“So that’s what happened.”

Jarl Ingolf sat together with Sigrun in the inner quarters of the Great Hall. As they had for the past 10 days when Sigrun returned home from accompanying Erik throughout the day.

During this time they had both gotten a better understanding of Erik, his mentality, parts of his background and personality were all carefully laid out between Sigrun and her father and discussed.

Their verdict was simple: Erik had clear likes and dislikes, sometimes seemed to act irrationally but usually kept it in check and, most importantly to the two Norscans, his martial prowess improved by leaps and bounds in a matter of days.

If Erik passed the trials, Ingolf foresaw a meteoric rise to power for their tribe. Moving the entire tribe closer to the Skaeling capital, where arable land was far more abundant, would no longer be a pipedream.

When his thoughts reached to here, Ingolf couldn’t help but frown.

“Those morons must be the little followers of either Yrret or Blygr, but instigated to cause trouble by that rat Vorad. He never stopped lusting after my seat, but he simply does not understand that knowing how to pull little tricks is not equivalent to knowing how to rule!

Pfft. Even before that, he would need to be able to beat me in a duel first, but he knows he can’t. All he can do is dream and wait for old age to weaken my arm before challenging me and taking the Jarl’s seat.

The appearance of a 4 Marked Champion must not sit well with him then. Is he getting restless?”

Sigrun quietly listened to her father, well aware how much he trusts her and believes in her wit while her thoughts were balancing between the current conversation and her inner murmurs. Her mother had been a great beauty Ingolf stole from a rival Norscan tribe and she had inherited her mother’s good looks. As well as her father’s strength of will and intelligence, which was why she would often be her father’s trusted conversation partner to find a way through difficult problems.

She very much appreciated and respected her father for his trust and sometimes indulgence, but even in Norscan society where women were freer than in many other human societies, they were unable to be completely independent. She was privileged to have a strong Jarl as a father, gaining her further benefits, but in the end she would still need to be ‘just’ a woman and caring wife.

Was that really all that life would inevitable have to offer for her? She feared so, but was un-resigned to her fate. Then, was Erik’s emergence, a man that looked, spoke and acted like them but came from a completely different background, an opportunity for her?

And was it just a rationalised choice or had 10 days of close contact planted a small seed in her heart and given fresh air to the spark of ambition she had always supressed?

“I think… we can use this as an opportunity to draw Erik closer to us while simultaneously rooting out some of the opposition?” –She somewhat hesitantly offered her thoughts.

“Good. This is why I talk to you and not to your uncle or brothers. A shame you weren’t born a boy. If you were and had the same prowess I have, you would make for an excellent Jarl.”

Sigrun lowered her gaze, not wanting to show that she was actually a bit hurt from her father’s sincere praise. Perhaps unaware of his favourite daughter’s inner turmoil, Jarl Ingolf continued:

“I’ll go have a talk with Vikti Scaldar tomorrow. He’s been getting on my nerves these few past days. I think he desires for Erik’s growth even more than we do! Ever since he lost favour with that Daemon Prince and had his contract ripped, he’s been anxiously looking for a new source of power.

I can’t be bothered to keep count of the number of thralls he’s already sacrificed for this. Although, come to think of it, he hasn’t made any more sacrifices recently… Guess he’s been busy with other things.

Regardless, Erik’s first opponent will be announced the day after tomorrow at the latest. And that’s enough talk for tonight, go back to your mother and get some sleep.”

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On the 11th day Erik continued his regular activities. The only thing that had changed was that he now saw a clearer division among the other warriors on the training field. Most of them did not change their behaviour towards him, but a couple of groups were more hostile towards Erik.

And they made their opinions heard by loudly taunting and jeering at Erik almost the entire day. Sadly, Erik did not give them the reaction they wanted and blatantly ignored the dancing clowns. This made some of the neutral Marauders scoff, while the more experienced ones nodded in satisfaction.

When Sigrun asked him why he didn’t respond to their insults, Erik just laughed and told her they weren’t worth the time. He would shut them up all at once in a couple days anyway, so why waste time on them?

Sure, for these couple days he might earn a bit of scorn from the younger men, but the older, more experienced warriors were aware of the futility of dealing with them right now.

And just like that, the days before the first Trial went by in a flash of slaughtering animals, training technique and enjoyable company.

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On the morning of the Trial, Erik got up at his usual time. Doing some light stretching to loosen his muscles, he then went to the water basin to freshen up. This was a little ritual he did every morning to verify he was still in the same godly body with the same handsome looks.

Soon after, Sigrun walked in with breakfast and they quietly enjoyed the warm meal. There was a bit of tension in the air, as they both realised that the past 3 weeks had led to this point.

His opponent had been announced long before, the man that had initially started catcalling him on the 10th day. He held a bit of reputation as a troublemaker and had sailed on one of the Wolfships this past summer, making him an acknowledged Marauder.

Further details of the duel were also made common knowledge. Neither party would wear armour, although a shield was permitted. Life and death were up to the Gods to decide, which when the Chaos Gods were involved, pretty much meant the fight was to the death.

This directly fed into the final rule, which is that both contestants would wager all their belongings. This included gold, food, livestock, tools, weapons & armour and thralls. And while this might seem like an unfair wager, since Erik only owned the clothes on his back and the Greatsword on his shoulder, it must be remembered that Erik was a bearer of the Chaos Marks. And while impossible for anyone else to gain all four, defeating Erik would still give the victor one of the Marks.

Now finished with their meal, Erik grabbed his Greatsword and slung it on his back. Two days ago Sigrun had presented him with a beautifully crafted back-scabbard for it, allowing Erik to comfortable carry the huge sword around and still be able to draw it swiftly (as opposed to back-scabbards Erik remembered from film & TV that are wholly impractical).

The fight wouldn’t start until noon, but prior to that a ceremonial sacrifice was to be performed to draw the attention of Gods and Daemons.

Before heading out the door towards the ceremonial altar, Erik briefly checked his full status.

~Bleep! – Player information displayed!

Player: Erik –
Affiliation: Chaos, Frost Wolf Tribe (Skaeling Confederacy)
Patron: Khorne; Slaanesh; Nurgle; Tzeentch

Player stats:
Strength (STR):                20
Dexterity (DEX):              8
Constitution (CON):       12
Wisdom (WIS):                30
Charisma (CHAR):          10

Player Favour:
Khorne:               28
Slaanesh:            33
Nurgle:                6
Tzeentch:           17

(Earn Favour by performing actions that either directly please your Patron or are in line with their commandments.)

Player weapon proficiencies:
Unarmed:           81 (+6)
One-handed:     89
Two-handed:     175 (+50)
Polearms:           50
Archery:              50
Throwing:           50
Firearms:            50

Player armour proficiencies:
Unarmoured:                   30 (+20)
Medium armour:            30
Heavy armour:                60
Magic armour:                 (LOCKED)

Player magic proficiencies: (LOCKED)~

Yes, he had worked hard these past few weeks and it showed. His proficiency has sharply increased  by 50 points and during this time he had continuously built up Favour through ever wilder lustful thoughts and an ever growing rage from the insults directed at him. He may have ignored them at the time, but a reckoning would soon follow.

However, he was reluctant to spend the Favour since he did not know what the resulting bout of madness would bring. And he wanted to see how well he would do with his current status when facing off against someone of similar age that grew up in this unforgiving world.