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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 wonder why Zherys didn't make that Anti-magic room in the end? Would have just taken a couple of scrolls from the look of it. Admittedly you'd have to go hunting for them unless you could just cast them yourself. Probably what delayed things.
 
I've gone through some old chapters and came across that Volantene Necromancer.

We do have him under our employ, right? Is he on Gossogos?
 
@DragonParadox
Small side question, what deal does Wyla have with her Nightmare mount?
Does she pay it in money, or promised it equipment it can keep after the service is over or feed it dammed souls or something else?
 
Artemis1992 said:
@DragonParadox
Small side question, what deal does Wyla have with her Nightmare mount?
Does she pay it in money, or promised it equipment it can keep after the service is over or feed it dammed souls or something else?
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She promised it a fun time. They go out once every several months to hunt exceedingly dangerous things in the jungles of Sothoryos, also good onversation and of course equipment included.
 
So, uh, do we re-assign most people involved in this part if the raid to hunting the other runaway Court, then?
 
Vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 4, 2020 at 9:20 AM, finished with 46 posts and 9 votes.
  • [X] Take everything
    -[X] Quickly skim through the new book and find where Dusk Dancer and her slain kin have hidden their relics and where the corpse of Violet Veil resides.
    --[X] Spam Harvest Knowledge and Legend Lore as needed.
    -[X] Make sure to raid every single nook and cranny for loot that you can divine from Dusk Dancer's book and the corpses of her most powerful.
    -[X] Once the corpses and relics are all secured, look through the Dusk Dancer book and see if she knows where the corpses of the lords of the other courts have been spirited away to.
    -[X] And lastly, see if there are any leads on where the Lord of the Indigo Court is hiding.
    [X] Permanence an Energy Transformation Field in Lya's personal laboratory (because best wards we have available, ever) via Diamond Dust, have the book's dying stymied by it.
    -[X] Throughout this month, have a Lya (whichever's free) read through and transcribe it in the free time available from the experiments and research.
    -[X] Obviously have some magic-sensitive assistants keep a constant eye on the book, ensuring it doesn't somehow adapt or something.
Click to expand...
 
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Part MMMDCLXVII: Beneath the Veil
  • Threadmarks
    • Beneath the Veil ​

    Eight Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC

    Sifting through the remains of the battle once the mist and glamor had fades proves straightforward, if at times disappointing. For one there are no unicorns, no mounts at all. According to the myrkdreki, most adept in illusion of all your company, it is possible that the steeds were in fact transfigured fey mages providing veils and protections to their more visible fellows. The mind boggles slightly at managing spell motions while standing on four hooves, but it is hardly the strangest thing you have ever seen or heard of. And so you count the dead and their accoutrements for none in this company thought of surrender. So passes the last stand of the Violet Court.

    You see glastings, Dusk Dancer's kin and almost-human archers by the score, whose features remind you of avariel and teleriel but are not them, some echo of an echo wrapped in a tale, and others still even more remote and wrapped in the power of the Feywild. All in hosts of seven gathered.

    "The loyalists," Zherys muses with something that might have been respect in his voice. "The ones who would rather die facing us than lose themselves in the wild lonely places. One does not usually consider beings as... whimsical as the fey to be driven by such sentiments. Still..." his features harden. "They died for nothing."
    1. 35x Lesser Glaistig
    2. 21x Fossegrim Beguilders Creatures
    3. 21x Sidhe Archers (Fey Creature Elf Mystic Ranger 8)
    4. 14x Sublime Baobhan Sith
    5. 7x Veiled Courtiers

    Does he see some strange reflection of his own stillborn plans of fighting you in this field of corpses? You wonder, but do not ask aloud. Some things are better left to lie unspoken, for the sake of lord and vassal alike.

    Though the hunt itself had taken little more than a day it takes the better part of a week to find the treasury and reliquaries of the Violet Court, even with Dusk Dancer's preserved tome to guide the way. One of the mind dragons nearly perished to a balefire trap and the less said of the perils of what the fey called 'the lotus pit' the better. According to Mereth demonic smiths might have learned from whatever mad work of sorcery had forged this last bastion, but with its defenders gone you are able to systematically take apart the glamors, bridge the gaps and tear through veils until at last you recover those things which they have saved from the ruin of the Court.

    You find shirts of true silver and glamored bows, spies that conjure sorrow and fear and even a single stone, hallowed down the middle by the water's flow that grants the wielder good luck, though at first sight it seems utterly mundane.

    Arms and Armor
    1. 88x Mithral Chain Shirts
    2. 8x Twilight Mithril Chain Shirts
    3. 12x Heartseeker Daggers +2
    4. 16x Glamered Dispelling Longbows +2
    Wondrous Items
    1. Pipes of pain
    2. Stone of good luck
    3. 3x Headband of Counterspelling

    Yet through it all it is Vee who finds the most remarkable 'treasure' of the Violet Court, which is not gold, it is not gems, it is not even knowledge beyond what you had already gained. Bound in lead and seals of warding, surrounded by dire warnings and deadly traps your friend finds a being strange even for these forgotten depths. Called only 'Empty One' by the fey that captured it, mental communion with the auric fungus reveals it to be properly called a nulmind, a traveler or perhaps unwitting exile from the Far Realm. It seems relieved to be freed of the fey and in principle willing to serve you, or at least intimidated of Vee, but swearing such an oath is not without its hurdles.


    "It can't talk without trying to enslave whatever it's talking to," Vee explains. "That's fine for us being properly warded and all, but for everyone else..." she trails off darkly.

    "But it understands it shouldn't try to twist minds?" Maelor checks.

    "More or less," Vee replies, struggling to explain for a moment, not an uncommon thing when dealing with those of the Far Realm. "Imagine if someone told you the air you breathed in every moment was actually full of thinking beings and you devoured them with every breath. As far as it's basic nature is concerned anythin' that can't push back and protect itself isn't a proper mind, it's just food. Now it's not all instinct and I was able to get across that most folk 'round here are born without protections, the way a snail is born without their shell and then we grow 'em or make 'em with tools."

    Do you accept the nulmind's oath?

    [] Yes
    -[] Send it to Sothoryos, the Flesh Forge should be a safe place for it to learn surrounded by trained flesh-smiths and mages
    -[] Deep it in Sorcerer's Deep, perhaps Xor can help its fellow traveler

    [] No
    -[] Bind it again and hand it over to the Azure Court, they would likely appreciate the aid in their duty
    -[] Kill it

    [] Write in

    OOC: The rolls were pretty middle of the road until you got 'Far Realm prisoner'
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Mind Drain Aura (Su)
    Any creature within 30 feet of a nulmind must succeed at a DC 23 Will save each round or take 1d3 points of Intelligence damage.

    A nulmind can control all creatures within its aura that have an amount of Intelligence damage greater than their Intelligence scores as if those creatures were dominated (this suppresses the usual coma that results from such damage).
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    Oh hey, another thing to add to our "Totally unrestrained anti-mage/anti-psion/anti-evrything int-damaging weapon".
    egoo said:
    [] The Scourge of Minds - over the years you have faced many enemies that were an anathema to a thinking being. Perhaps it is time to turn all of the knowledge you hold to create a new weapon against the enemy that holds their minds sacred above all else.
    -[] Using the Int-Draining Shadow captured in the Shadow Tower, the Maelepahant's Breathweapon, the memory-consuming ability of The Many, and the Memory Moss, create a dedicated Int-damaging weapon.
    (Progress: 34; Cost: 14, 000 IM)
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    That'd be five separate methods combined into a "fuck everything that thinks in that approximate radius"-bomb.
    Nice.

    Well, that aside, the loot's not worth the effort so far.
    Totally not worth it. 7 days, jeez.

    Even the bodies don't have anything interesting :/

    That Weird-caster better have some badass stuff available, even if we have to cut him to pieces in the Forge to get to use those.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    You are going to have to take the mage out of the trap to interrogate him.
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    @DragonParadox, Do we have to get into the detail on every single vote again?
    We outright voted on "looting protocols engaged", questioning the prisoners has always been a part of it.

    We've always succeeded at that, and never missed a chance to question someone, so can we just assume we do that by default now?
    Snare, Greater Curse, Brainspider, all the jazz.

    We aren't likely to need anything more specific written-out for anything less than CR 20 nowadays. And not all CR 20's, even.
     
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    The best thing about ending it to the Flesh Forge is that it'll easily fit in with all the other horrible protections the place already has.
    Of course this might make some of our researcher magelings think that we deliberately created that thing, but after seeing Qyburn that probably won't shock them too much.
     
    egoo said:
    @DragonParadox, Do we have to get into the detail on every single vote again?
    We outright voted on "looting protocols engaged", questioning the prisoners has always been a part of it.

    We've always succeeded at that, and never missed a chance to question someone, so can we just assume we do that by default now?
    Snare, Greater Curse, Brainspider, all the jazz.

    We aren't likely to need anything more specific written-out for anything less than CR 20 nowadays. And not all CR 20's, even.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I'll over that when you get back. but I could hardly do it when Viserys and company were still in the feywild, letting them out would risk escape.
     
    Beneath the Veil ​

    Eight Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC

    Sifting through the remains of the battle once the mist and glamor had fades proves straightforward, if at times disappointing. For one there are no unicorns, no mounts at all. According to the myrkdreki, most adept in illusion of all your company, it is possible that the steeds were in fact transfigured fey mages providing veils and protections to their more visible fellows. The mind boggles slightly at managing spell motions while standing on four hooves, but it is hardly the strangest thing you have ever seen or heard of. And so you count the dead and their accoutrements, for none in this company thought of surrender. So passes the last stand of the Violet Court.

    You see there glaistig, Dusk Dancer's kin and almost-human archers by the score whose features remind you of avariel and teleriel, but are not them, some echo of an echo wrapped in a tale, and others still even more remote and wrapped in the power of the Feywild. All in hosts of seven gathered.

    "The loyalists," Zherys muses with something that might have been respect in his voice. "The ones who would rather die facing us than lose themselves in the wild lonely places. One does not usually consider beings as... whimsical as the fey to be driven by such sentiments. Still..." his features harden. "They died for nothing."

    1. 35x Lesser Glaistig
    2. 21x Fossegrim Beguilers Creatures
    3. 21x Sidhe Archers (Fey Creature Elf Mystic Ranger 8)
    4. 14x Sublime Baobhan Sith
    5. 7x Veiled Courtiers

    Does he see some strange reflection of his own stillborn plans of fighting you in this field of corpses? You wonder, but do not ask aloud. Some things are better left to lie unspoken, for the sake of lord and vassal alike.

    Although the hunt itself had taken little more than a day, it takes the better part of a week to find the treasury and reliquaries of the Violet Court, even with Dusk Dancer's preserved tome to guide he way. One of the mind dragons nearly perished to a balefire trap, and the less said of the perils of what the fey called 'the lotus pit' the better. According to Mereth, demonic smiths might have learned from whatever mad work of sorcery had forged this last bastion, but with its defenders gone you are able to systematically take apart the glamors, bridge the gaps and tear through veils until at last you recover those things which they have saved from the ruin of the Court.

    You find shirts of true silver and glamored bows, spies that conjure sorrow and fear and even a single stone, hollowed down the middle by the water's flow that grants the wielder good luck, though it first sight it seems utterly mundane.

    Arms and Armor
    1. 88x Mithral Chain Shirts
    2. 8 Twilight Mithril chain Shirts
    3. 12 Heartseeker Daggers +2
    4. 16 Glamered Dispelling Longbows +2
    Wondrous Items
    1. Pipes of Pain
    2. Stone of Good Luck
    3. 3x Headband of Counterspelling

    Yet through it all, it is Vee who finds the most remarkable 'treasure' of the Violet Court, which is not gold or gems, it is not even knowledge beyond what you had already gained. Bound in lead and seals of warding, surrounded by dire warnings and deadly traps, your friend finds a being strange even for these forgotten depths. Called only 'Empty One' by the fey that captured it, mental communion with the auric fungus reveals it to be properly called a nulmind, a traveler or perhaps unwitting exile from the Far Realm. It seems relieved to be freed of the fey and in principle willing to serve you, or at least intimidated of Vee, but swearing such an oath is not without its hurdles.


    "It can't talk without trying to enslave whatever it's talking to," Vee explains. "That's fine for us, being properly warded and all, but for everyone else..." she trails off darkly.

    "But it understands it shouldn't try to twist minds?" Maelor checks.

    "More or less," Vee replies, struggling to explain for a moment, not an uncommon thing when dealing with those of the Far Realm. "Imagine if someone told you the air you breathed in every moment was actually full of thinking beings and you devoured them with every breath. As far as it's basic nature is concerned, anythin' that can't push back and protect itself isn't a proper mind, it's just food. Now it's not all instinct, and I was able to get across that most folk 'round here are born without protections, the way a snail is born without their shell and then we grow 'em or make 'em with tools."

    Do you accept the Nulmind's oath?

    [] Yes
    -[] Send it to Sothoryos, the forge should be a safe place for it to learn surrounded by trained flesh-smiths and mages
    -[] Deep it in Sorcerer's Deep, perhaps Xor can help its fellow traveler

    [] No
    -[] Bind it again and hand it over to the Azure Court, they would likely appreciate the aid in their duty
    -[] Kill it

    [] Write in

    OOC: The rolls were pretty middle of the road until you got 'Far Realm prisoner'. Not yet edited.
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, @DragonParadox.

    Pretty decent haul of goodies. I see a lot of potential with the Nulmind, too.
     
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    @DragonParadox, any serious contamination in the Snare after past month's 10k of Demons summoned there?
    Is it fit for use for sensitive projects still, or better purge it via Miracle-seingkng beforehand?
     
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