Birger Torvesson's Story

Days turned into weeks, and after a month of continuous politics, foreign trade and networking, the gnomish commander Cloud Wrestler walked into the prince's chamber one day and reported that the Stjornhestr had returned from a distant planet. Apparently, the ship's entire crew had survived.

The entire kingdom was of course excited to see the return of Jarl Goffre Alvisson and his crew, with Svegdir Staghelm and Borstein the journalist right beside him. King Halfdan the Great welcomed the Stjornhestr's crew of Norse cosmonauts personally, greeting their company dressed formally wearing a royal purple cape with a crown of purest gold. The king congratulated them on their safe journey and presented the jarl and each karl with a golden medal, granting the thralls on their expedition with enough silver pennies to buy their own freedom and change their clothing colors. Halfdan then threw a feast, giving a toast to Jarl Goffre and his shipmates.

The king's royal council wasted little time in collecting Birger's maps, writings, and notebook full of drawings to be copied and made available to them. Halfdan the Great's kingdom was beginning to seem more like an intergalactic empire than a small Norse colony. The Empyrean Sea Beach formed its borders, but the entire island itself was it's capital. King Halfdan then commissioned another quest to the stars. Only this time instead of sending just one starship, the king decided to launch all 3 of them. It was a small armada, but a force to be reckoned with. Initially Goffre Alvisson and his team refused to return to Xamayos, still unnerved by what they had discovered there, but King Halfdan pleaded with Goffre and offered to give the Stjornhestr's crew more supplies, and an even better payout than their first mission. The jarl and his cosmonauts agreed, and soon the Stjornhestr was back on its way to the distant planet of dinosaurs, monsters and megabeasts.

It wasn't long before the smoke from the wildfire on the mainland reached the area where it could be seen from the island. The sea elves reported to King Halfdan that the Argosians had returned to Ellaria and had set the Great Forest ablaze. It wouldn't be long before the forest's native inhabitants came pouring into the shores and asking for sanctuary. King Halfdan was not one to turn them away. His empire was expanding as he gazed out into the great assembly of humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and other magical races who had somehow come to serve him. Eventually he knew he would have to make a decision to help their Iskjerne Viking cousins to fight off their oppressors, or to help the Argosian foreigners to conquer Iskjerne Bay in order to expand his own intergalactic trading network.

The Stjornhestr had left Xamayos in a haste, and it seemed that the space faring Empyrean Norsemen would never return to such a hostile and foreboding planet full of dangers. Weeks went by without any exciting activity, until one day, the large Viking starship appeared out of the darkness once again, entering Bastion IV's exosphere and orbiting around the mostly mysterious planet like a miniature moon or artificial satellite, only the Stjornhestr was crafted by dwarves and reinforced by elves using magically embued metals which made the modest sized longship harder to detect. It remained relatively dormant in Bastion IV's airspace, orbiting the planet slowly for nine days and nights before deploying the Karvi-3.

Only this time, the small pod-like convertiboat didn't descend towards the Dracos Valley, and it wasn't alone. Karvi-1 and Karvi-2 descended behind it so that all three scouting vessels formed a strategic flying bird formation with Karvi-3 in the lead. Jarl Goffre's crew had discovered another anomaly on the planet's surface, and this time it wasn't their own settlement that they had left behind in Dracos Valley, but some strange land formations in the mountains further up. Just like last time, Jarl Goffre and the Stjornhestr's engine team stayed with the longship, while Svegdir Staghelm and Wolfgang Yorisson piloted the smaller vessels down to the planet. Kelsey the Healer and Birger Torvesson also accompanied them, along with Borstein, Danegh, and several others.

They were better equipped for their second space exploration, if not only because the king of the Empyrean Norse Empire had to bribe them all to return to the planet after what happened last time. The Norsemen aboard the Stjornhestr had an onboard mini-ecosystem with native livestock and horses from Gaia, which would make easy prey and a delicious meal for predators like the one that Danegh had witnessed. Now wealthier since their return to Gaia, the Vikings came better prepared with weapons and armor. Although they still had the same basic spears, swords and axes as before, they now had a sidearm. But it wasn't a knife or dagger. It appeared to be a rudimentary type of pistol or firearm. It was a new model weapon that Goffre's crew had engineered aboard the Stjormhestr, based on an old familiar Argosian pistol that the Empyrean Norsemen discovered on their own beach a long time ago.

King Halfdan the Great had sanctioned this project himself, and Goffre Alvisson was fully aware of the secret missions and experiments taking place on his own starship, but nobody else on board the Stjornhestr knew about one of those secret missions until now as they examined their new handguns, holstering them at their sides and clutching their golden axes as they buckled their seatbelts and the convertiboats descended towards the Savage Peaks, before heading into Pagourano to investigate the strange artificial structures which were visible from their small mother ship high above the atmosphere, almost appearing to Jarl Goffre to be some sort of spaceport that wasn't very well hidden, but unintentionally designed to be seen by aircraft.

Were these voice-mimicking bipedal reptiles or dragon-like beasts capable of building a spaceport? Each man had his own thoughts and opinions, or personal beliefs which they kept to themselves as the three karves sank into the mountains, flying in tight formation between the peaks as they slowed down, gliding over the the large artificial wall which Birger the mapmaker had brought to Jarl Goffre's attention. The wall wasn't really that obvious, but Birger had a keen eye and was able to spot it from a rocket-distance away. None of the Vikings noticed the small village as they flew over it, for everything around them was covered with snow, the wind was cooler and foggy as the warm clouds from the valley sank and settled into the mountains, creating a haze on the vessel's windshields.

Three small almond-shaped silver skyships hovered slowly over the frozen landscape, having no thrusters or exhaust systems and making no noise as the 25-foot-long space pods approached the Pagourano Spaceport, gliding over the mountainous tundra before slowly descending in a V-shape delta formation. These aptly named 'convertiboats' did not bare markings and appeared to have no doors or windows, but were completely silver and metallic, belonging to the Empyrean Nordic Empire of Gaia and designed for these kind of surface expeditions. Karvi-3 was in the lead, with Karvi-1 and Karvi-2 trailing close by at its flanks as the three Nordic convertiboats descended towards the large open landing pad, hovering quietly to a slow and graceful stop. None of the convertiboats had wheels, skis or landing gear, but instead appeared to levitate a foot or so off of the landing surface without any need for additional landing gear. Like hovercrafts, they just hovered above the landing pad without budging, as if held in place by some kind of electromagnetism or magical energy.

All at once, the bimini-like visored silver rooftops on the small karve-sized skyships began to open and slide backwards like plates of metal scale armor, causing the convertiboats to take on a more familiar shape which looked extremely similar to three very small Viking trade ships, just like the karves you'd find drifting in the rivers and fjords or roped to water docks. It was clear from their appearance that these convertiboats were not just spacecraft, but also doubled as watercraft which could be oared, steered or even completely submersed underwater. Each convertiboat had 12 passengers, making 36 crewmates altogether between all 3 karves. This was a considerably small leidang, as the remaining 10 convertiboats had stayed in port, docked aboard the Stjornhestr along with the other 464 passengers who had remained in orbit above the planet's surface. Svegdir Staghelm, Jonah Marksberg, Birger Torvesson the Mapmaker, and Borstein the Benevolent stepped out off the deck of Karvi-1, accompanied by 8 other Empyrean Norsemen in strange uniforms.



Svegdir, Jonah, Birger and Borstein all wore lace-tied V-neck blue longsleeve shirts with baggy trousers. Svegdir and Jonah wore silver vegvisir necklaces, while Birger and Borstein wore mjolnir necklaces. Four of the other Norsemen from Karvi-1 also wore blue uniforms with silver mjolnir necklaces, while the other 4 crew members from Karvi-1 wore green uniforms without jewelry, signifying that these were thralls or servants and not freemen like the others. Svegdir Staghelm also wore another necklace with a purple crystal skeleton key pendant, and among all of the Norsemen who had arrived with him, Svegdir was the most prominent and easiest to spot, for he was the only Viking in the entirety of their whole crew who was wearing a horned helmet. All the rest of them wore simple dome-shaped helmets with nose guards or basic half-visors, cloth beanie-like snowcaps or no headgear at all. Some had spears and pikes, some had swords, some had axes and shields, and some were completely unarmed. Birger Torvesson carried a leatherback parchment journal or art book, while everyone in blue uniform also carried a sidearm pistol in a holster on their black leather belts.

Wolfgang Yorisson, Kelsey the Healer, Danegh the Daring, and 9 other passengers stepped out of Karvi-2, likewise in appearance. As karls, all three of them were wearing blue uniforms. Wolfgang and Kelsey had vegvisir necklaces, while Danegh and the other karls wore mjolnir necklaces. All of the 12 crewmates aboard Karvi-2 were armed freemen in blue uniforms, and nobody in their group was wearing green, for there were no servants among them. Kelsey was holding a white briefcase with a blue triquetra symbol entwined with double serpents upon it, signifying that it was some sort of first-aid kit or medical case for apothecary work and witchcraft. Apart from all the others, Kelsey also wore a blue hooded cloak, common among witches and female Norse healers. They too were also armed with various weapons and different kinds of personal armor, and each one also carried a small pistol as a sidearm in holsters attached to their belts.

Finally, the 12 crewmates aboard Karvi-3 stepped out on to the landing pad. 8 of them wore blue uniforms while the remaining 4 were unarmed servants in green uniforms. Of those in blue uniforms, 2 of them wore vegvisir necklaces while the other 6 karls wore mjolnir necklaces. Everyone with a vegvisir necklace was either a pilot or co-pilot, while the rest of the posse served as part of the greater space navy. The Empyreans were a tall and muscular, fair skinned human race with various different eye and hair colors, hair styles, armor and headgear. Most of the men had beards with various beard styles and mustaches, while most of the women had longer hair, some wavy and some braided or styled in different forms. Interestingly, many of the Norsemen carried axes and war hammers of 24-karat gold, which had been fashioned by the Strandvergar or beach dwarves, or swords and spears made of 99.9 fine silver, forged by the Sjóálfar or sea elves in their home kingdom. Likewise, these strange newcomers wore silver and gold armour imbued with Dwarven and Elven rune magic.



The people in blue clothing wore black or brown leather high-top shoes with lacings around their ankles and grey baggy pantlegs, each one having a golden arm-ring on his or her left arm close to the shoulder. The thralls in green uniforms had brown pants and straw sandals, or walked barefoot without any regalia, armor, weapons, arm-rings or jewelry at all. Everybody else was nicely adorned with various colored gemstone rings and necklaces, body piercings and tattoos, some of them having small leather coin bags, superstitious trinkets and amulets devoted to various gods and goddesses or land and sea spirits. Some of them even wore the silver cross of Hvitkristr, the symbol of the new religion that some of the Norsemen had adopted over time.

There were bags of supplies and luggage aboard the convertiboats, and some of the crewmates had brought animals with them as well. Staghelm had 2 hunting wolfdogs similar to the Ellarian spitz. Wolfgang had a red-tailed hawk or falcon, while Kelsey had a talking raven which only had a very limited vocabulary. As the Empyrean Norsemen stepped out on to the landing pad, they gazed at one another before looking around at the unfamiliar spaceport, taking in the cold fresh air and the scenery around them.

Gromp had been gone for far too long, which was troublesome. The likes of gnomes were the least likely to go missing in the wilds of Xamoyos what with all the monsters and creatures with big-ass teeth and-

rrRRRrmpCHCK Norg Fungona revved off his motorbike and hopped off. His heavy boots barely made a sound on the packed snow as he stomped his way up and through the entrance to the spaceport.

"Whas'r a convention 'er someshit?" Norg said louder than he meant to. Where the hell did all these people come from, and what business did they have here? Had someone started a tourism business over night, and how come he wasn't in on a piece of that pie? And where was Gromp to rake it in on gun sales?

Norg let out a low, long, whistle as he took in the viking ship. A slight breeze ruffled the furs of his hood and tickled his ear. Norg twitched at the itch, then noticed another vessel with people coming out of it. Incoming in the background was yet another ship - this one seemed to be a shipping carrier of some variety.

After a moment of inactivity in the otherwise seemingly still waters of Lake Vitality, the large Viking longship began to move. Large ramps slowly opened up on both sides of the longship, and from within the air-tight ports, two smaller vessels emerged. These karve-like silver convertiboats were much smaller in size, about 20 foot in length and shaped like silver almonds as they were released from the Stjornkona, drifting outward into the serene lake as if the larger longship had just given birth to two smaller oblong egg-like boats. As the convertiboats drifted ahead of the Stjornkona, the large ramps were retracted and shut like drawbridges against the sealed docking bay, pushing water outwards from the air-tight vacuum within like a giant aquatic whale exhaling spouts of water from its blowhole, or a mechanical shark through its massive gills. Such was the effort and technology of the Empyrean Norsemen, having worked for generations and generations to reach the stars while their own home planet Gaia was being destroyed by more primitive barbarian peoples that had been fighting and killing each other for decades, allowing the Empyrean Vikings to stay out of the limelight and advance far beyond other space-faring races.

The expedition to Senusret had been sanctioned by King Halfdan the Great for the purpose of exploration, star navigation, resource gathering, mapping, soil and water samples, weapons testing and new discoveries, all in the name of Empyrean Norse science, magic and alchemy. The small convertiboats began to push forward, moving side by side as they headed towards the open shore, while the captain of the Stjornkona and his two pilots took note of the other small ripple in the water roughly fifty feet away. By now, every Norsemen was familiar with the open seas, many of them having sailed back and forth across much larger and deeper waters back home. Most of them had already grown accustomed to whales, sea monsters and dragons, and many passengers on the Stjornkona had already been acquainted with Birger's maps and sketches, and his illustrious tales of Jarl Goffre and his crew's frightening encounters in Dracos Valley, something which every Nordic cosmonaut had been required to study before venturing into outer space. And while the Stjornkona had an entirely new and different crew from its twin sister ship the Stjornhestr, every vessel now had copies of Birger's journal and, coming well prepared for their journey across the galaxy, the Stjornkona's crew of 500 vikings felt like they had nothing to fear at this point in their journey.

The convertiboats drifted slowly ahead while the larger longship sat still in the middle of Lake Vitality, each one holding a small gang of 12 armed vikings who were already in the process of taking notes and studying this new foreign habitat on Dedelion as they approached the shore, well protected by the seemingly windowless two-sided silvery mirror casings and plate-like rooftops on each karve that allowed the gangs to have a 360° full view of everything around them, both above and below the water, so long as there was clear visibility to perceive everything. Although they could not see the bottom of the lake due to its sunless depths, as usual they did detect life forms in the water and determined that the planet's air was breathable by the sighting of small curious fish and scattered palm trees on the shallow beaches. The sealife was different from Gaia and the palms were shaped slightly different from the ones on the Empyrean Sea Beach, but they were not too dissimilar from home to the point of being unrecognizable, and even the climate and temperature itself seemed almost familiar to them as they approached the shore. Only once they reached the shallow waters did the bimini-like rooftops start to open and retract back, revealing the oarmen within the convertiboats as the vikings felt the fresh air and breathed the calming breeze for the first time.