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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 Nov 12, 2020 at 7:03 AM, finished with 48 posts and 15 votes.
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Interlude CMXLIV: Faces of Madness
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    • Faces of Madness ​

    Thirteenth Day of the Third Month 294 AC

    The black-winged angel did not guard, she watched, with the patience of ages, with the dark searching eyes of Hell she spied upon those from beyond as they shifted through the ruin of the faerie.

    Hulking beetle-like abominations, their shells the color of sea-stained brass, strode brazenly among the waves and spun gates into some nameless abyss from which poured unclean legions of twisted flesh. Skum sorcerers driven to near madness and perhaps beyond by the 'enhancement' of their minds had been ordered to spend their lives against the last fey traps, while shark-men priests in thrall to false gods worked their blessings of rage upon their brethren. Some of the latter beasts were mutated beyond even their common grotesque forms, giants with four limbs each bearing jagged weapons cursed with the malice of drowned souls.

    The battle, if battle it could be called, was well done. From the stone of the broken citadel emerged mucus-shrouded worms with star-shaped mouths, still gnawing at the flesh of some unfortunate fey. If Wisdom Marwyn was right the things consumed more than flesh, stealing the secrets of the conquered. Still, the dead could count themselves more fortunate than those who had already been dragged alive beneath the waves to have their minds broken by the creatures Marwyn named pain harvesters, brutish and unfeeling but surprisingly adept in breaking the minds of their victims.

    ***​

    After the enemy had withdrawn further investigation revealed that they had been seeking much the same things as Leto's own company would have recovered, arcane workings from the treasury of the fey enchanters and lore, be it bound in books or the minds of the fey who did not flee in time. Alas, the precise contents of those repositories could not be ascertained from what remained. Scrying the raid itself did reveal a pair of aboleth mind-benders who had been meant to keep a watchful eye on their forces as well as spectral entities whom none present could identify.

    It was only upon questioning Wisdom Qyburn's trove of stolen lore that the plainly named thought slayers, begotten when the influence of the Far Realm spilled into ethereal tides, were added to the annals of the Inquisition and the Scholarum. The fact that the entities could not survive in the material world for more than a brief span of time was little hindrance here in the Feywild. Leto marked well their description should she have to face such things among the land of spirits or shadows, though like her companions she was less worried about ethereal assassins the diviner's eye could catch and more by that which remained unseen.

    None of the identified entities could have been the ultimate architects of the attack as its goals and ultimate success or failure was shrouded in a familiar fog against all mortal divination.

    "A pity we could not claim some samples from the host before us," the flesh-crafter's voice was humming with broken harmonies in his thwarted desires, but he had agreed with Leto's assessment that they could not risk any attack presently without provoking all out war. "Still, the beasts and lesser forms can be seen from afar and harvested at some other time."

    Leto sincerely hoped it would not be asked of her to accompany such a task. She had dwelt in Hell for ages uncounted, but she knew there were worse places than the Nine Circles waiting for those foolhardy enough to seek them. "I would assume so, Wisdom," she sent unflinchingly, touching the alien geometries of his mind. "I believe the King will be more invested in securing this place once the Western Lands are conquered. It cannot be allowed to lie fallow with the Dominion of the Depths having already shown itself able to move in force here."

    Monstrous Creatures:
    14 Abyssal Custodians
    180-200 Cerebral Stalkers*
    18 Plizeazoths (Aboleth)

    Infantry:
    2000-3000 Sahuagin
    300 Giant Advanced Sahuagin Mutants
    80-150 Sahuagin War Clerics*
    1000-2000 Ulat Kini
    20-33 Savant Ulat Kini Wizards

    Leadership
    2 Aboleth Psions
    9 Thought Slayers
    ??? (Possessed Mind Blank)

    *may possess unknown templates

    What next?

    [] Tyrell interlude

    [] Azure Diplomacy

    [] Dealing with the Violet Court

    [] Write in

    OOC: And here we are, a full Deep One raiding force. Keep in mind that it was designed to fight fey, they would probably send something somewhat different to the material plane.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    14 Abyssal Custodians
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    Qyburn and Me:


    @DragonParadox, can we divine the presence of these things? Can we find some of them "in the wild" so to speak?
    Maybe it's time to send a shadowy group to attack them in the night and snatch away some of their number to experiment on them.
     
    Azel said:
    @DragonParadox, can we divine the presence of these things? Can we find some of them "in the wild" so to speak?
    Maybe it's time to send a shadowy group to attack them in the night and snatch away some of their number to experiment on them.
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    They do not really exist in the wild, they are more like Deep One war machines whose principal purpose is to spearhead an attack. That said you can divine them when they are on stand-by and send a raid for them.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    They do not really exist in the wild, they are more like Deep One war machines whose principal purpose is to spearhead an attack. That said you can divine them when they are on stand-by and send a raid for them.
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    That's not quite what I meant with "in the wild".

    Can we divine when they are on a small deployment, so that we don't have to bulldoze our way into a Illithid military base to get at them?
     
    [X] Tyrell interlude

    Also, good call on not going there, they had an actual army backing them up so it would need the Legion to clean and secure this place.
     
    [X] Tyrell interlude

    Probably won't be around much for the next few days, y'all. Lots of crap to pack before the move, then all the crap associated with actually moving.

    /regrets being a dirty procrastinator
     
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