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

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[X] Receive a report on an ongoing project (interlude series)
-[X] Plane of Earth Investigation.
 
[X] Receive a report on an ongoing project (interlude series)
-[X] Plane of Earth Investigation.
 
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Interlude DCCLX: Eyes Closed and Opened
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    • Eyes Closed and Opened ​

    Previous part here

    Twenty-First Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

    The Dimwell Delving, Plane of Earth

    The attack came at night without so much as a rumble of sorcery through the stone or a taste of danger in the air. Tsevass, but Lord Zherys knew of its approach through some dream or seeing. The light of his staff cast back the dark from the tents of the Earth-Kin, and in that light the Naga saw if only for a moment, blackened flesh flowing, twisting, withering, eyes like poisoned stars looking down upon them all with greed beyond knowing. Tsseth the Thrice Coiled who had once guarded the treasures of Set'Var from thieves and looters knew with the surety of his many years in life and in death that this day he and his companions were the treasure being sought, blood and bone.


    The ancient serpent did not waste his breath summoning lightning, not any other spell to cast upon the foe, knowing that its great eye would shatter such even as the others spewed death and ruin. Instead he wove the blessings of the World Serpent into his scales and his fangs, ready to spit venom into it. Alas the things did not come alone. Hulking, misshapen things charged out of the darkness of the cavern, their teeth too large for their mouths, aborted limbs grasping and twitching in their flesh, though each of them sported at least a functioning third arm.


    The arrows of the Fallen seem to scarce scratch the creatures' leathery hides, and their master's magic warded them against whatever powers the merchants tried to turn against them. Then two of them fell to dust under the power of the Eater of Magic and another under the thrall of the flesh-shaper. A fourth began to dance under the power of the their own far-traveling singer. Their foe was ill pleased to have lost a full two thirds of his servants in the first few moments of the attack.

    Unnatural words scratched at the walls of the world, but whatever they had been meant to do faded the pale grasping light that shrouded Zherys Naethyreon, seeming to make him shine all the brighter instead. Between one moment and the next the mage flickered to the side where the great eye could not see and then another line of all-consuming fire tore into the watcher, leaving naught but a rain of dust.

    Absent their master's will the remaining Giants tried to flee, and for their efforts they died a touch more tired under the arrows and spells of the defenders.

    "Did you have to slay it?" the other dragonkin sighed. "I could have asked it about its work."

    "Would you truly wish to adopt any flesh-shaping techniques of its devising?" The sorcerer's eyes slid over the giants meaningfully.

    "Fair point," she agreed after a moment. Turning to the Far Traveler she added, "Wisdom Xor if you might peer into the Giants' thoughts for anything of use, particularly the origin of the bilestone..."

    "Y-you're one of them," the merchant stuttered looking at the five-eyed singer returned to his true form. "What do you want?"

    Sometimes Tsevass wondered how warm bloods had ever managed to overcome the Children of Yss.

    Bodies
    1 Beholder Wizard Creature advanced to 13 HD (CR 15)
    4 Athach (14 HD CR 12)

    Prisoners
    2 Athach

    What do you do next?

    [] Write in

    OOC: So yeah, it turns out Zherys' combination of a strong defense and good action economy makes him very powerful in a fight. Hope the Naga's perspective worked. It wasn't very long, but then neither was the fight and I did not feel it was worth fleshing out the merchants that none of the characters present would actually care about beyond being bait.
     
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    • Damn. A Wizard Creature Beholder is serious business. Sure, a Beholdermage might be able to pay down more spells in a single round, but they sacrifice their AMF eye and their other eye beams to do it. The Wizard template gives them the ability to use magic while keeping all of their other eye-related abilities intact.

    And it brought six Athach with it...

    This attack could have gone very differently if we hadn't sent such a powerful group to handle the investigation.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    it turns out Zherys' combination of a strong defense and good action economy makes him very powerful in a fight
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    I'm feeling so smug right now. I know that OOC things didn't work like that, but IC this totally validates my fear of him way back when he was an enemy!

    Oh, and the last line of the update was just great. It's why I gave the post a funny rating. Instant tone shift!
     
    To be fair, all of the non-moronic warmbloods ended up in charge of everything pretty quickly, if you think about it...
     
    TalonofAnathrax said:
    I'm feeling so smug right now. I know that OOC things didn't work like that, but IC this totally validates my fear of him way back when he was an enemy!

    Oh, and the last line of the update was just great. It's why I gave the post a funny rating. Instant tone shift!
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    Click to shrink...
    We built Zherys to be powerful. Disintegrate! PEW! PEW!

    The others are hardly pushovers, either. Xor and Saenena are both deadly spellcasters, and even the Guardian Naga hits above his weight class.

    I did get a good chuckle out of that last line.
     
    [X] Continue the investigation into the Beholder's machinations here on the Plane of Earth, including locating it lair.
     
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