Westeros is gonna be a pain in the ass. I realize we have talked bout this in the past but we are going to have to expand our institutions so much. If the Imperial Deity comes online we can do what the Reach was doing. The aberration/demon/devil detection system and maybe the Open Key fast travel for Imperial Outsiders. Not the mind control.
Edit: If we really wanted to spy on Tywin we can always use Cersei and Jaime's blood as a connection point right?
I'm hoping that he has a good trick in store, but doesn't go full CoS on us. It'd be frustrating if he somehow managed to bootstrap up to our level despite the huge gulf in resources that's been in play for most of the quest.
There is one possibility we haven't considered at all...
What if Tywin sees the writing on the wall, gathers his resources and those personnel he views as essential, and just leaves Planetos? There are plenty of places where he could set up comfortably and try to rebuild the Lannister name as a power player.
There is one possibility we haven't considered at all...
What if Tywin sees the writing on the wall, gathers his resources and those personnel he views as essential, and just leaves Planetos? There are plenty of places where he could set up comfortably and try to rebuild the Lannister name as a power player.
There is one possibility we haven't considered at all...
What if Tywin sees the writing on the wall, gathers his resources and those personnel he views as essential, and just leaves Planetos? There are plenty of places where he could set up comfortably and try to rebuild the Lannister name as a power player.
I don't think so. Tywin's great fault lies in his pride. There's no way he's running away in fear. After all, 'what does a Lion have to fear from lesser beasts'.
There is one possibility we haven't considered at all...
What if Tywin sees the writing on the wall, gathers his resources and those personnel he views as essential, and just leaves Planetos? There are plenty of places where he could set up comfortably and try to rebuild the Lannister name as a power player.
The player base is both quite vindicative and very careful about letting future threats grow.
He would be chased down in 99% of the possible locations.
I don't think it really qualifies as a good idea for him. It might be possible for house Lannisters, but he specifically doesn't have much to contribute or particularly recommend him as a leader if they leave the plane. Holding everything he has together would be fairly difficult in those circumstances.
Beyond that, the prime material is one of the lowest power areas of the setting. If he leaves he becomes an even smaller fish than he is here in an effectively infinite ocean. Worse, without access to PoB materials that are relatively rare across the rest of the spheres he loses the leverage the build back up again.
If he was going to dip out on us he'd be better off fleeing to somewhere on plane but really far away.
Ah, I see. May I ask, why didn't we at least try to... I don't know... kidnap/bookify him if the chance is not that low? Is the Realm of the Bloodstone Emperor more dangerous than the Blazing Realm of the Iblis?
Ah, I see. May I ask, why didn't we at least try to... I don't know... kidnap/bookify him if the chance is not that low? Is the Realm of the Bloodstone Emperor more dangerous than the Blazing Realm of the Iblis?
The Bloodstone Emperor is probably the single most powerful being on Planetos, and by a fairly wide margin. Thankfully, he appears to be confined to his personal territory.
He is a threat, but not one we are ready to deal with, not when there are so many other more pressing issues to deal with.
There is one possibility we haven't considered at all...
What if Tywin sees the writing on the wall, gathers his resources and those personnel he views as essential, and just leaves Planetos? There are plenty of places where he could set up comfortably and try to rebuild the Lannister name as a power player.
The Cheesemonger is not a threat by himself. Having been divested from most of his organization and resources... well, there is not much he can actually do.
The Cheesemonger is not a threat by himself. Having been divested from most of his organization and resources... well, there is not much he can actually do.
Not only that. We took out his money base and all the favor he had curried with the Bitch Queen (beause there is not way she doesn't hate him after his failure).
What is he going to do? Hire assassins with his empty pockets?
Considering the people these guys were dealing with I think the ones who got soul killed are the luckiest of the set. Illyria is probably frantically looking for a way out of what's waiting for him once he joins his dead companions.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 6, 2020 at 9:48 AM, finished with 87 posts and 18 votes.
[X] Plan Recon -[X] Before we attempt to broach the subject of his true identity or purpose here, we will first locate Renly and observe him and his companions, using all means at our disposal, including Divinations, Scrying, and mind reading. We will, of course, take all necessary precautions to remain undiscovered. -[X] We will also attempt to learn more about this unusual pocket of Limbo, how it remains stable, and whether or not revealing Renly's true identity might trigger hidden contingencies placed by Nairos' faction. It could also be useful if we can learn how such a large number of Petitioners were gathered, protected, and kept from scattering or fading.
It is fortunate that you brought dragons with you to this strange land for few other beings would have been able to scout its bounds in the span of a day... and defeat or outrun the sort of beings that dwell near them, predators from the mists of Limbo and fey guardians alike. This mist-bounded, known to its people as the Stormlands and to the spirits that whisper in the deep woods and labyrinthine ravines as the Crucible, resembles the days of the Andal Invasions only so far as one does not peer too closely at its monster haunted depths.
The fey who wrought it knew more of the Age of Dawn when the land was alive with spirits and song and so it is here. The farther one goes from Bronzegate keep in the heart of the realm the more broadly the lines are drawn like a painting where the artist had grown bored in his craft halfway, only sketching the edges. To the north and east beyond Willwater Lake where the Kingswood would be in the mortal lands the forests fade into tangled thickets known only as the Wild Woods where even the most daring hunters and trappers do not dare to tread. To the south lie the Barren Hills, a sun-parched wilderness of crumbling limestone that and dying scrubland that in no way resembles the rich lands of the Reach that should be there. Finally to the east lies the Eastern Sea, what would be later called the Narrow Sea. The further one flies that way the more land and sea mingle until all falls to shapeless grey.
Unsurprisingly, given the nature of this place, the roughly fifty thousand souls that call it home congregate mostly towards the most stable regions around Bronzegate and Haystitch Hall, stretching all the way to the southern bank of Willwater Lake. The site of Felwood is in the words of a myrkdreki, 'a miserable little outpost fit to fall off the edge of the world'.
From what can be seen from the air perhaps eight in one hundred of the people here are fortunate enough to live behind the warded stone walls of the keeps, with the others prey to hunting horrors and 'raiders from the sea'.
Legend: The Barren Hills The Eastern Sea The Wild Wood The Mists of Limbo
Surface Area: 25,000 Square Kilometers (roughtly110 km N to S; 230 km E to W) Population: 50,000 (4,000 Urban/46,000 Rural)
It is the latter more than any beast of Limbo that are strangest in your eye. Where are these supposed Ironborn coming from to reave, pillage and burn, only to return to the sea like ghosts?
"There's one way to find out for sure," Dany points out thoughtfully.
***
It does not take long to find your target, a small longboat laden with plunder and thralls sailing back into the formless realms. You fall upon the reavers in the night, making quick work of the bolder warriors, arrows and throwing axes bouncing off your scales and the sorcerer failing to summon choking water into your lungs. Yet the rowers and sailors in the deck below fight with equal fierceness, paying no mind to Renly's calls for surrender, if anything they fight all the fiercer to get to him, matching bloodied axes and screaming rage against the changeling's measured sword strokes.
You had been expecting something like this given the nature of the realm, a proving ground for a sacrificed king, but what you had not expected was for the dead to steam and hiss upon the deck as soon as the battle is done, returning to the mists, nor for your prisoners to fall into spasms, necks snapping as the eyes stared vacantly at the false stars.
"Tulpa," Teana hisses looking down at a dying sailor at her feet. "Shadows of men's fears. No wonder these Ironborn only raid and never trade..."
"Ironborn traded?" Renly asks, seemingly more confused at this than at the the notion of foes that dissolve into the fog.
"Yes, whatever those who kept to 'the Old Way' would have told, Ironborn have traded for millennia, it is just that paying 'the gold price' was ever seen as lesser than paying 'the iron price' thanks to their unseen masters." You shake your head with a laugh. "I suppose Balon Greyjoy would appreciate this place, where Ironborn are just nightmares made flesh."
"Nightmares they may be, but their blades cut in earnest and their chains bind true," Dany said looking into the hold. She glances back at Renly. "Best not meddle in the mummery where anyone can see. Could you...?"
The changeling nods grimly. "I'm supposed to be Ser Renard, right?"
The former thralls are glad indeed to be set ashore, being all too quick to accept that the reavers had all been thrown overboard.
***
Eleventh Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
The following morning you learn that the 'real' Ser Renard is currently a host of the Lord of Felwood alongside his seven companions, skilled knights all sung throughout the land. Though all of them seem mortal, as much as anyone in this realm is, you mark well the gleam of magic in the scrying glass. It seems their adventures have borne fruit in arcane treasures, all of fey make. Breadcrumbs before pigeons...
Also of note is the easy camaraderie between them. If you read some of the japes aright Renly Baratheon has shared a bed with at least three of them, though he slept alone last night. Nairos had given him his wish, wrapped up in all the hooks and lies, not one great love, but friends and lovers who accepted him easily, and a world that did not pay great mind to who he chooses to love. As far as you can see none of them seem any more aware of the nature of the world they live in then their leader is, though that is hard to judge from glimpses in the scrying mirror. Fortunately other divinations are more conclusive.
When the oracular smoke has cleared you have as good answers as you are likely to get. None of the seven know the truth, though the eldest of their number, Ser Garlos of the Felwoods, had strange dreams about the mists ever since the encounter with the darkweaver, dreams that seem more real than the waking world.
How do you meet with Renly?
[] In the guise of a rich patron from a foreign land, test how far the bounds of this place are enforced
[] In the guise of a sorcerer seeking to impart wisdom
[] Simply as yourself, you are curious what this strange realm would make of Viserys Targaryen
[] Write in
OOC: Breadcrumbs before pigeons is the Esossi version of lambs to the slaughter, or rather the urban version. It's one of those expressions you can hear from Braavos to Volantis.
Unrelated, an update for @Azel and @Goldfish, as people who showed interest:
RA for mind-destroing compound got increased Progress due to new components:
[] 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 (Arcane);
--[] the Maelepahant's Breathweapon (Arcane);
--[] The Many's memory-consuming ability (Psionic);
--[] The Nulmind's Int-damage/domination aura (Psionic);
--[] The Wizard Shackle'spurely chemical brain-disrupting venom that affects the conscious use of magic (and one can assume it can be used to affect other things, like Intelligence or Psionics, too - if properly retrofitted);
--[] The Memory Moss (Alchemical);
--[] Create a dedicated mind-affecting weapon, with potency, difficulty to block, AoE radius, and ability to make more at demand being the prime goals for the initial effect. Method of delivery researched later.
(Progress: 66; Cost: ?? IM)
[] The Magic Unbound: Look into re-creating the principles of the Wardbreaking Gem of the Abraxxas, using the lore of Fey to attempt something like the Unravelling of the Orphne without the extremely rare ingredient Fey need for their crafting. (Progress: 20 potential dead end; Cost: ??)
Well, shiiiet.
The CoS Fey seem to have been the ones to craft this place, even if it's not perfectly stable at the edges.
That's big.
Fucking huge, even.
@DragonParadox, we are getting the method for that from transcribing the two leaders we captured, yes?
This is a game-changer for Gith and maybe even our Imperial Deity plans.
Aw, and here I got hyped for maybe mirroring the network we'll lay out for Imperial Deity in reality(roads, trade routes, cities, etc) with one made out of stabilized Limbo :c
Oh well, the place is definitely worth investigation, and the Fey will get us the starting point, then.
I'mstemi-amiable to turning the place into a super-fprtress, maybe by combining the effort with the Gith.
Hm, actually, maybe we should call one of the Grandmasters of theirs right now?
They can get us some priceless context to this, we are really far our of our field with the Limbo as the plane.
