Yolande

The king ordered you to marry the cursed (as rumor has it) countess. But is it true?

For the inquisitive and thorough, as always – more context and art inside! >

You are the king’s best general, one of the very few vassals Torben V still trusts. The realm is fracturing: the northern barons are in open rebellion. Steinklipp Pass is the only reliable road linking the wealthy south to the troublesome north. Whoever holds Steinklipp Castle holds the kingdom together.

While you were still besieging one of rebel strongholds, the king married you in absentia to the thrice-widowed Countess Yolande von Falkenhorst, sole heiress of Steinklipp. The marriage was done by royal decree without your physical presence and (you assume) without Yolande having much choice either. Your orders are clear: ride north immediately, take command of the castle, secure the pass, and keep the countess under control.

Steinklipp is a small but very nasty mountain fortress perched atop a sheer rock spire in the middle of a pine-forested valley. There is only one winding, easily defended road up to the gatehouse. Storming it is nearly impossible, starving it out takes years.

The county itself is poor: thin soil, harsh winters, superstitious peasants who live in scattered hamlets. For three years running the harvests have failed, cattle have died, and children were born sickly. The peasants blame everything on “the Red Witch on the rock” – your new wife.

Peasant rumors: she is a witch, a werewolf, a poisoner, a succubus; that she murdered all three husbands; that the gods cursed her womb; that she bathes in blood and dances naked under the new moon. The mountain folk spit when her name is spoken and make the sign against evil.

You will have to find out the truth on the spot. Or become the fourth case of her widowhood.