Griffin's Roost

Griffin's Roost is the ancient stronghold of House Connington, perched on a lofty crag of dark red stone on Cape Wrath, surrounded on three sides by the surging waters of Shipbreaker Bay. Its only approach is defended by a gatehouse and a long bare ridge called the griffin's throat, which exposes attackers to fire from two round towers flanking the main gates. The castle itself is dominated by a great hall with a carved and gilded Griffin Seat, where fifty generations of Conningtons once sat in rule. The castle's east tower, the tallest at Griffin's Roost, offers a commanding view of the crag, the sea, and the surrounding woodlands—a vista that Jon Connington remembered from his youth and from a visit by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.

The Return of the Exiled Lord

Jon Connington, once Lord of Griffin's Roost and Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen, had been stripped of his titles and sent into exile after the Battle of the Bells. His lands and lordship passed to his cousin Ser Ronald, who retained the castle but lost the lordship after Robert's Rebellion, becoming merely the Knight of Griffin's Roost. The present knight, Ser Ronnet Connington (called Red Ronnet), was away at war in the riverlands when the Golden Company landed on Cape Wrath. Jon Connington led the assault on the castle, taking it with minimal bloodshed—only four men were lost—by using Black Balaq's archers to silence the defenders and Franklyn Flowers's men to breach the unbarred gate. The swift victory allowed Connington to reclaim his ancestral seat and use it as a base for the campaign to restore the Targaryen dynasty.

The Seat of a New Campaign

After taking the castle, Connington ordered the prisoners confined—including Ronnet's younger brother Raymund, his sister Alynne, and his natural son Ronald Storm—as hostages against any attempt by Red Ronnet to retake the castle. He then summoned the captains of the Golden Company for a war council, where he announced his intention to take Storm's End by guile, arguing that a swift, hard strike before King's Landing understood the threat was their best chance. The castle also served as the destination for Prince Aegon Targaryen, who arrived four days later with a column of a hundred horse and three elephants, accompanied by Lady Lemore and Ser Rolly Duckfield. Connington established himself in the lord's chambers, where he privately treated his greyscale-stricken hand with wine soaks, hiding the disease from his men. The castle's hidden cove beneath the crag, accessible only at low tide, provided a secret escape route by sea, a detail Connington remembered from his youth and kept in mind for the campaign ahead.