Fifty viking longships drifted in unison around Ellaria's watery coastline, each one spaced out in a triangular wedge formation, the Seamaiden taking the lead with Ivar the Boneless as the fleet commander. Aboard each ship was a horn-blower and an animal-skin drummer, but only the drums were sounding as the rowers rowed together, every beat of the 50 thundering drums creating the rhythm and tempo of the oars as the Great Heathen Army made its way towards the mouth of Iskjerne Bay, moving around the rocky mountains and inland towards the place of Aether Dock, where the late chieftain Sigurd Hring had built a new shipyard. The ships arrived swiftly and quietly, appearing through the foggy mist as the vikings rowed their way inland. The beating drums would be the only warning of Prince Ivar's arrival. He turned and looked behind him towards his older brother Bjorn, who stood there ready to make landfall at any moment.

The air was cooler in the bay area, with salty rime and frost forming thin layers against the ship's hulls and prows, breaking through the ice sheets as they drifted into the harbour. Prince Ivar was wearing full body armor with his helmet already fastened, hugging the wooden mermaid-carving at the prow of the ship while sitting on the raised platform above the low deck. Ivar Ragnarsson turned to look at his brother Bjorn Ironside, nodding quietly. Bjorn nodded back before lifting his giant bronze metal shield to the side of his head and yelling into it. "OOOOODINNN!!! his deep low voice carrying over the waves and disappearing into the fog, providing an echolocation for the Seamaiden as Ivar signalled for the drums to cease. As the drummers stopped drumming, the rowers also stopped, lifting their oars above the water and holding them there. "OOOOOOODIIIINNNNN!!! repeated the large brother with the black painted claw marks on his face. As his voice echoed, Ivar turned to look at Bjorn again, smirking quietly. Bjorn smiled and nodded slightly before turning to look back at one of the archers. Prince Bjorn snapped his fingers, and the archer immediately lit one of his flaming arrows and fired it over Bjorn and Ivar's shoulders into the dense cold fog. After a brief second, they could hear the feint sizzling of the flaming arrow as it was extinguished beneath the open water. "OOOOOOODIIIINNNNN!!! Bjorn shouted again, using the large disc-shaped bronze shield to throw his voice and direct the echo. He motioned again to the archer, who quickly fired another flaming arrow into the air.

This time there was no sizzling sound afterwards. The arrow struck a muddy bank, extinguishing itself in the frozen wet moss. Bjorn lowered his shield and looked up to Prince Ivar, who grinned devilishly. "LAAANND!!!" Bjorn shouted, pointing to the beach with his axe. Ivar the Boneless quickly plopped down on to the ship's shallow deck and slithered his way through the rowers on his elbows, dragging his useless legs behind him. Hrafn-Floki would start climbing up the mast of the Seamaiden, lowering his black hood to reveal his crow-like face paint with coal eyeshadow and rune painted forehead, giggling with excitement. Ubbe Ragnarsson would stand up beside him, his bright blue eyes glimmering with hope. Queen Lagertha and King Harald didn't react much, both of them already resolved from the beginning. Lagertha would glance over to him silently, a look of concern in her eyes. King Harald looked at her and smiled, a look of confidence on his face. Ivar opened a treasure chest and grabbed his new invention, a pair of armored leg supports. He glanced up to Ubbe with a sarcastic smirk while sliding one of the leg supports around his ankle and fastening the 3 straps, two below the knee and one above to hold his leg straight. As the Seamaiden neared the empty shipyard, Bjorn turned to face the 150 rowers, standing in the center aisle between them, signalling for the 75 oarsmen on the right side to backpaddle. This caused the Seamaiden to turn sideways while entering the shallows parallel to one of the docks.

With her left side out, the 75 dually colored round shields which formed the Seamaiden's shield-wall flank were already in place. Prince Ivar grabbed his crutch, his long dagger and his throwing axe, propping himself up to sit on top of the treasure chest as a row of specialized archers took up defensive positions around him at the side deck overlooking the empty shipyard. Harald Finehair flicked his fish-bone toothpick overboard into the water before tightening his sword sheath and his glove straps. He nodded to the oarsmen in front of him, who retracted their oars back into the boat, tightening the shield-wall. As the longship drifted slowly closer to the available dock, Harald unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the small metal pulley system. "Drop the ramp!!!" He shouted, and suddenly the whole side of the Seamaiden opened up like a draw-bridge, forming a large ramp which opened on to the dock, allowing the vikings to storm out quickly in large numbers as the ship was anchored down and tied off to keep it from drifting away. A row of 15 vikings rushed out, shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, roaring with fury and the lust for battle. This was followed by another 15, and another, as they quickly stormed the docks, rushing the whole entire shipyard within a few minutes, only to find it empty and deserted. Prince Ivar sat aboard the vessel and watched as the heathen army swept the frozen beach, finding only a few unfrozen vodka bottles, old tackle, tools and miscellaneous items scattered around the small uninhabited island. As they returned to the longship, Ubbe looked up over the ship's shield-wall to Ivar, smiling.

"The place is empty. There's no one here," Ubbe said with disbelief. Ivar just smirked, pointing his crutch out over the horizon past the shipyard, to the foggy white landmass past the icebridge on the other side of the docks. "We have to go to the other side," Ivar said. "The ice is either too thick, or not thick enough. Do we risk sinking the ships? Or risk ourselves?" Prince Ubbe asked rhetorically. Ivar sighed deeply as two archers guided a horse drawn war chariot over to the ramp. "I have a plan," he said as he propped himself to his feet and leaned into his crutch, dragging himself over to the chariot with stiff legs before climbing up to sit in it. "Go," he said, appearing to be perfectly relaxed with his legs sprawled out. The charioteer fwipped the reigns and soon the 2 horses pulling the chariot would descend down the ramp and over the dock on to the muddy shore. Ubbe rolled his eyes and turned to look down at Ivar this time, shouting to him. "Well, what is your plan?!" he threw his arms up. Prince Ivar smiled, but said nothing as the war chariot slowly rode away.

From out of the fog of the deep sea, the prow of a viking longship appeared, heading inland towards the coast. At the front of the ship was the wooden carving of a mermaid in battle dress, hand over her brows, her gaze scanning everything before her. The sail was black, and there was a white raven banner flying above it. Along both narrow sides of the low decked vessel was a row of cross-colorful round shields, painted with the colors of Nordic flags. Blue and yellow, red and white, blue and white, green and black, green and white, blue and red, etc. There were 200 interlocking shields in all, 100 on each side of the ship. Each shield also had the full body of an animal painted on it. There were black ravens, white rabbits, black wolves, bown stags, brown bears, yellow leopards, red foxes, white deer, green tortoises, black boars, white owls and red eagles. 75 thin long oars aligned both sides of the longship for a total of 150 rowers altogether. Sitting on the raised platform at the front of this ship was the crippled viking prince, Ivar the Boneless, paralyzed from the waist down and unable to swim, yet still dressed in full body armor with a helmet and chestplate, hugging the wooden mermaid's waist from behind while peering out over the open waves. Standing on the low deck behind him was his older brother, Bjorn Ironside, who held a different, larger non-painted bronze colored shield in his hand and was lightly armored with no helmet, instead having his face painted with claw marks.

On the back of the ship was a woman in a black featered cloak wearing a blue catskin dress with bright reddish orange hair and bright blue eyes. This was Queen Aslaug, who wore no armor at all but instead held a 33-inch Nordic bugle made from the horn of a large bovine. Leaning against the mast of the ship in the center of the deck was King Harald, wearing light chain-mail and padded leather armor with half of his face tattooed with blue tribal vine-knots, casually picking his teeth, using a small thin fish bone as a toothpick. Standing beside him was Queen Lagertha, the legendary shield-maiden and widow of Ragnar Lothbrok, wearing similar armor with her silvery blonde hair flowing freely in the wind. She held her spear in one hand, a blue and white shield in the other. Sitting against the mast on the other side of King Harald was Ivar's brother, Ubbe Ragnarsson, and the shipbuilder Hrafn-Floki who was wearing a bulky black hooded cloak with black coal eyeliner and a rune painted on his forehead. The name of this massive viking vessel was the Seamaiden, and it was the largest most flexible boat that Floki had ever designed. All around them were several others, dozens of vikings who were already dressed and battle ready, all of them looking quite similar in fashion, but very different in their individual styles, haircuts, tattoos, armor and choices of weaponry.

But they were not alone in Ellaria's deep oceans, for as the Seamaiden drew closer, more viking longships appeared out of the mist behind it. 49 other ships to be exact, an entire fleet of viking ships, each one carrying 200 vikings ready for war. The entire fleet was heading inland together in a triangular wedge formation with the Seamaiden in the lead. Each ship kept rowing at a steady speed, kept in unison by the sound of beating leather battle drums, the low bass rumbling with each smack of 50 large padded drumsticks hitting the open air like an approaching thunderstorm. The fleet was spread out over the waves, but still close enough for each ship to view its neighbors and communicate with the echoing sound of horns and drums if necessary. This was the Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless himself, with the help of his brothers. Ivar had somehow found a way to teleport his fleet to Gaia, following the instructions given to him by the spirit of his dead uncle Rollo the Walker, who revealed to him the secrets of the Atlantic Ocean and the whereabouts of the Bermuda Triangle, but nature is unpredictable and ghosts are demanding. Rollo left him riddles and clues, but it was Ivar himself who used his clever wit to discover the time window and enter the portal at the right spot, during the precise moment for such an event to transpire. Prince Ivar was indeed clever, for unlike his predecessors before him, Ivar's fleet had brought an extra ship with them, setting it adrift with nobody on it. As the Great Heathen Army's fleet suddenly teleported into Gaia's ocean, a single vessel would be left behind. By watching the ghost ship suddenly vanish right before their very eyes, Ivar's fleet would be aware that they had transversed space-time and had crossed into Gaia's waters. No other viking leader had ever done this before, and the success of such a tact only boosted Ivar's morale, and his growing reputation as the son of a god.