Braavos – 12th Month, 291 AC

I have been busy and there is much to report.

The Targaryen children have been found, and I am currently negotiating their safe transfer to my custody. Or at least the Iron Bank is negotiating, as I am attempting to keep my part in the proceedings as quiet as possible. Best they come in as strangers then as the claimants to the Iron Throne. I wish as little trouble from King Robert Fuckwit as possible for the moment and opening housing the Targaryen's is a great way to go about that.

When I have time and the inclination, I will send a message to Lord Varys to see if something can be worked out in getting them back on the throne. If I can avoid the War of the Five Kings in seven or so years, all the better. But I still have my projects to work on and they take priority for the moment.

The assembling of a naval force goes well. As it turns out, Braavos is a great place to look for sellsails and sellswords. The gentlemen I have left in charge of that particular project report that we will have a large enough force by the end of the month to go forward.

No word yet from those who I have sent to negotiate for the services of the Unsullied, but that is expected. It is both a long distance and a long process. With the numbers I am wanting, it won't be cheap. Thankfully I have enough of a standing with the Bank that incurring debt won't be a problem. Especially as I setting as many of my projects within projected incomes as I can.

While I will need a standing force to keep the stepstones, hopefully it will not be as large as the force needed to take it.

Those in the know have wondered why I would not wed Daenerys Targaryen myself and use her political clout to further my own causes. While I am in this new world, where the age between husband and wife doesn't always need to be as close as on Earth to be considered non-taboo, I am still from Earth and hold more than a couple of the related ingrained western beliefs. Also adding to the fact is that I really don't want to get mixed up in Westerosi politics.

I'm having a hard enough time dealing with the Braavosi kind and that's where I live. It has been through share luck and unintentional skill that I've avoided problems so far.

Speaking of that, I have been approached to help fund the end of the Braavosi calendar year. Apparently they follow a similar calendar to the western cultures of Earth and their New Year and ours roughly align. According to the messenger who came to my apartments the Magistrate's send round a collection plate to the high-level merchants to help throw an end-of-year blow out for the citizens and denizens of the city.

I'm not against that in the slightest, though I did my double checking to make sure I wasn't being duped. I've been managing to avoid getting a reputation as an easy mark and have been succeeding so far. Let us see if I can continue it. But, I have instructed the Bank to send along my contribution to the event. Hopefully I will be able to attend this year as I apparently missed out last year due to… apparent pure ignorance and getting stupidly drunk in my apartments and the nearby pub. Though it may explain why I ended up with a lady or two slapping me in the days following.

Not entirely surprising that, as I can be a thick headed ignoramus at times.

Braavos – 12th Month, 291 AC

I may have tripled the number of slaps from last year. But there are so many beautiful women… And I money to spend…

Braavos – 1st Month, 291 AC

As it turns out, that I am well known amongst the poorer folk for my generosity, friendliness and the fact that I apparently come from their number. As it turns out, many of the number at the tavern I used to call home thought I was a local full of good stories about where I was from. I will not complain or correct as it adds to my mystique and must've confused whichever Small Councillor who was asking after me.

My popularity made partying during New Year's much easier and led to me laying with more than one lass, as I apparently briefly mentioned in these writings previous. It also led to me getting slapped by a few maidens, punched by a few husbands and glared at by a few fathers. The things we do while black out drunk, I guess.

Progress has been made on my armada. It is complete and rearing to go.

The plan is to take and use Tyrosh as a base of operations for the push into the stepstones. That invasion alone will take a month or two, and that's being generous, and presuming that the other nearby free cities don't decide to chime in with their own two denarii.

Personally, I could do without Tyrosh, but according to the Captains of both the sellsail fleets and the sellsword companies it's a necessary step. And an important financial base for them, I guess, if I end up being unable to pay the promised prices for their services. Which is fair.

So long as I hold up my end, which I intend to do, I get to add Archon of Tyrosh to the list of titles I will be accruing as I go along. I am sorely tempted to just roll it into the Lord of the Isles title, but I don't want to rock to many boats (proverbially) so I may just end up being Bilbo of House Baggins, first of his name, Archon of Tyrosh, Lord of the Isles. But that's getting ahead of myself.

The armada is due to set sail within the week and arrive near Tyrosh within a month. Hopefully by then I've smoothed the fact that I established an armada within the territory of Braavos with the Sealord and the Magistrates. This may involve parting with a decent chunk of change in the forms of bribes, fines and pay-outs. Which is fine, but it does strain the budget somewhat as I had to put together more than a few down payments on the various mercenaries I hired. Some of the more intelligent or world-weary gentlemen wanted at least partial payment up front before doing the job.

That was fair, but it took a reasonable amount of doing. Getting together a sufficiently decent amount of coin together is about as easy in Braavos as it is on Earth. But it was done with the assistance of the ever present Bank. I may be relying on them and their services a little overmuch, but it's not like I have a choice at this point and I doubt they have any complaints.

Regardless, while dealing with a whole bunch of things, I have to find someone learned in the law and figure out how navigate the whole 'I established an armed force in one countries territory to invade another' situation. So, off to the bank?