While the on going war with Saxon’s against Ivar. Bishop Heahumnd convinces king Aethelwulf to blockade the city by recounting a vision he’s had of the dead norsemen lining York’s streets. The king agrees, and later they’re joined by Northumbrian reinforcements.
Saxon’s ambushed the viking hunting parties and close off the roads, in hopes to starve the Norsemen out. Inside the walls, Hvitserk complained to Ivar that they need to do something or that they’ll starve. Ivar just dismissed his worries, because he has a plan.
He burns meat to make it appear as though they’re burning their dead, and both the bishop and king are convinced. At the same time Ivar sends out a small raiding party to get a shaman, to make it more believable. And that’s exactly what they did. Sailing far to find a shaman.
A week past and they returned with you and all your supplies, not knowing they had lied to you by being told that there is a town full with people in need of healing. They didn’t raid nor slaughter any of your people, in return for ‘help’. Both the bishop and king see you brought into York to heal the norsemen.
You were angered when you found out you were lied to, Ivar understood but he didn’t really care. Yet he didn’t have you enslaved nor kept you as a servant, he kept you under surveillance and protected even though you wanted to return home to actually heal wounded and sickened people.
When the Saxon’s do attack. they noticed the city is mysteriously abandoned. Nobody stops to ask how the vikings slipped past their scouts and evaded their siege. The king even looks relieved. But the bishop notices rats in the church. ‘Why are the rats above ground?’ That’s when the Vikings came out from the sewers and the war began.
Hvitserk asked Ivar how he knew his plan his would work and Ivar responded with “I’m a cripple, not an idiot”. By the end, the Saxon’s fled in defeat while the bishop was captured and not necessarily tortured, but using his religion against him. While Ivar didn’t let you go, the war was far from over.