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

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Azel said:
Wait. You want to wrangle with the economic sheets?

Of all the people here, you are the last one I would have expected to take an interest in this.
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No?
I meant I was looking forward to the game-idea we hade a week or so ago?
With the Planetos-destroying threats as players?
I am willing to learn more about the local politics for that, but I'll still stay away from the complicated parts of the economy.

The NOOO was in reference to you using your time on different issues now.
 
Artemis1992 said:
No?
I meant I was looking forward to the game-idea we hade a week or so ago?
With the Planetos-destroying threats as players?
I am willing to learn more about the local politics for that, but I'll still stay away from the complicated parts of the economy.

The NOOO was in reference to you using your time on different issues now.
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Ah... that.

The ideas are kinda bleeding into each other right now.
 
LonelyWolf999 said:
Of course, selling all of this got a lot easier when the king actually showed up and danced across the Riverlands slaying monsters and righting wrongs. That's when things started getting out of hand.
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I love The Lads.

Tom reminds me of Dandelion.
DragonParadox said:
Wounding morningstar
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Didn't we agree to go with 3.5's wounding?
Azel said:
You know what. Curses upon all of you. But especially upon you @TotallyNotEvil for getting this started.

Now I've gotten mentally to the point of scrapping even the economy sheets and rolling everything into a Unified Grand Strategy System.

:cry:
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One of these days, people will stop underestimating my Keikaku :V
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
Didn't we agree to go with 3.5's wounding?
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We did I just keep forgetting since it's so much easier to link pathfinder versions. Will fix.

Anyway vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Nov 1, 2018 at 11:40 AM, finished with 53 posts and 8 votes.
  • [X] Call on Zherys in this matter, Ymeri is his foe as much as yours
    -[X] Discuss any information he may have about Ymeri and the possible silver haired man, anything that is immediately relevant first. But consider anything that we might like to know as well, a brief overview if necessary and we'll get detail later.
    -[X] Give him a brief overview of the situation, show him that being a part of the in group gains him both a degree of trust and respect.
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@LonelyWolf999 love your update! Tom is a ridiculous amount of fun and "Disney Princess" the healing sorceress or oracle is gr8. Also man Tywin complaining to the King about Hosters maintenance of the Riverlands makes more sense in retrospect when you have a wandering military group fighting for another king around
 
Now, that Morningstar is a seriously nice weapon.

I wonder who could make best use of it?

Also, I'm finding this new theme easier on the eyes. What do you guys think?
 
A_Somebody said:
Tywin complaining to the King about Hosters maintenance of the Riverlands makes more sense in retrospect when you have a wandering military group fighting for another king around
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Yeah, that was a bit of the idea. It's never been specified what exactly has been going on in the Riverlands once we left. It's known that the eastern part was really more like the Northern Crownlands, with a bunch of houses being much more true to the Targs then the actual mainland crownlanders, and bands of bandits with some magical gimmicks claiming to support the Dragon King aren't exactly unique, so combining that with Kennick and Tom being careful to keep things on the smallfolk level and avoid too much heat, The Lads weren't a huge deal, if popular in their immediate area. Our actions unintentionally threw them into the spotlight, both for the better and worse. Like Tom said being 'proved right' made them seem much more legitimate and good which has dramatically improved their support and membership, but on the other hand they aren't going to be able to fly under the radar anymore.
 
bigbow said:
@DragonParadox

One more thing I forgot to adress, and @thread please feel free to shout me down if you dont agree, but I'll be blunt here.

Please stop being so stingy with crafting time. I've tried to adress it in various ways, but OOC it wont keep anty longer and IC the prospective solution was worthless.

The need to shoehorn every day with stuff is also partly the fault of the crafting system. There's never enough time to baseline equip everyone + carry out state projects that give fresh air to the quest like the doomfortress or the flying ships. I dont know how to fix it, but we should somehow. This also ties into a pet peeve of mine that has to do with never seeing Lya because she's a craftbot 80% of the time by necessity.
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I think you are confused here, dude. This month for the first time in many months, Lya herself did three days of actual crafting. Her Dedicated Wrights now do all of her crafting. She is in no way a craftbot.

Lya does a lot of research, but we haven't shied away from bringing her on adventures. There's a reason she's one of our highest level people, because she gets to go out and gather lots of XP.

I don't know what you mean about being stingy with crafting time, either. We have a ton of crafting time available and then only Companion actually doing any crafting is Rina, but we've started scaling that back for her, too, since she has finally grown confident enough to begin adventuring. When we first got her, she didn't want to leave SD.
 
Azel said:
Now I've gotten mentally to the point of scrapping even the economy sheets and rolling everything into a Unified Grand Strategy System.
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A meld of CK2 and dungeon delving? Looking forward to that ...

By the way, as contribution for the 'more politics' part - who is our government?
 
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Winning Vote

[] Call on Zherys in this matter, Ymeri is his foe as much as yours
-[] Discuss any information he may have about Ymeri and the possible silver haired man, anything that is immediately relevant first. But consider anything that we might like to know as well, a brief overview if necessary and we'll get detail later.
-[] Give him a brief overview of the situation, show him that being a part of the in group gains him both a degree of trust and respect.
 
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Part MMCDX: Traitor's Mark
  • Threadmarks
    • Traitor's Mark ​

    Fourteenth Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC

    Luckily you do not find Zherys in the midst of arcane study or some pressing courtly engagement. Instead he is reading steadily in his study, oddly enough by candlelight rather than magefire.

    Noticing your bemusement the magister shrugs. "Habit is a cruel mistress, Excellence. After having read thus for the entirety of my life it is distracting to make a change." Smiling almost wistfully he adds, "There is a part of me that feels irrationally guilty for wasting arcane luminescence on such a mundane task, for I remember well the time when it would have taken a ritual from dawn to dusk to even conjure enough light to last an hour through."

    You nod in understanding. For all the times you have seen some part of yourself in the Volantine magus, if not necessarily the ones you are proud of, it is easy to forget how distinct your experiences of sorcery are. Where you are one fully rooted in this new age of sorcery, Zherys had been searching the remnants of the Freehold for arcane secrets since before you were even born.

    "Why'd you do it then?" Glyra pipes up, breaking the thoughtful silence. "Just to show off?"

    To his credit the magister's expression does not shift in the slightest as he glances down at her to explain. "Certain texts could not be read by mundane flame."

    Before the gremlin can ask anything more you move on to the matter at hand, briefly explaining your purpose in the Bazaar of Beggars, the course of your investigation, and your troubling recent findings, all subtly couched to show the trust you are offering in involving him in this investigation. "No city has suffered more from the machinations of the Cinder Court than Volantis the Great. It is thus only sensible to call upon you, if you have the time of course," you finish. The last is little more than a sop of course. One must by definition always have time for one's overlord, whether he be styled archon, king, emperor, or by any other name.

    Still, to guess from Zherys' expression, he is far indeed from displeased to have his routine so interrupted. "It is said in the City that it is better to fight your wars on foreign shores, to keep the hand of death at bay. Foreign worlds serve better still."

    Thus you return to the city of tents under the blazing heavens, though alas with fewer answers than you might have hoped for. The High Speaker claims that since the failed Elephant coup Volantis has faced little sign of Ymeri's plotting, indeed no major otherworldly plot.

    "The worst threat I have faced of late has been rising speculation on the price of grain," he sighs, massaging his left temple for a moment. "A peril not to be underestimated to be sure, but not one I think the fey, who understand so little of the ways of mortals, would think to cause." If you did not know better you would think that last part payback for Glyra's earlier comment, though nothing in his face or tone betrays it.

    "Hey!" Glyra calls, obviously having the same thought.

    Zherys pays her no mind, instead turning to Garin: "Lord Drekelis, do you count any recent marriages with the Old Blood of Volantis among your heritage?"

    "No," your friend answers, startled by the seeming non-sequitur. At least he does not sound offended.

    "Good," Zherys nods and turns to you. "I of course know your bloodline quite well, Excellence, which leaves me with a way to potentially find this silver-haired man." So saying he begins to extract glyph-marked rods and clear crystal dials from the folds of his robes, or rather from some hidden space connected to them. "I am certain you have come across spells to find one's next of kin through the call of blood..."

    "Yes, of course," you reply, getting an inkling of his plan.

    "The device I have here can refine those connections to even distant kinship," he continues even as he finishes setting the delicate-looking tripod. "If this thrall of Ymeri is indeed a Volantine magister, or better said given that he is a traitor a former Volantine magister, then he will be found as my closest living kin upon this realm."

    "What purpose does this apparatus usually serve?" you ask, intrigued. Though there is something almost repulsive about the obsession with blood that had birthed it, you can certainly think of quite a few ways in which it could be useful.

    "To find those most likely to express arcane power through the heritage of the Dragonlords, generally," the High Speaker replies. With a quick and practiced motion he cuts his palm and lets the blood drip onto the dial until it glows crimson. A few moments later most of it clears, leaving an arrow pointing steadily northwest, as much as that direction means in this realm.

    "It seems we have our traitor," Zherys says, voice dangerously soft.

    ***​

    Calculating the position of your quarry in the same manner in which you usually do for your own wayfinder indicates a tent somewhere on the ragged edges of the Bazaar. Unfortunately, before you can actually make your way there the mark upon the glass fades, showing that your quarry has passed behind wards, or more likely simply passed into another sphere. Again you call on foresight to ensure that your plans have not been given away and again the result is heartening. Twas sheer mischance that saw the 'silver-haired man' leave just as you were approaching. A brief time speaking to the local urchins reveals that the patched leather tent where he had so recently lingered had been pitched about a month ago and that few would enter willingly due to the noxious fumes and the ill-tempered owner.

    "Dancer's Draught," Garin musingly reads the sign dangling above the somewhat lopsided entrance of the tent. "An Alchemist's tent, perhaps?"

    "The poisons could simply serve to keep the locals from too closely scrutinizing the tent which might serve as a discreet meting place between Ymeri's agents and the lord of this place," Zherys replies in like tone.

    "In either case that would seem to indicate that there is something within worth investigating..." You trail off. "The question is whether it is worth doing so now or if we should simply await our for our 'friend' to return from his journey."

    What do you do?

    [] Investigate the tent

    [] Wait for the silver-haired man to return

    [] Write in

    OOC: A bit of character building from Zherys in this part. For anyone wondering he did not actually think Garin had Volantine ancestry, he just wanted to pay him a compliment.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Zherys is so useful! Ah, it's good to have competent minions.
    And what kind of a compliment would "you could be Volantine" be? Geez, way to how your bias there.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Traitor's Mark ​

    Fourteenth Day of the Sixth Month 293 AC

    Luckily you do not find Zherys in the midst of arcane study or some pressing courtly engagement. Instead he is reading steady in his study, oddly enough by candlelight rather than magefire.

    Noticing your bemusement the magister shrugs. "Habit is a cruel mistress, Excellence. After having read thus for the entirety of my life it is distracting to make a change." Smiling almost wistfully he adds, "There is a part of me that feels irrationally guilty for wasting arcane luminescence on such a mundane task, for I remember well the time when it would have taken a ritual from dawn to dusk to even conjure enough light to last an hour through."

    You nod in understanding. For all the times you have seen some part of yourself in the Volantine magus, if not necessarily the ones you are proud of, it is easy to forget how distinct your experiences of sorcery are. Where you are fully one rooted in this new age of sorcery, Zherys had been searching for the remnants of the Freehold for arcane secrets since before you were even born.

    "Why'd you do it then?" Glyra pipes up, breaking the thoughtful silence. "Just to show off?"

    To his credit the magister's expression does not shift in the slightest as he glances down at her to explain. "Certain texts could not be read by mundane flame."

    Before the gremlin can ask anything more you move on to the matter at hand, briefly explaining your purpose in the Bazaar of Beggars, the course of your investigation, and your troubling recent findings, all subtly couched to show the trust you are offering in involving him in this investigation. "No city has suffered more from the machinations of the Cinder Court than Volantis the Great. It is thus only sensible to call upon you, if you have the time of course," you finish. The last is little more than a sop of course. One must by definition always have time for one's overlord, whether he be styled archon, king, emperor, or by any other name.

    Still, to guess from Zherys' expression, he is far indeed from displeased to have his routine so interrupted. "It is said in the City that it is better to fight your wars on foreign shores, to keep the hand of death at bay. Foreign worlds serve better still."

    Thus you return to the city of tents under the blazing heavens, though alas with fewer answers than you might have hoped for. The High Speaker claims that since the failed Elephant coup Volantis has faced little sign of Ymeri's plotting, indeed no major otherworldly plot.

    "The worst threat I have has faced of late has been rising speculation on the price of grain," he sighs, massaging his left temple for a moment. "A peril not to be underestimated to be sure, but not I think one the fey, who understand so little of the ways of mortals, would think to cause." If you did not know better you would think that last part payback for Glyra's earlier comment, though nothing in his face or tone betrays it.

    "Hey!" Glyra calls, obviously having the same thought.

    Zherys pays her no mind, instead turning to Garin: "Lord Drekelis, do you count any recent marriages with the Old Blood of Volantis among your heritage?"

    "No," your friend answers, startled by the seeming non-sequitur. At least he does not sound offended.

    "Good," Zherys nods. "I of course know your bloodline quite well, Excellence, which leaves me with a way to find potentially find this silver haired man." So saying he begins to extract glyph-marked rods and clear crystal dials from the folds of his robes, or rather from some hidden space connected to them. "I am certain you have come across spells to find one's next of kin through the call of blood..."

    "Yes, of course," you reply, getting an inkling of his plan.

    "The device I have here can refine those connections to even distant kinship," he continues even as he finishes setting the delicate-looking tripod. "If this thrall of Ymeri is indeed a Volantine magister, or better said given that he is a traitor a former Volantine magister, then he will be found by closest living kin upon this realm."

    "What purpose does this apparatus usually serve?" you ask, intrigued. Though there is something almost repulsive about the obsession with blood that had birthed it, you can certainly think of quite a few ways in which it could be useful.

    "To find those most likely to express arcane power though the heritage of the Dragonlords generally," the High Speaker replies. With a quick and practiced motion he cuts his palm and lets the blood drip onto the dial until it glows crimson. A few moments later most of it clears, leaving an arrow pointing steadily northwest, as much as that direction means in this realm.

    "It seems we have our traitor," Zherys says, voice dangerously soft.

    ***​

    Calculating the position of your quarry in the same manner in which you usually do for your own wayfinder indicates a ten somewhere on the ragged edges of the Bazaar. Unfortunately before you can actually make your way there the mark upon the glass fades, showing that your quarry has passed behind wards, or more likely simply passed into another sphere. Again you call on foresight to ensure that your plans have not been given away and again the result is heartening. Twas sheer mischance that saw the 'silver haired man' leave just as you were approaching. A brief time speaking to the local urchins reveals that the patched leather tent where he had so recently lingered had been pitched about a month ago and that few would enter willingly due to the noxious fumes and ill-tempered owner.

    "Dancer's Draught," Garin musingly reads the sign dangling above the somewhat lopsided entrance of the tent. "An Alchemist's tent, perhaps?"

    "The poisons could simply serve to keep the locals from too closely scrutinizing the tent which might serve as a discreet meting place between Ymeri's agents and the lord of this place," Zherys replies in like tone.

    "In either case that would seem to indicate that there is something within worth investigating..." You trail off. "The question is whether it is worth doing so now or if we should simply await our for our 'friend' to return from his journey."

    What do you do?

    [] Investigate the tent

    [] Wait for the silver-haired man to return

    [] Write in

    OOC: A bit of character building from Zherys in this part. For anyone wondering he did not actually think Garin had Volantine ancestry, he just wanted to pay him a compliment.
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    You've really got this writing thing down pat, DP. With just a single appearance in this chapter, you've humanized Zherys enough to make me glad we didn't murder him.

    I'm impressed! ;)
     
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