Winter is Coming: House Stark Quest

Are you telling me you don't want to kill all the Dornish?


Honestly, if it was just the Martells then they can hang for all I care in this case. The trouble is getting the rest of the Dornish to accept that or at least submit.

I'm generally anti-genocide, but I'll stick to the practical in this case. Wiping out Dorne could be costly in resources and the lives of our men. We vastly outnumber them, but it's still a force of 30,000.

Like I said, I don't care about the Martells themselves here, but it could be easier to get the Dornish to settle for peace and go back home if the Martells agree rather than trying to flip their vassals. Especially after they saw what happened to the Yronwoods when they tried something.

We should try to turn as many Dornish lords as possible, then squash whatever remains of the Martell forces. Martells are hardcore Targ loyalists and have massive hateboners for the Baratheons. Best to get rid of them while we can, otherwise they'll inevitably cause some trouble down the line. Same with the loyalists in the Crownlands.

Dorne already has one of the smallest armies in Westeros, and on top of that, not all of them have marched with Oberyn. If we can get enough of these lords to defect, this will be another curbstomp. We just need to make sure not to charge into Dorne. You don't defeat a Dornish army in Dorne. They'll need to come north if they want to support the Golden Company. Hit them in a strategic location in either the Reach or the Stormlands.

Do the Martells have that much to gain from supporting the Targs here, though? Yeah, revenge and all that, but that's not the key thing for Doran.

Even if Doran was trying to set up the marriage deal of AriannexViserys before that's no longer in the cards. And it's not like there would have been a lot of mourning for Rhaegar or Aerys.


Yeah, they definitely tried to betray us. And we anticipated that betrayal and tried to preemptively betray them. Mutual shenanigans. If we can just get them to go back to Dorne and avoid a fight then it'll be easier to focus on the Iron Fleet, the Golden Company, and making sure the Reach is secure. That's enough on our plate as it is.

I like this plan. We should hit the Golden Company before they can drum up support and inflate their numbers.

Except we don't know where they are. Nor do we know where the Iron Fleet are.

It's possible they're collaborating at this point.

If we don't have fight Dorne that's more resources and attention we can devote to hunting down F!Aegon and the Iron Fleet.
 
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With dragons on his side

They can't be larger than dogs at this point if they exist at all in this timeline. (Around the size when Dany was in Qarth) And reconnaissance? The Targs aren't wargs, they can't speak to the dragons, and they're too small to ride yet, again if they exist at all. They're pretty much a non-factor.

EDIT: Ninja'd
 
We could at least try to arrange a meeting, yeah? See if terms can be reached.

Lemme remember quickly what happened when there was a meeting for peace with dornish.
How about no? I am for killing all the dornish nobility that took arms and marry off what's left. They don't have honor. It's not a bad thing per se if it weren't for the fact that they are our ennemies.

On another note, marrying Brienne to the one that made her biggest failure (she failed to protect Renly) is quite harsh.
 
I think we rolled for that, one egg hatched, and then died before it could come to fruition. Charcolt never confirmed, mind you.

I'll stay properly paranoid, then.

Didn't they land at Maidenpool or something a while back? We should be getting proper reports about their position by now.

Plus they are an army, they can't exactly hide that easily.

They burned Saltpans and presumably landed there.

As for where they might be...teleportation device.
 
Where's Jaqen H'ghar?
For whatever reason this inspired a thought...which inspired an Omake..ish...thing. I don't even know if Omake's are even rewarded here buuut...oh well.

Think I'll call it...

Tastes Like Tart Despair
(Cause I suck at naming things, that's why.)
The man named Jaqen H'ghar let the scent of baking bread fill a man's nose, the sound of sizzling meat fill a man's ears, and the all encompassing warmth of a kitchen consume a man's senses.

Even if only for a moment for this man had long learned to take in the smaller pleasures of life when given opportunity. Yet, it was not pleasure which had brought Jaqen H'ghar to this place. A man was in search of a particular quarry and it was in this kitchen that this quarry might be found.

Jaqen H'ghar stood unseen in the shadows of the doorway, a guardsmen's attire left questions unneeded if seen, and waited for the perfect moment. That moment came sooner than later and so with one step, then two steps, and finally three a man came silently beside the reason for coming to the castle named Winterfell.

"A boy saved a man's life." Jaqen murmured as a finger ran through some stray filling to bring it to a man's waiting tongue.

'Blackberry', was the thought that came to the mind of the Many-Faced God's servant as the boy jumped from the sudden company.

"W-what?" Asked the boy who had saved Jaqen H'ghar's life, eyes widened enough in surprise that they looked to take up the majority of his face.

"A boy gives a man drink when the man has a great thirst, the boy gives a man food when the man hurts from hunger, and a boy gives a man keys when men come for blood." Jaqen continued, heedless of the boy's confusion, before holding up three fingers with one hand while the other stole a berry from the table top. "Three times a boy helps a man, three lives a boy saves, and three names a boy will give to repay the debt."

Jaqen H'ghar awaited the boy's answer, wondering if it would be a Lord's name that would pass from the boy's lips or a lovely maid who had slighted him. In all honesty he did not expect the response he got in the end.

"Huh?" Hot Pie asked dumbly.

--------​
It was many days after that first meeting in the kitchens and it was many days that the man named Jaqen H'ghar tried to pry a name, any name, from the Pie Boy's lips much less three.

It was all for naught, of course.

"Don't rightly know any names to give you." Hot Pie informed the odd 'Sossi man who'd stuck to his side since coming to live at Winterfell. Every day the strange man would come and ask for a name and every time Hot Pie'd tell him he didn't have no names to give. At first he'd given him three names right quick like: Gendry, Arry, and Lommy Greenhands. Then it turned out the names were for killing and he took back those names even quicker than he'd given them.

Imagine it, him killing his friends completely by accident! One of them Lord Stark's daughter and the other one the old King's! Mad it was, absolutely mad...he didn't much fancy being eaten by a direwolf like one of his pies whenever Arya came to visit him.

He didn't think he'd get in much trouble over Lommy though...unless he was a lordling too and nobody knew it. Not even Lommy. Hot Pie would still feel awful about it though.

"A boy must surely have at least one name?" The weird-talking murder man pleaded, almost desperately. "A man whose position the boy covets, a man who holds the heart of the boy's beloved, a man who has slighted the boy terribly. Someone."

Hot Pie was about to shake his head 'no' for the hundredth time before a thought hit that maybe there was someone he wouldn't mind sending Jaqen H'ghar after.

"Well...now that I really think about it..." He began as he stroked his chin like he'd seen the merchant folk do when they were thinking of dealings causing Jaqen to lean forward with maybe the most hope-filled look Hot Pie'd ever seen. "There was that Goldcloak bastard who got me thrown in with the bunch meant for the Wall. Jem, I think his name was...Jem Ten-teeth! That's what the other one called 'im! Might could give you the other one's name too if I can remember it..."

Jaqen immediately began straightening himself from where he had been leaning over the table top, dusting flour off the front of his guardsmen outfit (Hot Pie never did ask how he got that...). "A man will do as he said...one day from now, two days, a moon's turn or after winter's passing it will be do-."

"'Course, they're probably all cooked up by now, what with the Mad King's fire an' all..." Hot Pie continued only to be startled from his thoughts by a loud thump. Looking up from kneading his dough Hot Pie saw Jaqen H'ghar face first in a pile of flour.

He must of slipped and hurt himself pretty bad because there was a very loud screaming coming from the flour which sent the powder flying everywhere like tasty snow.
 
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We have one plan so far, but we should be going over what we want to do and what we have to do it with.

Find and defend against the Iron Fleet. They haven't been seen since passing Seagard. How far could they have gotten by now? They could have gone further out to avoid being spotted so they may pop up anywhere.

-Make sure coastal towns and castles are keeping keeping an eye out if they aren't already.
-For fleets we have Stannis's fleet, the Manderlys, any of the Royal Fleet we managed to recover, and the Redwyne's. Any other major naval assets I'm missing?

The Dornish: we should send a force, of course. Tarly at the head. But we could send messages on ahead for possible terms to avoid a fight. I just don't have ideas for those terms beyond 'turn around and go home and you get to live'. After the Yronwood debacle I feel like there needs to be more for both sides for peace to actually happen. Of course, there is the option of 'fuck it, kill them all'.


F!Aegon/Golden Company:

He must have some naval support as well, we should keep that in mind.
Blackfish being put in charge of a scouting force is good. But we can't stretch our armies or naval assets too thin in searching for Aegon.


We still have our Riverland/North/Vale forces intact. We don't know how much of the Reach and Stormlands we can expect to get together into Tarly's levy, exactly. Stafford's host in the West is probably still around, though I doubt they'd be inclined to help us. Maybe send them to hunt the Iron Fleet down? That's a goal that defends their own shores.
 
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Enthusiasm is always rewarded and appreciated! You could have a positive modifier on any future action, or PM me something you might like to see happen.
Woo! I'll need to think on it.

For fleets we have Stannis's fleet, the Manderlys, any of the Royal Fleet we managed to recover, and the Redwyne's. Any other major naval assets I'm missing?
Shield Islands and Hightower have fleets I believe. Estermont and Tarth may have some as well.
 
We really should be making and voting for plans, guys.

Plan: Hunter and Hunted is a good start, but I don't care for the delay tactics.

Also, while we can't ignore the host that Oberyn is leading, we can't be sure he's leading the Dornish army, just a Dornish army. Could he be leading a smaller force and the rest are either at home, or are taking another route? What other possible routes are there...

Something to consider while we're having a force (likely under Tarly) gear up to confront the Dornish.

And I know some of the voters want to just crush the Dornish. Or at very least want the Martells to be finished. But I know want to try to sway some houses away from the Martells. Whether trying to get them all to go home, or swaying certain houses, ravens will be sent initially, of course. Any direct meeting to discuss exact terms would have to be carefully arranged.

Arguments we might use to get them to go home: F!Aegon is obviously a pretender and he's supported by nothing other than invading Essosi sell swords. With our defeat of Renly, Aegon's not long for this world so there's no point in going down with him.
The Dornish have to realize their odds aren't at all good right now. I have a feeling they'll ask for something to try to save face in some way, though.

Arguments to try to sway other Dornish houses: Not sure. Offering them a chance to replace the Martells could backfire in light of what happened to the Yronwoods.

Or we just say 'fuck it' and have Tarly go after them with a bunch of Stormlanders and Reachmen. Of course, keeping in mind that Oberyn's force might not be the main one.


Aegon moved west after landing in Saltpans and sacked some villages and castles, right?

He probably won't find allies by heading further West. Heading towards the North or the Vale overland would be suicide and he'd have little to gain. Camiadus is right that he probably went to Harrenhal or Crackclaw Point.
But which one do we check first. Head north on the Kingsroad, or northeast towards Rosby, Duskendale, etc. Of course we'll get the Blackfish a group of outriders and have him search ahead. But we need an order of places to go looking for Aegon. And a plan for whether we need to hunt him down or we find ourselves seiging wherever he's holed up.


Then there's the Iron Fleet. No sightings since Seagard. Based on travel time do we have any idea on where they might be, @Charcolt ? Or at least where they couldn't be.

Stannis's fleet and Manderly's are best used to hunt for whatever naval assets the Golden Company used to get here.

The Royal fleet should defend Blackwater Bay and the forces that are there to protect the survivors of King's Landing. Fleets like the Eastermonts and Tarth are suitable for protecting the Stormlands. The Westerlands I'm sure are making sure to protect their own coasts. That leaves the western and eastern coasts of the North and the Reach. Though the latter has the Redwyne fleet. We could send them out to patrol for the Iron Fleet, I think.
 
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Then there's the Iron Fleet. No sightings since Seagard. Based on travel time do we have any idea on where they might be, @Charcolt ? Or at least where they couldn't be.

No one has reported a sighting to you. There are rumors that they decided to go bother Essos and make some quick cash rather than getting involved, but Stannis considers that too clever for the Ironborn. Of course with them having been at sea most of the time it's entirely possible they don't know what's going on with the other kingdoms completely.
 
Hm, just a quick reminder people, but "Stannis's fleet" is in fact the Royal Fleet. He took the majority of it with him when he left King's Landing to head back to Dragonstone. So try not to order around multiple fleets that don't actually exist.

Actually, let's make proper usage of Stannis's current domination of the sea right now and properly plan this out. We know for a fact that the Golden Company and whatever other forces that "Aegon" have landed at the Saltpans, which is located at the mouth of the Trident. This means that whatever fleet they used to transport them is still going to be somewhere in the Bay of Crabs, otherwise the Manderly fleet would have sighted them as they swung around Gulltown and cut straight to Dragonstone.

Now, there's a number of options we could pursue regarding this, but the one that I would favor the most is simply blockading the exit of the Bay of Crabs and then pushing up until the Royal Fleet reaches Maidenpool. Obviously now, we should leave a not insignificant portion of the fleet behind to safe guard the refugees of KL and the other areas in the Blackwater Bay. The priority should be to actively seek out threats and end them though.

Now, because we are making use of the navy Stannis commands to at as a pinning force, to prevent the Targaryens from easily withdrawing, we need to act in concert with this to ensure they don't slip through our fingers. The absolute worst case scenario here, besides Stannis being killed and another civil war starting that is, is that "Aegon", Daenerys, and the GC manage to withdraw in good order and then become a long running problem for us. To prevent this, Stannis will be marching northeast along the King's Road with a force of at least 40,000 men, large enough to comfortably outnumber the GC and any additional mercenaries at least 2:1.

The only major inhibiting factor here is that there is a dearth of knowledge when it comes to the Targaryen forces, even including their specific location. To address this, we should pursue two avenues of action, the first already being mentioned with the Blackfish and his scouts and outriders. The second avenue would be sending out ravens to contact House Velaryon and Celtigar. Both of them are sworn to Stannis, and in the books the Velaryons were actually some of his most loyal supporters, but both houses are age old Targaryen loyalists and supporters. There is absolutely no way "Aegon" has not made any contact with them to try and win them over.

Celtigar is really the only one I'm worried about though, cause they rule over Crackclaw Point. Which would, if they did respond to Aegon, make it a very tempting area to relocate to and try and gather strength.

While this is going on to the north, Randyll Tarly will be going south with a combined Reach/Stormlander army to confront and crush the Martell host. Not only does this have to be done in order to stop them from linking up with the Targaryens, but it also has to be done to reinforce Stannis's position as king. He can't let the Dornish get away with this shit and not even get bloodied or humbled for it. It makes Stannis look not only weak, but outright foolish.

Plus, fuck the Dornish. Just fuck em.

Oh, and there's no point in worrying about the Ironborn. If they haven't been raiding anyone, then no harm done, and if they do try to raid anybody but Dorne at this point...well Stannis sank their fleets to the bottom of the ocean before. He can do it again.

With all of this said, here is my plan:

[X] Plan: Bent, Bowed, Broken. Salt and Tears.
[] Ravens are to be sent out to House Velaryon and Celtigar acknowledging their years of loyal service, but still recognizing their age old ties to the Targaryens. This mercenary invader pretends to possess the Targaryen name, and he also claims marriage to the last of Aerys the Mad's spawn, and possibly sought to legitimize his claim and gain a foothold by seeking to make use of now forgone loyalties. If they have any information of this pretender, they are to reveal it to Stannis post haste.
-[] Make use of the Blackfish's expertise by having him lead outriders and scouts in the Riverlands to find the location or movements of the Golden Company. If they actually have elephants, they can't hide for long.
-[] Send a raven to Maidenpool to ensure it's defenses hold and to report back any movement and information of the GC and other mercenary forces.
[] Stannis will take an army north along the King's Road following behind Blackfish and his scouts. This will allow him to quickly maneuver and pin the Targaryen force if they have gone either west or south, the only paths open to them. This force should be large enough to quite comfortably give Stannis the advantage with the sheer weight of numbers alone. Also, a heavy cavalry force is esential to prevent the GC from being able to make use of theirs unchallenged. If any men have experience or knowledge of how to quickly dispatch elephants they are to be summoned to Stannis's side to inform him.
-[] While Stannis is marching north along the King's Road, the Royal Fleet will act as a naval pincer. They will sail in force to the mouth of the Bay of Crabs and then towards Maidenpool from their. A small blockade force at the very least should be left at the mouth of the Bay of Crabs, to prevent any repeat of the last Targaryen escape. A portion is also to be left behind in the Blackwater to maintain it's security.
[] Randyll Tarly is to immediately be dispatched south with an army of Reachmen/Stormlanders to confront and break the Martell host. Beric Dondarion is to accompany him while Edric Dayne stays with either Stannis or Davos to guarantee his safety.
-[] If Oberyn Martell is captured he is to be immediately executed in light of his reputation. He is wholly without honor and can not be trusted to remain a hostage.
-[] Ravens are to be dispatched to any Dornish Houses that are not loyal to any great degree to the Martells, informing them that if they do not swear to Stannis they will not be given any leniency or mercy.

Edit: My plan is the best plan, and it has no flaws. Diplomacy is for losers that don't have 140,000 men in their army.
 
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