S02E09

## Ghosts of High Heart

### Summary:

The Dread Company go to High Home to investigate one of Minnie's prophetic dreams. They find more than they bargained for

## The Ghosts of High Heart

The Eight Future Kings and their entire army were headed east to King's Landing, no doubt to a long siege of the capital. Percy told the Dread Company to march with the army while he, Maxir, Minerva, Torrhen and Whistler finished some business in the Riverlands. That business, to uncover a cache of gold Whistler had hidden on one of his exploits and to investigate a strange dream that came to Minnie - a dream of a mother holding an infant within a circle of thirty-one weirwood stumps.

## The Inn of the Kneeling Man

The heroes of the Dread Company stood victorious four months had passed since the Lannisters invaded Highhome and Maxir had to flee. Four months of fleeing, marching, fighting - and now finally a moment to breathe. They found their rest in an auspicious place as well, the Inn of The Kneeling Man. Three hundred years before Torrhen Stark, the King in the North, had come here to bend the knee to Aegon the Conqueror. Now, the Seven Kingdoms were well on their way to independence due to a battle on the same ground.

They set off southward to High Heart, an ancient religious site with the same thirty-one weirwood stumps Minnie had seen in her vision.

## Trouble at the Forest Spring

By the third day of travel, the group was deep into the Riverlands, a thick forest of winding hills. They came to a natural spring, routinely cleared of brush so that travelers could water their horses. There they saw an enormous young man, obviously a peasant, holding the reins of two horses. With him were a band of six Loyalist soldiers, speaking to him harshly.

"Listen," their leader said, "We're all friends here. But we're soldiers. Give us those horses and any money you got, and they'll be returned to you once our lord can spare it."

The large young man looked around nervously. Maxir could tell that the banter wasn't friendly and moved in to speak, "I think it's best if you turn and leave."

The Loyalist sergeant said, "We're starving. So it's us or you, and it ain't gonna be us."

The group made short work of the Loyalists, despite their expensive equipment. The giant peasant was hesitant to join the fight, but once he was attacked he became enraged. He lifted up a large rock and smashed a soldiers head as if it were a ripe melon.

## Christor of Sallydance

After the fight, the peasant introduced himself as Christor from the village of Sallydance. He explained that Loyalist soldiers had come to his father's farm the night before. The leader of the soldiers, Lord Jarden Krey, had ordered Christor taken away to join their army. After an hour of walking, he saw smoke billowing from the farm and knew that the soldiers were looting. He killed all six of his guards and raced home, but it was too late. His family had been massacred, their farm looted and burned.

Christor prayed to the Old Gods and found no solace. But he had heard tales of a kindly woods witch at High Heart who might be able to provide him direction in life. So he gathered what supplies he could, took up two of his dead guard's horses and took the road.

## High Heart

Another three days ride through narrow forest roads brought them to High Heart, a very tall hill with a flat crown. Reaching the top they discovered there were thirty-one weirwood stumps in a circle. They were once sacred to the First Men who settled Westeros, but they had been chopped down when the local religion changed from worship of the Old Gods to the Seven.

Torrhen noticed that there were words chiseled into four of the stumps and bowls carved into them.
After some deliberation, the group found a pattern in the words relating to the four bodily humours. They put one of each into the bowls, and after some adjustment unlocked some manner of sorcery.

## The Ghost of High Heart

Out of the woods hobbled an ancient woman standing only three feet tall. She leaned on a gnarled cane. Her skin was porcelain white and her eyes a deep red.

She gave the group a dismissive gesture and croaked, "Go away. World's over."

Christor was disheartened. He tried to explain to the witch that he needed her help. She was unphased by his talk. It took all of their cajoling just to get her to speak.

"You don't deserve my wisdom!" she barked, "As it was you and your bunch that made this mess. Or at least planted it."

## The Doom of Valyria

"My one-time apprentice Maggy the Frog, now known as the Lady Spicer as she's in so tight with Tywin Lannister, has come into dealing with your friend Maedalyn Dyre. Now I taught Maggy the old ways, as they still practice in the North, that's on me. But that postulant Maedalyn was training with a priestess of the Eastern Lord of Light. And if there's one rule to the Higher Mysteries, it's that East and North don't mix. And now they've got their hands on your Minnie's place of power and with it Valyrian blood, so to the refuse pile we go.

In ancient days, the Valyrians toyed with magic. They baked bricks with dragon fire, so was their carelessness. They would call upon any power for any favour, and called very wrongly in the end. An unknowable force from regions unknown, a being of such immense power as to dwarf the Seven, was set to be unleashed upon this world. Just its coming brought a sickness of madness that began to infect the world.

They sunk themselves. Used the last of their magic to up volcanoes and plunge their entire civilization into the sea. In the end they sacrificed themselves that we could have our little world."

## Unspeakable Horror to Come

"That unspeakable horror was locked out, but not very tightly. And now Maggy and Maedalyn have tampered with that seal. Doom awakens, first in a disease of madness and then comes the final chomp and the world and the water and the firmament are devoured utterly."

"Is there anything we can do?" Christor asked.

"I suppose you could rush and stop those two from finishing their ritual," the witch thought aloud, "but most likely you wouldn't catch 'em in time. You could probably seal the tear between realms, but you'd have to get there without the madness taking you. And just look at you lot - not bloody likely."

## Angry Spirits

Not long after the witch finished her speech, they heard a booming sound like rushing wind.

"What's that?" shouted Maxir.

"Horrors from the other side," the witch answered. "Must be spilling through already."

Abnormous shapes in glowing, vaguely human forms came swirling out from the ground and began to attack the group. They stood and fought, their weapons passing right through the ghostly bodies. Minnie threw salt, an ancient ward against magic, and found that it hurt them. There only recourse appeared to be Dreadwailer, Maxir's ancestral Valyrian Steel sword. It cleaved the spirits, dispersing them into nothingness.

Even with Maxir's exceptional blade, they were forced to retreat. As they exited the circle of weirwood stumps, they discovered that the spirits could not cross - they were held in by the power of the circle.

"Why didn't you tell us they couldn't cross the stumps!?" Torrhen demanded.

"I didn't know. I've never met horrors from another world before," the witch said bluntly.

And with that, she left and the group sped towards home.

## Experience

- Christor, Maxir, Minnie and Torrhen each earned 12 XP, 3 Glory and 300 Silver Stags

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