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

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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jul 18, 2020 at 4:20 PM, finished with 39 posts and 9 votes.
  • [X] While Tyene and Dany go to snoop under the guise of looking after horses, you will try to gain a sense of what drives the lord here, if that could be reconciled with some of your own ideas for the region.
    -[X] Ultimately you are willing to tolerate autonomous city-states with the knowledge that they will fall under your direct sphere of influence in essentially all cases barring open warfare or isolationism. Your economic primacy and your military support being essential to remain independent states will render them into protectorates within a generation or two.
    -[X] You hope they will willingly form a union with the Imperium but that can manifest itself over time. If this lord can convince many of his rusticating fellows to ally themselves with you for a campaign against Sarnath, with the assurance your attentions will soon fall upon the perfidious Gornath thereafter, you are willing to extend some trust to make it happen.
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Tomcost said:
I've been thinking for a long time about running a Warcraft quest set after the fall of the Lich King, to be fair, because that's the point where most agree that WoW started sucking.

Someone already beat me to the Forsaken Civ idea, though.
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Honestly I'd love to read that, though I'm happy to see DP's undead nobility too :p
 
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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jul 18, 2020 at 4:20 PM, finished with 39 posts and 9 votes.
  • [X] While Tyene and Dany go to snoop under the guise of looking after horses, you will try to gain a sense of what drives the lord here, if that could be reconciled with some of your own ideas for the region.
    -[X] Ultimately you are willing to tolerate autonomous city-states with the knowledge that they will fall under your direct sphere of influence in essentially all cases barring open warfare or isolationism. Your economic primacy and your military support being essential to remain independent states will render them into protectorates within a generation or two.
    -[X] You hope they will willingly form a union with the Imperium but that can manifest itself over time. If this lord can convince many of his rusticating fellows to ally themselves with you for a campaign against Sarnath, with the assurance your attentions will soon fall upon the perfidious Gornath thereafter, you are willing to extend some trust to make it happen.
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Part MMMDXCV: Lonely Spirits
  • Threadmarks
    • Lonely Spirits ​

    Seventh Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    As Dany and Vee slip out of the chamber under the pretense of looking after the horses you could not have brought close to so many of the living dead with any amount of training, you continue to talk to the lord of Tall Pines and his kin, trying to get a sense of what they wish. Beyond the half-life of this place, the willful denial of the grave, what they most seem to desire is life, not as a vampire might supping upon the blood of mortals, nor as a wraith snatching the warmth of mortal flesh, but simply as one's whose life had ended swift and sudden as an ax blow from the blue.

    Looking back upon the accounts of the Century of Blood, especially ones which had been penned by Volantene scholars, it is easy to conclude that the fall of Sarnor was slow and predictable as the tide sweeping in, a tragedy worked in no small part by the hand of the very people who perished. Perhaps for kings and princes, generals and warlords, that harsh judgement is warranted, but for the minor nobility like your present hosts it is was more like a flesh storm. There was no slow siege here in the hinterlands, no starvation and no bloody last stands.

    Even the fragmented accounts you can gather by claiming an interest in history paint a story of unpredictable and ultimately unstoppable raids as the lesser nobility was shattered time and again by Dothraki kos. You guess as much from the shape of the silences as the words being spoken that most of those who died by the sword here and in other similar settlements did so without warning or a way to make sense of what had befallen them, and among those few survivors who returned there was little left to do but try to rebuild, never knowing when history would repeat itself until they heard horns in the distance.

    "Oh..." begun one man who must have been well into his fifth or sixth decade when he died. "What I would not give to have real staff around, people laughing, talking, gossiping, anything. Even the servitors in my grandfather's day had a mind and for good reason, people live best when surrounded by other people you know."

    As though summoned by the current discussion you hear Dany's voice in your mind, soft and a little strained. "All of the lesser dead feel like they are bound to a priest, all the same one. If I reached out by hand I could sweep up a score of them and more but... there are hundreds of them just on this estate, tens of thousands perhaps in all the lands of Kasath. If they are all bound like this the only thing I can think of that could do it would be a god, or the avatar of one at least. I think we need to have a look at those oaths the warriors in the house swore, that or we need to go to the city to see how they are raised."

    What do you do?

    [] Allow your new customers to browse your wears and depart for Kasath to earn more about 'the Mob' and the dead it called forth

    [] Try to persuade one of the oath-bound dead to let you examine them
    -[] Write in argument

    [] Write in

    OOC: Some pretty good rolls this time around, enough for Viserys to guess quite a bit about the social structure around here.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    Lonely Spirits ​

    Seventh Day of the Second Month 294 AC

    As Dany and Vee slip out of the chamber under the pretense of looking after the horses you could not have brought close to so many of the living dead with any amount of training, you continue to talk to the lord of Tall Pines and his kin, trying to get a sense of what they wish. Beyond the half-life of this place, the willful denial of the grave, what they most seem to desire is life, not as a vampire might supping upon the blood of mortals, nor as a wraith snatching the warmth of mortal flesh, but simply as one's whose life had ended swift and sudden as an axe blow from the blue.

    Looking back upon the accounts of the Century of Blood, especially those which had been penned by Volantine scholars, it is easy to conclude that the fall of Sarnor was slow and predictable as the tide sweeping in, a tragedy worked in no small part by the hand of the very people who perished. Perhaps for kings and princes, generals and warlords, that harsh judgement is warranted, but for the minor nobility like your present hosts it was more like a flesh storm. There was no slow siege here in the hinterlands, no starvation, and no bloody last stands.

    Even the fragmented accounts you can gather by claiming an interest in history paint a story of unpredictable and ultimately unstoppable raids as the lesser nobility was shattered time and again by Dothraki kos. You guess as much from the shape of the silences as the words being spoken that most of those who died by the sword here and in other similar settlements did so without warning or a way to make sense of what had befallen them, and among those few survivors who returned there was little left left to do but try to rebuild, never knowing when history would repeat itself until they heard horns in the distance.

    "Oh..." one man who must have been well into his fifth or sixth decade when he died. "What I would not give to have real staff around, people laughing, talking, gossiping, anything. Even the servitors in my grandfather's day had a mind and for good reason, people live best when surrounded by other people, you know."
    As though summoned by the current discussion, you hear Dany's voice in your mind, soft and a little strained. "All the lesser dead feel like they are bound to a priest, like the same one. If I reached out by hand, I could sweep up a score of them and more but... there are hundreds of them just on this estate, tens of thousands perhaps in all the lands of Kasath. If they are all bound like this, the only thing I can think of that could do it would be a god, or the avatar of one at least. I think we need to have a look at those oaths the warriors at the house swore. That, or we need to go to the city to see how they are raised."

    What do you do?

    [] Allow your new customers to browse your wears and depart for Kasath to learn more about 'the Mob' and the dead it called forth

    [] Try to persuade one of the oath-hound dead to let you examine them
    -[] Write in argument

    [] Write in

    OOC: Some pretty good rolls this time around, enough for Viserys to guess quite a bit about the social structure around here. Not yet edited
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
     
    Now would be a really good opportunity to learn more about the process used to bind so many Undead under one master. That's hardcore mojo, so they've got to be shortcutting it somewhere.
     
    Well I figure that whatever we learn, the people responsible for this made sure that it began and ended with them, they would jealously guard that power because for one reason or another they have some kind of desire, something they want seen done, whether that be vengeance or greed it doesn't really matter, they would spite anyone who would try to take it away.

    But before we dismiss the option, we can at least divine something of the oaths, if not the direct source of them.

    [X] Run some divination to determine the actual effects of examining one of the examples of the oath-bound dead, if it will trigger some kind of reprisal. Mostly you believe if you tried to work some magic on it, and it made the thrall lash out or destroy themselves, you would lose any good will here and render your purpose here pointless. If you feel like there shouldn't be any problems if you keep your touch light, you will try to convince them to allow you to examine the magic binding them, but if signs aren't good you will instead jump straight to the source.
    -[X] Argument: You honestly haven't heard of any examples of a Necromancer who could raise the dead without a hard and fast limit on their ability to bind them up to a limited number. Except for one, and it paints a grim picture. You do know someone who could help if your suspicions are correct.
     
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    Anyone else want to take a stab at figuring out the HD limits of our new cleric friend? It'd be such a tragedy if they were sitting in a horde of their minions when they suddenly went past their control limit, lost all of the ones nearest to them, then ate one of these by surprise. :V

    Or we could go with reached Day walker, on the assumption that mindless undead won't actually be able to make the check to distinguish the target from a living creature and will therefore eat them "alive".
     
    BronzeTongue said:
    Anyone else want to take a stab at figuring out the HD limits of our new cleric friend? It'd be such a tragedy if they were sitting in a horde of their minions when they suddenly went past their control limit, lost all of the ones nearest to them, then ate one of these by surprise. :V

    Or we could go with reached Day walker, on the assumption that mindless undead won't actually be able to make the check to distinguish the target from a living creature and will therefore eat them "alive".
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    It's a fun thought, but I doubt we could affect enough Undead to matter, not if they're already capable of binding thousands of HD worth of Undead in some manner.

    I bet it has something to do with the Undead Colossus. If every component Undead of that monster was given their normal level of control over a certain amount of HD based on their own level, the total of controllable HD between all of those components would be really fucking high.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    As though summoned by the current discussion you hear Dany's voice in your mind, soft and a little strained. "All of the lesser dead feel like they are bound to a priest, all the same one. If I reached out by hand I could sweep up a score of them and more but... there are hundreds of them just on this estate, tens of thousands perhaps in all the lands of Kasath. If they are all bound like this the only thing I can think of that could do it would be a god, or the avatar of one at least. I think we need to have a look at those oaths the warriors in the house swore, that or we need to go to the city to see how they are raised."
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    Well look at that, a not-so-dead god.
     
    Goldfish said:
    It's a fun thought, but I doubt we could affect enough Undead to matter, not if they're already capable of binding thousands of HD worth of Undead in some manner.

    I bet it has something to do with the Undead Colossus. If every component Undead of that monster was given their normal level of control over a certain amount of HD based on their own level, the total of controllable HD between all of those components would be really fucking high.
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    Well it doubles HD up to a cap of the caster's CL, so that helps some, and don't necessarily need to break it completely. With a beacon spell the mindless undead will be drawn in and try to eat the target. Filling up most of their remaining capacity, then lighting up the buffet sign would make for a shitty afternoon for most creatures. If it's something that daywalker works on then we can make it even worse.

    It comes down to how many high HD mindless undead are under it's control and how many level two spells Viserys and co can pump out in 20 hours.
    Edit: to be clear, I'm aware it would probably blow up in our faces, but it'd be pretty hilarious if we could pull it off. It's possibly the most embarrassing way for a would be "Lord of the Dead" to die. It's their version of going out Elvis Style; surprised, sitting there with their pants round their ankles, and shitting themselves.
    Edit: betrayed by my phone again.
    Edit: take two
     
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    Fingers crossed that the Sarnori just figured out how to bind unlimited undead chaff without a god and without the Void. That would be amazing lore to get for us.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I bet it has something to do with the Undead Colossus. If every component Undead of that monster was given their normal level of control over a certain amount of HD based on their own level, the total of controllable HD between all of those components would be really fucking high.
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    Your pretty much guaranteed to be right about this. Can you imagine a Colossus with cleric levels? The following quotes from the previous two updates make me think the Colossus might be the priest.

    Worse still, for the greater dead they do not actually command their 'peasants' nor indeed even the bones of the workers even originate from here. All are under the command of the colossus and merely 'lent out' to help rebuild the manor and sow the lands, fruitless as the latter task might be.
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    "All of the lesser dead feel like they are bound to a priest, all the same one
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    BronzeTongue said:
    Alternative plans:

    Summon Vee's Spirit Animal while flying over the city.

    Spell scar, a permanence scroll, and copious abuse of hide from undead.

    Hostile levitation so we can push the charnel colossus somewhere else.

    Use Supreme Curse Terrain to invoke seven of the largest bottomless pit we can per this list of terrain effects.

    It's not like we have to play fair, and it has no idea we're here. :V
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    Beware the Froghemoth!

    🐸: RIIIIIBBBIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

    Hostile Levitation is neat, but it's got nothing on Enemy Hammer. I've always wanted to beat an enemy to death using another enemy and the power of my mind.
     
    Hmm, according to this page you can get around ~80HD worth of undead under your control, more if you have the proper magic item and the effects of a certain PRC stack.

    So, does ~160HD worth of undead enough to explain this undead master?
     
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