Bastardhall
The ruined fortress of Bastardhall, originally called Arudora Manor or Castle Arudora, is located on Lake Laruba near the West Sellen River on the eastern border of the Ustalavic county of Varno.12
Bastardhall is best known in Ustalav for the black coach that leaves it once a century in search of seven people descended from the Arudora family, which are brought back to Bastardhall for unknown purposes. The internal workings of Bastardhall are obscured from the outside world: the castle is perpetually shrouded in fog, and attempts to magically probe its interior reveal a veil of powerful holy magic warding the interior of the castle's island. The only contact the castle makes with the rest of the world occurs once a century, when the fog parts to let the black coach pass.3
History
Castle Arudora is the seat of the Arudora noble family, which traces its lineage to the paladin Eragayl Arudora. The Arudoras ruled from their castle until 4213 AR, when a series of unexplained events struck the castle. The nature of the fall of Castle Arudora is not well understood, but is known to have begun when a scullery maid allowed a stranger access to the library of Raudltz Arudora, the ruler of the castle at that time. The stranger bore a swaddled cloth and was strikingly similar to Lord Eragayl. Seven messengers departed the castle the next day with summons for distant relatives of the Arudora family, although the purposes of these summons are not known. A black coach rode through the nearby village of Maiserene, and fog rising from Lake Laruba obscured the castle from view.3
Maiserene experienced several attacks in the following nights from the animated corpses of castle servants and other deceased residents, which took several villagers captive and dragged them back to the castle. Although the villagers destroyed the wooden bridge that connected Castle Arudora to the mainland, a spectral replacement arose in its place. These events ultimately broke the village's faith in Aroden, and Maiserene was abandoned.3
A peasant army succeeded in burning the castle to the ground in 4413 AR, but Bastardhall was revealed to have been fully restored and to have even grown in the number of its towers the next century.3
Bastardhall's current ruler is Caydserras Arudora.4
References
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ . “Ustalav” in The Inner Sea World Guide, 192. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ . Rule of Fear, inside front cover. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 . “Legends and Hauntings” in Rule of Fear, 58–59. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ . “Magic of the Inner Sea” in Inner Sea Magic, 6. Paizo Inc., 2011
