Okay so there won't be as much places in this update and it's mainly going over things that need following up.
1158-1161
In Leifrvalde, reports of an open ocean along the west from Helluland traders had brought forth the Theory that Leifrvalde was situated on a very large Island. For a few years mappers had discussed how the Island was shaped or if it was an Island or if the sea these men had seen were only a large bay with a narrow opening in the northern waters or a saltwater lake. However there was only one way to prove this, when a rich member of the Allthing had become interested in this and petitioned the Paramount chief to order an expedition to the south. An Expedition led by Ulf Haraldsson and fifteen other men, these men were noted to be unmarried and specifically chosen for that as it was expected it would not be a short voyage.
When Ulf had begun his venture he had immediately noticed that the further south one goes the more densly populated the Skraelings are, This of course is the primary reason why no major Norse settlement had occurred south of Thorskurland.
When Ulf had rounded the Peninsula of Myriland he had already thought to examine the highly rumored Aurdreki that was within the southern lands. After taking a dozen pelts and skulls of the beasts he continued on his voyage.
Ulf had eventually stumbled upon the Skraelings that built so great stone temples and had vast amounts of gold. The Norse had decided to peacefully trade with the Skraelings before leaving to go even further south, they did have ambitions of raiding these particular Skraelings but didn't want to drag gold with them along their journey. With replenished food stocks Ulf had ventured south where the coastline dipped straight south, hoping that this was what they were hoping for in that it would curve west showing a peninsula proving that Leifrvalde was situated on a large Island rather than part of the continent connected to Europa and the Orient. They were soon proven wrong as they continued and the Land was still in sight, some of the men wanted to return home but Ulf had forbade it refusing to return home empty handed with only paltry discoveries that had been known for nearly a century now.
At this point the story gets convoluted and the distance the party traveled is unknown but they did secure the small pelt and skeleton of a "Man-Squirrel" which they deemed an interesting discovery as Ulf had believed it to be the offspring of Squirrels and a Woman. Apparently according to one variation of the story it had walked up to the Norse travelers and attempted to steal food nonchalantly, one of the crew had been enamored with the creatures as they reminded him of small children; they had even attempted to take it with them alive but it could not survive off of fish and other Human staple foods. Thinking no one would believe him he had the creature skinned and the skeleton encased.
The story goes on to say that he went even further south to a great bay. At that point however Ulf and the crew had given up on finding any western ocean and begun to travel back home, however they did bring back several Aurdreki pelts and skulls from Aurland and Myriland.
In Britain, an Alliance had begun to form between the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Dumnonia. In an effort to deny the Kingdom of Great Ebrauc from conquering petty warlords to the south and thus gaining more power to conquer both Ireland and Dumnonia the King of Ireland Cecil ap Merfyn would have troops stationed in Ulster and would raid the shoreline if any large amount of troops went south and the Dumnonians slowly began conquering petty warlords slowly becoming a power to be reckoned with.
The reaction of Ebrauc however was not to sit back and wait for an opportunity but to launch an outright invasion of Ulster. The goal was not to conquer but to eliminate the armies in Northern Ireland, with Dumnonia not yet being sufficiently powerful enough to make any bold moves had begrudgingly allowed Ebrauc to ravage Northern Ireland into the state it was in before the founding of the various Norse towns. However this did buy them enough time to conquer and expand their power base across southern Britain eventually taking up all of the original Welsh homeland after the self proclaimed Prince of Gwynedd surrendered. The Scottish enclaves in the far North managed to lay low and stay out of Ebrauc's attention biding their time.
