Gasi

Mance Rayder was dead, slain by the new Magnar of Thenn, a man named Ogir. Ogir had begun outfitting many of the Wildling warriors with bronze weapons from Thenn. It seemed he had been building up his stores before he had disposed of Styr and marched to meet Mance at his camp. He equipped many warriors and spearwives with full suits of bronze heavy armor, shields, and spears. Jon had seen with his own eyes how he had built some of the Thenns into heavy spearmen that fought in disciplined blocks of spears, eight men across by eight men deep and equipped spearwives with bronze javelins and lighter shields and leather armor studded with bronze. The warriors he had just armed were not nearly as disciplined as the Thenns, who were possibly the best troops north of the Wall by now, but were still fearsome fighters with bow, spear, and axe. Ogir had also ensured a supply of Dragonglass daggers and arrowheads for use against White Walkers, or so he claimed. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect than Jon had hoped. Rather than shattering the unity of the Free Folk, they had all banded together under Ogir.

After Mance's death, Jon had escaped camp and ran back to Castle Black. However he was finding it increasingly difficult to persuade anyone other than Dolorous Edd, Sam Tarly, and Gren that the Wildlings had disciplined troops armed and armored in bronze. Ser Allister Thorne had managed to convince the majority of officers that such things were folly. Oddly, Jon had found another receptive ear just a few days ago in a new arrival, Renly Baratheon, former claimant to the Throne. Renly had told Jon he would do anything he could to convince the other brothers that he was right. It was foolhardy to ignore your only source of intelligence he had said.

Accordingly Jon had found in the three days since, that more and more of the brothers of the Night's Watch were listening. Whether it would be enough, he could not say. He stood his watch on the wall this night, searching for signs from the haunted forest that the Wildling hordes might be near. In the twilight light, he could just make out smoke on the horizon from hundreds of thousands of cook fires. It wouldn't be long before battle was joined. His uncle Benjen, acting Lord Commander had ordered the passages through the wall sealed at any castle that had minimal or no garrison, which meant the only points of entry into Westeros were at Eastwatch, at the Shadow Tower, and here at Castle Black. His uncle had not believed him about the Thenns at first, experience with the wildlings telling him that they were usually less disciplined than Flea Bottom scum. However it seemed that both Renly and Jon had managed to persuade him of the possibility that there was a disciplined contingent of Thenn warriors garbed in bronze, after all, if anyone of the Wildling tribes could pull it off, it was the Thenns.

Battle was looming, but Benjen had confided in Jon a plan that he intended to bolster the Watch against the coming hordes of undead and their White Walker masters. Benjen had, in the time Jon had been on his extended scout, secured a viable source of Dragonglass from Skagos and intended to bolster numbers by defeating the Free Folk and inducting the survivors into the Watch. It was a bold plan, and one that Jon knew would find little support amongst the brothers of the Watch, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be Benjen. Supposedly his uncle had faced down a White Walker and lived to tell the tale before Lord Commander Mormont had died at the Fist of the First Men. He had led the retreat back to castle black at dawn after the initial stages of the siege and managed to preserve around 3/4ths of the great ranging with that move. If anyone could convince the other leaders of the Watch it would be him.

Idly, however, Jon wondered just how bloody the coming battle would be and whether or not the forces gained would even balance those lost, or if the whole plan would amount to nothing in the end