The Red Kraken's Revenge

It had been fifteen years since the West had paid the Ironborn back for the years of blood and war, but the Ironborn are not a folk who forgive or forget. Toron Greyjoy was a grown man now, but the memories of the West's invasion of the Iron Islands still loomed large in his mind.

The Plan Revealed
As the world found itself at the dawn of a new year the Lords of the Iron Islands found summons carried upon raven’s back urging them toward festivities at Pyke. The Greyjoy’s ancestral seat was a hotpot of blood, drink, and merry-making, though Toron Greyjoy had much more grand plans in store for them. Upon a full moon, amidst salt and smoke, did the Lord Reaper announce that very soon they would sail out and seek revenge upon the Lannisters for those slights paid to the Islands in 134. In the interim attempts had been made to revenge themselves, though most were small in size and their sights set more on the merchant vessels that made the run on the Sunset Sea. Toron Greyjoy had not proven himself at such a young age the reaver his father had been, he had not in him the same qualities that had made the Red Kraken a storied man so early in his life, and there were whispers that the Harlaws yet reviled him and the sudden end to their bid for closer influence within Pyke. His qualities were less obvious, hidden and closely guarded. What Toron boasted was cunning, and it was borne from the back of his ideas that the Ironborn would see themselves revenged at last.

Wolves of the Sea
He led a large fleet toward Westermen’s bay to make sure they would be seen, and then dismissed half of it back toward the Iron Islands, whereupon he made for Fair Isle. This brought out the West’s fleet, who saw an opportunity and were remiss to let it slip by. They had smashed the Ironborn apart in 134AC, after all. This would simply be yet another reminder of the Lion’s supremacy. So follow they did, and as they tailed the small section of the Iron Fleet with the smell of prey hot in their nostrils, they failed to notice that other half sail out behind them. Later they would know the truth; that the half of the fleet Toron Greyjoy had dismissed had not made for home at all, but instead hid between Fair Isle and the mainland, biding their time to strike.

And strike they would, in tandem.

The destruction wrought upon the West’s fleet was total, only by the good grace of the Gods and a timely retreat did the fleets of Lannisport and Casterly Rock pull away and make for safe port. The rest were smashed and sunk below, and still it was not done. For a half year following the Ironborn reaved the West’s coasts. Drunk on their victories the wealth that was taken numbered in the bushel, in coin and gem and salt-wives all. Banefort, the Crag, Crakehall, all that neared the sea faced the wrath of the Ironmen. The fleets of Casterly Rock and Lannisport remained berthed in their ports and would not journey out again until sails of the Iron Fleet had returned to the rocky islands which they named their home, and Toron Greyjoy returned to Pyke having proven himself effective in the position he so readily occupied. It was not enough for him, however. It never would be. The Red Kraken’s son had yearned for revenge on the Rock itself, on Lannisport and all that which had made the Lannisters rich and bold, revenge for the brother that had been made a eunuch and something to be mocked by the Greenlanders. It was simply not to be -- not that time, at least.

Aftermath - Pleasant Surprises
While the Ironborn had plundered the coast of the Westerlands, looted and burned where they went, and done largely as they pleased for the cause of that half year in 150 AC, the true undoing of House Lannister of Casterly Rock, the true revenge of the Red Kraken, was not one of worldly sorts. When the ships of the Ironmen withdrew and returned home, drunk on power and success, and rich with plunder and women, the Houses of the West turned to their lord, their liege, the son of the fabled Lady Johanna Lannister. But, he was not his mother.

Little did the realm yet know, but the gold mined within the personal demesne of House Lannister of Casterly Rock had slowed to all but a trickle, even within the great mine that was Casterly Rock itself. Yet, worse still, the ailing Lannister finances had not been helped by the ways of Lady Johanna's son. When the West had suffered, and where the Houses of the coast required aid in rebuilding, they were forced to turn to House Lannister of Lannisport, for what little coin the Lord of the Rock did have, he spent wantonly on his love for tourneys and melees, for feasts and balls, for whores, and most of all, the three daughters of Lord Payne.

Even further stil, when in 151 AC, a number of coastal Houses by the names of Prester, Reyne, and Westerling, to name a few, began to encroach on the Crakehall lands, seeking timber to rebuild their own fleets and towns, violence would ensue. The Crakehalls appealed to Casterly Rock to intervene, but the Lady Johanna's son seemed to care not, sending little reply and doing nothing to stop the events. Ultimately, this would result in a series of skirmishes as the Crakehalls made to defend their lands, and set the trend that would gradually become the way of the Lannisters; weakness.