AN: Alright then, at the time I am writing this, the only feedback I have gotten was to go with option 2.
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BERIC DONDARION
DORNE-PRINCE'S PASS
"What do you have to report?" Beric asked the scouts as they returned to the main camp. They had left Nightsong a few days ago and had travelled through the Prince's pass unimpeded. Scouts had been sent on ahead to see if they could find any dornish parties approaching. Lord Carron was leading a second host and were attempting to follow the Torrentine River southward and surprise Blackmont.
"Nothing M'lord. It is completely empty. We couldn't find a single man, woman or child. We went all the way up to the official border, but we found nothing"
Beric pondered this. The Prince's pass started in the Stormlands, but was often filled with Dornish guards. While they had not crossed into official Dornish Territory, the Pass was traditionally seen as something the Dornish controlled, and was often mislabelled as part of the desert kingdom in its entirety.
Beric pondered the information he had been relayed, both from the capital and the scouts.
The Crownland houses were all together and were just awaiting the King's command to head out. The King himself was awaiting his old friend Ned Stark, who a raven from the capital said was on a Manderly ship with his own forces and favorable winds would see him reach the capital within the week. Meanwhile, half of the Lannister forces under Lord Tywin had been split off and were heading down south to reinforce and take command of the Marcher lords like himself and Lord Carron. It was reportedly led by Ser Daven. The other half, still under Tywin's command, had just reached the capital and would be carried by the Royal Fleet to the Eastern coasts of Dorne. The hope was that while the main Dornish forces were preoccupied at the borders, the Lannister and Crownlands could take Sunspear quickly.
The worst factor on their side was the Reach.
It was not until after the borders had been patrolled that news reached King's Landing that Mace Tyrell had died. Which left his son Willas in charge of the Reach.
He did nothing. The shock of both his father and friend dying so close, and being ordered to march on said friend's home. The lad had shut himself off in Highgarden. Not even his grandmother could get him to issue orders. The last thing he had done was order the Castellan, head of the guard, and Maester not to allow any orders about the war with Dorne to leave the castle. This left the Reach lords leaderless, each doing their own thing. Lord Randyll was marching his forces to Uplands, where he would cross the Torentine and lay siege to Blackmont. As far as Beric knew, he was unaware Lord Carron had a similar plan in motion. The Hightowers were maintaining border patrols, but also marching troops to the western coasts. Lord Redwyne's health was deteriorating from stress and shame regarding his son. He was forcibly returned to the Arbor by his men, and the Maester was unsure if he would survive. Half of the fleet was maintaining their naval supremacy around Dorne, but they were spread too thin. The Dornish were not known for their ships, but from what Beric had envisioned, a naval battle could go either way.
Meanwhile, the Stormlands were reeling as well. He had not noticed any issues, but apparently these religious fanatics had the audacity to shoot ravens out of the air, to keep messages from getting to or leaving the castle. Ser Penrose died fighting them off. From what he had heard, the King was wroth at Renly for not realizing something was wrong with his own castle. Lord Renly's position on the small council was very delicate. Lady Brienne of Tarth was acting Castellan, as she was the highest noble there. Young Edric was safe at least.
Beric sighed. He supposed this was the reality of war. Some objectives went without issue, others got held back by disunity.
Suddenly, another soldier entered the tent. "M'lord, the Lannister host is within sight. Their scouts are here."
"Send them in." Beric commanded. Soon another four soldiers, dressed in the red of the Lion of the Westerlands, entered the command tent. Including one Ser Beric would not have expected.
"Ser Daven?" He asked in shock. There was no mistaking it. The Lannister had ridden ahead of the host with the scouts. This was a dangerous move in warfare. If Daven and the scouts had been ambushed, then the army would be beheaded before it had a chance.
"Apologies for the delay. I wanted to get here as quickly as I could." The Lannister said with a lighthearted laugh.
"A risky move, but then again, you were looking for allies instead of enemies. How far away is the main host?" Beric asked.
Daven sighed at that. "There lies a minor issue. Lord Tywin originally had about twenty five thousand soldiers, while my cousin Tyrion would gather additional forces from the lords that took longer to prepare. He gave me ten thousand to come down here, and plans to leave another thousand or so with him in King's Landing while the others attack by sea. But on my way down here, I was forced to divert two thousand men under lord Phillip Plumm to aid in hunting the sparrows in the Stormlands. So, the eight thousand troops still with me should be here by nightfall."
'Heh, another thing to go wrong.' Beric thought to himself.
"Well Ser Devan, I was told you would be in command once you got here, so what are your orders?" Ser Beric asked. He was actually thankful the man was here. He had heard the horror stories of Tywin's warfare, but Devan was known as an honorable knight.
After listening to the scouts and Ser Beric, Devan shared what the plan was.
"I was given permission to start the invasion once my forces got here. We shall begin to dismantle camp soon, then we shall wait for my main host. Instead of resting, we will march through the night and attempt to strike at Kingsgrave. We have four thousand men here, add that to the eight thousand on the way, and that should be enough to begin a siege."
"What of Vulture's Roost? Will they not send their forces out to reinforce Kingsgrave? I know it was abandoned, but we had heard word of soldiers heading there under the banner of House Wyl. It would likely be their second son, Ser Bryan." Beric pointed out, looking at the map they had available.
"I would think not. Or at least, it will not be enough. Lord Gulian Swann has been given command of several ships of the Royal Fleet. That in addition to his own forces will strike Wyl in two days. Ser Bryan, if he is at the Vulture's Roost, will prioritize saving his own family seat over aiding House Manwoody. In any case, with our scouts, we would see them incoming long before they reached us."
They spent the next hour hammering out the finer details. After making revisions and adapting to different scenarios, Ser Devan ordered the camp to prepare for a march.
"Tell me Ser Beric, are we actually in Dorne or not? I have heard conflicting accounts among the men."
"No Ser, The Prince's Pass is essentially shared between the two, but we are still in Stormland territory. We will probably hit the official border when Kingsgrave is in sight."
DAVOS SEAWORTH
KING'S LANDING-RED KEEP
"Ser Davos. Good to have you here." King Robert declared as the former smuggler walked up and knelt in front of the throne.
"It's an honor to be here, Your Grace." Davos said. As a man with a small keep in the Stormlands, and being a loyal retainer to Stannis, he had met the king before, but in this formal setting, even he knew it was best to maintain the usual niceties. He had enough lords hating him for his birth as is, no need to prove them right.
"Yes, now that you are here, I, Robert of the House Baratheon, first of the Name, declare you the new Master of Ships, to replace Lord Stannis, who is now Master of War. Ser Balon! Escort Lord Seaworth to the small council chambers, I will be joining once court is over."
The knight bowed and led Davos away from the throne. Even as they walked out, he heard lords and ladies muttering about a crabber's son sitting on the small council.
When they reached the small council chambers, the room was not empty. The Hand of the king, Jon Arryn, as well as Stannis and Baelish were already in the room, and Pycelle joined mere moments after Davos walked in.
"Good to have you here, Lord Davos." Stannis greeted his retainer.
"I will do my best, My Lord." Davos said. "What shall you have me do?"
"For now? Not much. What remains of the fleet not already barricading the Dornish ports is already being prepared to strike at Sunspear. You will be leading the forces there, so I would suggest making sure the ships are properly stocked. Maester Cressen sent a raven claiming you would be bringing Shireen?"
"Aye, we ran into the Princess Myrcella and Ser Oakheart before we reached the Throne room. The Princess said that she wanted to spend time with her cousin."
"Good." Stannis muttered.
After giving Davos a quick run through of what the council usually entails, they all heard a commotion come from the halls.
"Just give me command of the fleet. I'll have those Dornish Bastards begging for mercy the moment I get there." A young voice bragged.
"You've never even been on a ship for more than a few days. You really think you're ready to lead men into battle when you have no experience?" They heard the king's voice retort.
"How can I ever get any experience if I am never in a battle?" The voice-likely Prince Joffrey Davos realized- asked.
After a moment and a heavy sigh, Robert answered. "All right, I suppose the day was going to come. I will think about it. But if you do go, you will not be leading it, you would be going as a squire. You do need some experience I suppose."
"Thank you Father, I will not disappoint. Give me the word and I shall march to Sunspear and bring that traitor Doran's head back on a platter."
"Enough, Hound, take the prince to the training yard. I have a meeting." Robert said before walking into the small council. "Apologies for the delay. Is everyone here?"
"Lords Renly and Varys are not yet here." Pycelle muttered just barely loud enough to hear.
"I doubt Renly will be here after you admonished him so." Baelish pointed out. Seeing Davos' confused face, he elaborated for the knight. "We just learned that some of those religious fanatics-Sparrows I believe they call themselves- had been shooting ravens out of the sky around Storm's End for weeks. When we asked Renly why he did not notice anything amiss, well one thing led to another and we realized Ser Cortnay Penrose had been running Storm's End since Renly was appointed Master of Laws. He had only made a handful of trips back to Storm's End. Naturally, the King was quite furious that his childhood home was being neglected by his own brother."
"And what of Lord Varys?" Davos asked.
"He has been out checking on his little birds he claims. Given how many surprises we are learning from people who are not him, well it's hard to say whose spot on the council is in more danger." Baelish explained.
"Enough, we have a war to plan Let's get everything settled so we can end it as quickly as possible." Stannis declared. Robert nodded in approval and they began to focus on the war.
QUENTYN MARTELL
DORNE- YRONWOOD
"How long do you think this war will last." The son of the Sun Prince asked his friends as they sat in the armory, stuck helping take inventory of the weapons because a certain Yronwood son was unable to fool his father while drunk.
"It'll last as long as the Child-Killing King has men to throw at Yronwood." The knight known to his friends as Arch said as he lifted an old rusted Breastplate out of a pile of equally rusted armor.
"Easy boast to make when outnumbered six to one." Maester Kedry said, scribbling down the breastplate's state and likely its entire history.
"It is of no matter. Doran will sue for peace before he loses too much ground. Isn't that what your letter said?" Ser Gerris Drinkwater said as he counted the spears.
It was true. Prince Doran had sent his son a letter explaining that his sister had run off with her friends and told him what the plans were for surviving the war. Quentyn may have been a knight for only half a year, but even he knew that surviving was the best they could do.
"Yeah, what's he gonna give then? The whole point of the war was that the price for peace was too high." Ser Cletus Yronwood spoke up as he entered, having taken the chance to grab some food from the kitchens for his friends.
"Robert is friends with Lord Stark. Maybe we can satisfy him by emptying Ghaston Grey." Arch suggested.
"If only that was enough. Seriously Quentyn, I know your uncle's blood was hotter than Dorne in a drought, but what compelled him to take action against Lord Dead-Babes?" Ser Gerris asked.
Quentyn sighed. "I have no idea. I got word from Sunspear that another one of his nights of passion was raising a child with dornish features, and Uncle was heading out to confirm it, only now Father is saying that was a ruse to distract from his true intentions of avenging Aunt Elia. But he was not supposed to kill Tywin. He was originally planning on slaying the Mountain. Perhaps he thought Tywin was easier, or something stopped him from reaching the Mountain."
"The real question is how long until the war reaches us." Kendry murmured. "Dornish forces have been consolidating in keeps, but we have mainly stayed away from patrolling the borders to keep the Usurper's forces from taking the opportunity to attack."
With that, they finished the rest of the inventory in relative silence. They were just about ready to leave when Gerris, tripped on a rusted gauntlet they had missed, and slammed into a shelf, causing the box of various armor pieces that was on it to fall on Cletus.
The Yronwood knight raised his arms to protect himself, and suddenly his duel disk materialized, further shielding him from the falling metal .
"Sorry Clet! But quick thinking summoning it so fast." Gerris apologized.
"I did not really think of it." Cletus muttered as he started to pick up the fallen scraps.
"Hey, what's that say on the Disk, where the Life Points are usually?" Arch pointed out that there was some message on Cletus' Disk.
"What the…" Cletus muttered as he looked. His face went pale. "What about you guys? Do you have this message?"
One by one, each of them materialized their Duel Disk, and read the message that was on it. They then ran to find Lord Yronwood to inform him of this development.
BERIC DONDARRION
WITHIN SIGHT OF KINGSGRAVE
"There it is." Beric said as Kingsgrave appeared.
"Yes, now that the waiting is over, we can get to the exciting part of war." Ser Devan said with a grin.
The two of them were at the front of their host. They had not sent scouts out for fear that they were too close to a Dornish stronghold to be sure the scouts would return.
As they rode forth, officially crossing into Dorne, both of their Duel Disks suddenly materialized on their arms. Then they appeared on the arms of each man under their banners. On it, the same message.
ENTERING WAR ZONE. SWITCHING TO SG: WAR MODE
All Duel Disks then flashed the familiar 4000 Life Points.
"What the Seven Hells is War Mode?" Beric asked. He learned the answer a few seconds later.
A hand reached out of the sand and broke his horse's leg. Beric fell from the saddle andstood up almost instantly. He looked at what had attacked him.
It was a complete skeleton, wearing nothing but a purple robe.
"Skull Servant" He called out, recognizing the monster.
Skull Servant rushed out and punched him in the face.
Beric was too shocked to dodge, but he landed with his Duel Disk in front of his face.
B: 3700
He turned and looked up as Skull Servant went to strike him again, only to watch as Ser Daven bisected it with his sword. Skull Servant lost whatever held it together, and the individual bones all separated.
"Well that answers your question." Devan said as Beric got up again.
"My life points went down the usual amount. I'm guessing if it hits zero.." Beric said gasping.
"Death." Daven finished his thought. "Well, this just got trickier."
A soldier who was behind the two knights came forward. "Well if they can do it, I see no reason we can not either." He drew the top card of his deck and looked at it. "Come forth, Gaia The Fierce Knight!" He put the card on his Duel disk and a purple horse materialized with a rider wielding two red lances.
The soldier then immediately fell to his knees.
Beric rushed to his side and looked at his Duel disk.
S: 2000
"Get this man in the back! I've seen this before. It's Mausoleum of the Emperor. You can summon high level monsters at the cost of your own Life points. It must be part of the War Mode. It drained him though." Daven said to the rest of the men.
"Ga-Gaia, attack Kingsgrave!" the Soldier muttered as he was dragged back to where the healers were.
Gaia rushed forth, and as it did so, several other monsters appeared, jumping out of the sand, or materializing from Kingsgrave's rampants. Beric could make out several men with Duel disks standing, issuing commands to the monsters..
All of the monsters were relatively weak. An Toon Alligator got skewered on Gaia's lance, A Jinzo #7 was trampled under the knight's steed. A Jirai Gumo was Gaia's toughest opponent, but even that orange and brown spider fell before Gaia's lances.
Each time a monster was destroyed, Beric noted one of the defenders on the wall look as though they themselves were injured.
Unfortunately, Gaia's command over the battle did not last forever. It was about to skewer a Man Eater Bug, only for a purple circle to appear in between the two and suck Gaia's lances out of his hands. Beric recognized it as Negate attack. Without its weapon, Man Eater Bug and the other weak monsters overwhelmed Gaia, and tore both him and his stead apart.
Beric looked at the monsters and added up their attack points. Combined, it was only 2000 even. He called for someone to check the soldier's duel disk, and it was still at 2000.
"Well on the bright side, overwhelming the strong with weak monsters is more a part of reality than the magic of the cards." He noted. So even if Dorne had a powerful monster of their own, they could still just overwhelm it.
Suddenly, another monster flew down from Kingsgrave. It had a blue body, but golden wings and talons.
"Phantom Gryphon!" one of the soldiers called out. No sooner had he said that then all the monsters started charging forward, straight at their forces.
Having time to acclimate to battle, several soldier's regained their senses and stood forward, forming a small shield wall with spearmen in the back.
Before the monsters could reach the shield wall, Ser Daven raced his horse to the side before turning again. He now stood in front of the shield wall, and Beric noted that he had two face down cards in his duel disk.
The monster approached and right before Phantom Gryphon could slash its talons at Daven, he turned over the first face down card.
"Magical Cylinders!" he yelled. Suddenly, a cup appeared and sucked Phantom Gryphon up. A second cup appeared in front of Kingsgrave, and Phantom Gryphon shot out of it and attacked it's master's own wall. It was completely demolished, and at least three of the men on the ramparts had fallen to their deaths from the height.
Wasting no time, the rest of the monsters continued to attack, and Phantom Gryphon stood from the wreckage and flew to rejoin the battle. That was when Daven revealed his second face down.
"Mirror Force!" he called out. An invisible wall materialized in front of them, and when the first monster- The Man Eater Bug- went to strike the wall, its talons broke off and embedded themselves into each monster's vital points, destroying them all.
"I can't believe that worked. Now! Before they have a chance to summon more monsters!" Daven charged forward on his steed. The Marcher men and Western men both followed his example. By the time the Dornish could organize, the host was surrounding the keep. They had also summoned some monsters of their own. Archers began to pick off the men on the ramparts before they could summon more monsters.
Beric had regained his horse and had joined Ser Daven in jumping into the hole Phantom Gryphon had left in Kingsgrave's wall. The moment he was inside the keep, he had a monster ready to summon.
"Vorse Raider!" He called out as the human-like beast came forth, swinging a blade and throwing the Dornishmen back. Doing so would also cut each man's Life Points nearly in half. Some of them-likely ones who had commanded the weaker monsters Gaia had destroyed- were already on the ground, clearly dead from Vorse raider's strikes. Others charged forth at Beric the old fashioned way, only for him to pull his blade out and cut them down. Once they were mortally wounded in traditional combat, Beric noticed their Life Points automatically hit 0. He stabbed one man's gut, and since the wound was not immediately deadly, he noticed the Life Points lower down to 800. That man may still live if he avoided anymore combat.
"YIELD! YIELD! YIELD!" A voice called out. Beric turned and recognized Lord Dagos Manwoody as the one yelling.
All of the soldiers began to drop their weapons, and the men on the walls called back their monsters.
Suddenly, another message appeared on everyone's Disk.
KINGSGRAVE SURRENDERED, HOUSE MANWOODY SOLDIERS REMOVED FROM SG: WAR MODE. RETURNING TO CASUAL MODE.
Ser Daven, whose sword was red with blood, surrounded by the corpses of both monsters and men, walked forward. "Kneel." He uttered the command, cementing the Iron Throne's victory.
Lord Dagos looked at Vorse Raider, and several other monsters still on the field, and knelt.
The message must have informed the main force outside the keep of the victory, for they stopped firing, and soon all the soldiers were laying down their weapons. The knights and minor lords would be taken prisoner, the small folk among them would be kept in the dungeons until they received word of what to do with them.
Beric looked himself over now that the fighting had ceased. He had a few scratches, but no injuries that would prevent him from continuing on. He checked his Duel Disk
B:3450
He had tried to avoid fighting monsters, which meant those injuries were from the men who cut him. While Ser Daven went searching for the Maester to secure the ravens and send a message to the capital, Beric went looking to count their losses.
House Manwoody had a force of 300 men inside of Kingsgrave. When asked, Dagos said the rest of his fighting men had been sent to secure the more important locations, such as Planky Town and Sunspear.
Of those 300 men, 100 remained in good condition, 150 were injured not fatally, but enough to keep them from the field. These men had at most 1300 Life Points left, and the remaining 50 had been slain in the war. Those with injuries were stuck with them, as leaving war mode meant healing cards had no affect on them.
On their own side, of their 12,000, the main force was untouched. Beric had not realized until after the battle that only the vanguard and those immediately behind them had been fighting.
So, of the 1,000 who did see combat, 760 were in relatively good condition, 210 had injuries, but as they were in war mode could be healed by cards, and 30 had been killed.
Beric sighed as he looked at the desert expanse they had invaded. How many more times would he have to fight not just men, but monsters as well?
AN: And there we go.
We got our War Mode all set for this and future organized conflicts.
Apologies if you think that battle was too short. One of my Professors emailed that they forgot to give us part of their midterm, so I have to do that online, and I wanted to get this done for you guys so it could go up on Saturday like usual. I ran out of pre-prepared chapters, so the next one or two may be a bit late just so I can build up a few to act as a buffer.
So two Beric POVS, the first written to set up for the other, and the second to show the instant the War Mode activated and what it means.
Rules of War Mode:
Anyone in War Zone has it.
Lose it when outside of War Zone
0 Life Points = Death.
Mausoleum of the Emperor permanently active to put a drawback on summoning strong monsters. But still possible if deemed worth it. Tributes are also possible though.
Monsters can be killed by people, or weaker monsters. Basically more realistic than just 'A attacks B and has more points'. So if a monster trips or something, it can be taken down by a weaker one. Just like a professional soldier can die to a rookie under the right conditions.
Damage done to a person is translated into loss of life points of roughly equivalent damage.
We also get Davos getting to KL and showing the state of the small council.
Quentyn partially explains Oberyn's actions. His alert occurs the moment the Iron Throne's forces entered the official Dornish border. Basically the same time Beric and co got theirs.
Well, hope you all liked this. Posting it basically as soon as I finished it.