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

[Artemis1992]

The problem is that Slavers Bay is the least likely to attack us if we push them back 3 months. Norvos is already spoiling for a fight and Qohor might opportunistically help them.

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On the one hand I completly agree with that assessment, the Devils won't immediatly pick a fight with us.

On the other hand, if we leave Slaver's Bay alone for the three months, it will have a proper Garrison of Devils the next time we look there. If Asmodeus claims a beachhead he will not leave it easily conquered by the neighbours.
Maybe not to the level of Heaven's Shore, but still serious.

One the third hand (thanks Elaheh), there are worse neighbours than Asmodeus, he will most likely not want the world to end in Ice or Shadow, not as long as it keeps producing fresh souls at a decent rate.

 

[Sapphon]

The problem is that Slavers Bay is the least likely to attack us if we push them back 3 months. Norvos is already spoiling for a fight and Qohor might opportunistically help them.

Likewise, I think the Illithid are no longer a real problem. They have done nothing noteworthy for months and years. They likely grabbed as many humans as they needed, wrapped up their important operations and are now mostly content to ignore the surface of Planetos.

The Court of Stars is really urgent though. We need to eat that crown and destroy them sooner rather then later.

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Their attempts to rush into battle do not scare me very much, I am afraid that their capture and clearing will require too many forces and resources, which we may simply not have enough in Westeros.

And about the crown, what is your idea putting a crown on the sleeping king's head? Not to return it to the fairies, not to awaken their king ... but to coronate him with your own hands? It seems to me that if we, as the Ruler of All Westeros, coronate the king as the ruler of fairies of Star Court, this is no longer just diplomacy, it will be a fairy tale act, and what is even more important, he must create a pact in which the king is no longer sleeping, will find himself in a subordinate position.

 

[Duesal]

On the one hand I completly agree with that assessment, the Devils won't immediatly pick a fight with us.

On the other hand, if we leave Slaver's Bay alone for the three months, it will have a proper Garrison of Devils the next time we look there. If Asmodeus claims a beachhead he will not leave it easily conquered by the neighbours.
Maybe not to the level of Heaven's Shore, but still serious.

One the third hand (thanks Elaheh), there are worse neighbours than Asmodeus, he will most likely not want the world to end in Ice or Shadow, not as long as it keeps producing fresh souls at a decent rate.

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I think our best course of action here is to continue intrigue in Slaver's Bay to keep countering Asmodeus where we can to do our best to avoid a proper beachhead forming at all, while focusing invasion time on Norvos and Qohor. Then when the dust is settled we can turn to Slaver's Bay.

Their attempts to rush into battle do not scare me very much, I am afraid that their capture and clearing will require too many forces and resources, which we may simply not have enough in Westeros.

And about the crown, what is your idea putting a crown on the sleeping king's head? Not to return it to the fairies, not to awaken their king ... but to coronate him with your own hands? It seems to me that if we, as the Ruler of All Westeros, coronate the king as the ruler of fairies of Star Court, this is no longer just diplomacy, it will be a fairy tale act, and what is even more important, he must create a pact in which the king is no longer sleeping, will find himself in a subordinate position.

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I don't think that's going to work the way you hope it will. It seems more likely that would just be taken as returning it to him.

 

[Azel]

And about the crown, what is your idea putting a crown on the sleeping king's head? Not to return it to the fairies, not to awaken their king ... but to coronate him with your own hands? It seems to me that if we, as the Ruler of All Westeros, coronate the king as the ruler of fairies of Star Court, this is no longer just diplomacy, it will be a fairy tale act, and what is even more important, he must create a pact in which the king is no longer sleeping, will find himself in a subordinate position.

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Tremendously risky and we likely lack the narrative foundation for this.

I'd prefer to eat the crown and use the power to kill the king and the queen. Much cleaner. Much more quasi-divine power for us.

 

[Azel]

@Crake, @Goldfish, could you link the me those most current lists of who has sworn to us in Westeros and how many Legions we have on which deployments?

Also, will the Dauntless finish this month or next month?

 

[Sapphon]

I think our best course of action here is to continue intrigue in Slaver's Bay to keep countering Asmodeus where we can to do our best to avoid a proper beachhead forming at all, while focusing invasion time on Norvos and Qohor. Then when the dust is settled we can turn to Slaver's Bay.

I don't think that's going to work the way you hope it will. It seems more likely that would just be taken as returning it to him.

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And here I do not agree. Do not forget that Viserys is not an ordinary mortal, not even just a dragon, he is a mythical Ascendant, and in fact, any mythical character is similar to a fairy, he is also part of his own fairy tale. And when a character who, by his very existence, is the personification of the myth of the ruler and the founders of the Empire, coronation fairy, it cannot just be "the return of the crown".

Tremendously risky and we likely lack the narrative foundation for this.

I'd prefer to eat the crown and use the power to kill the king and the queen. Much cleaner. Much more quasi-divine power for us.

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Power Viserys and so has a lot of power, but to take possession of the entire star court.
And about the risk ... well, as a last resort, we will be forced to fight the awakened king and queen, will it be a tough fight? Most probably. Will we be able to defeat them with our entire party? Yes, sure!

 

[Duesal]

And here I do not agree. Do not forget that Viserys is not an ordinary mortal, not even just a dragon, he is a mythical Ascendant, and in fact, any mythical character is similar to a fairy, he is also part of his own fairy tale. And when a character who, by his very existence, is the personification of the myth of the ruler and the founders of the Empire, coronation fairy, it cannot just be "the return of the crown".

Power Viserys and so has a lot of power, but to take possession of the entire star court.
And about the risk ... well, as a last resort, we will be forced to guard the awakened king and queen, will it be a tough fight? Most probably. Will we be able to defeat them with our entire party? Yes, sure!

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I definitely disagree there. Viserys might be Mythic, but he's still a lower mythic rank than the King and Queen of the Court of Stars. For the moment at least their legend eclipses his own. This would be different if we were MR 10 and had the Imperial Deity up and running, but we don't. So trying to crown the Slumbering King is a sucker's bet, and will just empower him instead of forcing subordination.

 

[Artemis1992]

I definitely disagree there. Viserys might be Mythic, but he's still a lower mythic rank than the King and Queen of the Court of Stars. For the moment at least their legend eclipses his own. This would be different if we were MR 10 and had the Imperial Deity up and running, but we don't. So trying to crown the Slumbering King is a sucker's bet, and will just empower him instead of forcing subordination.

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We might look into it after conquering Westeros, after having official and recognised dominion over all the land in this world the King might otherwise rule.

But to get to that point we have to deal with the Court of Stars first, by peace or war, no matter.

So it doesn't matter if the crowning-idea could theoretically work (I think it might), because we can't do it without making it unimportant first.

 

[Goldfish]

@Crake, @Goldfish, could you link the me those most current lists of who has sworn to us in Westeros and how many Legions we have on which deployments?

Also, will the Dauntless finish this month or next month?

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The Dauntless will be finished at the end of next month.

 

[F0lkL0re]

Likewise, I think the Illithid are no longer a real problem. They have done nothing noteworthy for months and years. They likely grabbed as many humans as they needed, wrapped up their important operations and are now mostly content to ignore the surface of Planetos.

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I don't know just because we haven't seen anything doesn't mean they've given up on their plans for the surface.

 

[Azel]

I don't know just because we haven't seen anything doesn't mean they've given up on their plans for the surface.

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My point is that they had ample time to conquer and reinforce a region in anticipation of our acts. But they did not do so. They are not even all that active in the Iron Isles, which is kinda their main region in Westeros.

My read is that they've written off Westeros as "not worth the effort" and will just sustain themselves from other sources. Leng. Yi-Ti. The Thousand Isles. Maybe they've set up human-farms in their outposts.

 

[zxzx24]

The Court of Stars is really urgent though. We need to eat that crown and destroy them sooner rather then later.

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Can I ask precisely what drives this urgency?

I was mostly under the impression they were happy to ignore Westeros political situation. Do you think they might try something during conquest?

 

[F0lkL0re]

My point is that they had ample time to conquer and reinforce a region in anticipation of our acts. But they did not do so. They are not even all that active in the Iron Isles, which is kinda their main region in Westeros.

My read is that they've written off Westeros as "not worth the effort" and will just sustain themselves from other sources. Leng. Yi-Ti. The Thousand Isles. Maybe they've set up human-farms in their outposts.

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They could also be building up to take us on for when one of us decides that the non-aggression deal is now off.

 

[Duesal]

Can I ask precisely what drives this urgency?

I was mostly under the impression they were happy to ignore Westeros political situation. Do you think they might try something during conquest?

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That's not the case at all. Last we saw, they're actively turning the Reach into Feywild 2.0, and thank god we managed to get to what Reach Lords we did or it would have been worse.

 

[zxzx24]

They could also be casting meteor.

Edit:
I had forgotten thank you @Duesal

This comes back to ritual magic being funky though.

 

[Azel]

Can I ask precisely what drives this urgency?

I was mostly under the impression they were happy to ignore Westeros political situation. Do you think they might try something during conquest?

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They will definitely try something. The moment we start the conquest, the Tyrells have the choice between quietly accepting the loss of power, prestige and influence that our reign will bring them, or throw in their lot completely with the Court of Starts. They are Tyrells, so there's no question what they will choose. Likewise, the CoS will either have to move or accept a loss of all they gained in the Reach so far. They won't accept that either.

If we don't deal with the CoS before the invasion, then they will join the war as an opposing force.

They could also be building up to take us on for when one of us decides that the non-aggression deal is now off.

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Yeah, but to that end, they should have moved and taken some territory in Westeros. They did not. Unless they are complete idiots, that means they don't care about Westeros.

 

[Duesal]

They will definitely try something. The moment we start the conquest, the Tyrells have the choice between quietly accepting the loss of power, prestige and influence that our reign will bring them, or throw in their lot completely with the Court of Starts. They are Tyrells, so there's no question what they will choose. Likewise, the CoS will either have to move or accept a loss of all they gained in the Reach so far. They won't accept that either.

If we don't deal with the CoS before the invasion, then they will join the war as an opposing force.

Yeah, but to that end, they should have moved and taken some territory in Westeros. They did not. Unless they are complete idiots, that means they don't care about Westeros.

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The Court of Stars and the Lannisters on the same side. That's an odd thought, but I can definitely see it happening.

 

[F0lkL0re]

Yeah, but to that end, they should have moved and taken some territory in Westeros. They did not. Unless they are complete idiots, that means they don't care about Westeros.

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Why would they need to take any parts of Westeros to build up their forces or develop new magic/technology with the goal of ruining our day, they have the majority of the seas and oceans for that.

 

[zxzx24]

Ironically how deeply fragmented the court of stars is makes it harder to deal with in many ways.

@Azel what about a PR campaign targeting their grand plan? Most of the Fey weve spoken to seem to think it's a poor idea, and I am sure small folk would hate it as well.

It would probably get bloody though.

 

[Azel]

Why would they need to take any parts of Westeros to build up their forces or develop new magic/technology with the goal of ruining our day, they have the majority of the seas and oceans for that.

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Because if they care about having access to Westeros, then they need fortify it against our efforts.

If they do not care about Westeros, they can keep to the seas and build their strength there.

In the latter scenario, which I find vastly more likely then them bungling up the first one, we can take Westeros without much resistance from them.

 

[Duesal]

Why would they need to take any parts of Westeros to build up their forces or develop new magic/technology with the goal of ruining our day, they have the majority of the seas and oceans for that.

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There are more people for them to kidnap in Essos, and far less protecting those people. The Deep Ones can go basically wherever they want, it isn't surprising they don't see Westeros as worth having.

 

[Azel]

They might also have started to move in the Summer Isles or even west of the Sunset Sea.

The world is big and Westeros is certainly not the center of it.

Would be rather funny if it turns out they simply moved their facilities to other locations and let us be, reasoning that there is little point to have a pissing match with a primitive when they have so much else they could be doing with their time.

 

[Artemis1992]

Ultimatly they don't need humans.
The squids like getting free-range food because it has different experiences from their slave-races, but that's it.

The Aboleths and other aberrations have no need for humans at all, as far as I can tell.

Some minor farmings from near their strongholds propably suffices for their purposes.

 

[Sapphon]

I definitely disagree there. Viserys might be Mythic, but he's still a lower mythic rank than the King and Queen of the Court of Stars. For the moment at least their legend eclipses his own. This would be different if we were MR 10 and had the Imperial Deity up and running, but we don't. So trying to crown the Slumbering King is a sucker's bet, and will just empower him instead of forcing subordination.

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@DragonParadox could you judge us? After all, research into the corona is taking place right now and we might know the answer to this question. My opinion is that the king sleeps with his fairy tale, and if a mythical character, whose myth of creating and rule his own empire, crowns him, this will automatically put the awakened king in a subordinate position. He will not be a slave or a servant, but he cannot simply dismiss the duties of a vassal. Is this true or am I fundamentally wrong? And the second question is what mythical rank in Ascendant do we need?

 

[Duesal]

They might also have started to move in the Summer Isles or even west of the Sunset Sea.

The world is big and Westeros is certainly not the center of it.

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Watch them have a giant fortress on the Targaryen Islands.

Ultimatly they don't need humans.
The squids like getting free-range food because it has different experiences from their slave-races, but that's it.

The Aboleths and other aberrations have no need for humans at all, as far as I can tell.

Some minor farmings from near their strongholds propably suffices for their purposes.

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IIRC Aboleths have a fondness for human crafter slaves, but that's mostly a luxury.