From the north, a band of riders appeared on the horizon, looking out over the Great Forest with the mountains cascading behind them, Asvith Thrym's silhouette vaguely visible in the far distance over the mountaintops many miles away towards Weargtooth's eastern slopes. The riders were human beings, mortals, about a dozen in number on horseback wearing battleworn garments over tarnished armor. They rode their horses into the Great Forest, unsure what to expect as they travelled deeper into more ancient forest looking for sanctuary. As they continued through the sprawling trees on their way, they stopped at Quaking Oaks near a clearwater stream before dismounting their Icelandic horses and venturing on foot. Little did they know that they just entered dryad territory and had left Iskjerne's kingdom, crossing over the border at the mountain range into the Ettonian's kingdom. The mysterious newcomers gazed up at the trees, some of them feeling a sense that they were being watched as they gripped their bows, swords and axes.
The dozen or so battleworn warriors appeared to be men-at-arms or perhaps even knights of some kind, but all of them were large and taller than ordinary men. None of them were shorter than 6'ft 2"in tall without their helmets on, apart from their blonde leader who was the shortest one of all at 5'10", a slender Norwegian ruler by the name of Erling "Snake" Skjalsson, recently defeated in a failed attempt to raid Iskjerne Bay and displace Sigurd Hring with his own kingdom. Snake was not the new king of Iskjerne, nor was he still the king of Norway, and he wasn't the king of Quaking Oaks either. Simply put, he was no longer king. Despite his fame and reputation throughout the lands, Erling was a nobody. He didn't have an army, food, supplies, anything at all apart from thirteen beaten and bruised monotheistic knights whose morale had been depleted. Still, they continued their travel through the darkening oaktrees, their red and blue surcoats and Sea Serpent banners and shields providing a sharp contrast to the green and brown forest.