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

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Not going to lie, us actually failing our actions is much more fun. I don't think we failed actions in the old system.
 
DragonParadox said:
Mercurial Messengers ​

First Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC

One might be forgiven from thinking that an elderly clerk in rumpled robes of office, silver spectacles slightly askew, was prowling the Goblin Market on his own business and not that of the realm. He looked with suspicion at the mirth and play that echoed and shadowed the wedding celebrations which had filled these very streets. He sniffed at the sight of cartwheeling gremlins with more limbs than four and cursed when a swarm of serenading sprites dived low in some aerial dance known only to them.

Humpty humbug, hump-ty humbug, hump
Humpty humbug, hump-ty humbug, hump ​

A lemkin hopping about on her rabbit's feet dogged the annoyed visitor while from the shadows shaggy figures bearing baggy cloaks whose contents glittered invitingly called out with voices strange and fair. First time visitors were always the easiest to distract into agreeing to more bargains than they had meant to give.

Arthur Ambrose, head of the division for non-human relations of the Ministry of Information, ignored them all, even the damn rabbit fey somehow. He had, after all, been trained on how to deal with the deathless fey and their 'mischievous' ways, although in his opinion that word really needed to have more heft to it. Like trying to catch eels with your bare hands, it was.

Humpty humbug, hump-ty humbug, hump
Humpty humbug, hump-ty humbug, hump ​

The song kept going, at least until one crossed some unseen divide in the middle of what seemed to be a perfectly normal street, at which point it fell silent as though it had been cut with a knife. Alas, it was too much to hope the singer had suffered such mischance. The peace of the Imperium reigned here as much as it did among all the fey spirits that came out under the sun between the Narrow Sea and the Painted Mountains.

So distracted had Arthur been at the singer that he had not even noticed one of the would be acrobats had actually been following, cartwheeling all along only to smash into his leg, bounce off and somehow land backwards into a courtly bow in the time it took him to curse and stumble. "Glyra the Gremlin at your service, fair fellow. Need some help coming up with better curses? That one's a little old and musty, eh?"

The frustrated functionary wanted to reply with many a snide question, starting with 'why the hells couldn't we meet at the ministry headquarters or at some other public venue?' and getting more specific from there. Alas, he had learned that to test the pride of the fey got you nothing and less than nothing in return. "Mistress Glyra, I wished to speak to you on the matter of expanding the employment of troupes such as yours into the service of the Imperium. There has been a distinct lack of enthusiasm among the wild fey for public service and you have been recommended as an expert in such matters..."

"Are they payin' ye by the word?" she interjected in a thick and almost indescribable accent that seemed to have been designed to contrast with her bow.

"No, damn it, they are paying me by the hour and at this rate I will soon be rich!" Arthur finally snapped.

"Fucking finally, thought I'd have to needle you some more before I got the point across," the strange not-child replied. "You are the one trying to get wild fey folk to be singers and heralds for the throne, right? Well here's your first lesson, push back some when they are yanking your chain or you are going to look about as interesting as a wet turd and so's your offers. No one wants the story of how they took on a new part to be boring."

"That's..." Arthur checked himself, then he unchecked himself, because apparently that was considered a good negotiating tactic. "Insane."

"I don't make the rules," the gremlin shrugged and pulled out what looked like a pink blob glistening with sugar from one of her pockets, tore it in two and offered half of it. "Cloud Candy?"

"Thank you," the man sighed and took it. It actually tasted decent, much to his surprise. He had been expecting another lesson.

"Near as I can figure it from what I have read in those reports your office has been making..." The idea that the whimsical being before him had been reading reports was almost enough to make Arthur choke. "The trouble is you are treating this as just buying and selling services instead of a bargain."

"Those words appear to mean the same thing," the clerk replied, adjusting his spectacles as he followed her into the light of what looked like a sweet shop so filled with strange and arcane sweets it would have tempted a less wary man to distraction.

"Nah, see a bargain has risk. Like, make it a contest and only the best singer gets to work for the Imperium and gets paid the prize...."

"But we would like as many helpers as possible to get the message across," Arthur interjected.

"So just have lots of contests, has to be different ones too. They should be tailored to the sorts of wild fey you want to take on, like do you want a lot of little ones or fewer of the three-string wonders, muses and nymphs and stuff?"

This was going to be an even longer night. Arthur was glad indeed for his calligraphy wyrm assistant.

Fey Helpers - Wild Fey: 15 (Failure)

No Progress made as efforts require a major overhaul in approach

What sort of fey should future efforts go into recruiting primarily?

[] Many lesser fey like sprites and gremlins

[] Fewer of the more skilled singers

OOC: So yeah, it turns out the bureaucracy and the fey are not what you would call a good match. Still not a crit fail so you did not lose more than time. Not yet edited.
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Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

Hey there, Glyra! Been a while since we saw you.
 
I think we should focus on the more numerous and less organized fey. The more use we can put them to, the less mischief they are likely to get up to. Mischief that isn't state-sanctioned, I mean.

[X] Many lesser fey like sprites and gremlins
 
So just asking in general, do you guys want to see anything more of the wedding and such? I ask because the pace is about to pick up again otherwise as we get back to normal actions and reactions
 
DragonParadox said:
So just asking in general, do you guys want to see anything more of the wedding and such? I ask because the pace is about to pick up again otherwise as we get back to normal actions and reactions
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I'd like to see a private moment with Lya and Viserys getting away from the celebration and taking in the fact that they're married now.
 
DragonParadox said:
So just asking in general, do you guys want to see anything more of the wedding and such? I ask because the pace is about to pick up again otherwise as we get back to normal actions and reactions
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Can we start the update with viserys and lya spending time with each other as one part and then move on to the next action as the other part?
 
[X] Many lesser fey like sprites and gremlins

We've done well with mostly minor fey so far, being productive members of society.
 
Goldfish said:
Arthur: "I'm tasting the rainbow! It's like sunshine and schnozzberries!"

Glyra: "Rainbow? What the Hells is a schnozzberry? What did that pixie sell me? You should be drooling and losing bladder control right about now. "
Click to expand...
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I was thinking less fun time drugs and more someone inadvertently putting themselves I debt to a fae. He took something offered without offering some thing in return. The fact it's "just" candy is irrelevant, objective value has no place infae debts and deals.
 
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Part MMMDCCCVI: A Twist of Fate
  • Threadmarks
    • A Twist of Fate ​

    Twenty Fifth Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC

    There is a certain expectation to passing through one's wedding, soft music, softer sheets, the japes of friends and the expectations of strangers. With Lya at your side you pass through them all and more. In halls filled with those great and good of the realm much is made of the day and its meaning and vials of cordial and jugs of wine are drunk, mugs of bear are toasted with and fine liquors tasted. Yet in the end all that falls away like a mantle from the shoulders of the night, softly and quietly without ceremony and fanfare.

    People are still celebrating in the streets, their voices drifting through the open window on the wind that tugs playfully on the curtains. Neither you nor Lya notice enough to care until the night is well past its zenith.

    "Well if I had known being married would do that I would have pledged to it sooner..." You can hear the smile in Lya's voice, almost purring in satisfaction. The moonlight plays in her hair

    "Ah you have torn the words from my lips ere I could speak them," you reply with mock formality that make all the more incongruous by your manner of dress or undress as the case may be.

    "Now there is a power I did not know I had," Lya replies. "Don't tell me I have struck you dumb from the lack of words."

    "Never," you proclaim. "Why I have quite a few more words to share if you would hear them, suggestions if you will..."

    That takes a while, speaking to doing passing, but even the most enjoyable of activities must needs pause, if not for any exhaustion of the body then because there are other words to share as well that night.

    ***​

    "Did you ever wonder that life would have been like without all of this?" Lya asks softly as she looks up at the canopy of the bed, soft blue like the evening sky, studded with pearls from the depths of the sea. One of the stewards had suggested your House colors, you recall amused, though less at the fact itself and more at the reaction of the man when you had dryly replied that Fire and Blood both had their place, but one's bed was not in.

    "Without the crown or..." Once you might have been uncertain, unsure if she is having second thoughts now that she is bound by vow to spend her nights in a bed where the crown must occupy at least half the pillow. But now you cannot suspect her of that, you have been through too much and seen each other too closely to for deception, be it of the self or of each other.

    "Magic, where we would be if there was no magic to change the world, or us, if it had all just died long ago and left the Sphere a hollow thing floating in the void alone," she replied. "I know I would not be sharing this bed for one...."

    "And I would be all the poorer for it, immeasurably so," you reply before melancholy can slip into the night where it does not belong. "The world would have been a dull place filled with the ringing of steel and the boasts of fools and braggarts. I would like to think I would have stayed away from the Seven Kingdoms and not inflicted more war on a realm that would not have been so poorly ruled..."

    "You cannot really pretend to be the sort of person who would turn his back on ambition without pretending to be someone else altogether," Lya says gently. There is still sadness there, though of a different sort, almost you might call is sympathy. "I would probably just be boring in a world without sorcery, you would be lost I think. Sorry for bringing it up."

    "No, no," you shake your head. "If you want to talk I'm more than happy to talk. What made you think of that?"

    "Just thinking about what I wished that day when I cast my first spell. I was looking for knowledge, but what I was really hoping for was a change in my life another future." She laughs, breaking the tension of the moment. "I did not expect it to get quite so out of hand."

    What next?

    [] Write in

    OOC: It is past 1 AM again and I do not trust myself to roll an action so have some fluff to tide you over until the morning. Not yet edited.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    A Twist of Fate ​

    Twenty Fifth Day of the Eighth Month 294 AC

    There is a certain expectation to passing through one's wedding, soft music, softer sheets, the japes of friends and the expectations of strangers. With Lya at your side you pass through them all and more. In halls filled with those great and good of the realm, much is made of the day and its meaning and vials of cordial and jugs of wine are drunk, mugs of beer are toasted with and fine liquors tasted. Yet in the end all that falls away like a mantle from the shoulders of the night, softly and quietly without ceremony and fanfare.

    People are still celebrating in the streets, their voices drifting through the open window on the wind that tugs playfully on the curtains. Neither you nor Lya notice enough to care until the night is well past its zenith.

    "Well, if I had known being married would do that, I would have pledged to it sooner..." You can hear the smile in Lya's voice, almost purring in satisfaction. The moonlight plays in her hair.

    "Ah, you have torn the words from my lips ere I could speak them," you reply with mock formality made all the more incongruous by your manner of dress, or undress, as the case may be.

    "Now there is a power I did not know I had," Lya replies. "Don't tell me I have struck you dumb from the lack of words."

    "Never," you proclaim. "Why, I have quite a few more words to share if you would hear them. Suggestions, if you will..."

    That takes a while, speaking to doing passing, but even the most enjoyable of activities must needs pause, if not for any exhaustion of the body then because there are other words to share as well that night.

    ***​

    "Did you ever wonder what life would have been like without all of this?" Lya asks softly as she looks up at the canopy of the bed, soft blue like the evening sky, studded with pearls from the depths of the sea. One of the stewards had suggested your House colors, you recall amused, though less at the fact itself and more at the reaction of the man when you had dryly replied that Fire and Blood both had their place, but one's bed was not it.

    "Without the crown or..." Once you might have been uncertain, unsure if she is having second thoughts now that she is bound by vow to spend her nights in a bed where the crown must occupy at least half the pillow. But no, you cannot suspect her of that. You have been through too much and seen each other too closely to for deception, be it of the self or of each other.

    "Magic. Where we would be if there was no magic to change the world, or us, if it had all just died long ago and left the Sphere a hollow thing floating in the void alone?" she replied. "I know I would not be sharing this bed for one...."

    "And I would be all the poorer for it, immeasurably so," you reply before melancholy can slip into the night where it does not belong. "The world would have been a dull place filled with the ringing of steel and the boasts of fools and braggarts. I would like to think I would have stayed away from the Seven Kingdoms and not inflicted more war on a realm that would not have been so poorly ruled..."

    "You cannot really pretend to be the sort of person who would turn his back on ambition without pretending to be someone else altogether," Lya says gently. There is still sadness there, though of a different sort, almost you might call it sympathy. "I would probably just be boring in a world without sorcery. You would be lost, I think. Sorry for bringing it up."

    "No, no," you shake your head. "If you want to talk, I'm more than happy to talk. What made you think of that?"

    "Just thinking about what I wished that day when I cast my first spell. I was looking for knowledge, but what I was really hoping for was a change in my life, another future." She laughs, breaking the tension of the moment. "I did not expect it to get quite so out of hand."

    What next?

    [] Write in

    OOC: It is past 1 AM again and I do not trust myself to roll an action so have some fluff to tide you over until the morning. Not yet edited.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.

    Lya and Viserys are so sappy. I love it.
     
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