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

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Part MDCXVI: Whom the Skies Abhor
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    • Whom the Skies Abhor ​

    Sixteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC

    You call out to the others to stand your ground rather than risk being caught between hammer and anvil in the den of your foes. The mist floods through the trees cold and clammy as the grave, and with it come the screams: high and piercing or low and growling, sometimes changing pitch in the middle such as no natural creature can...

    "There's a lot of 'em, whatever the hells they are!" the ranger calls from where he had set himself against an ancient sentinel pine to guard his back.

    "Nothing I've ever heard," the wildling spear-wife says, readying her bow. Then with bravado common to her folk she adds, "I bet an arrow will put paid to them better than an axe would."

    "Didn't know we were going duck hunting," he banters back.

    "Ye southerners must have some mighty mean..."

    Her words are cut off abruptly as Dany shouts a warning. "They come, ware the white ones have magic!"

    Like a flock of carrion-birds they descend from the mists, malformed things that pollute the very skies they fly through. At first you see only a riot fur and claw and horn without rhyme or reason, but then you manage to pick out the beasts from the pack more than a dozen strong. The bodies of stags they have but the talons and wings of hawks, the jaws of slavering wolves and antlers sharp upon their brows.


    Peryton... the voice of memory which tells the monstrous heart eater's tale is harsh, filled with the sharp accents unlike that of dragons of of Valyria Unfallen. The shaman from the west, the one who had taught Daeron the secrets of ice magic. Yet even he had not spoken of such as the five white beasts that seemed to lead their foul brethren. Longer of limb they are to even more hideous proportions, bright as new driven snow save for the crimson about their snouts and eyes shining blue as frozen stars.

    A flint-tipped arrow flies true lodging itself into the out-thrust chest of one of the beasts. Then they are upon you, baying for blood and the time for battle at hand.

    What do you do?

    [] Write in

    OOC: The Perytons move before everyone else on your side, but I still need to know what you intend to do the next round. Also remember you can use celerity to move immediately at the cost of then being stunned for one round.
     
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    • DragonParadox said:
    bright as new driven snow save for the crimson about their snouts and eyes shining blue as frozen stars.
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    Beasts of the Others, absolutely no doubt about it.

    "Eyes like frozen distant stars" is exactly the language GRRM uses to describe the Others and any of their wights or creatures.

    So, five spellcasting Other-touched Perytons (PERFECT sacrifice candidates for the Old Gods, we honestly could not ask for anything better short of an actual Other), seven normal perytons. @DragonParadox, a couple questions.

    1. Which of the perytons was hit by the arrow? Other-touched or normal?
    2. Is there anyone in particular the perytons are swarming or is it just all of us at once?
    3. Is there any activity in the caves behind us that anyone in the party has noticed?
     
    Duesal said:
    Beasts of the Others, absolutely no doubt about it.

    "Eyes like frozen distant stars" is exactly the language GRRM uses to describe the Others and any of their wights or creatures.

    So, five spellcasting Other-touched Perytons (PERFECT sacrifice candidates for the Old Gods, we honestly could not ask for anything better short of an actual Other), seven normal perytons. @DragonParadox, a couple questions.

    1. Which of the perytons was hit by the arrow? Other-touched or normal?
    2. Is there anyone in particular the perytons are swarming or is it just all of us at once?
    3. Is there any activity in the caves behind us that anyone in the party has noticed?
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    1. There are more than a dozen in total.
    2. A normal peryton was hit
    3. Everyone at once, there are an awful lot of them
    4. None that you can see
     
    [X] Quickened Firedarts at the White Peryton closest to us, then Agonising Searing Firebrand at all Perytons
    -[X] Dany casts Screaming Flames, trying to get as many in one shot as possible
    -[X] Richard enters the Pearl of Black Doubt stance and activates Holy Aura, then defends the group from those Perytons going in melee range
    -[X] Wildling and and Watcher try to stay behind Richard

    Alternativly, Dany could fly into the swarm and once she's 40ft away from our weaker allies she speaks the Holy Word.
     
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    DragonParadox said:
    There are more than a dozen in total.
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    More than a dozen? Well shit. Here's to hoping the Ranger and the Wildling survive the first few rounds.
    Artemis1992 said:
    [X] Quickened Firedarts at the White Peryton closest to us, then Agonising Searing Firebrand at all Perytons
    -[X] Dany casts Screaming Flames, trying to get as many in one shot as possible
    -[X] Richard enters the Pearl of Black Doubt stance and defends the group from those Perytons going in melee range
    -[X] Wildling and and Watcher try to stay behind Richard
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    Can we Assay Spell Resistance and Baleful Polymorph at least a couple of the Spellcaster Perytons? The Old Gods would probably give quite a bit for those.
     
    DP said the entire flock of Perytons has the initiative, so I'm having Viserys use Celerity to emergency Alpha Strike them. A regular Peryton only has 42 HP, so some may be killed immediately if we are lucky. Hopefully the Whites are vulnerable to fire.

    Dany's Holy Aura has a good chance of blinding any of them that strike us, too.

    [X] Plan "Scary Little Sister Powers, Activate!"
    -[X] Viserys uses Celerity in order to cast a Searing, Agonizing Firebrand targeting each Peryton he can hit without harming any friends or allies.
    -[X] As soon as she is able, Dany casts a Reached and Chained Harm spell targeting any living enemies.
    -[X] Richard activated his armor's Holy Aura power as a Swift Action, then enters the Pearl of Black Doubt stance and defends the group from those Perytons in melee range.
    [X] Elle shoots at White Perytons and Hardon Axes any Peryton that comes near him.
     
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    @Goldfish at least make a token effort to capture some Perytons for sacrifice once we're sure the squishier people with us won't die. :cry:

    Suddenly I regret bringing along guides. If we didn't have to protect them we could be collecting sacrifices left and right. The normal Perytons are worth 5 HD. But spellcasting Other-touched Perytons? That's got to be worth considerably more where the Old Gods are concerned.

    [X] Goldfish
     
    Goldfish said:
    -[X] As soon as she is able, Dany casts a Reached and Chained Harm spell targeting any living enemies.
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    Chained means it deals half damage and has -4 DC against all secondary targets.
    That's only 30 points for most of them, especially if the whites have better saves.
    Or worse, are undead.

    Might not Screaming Flames or Holy Smite be better here than using her harm and most of her remaining Turnings?
     
    Duesal said:
    @Goldfish at least make a token effort to capture some Perytons for sacrifice once we're sure the squishier people with us won't die. :cry:

    Suddenly I regret bringing along guides. If we didn't have to protect them we could be collecting sacrifices left and right. The normal Perytons are worth 5 HD. But spellcasting Other-touched Perytons? That's got to be worth considerably more where the Old Gods are concerned.

    [X] Goldfish
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    I feel your pain. I tried to convince everyone we didn't need guides, but was continually overridden.

    With more than a dozen enemies attacking, five with unknown magic abilities, and a cave full of potentially dangerous werebears at our back, right now is not the time to hold back on the chance we can get sacrifices.

    Now is the time to kill.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I feel your pain. I tried to convince everyone we didn't need guides, but was continually overridden.

    With more than a dozen enemies attacking, five with unknown magic abilities, and a cave full of potentially dangerous werebears at our back, right now is not the time to hold back on the chance we can get sacrifices.

    Now is the time to kill.
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    These things don't even have any SR. We probably only need Assay Spell Resistance for the Other-touched perytons. Everything else would fall before a completely normal Baleful Polymorph.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    Chained means it deals half damage and has -4 DC against all secondary targets.
    That's only 30 points for most of them, especially if the whites have better saves.
    Or worse, are undead.

    Might not Screaming Flames or Holy Smite be better here than using her harm and most of her remaining Turnings?
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    They're all going to have taken some amount of fire damage already. Holy Smite has a small area with less potential damage, and Screaming Flames isn't a spell you want to cast that could hit allies, given the fire AND Wisdom damage.

    Besides, they would have to resist the Harm to only take 30 damage. A failure is 60 points, which is instant death for any Peryton, except possibly the Whites. Even with the DC penalty, a Peryton will need a +12 or higher to resist.

    I'll call shenanigans if the White Perytons are undead. Wights don't get magic powers or undergo physical mutation, IIRC.
     
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    Worst case scenario, and the White Perytons are actually Wight Perytons, Dany will have healed any that survived Viserys' alpha strike. 7+ normal ones should still be dead-dead and the survivors debuffed by Agonizing flames and Holy Aura.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Worst case scenario, and the White Perytons are actually Wight Perytons, Dany will have healed any that survived Viserys' alpha strike. 7+ normal ones should still be dead-dead and the survivors debuffed by Agonizing flames and Holy Aura.
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    My worst-case scenario is all of these things dead and not a single sacrifice to show for the encounter.

    I don't want NPC guides anymore. :mad:
     
    DragonParadox said:
    The Holly Aura is still running for 3 rounds.
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    How long does it take Richard to activate his armor's powers? Standard, Move, Swift, or Free Action?

    EDIT: If Holy Aura still has three rounds left, Haste should have at least two remaining and Fire Shield three, if spells were cast in the order they were listed in the previous vote?
     
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