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

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Crake said:
If you think about it, fish memes are inherently dank. 🤓
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Part MMMCDXXIV: Shadowed Woods and Lying Bones
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    • Shadowed Woods and Lying Bones ​

    Twenty-Sixth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

    In the end the decision was easy one, magic will often keep one safe where mundane skill fail. If only your second task of the day were quite so straightforward. Looking down from the shaded crest of a nearby hill upon the green vale which gives Grassfield Keep its name, it looks to be as peaceful as any corner of Westeros can be in these tumultuous times. A herd of long-horned cows moves slowly down the road to market while men in straw hats and women covering their hair with scarves against the glare of the noonday sun work the fields.

    "It certainly looks like someone brought a tapestry about rich lands and honorable lords to life," Lya says from beside you. She had decided to come along today to see a little more of a realm still strange to her. "Just the sort of place the Court of Stars hope to keep 'unspoiled'." She practically bites out the last word. Though far from wrathful by nature, Lya has taken particular offense to the notion of a land forever shackled to its past, never changing, never growing. "A pity for them the lord slammed the door in their face."

    "It's not that much better for us," you point out. "Young Lord Elwood is said to have a disdain for all magic, not merely rituals of land-binding, after his father's death."

    "So find the monster, if monster it be, take its head, and use it to get in the door," Ser Richard says, motioning to the dark treeline beyond the village where no watcher even perched upon the tallest tower of the keep could see.

    "And if it is just a bear or boar, made more of by the companions who had to excuse the late lord's death?" you ask ruefully. "I doubt the boy would be impressed to be presented with a beast's head after he's grown so attached to the idea of some slavering Fiend in the woods." You could accuse the witnesses of lying and offering false counsel to Lord Elwood, but that would be little more than words in the wind. You need to find out just how the late Lord of Grassy Vale fell and prove it in a way that does not rely upon magic alone, though magic can certainly pull the first thread.

    "Couldn't we just ask his bones?" Lya asks simply. "We can prove it with other accounts after that."

    Seeing no reason why her plan could not work you veil yourself against sight and sound and slip into the crypt. Newer by far than the crypts of Runestone and not near as dark as those of Dragonstone they are still a somber place filled with the echoes of scores of lives cut short, some old, some uncomfortably new. Beside the late lord's bones are two markers with the same year, two-hundred-and-eighty nine after the conquest, and the names of two girls Celia and Rhea Meadows, sisters or cousins of Elwood by their date of birth.

    The question of how their death could have influenced the young lord is all but forgotten when you reach the alcove you had been seeking and discover the bones had never belonged to the late Lord Luthor Meadows, but to a poacher who had died weeks before of an infected wound and knew nothing of any hunting accidents or magic beasts.

    What do you do next?

    [] Continue your investigation
    -[] Write in

    [] Speak to Elwood Meadows
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: A vote on which lord to go to would have seemed like a bit of a waste overnight so I went with Elwood here and rolled of a bit of investigating.
     
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    • Questions for the poacher on what he saw, perhaps? We definitely need more information before approaching Lord Meadows.

    We could also resurrect the Poacher in front of Elwood for that eye witness bonus.

    I just realized that the Poacher was probably an intentional coverup on Elwood's part, but the question is why?
     
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    Crake said:
    Questions for the poacher on what he saw, perhaps? We definitely need more information before approaching Lord Meadows.

    We could also resurrect the Poacher in front of Elwood for that eye witness bonus.
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    Given the disposition of Lord Elwood I wouldn't put it past him to accuse us of enslaving the poacher to our will if we did that. We can resurrect the poacher, but he's not going to be much use in the way of proof, just providing a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow.
     
    [X] Send basic divinations toward both the 'late' Lord Luthor, if that indeed he be, and toward his son Lord Elwood and also the Poacher.
    -[X] {1 Elwood Chain
    --[X] 1.1 Did Elwood intentionally use the corpse of the dead poacher as part of a cover-up related to his father's apparent death or disappearance?
    ---[X] 1.2 If so then was it because his father to his knowledge remains alive but out of reach or dead in a way that would could not be made known?
    ----[X] 1.3 Does Lord Elwood truly hate sorcery, or is that just a credible story to excuse keeping mages or the magical from poking about his lands digging for clues?
    -----[X] 1.4 Does Lord Elwood have a motive for becoming Lord over his father in an immediate sense?
    ------[X] 1.5 Does Lord Elwood have enemies? Continue this line of inquiry until they are narrowed down based on likelihood of related cause and effect.
    -[X] {2 Luthor Chain
    --[X] 2.1 Was Lord Luthor attacked in the woods?
    ---[X] 2.2 If so, what was he attacked by? Narrowing it down so as not to bog up the chain, Viserys guesses some sort of were-creature, or some kind of darkfey (narrowing down further using our vast lore based on cursory clues provided by divinations). Will reevaluate this point of inquiry based on other findings.
    ----[X] 2.3 Anyone have any motives for targeting Lord Luthor?
    ------[X] 2.4 Does/did Lord Luthor have enemies? Continue this line of inquiry until they are narrowed down based on likelihood of related cause and effect.
    -------[X] 2.5 Is his wife aware of his whereabouts or fate? Repeat inquiry with any other living direct family.
    -[X] {3 Poacher Chain
    --[X] 3.1 Is the Poacher unrelated to this chain of events and just a convenient part of a cover-up? Based on awareness or connection to this, investigate further.
    -[X] Make note of any inquiry which runs into wards, as it will dramatically change your investigation's focus. Evaluate for more lines of inquiry after you have received your first set of answers.
     
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    [X] Crake

    This could be a very interesting mystery we've stumbled upon.
     
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    [X] Crake

    Does Viserys quailfy to be a detective by this point in the quest? Just how many hats have we made him wear by now?
     
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    Andy0915 said:
    [X] Crake

    Does Viserys quailfy to be a detective by this point in the quest? Just how many hats have we made him wear by now?
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    Viserys has the Strategic modifer "Elusive Shadow", which means in general terms that he can act as a Spymaster, and in relative terms that he's a paragon of intrigue.

    Just like he's a master diplomat (words arguably being one of his greatest weapons) and an inspiring leader, as well as a genius entrepreneur and extraordinary administrator, a prescient judge and to top it all off a great city and nation builder.

    An overwhelmingly powerful archmage who is a veteran of over a hundred life or death battles and duels.

    The thing he's least skilled at is pure theoretical research... and he can still do that and any other action just by being so doggedly stubborn, and he certainly doesn't lack the knowledge to turn his hand at just about any subject except the ones that require dedicated study and specializing, such as fleshcrafting and artifice. And he still knows enough about both that he could probably create some pretty good research documents, filed and organized better than an expert would have done it.

    Basically, "what isn't Viserys good at" is a better question.

    The answer is singing, until he decides it isn't.
     
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