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

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Azel said:
The issue is that Benerro might be a bit... surprised? Confused? Creeped out?

He might not take it well if Viserys pops in, asks him to pump his god for intel, then pops back out.
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I think he would actually be quite accommodating, given the circumstances.
 
Goldfish said:
I think he would actually be quite accommodating, given the circumstances.
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Fine. Fine.

It's not as if I wouldn't like some Benerro screen time.

[X] Continue scouting, there is much you do not yet know of
-[X] The young dragon you heard of and any others of that kindred
-[X] Also use careful ddivinatios to figure out uf there are any other Mindblanked forces around.
-[X] Have Benerro contact Burny for more intel on Cole.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Why do we even bother with having Cha 34, in that case? We'll be intense but polite and so obviously wellmeaning, and he's our underling anyway so he can't exactly say no.
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Azel said:
It's a bit like treating the pope as gods secretary.

Which isn't really wrong, but it's rude to be so blatant about it.
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I'm sure considering the circumstances Benerro would be understanding. He recognized Tiamat's name the first time we met him and Dany was still her cleric, and the first reaction was a dire nervous warning. He'd be all for coming down hard on these cultists and making sure we don't mess up our attack.
 
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Interlude DCCXV: Of Love Patient and Kind
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    • Of Love Patient and Kind ​

    Tenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

    Sunhouse, The Reach

    The more time Rhaella spent in the company of Lord Branston Cuy the more convinced she became that he was mad, quietly mad, harmlessly mad from what Glyra and her fellow urchins had been able to gather thank any gods who might be listening, but mad just the same. It was not that the man was flighty, or excitable or any other of those terms one threw around to cover the ugly truth.

    The king is a great man, but he is man of ideas, of vision not dreary numbers. She shook the memory away, it had been a while since one had struck her so abruptly, but it was hard not to see the similarities... and the differences. Lord Branston trusted his wife, people talked about love matches and romance, but it was really a lot simpler. The lady with her honey blond hair bound tightly in a net of pearls and her bright summer blue eyes was the only one who could get her husband to move away from whatever the object of his most recent fascination was. She had learned to do it subtly, carefully so as not to wear away his authority any more than his escapades already did, but it was here just the same as real and to Rhaella's eyes as obvious as holding a hand on his shoulder to keep him from falling.

    "Change is coming to the Seven Kingdoms," Rhaella Targaryen, once queen of the Seven Kingdoms, said while looking into Lady Cedrella's eyes, daughter and sister of landless knights, thrust into effective lordship of one of the principal Hightower vassals. "Not necessarily war, I hope that it will not be war and with each lord that pledges his banners the specter of it grows more distant."

    The other woman watched her carefully, the golden light spilling through the study windows seeming to for a moment turn back the hand of time and offering a glimpse of the girl she must have been on her wedding day. It was not hard to see why people said hers had been a love match, why others whispered cruder speculation. "Branston cannot fight," she said at last, nothing but the blunt truth, the time for careful probing questions past. After a moment she started to add. "That is he has..."

    "I understand," Rhaella said softly. There was a reasons she was here alone. Not that she did not trust the knights sent with her to guard her with their lives, but at the seventh and last they were still knights, sworn to uphold the strictures and oaths between vassal and lord, the same strictures Lady Cedrella had been quietly discounting in her effective undeclared regency. "He will not be asked to lead armsmen personally. I will see to it personally with Lord Hightower."

    A soft sigh escaped the Lady of Sunhouse, her posture relaxed a touch though it was still straight enough to make even the most stringent girl's etiquette teacher nod approvingly. "Thank you..." She hesitated a moment. "Is there anything... any spell that could help?"

    "There is sorcery that might be able to, but it is not perfect," Rhaella explained carefully. "The mind is not a broken bone to set with a splint or torn flesh to put a poultice on. There is only so much magic can do before healing becomes molding. He would have to find his own way."

    Hope brightened Lady Cedrella's features, but beneath that hope Rhaella could read fear and guess its source. Wondering if her husband would still need her, still care for her, wondering what sort of man he would be. She nodded once sharply to herself. "Please send a healer as soon as one is available, Your Grace," she said at last.

    OOC: A bit of a short update but I figured it was worth showing how far Rhaella came from a potential target of Heart's Ease to one who is considering handing it out.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    OOC: A bit of a short update but I figured it was worth showing how far Rhaella came from a potential target of Heart's Ease to one who is considering handing it out. Not yet edited.
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    Heart's Ease will possibly have problems with long-term issues like this.
    Better go straight for Mindrape to set it as it should be, so we don't have to repeat the effort.
     
    Programmed Amnesia is, according to the rules, somehow less Evil than Mindrape. But its effects are really equally horrifying, it's just less evil on the part of the caster (and it's reversible!).
    Sadly I don't think that there's an easy magical solution. An expert could probably use magic to help him the same way existing experts prescribe pills and such as part of a treatment plan, but when you're that fucked there's not much we can realistically do except hire someone and hope.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Mindrape as the name suggests does not heal someone, it just makes them whatever you want, hence it being a truly horrifying thing to do to anyone.
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    I thought you had houseruled at some point that Heart's Ease doesn't do much about natural insanity, unlike short-term trauma or something like that?

    It's not like we should advertise that we could do almost anything with the spell.
    I guess Viserys lacks the knowledge to know what a neurotypical version of this man's brain should look like, but I hope that can be researched.

    Or, if we are going the more metaphysical than neurological route, we could try to get his true name and align his conscious mind closer to his soul or something similar. Dany did once mention that a divergence between the two can cause insanity in humans, I think, while talking to Mereth about the ritual to break her from Hell.
     
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    Artemis1992 said:
    I thought you had houseruled at some point that Heart's Ease doesn't do much about natural insanity, unlike short-term trauma or something like that?

    It's not like we should advertise that we could do almost anything with the spell.
    I guess Viserys lacks the knowledge to know what a neurotypical version of this man's brain should look like, but I hope that can be researched.

    Or, if we are going the more metaphysical than neurological route, we could try to get his true name and align his conscious mind closer to his soul or something similar. Dany did once mention that a divergence between the two can cause insanity in humans, I think, while talking to Mereth about the ritual to break her from Hell.
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    This sounds like, to avoid having to resort to brute force kludging a solution that ends up just being brainwashing, we would need to do some type of soul surgery or really soul analysis, then maybe miracle to replicate an existing magical pattern onto his brain. How that would be different from brainwashing is debatable though... it would be a major change to neural structure.

    Though if he would be happier or not about it is debatable, and obtaining consent would also have moral issues. My guess is that most Outsiders would suggest letting him die. I'm guessing Petitioners don't have this issue.
     
    This doesn't sound like trauma that could be Hearts Eased.

    Better nail him with a few WIS boosters and see how his behaviour changes. Could be something dementia related.
     
    Crake said:
    I'm guessing Petitioners don't have this issue.
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    If what Dany told Mereth is true, Petitioners don't have that kind of problem indeed, because a major disalignment of soul and current self is much more immenently harmful to outsiders, up to true death.

    But more generally, I think there is no difference, or at least no border, between brainwashing and mind-healing. Even completly normal techniques, and medicine, are a form of manipulation that mostly seems different from brainwashing by the careful and slow approach and the good intentions behind it to me.
    So agonizing over which of the two it is is relativly useless.
    The question is, does Viserys as the caster want to fuck with his mind for various reasons, like making him a better subject, or is he willing to restrict his manipulation to make that man what he would be without a mental disease (as far as Viserys can know of course)?
    I think as long as we keep to the latter, there is not much of a moral issue.
     
    Azel said:
    This doesn't sound like trauma that could be Hearts Eased.

    Better nail him with a few WIS boosters and see how his behaviour changes. Could be something dementia related.
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    That's what I was thinking, too. If we cast a Heal or Restoration on him, that could handle actual physical deterioration or damage, if present, and seeing how he responds under the effect of a high level Wisdom boost, such as an Owl's Insight spell, could help determine if he just has a tragically low Wisdom attribute.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    I thought you had houseruled at some point that Heart's Ease doesn't do much about natural insanity, unlike short-term trauma or something like that?

    It's not like we should advertise that we could do almost anything with the spell.
    I guess Viserys lacks the knowledge to know what a neurotypical version of this man's brain should look like, but I hope that can be researched.

    Or, if we are going the more metaphysical than neurological route, we could try to get his true name and align his conscious mind closer to his soul or something similar. Dany did once mention that a divergence between the two can cause insanity in humans, I think, while talking to Mereth about the ritual to break her from Hell.
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    Heart's ease works on all types of mental problems bu it's not a silver bullet, it gets the target to being functional but the rest is up to long term care and healing.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Heart's ease works on all types of mental problems bu it's not a silver bullet, it gets the target to being functional but the rest is up to long term care and healing.
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    So Heart's Ease will deal with abnormal brain chemistry? I think the issue is more or less than some think Heart's Ease is just for regular psychological neuroses that are somewhat tied with neural architecture, and a lot tied up with experience and memory association.

    If it's dementia, is that a thing that can backslide? How do you prevent that?

    We can't even cure dementia IRL. It seems like something miraculous to recover from, therefore it should need a Miracle.
     
    I feel like mental illnesses should qualify for being affected by Cure Disease, especially progressive things like dementia which actively have a corrosive effect on the brain. Mental trauma is another discussion though.
     
    Crake said:
    So Heart's Ease will deal with abnormal brain chemistry? I think the issue is more or less than some think Heart's Ease is just for regular psychological neuroses that are somewhat tied with neural architecture, and a lot tied up with experience and memory association.

    If it's dementia, is that a thing that can backslide? How do you prevent that?

    We can't even cure dementia IRL. It seems like something miraculous to recover from, therefore it should need a Miracle.
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    Hmm... interesting question. I'd say it is less effective against dementia and similar illnesses. I would model that as wisdom drain.
     
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