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

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DragonParadox said:
Oh yes he has a castle and jousts and feasts, he even organizes hunts at times and has one big hunt in the works for a few months from now in the Ferywild... under the careful watch of the shadow fey so they do not get themselves killed or something.
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Maybe we should send someone along as an insurance. Aradia would probably like it to go along.
 
DragonParadox said:
As the Pages Shuffle Swift ​

Fifteenth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

Far and wide went the word of the Imperator. In some places near at hand, borne by the wings of the kin of his companion Varys, dragon's wings for a dragon's summons, and in others far off by the whisper of sand and magic. Many there were who were amazed and many there were who were glad, and some there who were neither amazed nor glad but were displeased for such was the way of courts that some might rise and others must flounder or indeed sink in the counsels of the realm and the love of the throne.

***​

In the halls of the Golden Hearth, blue eyes bright as the sky in summer widened and a face that had been glum with perhaps more than the sleepiness of morning burst into a sudden grin and a laugh that rang fairer and clearer than mortal tongues could turn. Lord in the West, where he would not trouble Stannis with the sight of his face yet where he could put his liar's gifts to fair use and where the folk of the realm needed most of all one who would know the works of magic and the changing world. The man who was not quite a man laughed and was glad.

***​

Standing on the balcony of a mansion of the new sort, built of marble and silver and all about bound with fair northern roses that could only by sorcery be preserved in the warm southern climes, a dark-haired young woman perhaps twenty embraced a man of Skagos, fair and filled with laughing glee. They had been expecting, hoping for something from the fruits of the conquest, but nothing so fair nor so rich as the Barony of Gallowsgrey.

"So will I then have to call you 'my lady' again, like I did when we were courting?" the man asked in jest. "I won't have to coax you out of any trees this time to get you to follow me, will I?'

That earned him a swipe across the chest from the newly proclaimed Lady Alyssa of Gallowsgrey, and then a kiss upon the cheek. "It's my title and you shall have to follow me," she said. Later, other things were given and were offered of which it is better not to speak, though the little dragon messenger being sly, clever, and without much shame lingered and told in hissing gossip of the sort you might find only in those high aeries.

***​

Of Ser Criston Storm-no-longer but new made baron of Tarbeck, it could be said he was the quietest of the lot, for he stared at the letter long and in bemusement, as though expecting a gremlin to pop out on a cloud of smoke and proclaim it all a grand farce. He had expected lands eventually, of course, but those had been empty lands to the east, the sort that it would take years to make prosperous and fair, not ones that already held a fair keep as could be expected and ordered lands filled with folk to work them.

It was so his friends had found him and there were many smiles and many felicitations... and no small number of jests about men just struck dumb by lightning. Wisdom Ceria scrupulously denied any doing in the latter. "If it was any thunder that did this, then it was none of mine, but one from a far higher place."

***​

In a quiet office on the Sea Street, with the sound of the harbor in her ears, Indryse Umaris carefully read through the letter as she did with all of her correspondence. One did not rise so high as her on the ladder of Imperial Administration by being careless. The Southern Crownlands... she consulted a map of the western lands, that looked like a fair posting and not the languishing she had half-feared since it came down the grapevine that she would not be getting the Ministerial appointment. Yes, she would do well there, far from the shadow of her father and men like him, where they spoke other tongues and lived by other customs, and never had folk been held in bondage even before the coming of the Dragon.

***​

Oddo the Fat rather liked his posting in the south, but he did not for a moment complain when he was called north for an accounting of what he had done and an internal appointment. The realm had need more of administrators than diplomats these days, given the rate at which it expanded, and old Oddo might not have experience in leading through such times, but he had given council aplenty to those who were allies of the realm and he knew where to find those who would most aid him in his tasks. Now let's see here, where did I put my book...

Accounts of that day would rarely contain what happened next, as Oddo in his haste tripped over his book of contacts left on the floor the previous evening and rolled into the door where he got stuck for a short while.

Yet when he did speak of the happenings to break the ice and to make light of his misfortune, Oddo always managed to get the listener to be laughing with him rather that at him by the end of the tale. That was just the sort of man he was.

***​

Syrio Coltherys also nearly rolled when he got the news, though in his case it was more simple placement than excitement, having found himself in his 'paramour's' bed late with the messenger calling on him before he could get 'a drop of kindness'. He wondered if this was his superiors' way to try to get him away from all the fine whores and to the by all accounts horse-faced wrenches of Westeros. If so, then they had not reckoned for his ingenuity in matters of the flesh. This Red Lake place could not be that bad, he thought blearily.

***​

In far Volantis, the man called by some in insult and by others as a compliment, Maekar the Mongrel had no cause to rise from his bed one way or another, for he had not even sought it the evening before, being engrossed in a complex case. He had expected a judicial appointment, maybe, maybe a ministry, though he had not dared to hope so high. Instead, he had gotten a colonial appointment to Ghoyan Drohe of all places.

Was this the hand of the Archon or some other power in the City, and if so what did they seek to make of it? Did they expect him to fail, did they hope for him to succeed? He would ask high and low of his sources that day, but none knew how he had come to this but for the inscrutable will of the Dragon upon whose desk his file had most certainly landed. However, it had come to be by the day's end he was quite glad to have gotten it. Volantis had grown too narrow in a realm that was now opening up for one and all, Old Blood and Freedman alike. Better to set the wheels turning where they could still turn free rather than work with the rust upon these.

***​

Kora smiled as she read the letter over the sound of marching feet and horns just rousing the legion company to a new day, and if any of the men and woman outside could have seen that smile, even those who had faced the hungering dead, they would have quailed and stepped back, for there were some things you could not fight with sword in hand. "Land full of traitors and cowards, brigands in the mountains, some of whom may be wearing too fine cloaks. Heard this song before, only this time we'll get to play it all the way through, we will." She glanced at the hound in the corner of the tent who barked in anticipation.

***​

"Well, cousin, it looks like of the two of us, I shall be the one to rule over the actual land of knights and chivalry," the woman's voice was dry and a little raspy, though she was yet young and one might be forgiven for not noticing that she was making a jest, not only from the tone, but also the fact that jests were most unlike her. It was said, quietly around her, that when Este Argalys was born she had looked at the midwife with reproach for her tardiness.

"I wish you all the joy of the stubborn and the pigheaded, cousin," her cousin Uthero replied. "For myself, I shall keep to those knights who actually seek my service and not whoever I find on the ground, like stones before the plow."

"Still with the agricultural metaphors, I swear... Have you ever seen a plow being used?" the woman asked, before shaking her head. "No, don't answer that. I don't want to know."

They were a bit more like siblings than cousins that way.

OOC: Phew... that was something. Rolls for the rest of the governors next update. All that jumping around was not easy to handle.
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Made some additional edits to the chapter, DP.

This was neat. I enjoyed seeing everyone getting their notices.

Now I'm curious about that Pseudodragon who made Alyssa's delivery. Are Pseudodragons gossipers? Does Varys participate? How long until the flight of Tiny Telepathic Dragons become an Inquisition asset, if they aren't already?

hint hint *cough* interlude fodder *cough* hint hint
 
Goldfish said:
Made some additional edits to the chapter, DP.

This was neat. I enjoyed seeing everyone getting their notices.

Now I'm curious about that Pseudodragon who made Alyssa's delivery. Are Pseudodragons gossipers? Does Varys participate? How long until the flight of Tiny Telepathic Dragons become an Inquisition asset, if they aren't already?

hint hint *cough* interlude fodder *cough* hint hint
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  1. Pseudodragons are dreadful gossips, comes from being telepaths and thus able to share information with only one person even when others are present. They are already an asset to several inquisitors
  2. Varys is generally above gossip, being so much greater than them
 
Speaking of Uthero, he did marry Alysande right?

I still feel it strange he's the richest Braavosi, probably the richest guy in the world aside from us rules such a wide area.

It's like Jeff Bezoz being the de facto ruler of the Iberian Peninsula... weird!
 
DragonParadox said:
Pseudodragons are dreadful gossips, comes from being telepaths and thus able to share information with only one person even when others are present. They are already an asset to several inquisitors
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Inquisitor #1: "Oh God, they're multiplying!"

Inquisitor #2: "...fantastic, not only do we need to deal with the Ravens, but diminutive Dragons as well?!"

Inquisitor #1: "Count your blessings. At least we can trust the Harbinger to be as dross as possible."

*quiet sobs ensuing*
 
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Interlude MLXI: To Northern Lands
  • Threadmarks
    • To Northern Lands ​

    Fifteenth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    "Slippery" Sal was the kind of fellow who joined the Silver Serpent early in its history, which is to say a sailor willing to take a bet on sailing with wizards following the fortune tellings of a magic snake. Supremely confident in his own good luck and it was assumed only about as loyal as his next payday or his next cup of grog, Sal had something of a religious revelation when he came face to face with a Deep One one night on the 'deadman's watch' just before dawn which was almost the literal truth for him.

    By the skin of his teeth and the last of his borrowed luck he lived, though if it had not been for the healing of the Old Gods he would have been left lame and blind. Having found faith in a higher power in the most immediate way one can Sal dedicated himself to his twin passions, spreading the word of the gods of stream, forest, and stone and making money, he had not changed that much. Over the years he showed not just the gift of the gab for which he had been hired, but also a talent for organization and making the patch bigger than the quilt as they say in Myr. Both his faith and his other skills earned Sal a warm welcome in Skagos and so here he would reign as governor, a familiar face for the strange and distant power of the crown.

    Governor of Skagos: Slippery Sal (Braavosi)
    Culture: Essosi
    Religion: Old Gods
    Ideology: Populist

    ***​

    Stony Shore was, not to put too fine a point on it, shit land, Brenn Pyke thought. Granted, it was in no small measure thanks to his own kin from across the water turning what was merely poor soil and an eroding coastline into a tangled wilderness with no lords to speak of and hardly any other folk for those lords to rule over. It was hardly better than the Far North in some ways, a tangled mess of old grudges and crumbling villages, dark woods haunted by brigands, the last place you would imagine they would name an Ironborn to, but for two things. Firstly that Brenn was an avowed faithful of the Ferryman who trusted in the Lord of the Deep Waters with the zeal that only a convert can have and secondly that following some travels out east to study and to see the world he had not come back as he had been. The grace of a Legion Archon was on him to aid in the undoing of the harm he had done.

    Now in the beginning the archon who had given his grace to the act had thought that he would take up the sword and shield for which the blessing was more suited, but Brenn had found that the holy fire in his eyes allowed him to read folk better... and to read the weather better. So tireless as he was it had been far easier to put himself through studies culminating within the university in the Deep from where he had been recruited for the budding administration of the eastern provinces. There and back again...

    From east to west was a short enough jump, especially now that he spoke Low Valyrian with the accent of Mantarys. You would be hard pressed to see the Ironborn in Brenn, though he never tried to hide it, but instead tried to use his own transformation as a learning experience in the virtues of an open mind and an open heart.

    It was to be hoped that between himself and the new Lady of the Islands a new kind of relationship would be had over the Sunset Sea.

    Governor of Stony Shore: Brenn Pyke (Archon-Graced Ironborn)
    Culture: Westerosi
    Religion Ferryman
    Ideology: Loyalist

    OOC: So I say to myself, I can do four more characters today, it's not that hard... then I get sucked into making just the first two in over an hour and it is already 10:30. I really really do not want to write very late because I know my writing suffers so here's what I have so far.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    To Northern Lands ​

    Fifteenth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    "Slippery" Sal was the kind of fellow who joined the Silver Serpent early in its history, which is to say a sailor willing to take a bet on sailing with wizards following the fortune telling of a magic snake. Supremely confident in his own good luck and it was assumed only about as loyal as his next payday or his next cup of grog, Sal had something of a religious revelation when he came face to face with a Deep One one night on the 'deadman's watch' just before dawn, which was almost the literal truth for him.

    He lived, by the skin of his teeth and the last of his borrowed luck, though if it had not been for the healing of the Old Gods he would have been left lame and blind. Having found faith in a higher power in the most immediate way one can, Sal dedicated himself to his twin passions, spreading the word of the gods of Earth, Stone, and Tree and making money. He had not changed that much. Over the years, he showed not just the gift of the gab, for which he had been hired, but also a talent for organization and making the patch bigger than the quilt, as they say in Myr. Both his faith and his other skills earned Sal a warm welcome in Skagos, and so here he would reign as governor, a familiar face for the strange and distant power of the crown.

    Governor of Skagos: Slippery Sal (Braavosi)
    Culture: Essosi
    Religion Old Gods
    Ideology: Populist

    ***​

    Stoney Shore was, not to put too fine a point on it, shit land, Brenn Pyke thought, and it was in no small measure thanks to his own kin from across the water turning what was merely poor soil and an eroding coastline into a tangled wilderness with no lords to speak of and hardly any other folk for those lords to rule over. It was hardly better than the Far North in some ways, a tangled mess of old grudges, crumbling villages, and dark woods haunted by brigands. It was the last place you would imagine they would name an Ironborn to govern, but for two things; firstly, that Brenn was an avowed worshiper of the Ferryman, one who trusted in the Lord of the Deep Waters with the zeal that only a convert can have, and secondly, that following some travels out east to study and to see the world, he had not come back as he had been. The grace of a Legion Archon was on him, to aid in the undoing of the harm he had done.

    Now in the beginning the Archon who had given his grace to the act had thought that he would take up the sword and shield, for which the blessing was more suited, but Brenn had found that the holy fire in his eyes allowed him to read folk better... and to read the weather better. So as tireless as he was, it had been far easier to put himself through studies culminating with the university in the Deep from where he had been recruited for the budding administration of the Eastern provinces. There and back again...

    From east to west was a short enough jump, especially now that he spoke Low Valyrian with the accent of Mantarys. You would be hard pressed to see the Ironborn in Brenn, though he never tried to hide it, but instead tried to use his own transformation as a learning experience in the virtues of an open mind and an open heart.

    It was to be hoped that between himself and the new Lady of the Islands, a new kind of relationship would be had over the Sunset Sea.

    Governor of Stony Shore: Brenn Pyke (Archon-Graced Ironborn)
    Culture: Westerosi
    Religion Ferryman
    Ideology: Moderate

    OOC: So I say to myself, I can do four more characters today, it's not that hard... then I get sucked into making just the first two in over and hour and it is already 10:30. I really really do not want to write very late because I know my writing suffers so here's what I have so far. Not yet edited.
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    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
     
    Not terribly happy with a populist and a moderate. My appointments were already skirting things, but it seems that the idea of having a solid backbone of loyalists in the governor seats is toast.
    A grand total of 3 governor so far are Imperialists.
     
    Archon-Graced is an interesting template Brenn has there. Can't see how it should equate to a +2 CR increase, though. Looks like a solid +1 to me.
     
    I am having regrets:
    ImperialistMonarchistConservativeMagistrateModerateRepublicanPopulistFaithfulIndependentTotal
    Curia Vocium
    30​
    1​
    8​
    3​
    3​
    6​
    3​
    4​
    58​
    Vox Populi
    23​
    1​
    6​
    3​
    3​
    6​
    3​
    3​
    48​
    Vox Populi Imperialis
    7​
    2​
    9​
    Vox Gentum
    1​
    1​
    Curia Principium
    27​
    12​
    6​
    6​
    13​
    11​
    1​
    2​
    4​
    82​
    Princeps Sanguine
    9​
    10​
    1​
    20​
    Princeps Officio
    4​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    3​
    2​
    12​
    Princeps Edicto
    4​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    3​
    1​
    1​
    12​
    Princeps Arte
    2​
    2​
    1​
    2​
    1​
    1​
    2​
    11​
    Princeps Suffragio
    2​
    3​
    1​
    3​
    9​
    Princeps Militia
    3​
    3​
    1​
    7​
    Princeps Iure
    5​
    1​
    1​
    7​
    Peculiari Princeps
    1​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    4​
    Total
    57​
    13​
    14​
    9​
    16​
    17​
    4​
    6​
    4​
    140​
    Even if the next two are loyalists, we still don't have a solid majority among the Curia Principium.

    So much for keeping a lid on things.
     
    Azel said:
    I am having regrets:
    ImperialistMonarchistConservativeMagistrateModerateRepublicanPopulistFaithfulIndependentTotal
    Curia Vocium
    30​
    1​
    8​
    3​
    3​
    6​
    3​
    4​
    58​
    Vox Populi
    23​
    1​
    6​
    3​
    3​
    6​
    3​
    3​
    48​
    Vox Populi Imperialis
    7​
    2​
    9​
    Vox Gentum
    1​
    1​
    Curia Principium
    27​
    12​
    6​
    6​
    13​
    11​
    1​
    2​
    4​
    82​
    Princeps Sanguine
    9​
    10​
    1​
    20​
    Princeps Officio
    4​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    3​
    2​
    12​
    Princeps Edicto
    4​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    3​
    1​
    1​
    12​
    Princeps Arte
    2​
    2​
    1​
    2​
    1​
    1​
    2​
    11​
    Princeps Suffragio
    2​
    3​
    1​
    3​
    9​
    Princeps Militia
    3​
    3​
    1​
    7​
    Princeps Iure
    5​
    1​
    1​
    7​
    Peculiari Princeps
    1​
    1​
    1​
    1​
    4​
    Total
    57​
    13​
    14​
    9​
    16​
    17​
    4​
    6​
    4​
    140​
    Even if the next two are loyalists, we still don't have a solid majority among the Curia Principium.

    So much for keeping a lid on things.
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    Hmm... thinking about who I could change over to loyalist. This is the kind of thing that could slip our mind playing the game because of the way votes are structured, but I have a hard time seeing it get by Viserys IC. I'll have to sleep on this I think.
     
    We would need another 15 loyalists to even break even. I don't think it's really possible at this point.
     
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