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

Twentieth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC

"Thank you for sharing your account with us, Wisdom," you say to Ansa, automatically using the Valyrian formula, or what might perhaps be called the Scholarum formula by now considering that from Braavos to Volantis all the mages under your rule use it. The old hedge witch nods and withdraws beyond the circle of firelight, leaving you to speak of other and hopefully less tangled affairs of the Riverlords.

The Lads had, quite understandably, kept a close eye on Lord Ashwin Keath given the bad blood between them following the killing on his heir. Thankfully, as far as they know, the old lord has chosen to tighten ties to Riverrun and not Casterly Rock, though Tom swears by an account of one of his many 'friends in high and low places' that Lord Keath sent agents across the Narrow Sea, to Braavos in fact of all places. What they may have been looking for there you could not say, but you doubt it is the right way to swear an oath of allegiance to you.

"Lord Lychester has struck it rich," the mage, Gaemon, interjects, speaking up for the first time. "I talked to a fellow from Willowbank right below his keep's walls and he claimed the old lord used magic to find silver in the bowels of the earth, or maybe even make the silver appear there when there was none through the work of strange spirits." He snorts, taking another piece of spiced meat from the spit. "From the descriptions there were spirits enough and magic too, but there wasn't anything mysterious about it. He had some agents use the gate in Sorcerer's Deep to get to the Opaline Vault, got a mage from there to prospect his lands for precious metals and struck it lucky."

"Real lucky," Ser Richard says suspiciously. "What would a poor lord have to pay for the services of a wizard that walks on golden streets?"

"That, I couldn't tell you, but the silver's real enough," Ser Benjicot confirms. "They were sending ingots down the King's Road to King's Landing to be struck into coin just last week."

"More luck than Luthor Lolliston's having that's for sure, nothing's gone right for him since he crossed the Lannisters, crop blights and floods one after another," Tom picks up the account. "I've been spreading songs and tales that it was the Golden Shields that cursed him, after all it could've been them wicked mages they are, make the cow's milk go sour in the teat and bridges rot under 'em." He gives a broad wink. "Not like us upstanding lads in the Greenwood."

"And did that actually work?" you ask with some wariness. Truth be told you are not sure what you would do with a lord that gullible.

"No, but the folk in his lands believe right enough," the singer replies. "Er... you can fix crop blight and flood damage, right? The other part of the rumors I've sent were about how you were going to set everything right."

"Yes, though you should have asked that before setting any promises flying on the wind," you reply just a touch sternly. Still, you have told too many tall tales to hold this one against him for long, especially since it proved less tall then he imagined.

Fortunately the next bit of news is better than any you have yet heard today. House Roote has been making subtle gestures of friendship to the Mootons of late, having either concluded that your meddling with Harrowway was better than a court full of angry fey, or just that a dragon's trespass is no trespass at all. Either way you will take it gladly if they are sincere.

"What of House Smallwood?" you ask, turning once more to Tom of Sevenstreams, expecting another of the bard's arch smiles.

To your surprise you find his gaze solemn instead. "Ravella's little girl Carellen almost died of some pox or another last month. I had to sneak Masie in to heal her or the girl would have died same as her brother last year. She's been trying to get her husband to declare with Darry and the rest, but Ser Theomar is the sort to take all his vows seriously... all but his wedding vows that is to hear Ravella complain about it." He gives a small and you think genuine sigh, perhaps contemplating the times when Lady Smallwood would do more than just complain to him of her husband's infidelities.

It is Ser Benjicot who knows the most of House Vypren, though not as much as you might have hoped to find out. The lord of the House had eased out of his more extreme shows of piety, though he still seemed a changed man to those who knew him by sight, not including any present since Vypren lands are towards Seaguard where the Lads do not wander as often.

Of greater concern is the fact that Lord Deddings seems to have thrown his lot in with the Lannisters, with his eldest daughter's hand in marriage thrown into the bargain while House Grell remainx one of the last staunch Tully Loyalists in the eastern Riverlands. Lord Grell had apparently ridden with Hoster Tully in the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

By contrast Halmon Paege is known far and wide as a cautious man, and less complimentary things if one listens long enough. He has not yet gone so far as to to try and contact any of the Houses loyal to you, but his armsmen have been very slow indeed to trouble the Lads and Ser Benjicot offered silent thanks by way of cleared bandit camps. If you were to guess you would say Ser Paege's hesitation comes from his House's history fighting in the wars of dragons. The Paeges won no glory and no land supporting Aegon the Uncrowned against Maegor, though his cause may have been just.

Last mentioned is House Wayn, another bound to Hoster Tully for the current Lord Wayn's uncle is the steward of Riverrun, though rumor has it that there might have been some sort of trouble between them at the succession so perhaps that connection might yet be turned on its head.

What do you do next?

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[] Visit Riverlander Houses to try to secure their loyalty
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OOC: And done, that was a lot of background rolling.