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

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Duesal said:
Yeah, I mean the actual harpies. The worship of the Great Harpy still survives among Slaver's Bay, so I was wondering if there was any attempt to regroup after their first collapse.
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Fun thing is, we aren't actually all that much of an enemy to each-other.
Beyond our moral and their political outlook, we have one thing very much in common: "Asmodeus - bad".

I do wonder if it'd be possible for us to diplomance the Harpy-Goddess over time.

Shitty religion can be turned around in a relatively short order given a sufficiently big upheaval *cough* like conquest *cough*, and we have a lot to offer to a Deity if they are willing to not be an ass and work with us in the Empire.

Or, well, there's always a chance that Asmy holds her puppetstrings as well.

(Bottom line, I'd really enjoy undoing the work done by the Old One Eye. :V)
 
egoo said:
Fun thing is, we aren't actually all that much of an enemy to each-other.
Beyond our moral and their political outlook, we have one thing very much in common: "Asmodeus - bad".

I do wonder if it'd be possible for us to diplomance the Harpy-Goddess over time.

Shitty religion can be turned around in a relatively short order given a sufficiently big upheaval *cough* like conquest *cough*, and we have a lot to offer to a Deity if they are willing to not be an ass and work with us in the Empire.

Or, well, there's always a chance that Asmy holds her puppetstrings as well.

(Bottom line, I'd really enjoy undoing the work done by the Old One Eye. :V)
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Those bastards did attack Yrael and Relath in the times we weren't looking.

They are the worst of a pretty fucked up culture and the only reason they are the lesser Evil next to Asmodeus is that they are stupid, can't summon endless reinforcements once they take over the area and lack champions on Viserys' level, so we can roast them later with less trouble.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Those bastards did attack Yrael and Relath in the times we weren't looking.

They are the worst of a pretty fucked up culture and the only reason they are the lesser Evil next to Asmodeus is that they are stupid, can't summon endless reinforcements once they take over the area and lack champions on Viserys' level, so we can roast them later with less trouble.
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...yeah, alright, I forgot about those instances.

But, in my defense:
Asmy is one Hell of a unifying circumstance?
:V

*dodges rotten food*

More seriously, I think it depends on how deeply we'll integrate together when operating agaisnt Asmy in the coming months.

Best case has the religion backing down and the Masters folding peacefully into the Empire while keeping most of the riches.

Wors- err, one of the worse cases is them all fighting us tooth and nail.
All-around still better than them being taken over by Asmy, I guess.
 
egoo said:
More seriously, I think it depends on how deeply we'll integrate together when operating agaisnt Asmy in the coming months.

Best case has the religion backing down and the Masters folding peacefully into the Empire while keeping most of the riches.

Wors- err, one of the worse cases is them all fighting us tooth and nail.
All-around still better than them being taken over by Asmy, I guess.
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A lot of that comes down to relative success by our intrigue-actions to stop Asmodeus from a total takeover here.

If he gets that far before we have troops free to work here en masse we will have few options left, most of them either about trying to destroy the three cities before they are sufficiently fortified by Hell's forces to stop us, or to try and arrange ourselves with Asmodeus' foothold on the Material.
 
I do intend to question them about the "mysterious hunter" that brought them low years ago, mind.

We only heard vague rumors IC, and while we suspect it being the old one-eyed Bag'o'dicks, we'd better try and confirm first.

...I kinda want to roast him before he decides to come and explode our Empire, which oh-so-much offends his sensibilities, yes.
Makes sense as much as the next thing, after the stunt we did to Tim the paraplegic snek.
 
Rovos said:
who do we think it is?
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Bahamut, the god of Metalic dragons.
Or rather, one of his preferred mortal guides, according to 3.5/Pathfunder lore, iirc.

...So, uh, not the person we like to discuss here much.

I mentioned stuff above only because I prefer to give a heads-up in-thread before including anything into the MAs.

If that OP-hunter wasn't him, all the better.
 
[X] Recieve a report
-[X] Dealing with the rogue enchanter near Ashford (A Cult of Personality)

That's where Viserys started his PR campaign/turnaround right? Helping the local Septon there diplomanced relations with Satyrs?

Also wow yeah, local good adventurer helps nerf the evil harpy cult and leaves room for Amy to move in. Whomp Whomp whooommppp
 
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Interlude DCCCXV: Enchantment's End
  • Threadmarks
    • Enchantment's End​

    Seventh Day of the First Month 294 AC

    Ashford Woods, Camp of the Thrice-Blessed

    In the stories old as time and new as mirror-craft the hardest part of all was vanquishing the monster and then the natural order of things would just reestablish itself, the living would go back to their lives, the dead would be buried and all would be well... at least until the next story was told. Life, Mia discovered, especially since putting on the sword and book seal of an inquisitor, was a lot more complicated than that, especially when the monster was human and the people he'd taken and twisted against themselves didn't really have any lives to go back to.

    Thoros holding his flaming sword aloft to the cast down the false god in the name of R'hllor the Red while Umber, Hasty and Dayne plowed though his half-trained guard using shield, mailed fist and the flat of their blades because they didn't even need more to win the fight.

    It hadn't been hard to find 'The Thrice Blessed', their leader had to leave a few hooks lying around to draw in new followers when he broke the old ones after all. 'Atreus the All-Good', or as he had admitted under interrogation under truth spells 'Art the Cooper'. And he was in the habit of breaking them.

    Men and women weeping openly, standing in stunned silence that the man they had come to consider a god on earth had fallen. One cook trying to kill himself with a knife before Anya disarmed him. Having to chase down families with conjured beasts through the woods for fear of the parents harming their children in their grief...

    Captured Art the Cooper (Beguiler 8: 8 HD, CR 7)

    As she stared at the dying flames Mia had to remind herself repeatedly why the law only mandated execution by sacrifice for those who consorted with ruinous powers, twisted gods in truth and not just in the minds of those addled by enchantment. The same reason really why we don't pay lawmen or judges out of the confiscated possessions of those they arrest or laying down judgement, as was the case in some places. Having the folk involved in enforcing the law, profiting off the punishment is a hell of a cliff to jump off of...

    But the folk who thought that two-bit enchanter was a god and treated him like it would need a mind healer just the same as if it had been some daemon or far-spawned horror. Weeper knew what would happen to all the children he'd gotten on his followers. Would their mothers hate them for being part of the man who had raped them body and mind, or maybe worse yet try to raise them in some kind of twisted devotion of their 'martyred father'?

    "Thinking of what we're going to do with the son of a bitch?" she heard Anya ask from behind her.

    "Yeah, hanging seems too good for him," Mia admitted, glancing towards the crude houses of the little forest village. "Even if we get them all back to Sorcerer's Deep, or at least all who will come, we don't even know what that sort of long-term enchantment does to the mind, it's going to take hundreds of sessions with mind healers to untangle it all and you know how long the lines are to see one. It's not like healing the body where you can try your luck with a ritual, a blessing or a potion."

    "Well if we don't know... maybe we should find out?" Anya replied slowly after a moment. "That's one of the things the Scholarum's about isn't it, learning new things?"

    "What, like a proper bit of arcane research looking into untangling enchanted folks' brains?" Mia asked dubiously. Proper arcane research went into the sort of stuff that was sometimes above even an inquisitor's pay grade.

    "Might get farther than you think, I know some enchanters back in the Deep looking for a mastery project that won't risk life and limb, shouldn't be that hard to get angels to help considering..."

    They both knew that angel didn't necessarily mean what most would think when saying the term, but most of the ones working as mind healers were selfless sorts.

    "That just leaves the funding," Mia mused, with the first smile she had worn all day she added. "So how good are you at writing reports?"

    The report from Ashford suggests looking into the effects of long-term enchantment on the mind in order to better heal it. Do you support it?

    [] Yes (locks in a 15 Progress 8,000 IM Cost Research Project for next month)

    [] No, you have other priorities

    OOC: I'll admit I was in a bit of a quandary about Ashford, you guys threw a lot of PCs at it, more than the fellow I had planned for it could realistically face. I could have of course make him retroactively stronger, but that just felt like cheating, like artificially increasing the DCs for something just because players tackle it at higher levels with no in story reasoning. If challenges scale perfectly to what is thrown at them than all strategy becomes pointless. So instead I made this about the aftermath. Not so much what you do with the 200 odd traumatized survivors, but what their plight may suggest to the people on the spot.
     
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    • it seems like something prudent to know about

    [X] Yes (locks in a 15 Progress 8000 IM Cost Research project for next month)
     
    So capital A asshole and sociopath, but not deserving of sacrifice under our laws.

    Should I hope for the noose not to break his neck when we hang him?
     
    [X] Yes (locks in a 15 Progress 8000 IM Cost Research project for next month)

    [X] Receive a report: Waves of Intrigue + Retroactive Commissioning in Extraplanar Cities
     
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