Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Look, Qohor is a nice, concentrated source of industrial work, slaves and skilled labor, but it's ultimately not the sole source of human fodder in that region. The infestation can continue laying the ground work for Big Green's arrival with or without the city.

I think the city is mostly of immediate consequence because it does have a strategic target we would do well to deny the enemy sooner rather than later, which is the flesh forge. It is a hard target, one the enemy is forced to defend since it's too useful not to make a cornerstone in their plans. Also I fail to see any way it wouldn't hamper or delay and push the timeline down the road for that arrival if we denied it to them.

So it's basically like, yes, taking Qohor would be useful, and it's probably something we can do now, since it's basically a case of whack a mole--the whole place presents an obvious and convenient square for us to shove a wooden peg through in the form of copious amounts of troops, servitors and artillery bombardment and be guaranteed to do some useful damage.

But it won't really amount to much, they have had, as DP says, years to get things ready, if I was them I would shift out anything truly essential to their plans from the city as soon as they had them and hide them in their Demiplane pockets or at least out in the material Forest of Qohor. If it's all properly warded, it should be way more tedious to find out there than it would be in the city, which has some structure, rhyme and reason to building placement, only so many places to hide.
 
That awkward moment when Golden Company and F!Aegon were the least of our concerns to take care of, compared to the hype they had.
Well. At least we can throw the fact she really underperformed in TImmie's face later? :V
 
The problem is that when we take the city, but leave open the gateways to the tainted Feywild, we are in the same guerrilla war situation which prompted us to go full genocide on the CoS. There is just no way we can hold a city against an entrenched cult with access to ample low-level assets that can be used for terror attacks on an occupying force. Doing that, especially before the invasion of Westeros, would be a massive strategic blunder, since, best case, it would bog down our forces while worst case, we are looking at significant losses for the whole time we occupy the place without cleaning out the forests.

What is furthermore irksome is that we already got OOC confirmation that if we do literally nothing, then the big scary doomsday scenario will just fizzle and stop on it's own. Which we have zero IC reason to believe, but there you go. So I'm very temped to take Norvos and then to just let Qohor explode into aberrations, since it's another ting that suddenly got ridiculously hard to do, while carrying zero consequences for not doing it.
 
Azel said:
What is furthermore irksome is that we already got OOC confirmation that if we do literally nothing, then the big scary doomsday scenario will just fizzle and stop on it's own.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
DP said "might".
He's quick to try and reassure us, as usual, so don't take that too close to heart, maybe?

Much as he doesn't like to throw actual challenges our way, he's pretty likely to roll for something that big to be fair to himself and us.
I, for one, don't want to risk the Far Realm not wiping themselves out and succeeding at... whatever they are trying to succeed there.

Let's be real, we did leave the place unattended for far too long (and I take full responsibility for my part in that, too), unlike CoS who got strong outta nowhere, Qohor had years of foreshadowing.


Unrelated note, @Crake, more ways to make Richard go "Zoom!"
ESCAPING WARD
School abjuration; Level bard 2, inquisitor 2, magus 2, ranger 2, sorcerer/wizard 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level
This ward grants you extra maneuverability when you avoid attacks against larger foes. While affected by this spell, when you are attacked and missed by a creature that is at least one size category larger than you, you can, as an immediate action, move up to 5 feet away from the attacking creature. You can increase this movement by 5 feet for every 5 caster levels. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Permancencing is cheese like that.
 
So, to recap.
We cannot kill stiff in the Feywild and the forests because that'd be too long of a campaign.
We also cannot really leave people in Qohor to their own devices, given there's an non-existent chance the Eldritch shit will succeed at their plans and mutate/kill them all.
And there's "a chance" the city burns itself out because Abominations are full /b/tards at times.

My opinion?
Go full Stratholme on their asses.


We can handle the Forests later™.
Unless we leave it all to fester for even longer, of course.
 
Azel said:
The problem is that when we take the city, but leave open the gateways to the tainted Feywild, we are in the same guerrilla war situation which prompted us to go full genocide on the CoS. There is just no way we can hold a city against an entrenched cult with access to ample low-level assets that can be used for terror attacks on an occupying force. Doing that, especially before the invasion of Westeros, would be a massive strategic blunder, since, best case, it would bog down our forces while worst case, we are looking at significant losses for the whole time we occupy the place without cleaning out the forests.

What is furthermore irksome is that we already got OOC confirmation that if we do literally nothing, then the big scary doomsday scenario will just fizzle and stop on it's own. Which we have zero IC reason to believe, but there you go. So I'm very temped to take Norvos and then to just let Qohor explode into aberrations, since it's another ting that suddenly got ridiculously hard to do, while carrying zero consequences for not doing it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Qohor stood in defiance against the Forest from its founding till the Doom, if I saw that right.
No matter if the issue is regular Fey or Aberrations, the city can be held.
 
How about we grow a small army of Advanced Druid Creature Tintargurill and use them in conjunction with some of our other forces to combat the corrupted Fey and Aberrations in the Forest? They're natural predators of Fey, highly resistant and in most cases outright immune to mind fuckery, and Druid spellcasting would be especially effective against the threats they would encounter in the Forest, especially spells like Invoke the Cerulean Sign and Junglerazer.

We could also send some Constructs, maybe a couple Heralds, and additional Plant servitors who would synergize extremely well with the Tintargurill, along with a contingent of Undead lead by a Myrkdreki or two, backed up by our more mundane forces as needed.
 
Artemis1992 said:
Qohor stood in defiance against the Forest from its founding till the Doom, if I saw that right.
No matter if the issue is regular Fey or Aberrations, the city can be held.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That was in an age of waning magic though. Apparently, the cult and it's minion got a whole lot more active in recent times then they were at any point before.
Goldfish said:
How about we grow a small army of Advanced Druid Creature Tintargurill and use them in conjunction with some of our other forces to combat the corrupted Fey and Aberrations in the Forest? They're natural predators of Fey, highly resistant and in most cases outright immune to mind fuckery, and Druid spellcasting would be especially effective against the threats they would encounter in the Forest, especially spells like Invoke the Cerulean Sign and Junglerazer.

We could also send some Constructs, maybe a couple Heralds, and additional Plant servitors who would synergize extremely well with the Tintargurill, along with a contingent of Undead lead by a Myrkdreki or two, backed up by our more mundane forces as needed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's one of those "massive drain on our resources"-ideas. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely doable, but we are inching ever closer to overstretching ourselves and this would be a giant step in that direction.
 
Azel said:
That was in an age of waning magic though. Apparently, the cult and it's minion got a whole lot more active in recent times then they were at any point before.

That's one of those "massive drain on our resources"-ideas. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely doable, but we are inching ever closer to overstretching ourselves and this would be a giant step in that direction.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Then another solution, a classic.

We go in and kill Shub-Nigguraths most dangerous minions, with a party of proper adventurers.

The forest is not endless, the Paths can neither reach the Far Realm nor are they a reliable connection to the Feywild. There are no endless reserves and not necessarily foes beyond our power.

Even the defences are not made by careful planning, but by a mad thing's whims.

We can do this by hand and expect actual and lasting results, if we combine it with controlling the city with our troops and rooting out the cult as much as possible.
 
While PCs would be virtually invulnerable to anything lower CR, the problems seems to be that the cult will have broad, well entrenched presence over the whole place, so you don't even need numerous high CR assets for anything other than specifically trying to take your best shot at PCs nearby.

Also, given how they have had an age to learn the secret ways and back trails of the tainted Feywild, and likely know about as much about the material forest, they don't actually have to decisively engage us. Sure, we will peel off some important gribblies, but they could just set up interesting bait after bait, lay well placed ambushes which statistically have a higher likelihood of success, using magical solutions (actual enchantments from years of control over a city and access to reagents enough to make the serious costs of running a flesh forge an ongoing concern rather than a distant dream).

There's no reason to give battle to us when the entire purpose of the cult is to incite its fanatic populace into inviting in the big bad.

Would we eventually win by concentrating power in one place? Keyword: Eventually.
 
[X] Goldfish
DragonParadox said:
Well in my defense it has been simmering for years, if I did not make it an eldritch nightmare it would be rather underwhelming proposition considering the complications Tyrosh's Daemon cults caused in a matter of months. On the plus side it might just be wiped off the face of the map at the rate. Far Realm cults are not known for their ability to provide long term stability.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This makes a lot of sense and I like it.
DragonParadox said:
It is unlikely it would create an actual rift to the Far Realm , breaching the final boundary is hard enough when summoning, never mind cracking it over and entire city. Madness, despair, corruption of the local flora and fauna, people dying and being mutated, all that can and to a degree has happened. an actual long lasting planar breach into the material from the Far Realm is the kind of thing that would take almost unimaginable power and sacrifice and if it were anywhere near happening the hosts of R'hllor would not be bothering with Ymeri they would be marching on Qohor to burn everything to the ground.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wish you hadn't told us that OOC though. It makes a lot of sense, but it lowers the stakes quite a lot.
And you didn't even add a proviso like "it's possible that Aberrant plagues or monstrous species might spread into the ecosystem"? Just "oh, a whole bunch of locals will die, but Empire will be fine"?
Because right now I just want to evacuate as many non-cultists as possible (this may require a fight or two to force an unequal treaty making them allow locals to leave), set up immigration controls in our surrounding lands to make sure the cult doesn't spread to our place easily, and then mostly ignore the issue until we have the time to really focus on it.
This situation is still a complicated mess, but now it no longer feels as urgent. I'm compelled to act because I feel bad for the innocent locals, not because this is another world-ending threat (or even a regional threat). And due to the actual currently active world-ending threats, this doesn't exactly feel like a priority to me.
This makes sense from a worldbuilding perspective, of course.

Another thought:
Maybe we could raid the place and wreck their main PCs and/or bases to delay whatever this mess is?
At the very least, I support keeping investigations ongoing there. More information can't hurt, and could give us warning if whatever the Far Realm is doing does turn out to be bard for surrounding places.
 
Last edited:
I'd just can the invasion plans for Norvos and Qohor, which always were extremely rushed, and just use the special forces assigned to it to reinforce the border to Qohor.

Then let the place stew for the next few months while we deal with Westeros.
 
We could probably try evacuating the hinterlands... though I forsee a refugee crisis either way if we just let an Elder Evil rampage as it pleases around the area.
 
Crake said:
We could probably try evacuating the hinterlands... though I forsee a refugee crisis either way if we just let an Elder Evil rampage as it pleases around the area.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That means moving troops there to actually relocate people. Most likely forcibly relocate at that. So we are back at the scenario we want to avoid.

Those people haven't left over the last few years, so they won't start moving en masse now.
 
...can't we just start a smol city-sized pyre?
A teeny-tiny one?
Just to kill everyone living in the damned place?


...No?
:c

[This is just me meme'ing around. I find Stratholme very similar to Qohor if we assume the worst case scenario happening]

For real tho, you dun goofed @DragonParadox.
this OOC info now fully in view... well, I guess we can ignore Qohor.

@Azel, @Crake, how quickly can we boomrush Norvos alone?
We can probably reassign a lot of people to do, say, Slavers' Bay (yeah, shitty example, sending people without plan again, but whatever, it's an option) as their Free Action of the month, if Qohor ain't happening.
 
egoo said:
@Azel, @Crake, how quickly can we boomrush Norvos alone?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To give us an even bigger border with the Far Realms tainted shithole? Thanks, but no. Norvos after the Invasion.
egoo said:
We can probably reassign a lot of people to do, say, Slavers' Bay (yeah, shitty example, sending people without plan again, but whatever, it's an option) as their Free Action of the month, if Qohor ain't happening.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Cease and desist with this Free Action nonsense. That was originally grandfathered in as an exception for single-day combat missions and with the insane bloat of characters since then, I dare say the rule should be nixed.

Right now, this ruling is abused to have characters waffle around in week-long combat deployments despite allegedly doing something entirely different with their time.
 
Last edited:
Azel said:
To give us an even bigger border with the Far Realms tainted shithole? Thanks, but no. Norvos after the Invasion.

Cease and desist with this Free Action nonsense. That was originally grandfathered in as an exception for single-day combat missions and with the insane bloat of characters since then, I dare say the rule should be nixed.

Right now, this ruling is abused to have characters waffle around in week-long combat deployments despite allegedly doing something entirely different with their time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Okay.
 
Sorry about the OOC info guys, that was not meant as me speaking as the GM, but as Viserys' best guess as to what would happen in Qohor. I was just worried about how much the update schedule slowed down recently... case in point now.

Vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by Andy0915 on Sep 27, 2020 at 8:14 PM, finished with 48 posts and 6 votes.
Click to expand...
 
Crake said:
While PCs would be virtually invulnerable to anything lower CR, the problems seems to be that the cult will have broad, well entrenched presence over the whole place, so you don't even need numerous high CR assets for anything other than specifically trying to take your best shot at PCs nearby.

Also, given how they have had an age to learn the secret ways and back trails of the tainted Feywild, and likely know about as much about the material forest, they don't actually have to decisively engage us. Sure, we will peel off some important gribblies, but they could just set up interesting bait after bait, lay well placed ambushes which statistically have a higher likelihood of success, using magical solutions (actual enchantments from years of control over a city and access to reagents enough to make the serious costs of running a flesh forge an ongoing concern rather than a distant dream).

There's no reason to give battle to us when the entire purpose of the cult is to incite its fanatic populace into inviting in the big bad.

Would we eventually win by concentrating power in one place? Keyword: Eventually.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You might be overestimating the issue, and @Azel perhaps too.

Ultimatly we have two connected, but not inseperable problems.

1. Qohor itself is full of cultists, regular hostiles and quite likely some mages.
This is a problem we can solve. We can conquer them and have the Inquisition go over it with a fine-toothed comb. It will take some effort and manpower, maybe a time of martial law, but it is in itself not much worse than the aftermath of any conquest.
We have some experience, we have the institutions, we can do it.
If we solve problem 2, we can keep the cults down, same way we have with Daemon, demon and other cults.

2. The Forest of Qohor is full of monsters and has some paths into eldritch demi-planes.
This is a problem that we can solve with a heavy, but realtivly short use of PC-power and more mundane firepower from above. Maybe enough to make @egoo happy.
In short the idea is to set as much fire as possible to the forest.
Everything but the focus-points of eldritch power, and the areas around the Fey-paths should burn. And the two will likely be the same areas. (Unless the whole forest is so tainted that we might as well give up the region perpetually)
Then we send Viserys and friends to the identified hotspots (or less-hot-spots :D) and start killing monsters and fey and cultist-hermits and whatever else we can find.
Worst case we might have to go into the demiplanes, but we have spells to protect us from most of the planar fuckery. IMportant is to kill anything that might inspire more cultists in Qohor, or rile up the population further.

Once that second issue is solved and there are no more high-powered minions of the Goat around, we can treat the city like any freshly-conquered and relativly hostile location.

The only issue I can see with that, is that the companions might loose, and since that never happened so far, I remain optimistic (despite my best attempts to build something that can kill a major party of ours)
 
Speed53066 said:
So, are we planning to blitz Norvos, then attack Quhor?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We are confuse.
So far consensus wobbles between "we can take on some of Qohor" and "OOC info DP gave ruins any tension, and we can't attack in a way that would take care of everything, so better leave them be until after Re-conquest".
 
Artemis1992 said:
You might be overestimating the issue, and @Azel perhaps too.

Ultimatly we have two connected, but not inseperable problems.

1. Qohor itself is full of cultists, regular hostiles and quite likely some mages.
This is a problem we can solve. We can conquer them and have the Inquisition go over it with a fine-toothed comb. It will take some effort and manpower, maybe a time of martial law, but it is in itself not much worse than the aftermath of any conquest.
We have some experience, we have the institutions, we can do it.
If we solve problem 2, we can keep the cults down, same way we have with Daemon, demon and other cults.

2. The Forest of Qohor is full of monsters and has some paths into eldritch demi-planes.
This is a problem that we can solve with a heavy, but realtivly short use of PC-power and more mundane firepower from above. Maybe enough to make @egoo happy.
In short the idea is to set as much fire as possible to the forest.
Everything but the focus-points of eldritch power, and the areas around the Fey-paths should burn. And the two will likely be the same areas. (Unless the whole forest is so tainted that we might as well give up the region perpetually)
Then we send Viserys and friends to the identified hotspots (or less-hot-spots :D) and start killing monsters and fey and cultist-hermits and whatever else we can find.
Worst case we might have to go into the demiplanes, but we have spells to protect us from most of the planar fuckery. IMportant is to kill anything that might inspire more cultists in Qohor, or rile up the population further.

Once that second issue is solved and there are no more high-powered minions of the Goat around, we can treat the city like any freshly-conquered and relativly hostile location.

The only issue I can see with that, is that the companions might loose, and since that never happened so far, I remain optimistic (despite my best attempts to build something that can kill a major party of ours)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This isn't comparable to other cults. The Black Goat is the majority faith of Qohor and it's hinterland. We will need an ethnic cleansing to get rid of it. And I'm not in the mood to have ethnic cleansing whitewashed like most of our actions.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top