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

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Goldfish said:
Like @Crake said, it's largely an issue of availability of crafters. Lya is the only one of our people who can craft the Advanced Tattoo Guardian, plus they have to be inked on the person who they will be bonded to as they are crafted. Thankfully, Lya's Dedicated Wrights can do the work, but the recipient would still need to spend eight hours a day for a little over nine days getting the Advanced Tattoo Guardian inked. I still want to get them on some of our other high value people, but it's rare for that amount of crafting time to be available along with those eligible for the Tattoo to have nine days free on their schedule.
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Makes sense. 9 days of downtime for a companion is something that is quite hard to afford.
 
Duesal said:
A bandit as tough as Brigant Vvulf can easily crush a few monsters here and there. For all that Darkest Dungeon is a hellhole, the bosses still seem to stick in their own areas. Just don't go there and you should be relatively safe.
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The bosses? Yeah, but the rest of the hellhole? The village is barely safe already, who in their sane mind would go into the woods trying to rob the ones who dare venture outside the village?

... except that well, sanity is not actually expected anywhere in the setting. So I shouldn't argue about it and wait for DD2
 
Tomcost said:
The bosses? Yeah, but the rest of the hellhole? The village is barely safe already, who in their sane mind would go into the woods trying to rob the ones who dare venture outside the village?

... except that well, sanity is not actually expected anywhere in the setting. So I shouldn't argue about it and wait for DD2
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To be fair, the whole setting is kind of a dump/deathtrap. The thing is, the local lord who moved in is rebuilding a place that should have been uninhabitable. Where's he getting that kind of money? Surely he's not digging around in the earth and bringing up wealth... that's crazy! That's suicidal!

He must be bringing in money from elsewhere... I KNOW! Let's set up on the roads! We'll rob whoever's crazy enough to come out this way!!

Never mind all the murderhobos moving in at the same time.
 
Crake said:
To be fair, the whole setting is kind of a dump/deathtrap. The thing is, the local lord who moved in is rebuilding a place that should have been uninhabitable. Where's he getting that kind of money? Surely he's not digging around in the earth and bringing up wealth... that's crazy! That's suicidal!

He must be bringing in money from elsewhere... I KNOW! Let's set up on the roads! We'll rob whoever's crazy enough to come out this way!!

Never mind all the murderhobos moving in at the same time.
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The bandits were here before that happened. They're leftover mercenaries from when the prior lord (the asshole who ruined everything in the first place) needed soldiers to put down a peasant rebellion. That's where the cannon came from.

Brigand Vvulf himself probably came along later, though.
 
Duesal said:
The bandits were here before that happened. They're leftover mercenaries from when the prior lord (the asshole who ruined everything in the first place) needed soldiers to put down a peasant rebellion. That's where the cannon came from.

Brigand Vvulf himself probably came along later, though.
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Yeah, it was more a generalization for why you'd want to stick around... these bandits weren't dungeon divers. They're the type of scum who would have stabbed you in the back if you ordered them to do more than put down hapless peasants.
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jul 12, 2020 at 12:55 PM, finished with 62 posts and 13 votes.
  • [X] Head to one of the other cities to see if they might be persuaded to your side with the aid of Sathari envoys
    -[X] Morosh, investigate the strange dichotomy
    [X] Head to one of the other cities to see if they might be persuaded to your side with the aid of Sathari envoys
    -[X] Morosh, investigate the strange dichotomy
    [X] Head to one of the other cities to see if they might be persuaded to your side with the aid of Sathari envoys
    -[X] Morosh, investigate the strange dichotomy
    [x] Send a quick message to Bloodraven, asking what kind of profits per HD, sacrificing someone while putting their soul in a soul gem with create soul gem, would generate.
    [X] Morosh
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Part MMMDLXXVIII: Kinship Beyond Death
  • Threadmarks
    • Kinship Beyond Death ​

    Third Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    "Farewell Your Majesty, may we meet again when the drums of war ring out and once more when they are stilled," you bid your host and her unliving court goodbye as you withdraw through gates of silver and bronze reforged.

    To your surprise, before you cross the threshold you hear spoken in the tongue of Valyria but without the telltale ringing of a spell of translation, each syllable instead shaped with care: "May the first come soon and the second even swifter thereafter." She must have asked one of her servants later in their graves for the words by mind speech. A compliment not lightly earned, you know.

    The antechamber you find yourselves in once held scenes of hunt among the reeds, of waterfalls gently falling, but time had not been kind to this part of the palace, mold and cranks wearing away at the fresco until all that remained, mostly by some odd chance, is a solitary black winged duck rising into the faded blue. Some dead hand had strengthened the lines of black and the bluish sheen of the feathers, the better to keep it at least intact before the march of ages.

    "I wonder if they have any painters left who would be interested in coming to Sorcerer's Deep," Tyene wonders wistfully.

    "Once they're not dead you mean?" Waymar asks with a smile.

    "If they want maybe, but given Wyla's studies and the fact that we accepted her into the realm before she stepped into the twilight I don't see why that should be a necessary step," Dany counters.

    "But..." your friend visibly struggles. "That's not the same thing. At least she looked alive."

    "What does how something looks have to do with how they act?" Dany asks archly.

    You can think of a hundred examples she could give, and obviously Waymar can too. He hangs head briefly in defeat. "How the hells am I going to explain that to my lord father?"

    "Have Ysilla do it?" Tyene teases for a moment before relenting. "Anyone who looks too dead will probably wear a glamour so they can move about more easily."

    "The lady is wise as she is beautiful," Eskil says as he enters the room with a company of eight unliving warriors bearing armor that mingles ceremonial bronze with iron chain marking them as far older than Sathar's sack, though still more recent than the envoy himself.

    As you leave the palace for the stables you discover that the eight are not guards but officers, each with their own chariot and team of three and their own hundred strong detachment of skeletal infantry. It takes some doing to talk them out of bringing those along, and it takes even longer to do the same with the withered husks of war elephants festooned with towers of brass and bone. Ironically the creatures appear to have kept more of their minds than many of the Sarnori, a fact that had at first horrified Vee until she spoke to them with a bit of help from Dany's dreamspun magic.

    "They want to serve," she shakes her head, looking saddened and a little awed.

    "They say in Volantis that elephants are creatures of deep memory and deeper loyalty," Teana offers. "It's why the traders choose it as their beast, a pity they did not recall those virtues at the last."

    "I must confess to knowing little of your fair city," Eskil begins. Throughout the journey upon the high winds north and west across the planes to Mardosh he proves to be an interesting conversationalist, able to make not just his answers interesting but also his questions, a rare skill even in a diplomat.

    ***​

    Fourth Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    After crossing the Sarne a second time you begin to see pines grow thinker and blacker below. Soldier pines draped in weeping moss, a line from a song you heard in your childhood comes to mind. You wonder if this is where they got their names. Mardosh was called the City of Soldiers after all. Alas, even the unliving herald does not know the answer, save to confirm that even in his day that is what they were called.

    "Walls on the horizon," Garin mentally nudges your attention towards the northwest where you can just barely see the slightly more solid black smudge of Mardosh's walls. Now the question is how to approach it?

    [] Directly, you have a herald from Sathar with you and nothing to hide

    [] Scout it out first to see what might cause the odd behavior seen in Melisandre's flames
    -[] Write-in infiltration party

    [] Write in

    OOC: I rolled for elephant sanity to see if you would have a diplomatic incident with Vee being upset at it, but the result was 93 so those elephants are more mentally sound than most human undead, they came back out of loyalty to their crews.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • We should probably get a bit more intel before going in directly. Whatever is in charge of the city is keeping the rest of the inhabitants sane through ignorance of their own deaths. We can't carelessly disrupt that enchantment without unfortunate consequences.
     
    If we go in just seeking information we absolutely don't want to get caught.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Kinship Beyond Death ​

    Third Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    "Farewell Majesty, may we meet again when the drums of war ring out and once more when they are stilled," you bid farewell to your host and her unliving court as you withdraw through gates of silver and bronze reforged.

    To your surprise, before you cross the threshold you hear spoken in the tongue of Valyria, but without the telltale ringing of a spell of translation, each syllable instead shaped with care, "May the first come soon and the second even swifter thereafter." She must have asked one of her servants later in their graves for the words by mind speech. A compliment not lightly earned, you know.

    The antechamber you find yourselves in once held scenes of hunts among the reeds, of waterfalls gently falling, but time had not been kind to this part of the palace, mold and cracks wearing away at the fresco until all that remained, mostly by some odd chance, is a solitary black winged duck rising into the faded blue. Some dead hand had strengthened the lines of black and the bluish sheen of the feathers, the better to keep this at least intact before the march of ages.

    "I wonder if they have any painters left who would be interested in coming to Sorcerer's Deep," Tyene wonders wistfully.

    "Once they're not dead you mean?" Waymar asks with a smile.

    "If they want maybe, but given Wyla's studies and the fact that we accepted her into the realm before she stepped into the twilight, I don't see why that should be a necessary step," Dany counters.

    "But..." your friend visibly struggles. "That's not the same thing. At least she looked alive, not..."

    "What does how something looks have to do with how they act?" Dany asks archly.

    You can think of a hundred examples she could give and obviously Waymar can too. He hangs his head briefly in defeat. "How the hells am I going to explain that to my lord father?"

    "Have Ysilla do it?" Tyene teases for a moment before relenting. "Anyone who looks too dead will probably wear a glamor so they can move about more easily."

    "The lady is wise as she is beautiful," Eskil says as he enters the room with a company of eight unliving warriors bearing armor that mingles ceremonial bronze with iron chain marking them as far older than Sathar's sack, though still more recent than the envoy himself.

    As you leave the palace for the stables, you discover that the eight are not guards. They are officers, each with their own chariot and team of three, and their own hundred strong detachment of skeletal infantry. It takes some doing to talk them out of bringing those along, and it takes even longer to do the same with the withered husks of war elephants festooned with towers of brass and bone. Ironically, the creatures appear to have kept more of their minds than many of the Sarnori, a fact that had at first horrified Vee until she spoke to them with a bit of help from Dany's dreamspun magic.

    "They want to serve," she shakes her head looking saddened and a little awed.

    "They said in Volantis that elephants are creatures of deep memory and deeper loyalty," Teaana offers. "It's why the traders chose it as their beast, a pity they did not recall those virtues at the last."

    "I must confess to knowing little of your fair city," Eskil begins. Throughout the journey upon the high winds, North and West across the planes to Mardosh, he proves to be an interesting conversationalist able to make not just his answers interesting but also his questions, a rare skill even in a diplomat.

    ***​

    Fourth Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    After crossing the Sarne a second time, you begin to see pines grow thicker and blacker below. Soldier pines draped in weeping moss, a line from a song you heard in your childhood comes to mind. You wonder if this is where they got their names. Mardosh was called the City of Soldiers, after all. Alas, even the unliving herald does not know the answer, save to confirm that even in his day that is what they were called.

    "Walls on the horizon," Varys mentally nudges your attention towards the north-west where you can just barely see the slightly more solid black smudge of Mardosh's walls. Now the question is how to approach it?

    [] Directly, you have a herald from Sathar with you and nothing to hide

    [] Scout it out first to see what might cause the odd behavior seen in Melisandre's flames
    -[] Write in infiltration party

    [] Write in

    OOC: I rolled for elephant sanity to see if you would have a diplomatic incident with Vee being upset at it, but the result was 93 so those elephants are more mentally sound than most human undead, they came back out of loyalty to their crews. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

    I think you might have wanted to use Wind Walk rather than Air Walk in the linked spell?
     
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    DragonParadox said:
    I rolled for elephant sanity to see if you would have a diplomatic incident with Vee being upset at it, but the result was 93 so those elephants are more mentally sound than most human undead, they came back out of loyalty to their crews. Not yet edited
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    This. This makes me smile quite a bit....

    And makes me wonder how many undead doggos we may encounter or may wake up in the Deep....
     
    So how would y'all like to approach our infiltration? How many people? Any spell ideas for an effective infiltration?

    Let's assume in regular intervals there's someone with access to True Sight. Even if that's not true, let's also plan and account for Tracking by Scent. One thing to keep in mind is that we're going to be the only things smelling like not-dead people. We can either use a spell to fake dead-people status, thus masking our scent by just blending in (which could help with a disguise route) or we could just eliminate our scent entirely.

    So we can have highest grade invisibility active, and keep within expected maximum distance from others by using tracking spells (like the one we used in Sunspear) to keep track of where every other being is, and we can use stuff like Xorn Movement to gain further movement options. We can generally assume that since anyone who sticks out will stick out due to behavioral differences from whoever is looking for infiltrators, that they will focus on the air. So I expect we will see detection net set up on roof tops, from windows, and on the street level. But it's impossible to get maximum coverage, so alleys and side streets are best, and for crossing major roads and clear sightline areas like plazas and squares we should go underground.

    @Goldfish?
     
    Crake said:
    So how would y'all like to approach our infiltration? How many people? Any spell ideas for an effective infiltration?

    Let's assume in regular intervals there's someone with access to True Sight. Even if that's not true, let's also plan and account for Tracking by Scent. One thing to keep in mind is that we're going to be the only things smelling like not-dead people. We can either use a spell to fake dead-people status, thus masking our scent by just blending in (which could help with a disguise route) or we could just eliminate our scent entirely.

    So we can have highest grade invisibility active, and keep within expected maximum distance from others by using tracking spells (like the one we used in Sunspear) to keep track of where every other being is, and we can use stuff like Xorn Movement to gain further movement options. We can generally assume that since anyone who sticks out will stick out due to behavioral differences from whoever is looking for infiltrators, that they will focus on the air. So I expect we will see detection net set up on roof tops, from windows, and on the street level. But it's impossible to get maximum coverage, so alleys and side streets are best, and for crossing major roads and clear sightline areas like plazas and squares we should go underground.

    @Goldfish?
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    Shadow cat?

    Spy bugs?

    Speak with plants or animals?

    @dragonpawould words of the city work or would that harm our minds?
     
    Crake said:
    Let's assume in regular intervals there's someone with access to True Sight. Even if that's not true, let's also plan and account for Tracking by Scent. One thing to keep in mind is that we're going to be the only things smelling like not-dead people. We can either use a spell to fake dead-people status, thus masking our scent by just blending in (which could help with a disguise route) or we could just eliminate our scent entirely.
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    Lifesense – Feat – D&D Tools

    Complete list of all D&D spells, rulebooks, feats, classes and more!
    dnd.arkalseif.info

    Don't rely on any form of regular magic concealment.
    This is more limited than Varys' Mindsight, but propably very hard to defend against.
     
    This can help us, methinks, @Crake:
    HIDE FROM UNDEAD
    School     abjuration; Level cleric 1
    Casting Time 1 standard action
    Components V, S, DF
    Range touch
    Targets one touched creature/level
    Duration 10 min./level (D)
    Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); see text; Spell Resistance yes
    Undead cannot see, hear, or smell creatures warded by this spell. Even extraordinary or supernatural sensory capabilities, such as blindsense, blindsight, scent, and tremorsense, cannot detect or locate warded creatures. Nonintelligent undead creatures (such as skeletons or zombies) are automatically affected and act as though the warded creatures are not there. An intelligent undead creature gets a single Will saving throw. If it fails, the subject can't see any of the warded creatures. If it has reason to believe unseen opponents are present, however, it can attempt to find or strike them. If a warded creature attempts to channel positive energy, turn or command undead, touches an undead creature, or attacks any creature (even with a spell), the spell ends for all recipients.
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    Should go around even Lifesense.
     
    Alternatively we could divine for anything about whatever's in charge of this city and how willing it would be to meet with us in private in honorable parlay.
     
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