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

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DragonParadox said:
He does not just object to it morally, he thinks it's pragmatically stupid. Power does not guarantee good will. A fiend could kill that dragon, a malicious sentient undead etc...
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And those types could very easily just straight up go walk into his kingdom and murder him without bothering with collecting any "reward", or set up a cult, or start the zombiapocalyse, etc.

Remember, he already killed the dragon the kingdom couldn't deal with in the first place, otherwise the whole point would be gone.

EDIT: Hell, it don't need to be a princess, it could be a prince too. In the outer planes it should be more common for females to have higher levels since forever, and yet the point would still stand.

If it comes to a point where the ruler wants to welcome someone into the royal family on the premise he or she is the biggest badass on the region that killed the monster a whole kingdom could do nothing about, maybe the ruler in question had better motives than "because she's an asshole."
 
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ryuan said:
Kind of miss the point, since if that were enough they both A) didn't get the princess kidnapped in the first place, and B) didn't need to offer the princess hand as reward.

It's a royal marriage, those things tend to be a very big deal even if she's not the heir.
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The dragon did wait until the city's military was otherwise engaged. This seems more like a risk and cost mitigation scheme than anything else to me. If the king didn't feel he could defend himself from the dragon it would be stupid for him to publicly put a price on Galzerai's head.

It makes more sense for him to do this if he's not sure that the losses would be worth it, or that the dragon would go for a spite kill if he was losing.

By using his daughter's hand in marriage as a reward he doesn't have to keep a substantial material reward, like a title or money/artifacts, out of circulation.

From that perspective he basically gets free assassins until someone actually pulls it off, at which point he has a powerful in law that is unlikely to be so powerful that it could roll his whole state. A prospective dragon slayer who could do that wouldn't need to bother with the marriage in the first place.

It's a win win for everyone but his kids.

edit: autocorrupt error
 
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For the dragonslayer not bothering, that's why it's a bribe. Because said dragon slayer can demand anything but the total ruination of the kingdom in monetary compensation, but if he's part of the royal family he's less likely to burn it to the ground for cash or something.

Again, bribe.

And the prince/ss do have a win, their children get maybe inherit some of their badass parent talents, or be taught by them, and they get the protection of said dragonslayer.

Some people do put a whole lot of value on surviving and stability.

If everything else fails, it still gives them time to find good assassins, get better themselves, or some other white knight type to come in, save the day from their former 'savior' and leave with the sunset without asking for a reward.
 
This isn't bumblefuck nowhere, this is the Plane of Water, where magic has been uninterrupted and everyone's got SLAs. You can't just roll the place with character levels like we've been doing back home.
 
ryuan said:
And those types could very easily just straight up go walk into his kingdom and murder him without bothering with collecting any "reward", or set up a cult, or start the zombiapocalyse, etc.

Remember, he already killed the dragon the kingdom couldn't deal with in the first place, otherwise the whole point would be gone.
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The kingdom can deal with the dragon, it just can't deal with the dragon, while also not leaving themselves wide open to other attacks, the problem is that the dragon has an army too, it led a daring raid on the kingdom while they were fighting the Illithid, and then retreated behind its own defenses, the kingdom could crack those defenses open, but it would be costly, and it would leave them vulnerable to a third party attacking them.

The whole reason the dragon could kidnap the prince and princess, was that a lot of the kingdoms might was off fighting the Illithids, if they send the force needed to defeat the dragon, the Illithids might take the chance to attack them while they're weak.
 
Yet the dragon came in, took her off and got away with it, so the whole problem is not exactly trivial either.

But hey, if those people are so capable the problem will solve itself out, and the dragon slayer better have at least poison immunity because obviously the princess in question will murder him in his sleep.
 
Tor's spells are kinda messed up. He's missing a 1st level spell, and it looks like a 2nd level spell was accidentally included as a 1st level spell. I'm going to include it here, because he shouldn't have had it yet, but it fits now, along with putting in two new 1st level spells. That will bring him up to four 1st level spells and two 2nd level spells as a 5th level Sorcerer.

This isn't an exciting level up for Anu, just some more skill points and progression toward accessing 8th level spells.

[X] We might still find mercenary companies for hire among the nearby Marid Emirates.
-[X] While the Moonchaser travels to Kelasi, first visit the Emirate of Dawa, whose net-wielding forces distinguished themselves during their war with the Deep Ones. We will attempt to hire mercenaries and perhaps even acquire the aid of Dawa's military in our approaching conflict with the Deep Ones..

[X] Shadow Tor Level Up
-[X] Attribute: +1 Charisma
-[X] Class: +1 Sorcerer (5th level)
-[X] Skills (3 points): +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Spellcraft
-[X] Spell:
--[X] 1st Level: Shield, Vanish
--[X] 2nd Level: Touch of Idiocy

[X] Anu Level Up
-[X] Class: +1 Wizard
-[X] Skills (6 points): +1 Concentration, +1 Craft (Metalworking), +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (The Planes)
 
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ryuan said:
Yet the dragon came in, took her off and got away with it, so the whole problem is not exactly trivial either.
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He's a grown-up Dragon. There's a reason they're so feared, you know. Your kingdom can have all the defenses you want, but in the end it's hard to keep out a rich and well-prepared grown Dragon. Those things are amazing infiltrators, skilled mages, shapeshifters, siege units and WMDs all in one.

"The Dragon waited until we were vulnerable and kidnapped someone important" is a valid security flaw. However "I will fuck up my own succession by setting up an unstable marriage likely to end in murder" is just idiocy on top of terrible parenting.
 
ryuan said:
Yet the dragon came in, took her off and got away with it, so the whole problem is not exactly trivial either.

But hey, if those people are so capable the problem will solve itself out, and the dragon slayer better have at least poison immunity because obviously the princess in question will murder him in his sleep.
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It's not a trivial problem, it's just not a case of them being unable to deal with the dragon either, it's a case of it being very costly for them to deal with the dragon, and so they would rather first, see if they can get away with paying a bounty to get rid of the dragon, instead of challenging it to a fight themselves.

The dragon might actually be able to defeat them, because the dragon is a ruler itself with its own armies, so this isn't exactly random monster kidnap royal children, it's enemy country kidnap royal children, and the kingdom decided that they would like to see whether some adventurers could solve the problem, before committing to a costly and risky war, as even in the likely case the adventurers fail, they will have weakened the dragons army a bit.
 
Don't forget to vote, ya'll. DP needs Tor's level up for the mission he's currently on with Mors, Mia, Anya, and some of our other people.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jan 17, 2020 at 9:23 PM, finished with 25 posts and 6 votes.
  • [X] Shadow Tor Level Up
    -[X] Attribute: +1 Charisma
    -[X] Class: +1 Sorcerer (5th level)
    -[X] Skills (3 points): +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Spellcraft
    -[X] Spell:
    --[X] 1st Level: Shield, Vanish
    --[X] 2nd Level: Touch of Idiocy
    [X] Anu Level Up
    -[X] Class: +1 Wizard
    -[X] Skills (6 points): +1 Concentration, +1 Craft (Metalworking), +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (The Planes)
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@Duesal, that was the vote closing on the last update's plan. We haven't voted on where to go first, the Dragon or Kelasi.

Speaking of which, if we're going to Kelasi clearly we intend to picking a fight with Galzi. If we go to the Dragon's Domain first, chances are we'll be getting more clever with our resolution.

Personally I expect our expectations to be subverted if we look a little closer at the situation than what is, on the face of things, likely some degree of mutual dick-baggery on the Emir's part. I'm not saying the dragon's not known for a little dickishness, but on the other hand he's pretty much done nothing more than what we've done, and clearly recognizes how not to squeeze blood from a stone and strangle trade with his tolls.
 
Crake said:
@Duesal, that was the vote closing on the last update's plan. We haven't voted on where to go first, the Dragon or Kelasi.

Speaking of which, if we're going to Kelasi clearly we intend to picking a fight with Galzi. If we go to the Dragon's Domain first, chances are we'll be getting more clever with our resolution.

Personally I expect our expectations to be subverted if we look a little closer at the situation than what is, on the face of things, likely some degree of mutual dick-baggery on the Emir's part. I'm not saying the dragon's not known for a little dickishness, but on the other hand he's pretty much done nothing more than what we've done, and clearly recognizes how not to squeeze blood from a stone and strangle trade with his tolls.
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Shit, you're right. Where should we go in the Reach? Or elsewhere? I'll add it to my plan.
 
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Goldfish said:
Shit, you're right. Where should we go in the Reach? Or elsewhere? I'll add it to my plan.
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Off to Kelasi! If we're going to pick a fight with the dragon.

Or off to the dragon, if we want to be more clever. Which doesn't necessarily rule out a fight. If we find out he's not someone we want to truck with, anyway.
 
Okay, plan updated. The Moonchaser has five days of transit ahead of it, so we can try to get a few things accomplished in the meantime.

[X] We might still find mercenary companies for hire among the nearby Marid Emirates.
-[X] While the Moonchaser travels to Kelasi, first visit the Emirate of Dawa, whose net-wielding forces distinguished themselves during their war with the Deep Ones. We will attempt to hire mercenaries and perhaps even acquire the aid of Dawa's military in our approaching conflict with the Deep Ones.
--[X] Moonsong seems eager for battle and acclaim, understandable for a Fey of her standing and experience, but this is not the time or place to risk herself, her ship, or her crew recklessly. If a dangerous situation arises while in transit, she is to contact us via Sending Stone so that we might return and help as necessary.
-[X] We will attempt to arrange a meeting between ourselves and Galzerai or his representative, in neutral territory of course, after we depart from the Emirate of Dawa. There is obviously much more to this story than we have been told thus far and we should endeavor to learn both sides before we intervene.

[X] Shadow Tor Level Up
-[X] Attribute: +1 Charisma
-[X] Class: +1 Sorcerer (5th level)
-[X] Skills (3 points): +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Knowledge (The Planes), +1 Spellcraft
-[X] Spell:
--[X] 1st Level: Shield, Vanish
--[X] 2nd Level: Touch of Idiocy

[X] Anu Level Up
-[X] Class: +1 Wizard
-[X] Skills (6 points): +1 Concentration, +1 Craft (Metalworking), +1 Knowledge (Arcana), +1 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (The Planes)
 
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Goldfish said:
[X] We might still find mercenary companies for hire among the nearby Marid Emirates.
-[X] While the Moonchaser travels to Kelasi, first visit the Emirate of Dawa, whose net-wielding forces distinguished themselves during their war with the Deep Ones. We will attempt to hire mercenaries and perhaps even acquire the aid of Dawa's military in our approaching conflict with the Deep Ones..
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Not a bad plan. We do need troops still.

[X] Goldfish
 
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