It had been generations since we had been betrayed and our land taken form us. While we had rebuilt our lives and the memory had begun to fade. The anger and hatred of a betrayal never truly goes away.'
-Eddard Starke
With the fall of Jeutenburg the route into Karhold was completely open to the forces of Lucerne and they would take advantage of the shock caused on the Bolten forces by the destruction of the army at Green Creek. Moving westward the forces of House Karstark would be fed bad information from the retreating forces who told them that the main goal was the castle west of Karhold in the form of Saltwood Castle. In this way believing they would hit Saltwood first Arnolf who was in command of Karhold would send much of the Karstark forces to Saltwood which was under the command of House Saltwood of whom had already defected to the Lucernians and was thus further feeding bad information. As the Bolten forces were going towards Saltwood Castle in order to meet the forces of House Starke head on the true Starke force was now heading directly towards Karhold from the north where it found basically no resistence.
Battle of Saltwood Castle[]
Main Article : Battle of Saltwood Castle
You half felt bad for those poor fools walking into the disaster at Saltwood. We knew there would suprise and everyone who laid down a sword was going to live. It had to be that way.
-Jaden Ambry
The Secondary force from House Starke would arrive at Saltwood Castle before the forces of Bolten and would menaeuver themselves into the forests south of the castle while the Bolten forces could be devided into two distinct sections. The first section of the Bolten forces had remained loyal to House Bolten and the Karstarkes either out of honor or had not been told of other options and thus moved towards Saltwood without knowledge that most had switched sides. The second group were made of the houses of the area and from elsewhere that had switched sides to the Lucernians and these forces were prepared for the ambush as they marched. Marching forward the Lucernian loyalists would remain outside the castle while the Bolten loyalists split in a further half with one side entering the castle, and the other side heading towards the forest where the Lucernians awaited them. Once out of range of the castle the Saltwoods would reject the call to call for surrenders when they opened fire on the Bolten troops entering the castle, and nearly the entire force was massacred. Trying to flee the Lucernians turncoats that had waited outside the castle hit them from the rear and these forces were more willing to accept prisoners but the Bolten troops were destroyed or captured in their entirety. The other force led by Cregan Karstark II., and Eddard Karstark II. would find themselves moving towards the forest and seeing a now fully deployed and larger force of Lucernian troops awaiting them. Deploying into position they watched the arrival of the other forces but these forces stopped behind them with weapons drawn clearly indicating a trap. Moving forward towards these troops Jaden Ambry, and Trevor Baratheon would bid them surrender and seeing the hopelessness of their position they would surrender themselves as well.
The Attack Begins[]
We went immediatly under the assumption that the Saltwood turning would lead to our victory against their main force, and we hit the northern gate while noone was ready.
Robb Starke
Robb Starke and the main Starke force would hit the northern edge of Karhold during the night, and would spy very few sentries on the wall due to the late night and the fact that noone thought Karhold was even threatened. Robb would send Theon Greyjoy, and Gregory Estermont with a small team of troops carring ropes who would ascend the northern wall and open the gatehouse for their troops. Theon, and Gregory would be able to get onto the wall but the alarm was raised as they were opening the gates thus alerting the city to the attack. The army of the Starkes entered the northern gate either way and was able to quickly capture a large swathe of the northern section as most of the defenders were just waking up, and those that were up were either killed or disarmed by the attacking forces. Arriving at the western gate Robb Starke alongside Wilheim Martell would get inside the gatehouse, and open the gate allowing the monsterous Grey Wind to enter as well and Grey Wind would massacre Cregan Karstark and several other men before finally being restrained by Robb and together they left men at the gatehouse before moving to the Keep.
They held fast at the eastern gatehouse, but they were horribly outnumbered and in most spots we controlled the high ground.
Gregory Estermont
The fighting in the eastern gatehouse was particularrly stiff as Craig Karstark, Urmen Stone, and Douglas Tisler waking to the alarm and heading to the eastern gatehouse in order to try and defend it. Urmen Stone would be struck by an arrow as the Stark men had taken the tower that overlooked the gatehouse and fired shots down at them. Retreating from view of the tower Craig would hold the inner gatehouse and fought off several men before finally Gregory Estermont got into the courtyard and would kill Craig. With the gate opening Douglas Tisler would jump from the wall into the water beneath and while badly injuring his leg he was able to swim to the Karstark side of the river to safety. The Karstarks would resist greatly in the marketplace of southern Karhold, but the main reason for the resistence being able to hold them off was the fact that Robb Starke had ordered a slow and safe conquest of the town believing he had increasingly large amounts of reinforcements incoming and didnt need to risk his forces in a battle he was already going to win.
Name
Fate
Eddard Karstark
Killed by Robb in a duel near the western bridge after failing to surrender
Craig Karstark
Killed by Gregory Estermont while defending the eastern gatehouse
Urmen Stone
Killed by arrow while defending eastern gatehouse
Janise Karstark
Died trying to kill Gregory after the death of Craig Karstark
Cregan Karstark II.
Prisoner following the Battle of Saltwood Castle
Eddard Karstark II.
Prisoner following the Battle of Saltwood Castle
Ophellia Karstark
Prisoner following failed attempt to flee the city during the intial attack
Metalyn Karstark
Prisoner following failed attempt to flee the city during the initial attack
Cregan Karstark
Killed by Grey Wind defending the western Gatehouse
Leysha Karstark
Prisoner following surrendering to the Starkes
Bodies were strewn about the streets as the Karstark forces had left disaster as they retreated into their keep. I stood over the body of Eddard Karstark his name brought shame to my fathers and for that alongwith his poor life choices he paid the ultimate price. Looking at the keep I saw four bridges and my men had told me a fifth was located on the opposite side of the island, and that made me clearly aware that we controlled three out of the five bridges. One of the bridges they controlled was so close to our lines that we would be able to destroy it with ease while the one on the east was built of stronger work then that. In the end it was clear the siege was over, and now we were fighting to see how many of them died.
Robb Starke
The Karstarks had been devestated by the fighting with nearly ten of their number either captured or dead on the field, and without much hope that they could hold the keep for long. The sheer number of Karstarks that they had prisoner meant that they were forced to house them all in the walled keep in the northern part of the city, and from there they made Arnolf very much aware of how many were prisoners. Arnolf himself was sickly and was unable to move but in an act of blind arrogance refused to hand command over to his grandson Harnolf Karstark believing that his brother Rickard was laughing at him for failing to hold the city, and thus he would die before he gave it up. Outside of the Karstarks there allies in House Urnet, and House Tisler also lost several members with only Heshen Urnet able to flee out of the city, and returning to the forces of House Urnet. With the fighting intensifying in the southern half of the city the Karstarks awaited reinforcements, but this would be a hopeless wait as well as while the fighting was dying down in Karhold the news begin filtering in that Hornwood was under siege from House Locke and House Hornwood was abandoning the area east of Karhold in order return home, and they were taking all their men with them.
