Bound By Oath And Honor - An ASOIAF Hedge Knight Quest

Reader mode
There has been a fairly significant change in he background that is only now starting to impact the trajectory of politics.

I don't think anyone picked up on what it is so far though.
 
Azel said:
There has been a fairly significant change in he background that is only now starting to impact the trajectory of politics.

I don't think anyone picked up on what it is so far though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, going by the first post, apparently our boy thinks of Garth the Green as a knightly figure, despite his existence in myth and tale long predating the Andal invasion (and with it the concept of chivalry in Westeros).
 
Last edited:
Zimmerwald1915 said:
Well, going by the first post, apparently our boy thinks of Garth the Green as a knightly figure, despite his existence in story long predating the Andal invasion (and with it the concept of chivalry in Westeros).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a common thing of the setting though. A bunch of pre-Andal warriors and kings are re-contextualized as knights in contemporary retellings.

Much like how a lot of European religions and folklore got christianized later on.
 
Nah, Aerys died as canal-less as he did in canon. The portage between Seagard and the Blue Fork is just a bit of fanon that makes the whole "Ironborn invade the Riverlands" history much more sensible in my opinion. They wouldn't keep trying that if they didn't have a means to easily access inland waterways, or they'd instead go to the much richer Reach and plunder Highgarden on the regular like the vikings did with Paris.
 
Azel said:
Nah, Aerys died as canal-less as he did in canon. The portage between Seagard and the Blue Fork is just a bit of fanon that makes the whole "Ironborn invade the Riverlands" history much more sensible in my opinion. They wouldn't keep trying that if they didn't have a means to easily access inland waterways, or they'd instead go to the much richer Reach and plunder Highgarden on the regular like the vikings did with Paris.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Then my final guess is that Quillon didn't fuck up trying to raid the Reach (edit: at the ass end of Robert's Rebellion). Considering they're doing things that require a person to not be pants on head stupid/crazy with their war planning. That or Viserys and/or "His Sister" got smuggled to the Iron Islands instead of Essos.

Edited for clarity
 
Last edited:
Azel said:
That's a common thing of the setting though. A bunch of pre-Andal warriors and kings are re-contextualized as knights in contemporary retellings.

Much like how a lot of European religions and folklore got christianized later on.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Some people talk of legendary figures like Symeon Star-Eyes as if they were members of the Kingsguard even though the Kingsguard is only a few hundred years old.
 
Turn 2: Riverrun - Results New
  • Threadmarks
    • Turn 2: Riverrun - Results​

    After your first, largely restless night at Riverrun, your feet dragged you towards the sept in the early hours of the day. Of the many things Ser Orton had suggested while trying to talk to you, somehow this was the one that managed to stick for some reason. Maybe it was the prospect of talking with someone you'd not have to face all the time afterwards. Maybe it was the comforting memories of warm, if thin, soup and stale bread at the sept of Seagard.

    When entering the spacious, seven-sided building though, it was not a septon you saw. A simple cot had been placed before the statue of the Stranger on which lay a man you didn't recognize at first, until you saw his sigil. Two golden arrows on a field of green and white quartered. It was the knight who had died to the Ironborn raid. They had dressed him in a simple brown robe, his shield laid on his chest and two stones with eyes painted onto them onto his face.

    Next to him, leaning on a spear and half dozed off, stood his squire. He was about your age and that was about all you knew about him. You had talked maybe a dozen word with each other for the entire journey. What you did remember though was his forlorn look after the ambush. He had done nothing except guard the body of his master, even needing prompting to eat and sleep.

    You almost turned right away again, unsure if you were intruding and even less sure if you wanted to interact with the other squire. But it felt wrong to just leave and you instead stepped closer. The man had died fighting alongside you and you did not need Ser Orton's lessons on knightly behavior to know that this meant something. So, you uttered a quick prayer to the gods, the only thing that could still be done for the man.

    By time you were done, the squire had turned to you, blinking owlishly.

    "I just wished to pay my respects," you answered him awkwardly. He kept staring though with a quizzical look. "Arlan. From the boats. Page of Ser Orton," you added lamely.

    That seemed to have shaken him out of his stupor and after a start, he bowed his head light. "Sorry. I'm Richard. Squire of..." He paused awkwardly, a jolt of pain moving over his face. "Former squire of Ser Derrick of Oakward."

    "I'm sorry for your loss," you responded awkwardly. You had been with Ser Orton for scarcely over a month, so you had trouble relating to losing your master whom you had served for years. A cold whisper in your ear tried to remind you of Seagard, of what you might have lost there, but you squashed the thought immediately.

    "He was a hedge knight too, right?" you asked him, hoping for any kind of distraction from your own memories.

    His hand tightened on his spear. "Yes," he ground out with some rancor, though it at least didn't appear to be directed at you.

    After a moment, he carried on. "He deserved better. When I was just his page, he got called by his liege, Lord Darry, to fight in the Rebellion. We were captured after the Ruby Ford and by the time we returned to his manor house, it already had a new master. The land had been revoked from House Darry and the new master cared little about letting 'dragonmen' keep what was theirs. It wasn't fair or just. He had just followed his oaths."

    "Things rarely are fair and just," you said quietly, dozens of stories in mind that you could have shared.

    "No, they are not," he agreed, turning his gaze away to late to hide the wetness of his eyes. "They will bury him in Riverruns lichyard by midday, and then it is over. He'll never get his home back."

    "And what will you do then?" you asked carefully, looking at the body instead of the other squire.

    "Probably take up his arms," he replied without pause. "Though I don't know what for. I always thought I'd help him to regain his lands and titles, but now, what would the point even be?"

    A twisting gaggle of thoughts kept churning your mind. Ser Orton had said many things about justice, oaths and all that. It had been a very abstract thing for you until now. Oaths were just words in the end. Though the gods were supposed to be quite wroth with those who swore falsely, you also knew plenty people who broke oaths with no repercussions. Plenty of tales of knights becoming common robbers after the Rebellion too, oaths sworn or not.

    But it just felt wrong to see a knight and his squire left with nothing despite doing all the things they were supposed to. What was the point indeed? Why have oaths when those who broke them suffered no repercussions, and those who followed them got punished for it? Part of you was resigned to this being the way things were, but another just felt anger at it.

    "The world may not be just, but it doesn't have to remain so," you said after a while, putting far more conviction into your voice than you thought you had. "The prayer goes 'in the name of the Father, I charge you to be just', doesn't it? If no one is willing to fight for that, we might as well be robbing and murdering each other for scraps like the Ironborn."

    "Perhaps," Richard replied with a tired tone. "I'll have to think about it. Thank you, Arlan."

    "Gladly," you answered him and stepped away, leaving the squire to his thoughts and vigil.


    Oddly enough, the brief chat with the other squire had helped to alleviate your sleepless nights. You still went to the Sept a few more times afterwards, but Riverrun's septon unfortunately was not what you'd have called a good speaker. His sermons were fairly boring and the few times you tried to have a private chat with him, he always quick to point you to a passage of the Seven Pointed Star to read and contemplate on your own.

    Which you could not, because you couldn't read. Something the man just seemed to forget again before you were even finished telling him as much.

    Instead of trying to keep arguing with that mule of a man, you focused more on the other tasks you had set yourself. First and foremost, getting yourself some armor. With the meadows around Riverrun slowly being covered with tents as armsmen, knights and lords began to trickle in, you had a feeling that there soon would be quite the competition for the few smiths and tailors available.

    Unfortunately, it was apparently already too late. All the tailors and smiths were busy with large orders from Lord Tully or other lords, flatly telling you that unless you put down much more money than you could ever afford, you'd have to wait months to have your order done. But you did not have months.

    Instead of giving up though, you turned to other craftsmen. After a few days of asking around, you could find a furrier that had decided to make some quick money by dabbling in quilted armor, and a pewtersmith who was selling helmets that looked a bit rough hewn.

    You were not quite sure of the quality, though when you took Ser Orton along to give his opinion, he declared them likely the best you were going to get. Words like "good" or "adequate" did notably not leave his mouth.

    Worst of all was that you would not have much money left if you purchased them. You had haggled them down to 86 Silver Stags in total, which was nearly your entire coin pouch. Emptying it out immediately after gaining was not really appealing to you, but neither was the idea of ending up on a stretcher before a statue of the Stranger.

    Buy the armor?

    [] [Armor] Buy it. (Gain poor quality gambeson and poor quality kettle helmet. Lose 9 Silver Moons and 23 Silver Stags)

    [] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.


    You had been looking forward to the training with Ser Orton. Greatly so even. Ever since you were a boy, you had to take care of yourself. The city guard cared little for what happened to most of Seagards people, let alone a gutter snipe like you. You had learned how to defend yourself with fists and whatever was handy by sheer necessity, and shown some aptitude to it. Finally learning how to properly fight sounded great.

    By the end of the first week, the roosters crow filled you with dread. It had become the sign of and end to blessed unconsciousness and a herald of pain to come.

    It was not that Ser Orton was cruel in the way he taught, but by the Seven, he was a harsh teacher all the same. The first thing you did every morning was running running around the small courtyard he had commandeered for the two of you with a heavy pack so that you would get used to move with armor weighing you down.

    Then it was training with the mace, for however long his duties and your stamina allowed. It was nearly always the latter that cut your exercises short. The old knight might have looked less imposing than some of the young and broad arsmen and knights around you, but the decades of training weighed much more than mere appereances.

    At first you had hope that he would quickly turn to teaching you how to handle a sword, but that hope was quickly dashed. Ser Orton explained that with the war soon beginning in earnest, he was not going to teach you how to handle any other weapon until he felt you proficient enough with the mace to handle yourself. And his measure of proficient was high indeed.

    What he did add immediately though was a shield, which took some getting used to. While you had fought with clubs many times, you never had anything resembling a shield and you were rather awkward with it at first. The first few days had Ser Orton constantly pummel your left side with his training sword, admonishing you for just holding the shield there instead of working with it.

    By the second week, you had started to finally move it to block strikes with some proficiency without focusing on nothing but that. By the third, you even had managed to occasionally strike away the knights attacks with it. It felt like slow progress, though Ser Orton assured you that you were doing fine and picking it up at a good pace.

    Your arms and body still were bruised all the time from his hits. And every muscle ached from the strain. You were certainly improving, but you greatly suffered for it.

    Prowess increased.


    AN: I was considering to just roll the next turn into this post since there is not much to vote on besides deciding on the armor, but my writing time was rather limited over the last week and I didn't want to let y'all wait even longer.
     
  • New
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.

    That is nearly all of our money for armor made by people who don't normally ever make armor, and we are certain to ditch the moment we find something remotely better.
     
    [X] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.

    Just got to hope for the best, with any luck we'll get a chance for some plunder that has either more coin or some armor or preferably both with the next fight.
     
    [X] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.

    not interested in going into a sunk-cost fallacy just because this means we "wasted" our action.
     
    Normally I wouldn't have made this a vote at all since "go buy armor" won and so "go buy armor" it shall be, but I noticed after the vote got closed that there were rather rosy expectations of what you could get for your money.
     
    Azel said:
    Normally I wouldn't have made this a vote at all since "go buy armor" won and so "go buy armor" it shall be, but I noticed after the vote got closed that there were rather rosy expectations of what you could get for your money.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To be fair I expected this kind of equipment, I did not expect such a low quality for such a high price.
     
    [X] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.

    edit: We can probably get by with our shield for a little longer. On the other hand, any armor is generally better than no armor. Since we don't have access to psychotropic body paint
     
    Last edited:
    [X] [Armor] Don't buy the armor.

    While it's true that bad armor is better than no armor, I think we can get better bang for our buck in another place.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top