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

[Goldfish]

Land of the Dead ​

Third Day of the Second Month 294 AC

The following report is penned in beautiful flowing letters that speak less of painstaking calligraphy and more of centuries long experience polishing a skill to near instinct. At times it is illustrated with brief maps and even drawings of specific places glimpsed through divination in a hand steady enough to serve an architect or surveyor.

The planes of central Essos, what was once the kingdom of Sarnor, are organized in a mockery of the order they held in life, the dead raising the dead in ghastly imitation of a past most cannot recall for there is no mind there to remember, only the driving malice and the tyrannical will of those unfortunate enough to have returned with some semblance of their reason intact. Armies of hollow bone and rotting flesh clash across fields of dead grass in memory of age-old rivalry, caravans of skeletal beasts caked with the muck of their graves travel down empty roads to deliver the fruits of a feast of ashes. Yet for all this madness it would be folly to let one's guard down, for those most clear-sighted among the dead draw terrible powers from the curse of their foul birth and perhaps even from the ritual workings of the dead land.

Below is an estimation of the various 'principalities' of the damned and the dangers revealed to me in the flames together with lore gained from speaking with Wisdom Anu:

Gornath, remembered as the City of Rats by the Dothraki, it certainly seems to live up to that foul name in death, though not as one might imagine. Something about the city's death, to treachery and starvation, seems to have bound the hungering dead into a sort of swarm of many eyes under the dominion of the Rat King whose gaze we only narrowly avoided during the destruction of the Golden Company's Citadel. Given the powers of the Rat King seem most concerned with preventing him from ever being surprised and betrayed as he was in life, and the many rotting eyes looking out from between the crumbling edifices, stealth seems unlikely to grant one advantage no matter how skillful one might be in twisting shadow into a glamor.

Kasath was once a major religious center among the Sarnori as well as famed for its light horse, the most skillful in the land it was said, though not so skillful nor so swift as the Dothraki that overthrew it. There are hundreds of ceremonial chariots haunting the broken streets, and black smoke rises through the broken roofs of temples, sacrifices made to gods as dead as Sarnor. Some of the riders have even gained the power to fly and now befoul the night wind with their cavalcades.

Marosh, City of Soldiers, remarkable in that most of its people died by the sword of its own soldiers before starvation or the yoke of the Dothraki could claim them. The Unconquered Host has now returned, garbed in rotting flesh and yellowed bone where the rest of its people arose as specters, some not even aware that they are dead. Whatever power rules this place appears to be doing the best it can to protect this twisted 'innocence'.

Sathar, first city of the Tall Men to fall to the Dothraki, it is now filled with many of the dead who infest the weed-choked waterways and even animate the fetid water itself. Rather than a king, Sathar appears to have a queen and one of a more ancient mien than witnessed the fall of the city. It is the only place where the dead have been observed actively rebuilding the city rather than going over mindless imitation of life.

Sarnor, is the heart of the canker, where the dead kings gather and brood, though it is not them I fear, for all that their hatred makes them powerful each in their own way. There is a darkness there whose face I could not see for when I tried to turn the distant light of my flames upon it the fires burned with blue corpse-flame and its malignant will sought to reach me. It was only through the grace of R'hllor that the fire died before it could touch me, a thing of iron and killing wind, a thing defiled now returned to the Dead Land.

-By Melisandre of Asshai​

You carefully set down the note and consider which of the cities to first scout and who to send to the task?

[] Gornath
-[] Write in

[] Kasath
-[] Write in

[] Marosh
-[] Write in

[] Sathar
-[] Write in

[] Sarnor
-[] Write in

OOC: There are obviously more dead than just the cities in Sarnor, but these are the centers of power where most of the greater undead reside.

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Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

 

[DragonParadox]

Good night guys, see you tomorrow as we move into Sarnor.

 

[Tomcost]

I like how we are dedicating a turn to erasing a whole threat at once, like we did with Timmie, and like we will do wih the Illithids, the City of Brass, etc.

 

[Crake]

@Goldfish For an actual approach to warfare, I would keep the Myrdrekki acting as troubleshooters and assassins (Rovers) with the Fey of the group, with the Mind Dragons acting as communications between different groupings as before.

The Fiery Dragonbeasts can be placed at the vanguard with Viserys in the center with one group of high-to-middle tier PCs. Relath and Amrelath will be on either flank with two other groups of high-to-middle tier PCs, and then one small group of high-tier PCs stay as a reserve in the back, initially with the air forces.

The three Moonchasers will act as mobile artillery at first, but as the enemy moves out will continuously kite them and take full advantage of their half-kilometre plus direct fire range, and precede accurate fire with indirect fire of munitions on hardened targets, biggest structures likely since they'll be easier to hit.

The Manticores will remain on mobile artillery duty and ensure the enemy is constantly threatened by accurate fire even if some of our Moonchasers get kited further back from specters trying to force their hand and make them give up accurate range on more valuable targets.

The Wyverns will keep at maximum LOS distance until they have expended all of their Beetle Bomb munitions. Then they will go on bombing runs from high altitude until bomblets are exhausted, and finally engage as appropriate and preferably go after isolated pockets which don't appear to contain enemy illusionists or enchanters.

The Dothraki will take up either flank. Their mobility and our air power mean we can largely obviate the advantage of flanking forces. I would give either flank six Heralds and place eighteen in the center, along with the Harbinger. Split the Wrymling constructs evenly between both flanks.

The Hadhayosh can go with Amrelath's flank, and Bahro can go with Relath's, since both are ground-bound and will see more use there. I would keep the center mostly airborne. Which is why Nirah can go there as well, while splitting the Nagas with either flank.

The more vulnerable PCs will be split between either Rhango's command, or aboard all three Moonchasers.

 

[Crake]

@Goldfish Actually, I feel like if we're seasoning the Dothraki on undead, we should bring in a Legion as well and just have them hold the center. It depends on the enemy's force composition to be truthful. If they are mostly cavalry, I wouldn't want our troops to just be kited endlessly when we largely don't want to get them out of position.

If they have a lot of infantry ghouls and other fodder, the Legion can chop them up plenty.

 

[DarkObelisk]

Then after this, the next stop will be the Seven Kingdoms?

 

[Goldfish]

I'm leaning toward making Sathar our first stop, before conducting any major scouting or combat operations against the other cities. It could amount to nothing, or it could gain us an ally in the region who possesses valuable intel.

We had resolved to at least offer those who seemed sane a chance at restoration, and Sathar seems to be the best bet for such an offer actually being accepted.

[X] Sathar
-[X] Rather than a scouting party, we will instead attempt to make peaceful contact with the sentient Undead who populate Sathar, their queen in particular. This first contact group will be composed of Viserys, Dany, Vee, Sir Richard, Waymar, Tyene, and Teana.
--[X] Of all the Undead who populate what was once Sarnor and its tributaries, only those of Sathar have shown any inclination to restore what was lost rather than perpetrate a sad mimicry of the lives they once lead. This is a hopeful sign that the leadership of Sathar is capable of reason and growth. If they remain sane and can be bargained with, the possibility exists for them to eventually be restored to life through our own efforts and those of our allies. This could convince the Queen of Sathar to ally with us against the other Undead of Sarnor. Although we couldn't justify integrating any of her forces into our own assault plans, she could provide a great deal of useful information.
--[X] Dany and Vee will use Divination and Augury spells to determine the likely outcome of the attempt. If the results don't seem favorable, we will instead focus on Gornath, where scouting will be conducted using aerial assets, including high altitude Wyvern flybys, Erinyes observation, and Companion attention.

 

[Crake]

Then after this, the next stop will be the Seven Kingdoms?

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Diplomancing Marid emirates and getting some more mercenaries if possible. We will likely have to fight a defensive war against the Deep Ones if we want to invade Westeros on schedule, and for that we need more coverage, or we need to re-prioritize and delay invasion another month or two.

 

[egoo]

I'm still finishing up that term paper, can't plan with y'all D:

Please remember the face that Viserys can force Willsave-rerolls on any our people failing, if he's merely on the battlefield, that's kinda big if we want our Dothraki/legions to level off the undead.
Also, carpet-bombing stuff with Wyldfire is a perfectly viable strategy if we have to force the enemy out, they have no way to stop the tactics we applied in Tyrosh - with hundreds of miniaturized bombs wrecking shit even if Wyverns/Moonchaser can't fit proper.

Then after this, the next stop will be the Seven Kingdoms?

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Not right away, no.
We're about 2 months away fro that yet.
Best case, we manage to deal with the Illithids before them.

Bottom line, we are ensuring Qohor isn't a thing we have to be on guard during the reconquest, by either getting reliable intel that we don't have to worry, or blowing it up to smithereens. Somewhere in the 3rd month likely.

This month?
Haven't voted yet, it's either Slavers' Bay, Qohor infiltration, or cleaning up more of Sarnor after the big op here, for Viserys, Richard and Mereth.

 

[tarrangar]

I'm leaning toward making Sathar our first stop, before conducting any major scouting or combat operations against the other cities. It could amount to nothing, or it could gain us an ally in the region who possesses valuable intel.

We had resolved to at least offer those who seemed sane a chance at restoration, and Sathar seems to be the best bet for such an offer actually being accepted.

Click to shrink...

Marosh might also accept it, they are preserving their peoples innocence by making them believe they're still alive, that hint most of the people there are still sapient, and considering they're trying to pretend to be alive, they might eagerly grasp a chance, to actually live again.

 

[Crake]

@Goldfish Viserys should really be there for that. Dany can get some pretty respectable bonuses in social combat if she buffs up first, but I get the feeling that the Queen will have her beat like a kettle drum regardless.

Viserys OTOH would either match her if she's specialized in that area, or exceed her.

 

[BronzeTongue]

I'm going to go dig up some of the good anti undead stuff. In the meantime, do you guys think shooting an element gem tipped bolt at the ground is direct enough to count as being the creature in charge of the summoned elemental? If that's the case we could load up a few Wyverns with some specialty ammunition and be able to drop disposable distractions and saboteur groups. A surprise helping of 10-15 large elementals popping up in the wake of a significant air strike and is a great way to make a huge mess for our enemies.

 

[Crake]

@egoo If we're dealing with Qohor next month, we should probably get the diplomacy in Water out of the way after Sarnor this one.

 

[F0lkL0re]

Marosh might also accept it, they are preserving their peoples innocence by making them believe they're still alive, that hint most of the people there are still sapient, and considering they're trying to pretend to be alive, they might eagerly grasp a chance, to actually live again.

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Marosh is a maybe on the diplomacy front but the best place to start is Sathar since it looks like there's someone we can actually talk to over there rather then just parroting what they did in life.

 

[Goldfish]

@Goldfish For an actual approach to warfare, I would keep the Myrdrekki acting as troubleshooters and assassins (Rovers) with the Fey of the group, with the Mind Dragons acting as communications between different groupings as before.

The Fiery Dragonbeasts can be placed at the vanguard with Viserys in the center with one group of high-to-middle tier PCs. Relath and Amrelath will be on either flank with two other groups of high-to-middle tier PCs, and then one small group of high-tier PCs stay as a reserve in the back, initially with the air forces.

The three Moonchasers will act as mobile artillery at first, but as the enemy moves out will continuously kite them and take full advantage of their half-kilometre plus direct fire range, and precede accurate fire with indirect fire of munitions on hardened targets, biggest structures likely since they'll be easier to hit.

The Manticores will remain on mobile artillery duty and ensure the enemy is constantly threatened by accurate fire even if some of our Moonchasers get kited further back from specters trying to force their hand and make them give up accurate range on more valuable targets.

The Wyverns will keep at maximum LOS distance until they have expended all of their Beetle Bomb munitions. Then they will go on bombing runs from high altitude until bomblets are exhausted, and finally engage as appropriate and preferably go after isolated pockets which don't appear to contain enemy illusionists or enchanters.

The Dothraki will take up either flank. Their mobility and our air power mean we can largely obviate the advantage of flanking forces. I would give either flank six Heralds and place eighteen in the center, along with the Harbinger. Split the Wrymling constructs evenly between both flanks.

The Hadhayosh can go with Amrelath's flank, and Bahro can go with Relath's, since both are ground-bound and will see more use there. I would keep the center mostly airborne. Which is why Nirah can go there as well, while splitting the Nagas with either flank.

The more vulnerable PCs will be split between either Rhango's command, or aboard all three Moonchasers.

Click to shrink...

@Goldfish Actually, I feel like if we're seasoning the Dothraki on undead, we should bring in a Legion as well and just have them hold the center. It depends on the enemy's force composition to be truthful. If they are mostly cavalry, I wouldn't want our troops to just be kited endlessly when we largely don't want to get them out of position.

If they have a lot of infantry ghouls and other fodder, the Legion can chop them up plenty.

Click to shrink...

Looks good to me, dude.

We've brought the kind of force capable of crushing armies of Undead, but we need to remain wary of "hero" units each city can bring to bear against us. Powerful high level Undead can be a bitch to deal with, especially those with special conditions on permanently killing them. I expect those are going to require personal attention from Viserys, the Compaions, and our other high level vassals, regardless of what other forces we have available.

@Goldfish Viserys should really be there for that. Dany can get some pretty respectable bonuses in social combat if she buffs up first, but I get the feeling that the Queen will have her beat like a kettle drum regardless.

Viserys OTOH would either match her if she's specialized in that area, or exceed her.

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Viserys was in my plan, but I changed the wording slightly and forgot to put him back in. Definitely wouldn't send anyone but Viserys for that kind of job!

Fixed now.

 

[Crake]

I'm going to go dig up some of the good anti undead stuff. In the meantime, do you guys think shooting an element gem tipped bolt at the ground is direct enough to count as being the creature in charge of the summoned elemental? If that's the case we could load up a few Wyverns with some specialty ammunition and be able to drop disposable distractions and saboteur groups. A surprise helping of 10-15 large elementals popping up in the wake of a significant air strike and is a great way to make a huge mess for our enemies.

Click to shrink...

Not really, but what we can do is have Vee prepare a ton of Greater Glyphs of Warding which can summon Elementals if the enemy appears in proximity to them, sort of like a magical IED, but with elementals as the improvised explosive.

 

[Goldfish]

I'm still finishing up that term paper, can't plan with y'all D:

Please remember the face that Viserys can force Willsave-rerolls on any our people failing, if he's merely on the battlefield, that's kinda big if we want our Dothraki/legions to level off the undead.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Beacon of Will is great. This will be the first chance we get to use it in a battle.

(Mythic) Beacon of Will: All allied beings who can see, hear or somehow physically perceive you and who accept your rule and aid gain the benefits of Indomitable Soul against non-Mythic effects. For instance, being present on a battlefield affects the whole army, however being in telepathic communion with someone from whom you are otherwise separated from does not confer the bonus.

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[egoo]

@egoo If we're dealing with Qohor next month, we should probably get the diplomacy in Water out of the way after Sarnor this one.

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Thing is, we don't know if we are dealing with Qohor next month.
The intel for "hey, are we going to bother?" is the result of this month's infiltration, one some people voiced the desire to see IC.

There was a significant diplo/intrigue-force assigned to PoW and assisting Hermetia, there will be something from her regardless.
After the last 2 months though, I am... apprehensive of going diplomancing there.

So, uh, okay.
Infiltrating Qohor, Diploamncing PoW, killing shit in Slavers' Bay, Killing shit in Sarnor.
4(!) potential major destinations for Viserys this month.
yey.
}:C

 

[Crake]

Thing is, we don't know if we are dealing with Qohor next month.
The intel for "hey, are we going to bother?" is the result of this month's infiltration, one some people voiced the desire to see IC.

There was a significant diplo/intrigue-force assigned to PoW and assisting Hermetia, there will be something from her regardless.
After the last 2 months though, I am... apprehensive of going diplomancing there.

So, uh, okay.
Infiltrating Qohor, Diploamncing PoW, killing shit in Slavers' Bay, Killing shit in Sarnor.
4(!) potential major destinations for Viserys this month.
yey.
}:C

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Better now than next turn, I will be honest, considering we have to split focus and even do a little poking around in the Westerlands prior to the invasion. That's pretty much literally the last thing on our big check list of Westeros related stuff (related to invading, anyway).

 

[F0lkL0re]

We need to ether expand the number of high level agents we have somehow or try to cut down on the amount of balls we have in the air.

 

[Goldfish]

I'm going to go dig up some of the good anti undead stuff. In the meantime, do you guys think shooting an element gem tipped bolt at the ground is direct enough to count as being the creature in charge of the summoned elemental? If that's the case we could load up a few Wyverns with some specialty ammunition and be able to drop disposable distractions and saboteur groups. A surprise helping of 10-15 large elementals popping up in the wake of a significant air strike and is a great way to make a huge mess for our enemies.

Click to shrink...

Too bad we don't have our magic gem carving tools yet, but they won't be ready until later in the month. When we start mass production of Elemental Gems, I can totally get behind making special Wyvern ammo that can Summon an Elemental on use. Right now, however, the only people we have who are capable of making them in the traditional manner have other more important crafting jobs.

Not really, but what we can do is have Vee prepare a ton of Greater Glyphs of Warding which can summon Elementals if the enemy appears in proximity to them, sort of like a magical IED, but with elementals as the improvised explosive.

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately, that's not actually something Vee can do. That could be remedied with a Page of Spell Knowledge, but the spell isn't really suited for use in the field. 10 minutes to cast for each Glyph means that even with hours of dedicated casting she would only be able to create a relatively small number of them in a fixed location.

We need to ether expand the number of high level agents we have somehow or try to cut down on the amount of balls we have in the air.

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It's a work in progress. We've done quite a bit of this in the last several months.

 

[Crake]

Looks good to me, dude.

We've brought the kind of force capable of crushing armies of Undead, but we need to remain wary of "hero" units each city can bring to bear against us. Powerful high level Undead can be a bitch to deal with, especially those with special conditions on permanently killing them. I expect those are going to require personal attention from Viserys, the Compaions, and our other high level vassals, regardless of what other forces we have available.

Viserys was in my plan, but I changed the wording slightly and forgot to put him back in. Definitely wouldn't send anyone but Viserys for that kind of job!

Fixed now.

Click to shrink...

Thinking back, this will be our first real taste of High Magic setting, peer power to peer power mass combat.

The Golden Company was pathetic because their patron is a greedy shrew who gave them shit assets and hedged too much on her Nega-Dany analogue and his Companions being a match for us. None of our forces were threatened in the slightest.

This time though I expect some hot counters to almost everything we can place on the table except for our Magitech airships and airplanes. They are just too weird and new for them to have any meaningful response other than an improvised one, and they won't be able to provide a hard counter to them. So that is a massive advantage for us, having heavy firepower which can't be meaningfully negated constantly threatening any of our opponents out in the open is a huge boon for us. It means that every turn somewhere on the battlefield is getting big chunks of HP torn out of them. And if they have any big bois like Tiamat did, they can concentrate fire and wreck their day.

 

[Crake]

Unfortunately, that's not actually something Vee can do. That could be remedied with a Page of Spell Knowledge, but the spell isn't really suited for use in the field. 10 minutes to cast for each Glyph means that even with hours of dedicated casting she would only be able to create a relatively small number of them in a fixed location.

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Ah, yes, then get her a page ASAP, she will need to spend months preparing as many as possible in our Super Fortress.

 

[silvanknight]

[X] Goldfish

 

[Goldfish]

Thinking back, this will be our first real taste of High Magic setting, peer power to peer power mass combat.

The Golden Company was pathetic because their patron is a greedy shrew who gave them shit assets and hedged too much on her Nega-Dany analogue and his Companions being a match for us. None of our forces were threatened in the slightest.

This time though I expect some hot counters to almost everything we can place on the table except for our Magitech airships and airplanes. They are just too weird and new for them to have any meaningful response other than an improvised one, and they won't be able to provide a hard counter to them. So that is a massive advantage for us, having heavy firepower which can't be meaningfully negated constantly threatening any of our opponents out in the open is a huge boon for us. It means that every turn somewhere on the battlefield is getting big chunks of HP torn out of them. And if they have any big bois like Tiamat did, they can concentrate fire and wreck their day.

Click to shrink...

Yep. I'm especially looking forward to seeing the effects of the special Ghost Touch rounds we've equipped the Moonchasers and Manticores with when the Incorporeal Undead start making a nuisance of themselves. That's why all the Type A Wyverns will also be using the Force setting on their Energy Siege Shot effect. The Ghosts and other Incorporeal shit won't know what hit it.

Of course, even the more traditional stuff we're bringing is going to be an OOCP due to the sheer numbers and power available to many of them.

Ah, yes, then get her a page ASAP, she will need to spend months preparing as many as possible in our Super Fortress.

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Done. I've got her a 3rd level Glyph of Warding and a 6th level Greater Glyph of Warding PoSK on the crafting schedule. That'll let her lay down a lot of Glyphs per day.