Chapter 73

Things were working out for once, and it was actually quite shocking as Life seems to take great Pleasure from thoroughly trashing your Plans while it does nothing about the Problems you were usually facing. The Saying that Life fucks everyone equally never really rang true with you, but seeing that Boy swiftly recompose himself before he silently approaches the two of you from the Left made you wonder just how Life decides who it will support. Combined with the Fact that you were now serving a Great House for more Gold than most minor Nobles will ever see, and you're surprisingly filled with Hope that you might actually be experiencing a genuine Stroke of good Luck for once.

But equally surprising was the Fact that the two of you were still a decent Stretch, as in several Days, away from actually reaching the Hosts of the Vale as they were shockingly forced to retreat by the countless new Tactics of the Clans. Though, as the Boy continues to explain why things were more dire than they seemed, you really had to wonder what the Arryns were thinking when they decided to spare themselves the Effort of clearing the Mountains just once. The little Ranger of course knew none of these Thoughts about his Lords, and thus simply continues to lead both you and your Companion back to his Superiors in Darway Castle while he continues to distract himself from your gory Companion with the Explanation.

You couldn't help but be both sickened and impressed with what you heard about their new Strategies, though one quite daunting Tactic in particular made you wonder why the Clans hadn't used it before, if they really didn't care about how they were fighting their Wars anymore. The Tactic of going after the Enemy's Supply of drinking Water wasn't really all that new, but throwing already decomposing Corpses down every Well they could reach proofed far more effective than it should have reasonably been. The Knights of the Vale should have been more than able to use their Mobility to secure and protect the transportation of enough Water and Supplies from somewhere else in the Vale, but the Clans were apparently set on abusing that Mindset to it's fullest.

For the War was started on the Mountain Clans's Terms, which meant that the Knights of the Vale soon found out that they had to send out thousands upon thousands of their Number to retake smaller Castles and Hold that were swiftly overrun and fortified in the first Nights of the Conflict's bloody Beginning. The little grey Ranger informed you after a bit more probing that everything was perfectly set up and that the Knights with their Pride not just rode but charged right into one hell of a Trap.

For while the Hosts of the Vale were still able to move and fight back as they proofed by striking down each and every Clan that dared to raid in their Proximity for Weeks on end, that didn't mean that the Clans themselves had any Interest in fighting said Hosts in such Engagements. The Trap only became apparent for what it was after the Knights could no longer push forward as they were stopped by three to six meter deep Gorges and Barricades braced by the ancient Trees of the Vale's thick Forests, and by then it was sadly already far too late for anything to be done.

It doesn't take a Genius to realise what he meant, though you still needed that last Part to fully understand why there was still this much Chaos after the Hosts of the Vale had pushed the Tribes and Clans out of most of their Castles. The Clans were here to stay and not just to raid, and that's not something anyone would have expected, seeing as even those simultaneous Attacks on the Holds of the Vale simply weren't on the Level of Manpower one would expect of a full scale Migration.

And you guess that the Answer to where that missing Manpower was hiding became rather obvious as more and more Hosts encountered similarly fortified Gorges as they advanced throughout the Woods. For the Clans hadn't actually raided to gain Wealth and Prestige as usual, but instead to make sure that every Knight was committed and accounted for as they quietly built their Positions. And through the destruction of the Wells the vital Supply of drinking Water was so endangered that the Clans could make sure that all these countless Knights would be occupied and once more accounted for by deploying only a few thousand expendable Warriors to threaten these absolutely vital Lines of Supply.

The Scheme didn't have the Goal of wiping out the Armies of House Arryn in one go, nor did the Clans genuinely care about the Castles and Holds they took, no, the Goal of their Trap was to stretch the Lines of the Knights throughout passable and unpassable Terrain alike. They never planned to fight the Hosts of the Arryns for so much as a Second, and thus created a Tactic that would ensure that the Defences of their Enemies would become absolutely porous and disorganised.

It was a Trap that if executed correctly would force the great Armies of House Arryn to retreat and reorganise their Hosts from Scratch, something that couldn't be done fast nor on a Whim. So what you saw when you first entered the Vale with your Companion was one of those moments, a full Scale Retreat by one of the mighty Hosts of the Vale that left hundreds of Square Kilometers and with it dozens of Towns and Villages alike undefended for at least four Nights. And going by what your Guide was telling you, the Situation was already pretty bad before you had even accepted your Job in the Reach, but by now a little over a fourth of House Arryns Territories were under the control of the Mountain Clans.

While said Mountain Clans were now able to equip themselves with the scavenged Armour and Weapons of the best Knights the Realm could field, as smaller Clans continue their work on the Fortifications now far less silently. Thus, new Gorges connecting to the old ones were slowly springing up each Day, while more and more Trees were being cut down to build new Barricades where they were still needed. You honestly didn't understand why neither the King nor the Great Houses were willing to help the Arryns out, but you also didn't think that there was a single Town that had less than a dozen passionate Answers to that Question, so you just push the matter away for now.