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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
- Location
- Germany
Planeshift is good for bringing in elite troops, but it can't transport armies.
If they open Gates we will try to disrupt them. Of course the details if that is possible come after a lot of scouting, but in principle Hellven is not so connected to Hell that they can bring in unlimited reinforcement.
In this case the fucked up nature of the Plane can even be an advantage to us, as it makes troop movements via Teleport (as usual for Devils) difficult.
If (I know big if), we can prevent massive reinforcements in and directly around Heaven's Shore, then we'll have time to finish the conquest because additional troops from outlying locations will have to come by wing and foot through bad terrain.
To the second point I got the impression that Heaven is significantly less fought over than the other good planes. There isn't nearly as much to loot or conquer left here as in Nirvana, so the attacks are proportionally smaller.
I would find it strange if Hellven is constantly guarded by more than one Legion and a Duke-equivalent to lead them.
That would, in a vague guess, mean Devils in the low thousands led by a commander in the mid-twenty CR. (Looking at the Unique Devils on PFSRD we have low- to mid twenties for all of them)
Not an easy goal, but if we are well prepared it doesn't seem utterly impossible.
Can't say anything on the third point.
All things together I'm not saying we are ready now, or in a few months, but taking Heaven is propably not significantly harder than the war with the Deep Ones that will propably (if we want it or not), be our first war on a similar scale.
- Location
- France
@Artemis1992, why exactly do you want to conquer Hellven? It's doing fine as is for now, and I think the place could do without more war.
I'll likely not take the maximum cheese option, honestly. The medium cheese is fine by me.
But why totemist in particular? Do you want the combat utility, or can it do stuff outside of combat?
I'm fine with Unchained Monk. Monk needs more love.
I'll likely not take the maximum cheese option, honestly. The medium cheese is fine by me.
Incarnum stuff is fine, including totemist.
But why totemist in particular? Do you want the combat utility, or can it do stuff outside of combat?
Pls no Pathfinder, it makes me sad.
Perfect Scholar is cool. In five years you can Plane Shift out.
- Location
- Germany
What's your issue with Pathfinder?
- Location
- Germany
1. If, only if, the conflict with Asmodeus escalates further this is a way to deny an influx of souls and slaves to Hell.
2. For PR and morale purposes having Heaven not controlled by Fiends is a big deal. Making an alliance with the remnants of the Archon goverment currently puppeted by Devils will also be useful here.
3. If we ever want to even start on research projects to shut out the Void this is the perfect place to work on.
4. Further research of the Plane could also be relevant to our planebuilding/ replacing Heaven ideas.
- Location
- France
1 : I'm still salty over them making Pathfinder a whole new game and not just a 3.5 fix. It fixes some stuff, but then changes others in ways I don't like (feats, Traits, etc). It's been years, but fuck it, I can hold a petty nerd grudge over not getting exactly what I wanted.
2 : Pathfinder has an insane amount of splats and content, much of it really poorly balanced and/or thought it. It's rich to say this as I play 3.5, but it's still true.
3 : I can't easily access most Pathfinder resources. Not only do I not own them, but the pfsrd that everyone always links to isn't accessible to me, which makes checking any Pathfinder stuff a massive pain.
- Location
- Germany
Might as well call it now. That's definitely a bust.
The issue that Heaven has is that it's metaphysically broken to the point of dissolving and that despite the place being literally carved into the pillars of reality.
Research there would only help if you wanted to feed a god and his homeplane to the Void.
- Location
- Germany
ArchivesofNethis is a decent alternative, though not as good as PFSRD to me.
- Location
- Germany
1 and 2: Ah, the joys of hating on the new edition. Carry on. *goes back to hating on everything Shadowrun after 3rd Edition*
3: Ok, what? Is the site banned in France?
- Location
- Germany
That's too bad.
I knew we couldn't repair it, but I hoped we could at least learn enough about Heaven-that-was to copy some of the features for our own Plane.
No matter, we'll look into the still-standing parts of Nirvana then I guess.
If we need it at all and can't work things out from the Dream, our divine aid and basic research.
- Location
- France
Most of these things don't require us to invade Hell though, do they? "War" isn't the only way to access a place.
Although to be fair, I don't really want to have peaceful diplomatic/trade relations with Asmodeus. Fuck that guy. Still, it is better than war...
Until recently it was rejected by my OpenDNS (and I've lost the password for that...) and these days I get a security error I can't get around.
- Location
- Germany
No, they don't all require war.
But they do require an at least neutral relation with Asmodeus. And given our current conflict on the Material that seems increasingly unlikely.
We can't just make a covered research base or mass-free slaves when the local authorities (of Mythic power and with great divinatory abilities) are activly fighting us.
- Location
- Germany
Eh. Ultimately that goal is easier to achieve by poking a divine realm.
Of course, that would require a friendly god letting you do that and that wouldn't be free. Who knows what fiendishly difficult tasks would have to be achieved and what ruinous price be paid to get such aid?
... or maybe a big funnel will do ...
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Germany
Does his divine realm work as a fully functional afterlife though?
I'm not sure we have confirmed that yet.
- Location
- Germany
I'm pretty sure it is confirmed. Otherwise, there are still other options like Burny.
Inserted tally
Part MMMCCLXXIX: By Bloody Threads
By Bloody Threads
Second Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
Gently you shake the young lord awake and explain what needs to be done and why. He struggles to be brave or seem to at least, but clearly finds the thought of anyone looking through his mind and memories terrifying. Thankfully Nizuss takes the chance to pop his head out of Jeyne's bag as though just waking from slumber, drawing a giggle from the boy that only grows louder as the mind dragon says something heard only to the child.
Once young Lord Maron and his mother are more at ease the dragon binds you, Vee and Jeyne together in his web of mental communion while Ser Richard chooses to stand apart. "I'd be no use in wizard's work," he says aloud, but from the way his hand finds Oathkeeper's hilt you guess what he does not say. Best to have a guard who is not distracted with tangled memories should the Deep Ones choose to act in a more physical manner. Beyond the walls of the tower the sea still rages against the shore.
The words of the spell are familiar upon your lips, though usually from far darker moments than this. You lay a hand on the boy's brow and see...
...the fear of being set in an unfamiliar place, suspicious glances quickly averted and insincere apologies, his mother's face pale and drawn...
...the world glimpsed through the holes in a net, the smell of salt and stale sweat, the crunch of scales underfoot, a child's game turned deadly earnest...
Don't find me, don't find me, don'tfindme...
Memories fade into a grey haze that might be the mind's natural guard against things best left forgotten or something more sinister. There is no arcane resonance, no subtle song of sorcery. Yet you cannot be sure for this is no power of the Spheres. Frustration dances along the thread of communion like ephemeral fire.
"Look for anchors, familiar faces, his mother, his father, maybe his old nurse," Jeyne calls back across the thread of power.
"Not his mother, his fear of being parted from her is part of the veil of fear," Nizuss adds.
"His father died in the Greyjoy Rebellion," you reply, recalling the first message you had gotten from the Reader a few days ago. "Perhaps..." Something ripples through the mental landscape before you like a stone cast into a pond. Not one ripple but two, like a film of water on oil, and before the distinction can be lost you ask: "When did you last see your father?"
Joy... sorrow... dreaming... waking... A craggy face worn by salt and wind floats to the surface of Maron Volmark's mind. "Three months ago."
"There were shape-shifters in the keep, maybe it was one of them trying to get something out of him," Vee offers softly. "Or the Mind Eaters could have just used magic to veil themselves, like the one that brought wildfire to Sorcerer's Deep."
"What did he smell like?" Jeyne asks surprising you. "Was it stale and musty with a painful tang more taste than odor, like rotten meat bathed in strange spices?" A memory from her own emerging dreams of captivity you suspect but you do not have the time to ask even if you wanted to. Fear and confusion rises from the boy's mind like a thunderstorm, almost enough to push you out entirely out of sheer surprise but you just barely manage to cling on as the memories wash over you.
...you see Darick Volmark again but pale and bloodless, a corpse bloated from the sea and something else. Something worse crawls under the skin like a swarm of maggots, but somehow you know united in purpose, as a part of it squirms under his eye you catch a glimpse of blood red ridges and almost feathery tendrils.
Pushing through the lurch of disgust in your stomach at the image of a half-enchanted child being lulled into trusting the infested corpse of his father you reach out to Jeyne physically and once more gift her with a measure of draconic lore before describing the thing to her.
For a moment she is silent before replying: "That looks a little like a neogi spawn, but those should not live inside corpses, or living victims for that matter, it's been altered somehow, probably legless too...." The description she gives of a scuttling horror with an innate power to subdue the minds of others by poison and sheer tyrannical will is dreadful enough without considering how the Deep Ones may have made its brood 'fit to purpose'. "The spawn shouldn't even have any magic to enslave someone."
Even as she speaks these words the veil of grey parts a little further in response to your next question. You see the dead lord's corpse reach out to touch his son's brow so carefully one might almost mistake the motion for affection, that is if one did not see the flesh of his fingertips burst like an overripe fruit as something like a worm filled with lumps and growths crawls on the boy's face and into his ear.
It's still in there you realize, somehow responsibility for the greater clarity Jeyne feels.
What do you do?
[] Try to have Vee operate to extract the parasite
-[] Write in
[] Speak to the other children
-[] Write in
[] Travel to Volmark and see the ruined ritual chamber for yourself
-[] Write in
OOC: I thought about taking this further, but I figured that finding a psionic parasite in your subject would be worth breaking for a vote.
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Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay, so the boy have some magical-parasites inside his brain. Great, just great. Good thing we have Vee though...
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
Ugh, brain parasites are the worst!
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
If the boy was turned to stone, @DragonParadox, does Viserys think the parasite would be as well?
And shouldn't a Restoration spell be enough to remove a parasite?
And shouldn't a Restoration spell be enough to remove a parasite?
It depends on how distinct they are from one another, the fear is that the parasite ate and replaced something vital, so restoration might kill the kid or leave him catatonic as he suddenly lacks vital brain functions.