After breakfast was over Erik, Sigrun and Sven walked out of the Hall together. They were heading towards Krir’s former home to check on Erik’s new acquisitions. This time a year ago, Krir would have lived together with his parents, but after making it through the Winter Hunt and participating in his first raid he had moved out to form his own household.

However, he had still been but a greenhorn Marauder with little renown to his name and no spectacular hoard of riches. What the group of three found was a reasonably sized round hut with log and wattle walls and a thatch roof. Big enough for a beginner Marauder and some serving thralls, but not big enough for him to house a family.

Norscan society placed huge importance on their warriors so as a Marauder climbed the ranks and made a name for himself among his peers, he could claim more land within the settlement to build a larger home on.

The Jarl’s Hall for example was a huge bulwark made of timber on a stone foundation, complete with multiple backyards, personal quarters, storage and servant facilities. Including the Jarl’s family, personal bodyguards, harem, free servants and thrall there would be no less than 200 people inside at any time.

Krir’s home in comparison was only that little bit better than the homes of non-combatant tribesmen and only two steps better than the lowly outside-thrall quarters.

The things Erik won with his victory along with this hut were neither many nor few. Two more sets of shield and axe, similar to the one Krir wielded yesterday in addition to a single large pauldron to protect a shoulder. A pot, kettle and frying pan for thralls to cook their master’s meals with, a couple of iron knives, some stocked food and a number of spare clothes.

There were still a number of valuable assets Erik had ‘inherited’ from Krir. Three pouches filled with bronze and silver coins of undetermined origin, most likely either Imperial or Bretonian. Two cows, a large sow with piglets, four sheep and four goats made a decent amount of livestock. There was also a small stack of furs and hides Krir must have hunted. The finest of which was a flawless Ice Wolf pelt, the silvery blue hue of the fur well-groomed and glossy.

In a small chest the true valuables were kept safe. A couple pieces of gold jewellery, some set with gems of varying quality and an ivory carving in likeness of Khorne.

Seeing Erik’s questioning look, Sven and Sigrun explained their significance.

“Gold holds no monetary value to us. The *spits* southerners fight and kill each other over it but for us coins hold little value. When we trade among ourselves, we trade in kind rather than currency. Even when trading with merchants from Marienburg or Araby, we usually trade thralls, silver and furs for iron and other foodstuffs.” –Said Sven.

Then Sigrun took over and continued:

“But while gold is useless as a practical metal to us, it is still a rare material so we use it to make jewellery and show off our wealth and status. Judging from the design of these pieces, Krir must have been preparing chase a wife.

We get to choose who we marry you know? If we don’t like your advances, we will make you understand as much in no uncertain ways.”

She really seemed to stress that last part, obviously hinting something at Erik who, despite connecting some of the clues, still had no recollection of how he had ‘offended’ Sigrun.

‘So did I touch her inappropriately, like the servants last night, or did I try and kiss her?’ He didn’t remember and he didn’t dare to ask her directly either.

Finally the largest group of ‘items’ were the thralls. Erik had noticed this before, but there were a LOT of thralls living in and around the settlement. His earlier estimate of 70.000 people inhabiting the settlement had been WAY off the mark.

The size of the settlement would indeed fit 70.000 people, in modern times with free standing houses in a suburb. In reality, the Frost Wolf tribe was a medium sized tribe under the Skaeling Confederacy and could at any time muster a force of well over 10.000 Marauders. Taking into account the women, children, non-combatants, elderly and crippled, the population of tribesmen alone almost reached that figure of 70.000.

And while only Marauders could own thralls and they obviously lived in large families, each Marauder would still own a substantial amount of thralls. Of course, there are also different kinds of thralls.

By far the most numerous are the outside-thralls. Thralls that anyone can order around, regardless of whether or not they actually owned them. These ones lived in appalling conditions, slept huddled together under thin blankets inside crude shelters and performed hard labour. They shovelled manure from the livestock pens, chopped firewood, carried stuff around, and tended to little plots of farmland under the watchful gaze of freemen overseers and every other task the free Norscans deemed lowly.

Then there were the house thralls or servants. These thralls were clothed and fed to an acceptable standard and performed duties like cooking, sewing and so on.

Captured craftsmen enjoyed similar status to the house thralls. They took the role of architects for the ever changing huts, cabins and houses of the Marauders that climbed up the ranks or fell down. They also operated potteries, tanned hides and assisted in the crafting operations performed by well-respected Norscan master craftsmen.

There was, of course, another kind of thrall. Whenever a good looking girl or woman was taken captive, she would be made to serve her new master intimately. She wouldn’t cook, but laying out his clothes in the morning, helping him bathe, serving in bed and bearing & looking after children made for a full-time job. These children would be treated differently depending on their development. If the Norscan blood ran strong and they showed signs of growing as tall as their father, they would be raised the same as sons born from wives and concubines. If their ‘lower’ blood dominated, they would be doomed to servitude, often becoming a house thrall to one of their brothers.

Finally there were the war and criminal thralls. These were captured warriors and Norscan criminals awaiting death. They would be chained up and when a suitable time arrived, they would be made to fight to the death in gladiatorial combat or used as sacrifices for whatever event, ritual or spell demanded fresh blood. And there were many of these since a large part of a shaman’s power came from the Daemons they were in contact with and these Daemons were eternally hungry.

With all these thralls combined, the almost 70.000 Norscans of the Frost Wolf tribe were outnumbered 10 to1! But this disparity in numbers would be drastically cut down over the course of winter, when the outside-thralls would fall by the thousands until they were replaced with new captives taken during the spring raids.

And as it turned out, Krir too owned a selection of thralls. The total came down to three house thralls, two bedwarmers and 50 or so outside-thralls.

Although he currently did not have to depend on them to provide cooked meals, now that Erik had his own livestock he would need someone to look after them as well as the new house he suddenly had. And if he successfully completed the next two Trials, he would obtain even more thralls and livestock as well as property…

~Bleep! – Player Erik earned Favour! Nurgle, God of stability, shows interest in your management skills!

‘That was unexpected…’ – Erik indeed did not expect that the Chaos God normally associated with plague, disease, rot and death also had a side pursuing stability. And, by extension, management and rulership.

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After going through all his new belongings, Erik made a few decisions. The ‘inside’ thralls would be transferred over to his cabin where they would continue their usual work. With thought of the Winter Hunt in mind, Erik asked Sven if he knew of a blacksmith and handed over all pieces of scrap iron, the pauldron, two axes and other metal items Erik had no use for to have them made into javelin heads.

Yet another thing added to the list of preparations for the 4th Trial.

Sadly the amount of metal wasn’t enough to act on Erik’s plan for a polearm. For the Winter Hunt he wanted to be armed with javelins for ranged attacks and a large Halberd to deal with monster attacks.

Javelins required only a small amount of iron, but the Halberd, which Erik desired to be made almost entirely out of steel, would require a lot more. Of course, using a full metal halberd comfortably would require Erik to spend more Favour to gain a higher STR stat, which was already on the list.

He just hoped that his next opponents would have more metal available for him to use for the weapon and that the Halberd could be completed in time for the Winter Hunt…

As for the 50 or so outside-thralls? Erik decided to test out his theory that shedding blood during practice would increase the gained Favour and proficiency.