Blood of Dragons

The king has returned! Nearly four moons have passed since King Aegon, Fourth of His Name, departed the royal city of King's Landing to take his first royal progress. Accompanied by his Hand, Lord Bracken, and his pregnant mistress, Lord Bracken's daughter Barba, his ultimate aim was to visit Stone Hedge and while away time there. The journey to Stone Hedge was uneventful enough that much of the gossip left in the wake of the progress had to do with a king seemingly devoted to his own pleasures and a mistress willing to indulge them, from making use of the chambers of Lord and Lady Buckwell to…

From the Citadel, pale wings took flight across the realm. In Oldtown, bells tolled. In Highgarden, the news was taken as reason for a winter festival to be readied. In the bowels of Casterly Rock, Lord Loreon resumed counting his coins. In Riverrun, the Tullys were occupied with the latest series of petitions and counter-petitions from the Blackwoods and Brackens, and considered the question of whom would attend the marriage of Jannia Tully to Lord Jarmon Buckwell in a few months time. At Storm's End, Lord Corwen Baratheon is said to have dismissed the news of a white raven's arrival, busy…

The feud between the Brackens and the Blackwoods came to an end -- not with a siege, not with a battle, but with the judgement of the Lord of Riverrun, Kermit Tully. He came to Stone Hedge at the head of a host, but it was not to wage war against those ancient walls. Instead, meeting with Lord Bracken, he used words to win peace. Though Bloody Brus Bracken raged against the injustice of the murder of his son, Ser Hoster, that he laid at the feet of the Blackwoods, Lord Tully promised justice -- justice, and the truth. What he meant by that was unclear to all but Lord Bracken, whom he met with…

The news spreads throughout the encampment that has gathered outside the walls of Riverrun, growing larger each day as lords from throughout the riverlands have sent banners to Lord Tully's call: the host will march tomorrow under the command of the heir to Riverrun, Ser Edmure Tully, to join Ser Oscar Tully and Ser Brynden Tully. Last warnings have flown to Raventree and Stone Hedge, it's said. The feuding Blackwoods and Brackens have found their efforts constrained by the presence of the Tully advanced force patrolling their boundary... but despite this, they've still persisted in their…

The feuding has burned between the Brackens and the Blackwoods, and the slowly growing gathering of banner at Riverrun and endless ravens have done nothing to end it. Raid and counter-raid, ambush and skirmish, these have been the ways in which Raventree Hall and Stone Hedge have exchanged their scorn. It seems even the efforts of Prince Aegon Targaryen and an entourage of followers including Jaesin Lannister of the Kingsguard and Lord Serry of Southshield were incapable of dissuading either side from their course. When Prince Aegon returned to Riverrun to report the failure of diplomacy to…

A messenger came swiftly down along the Red Fork, flying through the encamped nobility in the fields beyond Riverrun, and taking the first ferry over. Many guessed that his urgent news had to do with the Brackens and Blackwoods, the feuding noble houses whose ancient disputes had flared up again at the tourney to celebrate the wedding of one of Lord Kermit's daughters, but little did they know how right they were... For, despite her efforts and the ravens she had sent winging to Stone Hedge and Raventree Hall, the feud had reached new heights of bloodshed: the messenger reported that the…

The morning of the wedding tourney to celebrate the union of Ser Willard Ryger, heir to Willow Wood, and Andrya Tully, began well. The field outside of Riverrun was crowded with the pavilions of great lords and knights from throughout the riverlands, and even beyond. More than eighty knights and esquires had entered their names in the herald's rolls, and among them were well-known names: from Raventree Hall came Balian Blackwood and his kin, from Stone Hedge came Bloody Brus Bracken and Othan Blackmane and more kinsmen beside, the surviving Twin of the Crossing Ser Halder Frey, Argett…