Massacre at the Allemeade Keep
An account of the events that transpired on the eighty-eight day of Ver, 827 as told by Corl Binnam and recorded by Hattie Thresh, Squire:

Binnam: We all volunteered, you know? Wasn’t supposed to go the way that it did. We was just going to light some fires and mess with them a little. Let ‘em know they’re not untouchable, yeah?

Count Lysander: You say you volunteered, who was it that recruited you?

Binnam: Some rich bloke. Named Alphonse or somethin’, I think. Real military sort, though. He had a cavalry with him. Fat lotta good it did him in the end though, yeah? They didn’t even stand a chance. None of us did. We lit those fires and it all went to shit. It started raining and thundering and shit. Couple of the men tried to tuck tail and run. But it was too late.

It was like nothing you’ve ever seen. Winds hard enough to topple a horse. I watched this one lad get thrown onto a till. Skewered him straight through. After that, the soldiers started moving in. Just trying to protect us, yeah? But then she appeared. One of them Allemeades. Started sucking the life right outta everyone. People was screaming and pissing themselves but they just kept dying. They all just kept dying—

Count Lysander: Corl. Stay with me. How many of you were there at the farm?

Binnam: I don’t know. Maybe thirty of us they hired and fifty or sixty of them soldiers? Didn’t matter though. None of us stood a chance. Couldn’t even run if we wanted. How do you outrun something like that?

By all accounts, the massacre at Allmeade Keep left behind more than sixty nongifted casualties. Not a single gifted was killed in the skirmish. The events that transpired on the road to Allemeade Keep are less clear, but most accounts agree on the following details:

Rumors of an impending reprisal from the so-called Sons of the Equinox required that Marquis Tybalt Zane assemble a small company of legionnaires to take Honora Allemeade into protective custody to stand trial for crimes committed against Count Baldovino. On their way to the Allemeade Keep, the company was set upon by Sons, who, by most accounts, were demanding Legionnaire Lieutenant Remiel Allemeade be turned over to their ranks.

When the Captain refused, the Sons attacked. It was during this skirmish that Hiram Eldouir materialized, rising from the blood of a dead soldier along with an Allemeade many have identified as Honora Allemeade. The fight that ensued was purportedly increasingly chaotic. Gifted magic consumed the field, decimating any nongifted forces in the fray. Although there have been some reports of the gifteds squabbling among themselves, most confirm that the Eldouirs and the Allemeades appeared—at least to some extent—to be working in concert with one another. A royal guardsman was reportedly taken from the scene by a gifted some have named as Bryce Allemeade, presumably for healing.

This skirmish left dozens of nongifeds dead and more wounded. One unnamed gifted was supposedly killed in the fighting, killed by other gifteds on the scene.