Business as usual

So with Lady Joy in the front, we return to Seagard. Not all that triumphant, really, but the welcoming comitee certainly looked like we had succesfully sacked Braavos and crushed the ironborn in one go. The first i hear is that those god forsaken Ironborn has broken into my castle, killed my men and freed that thrice cursed bastard we caught. I was ready to head right out and try for that crushing of the Ironborn. But I don't have the means. Yet. So I have to think of something a little more involved, and painful. And maybe enlist som help. Maybe those useless Freys will help out. Anyway, it's going to take some time, but as they say, revenge is a dish best served in many helpings.

When we get into town the party pretty much starts, I try to start a fight with someone, but getting a fistfight going is for once difficult, it is hard when everyone knows exactly who you are. All of a sudden people think fighting is so serious when there is a lord involved. We find out that the new septon is in place, a second cousin to Tywin the cold hearted himself. Cannot possibly be good news. I should have picked a fight with him...

Barret talks to the septon, he wants the sept in town, but Jason wants him outside. Can't blame the septon for wanting to be inside the walls, and if it was me deciding he would be installed outside the walls on the harbour side. We'll have to see what happens. Barret also talks to Maester Osmond, he says that the septon is tight with the Lannisters still, and a manipulative little bitch. And has managed to get into Jasons good graces. My oh my, the surprises keep pouring in. The last one was, I must admit. Manipulative all right.

We talk to Jason in the morning, he is shocked with the Bittersteel story. Figures we need more knowledge before taking it to King Robert. I guess. By my reckoning we will all be well dead by the time the undead Targaryen even starts sailing in this direction. Find dragon eggs first? That sounds like the great grandmother of all detours too me. But Jason thinks it is serious, and his judgement is usually sound. Of course, there is that business with the septon.

Also Hoster Tully is very ill. Jason and Sir Rickard will go there shortly. That means that Edmure will take over. That is a sweet morsel for Joy. Interesting to see how that plays. One thing to be sure of is that he does as he pleases, unless Robert himself decides something.

Barret is told from one of his minions that some Frey has been around asking if we killed Mikken. And there are Frey raiders on Mallister land. Not good. We are still not strong enough to match them man for man, so we have to be a little less blunt than that. And get going on raising some troops. Generally the natives seem restless all around, both the Ironborn and the Freys getting frisky. And speaking of Freys: word in Seagard is that Feyton Pyke owed big in some way to Black Walder. We need more allies.

Shortly after Barret leaves for King's Landing to find dirt on the Lannister Septon. Dirt should be easy enough, but of the right kind? Jason and Richard leave in the same direction, for Hoster Tully, leaving Joy to take care of business. That might turn out good, she has a good head. Needs a little more tolerance for dirt, blood and gore, but that might fix itself real easy the next couple years.

I get home. Talk to the captain of the guard, he's ready to resign. Could have taken that, but any replacement I can think of is worse, and in a way it is fun with a real personal grudge. A grudge against the Harlaws that can't be settled with killing a few of his peasants. Must plan a bit. Talk to some traders, who go to the Isles. Start making a map, and looking for some angles. Sent the scouts over into the open territory to keep lookout for roaming stray dogs of any color, and start collecting Ironborn parnaphelia. Thinking of clearing the streets a bit, and emptying the dungeon to put together a penal legion. Guys with all kinds of weird talents.

We'll turn this around, and it will be great fun.

Big Trouble in Little Gulltown

You'd think we'd be able to avoid trouble in Gulltown right? With Lord Gerald Grafton ruling the town, while not exactly a staunch ally (he did support the Targaryens after all), you'd think we'd be safe for a quick layover? Apparently, buying horses in Gulltown ranks up there with being attacked by the undead in the valley of the dead on the danger scale. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Predictably, once he's given leave by Joy, Rha takes off towards the nearest whorehouse. Probably about time he gets a volume discount at the Rogue's Delight back in Seaport when we get home. We leave Marrok and Ser Oswald at the ship to guard the gold. I doubt the Gentle Men will be tempted to make off with the gold given their reputation, but you never know if they'll decide that this, this is indeed the time to strike out on our own! 10,000 Gold Dragons sounds like a decent way to start our new and independent lifestyle.

The rest of us head for a decent inn [noterte ikke navnet], keeping up our disguises at least for the time being. I suggest we head out to the ranch to buy our horses right after finishing our meal, which meets with some grumbling but everyone acquiesces eventually. Somewhat surprisingly, the ranch actually has 40 horses for sale, and we get a decent price for the lot - 1500 silver stags is right on the money. We agree to have the horses delivered in two days at the crack of down at the harbor. Which, as it turns out, was about 1 hour too late...but more on that later.

We swing by the ship when we get back to town. At first nothing seems amiss - but when we go to check on the gold, we notice that the lock to the storage room has been tampered with. Marrok noticed one of the workers down in the ship but was unable to stop him. After asking around some, we get a vague description of the guy: around 35, tall, grey-haired, woodsman-y with two shortswords in his belt. I talk to the foreman who says he's one of the many at the docks looking for work and not familiar to him. Apparently he's been asking around after someone matching Joy's description (young, blond, amazingly beautiful etc) for the last month or so. Very interesting indeed. I give him some silver and ask him to check around town.


To be on the safe side, we decide to forego the pleasures of civilization (again to the consternation of a select few in the group) and stay at the ship. Joy, Caradog and 5 of the mercenaries head towards the inn to get our gear. The inn is in quite the uproar when they get there. Apparently one of their fine serving wenches were killed and the innkeeper himself suffered from a nasty head wound. Someone who from the description sounded very much like our unknown thiefling has apparently kidnapped lady Joy's lady in waiting/pleasure thing Velena!

In classic "we must have justice and we must have it now" style, some poor fellow has been pointed out as the guilty party by the town guards, on no other grounds that he was conveniently nearby and is a nobody. Lord Keith ventures to try to talk to the man, but the guards are having none of it. Apparently our dear lord lost his temper (most shocking, I know) and revealed who he was, which obviously made things much easier - at least in the short run. Having jumped ahead again, they now learned from the fellow that the greyhaired man was the one who spirited Velena away. Rha manages to track some blood trails found on the scene, and an old lady informs him that the greyhaired man handed Velena over to two accomplices who set out on horse and cart.

Rha and the rest follow the tracks after the cart, which they find left abandoned in an alley by the city walls. Tracks lead from there into a courtyard nearby - where our much sought after bad guys are found. The grey haired man is there, as well as three compatriots and Velena. Greybeard runs away at once, and after a short fight the two remaining thugs decide that yes, discretion is indeed the better part of valor, and take off as well. Given that the mercs are in heavy armor and they are not, they manage to give their pursuers the slip.

Luckily, lord Keith briefly manages to contain his wrath against all things in life and question the one man who survived. By contain I obviously mean that he smashes the fellow's hand when he doesn't start talking at once. After this friendly reminder to spill his guts, the thug says that he and his friends was hired by captain Grey to look around town for Joy a month ago. He's fairly sure that Grey wanted to kill Joy. He's got no clue who he is (besides a name, Horgan Trent) or who they were supposed to kidnap. His usefulness spent, lord Keith sends him off into the not-so-loving arms of the Stranger. Velena is obviously in a state. Joy does her best to comfort her, and manages to calm her enough to get a better description of Grey. Apparently, she's seen him in Seagard...though with black hair.

On the way back to the ship, Joy bumps into Rhaena Grayton, the lord's eldest daughter. She obviously invites Joy to the castle, but our girl manages to convince the airhead noblegirl (are there other kinds?) that she's on some sort of undercover mission or the like and slips away without giving offense.


When they arrive back at the ship, I offer to tend to Velena's wounds and get some info out of her at the same time. Given that I know the seedy underbelly (such as it is) in Seagard better than anyone else in our party, I manage to connect her description of Grey to a name: Fenton Pyke. Indeed, Fenton's done a few jobs for me...he's a freelancer and pretty much a thug, though admittedly quite talented at thugging. Most interesting.

We also decide that discretion is the superiour way to go through life and make ready to leave a day early. A lot of the mercenaries are out on shore leave, and one is nowhere to be found. I go out with lord Willard, Marrok and a few mercs to the local pleasure establishment. We eventually find him, killed and tortured in a back alley.

It's time to find our foreman, who might have more info on Fenton's whereabouts. Apparently he's found at the Shattered Sail...where Fenton hired the thugs. Veeeery interesting...Me, lord Keith, Marrok and 6-7 mercs go there. The foreman is surrounded by 6-7 guys. After some deliberation we walk right in, only to discover that the two thugs who gave us the slip are also there. Lord Keith tries acting friendly/non-aggressively and fails spectacularly, leading to most of the bar reaching for their weapons. Luckily, he's also very good at shouting and being intimidating, so after revealing his identity everyone calms down.

After talking to the foreman some, I'm convinced he's innocent. He's seen Fenton in here, but without his grey-haired woodsman disguise. Keith talks to the hired thugs (giving his word that he won't kill them, which might actually mean something coming from him). One of them saw Fenton talking to one Dameon Shett, the knight of Gull Tower, lord Grafton's right hand man. Mother save us...if Grafton himself, or at least Shett, is behind this, we are in grave danger indeed.


Everything happens quickly now. We decide we can't wait for the dawn to leave. Lord Willard, the captain and two mercenaries goes to wake the harbormaster. He's understandably slightly upset at being woken up in the middle of the night, but curiously mollified when he receives 5 gold for his troubles and hands us his best navigator [los].

Meanwhile, Rha and Marrok ride out to the farm to get our horses, paying the rancher a small fortune to get them down to the harbor at once. Riding back to the ship, they spot Daemon Shatt rounding up his personal guards. Apparently we are know wanted by the law as known criminals/troublemasters or the like.

The rancher arrives with the horses, we start loading them unto the ship as fast as humanly possible. Shaett and his guards come rushing down the harbor towards us, forcing us to abandon six of the horses - but we get away! We might not be welcome in Gulltown anymore, but we, and more importantly Joy, is safe. The captain is nearly in tears, cursing us for making him unwelcome forevermore in Gulltown. Given Joy's status his rudeness would be enough to cost him his head, but being a Braavosi he's either oblivious to this fact or more likely doesn't give a damn.


We decide to head for Maidenpool instead, deeming Saltpan to be too unsafe a goal. The journey home will be longer, but likely safer. As well, we are on relatively friendly terms with the Mootons of Maidenpool. Luckily, the journey there is uneventful. As we disembark the captain is up in arms about how little we paid him for his troubles (apparently 50 gold is not enough), dropping a crate of gold in the sea and so forth. Joy pays him back by quite accidently dropping the 50 gold into the sea as well. Sputtering, he just sails out (while Rha dives back down for the gold of course).

By now, we've caused quite a stir at the harbor, enough for one of the Mootons to arrive. It is none other than Wallis Mooton, the heir apparent and judging by Joy's barely concealed lustful gaze, quite the stud. We are, obviously, invited to the castle. Let us hope no more assassins lurk in the shadows...

Dark Nights – Dark Deeds

Afternoon in the city.

Rah has come back with info about Theodon that suggests he put a contract on us. As I am told this means at best that he has hired someone that will try to steal the coin and skull from us, or kill us. It was quite apparent that he was very interested in the items we presented, but I had not anticipated that he would go to such drastic measures. He barely waited till we had left! This does provide a bit of problem, as these contracts can only be cancelled by the person who initiated it. By what I am told, it is not even possible to bribe the Faceless men.  They are an order with almost knight-like virtues, in stark contrast to the service they provide.

So… we could kill Theodon, but we would not escape the contract. We could actually trade him the coin. I don’t think I could live with aiding in necromancy. This means we will have to deal with possible assassins.

Theodon’s shop has been under watch, and as we are pondering how to deal with the situation, Rha comes to the hotel room almost out of breath. Theoden has got a Justicar visiting, and closed the store. He urges us that we must hide the coins, skills and other questionable items. Of course he is right. We decide to rent another hotel room in the noble quarters, buy a secure chest and keep the items there with Marrok as guard.  We are keeping a guard at all times outside Theodon’s shop; Rah and Caradog are stationed there. The next news we receive is that there are three groups of justicars fanning out in the direction we left in. They target inns and other obvious places. It is time to move on to an establishment more fitting for a Lady.

After much discussion we decide to take down Theodon, he is too much of a liability for us. Rha and Caradog return to the shop. I have asked them to see whether it is possible to also search the premises. When they return things have not gone according to plan. Theodon left the shop and Rha followed him yet again to the Faceless men. Theodon tried to dispatch a pigeon to an accomplice, but it was efficiently taken down by our master archer. Caradog collects the bird when night falls. The message reads “I have had a breakthrough. Come to the shop. We are almost there.”

We make another attempt at Theodon’s life. We all go to the shop. We post guards up and down the street. Barrett and I stand by as Rha and Willard scale the wall and climb onto the roof. This time Rha takes out Theodon, with four arrows as he is reading in his courtyard. The bodyguard goes for cover, as Rha and Willard make their way into the courtyard. Then she dashes for the window and jumps straight through it. Remind me to pray more to the Stranger. I call off the attack and we return to our new inn. Rha roams the streets, keeping an eye on the activities of the justicars. After a while we deem it safe enough to return to the shop. The broken window has been boarded up, and the justicars have left. Searching Theodon’s chamber, we find 1500 G and some interesting books, which we take. The belongings of the bodyguard we leave be. We uncover a secret door underneath the desk in the front room of the shop. The sight that meets us is grueling. Jar upon jar with body parts, and on a slab in the center of the cellar; a corpse. Barrett examines it and informs us the body has passed due to disease. There are many books, and some journals. The latter seem to cover experiments Theodon has been performing here. Reading it we discover the reason for Theodon’s zeal and impatience. The body is that of his own son.

We destroy information that can aid in necromancy, and then jam the entrance so that it cannot close. Back at our inn we indulge in a lavish meal, and a 50G wine. The staff almost performs a ceremony around presenting and pouring the ruby liquid. Maybe the excitement of our adventures is coloring my mind, but it is truly the best meal of my life.

The next day…

We still have business to attend to. Some research into the Iron Bank as revealed that they use the Gentle Men as sell swords. They are renowned for being honorable and pricey. Getting home with the gold we have borrowed is a priority, and we book passage on a boat bound for Gulltown leaving in four days. We also secure the services of the Gentle Men, 20 of them, to secure our freight. That means we don’t have much time to look into the lair of the Avengers. As we know the Golden Company were founded by Aegor Bittersteel Rivers, later to be led by his son. The latter was killed by a cloaked figure, who took over the guild and renamed it the Avengers.

Our best strategy is to go in when the prostitutes are visiting, so we wait for their next arrangement. It comes in the neck of time, the night before our boat leaves. We climb up onto the roof and into the battlements. From here we can enter all sides of the building; we go through them one by one, starting with the ones furthest away from the custodian. Alas, there is not much to be found, and we move on to the building he is sleeping in. He is sleeping heavily, flanked by empty bottles. There is nothing of interest here either, we must move into the lower levels.

A few nerve-wracking rooms into the lower level, we come upon a vault filled with books. It seems the Golden Company, under the founder Aegor Bittersteel Rivers and his son, kept records annually. Thankfully they are penned in the Common tongue. We focus on the first and last years, while Barrett scours the room for other books of value.  The last five years are not on record, there was no natural heir to take over the Golden Company after the death of Aegor’s son. The records are all very official and state the basic statistics of the company; as such they are not very useful. Then Rha stumbles upon a hidden compartment. In it are the personal diaries of Aegor.  We bring them along. We hear people coming closer and decide not to push our luck, we return to the inn.

After a very short rest, it is time to get our delivery home. The Gentle Men, and the Iron Bank are very good to do business with, and we find ourselves safely installed on the boat.

The passage is without trouble, and we finally arrive in Gulltown. Ah, to be back in Westeros. The diaries of Aegor have been a nice pastime on our journey. He was a bastard of house Derry, who was loyal to the Targaryens, after the battle. It confirms the rumor that the body of Daemon Blackfyre was switched. Aegon brought the body of Daemon with him to Braavos and buried it in the crypt he had built in the Valley of the Dead. To preserve it, and eventually resurrect it. Aegon was clearly cynical, he would use any means to achieve his goals. His aim was to restore the Blackfyre dynasty – the Targaryens. He searched for dragons, and sent men to Assai to investigate the Black Arts. There was a breakthrough just before he died; he was able to resurrect a body. With the help of Lo, a warlock from Assai they performed a ritual in 293 AL. By sacrificing his own sons inscribing the scull of Daemon and placing the infamous coin it. They apparently achieved his goal approximately five years ago. There is also mention of dragon eggs being found about two decades ago in Valeria.