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

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Duesal said:
True, but even so, we have a very nice deal set up already with the Grand Vizier. Who else gets a deal that they're paid to loot? If at all possible that should be preserved and maintained for any big-ticket missions the Shaitan would like us to do. It'd be a shame if it had to go.
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It's in no way worth it to be a mercenary instead of a member of the coalition.

Perhaps we can talk with the Vizier later and sort things out. We've at least a titanic haul of three shield ships and the devil battleship, plus inciting the Salamander Rebellion, plus six whalers.

We get paid for all of those. If that's our mercenary run, it was far from bad.
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
It's in no way worth it to be a mercenary instead of a member of the coalition.

Perhaps we can talk with the Vizier later and sort things out. We've at least a titanic haul of three shield ships and the devil battleship, plus inciting the Salamander Rebellion, plus six whalers.

We get paid for all of those. If that's our mercenary run, it was far from bad.
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Fine. In that case at the very least we should be operating on a clause that we get to keep everything we loot. A distant reward of "we'll give you your share after the Sultan is dead" is vastly less appealing.
 
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Interlude CCCVI: Spiders' Gift
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    • Spiders' Gift ​

    Seventeenth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC

    "... squeezing some spiders for venom?" Elia Martell looked up at her niece with one eyebrow raised in askance, looking every inch the queen she might have been, even in the plain brown cloak and simple dress she wore to add one more layer of protection to the glamour shadowing her features. "I see you've inherited your father's sense of humor."

    "Why thank you," the girl replied, giving a bow even as she floated upwards to look at the mountain of tangled legs and glossy chitin besides which even the three stone giants she had selected as assistants seemed unaccountably small. "I can but try."

    "Being trying is a good start," the princess replied with a grin. Tyene was glad to see her smile, and she knew her uncle and father would probably wrestle one of these giant spiders for the sake of that joy. "How did you even kill that thing?"

    "It's not dead, just insensate," the young mage was quick to reply. Seeing genuine worry in her aunt's expression as she backed away the girl hastened to explain: "As poisonous as they are, there are plenty of concoctions that will keep them down, especially if you make them drink it when they had been shrunk down with magic." She looked to her diminutive assistant: "Speaking of changing size by magic, I think we're ready, Glyra."

    The little fey pulled out a scroll from one of her many belt pouches and began to chant in the tongue of the dragonlords of old, her voice growing strong and sonorous as she 'tricked the magic into working'. It might even be true. For certain it would not even be the strangest fey talent she had ever seen, the young Sand Snake thought.

    One after another the three giants grew and grew until they stood not twelve feet tall, but twenty and more.

    "Alright, you know how this is done by now. Take care to make it twitch without hurting it and keep the jar steady..."

    Things worked out a lot more smoothly than the first time they had tried milking one of the big ones. The spider had almost killed one of her assistants just flailing about, and it had wasted the poison and the jar it was supposed to go in. Alchemically-treated glass wasn't cheap, and you could hardly put the pieces back together once it broke.

    Lost 6,500 Gold

    200 Doses of DC 28 2d8 strength damage poison
    500 Doses of DC 20 2d6 strength damage poison
    1400 Doses of DC 16 1d8 strength damage poison

    Captive Spiders Permanently Drained

    "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what sort of foe would be worth poisoning with that?" Elia asked as she watched the strange procedure.

    "You can't actually use it directly," Tyene explained, working to adjust the fangs just so to pierce the wooden cap of the jar. Solid oak, five inches thick, and the spider's fangs went through it like a needle through canvas. "It has to be distilled and mixed with oil to keep its potency on a weapon worth a damn."

    "That's not an answer," the older woman said even as one of the giants carefully laid the vessel of clear viscous poison next to her.

    "Fiends, dragons, and worse," came the somewhat vague reply. "Practically anything alive enough to be poisoned."

    "So if you were to use it on a man, even a particularly large one..." There was a vicious gleam in Elia's eye, like the harsh desert sunlight glinting off a speartip.

    "He would collapse under his own weight, but he wouldn't die... the spiders like their victims alive when they wrap them up in silk," the mage explained.

    "I think I'm coming to like them after all," said the lady garbed in brown who once was a princess of the Seven Kingdoms.

    OOC: I don't like putting mechanical information in interludes, but this was long overdue.
     
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    • TotallyNotEvil said:
    It's in no way worth it to be a mercenary instead of a member of the coalition.

    Perhaps we can talk with the Vizier later and sort things out. We've at least a titanic haul of three shield ships and the devil battleship, plus inciting the Salamander Rebellion, plus six whalers.

    We get paid for all of those. If that's our mercenary run, it was far from bad.
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    Also the lunch interruption.
     
    Deliste said:
    Overland Flight is to get you to space after the TP doing the grunt work, Decanter would be fine in space it's just poor atmospheric propulsion. Ion thrusters for example, the Decanter would be unendingly accelerating.
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    Which leaves the issue of getting to orbital speeds to stay up there with just the decanter before you crash back down.
     
    One Autumn Leaf said:
    Hmm I wonder if we can make a gas form of this poison. The Citadel would be a fine target for this
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    we would need to make sure it not only gets everyone, but that it is continuously applied through several rounds, to assure that noone gets to survive by rolling 2 on 2d8 continuously.

    Which means, more gas.
    Which means, next turn's bioreactor research gon' be in very high demand.

    Also, Coupling River of Air items with some sort of condensed poison sounds awesome.
    I'd really like play WW1 Germany/WoW Forsaken here.
     
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    TotallyNotEvil said:
    Wait until Serpent's Sin eats up when one those swords if a Knight charges at us...

    [X] Plan Rebel Alliance
    -[X] Mutually beneficial export/import policies.
    -[X] Mutual gifting of embassies, or at least real state if they wish to build to their specification.
    --[X] The Shaitan and the Djinn may each build and ward their embassies as per their own specifications, and then once built Viserys can help transport both to Sorcerer's Deep, if they wish to.
    --[X] Be generous in how much space you offer as to allow for your embassy on their planes to easily function in other manners, as ACSEC outpost for example.
    -[X] The Sultana must come clean on the war's situation. Where are they, how much can they commit? What are their current predictions? The Djinn must also know before they can commit to helping.
    --[X] Define strategic and tactical goals for the conflict and outline what kind of aid each of you is best suited in providing.
    --[X] For example, you are currently in the middle of a series of reconquests and expansions, so while you won't be able to offer up massed armies for a few years yet, you can easily contribute with very high-quality free agents, including yourself. This builds into the next point.
    -[X] Full sharing of intel regarding the war.
    --[X] For example, you've recently intercepted the delivery of a weakened god to the Sultan from Hell. These kinds of moves could seriously upset the balance of the war if it goes through, and intelligence operations should take greater priority than they currently have, if they got as far as the PoF before we intercepted them. Even if you suspect whoever is responsible for tipping off the crew who gave you the information is sitting here with you, that seemed too close for comfort.
    ---[X] On that note, you have a very good working relationship with multiple gods.
    ---[X] It's a prime example of how we could best help, taking high-value, time-sensitive targets. Or perhaps the Caliph could have assisted, if Shaitan assets weren't available or best employed elsewhere. Intelligence is crucial.
    ---[X] For that matter, if they could include us in their regular divination spoofing schemes at least when it comes to the Sultan, we'd have that much more ability to act. Our Mindblank roster is still limited as of yet.
    -[X] Cooperative research and essential technology sharing.
    --[X] For example, the Winter's Heart would be a good opportunity, we provide the base material, they come in with the expertise, everyone profits. We also have a teleport ring which leads to the City of Brass, even if it's probably a trap by now.
    --[X] Perhaps their scholars have great ideas, but are lacking in certain materials, which we could provide, or certain different points of view in how to approach any given problem.
    --[X] On the other hand, we would seriously apprciate the means of building something akin to the Horseman on Molten Skies in order to protect our own assets, so we, again, may be freer to act.
    -[X] Mention your ideas concerning Living Brass, both that you consider using the sympathetic connection between the ground up souls to damage or dispel large amounts of Brass by sacrificing what you can gather to a particular God that abhors it foundamentally, or that you found out that someone developed a method to turn purified/becalmed living brass into sapient, self-improving golems with greater ease than usual for such rare creations. Either way, pooling their LB reserves would certinally be beneficial, especially on the destruction scheme.
    -[X] As for being the "junior partner": your realm should cover, at least, eighty to a hundred million souls in less than a decade. Your personal strenght isn't the only thing you bring to the table.
    -[X] TL;DR: We act as intermediaries and wild-cards that can tip the careful balance between the genie empires, and if this goes further for a fraction of the lenght it already has taken, we will also b e able to come in with mundane armies.
    --[X] This alliance commits to help each other fight such threats, things all can agree are in no one's interests, all while employing good practices in the form of contributing each what's most efficient, intel and essential technology sharing, and building upon each-other's economy through healthy trade agreements.
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    So, any additions to the plan?
     
    Duesal said:
    An important part of not being eaten was either silver hair and purple eyes, or having dragonlord lineage in her close ancestry. Before reincarnation she only had the latter since she was Dornish-looking. Now her blood is completely different.
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    Are the looks actually the requirement or just the signalling of certain genetic traits? Pure aesthetics seems very odd and easily replicable.
     
    Duesal said:
    Can we squeeze in a library exchange?

    We give them copies of books on the histories and culture of Prime Material, and they give us the same for the histories and cultures of the Planes (with focus on the Shaitan and the Djinn).

    I see no reason they'd say no.
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    I figure we can leave that for later, the vote is bloated as-is.

    After we establish an alliance, that should be pretty trivial. We can order our dudes at our embassies to do that.
     
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