The shit storm hits Shitville

The fortunes of House Drake were on the line as the forces Lady Ella Drake brought to Pembroke aligned on the hills west of town.  Arrayed against them were the combined forces of Houses Buckwell, Selmy and Hightower as well as a mercenary force of pikemen.

Not only did Drake's enemies possess superior numbers, they sought to stave off the conflict by first sending an assassin against Ella Drake.  Though Ella was able to fight off her attacker, she sustained grievous injuries in the process.  Sensing that the fortunes of the Drake household were at stake, Maester Gyles intervened, offering Ella a gruesome ticket to freedom if she should so choose.  Already things looked bad for the newfound house.

With Ella removed from the equation, Torrhen represented the house in a parlay with the attacking forces.  Though both sides had come prepared for a prisoner exchange, Torrhen's implacable attitude and the confidence of their foemen precluded an amicable cessation of hostilities.  The battle lines were drawn.

Drakes forces took the high ground but their lack of footmen would prove their undoing on this day.  The enemy launched a wild assault against the wooded hill with the scum from Hightower's jails pitted against the newly formed foot of House Fitzdrake.  The thin line broke and, despite terrible losses from the Drake archers, Torrhen's cavalry was forced to commit much earlier than anticipated.

Even as the cavalry routed the last of the convict brigade, they became enmeshed in vicious hand to hand with the mercenary pikemen.  Torrhen roused his battered troopers and took a Selmy commander prisoner shortly before his own horse was forced to disengage.

Garth and his irregulars held the long, low slope to the north and broke the peasant levies thrown against them but not before their own forces were broken in the melee.  As the ebnemy cavalry rode on Pembroke to take Ella and the unguarded Drake train, the Drake archers were forced to yield and the Drake cavalry broke to engage the new threat.

It was all down hill from there.  The enemy forces were badly abused in the attack but the lack of field commanders hindered the Drakes' ability to rally their men.  The irregulars disengaged and made for the woodlands where their superior stalking skills would have caused the enemy to pay dearly.  The handful of battered troopers remaining in the Drake cavalry were soon outnumbered and disarmed, unable to prevent the enemy from seizing the undercroft where Ella convalesced.

Seeing only death and dishonor, Torrhen surrendered his person in exchange for the freedom of Lady Ella Drake.  meanwhile, the irregulars circled back to sack the allied train, seizing the ransom which, hopefully, might help buy back Torrhen's freedom.  Even as the guerrillas returned to castle Greyskull with their booty, Garth set off to follow the enemy and his captured half brother.

Though free and, much to her surprise, still in charge of an intact army, Ella headed back home to try and salvage the house's fortunes.  With word having come that a retinue from House Martell was making a tour of the borderlands, Ella had to consider how best to position her house to restore its soiled honor.  She not only vowed to go ahead with the marriage of Thedric to Lydia Cafferen but also to work to free Torrhen from her enemies.

It will take skill, courage and more than a little luck to prevent the house from falling into ruin.  It would also take additional allies but would any house remain willing to hitch its fortunes to Drake's wobbling chariot?