4 Artys Arryn III
271 AC
Artys Arryn III
As the walled city of Gulltown came up in the distance, I turned to the new Knight I had officially began squiring for two moons ago, Ser Brynden 'The Blackfish' Tully. He had not been a factor in my plans truthfully, until I heard that he had fled Riverrun to escape his brother Lord Hoster Tully after spurning yet another betrothal offer. So, in my infinite wisdom I begged my father to call him to the Eyrie and let me squire for him. The man is a legend, veteran of half a hundred battles, especially famous during the War of the Ninepenny Kings in which he was knighted 11 years ago. Now that I was the squire of Ser Brynden, I was allowed far more freedom and so I had decided to take a trip to Gulltown and enact some of my plans slightly early. Furthermore, I could use the opportunity to visit the vassals along the way to strengthen relationships between House Arryn and the neighboring Lords.
The trip had taken a week and a half so far, first visiting House Waynwood of Ironoaks. The castle of Ironoaks was built in the High Gothic style that much of the Vale used in their construction. Tall, thick towers reaching into the sky finished with ornate cone tops. The walls bristled with defenses left over from the invasion of the Andals centuries ago. It was initially built with practicality in mind and over the centuries had been embellished to add some beauty. The reception to our party had been warm although I found the pomp and ceremony stifling. The Waynwoods were known for their insistence on ceremony and were a rather proud bunch. They were the closest vassals to the Eyrie the Arryn seat of power and so the two houses had always enjoyed a close relationship. The interior of the castle was spectacular, high arched ceilings with ornate stone working along the pillars and arches, the walls were filled with beautiful paintings depicting scenes from the 'Seven-Pointed Star', glass from Myr was too expensive but the art work was truly striking. The location of Ironoaks was nicely situated, next to a large lake which filtered out through a river back into the Narrow Sea. Due to their proximity in between the mountains and the sea they were in the optimal place for my steel mills to be set up. The steel could then be ferried along the river to Gulltown to then be sold easily up or down the coast of Westeros or even across the narrow sea to Essos. The negotiations with Lady Anya Waynwood to loan several strips of land along the river and purchase wood from the forests surrounding Ironoak were remarkably easy. The land was unused due to the rocky terrain which prevented farming so I was able to attain the rights for a relatively cheap price and I snuck the option to buy the land into the deal. Both sides were happy with the negotiations and so I left happy that stage one was complete.
After the stay at Ironoaks we travelled to Runestone the seat of House Royce. The castle of Runestone was somewhat underwhelming compared to Ironoaks. A single tall square tower dominated the skyline, attached below was a short squat keep surrounded by thick walls giving way to sheer cliffs below. It was a practical castle without much beauty. Much like the Eyrie there was only one way into the castle. The castle gave off a sense of timelessness, you could tell that it was truly ancient at a glance. I imagine that Winterfell must have a similar vibe, both were built by the First Men and both were thousands of years old tracing back to the War for the Dawn. Even their House words 'We Remember' highlighted the history of the Royce family and it was easy to tell they were proud of their history. Lord Yohn Royce was a tall man easily reaching 6 and a half feet with steely grey eyes. I wondered if that was a trait of the First Men as the Starks also possessed similar features. Our stay there was brief but enjoyable, Lord Yohn was mostly a solemn and quiet man although when he did speak it was with a booming voice that commanded attention. He and Ser Brynden seemed to form an easy friendship fast, both being martially inclined and veterans of the Ninepenny War. His sons Andar and Robar were of a similar age to me and I intentionally formed a friendship with them often spending our time sparring in the training yards and sneaking away to the kitchens for food etc. After our brief stay at Runestone we set off for Gulltown which is where we were now.
I had over the last 3 years been hoarding the money my father gave to me as pocket money so I could invest it later and now the opportunity had arisen. Initially the plan had been to try to elevate to Arryns of Gulltown and try to negate any influence the Graftons of Gulltown had on the city. However, any correspondence I had sent to the cadet branch of the Arryns had been outright ignored. After asking my father why that was he told me that the Arryns in Gulltown held a strong dislike for the main branch and that due to their mercantile success they had grown arrogant viewing themselves as superior. Furthermore, relations were tense after they failed to usurp the main branch during the reign of Aegon III. Isembard Arryn of Gulltown had attempted replace Joffrey Arryn as heir to the Vale after the death of Lady Jeyne Arryn in 134 AC. Both sides disliked each other after that. So, my plans had changed.
The new plan was to seek out the last member of House Shett of Gulltown, a Knightly house that used to be the rulers of Gulltown a thousand years ago. The last member was Uther Shett a six-year-old boy. His 'regent' a man at arms whose family had served House Shett for centuries led my entourage to the manor situated in the merchant district of Gulltown. It was easy to see that the family had fallen on hard times, what was once an impressive expansive manor was now decrepit and falling apart at the seams. We were led through the manor to the Lord's parlour for introductions and then led to our rooms to refresh before we sat down for the evening feast. Uther looked hugely overwhelmed during the meal, although it did make sense it is not every day you have the Heir to the Vale and the brother of the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands in your manse. The meal was a short affair and after it was finished, we retired to the study. I brough along Ser Brynden for the negotiations and Uther brought his 'regent' along Edric.
I decided to break the ice, "I want to thank you Uther for welcoming my entourage into your manse, the hospitality has been most enjoyable. I assume you and your regent are keen to know the reasoning behind our visit."
I slid a contract across the table to his regent detailing our plans. The general gist of the contract was that House Shett is going to enter a partnership with me, they were going to be my main allies in Gulltown. I would be providing the coinage to build 3 ships initially and money for House Shett to use to invest in expanding the harbor. These ships would be based off two designs. The trade ships would be styled after the Dutch Fluyt, the most successful trading ship of the 17th century. Around 25 meters long, with a tonnage of 250 tons. The Fluyt class ship was 2 to 3 times faster than ships of the era in Westeros. The pear-shaped design of the hull allowed the boat to be usable in rivers and the deeper seas. They were to be the flagship trading vessels of my new fleet. I was going to call them 'Falcon's' fast, light and deadly. They were multipurpose and could be lightly armed with ballistae and scorpions to serve as auxiliary war ships, they were the same size as Westerosi war galleys. Two of the boats commissioned with my money would be Falcon ships and the third would be a warship to protect them. Based on the 'Ship of the Line' style of warship with a tonnage of 1800 tons it would be 96 meters long with a raised fore and aft castle, with 4 sails and a crew of 350 men further bolstered by 450 marines it would be the flagship of the Arryn navy, further warships would be similar in size but on a smaller scale. To put that into perspective, the average war galley was 25 – 35 meters long.Armed with grapple hook iron ballistae to pull enemy ships closer for boarding. For artillery it sported a mixture of large, capped ballistae to punch holes through enemy ships, fast firing scorpions and my new 'Fire Throwers' positioned on the fore and aft of the boat it would be a floating tank. The 'Fire Throwers' were basic flamethrowers that pumped Naphtha/Greek fire at high velocity into enemy ships. They were going to be my 'Eagle' boats. Obviously, the symbol of my house would have to referenced so I named my ship classes after birds of prey. Due to the size, they were deep water ships, hence the need for the expanded harbor, their speed was slightly slower than my Falcons but still much faster than any Westerosi equivalent.
The Falcon's would take approximately 9 months to build and the Eagle would take a year, that gave me plenty of time to start on the mines in the Mountains of the Moon surrounding the Eyrie and the Steel mills on the banks of the river in Waynwood territory. Steel would then be carried to Essos to trade for other goods which would then be brought back to Westeros to sell. Due to the faster speed of the 'Falcons' and increased tonnage we can sell more at much faster rates than anyone else in Westeros. The steel initially would be sold exclusively in Essos to prevent other Lords in Westeros from arming themselves with cheaper higher quality Arryn steel. The Shett's would be given exclusive rights to sell goods brought back from Essos and they would take a small commission from sold goods. Their men would be my shop keepers and hired muscle to keep my interests in Gulltown safe and secure to prevent the Graftons, Arryn's of Gulltown or the city magisters from bullying their way into my business. The expanded harbor would be theirs as part of the deal, my boats however, would have hefty discounts for berthing fees and tariffs. After hashing out a few of the finer details such as their commission fees and the cost of berthing at their new dock we settled on a deal. Gold was given for the Shett's to hire boat builders from Kings Landing, White Harbor and Dragonstone. Thankfully due to the Library of Heavens Path the designs were in my head so I had already had a team draw them up, so all that was needed was small folk for the labor, ship builders to oversee the construction and then some hired muscle to protect the business. The whole set up would cost around 30,000 gold dragons which was the vast majority of my funds, but when this got running, I should make that back in record speed. It would take another 5,000 Gold dragons to survey the mountains for iron, build steel mills and hire blacksmiths but that was a short-term project and the men for that would be found easily. With the planning done and then coin exchanged we retired to our rooms and called it a day.
The fleet of the Vale possessed around 200 ships a mix of trading galleys, smaller transport boats and a handful of warships. Although, that sounds like a lot the Redwyne fleet alone owned 200 warships and five times that many trading boats. That was under the control of one house whereas the Fleet of the Vale was all the houses combined. This was something I wanted to rectify, the Vale was strategically placed in between the North, the South and the Free Cities of Essos. Gulltown was in close proximity to Kings Landing, White Harbor, Braavos, Pentos Tyrosh and Myr. Trade should theoretically be booming, however, the chivalry of the Vale was not interested in 'penny pinching' and so this potential was untapped. The plan was to suck trade into Gulltown, use the Shett's to sell my goods, then pump money into training troops for my campaign's against the Mountain clans and the pirates in the Bite backed by the Lords of the Three Sisters. This should put more money in my coffers, stabilize the Vale from internal threats and provide the Vale with an experienced and highly disciplined force when Robert's rebellion kicks off.
We stayed in Gulltown for 3 more days to see the sights and to survey the land upon which the harbor expansion would occur and then decided to head back to the Eyrie to gather men to start the process of building mines and the steel mills. I sent 5 men with the specific task of travelling to Kings Landing to seek out blacksmiths and apprentices who could be persuaded to move to the steel mills to convert some of the steel into weapons, armor and tools for my exclusive use. They were going to arm my future legions.
