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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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For Garin's Mythic Path, if we want to emphasize his stealth I'd suggest taking Path of the Trickster (possibly with Fleet Charge) and Display of Dexterity. It's not flashy, but a +20 is a +20.
 
DragonParadox said:

A Lion at Bay ​

Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC

The old man had seen the world end a thousand times and a thousand times again, not in the fire of a Devil's conjuring and not in the ice of Those Beyond the Wall. No, he had seen his world die, love lost birthing a mockery squalling and grasping as he ripped the life out of her. He had witnessed power squandered by the winds of chance and the whims of sorcery, law and justice shattered like glass by some monstrous gale. He had been betrayed by his vassals and he had cowed them into submission. He had been stabbed in the back by own kin and he had risen, shirt still bloody, to wrest them back into his will. He had struck bargains with things that counted men little better than beasts, and sold off the works of forgotten gods. Yet here he was... alone in his solar listening to his legacy crumble in a thousand dying voices. His thoughts ran along threads beyond count, yet each of them unraveled into the end of his realm, of his line, and of his legacy as they had done for months now.

"Traitors and fools, all of them." The words were familiar upon his lips. He had tasted them for the first time as a boy, bitter at the sight of his father made to dance for the pleasure of thieves and whores. They brought him no joy this time either. There would be no crown upon his grandson's brow, the boy was likely already as dead as his mother. There would be no death for the Dragon at the last, for he was not here to slay, only his lackeys, only his tools.

It was, Tywin Lannister realized as he reached for the blood-gold scroll-case much too close to hand, a clever thing to do. His father would never have been able to resist charging onto the battlements with fire and claw. Gods... Aerys would have likely tried to fly to King's Landing the moment he got his wings and burn the Red Keep to the ground. In the dark and narrow corner of his heart that could still recall three young squires, drinking and boasting of deeds done and those only imagined, he regretted never having the chance to meet the man Aerys' secondborn had grown up to be.

There was nothing like regret to stoke the fires of his anger, for the Old Lion of the Rock did not regret, everyone knew that much if they knew anything about him, and he was a man who lived in his own legend as a snail lived in his shell. Even if the House must fall, he would raise it again from the ashes, he would sire it from his own loins if he had to. The Name Lannister would not die with him, he would not be the villain in the boy's play, the monster to be slain.

"You cannot harness Hell anymore than a man might harness an avalanche. Be thee ever so wise, they are wiser in the ways of temptation and treachery, your soul would be lost and your legacy writ in mud and ash upon the pages of history..." The words of a traitor echoing down through memory held no power over him now. She would die tonight, she and the last of his brothers, and Tywin found he cared not one whit, no matter that Gerion did not know about her treachery. His heart was stone.

Let us see what offers hell might make for the soul I have no use for.... The lanterns flickered, the seal of the scroll case hissed as he opened it, the faint scent of familiar perfume.

Stone shattered.

He knew that scent, he knew the writing upon the page from letters so very long ago, from when the world was a different place and he a different man. It could not be... The old lord's thoughts turned around and around, all the reasons why it had to be a lie. It could have been forged with magic, the Devils could have seen every moment of his life in some diviner's glass. There was nothing in there that could not have been forged.

And yet.... and yet... they never found her soul, did they? Gone to her rest, the stoneborn sorcerer had said, but was it really rest? If either of them deserved to go to hell it was him and not Joanna. The thought twisted like a knife in his belly, but he could not unthink it.

As Tywin's eyes fell upon the letter once again, he could not raise them again. He drank in the words as a man withering to death among the Dornish sands takes in fresh spring water. And the answers were there, all there. Why hadn't he looked before? Because he was so sure the little bitch could not betray him now that he had bound her with the Queen's magic? He had forgotten his own past. You did not need to be a traitor to be a fool.

He had control of the portals. They had not reached the Chamber of the Serpent, they had not even found it. He could open them to another layer, remake the pact of the Casterlys with a more worthy patron. What did he care for Heaven or for Hell so long...

***​

Unseen they moved through the corridors of crumbling power, the High Inquisitor, the Sisters the Soul Smith, and even eyes of stone unblinking, bound with fel magic, could not see them, for more than arcane veils guarded them. They killed without a word, arrows as heavy as a ballista's bolt and as silent as a whisper. Those they could not evade they trapped, and in a moment their minds turned against them, their memories not their own.

And thus the Lord knew nothing.

As they stepped into a hall of oiled floors bespelled to spin for each for who stepped upon them a living shadow bent on blood, they clung instead to the cracked walls where threads of lightning had been woven into stone, and leap by leap and pace by pace they made the jump.

And thus the Lion saw nothing.

A great plinth of wheels and of fire ran through the core of the Rock, half ancient mechanism, half new design, all hidden in its pupose to all but its true architect who had been bound with mighty oaths not to speak of it at all. From a humble altar it had risen like a tree from elder roots, the only true path to the master of this place, the only passage straight and straight they walked, neither illusion nor temptation barring their way.

And thus Tywin Lannister was deaf for all he heard with a thousand ears.

***​

The door did not open, it exploded upwards in a shower of shards. The time for subterfuge was passed, among them no less than four silver-tipped arrows. The golden armor triggered on instinct more than thought, and in a moment he was elsewhere... or so at least it should have been if artistry had served him, but the smoke the blast held was more than smoke. A smiling red-haired woman manifested amid the wreck of his solar, just as the spell was undone at her sister's hand.

It did not take the High Inquistor more than a moment to guess that his quarry had some means of flight, and so in one smooth leap he fell upon him and with daggers drawn made his throat a crimson smile. Generally, that would have been bad tradecraft, but he still had a few moments to make sure the Lord of Casterly Rock did not escape in death, and moments were enough.

The Lion had been well and truly bagged.

Garin Gains First Mythic Rank

"What the hell is this?" Aradia picked up the scroll that had fallen from the old lord's hand. She had the presence of mind to recognize Infernal script, though that became rather moot point when it exploded into a blast of hellfire that sent her flying into the wall, slipping into smoke on sheer reflex.

OOC: I hope this answers some questions... and sparks further speculation.
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Made some additional edits to the chapter, DP.
 
I think that we're better off making a custom Mythic Path for Garin. Such as a Path of the Inquisitors. Making it mix with some Bureaucracy in the progression.
 
We should send him to his rest with his wife. If only to keep him out of trouble.


Soul killing Tywin is alright I suppose. But sending him to his wife feels like retiring him.

How should we design the afterlife anyways? Who should we let in? Will every subject be under our eternal protection as we seek to swell it in an attempt to retake the celestial realm for ourselves?
 
So now we know that Lanna tried to turn likely planning and preparing for months only to be discovered and enslaved before she could save her family or maybe she tried to save the Westerlands entire from Tywin's self-absorbed insanity.

Yeah I still like her despite being a Lannister, she tried to do the right thing and stop Tywin. Too bad she was likely betrayed in the attempt, so yes I think she should get a pass and a chance for her family to have some happy ending for having the balls to try to stop Tywin.
 
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I do kinda wonder what pact he was offered there.
After all, while Hell certainly does welcome doomed souls, they will rarely expend any serious amount of ressources on them.
 
@DragonParadox
1)did Tywin manage to sign the devil contract before he got killed ?
2)what were Tywin's class and level ?
3)how come we couldn't take Tywin alive but we could take the archmage and her husband from the midst of their still fighting troops alive ? he would have been perfect for a public trial
 
mmgaballah said:
@DragonParadox
1)did Tywin manage to sign the devil contract before he got killed ?
2)what were Tywin's class and level ?
3)how come we couldn't take Tywin alive but we could take the archmage and her husband from the midst of their still fighting troops alive ? he would have been perfect for a public trial
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We did take him alive. Garin slit his throat to prevent him from speaking, probably to use a command-activated magical item, but then healed him immediately after he was secured.
 
I'm assuming the offered Pact with Help wouldn't just cost Tywin his soul, but also involved the Altar to Jezarin. That was probably a bargaining chip he was saving as a last resort option, and why he was so concerned that our forces had not yet reached it.

I'm not surprised the Casterlys of ancient times would have come to an arrangement with Jezarin, and it would explain some of the weird shit about the Rock.

The implications that Joanna Lannister already made a Pact with Hell, however, that's a shocker. We know there was very limited Infernal influence on Planetos prior to the return of magic (the Summerhall incident was their work, IIRC?), but I'm stumped on why she would be involved with them, or why they would seek to make a pact with her at all, given the state of the Planes and Planetos at the time.
 
Artemis1992 said:
I do kinda wonder what pact he was offered there.
After all, while Hell certainly does welcome doomed souls, they will rarely expend any serious amount of ressources on them.
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It sounded as if the bargain would have been to realign the portals beneath Casterly Rock to Baator.

But, as always, we arrive in the nick of time to neutralise the hitherto unknown threat.
 
DragonParadox said:
"You cannot harness Hell anymore than a man might harness an avalanche. Be thee ever so wise, they are wiser in the ways of temptation and treachery, your soul would be lost and your legacy writ in mud and ash upon the pages of history..." The words of a traitor echoing down through memory held no power over him now. She would die tonight, she and the last of his brothers, and Tywin found he cared not one whit, no matter that Gerion did not know about her treachery. His heart was stone.
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The fact that we got some form of confirmation that Lanna did in fact try to tell Tywin off from the more dangerous ideas means that I'm now more willing to let her live, though admittedly still under heavy guard and other forms of security measures to make sure she doesn't try anything towards us or the rest of the realm.
 
Azel said:
It sounded as if the bargain would have been to realign the portals beneath Casterly Rock to Baator.

But, as always, we arrive in the nick of time to neutralise the hitherto unknown threat.
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The timing makes a lot of sense in this instance, though, as he wouldn't have been pressed to make that bargain if we weren't pounding the Rock to rubble and reducing his legacy to dust and ashes while he could do nothing but she's in impotent angst and fury.
 
Goldfish said:
The timing makes a lot of sense in this instance, though, as he wouldn't have been pressed to make that bargain if we weren't pounding the Rock to rubble and reducing his legacy to dust and ashes while he could do nothing but she's in impotent angst and fury.
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Yeah, but we've been doing precisely that for the last 10 minutes, so Garin arriving just as he wants to sign is still plot convenience of the highest order. And it sticks out because this is a regular occurrence.
 
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