Descent to War

It had all started at the Tourney at Harrenhal. Where Rhaegar had crowned Lyanna Stark the Queen of Love and Beauty, where all the smiles died. Lyanna would go missing shortly afterwards, so too would Rhaegar and several of the Kingsguard it turned out, and the connection was clear.

Brandon Stark, en route to Riverrun to marry one of Lord Tully's daughters, instead went to King's Landing, calling upon Rhaegar to 'come out and die.' The Mad King did not appreciate this, and imprisoned the heir to Winterfell, summoning his father to answer for his brash words. Lord Rickard would come, and he too would be arrested on the spot. Aerys meant to put them on trial for treason.

Lord Stark would request, and be given, a Trial by Combat.


* * *

Lord Rickard Stark was brought into the great hall of the Red Keep, fully armed and armoured, for his trial by combat. Aerys II, the Mad King, sat with a gleeful look on his face.

"Are you prepared for your trial, Lord Stark?" he spat.

"I am, your Grace." said the Northman proudly. He looked the part: large and strong, cloaked in good plate and armed with the ancestral Stark sword, Ice. "Who shall I face?"

"I name the champion of House Targaryen as... fire!" Aerys proclaimed, throwing his arms up as he shouted 'fire' and allowing a wicked grin to spread across his face. "Seize him! Bring out the apparatus! Prepare the pyre! Leash his son!"

A flurry of activity had already begun when Aerys called for Rickard to be seized, with the King yelling the follow-up commands over the sound of people and equipment moving. Rickard was apprehended, protesting, by several guards, and was dragged to the middle of the hall where a number of acolytes were lowering a harness from the rafters, into which Rickard was strapped and raised.

As he fought, suspended in the air, carts of firewood were rushed out and their contents were used to create a shoddy pyre below the Lord Paramount of the North. His eldest son Brandon was dragged into the halls and, over his own struggling and protests as well, had a belt strapped around his neck. A cruel device of Essosi origin, it would allow itself to be tightened but not again loosened. A longsword was placed carefully a half dozen paces in front of Brandon, laid with such care as to suggest the exact location was important.


"BEGIN THE TRIAL!" roared Aerys, this time sounding impatient and furious, as if the whole affair had taken unacceptably too long to prepare.

The pyre was lit, Rickard Stark was lowered such that his feet were just above the licking flames, and Brandon Stark was unchained. He rushed forward, before being snapped back as the leash caught him, falling hard on his back. Recovering rapidly, he strained against the choker around his neck, his hands inching closer to the hilt of the sword, now a mere hand's length from the tips of his fingers.

His face began turning a deep red as his father's struggling turned to howls of pain: the steel greaves he was wearing were beginning to sizzle. With the tips of his fingers able to lightly brush the very bottom of the hilt, Brandon passed out, strangled to death. His father would die shortly thereafter, cooked alive above the pyre.


"The traitors... are slain." said Aerys darkly, slumping back into his seat for the merest of moments, before jumping back out of it.

"Bring me Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark!" he shouted with renewed vigour, "Treasonous forces remain at large! Lord Arryn must prove his loyalty and deliver the instigators of this heinous plot! I WANT THEIR HEADS ABOVE MY HOLDFAST!"

Robert Baratheon was too dangerous to let live: he was Lyanna's betrothed, he would be seditious for the rest of his days. Eddard must be put down to ensure the North did not rise, for he was in league with Robert, they were fostered together, one would always support the other. With those two dead Hoster Tully would have no men of age to wed his horrid daughters to, and the plot against the Crown would be vanquished!

Ravens would fly to the Eyrie shortly afterwards.

[Note on Ice: We could find no canon evidence one way or the other on where Ice was at this time. It is unaccounted for and lore isn't sufficiently clear on how often the owners of Valyrian Steel weapons had them on their person. As such we did the only fair thing and did a 50/50 roll for Rickard having it with him or not, and rolled that he did. Aerys will keep it in the Red Keep and will not use it, change it, or give it to anyone. Its fate will be decided by the new King.]

Last reminders before game start

1. Remember if you have vassals inside a High Lordship that isn't yours, you get only half the troops they would normally give and can only tax 5%!

2. We have a new trade system, and you only get the 10,000 Dragon bonus per trade lane if you trade! If you keep all your resources, you get only the bonus. You also only get bonuses from resources once, so growing or trading for 3 Grain won't give you +3,600 Militia Points.

3. Everyone gets double the starting purse you normally get since we start at war. You may begin using it now.