The Five Mile Inn was the last inn on the road between Donnetz and Syllic. It was the inn for the eager traveler who thought they didn't have to spend the night in Donnetz and could make it all the way to Syllic. Usually by the fifth mile out of Donnetz the traveler would realize his error and to answer his prayers was the Five Mile Inn.
The Five Mile Inn was bigger than most inns found in the area due to the remoteness of the inn and the large number of travelers it hosted nightly. Tonight was no different, the great room of the inn where weary travelers sat at several long oak table and ate their nightly fare and treated their sore bones with large mugs of ale and a crackling fire in the hearth. Tonight like all nights the travelers were telling tales to while away the evening.

Tomas, the stable hand, leaned against the kitchen door frame and listened as one of the traveling merchants talked about the strange and fantastic events of their travels but he wasn't so interested in the stories as Annabel. Annabel was the daughter of the owner of the Five Mile Inn and was without a doubt the most beautiful creature in twenty miles if not more. Her hips were slim, butt perfectly plump, her breasts were big and bounced as she served the merchants their drinks. Tomas loved her more than anything in the world.
Unfortunately Annabel didn't know he existed aside from stabling her horse. Tomas was the son of a debt ridden farmer and he had been sold to the Five Mile Inn five years ago. Tomas always knew he would never get her, girls like Annabel were for rich men with land and titles. He hated that truth but it never stopped him from dreaming.

Annabel had just set another mug of ale in front of the old hunter who lived near by. The laughter in the room was dying down when William, the owner of the Five Mile Inn, spoke, " Why the long face old man?" he asked the hunter.
" I saw something last night" the hunter said, " and I can't explain it."
The room hushed, these were always the favorite, ghost stories. " Go on" said one of the merchants.
" I was out setting my traps to snare rabbits in the wood" said the hunter referring to the Varo Wood which was a mere half mile from the back door of the inn, " and I strayed too close to the castle."
The room became totally silent, these were always the most popular stories, tales about the Kaziglu Castle, the place the locals called, the Devil's Castle. " I came to a break in the wall" he said, " there were lights, many lights flickering in the old chapel inside the castle grounds."
The room slowly came alive with a dozen voices whispering at once. Everyone had heard about the Devil's Castle, it was notorious.
The Kaziglu family ruled the area for centuries using terror and violence to bend the people to their will. Many a girl from the surrounding villages was taken into the castle never to be seen from again. The people lived in abject terror of the night that was when the knights from the castle, wrapped in black would ride out from the castle to torment the villagers. Then a century ago a single force began to unify the warring nobles and their first target was the Kaziglu family. The siege lasted six months but finally the walls were breached and the Kaziglu family was slaughtered. The Empire, the force that destroyed the Kaziglu family took over and relative peace returned to the land. Creatures still lurked about, picking off unwary and solitary travelers, and killing livestock but the people had become rather use to all that. The castle gave off an evil influence that drew these creatures here, or so said the priests or traveling mystics when asked. Most people lived with it, it was just another fact of every day living.

" I remember my first time in that castle" William announced.
Tomas rolled his eyes, the blowhard is at it again. " I was a young man, coming back from getting cozy with another farmer's daughter" he said laughing.
Tomas wondered how many of the women William claimed to have slept with really existed. Tomas hadn't slept with a woman yet and he was nearly 18. He wasn't sure if all this talk of sex was true and he had missed out entirely or that everyone was padding the truth a little to make them seem more worldly. " I was taking a short cut through the woods when I ran into the very walls of that accursed castle. Now I was a brave lad and with the sense of adventure coursing through my veins I entered through a hole in the wall" he said, " the castle lay in ruins but I could still feel the presence of the Kaziglu family as if they were watching me. I made my way to the nearest building and there I saw it, gleaming on the other side of an old broken window."
William pointed to the overly decorative sword that was hanging above the mantel. It was the reason the Five Mile Inn existed. " I crawled into the room and took that jeweled sword with me" said William, " at once the entire castle began to groan as if roused from a great sleep and was angered at my trespassing. I saw shapes moving all about the tattered room, they were the ghosts of the former residents coming to get me. The rusty suits of armour that had decorated the room were also beginning to move to protect the sword in my possession. I bolted out of the room, the sword wrapped in my arms. I could see the ground rising up all around me as long skeletal hands began to reach up to grab me. I raced past the hand and barely made it out through the breach just in time. I returned to my parent's farm with the sword, and the rest is history."
The entire inn burst into applause and laughter, Tomas smirked every time he tells that story he adds something else. He even wondered if William even knew the truth anymore. But it the fact was undeniable that it was that sword and the fame he gathered from it that allowed him to open this inn and changed his life. Without it he would probably be no greater than Tomas himself.
The night wore on and more and more of the travelers retired to their rooms. Tomas left shortly after Annabel went up to bed. Tomas wasn't afforded a room at the inn, instead he slept above the stable.

Tomas was returning to his bed when the idea struck him, if William gain all this fame and fortune from that sword, he wondered what he could get if he went to the castle. All he would need is one item to bring back with him, that was it and Annabel would be his. Tomas grinned and grabbed his cloak.
The horses watched him as he tied his best boots on. Even they though going out this late at night was foolish. Tomas wasn't going to be convinced otherwise, he wanted to show his courage to Annabel, then finally she would love him.

Tomas left the stable and crossed along the back of the inn to get to the edge of the Varo Wood. As he crossed by one window something caught his eye. It was Annabel, oh sweet and beautiful Annabel in a thin nightgown. Tomas swallowed a thick lump in his throat, in the dim candle light he could see more of her through that nightgown than he ever had before. She knocked on one of the inn rooms and the door opened. Tomas' lust was turned to rage when he saw it was one of those merchants, the young one who arrived with the bales of wool. He welcomed her in and Tomas saw just as the door closing Annabel drop her nightgown off her shoulders.
Tomas stormed through the rolling field of knee deep grass. He had never been more angry in his life, his quest now had changed. He wasn't going to bring back an artifact from the castle for her but to shame her, to rub in her face. He would travel to Donnetz and tell his tale of bravery, then he would return with a more beautiful woman and shame Annabel. He would buy the Five Mile Inn and throw them both out, making Annabel sell herself along the roadside, yes that would his revenge to that cheap slut.

Tomas entered the Varo Woods through one of the large gaps in the trees. These gaps, now filled with waist high underbrush and budding trees were where the roads leading to the castle once ran but since the castle was abandoned the roads had begun to be reclaimed by the forest. Tomas had spent his youth playing the forest and had no problem navigating his way through it in the moonlight.
It took Tomas over two hours of walking down the road until he finally came to the gate. The gates were locked, the forest had begun to grow all over it making it impossible to enter but Tomas knew there were other ways in.

Tomas started to follow the wall the best he could, the forest was now assaulting the walls and in place you couldn't even stay close to the wall at all. After some time of walking through the heavy woods Tomas finally found a breach in the wall where the Imperial army had broke through the castle's defenses a century ago. Tomas climbed through and found himself in the cemetery. The Kaziglu family was all buried here as where their faithful servants and retainers. Tomas had heard stories that these rich people were buried with gold and jewelry, he looked across at the chapel that would be the best place to start his search for treasure.

The chapel was only one part of the vast castle grounds, there was a small abandoned town close to the main gates, the castle itself which sat tall and imposing in the very center of the grounds surrounded by a great moat, and the ancient castle, the first home of the Kaziglu family, that still sat off on its own crumbling into a heap of dust.

Tomas started for the chapel when he froze. Through the cemetery he could see little points of lights flickering through the ruined stained glass windows. The little lights seemed to dance about the windows illuminating the remaining panes of glass the disappearing into the darkness between the panes. Tomas ducked behind a large tombstone and watched as several figures clad in crimson red robes appeared from the castle and began to move towards the chapel. He could make out any features for their cloaks were large and hoods heavy so it covered every inch of their bodies. A few carried magnificent candelabras, the one in the lead a large book. It looked very much like a religious precession of the kind you saw in town on holy days but Tomas had the distinct feeling this wasn't an ordinary religion.
Tomas finally started to realize this entire adventure was an incredibly bad idea, there were people in the castle and they looked like serious trouble. He waited until the long train of people had disappeared into the chapel before turning to flee.

Tomas turned and was grabbed by two pair of black leather gloved hands. It was two people clad in the crimson robes, their faces hidden by grotesque masquerade masks. Tomas wanted to scream but it was far too late.

The next morning William had found Tomas was gone from his bunk in the stables. At first he wrote it off as Tomas making a run for it, servants, especially indebted servants often ran to make an attempt at another life. It annoyed William far more than worried him, he was more concerned where he was going to find another stable hand. It wasn't until two days later when William finally learned what had happened to his stable hand. A hunter found Tomas' body, stone dead laying just at the edge of the Varo Wood. The death was deemed unusual and a doctor from Syllic came down to take custody of the body and whisked it away.
Life went on at the Five Mile Inn, tales of their stable hand became just another part of the legend of the Devil's Castle.