Chapter 2
On the Road to King's Landing, 281 A.C.
The march to King's Landing from the newly named Ruby Ford takes roughly 8 days. I now know this because we were starting the fifth day of our march outside of Antlers, seat of the recently surrendered House Buckwell, and halfway point between the Ruby Ford and King's Landing. Four days has given me a lot of time to think while riding on horseback at the pace of the marching levies.
One of my first thoughts in those four days was which version of Westeros was I in, books or show? Judging from the banner colors I guessed it to be a mix of both. The Stark banners (and by extension my house banners) have the running direwolf of the books while the Boltons have the red, white, and dark blue flayed man of the show and the year being 281 means it's following the show's timeline.
This was immediately followed up by Wait. If I'm from a house I made for a CK3 mod, do I have console commands? After testing this out by thinking and speaking out loud (alone) words like "menu" "status" "console command" and nothing happening, I concluded I didn't possess any cheat powers.
I wasn't going to let that stop me from making changes to canon. I was arriving to King's Landing the same time as Robert Baratheon, which means Tywin Lannister will have already sacked the city and killed Elia and her children by the time we get there.
Can't change that. But maybe there are other things I can do, starting with this. I thought to myself as I sat in my tent and fiddled with what looked to be a circular, wooden powder box in my hands. One perk of being a lord is being able to have people do stuff while you're busy, like gathering the materials needed for me to pull a MacGyver. My thoughts were interrupted by my cousin entering the tent nursing a hangover.
"You looked like you had fun last night." I noted, deliberately talking a little loud and laughing at his grimace.
"Yeah, well, you'd have that fun last night too if hadn't left early." He replied before his eyes settled on what I was holding. "What's that?"
"The reason I left early last night, your servant Dagwell finally brought me the last thing I needed to make this." I handed him the box, he removed the saw two small nails, one painted red facing the entrance, tied to a strangle looking metal in the middle.
"Move around the tent and tell if you notice anything about the red nail." He did as I ask and began to slowly walk around the tent. I chuckled when I noticed his pace quicken, eyes widened but fixed solely on the nail.
"It always faces the same direction!" He turned me and sputtered "What magic is this!"
I rolled my eyes "No magic, the secret is the sticky stone." Sticky stone is local name for lodestone, at least in the North. I don't know about the other kingdoms other than the sticky stone Dagwell bought was from a wood witch of all people. From Hugo's memories, sticky stone was vaguely known throughout the North as a metal that makes weak iron and thus isn't mined or looked for. In Sea Dragon Point, sticky stone was more widely known a metal used for toys and knick-knacks thanks to a natural deposit near the village of Flatmire south of Castle Warg.
"The sticky stone causes the red nail to always face North, so you always know which direction you're going!"
Wyman eyes widened even further than I thought possible as he grasped the implications. "Imagine if our sea captains had this! They could sail as please without having worrying about hugging the coast or not being able to see the sun or stars! It could give us an advantage over the Ironfuckers" His voice grew more excited as he talked.
"Aye, that's the plan. Give all the captains of the Sunset Fleet one of those and we'll finally be able to match the squids in open water!" The Sunset Fleet was a fleet of 25 war galleys owned by House Seastark and the biggest butterfly their existence has had on the North. In canon, the west coast of the North is poor, rugged, sparsely populated, and subject to frequent Ironborn raids with the occasional Wildling raid thrown in for flavor. The existence of House Seastark and the Sunset Fleet changes that…somewhat. The fleet is just large enough to protect Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore from the usual Ironborn raid and working with the Mormont fleet of 10 war galleys, can protect Bear Island, the lands of House Glover and the Northern Mountain Clans from Wildlings. This has led to these lands being slightly richer and slightly more populated with Sea Dragon Point especially having more people and wealth than canon. Except Cape Kraken, those poor bastards are too far away and the fleet too small for us to effectively protect and get hit with extra raids due to the Ironborn throwing a tantrum they can't reave the rest of the North so if anything, they're worse off than canon.
"We can show this to the King today!" Wyman cut me out of my thoughts.
"The what?" I say caught off guard.
He chuckles. "Oh right. You left before the King announced who was riding with him today." King Robert (he wasn't king yet but everyone has been calling him one since the battle) chooses two houses each from the North, the Riverlands, the Vale and the Stormlands to personally ride with him and Jon Arryn each day with the roster changing to prevent favoritism.
"Who else is with us?" I ask.
"House Bolton and us from the North, Houses Cobray and Grafton from the Vale, Houses Bracken and Blackwood from the Riverlands, and Houses Fell and Buckler from the Stormlands."
"Sounds like an interesting bunch." I say as I start get ready.
A few hours later…
It did turn out to be an interesting bunch. After the greetings and polite courtesies, or in the case of Lord Blackwood and Lord Bracken, starring daggers at one another and quickly muttering greetings, the group rode and chatted before eventually splitting into two groups centered around the future king and future hand. King Robert had the Corbrays, Brackens, Blackwoods and Bucklers along with Wyman roaring with laughter at some jest, while I was in the group with Jon Arryn, Edric "the Silveraxe" Fell, Royce Bolton with his son Roose, and Gwayne Grafton with his son Gerold. We were discussing the politics of the realm and what was happening in the capital now that word had reached the army that the Mad King had been deposed and killed with the city sacked when I finally spotted an opportunity.
"It's deplorable that the head of the Alchemist Guild, a smallfolk no less, was made Hand of the King. Just goes to show how far the Dragons have fallen." Lord Gwayne said in a tone I can only describe as snooty. I saw the other lords nod and murmur in agreement.
"Aye, you speak true Lord Gwayne." I say giving a nod. "Though I admit to being more worried about the wyldfire they've been making than the damage to the prestige of the Iron Throne." The looks and murmurs and confusion were my only answer.
"Think about it. We had a Mad King known for liking wyldfire far too much making the head of the Alchemist Guild, the only people in the realm that knows how to make the stuff, Hand of the King and giving them free reign. If that wasn't bad enough I heard whispers from merchants how the guild was buying up ingredients in bulk, ingredients known or suspected to be used in the production of wyldfire."
"If that's true, then why didn't the Mad King use it against us or Lord Tywin?" Asked Edric Silveraxe and I shrugged.
"Probably didn't get the time to use it. Lord Tywin was let in to the city in the mistaken belief that he was on the Mad King's side only for him to take over before they could use it."
"How do you know about what the merchants of King's Landing are whispering." I hear Jon Arryn ask in a polite, yet skeptical tone.
I keep a calm face while scrambling an excuse in my head. "It's no secret my house trades a lot with the Westerlands and we've built ties with some of their merchants, merchants that also have a presence in the capital. It is through those merchants that I heard those whispers and if I've heard them, then it is possible Lord Tywin has as well."
"You suspect Lord Tywin is attempting to acquire for himself this supposed stash of wyldfire?" Royce Bolton said in a voice barely above a whisper. I ignored his and his son's creepy stares and shrugged.
"I don't claim to know Lord Tywin's objectives but there is a possibility that he knows of the wyldfire and if he does, do you really think he'd pass up the opportunity to seize it for himself." I respond to Royce but glance over to Jon Arryn giving me a calculating look. He opens his mouth to speak-
"WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!" is heard followed by a cacophony of excited and confused yells originating from Robert's group. We look over to see Ser Lyn Cobray pointing at something being held by the king but a small crowd of men blocked us from seeing what. As our group began to make our way over to investigate, we see Robert laugh and wave us over.
"JON! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!" he boomed. As we got closer I could the king was holding a familiar round, wooden box. My eyes widen as I frantically check my saddle bags only to find no DIY compass. My gaze shifts to Wyman as Jon Arryn positions his horse next to Robert's to get a closer look at my invention. Wyman's eyes finally meet mine and he smiled sheepishly when I gave him a hard look that promised a talk later.
"Ah cousin! I was showing them your wayfinder." Wayfinder? I wondered briefly before suppressing a groan and a facepalm. I wanted to call it a "compass" like from Earth but Wyman complained that it was a bad name and that "wayfinder" was better. Looks like he got his way after all.
Before I could berate him for stealing my "wayfinder" I heard Robert call out "Lord Hugo! Did you truly make this with your own hands?" All the lords around him, which I noticed included men from several houses that weren't invited to ride with the king, snapped their heads to me and I was bombarded with a tide of comments and inquires.
"Made with his hands like a commoner!?" "What magic did you use?" "No way a Northerner made this!" "How much gold do you want for it?" "Make me one and you can marry my daughter!"
"Alright, alright, calm down and give him some room to breathe!" Robert raised his voice and quieted the crowd. "Well?" he looked at me questioningly, "Did you?"
"Yes, your grace I did make it with what materials my servant could acquire on the march." I answered.
"How does it work?" He immediately asked. I told him what I know about magnets and how they work (which admittedly isn't that much) and told him the citadel probably knows more than me on the subject. I saw his eyes (and those of several lords) glaze over as some or all my scientific explanation went over their heads.
Jon Arryn cleared his throat when I was done and spoke: "These wayfinders would be most useful for the ship captains in the Royal Navy." "You're right Jon!" Robert exclaimed as life seem to return to eyes. "Lord Hugo, can you make more, not just for me but for the Royal Navy once we deal with those damn dragons?" he asked with intense stare
"Ah... Sure your grace, I'll need a workshop, some hands to train and gold to buy the materials but it can be done." I replied, slightly taken aback and the king beamed.
"Good, Jon will sort out the details with you once we get settled in the Red Keep." He smiled and handed me my wayfinder back and trotting away to leave me with stares of the gathered lords. I spent the rest of the day's march answering questions, working out purchase orders from interested lords, and politely turning down marriage offers. Wyman is definitely getting latrine duty. I thought darkly to myself.
By the time we reached King's Landing, I was pretty damn sure everyone in our army from noble to smallfolk was talking about my "magic box".
A/N: Our SI brings his first invention to Westeros, tries to warn Jon Arryn about the wyldfire and gives some exposition on the North. Not much to say on my end other than wanted House Seastark's existence to have noticeable butterflies in the North while not changing canon too much. The North is overall stronger with House Seastark's existence, but not that much stronger and that new strength is concentrated solely on the North's west coast with the exception of Cape Kraken.
Hope you guys enjoy