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

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Oh man it's heartwarming to see the Minotaurs, an entire race that used to be nothing more than mooks for demon cultists, find a purpose and joy in life. Even with the more pragmatic reason of wanting better shock troopers, it's nice to see the good Viserys brings as part of his adventure conquering. Not to mention Alliser Thorne, like ur Mr. stick up butt, finding some happiness is also charming.
 
He is being treated far better and with more respect than he had ever gotten at any point before and after taking the Black, and he is also happy about any efforts to make the Black worthy of respect, because then it would reflect back on him.

He's still self-interested to a degree, but he's also a Knight and has honor after his own fashion, practicality aside. I don't know if anyone would ever call him a good man, but many would be glad to have him by their side in battle.

It doesn't hurt that he's out of the cold, too, but I didn't want to linger on small comforts because that seems very Un-Alliser to waste time thinking about.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
Here's a possible alternative to Erynies picture, with Targ motif:
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If only it didn't have a horned helmet...

tarrangar said:
But in this specific case the alternative is right here, these Erinye's are breaking from Hell to work for us, and Yrael is our ally, that mean he can try the more subtle forms of encouragement to redeem herself, normally that's not the case, but with the fact that she's now working for Viserys, they have an enforced non-hostility situation, that mean Yrael can focus on reminding her of how good it feels to be good, instead of going all moralizing at her.

Yrael have the rare opportunity of an Erinye that has already taken a small step away from evil, in such a case guilt isn't really the best idea, reinforcing that not being evil is a good idea is, meaning Yrael should try and ensure that the Erinye's get rewarded extra, when they solve problems in non-evil ways.
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Maybe so but he has every reason to believe Viserys will do that anyway for efficiency's sake
 
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Too true

@Crake You know our massive propaganda engine would make me feel guilty if it were not for...

The bull men, the Erinyes, heck even some of our legion soldiers. If they can have something to believe in, to believe they are helping to make the world a better place...

To say nothing of the fact that they are indeed making the world a better place.

If you guys want to sit down and have a talk about good, evil, redemption, and the ways to go about it. I am sure that Yrael would be all for it. If he can find the time anyway.
 
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Artemis1992 said:
@DragonParadox as it intended that the Erinyes are just a bit too weak to serve as Secondary Casters for the ritual?

As it is we have to scrape our party and Relath together to get a mere 4 secondarys.
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Is their BaB 9 not 10? Then the ritual needs editing. Anyway vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Sep 2, 2018 at 3:57 AM, finished with 222447 posts and 8 votes.
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So I know a lot of people have been talking about having some difficulty conceptualizing things lately, and you know what that means! Maps!


I put down four red markings on this one to denote where I would like to build forts guarding our eastern borders, which should, at least as far as our long-term plans go, end on mainland Essos as far as the Bone Mountains. In actuality what I would like to do is press for what I visualize as a bit of disputed, or perhaps non Qartheen to begin with, coastline, the only available southern coastline through which the Silk Road leads in fact, to set down the southeastern border between our holdings and Yi Ti. If the border princes try to contest us, they are more than welcome to. In fact it would be a great way to open relations with the Azure Court, maybe with some preliminary poking around to subtly threaten how much more amenable the color Orange is lately.

The next one is somewhere just where the passes start to open up going along the Sand Road, basically no one should be able to contest us, since Bayasabhad is tying down the pass on the other side.

On the other hand I don't even want to build a fort where the ruin of Vaes Jini is, no. I want to rebuild Yinishar entirely, and make it better. More defensible than it ever was. This is where the Foe will be streaming through.

Finally one more fort where the Steel Road moves through the northern pass, closing our borders up tight all for the price of three military installations and one economic center to keep them in good supply. Eventually if we're feeling really ambitious (we are) we'll run a rail line through tunnels boring through and underneath the mountains.

And uh, well. Everything west of that is basically ours, with little exaggeration. They just don't know it yet. We're like Alexander up in this bitch!

Aegon, sorry. Nah, you know, one couldn't hold onto his conquests, and the other ruled with a feather-light touch.

Damn you fiction. You always contrive to find ways to let empires fall, don't you? Not everything has to be a Rome allegory!

Edit: To add to that first thought, it will be funny to be lead in to meet with high officials in Yi Ti and have them expect us to act like a barbarian, only to use Cultural Adaptation to seem more sophisticated than they do with our insane socials.
 
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@Crake
I'm not really seeing it.
The Great Grass Sea and the Red Wastes are both relativly unsettled and in the foreseeable future hard to settle lands.

Why make the border just east of nearly uncontrollable and unprofitable lands when we could draw the line just east of Slaver's Bay, taking the old Sanori roads between Vaes Diaf and Vaes Athjikhari as borders while rebuilding some of those Sanori ruins?

II could even see the desire to expand along the coast through Lazar to Quarth, but everything between the Sand Road and Ibben seems like dead land. Good for expeditions, not for area-holding.

There are barely rivers to build by and trade on. Do you want to rely on caravans through desert and grass for everything?
 
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Paradosi said:
I don't see why we can't tame said lands? Is a desert or a swathe of grassland any true obstacle for magic?
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Well no.
Though the dead of the Dothraki Sea might be.

But the point is more that we have to invest a lot of work and settle countless people there, so it makes little sense to tame these lands before we have conquered and developed all the already civilised lands around to our liking.
Efficieny.
 
With the Darkenbeasts, Dothraki Hordes and Wall of Eyes Towers we should have a reasonable time of defending the space without having Legionnaires trekking through the desert.
 
Artemis1992 said:
@Crake
I'm not really seeing it.
The Great Grass Sea and the Red Wastes are both relativly unsettled and in the foreseeable future hard to settle lands.

Why make the border just east of nearly uncontrollable and unprofitable lands when we could draw the line just east of Slaver's Bay, taking the old Sanori roads between Vaes Diaf and Vaes Athjikhari as borders while rebuilding some of those Sanori ruins?

II could even see the desire to expand along the coast through Lazar to Quarth, but everything between the Sand Road and Ibben seems like dead land. Good for expeditions, not for area-holding.

There are barely rivers to build by and trade on. Do you want to rely on caravans through desert and grass for everything?
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I'm with @Crake on this one. Remember, we can build immense fortified structures in the barest fraction of the time as would normally be required, and at an even lower expense. Logistics are also vastly simpler with the magic at our disposal, meaning that not only would it be simple to fortify the passes, it would be just as simple to keep them supplied.

By controlling those four passes, we effectively own the western half of Essos, even if most of it is unsettled grasslands. For now...

Leaving even one pass open doesn't just introduce a serious vulnerability in the security of the Imperium, it also sends a signal, well, not of weakness, but perhaps lack of resolve. Resolve that we are willing to firmly claim that which is ours and that we will prevent others from attempting to stick their noses where they don't belong.

And the economic control is nothing to sneeze at, either, as we would have a stranglehold on all land routes between eastern and western Essos. If we maintain the toll for ships going through the Jade Gates and between Sothoryos and Great Moraq, as well, then we will have complete dominance of that aspect of the Planetosi economy.
 
Deliste said:
With the Darkenbeasts, Dothraki Hordes and Wall of Eyes Towers we should have a reasonable time of defending the space without having Legionnaires trekking through the desert.
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By the point the forts become feasible, we should be able to man the forts easily enough using Permanancied Teleportation Circles, or better yet, my personal favorite of using a Greater Demiplane with multiple portals, one for each fort, along with another portal linking to a central Demiplane, which itself has a portal to the main Legion base and staging area.
 
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Part MMCCLXIV: Tangles and Traps
  • Threadmarks
    • Tangles and Traps ​

    Fourth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC

    After a few moments' thoughts you settle upon the simplest solution, telling the others to wait, and you will yourself to Alvar's side. Alas the webbing proves far thinker than the scrying mirror showered, sticky silver strands clinging to your limbs, biding you in place and worse yet making the delicate motions of spell-crafting all but impossible. The spiders are soon to advance on the new prey that must seem to them to have been delivered into their larder, mandibles clinking ominously. So much for talking to them...

    Thankfully, the wards of blood and sorcerous insight help ward the blows of all but one of the beasts whose silvery fangs pierce your enchanted robes like common cloth. A useful thing to harvest, some coldly analytical part of your mind notes, even as you struggle to draw Dark Sister from its sheath.

    You take 5 Damage

    The blade of Visenya gives a sort of metallic grumble when it realizes it is to be turned against the webbing to cut yourself free rather than the spiders, but it is nothing if not loyal to its task. Dragonsteel easily cuts through the strands of preternatural silk at the cost of only one more stinging blow from the ever more hesitant... perhaps even bemused spiders.

    You take 6 damage

    The clinking all about you grows into more purposeful speech, in the trade tongue of Armun Kelisk: "Prey... not-prey, what do you seek?"

    Ignoring the question, which seems to be only half-directed at you in any case, you free your fingers properly as to take stock of the small empty space you have carved amid the webbing and weave in turn a spell of warding, a faintly shimmering egg of power inviolate to any common blows that contains you, Alvar, and one other shroud of webbing.

    Just as you breathe a sigh of relief and turn to the task of freeing the mage all the spiders fade like wraiths among the silvery curtains. You hear it before you see it, an enormous a sphere of spell-carved stone tumbling down the shaft ripping all in its way. In that instant you grasp the threads of time ready to will yourself to safety at need.

    The barrier ripples... holds, the tumbling stone halted in its descent, giving you more than enough time to cut Alvar free. His weight feels uncomfortably light as you set him over your shoulder, bones sharp against the skin. He does not stir.

    What do you do?

    [] Take Alvar and go, you can deal with whatever put him here later

    [] Awaken the mage with a wish and question him
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: If that ball had gone through the sphere it would have put you in the unenviable position of either teleporting away, allowing Alvar to be crushed to death, or use celerity plus (wished) disintegrate and hope there wasn't anything behind that first ball.
     
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    • Goldfish said:
    By the point the forts become feasible, we should be able to man the forts easily enough using Permanancied Teleportation Circles, or better yet, my personal favorite of using a Greater Demiplane with multiple portals, one for each fort, along with another portal linking to a central Demiplane, which itself has a portal to the main Legion base and staging area.
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    Kind of like Guild Wars 2 gate hubs. Those are always located in Pact military centers too.
     
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