[center][color=00CED1][h3]The Iceborn[/h3][/color][/center]
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[b]C) Improve Infrastructure[/b]

After some time, Dag himself made the trip to the mountains. The purpose that he claimed was a desire to inspect the new mine, but he was equally driven by curiosity about the strange creature that his men had found. The Gilbin, they were calling it now.

When the High Chieftain looked at the thing, he quickly realized that it posed little threat in a battle, however it had the sly look of a snake about it. This was the sort of creature that would sneak into your home and butcher you in your sleep, not raise a host and lay siege to your village. The realization didn't set him much at ease.

Nonetheless, the question of what to do about the Gilbin remained. There was quite possibly a whole tribe of these creatures hiding in some crevice or peak, and Dag knew that if a member of the Iceborn were murdered, he would be the first to cry out for war and vengeance. So was it safer to kill the Gilbin so that its supposed tribe might never learn of its fate, or to release the thing and hope that its captivity wouldn't spark a war? Was there even reason to fear a war with these creatures? If a war did happen, would the scrawny little things make good slaves? [i]Were there even more of the creatures in the first place?[/i]

In the end, the thinking began to drive Dag mad. The idea crossed his mind to bring the Giblin back to Dagshall and have the Godis and wise men look over it or use their magic to learn of it, but that hardly seemed worth the effort. If the Giblin was a lone creature then it posed no threat, and if it had a tribe then the Iceborn would not cower from any war that might come. So Dag offered the Giblin some food and drink and then had his men release it, and that was that.

As the talk of the Giblin and skraelings eventually died down, work could finally resume at its previous pace.  Dag realized that the tribe could bring bars of iron back to be worked by the smiths in Dagshall, but hauling boulders of unprocessed ore would be too inefficient. It would have to be processed near the mine, so Dag saw to it that the necessary smeltery was built at the mining camp.

There was also construction to be done in Dagshall. A smithy was already being erected in anticipation of the iron that would soon be coming from the mountains. In addition, atop the empty hill in the middle of the village, work finally began on a great mead hall. It was time that the High Chieftain, his family, and his retainers have a home worthy of their status. In addition, the mead hall would be a place large enough for half the tribe to gather for meeting or celebration, and atop that hill it would make a good holdout should the village ever come under attack. Fittingly, the mead hall would be able to keep true to its name if Sverker had success with his honeybees and meadery.

[hider=Iceborn]
-Dag thinks for a while about what to do to the Giblin, and finally just gives it some food and water before releasing it.
-A smeltery is built near the mine to process the iron ore, and a smithy is built in Dagshall to make use of the iron that is soon to come.
-Work also begins on a great mead hall that will go on top of a small hill in the center of Dagshall. It will be a homefor Dag and his family as well as a proper place to host meetings and celebrations for the tribe.[/hider]