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

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[X] "We have not come to drown this city in blood. Take all within as prisoners, save for the spawn of the pit, their fate to be decided outside of the heat of battle, but ware of fiends hiding among then. If the cancer is to be burnt out completely, we need their leaders to get the names of their allies. None will escape their rightful judgement."

Changed to full prisoners. Give Zherys ample ammo for a few good old witch-burnings.
 
DragonParadox said:
I think you git a library update for this.

Anyway vote closed.
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We might have, I was just wondering if we could get a rare book out of it since the scrolls were so valuable due to their origins. How many people can claim to have histories of the Freehold which were written in the Freehold? I bet this was a true prize in the library of Hermetia's father.
 
Tomcost said:
What is scarier than a Goldfish-spider hybrid? A Goldfish-spider hybrid with a crossbow!

If we ever get into a zombie apocalypse, I'm going to your bunker. If I happen to be in the US
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Not that good an idea, while Goldfish would certainly keep you safe from the zombies, I think Goldfish-Spider aberrations have a taste for human flesh.
 
MTB said:
Hmmmmm ... Zombie apokalypse ... walking smelling corpses ... disgusting.
But where's the problem?
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Of course, the skeleton discriminates the zombies because they have too much flesh. These standards of beauty today, they are so bad for the self-steem of many young zombies who can only hope to lose some useless organs but can never aspire to lose all their flesh lest they lose their ability to move.
 
Azel said:
If you put it like that, it sounds a lot like my morning commute.
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Walking distance to work place has advantages. Like 'commuting' times of ~12 minutes.
Edit: No sense of smell, too ...
Tomcost said:
Of course, the skeleton discriminates the zombies because they have too much flesh. These standards of beauty today, they are so bad for the self-steem of many young zombies who can only hope to lose some useless organs but can never aspire to lose all their flesh lest they lose their ability to move.
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Zombies? These useless shambling ... argh!
 
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Part MMCCVII: Pyres of the Fallen
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    • Pyres of the Fallen ​

    Eighteenth Day of the Fourth Month 293 AC

    The battle for Volantis is not quick, nor is it waged upon the field of honor. The blood of the innocent and guilty all flows just as red in the gutters in the end. There comes a time when you could almost wish for a petty demon to kill, for that at least you would feel no compunction in removing from the world. Still your efforts are enough to prevent massacres in two perhaps three instances, and for once you find yourself grateful for the unwavering zeal of the Fiery Hand. Your own magics are seen by most as 'near enough a sorcerer priest of R'hllor' that they do not hesitate in preserving the former masters from the vengeance of newly freed slaves... no matter the circumstances.

    If you should live a thousand years you will never forget the image of a former cook screaming and weeping as she brandished a butcher's knife upon discovering from a quasit's spiteful whispers that her children had been sacrificed to dark powers. You did the best you could at least, yet more dead children would have served nothing but to spread the stain of misery farther still, just as the ultimate architects of this madness would desire.

    The public trials Zherys is preparing to cut off any future public discontent with his rule will likely be a worse torment than whips and hot irons ever could be to the future magisters. Many of them had chosen to take their own life when it became clear that the attacks could not be stopped and no help was coming be it from mortal allies or fiends.

    Garin recounted the tale of one mad patriarch who ordered his entire surviving family to be dosed with hemlock in the ultimate hollow expression of power in the face of a world tumbling down on his head. Thankfully Tyene had managed to save about two thirds of the victims. It might almost be easier to swallow if Lya's musings of a final desperate summoning ritual were true. The thought of someone doing that to family for no cause but spite sickens you. Even your father had seen you and your mother safe to Dragonstone before he tried to make King's Landing the pyre of half-a-million souls...

    You give a quiet hollow laugh at having a kindly thought of Aerys Targaryen after all these years.

    "We did the best we could," Garin says quietly, catching your mood. "We saved more lives and livelihoods by preserving the docks alone than were lost making the arrests, not to mention what would have happened if they had poisoned the water or stormed the temple."

    "We could have saved more... servants, families, even Unsullied, if we did not have to concern ourselves with keeping secrecy," you reply, not yet ready to let go of the bitterness.

    "This was hardly a masque where we hid out of some desire to impress or surprise," he reminds you. "The entire agreement with Zherys might have fallen if came out the public heroes of the coup."

    "I know, it's just... fuck." You take a more hearty then usual drink of the celebratory wine Zherys had delivered for you to enjoy. "The more power one has, the starker the contrasts with the places one might have helped but could not." You pause for a moment, a wan smile struggling to your lips. "That sounded a somewhat tyrannical, didn't it?"

    "If you were to ask the people whose heads will soon be on pikes in the very square they tried to start a purge, certainly," Tyene interjects. "I would not be taking any advice from fools who thought making pacts with demons was a good way to cling to power."

    "Yeah, devils would have been better," Glyra says cheerfully as she bounces in, carrying another plate crammed with food for her troupe. Seeing the expressions thrown her way she asks: "What? Devils are the ones that go smashing dissent with the iron fist, boot, 'r other wiggly bits."

    A genuine if tired laugh rings out all over the room at Glyra's antics, from your lips as much as those of your companions. It is much easier not to concentrate on the better parts of the battle rather than just the worst. For one there had been no twisted cult of the damned hiding in the shadows, no wide scale desecration of the dead to leave scores of tormented spirits in its wake.

    Losses among the Banners had also been been mercifully light considering dangers of having to come down the Rhoyne in barges exposed to arrow fire from both sides, a fact for which you can thank the poor planning of the Elephants, you suppose, who likely imagined today in terms of breaking down gates and slaying all who opposed them, not having to hold ground against vengeful freedmen, supported by Mysterium mages showing powers they had been careful not to reveal beforehand. It might have been nice to know precisely how Zherys and his underlings dispatched a trio of Hezrou demons without suffering any permanent losses, but there were far more important places for you and your companions to be at the time.

    "So do you think we should stay?" Lya asks. "Take Zherys up on his offer to 'learn more about each other'?"

    "You do not sound enthused?" you note, surprised.

    "I would much rather ask the Red Priests about their clockworks. They even had constructs that would use proper spells. How you would even go about doing that..."

    "Your arcanums do not seem to have any trouble doing so," Dany points out.

    Lya waves the matter away. "I cheated by using myself as a template, not at all the same thing as building up an artificial spellcaster one gear and wheel at a time."

    What do you do next?

    [] Help Zherys hunt down any stragglers from his purges

    [] Exchange lore with the Mysterium
    -[] Write in what

    [] Exchange lore with the Red Priests
    -[] Write in what

    [] Set up a stronger economic presence in Volantis
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: I decided to do some summarizing since with the way the dice fell in the background there were no other crises for you to rush to during the battle. The closest thing was when one fleeing magister tried to set the docks on fire to aid in his escape, but the Volantine Guard of all people crit succeeded their response giving you, Benerro, and Zherys plenty of time to react.
     
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