What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

The Battle of Amreth was a display of what a few ignorant people can accomplish when they have no idea what might happen.  As we left off last time, Torrhen rode boldly into an archer ambush leading the most skittish band of horsemen in Westeros.  Despite losing half of his troopers in the opneing salvo, the heavily armored knight crashed the lines of the archers/bandits, trampling them mercilessly and driving the rest to flight.

Meanwhile, back in the village, Ella set asbout inspiring the villagers with kind words and fierce invective.  She pledged to protect the village, rebuild its defenses and bring prosperity and order to the land.  It all started with a couple of hangings and a slow clap.  Fortunately the villagers have learned to expect little from their lords and ladies and the news that Ondrew had died and Ella was now lady of the house did little to discourage them.  Luckily she did such an admirable job of rousing their peasantly ardor that many of the men vowed to stand alongside the handful of House Drake armsmen and battle the legion of battle-hardened infantrymen Buckwell had sent their way.

Garth, meanwhile, had found the missing Drake offspring Warrick hiding in the ruins of the town tower.  Warrick immediately proved his legacy by displaying the Valyrian bloodline traits and the propensity for ill-considered actions that have become the hallmark of the bloodline.  Some villagers suspected that Maester Gyles may have had a hand in Warrick's fall from the tower but neither Garth nor his irregulars have stated such either publicly or privately.

The bandits broken, the peasants rabble-roused and the irregulars sent off to harry the approaching Buckwell soldiers, all that remained was to await the arrival of reinforcements from Castle Drake.  Much to the heroes' dismay, Uncle Clusterfuck, errr, Anders, had decided to make the deployment as slow and painfully protracted as possible.  By the time the heroes learned of this, they realized they would be forced to stand and fight with what they had or turn tail and flee, knowing that the village would be razed, its meager wealth plundered and Ella's credibility forever left in tatters.

Had there actually been somewhere to flee toward, knowing that Anders held the castle and would unlikely let us in despite the rampaging horde at their backs, perhaps flight would have been an option.  The Drake children decided instead to stand and fight.  If their forces were routed, the hope remained that sufficient horses would survive to allow the Drake family to flee the battlefield.

The peasants set to work building fortifications.  these were not fortifications that would have daunted most armies and probably only discouraged an army of peasant rabble disinterested in whatever cause it was they took up arms for in the first place.  Under the direction of the Drakes the villagers contructed some wicker pallisades and barriers coupled with a shallow ditch and slight earthen mound.  The idea was not to shatter the Buckwell ranks on these walls, for, realistically, a single torch could have burned them down but, rather, to direct the attacking soldiers by splitting their ranks to allow Torrhen's cavalry to mow them down.  If the Buckwells were at all allowed to form square, our few cavalry would have proven utterly ineffective.

The key was to engage the soldiers and cause them to chase down the fleeing peasants while the irregulars tried to hamper them and therefore allow the cavalry to run them down.  What was entirely unexpected was the amount of damage the irregulars caused during their day of harrying attacks.  By the time the Buckwells emerged from the logging road, fully a third of their numbers had been eliminated.  A further piece of luck followed as Garth led the missile barrage from the peasant levies.  Sticks, stones, arrows and other miscellany rained down death on the Buckwell ranks.  Little Jordel was a figurehead among the peasants, launching rabbit sticks with deadly accuracy and effect.

The Buckwell ranks were seriously depleted following several volleys but, alas, all good things must come to an end.  Soon the Buckwells swarmed the barricades, cutting down the villagers armed only with trowels and bar stools.  Their losses were terrific.  Soon they broke and ran, a long line of soldeirs spreading out behind them.  That was the time when Torrhen struck, wiping out the stragglers with a brutal thurst.  Even as the cavalry swept in from behind, Ella again emerged to rally the dispirited villagers, turning their terror into a weapon.  In the slaughter that ensued, Maester Gyles was credited with some of the most inspired attrocities, the viciousness of which was doubtless inspired by General Torrhen's own capacity for cruelty.

In the end the Drake clan stood tall and emerged trimuphant, capturing dozens of prisoners and, more importantly, forging the core of an army that would be raised to strike back at the treacherous Hayfords and the hated Buckwells.  Maester Gyles stood before the crowds at the conclusion of the battle and spoke rousingly of the Drakes' successes on theday.  he ended his speech with a phrase that may supplant all others in the Drake lexicon: "We totally hodored the Buckwells, right?"

p.s. The events involving Maester Gyles may or may not have been based on actual events.  Such is the danger of relying on minstrels and scribes to report on history after the fact.