A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
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- Tags
- 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
Ace of Scarabs
Mechanoid Pilot
- Location
- Singapore
[X] Azel
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
"Shit's fucked, but I'm working on fixing it."
"..."
"Huh. There's usually more questions.
"Well, if that's everything, today's session is adjourned."
Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fixed, thanks.
Canon Omake: Of Dicey Bargains and Plots
Of Dicey Bargains and Plots
Fifteenth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
A point that she hadn't made too openly with Viserys was how much of a bore he was quite often when the time for teasing had passed. She certainly hated all the paperwork related to Inquisition duties, and whenever she could she would offload that responsibility onto someone else. Yet, on this occasion, Azema had to begrudgingly accept that both Viserys and her bookworm of a lover had made a good work with the House of Mirrors. So far, she had gotten enough information to ask the right questions, and the answers had come naturally. It had been a tedious game to play, but she wasn't going to take this lightly.
As she approached the valley she noticed the carefully arranged circle of stones. It was getting late at this point, but so far the predictions were that the best moment to act would be in these Hills of Clear Skies, as the Lazhareen elder called them. No cloud plagued the sky, and the stars could be seen already despite the sun still shining on the horizon. This is not moment to think about my next painting, she reminder herself.
She dismissed the periodic check from the Whispering Brazer, set to ask her in intervals if she something was amiss, and waited for the right moment. They were coming, and this would be the moment where she would have to act lest they suffer a fate worse than death.
Finally, a she heard a hurried trot and spotted a figure carrying something on its shoulders. Here they were. Dazok, bloodrider of Khal Gorno, sworn to protect the blood of his blood, fleeing while carrying the two khalakas. Bloodriders should die with their khal, it was the dothraki way. Yet, when a horde of undead sarnori assailed Gorno's khalassar and separated him from his children, her children, the curse she had set onto the unlucky khal should he neglect his children sprouted, creating horrible blisters and rashes creeping off from his groin. Dazok had knowingly tried to save her children to prevent the curse from taking hold, but he didn't manage it on time, and his khal was dismounted and murdered, only to rise back to get rid of what cursed him into undeath. So the bloodrider, between throwing his life and that of his khal's children away, or fleeing in dishonor but trying to save his legacy, he chose the latter. By this time he was malnourished and exceedingly tired, but he had made it so far after being shunned by both dothraki and lazhareen alike for bringing the shade of his former khal after him. I might have gone a little overboard with the severity of the curse, she thought with dark humor, yet it all stopped when it appeared.
It was a grotesque figure of a man, filled with pustules in its pale skin which had been stabbed multiple times appeared walking with unrelenting determination behind his former bloodrider. It dragged his former arakh with an arm cut into too many places, and he wore a collection of rotten leather, mismatched sets of rusty armor, and carried behind him the remains of his saddle, eroded into some loose leather straps tied to his legs.
As Dazok fell to his knees and the frightened children got up and started to run on their own, she grabbed a token with someone's special mark she hoped to not see again, then flew and interposed herself between the wight and the bloodrider.
"The Demon Khaleesi!" he gasped as he was catching his breath.
"Run, you moron!" She proclaimed as she cast a spell to charge down the undead khan and her former lover, just as the wight lifted its arakh and emitted a guttural roar. She knew she could beat him. But as she started moved her face found the hard grass of the floor instead. Quickly turning around she found her ankle wrapped by a whip, and the emaciated and desperate face of Dazok staring at the Horseless Khal.
"Take her! She is the cause of this all. Leave us alone!" The desperate bloodrider screamed with a dry throat. The wight simply charged and plunged the arakh downwards, cutting part of Azema's hair as she twisted away barely in time.
"Come!" She cried so that the sand could carry her voice away and reinforcements could arrive, and she dropped the marked stone so that it could be scried, just as she twisted again so that the arakh could slide off her hard skin.
It was then that with a flash of light she saw a face she never thought she would be glad to see.
A spiked chain wrapped around the arakh of the wight just as a flurry of stones hit it.
"Rough up the rotten one, lads!" The annoying voice of Glyra ordered as her band of Gremlins with slingshots happily hurled stones at the hulking figure of the dead khal.
Azema cut off the whip with her claws and as the frightened Dazok fell backwards and pulled a knife from his belt she spied a bloody Baatezu of all things appearing beside her children. She summoned an old fiend from the Pit in its way and called for the gremlins to focus on it. A pair turned around as she jumped at the wight and finally finished it, then quickly materialized near her children as the summoned Tanar'ri was battling the denizen of Baator. The work was quick, but the Baatezu vanished instead of dying. A summon, just lie my own.
Ordering the two gremlins to see after her children, she rushed the frightened bloodrider, only for the other group of gremlins to interpose themselves.
"Not here!" Glyra exclaimed. "The dead one is already too much, no blood here!" She said, motioning at the ancient stone circle.
"I swear I didn't want to do it!", exclaimed Dazok.
Her blood boiled at that statement, but now that the haze of battle had passed, it made sense. The Bearded Devil must have come from somewhere. A quick search only revealed a place where something had set foot on the grass, and the whispering sands confirmed that a compulsion had been planted on the bloodrider.
"This was a set up. No matter who won, this would have either removed me or corrupted this place with uncalled for murder"
"But they weren't expecting the best gremlin in the world to intervene!" Glyra said with smile full of sharp teeth. "By the way, now you owe me!"
"Of course not, this was payment for helping you with lord frog face back in the Deep" Azema said as she walked towards her children, who were being calmed by a pair of gremlins. She had hoped this to unfold otherwise, but she would have to manage. She wasn't even sure she wanted to raise them, just that they shouldn't live off as they were living.
As she hugged them they recoiled, but couldn't escape her embrace. They don't really know me, but what can I do? They spoke in dothraki, which she barely understood without a spell of translation. Yet she should not, could not let them die, even if she wasn't their mother in anything besides the small horns on their heads.
"You know, maybe you can go back to hunting vanishing devils, and my lads and lasses can keep an eye on them while you aren't home" interjected Glyra.
Azema glared at her with her snake-like eyes.
"Did you hit your head too hard on the floor? Not asking for your firstborns here, just offering to look after them. They would just to help me sometimes…"
"Making mischief, right?"
"The best kind of mischief!" Glyra said with an impish smile.
"Can I revoke your privileges whenever I want?"
"You would not have to ask me, but ask them!" She added innocently. She was totally trying to have them join her band once they grew up, and she wanted to make sure they wouldn't want to leave.
"I guess that you can help me, for now. I found another loose end that I need to investigate"
OOC: And here is the last omake of the series @Tomcost wrote, once more a great bit of both characterization and world-building for you guys to talk about until I can get to the next update.
Vote closed.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Made some additional edits to the omake, DP.Of Dicey Bargains and Plots
Fifteenth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
A point that she hadn't made too openly with Viserys was how much of a bore he was quite often when the time for teasing had passed. She certainly hated all the paperwork related to Inquisition duties, and whenever she could, she would offload that responsibility onto someone else. On this occasion, however, Azema had to begrudgingly accept that both Viserys and his bookworm of a lover had made a good work with the House of Mirrors. So far, she had gotten enough information to ask the right questions, and the answers had come naturally. It had been a tedious game to play, but she wasn't going to take this lightly.
As Azema approached the valley, she noticed the carefully arranged circle of stones. It was getting late at this point, but so far the predictions were that the best moment to act would be in these Hills of Clear Skies, as the Lazhareen elder called them. No cloud plagued the sky, and the stars could be seen already despite the sun still shining on the horizon. This is not the moment to think about my next painting, she reminder herself.
She dismissed the periodic check from the Whispering Brazier, set to ask her in intervals if she something was amiss, and waited for the right moment. They were coming, and this would be the moment where she would have to act lest they suffer a fate worse than death.
Finally, she heard a hurried trot and spotted a figure carrying something on its shoulders. Here they were. Dazok, bloodrider of Khal Gorno, sworn to protect the blood of his blood, fleeing while carrying the two khalakas. Bloodriders should die with their khal, it was the dothraki way. Yet when a horde of undead sarnori assailed Gorno's khalassar and separated him from his children, her children, the curse she had set onto the unlucky khal should he neglect his children sprouted, creating horrible blisters and rashes creeping up from his groin. Dazok had knowingly tried to save her children to prevent the curse from taking hold, but he didn't manage it in time, and his khal was dismounted and murdered, only to rise back to get rid of what cursed him into undeath. So the bloodrider, between throwing his life and that of his khal's children away, or fleeing in dishonor but trying to save his legacy, chose the latter. By this time he was malnourished and exceedingly tired, but he had made it so far after being shunned by both dothraki and lazhareen alike for bringing the shade of his former khal after him. I might have gone a little overboard with the severity of the curse, she thought with dark humor, yet it all stopped when it appeared.
It was a grotesque figure of a man, pale skin filled with pustules and multiple stab wounds. It walked with unrelenting determination behind his former bloodrider. It carried its arakh with an arm cut in too many places, wore a collection of rotten leather and mismatched sets of rusty armor, and dragged behind it the remains of a saddle, eroded into some loose leather straps tied to its legs.
As Dazok fell to his knees and the frightened children got up and started to run on their own, she grabbed a token with someone's special mark she hoped to not see again, then flew and interposed herself between the wight and the bloodrider.
"The Demon Khaleesi!" he gasped as he was catching his breath.
"Run, you moron!" She proclaimed as she cast a spell to charge the undead khan and her former lover, just as the wight lifted its arakh and emitted a guttural roar. She knew she could beat him. But as she started to move her face found the hard grass of the floor instead. Quickly turning around, she found her ankle wrapped by a whip, and the emaciated and desperate face of Dazok staring at the Horseless Khal.
"Take her! She is the cause of this all. Leave us alone!" The desperate bloodrider screamed with a dry throat. The wight simply charged and plunged the arakh downwards, cutting part of Azema's hair as she twisted away barely in time.
"Come!" She cried so that the sand could carry her voice away and reinforcements could arrive, and she dropped the marked stone so that it could be scried, just as she twisted again so that the arakh could slide off her resilient skin.
It was then, with a flash of light, that she saw a face she never thought she would be glad to see.
A spiked chain wrapped around the arakh of the wight just as a flurry of stones hit it.
"Rough up the rotten one, lads!" The annoying voice of Glyra ordered as her band of Gremlins with slingshots happily hurled stones at the hulking figure of the dead khal.
Azema cut through the whip with her claws, and as the frightened Dazok fell backwards and pulled a knife from his belt, she spied a bloody baatezu of all things appearing beside her children. She summoned an old fiend from the Pit in its way and called for the gremlins to focus on it. A pair turned around as she jumped at the wight and finally finished it, then quickly materialized near her children as the summoned tanar'ri was battling the denizen of Baator. The work was quick, but the baatezu vanished instead of dying. A summon, just like my own.
Ordering the two gremlins to look after her children, she rushed the frightened bloodrider, only for the other group of gremlins to interpose themselves.
"Not here!" Glyra exclaimed. "The dead one is already too much, no blood here!" She said, motioning at the ancient stone circle.
"I swear I didn't want to do it!" exclaimed Dazok.
Her blood boiled at that statement, but now that the haze of battle had passed, it made sense. The Bearded Devil must have come from somewhere. A quick search only revealed a place where something had set foot on the grass, and the whispering sands confirmed that a compulsion had been planted on the bloodrider.
"This was a set up. No matter who won, this would have either removed me or corrupted this place with uncalled for murder."
"But they weren't expecting the best gremlin in the world to intervene!" Glyra said with smile full of sharp teeth. "By the way, now you owe me!"
"Of course not, this was payment for helping you with lord frog face back in the Deep." Azema said as she walked towards her children, who were being calmed by a pair of gremlins. She had hoped this would unfold otherwise, but she would have to manage. She wasn't even sure she wanted to raise them, just that they shouldn't live far off as they once had.
They recoiled as she hugged them, but couldn't escape her embrace. They don't really know me, but what can I do? They spoke in dothraki, which she barely understood without a spell of translation. Yet she should not, could not let them die, even if she wasn't their mother in anything besides the small horns on their heads.
"You know, maybe you can go back to hunting vanishing devils, and my lads and lasses can keep an eye on them while you aren't home," interjected Glyra.
Azema glared at her with her snake-like eyes.
"Did you hit your head too hard on the floor? Not asking for your firstborns here, just offering to look after them. They would just get to help me sometimes…"
"Making mischief, right?"
"The best kind of mischief!" Glyra said with an impish smile.
"Can I revoke your privileges whenever I want?"
"You would not have to ask me, but ask them!" She added innocently. She was totally trying to have them join her band once they grew up, and she wanted to make sure they wouldn't want to leave.
"I guess that you can help me, for now. I found another loose end that I need to investigate."
OOC: And here is the last omake of the series @Tomcost wrote, once more a great bit of both characterization and world-building for you guys to talk about until I can get to the next update.
@Tomcost, nice conclusion to the arc, dude. Surprise!Gremlin assault was great, too. We don't see enough of Glyra. I'm sure she and her troupe will make proper little hellions out of the tiefling kiddies. 😈
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
This is a really helpful visualize reference. Thanks for putting it together, dude.Had to take a bit of a break from the main project, so I made a little UI that can visualize the curia.
- Location
- Germany
I've dropped the raw data into the sheets for ease of reference and editing.
docs.google.com
Accounting
Spell Calculator Enemy,Ghorazagh AC,Touch AC,SR,Fort,Ref,Will 26,12,0,15,10,12 Caster,Spell,Special,Atk,CL,Save,DC,Hit Chance,SR Pierce,Total Hit Chance,Save Fail,With Alter Fortune,Damage Viserys,Color Spray,-,-,11,Will,16,-,100%,100%,20%,36,00%,- Viserys,Fire Darts,+2 on SR piercing,6,12,Fort,...
Update in beta.
Winning vote
Part MMMDCCXL: A Pledge from Power Given
A Pledge from Power Given
Fourth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC
While Rhango can rightly be said to count more souls under his banner than some counts of the North, they are not yet so many nor his need of such honors so great that he should be counted of that rank. Baron shall do, as the nobility count such things, though his deeds at arms, his place in the Imperial Army, deserves a higher honor. General Pro Tempore should serve him well as a measure of the trust he has been given and the prestige that is his by right, not that you think there are many magisters of Essos nor knights of Westeros who would dare disrespect the old Khal while he sits atop Bone Breaker.
Much of the remainder the the day is given over to planning the Curia's first session. There are formalities aplenty to consider of course, from appointments of new peers to empty seats to the confirmation hearings of the Ministers, but there is also much grave and portentous news. You cannot hide the state of the world from the Vox and the Princeps, they have the wealth and the connections to discover the truth on their own, and such could be disastrous depending on how they take the Sundering.
Truth be told you cannot be sure how they would react even hearing it from your lips, told as carefully as all your skills might allow. There is a reason why you plan for mind healers on call. Come to think it, there is something to be said for having mind healers on call at all times for members of the Curia and their immediate entourage. The tasks they had taken on do not spare the mind or the spirit.
After sending a message out to ensure that the major cities of Westeros, such as they are and what there is of them, have access to Mirrors of Farsight you turn your attention to a meeting less grand than many which you see these days, but in some ways among the most momentous. It is, after all, not every day that one encounters the first Imperial Mage face to face, not merely a sorcerer who is sworn to the realm as all the Scholarum is, but one bound to your legends and through you to the very concept of the Imperium.
***
You are not quite sure what you had expected of the boy before you, to be more as you had been at his age perhaps, glib and quick with his words as he is watchful. Marco is not that, far from it, a quiet unassuming boy who is more awed at his good fortune than looking for how he might leverage it further. But then you realize his is not a kinship with the young man you were in Braavos, scoundrel and liar by night, investigator by day, nor even does he truly know the pirate prince who had taken the Stepstones and set the proverbial wolves to shepherd the paths of trade. No, he knows the King imprinted in the pages of the Times, not just the conqueror, but the lawgiver. Indeed, it seems as though by natural inclination as much as the magic that is his to wield that Marco has an affinity to law.
"It's all that stands between what's around now and the way it used to be back in the old days when the pirates ruled, or worse Damphair," he slowly puts things into words, setting each one of them in place like a master mason placing stones. "It's the name of the city, isn't it? Used to be called Torturer's Deep, rule by fear, rule by blood spilled and screams heard. Now it's called Sorcerer's Deep and sorcery made the whole world better, but more than that..." he trails off, still a touch intimidated under your gaze for all you had done what you could to set him at ease. "Sorcery is about imposing will on the world, giving it order and sense where it had none before."
Easy to see how that might be an appealing way to look at things, for all that magic can be many darker things besides, transgression and madness as much as law. You nod thoughtfully. "How do you see your arts growing and organizing others to wield magic as you do?"
"Your Majesty?" the boy sounds shocked, barely managing to squeak out the words.
"You are the first to see the Imperium in this way, the first to call upon power through your leal service to the ideals of the Imperium. Your thoughts are not to be discounted nor forgotten," you reply gently.
"That is, umh... I think we should be careful to gather others from all over the realm, not just from the Deep. Servants of the Empire should serve in every corner and should from every corner be drawn, otherwise folks might think of them as 'meddling foreigners' and that's not what we are. We are the opposite of foreigners, we belong to the Imperium and..." he blushes, then pales.
"And the Imperium to you," you finish. "Banners are raised and taxes gathered, armies raised and laws written all for the benefit of those who live within its borders. That is the reasons why the walls of any state should be raised."
What are your plans for the Imperial Mages?
[] Write in
OOC: Poor Marco is rather overawed, he is not that far shy of being a worshiper.
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Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Heh, even for all intents and purposes, he is a worshipper.
Just not of us. No, that of Law of course.
Not quite, Malarys is a worshiper of Law in the abstract, of the beauty and symmetry that was before men walked the earth and shall be after their passing, of the truths of mathematics and the meter of carefully polished poetry. Marco is a worshiper of Imperial Law and the Imperial way of life and ordering of society.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Hard to worship something that tells you Dadjokes without even having a couple sons or daughters to his name.
Though he does have a couple nieces and newphews and some wards, granted... maybe it's not that odd.
- Location
- Germany
He is very much a worshipper of Viserys. It's just that we are replacing the faith part of that arrangement with ideology.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Plan With Little Power Comes Great Responsibility
-[X] There are truths that he needs to know to truly grasp the true nature and goals of the Imperium. The true weight of the ideas that it rests upon. Tell him the story of the Fall of Heaven and the state of the spheres.
-[X] Let him also read The Fading Grace to reinforce his understanding.
-[X] The Imperium is a bulwark against all of these threats. Against the grasping hands of Baator, the nihilism of Abaddon, the madness of the Abyss, the taint of the Far Realm and the hunger of true oblivion itself. In this day and age, even the gods can not truly ensure the safety of their followers souls, let alone aid them in life. This is why you have created the Imperium, with all it's institutions and it ever greater grasp. To succeed where the gods have failed. To create a safe harbor in the wasteland of this world.
-[X] You have often spoken of light in your speeches and that you would bring it to the people to banish the darkness. That was the truth. What he now knows, unlike nearly all the other citizens, is that the light you kindle here and now is the only one there is. Nobody else is coming to save the day.
-[X] What he has shown by grasping for the power created by you and these ideas is that he is worthy and capable of handling these truths. Capable of carrying these ideas out into the world to strengthen the walls against the enemies and to prepare the people for the day when the whole truth must be revealed to them. One day, they all will know and if they all believe that the Imperium can keep them safe anyway, then nothing ill will happen on that day.
-[X] Your task for him and all the others that will come is to find like-minded people and help them to develop the convictions and belief necessary to access the same power he now wields. You do not expect them to fight or die for you, but to speak. To carry these ideas to others. Some will take up arms to fight the darkness. Others will build with their power. Yet others will heal. They all will do their part in their own fashion.
-[X] You know that this is much to ask of a young man such as him, but you would not burden him with this if you were not certain that he could carry it. And as others join him, the load will become lighter until the day it is but a feather.
-[X] As you do not know if his special circumstances expose him to certain dangers, and to ensure Yss is not annoyed at you, give him a small Imperial Steel brooch of a Three Headed Dragon as a sign of his status. Within will be a small shard of Thinaun, marked with a Mark of Greed, so that you can ensure his soul is safe in case of death.
-[X] There are truths that he needs to know to truly grasp the true nature and goals of the Imperium. The true weight of the ideas that it rests upon. Tell him the story of the Fall of Heaven and the state of the spheres.
-[X] Let him also read The Fading Grace to reinforce his understanding.
-[X] The Imperium is a bulwark against all of these threats. Against the grasping hands of Baator, the nihilism of Abaddon, the madness of the Abyss, the taint of the Far Realm and the hunger of true oblivion itself. In this day and age, even the gods can not truly ensure the safety of their followers souls, let alone aid them in life. This is why you have created the Imperium, with all it's institutions and it ever greater grasp. To succeed where the gods have failed. To create a safe harbor in the wasteland of this world.
-[X] You have often spoken of light in your speeches and that you would bring it to the people to banish the darkness. That was the truth. What he now knows, unlike nearly all the other citizens, is that the light you kindle here and now is the only one there is. Nobody else is coming to save the day.
-[X] What he has shown by grasping for the power created by you and these ideas is that he is worthy and capable of handling these truths. Capable of carrying these ideas out into the world to strengthen the walls against the enemies and to prepare the people for the day when the whole truth must be revealed to them. One day, they all will know and if they all believe that the Imperium can keep them safe anyway, then nothing ill will happen on that day.
-[X] Your task for him and all the others that will come is to find like-minded people and help them to develop the convictions and belief necessary to access the same power he now wields. You do not expect them to fight or die for you, but to speak. To carry these ideas to others. Some will take up arms to fight the darkness. Others will build with their power. Yet others will heal. They all will do their part in their own fashion.
-[X] You know that this is much to ask of a young man such as him, but you would not burden him with this if you were not certain that he could carry it. And as others join him, the load will become lighter until the day it is but a feather.
-[X] As you do not know if his special circumstances expose him to certain dangers, and to ensure Yss is not annoyed at you, give him a small Imperial Steel brooch of a Three Headed Dragon as a sign of his status. Within will be a small shard of Thinaun, marked with a Mark of Greed, so that you can ensure his soul is safe in case of death.
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Azel