Despite the many quirks of the House of Blood-Streaked Marble¹, the most curious features of the House Sargas estate are not to be found there, but rather fifty miles north in the small hill town of Voivars, buried in the high valleys of the Dragon's Nest Range.
Voivars hosts the private retreat of the Sargas genarch, a modest castle - the "Wyvern's Perch" - clinging to the top of an volcanic plug above the town. Its black towers, tightly clustered, cast a needle-shadow across the town in the mid-morning, announcing the traditional opening of local bars.
Obtaining access to the Perch is nearly impossible, even by comparison to obtaining an invitation to the House, but perhaps aided by the pleasing reception of early drafts of this book, I did manage to secure an invitation to view its best-known feature, the Assassin's Refresher.
The journey to the Perch begins at the Wyvern's Fang, the pair of inward-curving guard towers where the road from Voivars ends and the narrow, precipitate path to the castle itself begins, winding around and around the plug at a sharp angle, kept brightly illuminated to banish shadows, and always covered from above by its own higher coils - a product of the caution which, as the family tends to put it, outsiders often misname paranoia. Little wonder that history's assassins, whether seeking the genarchy or some sort of revenge, chose alternate methods of entry.
One of the most popular, as the public histories of the House record, has been scaling the unfortunately named Wyvern's Cloaca.
Like all castles, after all, the Perch requires drainage. Rainwater runoff and sewage (treated, in modern times, but not historically) are dumped down the Cloaca, a shaft bored down through the rock of the plug to its base, exiting into a local stream. No grate protects this exit: perhaps the builders considered it a uselessly feeble challenge for anyone willing to ascend a five-hundred-foot shaft of rock polished smooth, against the descending stream.
Beyond the emergence chamber, at the top of the Cloaca, a single door leads onward, into the Assassin's Refresher itself - a room provided with a tub of fresh water and cloths for washing off the filth of that stream, and a wardrobe containing a variety of suitable dark and quieted clothing for the discerning assassin to change into before proceeding about his business.
Why this unusual convenience for unwelcome guests? "Occasional assassination attempts are an occupational hazard for a Sargas," my guide informed me. "The more so for the Sargas. Avoiding them, thus, a routine necessity that keeps us well-sharpened. To ruin a fine collection of antique rugs and hand-carved furniture in the process, however - why, that would be an unforgivable impertinence."
A perspective, perhaps, unique to the House.
- Stately Homes of the Old Empires, Víöle Lién-ith-Liés
- Despite any rumors you may have heard, the name refers to the unusual red-brown streaking of locally mined marble, thanks to the iron-rich waters of the streams of the western Dragon's Nest.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://eldraeverse.com/2025/08/21/unconventional-courtesy