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

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[X] Duesal
Provocateurs; Cannot believe their handlers considered some minor agitation an actual attack. It's a low investment play for Viserys to react in a certain way, against potentially yet more patsies. Let's not be straightforward, here.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jun 26, 2020 at 4:14 PM, finished with 21 posts and 14 votes.
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Part MMMDLXXVIII: To the Tone of Bells
  • Threadmarks
    • To the Tone of Bells ​

    Twenty Eight Day of the First Month 294 AC

    The streets of the Lower City are filled with the familiar press of bodies and your ears assailed by the din just as familiar to city dwellers the world over. The tongues may change, but not the tone of the street merchant hawking strange meats by the gate, nor the clank of guards' boots on cobbles, followed often by the fainter sweeter clink of silver. They are familiar enough with travelers here and merchants too, such that your glamor veiled forms barely merit a second look, unless one counts the sort of looks Tyene gets from a noble with a mustache dyed bright purple. The fact that you cannot yet unveil yourselves probably spared the man a challenge to a duel and at least a mild poisoning.

    "They say the bells dictate when they can fuck around here. A pity they don't have rules about what to do with eyes and wagging tongues," your friend notes just as a sweet-toned bell rings out over the hills, Nyel you suspect. Though she had spoken in High Valyrian, the target of her ire had either not understood or wisely decided to keep the crude comments to less well armed foreigners.

    As the seven of you climb the Sinner's Stairs that join together the lively chaos of the river-front with the high stone halls of the nobility of Norvos, following along after a reluctant mule caravan, you begin to understand what the young noble was doing out from under the eyes of his elders. Where in Volantis one could all too easily imagine silk-draped decadence among the spires and hidden chambers of the Old City, High Norvos is a place of cold and forbidding temples, where priests with wild beards draped in untanned hides demand right of way from even the most highborn to cross their paths.

    After spying a glint of magic in the eye of a grey-bearded hierarch surrounded by a small mob with bells and whips to flagellate themselves, you decide to move quickly along your way lest one of these mages have enough skill to pierce the glamors you are wearing and unveil you before you are ready.

    Thus, you come to the manse of House Malthor, if manse it can be called. The high walls and narrow windows put one more in mind of a keep, though one more confined to the tight tangle of the city's streets than any manse of Lys, Myr, or Tyrosh.

    Signs are given and parchments passed on as high ranking servants, freemen judging by their mustaches alongside shaved slaves, lead you through high-walled courtyards and narrow passages, though not without some trepidation and wary looks. Prince Doran's letter had been meant for agents of yours, not yourself in person, and you had counted it wise not to anounce your name in the middle of the street, but soon will come the time to proclaim your full name before the lord and lady of the House. How you do so is likely to dictate how much they are willing to tell you and what aid they might provide. More to the point, House Malthor are traders. You could bind them to you with a lasting contract or simply offer gifts befitting your stature to earn their aid in this one instance.

    How do you handle House Malthor?

    [] Offer precious gifts from the western waters and the otherworlds

    [] Propose a lasting trade contract

    [] Write in

    OOC: With Viserys' social skills both of the above are going to succeed, but which you choose is going to influence the relationship going forward and potentially what kind of information is being shared. Not yet edited.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • So DP i had a question. Do oracles the class exit in your world. Because they would be quite useable for god forging. Since there powers can grow yet they don't need divine power source after the initial curse.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    To the Tone of Bells ​

    Twenty Eighth Day of the First Month 294 AC

    The streets of the Lower City are filled with the familiar press of bodies and your ears assailed by the din just as familiar to city dwellers the world over. The tongues may change, but not the tone of the street merchant hawking strange meats by the gate, nor the clank of guards' boots on cobbles, followed often by the fainter sweeter clink of silver. They are familiar enough with travelers here and merchants too, such that your glamor veiled forms barely merit a second look, unless one counts the sort of looks Tyene gets from a noble with a mustache dyed bright purple. The fact that you cannot yet unveil yourselves probably spared the man a challenge to a duel and at least a mild poisoning.

    "They say the bells dictate when they can fuck around here. A pity they don't have rules about what to do with eyes and wagging tongues," your friend notes just as a sweet-toned bell rings out over the hills, Nyel you suspect. Though she had spoken in High Valyrian, the target of her ire had either not understood or wisely decided to keep the crude comments to less well armed foreigners.

    As the seven of you climb the Sinner's Stairs that join together the lively chaos of the river-front with the high stone halls of the nobility of Norvos, following along after a reluctant mule caravan, you begin to understand what the young noble was doing out from under the eyes of his elders. Where in Volantis one could all too easily imagine silk-draped decadence among the spires and hidden chambers of the Old City, High Norvos is a place of cold and forbidding temples, where priests with wild beards draped in untanned hides demand right of way from even the most highborn to cross their paths.

    After spying a glint of magic in the eye of a grey-bearded hierarch surrounded by a small mob with bells and whips to flagellate themselves, you decide to move quickly along your way lest one of these mages have enough skill to pierce the glamors you are wearing and unveil you before you are ready.

    Thus, you come to the manse of House Malthor, if manse it can be called. The high walls and narrow windows put one more in mind of a keep, though one more confined to the tight tangle of the city's streets than any manse of Lys, Myr, or Tyrosh.

    Signs are given and parchments passed on as high ranking servants, freemen judging by their mustaches alongside shaved slaves, lead you through high-walled courtyards and narrow passages, though not without some trepidation and wary looks. Prince Doran's letter had been meant for agents of yours, not yourself in person, and you had counted it wise not to anounce your name in the middle of the street, but soon will come the time to proclaim your full name before the lord and lady of the House. How you do so is likely to dictate how much they are willing to tell you and what aid they might provide. More to the point, House Malthor are traders. You could bind them to you with a lasting contract or simply offer gifts befitting your stature to earn their aid in this one instance.

    How do you handle House Malthor?

    [] Offer precious gifts from the western waters and the otherworlds

    [] Propose a lasting trade contract

    [] Write in

    OOC: With Viserys' social skills both of the above are going to succeed, but which you choose is going to influence the relationship going forward and potentially what kind of information is being shared. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
     
    Acolyte said:
    So DP i had a question. Do oracles the class exit in your world. Because they would be quite useable for god forging. Since there powers can grow yet they don't need divine power source after the initial curse.
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    Click to shrink...
    There is the Ghost of High Heart who predicted Viserys' raise in time of low magic, and likely much more powerful now.

    Upset we haven't at least met her yet.
     
    [X] Offer them some good trade contacts in various ports of call in the Imperium, either your own personal ones or people you know will mesh well with the kind of industries they have their hands dipped into, the type of inside information one who did regular monitoring of publicly traded stock via ACSEC might have access to, as well as some expensive gifts with an aim of being more samples of the type of otherworldly or just far-off exotic goods that Silver Serpent traders carry in their manifests (it being specialized in perishables which are stored via magic or just high-end luxury items exploiting the foreign markets of the Planes). 5,000 IM should be enough to get a good idea of the quality and variety of things that pass through your customs.
    -[X] Tender a more direct relationship once the Imperium has established relations with Norvos more formally (which is basically thinly veiled for implying you will annex it sooner or later, and the nature of your business relationship will vary depending how you approach that prospect).
     
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    Viserys, to Norvos: "Don't make me come over there."

    Dany, to the Bearded God: "Don't make me come over there..."
     
    Hmmm. Could this xenophobic bearded god be some canon one from D&D? I don't know much about their gods.

    He seems lawful, and maybe evil
     
    If our point of contact family here plays their cards right, there is a decent chance they'll end up running Norvos for us.
     
    Goldfish said:
    If our point of contact family here plays their cards right, there is a decent chance they'll end up running Norvos for us.
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    Realistically speaking, with the religion controlling most of the levers of power and for a long, long time at that, it won't be any noble who in truth holds power here. They don't have the legitimacy or belief from the locals to maintain even a semblance of control in their own right.

    If we pick a local to 'run things', it will be a polite fiction at most, since they will be leaning on us for support. Visible support. Active support. In-your-face support that isn't leaving anytime soon.

    It will be the local Legion's command which controls Norvos, at least for the foreseeable future, since every bit of reform will be pushed through by their tacit support.
     
    How is Dany planning to threaten the bearded god anyway? The most feasible vectors are his followers, and that'd require some pretty screwed up actions on her part that she'd be hesitant at the very least to do.

    Unless the BG is weak enough that we can loot parts of him for Yss. That'd be all kinds of fun.

    Yss, after eating the god of facial hair:
     
    Tomcost said:
    Hmmm. Could this xenophobic bearded god be some canon one from D&D? I don't know much about their gods.

    He seems lawful, and maybe evil
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I know some theorists think maybe the Bearded Priests worship some sort of pre-invasion Seven mystery cult. That'd be fun

    Also @DragonParadox a while ago we recruited a Candlestone Courtier from the Court of Stars to act as our agent. What happened to him?
     
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