Part MMMDCLXXXXIV: Looming Storm
Looming Storm
Twentieth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
"Euron, brother of Balon and son of Quellon, sent this man here with treachery in his heard and dark sorcery in his hand," you proclaim at last to the assembled Ironborn. "I will not call him Greyjoy for he has forfeited that name when he sought his niece's death for his own gain." Asha gives a nod of thanks to Mereth and one to you, but her dark eyes do not reflect the fear of many of her elders. Instead you read there anger and a cold determination that may only be sated with the death of the Crow's Eye.
Recalling the image glimpsed in the assassin's mind and considering the tools the 'Great Captain' used to achieve his twisted ends you know she has a long road ahead of her, and so do her people. Unfortunate as Bloodraven's choice to use him as a tool was you have no doubt the man is extraordinary if he caught the Last Greenseer's wandering eye.
Her people had best be wary too. You warn them that Euron and his ilk might attempt other ploys now that their more overt plot has been stopped. Onto the Ironborn you bequeath that day talismans of clarity of mind only to find that many of them already possess such wards against enchantment, for the same stubbornness that made them a bane to the lands of Westeros and beyond also made them most disinclined to bend to a sorcerer's will. However it is your second gift you offer, that of knowledge and books, that is taken least well.
What do they have need of such trifles, what good can scribbles on paper answer of the true dangers of the world? They ask, not in so many words it is true, they mutter and they look away, they give the tomes the same looks a fisherman might give a particularly unpleasant catch.
"Tell me captains, what do you think the first man to ever lay down greased charcoal to parchment and draw a map was told by his fellows?" you speak out loud and clear over the mounting whispers. "Was he lauded for his cleverness, or instead disdained as a fool who made more complex the art of sailing they had been practicing for long ages? ]My grandfather's grandfather sailed these waters with aid of naught but star and wave], might have said a man who would be in the end lost at sea and dashed against an unfamiliar shore..."
In the silence that follows Maelor jests without voice: "That's a lot of mummery, think we'll need to get some stage hands and glamor-wrights from the mirror shows to spruce up the curtains?"
"I'll take that under advisement," you reply dryly as the Sparr admits that he 'has quite the collection of maps' when it comes to not running afoul of the rocks and shoals of this new world. With that... well you would not say the floodgates open, books are still counted less precious than magic, certainly less precious than gold or steel, but not lightly discounted the truths recounted therein, you hope at least.
Lost 140 Protections From Evil Amulets
For now there are darker matters to consider, threats you cannot simply set in a book, nor loudly proclaim from the crest of Nagga's Hill. Old Wyk is drowning and the Iron Islands may yet drown with it if something is not done to stem the tide. As soon as the last of the captains has returned to their shore side camps to ponder their future and that of the Islands you and your companions go to work. Augur's smoke rises against the thin sunlight and carved dragon bones rattle against the black stone.
There are no easy answers.
"Whatever's doing this is working really far down," Vee explains, obviously frustrated by her own vagueness, but the living earth could only say so much about the molten heart of the world. "Black and veiled for longer than trees have grown and fish have swam."
"Why not just stop the water then?" Ser Richard offers. "Get folks off Old Wyk and then have the Merling King stop the wave..."
You glance towards the Reader, but the man shakes his head gravely. "There's over a hundred thousand people and more spread out all over the island. Even if you could move them all by magic, convincing them to move wouldn't be easy by far."
Asha does not look angry at this as you had expected, but haunted. "Some Lady I'll be to start my reign with a hundred thousand dead and one less Island. There will be Drowned Men popping up preaching doom like frogs after the rain, and not without cause."
You had not considered that. The Deep Ones may be acting from more than spite and rage, a hammer blow preparing the chisel strikes to come, undermine Asha's position and your rule in the Islands all at once. What do you do?
[] Into the Depths: Travel down to the roots of the island where the Doom of the Ironborn is wrought and prevent the sundering of Old Wyk
[] God's Shield: Try to evacuate as much of the island as possible and then stop the resulting wave through the power of the Merling King
[] Elder Roots: The Old Gods held sway here once, they can do so again. Attempt to create a network of weirwood roots that can hold Old Wyk together
[] Write in
OOC: Elder Roots is beyond what you can obtain through sacrifice alone, you don't have enough sacrifices to make, but the Old Gods really like you and the really hate the Deep Ones. If you give them the channel to act in the world to that scale they will try to hold the island together by their own strength.
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