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

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Canon Omake: Inquisitorial Insights
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    • Inquisitorial Insights​

    Twenty Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
    <<<Previous Next>>>

    Ceria hadn't spent more than half the month embedded in intrigue as she'd come to expect, given the contents of the earlier Royal missive. To be honest the work in the Riverlands was more in the same vein as that of the previous month, discrete in the sense that they couldn't just walk up to a Lord's castle happy as they please and convince them to stop ignoring problems with magic and monsters happening under their own noses just because it didn't fit into their view of the world.

    When she had finally settled down to work on other arrangements, it had mostly involved sifting through Inquisitorial reports. Ledgers were thankfully not so important to their current task that she thought herself out of her depth, but then she hadn't expected the majority of what spies did would involve sorting through messages, encoded letters and ciphers, or trying to match descriptions from informers to certain possibly illicit activities undertaken beneath the watchful eye of the Dragon.

    Much of what they did was sorting out what fell within the purview of the Lawmen and whether it should be the Greycloaks investigating illegal activity, or whether or not darker things were truly afoot. The majority wasn't quite so exciting as all that. Sometimes the mark of a good informant was that they could sort their own correspondence accurately enough to guess what was urgent and truly dangerous and what was the work of general suspicion.

    The greatest resource she found most difficult to manage as both a mage and a scholar was that of time, one could only read so much in a certain time-frame and then picking and choosing which leads to follow was often work that had to be delegated to other people.

    Of course her initial impressions weren't totally inaccurate, her read of the Inquisitors she had faced in the Circle months ago was that they weren't often heavily involved in such administrative busywork, not unless they were writing their own reports while embedded in the heart of enemy territory. Given the organization was still quite new despite its growing experience, she supposed there was a reason they often worked together still rather than apart, none had the time to pick up their own retinues of stalwart companions who could see them to safety through any peril as she had.

    Next month its into Meereen we go, she thought, a pang felt at the idea of leaving Denys behind in the Riverlands. He will be fine with Mercy, she consoled herself, having met the woman and finding her pleasant--a bit too much for her to handle in terms of personality but not irritating to be around. Even now when he would soon be without his friends he was hurrying to finish up a set of concoctions and potions for them to take with them.

    If they finished their work in the east soon, they could get to work researching some of the lore that was piling up around the manse. She smiled at the thought of finishing her treatise on rituals from divine sources. Enhancing 'Low Magic' as much as possible was important given the scale with which it was employed in the realm even now.

    ***​

    The Inquisition's Headquarters was an ominous structure. She looked up at the imposing building from the foot of the black marble steps leading up to the exterior security checkpoint. There would be another one inside and then wards to pass through, but it was the exterior that was truly impressive.

    It gave off the air of stately refinement without trying to seem like a manse or palace. It made sense, the place housed the administrative offices and some of the restricted archives for the Inquisition's work. One of the few places in the city besides the Keep where intrusion could result in half a dozen Companions smashing through walls quicker than infiltrators could swim or sidestep through them.

    "You going to just stand there?" Ceria very studiously did not jump at the sound of a familiar voice, turning around to face Lord Drekelis. Passing strange that she found herself in conversation with this Companion the most out of any of the others, but then she supposed that made the most sense in terms of jurisdiction, even if it wasn't official yet. "You are authorized to enter at least the first level unsupervised, you know."

    "How many levels are there? Or I supposed I shouldn't ask that," she said, struggling to smile, though it came off as more of a grimace.

    "Quite a few," the Grand Inquisitor replied with a smirk, "There were numerous complaints about stuffing the smuggling task force in one of the deeper sub-levels. The upper ones were, contrary to all expectations, mostly being assigned to agents involved in the day-to-day operations and more short-term investigations, since they have to come and go more often."

    "And a floor set aside for Inquisitors' personal effects," Ceria commented, since that was on an upper level rather than a lower one from what she had heard. Nothing they kept in there was apparently important enough to lock deep within the earth and behind multiple sets of protections, though, which made sense in hindsight. None of them would be using them except in the case where they had time off but chose to spend the hours pursuing their own interests, or else a place to hold meetings that didn't require an entire conference hall. "Doesn't it seem a bit excessive?" This wasn't the only 'official' building the Inquisiton had in the realm, there was one similar in use if not appearance in multiple other cities now.

    "It's more grease on the spokes for the future," Garin replied, standing in a small clearing in a sea of humanity. For all that he was one of the least flamboyant or eye-catching of the King's advisers and champions, even his subordinates did not approach him casually, much less in the company of herself who had garnered no small reputation in the tournament. "We're expecting expansion to accommodate adding on new responsibilities, changes brought on by magic which necessitates more boots on the ground, so-to-speak. Even as magic eases traditional problems that only swarms of working hands could solve before, it also creates new ones."

    "Do you ever get tired of it?" She covered her mouth, embarrassed that she'd just blurted it out. Lord Drekelis looked at her sympathetically.

    "I find my work fulfilling, and that gives me the energy I need to do what is necessary before coming home to my family," he replied carefully, and she was grateful he did not choose to comment on the exhaustion that must have shown on her face after the events of the last month. "But it helps to rely on others where possible. You certainly aren't alone in that."

    "...can we go over those briefings again? Before we're too busy in the coming weeks," she added. There would certainly be little time to relax or focus on more routine matters when that time came, and she hoped by then she would appreciate the finer details involved in this service than the shattered hopes they found in Westeros.

    "Of course," he agreed immediately. "That's what I came here for."
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Very nice complement to the inquisitorial soldiers' state of mind @Crake, the wider picture as it were, though given Ceria's involvement in research as in the low magic issue she is a bit atypical. Most mages with aspirations of research stick to the Scholarum. I suspect Ceria's visible exhaustion in royal service will soon earn her a ring of sustenance, they are not that expensive... that might be a fun moment of insight for her. 'In SD when you work too much they give you a magic ring that lets you get by on 2 hours of sleep'.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Very nice complement to the inquisitorial soldiers' state of mind @Crake, the wider picture as it were, though given Ceria's involvement in research as in the low magic issue she is a bit atypical. Most mages with aspirations of research stick to the Scholarum. I suspect Ceria's visible exhaustion in royal service will soon earn her a ring of sustenance, they are not that expensive... that might be a fun moment of insight for her. 'In SD when you work too much they give you a magic ring that lets you get by on 2 hours of sleep'.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    It's kind of how we do. Lack of sleep a problem? Make sleep less important. Literally.
     
    @DragonParadox You know, if our enemies had the bigger picture I wonder what they would make of Viserys just casually dropping a small fortune on a project, and rather than rampant corruption or mismanagement or general incompetence/treachery swallowing it like a black hole, it helps him recoup the cost x1000 times over?

    From outside observation, anyone doing spywork to track moving sums would be able to guess something of our spending habits. Literally millions of IM flying out of our treasury each month, usually tens of thousands whenever we disburse it ourselves. It ironically seems similar to Robert's own wastrel behavior and lack of understanding for the concept of "restraint" or "money in general".

    Meanwhile, in Viserys' head, he's playing Five Dimensional Hyper-Cyvasse as a general diversion in between elaborate ploys against Archfiends and Gods, or brokering alliances with large empires. And could probably teach economists new things about finance in a day than they've learned in years, as one of the few people on Planetos who actually can conceptualize moving those large sums and the effects they have on the economy.

    It makes you sincerely wonder what Jon Arryn thought of those shocking plays Viserys made, like the culmination of the three daughters' conquest, organizing a Grand Tournament and creating a fiat currency and organizing an economic council with two giant empires... all within a span of months of each other. All while working alongside this:


    Better still, I wonder what Tywin thinks of some of our Magnificent Bastardry.
     
    Crake said:
    @DragonParadox You know, if our enemies had the bigger picture I wonder what they would make of Viserys just casually dropping a small fortune on a project, and rather than rampant corruption or mismanagement or general incompetence/treachery swallowing it like a black hole, it helps him recoup the cost x1000 times over?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    *quickly writes down new interlude ideas*

    Well I certainly won't be running out of ideas fpr this story anytime soon.
     
    [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM)

    Might as well have a full pantheon. ;)
     
    Vote closed.
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 28, 2019 at 4:07 AM, finished with 74 posts and 22 votes.
    • [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM Total Cost)
      -[X] Have him try to write up the actual religious doctrine for his Faith when the insights come to him, it is important for legal reasons.
      -[X] An important detour in your schedule before you move on to the other activities: Discuss Dragon Law with Malarys, Zherys, Rhaella, Nettles, Valaena, Teana and Saenena. This will begin with a discussion of the Crimson Code in general, but only to set the tone for the rest of the discussion. Ultimately, from what you have gathered from associated details on Valyria, the Code only worked because of a mixture of Valyria having external enemies, the most influential Senators' holdings being most at risk to the sheer destruction such repeated civil wars would wreak, and the fact that a number of Syrax's original dark cabal had ensured Valyria's culture would be shaped to be fratricide averse. This is effective only in getting some of the future's most influential mages and warriors to not think of each other as their most important enemy, not sustainable in the long term, even though you imagine you won't run out of external enemies for quite a while, you have generally made a habit of not accepting "good enough" when it comes to those long term problems.
      -[X] This will cover regulations for dragon enclosures. A centralized stabling system would only be sustainable through a dizzying set of logistical feats that would probably impress even the Freehold, but its seems greater folly to not heavily regulate a system that resulted in treacherous agents from actively subverting access to the beasts and, you suspect, even poisoning Balerion, who definitely didn't die of old age or even of his wounds from Valyria. More importantly it would go a long way toward improving Imperial authority. Dragons are strategic resources, it is harder to protect them if they are scattered throughout the empire away from whatever guards and wards you eventually set up, and any housing for them outside of that should be temporary in nature. Better to head any problems here off at the pass. Will probably involve a distributed stabling system, making use of a few long-term locations set up similarly to Claw Isle, repeated in like on Dragonstone and other islands along the coast of your realm. Organized teleportation will eventually have to be used to allow riders to come and go to maintain bonds with their dragons no matter the distance they live from them.
      -[X] This will cover regulations for appropriate ages to hatch or tame dragons. The Valyrians seemed to have the right idea here, though. You wouldn't let someone as rash as Daemon or Aemond try to claim a full grown dragon from the young age they did, setting aside the concern they wouldn't be able to master the older wyrms' will, it just encourages the worst of preexisting tendencies in some given how the bond is soul deep.
      -[X] This will cover regulations regarding usage of Dragons. At its very essence, it's bad habit not to make it clear kinstrife will not be tolerated under any circumstances under Imperial Law, but you will honestly start accepting suggestions from the other people at this meeting for deciding the impetus behind the motion. You are somewhat more confident that in the future state where there are more than a handful of riders of mature dragons, the Imperial Navy will be an institution that no small number of aligned dragonlords will want to tangle with under any circumstances, but in the case of a full-scale conflict they mostly just present a barricade. Your skyships do possess the strategic advantage over riders in that they can outfly most dragons tactically and overland, but any sufficiently skilled mage will be able to move them around with translocation regardless, so the bigger concern then would be terror attacks. Eventually long-term emergency procedures for wide-scale attacks of this nature which mostly target heavily populated areas will have to be written and adopted, but that's a separate concern.
      -[X] This will cover regulations regarding egg distribution and creation of new Dragon Houses. Ultimately, each Dragonlord will be your direct client. The only people who should be granted eggs from stock a House already possesses is their own children and heirs, as they will inherit the same responsibilities and obligations. It is an executive privilege of yours to grant eggs or dragons to new Houses. Though it already seems to be a rare concern given the nature of how dangerous dragon taming can be without an extensive state apparatus or familial resources mitigating risks, if someone from outside these groups should eventually claim or hatch a dragon without permission from the Crown, it will be considered a capital offense of the most grievous nature, a preliminary hearing before the highest Court to determine the degree of guilt will be held, interrogations performed if it should prove systematic, and sentencing carried out by your own hand.
      -[X] This will cover this distinction in terminology between fleshcrafted Dragons of Valyria and True Dragons. You aren't particularly attached to the name you end up giving them, so long as no one makes the mistake of conflating the two, not out of any pride for yourself but for the fact that you have several intelligent dragons under your rule and would rather people associate the non-sentient variety with important military resources and hardware rather than pets. Privately, you don't think you can prevent significant attachments from forming between rider and beast but it isn't a good idea to allow for any ambiguity here. Firewyrms, Imperial Drakes, Greater Dragonbeasts. Whatever seems the best compromise to the pride of Dragonlords.
      [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM Total Cost)
      [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM)
    Click to expand...
     
    Crake said:
    Inquisitorial Insights​

    Twenty Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
    <<<Previous

    Ceria hadn't spent more than half the month embedded in intrigue as she'd come to expect, given the contents of the earlier Royal missive. To be honest the work in the Riverlands was more in the same vein as that of the previous month, discrete in the sense that they couldn't just walk up to a Lord's castle happy as they please and convince them to stop ignoring problems with magic and monsters happening under their own noses just because it didn't fit into their view of the world.

    When she had finally settled down to work on other arrangements, it had mostly involved sifting through Inquisitorial reports. Ledgers were thankfully not so important to their current task that she thought herself out of her depth, but then she hadn't expected the majority of what spies did would involve sorting through messages, encoded letters and ciphers, or trying to match descriptions from informers to certain possibly illicit activities undertaken beneath the watchful eye of the Dragon.

    Much of what they did was sorting out what fell within the purview of the Lawmen and whether it should be the Greycloaks investigating illegal activity, or whether or not darker things were truly afoot. The majority wasn't quite so exciting as all that. Sometimes the mark of a good informant was that they could sort their own correspondence accurately enough to guess what was urgent and truly dangerous and what was the work of general suspicion.

    The greatest resource she found most difficult to manage as both a mage and a scholar was that of time, one could only read so much in a certain time-frame and then picking and choosing which leads to follow was often work that had to be delegated to other people.

    Of course her initial impressions weren't totally inaccurate, her read of the Inquisitors she had faced in the Circle months ago was that they weren't often heavily involved in such administrative busywork, not unless they were writing their own reports while embedded in the heart of enemy territory. Given the organization was still quite new despite its growing experience, she supposed there was a reason they often worked together still rather than apart, none had the time to pick up their own retinues of stalwart companions who could see them to safety through any peril as she had.

    Next month its into Meereen we go, she thought, a pang felt at the idea of leaving Denys behind in the Riverlands. He will be fine with Mercy, she consoled herself, having met the woman and finding her pleasant--a bit too much for her to handle in terms of personality but not irritating to be around. Even now when he would soon be without his friends he was hurrying to finish up a set of concoctions and potions for them to take with them.

    If they finished their work in the east soon, they could get to work researching some of the lore that was piling up around the manse. She smiled at the thought of finishing her treatise on rituals from divine sources. Enhancing 'Low Magic' as much as possible was important given the scale with which it was employed in the realm even now.

    ***​

    The Inquisition's Headquarters was an ominous structure. She looked up at the imposing building from the foot of the black marble steps leading up to the exterior security checkpoint. There would be another one inside and then wards to pass through, but it was the exterior that was truly impressive.

    It gave off the air of stately refinement without trying to seem like a manse or palace. It made sense, the place housed the administrative offices and some of the restricted archives for the Inquisition's work. One of the few places in the city besides the Keep where intrusion could result in half a dozen Companions smashing through walls quicker than infiltrators could swim or sidestep through them.

    "You going to just stand there?" Ceria very studiously did not jump at the sound of a familiar voice, turning around to face Lord Drekelis. Passing strange that she found herself in conversation with this Companion the most out of any of the others, but then she supposed that made the most sense in terms of jurisdiction, even if it wasn't official yet. "You are authorized to enter at least the first level unsupervised, you know."

    "How many levels are there? Or I supposed I shouldn't ask that," she said, struggling to smile, though it came off as more of a grimace.

    "Quite a few," the Grand Inquisitor replied with a smirk, "There were numerous complaints about stuffing the smuggling task force in one of the deeper sub-levels. The upper ones were, contrary to all expectations, mostly being assigned to agents involved in the day-to-day operations and more short-term investigations, since they have to come and go more often."

    "And a floor set aside for Inquisitors' personal effects," Ceria commented, since that was on an upper level rather than a lower one from what she had heard. Nothing they kept in there was apparently important enough to lock deep within the earth and behind multiple sets of protections, though, which made sense in hindsight. None of them would be using them except in the case where they had time off but chose to spend time pursuing their own interests, or else a place to hold meetings that didn't require an entire conference hall. "Doesn't it seem a bit excessive?" This wasn't the only 'official' building the Inquisiton had in the realm, there was one similar in use if not appearance in multiple other cities now.

    "It's more grease on the spokes for the future," Garin replied, standing in a small clearing in a sea of humanity. For all that he was one of the least flamboyant or eye-catching of the King's advisers and champions, even his subordinates did not approach him casually, much less in the company of herself who had garnered no small reputation in the tournament. "We're expecting expansion to accommodate adding on new responsibilities, changes brought on by magic which necessitates more boots on the ground, so-to-speak. Even as magic eases traditional problems that only swarms of working hands could solve before, it also creates new ones."

    "Do you ever get tired of it?" She covered her mouth, embarrassed that she'd just blurted it out. Lord Drekelis looked at her sympathetically.

    "I find my work fulfilling, and that gives me the energy I need to do what is necessary before coming home to my family," he replied carefully, and she was grateful he did not choose to comment on the exhaustion that must have showed on her face after the events of the last month. "But it helps to rely on others where possible. You certainly aren't alone in that."

    "...can we go over those briefings again? Before we're too busy in the coming weeks," she added. There would certainly be little time to relax on more routine matters when that time came, and she hoped by then she would appreciate the finer details involved in this service than the shattered hopes they found in Westeros.

    "Of course," he agreed immediately. "That's what I came here for."
    Click to expand...
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    At first I was disappointed when I saw this wasn't the next part of the Spice of Magic series, but that didn't last long. Ceria is always a fun read, her head is screwed on just a bit tighter than most folks'. We're definitely crafting that girl a Ring of Sustenance next month. Early, too, so she'll have it before they set out for Mereen.

    Neat world building, too. I'm picturing Inquisition HQ as a brutalist edifice of black stone which gives off an air of "nothing to see here, folks...or else".
     
    JamesShazbond said:
    Been looking into snake-adjacent creatures for Yssian fleshforging or spawning as divine servitors.

    Sepia Snake – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Huge flying snake, can spit webbing to contain victims as per the sepia snake sigil spell, has a debuffing gaze attack, and a stinger tail.

    Seps – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Another huge snake, with acid/Con poison that melts anything it kills into an acid puddle (how does it eat?). Also has acid blood.

    Sloth Viper – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    A Large snake that can climb and swim. Possesses slowing venom (as the spell), and is so quick, it can take an extra move or standard action per round. Give this Quickling and watch it basically teleport across the battlefield.

    Taniwha – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Large snakes with crocodile heads. They have a number of water and anti-poison SLAs, can frighten any number of people and cause them to forget the encounter once a day, and can inflict a 24 hour curse that interferes with spellcasting once a day. They have 17 Wisdom and 19 Charisma, so they can be Sorcerers, Druids, or Clerics, with a few extra HD for more spells.

    Stegaloviper – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Yet another huge snake, this one with extra movement abilities. Its statblock says it can climb and swim, but its description and tactics says that it can burrow. Given that it's supposed to be a subterranean creature, one of those movements is an error. It has Con poison and a respectable wisdom, making it not an unreasonable druid.

    Peuchen – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    A medium flying snake, these creatures can transform into herd animals to trick farmers into giving them access to prey, though given their abilities god only knows what the farmer would do about it. The bites inflict both bleed and Dex damage, they can drain the victims blood for Con damage, they have at will vampiric touch and can hold person 3/day. Their staggering 21 Charisma makes them natural sorcerers.

    Snake, Cobra (Emperor) – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    A Large snake that can climb and swim. Its poison deals Con damage. They're animals, as opposed to the magical beasts above. They've got 17 wisdom, making them potential druids with some more HD.

    Snake, Cobra (King) – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    An variant of the Emperor Cobra. Slower, fewer HD, slightly weaker poison and Strength in exchange for more Con and Cha, and two less CR. Giving it 4 HD to match the Emperor would only increase its CR by one.
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    Lots of good stuff here, dude.

    It'd be nice to get some of these as creature types we can grow in the Flesh Forge, but I especially like the Taniwha and Peuchen. Either one of them would be a great find, but I'm leaning toward the Taniwha a bit more. We could bump its HD up to 12 and add the Advanced and Sorcerer Creature templates to make a very capable CR 10 Sorcerer Snek.
     
    Goldfish said:
    At first I was disappointed when I saw this wasn't the next part of the Spice of Magic series, but that didn't last long. Ceria is always a fun read, her head is screwed on just a bit tighter than most folks'. We're definitely crafting that girl a Ring of Sustenance next month. Early, too, so she'll have it before they set out for Mereen.

    Neat world building, too. I'm picturing Inquisition HQ as a brutalist edifice of black stone which gives off an air of "nothing to see here, folks...or else".
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, makes sense...

    The Spice of Magic is shaping up to be a really involved and long series, TBH, I'm trying to squeeze out an update a week at minimum just because there's just too many world-building details and interconnected pieces and characters to cover.

    If you guys wanted to vote to invest in the expedition, they set out next month. We'd need to vote to let Vrath go with them for example, he's technically been loaned out to us personally so that's not a call Riz'neth can actually make now.
     
    Inserted tally
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 28, 2019 at 4:07 AM, finished with 74 posts and 22 votes.
    • [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM Total Cost)
      -[X] Have him try to write up the actual religious doctrine for his Faith when the insights come to him, it is important for legal reasons.
      -[X] An important detour in your schedule before you move on to the other activities: Discuss Dragon Law with Malarys, Zherys, Rhaella, Nettles, Valaena, Teana and Saenena. This will begin with a discussion of the Crimson Code in general, but only to set the tone for the rest of the discussion. Ultimately, from what you have gathered from associated details on Valyria, the Code only worked because of a mixture of Valyria having external enemies, the most influential Senators' holdings being most at risk to the sheer destruction such repeated civil wars would wreak, and the fact that a number of Syrax's original dark cabal had ensured Valyria's culture would be shaped to be fratricide averse. This is effective only in getting some of the future's most influential mages and warriors to not think of each other as their most important enemy, not sustainable in the long term, even though you imagine you won't run out of external enemies for quite a while, you have generally made a habit of not accepting "good enough" when it comes to those long term problems.
      -[X] This will cover regulations for dragon enclosures. A centralized stabling system would only be sustainable through a dizzying set of logistical feats that would probably impress even the Freehold, but its seems greater folly to not heavily regulate a system that resulted in treacherous agents from actively subverting access to the beasts and, you suspect, even poisoning Balerion, who definitely didn't die of old age or even of his wounds from Valyria. More importantly it would go a long way toward improving Imperial authority. Dragons are strategic resources, it is harder to protect them if they are scattered throughout the empire away from whatever guards and wards you eventually set up, and any housing for them outside of that should be temporary in nature. Better to head any problems here off at the pass. Will probably involve a distributed stabling system, making use of a few long-term locations set up similarly to Claw Isle, repeated in like on Dragonstone and other islands along the coast of your realm. Organized teleportation will eventually have to be used to allow riders to come and go to maintain bonds with their dragons no matter the distance they live from them.
      -[X] This will cover regulations for appropriate ages to hatch or tame dragons. The Valyrians seemed to have the right idea here, though. You wouldn't let someone as rash as Daemon or Aemond try to claim a full grown dragon from the young age they did, setting aside the concern they wouldn't be able to master the older wyrms' will, it just encourages the worst of preexisting tendencies in some given how the bond is soul deep.
      -[X] This will cover regulations regarding usage of Dragons. At its very essence, it's bad habit not to make it clear kinstrife will not be tolerated under any circumstances under Imperial Law, but you will honestly start accepting suggestions from the other people at this meeting for deciding the impetus behind the motion. You are somewhat more confident that in the future state where there are more than a handful of riders of mature dragons, the Imperial Navy will be an institution that no small number of aligned dragonlords will want to tangle with under any circumstances, but in the case of a full-scale conflict they mostly just present a barricade. Your skyships do possess the strategic advantage over riders in that they can outfly most dragons tactically and overland, but any sufficiently skilled mage will be able to move them around with translocation regardless, so the bigger concern then would be terror attacks. Eventually long-term emergency procedures for wide-scale attacks of this nature which mostly target heavily populated areas will have to be written and adopted, but that's a separate concern.
      -[X] This will cover regulations regarding egg distribution and creation of new Dragon Houses. Ultimately, each Dragonlord will be your direct client. The only people who should be granted eggs from stock a House already possesses is their own children and heirs, as they will inherit the same responsibilities and obligations. It is an executive privilege of yours to grant eggs or dragons to new Houses. Though it already seems to be a rare concern given the nature of how dangerous dragon taming can be without an extensive state apparatus or familial resources mitigating risks, if someone from outside these groups should eventually claim or hatch a dragon without permission from the Crown, it will be considered a capital offense of the most grievous nature, a preliminary hearing before the highest Court to determine the degree of guilt will be held, interrogations performed if it should prove systematic, and sentencing carried out by your own hand.
      -[X] This will cover this distinction in terminology between fleshcrafted Dragons of Valyria and True Dragons. You aren't particularly attached to the name you end up giving them, so long as no one makes the mistake of conflating the two, not out of any pride for yourself but for the fact that you have several intelligent dragons under your rule and would rather people associate the non-sentient variety with important military resources and hardware rather than pets. Privately, you don't think you can prevent significant attachments from forming between rider and beast but it isn't a good idea to allow for any ambiguity here. Firewyrms, Imperial Drakes, Greater Dragonbeasts. Whatever seems the best compromise to the pride of Dragonlords.
      [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM Total Cost)
      [X] Help Denys to build a temple in addition to the ritual (Cost 32,000 IM)
    Click to expand...
     
    Part MMMCCLIX: In Crimson Writ
  • Threadmarks
    • In Crimson Writ​

    Twenty Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

    There is little reason to balk at building a temple, you decide. True young Denys Mallery will not be able to organize the matter, between altering the crop blessing rituals and writing down the dogma of the Earth Mother which you ask him to do sooner rather than later for both legal and practical reasons, but that just means more coin organizing architects and craftsmen for the task and coin you are not lacking in. The sooner your people can benefit from the the aid of the elder goddess the better.

    Lost 32,000 IM

    You send Denys into the care of Teana who has seen to many a young student with even more unusual needs than him. Speaking of unusual students, you ask after Joran and Ember. The dragon was getting towards flying weight, particularly for a light rider, and the boy was of course eager to fly, but the headmistress had advised he wait for a fortnight more at Wisdom Saenena's counsel. The erstwhile Lady of Lyceos had privately admitted that she had serious concerns about one as young as Joran riding a dragon at all, not only for the physical peril it might breed, but for the bone-deep bond between dragon and rider that stalked the darker instincts of Valyria's heritage.

    "I haven't seen anything like that in the boy so far, quite the opposite. He's a little too self-effacing, too willing to take the blame for accidents or even the ill work of others," Teana sighs. "It's not really surprising given his history, and he has been getting better about it."

    "But you think there is something to what Lady Calerys is saying?" you ask, the boy's demons are his own, fortune and misfortune woven together by infernal plot, but matters of law and custom are best for a king to consider as a realm is being built.

    "Yes," the sorceress replies grimly. "Grey Ghost is not even that demanding most days, but I certainly could not imagine having him in my head as a child. A great many people would have burned and not all of them deserving of the fate."

    "Probably best to handle this in context so that it can be of one piece, not patched together as flaws and troubles show themselves..."

    ***​

    That is how audiences get put off for another day and you find yourself in Malarys' parlor with not only him and Zherys, your mother and your sister, but also Nettles newly returned from the Western Flatlands where she has been enforcing Imperial law. Teana and Saenena are of course present, being the ones who had helped bring the matter to your attention today, as well as Valaena whom you had to pick up from the deck of the Hunter's Moon less than a week out of Yin. Though she is the youngest dragonrider present besides yourself by a fair margin she did not seem particularly daunted to be asked legal opinion, a far cry indeed from the girl by turn who had first set foot upon the shores of Sorcerer's Deep eager and awestruck.

    No one raises any objection to the notion of regulation against taming dragons too young in principle, though the exact age is the bone of some contention. Malarys and Lady Saenena argue for one and twenty, likely as a reaction to learning of the horrors of the Dance of Dragons and wishing to avoid the dangers that such as Aemod and Daemon posed, while Valaena and Nettles both contend that four and ten is old enough to be responsible for the beasts, bringing as proof not only Valaena's own exemplary service both before and after hatching the egg but also the case of many Scholarum mages who will likely see war long before their twentieth year.

    "We have inquisitors younger than that," Dany points out simply. "A dragon might be more capable of doing immediate and visible damage, but when you count the damage an inquisitor can do through malice or error it is greater."

    In the end the age of hatching a dragon is settled for six and ten through the unlikely alliance of your mother and Zherys. Half your future realm is going to count that the age of reason in any case, and even in the former Valryain colonies and Braavos where local laws favor a higher age it is still somewhat lower than the standards of the Freehold.

    "When a dragonrider lived to see six score years it's no wonder they didn't mind waiting the first brace of years before they hatched the beast," Nettles concludes.

    "They could expect to live that long if they did not perish through violence or subtler malice," you say, not needing to invest the words with any special emphases to get the point across. At the heart of the matter this is what you had brought everyone here to speak of, now to prevent another war of dragonriders.

    Again there is broad agreement in the matter of direct client-patron relationships between the Crown and the Dragon Houses. Valyrian aristocracy to Westerosi nobility to the Clansmen of the Vale, that sort of arrangement resonates with everyone present. Eggs can be passed to one's heirs, as set down under Imperial Law as well as responsibility, and any crimes relating to the clandestine hatching of dragons will be tried before the throne, considered as base a capital crime, though of course circumstances will be taken into consideration. After all, you could easily imagine someone else like Joran being blamelessly tangled in such a plot.

    Malarys is perhaps unsurprisingly the most enthusiastic about central control, having spent years dealing with the Crimson Code of Valyria, which was in the end a compromise between the need to prevent kinstrife and the independence of the Forty Houses. The Forty are no more and with the advent of the Imperial Navy, armed with ships like the Moonchaser and her even larger sisters still on the chalkboard, the threat of any number of allied dragonriders directly challenging royal power is lessened, though as Teana points out with translocation magic such riders could still do a great deal of damage in terror attacks.

    Next you bring up the matter of sentient draconic beings, while Relath could not care less what mortals call the descendants of cursed red wyrms and Amrelath even derives a certain schadenfreude from considering the fates of those who cursed him with undeath, one must consider the Mind Dragons and perhaps others like them who would join the realm as citizens. They cannot be expected to share the name of their kindred with beasts, weapons of war and destruction.

    Several names for lesser dragons are passed about: Firewyrms, Imperial Drakes, Greater Dragonbeasts, etc. In the end the matter is settled on Valyrian Drakes out of common cause between Zherys, Teana, Saenena and Malarys, with the understanding that most people are still going to call them dragons and count intelligence the aberration for a good long while.

    "Amrelath has been getting testy about people calling him a sorcerer who can transform into a dragon, maybe we should have him educate people on the matter," Dany jests.

    "Alas, dragon-terror makes a poor educational tool outside the singular lesson of getting far away from the dragon," you answer dryly.

    The final matter is both the most costly and complex, dragon stabling. One of those gathered doubts is the need, not after learning that even Balerion had likely perished to poison, not age or battle, but the mechanics of it are more complex. How to bring food and from where, what guards can be trusted around a dragon, both not to be subverted by enemies of the realm and not to antagonize the beasts themselves which are notoriously unpredictable around anyone besides their riders.

    Malarys suggests the creation of a Dragon Guard within the Legion, a primarily military organization concerned with protecting the dragons which will also handle procurement of food and other necessities. His reasoning is that starting from a baseline of both loyalty and military discipline will make accidents and subversion less likely. Ideally they are to be equipped with wards against fire, talismans for translocation and far speech to call for aid at need.

    Do you wish to make any changes to the suggestions thus far presented?

    [] No (The Dragon Guard will take up an initial monthly budget of 15,000 IM, which will increase as more facilities are added and more dragons are hatched)

    [] Yes
    -[] Write in

    OOC: Unlike the tax code this is an area where everyone broadly agrees. The Dance of Dragons was stupid, let's not do that again.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Making a full on millitary personel into a glorified pen guard is basically asking them to debase themselves as mere farmers.
     
    Last edited:
    DragonParadox said:
    In Crimson Writ​

    Twenty Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

    There is little reason to balk at building a temple, you decide. It is true that young Denys Mallery will not be able to organize the matter, between altering the crop blessing rituals and writing down the dogma of the Earth Mother which you ask him to do sooner rather than later for both legal and practical reasons, but that just means more coin organizing architects and craftsmen for the task and you do not lack for coin. The sooner your people can benefit from the the aid of the elder goddess the better.

    Lost 32.000 IM

    Soon you send Denys into the care of Teana, who has seen to many a young student with even more unusual needs than him. Speaking of unusual students, you ask after Joran and Ember. The dragon was getting towards flying weight, particularly for a light rider, and the boy was of course eager to fly, but the headmistress had advised he wait for a fortnight more at Wisdom Saenena's counsel. The erstwhile lady of Lyceos had privately admitted that she had serious concerns about one as young as Joran riding a dragon at all, not only for the physical peril it might breed, but for the bone-deep bond between dragon and rider that stoked the darker instincts of Valyria's heritage.

    "I haven't seen anything like that in the boy so far. Quite the opposite, in fact. He's a little too self-effacing, too willing to take the blame for accidents, or even the ill work of others," Teana sighs. "It's not really surprising given his history, though he has been getting better about it."

    "But you think there is something to what Lady Calerys is saying?" you ask, the boy's demons are his own fortune and misfortune woven together by infernal plot, but matters of law and custom are best for a king to consider as a realm is being built.

    "Yes," the sorceress replies grimly. "Grey Ghost is not even that demanding most days, but I certainly could not imagine having him in my head as a child. A great many people would have burned and not all of them deserving of the fate."

    "Probably best to handle this in context so that it can be poured all in one piece rather than patched together as flaws and troubles show themselves..."

    ***​

    That is how audiences get put off for another day, and you find yourself in Malarys' parlor with not only him and Zherys, your mother and your sister, but also Nettles newly returned from the Western Flatlands where she has been enforcing Imperial law. Teana and Saenena are of course present, being the ones who had helped bring the matter to your attention today, as well as Valaena whom you had to pick up from the deck of the Hunter's Moon less than a week out of Yin. Although she is the youngest dragon rider present besides yourself, if by a fair margin, she did not seem particularly daunted to be asked to give legal opinion. A far cry indeed from the girl, by turns eager and awestruck, who had first set foot upon the shores of Sorcerer's Deep.

    No one raises any objection to the notion of regulation against taming dragons too young in principle, though the exact age is the bone of some contention. Malarys and Lady Saenena argue for one and twenty, likely as a reaction to learning of the horrors of the Dance of Dragons and wishing to avoid the dangers that such as Aemond and Daemon posed, while Valaena and Nettles both contend that four and ten is old enough to be responsible for the beasts, bringing as proof not only Valaena's own exemplary service both before and after hatching the egg, but also the case of many Scholarum mages who will likely see war long before their twentieth year.

    "We have inquisitors younger than that," Dany points out simply. "A dragon might be more capable of doing immediate and visible damage, but when you count the damage an inquisitor can do though malice or error..."

    In the end, the age of hatching a dragon is settled for six and ten through the unlikely alliance of your mother and Zherys. Half your future realm is going to count that the age of reason in any case, and even in the former Valyrian colonies and Braavos, where local laws favor a higher age, it is still somewhat lower than the standards of the Freehold.

    "When a dragon rider lived to see six score years, it's no wonder they didn't mind waiting the first brace of years before they hatched the beast," Nettles concludes.

    "They could expect to live that long if they did not perish through violence or subtler malice," you say, not needing to invest the words with any special emphases to get the point across. At the heart of the matter this is what you had brought everyone here to speak of, now to prevent another war of dragon riders.

    Again there is broad agreement in the matter of direct client-patron relationships between the crown and the Dragon Houses. Valyrian aristocracy to Westerosi nobility, to the clansmen of the Vale, that sort of arrangement resonates with everyone present. Eggs can be passed to one's heirs, as set down under imperial law, and any crimes relating to the clandestine hatching of dragons will be tried before the throne, considered at its base a capital offense, though of course circumstances will be taken into consideration. After all, you could easily imagine someone else like Joran being blamelessly tangled in such a plot.

    Malarys is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most enthusiastic about central control, having spent years dealing with the Crimson Code of Valyria, which was in the end a compromise between the need to prevent kinstrife and the independence of the Forty Houses. The Forty are no more, and with the advent of the Imperial Navy armed with ships like the Moonshaser and her even larger sisters still on the chalkboard, the threat of any number of allied dragon riders directly challenging royal power is lessened, though as Teana points out, with translocation such riders could still do a great deal of damage in terror attacks.

    Next you bring up the matter of sentient draconic beings. While Relath could not care less what mortals call the descendants of cursed red wyrms and Amrelath even derives a certain schadenfreude from considering the fates of those who cursed him with undeath, one must consider the mind dragons and perhaps others like them who would join the realm as citizens. They cannot be expected to share the name of their kindred with beasts, weapons of war and destruction.

    Several names for lesser dragons are passed about; Firewyrms, Imperial Drakes, Greater Dragonbeasts. In the end the matter is settled on, Valyrian Drakes out of common cause between Zherys, Teana, Saenena and Malarys, with the understanding that most people are still going to call them dragons and count intelligence the aberration for a good long while.

    "Amrelath has been getting testy about people calling him a sorcerer who can transform into a dragon. Maybe we should have him educate people on the matter," Dany jests.

    "Alas, dragon-terror makes a poor educational tool outside the singular lesson of getting far away from the dragon," you answer dryly.

    The final matter is both the most costly and complex, dragon stabling. None of those gathered doubts the need, not after learning that even Balerion had likely perished to poison not not age or battle, but the mechanics of it are more complex. How to bring food and from where, what guards can be trusted around a dragon, both not to be subverted by enemies of the realm and not to antagonize the beasts themselves, who are notoriously unpredictable around anyone besides their riders.

    Malarys suggests the creation of a dragon guard within the legion, a primarily military organization concerned with protecting the dragons which will also handle procurement of food and other necessities. His reasoning is that starting from a baseline of both loyalty and military discipline will make accidents and subversion less likely. Ideally, they are to be equipped with wards against fire, talismans for translocation, and far speech to call for aid at need.

    Do you wish to make any changes to the suggestions thus far presented?

    [] No (The Dragon Guard will take up an initial monthly budget of 15.000 IM which will increase as more facilities are added and more dragons are hatched)

    [] Yes
    -[] Write in

    OOC: Unlike the tax code this is and area where everyone broadly agrees. The Dance of Dragons was stupid, let's not do that. Not yet edited.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
     
    @DragonParadox, you let us craft a Dragon-sized Ring of Sustenance for Balerion which cost 2500 IM. Can we craft them for our other Dragons at that cost?

    And if we do, how does that effect the monthly costs for their care and maintenance?
     
    Last edited:
    Goldfish said:
    @DragonParadox, you let us craft a Drago-sized Ring of Sustenance for Balerion which cost 2500 IM. Can we craft them for our other Dragons at that cost?

    And if we do, how does that effect the monthly costs for their care and maintenance?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Won't Balerion grow even bigger considering that he did not died of Natural Cause? Thus is still in his growing age?

    What I'm trying to say is that if Balerion kept getting bigger, the ring that we spent Thousands of IM of will be turn to naught.
     
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