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

[Goldfish]

Fears and Terrors Laid to Rest ​

Twelfth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

The wights did not come in waves, like the raging sea to be dashed against the shore. Instead, they came in ranks, each fallen warrior guarding the flanks of those beside them with the skill born of a thousand battles and the courage of ones who no longer feared death, their lines anchored in the narrow passageways. Ancient bronze rose and fell again and again upon armor and flesh, as polished shields and ancient grave wards tied around the joints in strips of dried leather blunted blowns thrown into the fray. Rina was fighting in the fore beside Ser Lonmouth and Sal'Nis, while Mercy kept back and healed. Had it been a minutes or hours? Rina wondered through a haze of exhaustion and sweat, her muscles burning with exhaustion as no mere sparring could cause. Finally, the last of the foes fell to a sweep of the knight's sword and the naga's crushing coils.

Again they stood in silence and darkness, again there was no sight of their foe, but now they knew that he could pass at will though any vein of ice to strike at them. Was he watching even now, or marshaling yet more of the dead to send against them?

"We need to map out the barrow," Rina said once she had caught her breath, the last of her aches and pain soothed away by the healer's touch.

"If wishes were boats then all men could sail," Mercy noted with a tired smile of her own. "This place is a maze. Unless... I'm going to try something."

Ser Lonmouth reacted to the proclamation as he would have to being told enemies were on the other side of an unlocked door and about to charge them again, but he did not object.

Curious, Rina watched as the incarnate faded into fog as she had done countless items before, but this time instead of creeping forward or passing between cracks in the walls, she sent a thread of her substance no thicker than a man's finger down the long corridor. After a few more attempts to see how thin she could make the thread of mist, Mercy began slowly advancing across the floor, like morning mist finding shelter among the shadows. Or like a vampire in search of pray, Rina thought, amused in spite of herself.

Either the master of the barrow wasn't prepared for creeping mists, or he was less canny than he thought himself, for it was not long before Mercy found him trying to weaken a fused stone arch on the very highest level of the barrow, likely trying to add 'collapsing roofs' to its perils.

Rina clicked her boots of far travel, one hand on Ser Lonmouth's arm, the other on the golden scales of the child of Yss.

Once more Oathkeeeper flashed in a blood red arc meeting the frost encrusted axe and batting it aside, to carve through stolen armor and into the bone beneath, but this time Ser Alren thought to use magic to tip the scales in his favor. His gaze was ice, fit to freeze the blood in a warrior's veins and from his hand sprang frost to shroud them all in icy tombs before they had even died. But Rina was ready, she knew the words, none knew them better, and with a twist of her own magic she felt Their power break.

Ser Alren, or the thing that had been him, tried to draw back towards the nearest wights, but a wall of golden scale bared his way, he turned to the nearest ice wall, this one bare and glistening. As he turned his back upon the Stormlander knight, his fury only seemed to grow. New forged steel cut ancient bone and shattered the spine. He gave one final wild swing with all his might, but none of the skill he had shown before. "Remember me!" he called, voice fading as though into some great distance.

"Father remembers your life, uncle. I wish I could have done so, too," Rina said softly, more to herself that the others. Then more loudly, "We don't tell anyone in Saltpans what happened here, or who we found." The words were not a question. She would not burden her father with knowledge of what his elder bother had become.

"Agreed," Mercy said at once, followed by the odd sensation of a mental nod from Sel'Nis, and a moment later by a faintly smiling Ser Lonmouth.

OOC: And done finally, the loot will be up tomorrow.

Click to shrink...

Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

Great chapter! Go, Rina! This interlude arc has been a lot of fun.

 

[Deliste]

Please don't.
On-screen time is limited, your time is limited, and we have far too much shit.

Let's just consider that every Outsider kept over 3 months in a bottle is probably questioned as throughly as we can manage, ok?

Click to shrink...

As usual on this particular point I disagree @DragonParadox and would be very happy to receive your report and the depth it adds to the world and thread experience.

@egoo we have recently doubled the number of people behind the DM screen so calm your buoyancy fluids.

 

[DragonParadox]

Please don't.
On-screen time is limited, your time is limited, and we have far too much shit.

Let's just consider that every Outsider kept over 3 months in captivity is probably questioned as throughly as we can manage, ok?

Click to shrink...

Sure, that is fair.

'Night guys, see you tomorrow with the expedition fleet and then some infrastructure reports to complement all the adventuring the loot coming your way.

As usual on this particular point I disagree @DragonParadox and would be very happy to receive your report and the depth it adds to the world and thread experience.

@egoo we have recently doubled the number of people behind the DM screen so calm your buoyancy fluids.

Click to shrink...

If there's interest in a report I'll do it, but still the 3 month limit on 'background interrogations' makes sense.

 

[egoo]

As usual on this particular point I disagree @DragonParadox and would be very happy to receive your report and the depth it adds to the world and thread experience.

@egoo we have recently doubled the number of people behind the DM screen so calm your buoyancy fluids.

Click to shrink...

Yeeeah, no, that would be me also automatically assuming with Azel that "Eh, he'll DM dis shiet", even if the precise wording was "on-and-off co-dm".

I really dont mind the "adding more depth to the world"-stuff, but last time we had all going too fast too soon, so was the salt.

I'd rather not.

G'night everyone.

 

[Deliste]

Yeeeah, no, that would be me also automatically assuming with Azel that "Eh, he'll DM dis shiet", even if the precise wording was "on-and-off co-dm".

I really dont mind the "adding more depth to the world"-stuff, but last time we had all going too fast too soon, so was the salt.

I'd rather not.

G'night everyone.

Click to shrink...

And literally one instance of "on" will make up for this report.

It's hardly going too fast either considering the report isn't advancing a specific plot thread any faster just giving us more information to act on.

 

[Azel]

Hm... I should stop reading old discussions... Kinda sours a lot of plans and ideas every time I do so.

 

[Duesal]

Wasn't there a minor action to recruit the Falxugon?

Click to shrink...

People got scared and didn't seem to think us capable of managing it. I'm still sour on the whole thing.

 

[Goldfish]

People got scared and didn't seem to think us capable of managing it. I'm still sour on the whole thing.

Click to shrink...

I think part of the issue was that a lot us didn't want to have to 'manage' it. If it was so untrustworthy that we couldn't leave it unsupervised for any length of time, then it wasn't an acceptable minion, IMO.

 

[Azel]

I think part of the issue was that a lot us didn't want to have to 'manage' it. If it was so untrustworthy that we couldn't leave it unsupervised for any length of time, then it wasn't an acceptable minion, IMO.

Click to shrink...

Form my reading it was more that people kept fearmongering of this being the case without evidence to forestall even talking to it.

But meh. Whatever. Doesn't instill much confidence in me in regards to playing some intelligent enemies though.

 

[Duesal]

I think part of the issue was that a lot us didn't want to have to 'manage' it. If it was so untrustworthy that we couldn't leave it unsupervised for any length of time, then it wasn't an acceptable minion, IMO.

Click to shrink...

Dude, we didn't even bother to interview it or check answers via divination, no attempt to read its mind, etc.

There's honestly no basis to call it untrustworthy given the above. If we'd done anything to check and discovered it was untrustworthy? Fine. But we didn't.

Let's not pretend this was investigated before it was voted on.

Still, a vote's a vote, so let's get the sacrifice over with sooner rather than later.

Form my reading it was more that people kept fearmongering of this being the case without evidence to forestall even talking to it.

But meh. Whatever. Doesn't instill much confidence in me in regards to playing some intelligent enemies though.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much. That said, please don't hesitate in making smart enemies.

 

[Goldfish]

Eh, it's done and over with. Not much point in rehashing a settled issue, IMO. Just gotta make the best of things as they are rather than how we wish they were.

Also, there aren't that many Devils I'm too enthusiastic about recruiting at this time. Erinyes are great, of course, but with the recent acquisition of the Flesh Forge and our increased expertise, we can purpose build minions to suit most of our non-muggle needs.

 

[Duesal]

Eh, it's done and over with. Not much point in rehashing a settled issue, IMO. Just gotta make the best of things as they are rather than how we wish they were.

Also, there aren't that many Devils I'm too enthusiastic about recruiting at this time. Erinyes are great, of course, but with the recent acquisition of the Flesh Forge and our increased expertise, we can purpose build minions to suit most of our non-muggle needs.

Click to shrink...

At this stage I've just been wanting to recruit the Ice Devil currently in Mammon's service after a long divination-backed interview. Those things are fantastic.

 

[Goldfish]

At this stage I've just been wanting to recruit the Ice Devil currently in Mammon's service after a long divination-backed interview. Those things are fantastic.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I wouldn't turn down the service of a Gelugon, if we can verify its credibility. They're not just powerful, but also smart and competent, without letting their Evil turn them into mustache-twirling caricatures.

 

[egoo]

Also, there aren't that many Devils I'm too enthusiastic about recruiting at this time. Erinyes are great, of course, but with the recent acquisition of the Flesh Forge and our increased expertise, we can purpose build minions to suit most of our non-muggle needs.

Click to shrink...

Very much this, btw.

Even if we can recruit some, doesn't mean we should, imo.
Devils are absolutely horrible people, every single one of them.

Where Erynies can be relied on thanks to extensive discipline and loyalty... most devils can't really be, no. Ones that can be really are the exceptions to the rule.

I will, for one, refuse even a notion of recruiting Imps.

Gelugons, Erynies, maybe Cornugons... pretty much it, as I remember off the top of my head, without obscure shite

 

[Tomcost]

To be fair, I wanted the Falxugon too

 

[Duesal]

Very much this, btw.

Even if we can recruit some, doesn't mean we should, imo.
Devils are absolutely horrible people, every single one of them.

Where Erynies can be relied on thanks to extensive discipline and loyalty... most devils can't really be, no. Ones that can be really are the exceptions to the rule.

I will, for one, refuse even a notion of recruiting Imps.

Gelugons, Erynies, maybe Cornugons... pretty much it, as I remember off the top of my head, without obscure shite

Click to shrink...

As with all things, I'll approach this in a case by case basis.

Is it beneficial to recruit the creature? Are they powerful enough to be worth it? If interviewed, do they pass the divination checks successfully? Will they serve faithfully?

If the answer above is yes, then I'm all for recruitment.

@egoo, Devils being untrustworthy is mainly just Imps, and that's solely due to their nature of having to constantly betray former masters. Devils as a whole generally do not break contracts. Yes they're tricky bastards about what you sign, but if you give an ironclad deal and they accept, they're bound to it. And we have that template already from the first devil recruitment with Mereth.

Speaking of which, I'd like a few Spined Devils. A recent reread of the quest led me to our first Cornugon fight. Those Spined Devils were great.

 

[Goldfish]

Don't forget to vote, y'all. I'm gonna update @Massgamer's vote a bit to clarify the offer for Asha's sensibilities.

[X] If she wants it, and Moonsong approves, offer the position of captain of the Hunter's Moon to Asha, with the provision that she can eventually purchase the ship from us if she wishes.

 

[Duesal]

[X] Goldfish

 

[Deliste]

Form my reading it was more that people kept fearmongering of this being the case without evidence to forestall even talking to it.

But meh. Whatever. Doesn't instill much confidence in me in regards to playing some intelligent enemies though.

Click to shrink...

I had the same read and would appreciate smart enemies, maybe they'll put themselves in a position to show they're capable of working within our system.

[X] Goldfish

 

[Absoloot]

You should be getting pretty close to the point in the quest where our crafting options began to expand significantly.

Things change a lot.

Click to shrink...

Hopefully. For awhile there I thought DP was purposefully keeping you poor so you couldn't power craft through challenges, then you got rich but got bottlwnecked by crafting hours lol.

 

[Duesal]

Hopefully. For awhile there I thought DP was purposefully keeping you poor so you couldn't power craft through challenges, then you got rich but got bottlwnecked by crafting hours lol.

Click to shrink...

That actually was the case. We were shackled by the WBL rules, and to properly profit from an encounter we either had to jump through hoops for a miniquest or we had to spend months identifying our loot.

Much joy was had when those times were put behind us.

 

[Goldfish]

Hopefully. For awhile there I thought DP was purposefully keeping you poor so you couldn't power craft through challenges, then you got rich but got bottlwnecked by crafting hours lol.

Click to shrink...

It made sense at the time, given the critical lack of crafters due to the recent return of magic to the world. It was frustrating, but understandable.

 

[RedWitch]

[X] Goldfish

 

[Crake]

[X] Goldfish

TBH I think the Hunter's Moon is a great ship. It has character, which is what tends to attract strong and loyal crews.

 

[Absoloot]

We were shackled by the WBL rules, and to properly profit from an encounter we either had to jump through hoops for a miniquest or we had to spend months identifying our loot.

Click to shrink...

WBL?