A Game of Thrones RPG, part 4
May. 14th, 2011 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
king_pellinorAt Easter we had the fourth part of the Game of Thrones RPG I'm GMing.
As no-one has ever written up the previous ones properly, I thought I'd record this one for posterity and possibly to avoid a repeat of the Driftwood Hall Fiasco.
Eastwatch
After the battle at the shipyard the party and the remaining Brians withdrew to Kingshouse, where the Thane of Magnar, Blond Brian, regaled their victory. Making their excuses before the ox was even half-cooked, the party hastened to the Wild Goose, parked off the south coast, and headed to Eastwatch.
Behind them, Magnar mustered his men for war, sent messages to the lesser clans to aid him, and sent a trusted jarl to Deepdown to call the Thane of Crowl to an alliance against the evil Stanes and their overner cohorts.
On the way to Eastwatch the various documents were reviewed. It was established that they were indeed on paper, written with what appeared to be ink. All were somewhat crumpled, although one – giving some details of the party’s livery and the existence of Turnpike - was much more so, and written in a different hand.
It was concluded that something odd was going on, and that it had something to do with someone claiming to be called “Turnpyke Rivers”, who was therefore asked to contribute something to the debate.
It emerged that Turnpyke had grown up in the care of someone purporting to be his Aunty Eider, near the Flint Cliffs. His parents had, he understood, been killed by pirates, and he lived a hard life under the stairs of his Aunty’s rude hut being regularly beaten up - losing an eye in one beating. He had to catch fish and steal bread to survive, and eventually he ran off to the Neck where he found employment at an establishment called the Forked Frog. He then came east to Selador, where he joined Lord Darnell’s navy because all he’s ever wanted to do is beat up pirates. He can’t explain why people keep pointing at him.
Some of the rest of the party thought that this was not the complete truth, but suggestions of planks and whips were put to one side for the present.
Shortly after this conversation sails were seen to the east and south, which seemed to be heading towards the Wild Goose. After a shaky start they were left behind and the Goose came in to Eastwatch.
A young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Wild Goose, and ran into town.
The party landed and went to find important people. They found Anton Darnell and gave him some mead from Skagos as a present. Edmun recounted the story so far:
- Roland let some pirates in to Selador and they stole the old Salt
- Edmun recovered the salt singlehandedly and set off to catch more pirates
- There is evidence linking a lord on Skagos to slave trading and to a mustering of men north of the Wall
- The Thane of Stane may have been selling weapons to the Wildlings. He’s building ships that look like Iron Islander ones, taking slaves from Westeros and selling them in Lys to get the weapons.
- It may be that the Wildlings are looking to strike south using ships. The muster may therefore be an attempt to draw the Watch’s attention north, while the attack happens in the south.
As the party had decided to head off to Lys, on the basis that they had a map showing where it was, Anton borrowed the Wild Goose and a small crew so that he could take some Rangers up north to find out what was going on up there.
The trip to Lys
The party and all named attendant NPCs set off in the Lady Anduin, in lovely favourable weather for sailing South-East.
Unfortunately the two ships which had pursued them to Eastwatch had now caught up, and were visible directly in the way.
Turnpyke suggested to Patrek Spens that they should head off north-east and go round the north of Skagos, conveniently avoiding any confrontation. The longships got their oars out to claw up-wind, but Turnpyke was confident that they would tire before they could close on the Lady Anduin.
The longships closed steadily, one faster than the other, and the wind veered round to the north-east, leaving the Lady Anduin unable to make any sensible headway. Patrek turned her to the north-north-west to try to make some northings; this seemed to work, as the slower longship turned away and the faster one gradually lost ground.
The trip after that was fairly uneventful, taking about two weeks. Jacob sparred with anyone who’d join in, and Edmun took to singing sea shanties – so badly that he became quite a hit with the sailors, who rather enjoyed laughing at their lord’s inept son.
Landfall was made in a fairly unremarkable bit of coast, and Patrek, who’d never sailed those waters, couldn’t quite tell whether they were north or south of Lys. Heading south, the party managed to locate a peasant hovel. Landing from their warship and striding ashore begirt with swords, they were somewhat taken aback to find him hiding from them.
He didn’t react to having the door hammered on, but he did venture to taste some Skagosian mead after Jacob had drunk from the bottle. He didn’t really like it, though, and various people pointing in random directions and saying “Lys? Lys? Lice? Lees? Lyyyyys?” didn’t allay his confusion and fear much, but he did wave in a generally southerly direction.
There was some debate about whether he was pointing towards Lys, or away from it, or just randomly, so it was decided that more accurate directions should be sought.
A little to the south was a fishing boat, which also seemed to react rather oddly to the sight of a foreign warship full of armed men pointing excitedly at it and bearing down on it at a rate of knots. Luckily the international language of diplomacy came to the rescue, and by buying some fish the party managed to get another random wave in a generally southerly direction.
Sailing south, the lookout sighted a huge domed temple above a white city on an island, and it was decided that they ought to stop there and ask where Lys might be. On the way into harbour a long low launch with a lateen to larboard approached and hailed the ship. Strangely the pilot didn’t seem to speak Valyrian – it can only be concluded that Edmun’s accent was too pure for such common folk – but he did speak Westerosi, with only a hint of a Lyseni accent. He gratefully accepted a sip of mead, welcomed the vessel to Lys, enquired whether there were any illicit cargoes aboard, offered to provide names of reputable suppliers of illicit cargoes to fill the lamentable lack of them, and guided the ship to berth 37B.
Nearby was a galleas that looked vaguely familiar – it looked a bit like the late Captain Francesco’s, but wasn’t.
The question was then raised: what are we doing here?
The markets of Lys
It was decided to venture into Lys in search of the reason for being there.
In order to allay any suspicions that they might be foreign, it was decided that the party should disguise itself. With Jacob dressed as a clueless Westerosi nobleman, Edmun as his Dothraki guide with a Braavosi accent, and Turnpyke as a thuggish bodyguard, this idea was apparently abandoned.
Those three decided to pretend to be Targaryen loyalists from Braavos looking for slaves of Westerosi descent, while Jared and Leo went looking for other clues, and Justyn went to make local contacts in local tavernas.
The Targaryen party went off in search of a slave market, and after a few minutes of failing to find one asked for help from a passer-by. He was very helpful, speaking in fluent Braavosi, though he did stare thoughtfully after them for a little while once they’d gone.
The entrance to the slave market was a big arched affair with a couple of guards, who let them in without any trouble. Inside was a wide courtyard with a platform at one end, although no slave auction was in progress, and with shops in the colonnades round the outside. Most of these seemed to have muscular young men or nubile young ladies in the windows, none of them wearing very much or looking very interested, although one had an old man bent over a desk scribbling away.
Going in to the one with the scholar, Edmun enquired (on behalf of his master, Jacob), whether there were any unusual ones available – his master being interested in, er, paler flesh than some. Senor Anonymo regretted that none were available, although sometimes some were; for a small price he directed the party to House Myrello, who sometimes have them.
It was decided that as they’d come into the shop they should at least buy something, and as the only visible slave was the chap in the window they went to look at him. They established that he was a scribe with poor teeth, but after offering 200 silvers against an asking price of 500 they gave up on haggling and left.
They returned briefly to ask directions, and were given a slave boy who took them directly to House Myrello. He hung around for a bit, as returning without some sort of tip would almost certainly earn him a beating, but was waved off by Edmun; Jacob however relented and gave him some coppers, at which he brightened up enormously and left.
House Myrello was a big posh-looking building with a big door and few windows in a quiet tree-lined square off the main road, with a guard at the door. He didn’t want to let them on, but changed his mind when he realised they had money and directed them to a small reception room to the right. This had a desk with a scribbling clerk at it, plus some comfy chairs and simple but elegant corporate decorations.
Edmun introduced himself as Rago, servant of Ser Jacob Strongarm the loyal vassal of the Targaryens and hopeful purchaser of pale-skinned slaves.
The clerk regretted that they were fresh out of Westerosi slaves, and that none were due in for a while. No, he couldn’t direct the party to recent customers for reasons of confidentiality. Although… one shipment was several weeks overdue, and might arrive any moment, so Ser Jacob might be lucky. But for the moment nothing – maybe try again tomorrow?
The party was somewhat suspicious of a slave merchant not having the exact slaves they wanted available for sale, and so decided that the only reasonable course of action was to break into the building that night and ransack it in search of clues. In the meantime they interrogated a lemonade seller whose stall had a clear view of the square, but apparently he didn’t keep meticulous notes of the passers-by – or at least he wasn’t prepared to share them, despite Edmun over-paying for some lemonade he didn’t actually drink. Notes were however taken of handy windows that could be used for spying from, and of possible ways for Justyn to get into the building, Justyn having volunteered (in absentia) to undertake the burglary.
In the meantime Jared and Leo went looking for a market, and couldn’t fail to find one. Passing by a stall with mouthwatering pastries for sale, they went to a bookshop. The stallholder (who was fluent in Westerosi, though with a slight accent) proudly pointed out the many books for sale, and the small pile of Westerosi ones. Jared found a book of interesting weapons, and although he couldn’t read it he deftly turned the conversation to the purchasing of weapons.
The bookstallholder nipped out the back and returned with a weaponstallholder, also fluent in Westerosi (at least, fluent in “Yes”, “Sword”, “Dagger” and “two hundred silver please”) who showed off his superb collection of rusty arakhs and an ornamental dagger with a bit missing. After some haggling hindered by the fluency of the weaponstallhoder’s Westerosi, Jared left to go to look at dogs.
He found a marvellous salukoid hound, formerly the prized hunting dog of an emperor (or possibly king, duke or prince) whose name he didn’t catch. He offered 10 silvers for it, but as this was far less than the 140 silvers the dogstallholder had paid for it – much less the 200 silver asking price – he didn’t get it.
So Leo went and paid a couple of silver pieces for some of the books, after which Jared decided he didn’t want to be the only one without a souvenir so he bought the dog for 22 silvers, but without a collar.
The whole party then met up back at the ship, apart from Justyn who was busy making friends and influencing people – or at least someone was under the influence of something – to compare results. When Edmun realised that he didn’t have a souvenir either, they went off back to Anonymo’s to buy the scribe, ostensibly to read the Lyseni documents for them, or possibly as the first blow in the war against slavery, it wasn’t quite clear.
After much haggling Ariston the philosopher was bought for 300 silver pieces. Edmun’s attempt to buy him on approval failed, as the merchant’s vaunted 3-year warranty could not be impugned by the suggestion that a slave might need to be returned in only a few days.
It turns out that Ariston, who spoke excellent Westerosi to Edmun even while Edmun was keeping up the pretence of being a Dothraki Braavo, was a philosopher from the shores of the Summer Sea who had been taken by Dothraki slavers several months before while travelling north of Slaver’s Bay. He spoke Westerosi, Valyrian, various Free City dialects, Dothraki, and his local dialects, was familiar with the arts of oratory, philosophy, scribing, debate, pedagogy, administration of noble households, and could colour in documents nicely.
Ariston translated the various receipts, which revealed that the slaves had been sold to House Myrello in return for weapons, armour, sailing equipment and so on.
Edmun freed Ariston (who prepared a proper receipt for this) and asked him to come along with them as a court philosopher at Selador. Not wishing to be left alone in a foreign city, Ariston accepted, and pointed out that the ship was under surveillance.
The docks
After much not looking now and rolling of Spot checks, it was determined that there had been two people spying on the Lady Anduin, but that only one was now visible. A cunning plan was hatched to capture this spy:
- Jacob and Jeren would take Jared’s mastiffs for a walk, conveniently ending up behind the spy;
- Turnpyke would sneak up behind the spy, disguised as a sea otter
- …
- Profit!
As a couple of guards approached, Jacob put this plan into action. Setting the mastiff at the spy he grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The mastiff got the leaping up bit right, but wasn’t sure whether this was in earnest or not and so settled for slobbering on the spy rather than biting his throat out. Jeren recognised that if a signal had been pre-arranged it would have looked like this, and moved to help, but unfortunately dropped his dog’s lead in grabbing the spy and helping Jacob hustle him towards the boat.
Jared spotted the guards coming, and hastened off towards them with a couple of spaniels in tow, and by dint of first asking touristic questions and then accidentally getting the spaniels tangled up in them succeeded in keeping them out of action for the crucial first few seconds.
After those first twenty seconds or so, it became apparent that the plan of leaping out and grabbing a local with no shared language while in full view of both the police and a lot of by standing witnesses could perhaps have stood a little more thought and critical discussion. By the time Edmun had sent first Andar and then Robb to help, and the guards had gotten past the weaving spaniels, and Turnpyke had been beaten round the head by some unknown cosh-armed person in a black cloak who may or may not have been associated with the presumed spy, and a number of the more spirited (in a number of senses) members of the public had decided to investigate, things had got a little fraught.
Fortunately Edmun has the inspired idea of claiming that the swarthy person lounging on the docks in Lys, wearing Lyseni garb, shouting for help in fluent Lyseni, and known to one of the guards as a local trouble-maker was actually a crewmember of the Westerosi ship that had only just arrived in port. This rather neatly relieved Jacob of the vexing crossbow which had hitherto been pointed at his head, although to be fair it merely transferred the problem to Edmun.
Drawing a veil over the unpleasant scenes which followed, we have time only to see the spy being escorted by the guards to a local lock-up and released some time later, spotting the Westerosi dog-walker involved in the recent fracas who was coincidentally following him, and somehow losing the foreigner in the mazy backstreets of the spy’s own home town.
Selador
After a hasty departure from Lys, the Lady Anduin paused in Tyrosh for some shore leave before heading off to Selador.
On the way Edmun gave up the sea shanties in favour of discussing philosophy with Ariston; Jacob sparred with Jeren, Jon, Donal, etc; Turnpyke spent some time with Patrek talking about techniques of command and people management, and Jared did something unmentionable.
After 10 days or so Selador was reached, with the Lady Anduin receiving a warm welcome home from Lord Tomas and the people of the town. Everyone dispersed to his quarters, except that Edmun went off with Lord Tomas to talk about recent events.
Lord Tomas asked about Skagos – he’d heard that the party had been up that way. Edmun summarised the position thus:
- House Stane has links with the pirates
- The Stanes are raiding the east coast to get slaves which they sell in Lys, to obtain weapons with which they are arming the Wildlings
- He has no idea why
- Uncle Anton is well, and Eastwatch is aware of the position
- A captured pirate ship has been left at Eastwatch. It was of Iron Island design but not Iron Island quality; similar ones are being built on Skagos, so there may be an Iron Island connexion.
- At Lys it was established that House Myrello was involved, but this may only be in a commercial context, so this seems to be a dead end.
- It seems that this is more than piracy – perhaps a plot to invade the North?
- Lord Bolton was very helpful, and sent soldiers to help.
- Young Jon is developing as a good swordsman and swimmer.
Edmun now intends to head north to Eastwatch to help Anton.
Lord Tomas added the following:
- Skagos appears to be descending into civil war, with the Magnars and Crowls against the Stanes. Big Brians have little Brians upon their sides for fighting; little Brians have lesser Brians, and so forth.
- Lord Stark is getting worried about the Wildlings
- Lord Darnell has suggested moving part of the Dragonstone fleet north to counter the pirates.
Edmun suggested that sending an army to Skagos to eliminate the shipyard could be a good idea, and marks the shipyard on Lord Tomas’s map.
Ravens were sent to Eastwatch to get information, and to Winterfell and Dragonstone to organise the fleet and the army.
Admiral Rodrik Theorel at Dragonstone was keen to get some of his sailors busy, so will send a strong force as soon as possible. Various northern lords will send men to be carried to Skagos to intervene there.
Eastwatch says Anton couldn’t get through by ship, as there were too many pirate ships about, so has set off on foot. He hasn’t been heard of since, but then they wouldn’t expect to have heard yet.
The party therefore decided to head north once again, taking Maester Leo, Ariston, and the men at arms, but leaving Jon and Donal behind.
Equipment includes:
- Cold weather clothing
- Fine wine
- Something you could disguise yourself as a Wildling with
- A few ornately-hilted daggers
- Camping gear
- Survival kits
- 2 spaniels, 2 mastiffs, 2 deerhounds
- A telescope
Sailing North
It takes a week or so to get to Eastwatch from Selador. On day 4, two ships were spotted to the north, heading south. One appeared to have Iron Islands insignia on its sail, the other being probably Skagosian.
The party having no reason to suspect foul play from a Skagosian longship, the Lady Anduin continued to sail merrily north. The longships changed course to intercept – probably wanting to trade, or buy fish, or something.
When the ships were a couple of miles apart the lookout with the telescope made out the fact that the ships were crowded with armed me, all clustering in the bows and pointing excitedly at the Lady Anduin. At this point it dawned on people that they might not actually be fishermen, and on Patrek’s advice the Lady Anduin turned and ran west, to take shelter in either Karport or the Dreadport. The longships pursued briefly, but soon turned south again. As darkness fell the Lady Anduin headed north again, and made it to Eastwatch without further ado on the eight day from Selardor.
A young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Lady Anduin, and ran into town.
The party docked at the jetty, seeing the Wild Goose safely beached, and went to see Anton. He reported that the Wildlings had been too thick near Grimmup and Grimmen’s Head for him to get close enough to find anything out – which just made him all the keener to get up there to see why they were there.
The party told the Watch that a fleet and an army were (probably) coming to sort things out.
Anton suggested that the Wild Goose should try again to get up north. If a party of rangers could be landed some way south of Grimmen’s Head they could go in search of information while the ship was guarded by the party’s men at arms.
It was agreed that this was an admirable plan, though Anton did eventually agree that no-one could be more suited to this highly dangerous and difficult mission than the president of the Kennel Club and a one-eyed frog hunter, and so left all the veteran Rangers of the Night’s Watch and their expert knowledge of the ground behind.
The plan was enacted, and Anton set off north from the beached Wild Goose along with Jared, Turnpyke and Justyn, accompanied by Kevyn and Migg the Rangers.
The haunted forest
The party travelled lightly and quietly, with Kevyn and Migg scouting ahead of the main body.
After a few miles some movement was heard up ahead. Migg and Jared moved to flank the likely location of the sound as Kevyn watched, bow at the ready, but before anyone could get in position the Wildling fled. Migg chased, but fell over.
An axeman had been concealed to the right, and leapt out to attack the party's right flank. Justyn charged him down and disemboweled him with a single blow.
Turnpyke ran after the escaping bowman, charging through low-hanging branches but ignoring them as they slashed at his face.
Jared shot the bowman, the arrow taking him in the side. Flinching with the pain he ran into the tree he was trying to dodge behind, which gave Migg the chance to catch up. Migg and the bowman faced off, but avoided each others blades. Then Turnpyke came up and slung a shot into his shoulder, shattering the the joint. By the time Jared could catch up, the Wildling was dead.
The bodies were hidden, and the party moved forward.
A little later, Anton heard movement up ahead and the party took cover. It seemed that a large group of Wildlings happened to be heading straight towards them, by some unhappy accident.
Anton called for the party to fall back, but Kevyn was shot in the arm as they did so. Turnpyke hid in the roots of a tree as a large number of Wildlings ran at the party, with arrows flying from different directions.
Kevyn was shot again, though the armour took most of the impact, and Migg took a grazing hit. Jared and Kevyn were surprised as two Wildlings crashed through the undergrowth next to them.
Another arrow grazed Anton, and one took Migg in the thigh. He fell unconscious in the snow bleeding heavily.
Kevyn attacked a Wildling with his good hand, but couldn't land a good blow. Jared tried to surrender to the Wildlings, but Anton told him not to be such a fool.
Turnpyke ran to Migg and was attacked by two Wildlings. He hit one with a slingstone, but was himself thumped with a club. Kevyn's leg was severed by an axe; Justyn stabbed that Wildling and Anton knocked the other back.
Realising that Kevyn was mortally wounded - especially after the second Wildling stabbed him through the chest with a sword - and on Turnpyke seeing that Migg had bled to death, the survivors of the party fled.
A narrow lead was just enough for Anton to lead them away from the Wildlings. After a tense few hours they were able to get away, and head back to the Wild Goose.
Grimmen’s Head
Realising that the ground between the Wild Goose and Grimmen’s Head would now be crawling with Wildlings, the party decided on a desperate gamble: to row up to Grimmen's Head in the dinghy with a small but heavily-armed party, have a look around, and then get away either in the boat or just by outrunning any pursuit.
The dinghy was heavily loaded with Edmun, Jacob, Jared (with a mastiff), Justyn, Turnpyke, Anton, and a Ranger called Conn.
The boat set off just before dark. There was no moon, but the sky was clear and starry. Turnpyke pimped the boat to be particularly quiet, although the light of a fire was seen a little way inland as the water got a little rougher and the boat got noisier. Luckily Turnpyke was able to steer for smoother water and they passed unobserved before cutting across the bay to Grimmen’s Head, a large rounded promontory with a strange lump on the top silhouetted against the stars.
Turnpyke made a smooth silent landing on the shingly beach, and the party slipped quietly up to the grassy bank above it – except for Justyn, who slipped a bit. Jared covered the sound with what he afterwards claimed was a duck imitation, though presumably it was some obscure breed of duck long since spanieled to death as no-one else recognised it as such.
The duckesque noise was answered by a nervous-sounding voice, which sent the party scurrying nervously into the gorse bushes. Off to the north they saw someone creeping down the grassy shore towards them, holding a bow. Conn sneakt off through the gorse and leapt on the someone from behind just as he seemed to have caught sight of the dinghy at the water’s edge. With the help of everyone else piling on top of the Wildling he was subdued, gagged, relieved of his plain Lyseni dagger, and only slightly smothered.
Jacob then interrogated the prisoner, with the help of Anton holding a dagger, Justyn ready to gag him, and Gelert rumbling ominously. The poor chap was almost hysterical with fear, but Justyn calmed him down enough for him to confirm that the party was made up of real people, not ghosts.
The gist of his story was that his name was Slarty, and he’d come with his clan (led by Boras) to join the Coldaxe, as they’d heard there was big stuff going on. Certainly the Coldaxe is able to provide good weapons, and the chance to go raiding to get more loot. His sidekick Merick the Cleaver is on the boats now. As well as hundreds of Wildlings the Coldaxe has some Southerner friends, whom Slarty describes as “hard bastards”.
When Jacob mentioned Grim’s Mound, the suggestion of gong any closer to it almost drives Slarty out of what’s left of his wits, but Jacob managed to calm him down enough to say that the Coldaxe has said that he’s going to go and get Grim’s Axe from Grim’s Mound to show how hard he is and that he’s the natural leader of the Wildlings.
He hasn’t done it yet because he wants a lot of people to see him do it, for maximum impact, and also because people keep trying to dissuade him. Some think he’ll never come out if he goes into the Mound, and some think that if he does get the Axe then the Others will come and it’ll all be disastrous. He might also be slightly scared – after all, this is Grim’s Mound we’re talking about.
Anton cut Slarty’s throat when they were done with him.
The plan: Edmun, Jacob, Jared and Turnpyke will head to the Mound to investigate. Anton, who thinks he already has a lot of useful information, will stay with the boat along with Justyn and Conn. If the party isn’t back in a few hours they’ll row back to the Wild Goose and lie up for the rest of the day, then sail past Grimmen’s Head the next night to look for survivors before heading back to Eastwatch.
Grim’s Mound
The party headed up through the gorse, Turnpyke scouting ahead, then Jared (with a somewhat unhappy Gelert), Edmun, and Jacob.
Jacob saw another Wildling – probably Harwin, Slarty’s fellow-watchman – heading north up the coast towards the rearguard. The party stopped to see what happens, viz: Harwin collapses in the manner of one shot in the heart by an arrow, and shortly afterwards the body is dragged into cover.
As the party carried on Edmun got rather tangled up in the gorse and had to rip his cloak free. The noise attracted no apparent attention.
At the edge of the gorse, with a clear grassy hilltop between the party and the Mound, Turnpyke heard movement ahead and the party stopped to hide from a Wildling patrol. Edmun hid particularly effectively, possibly due to the amount of gorse stuck to his cloak.
Rather worryingly the Wildlings stopped almost level with the party, but fortunately it was only to have a discussion about the merits of patrolling around somewhere right in the middle of friendly territory in the dark and the cold and the wind and the ghosts and all. They concluded that the appropriate course of action was to check that the mound was still there, and then to find a sheltered spot somewhere to have a drink of Skagosian mead out of the wind. Then they could wait out of the wind for a couple of hours before confirming that the mound still hadn’t ceased to exist and reporting home.
They duly went off to the mound and back. As they returned they stopped and pointed in the direction of the party – but it turned out that one had just seen the Wall glinting in the starlight, and they had a bit of a chat about the names of constellations, and what the Wall might look like from the other side. Joking that they might find out soon, they headed off debating whether or not they could risk a fire if they could find a decent hollow to skulk in.
The party started off towards the Mound, which was lurking ominously about quarter of a mile away. Gelert started getting quite distressed, and Jared, thinking he probably had a point, decided to head back to the gorse when he started to howl. Gelert wasn’t content with just that, and pulled free and ran back to the boat, a plan Jared was only too happy to adopt too.
Jacob went into the mound first, followed by Edmun and Turnpyke. Inside it was very very dark, and their lit taper didn’t seem like it would last long. Fortunately Edumn tripped over what turned out to be a sack with four torches in, so they lit one. It was much brighter. Much much brighter.
Heading past the megaliths flanking the entrance they crept down a narrow passage into the heart of the Mound. On the right was an alcove with some broken pots, but nothing more, and at the end was a fairly large chamber with carvings all over the walls, though a cursory inspection revealed no meaning in them. At the end was a big hole leading down, which looked easily climbable.
Turnpyke, confident of the easy climb, started down the hole but soon lost his confidence and clambered back. Edmun tried after that, but dislodged a large stone and got a bit cragfast. Jacob then lit another torch and wedged it in the chamber wall, giving more light, which allowed Edmun to climb down and Turnpyke to pass him the first torch before descending himself. Then Jacob leapt lightly down, barely having to use his arms for such a simple climb, and leaving the second torch burning brightly in the upper chamber…
At the bottom was a small chamber with rough stone walls and three passages: forward, left and right. Jacob led the party confidently straight on, glancing into an alcove to each side of the main passage, each of which seemed to hold a couple of skeletons. Edmun, following, decided to explore the right-hand alcove a bit more. There were more carvings on the wall, and so far as he can tell the left-hand skeleton had died to a big slash to the side of the head, still visible on its skull. It also seemed to have moved a bit, though that might have been a figment of the flickering torchlight, or of his imagination.
Just to be on the safe side Turnpyke went in to take the sword from the skeleton as Edmun held the torch at the entrance, but the second skeleton didn’t seem to like that and started to sit up.
Turnpyke quickly grabbed at the sword, despite the first skeleton’s efforts to stop him, while Edmun swiped at the second with his arakh, breaking a few ribs. Turnpyke threw the sword into the corridor and smashed the skeleton’s already fractured skull with a slingstone as Edmun smashed the spine of the other. Jacob went into the other alcove and smashed the feet of one of the skeletons there, at which it grabbed his shield and started clambering up. Turnpyke nipped in to shatter the last skeleton’s skull as Jacob destroyed the one on his shield.
Acting on a bit of a hunch, and with no consideration for the possible consequences, the party went quickly back up the other corridors and destroyed every skeleton they came across there. All the weapons, mostly bronze axes, swords and daggers, were piled up in the chamber below the entrance hole, apart from an obsidian axe that Turnpyke stuck in his belt. Turnpyke also nabbed a number of bronze and gold amulets and rings and so on, studded with garnets, obsidian, and amber.
Moving further down the main passage, another opening appeared on the left, with a cool draft coming out of it making the torch flicker. At the end of that side passage was a fairly large irregular chamber with a charred patch in the south and two plinths in the north and east. The roof was very black, and the torch no longer flickered.
After a cursory inspection the party moved on down the main tunnel, which sloped down to a chamber containing two more skeletons and a hole in the floor. The skeletons rose up in time to attack the party clumsily, but were smashed without difficulty.
Before going down the hole, the party decided to go and investigate the plinth room. The plinths appeared to be solid blocks of stone, but Turnpyke found a crack in the eastern one that suggested that it was hollow. Wedging a bronze axe in the crack he tried to lever it open, but the shaft broke under the strain. As she staggered back the haft of the obsidian axe in his belt also broke.
Taking a different approach, Turnpyke hit the plinth with a bronze axe, making a very odd sound. He then tapped around it, trying to discover any differences in various parts; the result of this was to convince Edmun that it was indeed a solid block.
At this point Jacob took things in hand, and the solidity of his axe-thump convinced him too. Turnpyke still being suspicious, he tried again and put in a mighty whack which extended the crack slightly.
The party then gave up on that plinth and decided to hit the northern one. Jacob got a solid whack in and concluded that it too was solid.
Getting bored with the plinths they went to look at the charred patch, concluding that it had been a fire many many years ago. With that they left the room, though Turnpyke still thought there might be something more to those plinths.
While this was going on, Jared and Anton had crept close to the Mound, unsettled by uneasy feelings and some deep booming sounds that they felt more than heard. Creeping up to look at the Mound they could see a yellowish flicker coming from the entrance. They retired to a point half-way between the boat and the Mound, and settled down to a nervous vigil.
The opening in the chamber floor led to a rough slope down. At this point the passages changed – where before they had been rough dry-stone masonry, now they became smooth natural cave walls. The main passage curved off to the left, with a narrower way leading right.
Turnpyke headed to the right, only to find a withered leathery corpse with blue glows where its eyes should be, lurching at him with bronze axe raised. He backed away, and between the three of them they smote it down without too much difficulty, and set light to it with the torch. The corpse took flame very readily, and burned brightly in the junction of passages, leaving Turnpyke and Jacob by the entrance and Edmun cut off in a side-passage wondering whether he had really seen and heard something moving further along it.
Turnpyke pushed the body around a bit and managed to squeeze past it to join Edmun. He was followed by Jacob, who was pushed to the front in the narrow passage. Moving round the corner he found another moving corpse, whose head he swapped off with a single mighty blow.
He took the ornate bronze sword, with a spirally hilt set with garnets, from the body and threw the corpse on the burning one, where it caught light very quickly.
After quite a bit of wandering round twisty passages, getting slightly wounded, and throwing corpses on fires (and setting light to their cloak hems), they found a larger chamber. Down the sides were rows of large benches, or chests, or something, and at the far end was a chair, on which sat a crowned person with a large axe across his knees.
They approached carefully, and Turnpyke thought he saw something moving in a passgeway to the near left. Jacob investigated and found nothing. Then Turnpyke thought he saw something in another passageway at the far right. When Jacob investigated, by the light of a dimming torch, he found a tall figure, with glowing blue eyes and an eldritch sword, which attacked him. Jacob’s sword seemed to do no good against the creature, but the crystal blade of the enemy dealt him some nasty wounds, so be backed off out of the small chamber. Edmun tried to help, but his arakh was no good either.
Turnpyke ran to the seated figure and tried to grab the axe it held, but it gave off such a chill that it froze his arm to numbness. As Jacob parried and bled, Edmun came round and tried for the axe, seizing it just as his torch flickered and died. But the torchlight was replaced by an eerie purple-red glow from the heart of the axe-head, so the party could still see to fight the Other that melted into the shadows of black and grey and brown stone.
With a mighty swing Edmun dashed the Other’s sword from its hand, and it fled back into the chamber it had been found in. As the other turned to flee, Edmun found himself compelled to chase after it and sink the axe into its back, leaving it a crumpled figure on the floor.
With the axe in hand the party fled back through the tunnel, ignoring the narrow twisty passages in favour of the wider one running straight back to the slope up out of the cave. Unfortunately the way was blocked by more of the walking dead, which were pouring out of an unexplored side passage, and another figure shadowing figure coming up behind with a crystal blade.
Despite his wounds Jacob leapt into the fray and disarmed one of the Dead, but with its shield it hurled Edmun against the wall and he dropped the axe. Grabbing it he fled to the slope as Jacob and Turnpyke formed a shieldwall behind him to slow the Dead. Edmun clawed his way up the slow, but in his haste he slipped and tumbled to the bottom, as the Other came up and hurled the Dead aside to face the shieldwall and break it. Recovering the axe Edmun tried the slope again, and this time just managed it. Jacob went next and nearly fell down too, but Turnpyke caught his shoulder as he came up behind and held him up just long enough for Jacob to recover his balance, but not quite long enough for the Other’s sword to reach them, it gashing the stone just an inch below Turnpyke’s foot.
Scrambling up the last of the slope they fled up the corridor pursued by the Other, and behind it the Dead. Edmun slipped and fell, dropping the axe again, but quickly got up and carried on. Jacob was feeling the weight of his wounds as well as his weapons, so dropped his shield to run the faster. Turnpyke, ever quick to flee pursuit, got ahead and helped the other two up the hole to the mound proper, and then was hauled up in the nick of time.
In the chamber they found Anton and Jared, who’d felt that something was happening and had come to see what could be done. Without stopping to explain Jacob flung the torch from the chamber down the hole and they all ran off towards the boat, ignoring the figures approaching the mound from the north. Before they were a tenth of the way to the gorse they heard an unearthly screech of rage from behind them, and glancing back they saw the Other at the entrance to the barrow, blue eyes blazing.
As they pushed the boat out they could see blue flickerings around the Mound, and dark shapes moving swiftly around on the headland, and they could hear screams drifting through the wind that rose as the clouds gathered.
Rowing back to the Wild Goose Edmun told Anton, Justyn and Jared what had happened: they went into the mound, they were attacked by Others and by living skeletons, he killed one of the Kingly Others, grabbed the axe, and ran.
Jared tried to heal the strange wounds that Edmun, Turnpyke and Jacob had, but couldn’t really work out what to do with them, though he later had a sudden inspiration and managed to make them a bit more comfortable.
Edmun examined the axe he had: it was a large obsidian axehead mounted with strips of bronze to a yellowing ivory haft, bound round with bronze bands set with obsidian. Although the axe feels cold, the head has a warmth to it under the cold; and despite it being a solidly opaque black, deep inside it somewhere are purply-red glints and glows and flashes.
Aftermath
Back at the Wild Goose the learned members of the party were asked to comment. Maester Leo thinks he once read something about Grim but he can’t recall it. Ariston has never heard of Grim, and monsters round the Summer Sea tend to be more in the fiery or marine creature line than creatures of cold; there are some walking dead in stories, but their ecology is never really explained very well.
Leo re-dressed the wounds of the various people.
On the way back to Eastwatch a number of ships are sighted heading from Skagos to Grimmup.
On arrival at Eastwatch, a young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Wild Goose, and ran into town.
The party went first to see the Maester to get some healing and to ask him about the Others, and legendary Wildling heroes out of stories, and walking Dead, and magical axes, and hilltops ablaze with blue fire. He passed them some healing potions which turned out to be sleeping draughts, and had them put safely in the Infirmary where they couldn’t hurt anyone in their madness.
He didn’t know anything about this rubbish, but suggested that Maester Aemon at Castle Black might.
Anton took Jared, who’d not been wounded and who had rather agreed with the Maester, to see the Captain of Eastwatch. They told him of the Coldaxe, and the gathering of the Wildlings and their plan of a secret weapon, and how a crucial component had been taken from them.
The Captain said he would report to Castle Black and await instructions. Jared sent a message to Lord Darnell:
WILDLINGS MASSING N OF WALL STOP LED BY COLDAX STOP STRANGE WEAPONS STOP WARE BLUE LIGHT STOP FIRE WORKS STOP RESPECTS J SNOW MOH STOP
When he awoke, Jacob said he’d like to send a boat up to get more intelligence of what was happening near Grimmup. Anton agreed: they would go up, not engage the enemy, but grab someone to interrogate.
The pary sat around for a couple of days to recuperate, but on the second day the Captain was summoned to Castle Black for a conference, and the PCs decided to go too. It took 4 days to get there, and Jared and his deerhounds caught a couple of deer on the way as a present.
Edmun said hello to the Lord Commander briefly, and then he, Ariston and Turnpyke took the Axe to Maester Aemon.
Jacob went to find the local Master at Arms, but their relationship gets off to a bad start. When he asked about obsidian weapons, the Master said they would be a stupid idea as they’d break; when Jacob said he’d seen one used, the Master said it was still a stupid idea. The Master seemed to be both very bored and only talking to Jacob because he had nothing better to do, and yet to have something better to do.
Jared went up the Wall in a basket, but couldn’t see much because of mist.
Aemon examined the Axe, finding that it was very cold, and that it had a lot of power. They had a bit of a discussion about what the Axe meant, and what the loss of it might mean to the Coldaxe and to the large gathering of Wildlings in general, concluding that logistics must be a big issue and in particular finding a source of food for that many people would be tricky.
Aemon didn’t know much about Grim, but suggested that the party go down to the library to have a dig around. Looking up references, it was found that Grimm the Coldaxe was an ancient king of the Wildlings who drove the Others away before being buried on Grimmen’s Head to keep an eye on things. He is buried with his mighty axe and his household warriors in Grim’s Mound, and as long as he is there the Others can never return. Grom was an ancient wise man who first found the secret of dragonglass, allowing the Wildlings to use it to destroy the Others. His home was on Grum’s Head. No-one knows where he came from, or where he went after passing on the secret. He was buried in Grim’s hole, deep in the mountains. Grim watches over the North, and if the Others ever return Grim and his men will rise to sweep them away again. Crom was one of the Old Gods, who has power over the Others; he dwells with them and holds them back from attacking the lands of men. After gathering together a large number of Wildling Clans, Grum the Axe, an old warleader, had fought against the Others. Although he was eventually driven back to the Wall and killed by them at a big battle at the Coldstone, he did gain a period of respite for the hard-pressed tribes, who buried him in the ancient vaults with other forgotten kings.
The Others are a mysterious race of evil beings who live in the far North. Their eyes are a bright shining blue, they carry swords that can slice stone, and their armour cannot be pierced by mortal weapons. They hate men and would destroy them all and cover the world with ice if they could. They were defeated and driven back by the First Men, and Brandon the Builder put up the Wall to keep them out.
An alternative theory is that they were just a clan of fierce warriors who beat up the other Wildlings a lot and whose story has grown in the telling.
They hate fire, which is the only thing that can destroy them; or possibly they dislike it and simply quench it when they touch it; or possibly they draw the heat from it and become stronger – sources differ.
Obsidian can hurt them, some books say. Other books say it can’t, because they don’t exist.
Turnpyke convened a symposium on how to tie an obsidian axehead to an axe. He, Ariston, Jared and Donal Noye final came up with a solution, consisting largely of string. It appeared to be fairly robust – except of course that the acid test, of thumping something with the axe very hard, wasn’t undertaken for fear of shattering the axehead.
As no-one has ever written up the previous ones properly, I thought I'd record this one for posterity and possibly to avoid a repeat of the Driftwood Hall Fiasco.
Eastwatch
After the battle at the shipyard the party and the remaining Brians withdrew to Kingshouse, where the Thane of Magnar, Blond Brian, regaled their victory. Making their excuses before the ox was even half-cooked, the party hastened to the Wild Goose, parked off the south coast, and headed to Eastwatch.
Behind them, Magnar mustered his men for war, sent messages to the lesser clans to aid him, and sent a trusted jarl to Deepdown to call the Thane of Crowl to an alliance against the evil Stanes and their overner cohorts.
On the way to Eastwatch the various documents were reviewed. It was established that they were indeed on paper, written with what appeared to be ink. All were somewhat crumpled, although one – giving some details of the party’s livery and the existence of Turnpike - was much more so, and written in a different hand.
It was concluded that something odd was going on, and that it had something to do with someone claiming to be called “Turnpyke Rivers”, who was therefore asked to contribute something to the debate.
It emerged that Turnpyke had grown up in the care of someone purporting to be his Aunty Eider, near the Flint Cliffs. His parents had, he understood, been killed by pirates, and he lived a hard life under the stairs of his Aunty’s rude hut being regularly beaten up - losing an eye in one beating. He had to catch fish and steal bread to survive, and eventually he ran off to the Neck where he found employment at an establishment called the Forked Frog. He then came east to Selador, where he joined Lord Darnell’s navy because all he’s ever wanted to do is beat up pirates. He can’t explain why people keep pointing at him.
Some of the rest of the party thought that this was not the complete truth, but suggestions of planks and whips were put to one side for the present.
Shortly after this conversation sails were seen to the east and south, which seemed to be heading towards the Wild Goose. After a shaky start they were left behind and the Goose came in to Eastwatch.
A young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Wild Goose, and ran into town.
The party landed and went to find important people. They found Anton Darnell and gave him some mead from Skagos as a present. Edmun recounted the story so far:
- Roland let some pirates in to Selador and they stole the old Salt
- Edmun recovered the salt singlehandedly and set off to catch more pirates
- There is evidence linking a lord on Skagos to slave trading and to a mustering of men north of the Wall
- The Thane of Stane may have been selling weapons to the Wildlings. He’s building ships that look like Iron Islander ones, taking slaves from Westeros and selling them in Lys to get the weapons.
- It may be that the Wildlings are looking to strike south using ships. The muster may therefore be an attempt to draw the Watch’s attention north, while the attack happens in the south.
As the party had decided to head off to Lys, on the basis that they had a map showing where it was, Anton borrowed the Wild Goose and a small crew so that he could take some Rangers up north to find out what was going on up there.
The trip to Lys
The party and all named attendant NPCs set off in the Lady Anduin, in lovely favourable weather for sailing South-East.
Unfortunately the two ships which had pursued them to Eastwatch had now caught up, and were visible directly in the way.
Turnpyke suggested to Patrek Spens that they should head off north-east and go round the north of Skagos, conveniently avoiding any confrontation. The longships got their oars out to claw up-wind, but Turnpyke was confident that they would tire before they could close on the Lady Anduin.
The longships closed steadily, one faster than the other, and the wind veered round to the north-east, leaving the Lady Anduin unable to make any sensible headway. Patrek turned her to the north-north-west to try to make some northings; this seemed to work, as the slower longship turned away and the faster one gradually lost ground.
The trip after that was fairly uneventful, taking about two weeks. Jacob sparred with anyone who’d join in, and Edmun took to singing sea shanties – so badly that he became quite a hit with the sailors, who rather enjoyed laughing at their lord’s inept son.
Landfall was made in a fairly unremarkable bit of coast, and Patrek, who’d never sailed those waters, couldn’t quite tell whether they were north or south of Lys. Heading south, the party managed to locate a peasant hovel. Landing from their warship and striding ashore begirt with swords, they were somewhat taken aback to find him hiding from them.
He didn’t react to having the door hammered on, but he did venture to taste some Skagosian mead after Jacob had drunk from the bottle. He didn’t really like it, though, and various people pointing in random directions and saying “Lys? Lys? Lice? Lees? Lyyyyys?” didn’t allay his confusion and fear much, but he did wave in a generally southerly direction.
There was some debate about whether he was pointing towards Lys, or away from it, or just randomly, so it was decided that more accurate directions should be sought.
A little to the south was a fishing boat, which also seemed to react rather oddly to the sight of a foreign warship full of armed men pointing excitedly at it and bearing down on it at a rate of knots. Luckily the international language of diplomacy came to the rescue, and by buying some fish the party managed to get another random wave in a generally southerly direction.
Sailing south, the lookout sighted a huge domed temple above a white city on an island, and it was decided that they ought to stop there and ask where Lys might be. On the way into harbour a long low launch with a lateen to larboard approached and hailed the ship. Strangely the pilot didn’t seem to speak Valyrian – it can only be concluded that Edmun’s accent was too pure for such common folk – but he did speak Westerosi, with only a hint of a Lyseni accent. He gratefully accepted a sip of mead, welcomed the vessel to Lys, enquired whether there were any illicit cargoes aboard, offered to provide names of reputable suppliers of illicit cargoes to fill the lamentable lack of them, and guided the ship to berth 37B.
Nearby was a galleas that looked vaguely familiar – it looked a bit like the late Captain Francesco’s, but wasn’t.
The question was then raised: what are we doing here?
The markets of Lys
It was decided to venture into Lys in search of the reason for being there.
In order to allay any suspicions that they might be foreign, it was decided that the party should disguise itself. With Jacob dressed as a clueless Westerosi nobleman, Edmun as his Dothraki guide with a Braavosi accent, and Turnpyke as a thuggish bodyguard, this idea was apparently abandoned.
Those three decided to pretend to be Targaryen loyalists from Braavos looking for slaves of Westerosi descent, while Jared and Leo went looking for other clues, and Justyn went to make local contacts in local tavernas.
The Targaryen party went off in search of a slave market, and after a few minutes of failing to find one asked for help from a passer-by. He was very helpful, speaking in fluent Braavosi, though he did stare thoughtfully after them for a little while once they’d gone.
The entrance to the slave market was a big arched affair with a couple of guards, who let them in without any trouble. Inside was a wide courtyard with a platform at one end, although no slave auction was in progress, and with shops in the colonnades round the outside. Most of these seemed to have muscular young men or nubile young ladies in the windows, none of them wearing very much or looking very interested, although one had an old man bent over a desk scribbling away.
Going in to the one with the scholar, Edmun enquired (on behalf of his master, Jacob), whether there were any unusual ones available – his master being interested in, er, paler flesh than some. Senor Anonymo regretted that none were available, although sometimes some were; for a small price he directed the party to House Myrello, who sometimes have them.
It was decided that as they’d come into the shop they should at least buy something, and as the only visible slave was the chap in the window they went to look at him. They established that he was a scribe with poor teeth, but after offering 200 silvers against an asking price of 500 they gave up on haggling and left.
They returned briefly to ask directions, and were given a slave boy who took them directly to House Myrello. He hung around for a bit, as returning without some sort of tip would almost certainly earn him a beating, but was waved off by Edmun; Jacob however relented and gave him some coppers, at which he brightened up enormously and left.
House Myrello was a big posh-looking building with a big door and few windows in a quiet tree-lined square off the main road, with a guard at the door. He didn’t want to let them on, but changed his mind when he realised they had money and directed them to a small reception room to the right. This had a desk with a scribbling clerk at it, plus some comfy chairs and simple but elegant corporate decorations.
Edmun introduced himself as Rago, servant of Ser Jacob Strongarm the loyal vassal of the Targaryens and hopeful purchaser of pale-skinned slaves.
The clerk regretted that they were fresh out of Westerosi slaves, and that none were due in for a while. No, he couldn’t direct the party to recent customers for reasons of confidentiality. Although… one shipment was several weeks overdue, and might arrive any moment, so Ser Jacob might be lucky. But for the moment nothing – maybe try again tomorrow?
The party was somewhat suspicious of a slave merchant not having the exact slaves they wanted available for sale, and so decided that the only reasonable course of action was to break into the building that night and ransack it in search of clues. In the meantime they interrogated a lemonade seller whose stall had a clear view of the square, but apparently he didn’t keep meticulous notes of the passers-by – or at least he wasn’t prepared to share them, despite Edmun over-paying for some lemonade he didn’t actually drink. Notes were however taken of handy windows that could be used for spying from, and of possible ways for Justyn to get into the building, Justyn having volunteered (in absentia) to undertake the burglary.
In the meantime Jared and Leo went looking for a market, and couldn’t fail to find one. Passing by a stall with mouthwatering pastries for sale, they went to a bookshop. The stallholder (who was fluent in Westerosi, though with a slight accent) proudly pointed out the many books for sale, and the small pile of Westerosi ones. Jared found a book of interesting weapons, and although he couldn’t read it he deftly turned the conversation to the purchasing of weapons.
The bookstallholder nipped out the back and returned with a weaponstallholder, also fluent in Westerosi (at least, fluent in “Yes”, “Sword”, “Dagger” and “two hundred silver please”) who showed off his superb collection of rusty arakhs and an ornamental dagger with a bit missing. After some haggling hindered by the fluency of the weaponstallhoder’s Westerosi, Jared left to go to look at dogs.
He found a marvellous salukoid hound, formerly the prized hunting dog of an emperor (or possibly king, duke or prince) whose name he didn’t catch. He offered 10 silvers for it, but as this was far less than the 140 silvers the dogstallholder had paid for it – much less the 200 silver asking price – he didn’t get it.
So Leo went and paid a couple of silver pieces for some of the books, after which Jared decided he didn’t want to be the only one without a souvenir so he bought the dog for 22 silvers, but without a collar.
The whole party then met up back at the ship, apart from Justyn who was busy making friends and influencing people – or at least someone was under the influence of something – to compare results. When Edmun realised that he didn’t have a souvenir either, they went off back to Anonymo’s to buy the scribe, ostensibly to read the Lyseni documents for them, or possibly as the first blow in the war against slavery, it wasn’t quite clear.
After much haggling Ariston the philosopher was bought for 300 silver pieces. Edmun’s attempt to buy him on approval failed, as the merchant’s vaunted 3-year warranty could not be impugned by the suggestion that a slave might need to be returned in only a few days.
It turns out that Ariston, who spoke excellent Westerosi to Edmun even while Edmun was keeping up the pretence of being a Dothraki Braavo, was a philosopher from the shores of the Summer Sea who had been taken by Dothraki slavers several months before while travelling north of Slaver’s Bay. He spoke Westerosi, Valyrian, various Free City dialects, Dothraki, and his local dialects, was familiar with the arts of oratory, philosophy, scribing, debate, pedagogy, administration of noble households, and could colour in documents nicely.
Ariston translated the various receipts, which revealed that the slaves had been sold to House Myrello in return for weapons, armour, sailing equipment and so on.
Edmun freed Ariston (who prepared a proper receipt for this) and asked him to come along with them as a court philosopher at Selador. Not wishing to be left alone in a foreign city, Ariston accepted, and pointed out that the ship was under surveillance.
The docks
After much not looking now and rolling of Spot checks, it was determined that there had been two people spying on the Lady Anduin, but that only one was now visible. A cunning plan was hatched to capture this spy:
- Jacob and Jeren would take Jared’s mastiffs for a walk, conveniently ending up behind the spy;
- Turnpyke would sneak up behind the spy, disguised as a sea otter
- …
- Profit!
As a couple of guards approached, Jacob put this plan into action. Setting the mastiff at the spy he grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The mastiff got the leaping up bit right, but wasn’t sure whether this was in earnest or not and so settled for slobbering on the spy rather than biting his throat out. Jeren recognised that if a signal had been pre-arranged it would have looked like this, and moved to help, but unfortunately dropped his dog’s lead in grabbing the spy and helping Jacob hustle him towards the boat.
Jared spotted the guards coming, and hastened off towards them with a couple of spaniels in tow, and by dint of first asking touristic questions and then accidentally getting the spaniels tangled up in them succeeded in keeping them out of action for the crucial first few seconds.
After those first twenty seconds or so, it became apparent that the plan of leaping out and grabbing a local with no shared language while in full view of both the police and a lot of by standing witnesses could perhaps have stood a little more thought and critical discussion. By the time Edmun had sent first Andar and then Robb to help, and the guards had gotten past the weaving spaniels, and Turnpyke had been beaten round the head by some unknown cosh-armed person in a black cloak who may or may not have been associated with the presumed spy, and a number of the more spirited (in a number of senses) members of the public had decided to investigate, things had got a little fraught.
Fortunately Edmun has the inspired idea of claiming that the swarthy person lounging on the docks in Lys, wearing Lyseni garb, shouting for help in fluent Lyseni, and known to one of the guards as a local trouble-maker was actually a crewmember of the Westerosi ship that had only just arrived in port. This rather neatly relieved Jacob of the vexing crossbow which had hitherto been pointed at his head, although to be fair it merely transferred the problem to Edmun.
Drawing a veil over the unpleasant scenes which followed, we have time only to see the spy being escorted by the guards to a local lock-up and released some time later, spotting the Westerosi dog-walker involved in the recent fracas who was coincidentally following him, and somehow losing the foreigner in the mazy backstreets of the spy’s own home town.
Selador
After a hasty departure from Lys, the Lady Anduin paused in Tyrosh for some shore leave before heading off to Selador.
On the way Edmun gave up the sea shanties in favour of discussing philosophy with Ariston; Jacob sparred with Jeren, Jon, Donal, etc; Turnpyke spent some time with Patrek talking about techniques of command and people management, and Jared did something unmentionable.
After 10 days or so Selador was reached, with the Lady Anduin receiving a warm welcome home from Lord Tomas and the people of the town. Everyone dispersed to his quarters, except that Edmun went off with Lord Tomas to talk about recent events.
Lord Tomas asked about Skagos – he’d heard that the party had been up that way. Edmun summarised the position thus:
- House Stane has links with the pirates
- The Stanes are raiding the east coast to get slaves which they sell in Lys, to obtain weapons with which they are arming the Wildlings
- He has no idea why
- Uncle Anton is well, and Eastwatch is aware of the position
- A captured pirate ship has been left at Eastwatch. It was of Iron Island design but not Iron Island quality; similar ones are being built on Skagos, so there may be an Iron Island connexion.
- At Lys it was established that House Myrello was involved, but this may only be in a commercial context, so this seems to be a dead end.
- It seems that this is more than piracy – perhaps a plot to invade the North?
- Lord Bolton was very helpful, and sent soldiers to help.
- Young Jon is developing as a good swordsman and swimmer.
Edmun now intends to head north to Eastwatch to help Anton.
Lord Tomas added the following:
- Skagos appears to be descending into civil war, with the Magnars and Crowls against the Stanes. Big Brians have little Brians upon their sides for fighting; little Brians have lesser Brians, and so forth.
- Lord Stark is getting worried about the Wildlings
- Lord Darnell has suggested moving part of the Dragonstone fleet north to counter the pirates.
Edmun suggested that sending an army to Skagos to eliminate the shipyard could be a good idea, and marks the shipyard on Lord Tomas’s map.
Ravens were sent to Eastwatch to get information, and to Winterfell and Dragonstone to organise the fleet and the army.
Admiral Rodrik Theorel at Dragonstone was keen to get some of his sailors busy, so will send a strong force as soon as possible. Various northern lords will send men to be carried to Skagos to intervene there.
Eastwatch says Anton couldn’t get through by ship, as there were too many pirate ships about, so has set off on foot. He hasn’t been heard of since, but then they wouldn’t expect to have heard yet.
The party therefore decided to head north once again, taking Maester Leo, Ariston, and the men at arms, but leaving Jon and Donal behind.
Equipment includes:
- Cold weather clothing
- Fine wine
- Something you could disguise yourself as a Wildling with
- A few ornately-hilted daggers
- Camping gear
- Survival kits
- 2 spaniels, 2 mastiffs, 2 deerhounds
- A telescope
Sailing North
It takes a week or so to get to Eastwatch from Selador. On day 4, two ships were spotted to the north, heading south. One appeared to have Iron Islands insignia on its sail, the other being probably Skagosian.
The party having no reason to suspect foul play from a Skagosian longship, the Lady Anduin continued to sail merrily north. The longships changed course to intercept – probably wanting to trade, or buy fish, or something.
When the ships were a couple of miles apart the lookout with the telescope made out the fact that the ships were crowded with armed me, all clustering in the bows and pointing excitedly at the Lady Anduin. At this point it dawned on people that they might not actually be fishermen, and on Patrek’s advice the Lady Anduin turned and ran west, to take shelter in either Karport or the Dreadport. The longships pursued briefly, but soon turned south again. As darkness fell the Lady Anduin headed north again, and made it to Eastwatch without further ado on the eight day from Selardor.
A young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Lady Anduin, and ran into town.
The party docked at the jetty, seeing the Wild Goose safely beached, and went to see Anton. He reported that the Wildlings had been too thick near Grimmup and Grimmen’s Head for him to get close enough to find anything out – which just made him all the keener to get up there to see why they were there.
The party told the Watch that a fleet and an army were (probably) coming to sort things out.
Anton suggested that the Wild Goose should try again to get up north. If a party of rangers could be landed some way south of Grimmen’s Head they could go in search of information while the ship was guarded by the party’s men at arms.
It was agreed that this was an admirable plan, though Anton did eventually agree that no-one could be more suited to this highly dangerous and difficult mission than the president of the Kennel Club and a one-eyed frog hunter, and so left all the veteran Rangers of the Night’s Watch and their expert knowledge of the ground behind.
The plan was enacted, and Anton set off north from the beached Wild Goose along with Jared, Turnpyke and Justyn, accompanied by Kevyn and Migg the Rangers.
The haunted forest
The party travelled lightly and quietly, with Kevyn and Migg scouting ahead of the main body.
After a few miles some movement was heard up ahead. Migg and Jared moved to flank the likely location of the sound as Kevyn watched, bow at the ready, but before anyone could get in position the Wildling fled. Migg chased, but fell over.
An axeman had been concealed to the right, and leapt out to attack the party's right flank. Justyn charged him down and disemboweled him with a single blow.
Turnpyke ran after the escaping bowman, charging through low-hanging branches but ignoring them as they slashed at his face.
Jared shot the bowman, the arrow taking him in the side. Flinching with the pain he ran into the tree he was trying to dodge behind, which gave Migg the chance to catch up. Migg and the bowman faced off, but avoided each others blades. Then Turnpyke came up and slung a shot into his shoulder, shattering the the joint. By the time Jared could catch up, the Wildling was dead.
The bodies were hidden, and the party moved forward.
A little later, Anton heard movement up ahead and the party took cover. It seemed that a large group of Wildlings happened to be heading straight towards them, by some unhappy accident.
Anton called for the party to fall back, but Kevyn was shot in the arm as they did so. Turnpyke hid in the roots of a tree as a large number of Wildlings ran at the party, with arrows flying from different directions.
Kevyn was shot again, though the armour took most of the impact, and Migg took a grazing hit. Jared and Kevyn were surprised as two Wildlings crashed through the undergrowth next to them.
Another arrow grazed Anton, and one took Migg in the thigh. He fell unconscious in the snow bleeding heavily.
Kevyn attacked a Wildling with his good hand, but couldn't land a good blow. Jared tried to surrender to the Wildlings, but Anton told him not to be such a fool.
Turnpyke ran to Migg and was attacked by two Wildlings. He hit one with a slingstone, but was himself thumped with a club. Kevyn's leg was severed by an axe; Justyn stabbed that Wildling and Anton knocked the other back.
Realising that Kevyn was mortally wounded - especially after the second Wildling stabbed him through the chest with a sword - and on Turnpyke seeing that Migg had bled to death, the survivors of the party fled.
A narrow lead was just enough for Anton to lead them away from the Wildlings. After a tense few hours they were able to get away, and head back to the Wild Goose.
Grimmen’s Head
Realising that the ground between the Wild Goose and Grimmen’s Head would now be crawling with Wildlings, the party decided on a desperate gamble: to row up to Grimmen's Head in the dinghy with a small but heavily-armed party, have a look around, and then get away either in the boat or just by outrunning any pursuit.
The dinghy was heavily loaded with Edmun, Jacob, Jared (with a mastiff), Justyn, Turnpyke, Anton, and a Ranger called Conn.
The boat set off just before dark. There was no moon, but the sky was clear and starry. Turnpyke pimped the boat to be particularly quiet, although the light of a fire was seen a little way inland as the water got a little rougher and the boat got noisier. Luckily Turnpyke was able to steer for smoother water and they passed unobserved before cutting across the bay to Grimmen’s Head, a large rounded promontory with a strange lump on the top silhouetted against the stars.
Turnpyke made a smooth silent landing on the shingly beach, and the party slipped quietly up to the grassy bank above it – except for Justyn, who slipped a bit. Jared covered the sound with what he afterwards claimed was a duck imitation, though presumably it was some obscure breed of duck long since spanieled to death as no-one else recognised it as such.
The duckesque noise was answered by a nervous-sounding voice, which sent the party scurrying nervously into the gorse bushes. Off to the north they saw someone creeping down the grassy shore towards them, holding a bow. Conn sneakt off through the gorse and leapt on the someone from behind just as he seemed to have caught sight of the dinghy at the water’s edge. With the help of everyone else piling on top of the Wildling he was subdued, gagged, relieved of his plain Lyseni dagger, and only slightly smothered.
Jacob then interrogated the prisoner, with the help of Anton holding a dagger, Justyn ready to gag him, and Gelert rumbling ominously. The poor chap was almost hysterical with fear, but Justyn calmed him down enough for him to confirm that the party was made up of real people, not ghosts.
The gist of his story was that his name was Slarty, and he’d come with his clan (led by Boras) to join the Coldaxe, as they’d heard there was big stuff going on. Certainly the Coldaxe is able to provide good weapons, and the chance to go raiding to get more loot. His sidekick Merick the Cleaver is on the boats now. As well as hundreds of Wildlings the Coldaxe has some Southerner friends, whom Slarty describes as “hard bastards”.
When Jacob mentioned Grim’s Mound, the suggestion of gong any closer to it almost drives Slarty out of what’s left of his wits, but Jacob managed to calm him down enough to say that the Coldaxe has said that he’s going to go and get Grim’s Axe from Grim’s Mound to show how hard he is and that he’s the natural leader of the Wildlings.
He hasn’t done it yet because he wants a lot of people to see him do it, for maximum impact, and also because people keep trying to dissuade him. Some think he’ll never come out if he goes into the Mound, and some think that if he does get the Axe then the Others will come and it’ll all be disastrous. He might also be slightly scared – after all, this is Grim’s Mound we’re talking about.
Anton cut Slarty’s throat when they were done with him.
The plan: Edmun, Jacob, Jared and Turnpyke will head to the Mound to investigate. Anton, who thinks he already has a lot of useful information, will stay with the boat along with Justyn and Conn. If the party isn’t back in a few hours they’ll row back to the Wild Goose and lie up for the rest of the day, then sail past Grimmen’s Head the next night to look for survivors before heading back to Eastwatch.
Grim’s Mound
The party headed up through the gorse, Turnpyke scouting ahead, then Jared (with a somewhat unhappy Gelert), Edmun, and Jacob.
Jacob saw another Wildling – probably Harwin, Slarty’s fellow-watchman – heading north up the coast towards the rearguard. The party stopped to see what happens, viz: Harwin collapses in the manner of one shot in the heart by an arrow, and shortly afterwards the body is dragged into cover.
As the party carried on Edmun got rather tangled up in the gorse and had to rip his cloak free. The noise attracted no apparent attention.
At the edge of the gorse, with a clear grassy hilltop between the party and the Mound, Turnpyke heard movement ahead and the party stopped to hide from a Wildling patrol. Edmun hid particularly effectively, possibly due to the amount of gorse stuck to his cloak.
Rather worryingly the Wildlings stopped almost level with the party, but fortunately it was only to have a discussion about the merits of patrolling around somewhere right in the middle of friendly territory in the dark and the cold and the wind and the ghosts and all. They concluded that the appropriate course of action was to check that the mound was still there, and then to find a sheltered spot somewhere to have a drink of Skagosian mead out of the wind. Then they could wait out of the wind for a couple of hours before confirming that the mound still hadn’t ceased to exist and reporting home.
They duly went off to the mound and back. As they returned they stopped and pointed in the direction of the party – but it turned out that one had just seen the Wall glinting in the starlight, and they had a bit of a chat about the names of constellations, and what the Wall might look like from the other side. Joking that they might find out soon, they headed off debating whether or not they could risk a fire if they could find a decent hollow to skulk in.
The party started off towards the Mound, which was lurking ominously about quarter of a mile away. Gelert started getting quite distressed, and Jared, thinking he probably had a point, decided to head back to the gorse when he started to howl. Gelert wasn’t content with just that, and pulled free and ran back to the boat, a plan Jared was only too happy to adopt too.
Jacob went into the mound first, followed by Edmun and Turnpyke. Inside it was very very dark, and their lit taper didn’t seem like it would last long. Fortunately Edumn tripped over what turned out to be a sack with four torches in, so they lit one. It was much brighter. Much much brighter.
Heading past the megaliths flanking the entrance they crept down a narrow passage into the heart of the Mound. On the right was an alcove with some broken pots, but nothing more, and at the end was a fairly large chamber with carvings all over the walls, though a cursory inspection revealed no meaning in them. At the end was a big hole leading down, which looked easily climbable.
Turnpyke, confident of the easy climb, started down the hole but soon lost his confidence and clambered back. Edmun tried after that, but dislodged a large stone and got a bit cragfast. Jacob then lit another torch and wedged it in the chamber wall, giving more light, which allowed Edmun to climb down and Turnpyke to pass him the first torch before descending himself. Then Jacob leapt lightly down, barely having to use his arms for such a simple climb, and leaving the second torch burning brightly in the upper chamber…
At the bottom was a small chamber with rough stone walls and three passages: forward, left and right. Jacob led the party confidently straight on, glancing into an alcove to each side of the main passage, each of which seemed to hold a couple of skeletons. Edmun, following, decided to explore the right-hand alcove a bit more. There were more carvings on the wall, and so far as he can tell the left-hand skeleton had died to a big slash to the side of the head, still visible on its skull. It also seemed to have moved a bit, though that might have been a figment of the flickering torchlight, or of his imagination.
Just to be on the safe side Turnpyke went in to take the sword from the skeleton as Edmun held the torch at the entrance, but the second skeleton didn’t seem to like that and started to sit up.
Turnpyke quickly grabbed at the sword, despite the first skeleton’s efforts to stop him, while Edmun swiped at the second with his arakh, breaking a few ribs. Turnpyke threw the sword into the corridor and smashed the skeleton’s already fractured skull with a slingstone as Edmun smashed the spine of the other. Jacob went into the other alcove and smashed the feet of one of the skeletons there, at which it grabbed his shield and started clambering up. Turnpyke nipped in to shatter the last skeleton’s skull as Jacob destroyed the one on his shield.
Acting on a bit of a hunch, and with no consideration for the possible consequences, the party went quickly back up the other corridors and destroyed every skeleton they came across there. All the weapons, mostly bronze axes, swords and daggers, were piled up in the chamber below the entrance hole, apart from an obsidian axe that Turnpyke stuck in his belt. Turnpyke also nabbed a number of bronze and gold amulets and rings and so on, studded with garnets, obsidian, and amber.
Moving further down the main passage, another opening appeared on the left, with a cool draft coming out of it making the torch flicker. At the end of that side passage was a fairly large irregular chamber with a charred patch in the south and two plinths in the north and east. The roof was very black, and the torch no longer flickered.
After a cursory inspection the party moved on down the main tunnel, which sloped down to a chamber containing two more skeletons and a hole in the floor. The skeletons rose up in time to attack the party clumsily, but were smashed without difficulty.
Before going down the hole, the party decided to go and investigate the plinth room. The plinths appeared to be solid blocks of stone, but Turnpyke found a crack in the eastern one that suggested that it was hollow. Wedging a bronze axe in the crack he tried to lever it open, but the shaft broke under the strain. As she staggered back the haft of the obsidian axe in his belt also broke.
Taking a different approach, Turnpyke hit the plinth with a bronze axe, making a very odd sound. He then tapped around it, trying to discover any differences in various parts; the result of this was to convince Edmun that it was indeed a solid block.
At this point Jacob took things in hand, and the solidity of his axe-thump convinced him too. Turnpyke still being suspicious, he tried again and put in a mighty whack which extended the crack slightly.
The party then gave up on that plinth and decided to hit the northern one. Jacob got a solid whack in and concluded that it too was solid.
Getting bored with the plinths they went to look at the charred patch, concluding that it had been a fire many many years ago. With that they left the room, though Turnpyke still thought there might be something more to those plinths.
While this was going on, Jared and Anton had crept close to the Mound, unsettled by uneasy feelings and some deep booming sounds that they felt more than heard. Creeping up to look at the Mound they could see a yellowish flicker coming from the entrance. They retired to a point half-way between the boat and the Mound, and settled down to a nervous vigil.
The opening in the chamber floor led to a rough slope down. At this point the passages changed – where before they had been rough dry-stone masonry, now they became smooth natural cave walls. The main passage curved off to the left, with a narrower way leading right.
Turnpyke headed to the right, only to find a withered leathery corpse with blue glows where its eyes should be, lurching at him with bronze axe raised. He backed away, and between the three of them they smote it down without too much difficulty, and set light to it with the torch. The corpse took flame very readily, and burned brightly in the junction of passages, leaving Turnpyke and Jacob by the entrance and Edmun cut off in a side-passage wondering whether he had really seen and heard something moving further along it.
Turnpyke pushed the body around a bit and managed to squeeze past it to join Edmun. He was followed by Jacob, who was pushed to the front in the narrow passage. Moving round the corner he found another moving corpse, whose head he swapped off with a single mighty blow.
He took the ornate bronze sword, with a spirally hilt set with garnets, from the body and threw the corpse on the burning one, where it caught light very quickly.
After quite a bit of wandering round twisty passages, getting slightly wounded, and throwing corpses on fires (and setting light to their cloak hems), they found a larger chamber. Down the sides were rows of large benches, or chests, or something, and at the far end was a chair, on which sat a crowned person with a large axe across his knees.
They approached carefully, and Turnpyke thought he saw something moving in a passgeway to the near left. Jacob investigated and found nothing. Then Turnpyke thought he saw something in another passageway at the far right. When Jacob investigated, by the light of a dimming torch, he found a tall figure, with glowing blue eyes and an eldritch sword, which attacked him. Jacob’s sword seemed to do no good against the creature, but the crystal blade of the enemy dealt him some nasty wounds, so be backed off out of the small chamber. Edmun tried to help, but his arakh was no good either.
Turnpyke ran to the seated figure and tried to grab the axe it held, but it gave off such a chill that it froze his arm to numbness. As Jacob parried and bled, Edmun came round and tried for the axe, seizing it just as his torch flickered and died. But the torchlight was replaced by an eerie purple-red glow from the heart of the axe-head, so the party could still see to fight the Other that melted into the shadows of black and grey and brown stone.
With a mighty swing Edmun dashed the Other’s sword from its hand, and it fled back into the chamber it had been found in. As the other turned to flee, Edmun found himself compelled to chase after it and sink the axe into its back, leaving it a crumpled figure on the floor.
With the axe in hand the party fled back through the tunnel, ignoring the narrow twisty passages in favour of the wider one running straight back to the slope up out of the cave. Unfortunately the way was blocked by more of the walking dead, which were pouring out of an unexplored side passage, and another figure shadowing figure coming up behind with a crystal blade.
Despite his wounds Jacob leapt into the fray and disarmed one of the Dead, but with its shield it hurled Edmun against the wall and he dropped the axe. Grabbing it he fled to the slope as Jacob and Turnpyke formed a shieldwall behind him to slow the Dead. Edmun clawed his way up the slow, but in his haste he slipped and tumbled to the bottom, as the Other came up and hurled the Dead aside to face the shieldwall and break it. Recovering the axe Edmun tried the slope again, and this time just managed it. Jacob went next and nearly fell down too, but Turnpyke caught his shoulder as he came up behind and held him up just long enough for Jacob to recover his balance, but not quite long enough for the Other’s sword to reach them, it gashing the stone just an inch below Turnpyke’s foot.
Scrambling up the last of the slope they fled up the corridor pursued by the Other, and behind it the Dead. Edmun slipped and fell, dropping the axe again, but quickly got up and carried on. Jacob was feeling the weight of his wounds as well as his weapons, so dropped his shield to run the faster. Turnpyke, ever quick to flee pursuit, got ahead and helped the other two up the hole to the mound proper, and then was hauled up in the nick of time.
In the chamber they found Anton and Jared, who’d felt that something was happening and had come to see what could be done. Without stopping to explain Jacob flung the torch from the chamber down the hole and they all ran off towards the boat, ignoring the figures approaching the mound from the north. Before they were a tenth of the way to the gorse they heard an unearthly screech of rage from behind them, and glancing back they saw the Other at the entrance to the barrow, blue eyes blazing.
As they pushed the boat out they could see blue flickerings around the Mound, and dark shapes moving swiftly around on the headland, and they could hear screams drifting through the wind that rose as the clouds gathered.
Rowing back to the Wild Goose Edmun told Anton, Justyn and Jared what had happened: they went into the mound, they were attacked by Others and by living skeletons, he killed one of the Kingly Others, grabbed the axe, and ran.
Jared tried to heal the strange wounds that Edmun, Turnpyke and Jacob had, but couldn’t really work out what to do with them, though he later had a sudden inspiration and managed to make them a bit more comfortable.
Edmun examined the axe he had: it was a large obsidian axehead mounted with strips of bronze to a yellowing ivory haft, bound round with bronze bands set with obsidian. Although the axe feels cold, the head has a warmth to it under the cold; and despite it being a solidly opaque black, deep inside it somewhere are purply-red glints and glows and flashes.
Aftermath
Back at the Wild Goose the learned members of the party were asked to comment. Maester Leo thinks he once read something about Grim but he can’t recall it. Ariston has never heard of Grim, and monsters round the Summer Sea tend to be more in the fiery or marine creature line than creatures of cold; there are some walking dead in stories, but their ecology is never really explained very well.
Leo re-dressed the wounds of the various people.
On the way back to Eastwatch a number of ships are sighted heading from Skagos to Grimmup.
On arrival at Eastwatch, a young boy leapt up from where he was sitting on the jetty fishing, pointed excitedly at the Wild Goose, and ran into town.
The party went first to see the Maester to get some healing and to ask him about the Others, and legendary Wildling heroes out of stories, and walking Dead, and magical axes, and hilltops ablaze with blue fire. He passed them some healing potions which turned out to be sleeping draughts, and had them put safely in the Infirmary where they couldn’t hurt anyone in their madness.
He didn’t know anything about this rubbish, but suggested that Maester Aemon at Castle Black might.
Anton took Jared, who’d not been wounded and who had rather agreed with the Maester, to see the Captain of Eastwatch. They told him of the Coldaxe, and the gathering of the Wildlings and their plan of a secret weapon, and how a crucial component had been taken from them.
The Captain said he would report to Castle Black and await instructions. Jared sent a message to Lord Darnell:
WILDLINGS MASSING N OF WALL STOP LED BY COLDAX STOP STRANGE WEAPONS STOP WARE BLUE LIGHT STOP FIRE WORKS STOP RESPECTS J SNOW MOH STOP
When he awoke, Jacob said he’d like to send a boat up to get more intelligence of what was happening near Grimmup. Anton agreed: they would go up, not engage the enemy, but grab someone to interrogate.
The pary sat around for a couple of days to recuperate, but on the second day the Captain was summoned to Castle Black for a conference, and the PCs decided to go too. It took 4 days to get there, and Jared and his deerhounds caught a couple of deer on the way as a present.
Edmun said hello to the Lord Commander briefly, and then he, Ariston and Turnpyke took the Axe to Maester Aemon.
Jacob went to find the local Master at Arms, but their relationship gets off to a bad start. When he asked about obsidian weapons, the Master said they would be a stupid idea as they’d break; when Jacob said he’d seen one used, the Master said it was still a stupid idea. The Master seemed to be both very bored and only talking to Jacob because he had nothing better to do, and yet to have something better to do.
Jared went up the Wall in a basket, but couldn’t see much because of mist.
Aemon examined the Axe, finding that it was very cold, and that it had a lot of power. They had a bit of a discussion about what the Axe meant, and what the loss of it might mean to the Coldaxe and to the large gathering of Wildlings in general, concluding that logistics must be a big issue and in particular finding a source of food for that many people would be tricky.
Aemon didn’t know much about Grim, but suggested that the party go down to the library to have a dig around. Looking up references, it was found that Grimm the Coldaxe was an ancient king of the Wildlings who drove the Others away before being buried on Grimmen’s Head to keep an eye on things. He is buried with his mighty axe and his household warriors in Grim’s Mound, and as long as he is there the Others can never return. Grom was an ancient wise man who first found the secret of dragonglass, allowing the Wildlings to use it to destroy the Others. His home was on Grum’s Head. No-one knows where he came from, or where he went after passing on the secret. He was buried in Grim’s hole, deep in the mountains. Grim watches over the North, and if the Others ever return Grim and his men will rise to sweep them away again. Crom was one of the Old Gods, who has power over the Others; he dwells with them and holds them back from attacking the lands of men. After gathering together a large number of Wildling Clans, Grum the Axe, an old warleader, had fought against the Others. Although he was eventually driven back to the Wall and killed by them at a big battle at the Coldstone, he did gain a period of respite for the hard-pressed tribes, who buried him in the ancient vaults with other forgotten kings.
The Others are a mysterious race of evil beings who live in the far North. Their eyes are a bright shining blue, they carry swords that can slice stone, and their armour cannot be pierced by mortal weapons. They hate men and would destroy them all and cover the world with ice if they could. They were defeated and driven back by the First Men, and Brandon the Builder put up the Wall to keep them out.
An alternative theory is that they were just a clan of fierce warriors who beat up the other Wildlings a lot and whose story has grown in the telling.
They hate fire, which is the only thing that can destroy them; or possibly they dislike it and simply quench it when they touch it; or possibly they draw the heat from it and become stronger – sources differ.
Obsidian can hurt them, some books say. Other books say it can’t, because they don’t exist.
Turnpyke convened a symposium on how to tie an obsidian axehead to an axe. He, Ariston, Jared and Donal Noye final came up with a solution, consisting largely of string. It appeared to be fairly robust – except of course that the acid test, of thumping something with the axe very hard, wasn’t undertaken for fear of shattering the axehead.
