I really don't like Dalla at all. It's interesting to read things from her perspective, but I'm hoping we get to kill her soon, or at least find out that she tried to bite off more than she could chew and lost her head as a result.
Not a fan of Dalla as well, not a fan of "freefolk" in general. We have to enforce some geass or somthing when we migrate them south, I'm not tolerating this behavior in our realm.
Bingo. The sword was never supposed to drastically change the fighting style of the person that draws it, but instead provide a strong fall-back for a character out of his/her comfort zone with some nice bonuses added in.
I didn't think you'd let them continue to stay bandits in a region that can't even be used against out foes.
And anything other than that would already be a rather large adaption, either changing their lifestyle or stop defending their ancestral lands.
Chaotic nomad-people like the Dothraki are easier to use.
Why not? We let Dany participate in the fighting, why not let Rhaella once she has gotten PC levels?
I don't feel like fighting more about the sword, but I will fight the idea that Rhaella should forever be treated as if she's made of glass, she's a Targaryan, she's going to show that we take after her in our bravery, once she has caught up on things.
Either they submit or they perish, Wifestealing is far too close to slavery to be allowed, and even if it didn't resemble slavery, it's still a godawful practice that deserves punishment.
Actually she is going to prevent it from a much simpler reason, spite, well that and enforcing her position. She does not want any of the raiders to assume that going against her word will lead to rewards of any sort, so she is going to make damn sure none of them get their hands on the girl.
Yeah but that's for that specific girl, I doubt she's been preventing them from taking random smallfolk girls, and that's a crime that we will have to punish the ones who has committed, I'm thinking we send anyone with a stolen wife to the wall, unless they can prove the girl came willingly, not prove that she loves him at this point, prove that she wanted to come with him from the start, Stockholm Syndrome aren't going to get them out of their punishment.
They are raiding our subjects, they need to either be killed or forced to change, and a lot of them need to be killed or sent to the wall even if they change, because things such as wifestealing, or sacrificing random peasants, should be punished with death or the wall.
"The way I see it Dalla, you and your people could be great allies of mine, under the right circumstances."
"And what 'circumstances' are those, high and mightiness?"
"There are two paths for you. The first path: Integration. You find yourself and your people a place to fit in the world I hope to build, one where man holds up man in likeness and temperance, supports each other against the tide of darkness, death and decay, fights to protect a unified whole upon which forms the base of greatness. In such service, one could find rewards, honor and purpose."
"To give up our ways, that which makes us what we are? What is this 'second path' of yours, then? War?"
"I will visit upon you not war, or mere conflict such as you have visited upon well-thinking, orderly subjects of my family for countless generations, and countless generations before the wings of dragons drew fleeting shadows across the land. Looming over your people are red wings which will deliver the bywords of my ancestors before your most distant forefathers were even a twinkle in a Gods' eye."
I didn't think you'd let them continue to stay bandits in a region that can't even be used against out foes.
And anything other than that would already be a rather large adaption, either changing their lifestyle or stop defending their ancestral lands.
Chaotic normad-people like the Dothraki are easier to use.
@Diomedon We should consider adding another +1 Charisma upgrade to Viserys' ring ASAP. Right now, his Charisma score is an even number, so that when he uses Blood Wish even once his Charisma bonus will drop by one. That's hardly crippling, and he could use it again without further impacting his spellcasting ability, but if we push it up by one point, our first Blood Wish of the day can be a freebie.
Reread the update now that I'm slightly less sleepy.
They... they kidnapped the Rowan girl. Mathis Rowan is famously rich, yes, but why did Bloodraven want her? Is he hoping for an Old Gods convert or a particularly juicy sacrifice?
Reread the update now that I'm slightly less sleepy.
They... they kidnapped the Rowan girl. Mathis Rowan is famously rich, yes, but why did Bloodraven want her? Is he hoping for an Old Gods convert or a particularly juicy sacrifice?
Reread the update now that I'm slightly less sleepy.
They... they kidnapped the Rowan girl. Mathis Rowan is famously rich, yes, but why did Bloodraven want her? Is he hoping for an Old Gods convert or a particularly juicy sacrifice?
For all we know her father's reaction will put him on Garth's side when the great Reach-revolution finally happens oor something like that.
Trying to get through the man's plans is a futile effort.
Reread the update now that I'm slightly less sleepy.
They... they kidnapped the Rowan girl. Mathis Rowan is famously rich, yes, but why did Bloodraven want her? Is he hoping for an Old Gods convert or a particularly juicy sacrifice?
Bloodraven's gambits seem to center around positioning people of First Men descent to usurp Lordships, likely taking advantage of the chaos of war to assassinate the right people, see certain marriages conducted, and then have their unions confirmed by transfer of Lordship by us when things finally shake out.
The girl could be a simple catspaw, brainwashed sleeper agent, or merely held in bondage until a suitable husband can be found. Seeing as how the whole thing requires the potential suitor to be civilized enough to rule over "softer" lands than a savage can or would bother to, he's likely working on candidates right now. I would not be surprised if Brandon Otherson plays a part in one of his myriad gambits along these lines.
Before we became a factor, his plan was probably internecine conflict within the Faith, with some fewer power grabs thrown into the mix.
Now that we can actually confirm and enforce subtler strategies which require more long term above-board support from the Crown to make possible, fewer of his plans are likely to involve open conflict with the Faith. Why bother when we're acting as his own personal lightning rod to distract the Most Devout while he moves from the shadows?
What happens if Jon unsheaths the blade? I mean yeah we don't have him but the blade isn't really useful for any of us. Jon is a swordsman and a member of our house by blood so is he still applicable?
For a long moment you ponder what the blade might offer each of the three who might draw it: a thorn to pierce a monster's flesh, a subtle guardian ever vigilant and present, and last the arts of joining steel and sorcery upon the field of war. The sword is more than the gifts it gives as a mirror is more than glass and silver... to see one's self so reflected is to trust in the refection, to strengthen it. The notion of Dany being defined by the chains that once bound her to the Mother of Wyrms sits ill with you, and so on second thought does seeming to push your mother into the world of magic swifter than she might wish to. A sword is a thing men make solely for the slaying of their own kind, an old aphorism you can't quite place floats to the surface of your mind. What could a sword with a soul crave if not battle?
Resolved to your choice you place a hand upon the hilt and draw the slender blade easily from the sheath where it had languished for decades. It feels... eager in the hand, not like a hound wishing to please, but more a hawk awakening in full for the first time, reaching out through senses wholly alien to creatures of flesh.
Kinship... Understanding... Loyalty... The concepts pass to you unshaped by words, the first thoughts of a mind that is newborn this very instant yet has known centuries in the making, centuries of battle and stalwart service to your House, having known the hands of queens and princes, paragons and reprobates, but never a traitor's grip.
"Strange... that you have never truly known the dance of steel," the voice within your mind is a woman's and rings with a cold harsh undertone.
Though you know you could resist its power even now, you let it carry you onward, and for a time you see not the shadowy hall of Lya's laboratory but battle under the fierce sun, shadowed by the winds of dragons:
You see Visenya atop her great dragon flying over the Fields of Fire, her face set in a stony mask as beneath her men burn by the thousands, then against against assassins in the crowded streets to ward the king, their purpose one.
By the light of the setting sun you see another rider upon a smaller dragon challenging the ancient Vhagar and her rider. The blade shines crimson with blood as the dragons grapple in their final dance of death, both already doomed to plunge into the waters below and yet the sword's bearer does not seem content. Undoing his straps he jumps between the struggling beasts and drives Dark Sister though the other man's empty eye-socket. Thus ends Daemon Targaryen, a man dying as he lived, and there is naught but satisfaction to it.
A Knight cloaked in white slays a score of foes and more before the body of his fallen king but in the end he is felled... the same knight then falls dead upon a muddy field, to foes very much his lesser, his heart already broken before it ceased to beat. If steel could be said to mourn then Dark Sister mourns the hand of Aemon called the Dragonknight.
Of Bloodraven in his youth you see but flashes upon the bloody field where fell Daemon Blackfyre and his eldest sons, the colors strangely muted... He was never mine, the sword admits. The raven has ever been his own creature, the stings of words and arrows were his love. Will you forget me also?
Strange as it may be you feel a measure of sympathy for the spirit bound in ancient steel, and so you answer plainly: "Not while I draw breath."
The presence of the blade withdraws to the edge of your awareness, content.
Gained Dark Sister
Dark Sister
Description: This slender blade seems seems at first glance to be only a thing of superbly forged dragonsteel. No flames shroud it, no sign of other sorceries, yet she ever gleams crimson like a bloody dawn and in the hand is surer than any other carrying with her an echo of the skill her long dead bearers held. With such deftness does she guide the hand that one can even work sorcery and wield it in battle all at once as the Freehold's spellblades of old. When battle is done and blood of the slain is fresh upon the blade then might Dark Sister add its will to its wielder's arcane might.
Wielder is working against the interests of the rightful king.
Non-Lawful alignment.
"Had a nice dream?" Lya asks with a smile, drawing you back into the realm of common day once more.
"Yes, she was very pleasant," you answer her teasing in kind. Alas that rather goes entirely unnoticed as Lya is more bent upon recording precisely what the blade can do and what she 'remembers' of her past.
The answer is less than you might have hoped. Dark Sister remembers all acts of bloodshed she has been apart of, and in an alien sort of way she even understands why those battles were fought, but of her bearer's day to day doings she knows nothing and truth be told cares about as little.
However, Lya does leave you with with an intriguing riddle as is her wont: "If the blade can add its magic to yours and it has a mind of its own, might it not be able to learn spellcraft somehow?"
What do you do next?
[] Speak to Valaena about her choice of weapon
-[] Write in
[] Ask Azema about her mother's connection to the Andals
-[] Write in
[] Ask Malarys about dragonlore and Valyrian magic
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: To be clear there will be no negative consequences is Viserys lays aside Dark Sister in some dusty corner but she will be sad.
Seriously, the idea of the blade learning spells is just awesome. Preferably stuff it can use to harm those it strikes a few times per day, or heal its wielder. Just first-level spells would grant it stuff like True Strike, which it could cast on its own Initiative step before we attack...
And getting 120ft Blindsense is nice too.
Still, Dark Sister probably won't replace our AWESOME DRACONIC MIGHT. It's way better than Richard's backup boot dagger though!
@DragonParadox Dark Sister seems less interested in stuff that doesn't have to do with battle, but because we engage in mortal combat (hah) so often, might she appear more frequently in future updates? I can't imagine she'd pass up the chance to cheer on her bearer, offer surprising insight on his foes' weakness, or perhaps express extreme... vehemence on the matter of traitors.
Of Bloodraven in his youth you see but flashes upon the bloody field where fell Daemon Blackfyre and his eldest sons, the colors strangely muted... He was never mine, the sword admits. The raven has ever been his own creature the stings of words and arrows were his love Will you forget me also?
We likely will, we are now man of sword and armor, for our own claws shall be as swords, our skin as armor, our words death.
But that is yet a bit away.
While it won't want to move on to the next wielder while we live, it might prefer that to lying around, so I'm optimistic we'll sooner or later find a more fitting wielder, a man or woman who can live and die by the blade.
Griffon diplomacy is the next best thing after dragon diplomacy.
Mathis Rowan is famously rich, yes, but why did Bloodraven want her? Is he hoping for an Old Gods convert or a particularly juicy sacrifice?
