Chapter 102

Moving into the Eastern Riverlands from Harrenhal with five thousand men, we made our first stop at Castle Darry. Here, Ser Raymun Darry held the castle and its attached town against a mix of raiders from the Eastern Riverlands from Houses like Wode, Cox, Hawick, and Mooton while his father, Lord Darry, did Homage to Stannis at Harrenhal. Ser Raymun was a tall, wiry, man with long, reddish-brown hair, and a full beard wearing Churburg-style Plate Armor. He met our force at the head of a smaller force of two-thousand-five-hundred mixed guards, levies, and militiamen, from Darry, Roote, and Whent Lands, ready to fight just in case we turned out to be men from Tywin's Force further west. It took meeting him face-to-face under a flag of parlay to allay his suspicions. Thankfully, Ser Raymun was quick on the uptake and invited me inside Castle Darry to consult about the Campaign.

Shortly after we arrived, my Officers, Squire, and I were offered bread and salt, per the traditional Westerosi Hospitality ritual. Once we had finished that, flagons of brown ale and plates of bread and cheese were brought out as refreshments and we could get down to business. Ser Raymun Darry spoke up first, letting us all know what had been going on while we had been fighting in the South.

"The Mootons sent the bulk of the strength of the Eastern Riverlands South. What remains is largely a small force of a few hundred mixed Guard and Militia Forces. They've been bulked out with Sellswords hired with Lannister Gold, however. The Wodes, Hawicks, Coxes, and Mootons have largely acquiesced to the Sellsword Commanders' advice. They know their force can't meaningfully assault a Castle and would be forced into siege, allowing relief from either Harrenhal or Lord Haroway's Town, but that just means that they have been raiding less protected villages and towns instead." Admitted Ser Raymun.

"What companies?" Questioned Ser Denys Irons.

"Pardon?" Queried Ser Raymun.

"You said that they bulked out their small remaining forces with sellswords, so what Companies are they?" I asked.

"I'm afraid I am not well-versed in Sellsword Companies. It is not as if they announced themselves, after all." Frowned Ser Raymun.

"What banners did you see?" Questioned Ser Roger Groves.

"A fork-tailed, blue and white, banner, a pennant with a white lance on yellow, two white crossed swords on black, and a red bull's head on black." Answered Ser Raymun Darry.

"The Windblown, The Long Lances, the Gallant Men, and the Lost Legion. Tywin Lannister does nothing by halves, it seems." Frowned Ser Harry Ruskyn.

"Is that bad, Milord?" Queried Bryen Farring, my Squire as uninitiated in the heraldry and history of Sellswords as Ser Raymun was.

"Five-thousand-six-hundred Men, all professional soldiers, most with good enough reputations to survive multiple wars and even win a few." I informed.

"Plus the four-hundred or so local forces that didn't go south with Lord Mooton. They have fewer men than us now, but until you arrived we didn't have the numbers to challenge them in open battle and had to sit on the defense. Now, though, we can do such a thing and have the expectation of winning." Nodded Ser Raymun.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." I frowned.

"What? You're not saying that we should remain on defense, surely?" Asked Ser Raymun.

"I don't believe that's the case, no. Just a tactical consideration." Refuted Jalhabar Xho.

"Explain." Demanded Ser Raymun.

"Think of it like this. You're a Sellsword Commander, a professional soldier, a veteran of dozens, if not hundreds, of battles. You see that the initiative has swung the other way after a long time spent raiding the villages and towns where your enemy's forces live, and where their families live. You know that your enemy has numerical and equipment advantages over you and that you may very well lose a pitched fight. You also know that your Enemy's soldiers will be eager for vengeance for the raids. In that scenario, what would you think to do?" I questioned, laying out a scenario.

"You think they will avoid battle?" Queried Ser Raymun.

"It would be the smart thing to do." I agreed.

"For what purpose? The advantage will not shift back to them that way." Asked Ser Raymun.

"There were rumors the Vale is preparing to join the war. Certainly, Baelish will attempt to work his charms to get them to throw in with the Lannisters." I mused.

"The Vale can bring forty-thousand troops to the War. We can't hope to challenge that." Blinked Ser Raymun.

"Not all at once, they can't." Added Ser Harry Ruskyn.

"Indeed. The Vale has largely sat out this war. They will need time to mobilize more than their guard forces." Concurred Ser Roger Groves.

"Which means we have a window of time to smash the Eastern Riverlords that followed Mooton before the Vale can attack." Nodded Ser Denys Irons.

"But what if they send some of their guard forces ahead to help the Rebel Riverlords out?" Questioned Bryen Farring.

"Then that will just be less forces they'll have when they arrive in strength." Smirked Jalhabar Xho.

"So the question then is how do we force the Eastern Riverlords to battle before they can be reinforced by the Vale?" Queried Ser Raymun.

"We attack somewhere they can't afford not to defend." I insisted.

"Where is that?" Asked Bryen Farring.

"There are a few options. Timber Hall, the seat of House Wode, Saltpans, the Seat of House Hawick, or Maidenpool itself." Mused Ser Raymun.

"Saltpans and Maidenpool are too far east for something like this." Cautioned Ser Roger.

"Which leaves Timber Hall. Not the most valuable of targets." Remarked Ser Harry Ruskyn.

"Does it need to be? It's still reasonably valuable, after all." Pointed out Ser Denys Irons.

"Ser Denys is right. It's what is needed as a target, even if only just." Concurred Jalhabar Xho.

"Plus, the Wodes have a certain amount of timber manufactures in the attached town of their seat. There's a sawmill on the Holywater River that flows into the Trident from the God's Eye. If nothing else, losing that will affect their ability to pay for their sellswords some." Affirmed Ser Raymun.

"Then it's settled. We attack Timber Hall. If nothing else, knocking the Wodes out of the Rebel Coalition is a worthy goal." I intoned.

And with that settled, we began preparations to march out. From Castle Darry to Timber Hall was a march of just under a week. Six days on the march wasn't a good thing while on the clock like this, but a big thing that helped was my Baidaks. The shallow draft craft were able to sail their way up from the Blackwater Rush, into the God's Eye, and then down the Holywater alongside our route of march. I had planned to use them to both speed our advance, but also to assault Saltpans as well, as their guns would be invaluable there. With the help of the Baidak Flotilla, we made a six-day journey in half the time, though we had to assault a Holdfast on the Holywater while we were on the march toward Timber Hall, tacking an entire day onto the journey and making the total time elapsed to arrive at Timber Hall four days instead of three.

The Baidaks did double duty here, defeating an attempt by enemy forces in the nearby small town that was guarded by the Holdfast to flank us via small river boats that were likely used for fishing more than anything martial. The Baidak Flotilla fired their guns, sinking a small portion of the riverboats and forcing the rest to turn back as their crews lost their nerve after seeing their fellows sink. Once the riverboats had turned tail, the Baidak Flotilla joined their guns with the field guns already bombarding the walls and ramparts of the Holdfast. Truly, having the Flotilla join us was the best decision I could have made, and they would only continue to prove their worth as the campaign kept going.

As for the Holdfast itself, it was a thing of rammed earth and timber, with a spike-lined ditch that made direct assault difficult. Bombardment took longer than usual as well, thanks to the rammed earth construction. Normally, such a small fortification would take a few hours to reduce, but this took a full six hours. The cannonballs tended to embed themselves in the earthwork rather than smash through like they did with timber or stone. It was one of the reasons that I used rammed earth sometimes when there was no Coquina Stone available. Fortunately, once the Baidaks had lent their guns to the effort, things sped up remarkably. The moment the walls were reduced, it was the beginning of the end. A small party of horsemen wearing Wode Yellow rallied out in a last-ditch effort, even as a Raven was sent to Timber Keep to warn of our attack.

I ordered the Raven not to be shot down, as we wanted the enemy to know we were attacking Timber Hall and instead had my forces focus on the horsemen. Of the small party of sixty-some-odd Horsemen, more than half seemed uneasy in the saddle. I would later find out from a captive we took that these were all the men of the Holdfast, including servants and grooms pressed into service and given what arms were available. Ser Tom of Midgeside, as the small fishing town the Holdfast Guarded was named, had apparently ordered everyone that could ride or fight to mount up in a mad attempt to break through our lines. It didn't wind up working out for him and after just barely half an hour, we were taking the remaining forces of his prisoner. Ser Tom wasn't among them, having died to a musketball punching through his brigandine over chainmail hauberk and popping his lungs like they were balloons.

Sorting that out took the rest of the day, but it turned out that Midgeside did a brisk business trading peat, jet, bog iron, and sulfur from the nearby marshlands that gave the town its name, alongside smoked fish from the Holywater River. That was why a holdfast had been built to guard the settlement. Our attack here had, unbeknownst to us, just struck the first blow to House Wode's coin purse. Regardless, as soon as we finished at Midgeside, we were back on the march and headed for Timber Hall. We arrived two days later, sometime around noon. As we did so, we found the main enemy force gathered to meet us, though clearly, some of them hadn't been able to make it to Timber Hall in time for the battle.

There were still some five thousand enemy forces with banners from all Sellsword Companies and Rebel Lords flapping in the wind. That was as good as we could hope for, I supposed. If we could crush this force here, then the rest would hopefully be easier to sweep up before Littlefinger could bring the might of the Vale down from their mountains to aid the Rebel Lords.

If we couldn't, this campaign was going to get a whole lot messier. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here's the next chapter showing the start of Ricasso's War in the Eastern Riverlands. It seems that the remnant that had been left here by Lord Mooton taking so many men South to reinforce the Capital has been bulked out by a shitload of Sellswords, making this campaign more difficult than it would have otherwise been. Adding to this difficulty is the time crunch. Ricasso needs to deal with the Rebel Lords and their Sellsword Army before Littlefinger can bring the might of the Vale down from the Mountains.

Honestly, even if he does do that, the Vale has forty-thousand men at full muster. He's likely still going to have to give ground and play for time until reinforcements arrive. Of course, he doesn't know that House Royce is going to be on his side yet, which will even things out some. It's still a lot of enemy forces to deal with even if he does beat the Rebels beforehand.

At any rate, the next chapter will begin with the Battle of Timber Hall.

Stay tuned. . .