Siege of Moat Cailin

Balon Greyjoy, who had proclaimed himself lord of both the Iron Islands and the North, ordered Moat Cailin seized while the northern armies were away fighting the Lannisters in the south.

Balon's death forced a gathering to choose his heir, and command of the fort had to sail back to Pyke to press its own claim to the throne. What was left behind was a thin garrison, tasked with watching the walls in case Lord Howland Reed sent his crannogmen against them.

Ramsay Bolton mustered a sizeable northern host: men of his own house, of Hornwood and Cerwyn, three hundred Umber spearmen and a hundred archers led by Hother Umber. With that force he marched on a Moat Cailin that had already beaten back three assaults by Dustin and Ryswell men.

To negotiate the surrender he sent his servant, known as "Reek," dressed and presented as Theon, Lord Balon's son and Prince of the Iron Islands — though it was in truth Theon himself, broken by what had been done to him. His task was simple: those who laid down their arms and left the castle would be fed and sent home.

Inside the castle Theon found a garrison in ruins: poisoned arrows, tainted water, flooded cellars. In the Children's Tower nearly everyone was dead, save two survivors who had fed on the corpses and whom Dagon Codd put to the sword. The commander, Ralf Kenning, lay dying of a poisoned wound.

Theon proposed ending his suffering before laying out the terms, which Dagon Codd opposed, distrustful of the Boltons. An axe to the head silenced him, swung by Adrack Humble, who chose to trust Ramsay's word. The rest of the garrison laid down their arms.

The bargain was never honored: before they could set out for Costa Pedregosa to find passage home, Ramsay had the surrendered ironborn flayed and their bodies mounted on spikes along the road.

With Moat Cailin taken, Lord Roose Bolton, now named Warden of the North, gained free passage into the rest of the region. The Greyjoys were left holding only Deepwood Motte and Torrhen's Square in the North.