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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:
She is not the one to break the silence that follows, but Garin. "I... Thank you, my lady." You realize what most likely happened a moment before he explains. "She asked the Lord of Light that I be released from the vow I made in Lys and he agreed."

"You are most welcome, Lord Drekelis," Melisandre replies graciously. "It occurred to me that a man in your poositon could ill afford such a promise hanging over his head, no matter the source."
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Clever, I doubt there's any other boon that would engender such goodwill from myself, I really didn't like that hanging over Garmin's head.
 
Deliste said:
Clever, I doubt there's any other boon that would engender such goodwill from myself, I really didn't like that hanging over Garmin's head.
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It was basically R'hllor cashing in Garin's favor in exchange for Viserys' favor. Now we have a favorable opinion of him, where before our opinion was pretty much a bare step above what we hold for the Seven.
 
Crake said:
It was basically R'hllor cashing in Garin's favor in exchange for Viserys' favor. Now we have a favorable opinion of him, where before our opinion was pretty much a bare step above what we hold for the Seven.
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And that's fine because even with a straight exchange the nature of the deal is more respectful, he shows (to us and others) that he respects not only our word but our sense of honour, duty and fairness.

There's a reason we (mostly) don't bind people with ironclad negative incentivisation.

It also shows that he expects to need or use our favour in a way that we would agree with, rather than feeling the need to be able to force our hand against our will.

Clever.
 
Deliste said:
And that's fine because even with a straight exchange the nature of the deal is more respectful, he shows (to us and others) that he respects not only our word but our sense of honour, duty and fairness.

There's a reason we (mostly) don't bind people with ironclad negative incentivisation.

It also shows that he expects to need or use our favour in a way that we would agree with, rather than feeling the need to be able to force our hand against our will.

Clever.
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Well, if you mostly just focus on helping people out, they will usually do a bunch of small things to help you out rather than one big thing. But if you already can do all the big stuff on your own, you now can focus on developing that sweet, sweet positive feedback loop. People will after all often end up paying you interest on good will because it only costs you a finite amount of resources (time, money or energy) to solve one problem impossible for them to solve, but they will spend years of their lives doing beneficial things in your favor in exchange.

We got the big brain strats.
 
We've got a tie between the top two voting options, ya'll. Plane of Fire hijinks versus Plane of Air exploits.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on May 31, 2020 at 10:16 PM, finished with 29 posts and 14 votes.
  • [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Privaterring on the Plane of Fire (Into the Fire)
    [X] Receive a report: Skies of Our Allies
    -[X] After Action Reports of Rogue Squadron Commander Lucerys, in regards to the combat missions flown at the behest of the Admiralty of Armun Kelisk.
    --[X] We pledged a full squadron to the fighting, or x16 Type-A Wyverns armed with alchemical munitions/Beetle Bombs for each sortie.
    ---[X] Extra-Planar/War of Three Powers rumors
    [X] Recieve a report
    -[X] Moonsong, Moonchaser, and the crew attempting to fly into space
    [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Searching for the Targaryen Isles (The Search for Heritage Long-Lost)
    [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Searching for the Targaryen Isles (The Search for Heritage Long-Lost)
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[X] Receive a report: Skies of Our Allies
-[X] After Action Reports of Rogue Squadron Commander Lucerys, in regards to the combat missions flown at the behest of the Admiralty of Armun Kelisk.
--[X] We pledged a full squadron to the fighting, or x16 Type-A Wyverns armed with alchemical munitions/Beetle Bombs for each sortie.
---[X] Extra-Planar/War of Three Powers rumors
 
Vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jun 1, 2020 at 5:16 AM, finished with 34 posts and 16 votes.
  • [X] Receive a report: Skies of Our Allies
    -[X] After Action Reports of Rogue Squadron Commander Lucerys, in regards to the combat missions flown at the behest of the Admiralty of Armun Kelisk.
    --[X] We pledged a full squadron to the fighting, or x16 Type-A Wyverns armed with alchemical munitions/Beetle Bombs for each sortie.
    ---[X] Extra-Planar/War of Three Powers rumors
    [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Privaterring on the Plane of Fire (Into the Fire)
    [X] Recieve a report
    -[X] Moonsong, Moonchaser, and the crew attempting to fly into space
    [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Searching for the Targaryen Isles (The Search for Heritage Long-Lost)
    [X] Receive a report
    -[X] Searching for the Targaryen Isles (The Search for Heritage Long-Lost)
Click to expand...
 
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Interlude DCCCXVIII: Report on Joint Raids upon the Brazen Throne
  • Threadmarks
    • Report on Joint Raids upon the Brazen Throne​

    Author: Lucerys 'Slywalker' of Lucea

    Subject: Joint operations with the Admiralty of Armun Kelisk along the River of Tears

    It is with solemn regret that I must in this report recount the loss of three wyverns under my command in battle against the efreeti dreadnought Baleful Mirage which engaged both my squadron and the the djinn deep raid task force we were attached to from ambush among what the air mages called 'the grey veils', clouds of lead dust, sulfur and other rarer compounds that occur naturally near the River of Tears but which the Brazen Throne's mages have recently discovered how to harness to far greater effect, making divination unreliable, in this case lethally so for a great many of our allies and some of our own. The Mirage and its sword-ship escorts specialize in illusory battle, allowing them to draw in our command against what had seemed like a convoy of slave ships headed downwards along the planar-axial tilt to sell to the markets of Dis.

    It fell to my squadron to make the initial surprise attack on the seemingly well defended but slow convoy which did not appear to have the range necessary to meaningfully menace us. As the veil parted we were brought under the full weight of the dreadnought's hellfire projectors, massively larger examples of the hellfire crossbow used by some of the Hosts of Hell. The combination of near perfect accuracy even against a distant fast moving target and unholy fire burned a hole through the hulls of three of the wyverns present, with myself and one other pilot of the squad barely managing to swerve in time to soften the blow.

    If there is some small mercy to their deaths all three pilots died instantly, two as the wyverns were struck in the engines chaotically inverting the energies that held the machines together and ripping it apart, one from a direct blow of the weapon right through the cockpit. The beetle bombs that were launched with Sultan's Tribute scored the hull of the great ship and critically damaged two of its escorts on the first pass.

    As the djinn weapons began to play lightning and frost-wind upon the flame-scarred brass the enemy armor began to wail, the very souls of their long dead enemies bound to protect the efreeti ships in death I was told later. It was like we could taste out own pyre-ash in our mouths I can say as much, some sort of fear magic. The remainder of us split up in groups of three to four and continued strafing the ambushing force with everything we had, though most of us kept to the escorts whose guns could hurt us, being proper force-projectors, but not as bad as the Mirage's main battery.

    Before the battle was done our squadron scored eighteen kills or hulks at the cost of not a single more of our wyverns, though two did have to retreat from battle under the cover of magically conjured fog from our allies' ship-wizards. Sky Admiral Barqo forced his cloud-cutter through the Mirage's weakened ship screen, warding off its weapons point black attacks with temporary abjurations and was about to begin a mass boarding under launcher fire, having run out of bombs by then, when the efreeti commander called in some kind of contingency of his own and withdrew his ship and every sword-ship that hadn't been wrecked.

    I was told the magic backlash of whatever means he used to escape killed more djinn than the limited boarding that had been going on until that point, but that it probably was not without cost to the ship's structural integrity and probably the soul of whoever made the enchantment. It apparently 'smelled of ruin on the wind'. I do not have a djinn's nose, but from what I saw of the fight and the way we were pulling through with only three wyverns down and not a single djinn ship lost, though many suffered casualties, that seems about fair to me. If it were something the efreeti commander could just pull out of his ass when he pleased he wouldn't have waited until he lost so many escorts.

    As for our lot, a few of the wyverns got banged up some but nothing too bad according the the crew reports back in the Deep, enchantments needing fixing but no major overhauls or ripping out the engines and major systems. Thanks to the engineering bay the cost isn't even that high considering what it is we're fixing. Praise be to the Office of Engineering and Supply.

    3 Wyverns Destroyed

    Lost 2,500 IM (Repair costs)

    Major efreeti push in the River of Tears repulsed with heavy casualties on their side

    Given the abundance of efreeti military assets captured the Djinn Sultanate considers it fair to share some of the spoils of the battle. Choose one:

    [] Azer engineers with a working knowledge of ether-binding/force weapons

    [] Burnt out Spell-Foci that might be connected to the efreeti escape

    [] Samples and partial spell-scripts for manipulating the 'grey veil' anti-divination methods (might be a dead end tech limited to that portion of the Plane of Fire)

    OOC: I did not really have room for more reports with the way the battle rolled up. Things got very dicey with that initial ambush. If the wyverns had lost their heads and tried to pound on the dreadnought you would have had much more losses.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    Report on Joint Raids upon the Brazen Throne​

    Author: Lucerys 'Skywalker' of Lucea

    Subject: Joint operations with the Admiralty of Armun Kelisk along the River of Tears

    It is with solemn regret that I must in this report recount the loss of three Wyverns of my command in battle against the Efreeti Dreadnought Baleful Mirage which engaged both my squadron and the the Djinn deep raid task force we were attached to from ambush among what the air mages call 'the grey veils', clouds of lead, dust, sulfur, and other rarer compounds that occur naturally near the River of Tears but which the Brazen Throne's mages have recently discovered how to harness to far greater effect. Their discovery has made divination unreliable, in this case lethally so for a great many of our allies and some of our own. The Mirage and its Sword Ship escorts specialize in illusory battle allowing it to draw in our command against what had seemed like a convoy of slave ships headed downwards along the planar-axial tilt to sell to the markets of Dis.

    It fell to my squadron to make the initial surprise attack on the seemingly well defended but slow convoy which did not appear to have the range necessary to meaningfully menace us. As the veil parted we were brought under the full weight of the dreadnought's hellfire projectors, massively larger examples of the hellfire crossbow used by some of the Hosts of Hell. The combination of near perfect accuracy, even against a distant fast moving target, and unholy fire burned a hole through the hulls of three of the Wyverns present, with myself and one other pilot of the squad barely managing to evade in time to soften the blow.

    If there is some small mercy to their deaths all three pilots died instantly, two as the Wyverns were struck in the engines chaotically inverting the energies that held the machines together and ripping it apart, one from a direct blow of the weapon right through the cockpit. The Beetle Bombs that were launched while Sultan's Tribute scored the hull of the great ship and critically damaged two of its escorts on the first pass.

    As the Djinn weapons began to play lightning and frost-wind upon the flame-scarred brass, the enemy armor began to wail, the very souls of their long dead enemies bound to protect the Efreeti ships in death, I was told later. It was as if we could taste our own pyre-ash in our mouths, I can say as much, some sort of fear magic. The remainder of our force split up in groups of three or four and continued straffing the ambushing force with everything we had, though most of us kept to the escorts whose guns could hurt us, being proper force-projectors, but not as bad as the Mirage's main battery.

    Before the battle was done, our squadron scored eighteen kills or hulks without losing any more Wyverns, though two did have to retreat from battle under the cover of magically conjured fog from our allies' ship-wizards. Sky Admiral Barqo forced his cloud-cutter through the Mirage's weakened ship screen, warding off its weapons point blank attacks with temporary abjurations and was about to begin a mass boarding under launcher fire, having run out of bombs by them when the Efreeti commander called on some sort of contingency effect of his own and withdrew his ship and every Sword Ship that hadn't been wrecked.

    I was told the magic backlash of whatever means he used to escape killed more Djinn than the limited boarding that had been going on until that point, but that it probably was not without cost to the ship's structural integrity and probably the soul of whoever made the enchantment. It apparently 'smelled of ruin on the wind'. I do not have a Djinn's nose, but from what I saw of the fight and the way we were pulling through with only three wyverns down and not a single Djinn ship lost, though many suffered casualties, that seems about fair to me. If it were something the Efreeti commander could just pull out of his ass when he pleased, he wouldn't have waited until he lost so many escorts

    As for our lot, a few of the Wyverns got banged up some but nothing too bad according the the crew reports back in the Deep, enchantments needing fixing but no major overhauls or ripping out the engines and major systems

    3 Wyverns Destroyed

    Lost 5,000 IM (Repair costs)

    Major Efreeti push in the River of Tears repulsed with heavy casualties on their side

    Given the abundance of Efreeti military assets captured, the Djinn Sultanate considers it fair to share some of the spoils of the battle. Choose one:

    [] Azer Engineseers with a working knowledge of ether-binding/force weapons

    [] Burnt out Spell-Foci that might be connected to the Efreeti escape

    [] Samples and partial spell-scripts for manipulating the 'grey veil' anti-divination methods (might be a dead end tech limited to that portion of the Plane of Fire)

    OOC: I did not really have room for more reports with the way the battle rolled up. Things got very dicey with that initial ambush. If the Wyverns had lost their heads and tried to pound on the dreadnought you would have had much more losses. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

    RIP Wyvern pilots, you are heroes of the Imperium. :cry:

    I haven't done a proper write up on it yet, DP, but Lya and Anu completed enchanting work on our skydock repair facility last month, which includes three Rods of Greater Make Whole, along with a Memory of Function spell which can be activated to repair damaged or even destroyed ships of most of the parts are available or can be replaced, though at a cost of 2,000 IM.

    I don't know how this should affect the cost of repairing our damaged Wyverns, but it's something to keep in mind. It might also be neat if the report author mentioned it in his report.

    Make Whole – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Memory of Function – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com
     
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    [X] Samples and partial spell-scripts for manipulating the 'grey veil' anti-divination methods (might be a dead end tech limited to that portion of the Plane of Fire)
    -[X] Pledge to both study it and share your findings and applications you come up with to both the Caliphate and Peerless Empire, as it is vital to the war-effort a countermeasure or method of exploitation be found so long as this area remains relevant to the conflict. The Imperium, while not having a great dearth of war assets it can contribute as of yet, vows to show it can make a tangible difference in the conflict.

    The Spell Foci basically demands a side-adventure for Companions to exploit no matter where it leads, and while we have a bunch of research projects, consider the following:

    1) We don't need weapons research. We have enough samples to come up with something at this point and relying on methods that work for others might not work for us.
    2) Our greatest contributions to this conflict will not be soldiers or even war material, but ideas. We have multiple archmages for cutting-edge stuff and a research pipeline of lesser mages for the scut-work and test trials. We should use them.
    3) I'm frustrated by the lack of progress in the war, as I'm sure our allies are. The Efreeti will almost assuredly use this again so long as nothing is done to study it. There's no incentive for them not to, so I would like to take away a toy, or make them eat crow by turning it over to the other side.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

    RIP Wyvern pilots, you are heroes of the Imperium. :cry:

    I haven't done a proper write up on it yet, DP, but Lya and Anu completed enchanting work on our skydock repair facility last month, which includes three Rods of Greater Make Whole, along with a Memory of Function spell which can be activated to repair damaged or even destroyed ships of most of the parts are available or can be replaced, though at a cost of 2,000 IM.

    I don't know how this should affect the cost of repairing our damaged Wyverns, but it's something to keep in mind. It might also be neat if the report author mentioned it in his report.

    Make Whole – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    Memory of Function – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com
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    Thanks for reminding me. that will halve the cost of repairs to 2,500 IM
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Before the battle was done our squadron scored eighteen kills or hulks at the cost of not a single more of our Wyverns, though two did have to retreat from battle under the cover of magically conjured fog from our allies' ship-wizards.
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    Also, hot damn, did our pilots aim for the external exhaust vent or something? If they have that kind of effect on a fight, we pretty much have to keep contributing squadrons. That's a massive KDR differential.
     
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