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Snippet #2821767

located in Great Ellarian Forest, a part of The Multiverse, one of the many universes on RPG.

Great Ellarian Forest

The Immense Great Forest of Ellaria, home to a diverse population of flora and tree outcroppings. Many civilizations find home here in the forest which takes up much of the continent.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Livia Caesarius Character Portrait: Argosian Soldier Character Portrait: Iskjerne Vikings Character Portrait: Bjorn Ironside Character Portrait: Iskjerne Berserkers Character Portrait: Ragnar Lothbrok Sigurdsson Character Portrait: Hermann der Cherusker
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Bjorn Ironside was traveling west through the Groenbogs, heading further into the swamps as he made his way towards the Great Ellarian Forest, accompanied by a handful of Iskjerne Berserkers who were diehard and ready for anything. These brutes were all large men standing well over six feet tall with thick necks, huge shoulders, big muscles and long rugged beards. They were shirtless apart from the bearskin mantles they wore over their shoulders. Some had hoods made from the bears head and jaws. Others wore necklaces, arm rings and bracelets adorned with bears claws. All of them wore bearskin boots, and some wore amulets or tiny idols resembling Iskjerne Bay's endangered cave bear species. A few of the berserkers had tattoos covering their bodies, chests, backs, arms and hands, necks and faces. The rest didn't show any signs of being tattooed. Yet all of them had painted skin, in different colors of black, blue and green, like splotches of camouflage using a series of random stripes and patterns, some bearing the likeness of runic signs or some other magical symbols meant to give the wearers power and strength, and protection on their journey.

Bjorn Ironside himself was dressed similar to the others he had brought with him. But he alone had shaved his head and cut off his long blonde hair so that he was bald. Bjorn did not have any tattoos, but he did have the Fehu Rune painted on his forehead in black dye, and a long reddish blonde beard which he had combed and braided neatly hanging from his chin with small beard ties to keep it tight. He wore a brown bearskin mantle over his broad shoulders and a bearskin kilt or battledress around his waist over baggy wool trousers and bulky bearskin boots. He also had bearskin gloves, and although Bjorn Ironside wasn't the oldest man in the group, he was the tallest, the strongest and the fastest. Bjorn himself could still speak, but the five other juggernauts he had brought with him had only the ability to growl, as all of them had removed their tongues at one time upon an oath they had once made when joining Odin's bear cult. It was clear that these were no ordinary Vikings, but rather something of an elite sect devoted to the cult of the bear. They looked like bears, growled like bears, and were known to be as strong and ferocious as bears when going into battle.

A mythos had developed around Bjorn Ironside and his followers over time. The kenning 'Ironside' came from the belief that Bjorn could not be stabbed, after numerous warriors had witnessed his skills in battle on multiple occasions and never once saw him get scratched. He was said to have thick skin and that the bearskin he wore had been imbued with dark magic, protecting the young leader from injury. But other myths surrounded the berserkers also. It was said that they possessed a magic recipe that only the chosen ones of Odin could withstand, a potion that could render them invincible to iron and fire, but would also give them added strength and blind rage. It was a super power bestowed only to the berserker, who foamed from the mouth and roared with such frenzy, gnawing on his own shield or axe like some type of rabid animal that many armies fled at the sight of their madness, or the fervor for which they had in war, showing no sign of pain or fear, but embracing danger. It was no wonder there were whispers of werewolves and other monsters lingering around Gaia's surface. Some of the lesser informed rural villagers and common folk around Ellaria had mistaken the Iskjerne Berserkers for werewolves and man-eating bear demons, angry warlocks, sasquatches or Bigfoot families, making up all sorts of fairytales surrounding the cult.

The Groenbogs were also surrounded in myths and legends. The bogs and swamps were full of hidden dangers, from bubbling boiling mud springs to sinking clay sand, peat and tar pits, not to mention poisonous vines of ivy and oak, thorns and thistles, alligators, snakes and spiders. It was a harsh environment filled with leafless wild trees and tangling branches, hanging mosses and flowers, and rocks or stepping stones covered in layers of fungi, slippery grass and lichen. The swamps were hazey and foggy, offering limited visibility and a very moisture rich setting. It was treacherous landscape, but the berserkers continued their journey, hacking their own path through the Groenbogs using their seaxes, swords and axes as frogs croaked around them in the scattered shallow ponds. Bjorn Ironside and his followers had no idea that there were spies in the swamp who had reported their presence in the middle of the night. Little did the berserkers know as they left the bogs and headed into the Great Ellarian Forest that they were about to venture into an ambush. A confederation of Ellarian Germanic tribes had stationed themselves in the forest, and were setting a trap for Bjorn and his men. With nobody to warn them, Bjorn continued forward, walking straight into Arminius' trap.

Everything was going perfectly according to plan. The handful of berserkers made their way down over the rocky ridgeline and into the narrow leafbed heading into the forest. All of them were slow to move and kept looking around in the trees for any signs of danger, all of them with large white eyes. They moved cautiously and stealthily, the only sounds in the forest coming from the cracking of twigs and the crunching of dead leaves beneath their bearskin boots. While all of them were now on high alert as they entered the eastern edge of the forest, looking around in every direction in front of them and behind them, even peering up, Bjorn and his berserkers had made the grave mistake of not paying attention to the ground or the potential snares that lay hidden in the sticks and leaves beneath their feet. As they entered the Great Ellarian Forest and went deeper into the trees, the atmosphere slowly became darker, less light penetrating through the branches above as the forest became more dense, increasing with vegetation the farther in they traveled, almost close enough to hear the explosions in the distance caused by the Argosian cannon fodder.

The sound of the thundering cannons took several seconds to reach the eastern edge of the forest, being that the sound needed to travel several miles through thick brush and densely packed trees. It would've sounded very faint to Bjorn and the five berserkers, but they could hear it from far away if they listened carefully.
It sounded like low rumbling thunder, but also apart from not being aware that the Germanic tribes were right on top of them, Bjorn Ironside had no clue about the Argosian legion or the seige they brought with them. Bjorn Ironside was about to have a very bad day.