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

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Interlude DCCCI: River's Lash
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    • River's Lash ​

    Fourteenth Day of the First Month 294 AC

    Ghoyan Drohe, New City

    What kind of ghost breaks bones? Shara wondered as she sent Erek 'Eel-Fisher' on his way with a few more coopers in his pocket and absent the limp he had been showing when he came to meet her. You could heal badly set bones with simple healing magics bound to enchantment, but she hadn't healed the fisherman for his sake, but to confirm Mercy's findings yesterday about the broken bones being just broken bones in spite of the fact that the fellow said the dead laid violent hands on him. This witness hadn't been a drunk either or too scared when the attack happened to confirm it had really been a specter, but it still didn't make sense.

    Wraiths didn't, as far as Shara knew, beat folk up like back alley thugs, they could curse your bones to be so brittle you'd break them trying to run away, they could possess the living into having a go at you, but just good clean breaks you could fix with a hammer and some First Circle magic was a new one.

    ***​

    The naga slithered through the water, tasting the current with more than mortal senses. Though she was naturally more at home in the sky than the water, no child of the World-Serpent would be so foolish as to not know how to swim. She drew near the broken stilts of what was supposed to be the Hall of Justice with a soft inquiring hiss.

    The magically hardened wood had been pummeled to splinters by a rogue current, probably conjured by the spirits of the wrathful water mages, but what they had not been able to notice on the surface was the pattern in which it broke. The water around the support had been repeatedly frozen and thawed, the ice gnawing into the wood like the teeth of some great beast. Their foe had powers over ice, but did not wish to show them.

    ***​

    Sometimes to see patterns what you needed was a little distance, or in this case a little height. Valaena soared through the cool ai,r glad to have risen once more above the miasmas and swarms of bugs. There was an overgrown channel large enough to have once perhaps held the main flow of the Little Rhoyne not six hundred yards from where the new Hall of Justice was supposed to stand. There, hundred yards beyond that, opposite and equidistant, was the very tomb whose opening had started this whole mess. That could not be a coincidence, though what exactly it told them about their mysterious quarry the young sorceress could not say

    "Alright now Dawnfyre, down we go," she motioned for her dragon to descend so she could meet up with Mercy and Shara... and that was when a blast of murky water from the river shot upwards in an impossible arc, striking her in the side like a hammer-blow. It was only by sheer instinct and not a little bit of luck that she managed to hang on to Dawnfyre

    "Once there were many... now there is one... leave this place or drown." A voice echoing as though from some flooded cavern resounded in her mind.

    She was not attacked again. That was good... maybe. Only one death threat and it was against her specifically, not the settlement or her companions. That was more than most of the living dead could manage.

    What does Xor do upon arriving in the city?

    [] Try to scry and seek out the wraiths

    [] Float over the river, sending general telepathic offer of terms for conversing

    [] Write in

    OOC: Some solid rolls, though Valaena really did nearby lose her seat there to take an unplanned bath in the river.
     
    Last edited:
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    • DragonParadox said:
    River's Lash ​

    Fourteenth Day of the First Month 294 AC

    Ghoyan Drohe, New City

    What kind of ghost breaks bones? Shara wondered as she sent Erek 'Eel-Fisher' on his way with a few more coppers in his pocket and absent the limp he had been showing when he came to meet her. You could heal badly set bones with simple healing magics bound to enchantment, but she hadn't healed the fisherman for his sake, but to confirm Mercy's findings yesterday about the broken bones being just broken bones in spite of the fact that the fellow said the dead laid violent hands on him. This witness hadn't been a drunk either, or too scared when the attack happened to confirm it had really been a specter, but it still didn't make sense.

    Wraiths didn't, as far as Shara knew, beat folk up like back alley thugs, they could curse your bones to be so brittle you'd break them trying to run away, they could possess the living into having a go at you, but just good clean breaks you could fix with a hammer and some First Circle magic was a new one.

    ***​

    The naga slithered through the water, tasting the current with more than mortal senses. Though she was naturally more at home in the sky than the water, no child of the World-Serpent would be so foolish as to not know how to swim. She drew near the broken stilts of what had once been the Hall of Justice with a soft inquiring hiss.

    The magically hardened wood had been pummeled to splinters by a rogue current probably conjured by the spirits of the wrathful water mages, but what they had not been able to notice on the surface was the pattern in which it broke. The water around the support had been repeatedly frozen and thawed, the ice gnawing into the wood like the teeth of some great beast. Their foe had powers over ice but did not wish to show them.

    ***​

    Sometimes to see patterns, what you needed was a little distance, or in this case a little height. Valaena soared though the cool air glad to have risen once more above the miasmas and swarms of bugs. There was an overgrown channel large enough to have once perhaps held the main flow of the Little Rhyone not six hundred yards from where the new Hall of Justice was supposed to stand. Three hundred yards beyond that, opposite and equidistant, was the very tomb whose opening had started this whole mess. That could not be a coincidence, though what exactly it told them about their mysterious quarry, the young sorceress could not say

    "Alright now, Dawnfyre, down we go," she motioned for her dragon to descend so she could meet up with Mercy and Shara... and that was when a blast of murky water from the river shot upwards in an impossible arc, striking her in the side like a hammer-blow. It was only by sheer instinct and not a little bit of luck that she managed to hold on to Dawnfyre.

    "Once there were many... now there is one... leave this place or drown." A voice echoing as though from some flooded cavern resounded in her mind.

    She was not attacked again. That was good... maybe. Only one death threat and it was against her specifically, not the settlement or her companions. That was more than most of the living dead could manage.

    What does Xor do upon arriving in the city?

    [] Try to scry and seek out the wraiths

    [] Float over the river sending general telepathic offer of terms for conversing

    [] Write in

    OOC: Some solid rolls, though Valaena really did nearby lose her seat there to take an unplanned bath in the river. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

    The mystery grows...

    I'm leaning toward them not being ghosts at all, but Humans trying to pull a Scooby villain ploy.
     
    Mind you, these guys killed our mages and the penalty for their crimes is death.

    But our Xor woud try to talk first, as the adorable sin against nature that he is.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    The broken temple opens like a maw into the heavens and from that maw there comes a call, hideous and mesmerizing at once, the voice of the Mother of Dragons calling her children home. You shake it off easily enough, besides you Dany is shaking with rage. Three of the Darkenbeasts had been ensnared, spiraling upwards on the thermals the better to attack Amrelath or you from a dive.
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    Please don't let the first Fiery Darken Beast Tempest Breath Tornado be used against us, I've been waiting to see this so long.
     
    I'm hoping that the sight of Xor in his true form, hovering over the river while telepathically and verbally trying to contact the "ghosts" will freak them out enough to break cover and make it obvious they're pulling a con.

    "Ghost": I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for that meddling eyeball monster!

    Xor: /sad face :(

    Vaelaena: /hug Xor 😇
     
    DragonParadox said:
    I get the complaint, but I'm trying to make this feel like a battle not just a skirmish, to give it proper weight. That said the fact that I'm missing updates can't be helping with the feeling of being drawn out.

    Sorry for that guys.
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    Maybe it was different when waiting for updates to drop but for what it's worth it definitely hasn't felt drawn out reading through for me, I'm loving it.
     
    Tomcost said:
    So, now that we are talking Xor. How will he continue leveling after hitting level 10 in Beholder of wonder?
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    He's supposed to stop gaining Spells By Level at 10, and has room for 4 more given his existing RHD.

    Given his odd... situation as a Beholder, there might be something out there in the SRD that fits him, but a four level custom class which upgrades the functionality each of his eyes might fit him.
     
    Crake said:
    He's supposed to stop gaining Spells By Level at 10, and has room for 4 more given his existing RHD.

    Given his odd... situation as a Beholder, there might be something out there in the SRD that fits him, but a four level custom class which upgrades the functionality each of his eyes might fit him.
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    The idea is for him to never reach level 9 spells then?
     
    Tomcost said:
    The idea is for him to never reach level 9 spells then?
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    @TotallyNotEvil never intended for him to do so, especially given he basically already has bard-chassis and a suite of abilities from Beholder of Wonders.

    Put it this way, he's basically a wizard who can learn every Bard spell, which ends at 6th, and every Arcane spell up to 7th.

    That's incredibly powerful for a support class.
     
    TotallyNotEvil said:
    He also has some very strong class features.
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    Yeah, the very fact that he can change his load-out to suit the situation, learn every Bardic spell (which has some good options for support casting) as well as have some Arcane Spells sprinkled in there for combat, is very good. The class features on top of it takes him from good to quite strong.

    The remaining four levels should probably be used for metamagic.
     
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