Post by The Smith on Aug 15, 2008 10:16:05 GMT -5
The blockade still held, but as yet no landing had been made on the island. As a result for weeks, no months, the people and citizens of Dragonstone had been free to labor on improving the defenses of the Citadel. They still labored.
And for the first time they trained. With only 1,800 soldiers at his disposal, Rhaegar Velaryon had cajoled, threatened, pleaded with the inhabitants of the island to help defend the citadel. Anyone who could hold and fire a bow; anyone who could operate a slingshot, anyone who could throw a stone; help tip a boulder over the battlements or even help tip burning oil over the battlements – all were required. Some had been persuaded. The Velaryon had made it clear what their fate would be if they were found outside the Citadel when the landings came. The men would be butchered, the women ravished and the children taken as slaves. What had happened in Dorne, when they had rebelled he had asked of them. Thousands of Dornish civilians had been butchered. Rhaegar offered them refuge, if they would help fight and a quick death if they were overwhelmed.
Rhaegar knew the odds were against him. His forces were outnumbered by at least ten to one. On the open field they would be slaughtered. However the strength of the citadel reduced the odds somewhat. Dragonstone had already been old and strong before he and Avery had strengthened the Citadel even further. Rhaegar smiled to himself at the irony. Avery had hoped largely to help protect his nephew the Baratheon boy from any invasion force coming the east towards Kings Landing. Avery’s betrayal and murder had changed all that. What had been built on behalf of the young Baratheon was now being used against him. And the defenders would extract a bloody price from the Baratheon forces before Dragonstone would fall.
Every night Rhaegar prayed in the Great Sept for vengeance against the Baratheon. He cursed Rickon for forcing him to this. He recalled with grim humour that Avery had been fond of his older brother Callen…had often spoken about him and his grief at his death and had vowed to protect Callen’s sons. Yet the elder of those sons had Avery put to death for imagined treasons. Rhaegar’s treasons were more than imaginary, but at least he would die with more honor.
Rhaegar had sworn before the Seven to exact retribution from the Baratheons for Avery's death. And by the Seven he had kept his promise. 5,000 Stormlanders had perished in Shipbreaker Bay at his hands. Many more of those who served the Baratheon boy he hoped would perish under the walls of Dragonstone. Avery’s shade would be well sated, he thought with satisfaction. The Battle of Dragonstone would be a fitting epitaph.
Rhaegar dreamt often of Avery. Until recently his most vivid dreams had been the memories of them growing up as boys. Yet lately his dreams had turned darker. Avery was still present, but now he carried his head in the crook of his arm. He had been joined by others. He recognized his father Jaehaerys, covered with wounds, also betrayed and killed outside Kings Landing by the Stormlanders. His father was with a man with blue lips. Even though he had never met the man, Rhaegar guessed was the infamous Horas Blackwood, who his father and cousin had supported as Regent. His uncle Daemon Velaryon murdered in Braavos was there also, his entrails spilling out of the huge gash in his stomach. There were faces he didn’t recognize. Many of them had platinum hair and violet eyes. Velaryons or Targaryens Rhaegar had surmised. Most likely both, as a couple of the figures wore crowns. However he did not know their names. The Velaryons and Targaryens were related many times over. His own mother was one. She was dead as far as he knew…but she never appeared in his dreams. Nor did the members of his family appear. Rhaegar took some comfort that he did not dream of them dead. He hoped they were alive. His wife, children and siblings had been sent from Dragonstone some time ago. Rhaegar knew not if they had escaped or had been captured. Either way it was best they were out of what was to come.
Rhaegar leant against the battlement and stared out to sea with resignation. He could see the ships of the blockading force in the distace. Well over a hundred ships his men had calculated.
The young Velaryon pondered his situation. When they assaulted the Citadel, the attackers had no siege engines, nor the opportunities to make them. Rhaegar knew the approaches to the Citadel were well defended. Three small stone hold fasts close to the sea defended each of the main paths led to the Citadel. The rocky outcrops of the cliffs surrounding the low lying beaches had been utilized whenever possible to reinforce the holdfasts stone walls and maximized the height advantage of the defensive position. Large rocks had been stacked against a series of wooden boards which were reinforced with wooden supports. If needed, the men could cut the supports releasing an avalanche of large rocks down to block the path of, or crush a invading force with sorties to finish off surviros if deemed necessary. A sortie from the defenders would then follow. A clever defensive ring could allow the defenders to retreat to the main Citadel, but not before the defenders had maximized the casualties of the attacker. Each holdfast held a guard posyed day or night atop a tall observation tower. There would be no surprise landing. In the event of detection of a landing force the tower would sound a horn during the day and extinguish its light at night to warn the other holdfasts and the main citadel of the enemy’s approach. Tunnels had been constructed that would enable the defenders to retreat safely against overwhelming force to the Citadel, but also be quickly blocked against the attackers using the same tunnels. The attacker would have to come out into the open.
The base of Dragonstone’s curtain walls had been thickened to prevent possible mining attempts. The fosse outside the walls was further deepened, as a further protection against sappers, who not only now would not be able to attempt to mine the castle without digging into the trench and revealing themselves, but would also make it difficult to bring up any siege engines that were hastily constructed close to the walls. The outer part of the fosse had been fronted with stone palisades and thorn hedges to further slow down the enemy advance, as the defenders rained down a deadly avalanche of arrows, bolts, and rocks from their ample supplies. The fosse now bristled with sharpened stakes that would slow and impale many an attacker. The inner part of the ditch was further protected by stone outworks that would take some climbing beyond which were artillery emplacements of further mangonels and bolt throwing engines, just under the walls. The mangonels down below here were supported by further mangonels atop the Citadel’s walls.
Screen walls with shuttered artillery ports and loopholes adorned the top of the battlements. Each were filled with a new machine – the scorpion - that could shoot large arrows bolts that could pinion three or four men with one bolt if fired into a densely packed body of enemy troops.
Thousands of bolts, arrows, crossbow bolts, rocks for the mangonels, arrows bolts for the scorpions were strategically placed for easy access by the defenders. The massive gates of the Citadel had been re-inforced by metal bands, as well as another layer of wood. A huge pile of stone lay nearby tht would be piled at the base of the gate on the inside to protect against any battering ram. The underside of the drawbridge was made of metal bands to resist fire throwing missiles and when raised would face outwards towards the attacker. Defended by an artillery battery of several scorpions and other bolt throwers of various sizes and trained on the entrance to the drawbridge, the attackers would have no choice but to go over the top of Dragonstone’s high walls in an escalade, through the building of makeshift ladders. As far as he knew no observations had been made of the height of Dragonstone’s walls, so Rhaegar hoped that the ladders would not be of the right length. Rhaegar knew from what Avery had often told him that establishing the height of a wall was vitally important. Ladders needed to be a fifth longer than the height of a wall to allow for the angle of incline. They had to rest against the wall at such an angle that they would neither overbalance on one hand or break under the weight of the climbers. The defenders had been prepared either way. If the ladders were too long, Rhaegar had stationed a number of forked wooden poles along each wall that would be used to hook the top of the ladder and force the ladder back so that it and its defenders would crash to the ground. Too short and rocks would be rained down upon the hapless attackers as they floundered at the top end of the ladder. Ameron his uncle had been particualarly useful here, suggesting the location of a number of the poles where ladders could most easily reach the walls,and suggesting further improvements to the stone defences to combat them. Free of any encumbrance due to the fact there had been no landings Rhaegar readily acquiesced.
If the attackers managed to breach the outer walls, Rhaegar knew his defenders could retreat to the inner walls or the towers in the outer walls and then to the Stone Drum…all the while bombarding the attackers with missiles. Even if the attackers did manage to gain control of part of the battlements, any further advancement could be hindered by the fact that the defenders could retreat to the towers punctuating the curtain walls thus isolating the shorter wall walk, and continue the defence from the adjacent towers. Any lone breach of the wall, the attackers would find it a difficult position to hold, being harassed from the taller inner wall as well as the flanking towers of the outer wall.
Rhaegar had even designed five or six medium sized counter-weight trebuchets to be placed on the walls of Dragonstone and trained on the bottlenecks of the approaches to the castle. A well placed missile could kill dozens of men at the one time and it would take some time for the thousands of the enemy to make their way through and approach the castle defences. The trebuchets could be fired twenty to twenty five times in a day and could inflict significant damage on the enemy before they could get too close to the walls.
Rhaegar sighed. Perhaps they had a small chance of beating off a concerted assault, but everything would have to go exactyl right and Rhaegar knew that in warfare that rarely happened. His uncle Ameron and Ser Vortimer Rivers had patiently listened time after time to his exhortations of what to do in any situation when the assault came. Rhaegar had gone through all the permutations of what the attackers might do, even leading mock assaults against sections of the inner walls to demonstrate to them what might happen and how best to resist. He had consulted the Dragonstone library for stories of seige warfare and had read them with interest, often taking the book and pacing the battlements to see how the ancient accounts could be applied to Dragonstone's defences. He went over those plans with Ameron and Vortimer carefully describing strategies for fighting and retreating to the inner works. In turn Ser Ameron and Ser Vortimer passed on Rhaegar's ideas by drilling the defenders in siege craft and the nuances of Dragonstone’s defences.
Rhaegar glanced up. The Targaryen dragon flapped defiantly above the Citadel above the Stone Drum. His ancestors the Targaryens had set out from here to conquer Westeros over five hundred years ago. Now the Westerosi would conquer Dragonstone and the Targaryen cause would be snuffed out. He looked towards the direction of the Free Cities, where he knew the Targaryen princelings waited. No help would come from here…he knew now. All they could do in Dragonstone was wait for the inevitable assault and accept the will of the Seven as to its outcome. Rhaegar knew most likely what that was.
“Valar morgulis” he murmured softly.
Results:
Rhaegar Velaryon begins to improve towards master in Engineering (Fortifications)
Rhaegar Velaryon improves to Expert in Battle Strategy.
Ameron Velaryon improves to Noteworthy in Battle Strategy
Ameron Velaryon improves to Apprentice in Engineering (Fortifications)
Vortimer Rivers improves to Apprentice in Battle Strategy
Vortimer Rivers improves to Noteworthy in Command
The defences of Dragonstone are further improved.
The people of Dragonstone are pressed into service as defenders. A number are added to the fighting force of the garrison.
And for the first time they trained. With only 1,800 soldiers at his disposal, Rhaegar Velaryon had cajoled, threatened, pleaded with the inhabitants of the island to help defend the citadel. Anyone who could hold and fire a bow; anyone who could operate a slingshot, anyone who could throw a stone; help tip a boulder over the battlements or even help tip burning oil over the battlements – all were required. Some had been persuaded. The Velaryon had made it clear what their fate would be if they were found outside the Citadel when the landings came. The men would be butchered, the women ravished and the children taken as slaves. What had happened in Dorne, when they had rebelled he had asked of them. Thousands of Dornish civilians had been butchered. Rhaegar offered them refuge, if they would help fight and a quick death if they were overwhelmed.
Rhaegar knew the odds were against him. His forces were outnumbered by at least ten to one. On the open field they would be slaughtered. However the strength of the citadel reduced the odds somewhat. Dragonstone had already been old and strong before he and Avery had strengthened the Citadel even further. Rhaegar smiled to himself at the irony. Avery had hoped largely to help protect his nephew the Baratheon boy from any invasion force coming the east towards Kings Landing. Avery’s betrayal and murder had changed all that. What had been built on behalf of the young Baratheon was now being used against him. And the defenders would extract a bloody price from the Baratheon forces before Dragonstone would fall.
Every night Rhaegar prayed in the Great Sept for vengeance against the Baratheon. He cursed Rickon for forcing him to this. He recalled with grim humour that Avery had been fond of his older brother Callen…had often spoken about him and his grief at his death and had vowed to protect Callen’s sons. Yet the elder of those sons had Avery put to death for imagined treasons. Rhaegar’s treasons were more than imaginary, but at least he would die with more honor.
Rhaegar had sworn before the Seven to exact retribution from the Baratheons for Avery's death. And by the Seven he had kept his promise. 5,000 Stormlanders had perished in Shipbreaker Bay at his hands. Many more of those who served the Baratheon boy he hoped would perish under the walls of Dragonstone. Avery’s shade would be well sated, he thought with satisfaction. The Battle of Dragonstone would be a fitting epitaph.
Rhaegar dreamt often of Avery. Until recently his most vivid dreams had been the memories of them growing up as boys. Yet lately his dreams had turned darker. Avery was still present, but now he carried his head in the crook of his arm. He had been joined by others. He recognized his father Jaehaerys, covered with wounds, also betrayed and killed outside Kings Landing by the Stormlanders. His father was with a man with blue lips. Even though he had never met the man, Rhaegar guessed was the infamous Horas Blackwood, who his father and cousin had supported as Regent. His uncle Daemon Velaryon murdered in Braavos was there also, his entrails spilling out of the huge gash in his stomach. There were faces he didn’t recognize. Many of them had platinum hair and violet eyes. Velaryons or Targaryens Rhaegar had surmised. Most likely both, as a couple of the figures wore crowns. However he did not know their names. The Velaryons and Targaryens were related many times over. His own mother was one. She was dead as far as he knew…but she never appeared in his dreams. Nor did the members of his family appear. Rhaegar took some comfort that he did not dream of them dead. He hoped they were alive. His wife, children and siblings had been sent from Dragonstone some time ago. Rhaegar knew not if they had escaped or had been captured. Either way it was best they were out of what was to come.
Rhaegar leant against the battlement and stared out to sea with resignation. He could see the ships of the blockading force in the distace. Well over a hundred ships his men had calculated.
The young Velaryon pondered his situation. When they assaulted the Citadel, the attackers had no siege engines, nor the opportunities to make them. Rhaegar knew the approaches to the Citadel were well defended. Three small stone hold fasts close to the sea defended each of the main paths led to the Citadel. The rocky outcrops of the cliffs surrounding the low lying beaches had been utilized whenever possible to reinforce the holdfasts stone walls and maximized the height advantage of the defensive position. Large rocks had been stacked against a series of wooden boards which were reinforced with wooden supports. If needed, the men could cut the supports releasing an avalanche of large rocks down to block the path of, or crush a invading force with sorties to finish off surviros if deemed necessary. A sortie from the defenders would then follow. A clever defensive ring could allow the defenders to retreat to the main Citadel, but not before the defenders had maximized the casualties of the attacker. Each holdfast held a guard posyed day or night atop a tall observation tower. There would be no surprise landing. In the event of detection of a landing force the tower would sound a horn during the day and extinguish its light at night to warn the other holdfasts and the main citadel of the enemy’s approach. Tunnels had been constructed that would enable the defenders to retreat safely against overwhelming force to the Citadel, but also be quickly blocked against the attackers using the same tunnels. The attacker would have to come out into the open.
The base of Dragonstone’s curtain walls had been thickened to prevent possible mining attempts. The fosse outside the walls was further deepened, as a further protection against sappers, who not only now would not be able to attempt to mine the castle without digging into the trench and revealing themselves, but would also make it difficult to bring up any siege engines that were hastily constructed close to the walls. The outer part of the fosse had been fronted with stone palisades and thorn hedges to further slow down the enemy advance, as the defenders rained down a deadly avalanche of arrows, bolts, and rocks from their ample supplies. The fosse now bristled with sharpened stakes that would slow and impale many an attacker. The inner part of the ditch was further protected by stone outworks that would take some climbing beyond which were artillery emplacements of further mangonels and bolt throwing engines, just under the walls. The mangonels down below here were supported by further mangonels atop the Citadel’s walls.
Screen walls with shuttered artillery ports and loopholes adorned the top of the battlements. Each were filled with a new machine – the scorpion - that could shoot large arrows bolts that could pinion three or four men with one bolt if fired into a densely packed body of enemy troops.
Thousands of bolts, arrows, crossbow bolts, rocks for the mangonels, arrows bolts for the scorpions were strategically placed for easy access by the defenders. The massive gates of the Citadel had been re-inforced by metal bands, as well as another layer of wood. A huge pile of stone lay nearby tht would be piled at the base of the gate on the inside to protect against any battering ram. The underside of the drawbridge was made of metal bands to resist fire throwing missiles and when raised would face outwards towards the attacker. Defended by an artillery battery of several scorpions and other bolt throwers of various sizes and trained on the entrance to the drawbridge, the attackers would have no choice but to go over the top of Dragonstone’s high walls in an escalade, through the building of makeshift ladders. As far as he knew no observations had been made of the height of Dragonstone’s walls, so Rhaegar hoped that the ladders would not be of the right length. Rhaegar knew from what Avery had often told him that establishing the height of a wall was vitally important. Ladders needed to be a fifth longer than the height of a wall to allow for the angle of incline. They had to rest against the wall at such an angle that they would neither overbalance on one hand or break under the weight of the climbers. The defenders had been prepared either way. If the ladders were too long, Rhaegar had stationed a number of forked wooden poles along each wall that would be used to hook the top of the ladder and force the ladder back so that it and its defenders would crash to the ground. Too short and rocks would be rained down upon the hapless attackers as they floundered at the top end of the ladder. Ameron his uncle had been particualarly useful here, suggesting the location of a number of the poles where ladders could most easily reach the walls,and suggesting further improvements to the stone defences to combat them. Free of any encumbrance due to the fact there had been no landings Rhaegar readily acquiesced.
If the attackers managed to breach the outer walls, Rhaegar knew his defenders could retreat to the inner walls or the towers in the outer walls and then to the Stone Drum…all the while bombarding the attackers with missiles. Even if the attackers did manage to gain control of part of the battlements, any further advancement could be hindered by the fact that the defenders could retreat to the towers punctuating the curtain walls thus isolating the shorter wall walk, and continue the defence from the adjacent towers. Any lone breach of the wall, the attackers would find it a difficult position to hold, being harassed from the taller inner wall as well as the flanking towers of the outer wall.
Rhaegar had even designed five or six medium sized counter-weight trebuchets to be placed on the walls of Dragonstone and trained on the bottlenecks of the approaches to the castle. A well placed missile could kill dozens of men at the one time and it would take some time for the thousands of the enemy to make their way through and approach the castle defences. The trebuchets could be fired twenty to twenty five times in a day and could inflict significant damage on the enemy before they could get too close to the walls.
Rhaegar sighed. Perhaps they had a small chance of beating off a concerted assault, but everything would have to go exactyl right and Rhaegar knew that in warfare that rarely happened. His uncle Ameron and Ser Vortimer Rivers had patiently listened time after time to his exhortations of what to do in any situation when the assault came. Rhaegar had gone through all the permutations of what the attackers might do, even leading mock assaults against sections of the inner walls to demonstrate to them what might happen and how best to resist. He had consulted the Dragonstone library for stories of seige warfare and had read them with interest, often taking the book and pacing the battlements to see how the ancient accounts could be applied to Dragonstone's defences. He went over those plans with Ameron and Vortimer carefully describing strategies for fighting and retreating to the inner works. In turn Ser Ameron and Ser Vortimer passed on Rhaegar's ideas by drilling the defenders in siege craft and the nuances of Dragonstone’s defences.
Rhaegar glanced up. The Targaryen dragon flapped defiantly above the Citadel above the Stone Drum. His ancestors the Targaryens had set out from here to conquer Westeros over five hundred years ago. Now the Westerosi would conquer Dragonstone and the Targaryen cause would be snuffed out. He looked towards the direction of the Free Cities, where he knew the Targaryen princelings waited. No help would come from here…he knew now. All they could do in Dragonstone was wait for the inevitable assault and accept the will of the Seven as to its outcome. Rhaegar knew most likely what that was.
“Valar morgulis” he murmured softly.
Results:
Rhaegar Velaryon begins to improve towards master in Engineering (Fortifications)
Rhaegar Velaryon improves to Expert in Battle Strategy.
Ameron Velaryon improves to Noteworthy in Battle Strategy
Ameron Velaryon improves to Apprentice in Engineering (Fortifications)
Vortimer Rivers improves to Apprentice in Battle Strategy
Vortimer Rivers improves to Noteworthy in Command
The defences of Dragonstone are further improved.
The people of Dragonstone are pressed into service as defenders. A number are added to the fighting force of the garrison.