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

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DragonParadox said:
The Virtue of Choice ​

Seventeenth Day of the Third Month 293 AC

How odd for a goddess whose faithful had raised the temple that surrounds you in carved and gilded majesty should send a being to send so small and seemingly fragile to carry her word. Still you would be the last to mistake size for the measure of worth. You offer a rueful smile: "Indeed, the Plane of Molten Skies is no place for the unprepared or weak of heart, and not merely due to the fiery climate. It was a fel place, and one that could have claimed the lives of myself and my Companions many times over, but it also served its purpose, and as a result we have grown stronger and made valuable contacts with friendlier sorts of beings out among the Planes."

To your surprise the mirror spirit turns abruptly serious, speaking not in Low Valyrian, but the hissing tongue of wyrms: "Worse things than blades and fire there are there, those that even the victorious might carry back: greed, cruelty, pride."

A part of you still bridles in anger at the words, but you distrust wrath too much to ever listen to its counsel without thought. To what purpose change tongues? The Herald did not mention your heritage and it does not seem the prideful sort that it would revel in knowledge most mortal men do not possess. Perhaps it does not wish to influence then before all had been said... a test. The realization does not quench all your frustration, but it makes it far easier to keep in check. For now pride works at cross-purposes with it. You will not be baited.

"What I have seen beneath the walls of the City of Brass I would not condone in a thousand thousand years," you answer, words soft, but unwavering as steel.

"Yes," the mephit replies, fluttering up until its eyes are as high as yours. "Great evil have you seen, and so the lesser does not seem so black. Only the fiends bound as slaves. After all, is it not their nature to destroy? Only the damned bled to feed ancient hungers, for does it not bring plenty? Upon a shadowed path you have stepped, one that is not, that cannot be free from greed, hate, and pride. So tell me, dragonlord who would darken the sun with thy wings and hold the world in thy talons, what if you should live a thousand thousand years and one?"

The question again hangs as a challenge in the air, and again you refuse to take it. "Tell me, Bearer of the Wayfarer's Lantern, why did you open a path to that realm, are you then blind to the ends of thine own deeds?" you ask, baiting a trap of your own.

"It is not my place to judge another's path, nor to refuse..."

"Horseshit," Lya declares, the joining of words to make the curse so utterly incongruous in the tongue you are all speaking that it is all you can do to keep in laughter. She continues in the same matter-of-fact tone, "You are responsible for the consequences of your own actions, morally and otherwise. Angels can fall and fiends can stand redeemed. The choices before you may not be those a mortal faces, but they are no less real for it."

"Perhaps that is so," the herald relents surprisingly. "But it is not my tale that will be sung though the ages, not my place to weave the world's fate. However lightly judgement may lay upon your shoulders, you are yet the one who stepped into these halls with an offer."

"So it is and as any man of business offering an opportunity I would be entirely content to withdraw my offer, without rancor if it becomes clear our differences cannot be reconciled," you reply sincerely. "One thing of all that you have said however is untrue: that I would reject your aid lightly. If such can be called light it is because all the good that has been done by spilling the blood of monsters is heavy as a mountain. Yet I would not, could not turn my back upon this temple without sadness over all you could have done to light the way and better the lives of my subjects. "

"All paths are as rivers leading to sea," Lya says softly, with the air of someone recounting a quote of some sort. "Remember ye, that sea is boundless and beyond knowing."

"So you do remember," the little spirit muses, rubbing its chin.

"I've always had an excellent memory," Lya replies a touch wistfully. "Perhaps in another life it might have been more than that, but in this one here I stand, though blood may lap at my heels. I can do no other."

"I do not ask that you agree with me, or approve of my deeds," you begin softly, though passion is threaded into every word. "I ask only that you respect the laws of my realm and the powers that have helped me build it. I ask that you not let fear of some nebulous future lessen us all, darkening the paths that thousands might walk."

"Your words are wise, dragonlord, perilous as that wisdom may be," the herald admits. Then as swiftly as it had vanished the wide grin flashes again upon its features and it turns to the priests: "Did I ever tell you how I met them? There's pirates, fish-men, sorcery, adventure... you know, I never heard the whole story myself..." It turns to you with a board wink: "Mayhap you have the time to tell the tale of how you made an end of the madman who enslaved me."

With a cautious nod of thanks of the obvious opportunity to hear of blood magic in the best light possible you begin your tale. By the end midnight had come and gone and you are quit thankful for the chance to wish away the wine's effects upon you. Another temple would grace the Deep soon enough. You do not even regret the coin needed to build it... not more than a twinge in any case.

What do you do next?

[] Write in

OOC: There were a lot of good rolls this update leading to excellent synergy.
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Damn, DP, that was a good chapter! :)
 
So...
Iron Bank, catching up with Maelor and Glyra, or visiting our unlawful friends in Braavos underground.

Anyone intested in paying a visit to Old Crew?
 
As for the next update, @DragonParadox, I really want to see what Glyra has been up to.

We should visit with Uthero and the Fairwinds while we're in Braavos, too. Maybe pop over to SD to get the Fairwind children for a nice family visit?
 
DragonParadox said:
Whatever you guys vote to do next in Braavos. Getting the cursed loot from the Sliver eye and letting the calligraphy wyrms loose in the archives will get a mention but neither is enough to be the focus.
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Excellent.

[X] Finish up business with the Silver Eye, starting with the first batch of cursed objects that you'll be taking as well as questions on the organization itself.
-[X] After business is concluded, explain the Old Gods and their Heart Trees to the Silver Eye and arrange for Alysande to commune with the Old Gods in Sorcerer's Deep with help from Soft Strider and Dany. When you come back, bring dragonpens, Rina, and the Fairwind children.
-[X] Arrange for the Fairwind children to be dropped off to their parents for the duration of this trip, you'll see them again when you set aside time to greet your old friends, and they'll return with you to Sorcerer's Deep upon the conclusion of this trip.
-[X] Call upon an old bargain you made with the Sealord for unlimited access to his archives, give him a heads up, and set your dragonpens to copying the archives.
with you to Sorcerer's Deep upon the conclusion of this trip.
-[X] As previously agreed with Lady Uraka of the Iron Bank, send Lya and Rina to ward their premises for the next few days.
 
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[X] Duesal
Hmm.
@Duesal, now that I think about it, we probably should ask Alysande in-character what religions in Braavos she considers helpful/useful and, well, generally give us a run-down on religious practices/tenets of faith of each.

Better starting point to that "learn of faiths" than most others.
 
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I can understand why the test was done, since "Greater Good" can easily lead down the road of "Lesser Evil", and it is very easy to be of lesser evil then the Efreet.

Regardless, both Viserys and Lya held to their convictions, with Viserys even being able to recount a tale of his noble liberation of Sorcerors Deep from abberations.

Overall a good talk.
 
[X] Duesal

@Duesal do we want to talk with anyone else in Braavos at this time or nothing super important? The Windward Society and or other friends/allies?
 
DragonParadox said:
In what way? I tried to keep to the spirit of the vote as well as possible while accounting for the interactivity.

If something did not come across properly that's on me not the mechanics because the rolls were very good.
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Mainly that we continue to have to and continue to do justify our every move to some sort of Good outsider every time we interact with them. I merely want to finally have chance to throw their own self-righteous junk back at them.

Preferably at Yrael though. His lectures before Tyrosh and the drawing of lines in the sand was one step too far.
 
Goldfish said:
Why? We got exactly what we wanted and won a battle of moralistic verbal jujitsu with the mouthpiece of a Chaotic Good goddess.
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No, we just played along and talked things around until our actions conformed with his view on morals. And that's all we ever to with Good outsiders.

But eh... why am I even complaining anymore. I doubt I will ever get the chance to actually argue morals with these guys.
 
Azel said:
Mainly that we continue to have to and continue to do justify our every move to some sort of Good outsider every time we interact with them. I merely want to finally have chance to throw their own self-righteous junk back at them.

Preferably at Yrael though. His lectures before Tyrosh and the drawing of lines in the sand was one step too far.
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Yeah, I also get very annoyed when Yrael told us off on our conquest plans.
 
Azel said:
No, we just played along and talked things around until our actions conformed with his view on morals. And that's all we ever to with Good outsiders.

But eh... why am I even complaining anymore. I doubt I will ever get the chance to actually argue morals with these guys.
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That's as good as winning, as far as I'm concerned.

And yeah, we'll never convince such beings that we are right and they are wrong. They are literally incapable of being convinced otherwise, as their alignment and beliefs are hard-coded into their very existence.

It's a testament to our power and social graces that we are still able to maintain halfway friendly relations with such beings.
 
Azel said:
Mainly that we continue to have to and continue to do justify our every move to some sort of Good outsider every time we interact with them. I merely want to finally have chance to throw their own self-righteous junk back at them.

Preferably at Yrael though. His lectures before Tyrosh and the drawing of lines in the sand was one step too far.
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I see... You had to play along for this conversation, in order to persuade him, but having been persuaded he plays along for an indefinite period of time. Whether that's persuasion or manipulation depends on your point of view. In any case storming out would have been playing along too, far more closely to the script too since the herald would be be questioning itself.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
Huh, I thought it was actually pretty good.
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I'm not saying it's a bad chapter (or that I want a ret-con or something), but we still undeniable kissed self-righteous butt again and nicely asked for forgiveness and the Divine Guidance of Good In Our Lands.

It's just getting disgusting and...
Goldfish said:
That's as good as winning, as far as I'm concerned.

And yeah, we'll never convince such beings that we are right and they are wrong. They are literally incapable of being convinced otherwise, as their alignment and beliefs are hard-coded into their very existence.

It's a testament to our power and social graces that we are still able to maintain halfway friendly relations with such beings.
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.... I'm tired of getting "as good as winning" out of these talks about morality.

Also, the argument that it's pointless to argue with Outsiders is demonstratively false. See Azema. See our new pet Erinyes, who is by the way a fallen Archon and thus already once massively shifted her personal beliefs.

DragonParadox said:
I see... You had to play along for this conversation, in order to persuade him, but having been persuaded he plays along for an indefinite period of time. Whether that's persuasion or manipulation depends on your point of view. In any case storming out would have been playing along too, far more closely to the script too since the herald would be be questioning itself.
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My main gripe is that these discussions always revolve around convincing the other guy that we are in the Good team after all and are terribly sorry for doing nasty things. See here Viserys asking him to merely ignore the facts of SD, not in any way trying to actually convince him of anything. It's a long list of apologizing for what we do instead of actually standing to our actions.

And lastly, we have yet to call out any from the Good corner on the fact they keep condemning us, withdrawing support or even threatening to work against us. I'm just kinda fed up with being lectured at and never lecturing them back on the failings of their own philosophy.

I do have a rather long list of things for Yrael and I fear it will get twice as long as it already is before that strained alliance finally breaks.
 
@Duesal, we need to do, or rather Lya does, the Iron Bank's commision. It's been months since they requested it.
Or are we still with the Braavos actions for this turn?
 
Azel said:
.... I'm tired of getting "as good as winning" out of these talks about morality.

Also, the argument that it's pointless to argue with Outsiders is demonstratively false. See Azema. See our new pet Erinyes, who is by the way a fallen Archon and thus already once massively shifted her personal beliefs.
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There are just some battles that aren't worth fighting, dude. You're just about to reach the "tilting at windmills" phase...

As far as Outsiders being hard-coded for certain behaviors, you aren't taking into account A) Azema is more human than Demon and we've severed the direct link the Abyss had to her soul, allowing her a certain degree of mutability and B) The Erinyes isn't an Archon any longer; the alignment is hard-coded; changing it doesn't just change their attitudes and morals, but it causes a (meta)physical transformation, which affects them in numerous ways, including changing their appearance to one degree or another, while altering their powers and abilities significantly.
 
Azel said:
My main gripe is that these discussions always revolve around convincing the other guy that we are in the Good team after all and are terribly sorry for doing nasty things. See here Viserys asking him to merely ignore the facts of SD, not in any way trying to actually convince him of anything. It's a long list of apologizing for what we do instead of actually standing to our actions.

And lastly, we have yet to call out any from the Good corner on the fact they keep condemning us, withdrawing support or even threatening to work against us. I'm just kinda fed up with being lectured at and never lecturing them back on the failings of their own philosophy.

I do have a rather long list of things for Yrael and I fear it will get twice as long as it already is before that strained alliance finally breaks.
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No one threatened you but you have some good points about the 'ignore' as opposed to persuade part. Editing.
 
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Takesis said:
@Duesal, we need to do, or rather Lya does, the Iron Bank's commision. It's been months since they requested it.
Or are we still with the Braavos actions for this turn?
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That should only take a few hours and some diamond dust.

In any case, we're not done with Braavos actions by a longshot. We reserved the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First for Braavos actions (with the Twenty-Second being the day Viserys proposes to Lya), and it's still the Seventeenth and we've already talked to the Sealord, gotten halfway through talks with the Silver Eye, and talked to the Moonsingers. We have more than enough time to do everything we want to do here.
 
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