Tourney at Ashford Preview Compilation Thread

[Kakita Nanami]

Per request, this thread is for just previews from the Tourney at Ashford separated out from conversation and questions. Please don't post discussion and questions here - for that, please make your way here.

FAQ
Question are in larger fonts; the most relevant information from the answers are in bold.

How much gold will we be starting with?
While the book says to roll a status test, that method is a little too random and too cumbersome for dealing with more than a small group that can create a character around the table - plus, given the slightly lower status levels we're starting with, it can lead to situations where a knight can't buy their gear. To combat both of these problems, we've decided to give everyone an amount of gold dragons at creation equal to Status x 6.

Will there be limits on the number of players per house?
When character submissions are first opened, houses will be limited to five players per house for a total of thirty players. If we reach that cap, we will consider expanding the number of slots available in all houses simultaneously if we can find a third person to assist with running the game.

Can I play a freelancer?
We will be accepting characters not associated with the houses. However, be aware that playing such is likely to be very difficult - I would rate it even more difficult than a ronin in L5R - due to a lack of support in a number ways. While not impossible (after all, the canon tourney at Ashford sees the start of the rise of a freelancer hedge knight on his path to being one of the greatest heroes of Westeros), it's strongly recommended against.

Can I be a secret Targaryen?
The Targaryens tend to watch their bloodline very closely - especially after the Blackfyre Rebellion. Pretty much every single child born of a Targaryen or a Targaryen-born bastard is accounted for by House Targaryen; those that aren't are on the other side of the Narrow Sea. So, to simplify things: no, we won't be accepting this particular concept.

What about Dothraki?
No sane Dothraki would cross the poison water! For that reason (and a lack of good rules to represent anyone from Essos), we won't be accepting this particular concept.

What about the Night's Watch/Wildlings? There's an entire book for them!
You're correct, there is. However, the Night's Watch are bound to the Wall (and the lands around it) and the Wildlings don't get very far south. For these reasons, we won't be accepting these concepts for this game despite the rather thorough source book.

[Kakita Nanami]

A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

Prologue I: Along the Roseroad

The wooden shovel, wet in his hands from the steady drizzle, chafed the man’s hands as he worked at the damp earth. Taking a deep breath, he hauled himself out the hole to sit on the edge, cool dampness pressing against his skin through light trousers. Yes, he decided, the hole was definitely deep enough now. A look of sadness on his face, he pushed to his feet and walked the few short feet to the tree where the old man’s body lay stretched out beneath it.

He wasn’t a big man by any means; even in the old man’s wasted state, it took him some effort to lift the body. Even for his old age – closer to sixty, than fifty, the man figured – the deceased knight was still heavy. He’d lived a long life, the man decided, and how many men can say that? Still, the man frowned as he lowered the body of his mentor into the grave.

The man stood over the hole in the ground, staring down at the body of the man who’d changed his life so much. He supposed that he thought this would be different but, in the end, Ser Arlan had died the way he lived – as a hedge knight. The man had rode at his side, his squire for years, from keep to keep, taking service with this lord and lord, fighting in their battles and feasting in their halls until the war was done before moving on.

There had always been tourneys from time to time as well – how Ser Arlan had loved the tourneys! Of course the old man hadn’t ridden in a tilt himself, not since the tourney at Storm’s End where he’d rode against the Prince of Dragonstone himself years before. Ser Arlan always told him they had seven times passed against each other but, in the end, the old man had been unseated by the Prince. It is not every man who can boast that he broke seven lances against the finest knight in the Seven Kingdoms, he had said.

“That was how I’d always thought you’d die, old man,” the man said, frowning. “On the battlefield, not on the side of some muddy road.” That brought something else the old man had always said to mind: Another day done and who knows what the morrow will bring us, eh?

One morrow had brought the rains – the same blasted rain he wiped from his face now. The one after that had brought gusts of wind. The next, a chill – it was, after all, hardly yet spring. By the fourth day, the old man had been too weak to ride.

“And now you’re gone.” The man rubbed the back of his head, “I’d leave your sword but it would only rust in the ground.” Maybe the gods would give the knight a new one; he’d done so much he only deserved it.

He reached for the shovel again and glanced back to the knight’s body, “I wish you didn’t die, ser. You were a true knight and you never beat me when I didn’t deserve it.” Well, except that one time at Harrenhal; he hadn’t touched that stable girl, no matter what she’d said – he wasn’t like that at all. But he guessed it didn’t matter now.

The shovel scooped up some dirt and the man looked down one last time, “The gods keep you, uncle.”

It took Ser Robert of Pennytree nearly an hour in the rain to bury his uncle. By the time he’d finished, the sun was already coming up; the horses needed to be seen to, he realized. But then what? As he patted down Sweetfoot, his uncle’s old rounsey, he considered his option. He’d only ever known the life of a hedge knight; there was little else he could do.

They had been headed to the tournament at Ashford, perhaps he could – no, Robert decided quickly, that would never do. He was no tournament knight, he had never been able to manage even the simplest of tilts; he’d never make it there – no, Ashford would be for other champions. He could always go to Highgarden or Lannisport and find himself work as a guard. Surely someone would take him on; he had served with Ser Arlan for the Lannisters before, after all.

Satisfied with his decision, he packed up his little camp and led the horses down the road, towards the city of Highgarden.

Sometime later, he passed a small inn by the side of the road. A young boy, no more than eight years old with a clean shaven pate, pulled himself from the river where bathed. The bald boy wrapped himself in his simple clothes, watching as the strange hedge knight rode by without a word or so much as glancing in his way.

The boy frowned internally as he padded into the inn; he’d been hoping that one would stop – then he might have been able to get away from here, away from –

“Aegon!” the drunken call came. “Aegon! I need you!”

The boy sighed and went to the source of the call, “Yes, brother?”

The drunk’s eyes were bloodshot from several days of drinking, his clothes reeking of whatever types of drink he could manage to find. He closed his eyes and shook his head, “Aegon… I-I had a dream, brother…”

“A dream?” the boy sat beside his brother, suddenly interested. “Tell me, brother.”

“I had a dream of… two dragons, one red, one black…” He opened his eyes opened sleepily, “They stared at each other.” He smiled slightly, putting his head down on the table, “Funny… I could have sworn they were standing over Ashford Castle...” He was snoring almost before the words were done.

Aegon frowned; this did not bode well – his brother had dreams, true dreams, and that was the only time he’d ever mentioned dragons before. What did it mean? He tapped his fingers on the table and made a decision – he had to find some way to get to Ashford, with or without his drunken lout of a brother.

Welcome to the first of the previews for The Tourney at Ashford, a game set in the universe of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire – better known to most people as Game of Thrones. The game will use the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying (SIFRP) system from Green Ronin.

Almost ninety years before the death of Jon Arryn would set in motion the events of the novels, though, a time of peace had settled over the Seven Kingdoms. As a new spring dawned, Darryn Ashford, Lord of House Ashford, declares a tournament in honour of his daughter’s thirteenth name day. Early in the year 209 AC, would-be champions descended upon the fields of Ashford to vie for the right to name a queen of love and beauty.

The game is currently set to begin on August 24th, a short time after GenCon, and run until the end of September of this year with character selection/submission and pre-game stuffs beginning shortly before. Feel free to ask any questions of me either here or in the appropriate Ashford channel on Discord; I (or my co-GM Jasper) will get to them as soon as we can answer them.

Players will play as a member of one of six noble houses, each sworn under a different Great House in the Seven Kingdoms: House Algood, House Dunn, House Forrester, House Kellington, House Terrick, and House Wydman. Each house will come with a handful of pre-generated characters for those who wish to forgo the character creation system and hop right in with already connected characters - we will also be accepting player made characters into those houses and will be on hand to assist with character creation and with integrating them into the existing house; these characters will all be created using the rules from the SIFRP core book.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

First up, the Player Houses! Players familiar with the Southron Ambitions game of some years ago will understand and be familiar with how these work (but they are not the same houses of that game).

Each player will belong to either one of six houses, each sworn to one of the Lords Paramount of the Seven Kingdoms, or will be a hedge knight freerider. While we’ll look at each player house in more detail in the following previews, what follows is a brief summary of each house and the theme they’ll play towards.

House Algood
Vassals of House Lannister
Lord Status: 4
During the Blackfyre Rebellion, House Algood of Riverwatch stood with the Blackfyres under the promise of marriage. When the armies of the Targaryen allies rode, however, Algood found itself surrounded and occupied by the armies of House Lannister. House Algood was punished for its open loyalties to the Black Dragon and its lord executed. For thirteen years, the new Lord Algood has labored under the close watch of the Lannisters and their lackies, slowly trying to rebuild everything lost by his father without bringing further punishment down upon the family.

The theme of House Algood is rebuilding.

House Dunn
Vassals of House Tyrell
Lord Status: 4
For centuries, House Dunn of the Silver Hills guarded their lands on the Dornish Marches from southron invaders. A family built around war against ancestral enemies to protect their own homeland, the Dunns have recently found themselves without purpose – with Dorne officially joined to the Seven Kingdoms, it seems the need for such defenders of the realm has passed into the fog of ages. While old enmities cannot be forgotten or forgiven so easily, House Dunn must find a new place for itself in a changing Westeros.

The theme of House Dunn is adaptation.

House Forrester
Vassals of House Stark
Lord Status: 4
Once, during the earliest days of the Seven Kingdoms, House Forrester was created to protect and foster the groves of ironwoods found in the Wolfswood. In time, as peace settled on the Seven Kingdoms and the North became less involved with what the northerners soon called ‘southron ambitions,’ the need for ironwood dwindled and House Forrester faded away into nothingness. With the Blackfyre Rebellion, however, it became clear the North could not divorce itself from the conflicts of the south. Thus, House Forrester was reborn to shepherd the ironwoods once more… but others eye the valuable wood for their own purposes.

The theme of House Forrester is expansion.

House Kellington
Vassals of House Baratheon
Lord Status: 3
Formed after the victory of a daring bandit lord over invading Andals, House Kellington of Kellington has seen far better days. Lord Cedric Kellington rules from a near ruin of a castle perched among the crags of the Stormlands. Once a powerful house, Kellington’s influence has dwindled significantly to the point that even its banner house, the Cafferens, rival them for power. Whispers circulate about Lord Cedric’s lack of wife – could House Kellington soon find itself extinct?

The theme of House Kellington is survival.

House Terrick
Vassals of House Tully
Lord Status: 4
Squeezed between the lands of House Frey and the cold shores of Ironman’s Bay, House Terrick is a house of mixed ancestry and torn loyalties. House Frey and House Mallister make constant demands as neighbours to the small house and the ironborn demand tributes lest they raid the weakened defenses of the Terricks. With a single male heir and a half dozen daughters, Lord Terrick seeks any way to dig his house out of the situation it’s been left in but still stands wary of the trap any other houses might draw them into.

The theme of House Terrick is freedom.

House Wydman
Vassals of House Arryn
Lord Status: 4
Though the Vale stands separate from many conflicts that ravage the rest of Westeros, it is not without its own share of hardships. House Wydman is a perfect example of those hardships; their lands, primarily contained within the Mountains of the Moon, are beset by the mountain clans of the Vale who long ago rejected the Andal kings. Although the family itself is safe within the walls of Highhome, the clansmen raid their territory and terrorize their peasantry. The house has resources to offer – if only it could find a way to protect them.

The theme of House Wydman is protection.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

Another dose! This time, a set of... well, let's say mechanics? One is the general backbone of the tournament - the Jousting Lists - and the other is the secret game being played in the shadows...

The Lists
Five champions stand forth as defenders of the Lady Ashford on her nameday. As the tournament begins, Lord Darryn Ashford has selected the following five to defend his daughter’s honour:

• Ser Androw Ashford
  Lord Ashford’s eldest son and heir to House Ashford, Andrew Ashford was trained as the squire of Leo Tyrell. Only a handful of years knighted, he has yet to distinguish himself as a knight.
• Ser Robert Ashford
  Lord Ashford’s second son, Robert Ashford was trained as the squire of Lyonel Baratheon. Only recently knighted by his mentor, Robert is looking to prove himself a capable knight.
• Lord Leo Tyrell
  Lord of Highgarden and of the Reach, Leo Tyrell is the current head of House Tyrell. Considering Lord Ashford one of his closest supporters, he readily accepted the invitation to stand as the defender of Lady Ashford’s honour.
• Ser Humfrey Hardyng
  Champion of the Grand Melee at the Tourney of Maidenpool the year prior, Humfrey Hardyng has come to Ashford to prove he has as much skill on horseback as he does on foot.
• Prince Valarr Targaryen
  A surprise entry in the champion list, Prince Valarr Targaryen volunteered himself when his father, the Crown Prince Baelor Targaryen, decided to attend the tourney as representative of the King.

As the tourney begins, these five champions will stand against all challengers. When one champion is defeated, the man who defeated him takes his place in the champions – and must defend his position against those who would ride after him. The five champions at the end of ten days of jousts will together decide the tournament’s queen of love and beauty – and each champion will receive an additional Destiny Point to spend as they see fit.

But allowing just any to challenge the champions would be chaos; in order to organize the challengers, Lord Ashford has empowered his steward, Plummer, to make decisions and select those of highest status to joust the next day.

Each day, those would-be challengers (or a representative of the challenger) must come before the Steward of House Ashford and make their claim for the next day. The challenger or his representative makes a Status (Reputation) test; the character making the test uses his own Status (Reputation) for the test, regardless of whether he is speaking for himself or another. At the end of the claims for a day, the Steward will declare the strongest claims for the day; the top five, in descending order, will select the opponent they wish to challenge the next day.

On the following day, these challenges will be run out using normal joust rules and a new set of challengers will make claims for the following day. Joust matches will begin of Day 2.

Each champion may only be challenged once a day. Once a competitor has tilted against a champion, successful or not, they may not attempt to make another challenge; Lord Ashford’s Steward will deny repeat attempts at the lists.

For example: While on Day 1 there is no jousting, would-be competitors may make their claims for the right to joust on Day 2. The Steward will select the five highest scoring competitors who will select their opponents for Day 2 and challenge them. On Day 2, those who did not earn the right to challenge a champion may make another claim to the Steward for Day 3’s challenges and so forth.

The Red and Black
But as the people of Westeros come together to celebrate a young girl’s coming of age, other sinister agents take the chance to come together and prepare for the future.

Thirteen years ago, the Blackfyre Rebellion tore Westeros in two. Although far from the first civil war to come from the ruling Targaryen line, the Blackfyre Rebellion stemmed from the legitimized bastard Daemon Blackfyre pressing his claim on the Iron Throne. Although in the end the war ground to an end with the death of Daemon and his two eldest sons, one of the Blackfyre’s generals – another Targaryen bastard by the name of Aegor Rivers – helped Daemon’s widow and remaining children escape across the Narrow Sea to Tyrosh. The eldest of those sons, Daemon II Blackfyre, now stands old enough to inherit the full responsibilities of his family… and he and Aegor Rivers eagerly watch the events unfolding in Westeros…

The presence of several high placed members of the Targaryen family – including the first, second, third, and fourth in line for throne – has drawn the attention of agents who would much rather see the throne turned over to what they believe is the true line, the Blackfyres.

During the duration of the tournament, some events will have the ability to shift the balance either towards the Red Dragons – the currently reigning Targaryens on the Iron Throne – or the Black Dragons – the Blackfyres exiled to Tyrosh. On the last day of each session, a special event will be run depending on where the balance between the two sits; if the balance is shifted towards the Black Dragons, for example, the event on the final day of a session may involve a serious threat to the life of a visiting Targaryen.

At the conclusion of each session, the balance is reset for the next series of events.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

Two quick NPCs: our host and his daughter.

Lord Darryn Ashford

A once strong and handsome man growing portly with his years, Darryn Ashford is head of House Ashford and a staunch supporter of both the Tyrells, his direct lords, and the Targaryens in general. During his youth, Darryn was a well-known tourney knight that eventually drew the eye of Lord Leo Tyrell, serving with him during the Blackfyre Rebellion and routing traitorous houses in the south.

In his advancing age, Lord Ashford has retreated more to his home, preferring to oversee the well-being of his lands as opposed to traipsing off across the Seven Kingdoms, leaving that to the younger knights. He has become a serious man, focused on ensuring that his line continues, though it’s clear beyond a doubt that he has a soft spot for his daughter, Ashlyn, and has so far refused anyone who has come to negotiate for her hand in marriage.

Ashlyn Ashford

The nameday girl, Ashlyn stands on the boundaries between childhood and being an adult. While understanding that her duty to her house it to one day marry into another family, Ashlyn has never thought about how close that day might truly be. Her father seems content to allow that day to remain far away.

In the meantime, the young girl has taken an interest in horses and can often be found at the stables in the stable of Ashford Hold watching after the house’s horses. Although recognizing she is not bound for that world, she adores the training her older brothers undergoes and has a strong fondness for jousting – thus the tournament her father called for her nameday.

(Yes, yes, I know these aren't too detailed. Expect the NPCs attached to your houses to be more detailed, though.)

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

Two more NPCs, this time dragons~

Prince Baelor "Breakspear" Targaryen

Prince of Dragonstone, Baelor Targaryen – known as the Breakspear – is heir to the throne of the Seven Kingdoms and Hand of the King and will, without a doubt, one day take his place on the Iron Throne after his father, Daeron II, passes from this world. Unlike most Targaryens, Baelor is dark of hair and brown of eye and the normal Valyrian pale skin finds itself slightly darkened – features gained from his mother, Mariah Martell.

Considered one of the finest knights ever to grace the Seven Kingdoms, Baelor was instrumental during the Blackfyre Rebellion when he lead troops from Dorne and the Stormlands to Redgrass Field where they trapped the rebels against his brother Maekar’s army – an action commemorated in the song “The Hammer and Anvil.”

Despite him having all the makings of a fine king, Baelor is looked darkly upon by no small number of lords. His features mark him as more Martell than Targaryen and many believe that a “true” Targaryen should be the one to sit the throne, not some half-blood mongrel.

His wife is Jena, formerly of the House Dondarrion, and has given him two children: Valarr and Matarys. While Valarr has ridden to Ashford at his father’s side, Matarys remains in King’s Landing with his mother.

Prince Maekar Targaryen

Youngest brother to Baelor, Maekar is seventh in line for the Iron Throne; knowing it impossible that he might ever sit upon it, he has contented himself with his place as Prince of Summerhall. Unlike his oldest brother, the bearded Maekar is considered a perfect Targaryen – white hair, purple eyes, and pale skinned tanned by years of commanding in the field.

Where Baelor was always a better knight, Maekar was always considered the better warrior and commander and thus stands in charge of his a portion of his father’s armies. In the field, his army stood against the mad attacks of Aegor the Bittersteel and it was by his hand and commands the rebel army of the Blackfyres was finally destroyed – a feat he remembers in the form of a wicked scar across his face when he faced Aegor in battle.

Despite his prowess and his part in the downfall of Daemon Blackfyre, Maekar is jealous of his brother; history remembers more the role of Baelor Breakspear and the errors of Daemon Blackfyre than it does of Maekar’s part in the Battle of the Redgrass Field. Despite this jealousy, he serves for the good of the kingdom at his brother’s side.

Maekar is recently widowed, his wife Dyanna having died in childbirth. Together they had four sons – Aerion, Daeron, Aemon, and Aegon – and two daughters – Daella and Rhae, the youngest. Maekar is accompanied at Ashford by Aerion though Daeron and Aegon seem to have disappeared from the caravans. Maekar’s two daughters remain in King’s Landing while his remaining son, Aemon, studies at the Citadel.

====

Next preview will likely be tomorrow and will include a timeline of relatively recent events (the last approximately 20 years or so).

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

Well, the timeline has turned out to be a LOT longer than I intended it to be originally... I ended up wanting to explore the history of the Blackfyre Rebellion as it provides a lot of the backdrop for the setting and the older characters would very clearly remember it. So, what follows is a timeline leading up to the Blackfyre Rebellion. At some point in the near future, more of a timeline will follow detailing the years between the Rebellion and the Tourney at Ashford.

Keen eyed observers may note a few differences.

A Timeline of Events Leading to the Blackfyre Rebellion

153 AC: The Death of the Last Dragon; after the attempts to breed healthy dragons fails, the last dragon dies. All that is left are dragon eggs; while the Targaryens would attempt to hatch them in the decades to come, nothing ever comes of it.

158 AC: The Submission of Sunspear: after a two year campaign, King Daeron I – the Young King – conquers the capital of Dorne, leaving Lord Lyonell Tyrell in charge of the conquered nation while his armies move on to pacify the hinterlands. The full conquest will take another year.

160 AC: Lyonell Tyrell is killed by assassins, sparking uprisings within Dorne as news of his death spread quickly. When news of the uprising reaches King’s Landing, the Young King marches forth with his host. The battle to pacify Dorne is long and grueling and eventual Daeron I has the lords of Dorne agree to meet for a peace conference.

161 AC: The conference is a trap: Daeron is killed and his cousin Aemon captured. By the time the conquest is entirely called off, over forty thousand troops have been slain and the rest forced from Dorne. Daeron’s younger brother, Baelor, is crowned King Baelor I Targaryen. His first act is to walk the Boneway to Dorne barefoot to make peace; as part of the peace, the young Prince Daeron would marry the Prince of Dorne’s eldest daughter, Mariah, when they came of age and Aemon would be released.

When Baelor returned to claim Aemon, he found him suspended in a cage above a pit of vipers. Taking the key, Baelor entered the pit and was bitten multiple times as he brought the key to the cage. Freed, Aemon carried his king from the pit and bore him back to the lands of House Dondarrion and then to Storm’s End. While the king would remain unwell for half a year, these events would be the first steps to a lasting peace with Dorne.

169 AC: Mariah Martell finally comes of age and is wed to Prince Daeron.

170 AC: Mariah Martell gives birth to her first child with Prince Daeron. The child is named Baelor after the current king. Baelor’s sister Daena gives birth to a child – without husband, Daena gives him child the name Daemon Waters; it is believed the child is one of the growing number of bastards sired by Aegon Targaryen, Daeron’s father. After the birth of Daemon, Baelor I enters a fast.

171 AC: On the fourty-first day of his fast, King Baelor I collapses. Unable to be saved, he passes away. His uncle, Viserys, is crowned King Viserys II Targaryen.

172 AC: Lady Barba Bracken gives birth to a bastard child. Named Aegor Rivers, the child is believed to be one of Aegon Targaryen’s bastards – later in life he would become angered at his status as a bastard and be called the Bittersteel. Later in the year, King Viserys II grows sick; his condition rapidly deteriorates and he dies within a fortnight. Aegon is crowned King Aegon IV.

174 AC: Unable to accept that Dorne remains separate from his rule, Aegon IV sends a fleet to invade Dorne. The fleet is, however, caught in a storm and scattered. It is believed destroyed.

175 AC: Lady Melissa Blackwood gives birth to a bastard in King’s Landing. Believed to be yet another of Aegon IV’s illegitimate children, the child is given the name Brynden Rivers. In his older years, Brynden would become known as the Bloodraven for a wine-coloured birthmark the went from his chest and up his neck, said to resemble a raven drawn in blood.

182 AC: Aegon IV knights Daemon Waters and grants him the Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre, making him Daemon Blackfyre. He inverts the colours of the Targaryen coat of arms and takes it as his personal arms. This causes an uproar throughout Westeros; Blackfyre was the blade of Aegon the Conqueror and traditionally passed to the king’s heir, having been wielded by every Targaryen king. Some see this as Aegon appointing Daemon his heir as they would prefer a warrior king to the scholar that the true heir, Daeron, is.

184 AC: Aegon IV grows sick. On his deathbed, he makes orders that all his bastards be legitimized. Only a few of his councilors hear the command and are divided on the matter, knowing it would cause great strife in the kingdom. Daeron is crowned King Daeron II Targaryen. Daemon Blackfyre marries Rohanne of Tyrosh who, later that year, gives birth to twins – Aegon and Aemon Blackfyre.

187 AC: Daeron II marries his sister, Daenerys, to the Prince of Dorne, Maron Martell, in a ceremony in the Great Sept of Baelor in King’s Landing. As the ceremony concludes, Prince Maron travels to the Red Keep and kneels before the Iron Throne, swearing fealty to King Daeron II and the line of Targaryen kings, officially bringing Dorne into the realm. A great tournament was held afterwards on the fields outside of King’s Landing to celebrate the union.

188 AC: Contruction of Summerhall in the Dornish Marches is completed, marking the boundary between the Reach, the Stormlands, and Dorne.

196 AC: The refounding of House Forrester in the North. The Blackfyre Rebellion.

The Blackfyre Rebellion
With the rapid number of Dornish concessions and the rise of their influence, a number of lords in Westeros had been growing increasingly malcontent with the Targaryen line. Where Aegon IV had been willing to continue fighting the Dornish, other recent kings had continually pursued peace and allowed greater Dornish influence – their current queen was even Dornish, something which sat poorly with many. They pointed to Aegon IV granting Blackfyre to Daemon. These events, coupled with rumours of Daeron illegitimacy, planted the seeds for what would become the Blackfyre Rebellion.

Daemon, for his part, had grown to resent his status as a bastard. It was the arrival of Aegor Rivers and the other bastards of Aegon that finally tilted his discontent into open rebellion. Some years prior, on of Aegon IV’s advisors had come to Aegor and revealed that Aegon had legitimized his bastards upon his deathbed. With this news and knowing that he had the support of a number of lords, Daemon Blackfyre declared open rebellion against King Daeron II and the Iron Throne, claiming it for his own.

Before they could march, however, Daemon and Aegor found themselves confronted by the Kingsguard. Unknown to him, Daemon had been betrayed by Brynden Rivers, who had been granted a seat on Daeron’s small council in exchange for the information. While Daemon was able to escape the Red Keep with help from sympathizers, he had lost the initiative and word of his efforts soon spread through the lands.

Regardless, near on half the realm declared for Blackfyre. Although no one place was safe enough to declare his capital, Daemon began to produce his own coinage – and soon became known as the Black Dragon for his sigil.

Early on, the fighting went strongly in Daemon’s favour with Ser Quentyn Ball leading troops to the Westerlands and laying siege to Lannisport. The siege was soon lifted though when a force lead by Edmund Reyne came to the city and forced Ball’s forces to depart. While Lord Damon Lannister rallied his troops in the Westerlands, Quentyn Ball headed south to the Reach where he won a great victory at the crossing of the Mander, a battle which saw him slay all of the sons of Lord Penrose.

Finally, troops loyal to the Targaryens began to fight back; Lord Damon Lannister marched his rallied army eastward, conquering the seats of several rebel houses including House Algood before merging with the forces of Prince Maekar near the Trident. In the south, Quentyn Ball retreated to merge with the main army of Daemon Blackfyre and moved to attack King’s Landing – a move which drew Maekar’s army southward to stand in their way as they advanced on the capital.

In the south, meanwhile, mercenary companies from Essos in the employ of the Blackfyres had landed near Oldtown, forcing Leo Tyrell to choose between saving his people and fighting to protect his king. A raven from Prince Baelor, however, set him on the course he needed and he turned his army to Oldtown to meet the foreign invaders.

Ill omens sat on Daemon’s army from the beginning – the night before the forces would clash, a stray arrow struck Ser Quentyn Ball, now one of Blackfyre’s most trusted commanders, through the eye, killing him instantly. Regardless, the Blackfyre forces stood their ground and pushed against Maekar’s army – they needed only to break through as King’s Landing stood effectively defenseless beyond.

And it seemed that they would succeed – despite Maekar’s masterful commanding, his forces were near overwhelmed by the ferocity with which Blackfyre’s forces fought. All might have been lost and Blackfyre might very well have won had it not been for his duel with Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard.

Despite his mistrust of the Kingsguard, Daemon was impressed with the duel – something that would for years be considered a sight to behold. The battle lasted for minutes and ended only with a lucky blow from Daemon blinding the KIngsguard and allowing the Blackfyre to end the duel by bringing the man down. So impressed was Daemon that he stopped to ensure that the Kingsguard was taken to safety so he could not be further injured.

That compassion would be his death.

During the duel, Brynden Rivers and his unit of archers, the Raven’s Teeth, had mounted a nearby ridge, allowing them high ground to see the battle and harass the enemy. It was the Bloodraven himself who saw the act of mercy by Daemon that left him defenseless. The first arrow did not strike Blackfyre – instead, it struck his eldest song, Aegon, who had been fighting at his side, killing him instantly. As Blackfyre turned to his dying son, Bloodraven unleashed arrow after arrow, striking Blackfyre unerringly with seven shafts. Enraged, Aegon’s twin Aemon picked up Blackfyre to continue fighting – only for the Bloodraven to strike him down as well.

Even with Blackfyre’s death the battle continued – and the war might have – as Aegor Rivers drove the army on. Bittersteel rode against the Bloodraven, fighting a duel that was outshone only by Daemon and Corbray’s duel. At the end, Bloodraven knelt defeated, one of his eyes missing, and might very well have died had it not been for the arrival of Prince Baelor.
While the war had been going on, Baelor had secretly sailed to Sunspear in Dorne to treat with Prince Maron Martell to send aid against Blackfyre. Maron quickly agreed and Baelor, in imitation of his namesake, marched across Dorne with the army, gathering troops from lords along the way as they marched first west and then north into the Stormlands. There he merged with the armies of Lord Orys Baratheon and headed north, coming up behind the rebel forces on the eve of battle.

With Daemon dead, Baelor charged into the enemy forces, throwing them into chaos. It was only his timely intervention that saved his uncle and drove Aegor Rivers away. Between the two armies, the remains of the Blackfyre forces were crushed.

However, Bittersteel had swooped in, taking the blade Blackfyre for himself and fleeing with his personal guard. He and a number of those loyal to the Blackfyres rode quickly from the battle, gathering up Blackfyre’s widow and children and fleeing with them across the Narrow Sea to the Free Cities.

In the aftermath of the rebellion, a number of rebel lords were severely punished depending upon their actions during the rebellion. Some King Daeron II had executed; others merely gave their children up as wards. Among the executed was Lord Karl Algood; his son, the now Lord Arryk Algood, gave his brother to the king as a hostage and his sister to the Lannisters as a hostage and meekly accepted the punishment as House Algood was stripped of most of its land.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

It's not the house - that will be up tomorrow - but it is something that was asked about a couple times!

The Seasons of Westeros
While the world of Westeros follows a twelve month year, it does not have a regular seasonal cycle. Through some unknown mechanism, seasons on Westeros vary in length, lasting anywhere from a few months to years on end.

Though the seasons can be hard to predict, the Maesters of the Citadel carefully track temperatures and weather across Westeros to proclaim seasons. Although they are usually right, the unusual seasonal patterns sometimes play tricks that make accurate prediction difficult at best.

Season of the Last Twenty Five Years
Early 184 AC - Spring
Late 185 AC - Autumn
Mid 186 AC - Winter
Early 187 AC - Spring
Mid 188 AC - Summer
Mid 190 AC - Autumn
Mid 191 AC - Winter
Late 192 AC - Spring
Early 193 AC - Summer
Early 195 AC - Autumn
Late 195 AC - Winter
Mid 198 AC - Spring
Late 198 AC - Summer
Mid 199 AC - Autumn
Early 200 AC - Winter
Late 202 AC - Spring
Early 205 AC - Summer
Mid 206 AC - Autumn
Late 206 AC - Winter
Late 208 AC - Spring

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

While I'm not positive I'm happy with how much is in the history (that's been the hardest to fill in for this particular house; it's very likely it will be expanded upon by the time of the actual game), I present the first Player House preview.

House Kellington


HISTORY
Possibly one of the most ancient houses in all of Westeros, House Kellington was founded during the Andal Invasion. During the reign of King Qarlton II Durrandon, an Andal army sought to cross through a pass thought undefended in the mountains and thus come upon Storm’s End from an unexpected direction. Little did the Andals know, however, a group of bandits had long plagued the Storm Kings; these bandits refused to allow the army to pass freely and used the terrain to their advantage, bringing an end to the attempt at a surprise attack near the village of Kellington. The leader of these bandits was raised to lordship for his heroics and given Kellington and the nearby lands as his seat, thereby forming the line that, to this day, is known as House Kellington.

Although much of their history has now disappeared into the fog of ages and become myth, the history of House Kellington since the days of Aegon’s Conquest is well known. When it became apparent that House Durrandon would be unable to stand against the Targaryens and their dragons, Lord Qarlton Kellington sent an envoy to the swiftly approaching army of Rhaenys Targaryen offering a white peace – the Kellingtons would ensure no members of the Durrandon army would flee through the pass in exchange for their survival and place in the new empire being created. Lord Qarlton would later die during Lord Orys Baratheon’s failed assault on the Boneway during the First Dornish War.

During the Faith Militant uprising during King Maegor I Targaryen’s reign, House Kellington stood firmly on the side of the king. Their neighbours of House Morrows, however, supported the Faith Militant. When Lord Morrows came to then then Lord Theodred Kellington to convince him to join the uprising, Theodred had the rebel lord executed on the spot and sent a sizable army to size seize Morrows’ holding at Fawnton and taking the Morrows hostage. With the approval of Lord Robar Baratheon, Theodred married one of his retainers to Morrows’ eldest daughter, placing him at the head of the new House Cafferen and cementing their status as a banner house of House Kellington for years to come.

As the years wore on, House Kellington’s fortunes waned. One year, a freak storm caused a mountain slide to fill in a quarry that had been supplying much of the surrounding land. A decade later, one of the Stormlands’ famous lightning storms set fire to the woods from which Kellington had been drawing most of its lumber and burned a vast portion of it. The War for the Stepstones claimed the lives of all the contemporary Lord Kellington’s true born sons; it was only the legitimization of a bastard that saved the family line from extinction. The Dance of the Dragons saw battles rage throughout all of Westeros and the last stable settlement on Kellington lands was burned to the ground, twice, during the two year conflict.

House Kellington had just begun to stabilize itself and begin to rebuild by the time of the Blackfyre Rebellion. When Prince Baelor rode with his Dornish army, Lord Jerome Kellington was one of the first Stormlanders to answer the call; many had been reticent to fight alongside the Dornish, fearing they might take revenge for wrongs of eld. Jerome, though, not only willingly joined the force going to save his king but marched his small force at the Battle of Redgrass Plain alongside Oberyn Martell, brother of Maron Martell and then Heir of Dorne, saving his life at the cost of a grave wound to himself. Jerome’s heroic act is said to have helped build relationships between the Stormlands and Dore. Lord Jerome would never fully recover from his wound and, eventually, pass from an extended infection of it soon after the end of the rebellion, leaving his son Cedric in charge of the house.

Under Cedric’s leadership, the lands of House Kellington began to decline further; he has been a poor lord, indulging himself at the cost of his people. Under his watch, House Cafferen has begun to push for independence and all the work of his forebears has begun to fall apart. With no heir, trueborn or otherwise, House Kellington is in the worst shape it’s ever been. Despite the best efforts of Kellington’s maester, the house may be beyond saving.

HOLDINGS
The seat of House Kellington, the Cragfort, is a sizable and impressive defensive fortification; built to defend the pass through the mountains from further incursion, the Cragfort was constantly expanded and rebuilt to be more impregnable many times over the years. Far more defensible from the western approach from the lower ground than the higher ground of the pass to east, the Cragfort has stood against more than one siege in its time. The halls are luxuriously decorated, draped in Kellington blue with no expense spared; if there’s one thing that Cedric will leave as a legacy, it’s the ostentatious spending done within the manor. Though the Cragfort sees few visitors these days, it is said that within the castle resides a room decorated to remind visitors of each of the Seven Kingdoms so that visiting guests can feel more at home.

House Kellington is a house far from its glory days; even without Cedric’s actions degrading the standing on the house, Kellington has seen far better days. Most of the respect given to House Kellington is merely in honour of its ancient members; even its banner house, House Cafferen, is treated with nearly as much respect as House Kellington – were Kellington to fall any further, House Cafferen might easily find itself able to break free.

The lands of House Kellington consist primarily of a strip of land that clutches precariously to a mountain side overlooking a pass from the Reach to the heart of the Stormlands. While there is no true population center, its peasantry spread out instead of gathered together, the Cragfort still maintains a small population of peasants who live within its shadow. Further down the approach to the Cragfort is an ancient tower fort, now gone to ruin, constructed by the earliest Kellingtons before it was abandoned for the current castle, offering further protection to the primary castle – anyone attempting to the Cragfort has to pass under the shadow of the ruined tower.

For a lack of towns, the Kellingtons maintain order within their lands well enough. Though the better part of their protection is supplied by their banner house, the Cafferens, the late Lord Jerome determined that the best way to ensure a lack of banditry within his lands was to employ them for his own ends to protect the people. Thus, outside a few outlier groups, outlaws are almost non-existent within their ancestral lands.

For all the wealth Lord Cedric spends on maintaining the Cragfort, House Kellington is not the wealthiest of houses. Their current steward and maester, Endrew, carefully conceals from the lord of the house their true financial status in order to carefully cultivate what little they have while continuing to make the necessary donations to the Citadel and the Night’s Watch.

LORD CEDRIC KELLINGTON

Lord Cedric Kellington is the only son of Jerome Kellington and Ythne Kellington (nee Connington). With a face that looks slightly malformed and an unruly mop of red-brown hair, Cedric is the utmost example of the spoiled noble. Given every leeway by his father since youth, his carefree attitude continued into his adult years after becoming lord and, now in his late 30s, Cedric is utterly unaware of the damage his decisions have done to House Kellington.

Cedric has been lord of the Cragfort for twelve years now; his father, injured during the Blackfyre Rebellion during the Battle of the Redgrass Plain, succumb to his an infection of his wounds and left the inexperienced and not-quite prepared Cedric in charge. His demands of luxury put hardship on the already strained peasantry, taking a sizable portion of what they were able to grow in the terrain in order to fuel his excess. The constant strain on the lands has not gone unnoticed by his neighbours, particular the Kellington’s banner house, the Cafferens, who have begun to enter negotiations with the Baratheons to swear fealty directly to the Stormlords.

But that isn’t the only concern his household has.

As of yet, Cedric is unmarried and has no heirs – not even, as with many other lords, bastards. While still a youth, he was never pressured to marry; his father declared that his son would marry only when he was good and ready, driven by Jerome’s own unhappy forced marriage. Even after ascending to lordship of the house with his father’s death, Cedric continued to delay marriage. Finally, though, Cedric has finally consented to marriage – if only to silence the constant nagging from his advisors (some of who already quietly fear it may be too late to bring the house back from the edge).

Cedric’s hobbies are wide and varied – and most cause at least one member of the house or another to sigh in frustration. He considers himself one of the best poets in all of Westeros, often locking himself in his chamber for countless hours on end composing his latest masterpiece; when presented in the great hall, however, most members of the house would agree his work is lackluster at the best of times (though none would ever say so to his face). Despite his bookish nature, he hasn’t left the martial training usually necessary for a lord slip by the wayside. Although a mediocre swordsman, capable only of putting up a mild defense at best, Cedric is an accomplished wrestler and finds great joy in challenging those who would visit Kellington and the Cragfort. While he refuses to pick up a bow or spear – thus precluding himself from hunts – Cedric is also an accomplished horseback rider, occasionally riding out with his Huntmaster.

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS
Maester Endrew
A thin, middle aged man going grey before his time, Endrew is Maester at the Cragfort. His chain bearing links marking him for his knowledge of history and economics, Endrew currently serves as House Kellington’s steward, despite his feigned protestations on the matter. With dark hair and dusky skin, he is without a doubt of Dornish heritage; some rumours even say he is the bastard of prominent lord though Endrew is quick to deny those stories.

Falena Kellington
If Cedric is considered to be late in marrying, his elder sister Falena is considered to be beyond her marriageable years. Many times over the years both Cedric and his father before him have attempted to marry her off only for her betrothed to die before the marriage could occur; after the fourth such incident, the suitors stopped coming. Looking almost identical to her brother but with longer hair, Falena has an interest in archery and horsemanship that her brother has indulged by letting her range through the house’s lands with Long Yohn.

Ser Jamos Cafferen
Drawn from the Kellington banner house of Cafferen, Jamos serves Lord Cedric as master-at-arms and castellan at the Cragfort. He has also taken to being Cedric’s personal bodyguard which has, at times, left him privy to a number of secrets about the House and its master. A gangly man in his late twenties, Jamos holds loyalty to the Kellingtons but has recently felt pressure from his family to return home with the waning of Kellington’s influence.

Long Yohn of the Broken Crag
Because a fair portion of its lands consist of mountainous terrain, a sizable portion of Kellington’s foodstuffs have come from hunting local wild life. Thus, each Lord Kellington has had a Master of the Hunt. Lord Cedric’s (and his father’s before him) was Long Yohn of the Broken Crag, an older man with scraggly hair who knows the lands of the house like the back of his hand. He’s served in the position nigh on three decades, having inherited it from his father, and seems to not be slowing down yet.

Theodan Storm
Theodan Storm is the only son of Lyra Cafferen, Jamos’ younger sister. Although kept at Fawnton for the first ten years of his life even after his mother was finally married off, Theodan was finally decided to be too much of a liability to keep at Fawnton. Being one of the only ones in the family to care for the boy’s wellbeing, Jamos had the boy brought to the Cragfort to serve as his squire. A rather sullen and quiet boy with strawberry blonde hair, he hasn’t been much help to Jamos of yet.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

A quick shot of the "State of the Realm" who's in charge where and some of their notable vassals:

The State of the Realm
as presided over by Daeron of House Targaryen, Second His Name

The Small Council:
Hand of the King: Baelor Breakspear of House Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone
Grand Maester: Ryon
Master of Coin: Owen Crane
Master of Laws: Aurane Celtigar
Master of Ships: Beron Stark
Master of Whisperers: Aemon Flowers

Dorne
House Martell: Maron Nymeros Martell, Prince of Dorne

The Iron Islands
House Greyjoy: Dagon Greyjoy

The North
House Stark: Brandon Stark, Warden of the North

• House Bolton: Oswell Bolton
• House Forrester: Eddard Forrester
• House Karstark: Torghen Karstark
• House Manderly: Walder Manderly
• House Mormont: Jothos Mormont
• House Umber: Manfryd Umber

The Reach
House Tyrell: Leo Tyrell, Warden of the South

• House Ashford: Darryn Ashford
• House Dunn: Thaddeus Dunn
• House Florent: Ryam Florent
• House Hightower: Martyn Hightower
• House Redwyne: Runceford Redwyne
• House Tarly: Sebaston Tarly

The Riverlands
House Tully: medgar Tully, Lord Paramount of the Trident

• House Bracken: Kyle Bracken
• House Frey: Walder Frey
• House Lothston: Lady Danelle Lothston
• House Mallister: Harys Mallister
• House Piper: Uthor Piper
• House Terrick: Joseth Terrick

The Stormlands
House Baratheon: Orys Baratheon, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands

• House Connington: Erren Connington
• House Dondarrion: Osmund Dondarrion
• House Kellington: Cedric Kellington
• House Selmy: Arstan Selmy
• House Swann: Gawen Swann
• House Tarth: Galladon Tarth

The Westerlands
House Lannister of Casterly Rock: Damon Lannister, Warden of the West

• House Algood: Arryk Algood
• House Crakehall: Sumner Crakehall
• House Lannister of Lannisport: Tywald Lannister
• House Payne: Morton Payne
• House Reyne: Robert Reyne
• House Tarbeck: Adrian Tarbeck

The Vale
House Arryn: Donnel Arryn, Warden of the East

• House Corbray: Robar Corbray
• House Hardyng: Harrold Hardyng
• House Redfort: Jon Redfort
• House Royce: Yorbert Royce
• House Tollett: Eddison Tollett
• House Wydman: Ythan Wydman

The Night's Watch
Current Lord Commander: Cregan Tuttle
Current Numbers: Approx. 3500
Active Castles: 6 fully manned, 3 at minimal capacity

[Kakita Nanami]

As this was requested, I finally found some time to put together a map of where all the player houses call home.

You can find this map here; it's a rather large map and shows the location of each of the six player houses and where Ashford itself is as well.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

House Forrestor still seems fun.

Speaking of...

House Forrester
Vassals of House Stark :: "Iron from Ice"


HISTORY
History forgets most of the original founding of House Forrester, instead choosing to tell a slightly more mythological version. During the days of the Andal invasion, King Theon Stark saw the need for a fleet of ships to be able to stand against the invaders on their own terms. It is said he took his forresters into the Wolfwood and there found the largest trees any in Westeros had ever laid their eyes on: the ironwoods. Recognizing them for the treasures they were and knowing the need his kingdom would have, the king ordered them protected and the harvest carefully rationed to ensure too much was not taken from the woods. Thus was born House Forrester.

In time, however, the need for a navy in the North began to wane and the Forrester line proved infertile, dying out within a handful of generations. The fortress town they had built wasted away, maintained only by the few peasants who eked out existence in the Wolfswood.

It was not until the Dance of the Dragons that the ironwoods would once again be turned to. Seeing that war was coming, Lord Cregan Stark ordered a fleet built for the North once more – not the southron ships of the Manderlys but a sturdy northern fleet built in the ancient traditions. The ironwoods were cut down once more and crafted into massive vessels that would carry the Stark soldiers southwards – but too late to join the war. Lord Cregan determined the fleet should be maintained and kept personal watch on the Wolfswood until his death.

With Cregan’s death and his heir Jonnel’s issues with the wildlings raiding the North, the issue of the ironwoods slipped away from the Starks and various houses began to quarrel over who should have the rights to harvest the trees. As the income that could be gained from harvesting the trees was so great, the situation nearly erupted into war in the North. It wasn’t until the death of Jonnel, the rise of Barthogen Stark, and the murmurs of rebellion from the south reached Winterfell that the Starks stepped in – knowing that the Ironwood needed secured, Barthogen went to his maester for a solution and found one in the oldest tomes of history.

With the help of his maester (and some say some creative interpretation of bloodlines), Barthogen reformed the defunct House Forrester and placed one of his distant cousins – Eddard Stark – at its head The repairs had just begun on the ancient fortress town that would become Ironrath when the Blackfyre Rebellion began in the south. While the war never truly came to the North nor did the Starks or their vassals get involved, the Forresters were hard pressed to defend their new claims against those same houses who had fought over the rights earlier.

To solve the matter, Lord Forrester bent the knee to House Glover; while close by, the Glovers had traditionally stayed out of the matter of the Ironwoods. This gave the Forresters some protection from the would-be rivals without directly involving the Warden of the North in the matter.

As the years passed by and it became clear that not all of their neighbours would withdraw their claims to the woods, Lord Forrester approached the Flints of the hills north of the Wolfwood; Lord Forrester’s eldest daughter would marry the Flint heir and the youngest Flint would come to Ironrath to be raised and serve. This brought the martial prowess into the sway of the Forresters, giving them a modicum of protection to raise against would-be enemies.

But even through all of this, one rival still remains: House Whitehill, the closest neighbours to the Forresters, still lay claim to over half of the land the Forresters do. With the problems with the Skagosi keeping the Starks too busy to settle the matter, Lord Forrester searches for a way to solve the problem once and for all – without yielding his family’s land to their rivals.

HOLDINGS
The reconstructed fortress that has become known as Ironrath consist primarily of a wood hall – built from ironwood – surrounded by the defensive measures of a low stone wall and a watchtower eyeing the approach to the fortress. Inside, it’s fairly well decorated from the limited (yet growing) wealth of the Forresters, matching traditional Northern design with styles brought from the south by Eddard’s wife. It’s clear the Forresters haven’t spent excessively yet live a life of relative comfort, protected from the cold winds of the North.

Eddard Forrester’s quick moves in the political landscape have given him something of a reputation in the North that grants him a level of prestige such a young house usually lacks. The marriages of his eldest son to the Flints and the betrothal of his youngest to the Glovers have cemented the house’s place and will, no doubt, produce a long line of heirs to extend the already well-padded line of succession.

Being in the Wolfswood, the lands of House Forrester consist primarily of vast stretches of forested lands backed onto hills that give way to the mountains that Ironrath is perched upon. A number of small logging camps exist throughout their land but the primary population center lies near Ironrath in the form of a small town that bears the same name. As a whole, this offers the Forrester’s fortress a considerable amount of defense against would be invaders.

Like much of the furthest stretches of the North, the Forrester lands are occasionally plagued by banditry in the forms of poachers and those who would clear the woods illicitly and the far more dangerous wildling raiders. Fortunately, the wildling raids rarely reach as far south as the Wolfswood, leaving the primary strain on the Forresters being bandits. The vast stretches of woods often make it difficult for Lord Eddard’s law to extend everywhere and often the Forresters find themselves having to turn a blind eye to what happens very far from the roads to Ironrath in order to ensure that their work camps remain safe.

While the wealth of Ironrath is not yet great, the potential wealth of the Wolfswood is currently beyond measure. What wealth has been brought into the house has been used to increase the defenses of the town and hall while tending to the family’s spiritual needs – as part of a long line of the North, Eddard has ordered a portion of the forest nearest the hall, home to weirwoods, be left as a godswood. He has also accepted the assistance of a maester of the citadel and has begun developing the infrastructure to begin producing better weapons for his people with the help of the Flints.

LORD EDDARD FORRESTER

Once, Lord Eddard Forrester was a Stark. A good man far from the line of succession that served his distant cousins as a diplomat in the south, Eddard was recalled to the North when the first rumblings of the seeds of rebellion reached the ears of Barthogen Stark. Thinking he had given some insult in the south to warrant the recall, Eddard was surprised to learn that the Lord Stark was appointing him the head of a new noble house. Realizing that Barthogen had paid him a great honor and at the same time handed him a heavy responsibility, Eddard set about the work of ensuring that his cousin would not be disappointed.

Now an older man with short grey hair and a stiff but well-trimmed beard and standing slightly above average height for a Northerner, Eddard is a kind but stern man concerned mostly with the wellbeing of his family and the mission to which they were set. He walks with something of a limp from an injury received fighting on Skagos with the Starks; although he rarely shares the story of exactly what happened for him to have been injured, he does say that the campaign was worth it – even at the cost of the Lord Stark – and that they did the right thing in going to fight.

Married to Janna Crane, a Reachwoman, Eddard has five children: three boys – Willum, Marqus, and Deryk – and two daughters – Sybelle and Arwyn. With one of the boys married, another betrothed, and one of the girls married, he’s content that the family’s line of succession is set. His main concern for the longevity of Forrester, though, rises from the one family that has refused to back away from the claims they put to Forrester lands: the Whitehills – though ostensibly protected by his decision to swear fealty to the Glovers during the early days of the Skagosi uprising, Eddard still fears military action by the Whitehills is likely as soon as the chance arises.

Although concerned that the Whitehills may, one day, push their claim, Eddard doesn’t let the worry consume him; in his idle time, Eddard has taken to researching and preserving the history of House Forrester in particular and the North in general with the help of his maester, Myles – Ironrath is home to a library of books detailing various histories and myths of the North. He hopes to one day pass them down to Willum to continue.

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS
Marqus Forrester
The Lord Forrester’s secondborn son – and thus second in line to inherit Ironrath – Marqus is an irascible young man with coal black hair who dreams of more than the North has been able to offer him. Unlike many of the North’s knights, Marqus fancies himself more a southron knight, wanting to ride from tournament to tournament to show off his prowess and hoping to win the hand of a fair maid. Part of the Forrester delegation to King’s Landing to meet with the Master of Ships, Marqus rode for Ashford with a small entourage the moment he heard of the tournament to be held there.

Arwyn Forrester
With dark hair and clear blue eyes, Arwyn is almost the opposite of her older brother – where Marqus is headstrong and temperamental, the younger Forrester seems to be docile and submissive. Those who eventually get to know her, though, recognize this for the act it is – in reality, Arwyn is just as capable of being stubborn as her brother only with a much better head for knowing when it’s time to be patient to reach her goals. The youngest of the Forrester children, she is the only daughter not yet married.

Dennys Flint
Sent to Ironrath by his father, Lord Flint, to help seal the agreement between their families, Dennys Flint was raised among the Forresters from age eight. Thought to be In part due to the large portion of Wildling blood in the mountain clans, Dennys is much lighter skinned – almost the point of being ice white – and dark haired than even other Northerners. Although not a full knight – having never taken his vows – Dennys is a master of the martial and in charge of the men accompanying the Forrester party.

Alyn Snow
Shaggy and somewhat feral in appearance, some think Alyn Snow closer to the dogs he watches over than human. Son of Eddard’s brother Kevan Stark and a peasant girl, Alyn has spent most of his life at Ironrath among the dogs and, with the death of the previous Master of Kennels, taken over watching over them. Brought along to watch after Marqus’ hunting dogs, Alyn can sometimes be found at night unresponsive and staring off into nothingness as he sits among the dogs.

Rosamund Glover
Although the Forresters are technically under the direct vassalage of the Starks, in truth they answer to the Glovers of Deepwood Motte. Rosamund Glover is a symbol of that allegiance; a young woman with plain looking features, she was sent to Ironrath to eventually marry the youngest Forrester son, Deryk. Currently serving as Arwyn Forrester’s handmaid until the time of the marriage, Rosamund finds herself conflicted; while she’s betrothed to Deryk Forrester, she has found him to be repulsive and has instead gravitated towards the much older Marqus.

[Kakita Nanami]

Re: A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

House Algood
Vassals of House Lannister :: "With Virtue, We Stand"


HISTORY
Established in the mists of the Age of Heroes, House Algood is a perfect warning to the rest of Westeros of a house overstepping its bounds. Through sheer luck, the Algoods managed to remain free from both the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers and the Kingdom of the Storm while avoiding most of the conflict between the two powers.

When the Targaryens came from Dragonstone with their massive dreads, the wise of Lord of Algood was amongst the first to bend the knee to Westeros’ new Valyrian king. This gave them something of a favoured status among the united Seven Kingdoms; in the early days before Loren Lannister knelt, it was believed that the Algoods might even be given Casterly Rock when the war eventually ended. Even when that fell through, the Algoods continued to expand their lands, quickly becoming one of the largest houses in the Crownlands.

But the infamous Algood luck was not to hold out; with so much wealth, Karl Algood found his family approached by agents of Daemon Blackfyre. As the last snows of winter were melting, Karl Algood and Aegor Rivers came to agreement that the Algoods would provide money and men to Daemon Blackfyre when the time inevitably came; in exchange, the Algood heir, Arryk Algood, was to be betrothed to one of Blackfyre’s daughters. Thus, when the time came some six months later, Lord Algood led his forces westward to secure the Goldroad and waylay any support coming to or from the Lannisters, allowing Quentyn Ball to lay siege to Lannisport and rebuking an attempt to resupply the battered forces of Damon Lannister.

As Ball turned south towards the Mander, the Algood army marched after Damon Lannister’s pursuit force. Soon, though, Lord Algood found his force surrounded as the Lannister force turned to face the pursuers and the armies of Edmund Reyne appeared from the north, having resupplied fully at Lannisport. What followed was a series of battles best described as a fighting retreat for the Algood forces who soon found themselves pushed all the way back to Riverwatch as the combined Lannister force pushed eastward towards King’s Landing. Although they were able to hold Riverwatch from being captured, the town of Blackwall was burned to the ground during the siege. Eventually realizing he would be needed elsewhere, Damon Lannister simply had the castle bombarded with burning pitch and rubble; the resulting fire destroyed most of the magnificent castle that had housed the Algoods for generations.

At the war’s eventual conclusion, the Algoods were stripped of most of their lands; Karl Algood was executed for his part in the rebellion. House Algood itself might have been rendered extinct had it not been for the intercession of Damon Lannister himself; instead, he suggested, why not make them vassals of the Lannisters, putting the boy Arryk in charge of the house with a Lannister overseer and to take his younger brother and sister as hostages. With that, Brynden Algood was sent to King’s Landing and Cassana Algood sent to Lannisport. The Lord Arryk would be betrothed to one of the Lord Tarbeck’s daughters to help control them further.

With the help of his little court, Arryk has consistently – yet quietly – worked with the limited tools he had to slowly rebuild the family’s fortunes. While a Lannister overseer from a house loyal to Damon was always present, serving as Arryk’s regent, the position seemed to be dangerous; by the time Arryk had come to age and thus took control of his house, no less than five overseers had died in the position though all were believed to have been natural causes.

With the marriage of Arryk Algood to Moira Tarbeck, it was believed that, finally, the overseers might finally be removed. If anything, the grip on the Algoods was tightened; with Arryk now a full-fledged lord, the Lannisters believed he could possibly pose a worse threat. When it was reported that Arryk sought to reopen one of the disused mines on Algood lands, a Lannister delegation arrived, leaving behind a new overseer and Arryk’s until-then hostage sister. In exchange, Arryk’s two children – his heir Mathieu and daughter Rosling – were taken to serve as hostages and keep the ambitions of the Algoods in check…

HOLDINGS
Redwall, a short distance north of the Goldroad on the fringes of the Westerlands where it borders the Corwnlands, is dominated primarily by the tower fortress that, during the past, had been known as Riverwatch. The only portion of the old Riverwatch still standing, the tower is backed by the ruins of the larger castle destroyed during the Siege of Blackwall during the Blackfyre Rebellion. Despite the relative wealth of his house, Lord Algood keeps his halls sparsely decorated and showing little of that wealth. The top floors of the tower are reserved exclusively for the Algood family – with two rooms kept empty as a reminder of the currently absent children.

Despite their status as subservients to the Lannisters, the Algoods are fairly well respected throughout the rest of Westeros; through a series of quiet alliances and trade agreements, the Algoods have managed to rebuild some of their lost stature. As of yet, however, Lord Algood has not betrothed either of his children to others – some say to keep from angering the Lannisters with poor decisions.

With a majority of their lands seized at the end of the Blackfyre Rebellion, House Algood has been striving to make the most of the territory it retains. Small shepherding communities exist throughout their lands and the small town built at Redwall serves as a central point to gather the wool and wheat from outlying farms; most of those goods are then sold at market to other houses, particularly those in the Crownlands with whom the Algoods have had traditionally good relationships.

Positioned at the edge of the Westerlands and the Crownlands, the lands of Algood are subject to a usual level of banditry; the nearby Goldroad, however, sees frequent patrols by both the Lannister forces and the various houses of the Crownlands themselves. This has saved most of the population of Algood lands from any serious problems with bandits – and also served as a way for the Lannisters to keep an eye on the Algoods.

The wealth of Redwall, while not a match for the Lannisters or even many other houses of the Westerlands, is still surprisingly large; with the help of Moira Algood, the house has managed to carefully manage the resources it does have to good ends, slowly expanding the reach of the house. Lately, work has begun to reopen an old iron mine on the northern edge of the lands that was closed when the Lannister army rampaged through during the end of the Blackfyre Rebellion.

LORD ARRYK ALGOOD

Lord of House Algood from a young age due to the execution of his father as repayment for House Algood’s allegiance during the Blackfyre Rebellion, Arryk Algood almost perfectly fits the average description of the Andals; with blonde hair, an athletic build, and a neatly trimmed beard, Arryk has slowly and quietly been rebuilding House Algood since he came to power after the Blackfyre Rebellion. So slowly and quietly, in fact, that many see Arryk as a coward with no direction.

Lord of Redwall since the age of ten, Arryk has spent most of his reign under the bootheel of various observers appointed by the Lannisters; in fact, it wasn’t until his fourteenth birthday that he truly became the power in Redwall, having had a regent appointed for him until that point. Growing up in such a situation has led him to become an quiet and reserved individual. That isn’t to say he isn’t without martial talents; Arryk is an accomplished tournament knight, having been knighted by the now deceased Ser Edmund Tarbeck, the previous overseer.

Despite claims to the contrary, Arryk has steadily been increasing his house’s fortunes; with the aid of his wife and her head for numbers, he’s been able to triple the income of the house from trade over the last two years, leaving the house with enough excess wealth to reopen a long abandoned mine in the north of the house’s lands.

Where many thought that the marriage between Arryk and his betrothed Tarbeck wife, Moira, would be loveless, the reality couldn’t be anymore the opposite; the two greatly admire on another and tales of the love between the two have spread through the nearby houses as something other lords can only hope to aspire to. The union has so far produced two children, Mathieu and Roslin, both of whom were doted upon by their parents. Since both were taken to be wards, Arryk has become more withdrawn then normal – something many point to when claiming that he’s a coward; after all, what lord would let his children be taken without resistance?

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS
Moira Algood
Lady of House Algood and wife to Lord Arryk, Moira is a cunning and ruthless negotiator with a head for numbers – traits Arryk has put to good use by appointing her his steward. There are some, though, who say the Lady Algood – formerly of House Tarbeck – is the true power behind House Algood; unlike Lord Algood – who seems to be meekly accepting the punishment handed to his house by the Lannisters – Lady Algood has quietly been gathering allies amongst other houses…

Casanna Algood
Taken as a ward-hostage after the Blackfyre Rebellion by the Lannisters, Casanna Algood is the youngest sister of Lord Erryk. Raised for the last thirteen years at Casterly Rock and recently replaced there by her niece, Alyssa, Casanna’s education by the Lannisters has left her with a strong distaste for her family’s actions in the past. Now back at Redwall, she must come to terms to living with a family she detests.

Ulrich Reyne
With the agreement that saw House Algood’s survival, an overseer was installed at Redwall. The latest such overseer is Ulrich of House Reyne; the younger brother of Lord Robert Reyne and appointed through quiet alliance with Moira Algood, Ulrich is currently the heir of House Reyne (though his brother’s wife is pregnant and he does not expect that status to remain for long). Although he loyally serves House Lannister, it’s whispered that Ulrich sees the treatment of House Algood as being perhaps a bit too harsh.

Maester Emmet
Maester Emmet is a solitary, brooding, and frail old man. Spending most of his time in the rookery of Redwall where he maintains his rooms, Emmet mostly distances himself from the day-to-day running of House Algood. Being brought to the tournament with his lord’s household has left him crotchety. While some say his old age has just gotten the better of him, others believe that his service to Algood reminds him of glories lost to him by joining the Citadel.

Septa Braya
One of the newest member of Arryk Algood’s household, Septa Braya was brought to Redwall to assist with the education of the Algood children. Unfortunately, she has found her services less necessary; soon after her arrival, both children were taken. After voicing her opinion on the matter to the Lady Algood, Braya was kept on at Redwall to, as Lady Moira put it, tend to the family’s faltering spiritual needs.

[Kakita Nanami]

What follows is a rough draft of the Grand Melee event. While some of it's yet to be finished (I want to rewrite the fiction and possibly clean up the text a bit), this is essentially the format that the Grand Melee event will follow; the intent is to provide a combat-ish event that simulates a lot of people fighting at the same time without actually having to run a combat event with a lot of people fighting at the same time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the early afternoon, the rain finally abates and the sun peeks through the clouds; the lists are removed from the jousting field and the churned, blood-tinged mud is fenced by a seven-pointed star. The crowds are no less thick, though, as Prince Maekar takes a seat in the stands with his son, Aerion, at his side; it seems, unlike the tournaments, that Lord Ashford and the Breakspear have elected to not oversee the grand melee, leaving it to the younger Maekar.

Aerion, for his part, seems bored, lounging in his chair with chin rested on his hand. He yawns, “This should be a dull affair, father.” His violet eyes fall over the gathered participants, “Not a one looks as though they could stand against a true knight.” Suddenly, the younger prince sits up straight, “Perhaps I should –“

“You wish to fight?” Maekar snorts. “You’d last less time than a man-maid on his wedding night on the field. You’ve been slacking. I refuse you.”

Aerion’s eyes flashed, his mouth opened to respond. A wave of Maekar’s hand, however, silenced the young prince. Maekar glanced at the field, “Let’s get this farce underway, shall we? I have other matters to attend to ere the sun sets.”

[EVENT DESCRIPTION GOES HERE]

All rolls made during this event count as combat rolls; any Qualities, either Benefits or Drawbacks, which apply to combat will apply to these rolls. When you take damage, you may elect to take Injuries and Wounds as normal.

Time Slot: Early Afternoon
Participants: Any attendants at the tournament, regardless of status, may participate in the Grand Melee. However, Lord Ashford has determined that he doesn’t want to risk the safety of the Champions in the chaos of the melee; for ease of continuity, anyone jousting today will be unable to compete. While strongly discouraged, there are no rules disqualifying female participants.

The melee begins!

… I choose you!: Many participants in the grand melees say the fight is often decided before it even begins. Each participant selects a weapon and a piece of armor they own; only these items may be used during the rest of the event. Your weapon and armor must be clearly stated in your post.

Because of the muddy field, some weapons and armor will make it harder to fight in the melee. Characters wearing armor with an armor rating of 5 or higher suffer a -1B to all Fighting tests during the event; if they have no bonus dice, they suffer -1D instead. Additionally, characters using a weapon that determines its damage through Agility find it harder to hit, suffering a -1B to all Fighting tests (-1D instead if they have no bonus dice), but easier to hit where they intend as their opponent has trouble moving, increasing their damage by 1.

Engage!: The grand melee is a chaotic fight – it’s hard to keep track of a single enemy and honor often goes out the window in favour of removing an enemy. Keep fighting until you’re the last man standing – or can no longer stand.
Make a Standard Attack (SIFRP GoT Edition p. 163) against a Combat Defense of 6 and calculate damage as normal against an Armor Rating of 5. If your total damage dealt this round is equal to or greater than 9, take a Victory Point; otherwise, take 5 damage (reduced by your Armor Rating) and repeat until your total damage dealt equals or is greater than 9 (or your Health has been reduced to 0).

At the point, you may yield; this removes you from the event with a final score equal to your total Victory Points. If you choose not to yield, begin from the Engage step again; raise the target Combat Defense number and the damage target by 3 and the damage dealt to you by 1. Repeat this until you yield or have been reduced to 0 health.

If you’re reduced to 0 Health, lose a Victory Point; your final score is your new total Victory Points. If this would still leave you with the most victory points, you will instead place second and rewards will be granted based on your score being second place.

To the Victor, the Spoils!:
Rewards will be posted when the event goes live.

[Kakita Nanami]

House Wydman
Vassals of House Arryn :: “Right Conquers Might”


HISTORY
House Wydman of Old Peake and Highhome is only a single generation removed from it’s founder, a tourney knight of prodigious renown (and, to hear some speak, prodigious size). During a wedding a Lord of the Vale and a Lady of the Westerlands, the young knight Ser Warryn Stone – at the time believed to have been knighted solely to appease his father – boasted that he could beat any challenger at the lists. Considered by many to be too large to ride a horse, Warryn was quickly challenged by a series of knights from various houses in attendance.

At the end of the day, he had won five tilts. A sixth challenger stood against him – his own father, the Lord Arryn. If Warryn won, Arryn said, he would legitimize him as a proper member of House Arryn. Unfortunately for Warryn, his horse was tired by this point and the tilt went poorly for him, being unseated in a single pass. Though not made a full member of House Arryn, Warryn so impressed his father that he instead bestowed upon him his own lordship and house – Warryn chose the name Wydman for his new house to mock those who had spoken against him.

Unfortunately for the new House Wydman, the land granted to the family was a narrow forested tract in the mountains south of the Vale proper in an area known to be heavily populated by the mountain clans. It became Warryn’s duty to rebuild the crumbling Andal fortress of Old Peake and fortify the lands against the clans. A marriage to Alys Waynwood, sister to one of the knights Warryn defeated, brought a small number of troops to assist with the effort.

Warryn and Alys would have five children – four sons and a daughter. Unfortunately, the long drawn out conflicts with the clans would see the three eldest sons killed in combat and Warryn’s daughter succumbed to sickness during her first winter. By the end of his admittedly long life, Warryn had only managed to wall, and thereby secure, a small settlement around Old Peake, a town he came to call Highhome.

It’s into this situation that the current lord, Ythan Wydman, came to power just before the Blackfyre Rebellion. While the rest of the realm marched to war on one side or the other, the Wydmans withdrew to secure their holdings.

The years since have not gone well; it seems that, for every camp of clansmen the Wydmans put down, two more rise up to take their place. There is not a single member of the Wydman’s fighting men who have not suffered some sort of injury at the hands of the clansmen; Lord Ythan himself sports a scar down the side of his face from a close call. Highhome finds itself repeatedly sieged by the clansmen and the Wydmans struggle merely to keep the spaces closest to their wall tightly under their control.

During one such ranging out to drive the clans away from the walls of Highhome, Lord Ythan’s heir, Jon, was injured by a clansman, taking a terrible blow to the head. Although Jon survived, he was never the same afterwards, rambling and screaming into the night. While unsure how to deal with the issue and instead beginning to prepare his second son, Warryn, to take the lordship, Ythan’s problems were seemingly solved when Jon broke out of his chambers one night and escaped the fortress, heading into the mountains. Although Jon as not been seen since, the scandal has caused the Wydmans to lose some of their standing in the Vale.

With his own injuries paining him more every day, Ythan Wydman works to prepare his only remaining son to take the lordship and to find a suitable match for his daughter while, at the same time, finally looking beyond the Vale for help with securing the lands granted his family by the Arryn.

HOLDINGS
Old Peake is a partially ruined fortress constructed by the Andal during their attempt to pacify the Mountains of the Moon thousands of years ago. In the approximately eighty years that the Wydmans have held it, less than a quarter of it has been reconstructed and made fit for habitation; countless tunnels stretch into the mountain the fortress is built against, many collapsed and many more unstable and unfit for use – no one is truly sure how deep the holding actually delves into the mountain. What is habitable of Old Peake, however, is rather bare; although the Wydman lands host substantial resources, little effort has been made to exploit those resources with efforts instead going to first secure the land.

Although many still tell the story of Warryn the Wyde, Wydman’s standing within the Vale has shrank recently with the death of Ythan’s heir Jon. Still, being cousins of the leading Arryn family, Lord Ythan and his family still command a decent amount of respect within the Vale. Lord Ythan hopes to soon expand that influence beyond the Vale to bring more men to protect his lands.

Most of the peasantry of Lord Wydman’s domain live within the walled city of Highhome that was built around Old Peake to support the effort to reclaim the mountain forests. The walls of Highhome and the towering presence of Old Peake keep the people safe even with the occasional attack by the clansmen.

Beyond the walls of Highhome, though, the Wydman lands are essentially lawless; the clans of the mountains rampage freely and trouble all would venture further than the road to the fortress town. This is, they claim, their land and they will violently defend it from interlopers. The recent rise of the clansmen warlord that the others call only the Yellowjacket has especially troubled the Wydmans; since the appearance of this new threat, the clansmen seem to have doubled down on trying to attack Highhome directly. For now, however, Lord Ythan’s meagre army manages to hold his seat without trouble; how long that will last, though, not even the Wydmans are willing to say.

The Wydman lands hold a vast quantity of wealth; the Arryns knew it, the Wydmans know it, and so do the clansmen. The wood of the forests would be a great economic boon and the mountains of the area are full of veins of precious metals. Unfortunately, by not having control of most of their lands, the Wydmans have no way to properly extract the resources. This has left the family relatively poor, with most of their wealth expended on manning and defending Highhome.

LORD YTHAN WYDMAN

The youngest of the five children of Warryn and Alys Wydman, Lord Ythan Wydman has been styled by many as Lord Ythan the Unlikely (or, to a few, Ythan the Unlocky). A hard man with harder features (including a scar down the right side of his face from the blade of a clansman), Ythan is a product of his upbringing in the harsh and unforgiving Mountains of the Moon. His entire life has been devoted to securing his lands against the mountain clans and, after nearly fifty years, the exhaustion is beginning to show on his features.

Lord of Old Peake for almost fifteen years now, Ythan is the only one of his father’s children who outlived Warryn the Wyde. All three of his older brothers succumbed to injuries while fighting against the clansmen and his sister – born and died before Ythan was ever conceived – died of a winter sickness in her third year of life. Having lost his own eldest son – to the clansmen, he keeps telling himself, not to a madness that drove him to run into the wild – has affected Ythan as well, making a closed man even more closed. It’s clear from his actions that he cares for his family and his people but that to show it would only be to admit a weakness that could be exploited by others.

Married to Elza Waynwood – a distant cousin of his mother – has given Ythan a total of three children. Though his eldest Jon was lost, he has an heir in his younger son, Warryn, who seeks to be a knight as great as his grandfather, and a teenaged daughter, Berena, who is as of yet unmarried. Although the succession of the family line is still troubled, Ythan has little concern in the matter; after all, if he is unable to defend his lands, there will be nothing left for his family to rule. Thus, despite further suitors from Waynwood come to court his daughter, Ythan eyes lords beyond the Vale with whom he might treat and offer his daughter as part of an offer to help secure the Wydman lands.

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS
Ser Warryn Wydman
Heir to Old Peake, Warryn is the secondborn son of Lord Wydman. An easy going man who has not yet reached his twentieth nameday, Warryn is a widower, his first wife having died of pneumonia during the last winter without bearing him any children. Where his father insists he should remarry and produce an heir, he has yet to do so and his father’s preoccupation with the clansmen of the mountains has allowed him free reign to continue his life without interference.

Elza Wydman
Wife to Lord Ythan, Elza is a fair haired woman in her mid-thirties. At first glance, she seems much younger and most would find it difficult to believe that she is the mother to three Wydman children. A woman greatly saddened by the loss of her eldest child, Elza chafes at being confined to Old Peake, missing the open air of Ironoaks from her childhood. Still, she remains dutiful to her husband and strong for her children.

Alys Wydman
Mother to Lord Ythan and grandmother to Warryn and Berena, Alys is an elderly and fiery woman. Her constant chastisement of Ythan for his failure to reclaim any of their lands has left the mother-son relationship strained. Still, Alys dotes on her two grandchildren and, despite her advancing age, has insisted on coming to Ashford with her son’s delegation. After all, she says, she’s always wanted to see the Mander before she dies…

Berena Wydman
The teenaged daughter of Ythan and Elza, Berena is a plain faced girl with raven black hair and a cold personality; of all three Wydman children, she has taken most after her father with his stony personality. Highly practical, she understands that it is in her family’s best interest that she marry to help an alliance and so she strings along the advances of Cressen Waynwood, hoping to put him off until her father makes a decision. That doesn’t stop her, however, from fantasizing after the vagabond Yellowjacket.

Cressen Waynwood
Yet another Waynwood cousin, Cressen was offered to Ythan as a squire for his son. Despite the apparent loyalty this would appear to create within Cressen for the Wydmans, the boy instead serves a darker purpose; the Waynwoods still hold a grudge against the Wydmans for the insult given to them nearly two generations ago. Cressen hopes to woo and marry the young Berena, opening the possibility to one day have Old Peake fall into the hands of the Waynwoods…

[Kakita Nanami]

What follows is a rough draft of the second half of the Maester's Conclave; the first half will consist of a roleplay thread on Day 4 with the second half being the following event on Day 5. To keep some of what's happening a secret, this is a quick example of how the event will look; the context of the third vote will depend on the outcome of events which will occur on Day 3.

********************

The balding man rose to his feet, drawing the conclave to silence, “I trust we are all well this morning… and have had ample time to debate yesterday’s discussions.” Several other maesters began to speak at once but Kevan waved his hands, shushing them, “The time for discussion is passed, brothers. Now, we must decide.”

The old man’s eyes looked around the room, “What path will we take in Westeros’ time of need?”

[EVENT DESCRIPTION]

For the following rolls, there is no upper limit on the number of degrees of success you may achieve; for every full increment of five your test result exceeds the Difficulty, you are considered to have an additional success (0-4 for 1 Degree, 5-9 for 2 Degrees, 10-14 for 3 Degrees, 15-19 for 4 Degrees, 20-24 for 5 Degrees, etc.).

For each vote roll, you may add your Education specialty in Knowledge as bonus dice to each roll. Additionally, if you possess a relative Knowledge Focus quality, you may treat it as a Knowledge roll, converting the Education bonus dice to test dice.

Time Slot: Early Morning
Participants: As with the previous day’s discussion, all maesters are able to participate in the event.

Swaying the votes…

The First Vote: Select one of the vote options then roll a Challenging Persuasion test; alternatively, you may elect to roll a Formidable Healing test, using your Diagnose specialty. For every degree of success, you convince one additional maester to vote for your selected option.

The related Knowledge Focus for this roll is Medicine.

The Second Vote: Select one of the vote options then roll a Challenging Persuasion test; alternatively, you may elect to roll a Formidable Knowledge test, using your Streetwise specialty. For every degree of success, you convince one additional maester to vote for your selected option.

The related Knowledge Focus for this roll is History & Legends.

The Third Vote: The rolls for the third vote will be posted when the event goes live.