Please! If canon magic was all increased proportionally, then master Faceless Men are basically StealthDeath incarnate with a million Death Gods blessing their blades, hiding their presence and devouring the souls of their victims and all their families
Or maybe, you know, Valyrians killed each other and blamed it on the Faceless Men until everyone believed that shit. Whatever.
Reaper of Souls (CR 16) Twelfth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
A man-like figure draped and cowled in ragged black, though you know in an instant that this had never been a mortal man. Stretched out as though upon a rack to half again the height of a tall man it hangs aloft upon fleshless wings. The Reaper is thought to be one of only six or seven in existence, a powerful servant of the Others sent to do their bidding in White Harbor. It was bound to the Sept of Snows where it lurked until your aid was requested by Lord Manderly. With the help of your companions you saw to its destruction. You faced a second of its ilk in the halls of Mardosh on the Sixth Day of the Second Month 294 AC. Not only was it stronger, it served as the vessel for a tainted Olethrodaemon, and sought to bring all of Sarnor under the sway of the Void. Fortunately it was destroyed, though the daemon it hosted managed to escape.
Leukodaemon (CR 9) Twenty-Seventh Day of the Second Month 293 AC
Fiends bearing the skulls of horses and putrid vulture's wings, surrounded by a court of flies and pestilence, heralds of plague that had lurked in Tyrosh as the city grew closer and closer to its ultimate doom. They wielded wretched bows of bone and sinew with black-shafted arrows that they loosed upon the Legion and their own cultists alike with the same lack of care that pestilence itself might show. They were ultimately torn from the sky and slain by Lya, Dany, the Archons, and Amrelath, wiped out to the last.
Thanadaemon (CR 13) Twenty-Seventh Day of the Second Month 293 AC
A tall skeletal figure garbed in tattered black, iron-banded staffs griped firmly in its hands, a deacons of death. You fought four Thanadaemons alongside the cultist champion of the Moon-Pale Maiden in the battle of Tyrosh. You managed to capture one of them, but the other three fled. ... And yet, that did not stop you from learning their names regardless. You later summoned them and sacrificed them as part of the ritual to grow the Tree of the Dawn Age.
Spined Devil (CR 4) Twenty-Fifth Day of the Third Month 293 AC
A hideous thing of twisted bone and jagged spikes, shaped almost like a malformed bat, its blood-red eyes looking on with a dreadful hunger... This particular Spined Devil was part of a plot involving devil-pacted Dragonseeds and two missing dragon eggs. It was killed in Dorne alongside four others of its kind and one of the two Dragonseeds that were being hunted, the other fleeing certain death.
Advanced Erinyes (CR 9) Thirteenth Day of the Third Month 293 AC
The Fallen, wings daubed black as ash, bows once alight with holy flame now crackling with savage joy of battle: Erinyes—Hell's executioners. You fought and defeated a total of six Erinyes who were under the command of a Gilded Devil near a pact stone en route to Summerhall.
Tormentor Devil (CR 7) Thirteenth Day of the Third Month 293 AC
A misshapen scaled fiend with cloven feet that rip and defile the earth, clawed hands gripping cruel axes and and barbed nets seemingly woven of shadow and smoke. Neither the living nor the dead can escape those snares for they are the hunters of souls damned or merely lost to the dark realms. Half-a-dozen of these devils served as guards for an Uniila, a Lorekeeper of Hell, but they were no match for your companions and were summarily slaughtered or banished back to the lower planes.
Forked Cat (CR 9) Twenty-Ninth Day of the Third Month 293 AC
This old scraggly cat was once normal... however "normal" the familiar of a powerful and evil witch can be. It became something more when its mistress died and it ate her heart and eyes before the next new moon, granting it power over the dead. You encountered and slew the beast in the Riverlands, fortunate that it was new-grown into its power and had not fully developed its cunning.
Maelephant (CR 10) Eighteenth Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC
A hulking monstrosity like a mangled joining of ape and elephant, this demon is begotten from the souls of sinful rulers unfit to the task yet consumed by pride for what they hold and greed for what they hope to grasp. Tusks grow not just from its face but jut seemingly at random from its filthy grey hide with one set even at the end of its trunk. You encountered this Maelephant in Volantis, among a group of mad cultists who had hoped to poison the city's water supply. As per your deal with Zherys for him to swear fealty, you aided the city and ended up capturing the fiend, later casting it into the Fungus Forge to unlock study on its breathweapon.
Ik'chol the Ravener (CR 17) Twenty-First Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC
A spider-like monstrosity, composed of cruel barbed points and scything blades of steel-hard shell and ancient malice, its eyes pools of inky black upon a head just human enough to raise a feeling of disgust and dread in equal measure. A thousand wispy tendrils of hair, antennae, or some twisted combination of the two trail behind it. This spider demon was Ik'chol the Ravener, favored champion of the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, summoned ages ago when the crimson wyrms still reigned over the lands of sundered Valyria long before their slaves overthrew them. You discovered him sealed away in a strange chest in the spider ruins in Sothoryos. When unleashed he made clear his potent malice, and you and your companions slew him after a hard-fought battle.
Kongamato (CR 15) Twenty-Second Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC
A lesser jungle dragon encountered in the depths of Sothoryos who had gained the allegiance of a tribe of Pterafolk and their domesticated pteranodons. It attempted to ambush your companions as they traversed the jungle in search of Yss' children, but ultimately met its demise. Its corpse and hoard were summarily harvested soon after.
Aspect of Mammon, Lord of the Third (CR 21) Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC
Great serpentine coils, each scale a coin of some forgotten empire stretch out shifting seamlessly into the upper body of a golden-skinned giant, perfect in every proportion. The face atop it is no less angelic seeming, though it is twisted in an expression of pride and greed for which there is no name in the tongues of men for it bespeaks of desires, of needs no mortal soul could ever contemplate. This is an aspect of Mammon, Archduke of the Third Circle of the Nine Hells. He came into direct conflict with you when you freed Mereth the Erinyes from his service, and to you he offered a bargain: beat him in battle and claim his corpse as your prize and even gain the right to tempt devils away from Hell's service, or if you lose and die Mammon would be given free reign to run rampant in Prime Material. It was the most dangerous challenge you'd ever faced and nothing you'd even dreamed of facing for years yet, but in the end you and your companions triumphed, and the aspect's treasures and the right to tempt devils away from Hell are now yours.
Orthon (CR 8) Seventh Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC
Were they once the heirs of any beauty any grace then they have denied it utterly for brutish savagery and dim malice that knows only the endless carnage of the Blood War and revels in it. These tusked horrors, slouching under the weight of nail-bound armor, are the Orthon: Hell's brutish task-masters.
Bueroza (CR 6) Seventh Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC
Forged to perfection in the Blood Wars, these ancient devils embedded in seamless steel hold only the cruel beauty of a blade's edge. A favored tactic of theirs is to chant in tandem to disrupt the spellcasting of all nearby mages, rendering them helpless before the Legions of Hell.
Xerfilstyx (CR 14) Seventh Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC
The fiend, its three-jawed mouth open in howl of rage, seems born of some fevered nightmare. Manlike from the waist up, save for its horns, wings, and glaring red eyes, its lower body melts into a slug's and from it oozing unnameable vileness. You know it now though you have never beheld its foul countenance and hope never to do so again: Xerfilstyx, Hell's mad oracles, weaving prophecies from the broken memories lost to the Styx. You fought this diabolic oracle upon the deck of a Devil Hulk bound for the City of Brass, delivering a godling to be consumed by the Grand Sultan of the Efreeti. It was captured in battle, its magic turned against it, then later sacrificed to Yss.
Advanced Ethereal Slayer (CR 13) Tenth Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC
Looking like nothing so much as an enormous silver-grey beetle with scythe-like arms, this monster is clearly more than a common beast. The misshapen but recognizable head of a man growing from its underbelly makes that all too clear. This monster was encountered in the Astral Plane, apparently having eaten the secret chest of Anu the Warforged. It somehow managed to rise after the first time it was slain, but was swiftly cast down again.
Tataka Rakshasa (CR 15) Twenty-Seventh Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC
This fiend is a hideous giant, its skin the color of old bruises, upon its face a bestial grin adorned with jagged fangs and curling tusks below a trio of wide staring eyes. In its four arms it carries blades curling backwards like a reaper's scythe, and at its back great ragged wings like a carrion crow's envelop it. You know its ilk though you have never seen it with the eyes of flesh. Tataka... the warriors of the Rakshasa, skillful in battle and ever thirsting for it. You encountered this Tataka in Fallen Valyria tormenting a tribe of survivors, just about to sacrifice a descendant of Lady Saenena through her daughter. You later sacrificed the Tataka as part of the ritual to grow the Tree of the Dawn Age.
Common Rakshasa Mage (CR 10) Twenty-Ninth Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC
This figure's backward-bending fingers and its bestial, snarling visage leave little doubt as to its fiendish nature. It served as a guardian of stolen treasure and lore in the fallen city of Lyceos in sundered Valyria. It did not have the foresight to flee before its former master's demise, and thus was slain.
Maharaja Rakshasa (CR 20) Twenty-Ninth Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC
It shines like a baleful star, like gold at noontime, like an idol of some accursed age, a blasphemous conjoining of man and beast bedecked in blazing and lurid garments and bright gems. Five heads it has—hound, cat, hawk, and lizard-lion, but none so baleful as that of man. Though the contours of the face have a sort of stark beauty about them, there is a hunger in the depths of those eyes that no beast can match, a desire for obeisance that would not be sated even if all the world were to lie at its feet. The great fiend hovers in midair, legs bent under its form, disdaining to touch the ground. You fought and killed this Maharaja in the ruins of Lyceos, at the foot of the Spire of Syrax.
Marble Statues:
Lich Twenty-First Day of the First Month 293 AC
The Lich is a ghastly figure of a dead Valyrian mage, the hell-lights of his eyes burning bright with rage and malice. Tattered are his robes beneath his shroud, and tarnished the chains and bracelets that adorn him, yet for all that he bears his own fearsome presence. Death's own face is his, the glittering grin and hollow stare that all mortal things fear. You first encountered the Lich during your trip to Lys where you were forced to reign in the wayward Aurane Waters, when it ambushed you and Waymar and ripped off Waymar's arm with a spell. In retribution you and your companions tracked it down and stormed its inner sanctum, where you learned that the Lich was enslaved to a Landwarden. The Lich tried to bargain for its freedom, but you refused, for you also learned it was directly responsible for the undead plague that had savaged the Gilded Quarter in your first visit to Lys. It tried to hold Lys hostage against you, threatening a great earthquake from the Landwarden, but Dany was able to turn the Landwarden against it. Later, after seeking counsel with Bloodraven, you returned to Lys, communed with the Landwarden, and made a deal. The Landwarden commanded the Lich to sacrifice itself to grow a Weirwood Heart Tree, and it had no choice but to obey its master. You witnessed as the Lich retrieved the Secret Chest that held its phylactery, then sacrificed it by his own hand with a Valyrian Steel Dagger, heralding the growth of the colossal Tree of Peace and Plenty. The Lich's skull sits in your collection, and his spellbook and magic items have their own place among your treasures.
Sseth the Sibilant Death Twenty-Third Day of the First Month 293 AC
A serpentine whose head alone is almost five feet long, its form covered in iridescent scales in hues the mind of man has not yet found names for, its eyes shining like blood-rubies, though their light is nothing besides the great golden gem nestled between them. You encountered this spirit in the ruins of Tor's manse in Pentos and learned that it was a fallen god of sorts, a rival to Yss who attempted to trick you into sacrificing Yss' belt to him. You refused, fought, and in the end the serpent spirit was destroyed, the only thing remaining of it being shards of the great golden gem which you then offered to Yss. You later discovered the spirit was named Sseth the Siblant Death, an enemy to Yss who survived by fleeing to the Plane of Shadow where Tor discovered him.
They used Flesh Forges to create catgirl fucktoys. I find it easy to believe they used a permanently Reverse Gravity'd Doomblob for the core of a flying city.
@DragonParadox Where there rumbles of possible Civil War back in Old Valyria before the Doom? Malarys must have known, as even the provinces would have been sucked into such a devastating war (and thus would have been informed of the general political going ons in the city). One theory for the doom was an intense civil war or coup that saw most of the mages controlling the Volcano sized Anti-Matter Reactor Fourteen Flames dead, thereby triggering the meltdown.
No one would have attempted outright military action against the Freehold. It would have been suicide. As for the scenario you presented... Malarys would hate to think there were that many utterly insane mages around.
Doesn't everyone say they are older? I still add anywhere from 10 to 100 years to my own date when I sign up everywhere. An old (and surprisingly hard to break) habit formed when seemingly every page in the internet required you to enter your date of birth (and be +18 years old) if you wanted access... back in the old days where putting even a single scrap of RL info on a web page could result in potential Bad Stuff (or that was the prevailing thought, anyway). Of course, this was all before Facebook and tracking Cookies and all the other reasons why nobody even bothers these days.
Who would have known there'd be millions of people born on January 1st 1900 using the internet!? Downright miraculous I'd say!
No one would have attempted outright military action against the Freehold. It would have been suicide. As for the scenario you presented... Malarys would hate to think there were that many utterly insane mages around.
I'm talking more of a palace/capital coup gone wrong. Its not unthinkable that the Reactor Engineers keeping the Fourteen Flames stable could have been weakened in the midst of the ensuing firefight, triggering the meltdown.
Edit: Imagine two teams with half a dozen Forty Family Patriachs on each side, duking it out in an orgy of concentrated violence over the course of a single night so they could present the rest of Valyria with a fait accomply come morning.
There's bound to have been a lot of dodged, beefed up Desintegrates flying around, at the very least.
After but a moment's thought you subtly shake your head in Waymar's direction out of sight of his father as he leaves the room. There is very little to gain from meddling in that tangle yet. You trust Bloodraven to keep the wildling sorceress from using Ysilla's oath in some unwise way, but you can hardly mention Brynden Rivers and his schemes to the lord of Runestone... Perhaps you can deal with the matter personally, for Waymar's peace of mind if nothing else.
These thoughts carry you into the common room where you play the satisfied merchant to the hilt, smiling widely and no doubt with a sparkle which might be mistaken for greed in your eye. A merchant presented with the promise of deep coffers is not so different after all from a lord looking on potential powerful bannermen whom might soon align themselves to one's cause.
"The gracious lord has invited us to his home," you announce grandly to your 'porters', actually two of your most trustworthy footmen, formerly slaves in Volantis both. Turning around you add grandiosely, "Innkeeper, we shall not need to avail of your hospitality, but for the sake of the good fortune that visited us beneath your roof you may keep your silver."
As you had hoped your small company of six leaves the Guiding Star in a storm of whispers and gossip... most of it concerned with your final act of generosity. Eccentricity can be an even better shield for one's secrets than anonymity if one knows how to make use for it.
The final trek up to the keep leads up a steep but well paved path and over a deep moat which you suspect must once have been a stream-bed from the way it is lead. Finally you pass beneath the arch of an ancient grey stone gatehouse carved with ancient runes, still recognizable for what they are after the passage of ages. Here too does power lie, yet not so great as the Wall set to guard against the Power in the North, but still a working you would not wish to match your strength against.
The seneschal of the keep, a man about of an age with Lord Royce though dressed in somber greys and browns, greets you with the carefully neutral expression shared by skilled upper servants the world over, though you can see a glint of interest in his eye. While certainly not unheard of for a lord to host merchants, particularly exotic ones from far off lands, Bronze Yohn does not strike you as the sort of man to cultivate such unusual guests.
***
Oddly enough that small mystery solves itself even before you are to be received to pay your respects to the family. A series of quick almost furtive knocks on the door of the chamber you had been assigned together with Waymar and Ser Richard heralds the arrival of a very excited Ysilla Royce.
After an enthusiastic hug that leaves her effectively hanging from her brother for a moment, she explains, "It's alright for me to be here you see, part of the mummery. I'm the one who's supposed to have badgered father into getting me something special from Essos for my nameday, so it only makes sense for me to show up here now..."
"Your nameday isn't for almost half-a-year Yssi," Waymar says, confused.
"Um... I was very excited for whatever it is you are supposed to be selling, and father indulged me. Besides everyone knows girls are supposed to be a bit given to whims. It makes us charming..." she adds with a smile.
Tyene shakes her head sadly. "That may be what people would say to your face if you actually behaved like thus as more than a ruse. It would not however be what they are thinking."
"Ruin all my illusions why don't you?" the girl replies with an exaggerated pout. "What would they be thinking then anyway?"
"Things not fit for repeating in polite company," Tyene replies in a pitch-perfect deadpan that sets the young girl giggling. Once the laughter is spent, however, she turns serious and asks the question plainly, "I have to tell mother and father about the deal I made now, don't I?"
As she was looking to her brother when she asked, you decide to stay silent. Waymar knows your thoughts on the matter in any case.
"I won't force you," he replies seriously. "It's not my secret to tell, even if the reason you felt you had to act as you did was because of me, but I would very much prefer it if there were no secrets in such grave matters as the giving of oaths."
"You know," the child says after a moment lost in thought, "I used to wish people would treat me like a proper lady. It's not as fun as I thought it would be."
"And therein lies that proof that you deserve such consideration," you offer honestly.
"I'll tell them tonight at dinner," Ysilla resolves. Then a smile creeps back onto her features, the sort of smile that promises mischief afoot. "Will you teach me magic?" she asks Waymar, bold as brass. Truth be told you had been expecting this if not so soon.
"I... What?" Obviously Waymar himself had not shared your imagining of such a turn of events. "Why?"
"Because if I have magic of my own then father and mother shan't worry about me owing a favor to the wildling witch." Truly the sort of reasoning a child of seven would make, yet for all that not without merit. Sorcery is a path to power such as the traditional path of a noblewoman through life can hardly match... and with that power comes security and freedom which Waymar once worried about his sister having.
You can see that your friend is sorely tempted to agree, in spite of never having taught a single thing in his life. For her part Tyene watches the scene with amusement and approval in equal measure. Only Ser Richard looks on with concern, though he would hardly be one to speak up uninvited in such matters.
What do you do?
[] Try to dissuade Ysilla of the notion
-[] Write in
[] Let things unfold
[] Write in
OOC: Exposure to Dany and to a lesser extent Vee and Maelor has made Waymar as open as he is to the notion of his younger sister learning magic.
Coloxus (CR 12) Tenth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
Though initially disguised, this is no man at all but something darker by far, for while the body remains the same and its silken garments also, the head of the being before you aught in truth be that of an enormous fly glistening with gore, one of the grotesque emissaries of the Pit. You encountered this demon in your guise as Master Liu of Qarth, and through it you uncovered a demonic plot engineered by a Lich that lingered past the days of the Doom.
Ilvessa the Marilith (CR 17) Thirteenth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
A serpentine monstrosity merged with the body of a woman seemingly cut from purest jade. Jeweled rods and staffs of ebony glitter in her six hands. Beautiful she seems, more than all the vistas the world has to offer. This Marilith was sent by Abraxas himself to tempt your distant kin away from Valyria during the Doom, though that task ended in failure. Centuries later, you ensnared her and gave her to Yss in exchange for raising three Guardian Nagas to serve you.
Bone Devil (CR 9) Twenty-Sixth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
Looking as though some mad sculptor of flesh had joined the most repulsive features of a withered corpse and carrion-feasting vermin, the Bone Devil seems to silently stare at you through empty sockets in its misshapen head, its long worm-like tongue darting between teeth like daggers of bone. Pale wings that stretch out behind it like a bundle of blades. This breed is a fitting guardian to Hell's secrets, excelling as inquisitors and torturers. This particular Bone Devil was one of two guarding a Wizard Creature Pleasure Devil who had enthralled Garth the Gross in Highgarden in a scheme to bankrupt House Tyrell.
Hero-Killer Xenarth (CR 16) Twenty-Eighth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC
Ur'zakor, a great Warbeast of the Demon Lords. Its jagged maws hang above short muscular legs tipped with heavy claws, its skin drips with reddish ichor like the aftermath of some accursed baptizing. A gem shines in the center of its forehead like a misshapen third eye with the same cold green as the false sun in the canter of the cavern of the mercury lake where you faced it. It sought to slay Ser Richard, but the knight brutally brought it down with Oathkeeper after spells shook its bones and Mereth's arrow found purchase in its mouth.
Flying Chupacabra (CR 6) Eleventh Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
In body it looks like a crooked-backed lizard with a mane of spikes running down its back, a long sinuous tail in place of back legs, and wide crimson wings like those of a bat's, but its head looks like onto that of a mad starving hound with a long curling tongue slipping out between serrated fangs as it suns itself on a rock. It does not look particularly sturdy nor too clever, and from what you observed it seemed to only communicate in snaps and hisses, not any true tongue.
Blood Maiden (CR 8) Twelfth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
A strange conjoining of woman and bat, fangs like a wolf dripping with blood, taloned feet, and a dreadfully hungry gaze, these creatures are the degenerate kin of the spiderfolk who once dwelled in Venthar. Perhaps they are a tribe of exiles who were warped by failing magic, or perhaps they were changed by some manner of curse.
Shadow-Traced Kamaitachi (CR 13) Twentieth Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
A shadow in the cloud, a blackness whose edges seemed to cut the eye, its body long and sinuous like a weasel, its limbs curved like sickles. This malevolent fey intimidated people living on the banks of the River Rhoyne to pay it homage and even worship it, but it was eventually slain by a party led by Tyene.
Mythic Ancient Wight Lord (CR 17/MR 1) Twenty-First Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
A figure out of myth and nightmare, its flesh is blackened by frostbite and withered upon its bones, its form wreathed in pale flame, its eyes burning with the same dreadful light as the once children, bearing a sword of cursed ice... only the remnants of ancient bronze armor still marks that this had once been a man. From dreams old as flame and ice you know this thing, not by whatever name it had once borne and befouled in the Days of Dawn, but by the purpose its foul masters would put it. You encountered the Mythic Ancient Wight Lord deep in the Frostfangs as you aided the Thenn against their ancient foes. You found it entombed in ice in a place claimed by Winter as the Old Gods claim a godswood, and it was unleashed against you... only to be captured, and then made the centerpiece sacrifice of the Tree of the Dawn Age.
Wizard Creature Red Abishai (CR 16) Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
A twisted conjoining of draconic power and almost-human form, joints bending backwards as it stands, head tilting at unnatural angle. Long has it been since that day when the altars broke in Saltcliff, but doom finally caught up to it. The robes and armor the fiend wears over its scales are all of eastern make, all enchanted with runes of blood and flame. This servant of Tiamat is among the very fight to plague you, but now it has finally been tossed to Yss to empower the Staff of Ages.
Oblivion Ooze (CR 20) Eleventh Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
An ancient Spawn of Night, a creature almost powerful enough to be called a physical god, that hungered for nothing less than to consume all the world. The Serpentfolk Lords of Set'Var had harnessed that hunger, empowered and refined it, so that even the merest trickle of arcane power would be drawn into the city where it could be used to keep its defenses up and keep alive its precious incubating chamber... the last best chance for the Children of Yss. In a later age Viserys and his Companions faced it in battle as it struggled against the crumbling chains of its prison, before capturing it and feeding it to Yss.
Wendigo (CR 17) Sixteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
A beast of Winter with two mouths and three horns, with four arms and a hundred devoured hearts glistening in its divided chest. A creature of the Void, it rose in the Farthest North to face Amrelath the Ash-Risen, but Amrelath prevailed, crushing it at the Fist of the First Men.
Mythic Horned Devil (CR 20/MR 8) Sixteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
A hellish general of a kind you had faced only once before in White Harbor, though this one bears a sword of red-hot flame, girdled in armor of charred bone, and a crown of twisted black upon his brow. This Mythic Cornugon sworn to Asmodeus himself was faced in the Flesh Forge of Gogossos, and slain by Ser Richard in single combat.
Chimeric Wizard Creature Bone Devil (CR 20) Sixteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
A chimeric horror, Baatezu without a doubt, but seemingly assembled of broken shards and twisted limbs. Translucent fly winds twitch behind him in either anger or anticipation while a great bony tail sways above the not-quite human head. Burning chains hang from his wrists and ankles, broken and rattling... This Chimeric Bone Devil was faced in the Flesh Forge of Gogossos and slain there.
Asurendra Asura (CR 20) Twenty-Fifth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
An Elder Fiend armored in gold and armed in flame and spellsteel. Six arms he has, six blades float through the air, and when he turns six burning eyes look upon the wasteland with twisted pleasure. This Asurendra served as a captain aboard an Efreeti expedition that aimed to brave the Valyrian heartlands and plunder a gigantic spike of dragonsteel to be twisted to their Grand Sultan's will. He was hunted down and slain by Viserys and Ser Richard.
N'Gath, Herald of Ymeri (CR 23) Second Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
The fire whirls and dances, a sphere from leaping fire wrought, in shadows inked the world that shrouds it, a thing of charred tapestries and dripping gold. It is far more than any common spirit. As one the wild might of the primal elemental and the subtle magics of those clothed in flesh, Fey and fury both. He was directly responsible for the burning of Volantis but was fortunately trapped inside the burning manse for years, until he was finally slain in a show of cooperation between King Viserys, Lord Zherys, and Flamekeeper Bennero on the day Volantis joined the Imperium.
Nyzallar the Adult Shadow Dragon (CR 13) Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
No hideous monster this, but rather beautiful, terrible, and deadly, and of course prideful beyond human understanding. Initial scouting revealed him to be guarding a temple to Tiamat erected in a Shadow Plane fortress resting in the reflection of Sallosh. In the end he was slain in battle by Flame Keeper Benerro and the divine wrath of R'hllor the Red.
Avatar of Tiamat (CR 25/MR 5) Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
Five draconic heads rest upon necks like a tangle of serpents: red, blue, black, green, and white, ten eyes glaring out with an eternity of hatred. The Avatar of Tiamat is a calamity fit to burn forests with its breath and sunder mountains with its stride. She was faced in the midst of the Golden Company far east of the Bone Mountains, summoned in desperation through sacrifice by Aegon Blackfyre as he struggled against House Targaryen. She very nearly took Viserys and several Companions to the grave, but thanks to the Well of Eternity and the cooperation of allied gods she was able to be both defeated and stripped of her power.
Wizard Creature Beholder (CR 15) Twenty-First Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC
Blackened flesh flowing, twisting, withering, eyes like poisoned stars looking down with greed beyond knowing. This Wizard Creature Beholder terrorized the trade routes of the Dimwell Delving for years before finally being hunted down and slain by agents of the Imperium (with Lord Zherys of Volantis at their head). It was a skilled flesh-crafter, and made use of divinations to avoid capture for quite some time.
Champion of Winter (CR 16) Fifth Day of the First Month 294 AC
Tall and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seems to change color from every angle; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns run like moonlight on water. This Champion of Winter, the first of the Others ever fought and slain by the forces of the Imperium, guarded over a cursed sword in Thenn Valley, luring Thenn Champions to their deaths for millennia. Ages ago a Magnar of Thenn had struck a mad bargain against the Others that the blade he forged could slay any of their champions, bargaining for runelore should he succeed, and giving his daughter to the Others as a bride should he fail. Though he fell, his daughter was trapped in a half-life, saving herself by refusing to acknowledge the fallen as kin. But where the ancient Thenn Magnar failed, Ser Waymar Royce succeeded, taking up the cursed blade and slaying the Champion of Winter in a duel.
Graveborn Magicbane Bandersnatch (CR 21) Nineteenth Day of the Second Month 294 AC
A beast of a kindred thought vanished from the earth until one who would claim the throne of Sathar found one and bound it with deep and perilous magics. Most sorcery cannot touch it and in strength alone it is a match for all but the oldest dragons. What it has been made in death was not known, but Queen Namaaru of Sathar had slain it once before, and again it was slain by the joint armies of Sathar and the Imperium.
I'm talking more of a palace/capital coup gone wrong. Its not unthinkable that the Reactor Engineers keeping the Fourteen Flames stable could have been weakened in the midst of the ensuing firefight, triggering the meltdown.
Edit: Imagine two teams with half a dozen Forty Family Patriachs on each side, duking it out in an orgy of concentrated violence over the course of a single night so they could present the rest of Valyria with a fait accomply come morning.
There's bound to have been a lot of dodged beefed up Desintegrates flying around, at the very least.
I don't think we want to make a promise behind Yohn's back. A suggestion to him that learning magic might channel Ysilla's...youthful spirit, and gird her with knowledge and wariness to not enter into such things as oaths so lightly again.
The logistics of teaching her is actually a bigger issue. We can't abscond with her the way we did Valaena, and openly teaching her magic is out since it's still a politically tricky thing, particularly in the very traditional vale.
So will we be "kidnapping" his sister too?
And what kind of magic will we be teaching her? Because honestly Waymar's kinda sucks at low levels, especially without special magical gear :/
I don't think we want to make a promise behind Yohn's back. A suggestion to him that learning magic might channel Ysilla's...youthful spirit, and gird her with knowledge and wariness to not enter into such things as oaths so lightly again.
The logistics of teaching her is actually a bigger issue. We can't abscond with her the way we did Valaena, and openly teaching her magic is out since it's still a politically tricky thing, particularly in the very traditional vale.
*A batch of Scholarium pamphlets slide down Viserys' sleeve and flood the room*
Viserys: Sorry about that.
*A batch of premium baby PC schooling pamphlets slide down his other sleeve as he kneels to recover them. One of them flies like a paper plane and bumps Ysila on the forehead before sliding down to her hands*
Hence my question, (which has been kind of answered already by what you said) Malarys didn't know of any political tensions before it all went kaboom? Rumblings of dissent or positioning of assets, soundings of loyalty amongst the colonies? Rumors of disagreements between dragonlords? I'm basically asking if there was a climate of tension in Old Valyria in the weeks preceding the Doom, kind of like Robert's court the weeks (and maybe even months) before his death in canon. Robert himself said everyone smelled a war, as far back as Episode 2 (can't remember the chapter).
