[D8,MM]New House, Newer House (Closed)

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth sat in his tent, prepared for guests. It perhaps wasn't the most formal of places for what was a rather significant event for all involved, but it required rather a lot of paperwork, and he had it all available here, so practicality won out over pomp.

He had requested the presence of both Ser Baelon and Lady Gwyneth, giving no specific reason. However, given the timing, he had to assume it was fairly obvious.

He wanted to sit down and be composed, look authoritative. But every time he sat down, he started itching. Gods be good, he'd done it! He was heir. He wanted to be running down the streets yelling it to every person he met. Pacing his tent, checking all the arrangements for the twentieth time was the best he could dial it down to.

I just have to hope they haven't changed their mind in the last few hours.

[Baelon Drakeson]

Baelon pulls the tent flap aside for Gwyn to enter, then steps into the tent behind her.

He is dressed simply. Under a long coat of simple black fabric he is wearing the simple tunic of undyed cloth that will later serve as padding underneath his armor. A dark red sash holds the coat closed.

"
Good Morning Daveth. What news?

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Gwyn pushes in, already beaming gleefully as she does, and gives Daveth a quick little bow/curtsy hybrid. She's dressed simply as well, a dark green dress with navy sleeves, with some pretty embroidery along the hems. Something suitable for the long road back to the Vale. Or was that their destination?

Her eyes flicked around the room, taking note of the...somewhat excessive order that its contents found themselves in, and her grin broadened.

"
Indeed,"
she said, "
what news?"

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth is dressed more formally than his guests. Not really out of a conscious choice, rather it was simply what he was wearing when speaking with his father, and it hadn't yet occurred to him to change.

"
I did it!"
Daveth blurts out, then clearly realises what he's just said, coughs slightly in embarrassment, and resumes, a bit more in control. "
I mean, Good morning, Ser Baelon, Lady Gwyneth, thank you for coming."
giving a slightly jerky nod that seems to decide partway to segue into a bow.

"
But yes, it's been confirmed. I'm heir. With no voices raised in dissent, and my father actually willingly accepting it. He actually showed me respect! I'm not sure if you can-"
he interrupts himself and pauses for a couple of seconds while his eyes dart between the two of them. "
Nevermind. You both probably can.

"
So, yes. I'd like to speak with you both about the banner house offer we discussed before, now that I'm in a position to formally offer it. Go over the details, that kind of thing. If you're still interested?"


He looks down at the table where he'd placed the first set of papers, and notices the refreshments. "
Oh! I'm sorry, I'm being rude. Please, take a seat. Make yourselves comfortable."
gesturing towards the seats set up by the table of papers. "
Tea? Else I have a light wine, if you prefer? Something else?"

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Gwyn takes a seat and folds her hands on the tabletop in a little corner not covered by papers.

"
Congratulations,"
she offers. "
And without a single word of dissent! That's very gratifying...Loreia was very upset with you. I'm glad she saw reason in the end."

[Baelon Drakeson]

"
Congratulations. That is good news indeed. Tea for me, please - I prefer not to take wine before a fight."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth raises an eyebrow at Lady Gwyneth. "
That was you? I thought *somebody* must have spoken with her after we ... well, fought, but I couldn't figure out who."
he gives her a deep nod. "
Thank you. She didn't just remain silent, she did indeed speak in my favour."


Daveth starts serving out tea, and places a plate of savoury snacks somewhere reachable, but not on top of the papers. "
Pardon the lack of servants today. As you can see, I've got a lot of papers organised around the place. The last thing I want is an additional body bustling about the place."
Plus, I've gotten rather more paranoid about servants recently.

"
Oh, and in case I forget,"
as he hands Ser Baelon his tea. "
Good luck in the melee."
pause and a slightly crooked smile "
Unless you're up against a Coldbrook. Feel free to lose, then."


Daveth makes a quick mental check to make sure he's shown everyone hospitality, and, satisfied, claps his hands. "
Right, then. While I'm always happy to chat, I would like to request that you confirm that, barring anything untoward in the details, you are indeed both still interested in leading a House Coldbrook banner house? No-one's come forwards with a better offer since?"

[Baelon Drakeson]

"
I've had a number of good offers - but as I said in my letter, we have decided to take yours. It may not be the best offer, but I think it has the most potential."

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

"
Which makes it, in some ways, the best,"
Gwyn says with a chuckle and a wry look at Baelon. They'd been over that semantic line before, perhaps.

"
Yes, we will accept the offer."
She smiled. "
Lord Daveth."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

He smiles in return. "
Excellent. I had said you would while making my case to my father. It would be rather embarrassing if circumstance made me a liar.

"
So, the land. If you like potential, I'm confident you'll love it. There's lots of land, access to the sea, and plentiful raw materials. It's in a very strategic location, and we've even managed to rebuild and refurbish an old manor to use as your seat.

"
Unfortunately, it does also have problems. The population is, well, sparse, and given the large area and small population, we've been unable to properly maintain order in the area. We ourselves have issues in that area, and we believe that it is primarily fuelled from the area that you will be responsible for. Long term - and I understand you'll have higher priorities getting your house properly developed, and I leave that in your hands - but long term, I wish for you to bring order to your land, so we can do the same for ours."


He reaches across to a couple of piles of paper. "
Here are the audits I've taken of the land - acreage, population, resources, and so on. They're estimates, but I believe them to be reasonably accurate. I made duplicates, so you don't have to share."
and he hands a stack of paper to each of his guests.

(OOC: So, now you can make comments about what's there, based on how you spent your points, if you want. Else, we can literally fade to black going over the details. Or, now that the burning question has been asked and answered, you can move the conversation back to more personal ground if you want.)

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

"
There aren't very many people,"
Gwyn murmurs as she scans through the parchments quickly, immediately picking up on what was most important to her.

She looks up at Daveth. "
Have you been to the land yourself? Who owned it before the Coldbrooks?"

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth nods. "
True, though I believe a large part of that is simply that it's not that developed yet. As work opportunities arise and it becomes less lawless, I believe that will improve.

"
And yes, I went there to help oversee the audit. I wanted to make sure it was done properly. This land used to belong to House Astrid, who were almost wiped out by plague, and then were finished off by dragonfire in the Targaryen invasion. Meaning the land has been unclaimed for some time, now. No fear of any 'lost heirs' showing up to claim their inheritance once you've done all the hard work."

[Baelon Drakeson]

"
That's good to know. The last thing I want is a legal battle over ownership rights."


He flips through the pages.

"
I see House Coldbrook will be providing some troops. Good, I would not want to conscript an entire force of peasants. Maybe I'll put the word out that I'm looking for skilled warriors looking to settle a new home. I'm sure my name would be a draw to some hedge knights or second or third sons looking for a more secure living."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth nods. I wish we had the same security. Securing the rights to Castle Grenward from Lord Tully was ... expensive. "
Yeah, we've been training them up for a while. House Coldbrook has always been a supplier of quality troops, rather than mere quantity. While how you run your house is up to you, we wanted to make sure you could carry on that tradition."
With a smile. "
Plus, part of it is to help you recruit those attracted to your banner. If they arrive, and all they see are some barely-trained peasants, I imagine most of them will turn around and walk back out again. But if they see a professional fighting force already there, well, like attracts like."

[Baelon Drakeson]

[/scene?]

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

(OOC - Hehe, I'm fine with /sceneing here if there's nothing more substantial to be said. I thought you boys might want to jabber about militaries and so on. Although...this might be a good place/time to discuss the port situation? I'm going to bring it up here, but if y'all aren't interested in discussing it IC, we can just fade to black with the understanding that they 'talk shop' for awhile, then head on out)

"
You know,"
Gwyn said as she consulted the old map, "
There's a spot here that looks like it might make a decent harbor. I suppose it's hard to tell from paper, but...ships coming in at the base of the mountain there would make it much easier to sell the metal from that mine."


She frowned and shuffled pages more. "
Of course, then we have to worry about defending the harbor as well..."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

(OOC: I'm fine with discussing this. Sorry for the delay, was discussing options with Reader, then crunching numbers to decide exactly how to develop the lands medium-term.)

Daveth gives a small smile, and nods. "
If I had that land, that's definitely the way I'd go. Sea access, combined with our links to the Kingsroad made the area a natural trading hub to my eyes. But as you say - you make a port, and you'll have to defend it against 'accidents' which have absolutely no connection to those who are losing their trade power in response, so it's up to you if you want to risk it.

"
If it impacts your decision any, I intend to use my acknowledgement to develop our industry to really push our economy forwards, and better balance our house. I considered trade, still, but our population is highly decentralised, and culturally, they're good, honest, hard-working folk. It made the most sense to me to work with what I have, rather than trying to remake it into something it's not."

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Gwyn nods at that. "
It's easier for us...there's really very little here beyond that mine and a village of workers,"
she says. "
We can shape it from the ground up. In fact..."


She shuffled through some maps until she found the one she wanted and laid it out. A larger view, big enough to show both the Coldbrook lands and Drakeson.

"
It will take time, and there's a lot of 'ifs' involved...but a road connecting your lands directly to ours here in the lowlands. We'll start out with our village in the foothills, but in time I think if trade flourishes we can move that down farther. Still close to the port and mine, but much closer to the King's Road, and to you. You can focus your efforts on producing items FOR trade. We can provide the venue for it... And not just trade on the road either. A good port here could send ships up and down the coast. Faster and more reliably than most merchant wagons or caravans. We have access to the North and South more or less equally from here...and the Neck means the coast is close to the road."


"
...I'm a little astonished it hasn't been done yet."


She looks at Daveth. "
Security will be the first most pressing concern. What do you think about preferential trade terms in exchange for some assistance keeping the peace?"

[Daveth Coldbrook]

"
White Harbour."
Daveth replies simply. "
Not to put too fine a point on it, but from what I've heard, you haven't seen dirty fighting until you've seen merchants fighting over profit margins, and White Harbour merchants, well, they may not be quite as bad as those from King's Landing, but they're bad enough. And there's a good chance some very important merchants from there will see your port as a threat, and be trying to shut it down from day one, to stop it before it really gets off the ground and starts cutting into their margins.

"
That, I would say, more than anything else, is why it hasn't been done yet."


Daveth gives a wolfish grin. "
But having said that, the only *sure* way to fail is to not even try. And there are those in White Harbour who could benefit, as well. So, if you feel able to convince them to have faith in your endeavour, their influence could even out, and House Manderly at least won't get involved. So all you'd have to deal with are desperate merchants with deep pockets, low morality, and a sense of entitlement to match any noble."


Daveth's eyes are almost sparkling as he looks up from the map. "
But yes, as it happens, providing security is something of a House specialty of ours. While there's no need to handle exact numbers just yet, I think you can count on us being able to come to an agreement along those lines, should you go ahead with that plan."

[Baelon Drakeson]

"
If we focus our mercantile connections on the Riverlands and beyond to the Westerlands, I doubt the White Harbor merchants would care all that much - I doubt it is cost effective for them to send goods all the way across the north to the Kingsroad. I'm more concerned with House Mooton."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

"
I fear you may be underestimating the pettiness of merchants, but you are right that House Mooton would definitely be an area of concern, though distance works in our favour, there.

"
The biggest irritation, though not the greatest danger, to your plans will probably come from the sisters. The pirates there will have to learn fear of you, and learn it hard, to avoid the gold of others tempting them to test your wrath."


Daveth gives a quirk of a half-smile. "
A lot of enemies, especially combined with those you've brought with you. It will take both honey and steel, and lots of them, to pull this off, particularly as a new banner house of a house still on its first generation.

"
Are you sure of this path? Enemies are easy to gain and hard to lose, and even the finest of beasts can be brought down by sufficient numbers of otherwise lesser creatures."
his tone isn't doubting, rather it's testing. Ambition against caution. Trying to get a true measure of the couple whose fates he's tied to his own.

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

"
Hmm, good point. Nevermind then, someone else can take the House."


Gwyn's eyes twinkled with mirth as she sat back and spread her hands. "
Your warning is true enough, but it omits a very important thing. We won't be alone. There will be enemies, but there will also be friends. One beast may fall to a horde, but many beasts that stick together...well, even the most determined packs of wolves will only nibble at the fringes of a herd."

[Daveth Coldbrook]

Daveth winces slightly at Lady Gwyneth's analogy. "
A fair point. However, in future, please avoid using wolves or direwolves in your metaphors in a negative context. You're about to become honorary Northerners, and that kind of thing is frowned upon.

"
On a related note,"
he continues, face and tone completely serious "
since you are about to become Northerners, I should really arrange for your surgery to have your senses of humour removed. Alas, we have no maester, so you'll have to fake the lack for now. Plus, you may wish to import some lemons to suck on so you can get the mandatory facial expression down pat. I could also recommend some herbs that will give you a painful stomach ache for an extended period, if you feel that would be of assistance in helping you maintain the requisite humourless scowl.

"
Aside from that, let me know if and when you start building the port, along with what you'll need security-wise, and I'll send our crack team of diplomats to negotiate w-"
he breaks off, though his tone and expression remain completely placid. "
... hmmm. Well, we'll figure something out at the time.

"
Any other points you wish to discuss?"

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Gwyneth grinned. "
Spoken like a true son of the North."


She shook her head then and leaned back a little, stretching.

"
I think that will do it for now. Anything more specific will have to wait until we've settled in a bit. Baelon, what do you think?"

[Baelon Drakeson]

Baelon flips through the pages, thoughtfully.

"
I think we've said what can be said without actually seeing the place."

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