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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:
Gornath, remembered as the City of Rats by the Dothraki, 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 glamour.

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 ws 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.

Mardosh, City of Soldiers, is 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, 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, the heart of the canker, where the dead kings gather and brood, but it is not them I fear for all 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 blue corpse-flame and its malignant will saught 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.
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Okay. so Mardosh seems pretty damn innocent. We're better off seeing if we can ally with whatever is trying to protect the inhabitants. Similarly I'm not sure about Kasath. Gornath and Sarnath on the other hand... Sarnath definitely needs to go, there's no question. As for the Rat King in Gornath he's already made himself our foe, but he's probably too paranoid to catch.
 
What we need right now is more information, perhaps Queen Namaaru might know more about whats going on in those city's as we have yet to ask her.
 
[X] To Kasath I would join strength to strength with yourself, as in the sphere of war you might already contend against the decrepit, the delusional and the damned, instead in peace we would go and entreat the lords there to set aside ruin and make an end of madness.
-[X] With yourself, the familiarity of that entreaty would not be blinded by suspicion, by the contempt for outsiders and the cynic watching for unproven words and shallow motivations. And myself the will and means to accomplish what we set our minds to, some of Sarnor's legacy can wrest itself from the grave, or at least lay bitter and old hatreds to rest.

[X] With our host joined, the three of us might go onward, setting aside thoughts of making war for a short time, and investigate the ails of Mardosh. There we might find what facade has woven itself upon the people there, and if it should be a cur or a horror leading them to their own ends upon unseen strings, we might cut them and hopefully grow in strength even further before battle is joined.

[X] As for Gornath, one could hardly claim the so-called King of Rats to be the most proactive ruler. Let him moulder in madness and stew in impotent hate, he will bide himself for us and not dare stick his head out of his strongness and holdfast. If the sane still thrive under his paranoid eye, an earnest entreating from their fellows might pull them out of the way of the funerary pyre.

[X] Finally, for the foes who would drown the living and tread and retread their mummery endlessly until they are made puppets themselves by the dread power of the Far North, with Sarnath there can be no peace, but there might be rest. With our host combined we might put an end to them once and for all, vengeance long sated and hope for the future restored. No more will the Sarnori mire in madness and linger in hatred upon the world under the sun, but instead rebuild themselves there upon the stones of the previous age.
 
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Damn, I was just about to cast Summon @Crake again. My Summoning must have been so powerful that it acted retroactively to garner his attention. 🤓

[X] Crake
 
Can we agree to ask Bloodraven, about how many reagents per HD, my sacrifice plan would produce, as soon as possible? Because DP has said using it as part of making the Sarnori into Warforged will add to research cost, and to the cost of making them into Warforged, but depending on how many reagents it produce, it might still be a significant profit per undead, and there's at least thousand of undeads here.

Just to clarify, I'm not asking for any agreement to use the plan, I'm just asking for us to in character, vote to send a message to Bloodraven once we have a spare moment, to ask how much this would profit us.

And yes I know if we do use my sacrifice plan, it's trading research for money, but it's not just money that's generated by this, it's also extra goodwill from the old gods, as getting them a bunch of sacrifices, get them valuable power.
 
Mister Phantom said:
Is the Lesser Star of Unchained Wisdom Viserys uses going to upgraded?
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Sorry, I meant to respond to this sooner, but I got sidetracked.

The Lesser Star of Wisdom has actually been upgraded a couple times since we looted it, though not specifically to turn it into a "Greater Star of Wisdom" with base abilities that match Lya's (which has also been upgraded several times).

It currently looks like this:
Lesser Star of Unchained Wisdom:
  1. +2 Insight bonus to AC
  2. Convert any spell of 4th level and above to Freedom of Movement.
  3. Hold breath for up to 12 hours before having to make a Constitution check.
  4. Undead creatures attempting to strike you suffer a -2 penalty to Attack rolls, or -4 to Attack rolls made by Incorporeal Undead. Undead gain a +4 bonus to detect you via Listen or Spot.
  5. May add one level 1 spell to spells known from any spell list if the bearer is a spontaneous caster or three level 1 spells to one's spell list if the bearer is a prepared caster (Current Spell: Amplify)
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Abilities #2 and #3 came from getting the "Periapt of the Sullen Sea" effect added to it, and ability #4 comes from having a "Gravewatch Pendant" effect added. We could enhance the bonus from #1 ability to match that of the Greater Star easily enough (maybe this month), but I never did get a solid price from @DragonParadox on what the cost would be to upgrade the #5 ability to match. That's a more nebulous effect than what is normally covered by the enchanting rules. #5 is of much less importance, however, as Viserys' ability to cast spells outside of the traditional Sorcerer/Wizard spell list has grown by leaps and bounds, now including the full Cleric list and any spell of 7th level or lower using Blood Wish or Miracle.
 
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[X] Crake

I'm glad that we weren't locked into fighting any city right now. I wanted to try something like this from the start.
 
Undead arent so different from when they were alive really

Usually the issue is just them staying that way, nonmatter what happens.

[X] Crake
 
Tomcost said:
[X] Crake

I'm glad that we weren't locked into fighting any city right now. I wanted to try something like this from the start.
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Yeah, neutralizing three out of five cities by talking at them is such a Viserys thing to do. And then reserving one strong show of force for where it's needed most.
 
@DragonParadox

The lack of quotes can be taken that you don't have to use that specific language at all. That was just fun for me. In fact it might be better to rearrange words greatly, if keeping to the overall rhythm and intent of the write-ins.

The point was basically to say something like, let's you and I go talk to this other city, and convince them this is a good idea. You would help us do that big time.

Then the three of us take our strong and smart guys and try to figure out WTF is going on for sure over in this other place, and hopefully grow stronger and not hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it.

That other guy? He's CRAZY! He allied with TIAMAT. That's CRAZY. We can deal with him later though.

Those guys though? They're not just crazy, they're feral. They got the void taint in 'em. Once you go Ultrablack, you don't go back. We gotta burn 'em out.

Savvy?
 
Crake said:
@DragonParadox

The lack of quotes can be taken that you don't have to use that specific language at all. That was just fun for me. In fact it might be better to rearrange words greatly, if keeping to the overall rhythm and intent of the write-ins.

The point was basically to say something like, let's you and I go talk to this other city, and convince them this is a good idea. You would help us do that big time.

Then the three of us take our strong and smart guys and try to figure out WTF is going on for sure over in this other place, and hopefully grow stronger and not hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it.

That other guy? He's CRAZY! He allied with TIAMAT. That's CRAZY. We can deal with him later though.

Those guys though? They're not just crazy, they're feral. They got the void taint in 'em. Once you go Ultrablack, you don't go back. We gotta burn 'em out.

Savvy?
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I understand, yeah

Good night guys, see you tomorrow as we move on in the journeys in the land of the dead.
 
...gotta be honest, while maybe a very IC thing to do, I just wanted a massive slaughterfest, not "turn 2-3 outta 5 enemy cities onto the others" :/

Lest of all, I can see one city being "eh, they won't matter whatever happens, even if they stay Undead".
Can't say that about 2-3 cities.

We've to actually invest into keeping this place stable if we grab any of the others.
Ugh.

[X] Crake

Regardless of my feelings and wanting to kill lots and lots of Undead with no impunity, I'm not really seeing a way forward with this U!Queen-lady we've met, without being as diplomatic/reasonable as possible with the other cities.
 
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egoo said:
...gotta be honest, while very IC thing to do, I just wanted a massive slaughterfest, not "turn 2-3 outta 5 enemy cities onto the others" :/
Lest of all, I can see one city being "eh, they won't matter whatever happens, even if they stay Undead".
Can't say that about 2-3 cities.
We've to actually invest into keeping this place stable. More than RAs (which are currently kinda restricted as is).
Ugh.

[X] Crake

Regardless of my feelings and wanting to kill lots and lots of Undead with no impunity, I'm not really seeing a way forward with this U!Queen-lady we've met, without being as diplomatic/reasonable as possible with the other cities.
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On the other hand, it's also going to get us some champions, and a lot of very loyal grunts with Warforged bodies, that's not a bad haul, even if it cost us some time.

And we might make money on it, depending on the cost reward ratios, of using my sacrifice plan while turning the undead into warforged.
 
So I've been looking over some stuff for permanency purposes. Viserys should have 2-3 HD left to use, so I've put together some options.
Level 3 picks:
Dragon Turtle Shell - natural weapon attacks shifted down a size category every 5 CL
Detect Desires -detect thoughts, but for what they want at the moment and not what they're thinking
Shining Scales - +5 AC, attacks act like good/silver weapons , and a breath weapon modifier
Reflexive Barrier - half our CL in defection bonus to AC

Reverse Arrows - protection from Arrows, but it shoots back ranged attacks when they get soaked completely by DR. The spell text is unclear on if this is just DR from the spell or our total amount.

Level 2 picks:
Seducer's Eyes - not sure on this one. It gives us +6 to any charisma based check, but it requires the target to be conceivably find Viserys physically attractive.
Divine Presence - an intimidation bonus that ranged from +5 to +15 based on how opposed their alignment is to Viserys'.
Perceive Cues - +5 competence on sense motive and perception
Protective Spirit - tries to shoot down attacks of opportunity.
Investigative Mind - advantage on all appraise, knowledge, linguistics, and spellcraft checks.

Raiment of Command - +5 untyped bonus to diplomacy and intimidation and any creature with 3 or more int takes a -2 to all opposed checks.

Level one picks:
Strand of the Tangled Knot - -10 penalty to the next attack made against us after casting, and criticals treated as regular hits. Not sure how that works out for a permanent spell, but even if it's only the first hit in some number of hours it'd still be good.
Sure Casting - not sure we can do this one, but we've done stuff not on the permanency list before and +5 CL to piercing spell resistance is nice.
Entropic Shield (if possible with Invisible Spell) - a 20% miss chance is pretty decent, but if it's visible all the time it'd be pretty irritating on the day to day.
Deadly Juggernaut - get a stacking luck bonus and 2/- DR per enemy reduced to 0 or less HP up to +5 luck 10/- DR so long as the opponents have at least your HD - 4
Cheetah Sprint - move 10x your land speed for one round. Not sure how to balance that as a permanent ability, use per day maybe?
Seed of Life - fast healing 2 in a can.
Litany of Defense - double the enhancement bonus of any armor you're wearing and gain immunity to fear effects.
Body ward - explicitly stacks with itself to soak 10 points of ability damage for each physical attribute. That kind of protection is worth 6 HD.
Edit: can the person subject to a permanent spell suppress their effects? If so Dampen Magic would be nice. It doesn't suppress effects that are cast on the subject before it takes hold, so if it could be turned off to buff and on at all other times it might be viable.
 
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BronzeTongue said:
So I've been looking over some stuff for permanency purposes. Viserys should have 2-3 HD left to use, so I've put together some options.
Level 3 picks:
Dragon Turtle Shell - natural weapon attacks shifted down a size category every 5 CL
Detect Desires -detect thoughts, but for what they want at the moment and not what they're thinking
Shining Scales - +5 AC, attacks act like good/silver weapons , and a breath weapon modifier
Reflexive Barrier - half our CL in defection bonus to AC

Reverse Arrows - protection from Arrows, but it shoots back ranged attacks when they get soaked completely by DR. The spell text is unclear on if this is just DR from the spell or our total amount.

Level 2 picks:
Seducer's Eyes - not sure on this one. It gives us +6 to any charisma based check, but it requires the target to be conceivably find Viserys physically attractive.
Divine Presence - an intimidation bonus that ranged from +5 to +15 based on how opposed their alignment is to Viserys'.
Perceive Cues - +5 competence on sense motive and perception
Protective Spirit - tries to shoot down attacks of opportunity.
Investigative Mind - advantage on all appraise, knowledge, linguistics, and spellcraft checks.

Raiment of Command - +5 untyped bonus to diplomacy and intimidation and any creature with 3 or more int takes a -2 to all opposed checks.

Level one picks:
Strand of the Tangled Knot - -10 penalty to the next attack made against us after casting, and criticals treated as regular hits. Not sure how that works out for a permanent spell, but even if it's only the first hit in some number of hours it'd still be good.
Sure Casting - not sure we can do this one, but we've done stuff not on the permanency list before and +5 CL to piercing spell resistance is nice.
Entropic Shield (if possible with Invisible Spell) - a 20% miss chance is pretty decent, but if it's visible all the time it'd be pretty irritating on the day to day.
Deadly Juggernaut - get a stacking luck bonus and 2/- DR per enemy reduced to 0 or less HP up to +5 luck 10/- DR so long as the opponents have at least your HD - 4
Cheetah Sprint - move 10x your land speed for one round. Not sure how to balance that as a permanent ability, use per day maybe?
Seed of Life - fast healing 2 in a can.
Litany of Defense - double the enhancement bonus of any armor you're wearing and gain immunity to fear effects.
Body ward - explicitly stacks with itself to soak 10 points of ability damage for each physical attribute. That kind of protection is worth 6 HD.
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Niiiice.

Here's the SL-to-HD list, for @everyone's ease:
egoo said:
[] Viserys: 17 HD (taken: Arcane Concordance (3), Channel VIgor (3), Aerial Alacrity (4), Strong WIngs (1), Greater Wings of Air (4) for total of 15 HD/Spell-Levels).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 2 HD.
[] Sir Richard: 17 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 14 HD.
[] Dany: 17 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 14 HD.
[] Lya: 17 HD (taken: Arcane Concordance (3), Channel VIgor (3) for total of 6 HD/Spell-Levels).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 11 HD.
[] Waymar: 16 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 13 HD.
[] Garin: 15 HD (taken: Arcane Concordance (3), Channel VIgor (3) for total of 6 HD/Spell-Levels).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 9 HD
[] Vee: 16 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 13 HD.
[] Tyene: 16 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 13 HD.
[] Maelor: 13 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 10 HD.
[] Xor: 15 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 12 HD.
[] Malarys: 16 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 13 HD.
[] Rina: 15 HD (taken: Channel VIgor (3).
Free HD-per-spell-level: 12 HD.
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although outdated... but only levels-wise, so it'd only mean more HD to spare :V
@Goldfish, what Permascrolls we have on hand as of right now?
 
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