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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 MDCLXIII: The Long Descent
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    • The Long Descent ​

    Twenty-Fourth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC

    Over the last two days you have grown to appreciate both the steady mage lanterns and the tireless little golden servitors as never before. What might have been an impossible task squinting in flickering candlelight becomes instead a steady, pleasant, and often interesting task broken up by chatter that grows more comfortable by the hour. Time spent in the novel but at the same time rather sedate task of sorting through crumbling parchment does wonders to restore your mother's spirit from the sheer strain she has been under these last few days. The heavy stone walls breathe a sense of age-old solidity untinged by the strange and otherworldly. Even the servitors are too fussy and excitable by turn to be counted threatening.

    That is not to say that your search is unfruitful. You discover scholarly texts of all sorts, from architecture to medicine, and from herbalism to history, all brought here by the maesters or else donated in days when the Night's Watch was a far more prestigious order. Centuries-old administrative documents and rolls of names you also unearth, and among the older ones certain hints, old and faded even when the scribe penned those ancient documents, begin to emerge: hints of ancient truces with the wildlings that might be invoked when the winters turned particularly savage as a matter of tradition, deeper still ancient ritualistic calls of the Lords of the North in the days before Torrhen Stark, last King of the North, knelt to the Conqueror.

    Gained Castle Black Collection (Incomplete)

    Library Quality increases to 15/20

    All Knowledge roll bonuses increased by 1

    'The Watch calls to the Umbers for embers of flame in dark times... The Watch calls to the Reeds for clear sight in the murky waters... The Watch calls to the Wynton Dustin Lord upon the Barrow for wards against the curses living and dead...'

    As fragile sheets of parchment turn to scraps which require sorcerous mending to have any hope of deciphering even the language changes. Alongside the Common Tongue the Andals brought to Westeros there appears the Old Tongue of the First Men, written in sharp runes that would be more fittingly carved into stone than drawn upon parchment... the pace at which you could decipher text slows then as you require sorcery to merely rule out inventories or rolls of the living and the dead.

    Here at last you begin to see signs of magic, long half-understood chants and gestures that Lya feels are close enough to full rituals that they could be attempted with only a little experimentation. Of themselves these rituals mimic simple spells: to compel truth, or preserve stores against decay, or heal wounds taken in battle. Hints also do you find that older more compete writings of which these are merely faded copies may be found in the abandoned Nightfort.

    Gained Partial Ritual Lore (Purify Food and Drink, Zone of Truth, and Cure Light Wounds)

    "The remnants of a time when magic was scarcer but not yet lost," Lya declares these very oldest writings, and rightfully so. Alas you realize that it had been far too long since the world had been as it was now for there to be any hope of finding great sorceries, or at least so you had thought until Dany decided to take a stroll thorough the twisting wormwalks alongside Ser Richard, looking for secrets. It was already well into the night and Maester Aemon had just gone to bed when she returns.

    "Here," she says excitedly, pushing a book with pages of beaten bronze into your hands. After so long handling the remnants of ages past the thing looks in far too good a condition for something so ancient as to bear the runic scrip of the Old Tongue.

    "It was in a little alcove with a body inside," your sister explains. "I talked to the skull and it claimed to be... well belong to that is... Bragor, last of the line of the Warg king, and the book contains something of the greater lore of skin-changing."

    "Why was it locked in a secret alcove with its last owner?" Lya asks, curious as ever while your mother looks on bemusedly, likely not knowing how to take Dany being excited over speaking to ancient bones.

    "He was starving himself, hoping to steal the skin of a visitor in the moment of his death so that he could flee south and make a new life for himself."

    "Obviously he failed," you note.

    "Actually from what the bones could tell he succeeded," Dany replies darkly. She raises a hand. "Don't worry, I divined to see if he was still upon this world and he is not. Something or someone must have killed him in a way that he could not shed his skin to escape, though his lore remains."

    Gained Bronze Book of the Warg Kings

    "Should we actually share this with the Watch?" Tyene asks abruptly. "We did not technically find it in the vaults, and more to the point the temptation to imitate our ancient wanderer will be rather severe for most among the Black Brothers should they manage to unlock this lore."

    "We should warn them that it is dangerous, but it seems an ill thing to me to cling to the letter our agreement to work deception," Lya counters.

    What do you do?

    [] Keep the lore-book for yourself alone

    [] Make a copy for the Watch
    -[] Write in warnings (optional)

    [] Write in

    OOC: Next up your XP and return to Sorcerer's Deep.
     
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    • tarrangar said:
    We should have Lya make a dragon at some point, not at the moment we aren't rich enough it's worth it, but when we have gotten even richer, well Lya being a woman who can make dragons, would do a lot to make her a more acceptable match.

    Or give Lya some other equally impressive projects, ennobling her will help with making people accept our eventual marriage, but so will making sure she's known for impressive stuff, sure she already make plenty of impressive stuff, but it's not the kind of stuff everyone understands, artificial dragons and flying ships however, that's the kind of impressive that even the dimmest peasant understand.
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    We are planning to make the first batch of artificial Wyrmlings next month.

    I do hope I will get some support for the first Herald after Tyrosh.
     
    Well that library payed off well.
    DragonParadox said:
    Hints also do you find that older more compete writings of which these are merely faded copies may be found in the abandoned Nightfort.
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    Also this has me wanting to explore the abandoned Watch castles ourselves, especially Nightfort cause of this and it's own entrance past the Wall.

    Granted only those of the Watch can use it.

    @DragonParadox considering the success of our findings will the Watch likely send groups to the abandoned castles themselves to see what they can find? Also will they use the money to better handle the Gift and New Gift, cause if they invest they will not have to rely on charity as much in most things?
     
    [X] Ask Aemon for his opinion. You will share the full knowledge with him either way, but you trust his assessment on what is and isn't safe to be left here in the open.

    He knows the locals, so he should decide.
     
    Rituals Lore? Finishing this has bumped up in priority a little bit. Magic infrastructure is juicy.

    As for the shape changing, I'd write a foreward and warning section about its limitations, weaknesses and how to spot it at the very least, if we don't confiscate it entirely.

    Or maybe just leave the warning bit, and take the "How to accomplish it" part with us. I'm not sure.
     
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    Are we sure we don't want to keep digging in the treasure trove for 3 more days? who knows what else we could find.
    [X] Make a copy for the Watch
    -[X] Deliver it directly to the Lord Commander, to use as he sees fit.
    -[X] Warn him of how it was previously used, we would recommend that only the must trusted rangers are taught the lore, if he so wishes, he can request that we place some geas on those that are able to learn, to be sure that they wont use it in inappropriate ways.
     
    [X] Ask Aemon for his opinion. You will share the full knowledge with him either way, but you trust his assessment on what is and isn't safe to be left here in the open.
     
    The watch having wargs would be nice, and very useful, but the quality of their recruits is so low that there's good odds they'd bolt.

    Azel has a good point though, Aemon should know best.

    [X] Azel
     
    [X] Azel

    I want to give a copy to Bloodraven when we see him next. Not sure if it will help him at all, but there's at least the hope it'll give him some insight into making people "fly" so we don't get another repeat of the failures of Bran or Euron. Best case scenario it even augments Bloodraven's abilities.
     
    bigbow said:
    Herald?
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    Large sized artificial dragon with three heads. Made from black steel and animated by red flames burning within.

    Has social skills to delivers messages for us and diplomance people a bit.

    It's also immune to magic, heals from fire attacks, has a large bag of HP protected by DR and is a close combat blender. You know, for the other half of the diplomancing.
     
    Duesal said:
    I want to give a copy to Bloodraven when we see him next. Not sure if it will help him at all, but there's at least the hope it'll give him some insight into making people "fly" so we don't get another repeat of the failures of Bran or Euron. Best case scenario it even augments Bloodraven's abilities.
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    I really doubt the insights of a regular Warg will help a true Greenseer in contact with the whole Weirwood-network.
    He propably knows more than the guy ever did.
     
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