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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:
Shapers of Form​

Fifteenth Day of the First Month 294 AC

Before Gogossos there had been Gorgai, a city of Old Ghys, washed by the waters of the Amber River, guarded by walls of stone and legions girdled in iron. Before that perhaps there has been some other nameless settlement of the Sothoryi washed away in water and silt, yet Saenena Caleris thought it was this newest incarnation of the city that was somehow the least human. Even in the days when the flesh-smiths of old held sway here, you would not have seen so many strange and arcane beings abroad under the light of day.

Black-clad warriors animated with the cold symphonies of death walked in lockstep, most mindless automatons, though one in every fifty was commanded by spirits of curdled blood and ancient spite seeking to turn the weapons of their old foe against itself. Packs of wolves, filled with the light of the southern sun and the wisdom of older times patrolled through the docks to help the city's more permanent guards until it was their time to be carried over the sea, while black cats slinked through the shadows, their tread disturbing not a single leaf.

In one of the larger squares, the gardeners wove their magics into choruses seemingly with no greater purposes than amusing themselves and testing out the limitations of form, but to Saenena's gaze the display was... almost frightening. So many of them, not trained, not bred from dragon's blood, not even steeped in flesh as the servants of the gods were, but simply birthed to magic from the first hour of their blooming. They did not fear death and did not know fear in the face of any foe save one.

The erstwhile Lady of Lyceos sometimes wondered if her new patron understood what he had unleashed upon the world, but then she recalled his expression when the first mind dragon had awoken and pledged to him. He knew and he understood that he had wrought what the Lords Freeholder had always feared. In such times as these, however, what choice did any of them have?

A shadow passed over the face of the sun, a winged form sleek and black, the chill of evening's shadows clinging to its wings. The first of the Myrkdreki were out in the world already. Qyburn and the chain fiend were outdoing themselves in swiftness, decanting the newest, strongest creations of the forge. That could only mean one thing, they had unraveled the last of the tangles of their current task.

Project Praetorian Complete 30/19

Eager hopefuls would soon step into the depths of the forge and Praetori would step out. The sorceress could certainly understand young Viserys' desire for such soldiers, obedient and fearless as the dead could be, wise as were the children of the Greendream, this was still a realm of mortal men also, and they aught to share the burden of its guarding against even the blackest of threats. Men could be treacherous and foolish, vain, greedy, and spiteful, this Saenena had learned in her girlhood, but in this ruined world, striving to match the ruins of what had come before she learned of the strengths of men also, of valor and will, of brilliant wit in the strangest places, and ambition shining bright against the darkness that would envelop all if it were not warded and pushed back.

Had anyone been close enough to the lady when she stepped through the spell-forged gate into the depths of the forge, they might have heard her hum the melody to an old battle song, its verses lost to history.

***
​
"We believe the results are stable enough for live trials," Three ever-twinning serpent's heads hissed as one. "The mental degradation is still too severe for long term deployment of course, but much can be learned from putting it all together."

Though Saenena had not prayed properly since she was a little girl, still waiting to be granted her egg, she briefly considered begging Ever-Watchful Syrax for patience. "Do you want the girl to skin you for birthing a creature doomed to madness and uncontrolled mutation due to far realm energies?"

"The mutation has been brought down to within a tenth of a percentile of initial attempts," Urax said in what it probably imagined was a sweet and conciliatory tone. Someone should probably inform it that it was quite a waste of effort from one of such mien.

"Which would still slash the viable lifespan of subjects by a third," the sorceress sighed. In a flash of inspiration, she added. "Look, this if an entire paradigm of mental powers foreign to the spheres we are experimenting with here. Would you truly wish it to be said that our first creation capable of harnessing them was so flawed as to shatter more readily than the raw materials from which it is wrought?"

"No," a single voice agreed, but thankfully the others raised no protest.

A Method to Madness Progress 29/40

What next?

[] Receive a report (Interlude series)
-[] From Slaver's Bay
-[] From Ghoyan Drohe
-[] From the Sea of Fire
-[] From he Southern Seas
-[] Write in

[] Continue to the Reach
-[] Write in where to begin

[] Write in

OOC: I tried to include as many flesh-forged creations here without making it into one giant list. Hope it worked. Not yet edited.
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Great Saenena POV, DP. Between this chapter and @Azel's latest Vee omake, we've seen a really nice snapshot of Gogossos and the Flesh Forge.

[X] Receive a report (Interlude series)
-[X] From Slaver's Bay
 
@DragonParadox, we recently developed the ability to give Forge grown servitors the Telepathy ability. It can also be added as a graft in other beings, though with a significant penalty to Spot and Listen checks. If we wanted to add it to Praetorians, would it count as being part of a Forge grown servitor or as an aftermarket graft?
 
Goldfish said:
@DragonParadox, we recently developed the ability to give Forge grown servitors the Telepathy ability. It can also be added as a graft in other beings, though with a significant penalty to Spot and Listen checks. If we wanted to add it to Praetorians, would it count as being part of a Forge grown servitor or as an aftermarket graft?
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You would probably be better off adding it as some kind of detachable biological equipment (a short research project) rather than try to change the whole praetori package to include that.
 
I'm 99% sure I've added Telepathy as one of the features of the Construct Armor though some special enchantment. The Wyverns are using the same setup.

Edit: Just checked. I fluffed it as a mask that transfers speech, but the feature is there.
 
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I... feel a bit weird this project being so quick.
But crits are crits, I guess.

@DragonParadox, the project was intended to be the very first step into Psionics for us - definitely no things as fancy as what Illithids/Gith can do.
But what are our limitations going to be mechanics-wise..?
 
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egoo said:
I... feel a bit weird this project being so quick.
But crits are crits, I guess.

@DragonParadox, the project was intended to be the very first step into Psionics for us - definitely no things as fancy as what Illithids/Gith can do.
But what are our limitations going to be mechanics-wise..?
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There is a difference between being able to train psions and being able to match the Ilithid or gith. Technically a random hedge mage living in a cave north of the Wall can teach arcane magic if they find someone with the aptitude, that does not men they are going to match the Scholarum any time soon. All this project does is open the door to actually haveing psions at all, Next comes the heavy lifting of actually training a form of magic wholly foreign to both your experience and the very Spheres
 
So, Sandor.
14 levels equals 14 HD for purposes of permanencing, iirc.
The Praetorian Template will ad some bullshit, but not increase his existing HD.

So, if this month we order some scrolls, by the 19th of 2nd month we could strap him up with the following effects, easy:
Channel Vigor (3 HD),
Titanic Anchoring (3 HD),
Find the Gap (3 HD)
Counterattack (3 HD)
Certain Grip (2 HD)
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the total effects being:
--[] Immunity to the pull and push special abilities;
--[] Immunity to the disarm combat maneuver.
--[] All bull rush, grapple, overrun, reposition, and trip combat maneuvers made by creatures your size or smaller always fail. +10 bonus to your CMD against those combat maneuver checks made by creatures larger than you;

--[] Once per round, one of melee or ranged attacks may disregard the target's armor, shield, and natural armor bonuses (including any enhancement bonuses) to Armor Class. Other AC bonuses, such as dodge bonuses, deflection bonuses, and luck bonuses, still apply.
--[] Any time an opponent makes a melee attack against you, you may attempt one melee counterattack at your full base attack bonus (this does not count as an attack of opportunity for the round). +details.

--[] +4 competence bonus on Climb checks, on Acrobatics checks to balance, and to CMD against bull rush, drag, reposition, and trip attempts.
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So long story short, in light of Praetorian being pretty good all by itself, it is probably not very balanced a selection.

...Albeit, we also have [all the gold] to afford otherwise unaffordable house-rule scrolls for permanence, one simlly cannot spam these effects left and right.

@Azel, @DragonParadox, any restriction on permanencing stuff onto Praetorians/other over-engineered pieces of bullshit like (for example) the Seeker?
 
egoo said:
So, Sandor.
14 levels equals 14 HD for purposes of permanencing, iirc.
The Praetorian Template will ad some bullshit, but not increase his existing HD.

So, if this month we order some scrolls, by the 19th of 2nd month we could strap him up with the following effects, easy:
the total effects being:

So long story short, in light of Praetorian being pretty good all by itself, it is probably not very balanced a selection.

...Albeit, we also have [all the gold] to afford otherwise unaffordable house-rule scrolls for permanence, one simlly cannot spam these effects left and right.

@Azel, @DragonParadox, any restriction on permanencing stuff onto Praetorians/other over-engineered pieces of bullshit like (for example) the Seeker?
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Out of all those effects only channel vigor and certain grip should be peristable at all for balance, the rest either grant too many immunities for long duration to be remotely balanced or they grant actions. Otherwise I would have to hand that suite to any enemy you face from strong extra-planar players and that would be too much complexity to already complex fights.
 
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DragonParadox said:
Out of all those effects only channel vigor and certain grip should be peristable at all for balance, the rest either grant too many immunities for long duration to be remotely balanced or they grant actions. Otherwise I would have to hand that suite to any enemy you face from strong extra-planar players and that would be too much complexity to already complex fights.
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That's understandable, but still disappointing. @egoo and I were looking forward to upgrading Richard, Waymar, and Garin with the suite of buffs he compiled.

EDIT: @egoo, we can see about adding the effects to some of their gear instead.
 
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