A detailed chronicle of the conquest of Dorne, from Daeron’s ascension to the final push towards Sunspear.
Day 13: Daeron comes to his throne.
Day 20: Daeron announces his intentions to invade Dorne. Ravens are sent forth.
Day 30: Word reaches White Harbor.
Day 4: Word reaches Winterfell.
Day 18: A Summer Isles vessel, late at King’s Landing, arrives at the Planky Town. Its captain reports of Daeron’s plans. He is well-rewarded, and Prince Marence calls his banners. Lord Fowler and the lords of the Prince’s Pass are to hold it, while Lords Yronwood and Wyl are to take assistance from Lord Jordayne and hold the Boneway. A fleet of vessels under the command of Lord Toland, provided by the coastal lords, is to gather off the Broken Arm to watch for the rumored naval attack led by the king’s cousin Ser Alyn Velaryon.
Day 26: A small force under House Stark gathers at Winterfell and proceeds for White Harbor, where the Manderlys have made all ready with a few carracks and cogs they’ve repurposed for transporting men and horses, and three old war galleys as well.
Day 10: Fleet leaves White Harbor, travelling down along the eastern coast.
Day 17: By this date, all the lords of Dorne have representatives in Sunspear. A high council of war is convened.
Day 20: Lord Arryn’s banners, most gathering at Gulltown, finally set sail for Dragonstone.
Day 20: The council convenes, and the Dornish lords presently began a hasty return to their seats. Ravens fly before them, commanding the passes to be held, a fleet to be gathered, and a strong force to be made ready.
Day 26: Lord Jonothor Arryn and his fleet arrive at Dragonstone, where Ser Alyn Velaryon greets him and brings him into his council.
Day 9: Tyrell and Lannister forces enter the Prince’s Pass.
Day 11: Ser Clemon Swyft dies in the fierce skirmishing in the Prince’s Pass.
Day 14: King Daeron’s forces enter the Boneway.
Day 15: Velaryon’s fleet launches from Dragonstone.
Day 18: Ser Rycherd Wylde killed by Prince Rhodry Nymeros Martell, younger brother of Prince Maerence, in the skirmishing in the Boneway as Daeron meets heavy resistance as he begins his march. The fighting is not fiercer than that in the Prince’s Pass, but the Boneway is steeper and slower to travel, and there are many watchtowers and village holdfasts that must be reduced. Daeron has Lord Baratheon’s brother, Ser Sarmion, in charge of outriders who chase down Dornish skirmishers and ruthlessly reduce some recalcitrant holdfasts to embers.
Day 18: Lymond Buckwell, squire to Ser Almer Connington, killed with a number of other prisoners in the Prince’s Pass by Ser Dagos Manwoody, a brutal man who is known to give no quarter in battle.
Day 18: The Dornish fleet is gathered off the Broken Arm. Several groups of small, swift vessels fan out northwards in relay, in an attempt to get advanced warning of Velaryon’s fleet and determine its location. Some of the vessels go as far north as Greenstone, where the Estermont war galleys chase after them to little avail.
Day 21: Manderly fleet lands at a harbor near to Griffin’s Roost, where much of the Stark forces sets foot to march the rest of the way to Blackhaven, where Daeron had staged his forces.
Day 22: Defying Lord Tyrell, Ser Almer Connington avenges the death of his squire with a series of brutal raids that ultimately find the men responsible. He personally kills Ser Dagos Manwoody. Afterwards, Lord Tyrell is wroth, not least because while Ser Almer was gone a strong Dornish sortie made an attempt to fire some of the supply wagons. The battle was brief but fierce. Ser Colyn Rowan, who had become a boon companion of Ser Almer but had not been a part of his expedition, comes late to the fighting with sword in hand but nothing else but for a shirt; it appears he kept female company in his tent and did not sleep as he ought to have done. With these facts combined, Lord Tyrell determines that he will punish the stormlord, but sends to King Daeron for his support. Ser Jaesin Lannister sends word to the Dragonknight in the Boneway, asking for his intercession.
Day 22: Ser Eddon Florent is killed in the Prince’s Pass by Ser Landon Fowler (called Falconhelm).
Day 23: Seeing Kingsgrave as being of little consequence, Lord Lyonel passes it by, leaving a rear guard a thousand strong to make sure nothing comes of Manwoody resistance. While he is partially correct, constant attacks by Manwoody raiders leaves the force decimiated little more than two weeks later.
Day 24: Resupplied, the White Harbor fleet departs and sails for Dorne, hoping to come across Velaryon’s fleet.
Day 25: Ser Landyll Lannister (nominally in command of the westerlords, on behalf of his lord brother and his famous heir) and a number of westerlords (including the heir to Fair Isle, Ser Robert Farman) are killed by a Dornish ambush in the Prince’s Pass, led by Ser Clarien Sand, the Bastard of Blackmont. Ser Landyll is slain by Ser Clarien’s nephew, Ser Michael Blackmont, called Speardancer. The Dornishmen are driven off by Ser Jaesin Lannister. Shortly thereafter, Ser Jaesin departs for the Boneway, leaving the Westerlords to his as-yet unknighted brother, Jonn Lannister. Lord Tyrell is wroth at this.
Day 29: Lord Tyrell and a band of retainers engage Dornish skirmishers attempting to hold a defile leading towards Blackmont. Expecting Lannister support, none comes until Lord Tyrell is unhorsed and in dire straits, and then Jonn Lannister and his troops appear to rescue him. It is understood that this was retribution for intemperate remarks Lord Tyrell had made following the deaths of Ser Landyll and the departure of Ser Jaesin. Lord Tyrell knights Jonn by his own hand, but it is not clear that matters are much improved.
Day 1: Word comes from King Daeron that Ser Almer Connington and his men should be sent to join him on the Boneway. Ser Colyn Rowan, disgraced, joins him.
Day 2: Ser Pearse Dondarrion is killed during skirmishing in the Boneway by Ser Corentyn Yronwood. Revenge is exacted by Ser Doran Dondarrion, though at the cost of kinslaying for he kills his own uncle, Ser Ormond Yronwood.
Day 2: A fierce storm sinks three ships in Velaryon’s fleet. Among those drowned is Andrian Mooton, a squire.
Day 3: Ser Boren Manderly, commanding the Manderly fleet, approaches the shore of Dorne having slipped by the Dornish watch vessels. Seeing from a distance a fleet gathered at Ghost Hill, where it is supposed Ser Alyn Velaryon’s fleet will first attack, Ser Boren sends a swift galley to inspect closer and determine whether it is part of Velaryon’s force. In fact, it is the Dornish fleet. Manderly takes the better part of valor and runs westwards, hoping that he will find Velaryon in the vicinty. The scouting ship is lost, the sailors drowned or put to the sword and the nobles and lances either killed in the fighting or taken prisoner.
Day 5: Manderly comes across Velaryon’s fleet, which is menacing the Tor. This is a planned ruse, however, as the hope is that it will draw the Dornish fleet out. It fails in part, although the castellan of the Tor does appear to put great effort in protecting the olive groves that give the Tor much of their wealth. In the night, Velaryon has a force of three hundred men come ashore and set as much of the groves afire as they can. In the fighting, Ser Myron Jordayne is injured and taken captive.
Day 6: Lord Velaryon’s fleet moves eastwards to confront the Dornish fleet at Ghost Hill.
Day 7: The force left to make sure Lord Manwoody and Kingsgrave pose no problems for Lyonel Tyrell’s drive into Dorne, once a thousand strong, breaks and routs back to Nightsong. Only a hundred men survive the harrowing journey. After this, Manwoody forces are able to close the pass to any further intrusion and destroy or capture every supply train that attempts to push its way through with the aid of Lord Caron’s remaining knights.
Day 8: Blackmont is taken by a daring ruse. Lord Tyrell sends a force of sellswords and hedge knights under the command of Balian Blackwood to push at the castle and even to attempt to scale its walls. Attacking at dawn, they are quickly repelled with heavy losses, and are pursued by a swiftly-mounted sortie. However, incautiously, they do so via the main gate ... only to have a small force under Ser Wallace Chester appear as if from nowhere, having hidden themselves nearby. They manage to reach the gatehouse before the gate is shut, and hold off the defenders while Balian rallies his force. The Blackmont sortie is broken and scattered, several members of the house captured, and Blackmont itself falls shortly thereafter when Balian’s forces reinforce Chester. Among those killed is Ser Stallos Chester, nephew to Ser Wallace and son of Lord Chester, and Alays Blackmont, a grand-niece of Lord Blackmont killed while trying to escape soldiers in the midst of the attack. A fierce warrior from the Iron Islands, the disinherited heir of Lord Saltcliffe, distinguishes himself by saving the life of Balian Blackwood and killing Blackmont’s captain of the guard.
Day 9: The Northmen reach Blackhaven. Daeron is already into the Boneway, leading the Northmen to push up the Boneway to join him.
Day 12: Major skirmish as Dornishmen try to press Daeron back. While they appear to succeed and Daeron falls back, he’s in fact preparing a ruse. Prince Rhodry Nymeros Martell is captured by Ser Sarmion Baratheon’s men, his paramour Ser Corentyn Yronwood slain by the Stormbreaker while attempting to rescue him, but Lord Staedmon and his brother Ser Allyn are also killed.
Day 12: A Dornish war galley catches sight of the sails of Velaryon’s fleet and races back to warn the rest of the fleet.
Day 13: The Dornish fleet learns of the approach of Velaryon’s vessels as well as the fact that they are greatly outnumbered. Lord Toland makes the best of the situation by situating his force in a bay, to prevent Velaryon from being able to flank him.
Day 14: Velaryon’s fleet makes contact with the small but determined Dornish fleet under the commands of Lord Talfryn Toland and Lord Orlyn Jordayne, augmented by Lysene sellsails under Eres Teerhan. Lord Jordayne is captured, his heir Ser Owen killed, and his vessel taken by Lord Jonothor Arryn’s flagship. Most of the Dornish fleet is sunk, but Lord Toland breaks through Velaryon’s lines of vessels and escapes towards Ghost Hill while the pirate Eres Teerhan escapes back to the Stepstones. Among the dead are Ser Patrik Storm (Mertyns), Alladar Pryor, and Prince Aegon’s sworn shield, a member of the Kingsguard who is wounded and then pushed overboard to drown by Ser Conayn Toland, called the Callow. Prince Aegon is said to fight bravely with his personal companions and survives the battle otherwise unscathed.
Day 14: With Prince Rhodry captured and Ser Corentyn killed, disputes between Lord Guerin Wyl and Lord Morys Yronwood leaves an opening for Daeron. The Wyls decide to press the attack, believing that Daeron is green with youth and now with fear, and that he will fall back as he did two days earlier. Lord Yronwood, more cautious after the death of his famous son, refuses to take part in such attack, arguing that they should hold just above Wyl where the pass narrows and a force would be mad to try and engage them. The Wyls, more concerned for their seat, attack unsupported. Initially Daeron does appear to fall back further, but in fact is making use of a ravine branching off of the pass to hide a strong force under the command of Ser Aleyn Florent of the Kingsguard. Falling violently on the Wyl flank, they break. Ser Edmyn Wyl and his squire are captured by Florent, while Lord Wyl yields to none other than King Daeron. Daeron proceeds to lay siege to Wyl.
Day 15: Lord Yronwood withdraws his force to a new position, straddling the narrowest and most hazardous part of the Boneway.
Day 15: With no supply trains having reached them for a week, Lord Tyrell has made do with foraging through the Blackmont lands. This comes at a price, for the vassals and even the smallfolk of the Blackmonts are uncooperative at best, murderous at worst. Hangings and beheadings seem to have little effect, and ultimately Lord Tyrell chooses to continue the march rather than hoping for more supplies. He leaves behind a garrison of five hundred men, both to hold the castle and to prevent any Manwoody forces from falling onto his rear.
Day 16: The northmen join the siege at Wyl.
Day 16: Velaryon lands a force on the shore beneath Ghost Hill, hot on the heels of Lord Toland and his remaining vessels. The opposition is small but determined, led by Lord Talfryn and his stalwart sons. Many men drown in their armor as they struggle to reach the shore. Lord Talfryn is cut down by the renowned Ser Clemond Sunglass. The Toland and remaining Jordayne forces retreat to Ghost Hill, while Velaryon commands the siege begin. Ships are beached and disgorge engines of war, which are dragged into position.
In the night, a sortie from Ghost Hill attempts to disrupt the siege at its outset has some success against Velaryon’s besieging forces, destroying supply wagons and palisades, and killing some men. Ser Tamlyn Toland is said to have killed Ser Dermond Buckwell—newly knighted—and one of his retainers. The response is slow and the sortie is largely able to return to Ghost Hill with little harm done to them. Only after is it realized that a small part of the sortie, led by the late Lord Toland’s younger son, Conayn the Callow, broke through the cordon and made its escape south towards Sunspear; it is assumed that the intention is to find reinforcements and to present information regarding the disposition of the siege. A pursuit is attempted, but fails miserably, leaving two more knights dead and a squire, Arryk Hayford, mortally wounded.
Day 18: Despite a maester’s care, Arryk Hayford dies of his wounds recieved at the hands of Ser Conyan Toland. Ser Orren Arryn is killed while defending the siege engines from another Toland sortie.
Day 19: Ser Conayn Toland and his followers reach Sunspear early on this day. They report to Prince Marence the events leading up to the siege of Ghost Hill. Ser Conayn urges the prince to send a relieving force. However, Prince Marence suspects that Velaryon’s attack is meant to draw him in that direction when it is well known that a large force under Lord Tyrell is working its way down the Prince’s Pass. King Daeron’s host has, to now, gone little further than Wyl, and Prince Marence believes Lord Yronwood will be able to hold the pass. Therefore, Prince Marence determines that he will keep his own forces near at hand while leaving Lord Fowler and the lords of western Dorne the task of dealing with Lord Tyrell. Ser Garyn Uller, the renowned Hell-knight, is placed in command of the largest single Dornish force, which had held at Vaith until Prince Marence could determine where to best place it. He is ordered to march towards the Prince’s Pass to reinforce the army raised by Lords Fowler and Dayne that situates itself at the end of the pass in case Lords Blackmont and Manwoody fail to stop Lord Tyrell.
Day 20: Several breaches are made almost immediately in Wyl’s walls after only one day of assault by trebuchets that Daeron had constructed. As if to prove themselves after their late arrival, the northmen are in the forefront and are among the first to enter the castle.Though the fighting is fierce, they acquit themselves well, with Desmyn Snow and Yohn the Riverman managing to lead a small troop directly into the central keep where they capture Lady Wyl and a number of the members of the household. Resistance is soon ended when Lady Wyl is brought up to the walls of the keep and made to command the surrender of the men-at-arms. Among the Dornish dead is Ser Jerome Wyl, Lord Wyl’s nephew.
Day 20: Word of Lord Wyl being defeated and his castle being under siege reaches Sunspear. Prince Marence considers rescinding his orders to the Hell-knight, but is convinced to remain decisive. He sends word to Lady Allyrion to send more troops to support Lord Yronwood.
Day 21: Learning of the fall of Wyl, Lord Yronwood calls for more reinforcements.
Day 26: Daeron consolidates his hold on Wyl and then marches forward to confront Lord Yronwood’s host.
Day 22: The storming of Ghost Hill. After six full days of siege, during which the catapults and trebuchets are ceaseless, several breeches are made in the walls of Ghost Hill. Velaryon’s force surges forward, with the valelords under Lord Jonothor Arryn having the honor of attacking first. The fighting is fierce and it is only at nightfall when the central keep finally falls. Young Lord Jarmon Buckwell, having won great credit for his role in the siege, defeats Ser Tamlyn Toland in single combat and captures him. Ser Clemond Sunglass is killed in the fighting. Lord Arryn’s vassals are particularly noted in the fierceness of their assault on the castle, and pay the price with a number of losses, most notably Ser Bedryn Pryor (heir to Pebble), his cousin Ser Lewin Pryor, Lord Hunter’s young son Darren, and Denys Hardyng.
Day 23: Ravens are sent from Ghost Hill to King’s Landing, Blackhaven, Storm’s End, and Nightsong to report that the castle has fallen and is now under the control of the Seven Kingdoms.
Day 26: Velaryon dispatches ships to menace the Tor and raid along its coast. They are not to attempt to land forces to lay siege to the castle, however, but are instead to await King Daeron’s host.
Day 27: Velaryon’s fleet departs the area of Ghost Hill, making its way around the Broken Arm and then turning out to sea so as to hide their approach. He leaves behind three thousand men, most of them horse, with the intention of using them as a threat to Sunspear—little more than sixty leagues away—and thus preventing Prince Marence to move forces to assist against Daeron or Lord Tyrell.
Day 1: The last two weeks have seen Lord Tyrell’s forces slogging through the Prince’s Pass, slowed by an unseasonal series of rainstorms that have made passage even more difficult than usual for wayns and carts. During this time, skirmishers from Skyreach have been harrassing Tyrell, although attempts at breaking through to destroy their dwinlding supplies fail thanks to the vigilance of Lord Tyrell’s captains, guards, and outriders.
Day 2: Ser Jaesin Lannister reaches Daeron’s position, having ridden in haste to catch up with his friend the Dragonknight.
Day 3: As reinforcements begin to reach Lord Yronwood, Daeron’s host draws up and stops short. Lord Yronwood believes this is due to his superior position. In reality, Daeron’s scouts have found a goat track that—though precarious—will circumvent Yronwood’s position. In the night, Daeron’s host begins to slip away towards this track. Ruses are used to prevent Lord Yronwood from learning what happened, and a strong force of outriders led by the likes of Ser Doran Dondarrion screens the movement. Occasional skirmishes take place.
Day 5: The first of Daeron’s forces return to the main route of the Boneway, now behind Lord Yronwood’s position. They come into contact with a supply train meant for Lord Yronwood, and capture it without letting any of its members escape. Daeron personally leads the attack, having refused to sit and wait on the other side.
Day 6: Velaryon appears on the horizon at dawn. The fleet sweeps away what remains of the Martell fleet as they drive into the mouth of the Greenblood. The conflict is brief as the Dornishmen are overwhelmed by Lord Arryn’s wing of war galleys. The primary objective appears to be the Planky Town, from which the orphans of the Greenblood ply their trade and ferry goods and passengers on their brightly colored poleboats. Velaryon’s forces make landings all along the quays and drive all before them with unstoppable momentum. Velaryon is known as Oakenfist from this day onwards.
Day 6: A force five hundred strong, sent by Lady Allyrion to join Yronwood’s force, runs unexpectedly into Daeron’s gathering forces. They are defeated after only a brief skirmish, but a number of men manage to escape back to the south.
Day 7: When Lord Yronwood realizes none of the expected reinforcements have reached him, he sends outriders to his rear.
Day 7: Ser Garence Grimm and a party of outriders are slain at the end of the Prince’s Pass by outriders sent by Lord Fowler to assess Lord Tyrell’s host. Ser Astin Fowler is said to have delivered the fatal blow, bringing down Ser Garence’s horse with a well-aimed javelin and then piercing his skull with the spike of a warhammer.
Day 7: Many orphan families are forced from their poleboats, which Velaryon burns to prevent them from being used to aid the Dornishmen.
Day 8: Departing the Prince’s Pass, Lord Tyrell’s outriders find a force of Dornishmen numbering several thousand under the command of the Warden of Prince’s Pass, Lord Gerald Fowler, strongly positioned to oppose further progress and to seriously threaten them if they attempted to pass by them. Lord Tyrell, uncertain how to proceed, sends outriders ranging in all directions to better understand his options. Not all of these return.
Day 8: A few surviving outriders return to Yronwood’s host and reveal that King Daeron is now south of him on the Boneway with a substantial part of his host, and more by the hour after the screening outriders join the main host. Panic ensues as the Dornish realize they have foes before and behind. The reinforcements and supplies have been defeated or captured by Daeron’s forces. Lord Yronwood is forced to split his force in half and create defenses facing each direction for the expected assault. It does not happen, however, for the camp north of him is all but abandoned, a fact that will be confirmed only on the next day.
Day 9: Leaving a third of his fighting forces to hold Planky Town, Velaryon takes much of the fleet up the Greenblood. Over the next months, Velaryon’s fleet capture or sack key towers and towns along the Greenblood.
Day 9: Rather than move against the Yronwood force as expected, Daeron dashes for Yronwood itself. He does not wish to have Yronwood athwart the Boneway when it is vital for his supply train at this early stage, and gambles that Yronwood will abandon his now-position to try and give battle.
Day 9: When outriders approach near enough to realize that Daeron’s camp is manned only by a token force, an attack is prepared. The men escape northwards without loss to join the garrison at Wyl.
Day 10: Apprised of Daeron’s movement southwards, Lord Yronwood does as Daeron expected and moves south in pursuit.
Day 10: Having been assured by the first of his outriders that Lord Fowler’s force was without immediate reinforcement, Lord Tyrell draws up his ranks and brings his army nearer. The Dornish position is exceptionally strong, however, and a direct approach seems suicidal. Instead, a game of cat-and-mouse begins, with probing groups of skirmishers coming forward to seek weaknesses. The advantage is strongly with the Dornish, however. Among those who fall is Raymun Lefford, a squire.
Day 11: With Lord Fowler refusing to move from his position, Lord Tyrell decides to throw a significant part of his force at the Dornishmen in hopes of dislodging him. It is a mistake. A young cousin, Ser Mallon Tyrell, is slain by Ser Castor Vaith, and an even younger knight—Ser Aidan Dayne, known as the Knight of the Twilight in Dorne—begins to make his name well-known to Tyrell’s forces by killing the famous Arlan Swordbiter and Lord Footly. As the sun sets, the Dornishmen still command their position, and a bloodied, straggling group of outriders arrives to report that they came into contact with a strong force of Dornishmen flying the banners of Sandstone, Hellholt, and the personal banner of Dorne’s greatest champion: Ser Garyn Uller, the Hell-knight. They would be no more than a day’s forced march away. Lord Tyrell saw nothing for it but to throw all of his force at the Dornishmen, to break them and scatter them. The word was not well-recieved by the demoralized lords, knights, and soliders under his command.
Day 12: Before sunrise, septons urged to pray for Lord Tyrell’s army began to make the rounds. One, a fierce wandering septon who had fallen in with a band of sellswords, began to preach with such passion and vigor that after this he was known as Preachfire. Septon Pepin urged the men on through calls for holy strength and damnation to shatter the enemy, and it is said that no other man could have roused the army as he did. When they attacked the Fowler host in a charge at sunrise that even the Young Dragon would be reticent to praise, the Tyrell host was able to split the Dornish force in half. Two thousand of his men were slain and most of the Dornishmen were captured, killed, or routed. Ser Addam Qorgyle fell, Lord Gerald Fowler was slain by Mad Moros Tyrell, and his famed cousin Falconhelm fell before Ser Nicol Beesbury. Ser Clarien Sand, the Bastard of Blackmont, was killed in a bloody combat with Ser Jonn Lannister. Among the dead in Lord Tyrell’s force is Lord Sarsfield, slain by Ser Aidan Dayne, and Ser Ermond Kenning, brought down by Dornish spearmen.
The victory is not total. Two large clusters of the Dornishmen escape, one a force gathered by Lord Aeron Dayne who would bring them to Starfall, the other a more scattered and varied group who escape to the south and who ultimately join with the Hell-knight’s too-late relief force. Tyrell’s forces capture the camp and most of the supplies of the routed Dornishmen, and Lord Tyrell is unable to motivate his force to pursue the routed Dornishmen while they gorge themselves on the spoils. Some of his councillors argue against departing the Prince’s Pass before securing Skyreach, but Lord Tyrell responds that Starfall is vital to the continuing campaign.
Day 13: Determined to join with Lord Redwyne, whose fleet is supposed to wait near to Starfall, Lord Tyrell’s force marches in pursuit of Lord Dayne and his forces. Contact is made with Uller’s outriders, but the results are indecisive.
Day 14: Velaryon’s fleet stops little more than halfway up the Greenblood, for the river grows too shallow for the galleys. He sets two thousand men upon the eastern shore, with supplies and equipment to build a fortified encampment, and holds position while they do so. Parties of horsemen are sent creeping up-river, to see what they can of Godsgrace’s disposition.
Day 15: With unprecedented speed, Daeron’s host reaches Yronwood. More than forty leagues of the difficult path have been covered in six days, at the cost of a number of horses rendered lame or having to be put down. Lord Yronwood is well behind as Daeron orders his forces to invest Yronwood and prepare defensive works.
Day 18: Lord Yronwood’s host reaches the end of the Boneway to find Daeron’s forces besieging the castle and well entrenched against an outside assault. Within hours, he commands his forces to go wide around Daeron’s troops and move eastwards towards the Tor.
Day 19: Lord Dayne and several hundred men manage to be ferried over by a pair of vessels that escaped detection of the Redwyne fleet.
Day 20: Arriving at Starfall, Lord Tyrell’s forces are ferried over onto the island by Redwyne’s fleet, which has largely destroyed any sea-borne opposition and has managed to establish a strong beachhead. The siege begins. However, the Hell-knight’s forces are not far behind and make it impossible for Tyrell to use the Redwyne fleet to forage along the region surrounding Starfall and its island.
Day 21: Word reaches Ser Garyn Uller of the siege of Yronwood and the breaking of the Planky Town. A message from Prince Marence, however, insists that he remain in the west to delay Lord Tyrell’s approach as much as possible. Prince Marence places his hopes in using Daeron’s bold plan to divide his forces against him.
Day 21: Ser Almer Connington and his men finally join King Daeron’s host, having managed to slip by the Dornish watchtowers—still manned, but now hopelessly isolated from any support—over successive nights. He reports to King Daeron personally, who uses his advice to send a detachment of men to begin taking the watchtowers. Word is sent to Wyl for a force to undertake a similar task from the northern end of the pass.
Day 25: Yronwood capitulates, the inhabitants morale sapped by witnessing the brave Yronwood banners marching away and no relief force apparent. Daeron lets his forces recuperate and spends time sending birds winging to try and learn what he can of the progress of the campaigns under Tyrell and Velaryon.
Day 1: Lord Yronwood’s weary host reaches the Tor. Velaryon’s ships still occasionally raid the coastal region and menace the Tor itself, but it seems clear they will do nothing more than this until Daeron arrives. With such Jordayne forces as they have on hand to augment their strength, Lord Yronwood is confident he will be able to hold Daeron. He sends word to Sunspear and Godsgrace for a second army to be readied to give its support.
Day 4: Oakenfist delegates command of part of the fleet and the captured Planky Town to Lord Jonothor Arryn, and asks him to see that Lemonwood’s harbor is destroyed and rendered useless. Oakenfist departs to resume operations along the coast of the Broken Arm.
Day 5: Daeron departs Yronwood once word reaches him that the Boneway’s watchtowers have all been taken and re-garrisoned with his own forces. Besides a few broken men and Dornish soldiers and knights raiding in the mountains—survivors of the defeat of Lord Wyl and the capture of Wyl castle—the Boneway is now entirely under his control.
Day 7: Lord Arryn personally commands a squadron of ships that departs for Lemonwood.
Day 8: An attempt to take advantage of a breach in Starfall’s walls runs awry, and the defenders are fiercely repelled. Lord Damer Cordwayner, only a squire, is among the dead.
Day 8: Lord Arryn’s fleet approaches Lemonwood at dawn. With the sun in the eyes of watchers from the walls, the vessels are able to come relatively close before the alarm is sounded. The Knight of Lemonwood leads the attempt to protect the harbor, but Lord Jonothor personally leads troops ashore to distract Ser Dinias while the rest of the fleet destroys much of the harbor. After half an hour, with dozens dead on either side, Lord Jonothor withdraws back to his flagship and sets sail to join the victorious fleet with the harbor in flames behind him.
Day 11: After three weeks of siege, Lord Tyrell grows impatient and orders the castle stormed. The result is bloody, with hundreds of men dying, yet the walls are scaled and the gates brought down. In the fighting, Lord Aeron Dayne is killed by the northman, Ser Stevyn Locke, and Ser Castor Vaith is felled as well. Alia Dayne, by Dornish law now the Lady of Starfall, is taken captive. Among the dead in Lord Tyrell’s host are Ser Byam Norridge, Ser Dandon Meadows, and Ser Ondram Lefford.
Day 11: In Sunspear, Prince Marence’s young consort, Lady Cordelia of House Yronwood, is taken to child bed to deliver a son, named Prince Maron. However, she dies for her troubles. The prince declares seven days of mourning.
Day 12: Ser Baron Chyttering is killed by Jordayne outriders, as he and a troop of horse scouted ahead for King Daeron. Resistance to Daeron’s approach to the Tor grows heavier from this point on.
Day 14: Starfall’s septon dies by mishap. That same day, Pepin Preachfire marries Alia Dayne to Lord Tyrell’s friend, Ser Wallace Chester. With Dawn on his back and the stone-faced Lady Alia on his arm, Ser Wallace seems well-contented.
Day 14: Ser Benfrey Corbray, part of Daeron’s march, is killed by mishap. He falls from his horse and smashes his skull upon a rock. Later on the same day, Dornish horsemen led by Ser Ambrose Yronwood ambush Lord Bettley and a troop of two hundred men who have been dispatched to forage. A number are killed before Bettley’s force breaks and retreats towards Daeron’s marching column. Lord Bettley is cut down in the flight.
Day 18: Ser Alvyn Vypren and Ser Danwell Ryger are killed along with a number of foragers under their command as they moved in advance of Daeron’s forces. Ser Alyn Waynwood is killed in a separate incident, having been sent with three hundred men to capture a small watchtower. Although the watchtower was taken with minimal loss, on the way back a troop of Jordayne horse fell on them. With Yronwood castle only two days away, Daeron decides to greatly enhance the force of outriders warding the march. Ser Almer Connington’s company is among those in the forefront.
Day 20: The Tor is in a strong position, and the Yronwood forces have been somewhat revitalized by their chance to recuperate. Though the Jordayne forces are not as strong as they might be—more than half went with Lord Jordayne on the doomed naval expedition that attempted to refuse Velaryon his landing—they do present all together a formidable force. For once, Daeron appears unsure as to how to approach the problem, and orders his army to encamp and entrench themselves once more. Until the day battle is joined, Dornish horsemen harrass the edges of the encampment with their double-curved bows.
Day 21: Daeron has three great bonfires prepared in his encampment. The Tor’s outriders are able to see this and conclude that Daeron is preparing some signal for the ships off the shore. The bonfires are lit at night, and a sleepless night is spent at the Tor in expectation of an attack on the morrow.
Day 22: No attack transpires, the ships not having moved from their place well off shore. A sortie led by the Dragonknight and Ser Jaesin Lannister sweeps away Yronwood outriders and watchmen keeping an eye on the coastal road to the Tor. It is assumed that this will be the path Daeron will take to the Tor. At night, new bonfires are again lit, and again the assault is expected.
Day 23: No attack transpires. Three more sorties over the course of the day against the coastal road lead Lord Yronwood to send a mixed force of spears, archers, and cavalry to hold the road against an advance. Again the bonfires are lit, and now some wonder aloud if Daeron isn’t hoping that dragons will spring forth from the flames.
Day 24: In the small hours of the night, King Daeron divides his forces into three parts. One remains at the encampment while another under the command of Ser Jaesin Lannister moves towards the shore and attacks the Dornishmen athwart the coast road. As alarms sound and the Jordayne and Yronwood forces move in increasingly large numbers to join the engagement, the third part of the host loops around to approach the Tor from the south. With all eyes to the west, the sudden assault on the southern gate of the town is responded to too slowly. The first to scale the walls is said to be Ser Harbert Cordwayner of the Kingsguard, who slays several guardsmen while others of his Sworn Brothers clamber after him and Daeron’s knights clamber up behind him. Soon the gate is under the control of Daeron’s forces.
Much of the town is taken under control by the time the sun rises, and the Yronwood and Jordayne forces—returning apparently victorious, although with losses including the Dornish hero Ser Matrim Jordayne, and observing with curiousity the fact that Daeron’s ships never moved up to support the attack—find the three-headed dragon on the wall and the gates shut to them. With two-thirds of Daeron’s strength west of them and the other third in possession of the town, if not the castle itself, they beat a hasty retreat towards the south.
Day 25: Daeron determines to give chase to Lord Yronwood’s forces, in hopes of catching and destroying them before they can reach Godsgrace. With no time or troops to spare on laying siege to the Jordayne castle, Daeron threatens to sack the town and set it to the torch if Lady Jordayne will not capitulate. She does not do so, and Daeron keeps to his word.
Day 26: Daeron departs the Tor, now gutted by fire, and moves south to intercept Lord Yronwood. Most of his cavalry is sent ahead in pursuit with orders to delay, but not to directly contact, Yronwood’s troops. However, Lord Yronwood has turned his course to the southeast, in the direction of the high hills and mountains just to the east of Godsgrace. The ships that had once menaced the Tor are dispatched to Wyl, bringing prisoners and wounded to be tended away from the fighting.
Day 27: By the time Daeron’s cavalry are on Lord Yronwood, the last of his troops have begun the climb into the mountains. A rearguard holds off the cavalry until the evening, then slips away into the hills.
Day 28: Daeron’s foot catches up with the cavalry. With Godsgrace—the key to the entire campaign, in his mind—before him as a formidable obstacle, the threat of Yronwood hovering near is outweighed by his urgency. He leaves two thousand horse and a thousand foot to act as a rearguard, which he will later leave behind him to guard the approach to Godsgrace from the hills. Outriders and foragers are sent before the force, worrying after ambushes laid by Lady Allyrion’s forces.
Day 28: Lord Yronwood leaves five hundred men in the western part of the high hills, to convince any of Daeron’s outriders who spy them that his host is still watching and waiting for a chance. The rest of the troop makes its way through valleys and difficult passes to the east, for Lord Yronwood has determined that Prince Marence must be roused to action and that the only way to do this is to free him of the threat of Ghost Hill which is now in the hands of nearly half of Oakenfist’s force.
Day 29: Word of the sacking of the Tor reaches Sunspear. Prince Marence determines that the Dornish army in the west must come more closely under his control, and so dispatches his uncle, the Bastard of Sunspear, to take over the command and have the Hell-knight go on to Sunspear directly to join his forces. Otherwise, Prince Marence refuses to directly move against the enemy with his forces in Sunspear, causing unrest in the shadow city.
Day 1: With Starfall and Lady Alia seemingly well-in-hand, Lord Tyrell gathers his forces. Using the Redwyne fleet to ferry them back over, he is determined to confront Ser Garyn Uller. However, Uller withdraws in what is the first of a series of movements south and east towards Sandstone. This slow retreat pulls Lord Tyrell in, and in the following three weeks a series of skirmishes and running battles put his forces to the test.
Day 3: Godsgrace is invested. Lady Allyrion has greatly fortified the town and the garrison manning the walls is large. King Daeron seeks to offer terms, promising Lady Allyrion lands stretching to the sea and a royal customs duty on all goods passing by on the Greenblood if she will join his cause. She refuses, and warns that the boy king may find that the gods do not look kindly on those who threaten Godsgrace. Daeron, unmollified, orders the preparations to be redoubled.
Day 4: Ser Raymund Hightower is killed with a dozen other knights and sellswords by a Dornish ambush as he was scouting ahead for Lord Tyrell. Ser Taran Prester and a handful of others manage to escape with various wounds.
Day 6: Ser Taran Prester succumbs to a wound that grew infected. Some mutter of Dornish poison and a few begin to wear their armor at all hours in response to the occasional assault from a distance by Dornish mounted archers.
Day 7: One of Ser Wallace Chester’s bastard sons, Ser Jayson Flowers, is found murdered in his room in Starfall. A kitchen girl and two servants are hanged.
Day 7: Sarmion Stormbreaker and Almer Connington lead outriders to forage and pacify the countryside around Daeron’s siegeworks.
Day 8: Ser Otton Meadows, serving in Starfall, is found drowned in a well. Three servants and a man-at-arms are hanged, and Lady Alia Dayne is confined to her chambers.
Day 18: Ser Tymond Smallwood collapses in the mid-day heat and dies shortly thereafter. This is attributed to his age. Some began to argue aloud that Lord Tyrell should drive straight for Sandstone rather than playing to the strengths of the Dornishmen.
Day 18: Lord Yronwood’s forces move against Ghost Hill and the strong garrison there. The commander of the garrison, Ser Jerome Cargyll, accurately ascertains the motives of the Dornishmen and stays behind his walls. A siege is prepared. The garrison sends word to Daeron.
Day 19: One in a number of skirmishes with Uller’s forces leads to the deaths of Ser Ansen Crane and Jorin Crane, his cousin and squire. The Dornishmen elude outright battle, but are always tantalizingly close. The Dornishmen have used all their wiles to lead the forces of the Seven Kingdom out of the mountains and now into the desert, leaving only polluted wells and springs behind them each morning so that Lord Tyrell cannot take advantage of them. Under the hot Dornish sun, the army begins to fall apart after seeing too many horses, and even some men, collapse. The calls grow louder for Lord Tyrell to move decisively.
Day 20: A raven arrives bearing word of Lord Yronwood’s attack on Ghost Hill. King Daeron is wroth, not least because Godsgrace’s walls have stood up to his catapaults and trebuchets. He sends orders that Yronwood’s men still lurking in the mountains, who had so ably fooled him into thinking that the whole Yronwood host was dithering in the high hills, are to be found and killed. Some counsel against this, but to no avail. He reinforces the foot that were previously watching the high hills while withdrawing most of the horse back to Godsgrace.
Day 22: In the night, Dornishmen within Ghost Hill murder Ser Jerome Cargyll and wrest control of the gate leading into Ghost Hill. Before the gate can be won back, Yronwood men who had come close to the walls rush in and hold the gate long enough for the rest of Lord Yronwood’s forces to enter. Although a number of Dornishmen die, including Ser Julien Ladybright, the garrison is soon overwhelmed and forced to surrender. Ser Albar Waxley is among the dead from the garrison.
Day 23: Ser Nicol Beesbury, a beloved tourney champion, collapses and dies that evening. His kinsmen, including Ser Mallard Beesbury and Ser Lymen Flowers, the Bastard of Honeyholt, demand that Lord Tyrell give up this vain chase. He drives directly for Sandstone, setting a strong guard and screen of outriders on his right to be ready in case Ser Garyn attempts to flank him on his march.
Day 23: Daeron’s small force enters the hills, hunting for the Dornishmen. It is one of Daeron’s mistakes.
Day 24: Lord Yronwood departs from Ghost Hill bringing with him some formerly-imprisoned knights, including Ser Tamlyn, as he marches south towards Sunspear. He drives his prisoners—the nobles and knights, in any case—before him, to present them to Prince Marence. The common men are given safe conduct to march afoot back to Yronwood, although they are provided only a bare minimum of supplies to achieve this. Some succumb to hunger, thirst, and heat and die along the way. Others are killed by the vengeful populace, when they stray too far from one another. Some break the letter of the safe conduct and attempt to reach Godsgrace or Lord Oakenfist’s fortified encampment on the Greenblood by cutting through the high hills; many of these are killed by the fierce Dornishmen of the region, but some few manage it. Of fourteen hundred men who set out, only two hundred reach Yronwood, and another hundred eventually make their way to Godsgrace or Oakenfist’s encampment.
Day 25: Ser Loren Swyft dies, not by the hand of Ser Garyn Uller’s outriders, but by a force from Sandstone. Too few to do anything but harrass the Tyrell host, the Dornish horsemen drive back the outriders led by Ser Loren after his death, causing several hours delay. Then, rather than turning back to Sandstone, it is reported that they move south to join the Hell-knight’s force which has shadowed Lord Tyrell.
Day 26: Suffering a succession of ambushes and night raids, Daeron’s infantry in the mountains find themselves quickly losing their numerical advantage over the Dornishmen they hunt. Questioning a village of Dornishmen, they learn that Yronwood’s troop has encamped near a mountain spring, and decide that they must trap them there so as to destroy them.
Day 26: The siege of Sandstone begins. More effort is made to make the besieging encampments strong against assault from the rear than is made to bring siege engines to bear against Sandstone’s bluff walls. Ser Garyn seems content to wait and see what comes-
Day 27: On the morning, there is alarm when it is revealed that Uller’s host has moved around directly behind Tyrell’s force and is now in position to put an end to the trickle of supplies coming overland from the west. Fearing that his men are too weakend by the hot, bloody march of the last three weeks to oppose Uller if he attacks in force, Lord Tyrell immediatelly orders the castle to be stormed. The attack is repelled.
Day 27: Ringing the encamped enemy at the spring, the small Seven Kingdoms troop launches the attack only to find that they have been tricked and that the camp contains only Dornish ill and wounded. Moments after this is realized, the Yronwood men spring the trap, sending a hail of arrows and javelins at the would-be attackers. They drive them from the spring, sending them routing back towards Godsgrace.
Day 28: Ser Garyn Uller is recalled by Prince Marence, who wishes him to join him in the east of Dorne. This message is delivered by the prince’s uncle, the Bastard of Sunspear, who brings with him five hundred spears including Ser Conayn Toland. Their journey was one fraught with danger, for they could only cross the Greenblood almost besides Godsgrace itself—still under siege—while all the while avoiding Oakenfist’s and Daeron’s outriders. Ser Bastian takes command of the host, and Lord Tyrell’s outriders report that the Hell-knight’s banner can no longer be seen in the Dornish encampment while the reversed arms of Sunspear denoting Ser Bastian stands in its place. Perhaps fearing more reinforcements from Sunspear, Lord Tyrell attempts to storm the castle again. Some men manage to scale the walls, but they are hacked down before they can go any further, and the retreat is sounded after more losses.
Day 29: A strong raid by Dornish skirmishers leads to a brief panic that is settled only when a group of freeriders and sellswords following Dagur Saltcliffe—now called the Iron Serpent by some—manages to drive them back and away from a circle of wagons protecting valuable supplies. Lord Tyrell, fearing that this means Ser Bastian Sand is preparing to attack, orders a desperate assault on the castle. Lord Qorgyle, blind but fierce, is himself seen on the walls chopping at the hands and heads of men with a halberd while his squire directs him. By now, more than a thousand men have died and twice that number have been wounded in the attempts on Sandstone.
Day 30: Of the fifteen hundred men Daeron ordered after Yronwood’s divisonary troop, more than half are confirmed dead when the survivors escape the high hills and make for Godsgrace.
Day 30: Before noon, a great sandstorm sweeps down from the mountains and towards Sandstone. The sand blows directly into the eyes of the besiegers, and Ser Bastian Sand takes advantage of this and orders the Dornish host forward to threaten battle. The gusts of wind are powerful enough to knock down strong men grown weak with hunger and thirst and heat, and to strip skin from unprotected flesh. Lord Tyrell is put to the test, whether to abandon the siege and attempt to retreat—sure to lose most of his supplies in the process—or to attempt a final storming in hopes that it will give them a bulwark to weather the storm. Yet fate intervenes, when the sandstorm suddenly calms ... and then the wind turns into the face of the Dornish.
Lord Lyonel seizes the advantage and leaves only a token force to hold the siege while he throws the bulk of his army at the Dornishmen, who are now tasting the blindness that only an hour before the knights of the Seven Kingdom had tasted. Though Lord Tyrell’s left flank is turned in the confusion of battle by a charge led by the Bastard of Sunspear, the Dornishmen lose cohesion and begin to scatter rather than stand and fight, giving the Seven Kingdom host time to shore up the flank. The famous Ser Owen Santagar is slain by Dareon the Daring. So, too, is the fierce younger brother of Ser Garyn, Ser Utheryn Uller, the Knight of the Flame; he is cut down by Dagur Saltcliffe, who wins his spurs that day. Uller’s body is defended and taken away from the field by Ser Aidan Dayne and his cousin, Conayn the Callow. Lord Davit Gargalen and Ser Balan Qorgyle, heir to Sandstone, are able to help save Ser Bastian from a complete rout of his host, but Sandstone is abandoned as the Dornishmen run eastwards towards Hellholt.
Although a clear victory, the losses for Lord Tyrell are not light. When the left was turned, a number of knights were killed in the confusion before the flank was reinforced. Among the dead are Ser Albar Caron (heir to Nightsong), Ser Rickard Hill (son of the famed Silver Lion), Ser Jothor Crakehall, and Ser Jaime Blackbar (killed by Jossart Vaith, who won his knighthood following the battle). Lord Tyrell resumes the siege.
Day 2 - Sandstone eventually capitulates, for Lord Qorgyle is wroth at being so abandoned; he has old grievances with the Princes of Dorne, which the war has exacerbated. Lord Tyrell immediately determines that he will be leaving Sandstone as soon as his men are rested. He sends word to Starfall that Lord Redwyne should dispatch ships carrying supplies to meet his forces on the Brimstone. Ser Bryce Caron, having only just been knighted for his valor during the Battle of the Blind, is given leave to return his father’s remains to Nightsong. Though a strong guard is sent with them to brave the Prince’s Pass which remains under the control of Kingsgrave and the remaining garrison at Skyreach, it proves unnecessary, for Lady Lysanne—formerly of House Caron—wins a safe conduct from her husband, Lord Manwoody.
Day 5: Morys Yronwood’s force arrives at Sunspear with its train of prisoners. They are greeted as heroes, for Lord Yronwood’s victory—though small—has been the first glimmer of hope they have had since the war started. Many are thrown into the dungeons of Sunspear, for Prince Marence does not trust so many men with his parole.
Day 6: Lorell Lychester, a young squire who took several wounds in the fighting at Ghost Hill, dies from blood loss in Sunspear.
Day 8: Prince Marence Nymeros Martell at last rouses himself and his levies from Sunspear with Lord Yronwood at his side. They march towards Oakenfist’s fortified encampment with the intent of destroying it, and perhaps then finding some way to secure a crossing point for the forces which should by now be under his uncle, Prince Bastian. Velaryon’s forces, seeing this, send word to Daeron.
Day 9: Lord Tyrell’s host marches from Sandstone, leaving behind a strong garrison with Lord Qorgyle under lock and key. The army avoids the deep desert between Sandstone and Hellholt and moves towards the Brimstone.
Day 10: Daeron, learning that at last Martell approaches, sends nearly all of his horse to reinforce the encampment. Otherwise, he insists on maintaining the siege of Godsgrace, concerned over what the western Dornish lords might do to block his line of supply if they give Lord Tyrell the slip. He leads the horse personally, with his Kingsguard and many notable knights in his company.
Day 10: Ser Garyn Uller and his companions arrive at Sunspear, having made the journey from Hellholt at a horse-killing pace and then taking ship from Salt Shore. Their route takes them far into the sea to avoid Oakenfist’s vessels still about the Planky Town, and the ship is beached near to Sunspear in the night.
Day 11: The Hell-knight, Red Rhys of the Scourge, and others move to catch up with Prince Marence and Lord Yronwood.
Day 11: Taking advantage of the departure of most of the knights from the siege, Lady Allyrion has her brother, the Bastard of Godsgrace, lead a sortie at dawn. Though they have no hope of breaking the siege, they are able to use a small stock of wildfire to set alight a number of engines and wayns.
Day 13: Coming upon Oakenfist’s armed camp, Prince Marence prepares to give battle. Outnumbering the armed encampment three to one, Prince Marence disdains to besiege it. Instead he storms it, and after two hours of hard fighting the camp is finally over-run. However, as the Dornishmen give chase after the routed foe, Daeron’s three thousand horse arrive on the field. Though tired from their swift race from Godsgrace, they fall upon the Dornishmen and send them retreating. Rallying the routing encampment, their onset is enough to send Prince Marence calling the retreat. Daeron takes the risk of pursuing, even as Prince Marence and Lord Morys move towards a wooded area fronting the high hills. As night falls, Daeron calls off the pursuit, fearing a trap.
Day 13: In the night, Ser Garyn, Red Rhys, and others manage to cut their way to the wood and join with Prince Marence.
Day 14: Having pickets watching the wood, Daeron’s force sees when Martell and Yronwood begin to move in the morning. Concerned that they will make it to the hills, Daeron orders an attack. It is a chaotic and bloody affair, for his knights and their destriers are unable to maintain close bodies or to effectively charge. Dornish javelins take their toll. Eventually Martell’s force is flanked by Stormbreaker and Almer Connington, and nearly overwhelmed until Lord Morys and his retainers attack and buy Prince Marence room in which to take much of the force and run. Driving for King Daeron, the Yronwoods come close to reaching him when the Kingsguard lead a courageous defense. Chief among them is Ser Osbert Bettley, who fells all before him and is said to have killed Lord Morys and all of his male heirs on the battlefield in revenge for the death of his father two months earlier.. He is named the Breaker of Yronwood hereafter, and the battle is known afterwards as the Carrion Woods for the ravens are heavy in the trees and the vultures on the ground.
Dornish losses are not as great as Daeron would hope, although the loss of Lord Morys and his knights—who have been such an uncanny thorn in his side—is a hard blow to the Dornishmen; Ser Gilbert Dalt is also among the dead. Among the losses for Daeron is Ser Fulk Staedmon of the Kingsguard, slain by Ser Kay Yronwood, and Ser Euson Mooton, cut down by Prince Marence’s captain of the guard, Ser Godry Gargalen. Ser Jerion Penrose is also killed in the fighting in the woods, and his body defended by his squire Tancred Baratheon, who later recieves knighthood from the hands of his uncle, Sarmion Stormbreaker. Ser Colyn Rowan, the disgraced companion to Ser Almer Connington, is slain while fighting bravely. Prince Marence leads more than five thousand spears into the hills and then turns west. Daeron chooses not to pursue, for Martell has superior numbers and Daeron’s chivalry would be hampered by the terrain which better suits the light, agile sandsteeds.
Day 14: An ambush left behind by Ser Bastian manages to prowl undetected close to the Tyrell left flank. As the march breaks to prepare camp, the Dornishmen plunge in amongst them, causing great havoc before they escape into the desert. Though there are few deaths (Maester Andron, formerly of House Marbrand, is among them), it shocks Lord Tyrell and his men and leads to a night in which few sleep for fear of further attacks. The captain of Lord Tyrell’s outriders is sent back to Sandstone in disgrace, and Balian Blackwood is instead put in charge in his stead.
Day 15: Taking the remaining members of Oakenfist’s encampment with him, Daeron returns to Godsgrace.
Day 16: Ser Aethan Storm, son of the famed Silver Stag, dies of wounds taken at the Carrion Woods.
Day 20: Prince Marence’s weary force reaches Sunspear. Word is immediately sent to Hellholt to make them aware of developments and to urge them eastwards to try and force a crossing by which they might be able to protect Sunspear from Daeron’s advance.
Day 21: Returning to Godsgrace, Daeron learns of Ser Tarion Sand’s successful sortie. His rage at this is tremendous, and only the intervention of the Dragonknight and Lord Commander Reynard Caron dissuade him from attempting to storm the town.
Day 22: Lord Tyrell’s force reaches the Brimstone and meets two dozens vessels dispatched by Lord Redwyne, laden with supplies and some new reinforcements. Ser Lewys Lydden of the war galley Loren’s Roar reports that Starfall is restive. Lady Alia Dayne has concieved, but remains confined to her chambers at Ser Wallace’s command. The Tyrell forces resupply as best they can, and wait until the next day to march on Hellholt.
Day 24: Arriving before Hellholt, the Tyrell force has dealt with Dornish outriders over the last two days. With night falling, Lord Tyrell orders his host to encamp within sight of Hellholt, and orders a strong guard. All through the night, parties of Dornish mounted archers send showers of arrows towards the campfires, managing to kill
Day 25: The Battle of Hellholt is a debacle. Lord Tyrell, over-confident when the Dornish center seems about to collapse, leads a charge only to have four hundred horse containing the greatest Dornish knights fall upon his flank when the charge went too far ahead of the flanks. Lord Tyrell’s horse is killed under him and he himself is nearly ridden down by Ser Astin Fowler, but Ser Yoren Chester—the captain of his guard—is able to turn Ser Astin away, and the Bastard of Three Towers kills the great Dornish knight. Lord Tyrell’s good-father, Lord Costayne, leads a charge of thirty-nine men that helps to win time for his good-son to be rescued, though he and many others besides are killed. In the confusion, in which many of Lord Tyrell’s closest retainers are killed or wounded, the battle standard falls. This leads to a panic and the Tyrell host is routed. Among the dead are Ser Sumner Crakehall, and his squire Leslyn Lydden.
The pursuit, however, is desultory due to the fact that Ser Bastian Sand, the Bastard of Sunspear, was killed in the fighting. He had personally led the knights that had brought down the battle standard, and had attempted to close with Lord Tyrell when he was unhorsed. His own horse was brought down, and in the melee he was killed.
Day 26: Whiles the Dornish lords and captains at Hellholt debate over what to do and who will lead them, a raven arrives from Sunspear urgently calling on Ser Bastian to bring his host to the Greenblood, for Sunspear was now directly threatend. With a renewed sense of urgency, Lord Davit Gargalen is given command of the force.
Day 28: The Dornish host departs Hellholt and marches eastwards.
Day 28: Lord Tyrell’s forces finally regroup half a day’s ride south of Hellholt. Thanks to Ser Bastian’s death and other news, the Dornishmen took little advantage of the rout. Late that evening, outriders dispatched by Ser Jonn Lannister report that the Dornish host appears to have left and that Hellholt is all but abandoned. Lord Tyrell determines to take the castle after order is restored to his host and the last stragglers are awaited.
Day 30: Lord Tyrell invests Hellholt. With supplies becoming short, he sends foragers out to collect more. Dagur Saltcliffe pacify villages and take some few rebellious holdfasts and towerhouses in the region.
Day 3: The second month of the siege of Godsgrace finds Daeron increasingly talking of storming the town so that the way would be clear for his forces to converge on Sunspear. However, the town seems as formidable as ever, and Lady Allyrion as redoubtable. Minor breaches have been made in the walls, but nothing substantial enough to attempt an attack through. Daeron is mollified by the suggestion that mines he had begun earlier might direct themselves towards the weakened parts of the wall.
Day 7: Lord Gargalen reach Vaith.
Day 9: The Dornish host departs Vaith and is seen by outriders marching westwards in force. They hurry back to report this, fearing that the Dornish intend to attack Lord Tyrell when he thinks he has the freedom to conduct a siege without fear of a relieving force.
Day 11: After two days march westwards, the Dornish host under Lord Gargalen curves southwards and makes for Salt Shore, where Lord Gargalen has a few war galleys and other vessels on hand.
Day 11: Word is sent to Lord Tyrell of the westward march of the Dornishmen. The Bright Banners, led by Beslon Smallwood, are dispatched by Daeron to be ferried across to western shore of the Greenblood and then to invest Vaith.
Day 14: Word of the westward movement of the Dornish reaches Lord Tyrell. Sending outriders eastwards, he makes preparations against such an eventuality while he continues the siege.
Day 15: Arriving at Salt Shore, Lord Gargalen and his fellow lords and knights concoct an audacious plan to try and win as much of their force over to the eastern side of the Greenblood as possible.
Day 17: The Bright Banners arrive at Vaith, bringing terror with them as they lay siege to the town. They spend as much time foraging and looting the villages about Vaith as they do building siege engines, and live up to their reptuation for callous ruthlessness. Among Beslon the Bad’s tactics is to hang women and children within sight of the town walls, in hopes of breaking the spirit of the defenders.
Day 18: Most of Lord Davit Gargalen’s force marches along the shore towards Lemonwood, which has been cut off from the fighting due to Oakenfist’s control of the Greenblood. Beyond having its harbors and ships burned earlier in the war, little enough has been done to the castle.
Day 20: Ser Bryce Caron arrives with his honor guard at Hellholt, where the siege is on-going.
Day 22: Lady Allyrion becomes aware of the attempt to undermine the walls of Godsgrace. She commands a counter-mine be prepared.
Day 24: After a long siege, in which it becomes clear that no relieving force is apparent, Lady Uller surrenders Hellholt.
Day 25: Word arrives from Godsgrace that Lord Tyrell is to immediately march eastwards to take Vaith with the assistance of the Bright Banners and then meet Velaryon’s fleet to ferry them to the eastern shore of the Greenblood where they will join Daeron.
Day 27: Lord Tyrell’s host departs Hellholt, leaving behind a small garrison to hold it. Due to having to skirt the deep desert between Hellholt and Vaith, the journey takes longer than it might otherwise. Even so, the harsh conditions lead to the deaths of more men and horses.
Day 28: Lord Gargalen’s force arrives at Lemonwood. Word is sent to Salt Shore.
Day 30: Lord Gargalen and his small fleet of vessels, loaded with what men did not travel on to Lemonwood, set sail.
Day 30: Catching a deserter from Lord Gargalen’s army, Beslon the Bad puts him to the question and discovers from him the fact that Lord Davit actually went south to Salt Shore and that the rumor was that he had a great fleet there with which he would win back the Planky Town. Beslon sends word of this to Godsgrace.
Day 2: Beslon Smallwood’s report on Gargalen’s movements reach Daeron, who immediately recognizes the danger that Lord Davit and his force can provide. He sends an urgent warning to Planky Town, and sends a message rider down to Oakenfist’s location on the Greenblood where he is preparing for Lord Tyrell’s arrival by sending sorties out to pacify the restive countryside as best he can.
Day 3: A lone war galley is sighted off the coast of Lemonwood by a patrol of Velaryon’s war gallies. It turns tail and makes for the deep sea. They do not realize the purpose of this, which is to signal to Lemonwood that they may advance. After sunset, Lord Gargalen’s troop advances from Lemonwood towards the banks of the Greenblood, bearing with them scores of large rafts.
Day 4: The Second Battle of Planky Town takes place, as on the morning the Dornish force on the west bank are sighted by the strong garrison and the fleet of ships about the place. Using their rafts, more than a fifteen hundred Dornishmen attempt to reach the Planky Town at night. Some are drowned when their rafts are destroyed by war galleys under the command of Lord Jonothor Arryn, who has been left with the command while Oakenfist raids up the Greenblood, but more than a thousand reach the town where hard fighting takes place. Yet again the orphans rise up against the Seven Kingdoms forces, aiding the Dornish soldiers. More and more ships at the mouth of the Greenblood move to assist in holding the town. Eventually the Dornishmen are driven back, or perhaps retreat, in the night. More than three-quarters are dead (many of them drowned in the retreat) or captured.
It is only on the next day that many of the ships learn that the attack was a mere diversion, for Lord Gargalen’s vessels slip past the few ships left around Sunspear in the night and disgorge three thousand knights and men-at-arms, including the best and the boldest, to swell Prince Marence’s force into something that might match Daeron’s.
Day 5: Word is sent towards Godsgrace about Lord Gargalen’s ploy, as well as towards Vaith. Due to the retreat having taken place in the night, it is unclear to the defenders how many Dornishmen were involved and they now believe Lemonwood to have nearly no forces left to it when in fact Lord Caston Vaith—the commander of the portion left behind—has more than three thousand.
Day 7: The force at Lemonwood marches back to Salt Shore after waiting for the few survivors from Planky Town.
Day 9: Daeron’s mine is breached by a counter-mine. A fierce fight by the light of torches ends in Daeron’s sappers abandoning the mine after half a dozen knights are killed. Among the Dornish dead in the successful attack is Ser Aimery Allyrion, nephew to the Lady of Godsgrace. The supports for the mine are fired so that the mine collapses.
Day 12: Lord Tyrell’s host reaches Vaith and is apprised of the events at Planky Town.
Day 13: Trusting Lord Tyrell far more than the Bright Banners, Vaith’s castellan—Lord Caston’s younger son Caswald—finally surrenders the town and castle following. The castellan and his family are given a safe conduct to Salt Shore. In the castle are Lord Caston’s younger son Caswald and his daughters. It would soon transpire that in meeting with Caswald, Lord Tyrell determined that the young man was more to be trusted and more readily cowed, and declared him Lord of Vaith. Caswald accepted this with alacrity.
Day 14: Understanding the urgency of the situation, Lord Tyrell installs Beslon the Bad as castellan of Vaith and leaves him and his Bright Banners. He marches as quickly as he may to the rendevous site with Oakenfist. It is clear that Beslon, not Caswald, truly rules, and Caswald is too craven to oppose him.
Day 17: Resupplying at Salt Shore, Lord Vaith takes his three thousand spears towards Vaith with the intention of enlisting the orphans, who have remained there safely away from Oakenfist’s fleet, to ferry them across to the northern bank. His intention is to try and disrupt Daeron’s siege of Godsgrace and to delay any movement he might make towards Sunspear.
Day 18: Lord Tyrell’s force meets Oakenfist’s ships and begin the crossing.
Day 19: A large breach in the wall at Godsgrace gives Daeron his first opportunity to try and enter the town. Yet before his forces can rush into the gap, pots of wildfire set the ground before the breach alight with livid green flames. From the walls, bales of hay and oil-soaked wool are thrown at the fire to keep it burning hot while the gap is filled with rubble.
Day 20: Having clashed with Bright Banner foragers and skirmishers, Lord Caston avoids the town and instead moves to meet the orphans further down river. Beslon the Bad sends a sortie after them, but they are repelled. Beslon sends word to Godsgrace.
Day 22: Word reaches Godsgrace and Daeron immediately sends a force to oppose any crossing.
Day 23: Having crossed the Vaith, Vaith’s force cuts north to meet the orphans on the Scourge with similar intentions as before.
Day 24: With the third month of the siege of Godsgrace coming to a close, the bloody flux strikes the besieging force, and even King Daeron is brought low with it.
Day 25: By the time Lord Vaith reaches the Scourge, King Daeron’s force is on the bank facing him. The orphans refuse to take the risk of ferrying Lord Vaith in the face of that and leave him stranded between the rivers. He is forced to march westwards to find a ford, and all the while Daeron’s troop shadows him.
Day 25: Lord Tyrell’s force joins with King Daeron’s, to much cheering from the soldiers. King Daeron, wan with illness but smiling, greets Lord Tyrell before all the watching army, but he is said to rage at Lord Lyonel later that evening for his many failures. Lord Lyonel’s protests that he has captured every castle he has been commanded to capture do not please Daeron.
Day 28: Lord Vaith manages to force a crossing in the night, although he loses a quarter of his force in the process. Daeron’s forces withdraw in an orderly fashion and set up camp, hoping to close with Vaith on the following morning and destroy his army or force him back across the river.
Day 29: The Battle of Sourwater, named for the village near to the fording on the Scourge, proves to be one of the few successful battles for the Dornish in the war. Lord Caston makes use of the fact that most of the enemy force is afoot to melt away from the Seven Kingdoms force. The arrows and javelins are thick as the horses of the few heavily armored knights are to be the primary targets. Crippling their ability to fight effectively or even to give chase, a sudden charge led by Lord Caston shatters the enemy. Vaith orders that the routing force be cut down. Few men manage to return to Godsgrace to reveal this debacle, although Vaith’s brother Ser Darien is also killed in the fighting.
Vaith immediately moves to find a secure base from which to attack Daeron’s long supply line from the Boneway.
Day 1: The survivors from Sourwater arrive at Godsgrace and give their report. Daeron can hardly speak, and it is up to the Dragonknight to suggest that a good cavalry force be sent scouring up the Scourge to find Vaith and stop his likely efforts to disrupt the supply line. Daeron nods, and delegates the task to Lord Tyrell.
Day 2: A cavalry troop rides west in search of Lord Vaith, who will prove impossible to catch. They return a week later, and a score of men-at-arms fewer.
Day 8: Recovering from the bloody flux, Daeron sees nothing for it but to try and storm Godsgrace, especially as the effects of Lord Vaith’s raids begin to tell. He calls for the siege towers to be brought forward.
Day 9: Lady Allyrion capitulates before the first siege tower can be trundled forward to touch the wall. She does so without condition. The reason for this becomes clear when the gates are thrown open. The bloody flux that struck Daeron’s encampment, killing scores of men, was much worse in the town of Godsgrace. Lady Allyrion herself is brought out on a palanquin, pale and feverish. Daeron salutes Lady Allyrion for her courage, his anger over his failure to take the town as quickly as he wished forgotten, and enters the town to pray at its sept in thanks giving.
Day 16: Daeron’s force finally departs Godsgrace, four months after it was first invested. Their dwindling supplies are replaced by fish from the Greenblood and by most of the stores of Godsgrace, for Daeron will not have his soldiers marching on empty stomachs. Great hardship is felt in Godsgrace in the time to come.
Day 24: Marching at a pace slow enough for the men still ill, King Daeron’s troops come to the area where Oakenfist’s encampment was once located. It is here where a force of Dornish horsemen come out of the woodlands in a desperate ambush aimed at reaching King Daeron and cutting him down. Though they are initially successful, months of war have made the soldiers of the Seven Kingdoms disciplined enough to respond properly. A number of men are killed on either side before the ambush is repelled and races back into the woods. Among the Dornish dead is Ser Conayn Toland, but not before he kills two of Daeron’s battle companions, and wounds two of the Kingsguard besides. Symond Crakehall, a squire, is among the dead.
Day 29: Drawing up within sight of Sunspear, Daeron orders an early halt and has a camp built. Dornish skirmishers attempt to come close enough to make use of their bows all the while, but Daeron uses lightly-armed freeriders and men-at-arms to screen the camped force. This largely succeeds, but one determined force of Dornishmen is able to rout a part of the screening force, requiring heavier forces to close with them. Leading a force of mounted northmen, Rickon Stark - heir to Winterfell - is able to drive them away before they are able to fall upon the supply wagons, but at the cost of his own life. Also among the deadis Ser Ecton Cassel, a household knight of Winterfell.
Day 30: Daeron rides towards Sunspear with a peace banner before him, offering to parley. Prince Marence refuses them bluntly, and tells Daeron that whatever comes of the coming battle, he will learn that even the dragon cannot fly above the sun.