Ramsy had been captured 3 months before, when the nine of them, together with Gendry who had been rescued from the sea by Darren, had concentrated on creating so much mayhem in the region that it had left the DreadFort undermanned and vulnerable, which is how Ramsey had captured Winterfell. They had wanted to reduce casualties as the living were more useful than the dead. Two months before the older DragonLords, Aidan with his sons Niall, Geraint and Rian, had entered the ruins of Winterfell, where Maester Luwin continued to shelter, to set up a haunting. The cold weather had had a preserving effect on Maester Luwin's body, allowing his earlier revival by Killian who had been scouting out the ruins for answers.
Not a true haunting of Winterfell, but in this relatively magic starved world who would know? Each burned body or skeleton would now generate an illusion of an undead skeleton, electrically potentially lethal if touched. A visit to the Stark tombs had allowed them to make the illusions safe for any surviving Starks, and also certain Tullys because of the mitochondrial inheritance, not that DragonLords normally bothered about the scientific basis of magic, unless they were working on creating new types of spell. It took some time to recharge their staffs. The cursed wands were un-rechargable, for now. They had used the wands dark necromantic magic to turn the Bolton arms men into enslaved undead ghouls to "guard" the DreadFort. They would reclaim the dark magic when they left this world. DragonLords were creatures of Fire and Death, Regeneration and Life, not "life after death".
Having the Bolton's in the stocks was even more fun for the peasants. On his time off from acting as Gendry's servitor, Reek would go and watch them. Maybe soon with Maester Luwin's help he might remember that he was Theon Greyjoy. Well, one could but hope. They really needed a psychiatrist for Theon; Dragon Magic could do much but not that. Get their youngest cousins to bring Dr Hopper from Storybrook - and pigs would fly (without magic); the cost in time, trouble and portal magic was too great. The Lady Galadriel of The White Council coming here to help was more likely.
