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

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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on May 22, 2021 at 4:01 AM, finished with 47 posts and 20 votes.
  • [X] No, it is still too early
    [X] Ask him what he wants.
    -[X] Make sure he knows both the benefits and drawbacks to keeping his name or changing it, and the possibility of future ruling opportunities either way.
    [X]forming a cadet house (leave the name up to Jon)
    -[X] the house will be given an island to govern in the Stepstones that way the house will have independence to considered legitimate but stay close enough that no shenanigans like Damon the rogue prince or the BlackFires could happen latter down the line
    --[X] if Jon doesn't want a domain to rule he could be given a large plot of developed land and a mansion in the city to become his estate instated
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Part MMMDCCXC: On Ill Winds
  • Threadmarks
    • On Ill Winds ​

    Thirteenth Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC

    "Let Jon be a boy, mother," you reply after a long moment's thought. It is not that you do not wish to see your nephew ennobled, quite the opposite, but there is no cause to rush. "Matters of power and prestige can wait, and if any nobles should read too much into the matter then they shall be the only ones to suffer for the folly, this I pledge."

    Something about the finality of your words seems to resonate, but it cannot quite erase the worry from her gaze. "He is such a quiet boy, so concerned about not 'making too much of a fuss of himself' that I fear he might not even report any troubles this name may cause him." She sighs and almost unwillingly admits. "Rhaegar was like that too when he was young you know. I cannot help but wonder how much might have been changed if I had paid more attention to him rather than leave him to his tutors and his books for so long."

    "That you should not worry about even for a moment," you interject. Jon would likely hate the comparison with a passion, but you cannot blame your mother for considering it. Everyone who had been close to your elder brother had been shocked by the kidnapping of Lyanna Stark. How much worse must it have been for her?

    "There are far more friendly eyes to look upon him and willing ears to bend to his worries here than ever there were in the Red Keep," you continue. "He will grow up not as another pawn in games he cannot understand, but as a boy to whom all the best roads in life are open. Perhaps he will not even wish to be a lord with his own land and will instead pursue sorcery, engineering or art, perhaps he will take a administrative position if his talents run that way, there is no way to know yet, but plenty of time for all of us... including Jon himself to find out."

    Your mother laughs. "Likely if you asked him now the answer would have more to do with swords and glory than any of those..."

    Not glory but vengeance, you think but do not say lest it darken the mood to no purpose. Instead you turn the conversation to something you had read in the last report from the Ministry of Diplomacy. Things had not been going well in the efforts to court the Prince of Walano of late.

    "I think this is going to smolder for months unfortunately," your mother admits. "If only the damn man had been honest about his past he would not have been anywhere near the Summer Isles, much less sensitive diplomatic efforts."

    The damn man in question was Retired Admiral Guy Gaesus, a former Cleftsman who had parlayed skill at piracy into a exciting if brief naval carrier and then had moved on to working for Silver Serpent Enterprises. Alas, that was not the only sort of trade he had ever been involved in. The man had raided Walano itself under the command of a now dead kinsman, and the first thing any in your service knew of the fact was when he was recognized in the middle of a feast by one of his former victims.

    Calls to hang one of the delegation of guests in whose honor the feast was held rather cooled diplomatic efforts, though your mother does point out that the Wallani are only calling for a hanging and not the considerably slower and more excruciating methods of execution they usually reserve for slavers caught on their shores.

    "What are they accusing the captain of, exactly I mean?" you prompt. "The report I got from the ambassador was rather rushed and a bit too concerned with the covering of the writer's own sins to go into detail."

    "Very much what you would expect," your mother replies grimly. "Murder, theft and arson, because of course there was fire, there always seems to be fire..." She sighs. "Not that the details matter except in so far as they incense people. Being part of a slaving crew on the shores of the Summer Isles carries a death sentence in most princedoms."

    "So why not just hand him over to be hanged and carry on?" Lya interjects. "It seems the fastest way to get back on the Walani's good side."

    "Several reasons I fear," your mother responds wearily. "Loss of face from just handing over a citizen and a former officer no less to be hanged by a foreign power, discontent among the navy, such as it still is, and the air force where a lot of former navy men and officers have gone, but most of all it goes against the implicit promise to practically the entire nobility of Essos not to look into old crimes against their fellow man too closely. I am told that as slave raids went it was rather ordinary, whatever that means, and it was one of only three Guy partook on in the Islands. "

    Eyes in the South: 16 (Failure)

    What do you do about Retired Admiral Guy Gaesus?

    [] Let the Walani hang him

    [] Strip him of his position in the Silver Serpent and send him home in disgrace

    [] Quietly transfer him to a less prestigious position off plane

    [] Write in

    OOC: You cannot win them all. Hopefully this failure is well written at least.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Quietly transfer him to a less prestigious position off plane

    He did nothing worse than a ton of other people in our employ.
     
    [X] Have him pay a weregild, not in coin, but in deeds. It is up to him to make amends, whether that is finding his former victims and repatriating them or in similar good deeds.
     
    TheWiseTomato said:
    [X] Have him pay a weregild, not in coin, but in deeds. It is up to him to make amends, whether that is finding his former victims and repatriating them or in similar good deeds.
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    I thought that the concept of weregild has been abolished, as evident with how the Mountain Clans and the Vale Nobility now recently tries to make up. If they wish to gift the offended party some compensations, then it's not a matter that the state would concerned itself with (albeit, thankful of).
     
    DragonParadox said:
    On Ill Winds ​

    Thirteenth Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC

    "Let Jon be a boy, mother," you reply after a long moment's thought. It is not that you do not wish to see your nephew ennobled, quite the opposite, but there is no cause to rush. "Matters of power and prestige can wait, and if any nobles should read too much into the matter then they shall be the only ones to suffer for the folly, this I pledge."

    Something about the finality of your words seems to resonate, but it cannot quite erase the worry from her gaze. "He is such a quiet boy, so concerned about not 'making too much of a fuss of himself' that I fear he might not even report any troubles his name may cause him." She sighs and almost unwillingly admits, "Rhaegar was like that too when he was young, you know? I cannot help but wonder how much might have been changed if I had paid more attention to him rather than leave him to his tutors and his books for so long."

    "That you should not worry about even for a moment," you interject. Jon would likely hate the comparison with a passion, but you cannot blame your mother for considering it. Everyone who had been close to your elder brother had been shocked by the kidnapping of Lyanna Stark. How much worse must it have been for her?

    "There are far more friendly eyes to look upon him and willing ears to bend to his worries here than ever there were in the Red Keep," you continue. "He will grow up not as another pawn in games he cannot understand, but as a boy to whom all the best roads in life are open. Perhaps he will not even wish to be a lord with his own land and will instead pursue sorcery, engineering or art, perhaps he will take an administrative position if his talents run that way. There is no way to know yet, but plenty of time for all of us... including Jon himself, to find out."

    Your mother laughs. "Likely if you asked him now the answer would have more to do with swords and glory than any of those..."

    Not glory but vengeance, you think but do not say, lest it darken the mood to no purpose. You instead turn the conversation to something you had read in the last report from the Ministry of Diplomacy. Of late, things had not been going well in the efforts to court the Prince of Walano.

    "Unfortunately, I think that is going to smolder for months," your mother admits. "If only the damn man had been honest about his past, he would not have been anywhere near the Summer Isles, much less sensitive diplomatic efforts."

    The damn man in question was Retired Admiral Guy Gaesus, a former Cleftsman who had parlayed skill at piracy into an exciting if brief naval carrier and then had moved on to working for Silver Serpent Enterprises. Alas, that was not the only sort of trade he had ever been involved in. The man had raided Walano itself under the command of a now dead kinsman, and the first thing any in your service knew of the fact was when he was recognized in the middle of a feast by one of his former victims.

    Calls to hang one of the delegation of guests in whose honor the feast was held rather cooled diplomatic efforts, though your mother does point out that the Wallani are only calling for a hanging and not the considerably slower and more excruciating methods of execution they usually reserve for slavers caught on their shores.

    "What are they accusing the captain of, exactly I mean?" you prompt. "The report I got from the ambassador was rather rushed and a bit too concerned with the covering of the writer's own sins to go into detail."

    "Very much what you would expect," your mother replies grimly. "Murder, theft and arson, because of course there was fire. There always seems to be fire..." She sighs. "Not that the details matter except in so far as they incense people. Being part of a slaving crew on the shores of the Summer Isles carries a death sentence in most princedoms."

    "So why not just hand him over to be hanged and carry on?" Lya interjects. "It seems the fastest way to get back on the Walani's good side."

    "Several reasons, I fear," your mother responds wearily. "Loss of face from just handing over a citizen and a former officer no less to be hanged by a foreign power. Discontent among the navy, such as it still is, and the air force, where a lot of former navy men and officers have gone. Most of all, however, it goes against the implicit promise to practically the entire nobility of Essos not to look into old crimes against their fellow man too closely. I am told that as slave raids went, it was rather ordinary, whatever that means, and it was one of only three Guy participated in that affected the Islands."

    Eyes in the South: 16 (Failure)

    What do you do about Retired Admiral Guy Gaesus?

    [] Let the Walani hang him

    [] Strip him of his position in the Silver Serpent and send him home in disgrace

    [] Quietly transfer him to a less prestigious position off plane

    [] Write in

    OOC: You cannot win them all. Hopefully this failure is well written at least.
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    Click to shrink...
    Made some additional edits to the chapter, DP.
     
    [X] Quietly transfer him to a less prestigious position off plane

    Yeah, there isn't any other option that we can go with in this instance that doesn't violate one of the tenets upon which the Imperium was formed. Even asking him to pay a fine would run contrary to that, plus it would set an extremely bad precedent.

    It sucks that he participated in raids on the Summer Islands, but then, a lot of shit sucks about what a lot of people have done on Planetos. If we only accepted people who had never done anything wrong, our population wouldn't be enough to fill Sorcerer's Deep.
     
    Jack vile Ripper said:
    I thought that the concept of weregild has been abolished, as evident with how the Mountain Clans and the Vale Nobility now recently tries to make up. If they wish to gift the offended party some compensations, then it's not a matter that the state would concerned itself with (albeit, thankful of).
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    Cheap Orange Knofe said:
    ISn't that why he said in deeds, not coin?
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    Yeah basically. If the Summer Islands were already part of the Imperium I wouldn't have suggested it, but this way we can both acknowledge it and use the misfortune to our benefit. Having the dude track down every slave he took and return them to their homes would be a large endeavor, and not one he'd have official help with. Acts as an apology to the Islands for sending this dude to them, and a chastisement to the dude for keeping it a secret, without going back on the policy of not punishing people for crimes committed before they were beholden to the Imperium's laws.
     
    It should be noted here that if no obvious punishment is levied it will impact the DC of the action going forward as well as other rolls in the area. This is not all fluff, vague as it may be in places.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Knowledge of Wu Jen Training methods and traditions
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    Found it, along with IC reference to it.

    DragonParadox said:
    Should I perhaps try studying the magic of the Elements in Balance, the Way of the Wu Jen? There was no teacher in that art here, only books, and much as Fen was loath to say this of the magic of her homeland, she found the predictable magic of words more approachable than the complex interplay of the elements.
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    Duesal said:
    I'm curious on what exactly happened in the Azure Court that all of a sudden they're trying to collect all the blood magic.
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    At least in part, Viserys happened with the show of how powerful blood magic is.

    Walliseatscheese said:
    Found it, along with IC reference to it.
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    Oh, you meant the books. Yeah you have those but no teacher so it would be more of tell from scratch. After all it takes more than stealing a wizard's spellbook to become one. This is academic magic of a wholly foreign tradition.
     
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