Expansion 𝐄𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐟 𝐄𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐚

[House Of Björn]

𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐬𝐭 𝐔𝐥𝐢𝐬​

Garðar finally attained some peace after the tyranical rule of Thror that lasted decades. Garðar now has more than enough wheat,barley,corn,maize,oats and rye along with vegetables and fruits that the warehouses and storage facilities are filled enough to last even if sixwinters came together. This happened after a time when the people of Garðar didn’t even have enough in their warehouses to last a single summer, let alone winter to survive. Under the rule of Ragnar, the land has grown fruitful with more production and distribution happening under the watchful eyes of the loyal ministers of Garðar, who saw the suffering of the people but couldn’t do anything for them by going against Ragnar’s father. Now trade is beginning to flourish as a few days ago carts of goods were send out of Garðar by merchants who bought from the farmers at a completely fair price instead of buying goods from merchants from far away lands to feed the Duke and his subjects at a completely unfair price.Now ships holding the symbol of the house of Bjorn have been sent out to lands for trade and other economical, Political, and Cultural reasons.

Since the land is secured now, it is time for the barony to grow and so after conquering the small barony of Garðar. Ragnar extended his holds through a conquest of Skrell, Morach, Nordland, Garion, Torridon, The lands his father lost in his absence. The lands he regained by force or by surrender of his enemies. Now he sets his eyes up north towards Ust Ulis, The land that is closer to his own province of Skrell that is divided by the smallest gap of the Kraken Sea. The distance small enough to be crossed by an small boat. So to send the word of the Duke quickly to the neighbouring province, a convoy holding the messenger of Ragnar and a few of his soldiers who are to be sent to Ust Ulis of the country of Eilean Sea. The messenger holds the words of Ragnar, who asks for a peaceful surrender of provinces starting with Ust Ulis.

One might wonder why, Ust Ulis, Ust Ulis and the lands of Ust Ulis, Lus Aslen, Ronna, and Caith at the nearest island in the backdrop of Garðar along with Urkenjar and Hrosseyjar in the second island and Herthon, Levsha, Ionna, and Cumbra to the north west. The lands directly belonging to the Eilean Sea. All these lands now under the radar of the Duke of Garðar because they pose a threat to the Barony, as a rear attack is always one that might be left as a blindspot to developing Baronies like his. This tactical plan will lend Garðar a piece of Kraken Sea that is private to the House Of Bjorn if succeeded. But the answer to the question lies in the unknown lands under the country of Eilean Sea and an messenger of peace along with a few soldiers have already been rowing their way to the gate of Ust Ulis as the Duke awaits at the shore of Skrell.

 

[Ordoğeşh Al-Diabh]

The Wind of Plague spreads...

Bane of War... Bane of Souls...​

All the Kraken Sea Boils to the sound of War Drums!

The entire shoreline of Ust Ulis was consumed by a gargantuan cumulonimbus that cast a shadow as far as the eye could see, climbing up the skies so high one could feel it as a godly hand pressing its will against the very land. The rocky boulders by the shore naked stone, carved by the waves and her thousand tides, no longer resembling any initial shape they once had. It was said that Ust Ulis, and the other three provinces of the island was once a mighty Fae realm, protected by guardians of stone and magick against the invading Man. Eras now lost in antiquity...

Ust Ulis was a land broken into tribal chiefdoms, each vying for control over the scarce resources of the island. The weather unrelenting wind of salt and water, the tides breaking the bulwarks during the deep winter, while the beasts echoes from the deep wilderness and rocky hollows of the land beyond the North. It was said that demons once nested in the dark caves, whispering words of madness and driving many a King insane, before the tides claimed them for their own.

Seagulls swarmed over the black stone, hiding behind the hanging vines from the coming storm. The water pits on the beach hinted to days of rain before the Gardaran ships made landing...

In the distance, far from the beach, the flickering light of torchfire could be differentiated from through the rain's blur. A settlement. Walled by palisades, built in Nordic fashion atop a hill, it surveyed the beach beneath. There was no presence of troops or even an envoy to greet the newcommers. Too scared, perhaps, the locals were of pirates. The Viking, called by the Nordur; Infesting the Kraken Sea for centuries. Though the Kingdom of Eirelunn had risen, effectivelly giving a bloody end to the piracy of the Eilean Sea after the defeat of the Island Lords, the Northern shores of the Isles had never known peace...

Not yet...

 

[Karina Moldskred]

𝐀 𝐒𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭
​

A Peaceful wind blew from the west to the east as the land slept in the safe blanket of darkness of the night. There was not a single rainy cloud in the night sky. In the blue black cold, the sky illuminated and its lustre was one that could never have been conquered by any kings in this world.It was the rainy season in the north. Eventhough there was no rain, there was thunder in the nightsky as as the clicking of horse hooves filled the cold darkness as men in armor broke through the city gates shouting and laughing hysterically with venom in their voices and madness in their eyes wrapped a noose around the senile, man who put up a fight enough to let everyone know of the invaders in the village.

The bell rang wild in the night as the wind carried the fire that the demonic comrades in arms set across the homes and other precious abodes of people who lived in the humble village. The blood of the young and old flowed through streets concocted with the dust forming dirt. The pungent smells of rotten flesh and dark thick oil. The ringing of the bells and the screams of the people amalgamated into the air as her soldier woke her up from her nightmarish memories.

The Bloodhair, Viscount Karina Moldskred, watched as the soldiers rowed towards Ust Ulis. She was the messenger to Ust Ulis. The soldiers along with Karina were confident that they will see home after this journey as The Shieldmaiden, true to her name, protected her comrades and never let any of her soldiers out of her sight. The shorelines reminded her of her village after the ambush of the demonic forces to whom she owed her revenge. She looked around the coast of Ust Ulis for human contact. She was here to observe and report. If Ust Ulis was as empty as its coastline then annexation of Ust Ulis wouldn’t be as hard as one might think. But she remembered her work, “Observe” and report. This was a scene of mystery, She knew from experience that no land was free from being a dominion. If this land was as empty as she was thinking, then it might be due to a reason, and so it was time for her to explore the reason. She made a soldier write down what she saw into a scroll to be presented to Ragnar as the geographical features will definitely intrigue the Duke’s attention. She had read about the history of Ust Ulis from the archives of Garðar and eventhough the records were susceptible to bias of the old Duke. The records of ancient scrolls preceding the Dukes contained elvish nature to it. The records were kept in secrecy by the ministers of Garðar after Thror ordered the complete destruction of royal records before his time. Now the land was barren and more than a conquest, now it was an attempt to spread peace and bring the lush that the land once was, back to the grey and melancholic yet mysterious land of Ust Ulis.

 

[Ordoğeşh Al-Diabh]

The land was laid by black mold. Inbetween the stone-stacked fences, what once were swelling crops had turned to rotting crops, emitting a stench so strong it caused a piercing sensation in the nostrils. The peasant hutts were abandoned, wooden doors creacking half-openned by the blow of the wind, and farming tools were left on site, some pitchforks blackened by gore that refused to coalgulate.

Farther down the main road, the settlement was situated. The palisade walls were intact, with towers and fortifications alike baring no signs of violence. The buildings themselves were left abandoned as if life suffocated out of them. The gates were half-openned, with tracks of hooves and boots still printed on the thick mud. The glooming silence dominating the landscape, disturbed perhaps only by the occasional cawing of unseen crows. Behind the walls of the settlement, no banners flew to signal any foreigner of the lords of this territory. Creatures lurked in the distant corridors inbetween the tightly packed buildings like shadows of the dead, seemingly gone as soon as they were noticed, like the wind itslef blew them into ether.

Amidst the barren settlement, a single figure limbed over a bent cane. An elderly man, skull deprived of much hair, yet those few flocks that still held root on it were long enough to collect the mud they carried. His clothes ragged, tattared fabrics of no shade, barely providing any protection against the weather to his flesh-deprived body. His eyes lost in shadow, his head low, as if trying to hear the shaky steps he made to cross the street. It felt as if it would take a full century for it to happen, and yet, none could possibly fathom to what destination he even aimed towards...

 

[Karina Moldskred]

It was not exactly an pleasant or pleasurable sight to watch a land degrade and disintegrate and neither was it gratifying in anyway. There was not a single green moss to be found near any of the rocks that lay at the side of the coastline, yonder there was still something dirty that seemed to be eating the rocks like a splash of molten lava against the walls of a volcano slowly but surely burrowing a hole through the rock. It was not pleasant enough to be looked upon for more than a few seconds for any of the soldiers. But it did catch the attention of the firebred, Karina. Karina was careful not to step in any of the mush that was leading a way into what seemed like a cave or a pathway. She was sure that once a river must have flowed through the cave’s center but now was left with a muddy pathway that might have some sinister being hiding in it that could potentially pull the passerby into the mud to suffocate and kill before devouring the body without leaving even the bones behind like a vicious deranged creature of absolute putrid behaviour and something so despicable that she would not be surprised that it was one of those beings that came from the hell to take the life of those above the surface or came to drag the innocent and the sinful alike towards the unending inferno.

Karina watched the walls that told the tale of the predecessors. There was nothing to see in those walls in the dark although if they did burn a torch, they might try to find some inscriptions. But it was a risk, this could turn into an ambush if there is some force that gets attracted to the fire like a moth and attack the light. But finding the way ahead was indeed hard without the torches and so they had no choice but to take that risk and let destiny take its course. They were ready for a fight if it came to it. She walked ahead of the pack with the soldiers ready to cover themselves from any kind of trouble. There was a variety of soldiers such as spearsmen,bowsmen,swordsmen and even some medic to assist them. The Medics were the most protected and bowsmen next to them with swords men for close range attacks and spearsmen for a bit of distance in attack. They were a planned arrangement in the formation made by Karina and they walked covering the ground around and they were moving carefully and slow enough to be steady but fast enough to be swift.

They were slowly approaching civilization or what was left of a civilization in the land of Ust Ulis. She watched for any lifeform around and saw that across the street there was someone. She did not know if it was a human or something like a human who could be dangerous and she never trusted lonely figures on the way to a journey as it was not really the best idea to approach them as many in the past had managed to swing their hidden claws the size of a hideous branch of a sinister tree. She called out to the figure to ensure that the figure was indeed a figure and not an object.

“Man or beast, Identify yourself. Are you a civilian or a threat to civilization?”

She was a woman who had the fierceness and confidence of a warrior who saw a hundred fights. She still had a bit of the softness of a mother in her and there was concern in her tone. She wanted to identify the being in front of her and it was sure that one wrong move could kill the one in front of her and so she made sure to have the archers point their bows elsewhere as she walked ahead and towards the being in front of her that she suspected and truly hoped for as a human although she was not wishing any human the conditions as presented to her from the moment she set foot at this land. She walked with firm steps and she was very much in awareness of her surrounding and the ground beneath her feet and the sky was also not giving a warm welcome or a gesture of safety to her. She expected an attack from any corner at all times as she walked toward the figure in the shadows in the thick mist.

 

[Ordoğeşh Al-Diabh]

Gaping Maw of Decay. Endless Sea of Tears.

The wind blew from the North, carrying a stench so foul, the very flowers, once blooming, now fell to rot. The blight took form in septic flesh and exposed tissue, barely twitching alive in each motion. Wings flapped, casting shrapnels of their own demise across the proximity, as the many eyes gazed in satisfaction and malice unfathomable. The snow had covered most of the horrid landscape, yet what remained was still of bones and dying flora, fauna long gone by the place now cursed by her touch.

Six will be the Wounds, Six the Days of blasphemy, Six the tolls of the bells calling us near.​

The Longships lied half-buried beneath mud and snow, ocean frozen in the Bay, as salt formed a white shield over the immobile waves beneath...

---

The wind in th settlement blew over the blackened earth. As Karina demanded of the figure, the hermit turned, not enough yet to face her. His rugs hooding his face, like a leper amidst the streets of cities. He limbed forth.

"Th... Threat?" the figure uttered. Voice broken and dry, as if tormented by a hundred days of fever. "Threat is all." he coughed. The mud beneath him stained by splattering blood, black and septic, as it flew from his mouth beneath the hood. "Threat has come. Foul. Daemonic."

The figure limbed closer. His flesh-deprived hand reached out to Karina, yet the distance between them not enough yet to reach her. His palm wrapped by old bandages, his fingers plagued by gaping wounds and black rot, as if they had not seen a sunrise for years whole.

"Death has claimed this place!" he urged, stepping forth to grasp Karina by the hand. "Leave! Leave, stay with the living!"

The elder man's face revealed from through the shadow of the hood. Lips lost, perpetually showcasing the rotten teeth. Skin dotted with holes, greenish ooze dripping while the eyes themselves turned pale, blinded by whatever foul witchery had birthed the plague that befell the man.

"She has come. She has come for us all!"

 

[Karina Moldskred]

The decay was detailed and it was very visceral. It was like as if corpses were piled up as a display of decay. She knew that this place was an god forsaken land. But then again the lands that saw war was forsaken lands. This was not a very great look for any land but she was more concerned about the people over the state of the land.She was an army woman and this place was something of a bewitched land. Whatever had happened to this land, it was not something natural. Nature has a way of taking back the lands, not destroy the land. There was something decaying the land and she knew that this meant only one thing and that which she had encountered many times through her journey through the lands. She was well versed in travel and she had even been to the east of the Kraken Sea and beyond during her days of being part of a mercenary band. She was a part of an band of mercenaries loyal to Ragnar.

She wanted to send two soldiers back to the ship and from their they were to be heading home to ask Ragnar to send one of the magic based ones to this land so that she could go to another land where her strength could be more useful. She knew that there was no fight in this decay and whatever was holding this land had already set their sight on them. She turned around and led her people to go back to the ship. She knew that there was a high chance of being followed or worse bewitched but that was nothing compared to the excitement that she had of meeting a real enemy in the journey. She would definitely be disappointed that all that this land could give is an decaying blight that has, it seems spread down from the north towards to the south. This journey definitely was a good idea. Now they could isolate the disease to this island and not let it spread further down. They knew that this journey would be easy once they reach shore as Ragnar could see them from across the shore and so they could ask the Duke to send healers and magic based warriors to the scene to cleanse the land and rid the land of the disease and thereby make the land as pure as they could and then they could start rebuilding a city on this island with forts and military garrisons ready to build a great defense between Skrull and Ust Ulis. As she walked, she felt pity for the old man and so she asked him.

“Old man,better times are coming..please wait for those days before letting your senile body give up on you…”

She heard what the old man said and she wanted to reassure him that she was not threatening but proclaiming around for all who could hear, assuming that someone else would also be alive in this land. She was quick to walk as she wanted to reduce the death rate in this land before the healers and magical ones come. She kept her watch around for the demonic threat that was said to lurk around and she was sure that the old man had gone a bit crazier than his body could handle given the circumstances.

The world was more crazier and she thought that whoever this sinister being is who keeps the place of life as a place of decay, deserves a punishment and she knew that she will be punished even if she was not the one to punish her. She was confused about the whole place. The vibrations and the aura of the place was something very bitter yet had the last beats of life. It was like the land was pinned down to decay by something. She wanted to break the curse of the land and wash the land off the infection like how she used to draw a warm bath and make a bowl of chicken soup for her son when he was sick. She wanted the land to thrive under the leadership of Ragnar, who taught her that she could go on with her life even after what happened to her and how she could live her life fixing places that are broken by evil people.

“Old man please take good care of yourself till our healers come. We will save your land from this decay and give this land a new but fresher look compared to its current state.”

She went ahead and grabbed the old man to come along with them to the shore so that she could have him treated first and once he is treated, he could explain everything to the holy men and women who will enter this decayed land and make this unholy abomination of a land into an pristine piece of land filled with hills of flowers and an booming village life, much like her old village before it was pillaged and destroyed into ashes. The land is a very great place to be renovated and so she was adamant on reforming this place to the lushious paradise that she dreamed of.

 

[Ordoğeşh Al-Diabh]

The road to the ship was long. Too long. The darkness cast by the thick looming storm above made it all the more difficult to trace the path. The stench of rot was unbearable. The trees of whos branches once cast a shadow over the dirt road, now hung in black miasma, their leaves lost to the bane of this place far too early from autumn. As the band made their way down the path, the distant sea had turned grey by the reflection of the sky above, and the setting sun beyond the mountain-clad horizon.

"They will come for you... They will come for us all!" the shaky man's voice filled with terror. A memory, perhaps, experienced far too many times before to reason in his mind. His eyeless face in a perpetual shock, as if he could sense the setting of the sun. "They always come at dusk. They always come in dark. All but one, live by dawn..! All but one...! Oh, gods, no...!"

It was barely a thousand steps before the band would reach the beach, when the first noise echoed in the heavy of stench air of the diseased land. Barely after the first of the warriors blazed the first of the torches, a habbit far too engraved in the daily life of the voyagers to consider twice, it happened.

As the flintstone sparked against the blade, casting the sparks that brought flame to the wrapped fabric of the torch, the waves crashed against the shores. In a sudden cacophony of terror and arcane malice, the ocean cracked open as horrid entities emerged from beneath the waves, jumping onto the few sailors that held watch around the ship. The creatures bore barely any human characteristics, save for the limbs, although even them were stretched long and thin, layered by flesh long unattached to the tissue that rot underneath. Rust bled from the salt-drenched points of the broken spears and aged weapons wielded by the creatures. They fell upon the sailors in a sudden wave, defying gravity and nature itself by jumping and leaping from stern to mast and from oars to prow and beach. Their eye sockets hollow, their very bones emptied of soul, enthralled to whichever devilry gave them will.

The Winds of Plague blow from the East...

All consuming... All devouring...​

As soon as the screams from the beach reached Karina's band, the elder man fell on his knees and covered his ears with his hands, desperately trying to isolate the cacophony. His lungs bled cries of horror, shaking and trembling as if possessed by fear itself.

"They are here! They are here!!" he cried out.

Shadows moved at the very rear of the band's column. In a swift act, the diseased monsters leapt forth to hack and bite against the warriors of the House of Bjorn. A welcoming feast, befitting the bane of the island.
There were some dozen of these monsters, each armed with a splintered tool, or remnant of a weapon, charging onto Karina's column of troops in what seemed to be an ambush set and met with perfect execution...

 

[Karina Moldskred]

Abomination was what they would call these beings. They looked like mermaids to Karina. There was two types of mermaids in the old tales, both of which was known to Karina. The mermaids that her children used to dream about, the ones that had soft fins and exceeding beauty. Then there are those that she had heard from sailors who travelled through her village. She used to work in the tavern in her village when she was still a maiden and not a shieldmaiden. She had seamen tell tall tales of the sea to her and she was witnessing the horrific nightmarish version of it. She identified them as mermaids or sirens as she did not know what they were called. She swung her axe so hard that a line of whatever horrible creature they were was cut down like logs with no heads that it urged atleast the few creatures that came behind them to fall back into the waters or retreat in fear, a feeling that she was sure that was unfamiliar for the creatures of decay. The cuts she made on the enemies left a very putrid smell similar to that of an mixture of sweat,sea salt and mustard. Their movements sounded like the flapping of wet sea lions in the land and it was not a very pleasant thing to hear the shrieks of this unintelligent yet combat focused creatures. Ragnar always warned her not to think of her enemies as unintelligent but she was more of an learner by experience type and she felt that they were unintelligent because she knew that there was an hidden intelligent power behind these characters as she recalled that the old man had spoken of a woman. She was not pleased with the welcome she received and her soldiers were struggling but kept the fight even. She was the better fighter and that was why she was in the lead and so she crushed the lines of enemies as she pushed what seemed like an unending line of enemies. She felt that these beings were trained in combat as she saw how these creatures held their weapons. Maybe these are the soldiers of Ust Ulis or so she thought.

She pushed them back and then she took out an couchshell and blew into it sending terror through the hearts of whatever was facing her. It was an voice that might have scared whoever who heard the sound before, because this was the warcry of Bjorn. This would have scared anyone who had a sense as it was famous because it meant that the mad half elf of Garðar was in the scene of war. But this time he was not here, but he would soon be here if he heard the sound of the couchshell. Ragnar was not someone who should be met in a warzone and members of his band of mercenaries like comrades were no less dangerous to be met in war. Karina was one of those comrades and she was going to prove it today in this battlefield as she singlehandedly made a drift between the raising armies of enemies. Her soldiers were following the drift that she made and they were holding the shift pretty well. She was called the firebred because of her toughness in battle and she was showcasing her skills pretty well as she hacked her way through the angry mob of enemies. She was adapt in her skill that she knew well enough to know the difference between enemies and allies even in the dark.

The soldiers of Bjorn was well trained that she was sure that they were able to hold against the enemies that was in front of them, but she was not sure that they were able to hold against the magical forces that they might come to face and so they wanted one of her magically skilled comrade to join this ground. But she was trained to not depend on anyone and that was how she trained her soldiers too. She was the Viscount of Garðar and friends with the great duke of Garðar Ragnar and that was enough to send fear down people’s spine and what they forget is that she is the shieldmaiden Karina Moldskred who has never lost a single soldier in battle and would defend her soldiers and all those she is loyal to with her life. She was in anger and her anger was slowly getting converted to rage.

"You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger."

She remembered the words of greatness that she had once read. She was an well read woman for her status in this life. She was thought to be an bearish woman with no character, but she was an intelligent, wise lady with enough wisdom as a mother. Her soldiers were revitalized by the actions of their leader. She was leading by example and so was much of the leaders of the bands of soldiers that the land had. She knew that reinforcement will most definitely reach them but she was not reliant on it, but was rather reliant on making her enemies think that she was. She was sure that whoever ordered this attack on her was not having the best reaction seeing her break through and head towards their boats. She was not a fan of creatures due to her own experiences and so she was breaking them with vengeance. She protected the old man and she was determined to take him with her to Ragnar so that Ragnar could know about the state of this land and decide the next step to the conquest. She was suspicious of the old man due to experiences but she was not worried that he would be a threat to Ragnar if she took him to Ragnar.


“For Garðar…..For Ragnar…..For The House Of Bjorn….”

The soldiers chanted as they marched ahead and even if the sound of the couchshell couldn’t reach across the sea, their chanting would definitely be reaching across the skies as they all marched through the enemy lines breaking skulls and decapitated the bodies of the vile creatures as they marched on. She was not one to give up and if she was defeated tonight, she would have turned into an Valkyrie like being who would hunt down and kill every single one of the enemies of this land and the woman who was responsible for the depletion of this land. But as she was alive she kept cleaning the way through and she was going for the boat only for letting her men go back home before getting ready to fight the ‘she’ of the land.