The Tale of Earl Haem of Kydus

Coming out of the stinging winter winds, you settle down next to the roaring fire in this small village inn and try to bring life back into your frozen fingers. A hush stretches across the room, all attention drawn to a barrel-chested man as he slowly stands up and makes his way into the center, his bright violet eyes staring deep into the hearth.
"So you want to hear about the Curse of Kydus Castle? . . . . . the Tale of Earl Haem? . . . . . if you're sure . . ."

Earl Haem was born many years ago, back in the first century after the Nightfall. His family had long held the Earldom of Kydus, tasked with guarding the southern border of the hold, and could name many great heroes and warriors amongst their line. However, by Haem's time, those golden years were long past.
You see the lands suffered much during the Nightfall and during the decades after, with trade and taxes all but run dry. Things were only made worse by the poor choices and ill-advised spending of Haem's predecessors. When he was elected Earl from among the family, he inherited a grand castle in fine condition and a guard near two-hundred strong, but not a gillie to maintain them.
As his brothers and sisters went out and made their own ways, with no coin at home to sustain them, Haem remained at his family's seat and tried to manage what was left to him. But no matter how hard he worked, all he could do was watch as his fine castle fell into disrepair and the men of his great guard left for better pay.
For years this continued, until one day he received news that would change everything - up in the eastern hills, lodged in the banks of a stream, one of the miners had come across a large nightshadow stone.
Now, you need to remember that this was back in the early years after the Nightfall. Magic was still a newborn, its possibilities and dangers still a complete unknown, and terror of it was rampant, and nightshadow's barrier effect was only recently discovered. People would do anything to get their hands on it and you could get a fortune if you sold some to the right person, even more than you would nowadays. Plus, where you find one stone, you're bound to find more.
In that one piece of news, Haem had been given a solution to all of his problems. He had the stone brought to the castle, sent an agent out to the cities to find a buyer, and set parties to scour the rest of the hills for any more stones. By the next pale moon, they all thought, the Earldom would be prosperous once again.
But the gods are fickle, and life doesn't always follow the path clearly laid out in front of it. When Sela did next shine full, Haem had changed. Where before he had always roamed the castle and lands, lending an eye or hand wherever he could, now more and more he would stay in his chambers, turning away any who sought him out. When his agent returned, bringing with them a buyer with an offer of purchase for the stone, Haem screamed at the fella and drove them both out of the castle. Something in the man had snapped. It was even said that he could be heard talking to himself in his rooms, muffled questions and barks passing under the oak doors.
This carried on for a while, and soon the story of it made its way through the neighbouring towns and villages. Eventually, it arrived at the ears of Haem's brother Baernan - he himself now a retainer in the Duke's guard. Hearing these stories, Baernan returned to Kydus and sought out his brother. For days Haem would not open his chamber doors, deaf to his brother's pleas, but something that Baernan said must have finally got through for a week after he arrived, Haem stepped out and embraced his brother.
The two of them decided that they would go east to the Close, where Baernan knew of a renowned physician who would be able to treat whatever was ailing his brother and where the ocean air could only do good for the sick man. They set off, with four guards and two servants accompanying them, and left the Earldom in the hands of Haem's steward.
Two months later Haem returned. Alone. Where his brother was, or those others that had set out with him, he didn't say. He simply went into his chambers and barred the doors once again.
His steward sent out men to find out what had happened to Baernan and the others, but to no avail. The group had arrived at Journey's Close like they'd planned but had left just days after, continuing eastward. None of them had been seen by anyone since, not until Haem mysteriously reappeared at Kydus Castle. All of them had vanished and the only one who knew the story of how, and where to, had secluded himself behind stone and wood.
His other siblings one by one returned to Kydus and tried to reach through to Haem, calling and pleading from outside his chambers, but their words had no effect, only their echoes returning in reply. When they tried to break down the doors the wood buckled and splintered, but held against every hit. When they took axe and hammer to them, the blades chipped and hafts snapped. For days, no matter what they did, they couldn't get into Haem's rooms and they couldn't get him to come out.
So they stopped trying. Haem's other brother, the youngest of the three, assumed his duties and kept the castle and lands running as best he could. Life returned to normal, well as normal as it could be, and Haem's chambers were left alone. Over time their presence was all but forgotten, their buckled and torn doors that were frozen in place now hidden by drapes, and questions about Baernan and the other lost men were no longer brought up.
That was until people started to disappear. At first, nothing was thought of it - just a few servants and men of the guard leaving in the night, abandoning the castle as many others like them had in the years before. But then folk started to disappear who didn't have a reason to leave. The stablemaster's husband. The blacksmith's wife. The guard captain's wee son. People whose departure during the dark could not be explained.
Those in the castle started to panic, terrified by images of monsters from the dark years hunting and stalking them. Others started to accuse each other of the disappearances, with fights breaking out between them. Though what motives for the kidnappings they imagined up, who can say. Some of these fights even led to one fella killing the other, either by accident or intent. Tensions grew, some ran away, and more people disappeared. Then one of the servants noticed something that had been missed by the others - the drapes hanging in front of Haem's chamber doors, had moved. For months no one had touched them, leaving them covering the doorway and gathering dust. But now they laid pulled to one side, that dust showing footprints passing through the door.
That was enough to send the last few in the castle fleeing, leaving only Haem's brother behind in its cold halls. He remained there, outside the chamber doors, calling to Haem. Asking for an answer. For a sign he was there. An explanation for everything that had happened. For something. Whether he got that answer we'll never know, for the day after Kydus Castle was found ablaze, the whole place engulfed in flames. In the end, no sign of Haem or his brother could be found, only stone remained. Only stone, and those chamber doors - buckled, cut, splintered and burnt, but still there. Still standing shut in that doorway.
To this day, if you go to the ruins of the castle you can still hear the brothers, their voices whispering through the empty halls and passageways. And if you're foolish enough to still be there when night arrives, those doors will creak open and the darkness will drag you through to whatever waits on the other side.

— Ganor Land, in the Brombie alehouse