Arriving from the North...
Across the frozen bay's icebridge between the Shipyard and Iskjerne...From out of the dense white mist, a massive viking army appeared with shields and torches. Ivar the Boneless rode out in front of them on his horse-drawn war chariot, being the first person to cross over the beach and ride up the icey snow-capped banks. Others soon followed him, and although the vikings were slow and hesitant about crossing the frozen icebridge, they started running quickly once they reached the other side, making their way up the snowy hillside towards the higher ground where they could see. The air was surprisingly dry, and a thick blanket of falling white snow and glimmering snowflakes restricted their visibility, casting a blueish grey background over the large white mass, as everything appeared to be eerily silent and devoid of sound. As they walked inland in several formations, Ivar noticed a small farm village straight ahead of him which appeared to be undefended. He looked to his left, noticing the rocky edge of the stone quarry at the base of the tall white mountains, forming a large wall of snow and ice which reached up to the clouds. To his right, he noticed the feint outline of a round wall which was also covered in snow and set upon a raised hill or mound which appeared to him to be artificial or man-made. "I want 50 men to search the village. I want 100 men to search that hill, and destroy that wall if you have to. Find out what's behind it. I want 25 men to take the beach. Go right and report back to me what you find. I want scouts along the mountains. Send riders to the west and search everything. I want a full survey of this entire land by sunset," Prince Ivar commanded.
Ivar Ragnarsson had brought 10,000 vikings with him, the largest viking army Iskjerne Bay had ever seen. It took little time for Prince Ivar to get a full detailed exploration of the entire settlement. He was disappointed to learn that the place had undergone a cold spell and was recently abandoned. However, his brother Ubbe Ragnarsson was quite relieved, and convinced Ivar to take advantage of the situation. Prince Ivar claimed all of Iskjerne Bay as his kingdom and decided that he should finish what his grandfather had started, by building an even greater settlement on top of it. Ivar's great heathen army had brought 50 ships with them, and all the supplies, weapons, tools and gear they needed to plan a long-term conquest. Working together, they quickly built their camps and camp fires, pitching their tents in the snow. For most people, the frigid arctic environment at this point, in the midst of an intense cold spell, would have likely been too unbearable and life-threatening. But the vikings were almost magically accustomed to it, these powerful Northmen being genetically built to deal with it. By now, most of the dead bodies in Iskjerne Bay before Ivar's arrival had been buried in the ice and snow, beneath thickets of mud and dirt, never to be seen again unless their remains were dug up. Ivar's Army was quick to start rebuilding everything, using the maps his scouts had drawn up to get a full picture of his future kingdom.
Unlike his brothers, Ivar the Boneless was not very strong despite his size. Ivar was crippled, with brittle bones and weak legs. His father Ragnar Lothbrok had left newborn Ivar to the wolves, but later had a change of heart and went back to rescue him. Ragnar raised young Ivar, despite his disability, convincing the boy that his disability was actually a gift which made him unique. Ivar the Boneless was part serpent, part dragon, a god amongst the vikings. He used his arms to drag himself along, enabling Ivar to hurl an axe with might and precision, but still he was crippled and weaker than others. Ivar was forced to be smarter, to think clever, and use his wit. He used the maps to design a new settlement, changing the entire layout of the terrain and everything. Or at least he started to, until his slave diggers ran into the statue of King Sigurd and realized they couldn't destroy it. Ivar's messengers reported the news to him, so Ivar changed his plans and decided to incorporate the natural landscape into his design, utilizing some of the architecture that King Sigurd already created. Prince Ivar's scouts would explore the village, the boat-shaped mead hall, the stone forge, the shipyard, the forest, the coastlines and beaches, the stone watchtower dungeon and the rock quarry. However, as the scout's horses explored the mountainside, by pure chance, the scout's hunting dogs did not detect the hidden cave entrance. The scouts rode right by it slowly, but they never took a closer look.
Prince Ivar sat inside the mead hall around the central fireplace, drawing something on a rabbit skin with a sharpened twig using woad, a blueish-green pigment used by Scottish raiders, normally to paint their faces. "What are you doing?" One of the vikings at the fire asked curiously, having never seen anyone draw before. "I'm building a castle," Ivar said with a grin. The viking just shook his head in confusion. "What is a castle?" Prince Ivar showed him the drawing of a Norman viking styled motte-and-bailey ring fortress.
"Iskjerne Castle has a circular motte or canal encircling a raised ditch around which sits a round wooden palisade made of thick upright vertical spiked planks and logs, forming a tall perfectly round wall around an open bailey or courtyard. Towards the back of the open bailey is a raised scarp or mound that is encompassed by a thick stone wall. On top of the scarp sits the mead hall, which is connected to the keep and the inner temple. Inside the dark mound below the keep is a wine cellar, a treasure vault and a dungeon. A flying bridge or suspension bridge ramps down from the large metal arched double gates connected to the stone wall at the top of the scarp to the open bailey below, where it melds into a hardened dirt crossroads with paths leading to the outer temple, the school or library, the forge or blacksmith, the workshop or sawmill, the barracks, the stables, the tavern or innkeep, and the training field which turns into an archery range or circus arena for shows, performances, or contests. The statue of Iskjerne's founder Sigurd the Ringtaker and the statue of Iskjerne's architect Ivar the Boneless stand as pillars to the arena's entrance."
Bjorn and Ubbe looked over at Ivar quietly, unimpressed expressions on their faces. "What?" Ivar asked snarlishly. Bjorn stood up, but Ubbe remained seated. "Okay Ivar, you build your castle. I will help you build it. But it's going to require a lot of strength," Ubbe reminded him. Bjorn folded his arms and stood there quietly, still unimpressed. "So what else?" Ubbe asked, almost as if to suggest that he could do anything. Ivar snickered and pointed to his rabbit skin design.
"Other dirt paths lead into the farmers village where you'll find houses, barns, farms, granaries, windmills, wells, meaderies, breweries, haystacks, spinning wheels and small pickett fences for vines, crops and livestock. The farmers village leads away from the scarp and slopes down over shallow hills towards the tall wooden main gate connected by a pair of wooden towers that connect to the circular wooden palisade which encompasses the entire village and the mead hall, forming a motte-and-bailey castle. The gate has a drawbridge which folds down over the motte to regulate traffic. The drawbridge ends at another dirt road, which travels away from Iskjerne Castle into the outer outskirts, mostly open country and farmland. A third, large outer fence encircles the outer farmlands, made from another tall wooden palisade with 4 gates positioned at the north, south, east and west. Each gate has a drawbridge which goes over another motte surrounding the third palisade. The 4 drawbridges end at long dirt roads through open fields into the wilderness.
The north road veers northeast to a fixed wooden bridge which crosses the shallow fjord to a small island, upon which are boat docks and Iskjerne's Shipyard, where longships are made. The east road goes straight for about one mile, then splits into a forked road, with one path leading into a small unprotected farming village, or campground, and the other path leading into the stone quarry and the rocky terrain going up into the eastern Weargtooth mountainside. This rocky path also splits halfway, with one path slithering up to the stone watchtower dungeon built into the mountainface, while the other path serpentines downwards into more rocky terrain where there is a hidden cave entrance. Going back to the outer palisade wall, the western road goes straight for miles over open grasslands and coastal terrain, with a small dirt road branching off of it, heading southwest into a small forest and into the southwestern Weargtooth mountainside, where it melds into a long carved stone stairway climbing up to a large forge hidden at the top of the mountain. The southern road from Iskjerne Castle's outer palisade goes seemingly nowhere, straight south over open hills ending at the Weargtooth Mountains, where there is a large open cemetery with boat-shaped burial mounds, with giant runestones and upright boulders carved with runes." Prince Ivar looked over at his two half-brothers. Bjorn just nodded quietly and then walked away. Ubbe nodded, then smiled to Ivar, accepting the challenge. Before long, the great heathen army started their reconstruction of Iskjerne Bay, burying the old walls and building new ones, creating artificial earth mounds and digging out a motte-and-bailey ring fortress.