Interlude in beta.
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
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- 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
And adventuring means more risk. You seem hung up on Jeyne being 'stuck' at a low level like it is some terrible, terrible thing. It really isn't. Literally nothing hinges on Jeyne becoming individually powerful. A single moderately powerful psionic is a pittance compared to what we currently have at our disposal, and won't make a lick of difference when it comes to fighting the Illithid. Our relationship with the Gith, on the other hand, may turn out to be crucial.
Why will it go over terribly? The only indication we have on Jeyne's feelings on the matter are her saying that she feels that she won't grow as quickly if she goes off to study with the Gith. No duh, that is a truism and information we already had. What is telling is the reason Jeyne gave for being concerned about studying with the Gith: it would prevent her from reaching Companion tier strength.
If that is the standard Jeyne is measuring herself against, she is doomed to fail. Jeyne flat out won't reach Companion tier regardless of what route she takes. Moreover, she is under the impression that we want her to reach Companion tier. Again, we don't actually care if she reaches Companion tier or not. Our interests are two fold: cultivating psionics in the Imperium and strengthening our relationship with the Gith. Jeyne will be around to help train any future psionics we come across regardless of which route she takes (assuming she doesn't die while out adventuring). But our relationship with the Gith is improved more by Jeyne training with them than by her going out adventuring.
So... why would we want her to go adventuring? If that is what she genuinely want to do then that is fine, but it does not benefit us for her to go adventuring if she is only doing it out of some misplaced sense of duty.
This is a false dichotomy. Any enemy strong enough to pose a serious enough threat to Jeyne's safety while she is in Sorcerer's Deep is going to outclass Jeyne regardless of what route she takes. There are literally only a handful of people in the entire Imperium who can reliably go one-on-one against the highest tier of enemies, and Jeyne isn't going to be one of them before war breaks out.
We can easily provide additional defenders for a marginally weaker Jeyne. We cannot compensate for our only psionic ending up dead in a ditch somewhere, or snatched by Illithid, because she ran into something too much for her adventuring party to handle.
This is the opposite of counting chickens before they hatch. It is cultivating multiple characters and relationships simultaneously, diversifying our future options without the risk of a few bad dice rolls losing us everything. Counting chickens before they hatch is simply assuming that nothing bad will happen to Jeyne as she repeatedly places herself in danger, then assuming that Jeyne being a high level character will actually matter in the grand scheme of things.
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@DragonParadox what level are the Druid Twins and Joran this month? Still 3?
Joran last levelled up four months ago and the twins were level 3 three months ago
Joran last levelled up four months ago and the twins were level 3 three months ago
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First off, you're severely underestimating how powerful Jeyne can become. Kineticists are some of the most powerful blasters in the entire setting. And yes, adventuring obviously means more risk. And? Of course it's risky, that's the nature of it. She won't be a major player against the Deep Ones, sure, but she'll be ready for subsequent wars, and she'll actually be making a difference as she does so instead of meditating somewhere.
... I'm pretty sure you missed my point completely. I was talking about bottling her for the duration of the war with the Deep Ones. As in Smoky Confinement. That is in fact a bad idea and she won't take it well, given the recent horror of finding out her real body was trapped under millions of metric tons of water in a Deep Ones citadel.
Furthermore, you say she doesn't need to get stronger, but I completely disagree. She should be dedicating herself to her training.
And frankly she is not the fulcrum of our relationship with the Gith.
Nobody is saying that she'll be Companion level, but saying she doesn't need to get stronger is something I flat out disagree with.
As a PC she will not always be in Sorcerer's Deep. Yes, anything that attacks Sorcerer's Deep will be too strong for her to handle, but like all other PCs she will be traveling a lot on various assignments.
It really is counting chickens before they hatch. It's assuming we'll even find more of the sleeper agents. And again, you are definitely underestimating the value of a high level kineticist.
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Interlude DCXXX: Trespass and Hollowed Places
Trespass and Hollowed Places
Twelfth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Ser Richard Lonmouth had never entered a sept by stealth before, not out of any lingering reverence for the Seven-Who-Are-One for he had seen enough of the world and other worlds besides to know there were other custodians of men's souls to turn to, but from the simple fact that steel armor, be it even wrought of dragonsteel and an angel's blessings, did not make for an easy job sneaking anywhere. However as with many a unlikely doing, magic made up the difference.
Mercy had slipped in through an window like morning mist with dawn's first light and then passed through the still empty halls to unbar the Door of the Father, out of sight of the guards who stood by the sept's main doors, left open by age old custom. Richard could not fault the guards for their work, of course, there were plenty of horrors about who would like nothing better than to desecrate holy ground or turn it to their ends. Thankfully for them, and all of Saltpans for that matter, they planned nothing of the sort. Indeed, if Rina's fears proved groundless, then they would leave the sept no different than they had found it. The Knight of Skulls and Kisses adjusted his sword, the spirit within waking to drowsy flame. In his experience fortune rarely favored the hopeful.
Silent and unseen by sorcery they passed through the sleeping halls, the knight, the arcane spirit, the serpent of an age long lost to time and the sorceress who had once attended service here. Should any have crossed their paths they might perhaps have noticed the slight chill of her passing or the way the candles flickered with it.
At last they came to the crypts, and read by turn each name, minor nobles and knights of little consequence laid down besides merchants and townsmen who had paid their way in here as in so many other places. Richard wondered how rich or how petty you would have to be to care more about where your bones should rest than for the inheritance of your kin.
"There... Ser Alren Cox," Rina pointed at one of the markers along the dusty stone, written more plainly than on many of the others. His death had been as sudden as any victim of war or plague. Come to think of it, perhaps he had been a victim of a plague, albeit one of the mind and heart not the body.
"I'm sorry, uncle, but we have to be sure," the girl whispered as she knelt beside the inscription and laid her hands upon it. Stone flowed like water under her fingers, rushing apart to reveal a dark space, empty. Neither bones laid to rest, nor restless dead. There was only one place left to look then.
***
They stood at last before Hork's Hill at the height of midday when specters fled from the sun's harsh judgement... fled to places like this. The trees were twisted and knotted, stooping over the dead grass like old crones with hollow eyes and gaping worm-filled mouths. The soil looked untouched, but the imp had spoken true. Pushing aside a curtain of moss and thorns you could find an ancient granite slab, thicker and heavier by far than the one that protected the bones of those who rested beneath the sept. A pity it had not done any more good. "Be wary, my bearer, there is a smell of rotting enchantment in the air," Oathkeeper warned.
The knight nodded. That wouldn't be all the rot they would have to contend with today, of that he was certain.
OOC: Really short, but I feel like the resolution here is much better served from Rina's perspective, not Ser Richard's.
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@DragonParadox, how many ancient houses have the Others been graverobbing? I hope Lord Stark has been guarding his family crypt.
The Stark family crypt was placed directly under the castle, meaning the Others can't get to it unless they make it inside Winterfell and Bloodraven is handling that. They did get the bones of some Stark from Whiteharbor if I remember correctly.
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Also, you know, behind the supernatural defences of a caste built by the best builder ever.
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IIRC those were Greystarks, but yeah, that's a problem we have yet to see the result of.
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I mean I guess they could use those bones as a base to weaken the Wall. It is a direct connection to the Builder.
I mean after a so many generations i doubt the connection is that strong. It would probably take the main line.
Yes. The Starks also have various wards and stuff on the crypt, we got a glimpse at their functionality in the interlude that showed how Lyanna's ghost got past them.
Doubt that can happen, the others have probably gotten their hands on Starks who were much closer to Brandon the Builder than that, see the Night King/Nightfort stories, and it hasn't done them much good. The Wall probably counts as its own existence by now.
I expect those bones to get made into a rather nasty leader for an army of wights they'll raise in the North and use as a distraction.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
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Whew, for a second there I was worried all those laid to rest in the Sept were about to animate as Wights...
Would have been interesting for our people, no doubt, but really damning for the Seven to allow another of their holy places to be so easily misappropriated.
I still want to see an interlude from Oathkeeper's POV some day. Like Sword-cam during a battle.
Would have been interesting for our people, no doubt, but really damning for the Seven to allow another of their holy places to be so easily misappropriated.
I still want to see an interlude from Oathkeeper's POV some day. Like Sword-cam during a battle.
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The Main line is even further down the generational tree. If it was a Greystark corpse then it probably was from when that family was wiped out.
Fair. Although that still leaves the reason as to why they would even take those bones. I doubt it can be used to hit the Starks. The line diverged a long ass time ago. Maybe a monster?
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I'm suspicious they might try to make a Mythic Wight Lord again, except geared agains the Starks.
I expect they'll make a nasty Stark Wight Lord and put it in charge of basically every unsecured body in the width of the North, use it to tie up the forces that would reinforce the Wall and hopefully kill more Starks.
Yeah but i assume being the lord of the north makes up the difference and them some. I recal they are the warden of the wall.
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Hmm it would also be a way to bypass wards considering the whole "Technically a Stark" thing. Hmm I am intrigued at least.
I don't think there's any such thing as a warden of the wall.
Between the Night's Watch oaths specifically being about severing all familiar connection, them having an independent hierarchy, the somewhat loose and unstructured relationship between the Wall and everyone else (Lords are expected, but not required to contribute) and the existence of the Gift, it is pretty obvious that the wall is meant to be as self sustained and independent as possible.
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@DragonParadox what level are the Twins and Joran?
Last time they were both level three and that was about three months ago.
Last time they were both level three and that was about three months ago.
Keep in mind House Cox are not a great House, that is why they do not have a crypt. Trying to keep an eye on the bones of every knight and lordling in Westeros is rather hard.
Both level 4
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Excellent. One more level to go.
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So the Others are gathering up the bones of all the great lords they can get their hands on.
Maybe we should have some kind of graveyard guardians made or something.
No way to know, but they could be doing it.
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It's a bit frustrating that they have millennia of dead at their disposal Beyond the Wall. Hundreds of barrows and failed kingdoms, millions of slain wildlings, etc. At least we'll be blasting through the Thenn barrows soon enough.