss or his Champion wish to seek alternate arrangements then they are free to come to us. And if we need aid elsewhere it becomes a lot 'cheaper' to obtain the services of the Champion because part of our payment under the new bargain would be relieving Yss of his obligations under the old bargain (either temporarily or permanently).
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
Don't worry. It spoils the taste of your soul.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Too fucking late then!
For real though, I'm glad to see ya back in any capacity.
It's been getting more and more lonely around here lately.
- Location
- France
You know, despite all the salt (and rules issues like the Mindblank thing that I'm still bitter about) I'm still very very happy to see you back, Azel.
DP is an amazing QM, but having you around really did give the enemies even more agency and plotting power ! And as a player, you were fantastic and fun to interact with !
Incidentally, Scholarum is updated with everyone but the Braavosi. @egoo, how many Leshies are we sending there?
Note that Braavosi had no magic school for us to absorb, apparently. Silver Eye doesn't count.
DP is an amazing QM, but having you around really did give the enemies even more agency and plotting power ! And as a player, you were fantastic and fun to interact with !
Incidentally, Scholarum is updated with everyone but the Braavosi. @egoo, how many Leshies are we sending there?
Note that Braavosi had no magic school for us to absorb, apparently. Silver Eye doesn't count.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Well, you won't find me arguing that the first option is preferable.
We probably can spin that to Yss easily enough, too.
Sorry, I haven't included any Leshies for Braavos/Volantis in the order this month exactly because we had no idea who taught there.
We can send teachers there next month..?
Don't get me wrong, I can see the value in the second option. It allows Yss to expand his power base more rapidly by accepting more bargains and gaining a greater following. We would also get a lot more up front since we aren't just 'hiring' the Champion, we'd be partially conceding the Imperium's monopoly on national defense to Yss. The way I see it, we have a choice between more control and a singularly powerful asset, or substantial up-front payout and a generally empowered ally. The second option might cause problems farther down the line... but 'farther down the line' is post-Long Night so maybe it doesn't matter?
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
@TalonofAnathrax Braavos was working off a purely master/apprentice system. There is not enough infrastructure to hold classes there. No suppliers, no buildings for it, no written materials, no administrative staff and obviously it hasn't been funded by us yet.
- Location
- US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@DragonParadox, its not a huge deal but it seems like Dndtools changed its url's since you last created the character sheets. A lot of the spells link to dead pages.
Also, why does only Naria the Loreseeker not have a picture among Arcanums?
Also, why does only Naria the Loreseeker not have a picture among Arcanums?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
One of the DnDTools sites we link to gets a bit unstable from time to time, but it normally normalized after a day or two.
- Location
- Germany
I think she is the only one for which no one ever picked a picture.
- Location
- United States
It's pretty much confirmed that Yss isn't getting any more domains at this point. Commerce only happened because we used him exclusively for trade while he was still reviving.
Winning vote
Last edited:
Part MMMCXLXIV: Finding Familiar Waters
Finding Familiar Waters
Eighteenth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Though it pains you slightly knowing it will likely never be used but instead lie upon a bed of coins you hand Relath the black coral crown. To go along with it you add some more coins for said pile and gemstones to glitter among them, the statues of beasts to stand fearsome guard over the chamber. He raises no objection to you taking the moon-pale statue of the changing eater of minds caught in the midst of his grizzly transformation to offer up in sacrifice to the Merling King. The manacles too you take to shatter before a Heart Tree, though the Old Gods' loathing for slavers is lesser than those of other older foes it should be pleasing to their heart nonetheless.
As for the dagger, Lya had absentmindedly claimed it and proceeded to gently prod it with magic, without waiting for any decision on your part. The small frown between her brows and the gleam of interest in her eyes echo those first days when magic had been new to both if you. Still, Lya is not going to have the time to delve into yet another branch of magic, not even with another iteration of herself on call. You make a mental note to ask the Githzerai about a ritual for identifying works of mind magic.
***
After leading the Many to the Moonchaser, and ordering several of its internal tanks filled with briny water at Dany's suggestion just in case it should prove they would struggle to live in the clear waters of home, you lay back in your seat with a sigh of satisfaction as Moonsong gives the orders to translate home, richer in arcane workings, sacrifices, test subjects and allies, though not quite as rich as you had originally imagined you would be.
While you had been clearing out Faerex's lair, her former servants had held their first gathering without their maker's tyrannical eye upon them. The sorcerers had called for a show of fins among their fellows for which had an interest in traveling to other seas of which the Moonchaser's crew spoke and which desired to stay. The tribe was split, two thirds to go, one third to stay. Rather than risk dividing their already small numbers further, the mage-priests of the kuo-toa had decided to send envoys to the deep and decide only when they had heard back from them. Surprising as the news might be you are glad to hear it, forethought will serve them better out in the world whether under your rule or elsewhere than a headlong rush into the future. As one of their mages is skilled enough to send spell-messages across the boundaries of the planes you do not even have to leave a spell-stone.
Impossible colors and otherworldly shapes race across the mirrored walls, then you are home, thankfully to find that the Many, like its distant illithidae kin, can indeed survive in the waters of your realm, its tower already being built half in and half out of the waters of the harbor so that people can come to it from above and below and barter for its services. You feel a warm glow of pride at seeing Scholarum graduates practically queuing up to help it integrate and no doubt hoping to study it to add to the library for knowledge on the Far Realm.
Before leaving them to their task you spent an hour more establishing if it can breed, which you discover it believes it can, though it had never tried, and crucially explaining the limitations in food it might face in doing so. Even in Sorcerer's Deep it will likely be awhile before more than the bold and adventurous will offer to have their memories consumed, particularly as the process involves some of the Many's delicate worm-like bodies crawling into the subject's ears.
What do you do next?
[] Speak to Moonsong about who is to captain the Hunter's Moon after her
-[] Make a suggestion (Write in)
-[] Leave the matter up to her
[] Visit the Githzerai to claim your commission and learn what powers the dagger may hold
[] Receive a report on one or more actions performed this turn
-[] Write in
[] Perform a minor action
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: I'm trying to strike a balance between pure write in votes and making the vote list bigger than the update by for instance including all the actions voted this turn in the report category.
Last edited:
As a note the gith have politics too, monastic and theological politics. I'll include it when they next show up.
- Location
- Germany
Gith stuff is not politics?
[X] Visit the Githzerai to claim your commission and learn what powers the dagger may hold
-[X] Inquire about the state of the war with the Deep Ones in Nirvana and about what scale of support we'd have to talk to free up a serious amount of their troops from there.
- Location
- United States
@DragonParadox, can they also identify the twisted Ulitharid statue artifact for us? Depending on what it is and what it does that might change what we ask the Merling King for.
Interlude DCXXIX: A Servants Tale
- Location
- Germany
A Servants Tale
For many years, Jareesh had worked as a servant. Sometimes it was for a rich Spicer from Lys, sometimes one of the Old Blood in Volantis, and sometimes a rich craftsman from Myr. From a young age he had learned the art to be only ever seen or heard when his masters had need of him, and keeping his lips tight about anything he saw or did in his duties. Dimly he recalled how proud his teachers were of his skill and subservience, and how high a price they fetched for him when he was sold for the first time. Many times did he change owners in the coming decades, being traded away as a favor to an ally or a bribe to an enemy, auctioned off when his old master fell on hard times, or bought up by one who would pay his weight in gold for him.
In all these years, he stayed quiet and out of sight, but ever did he listen and watch in turn. He learned the tongues they spoke, the subtle cues they gave one another, the rivalries between them, and what secrets they feared to become known. Ever was he the most dutiful, the most trusted, and the most prized among his fellow slaves, for it meant that never would he have to feel the kiss of the lash or be subject to the petty cruelties others had to endure. But he listened and he watched. And only when the day came that a man with a golden badge of a book and a sword asked him about his former master, it was his turn to speak.
On the very same day, he packed his meager possessions and took a ship towards the south, not caring one way or another what would become of those he spent his life to please. Yet the voyage that had been his dream for many years was not how he imagined it. As a boy counting only six namedays, he was taken from the beaches of Naath, and as an aged man more than ten times as old, he had returned. The blurry memories of a distant childhood promised a return to home all but forgotten, but what he found was not that.
No one spoke ill of him when he arrived, and for all the changes griping the small settlements of the island, he was greeted with open arms as a lost son of Naath. For a while he traveled from village to village, trying to find what was wrong with the places he had already visited, but try as he might, he could not shake that feeling of wrongness. It was only when he silently watched a group of children playing a strange game he had never seen before that he understood. It was not Naath that did not fit. It was him. The years had made him into a stranger to his own people.
This truth pained him, but truth it was, and so he took the very next ship leaving port, not caring one way or another where it would bring him. Still, his surprise was rather great when the small galleon's destination turned out to be cursed Gogossos of all places. Jareesh had half a mind to sit himself into a sturdy barrel and jump overboard, taking his chances with the currents instead of calmly being sailed to his doom, but the stories the sailors told managed to calm him somewhat. The Dragon King himself had apparently been there, and now some of his most trusted mages and a large number of Volantene soldiers were refurbishing the ruins on his orders.
True, it was not a destination he would have picked willingly, nor was it one that sounded all that good for an old manservant like him, but where else did he have to go? Maybe it was worth to see if the fickle hand of fate had picked this ship for him.
AN: Something entirely different from what I've set out to write, but we will get there sooner or later in Jareesh's footsteps.
Last edited:
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
[X] Visit the Githzerai to claim your commission and learn what powers the dagger may hold
-[X] Additionally, inquire whether they wish to make use of Fleshcrafted beasts - we can provide many examples of the craft, and they will surely have something in mind to make easier work of the Deep Ones.
-[X] Show them the statue of the malformed illithid we found in Fearex's hoard. What was it supposed to depict?
--[X] Show off a Major Image of the thing.
--[X] Request an expert to come to SD to take a good look at what the thing is and identify it for us.
-[X] Order more items from Gith crafters:
--[X] 3 2/day items of Reddopsi for our Companions pushing into Illithid forces.
--[X] a 1/day item of Fate of One
--[X] 5 slotless items of Temporal Acceleration items (Viserys, Lya, Tyene, Dany, Richard),
--[X] 2 items of Null Psionic Field
--[X] and as many Detect Psionics-items as they can reasonably make.
-[X] Inquire them about the situation on broken Heaven, and Nirvana in particualr.
--[X] We'd like to have a general idea of the assets the GIth and other foes of the Deep Ones have there, as well as what sort of forces Deep Ones field.
--[X] Basically, we want to get an idea of the scale of that conflict, whether we could help, and how many reinforcements they can send the Material Plane Deep Ones if they are sufficiently not under pressure.
@Goldfish, I just spitballed stuff on item-order's side.
I definitely want the Temporal Acceleration items, but I'm not sure who's the best recipients are.
All other effects will remove (except Detect Psionics) if ya say we really don't need them.
-[X] Additionally, inquire whether they wish to make use of Fleshcrafted beasts - we can provide many examples of the craft, and they will surely have something in mind to make easier work of the Deep Ones.
-[X] Show them the statue of the malformed illithid we found in Fearex's hoard. What was it supposed to depict?
--[X] Show off a Major Image of the thing.
--[X] Request an expert to come to SD to take a good look at what the thing is and identify it for us.
-[X] Order more items from Gith crafters:
--[X] 3 2/day items of Reddopsi for our Companions pushing into Illithid forces.
--[X] a 1/day item of Fate of One
--[X] 5 slotless items of Temporal Acceleration items (Viserys, Lya, Tyene, Dany, Richard),
--[X] 2 items of Null Psionic Field
--[X] and as many Detect Psionics-items as they can reasonably make.
-[X] Inquire them about the situation on broken Heaven, and Nirvana in particualr.
--[X] We'd like to have a general idea of the assets the GIth and other foes of the Deep Ones have there, as well as what sort of forces Deep Ones field.
--[X] Basically, we want to get an idea of the scale of that conflict, whether we could help, and how many reinforcements they can send the Material Plane Deep Ones if they are sufficiently not under pressure.
@Goldfish, I just spitballed stuff on item-order's side.
I definitely want the Temporal Acceleration items, but I'm not sure who's the best recipients are.
All other effects will remove (except Detect Psionics) if ya say we really don't need them.
Last edited:
- Location
- Australia
What is not politics for a King?