[X] Crake

Well, it seems that we need to get some of our people to winterfell to protect Jon. That and a whole lot of flesh forged creatures.
 
Mind Old Nan was also not killed in person. Not weighing in on the soul-kill issue directly just a reminder that she died differently. As far as any healer would be able to ascertain she had a massive stroke and died of natural causes.
Hm, I thought getting hit on the head was what killed her.
It's pretty dangerous to knock out people that way and she wasn't in good shape anyway.
 
Pretty bummed right now. Update kinda seems like a bit of a cruel joke. A delayed "how fucked is everyone else".

We don't even have an actual stat block for the enemy, so we don't know if any of the cats are even capable of surviving more than a single round with this thing. At worst, they delay it for a maximum of three rounds, and that's if it chooses to stick around and engage them all. Though if it can't instantly beat a DC 20 reflex save, we might, read, might, be able to stretch that a few more.

OTOH, if we react fast we might be able to track it down. If it didn't soul kill Robb on the spot but kept him with it for some purpose, that's a plus.
 
We don't even have an actual stat block for the enemy, so we don't know if any of the cats are even capable of surviving more than a single round with this thing. At worst, they delay it for a maximum of three rounds, and that's if it chooses to stick around and engage them all. Though if it can't instantly beat a DC 20 reflex save, we might, read, might, be able to stretch that a few more.
To be fair, we have been working under those conditions for much of the early quest.
 
Pretty bummed right now. Update kinda seems like a bit of a cruel joke. A delayed "how fucked is everyone else".

We don't even have an actual stat block for the enemy, so we don't know if any of the cats are even capable of surviving more than a single round with this thing.

In Shadow's admittedly rushed opinion three on one it does not look entirely hopeless. This is not some CR 20 murder machine. This is what could sneak into Winterfell when Bloodraven was not looking.
 
Pretty bummed right now. Update kinda seems like a bit of a cruel joke. A delayed "how fucked is everyone else".

We don't even have an actual stat block for the enemy, so we don't know if any of the cats are even capable of surviving more than a single round with this thing. At worst, they delay it for a maximum of three rounds, and that's if it chooses to stick around and engage them all. Though if it can't instantly beat a DC 20 reflex save, we might, read, might, be able to stretch that a few more.

OTOH, if we react fast we might be able to track it down. If it didn't soul kill Robb on the spot but kept him with it for some purpose, that's a plus.
I think it is unlikely this thing has real soul killing options. To skate in through the wards of Winterfell, which we have seen are extremely potent, this thing probably had to be fairly low power, and the weaker it is, the lower the chance it possesses the potential for it.

I would expect it to kill as many Starks as it can while trying to escape with one of the younger ones (they're smaller and easier to keep alive in transit) for sacrifice shenanigans.
 
Kinda harder to decipher without the legend, DP.

Oops, sorry. In my defense it's starting to get late here. Here is the map again with the legend.

1.North Gate 2.Broken Tower 3.Glass Garden 4.Crypts 5.First Keep 6.Godswood 7.Guards Hall 8.East Gate 9.Armory 10.Hunter's Gate 11.Kennels 12.Guest House 13. Bridge between the Armory and the Great Keep 14.Great Keep 15.Maester's Turret 16.Kitchen 17.Courtyard 18.Bell Tower 19.Library Tower 20.Sept 21.Stables 22.Great Hall 23.Smithy 24.South Gate
 
In Shadow's admittedly rushed opinion three on one it does not look entirely hopeless. This is not some CR 20 murder machine. This is what could sneak into Winterfell when Bloodraven was not looking.
Wouldn't CR20 dedicated Assasin-thing of the Others be arguably just as, if not more, capable of sneaking in even while Summer is looking around?
 
Oops, sorry. In my defense it's starting to get late here. Here is the map again with the legend.

1.North Gate 2.Broken Tower 3.Glass Garden 4.Crypts 5.First Keep 6.Godswood 7.Guards Hall 8.East Gate 9.Armory 10.Hunter's Gate 11.Kennels 12.Guest House 13. Bridge between the Armory and the Great Keep 14.Great Keep 15.Maester's Turret 16.Kitchen 17.Courtyard 18.Bell Tower 19.Library Tower 20.Sept 21.Stables 22.Great Hall 23.Smithy 24.South Gate
Hmm, Maester's Turret is right beside the kitchens. That's promising, especially for Teleporting cats.
 
In Shadow's admittedly rushed opinion three on one it does not look entirely hopeless. This is not some CR 20 murder machine. This is what could sneak into Winterfell when Bloodraven was not looking.
Well, if it drops one of the cats, but doesn't kill it dead, and it stabilizes, it does have Fast Healing 5, which might let it escape or continuing entangling it a couple of rounds later. They also have Magic Fang, so that'll help a bit.

And if it isn't guaranteed to pass pair of DC 20 reflex checks per round, that'll keep it pinned down much longer. So their goal to simply delay is more doable than winning a fight.
 
Wouldn't CR20 dedicated Assasin-thing of the Others be arguably just as, if not more, capable of sneaking in even while Summer is looking around?

Sure, something like that would have a better chance to sneaking by active observation, being able to set foot in Winterfell without having to tear the place down stone from stone less so. The keep is warded against Winter, and the more pronounced the effect is the harder the wards work to kill it. Even if they fail they would not do so quietly.
 
I hope the last update was not too dark, or the shift in tone too jarring. It was just the way the rolls fell and an opening that was planned all the way when Bloodraven became Varys. I've also had the assassin ready for a while, courtesy of @Artemis1992 (though I did make some changes). That said we have had a lot of death over the past few updates and I don't want this to feel like tossing blood at the proverbial wall. If there is one thing GRRM is always good at, for all the criticisms one can make of him in other regards. it is making the deaths of his characters meaningful. I strive to emulate that.
 
I hope the last update was not too dark, or the shift in tone too jarring. It was just the way the rolls fell and an opening that was planned all the way when Bloodraven became Varys. I've also had the assassin ready for a while, courtesy of @Artemis1992 (though I did make some changes). That said we have had a lot of death over the past few updates and I don't want this to feel like tossing blood at the proverbial wall. If there is one thing GRRM is always good at, for all the criticisms one can make of him in other regards. it is making the deaths of his characters meaningful. I strive to emulate that.

This was... an expected outcome of getting Bloodraven involved with our schemes. The criticism he mentioned he was getting from the Green Dream is definitely valid.

Really, that he managed to request assets, but didn't over-request more when we would have given them to him, shows that he is sort of an old fuddy-duddy like Mel, who is used to doing more with less.

In that case, he is also used to taking a light hand with intrigue, and likely considers hiding a 5th Level caster in Eddard's solar "taking a light hand".

I did say that this next month, or the one after, someone would try to come kill Viserys in person by waiting in a position they knew he had a good chance of winding up, or by leading him to an ambush.

It just usually backfires on them because Viserys is one of the most experienced battle-mages on the planet by this point.

Targeting Ned Stark or Robb or anyone else in Winterfell is comparatively easier and could be just as politically damaging. It's probably why we don't see many personal assassination attempts anymore-- it's not easy, and it has a low chance of working out, even when you use Mythic gribblies for it.

But making us waste time cleaning up messes like this? Or holding the North together without a ruling Stark or acceptable heirs?

Hard to argue that has results, and hard to argue against the idea that we didn't prepare adequately for Winter acting in Summer, when they demonstrated they were more than willing to do so.
 
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I assume Winter soulkilling anyone (especially in 'technically' Summerlands, in Summer) would be kinda loud to the Old Gods, with how they are connected.
Deliberate act of power, after all.

I wouldn't wisk using such an ability on a random (N)PC if I were them.
Now that it's inside and the attack is going though, it's free game for sure.

But oh well, we'll see for sure later.
I doubt it can soul-kill in Winterfell while the Wards stand strong, the Wards might not have been enough to keep it out, but they're probably still restricting its abilities, especially when it comes to soulkilling Starks.

As far as I know, the Others soul killing work by feeding the soul to the void, the Wards of Winterfell, should complicate any connection that could send Robbs soul to the Void.
 
Hmmm if we weren't so obligated to keep Rob alive i say just kill him to deny winter his soul and body but im sure im missing something that make this a really dumb idea....besides the obvious we are his king and all that entails.

Edit:If the Rob is all its after just being in it way delays it
Oh right
Edit 2: change vote
 
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One more thing. How are they doing this in winterfell? There are a bunch of starks there.

That's supposed to provide protection.
It's been a long time, and there are plenty of things the Starks have forgotten. When we visited Winterfell in the dreamworld, it was a massive fortress... and explicitly unmanned. Nothing was guarding the walls.

The Starks have been slower than most to awaken to their heritage.
 
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