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The Wildershallows
The keep at Wildershallows stands upon a manmade edifice of locally-quarried granite, cement, and the sweat of now-illicit slave labor. With walls nearly eighty feet over the surrounds, the structure was designed as a siege-resistant watch on the eastern outskirt of the Duke’s extended reign of influence. While the Earls of Blackrook reigned, quiet on this rural front admitted the controlling lord to gradually eschew its defensive purpose and erect a playground of horror.What legends exist of the keep are spread by its supposed-survivors: low-class men and women, mostly homeless abductees, who successfully navigated the thorn-wired topiary maze once overshadowed by the keep; their accomplishments earned them starvation or mutilation in the fortress’s underground cells where masked men goaded them with salvation through unholy conversion. It is unclear how many victims fell to the macabre games held here: most evidence was lost when the Duke’s men torched the surrounding labyrinth and collapsed the tower’s dungeons following the Blackrook executions. Its workers were never brought to justice: the collaborators scattered before the building’s purging and their identities were never kept in the local earl’s records or drawn from his condemned lips.
Inherited by the Viscount Poynshire, the Wildershallows Keep has been transformed into a lucrative family business. It is serviced by the viscount’s nephew Emon and the families of three-dozen freemen, who live within the ill-reputed fortress and harvest dark purple grapes from an expansive vineyard below. They are responsible for producing Darkburst Poyniac, a polished red wine with a smooth vanilla aroma. Their product is met with mixed-reviews by connoisseurs: although a pleasant tasting and reasonably-priced Malmsey, the wine’s crimson color makes it difficult to not imagine that some portion of its esteemed flavor is owed to the spilt blood of lowborn abductees. Still, the drink is well-received among less-wealthy nobles and its taboo is understandably appealing to authorities hoping to present a more intimidating dinner performance.
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