Last Storm

Argilac Durrandon, already an old man, wanted protection against Harren Hoare, master of the Iron Islands and much of the Riverlands. He thought he'd found it in Aegon Targaryen, then only Lord of Dragonstone, and offered him his daughter Argella's hand along with land that was technically his but had long sat under the Hoares' rule: the strip between the Trident and the Blackwater.

Aegon turned the offer down and made a different one: he wanted Massey's Hook thrown in too, plus the land between the Blackwater, the Wendwater and the Mander, and he wanted the marriage to go to Orys Baratheon, his friend since childhood and, by rumor, his bastard half-brother. Argilac took it as mockery. He had Aegon's envoy's hands cut off and sent them back with a message: "These are the only hands your bastard will get from me."

That answer pushed Argilac into something far bigger than he intended — it set Aegon on the road to conquering all of Westeros.

Aegon landed at the mouth of the Blackwater, was crowned by his sister Visenya, and secured the Riverlands by burning out the Hoares at Harrenhal. Meanwhile he sent Orys and Rhaenys, she riding the dragon Meraxes, to bring the Stormlands to heel. Argilac, refusing to end up like Harren, called his bannermen to Storm's End.

Skirmishes came before the main clash. Lords Errol, Fell and Buckler ambushed Orys's vanguard crossing the Wendwater and cut down over a thousand men before falling back into the woods, which Rhaenys burned from the air. On top of that, pirates raided Cape Wrath out of the Stepstones, and Dornishmen came down through the Red Mountains against the Dornish Marches.

Rhaenys scouted Argilac's movements from above while Orys dug in on the hills south of Bronzegate. As the two armies closed, a heavy storm broke and soaked the Targaryen host; Argilac, with nearly twice the foot and four times the knights and horse, attacked anyway.

Mud slowed the first mounted charges, though his spearmen on foot took two hills. The fourth charge broke through the Targaryen center and reached Rhaenys, who with Meraxes grounded by the rain burned down the Bastard of Blackhaven and Dickon Morrigen, who led Argilac's host, and scorched his personal guard as well. Argilac, thrown from his horse, killed six men and held off six more before Orys rode down the hill and dismounted. He refused Orys's offer of surrender and demanded single combat; both men were wounded, but it was Argilac who fell, and with him went the last resistance of his army.

With her father dead, Princess Argella barred herself inside Storm's End and declared herself Queen of the Stormlands on her own authority. Her own garrison, fearing they'd share Harren's men's fate, turned on her within days and handed her over to Orys Baratheon in chains, stripped of her clothes.

Orys treated her gently: he struck off her chains, wrapped her in his own cloak, and gave her food and wine. He then married her and became lord of the Stormlands, taking for his newly founded House Baratheon the sigil and words of the Durrandons.

With the Stormlands subdued, Rhaenys left Storm's End and flew to join Aegon at the Field of Fire, where he still needed her.