A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
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- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
- Location
- Africa
I personally think that is the big major long term conflict , restoring the order of the spheres , driving out the aberrations currently in the process of over taking the upper planes and getting involved the million year old war spanning the the entire D&D multiverse that is the blood war between the Greatest and most ruthless military industrial complex to ever exist(Hell) and the literal infinite Abyss of Ultimate evil which seeks to consume ,violate and destroy the multiverse were each universe that falls adds a whole new layer of genuinely unspeakable beyond the pale evil (the Abyss)
- Location
- France
I feel like Hellven and the War of Spheres are both too big for this quest. At best we could make some nice contributions and/or make an Imperial God to jelp patch the Hellven bug, not see the war ended soon or meaningfully fix bits of Hellven.
If the ending here is beating Winter, Planetosi devils and the Deep Ones, I'll already be very impressed by the scope of the quest.
If the ending here is beating Winter, Planetosi devils and the Deep Ones, I'll already be very impressed by the scope of the quest.
This will be a bit of a slow update day guys. I'm kind of half planning half daydreaming long term arcs. I'll probably be done with that by afternoon/evening so we should have at least two updates today .
Magical_Duck
The One Who Quacks
- Location
- A Pond
- Pronouns
- Duck
I think the simplification of the some of the more complex elements would help as noted. But I also think something like a summary of the events that have happened so far might be useful, as over the years I have forgot some of the events of the past, additionally we are at a turning point with a New Age beginning so it might be good to recap the old one once its over.
In relation to a Goal for the Quest, I should first mention that I am terrible with expressing my thoughts.
I feel like we are at a ending of sorts, not of the thread/story, but more like a Book in a Series. I think part of that is that we are achieving a Short Campaign Victory with us winning the Game of Thrones - even though the game hasn't started - which was our end goal at the start of the story.
Though of course it won't end there as we have still have to defeat the Forces of Winter finishing the Song of Ice and Fire, but that does raise the question of what shall be the ending of A Sword without a Hilt?
In relation to a Goal for the Quest, I should first mention that I am terrible with expressing my thoughts.
I feel like we are at a ending of sorts, not of the thread/story, but more like a Book in a Series. I think part of that is that we are achieving a Short Campaign Victory with us winning the Game of Thrones - even though the game hasn't started - which was our end goal at the start of the story.
Though of course it won't end there as we have still have to defeat the Forces of Winter finishing the Song of Ice and Fire, but that does raise the question of what shall be the ending of A Sword without a Hilt?
- Location
- Germany
Sorry @Goldfish, but it's not just "change for the sake of change". Crafting is interfacing with hundreds of things and many abstractions are plainly impossible without also abstracting crafting. If we want to abstract military units so that we no longer need to track individual soldiers, then we need to abstract their equipment and munitions. And to abstract that, we need to abstract crafting.
Last time we tried to abstract things, I gave in to certain people all but demanding that we keep tracking individual characters in excessive granularity. I already knew back then that this would likely cause problems down the line, and now look at the snarl it turned into.
PC equipment is one thing, but mass-crafting for military and infrastructure projects has to be simplified or I'll still need to track individual Three-Eyed Ravens for military units. And frankly, I won't do that. It's exactly what we want to get away from.
Last time we tried to abstract things, I gave in to certain people all but demanding that we keep tracking individual characters in excessive granularity. I already knew back then that this would likely cause problems down the line, and now look at the snarl it turned into.
PC equipment is one thing, but mass-crafting for military and infrastructure projects has to be simplified or I'll still need to track individual Three-Eyed Ravens for military units. And frankly, I won't do that. It's exactly what we want to get away from.
- Location
- France
This shitpost stays relevant literally every time
I think it makes sense to set a CL limit on what we track, so if you guys want something big that takes a high CL, say 10 or 15 that should be tracked, but not individual +1 swords or something. Does that sound sensible?
- Location
- Germany
[WEEPS IN PROGRAMMER]This shitpost stays relevant literally every time
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've seen some shit about current-day Programmers, and they ALL have my sympathy.
Programmers when the code doesnt work: "I have no idea what I'm doing."
Programmers when the code works: "I have no idea what I have done."
- Location
- Germany
The issue here is that CL is already wobblily accounted for when we craft AG-vessels. I might be reading things wrong, but I'm pretty sure Goldfish enchants bulk chunks without regard for individual components CLs.
Also, same problem. Now I still need to track nuts and bolts individually.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
I've already told you, I'm sorry!
EDIT: Also @Goldfish, I'm really sorry to do that to you as it seems you're really attached to the depravity crafting spreadsheets are...
But we'll just bog down in stuff in mere months unless we overhaul stuff top-to-bottom.
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- Location
- Germany
Apologise one more time for this! I dare you!I've already told you, I'm sorry!
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Apologise one more time for this! I dare you!
If CL does not work as a measure of enchantments than it will have to be 'character equipment' and 'other'. I think the issue here is that all of us have derived some use or enjoyment out of some obscure detail dug out of the spreadsheets but for the good of the narrative I think now is the time to let it go and let time go faster and the wheels of empire go smoother at last.
Vote closed.
- Location
- Germany
I'll see where I can find a good cut-off. It's not that regular crafting will be gone entirely. Tinkering with PC load-outs is something I neither can nor want to abstract.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Middle point: breaking the 15th, making a cut-off point from Valyria's faiulres, and having the oceans cleared of the Illithid, one of the oldest re-occuring enemies in-quest.
End point: ???
Frankly, beyond Winter being obscurely 'end game'-ish we know next to nothing about the Void, and whether we ever could hope to 'defeat' it within the quest's confines. Even winning a major strategic victory, considering the scale involved, is in question.
People tried, people failed.
- Location
- Reno Nv
I have been reading this quest for a good amount of time, but as I am not very well versed with bookkeeping as the others are, but it does seem that the blote is getting a bit out of hand. I mean this is one hell of an accomplishment considering where we began, and I love how the numbers are going up, but if it is putting a lot of pressure on our bookkeepers well something has to be shifted.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I obviously disagree, and I just as obviously won't win this argument.
Before you spend too much time trying to reinvent the wheel, however, there is a simple solution which removes a lot of the granularity while still avoiding complete handwaving of the issue.
We have a total crafting capacity per month based on available crafters. That total is easy to calculate, adding to it or subtracting from it based on changes in available crafters.
Pulling a number from thin air since I can't look at the sheet right now, say we have a total pool of 2,000,000 IM in enchanting available each month. We can subtract the cost for individual items from it, a Wyvern, Herald, Warstider, Moonchaser, high level gear upgrade for <insert Companion name>, etc. Those are high level costs which need to be tracked, IMO. Other stuff, such as infrastructure items and minor strategic assets (Whispering Braziers, False Ravens, etc.), can just fall under a portion of the crafting pool we set aside for it, such as 500,000 IM. We wouldn't bother tracking the production of any item deemed suitable for that separate pool of crafting, they would just be available as needed, just like we track 1st through 5th level spell scrolls which are produced by the thousands each month.
That would leave 1.5 million IM for larger projects worthy of individual tracking. It would still need a spreadsheet, but it would be a drastically simplified one.
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Update in beta.
Winning Vote
Interlude MXLI: Champions' Calling
Champions' Calling
Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
The Praetori stood tall and they stood unafraid of the vengeful dead. They would not waver and they would not fall, even in the wake of the deadly curse. Why should they, those who had trained against the black-armored knights driven by minds far more ancient and a will far colder? The captain and the squad-leader, veterans both long ere they had sworn to the Dragon and taken on the gifts of flesh and fire, charged as one.
Blades wrought in devil's blood and dragonfire fell upon the creature with no flesh and no bones to bind it, yet the blows fell true, driven by skill and dedication, and the dead howled in pain. Yet giant of blood moved aside with lurching unnatural swiftness, for it had not flesh to bind it, no tendons to constrain it, no bones to weigh it down. The squad leader struck with all his fury and all his strength, but the blade cut naught but air, carving into the stone of the corridor with a screech of metal parting stone as though the keep itself were wounded.
Not quite swift enough. As the thing spilled aside, fetid blood parted under Captain Zhisnos's blade swifter by far than his spear had ever been when he had been counted among the Unsullied, and in a moment all was crimson. Had a stranger passed that way by some mischance, they might almost have struggled to tell Preatori from wight, living from undead, but they knew their brothers and sisters true. All had been reborn of blood and sorcery just as their foes had been. All had been touched by the dread magics of Valyria, of which men spoke in hushed whispers if they spoke of them at all. But they were not beasts or slaves, such as the flesh-smiths of old had wrought. They were something far more terrible let loose upon the ridge of the world. On the next exchange the two veterans tore the thing apart even as its 'fists' sent Zhisnos' head ringing with a parting blow. The flames of healing beckoned, but the wound was not quite grave enough to mend. There was a battle yet to be fought.
The walls that Maegor built shook with the roar of focused fury and echoed the sounds of snapping bone under blows heavy enough to wound a giant. Unnatural vigor and deathless strength met the skill of those who had been trained in the slaying of foes stronger and tougher than even their sorcery-infused bodies. Half the wights fell in moments, a crushed head, a snapped neck, and for one a chest entirely torn asunder by three near-perfect blows that sent shards of bone flying though the air like pellets from a Lhazareen sling.
The dead kept coming. Even as the surviving trio of wights sought to drag down a single Praetori only to be met by the scything blows of the warrior and her fellows, two more corpses clambered over the rubble from the passage gaping like the maw of hell.
How many of them were there? Where were they coming from, and why the hells were they here? All these thoughts and more passed through Zhisnos' mind as he turned to fight a particularly deformed toothless corpse, but for now, for now it did not matter. What mattered was the one lesson he had learned in Meereen that served him well as a freedman. It is a warrior's place to endure, to ensure until the enemy breaks. Though the dead would not run and they would not falter at the sight of their fellows' plight, they could still be broken...
One
Piece
At a Time
Moments congealed and lurched past as the entire world narrowed down to that bloody corridor, to dead things scratching and clawing at steel until they could finally grasp hold of flesh. They did not find it as tender as they might have hoped, nor the bones of their prey so easy to snap as they might have wished. The enemy healed slowly, the blood that covered them from head to toe seeping into wounds, the Preatori healed swiftly in flashes of golden fire and hidden sorcery. In the end, however, what doomed the accursed get of Maegor's work was that they fought merely to kill, caring not one whit if others of their numbers fell where their living foes fought with valor and with skill for the honor of the company and the Imperium entire.
The last wight died with a hacking curse upon its withered lips and only then did Captain Zhisnos realize that the twelve Praetori had killed twice their number in wights without suffering a single causality. Oh, they had bled aplenty, mingling their blood with the fetid ichor of the enemy, not not a single one of them had given way even in death.
A weary arm was finally left to rest, a blade clinked against stone as he closed his eyes in thought. He did not pray to the Lady of Spears, he did not pray at all. His skill, his magic, his purpose, gifts of the Imperator, yes, but ones given into his keeping for the betterment of all, these had served him well.
He did not stay silent long, "Alright, you lot, you know the drill. Earth spirits for scouting caves and crannies. You three over there, start staking the bodies for burning. We can bag the ash to take to the forge..."
OOC: And there you have it, took a lot of rolling, but it was a fun fight. Probably about the limit of what you can deal with with just standard D&D fighting rules. We do need that mass combat overhaul.
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