A return full of setbacks

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180 power stones for the extra chapter

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additional to the power stones, 15 comments or reviews and I will upload an extra chapter, I will offer this in all the chapters of the week (not cumulative, more than one comment from the same person will only count as one.) it is possible that you can have three chapters a day during this week, it is up to you

EXTRA CHAPTER

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POV of Randyll Tartly

Finally, I galloped off with two hundred riders always alert to everything traveling quite far apart to avoid another tree ambush.

'There should be a town around here'.

We searched for a few minutes until we found a village in the area, but they must have something to feed several of our men and use their well to replenish our stores

With my group of men, we got off our horses and walked to the village.

The village seemed desolate, there was no one to talk to.

'How strange, this village was not looted by us on the way here'.

We checked several houses, which were all empty, until in one of them we found a shivering man.

''No, no, please I gave you everything I had, I don't have anything anymore'' said the man trying to hide a moldy loaf of bread.

''What happened here, the town is deserted'', I asked the man.

''Are you serious?, but your men came through here five days ago stealing and burning all our food because there were men from our village who supported house Baratheon'' he said looking like an idiot.

''No, we are the first of the men of house tyrell to have orders pro here'' I said annoyed.

''But yes, there were men in the same armor as you taking our food and poisoning our wells'' the man said with the same angry tone as me

'They poisoned the water?'

I stopped talking to the man and went to the well, it was full of rotting animals.

'Five days ago, they probably did this in all the villages near our path.

''Quick we must ride and see if we can find any villages we can take food from, there is nothing here we can use'' I shouted to the man.

We remounted our horses and galloped off

The men led by lord Tarly rode for several hours checking several villages for food for the tyrell army but had no luck.

Each village they searched had the same story men in tyrell armor arrived they took their food and burned it all and threw dead animals into the wells so that they could not be used by the tyrell forces

The people had abandoned the villages because with the poisoned water, there was no future for them, there were only the weakest and most stubborn who did not want to leave the village where they were born.

But after passing through the sixth village and coming across a pile of burning pig carcasses, the forces of House Tarly decided to return empty-handed before the night caught up with them and they could fall victim to the hunters still stalking their prey.

We came back empty-handed, all the villages empty and the wells poisoned.

Whoever is doing this was ready and waiting for us to go into the forests.

Arriving back with the rest of the army I found that Leyton had managed to erect a stockade to defend himself.

I got off my horse and went to provide the information I had obtained, but as I walked through the great camp I saw thousands of our men were wounded, with dates on their thighs or deep cuts in their stomachs, just waiting for the stranger to take them with him.

The maesters were working as fast as they could be trying to save as many lives as they could, but without bandages or some healing herbs, there was little they could do, they were only delaying the inevitable and prolonging the suffering of our men.

I entered the tent where the last time it was up everyone was celebrating and eating, now everyone was with serious faces and even fear.

''Any luck Tarly?'' said Leyton quite seriously.

''Nothing, apparently someone using our armor burned all the food in the villages and poisoned the wells, I checked several villages, all empty, nothing for us'' I answered seriously sitting on the chair.

What are we going to do? we have no food, they burned everything'' said Lord Fossoway with a worried look on his face.

''We have the horses that died in the fight, we can eat them, we can also slaughter some more horses'' I answered.

''Eat horses?, they are covered in mud and the guts and blood of many men'' said lord Caswell retching.

''Well, you just don't eat and that's it, more food for the rest'' I replied with a serious tone

''Leyton have your men found anything else?'', I asked

''Not much some traps, along the way, what worries me is that Lord Roxton had gone out with a patrol to hunt the bandits, but he hasn't returned yet, and the sun is already giving way to the moon'' Leyton said worriedly.

''Do you think they killed him?'' I said looking at him.

''I'm afraid so, we don't know anything since he entered the woods several hours ago'' said Leyton.

''Ahh, we'll have to go look for him, we can't leave him behind'' I said, running my hands over my face.

When I said that, everyone started to look at the floor or other sides of the tent, no one had the intention of volunteering to go and look for Lord Roxton.

''Any volunteers, .... anyone?'', I said looking around at everyone.

It looks like everyone was scared off by those men and didn't want to tempt fate by saving Roxton's life

''give me the men and I'll go get him'', I said looking at the others.

'You damned cowards'

I left the tent to continue complaining without doing anything to change the situation.

I took several of my men and men from Hightower, Fossoway and Caswell's house who would accompany me into the forest.

We followed the trail left by the men of Roxton house for several minutes and found no problems, in fact, we managed to hunt several wild boars in the forest and sent our men back to secure the food.

But as we continued inland, we came across the first body of a man of the Roxton heraldry.

'This one was killed with an arrow in his visor, the archer who killed him was lucky'.

The more we continued advancing, the more bodies we found with the same wounds, arrows in the visor.

Arrows in the visor, straight to the eyes, making the plate armor useless.

'Well, I guess it wasn't luck, archers are very skilled if they can hit between the eyes'.

We came to a clearing in the forest where we could see the sky, this is where the rest of the expedition was

All dead'' I said to the men.

The field was full of dead, arrows and wounds from cuts in the weak parts of the armor, they showed no mercy.

After searching the faces of several knights we found the body of Lord Roxton.

He did not die a quick death, his armor was full of holes, they most certainly used a specialized armor piercing dagger, which indicates that our enemies are well armed, daggers made to pierce armor means that they are used to killing enemies in armor and that he has a blacksmith who makes specialized orders for him

'They are not just any bandits'

''Let's get out of here before we share the fate of lord Roxton and his men''I said as we headed back along the same path that brought us here.

As we moved through the forest one of the men of house Fossoway began to break away from the group

But from one second to the next, he fell into a hole filled with stakes and covered with leaves.

He was completely impaled

When several went to help him or see if they could do anything, he felt a sensation in his back.

The men who approached the trap were met by several arrows which hit him in the visor, many of them failing in their mission but killing their targets.

''Shields up, the bandits are here'' I shouted.

We all got back together and raised shields.

When hundreds of arrows started to fall on us from every possible direction.

Back to back, shields up we will have to leave in order, whoever separates is dead'' I ordered everyone.

We did all we could to resist the attack, but we were outnumbered.

The first to fall were my men who did not have plate armor, who simply wore hardened leather armor, they were the first to die.

Seeing that the arrows were not so effective and that we had managed to form a wall of shields and retreat slowly, they began to approach us with spears in their hands, attacking our legs, forcing us to retreat slowly.

Attacking our legs, forcing us to lower our shields to protect them, which again left us open to the arrows, coordinating perfectly among themselves.

If you lower the shield you will be killed by the arrows, if you don't lower them the spear directly to the armor joint at the knee and they will kill you with the spears when you stay behind the formation.

They started to run out of arrows, but it didn't mean that they stopped chasing us, more and more they brought spears looking to separate us from the group

as we kept retreating a good group of men fells into another trap of stakes leaving several trapped there and breaking the formation.

Again the rain of arrows began

''close the formation again, we must go on, we can't help them or we will all die here'' I ordered again.

We left behind the soldiers who were shouting for our help

We took advantage of the distraction generated by the group of men that fell in the trap, while we left them behind our pursuers, we continued listening to the screams of our men until they stopped.

After that, we broke ranks and began to run back to the camp, we had to leave as soon as possible, as our hunters did not think they would like their prey to escape.

Arriving at camp, many collapsed from exhaustion, others mourned friends who were left behind.

I'm just glad we got out of there alive.

'I'll never do anything so stupid again'.

I returned the tent, and reported that all of Roxton's group were dead like him, and that they had taken his family's Valyrian sword.

The moon had already risen and I needed to get some sleep to calm down from all that had happened today,

'I nearly died twice today, new personal record'.

As I was trying to sleep the most inhuman screams I had ever heard began to be heard.

I came out of my tent and the sounds were coming from outside the camp.

The screams were heartbreaking

'Probably, it's the men they captured, I should go?.....no, it's a trap, they are forcing us to go out to kill the fools that come out, it's better to try to sleep'.

During the return to the territories of the reach the tyrell men encountered all kinds of traps.

During the day they harassed any tyrell who dared to go out for supplies, causing extremely few to return with food, forcing the tyrell to eat their horse and the leather of their shoes

At night, the terrible screams of pain could be heard coming from the men the Finns captured and tortured to lure soldiers to help their comrades.

But the end is to deny them sleep listening to the cries for help from their friends and they could not do anything.

After several days of harassment one night, a large group of the men in the camp decided to desert en masse.

The lords of the reach were furious, but they preferred not to do anything, since sending groups to kill them could mean never seeing the soldiers who went out on that mission again.

But to their luck they did not have to look for them for long because as they marched they found all their men hanging from trees with a rope around the road.

After seven days of suffering attacks, ambushes, hearing their men cry out in pain at night, seeing their men fall into stake traps and seeing men who were marching fall to the ground from exhaustion and not get up again every day, they finally reached the open field, leaving behind them the forests and hills of the storm lands.

During the journey they did not find much food, but they were now near their home where they could again be jaded with food.

But when they arrived at ashford they found a new fortification and a huge army in fighting formation

With a group of knights requesting parlay

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