Chapter 49
Within the throne room in King Landing, a large table was set up. Around the table are many knights from around the realms, big houses and small, each paying close attention to the words spoken as well as the demonstrations that went along with them.
On the table was a large paper with a grid layout, on the paper sat statues representing various classes and the enemy position.
"This will be a two phase fight, Phase one is mainly about killing her subordinates quickly and efficiently. That's all ranged attackers, change targets quickly and keep aware of their boosts they receive. Some will be immune to physical damage so magic dealers will need to focus on them, then the opposite will also happen where some will be immune to magic so physical damage dealers will need to focus on them. She can also dominate someones mind, when you see an ally begin to act strange I want mages to polymorph them or hunters can trap them. It wears off so don't go killing an ally when it's not needed. She will randomly lay down a death and decay attack which lasts about 8 seconds, stay out of it and get out of it if you find yourself in it as fast as possible. Once we get her mana shield down it will begin phase two. This is where it gets crazy..." Cyrus explained to the group, he went into detail with different tactics.
Many knights were awed by the knowledge he had, many even began to question if he had fought her before. In fact it was Roose Bolton's first question when Cyrus opened up the floor after his explanation.
"You speak as if you have fought this monster before. Have you? Or were you there watching the previous king fight it to the death?" Roose asked as he made sure to throw in that last question due to his not liking a Stark on the Iron Throne even though Cyrus hasn't sat on it once yet. It did have the desired effect though, some of the southern knights began murmuring amongst each other. He did make a valid point.
"Nay, I didn't see the battle otherwise I could've probably at least got them away. But as for whether I had fought her before.... Aye, many times. What you all seem to think is that once you kill them they are gone, right?" Cyrus questioned as he scanned the knights.
"Well you'd be wrong. What we are fighting are just creations of their Master the Lich King. I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into her again even after we killed her. He can just recreate her. So does that answer your question? It won't stop until we can get the Lich King Ner'zhul and stop him, it's the only way to truly kill monsters like Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwisper. There are others, we have been lucky enough that the Burning Legion hasn't come yet and Lich King still has eight others that he has either created or enslaved and of those, two are vampires and two are dragons. Does anyone else have a more productive question or would anyone like me to go over the fight again?" Cyrus again asks, he wanted to make sure most would do their job.
'Thankfully I'm not limited to 25 men like in the raid. So this shouldn't be too bad. Plus more classes will be in this fight rather than just the eight like I had with Marrowgar.'
As that meeting was going on and the city prepared for the coronation, within the Vale Petyr Baelish was having a meeting of his own. He was meeting with Lord Godric Borrell as well as many other pirates from the Three Sisters. House Borrell of Sweetsister was a noble house from the Vale. They ruled over the island of Sweetsister from the port town of Sisterton, their arms were a white spider crab on a grey-green backing. From their castle Breakwater, in the past they were notorious pirate kings, raiding and plundering ships, ports and towns all over, until the Starks had enough and came down on them with the sword putting them under their heel. Later on they swore oaths to the Vale due to their dislike for the north, had participated in two Blackfyre rebellions and suffered grievously from those rebellions.
They had remained relatively quiet of late slowly recovering, but now Petyr Baelish planned to use them to recruit Skagos to raid Kings Landing. He had heard the news and wanted to send a group in to recover as many of his hidden stashes of embezzled gold dragons that he had spread across Kings Landing. He knew a couple were found but he had quite a few stashes. Knowing that they would be vulnerable in a few weeks he and the pirates could raid Kings Landing when most all would be gone, while the pirates had their fun he could be grabbing his gold. He already knew which of the gold stashes were found thanks to his spies still in Kings Landing.
He was a little upset that he couldn't get them to attack the northern settlements or trade routes but they had vehemently refused. They had been to Bilgewater Harbor and seen those massive cannons. They had been used only once when it had first been established, a desperate pirate crew looking for an easy take had attacked. One shot rocked the whole bay figuratively and physically, but the former was much more than the latter. After that no ship started trouble at that port ever again, especially since not long after, ships were seen with smaller versions of those massive cannons. So no pirate, unless they knew they could raid and leave without being detected, would raid a northern settlement. Even Skagos had started to reclaim they were a part of the north due to many pirates beginning to raid them, in fact many knew Skagos had long since cut ties with the north.
Many had even hindered the Skagos Lords from being able to go to Winterfell to bend the knee since they knew if that happened they would lose a raiding place. Each time a delegation was sent out they were attacked so Skagos was in a war with the pirates which was why Petyr was trying to broker a deal. Skagos would send raiders while also sending a delegation during the ceasefire gaining back their protection under the wolf, while the pirates get their raiding. Petyr knew it was only a matter of time till Skagos gained the wolf's protection, why not broker a deal that gives them a chance gaining him favor from Skagos while also giving the pirates what they want. Gaining favor with the pirates by allowing them to raid the Vale, he didn't care for the populace since most didn't approve of him anyway but couldn't do anything to him. He was married to the mother of their Lord Robyn.
Back in Slavers Bay the Good Masters of both Meereen and the recent new ones who tried to retake Yunkai to get it back going were attacked and enslaved themselves along with any followers and slaves they did have by the Dothraki. When Cyrus and the others freed them they were free to make a choice. Some slaves weren't treated too badly by every Master so some made the choice to stay even though they would once again be slaves. Meereen was destroyed along with Yunkai, only Astapor remained untouched. Orgrimmar's orc council began war preparations, they had allowed the sacking of the two cities to wipe them of the filth that stayed behind. It was the orders they had received, it would allow them to easily rebuild Meereen into a port worthy of Orgrimmar. Cyrus told them he would bring Thrall back once he found him, when the orcs knew Thrall was alive and well but lost they had all the motivation needed. Orcs worshipped Thrall, he was like a God to the orcs. They worked tirelessly for war, they wanted to contribute their all to help find Thrall faster.
In place of destroyed Meereen they began construction on Bladefist Bay.
After Astapor was transferred Justicar Julia and Myrcella began flying to the north. Although Myrcella wanted to go to the coronation she knew they were reinforcements for the men and women fighting. So with a determined mind and heart she did what she must.
In Stormwind, Olenna Tyrell along with all the others with her were stunned by the beauty and architecture of the city. It had gardens and parks, schools and theaters. It even was warm within the city no matter the cold outside of it thanks to magical wards and barriers across the city and its walls. It didn't smell like shit at all, in fact the air was fresh and clean even as the city filled up. She was enjoying her time in such a magical city, she was old and tired and felt that she had truly found a place she could peacefully pass the rest of her life. She had truly enjoyed Highgarden and felt at peace there, but after arriving in Stormwind her home wasn't calling for her as it used to.
She was enjoying her alone time, Margaery had gone to Winterfell to accompany Catelyn Stark to Kings Landing for the coronation. Olenna wasn't surprised, especially after seeing not only Dalaran from a distance but also the cities since. She had toured each city herself, even paid to take an aerial tour which fascinated her. Even Ironforge and the dwarfs tickled her, she had thought of Tyrion Lannister or the 'Imp" as many called him.
Little did she know he too was now in Ironforge, he hadn't contacted home yet. He didn't know what to believe, he had heard his father named him heir but he knew he was the last so there wasn't a choice. Although he got along with his uncle Kevan he wouldn't put it past him to have him killed so he could claim the title. That was always the risk for those with power, there was always someone vying to take what's yours.
Tyrion had been contemplating what he should do. He wouldn't mind running the family to prove to everyone what he was capable of if given the chance. He had asked and pleaded for a chance but his father never allowed it. So he journeyed out into the world, seeking adventure and opportunity. Sure it was hard in the beginning, he was close to death many times. But his quick wits and silver tongue got him out of most situations, and learning to fight in the end helped. He had realized his size was an advantage rather than a disadvantage, it made everyone underestimate him constantly. Ultimately that's what made Tyrion decide to go home. If his uncle underestimated him and showed him ill-will then he would show his uncle just how wrong he was to do so.
Within the Riverlands at Pinkmaiden Castle, Oberyn and Ellaria as well as Sandor Clegane have tracked Gregor and Amory Lorch to this castle. They each hid amongst the populace, neither knowing of the other. Each waiting for their prey to arrive. Oberyns wait was much more pleasurable than Sandors, but each knew it was only a matter of time. The Lannister's and Tully's had sent men to try to stop the two's rampage, at first Tully did nothing since they were only raiding the Westerlands but after realizing they were making their way into their lands they began to act. However, Gregor Clegane was a very strong and powerful warrior.
Every group that encountered the two was brutally tortured and killed by the two sadists. They made sure to tell them what they would do to their families before they killed them, that was why Oberyn and Sandor came here. The group of knights were from Pinkmaiden, so they knew Gregor and Amory would want to satisfy their perverse nature by attacking those knights families making sure they told their wives and daughters how they killed their husbands and fathers while they tortured, raped and eventually killed them too. So they waited.
They didn't have to wait very long either for the following night Gregor and Amory had rode into the town outside Pinkmaiden. Sandor was the first to spot the two since he was more focused on arrivals and scanning them while Oberyn was more focused on his paramour and other women and men. But it didn't take him long to spot them either, it's hard to miss a tall mountain and a short ugly pig traveling together. The hate and rage of both men began to boil their blood and pump adrenaline thru their veins.
The Mountain and Manticore thought only of their prizes as they studied the castle, unaware of the ones studying them.