Raven's Withered Legacy
The dour Yorkshire legend of Raven Grey and her cursed bloodline begins in 18th century Hindarrow Hall overlooking the desolate moors. Raven was the sole daughter of elderly Lord Archibald whose wife perished bearing stillborn sons.
Shunned as ominous by her father for her somber disposition, Raven found solace wandering the windswept landscape and rookeries dotting their realm.
The versatile birds captivated Raven, who displayed keen intelligence herself devouring Hindarrow Hall’s neglected library covering ornithology, Tarot symbology, poetry and myriad macabre interests distressing her weary tutor. Whispers spread regarding the peculiar young woman commanded crows to circle above where she strode reciting incantations, wraith-pale as if siphoning vitality from all surrounding life.
Lord Archibald soon desperately arranged marriage to hastily rid his ancestral home of Raven’s brooding aura. But her reputation as witch unnerved all local families save one - the remote Fellmoor clan whose firstborn son Benedict had accumulated substantial gambling debts that union with even an ill-favored lady could quickly clear if sufficient dowry accompanied the proposal.
A hasty wedding followed, delivering pale Raven apprehensively to the Fellmoors’ depressing moorland farmstead known as a refuge for thieves. Imperious Benedict wasted no time stripping Raven of personal effects and freedom alike, finding ample justification disciplining his aloof wife’s minor transgressions with such seething violence that she withdrew fully into silence. The marriage bore no heirs as years of misery accumulated.
Then late one tempestuous evening as winds lashed the crumbling estate, servants discovered Master Benedict’s body at the base of the grand staircase, neck twisted violently sideways and pocketwatch smashed at precisely midnight’s chime. Somber Lady Raven stood over the corpse clasping worn Tarot cards and crystal orb rattling with trapped thunder echoing tolling bells. Though no evidence directly implicated crimes, Raven had clearly manipulated the fatal fall through arcane prowess.
The horrified Fellmoors banished Raven from their accursed lands lest further mishaps strike more heirs under the same roof as a murderess. Setting forth bereft into the storm, Raven soon collapsed upon a ditchstone etched “Hindarrow 3 kilometers” starkly visible when lightning flickered. There the crows found her icy body two dawns later, Tarot cards scattered about like funeral offerings.
In subsequent generations, Fellmoor descendants report recurring misfortunes - ghastly visions drive sound heirs to madness, healthy babes perish inexplicably, spates of financial ruin or grievous household accidents arise targeting the luckless elders particularly. Some claim a whispering raven spirit guides these calamities. Hindarrow Hall itself lies abandoned for a century after several lords meet abrupt ends echoing Benedict's macabre fate.
Now few souls dare inhabit the lightless decaying manors brooding watchfully over these desolate tracts where rides Raven's bitter phantom managing her withered legacy. For not all spirits rest peaceably in the grave when their earthly spells remain unfinished...
