Witch-Cursed Castle

[absinthetics]

WITCH-CURSED CASTLE
You whom Haggard holds in thrall,
Share his feast and share his fall.
You shall see your fortune flower
Till the torrent takes the tower.
Yet none but one of Hagsgate town
May bring the castle swirling down.

Beyond the town, darker than dark, King Haggard’s castle teetered like a lunatic on stilts, and beyond the castle the sea slid. Drinn stopped him as he raised his glass. “Not that toast, my friend. Will you drink to a woe fifty years old? It is that long since our sorrow fell, when King Haggard built his castle by the sea.”

“When the witch built it, I think.” Schmendrick wagged a finger at him. “Credit where it’s due, after all.”

“Ah, you know that story,” Drinn said. “Then you must also know that Haggard refused to pay the witch when her task was completed.”

The magician nodded. “Aye,” and she cursed him for his greed – cursed the castle, rather. “But what had that to do with Hagsgate? The town had done the witch no wrong.”

“No,” Drinn replied. “But neither had it done her any good. She could not unmake the castle – or would not, for she fancied herself an artistic sort and boasted that her work was years ahead of its time. Anyway, she came to the elders of Hagsgate and demanded that they force Haggard to pay what was due her. ‘Look at me and see yourselves,’ she rasped. ‘That’s the true test of a town, or of a king. A lord who cheats an ugly old witch will cheat his own folk by and by. Stop him while you can, before you grow used to him.’” Drinn sipped his wine and thoughtfully filled Schmendrick’s glass once more.

“Haggard paid her no money,” he went on, “and Hagsgate, alas, paid her no heed. She was treated politely and referred to the proper authorities, whereupon she flew into a fury and screamed that in our eagerness to make no enemies at all, we had now made two.” He paused, covering his eyes with lids so thin that Molly was sure he could see through them, like a bird. With his eyes closed, he said, “It was then that she cursed Haggard’s castle, and cursed our town as well. Thus his greed brought ruin upon us all.”

In the sighing silence, Molly Grue’s voice came down like a hammer on a horseshoe, as though she were again berating poor Captain Cully. “Haggard’s less at fault than you yourselves,” she mocked the folk of Hagsgate, “for he was only one thief, and you were many. You earned your trouble by your own avarice, not your king’s.”

Drinn opened his eyes and gave her an angry look. “We earned nothing,” he protested. “It was our parents and grandparents whom the witch asked for help, and I’ll grant you that they were as much to blame as Haggard, in their way. We would have handled the matter quite differently.” And every middle-aged face in the room scowled at every older face.

One of the old men spoke up in a voice that wheezed and miaowed. “You would have done just as we did. There were crops to harvest and stock to tend, as there still are. There was Haggard to live with, as there still is. We know very well how you would have behaved. You are our children.”

Weed-strewn oak, opoponax, wet stone, creaking redwood, and desolate olibanum.

Wow. I literally said 'wow!' when I smelled this scent in the bottle. It's perfect. It's deep, dark and terrifying without any sort of dirt note in it. It's terrifying, and woody. If you close your eyes and imagine the place and then smell the scent you would be instantly transported there. It's foreboding and heavy. I'd recommend this to anyone who would like to create the scene in an RP session with the RP scents. It calms down when you wear it, but it lurks for a long time. This and Hagsgate are incredibly complex.

[edenssixthday]

Witch-Cursed Castle - I definitely can't describe the feelings this scent evokes nearly as well as Absinthetics does! She's right on the money. This is a heavy, menacing, and desolate scent that's dry and woody, and there's definitely the scent of wet stone in it. It always amazes me how BPAL gets "stone" and "wet stone" so accurate. It's not the type of fragrance I would ever choose to wear, but as a work of art that captures the essence of a character from a story, it is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It's really brilliant.

[countessmouse]

Scents like this one make me nervous - they can get so ozone-y that I just can't tolerate them. This, however, is fantastic! Just an underlying hint of the wet stone (I agree, Sam; how dothey do that?!) topped with old wood and an incensy floral.

 

This just might get added to the "must get a bottle" list.

[Blood onmy hands]

This smells like it would be a delicious sauce. It goes on like spicy tomato, a whiff of mesquite bbq wood planks, and a hint of green that makes me think of green pepper and spicy tomato leaves. The drydown is a bit more like sweet, dark resins and lightly charred wood, but it definitely has a savory/foodie edge on my skin. My hubby said this smells like "cooking spices and bbq." I don't get the wet stone impression at all, though perhaps there's something clay-like about the whole thing if I try to pick it apart. I like it well enough, but it's not something that I'd actually wear as a personal scent.

[rayvn1]

Ha I definitely get Little Bird's "spicy tomato" description

 

I feel like I should be crazy about this - it's a bit like my beloved Potter's Field but the weeds smell is out of control and lacks the dirt/cedar aspects of Potter's Field that I crave. Spicy tomato weeds and a dark, snarly background. It's very cool and atmospheric but I don't think it will get as much play from me as Christmas On the Moor or other weed and dirt blends.

Edited January 10, 2012 by rayvn1

[zankoku_zen]

Dirt, cedar, redwood and a hint of green. This smells manly and green.

[ajansuz]

In the imp, it's a dark tangle of overgrown wood, damp, and stone. Really evocative of a dangerous sort of place you wouldn't want to be.

 

Wet, I amp oak like crazy, and this is no exception. It's all oak and incense with something a little tarry and disturbing underneath it. It's a wild scent, as in of the wilds, not something I associate with "people". I like it a lot in this phase.

 

When it dries, it's less foreboding but still wild and woodsy, masculine, but not so masculine that I don't think a woman can pull it off. I really like this. It's not like anything else I have, and I'm sure I'll be reaching for this imp again.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Dry golden resins.

 

Drydown: At the forefront is a musky oak note that reminds me of amber. Beneath that is gritty stone, warming incense, and something green. Maybe a touch of vetiver?

 

Dry: Almost dirt-like. Earthy stone, musky incense, and smooth, dry woods. There's still an amber/golden vibe that lends an air of sophistication to the blend.

 

 

 

 

7 out of 10 bones

Edited June 21, 2013 by BoneBone24

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Dark, wet stone and wood. It smells like the air coming from a damp Appalachian forest cave as you stand peering in from the forest.

 

Wet on my skin: Fancy hand soap!

 

Dry: ...Still fancy hand soap. I REALLY wanted to like this one based on the description and other reviews, but none of the individual notes are coming out, and it smells like the high-end liquid hand soap you might find in an upscale restaurant or hotel. Not a bad scent, but not unique.

 

That being said, I am expecting shark week to start at any time, so this very well could be my skin chemistry making it go all funky as my hormone levels go out of whack. I'll test this again and edit the post in a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

[Ashmedai]

Going by the listed notes and reviews, I was sure I'd love this. But somehow the combination of notes turns to single-note RHUBARB on my skin! And it's not shy about it (throw is unusually strong). But I stick it out and by the time it dried down, I'm left with a most intriguing mix of very soft oak, redwood, a soft smoky note of olibanum and a whole lot of what smells to me like tomato leaf and something herbal (thyme?). I'm on the fence about whether to swap it out or put it into my rotation of "vegetal" blends that I like very much. It's very much along the lines of "Karme" or the two "Planting Moon" editions (minus the yummy dirt note), all of which I love. That rhubarb phase though? Oy veh.

[savage_rose]

This smells very astringent to me. Almost pretty, but with a sharpness to it that puts you slightly off-balance. Very interesting.

Edited December 3, 2015 by savage_rose

[renfair]

I got this scent as part of the Unicorn Horn III pack about three years ago, as my first purchase from BPAL!, so this more recent review is on a three-year-old imp.

First Sniff Impression: I remember wondering how in the world they managed to capture the actual scent of wet stone. Very complex, incense-y. It made me think of a cursed castle on the sea, being struck by lightning.

Wet in Vial: This one is very difficult to pick anything in particular out of the vial, besides it's just sort of "weird," but in a good way, like the smell of electric magic. The magic feeling is probably brought about by the opoponax and olibanum. It still smells the best to me directly in the vial of the four more "cologne" scents of the third Last Unicorn imp pack.

Drying Down on Skin: I don't get redwood at all, but I've always liked the weird hint of wet stone. And the predominate smell is probably the opoponax or olibanum, though I can't tell which one it is. In a way it almost smells bug spray-ish, but not in a bad way. It's a very distinct scent that's very difficult to describe (I know, super helpful).

Dry on Skin: Seemed to peak with almost too-much "bug spray" smell at about an hour, then mellowed back out and has a decent life to it.

Conclusion: Still one of my favorite "atmospheric" perfumes of the Last Unicorn lot. Maybe the right type of guy could wear it, but I only like to sniff it for ambience. Though it's so weird I'd love to try it on my husband and see if it's any different.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Uh. I really have no idea what's going on here. A sour, bitter, vaguely green (while not resembling any plant I can think of) scent? Resinous, maybe? I don't really get much wood or stone.

 

Wet: More definitely sour resins. Frankincense tends to go sour on me, but not *this* fast. The wood also puts in an appearance, dark and aged.

 

Dry: The sour frankincense backs off, and the aged, resinous wood comes forward. Like King Haggard (another frimp I received in the same order), it's still not exactly warm and inviting, but it is... interesting, in an austere, regal kind of way.

[dementia_divine]

In the imp: This one is STRONG. The oak note is the strongest, and it is quite sharp. I do get the wet stone, note, too. It's very dark and foreboding.

 

Wet: I only applied a tiny dab of this to my skin as it is so strong, and I don't want it to cause a headache. The sharp oak note dominates, but the wet stone note is also rather strong, and it's very realistic. I cannot identify which of the other notes I'm smelling, but I can say that this is really evocative of what it is meant to represent.

 

Dry: The oak note never calms down. I'm not getting as much of the wet stone anymore. It's still very dark, but it reminds me more of freshly polished wood furniture now.

 

Verdict: This is too sharp and too woody for me.