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

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egoo said:
Or does it?

Maybe it was his plan all along?
Knowing we'd scramble around to try and break some active pacts by killing the participants, only to allow his agents to sink their claws deeper?

OR it is all a plan to turn yet more people to worship of the Lady of the Spear!
The masses are afraid of the unknown? Disguised Devils + decent PR = great masses flocking to worship.

Ooooor the Sons of Harpies are Asmy's patsies too!

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I made the same joke with the same image, almost no one got it.
 
Bottom line, there's a decent possibility we've been fed absolute fabrication and we killed off all opposition.
By now everyone important knows how good Malarys/Garin are, after all.
 
egoo said:
Bottom line, there's a decent possibility we've been fed absolute fabrication and we killed off all opposition.
By now everyone important knows how good Malarys/Garin are, after all.
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Imagine if the devil that possessed Aradia wasn't there to infiltrate us, but it was put there specifically to test if the Imperium outpost had anyone capable of noticing it and dealing with it.

And in comes Malarys.

I'm expecting the devils to get reinforcements in response to a Cleric of the Ninth Circle showing up.
 
Well wether they get reinforcements or simply... leave. Will tell us a lot about what their goals here were. Hopefully.
 
The option to drop a few lumps of rock and/or Hardened multi-ton Iron ingots from low orbit directly onto the Slavers' Bay is still an option.
:whistle:
 
Duesal said:
It's always an option, but we get less sacrifices and loot out of Rock Falls, Everyone Dies.

I want our price extracted in blood and gold.
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I'm not at all enthused about dealing with Slavers' Bay and/or Devils at the moment, so I think I can be excused for defaulting to "FRIENDSHIP CANON, MOTHERBUCKER!"-ing everything there to death instead of spending valuable time.

Alas, staying IC we just have to.
 
Duesal said:
It's because by all rights there should be dozens of rumors against Viserys. Viserys is both directly and indirectly responsible for all of Slaver's Bay being on the brink of total collapse and everyone knows it. He's utterly demolished the slave trade, he's uniting the old Valyrian provinces (which is rightfully terrifying to the Ghiscari), he's blocking their navies when they try to find business elsewhere, etc.

The absence of slander against Viserys is absolutely suspicious. Everyone and their mother slanders Viserys, and yet Slaver's Bay of all places is squeaky clean?
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Rumors gathered throughout the city cannot be curated like you fear. Just because the chapter doesn't mention them specifically doesn't mean they didn't happen or that our people didn't hear them. It's more likely that they've just reached the point of being background noise by now.
One Autumn Leaf said:
So here is another thought then. What are the odds that they extracted biological material from her to use as a curse? Also Aradia and Lya are biologically the same correct?

Edit: With the mind whammy we would have checked that correct?
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No way to say for certain whether they bothered to get some blood or hair from Aradia, unless they were concerned about her being out of obvious communication for any length of time. It's possible, but we can probably check for that and maybe break any lingering connection between her and the sample.

Lya created the Arcanum from magical energy and a sliver of her own soul, but they are distinct beings. They're not intrinsically linked to her in any dangerous metaphysical way. That would be far too much of a liability, and Lya and Viserys would know that.
Duesal said:
Imagine if the devil that possessed Aradia wasn't there to infiltrate us, but it was put there specifically to test if the Imperium outpost had anyone capable of noticing it and dealing with it.

And in comes Malarys.

I'm expecting the devils to get reinforcements in response to a Cleric of the Ninth Circle showing up.
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You have to be careful not to let rampant paranoia lead to the point where you freeze up, unable to make decisions for fear of playing into enemy schemes. Could that have happened? Yes, there's not much we can do about it now, so our best bet is to continue to play the hand we were dealt. Beliers are only a couple steps down in power from Pit Fiends in the hierarchy of Hell, and they're specifically known as highly intelligent manipulators. Assuming that one of them was used as this kind of bait without it learning of the scheme is really reaching. We might as well treat the next Imp we come across as a potential Pit Fiend in disguise if we're going to be that paranoid.
 
egoo said:
I'm not at all enthused about dealing with Slavers' Bay and/or Devils at the moment, so I think I can be excused for defaulting to "FRIENDSHIP CANON, MOTHERBUCKER!"-ing everything there to death instead of spending valuable time.

Alas, staying IC we just have to.
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It's not just an IC thing, fluff-wise, it's basically a bargain bin soul sale for fiends and fiend bait (cultists).

Without anyone there keeping everyone in check, we'll just have another Listener situation, magnified by the fact that they will be expecting us this time.
 
Goldfish said:
You have to be careful not to let rampant paranoia lead to the point where you freeze up, unable to make decisions for fear of playing into enemy schemes. Could that have happened? Yes, there's not much we can do about it now, so our best bet is to continue to play the hand we were dealt. Beliers are only a couple steps down in power from Pit Fiends in the hierarchy of Hell, and they're specifically known as highly intelligent manipulators. Assuming that one of them was used as this kind of bait without it learning of the scheme is really reaching. We might as well treat the next Imp we come across as a potential Pit Fiend in disguise if we're going to be that paranoid.
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If anything it Yoloing at us like it did is suspicious.
 
Hm.
Is it possible to backtrack the separate/warded parts of a body using the Curse Staff, the same way as we can track a Mindblanked person as a whole through a bodypart?
@DragonParadox?
 
Goldfish said:
You have to be careful not to let rampant paranoia lead to the point where you freeze up, unable to make decisions for fear of playing into enemy schemes. Could that have happened? Yes, there's not much we can do about it now, so our best bet is to continue to play the hand we were dealt. Beliers are only a couple steps down in power from Pit Fiends in the hierarchy of Hell, and they're specifically known as highly intelligent manipulators. Assuming that one of them was used as this kind of bait without it learning of the scheme is really reaching. We might as well treat the next Imp we come across as a potential Pit Fiend in disguise if we're going to be that paranoid.
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The core of this is basically truth. Another thing to consider--if we're paralyzed with indecision, we're not doing anything productive. Our PCs are pretty canny people who can put 1 + 1 together and sum to 2. If we are fucking things up, the enemy will also eventually fall out of position, especially since thus far we have been incredibly cautious about not walking into obvious traps/springing them from an advantageous position.

If the enemy is forced to work more subtly, that opens up a greater margin for error on their part. Why do you think thus far every scheme of the intrigue devil here has basically been "act overtly in one way, then leave an obvious opening for someone to take the bait".

It's not incredibly subtle. It's basically like saying "I will keep my heavy hitters in reserve until I have you all lined up", but that has a weakness of its own since we do not actually have to take the bait, and we have enough agency/power to create our own openings.
 
egoo said:
Hm.
Is it possible to backtrack the separate/warded parts of a body using the Curse Staff, the same way as we can track a Mindblanked person as a whole through a bodypart?
@DragonParadox?
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@Goldfish, feel free to pester DP tomorrow, imma forget.

Might be the good idea to do this as the first thing if at all possible.
And after doing that, check for Viserys' parts still being in Timmie's posession.
 
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egoo said:
@Goldfish, feel free to pester DP tomorrow, imma forget.

Might be the good idea to do this if at all possible.
And after doing that, check for Viserys' parts still being in Timmie's posession.
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That's not what's happening. You would at least need a custom ritual for something like this. The Curse Staff is using the sympathetic link from one body part, to curse the actual body of the origin point, the body bearing the soul.

The body parts separated do not have any soul linked to them. They are just reagents for rituals/spells.
 
zxzx24 said:
If anything it Yoloing at us like it did is suspicious.
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That wasn't suspicious at all, IMO. It was quite thoroughly captured and knew it. After that would come interrogation and death, and probably not a death it could recover from, as our propensity for feeding Outsiders to Yss cannot be a secret at this point. Messily suiciding would have been the ideal solution to the Belier's problem. Slowly reforming in Hell decades from now is a whole lot better than ceasing to exist as you are digested in the gullet of a deity.
 
Goldfish said:
That wasn't suspicious at all, IMO. It was quite thoroughly captured and knew it. After that would come interrogation and death, and probably not a death it could recover from, as our propensity for feeding Outsiders to Yss cannot be a secret at this point. Messily suiciding would have been the ideal solution to the Belier's problem. Slowly reforming in Hell decades from now is a whole lot better than ceasing to exist as you are digested in the gullet of a deity.
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I mean't in Aradias body.
 
Crake said:
That's not what's happening. You would at least need a custom ritual for something like this. The Curse Staff is using the sympathetic link from one body part, to curse the actual body of the origin point, the body bearing the soul.

The body parts separated do not have any soul linked to them. They are just reagents for rituals/spells.
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Tor still being affected through his skull after having jumped bodies with actual Divine help muddles this water a fair bit.

As well as DP's indecisiveness on whether clockwork-bodies allowed one to ignore the effect of Curse cast so, with "leaning towards no" being the last answer we/I got, some 7-9k pages ago.

Whatever, gnight
 
Goldfish said:
Rumors gathered throughout the city cannot be curated like you fear. Just because the chapter doesn't mention them specifically doesn't mean they didn't happen or that our people didn't hear them. It's more likely that they've just reached the point of being background noise by now.
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The absence of slander is just odd as hell to me.
Goldfish said:
You have to be careful not to let rampant paranoia lead to the point where you freeze up, unable to make decisions for fear of playing into enemy schemes. Could that have happened? Yes, there's not much we can do about it now, so our best bet is to continue to play the hand we were dealt. Beliers are only a couple steps down in power from Pit Fiends in the hierarchy of Hell, and they're specifically known as highly intelligent manipulators. Assuming that one of them was used as this kind of bait without it learning of the scheme is really reaching. We might as well treat the next Imp we come across as a potential Pit Fiend in disguise if we're going to be that paranoid.
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I think you're mistaking me quite a bit, @Goldfish. It's just fun to imagine what outlandish schemes Asmodeus is thought up against us. I'm not paranoid to the point of paralysis, and will happily play into his hands from time to time since it means an enemy that for once gives us an actual challenge.
 
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