Sack of Winterfell

When House Greyjoy invades the North, Ser Rodrik Cassel takes Winterfell's garrison south to relieve Torrhen's Square, and in his absence Theon Greyjoy seizes the castle with barely a fight. While Rodrik gathers an army to retake it, Theon lets a Bolton servant, Reek, ride off to fetch reinforcements.

Close to two thousand men finally reach Winterfell's gates. Maester Luwin tries to talk Theon into surrendering and taking the black, but the talk is cut short by the arrival of the Dreadfort garrison: instead of joining the siege against Theon, those men turn on Rodrik's own army. The victory goes to House Bolton.

After the battle, riders from the Dreadfort reach Winterfell's main gate and throw down the bodies of Rodrik Cassel, Cley Cerwyn and Leobald Tallhart. Theon lets the dead Reek's men inside, and among them recognizes the servant he thought he knew: he is in truth Ramsay Snow, Roose Bolton's bastard.

When Theon refuses to hand over one of his women, Ramsay strikes him down, and his men fall on the ironborn still left in the castle. Maester Luwin is killed as well, and Ramsay orders Winterfell put to the torch.

Unknown to either Theon or Ramsay, Bran and Rickon Stark, the Reed siblings, Osha and Hodor spend the night hidden in the crypts below. By morning no one is left: only wild dogs, a few corpses, and loose horses among the broken walls. In the godswood they find Luwin, badly wounded, and Osha grants him the gift of mercy before the group splits up.

At Riverrun, Lothar Frey brings Robb Stark a letter claiming that Theon's ironborn burned Winterfell and put its men to the sword, though Ramsay is said to have carried the surviving women and children off to the Dreadfort for safekeeping. Later, at the Twins, before the Red Wedding, Roose Bolton tells Robb that his son has captured Theon and is holding him under torture.

Wex Pyke, Theon's squire, survives by hiding in Winterfell's godswood. He later tells Lord Wyman Manderly that Ramsay took Theon and the women of Winterfell with him, bound for the Dreadfort.