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

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I changed to the thug option just to see how combat works in this quest and that seems a comparativly save option for the first physical fight Viserys has to face. Not that we should make a habit of close combat fighting but it would be nice to get a feel for it both IC and OOC.
 
Unelemental said:
But it also has the biggest pay-off, right? Gorthos is the one whose approval we need to advance (or even survive), and while the mission is difficult, our talents are well-suited for doing it. Off the top of my head, if we can't magic the father into parting with the money, we can charm the son and make him help us kidnap him for an even bigger sum (giving him his own share as well).
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True and clever idea.
 
Someday in the future
*with burned down King's Landing in the background*
Dany: Viserys, are we the baddies?
Viserys: Nonsense, it was just business, nothing personal.
 
Edit : Changed vote

I'm a bit unsure about the last minor action. Wouldn't milking Varys for poison be better if we were to go after Fyro? Just have him drink it and done with him? I dunno.
 
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[X] Gorthos would like to test your skills. There is the matter of a young scion of the nobility who owes a great deal of money to Gorthos's underlings and who's father is refusing to pay (500 XP on success +opinion with Gorthos)
[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)

Set him on fire.

[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)
 
One more thing:

I always found it immersion breaking when the wizard killed some goblins went to sleep and suddenly got new spells especially when there was no time for spell research in the background. So you must take the meditation action (or the as yet unavailable magic study action) at least once per level in order to level up.
 
[X] Gorthos would like to test your skills. There is the matter of a young scion of the nobility who owes a great deal of money to Gorthos's underlings and who's father is refusing to pay (500 XP on success +opinion with Gorthos)
[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)

[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)
 
[X] Yohn asked you to be the "face" of some thugs collecting protection money (300 XP on completion, potential combat)
[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)
[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)
 
[X] Yohn asked you to be the "face" of some thugs collecting protection money (300 XP on completion, potential combat)
[x] Don't just walk up to people and demand their money. Ask about their needs and listen to them. How is your family doing? No trouble - good. Are you being harrassed? You say some of the boss's men seem to think they can throw stones at your shop just because they work for the boss? No worries, I'll make sure they're called to order. The trick is to appear sincere and helpful. Be legit. [Bluff] We're not just thugs coercing protection money, we're the irregular Watch (now 50% less corrupt than the regular Watch!), irregularly (by which we mean actually) ensuring your safety. There's a small irregular tax, of course, but it's well worth it, isn't it?
[x] Buy a decent quality sword and a buckler before you go. Just in case.
​
I'm reasonably certain our combination of high charisma, clever application of bluff and if necessary one or two charm spells (after asking to speak in private) will allow us to resolve this in the best possible way: With no violence and few hard feelings. It's a way to prove that we're not merely some unthinking thief or thug.
And in terms of character development it will help teach Viserys that, yes, smallfolk are people too, and just because you can take what you want from them by force, it doesn't mean there aren't better ways.

[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)

I don't care about revenge, but the man knows too much. And since he has it coming anyway...

[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)
 
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[X] Gorthos would like to test your skills. There is the matter of a young scion of the nobility who owes a great deal of money to Gorthos's underlings and who's father is refusing to pay (500 XP on success +opinion with Gorthos)
[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)

[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)
 
@Unelemental, @Isaacssv558, @lavanderjasmine, @Appirinia, @zecorezecron
Guys, could I maybe convince you not to take the most dangerous mission?

I realize that you want to ingratiate yourself with Gorthos, but the most important thing right now is to prove our competence, and that particular mission no doubt carries the highest risk of failure. We'd be messing/negotiating with the nobility. People who can actually afford to oppose the Old Man's minions (meaning us), and do so far more easily than some local shopkeeper. And they know that. Consequentially they'll be much harder to convince to cooperate.

So what if success gains us a few fewer XP? The risk is far smaller, and the probability that we'll actually successfully earn those XP much higher. We're not pressed for time here.
 
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Because we have all the tools to do the job. I don't think trying to charm the noble himself is a good idea, - he won't be meeting us alone if at all, and we'll be watched be everyone, so surreptitiously using magic would be extraordinarily difficult, - but that's not the only way to get money from him. He has a weak-willed son (if his debt is anything to go by) and servants/guards, giving us a number of vectors to manipulate him through.

Gorthos took us in while under the influence of the spell, but we can't rely on that forever in case he throws it off or becomes suspicious of us when we don't have him under Charm. The best way to avoid it is proving that his 'instincts' were correct and that we're someone who can get even problematic jobs done, things his other subordinates aren't capable of.
 
Unelemental said:
Gorthos took us in while under the influence of the spell, but we can't rely on that forever in case he throws it off or becomes suspicious of us when we don't have him under Charm. The best way to avoid it is proving that his 'instincts' were correct and that we're someone who can get even problematic jobs done, things his other subordinates aren't capable of.
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You're right that we need to prove our competence. Note, however, that the most important element of that is actually being successful in our task. And that particular mission is by far the hardest.

Let's assume the noble simply refuses to pay, no matter what we say or how many of his associates we charm to talk to him on our behalf. What are we going to do? We won't be able to do anything. Not without causing repercussions for Gorthos he will not be pleased with.

We can take this mission later, when we've already done 1 or 2 other jobs, and done them well. At that point, should we fail, Gorthos will probably shrug and go "oh well, it was a long shot". But if we fail now, at our first task, he will almost certainly ask himself "come to think of it, why did I let this young braggart stay again?". And then he will find that he can think of no reason.

Never gamble. Unless you have no other options. In this case, we do have other options.
 
Brain_Caster said:
You're right that we need to prove our competence. Note, however, that the most important element of that is actually being successful in our task. And that particular mission is by far the hardest.

Let's assume the noble simply refuses to pay, no matter what we say or how many of his associates we charm to talk to him on our behalf. What are we going to do? We won't be able to do anything. Not without causing repercussions for Gorthos he will not be pleased with.

We can take this mission later, when we've already done 1 or 2 other jobs, and done them well. At that point, should we fail, Gorthos will probably shrug and go "oh well, it was a long shot". But if we fail now, at our first task, he will almost certainly ask himself "come to think of it, why did I let this young braggart stay again?". And then he will find that he can think of no reason.

Never gamble. Unless you have no other options. In this case, we do have other options.
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I'm not talking about having his associates convince him. That would be too optimistic.

No, I'm saying we use our magic to make extorting money from him easier, be it through directly stealing it from some hidden safe or by kidnapping the son and demanding ransom.

And he could ask himself questions at any point, as we can't maintain the spell on him all the time. I don't want him to look any deeper into this suspicious pair of children, and doing the same work that his other minions are capable of is not enough to throw off that suspicion, IMO.
 
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Unelemental said:
I'm not talking about having his associates convince him. That would be too optimistic.

No, I'm saying we use our magic to make extorting money from him easier, be it through directly stealing it from some hidden safe or by kidnapping the son and demanding ransom.

And he could ask himself questions at any point, as we can't maintain the spell on him all the time. I don't want him to look any deeper into this suspicious pair of children, and doing the same work that his other minions are capable of is not enough to throw off that suspicion, IMO.
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But starting of with the smaller succeses wont give him any reason to look deeper.
 
Artemis1992 said:
But starting of with the smaller succeses wont give him any reason to look deeper.
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I'm saying he already has reasons to do that, his mind is just clouded by the spell. But if he asks himself 'why was I so friendly with those children?' or 'shouldn't I at least make a cursory check of their background?', the game is up. To me, the smaller jobs (that anyone could do) don't distract him from those things and don't increase our value quickly enough.
 
Unelemental said:
I'm saying he already has reasons to do that, his mind is just clouded by the spell. But if he asks himself 'why was I so friendly with those children?' or 'shouldn't I at least make a cursory check of their background?', the game is up. To me, the smaller jobs (that anyone could do) don't distract him from those things and don't increase our value quickly enough.
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Nah. We haven't really asked him for anything outrageous or even just unusual. He might well have agreed even without the spell, though I expect on account of our youth we'd have had a much harder time convincing him. It's not like he didn't already agree to employ plenty of other people after all. And I very much doubt all of them were sorcerers who used magic to charm him.

Proving competence is entirely sufficient, we don't need to work miracles. That comes later, after we have already proven competence, so that the occassional failure won't reflect too badly on us.

Unelemental said:
No, I'm saying we use our magic to make extorting money from him easier, be it through directly stealing it from some hidden safe or by kidnapping the son and demanding ransom.
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You remember what I wrote about not causing repercussions Gorthos would not be pleased with? This is almost exactly what I was thinking of.

It's big. It's flashy. It attracts attention. It's precisely the sort of thing any well run criminal enterprise should avoid at all cost.

In short: It's a gamble. High risk, high reward. Worth it only if we desperately need that high reward to survive... which we don't.
 
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The beginning of gangster king,I agree with cut the loose end but still can not decide between pimp route or debt collector.
 
Brain_Caster said:
Nah. We haven't really asked him for anything outrageous or even just unusual. He might well have agreed even without the spell, though I expect we'd have had an harder time convincing him. It's not like he didn't agree to employ plenty of other people in his after all. And I very much doubt all of them were sorcerers who used magic to convince him.

Proving competence is entirely sufficient, we don't need to work miracles. That comes later, after we have already proven our competence, so that the occassional failure won't reflect too badly on us.
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He's not just any run of the mill businessman, he's a mob boss. And hiring some children after a single talk without even having any information beyond that on them is suspicious as fuck.

Brain_Caster said:
You remember what I wrote about not causing repercussions Gorthos would not be pleased with? This is almost exactly what I was thinking of.

It's big. It's flashy. It attracts attention. It's precisely the sort of thing any well run criminal enterprise should avoid at all cost.
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He's okay with putting the son of a noble in his debt, so having to actually extract that debt is hardly unusual. And it's not like we have to announce we work for Gorthos. We have a perfectly good disguise spell for such occasions, and a spell for making the son collaborate with us (for pay), perhaps drawing him further into underworld dealings once this is over.
 
Unelemental said:
He's not just any run of the mill businessman, he's a mob boss. And hiring some children after a single talk without even having any information beyond that on them is suspicious as fuck.
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He's not even paying us anything. Free acommodations on a trial basis, but that's it.

What makes it unusual is that Viserys is 13. Apart from that, there's nothing.
Unelemental said:
He's okay with putting the son of a noble in his debt, so having to actually extract that debt is hardly unusual. And it's not like we have to announce we work for Gorthos. We have a perfectly good disguise spell for such occasions, and a spell for making the son collaborate with us (for pay), perhaps drawing him further into underworld dealings once this is over.
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Yes, I didn't expect you to be an idiot about it. But still, the risks are enormous.

That disguise spell? At this point, it lasts an entire 10 minutes before failing. Some people take longer to say hello. Charm Person lasts an hour, which is way too short to conclude a successful ransoming. Not to mention, what if the noble decides it would be a good idea to pay the ransom, then kill the ransomer and take back his money? How are we even going to exchange money and hostage?

It's a clever idea in concept, but the execution is far more difficult. We can revisit the issue at a later point, but for now, let's stick with something safer. We're playing in Trial of Iron mode after all - no reloads.
 
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Unelemental said:
*sigh*
Fine, let's be cautious. But I reserve the right to say 'I told you so' if he starts asking uncomfortable questions! :p
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Well, I did advocate spending a week or two creating a stronger cover identity before introducing ourselves. ;)

Though in my mind in case of failure he'd be far more likely to decide that we're not worth the expense of keeping us around (minor though it is) and simply throw us out rather than "ask questions". What reason would he have to do the latter? Have we given him any indication at all that we're lying? We've not been caught in any small lies or even omissions. We're presenting ourselves as two orphans trying to survive... which is exactly what we are.

BTW, I think it would probably be a good idea to rent a flat of our own ASAP. It's not like we wouldn't be able to easily afford it - hundreds of thousands of ordinary Braavosi manage just fine, and we're not looking for anything upscale.
 
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Brain_Caster said:
BTW, I think it would probably be a good idea to rent a flat of our own ASAP. It's not like we wouldn't be able to easily afford it - hundreds of thousands of ordinary Braavosi manage just fine, and we're not looking for anything upscale.
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That would negate half the reason why you came here to begin with. While she is in the One Eyed Rat Dany is under the implicit protection of Old Gorthos and his thugs by proximity.

Moreover Viserys is working on the principle that proximity to the "throne" is power.
 
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[X] Gorthos would like to test your skills. There is the matter of a young scion of the nobility who owes a great deal of money to Gorthos's underlings and who's father is refusing to pay (500 XP on success +opinion with Gorthos)
[X] Find kill Fyro in retribution for the humiliation you suffered as well as removing one who could identify you and Dany (Danger removed, vengeance XP from kill)

[X] Spend time with Dany and fulfill the promise to show her magic (+oppinion with Dany)
[X] Spend time with Varys, your familiar and learn more of his abilities (knowledge of familiar abilities)

Changing my vote
 
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