A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

[Ichiro Daisuke]

*reads the last few posts*

I feel like I've learned something...

[Kakita Nanami]

Actually, while it's possible to be both a Lord Paramount and a Warden, only one person actually holds both titles at the same time - and that's the head of House Tyrell.

There's only three Lord Paramounts in Westeros - the Lord Paramount of the Mander (traditionally a Tyrell), the Lord Paramount of the Stormlands (traditionally a Baratheon), and the Lord Paramount of the Trident (traditionally a Tully). These were titles granted by Aegon the Conqueror to the new lords of those lands as the previous leaders of those kingdoms didn't surrender to him; instead, they were defeated and houses loyal to the Targaryens were installed as leaders of those lands. It was purely a political title to help those houses cement their new rule.

Warden, on the other hand, is a military title; the Wardens are military commanders for the throne responsible for the defense of the region they're entrusted with (North, South, East, West, etc.). These titles have stuck mostly to one house throughout the history of the Seven Kingdoms until recently (book timeline-wise) when Roose Bolton was appointed Warden of the North.

Unrelated to this:

Preview will likely be in the morning. I had to swap them because I went out last night instead of tonight and it's really thrown the schedule for a loop.

[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…

[Kitsu Takashi]

Hmm. Even to an optimist like me it seems like the Wydmans are a lost cause. Though I'm sure playing the heir--with Mom, Grandma, and your sister in attendance--would be quite an adventure.

*Continues to wait less-than-patiently for House Terrick preview*

[Kakita Nanami]

Hmm. Even to an optimist like me it seems like the Wydmans are a lost cause. Though I'm sure playing the heir--with Mom, Grandma, and your sister in attendance--would be quite an adventure.

Ashford is secretly all a front to run The Wydman Family Vacation game.

[Shinjo Kemuri]

Warryn is the most interesting of the remaining unclaimed pregens.

*waits patiently for House Terrick*

[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.

[Ide Samai]

Questions!

No limit to degrees of success: I may need to reread the rules, but is there an upper limit of possible degrees usually?

Education bonus dice: Can all bonus dice exceed the usual limit of bonus dice, in this case, or you can only get enough dice for the limit, which is Ability number of bonus dice, I think.

Considering at least 2 previewed houses so far don't have Maesters present (or at all), is there a way for a non-Maester to take part?

[Kakita Nanami]

No limit to degrees of success: I may need to reread the rules, but is there an upper limit of possible degrees usually?

Yes; normally you're limited to 4 degrees of success.

Education bonus dice: Can all bonus dice exceed the usual limit of bonus dice, in this case, or you can only get enough dice for the limit, which is Ability number of bonus dice, I think.

Normally it would be limited to your Ability in bonus dice because of how the system works; in this case, though, since I'm allowing an outside bonus - yes, it may exceed the normal cap on bonus dice.

Considering at least 2 previewed houses so far don't have Maesters present (or at all), is there a way for a non-Maester to take part?

There unfortunately isn't; there's no actual direct tangible rewards for this, instead just pushing the maesters who are present to pursue certain actions. Getting in to the conclave meeting requires some vetting that you are a maester; wearing a chain of links isn't enough.

[Ide Samai]

So the Maester's Conclave event doesn't really offer exact tangible rewards, but more long term narrative stuff? So in a way, it is a bit independent from the regular going ons? And will the decisions made in the Conclave be public, or known for Maesters only?

[Kakita Nanami]

So the Maester's Conclave event doesn't really offer exact tangible rewards, but more long term narrative stuff? So in a way, it is a bit independent from the regular going ons?

Correct; think of it as the end of game votes for Hollow Throne, but specifically targeting what the Maesters are doing going forward.

And will the decisions made in the Conclave be public, or known for Maesters only?

That's something you'll have to wait to find out.

[Ide Samai]

Any chance we could get the House Dunn preview a few days before registration opens?

Hrm, is it possible to replace the Red & Black expanded with House Dunn? We're going to see R&B either way when forum opens, but House Preview might be more interesting for people who want to try pregens?

[Kitsu Takashi]

Any chance we could get the House Dunn preview a few days before registration opens?

Hrm, is it possible to replace the Red & Black expanded with House Dunn? We're going to see R&B either way when forum opens, but House Preview might be more interesting for people who want to try pregens?

+1. Also, House Terrick, please.

[Ide Samai]

House Terrick is up next tomorrow, I think.

And on Discord Nanami mentioned that he's looking into moving around the preview times.

[Kitsu Takashi]

*finds great comfort in Samai's words*