Ramsey's sick game

[Theda Baratheon]

I just realised how painful would it be to be naked and riding a horse? say without a saddle too? still better than ramsay getting you tho

[The Frost Wolf]

Right, so Ramsey, bastard son of Roose Bolton used to get a girl naked, and "release" her in the forest around the Dreadfort and give her the night to escape before he hunts her with his dogs.

Made me think - what would a clever (and physically fit, one hopes) girl do to give herself the best chance of escaping?

First instinct would be to run away as far away from the Dreadfort as possible. Maybe cross a few rivers to confuse the scent for the dogs - although you do waste time doing that (can't run fast in a stream or river).

But how far could you realistically go? Don't forget you're naked, so no shoes. Hopefully you know where the roads are around the Dreadfort, so you'd select one to run as fast as possible and build distance between the castle and you - at least during the night. But come first light, you know Ramsey is up, horsed and ready to go. So you can't stay on the road, he'd find you too easily. So what do you do?

I guess you leave the road about 1 hour before first light, and dive into the forest. How many kms would you have done by then? If you started running at, say, 8pm and you decide to leave the road at 4am, that's 8 hours running (with no shoes, on a dirt track). How many kms? I'd say you would have done a max of 70 kms, and that's if you're mega-fit and didn't take much rest, and have ultra-hard feet soles allowing you to run barefeet. Realistically I think you can do a max of 60 kms.

What do you think? Would Ramsey's dogs find you 60kms from the castle?

And where could you hide so that the dogs wouldn't find you? You probably want to find some clothes at some stage, else you'll die of exposure and cold when night falls. Would you go to a peasant's house, hope to be able to steal some clothes undetected?

Lay down and die. No, but the best chances are follow a river to throw them off the scent, leave your clothes at some point away from where you're going to throw them off, then find a horse and get as far away as possible. The no clothes thing would come in handy here.

[Albatros]

You need to use the limitations of the dogs an horses. The best way to do this is to find a cliff. Cliffs are easy to see form afar. Maybe run past a cliff to the river, double back to the cliff, then climb it. Once at the top, run for it. If you're lucky, the dogs will follow your first trail to the river then get confused. If you're unlucky and they figure out that you climbed the cliff, then they still either have to go a long way around (wasting time) AND pick up your sent somewhere at the top of the cliff. You might even be able to climb back down again and make them go through it again. If they leave the horses and dogs to follow you up a cliffside, then there is no way for them to track you.

[Mjoll]

First, I would call my Flying Nimbus. Get higher than the arrows can get me, then Spirit Bomb charge for (what a day?) then blow the Dreadfort up.

*snort* Even Goku would have a nightmarish time sorting out all the baddies in westeros.

[The Red Pope]

I found this test that the Mythbusters did, "Can to trick a trained blood hound?". It's quite relevant to this discussion, here's the link:

http://mythbustersresults.com/hair-of-the-dog

From what they discovered we can just forget about trying to fool the dogs, at least if they're that well trained. The best chance then is to steal a horse or a boat by the river. Or to go through terrain that slows the pursuers down, a cliff as suggested earlier might work. You could also try ground covered with large stones or marches, it won't stop the dogs but horses hate both and will move at a walking pace.

[Bad Hound!]

Some good suggestions there, thank you.

- cover yourself in mud/shit: quick to do, so you don't waste time;

- look for terrain that horses / dogs won't like. You know Ramsey is not going to walk; plus he won't leave his dogs. So cliffs, marshes, all that is good;

- I really like the going to a pig stye and covering yourself with their scent, then releasing them, this should really confuse the dogs. Great idea. and then if you can steal a horse, you're away. So if there's a village near the Dreadfort, then maybe that's the best start.

Don't think it's realistic going back to the castle or even hanging around closeby. Surely it's only a matter of time before you get spotted. And I don't think breaking into a castle at night is easy.

I reckon it is true that Ramsey might have weakened the girls before releasing them, maybe by keeping them prisoner in the castle for a few days and not feeding them much. But as a hunter, you don't want prey that's too easy and can barely walk, do you? So you'd hope the girls aren't in too bad a state. So if it's you, then hopefully you still have all your senses, and hopefully some strength left.

[Light a wight tonight]

I wonder if Martin took Ramsay's game from the hounds used by the Ska in the Lyonesse trilogy to track escaped slaves. They were foiled by being poisoned. Heh.

[Bellatrix Stark]

Thought long and hard about this and there are pretty much two things that I would do

Option one: Run and run and run. If you get a nice speed going and you can manage 10 miles per hour- that would be 80 miles, give or take. I think this would be plausible for an average woman, especially when you know your life is in true danger. In my younger, admittedly fitter, years I ran a mile in 5 minutes (which would be like 12 miles in an hour, but I can't do that anymore). So could work out.

Option two: not running at all. Hang out at the castle. I would rather stick to him and not give him the satisfaction of hunting and killing me. Ramsey would be pissed, and make me pay for it but I'm a stubborn person like that. I hate doing things that people want me to do, especially when it benefits only them :P

But I would probably go with the first option

:bawl: :whip:

[Gannicus]

doubling back to the castle is good in theory, but do you not think this would be completely unanticipated? i'm sure the castle wouldn't all be asleep. you'd have people awake. it REALLY would not be easy to sneak into a fucking castle, just easily steal some food and some clothes and walk out again. i mean, seriously...

You might not have to get all the way into the castle. If you made it to the stables or the gate you might be able sneak on a wagon, hopefully a dung or a hay wagon you could cover yourself in and get a free ride out of town.

I just think running barefoot, malnourished, and without a clue would be exactly what he expects and wants.

[Daffy Duck]

I think going by water, to Winterfell, or on terrain dogs don't like would be your best bet. Or getting a really big stick and wacking Ramsay on the head really hard before he catches you.