A Song of Fear and Loathing

We kicked off the start of A Song of Ice and Fire campaign on June 19 with Jason and Adam joining the regular RPG crew of Beth, Homer and myself. While most of us are familiar with the novels/setting, Jason and Adam were the only ones familiar with the mechanics of the system. Luckily, the first step for our campaign was the creation of our house.

House creation, it turns out, is a fabulous introduction to the setting. While we had tossed around some ideas in our heads, not knowing the what and where made latching on to character ideas more difficult. The only thing we seemed set on was establishing a presence somewhere in Dorne. With that kernel to build on, we set about creating House Drake.

The mechanics of house creation are at once delightful and frustrating. The element of randomness ensures that the peculiar circumstances of your House will very likely be quite different even if you should try to replicate that same house in that same Kingdom. The variables attributed to the different kingdoms add local flavor without necessarily predetermining your fate. How much difference could some tosses of a few d6s make? Quite a lot as it turned out.

House Drake, by choice, is set in the borderlands between the Reach and the Stormlands. This location provided the crux of external conflict that we sought. Our rolls also granted us a small castle, a reasonably fair sized standing army, mines, a mercantile town at a crossroads and plenty of under developed land that has fallen into lawlessness. Our house house was also relatively newly founded and already in a state of decay.

Knowing these facts, we designed our characters. Beth's character Ella is the heir to the House Drake line by our Lord Ondrew Drake's first marriage. Homer's character Torrhen is next in succession being the first born of Ondrew's second wife. My character Garth is a bastard-born child of a camp follower from Ondrew's years as a mercenary campaigner. Though older than the others, Garth's lineage predates Ondrew's possession of Castle Drake and he seems content to lead his father's Irregulars. Last to the group is our young Maester Gyles, played by Adam. Apparently this is Adam's first non-warrior character so the change of scenery will provide some interesting dynamics as he explores the social combat system of SoIaF.

Jason, our GM, set the stage. Lord Ondrew's health is failing and he knows that his time is short. He calls together all of his children hoping to perhaps bequeath upon them some final morsels of wisdom coupled with his wishes for the succession of his House. It turns out that his two legitimate children are joined by not one but two bastards. Whether the other, Warick, is baseborn as was Garth is something we have yet to discover.

Our newly arrived Maester determines that Lord Ondrew's ill-health has less to do with a lifetime spent on the battlefield and is more likely attributable to a conscious attempt to kill him. Gyles suspects that poison is at work and devises an herbal remedy that he hopes will restore the Lord Drake to health. What remains unclear is who precisely has made the attempt and how.

The grasping second wife, Celia Hayford (Torrhen's mother) seems anxious to be rid of her risen-from-the-ranks soldier of a husband. Would she truly slay Lord Drake knowing that Ella is being groomed to assume his mantle? What then of Ella's safety? Adding to the mystery is the recent recalling of Torrhen from his fostering with House Martell. He left a mere child but returns now with fancy armor (the purchase of which has strained the Drake household finances) and spurs. Is he complicit in his mothers schemes or simply an unwitting beneficiary?

The scheming is not confined to Celia alone, however. Her brother Anders Hayworth commands the castle garrison. While the garrison is trained, its loyalties to the House seem divided between their commander and the heir apparent. Suspicious parcels and the commissioning of House troops to move supplies along our roads strikes Ella as being quite peculiar.

And then word reaches the castle that the Buckwells have moved to retake a border town lost in earlier clashes between House Drake and House Buckwell soon after the ascension of King Robert Baratheon to the throne. Fearing that the Buckwells grow bold by the news of Lord Ondrew's poor health, we devised a plan to present a show of force to dissuade the Buckwells by intimidation or steel as the case warrants. Knowing that the garrisons loyalties might be compromised, Garth insists of bringing along a few squads of his skirmishers (the uneducated might call them guerrillas) as well as House Drakes' compliment of undisciplined cavalry under Torrhen's command.

Torrhen agrees to the plan knowing that the cavalry, a new feature among the archers and skirmishers that formed the basis of Drake's Company, could use some seasoning. better to test their mettle in a skirmish than to watch them crumple in the heat of battle. Hopefully his training with the Martell's will help him retain command of the horsemen. Bolstered by the irregulars, we hope to present a sufficient show of arms to send the Buckwells scurrying back into their clapboard halls. By boldly riding out along the frontier, we also hope to showcase Ella before the smallfolk as the true and rightful heir to House Drake.