The Island of Brunsee.

Sven and his party have finally reached the land of Pul and landed on the shores of the Island of Brunsee, in the distance they can see the ruins of an old castle or temple.
 
 They hurry forward, but not without incident, Leofric leads the way, an arrow nocked and ready, but he fails to see a large serpent hidden at the edges of the marsh.

He goes down screaming, racked with spasms of agony, then lies still.
The serpent disappears back into the marsh and Sven has difficulty keeping his men moving.
A rustling in the marsh brings them to a halt, as a herd of Wild boar rush across their path.

 Movement behind the marsh catches their attention, they halt again, It is Ragnar, how did he get here?

All Svens efforts to keep his men moving are in vain, he has to harry them forward.

Ragnar has no such problems and his men race across the grass, to reach the ruin.

Some are detached to keep Sven away whilst the rest attack the defenders.
The women beat off attack after attack, and Ragnar seeing the best of his men fall wounded, sends a small group around to attack from the rear.
  Svens' party is still embroiled with the boars, two men have been gored and one driven into the marsh.

Finally Sven gets his men moving forward, they reach a gap between the rocks to be assault by Ragnars archers to the front and a pack of wolves to their flank.

They manage to drive off the wolves and advance towards the tower, where Ragnars' men are still struggling to overcome the defenders.

Attacked from both sides the second defender falls and the lone survivor is driven off into the woods

Sven drives the wolves towards the enemy and hurls his men forward.

But they are driven back.

As the Skald enters the ruins he tells the raiders that they are looking for a Grecian urn.
 Whats a Grecian urn? mumbles Cedric, about 4 marks replies his brother.

The skald shakes his head in wonder, Fighters they may be, but Thinkers?

 As they search in the corners and under piles of rubble the Skald spots it resting on a ruined plinth in front of the statue.

A successful day for Ragnar and a poor one for Sven,

 The two parties, battered and bloody make their way  back to their ships.




Leaving the Valkyrie to gather the slain and lead them to Valhalla.


This lead to a discussion on Norse Mythology, with my young assistant who wanted to know

"Why haven't those ladies have any clothes on Grandad?"


The story pauses as we paint the Teddy Bear pirates for "Adventures in Eclectica"