Two chickens among the wolwes.

As I am walking back towards Keath, we see a rider with Ryder markings. I hail him, it turns out that Lady Joy, Ser Willard and the rest fortunately have not resolved the situation with the Frey ambush. So we head towards the Fat Duck, to kick Ironborn and Freys at the same time. And with the right odds as well.

After a longish discussion on some more farfetched suggestions for tactics, we decide to walk up to them in the wee hours, and hopefully catch them disorganized. According to Rha they are fed up, and probably not well guarded. Both Lady Joy and I cede command to Ser Willard, he has the most troops here.

We walk in and trounce them. Not exactly advanced tacticts, but then again, that is seldomly what it is about. Lady Joy watches from the back with a small entourage, and Ser Willard commands with gusto. We take 20 prisoners, a very large Ironborn among them. We also find 2 Freys in a tent, one younger and one older. One of this is Mikken Frey, one of Walders favorites. Too bad we don't have the forces to survive an out and out war with them.

Mikken has written letters to his great grandfather, telling how great it is in 'the hunting camp'. He must have been daft to believe that. He refers to some uncle who suggested he go there. Suspicious, I belive this uncle is playing something Walder does not know about, Walder would not risk a favorite like that.

It is decided to safe it with the Freys, so they get hidden away. We take the Ironborn, Ragnar Harlaw, to the inn, and (whatshisface) talks him around, believing he was set up by the Freys. Ragnar is a Chief, who came here with his cavalry on order of his lord. Somethings going on, that is for sure. I believe I can sell him for a tidy sum.

Lord Jason is most pleased with the battle, and I skip the part about the Freys in my retelling. Don't like hiding it like that, but if Lady Joy says so. It's not lying, but it sure isn't far away.

Jason has received a letter from the High Septon, requesting that he build a church. Very understandable. He wants Joy, Ser Willard and me to go to the Iron Bank of Braavos to lend money. And find the tomb of Aerys Bittersteel. His Maester claims that a Valyrian blade, Blackfire is buried there with him. Sounds like great fun, and should take less than 6 months. Great!

The game begins

Unfortunately, business meant that I was out of town for the start of this, the latest in the chess game that is the game of thrones (though admittedly, the Mallisters are as of yet at the pawn stage). As such, these events have been relayed to me through secondary sources, primarily Rha and Lord Willard.

• During the summer feast, Lord Mallister got news from the Freys. Lady Joy and Willard discovered that the Freys had invited Lord Mallister to the Twins, apparently to discuss a border dispute. There is also the matter of Lady Joy's hand. 
• It was decided that Lady Joy and a party would go instead of the Lord himself: Lord Willard, Rha, Ser Oswald and Lord Caradog.
• On the first day, the party stopped at an inn where they met one of my spies. Lady Joy managed to get info out of him - apparently the Freys had plans to ambush the party (with brigands and ironborn), killing everyone but Joy who would they take as a hostage. A bold move indeed. 
• They decided to send Ser Oswald and Rha back as messengers to Lord Mallister, who instructed them to get Joy home. 
• My spy was killed by three men who later turned out to be in the employ of the Freys as well. 
• Joy was tested by Lord Mallister, who suggested we burn down an entire village in of the Frey vassal's lands.She instead suggested we walk into the ambush. This would give us a plausible excuse to deny going to the Twins and would leave a black mark on the Frey name for allowing a fellow noble to be attacked on their own lands. 
• Ironborn had been spotted in the Ryger lands. Lord Caradog naturally set sail for Ryger to deal with the matter. 

Returning to Seagard late at night, I get a rapport on the latest happenings as I enter the Rogue's Delight. Weary to my bones, I sip on a glass of good brandy and devour a lamprey pie while my second in command, Nuada, recounts the exciting and not so exciting gossip of the latest forthnight. Given the comings and goings up on the castle, I expect to be summoned sooner rather than later...but I need to catch some sleep either way and slump into bed, too exhausted to even bring a girl along. 

Sure enough, 4 hours later I'm wakened by Marrok. The huge beast of a man says I need to be at the castle about half an hour ago. Wearily, I get dressed, toss back a big mug of lukewarm coffee and get moving. The small council has been assembled. Lady Joy is in the middle of describing her plan (which I surmise she's probably had some help devising). There is little discussion about the plan itself - it is risky, but sound. At this stage, risk is unavoidable. We decide to bring Lord Willard's archers, as well as some of his infantry when we enter his lands. Rha and Ser Oswald has already departed, trying to catch up with any spies of the Freys who might have sighted Lady Joy returning to the city. 

A few hours later, we depart Seagard. After an uneventful day of travelling, we arrive at the Prancing Pony. Sure enough, Rha greets us in the common room, and my old friend has had success in his mission: the three guys who killed my spy are dead, while the spy from Seagard was caught and is tied up in a room upstairs. 4 against 2 are bad odds, even with surprise on your side, and even for an elite archer like Rha. Both he and Ser Oswald have some minor injuries. The Warrior was on our side. 

Of course, Lady Joy needs to have a proper meal after such an exhausting day. The innkeeper has outdone himself, getting the fine linen and cutlery out (such as it is), pies with squab and boar, all manners of cheeses, lemon cakes, a whole roast pig and much more. Additionally, he has a real treasure squirreled away: a very old bottle of Arbor gold, a rarity indeed. I cannot resist indulging, and offer to share the bottle with Lady Joy. At 5 gold, it is still very much worth the price, and for a moment I forget everything but the delicious bottle of red. 

Alas, we have more serious matters to attend to. I suggest that Lady Joy stay out of the interrogation of the prisoner. I am not entirely surprised that she refuses - the lass seems to be growing up. Good for her, and good for us, both in the short and the long run. She's got a mind as sharp as anyone, and after a while she's got the prisoner all confused and willing to cooperate. The poor fool believes her when she acquiesces to allowing him to get on a ship in Seagard and slip away without further harm if he reveals all he knows. 

• His message was simply to report that our party had left Seagard
• The message was to be delivered to the Maester at Erenford, who would relay the message to the Twins by ravens
• The three dead guys were agents from Erenford
• He gave us the name of all Frey spies in Seagard: two minor characters who report on troop movements. The last one is one of the servants at the castle named Stephen.

When we are fairly sure he has nothing more to report, I plunge my dagger into him. His eyes light up in surprise and anger. "No one kills my men and gets away with it...be glad I am in a hurry you scum" I whisper into his ear as the life slips away from him. 

[From Keath: track ironborn, forces split with one half going northeast towards Ryger/Erenford, other half into Keath. After a tough battle Lord Caradog is victorious]

I send a message back to Lord Mallister, informing of the spy but urging him not to have him killed yet. It's possible we can use him as an unwitting double spy. 

For the next few days, we travel on towards Frey lands. As we enter their borders, Rha and Ser Oswald scout ahead, roughly an hour or two ahead. Sure enough, they find an observation point, with hints of a camp further behind. Rha manages to sneak in without being seen. He discovers about 20 ironborn and around 30-40 brigands. That's quite a lot of men - had we strolled in without knowing, we surely would have been butchered. After observing for a while, Rha sneaks back, meets up with Ser Oswald and head back to the main retinue. 

We now know who and where our enemies are - the question is, what will we do with this information?