RM: Chapter 108

Ser Andar Royce was a tall, bearded man, though not necessarily broad. He was more wiry than anything else, lending him the appearance of a spruce tree in human form. Lord Mors Marshberry, my Bannerman, who had arrived the previous day with his reinforcements from Harrenhal, liked the comparison so much that her gave Ser Andar the nickname of Ser Spruce. That, it seemed, had stuck with Ser Andar, much to his exasperation. Personally, I felt that Ser Andar was rather better armored than a Spruce Tree would be. His plate armor was filigreed in bronze, worked into the shape of various runes that glowed to my second sight as having actually been enchanted. His bastard sword, too, had various active runes, clearly, Bronze Yohn had been putting the knowledge I had traded him to good use.

Between Ser Andar's Forces, the reinforcements from Harrenhal, and my own remaining forces, we had ten thousand men between us. Normally, that would be more than enough to take Maidenpool from the Tattered Prince's ragged force. Unfortunately, word had come in from the fleet. Littlefinger had managed to slip reinforcements to Maidenpool by sea. We were now facing a force of twenty thousand men at Maidenpool, twice our numbers. It would have been more had the Squadron under the Nau-Style Carrack Copper Star not attacked the enemy. Fortunately, we had a few advantages over the enemy forces at Maidenpool.

The first of these was the lack of powder and shot. Some of the Transports that the Fleet had sunk in the Battle of the Bay of Crabs had been loaded down with Powder and Shot for the guns and muskets of the enemy forces. That gave us an advantage in that we would have more firepower than they would, as they could not afford to waste powder and shot. Not now that the Fleet was blockading them, and new supplies couldn't be obtained. That was one advantage I intended to play to the hilt.

The second advantage, and the one that was the reason for the meeting I had called in my tent, was far more interesting. It seems that there was some friction between the commander of the Vale Forces, Ser Symond Templeton, and the Tattered Prince. Ser Symond had threatened to cancel the Tattered Prince's current contract if he would not cede command to him. The Tattered Prince had resented the threat and the implication that Ser Symond could have done better, and removed himself from the Castle of Maidenpool to a tavern in the Town, the Rusty Groat. While he was pulling an Achilles in his tent, the Tattered Prince could not command.

Ser Symond Templeton was a far less able commander. Oh, for certain, he wasn't a poor commander, but he had a number of personal quirks and foibles that could be exploited by someone who knew what they were doing. For instance, his pride, which had seen him demand overall command be handed to him instead of a 'Common Sellsword' like the Tattered Prince. The Vale's Knightly Traditions were steeped in a kind of Andal Arrogance that made for a good blind spot that I could take advantage of. A blind spot that the Tattered Prince wouldn't have were he still in command. I could use that, I just had to figure out how, hence the meeting.

"So, now that we know the Tattered Prince has been replaced in overall command by Ser Symond Templeton, how do we exploit that fact?" I questioned as soon as all my officers had been briefed on the situation.

"We could try a raid." Suggested Ser Denys Irons.

"Typical Ironborn tactics. I suppose you can take the Ironman out of the Isles, but you cannot take the Isles out of the Ironman." Snorted Ser Raymun Darry.

"They're typical tactics because they work, Ser Spruce." Defended Ser Denys Irons.

"True. And they work well for luring pompous fools out of positions of strength. You just need to raid a target they can't afford not to defend." Opined Ser Roger Groves.

"But where would that be?" Queried Ser Andar Royce.

"Someplace vital to the continued defense of Maidenpool, I should think. We hit the bastards where it hurts." Offered Lord Mors Marshberry.

"Someplace with lots of critical resources would hurt the most. Food, Iron, things of that nature, which are needed to feed and equip a large garrison. What places like that are there about Maidenpool?" Asked Ser Harry Ruskyn.

"There might be a few places we could attack like that." Mused Ser Bryen Farring.

"We need to limit it to one or two spots. Anything more risks spreading our ambush forces too thin for this to work." Insisted Jalhabar Xho.

"Someone find me a map that has annotations." I commanded.

Ser Harry Ruskyn sent one of his aides to the baggage train, a lad from Last Refuge with Lyseni Features. He came back fifteen minutes later with a map that had the lands attached to Maidenpool and various annotations and notes written on it. This was one of the maps that had been made up by Vizimir's Network. We had ones for Gulltown, White Harbor, and elsewhere along the Eastern Coast as well. This one clearly laid out what villages and smaller towns were about, what their defenses were like, and what their principal trade or production entailed. True to Ser Bryen's words, we did have a few options.

"Haypile might be a good choice. Large wheat production, minimal garrison, with just a timber pallisade and ditch for defenses." Pointed out Ser Roger Groves.

"Aye, and it's close to Ironmonger's Corner." Nodded Lord Mors Marshberry.

"Ironmonger's Corner seems to be a bit well defended for this, no? With a proper stone wall and holdfast, plus a garrison?" Questioned Ser Andar Royce.

"That's not the point." Refuted Ser Denys Irons.

"Then what is the point, if you don't mind me asking?" Queried Ser Raymun Darry.

"The point is the proximity. We don't need to attack Ironmonger's Corner as well, just threaten to. If we actively disrupt the food supply to Maidenpool and threaten to do the same with the Garrison's supply of iron, then that has to provoke a response." I explained.

"Indeed. You cannot defend a castle without food, and an army needs iron for horseshoes, arrowheads, speartips, maintenance of armor and weapons, the whole blot." Added Ser Harry Ruskyn.

"Plus, the arrogance of this Ser Symond Templeton will make him avenge this attack with one of his own. He may even lead a large portion of his force out to put an end to our raiding." Grinned Jalhabar Xho.

"And lead them right into our ambushing force." Nodded Ser Bryen Farring, understanding the plan.

"Exactly, which is what we need to do if we're to have any hope of taking Maidenpool while it's held by a force that's twice our own numbers. So, I want everyone to be ready because we're marching out tomorrow. Also, someone needs to send a message to Saalhador Saan and the Fleet. What ships we aren't using to patrol or blockade Maidenpool should be sent north to Runestone to keep the sea route to the Castle open to supplies. The longer Ser Lyn Corbray's trying to crack Runestone, the more time we have to clean up here without further intervention from the Vale." I commanded.

And with that, the meeting broke up, and our strategy was set. We would attack Haypile and threaten Ironmonger's Corner in hopes of drawing the Vale Force into an ambush ahead of moving on Maidenpool. I was confident that this would work, now that the Tattered Prince had been effectively booted from Overall Command of the Enemy Forces at Maidenpool. He would have kept his forces close to the Castle, suspecting some sort of ruse or trap. Ser Symond Templeton was much greener a commander, though. I had every expectation that he would fall for it.

In the meantime, I would also be sending a naval squadron north to the Vale in order to help Bronze Yohn hold out against Ser Lyn Corbray and Littlefinger's Army. I needed Runestone to hold for as long as it could so that I could finish up my campaign here in the Eastern Riverlands without the Vale sending thousands more reinforcements down to fight me. True, the Three Sisters had also declared for Stannis, but if I'm being honest, the Sistermen weren't exactly anyone's main priority targets. Nor were Pebble or the Paps, who had also declared for Stannis. Runestone was richer than any of those other territories and a far bigger threat, after all.

With any luck, by the time things at Runestone became critical, I would have taken Maidenpool and could switch my focus to begin to attack the Vale. With Tywin on the backfoot in his own territory, and the Vale being invaded, so long as the Ironborn continued not to involve themselves in the War, that would be that. Stannis would have undisputed control of the Seven Kingdoms just as soon as those last two fronts were wrapped up. He would effectively have won the War. Then, I could finally turn my attention North to the real threat lurking in the polar regions of the world.

The news that had been brought back from the North by Bronn and Vizimir's Other Agents was encouraging and not so encouraging by turns. Large battles were being fought North of the Wall by the Night's Watch, and a massive raiding attack in the Gift had been defeated by Lord Stark. The Free Folk were clearly on the move, and the intensity of the fighting only ensured that more corpses would be made, fodder for the armies of the White Walkers, who were clearly already moving out from the Far North in the Lands of Always Winter, since the Free Folk were migrating Southwards.

Last I'd heard, Lord Stark had offered terms of surrender, and tens of thousands of Free Folk had accepted the offer to surrender and bend the knee in exchange for lands in the New Gift under the feudal contract. That was encouraging, since even with the antipathy the Free Folk had toward the feudal system and bending the knee in general, tens of thousands had agreed to do it in exchange for safety. Of course, tens of thousands more had refused and attacked Craster's Keep to continue the War. Reports from the battle were scarce, but it sounded as if the Night's Watch had been forced to retreat back to the wall, and more thousands of corpses had been left in the wake of the battle.

Compared to what would be coming once all those thousands of Corpses were raised into the Army of the White Walkers? This fight over the Iron Throne was practically a small skirmish. We needed to be done with this in time to face the White Walkers and their Army of Wights as they marched on the Wall. That was the true fight that I had been waiting for. If we could stop them there and ensure victory over the White Walkers, then it was likely that peace would reign for a long time after that.

And hopefully, when that peace came, I would never have to pick up a blade in anger again and could enjoy peacetime with my family. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. It's mostly a setup chapter, detailing the plan to deal with all those reinforcements from the Vale that had just come down. The Tattered Prince has effectively been Hannibaled by the Vale Lords in the Army at Maidenpool, forced by Politics to vacate his position as overall commander, and that is giving Ricasso a chance to pull something like a raid and ambush combination to try and cut the numbers disparity down as much as he possibly can before trying to attack a fortified Town with a Castle that is being held by twice as many troops as you have. Conventional Wisdom says that's a losing proposition for an attacker, otherwise, after all.

Unfortunately, Ricasso also has to help ensure that Runestone doesn't fall before he can take Maidenpool. If it does, he's liable to have another Vale Army marching right into his rear to utterly obliterate his plans. That's why he's sending ships to keep the Sea Supply Route for Runestone Open. So that Runestone will hold out longer.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the raid on Haypile as Ricasso and Company continue their campaign in the Eastern Riverlands. Then we'll have another chapter as Ser Symond Templeton reacts to the attack, followed by an interlude with a Naval Battle off Runestone against Littlefinger's Fleet.

Stay tuned. . .