The Watchers' Tale
Sixteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC
As soon as you agree to look into the matter of bears and those who love them too long Cotter looks like a man who had all his feast-days for a year come together and was helpful as could be asked besides, probably to keep you from having second thoughts. The first step was sobering up the unfortunate maester Harmune by the simple means of dunking his head in a bucket of barely melted snow, then marching him along into the confines of the maester's tower.
Unsurprisingly Cotter himself is possessed of a mind wholly untouched by the temptations of written word, as is usual for smallfolk and
doubly so in the Iron Isles. He does, however, have a fine eye for maps, quickly ferreting out one scribed on fine grey seal-skin, showing the Haunted Forest as far as a hundred leagues from the Wall, well north of Hardhome, though of course the details become sketchier the farther from the Wall and the coast one went. In spite of these short-comings the lands around Eastwatch are filled with the markers of tribal camps, deep cave networks in which one might find shelter, and a surprising amount of old ruins.
Gained Fine Seal-Skin Map of the Far North
That is how you learn that far from being the only proper wildling settlement as all the histories you read insist, the town was in fact the most successful fishing and trading port on the peninsula that forms the northern edge of the Bay of Seals, all supposedly belonging to what the now marginally sober Maester calls the crab-folk, for their manner of worship. Though these settlements declined with the destruction of Hardhome three centuries before the Conquest, they did not all fully share its fate. Commander and maester both suggest talking to them about where to find the encampment of their erstwhile brethren.
"The crab-men are still wildlings, so ye should not trust them for shit least you have more men than them, but they aren't mad reavers like the man-eating sons of bitches on the Frozen Shore," Cotter explains, leaving you to wonder just
how savage those wildlings must be for an Ironborn to call them thus.
"Well that would be something of a problem seeing as there are only three of us," you admit. "Still it should not be that hard to show them the error of their ways and have them show us these bear-men that have been causing trouble."
"Be mighty fine if you could do that, but if you want a ranging to lead you I can get 'em out and supplied 'fore noon." It's clear enough Cotter is very interested in getting the only friendly wizards he's found to fix his problem without some stray arrow getting in the way.
Even beyond the offer of guides and guards he gifts you heavy cloaks, gloves, and boots, not only warm but handsome to look at, trimmed with lustrous fur: fox, wolf, and even ironically bear. At your questioning look the commander explains that the fort often trades the finest furs to passing ships, offering such ready-made wares as samples to the captains. Mayhap the trade ship that passed this way did not do so poorly out of it after all.
Though you do not truly need it you take the proffered gear just the same, knowing that generous trade often makes for stronger bonds than gifts unearned.
Gained three sets of Masterwork Winter Gear
About the rest of the wildlings the men of Eastwatch know considerably less than they do of the crab-men, though you still more than you could have learned from books. For one they hate being called that and think of themselves as Free Folk, that is people who will kneel to no man and follow only the one who proves strength to them. From the fact that there
have been propper Kings Beyond the Wall before, you guess that does not mean that the leader has to personally wrestle into the ground each and every one of his followers whenever the mood strikes them... Still, it sounds like a maddening 'system' almost designed to keep the poor bastards in squalor, killing and stealing from each other as much as the Watch more often than trading and living in peace. Dany calls it 'living like wolves in the woods,' shaking her head sadly at the same waste.
Still they are not
all raiders to make an Ironborn look peaceful. You hear that the Thenns in the valleys of the Frostfangs to the west still live in halls of stone and work bronze like the First Men of yore rather than making do with stone and stolen steel.
"Waymar might find a visit to his liking, when he is no longer
busy," Ser Richard muses, having unbent slightly upon concluding that it is at the very least
unlikely for the Black Brothers to attack you after all the favors you are doing them.
You idly wonder what the two men in the tower with you would think if you explained your friend is busy being a sea star to regrow an arm...
"Is it true there are still giants up there?" Dany asks, drawing your attention back to the conversation at hand.
"Not many of them," Maester Harmune answers. "However, our brothers from Castle Black say they have been gathering around the Fist of the First Men." He points out the ruin on the map. "No one is sure what they are doing there, but they are not attacking the rangers, so obviously we are inclined to leave them be."
"Wise thought," Ser Richard says, giving you and Dany both a meaningful look. Alas for the poor beleaguered knight it has as little effect on you as it does on Dany.
What do you do next?
[] Ask more questions
-[] Write in
[] Set off to find the crab men
-[] Alone
-[] With a guide
-[] With guides and guards
[] Write in
OOC: To anyone who did not get to vote, sorry, but I saw a pretty hefty consensus and figured I could get another part off today.
