Rob Stark (Fairmarket 3 days later)

“So my great uncle is dead?” I ask Theon after he finished his report. Though it was not the last thing he said I held back my emotions while he finished his report.

“That is what the prisoners reported. Ser Brynden Tully was responsible for leading the survivors from the Golden Tooth and several volunteer knights to launch raids against the Lannister supply lines and rear camps. Jaimie Lannister tried several times to catch him but ultimately failed.

2 weeks ago Tywin sent 4 thousand men West to supress the Lords south of the Trident, while the Mountain himself led 500 riders to hunt the Blackfish, before setting himself on the keeps of the knights and Lords who helped him. They were pushed north until Oldstones where Ser Tully was reported to have fell. I’m sorry, Milord.” Theon finishes with a look to me.

I don’t answer him and the room turns silent for a while. I admit I never had a very close relationship with my great uncle, considering he was estranged from my mothers side of the family, but recent events has made me appreciate family, and to hear of another member be killed by the Lannisters grinds me.

“I’m sorry for your loss lad, Lady Stark. But I knew the man when he was still young and know that he would have liked nothing better than to go out the way he did. The man died the way he lived, with a sword in his hands and friends to his side. We can only go on and make the man’s sacrifice be worth something.” Lord Umber speaks up in an attempt to lighten the mood, which works for the other Lords, but fails for my mother who shows a forced smile.

“Thank you for your words, Lord Umber. I just wish I could have seen my uncle before he passed, perhaps even reunited he and my father. Now I just hope we can reach my father and brother before it is too late for them.” She says with a slight croak in her throat.

“Lady Stark makes a good point, especially if what Lord Baskerville had to say was correct. If the Mountain is raiding the Lords loyal to Lord Tully in search of hostages, we may have less time than we hoped.” Roose Bolton adds to the side.

“What do you mean Roosy?” Umber asks casually, which brings a slight frown to Roose’s brow.

“While Riverrun is nearly impossible to penetrate with supplies, that only applies to outside forces. After losing their only sign of reinforcements with the fall of the Blackfish, to see their family members rounded up and in the hands of Ser Clegane is a terrifying prospect. If the other Lords trapped in Riverrun decide that there is no hope in sight, they may mutiny against Hoster Tully to seek the mercy of the Lannisters. If that happens then we will be the ones forced to siege Riverrun, with no hope of getting the Riverlands support.” The other Lords look worried at this, though Umber just barks.

“In that case we better get a fucking move on! Let’s hurry on and give those some relief before they piss themselves!” Umber declares which earns him a few smirks.

“I agree with Lord Bolton, the situation is somewhat dire. And I conclude with Lord Umber, though perhaps not so crudely, that we should march as soon as possible. But we should still proceed with a proper plan. Theon, remind me what the scout situation is like.” I calm the room and bring the matter to hand.

“Ben- pardon, Lord Baskerville says that Jaime has spread the scouts around the area between the Blue Fork and the Red in an attempt to search for any other insurgents and make sure none of the Lords think of uniting against the increased pressure they are facing. Though this means there is no way to avoid them completely, because they aren’t focused on any area in particular, they shouldn’t notice the missing scouts if we move quick enough. Lord Baskerville says that he recommends travelling as fast as we can to Riverrun to catch them off guard.” Theon adds.

“I conclude with Lord Baskervilles assessment. If we are going to progress forward it makes no difference whether we try to hide our forces or not. Either the scouts find us or they realise their scouts are disappearing. It is impossible to surprise them with an army this size, and a splinter force would have limited effectiveness without knowledge of the area.” Lord Bolton comments, earning several nods of agreement, before continuing.

“It is regrettable as the Whispering woods would be the ideal location to hide our forces but without a guide it is too risky. The men that know the area well enough are either trapped in Riverrun or were part of the Blackfishes band. Rather it would be the Lannisters who have been here for weeks tracking rebels that are more familiar with the area.” He adds reminding us of the loss my uncles passing brings.

“So we fight! Travel fast and hit them hard. Our numbers are similar but we have the terrain advantage. With the golden boys surrounding Riverrun they are divided and are positioned for sieging not a field fight. We move quick enough and even if they know we are coming it will only give them time to piss in a bucket instead of their pants. They’ll have no time to change their fortifications before we are right on top of them!” Lord Umber shouts to the support of the other bannermen.

I have to agree with him. The Lannisters can’t win the fight with the troops they have especially with our different objectives. I just have to relieve the siege on Riverrun to free my grandfather and his allies. Jaime has to keep them in Riverrun and defend against us.

If he moves his troops across the river to fight us in the north, then my grandfather can attack the south bank, cutting them from all supplies. Then we can just bunker down and let them starve.

If they retreat to the south to secure passage to the Westerlands, we can join my grandfathers forces and unite all the lords north of the Trident. Then with Riverrun acting as the core, in addition to the fleet of river boats, we can prevent them ever crossing again, with launching strikes all across the banks from the Bay of Crabs to the Westerland hills.

The worst thing they could do is try and hold us both. But that means dividing their forces into three. Even if Jaime left the absolute minimum on the 2 southern sides to contain the Tully forces, we would still greatly outnumber them, and if we add the Tully’s who can attack from behind we nearly double what he can field against us.

“I think we are all in agreement with what we must do then?” When no one offers any opposition I continue. “Then we will march as soon as possible with all possible speed. Theon, inform our scouts to focus on the path forward, any enemy troops are to be killed instead of captured if found. Though they will know we are coming we can still hide our numbers if we need to. Also, have the most experienced search for possible ambush points in the area. If Jaime gets desperate he may try to attack us first to cause us damage and even the numbers.”

Ben POV (1 week later, just outside the Lannister encampment)

With my belly to the ground and dark cloak across my back, I creeped up the ridge and observed the camp for the second night in a row. Across the abandoned fields where farmers used to call their home, lied the Lannister camp.

As the greatest and strongest scout in the army I took point in examining any potentially dangerous areas, and once I was sure they were safe I left the continuous observation to another scout to make sure no other forces tried to occupy the area. I killed as many as 5 scout teams, each about half a dozen strong, nearly half the total for the scouts.

After 4 days I changed my objective, by this point Jaime will have no doubt noticed our advance. Even if we had eliminated every scout, which due to the lack of time was impossible, but the missing scouts would have surely told Jaime that we were coming.

Instead of killing scouts I decided to spy on the enemy camp. Brutus and I travelled solo through the whispering woods and on the 6th night I left Brutus in the woods to observe the camp before moving back to the woods during the day.

What I saw originally confused me, as though it looked like Jaime was preparing to resist Robb, he was going about it in a weird way.

Though I couldn’t get an exact count, it appeared the camp had as many as 20 thousand and as few as 15 thousand troops, with what looked a little less than 2 thousand horses. From the captured scouts we learned the Lannister force had around 30 thousand total troops, with 2 of them being cavalry. This means they concentrated most of their forces on the North bank and from what I saw looked like fresh defensive constructions in preparation for fighting the Northern army and continuing the siege on Riverrun.

This confused me because it was what we thought was the least likely action Jaime would have taken. It is impossible to overcome the difference in numbers and terrain he is currently faced with unless he has some serious trump card in his back pocket.

If it was someone else I might think these are the actions of a greedy and overly stubborn commander, who doesn’t want to give up on Riverrun and can overcome the odds with determination and will.

But I fought Jaime in Kings Landing. He had all the advantages and could have won, but chose to retreat because the cost was too much. If he could retreat when he was In the stronger position then I can’t see why he would retreat when he is losing.

I spent the next day thinking of all possible scenarios in which he could turn this around. There are no ambushes along the road to Riverrun, and no where to receive reinforcements in time.

Unless our information is completely wrong but with the number of sources that is extremely unlikely. It wasn’t just me that performed interrogations but a dozen other captives were questioned and all information concurs with our findings. And since we travelled from the Twins to Fairmarket several Riverland Lords have joined up with us, not only sharing food and supplies, but they added their soldiers, 2 thousand, as well as information.

Their relatives and friends all over the Riverlands all told them that no one is near Riverrun except for Jaimie’s forces. It is possible there could be traitors, but the Lannisters are easily the most hated family in the Riverlands at the moment. Except for the families that sided with the crown in the beginning all the others have been raided by the Mountain with several houses even being razed to the ground for their defiance.

It is as I was considering returning to the main troop to report on my findings that I came across an anomaly. Deciding to confirm my thoughts, I went back to the camp the following night and took the risk to climb a closer and taller point to observe.

I realised that though there had been new fortifications , instead of making them all around the camp, they mostly focused on the West and North sides. Even in the dead of the night they were building the West walls.

As I looked closer I noticed something even stranger. They weren’t just ignoring the East side, they were even removing several structures and moving them to the West. A few had even taken some obstructions from where the Bridge leading to Riverrun should be. It looked like the entire camp was shifting to the West.

But this is all it does, as not only does it offer no greater defence against, it even presents an opening for the Riverrun forces to more easily break out and attack.

It is that which lights a candle in my mind, but before I jump to any conclusions I head back to Brutus and on his back we race back to the camp. From there I will let Robb and the other Lords know what I found and see if they can confirm my suspicions.