~Bleep! – Player Erik earned Favour! Slaanesh, God of Passion, greatly approves your actions of Passion!
~Bleep! – Player Erik earned Favour! Slaanesh, God of Jealousy, takes pleasure in the jealousy invoked in another!

Erik woke up at his usual time and felt a pleasant weight occupying and pressing down on his right shoulder. And his left hand had the pleasure of rustling past lightly curled hairs covering a series of small folds.

Some days had passed since the second feast and some things had changed.

First of all, although not publicly announced, Erik and Sigrun had become a couple. And taking the role of future wife extremely seriously, Sigrun had already started to take charge of certain things in Erik’s household.

One of these directly related to the second big change. Since they were both aware what they could and couldn’t do yet, Erik had started having sex with his bedwarmers.

“If kissing me inflames you that much and you have those voices inside your head screaming at you, why would I prevent you from relieving yourself on those thralls? Heck, let alone fooling around with thralls, I would be ashamed as your wife if you only had one woman seeing to your needs!

Think about it, as a bearer of 4 Chaos Marks you are bound for greatness! If one woman were tying such a man down it would make you look weak or make me, the woman, look like an evil witch!”

So, listening to his fiancé’s orders, Erik now regularly relieved himself at night. And it had the additional bonus of providing a constant stream of Slaanesh Favour every morning.

The third change pertained to Erik’s daily schedule. With his outside-thrall stocks replenished using Rokar’s thralls, Erik continued his practice of daily sacrifices. Except with his Two-handed Proficiency currently capped, he moved to improving his Throwing and Polearm Proficiencies to prepare for the Winter Hunt.

For this practice he used the completed javelins made from Krir’s recycled iron and the spear Rokar had used in their duel. It would do well enough to level the Proficiency up, but Erik had already commissioned the polearm he wished to use from the Jarl’s personal weapon-smith.

Erik had commissioned a Halberd. The entire weapon was to be roughly 2,5m long with a large axe-head suitable for cleaving and cutting, a long dagger like spike protruding from the end and a solid spike opposite the axe-head for better armour penetration and potentially to unhorse mounted opponents.

The handle would be made from precious ironwood, an incredibly tough and durable wood capable of resisting enormous stress. And similar to Rokar’s spear, a metal butt would be placed at the end of the haft for additional practicality and balance.

And the final development was the early announcement, or rather declaration, of Erik’s third opponent.

Thane Yrret had spoken out during one of the Witan meetings, directly challenging Erik’s honour by questioning his manhood.

Although it elicited malcontent and frank disgust from the other Witan members that a Thane, no matter how junior, had challenged someone yet to prove himself during the Winter Hunt, a challenge of honour could not be lightly ignored.

If Erik refused the challenge, he would be seen as a coward. Deemed a disgusting piece of cowardly shit, Erik would either be directly put to death for losing his honour or be chased out of the settlement to be left to the whims of the Norscan winter.

There really was no other choice than to accept.

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Carelessly throwing back the blanket, uncovering not two but five nubile bodies sharing his bed (courtesy of Rokar’s three additional bedwarmers), Erik shook some of them awake so they could move enough for him to get out of bed.

*knock-knock

Soon after, while Erik was still busy washing his face, Sigrun walked in. Full of confidence, almost like she walked into her own home, she started giving orders to Erik’s house thralls left and right.

The firewood needed replenishing, the food wasn’t hot enough and the livestock needed feeding. Honestly, most of the things she said would have been tended to regardless, but it amused Erik to watch her get into her role as madam of the house and it allowed the servants to get used to their future mistress.

As she sat down on Erik’s lap, asking to be spoiled, he smiled and complied by first kissing her on the nose before going in for a deep kiss.

He had been practicing with his thralls so by now he had built up quite a bit of experience and while Sigrun soon started gasping for air, Erik laughed aloud.

“Hahahaha! We spend so much time together every day that we are practically already married, it’s just that ever since that day, your parents have been even stricter on your curfew, not letting you out of their sight as soon as the lights are out!”

Pouting, she punched his arm and started blaming Erik.

“If it wasn’t for these damned Trials of yours would I have to let you unilaterally bully me like this? And look at that! That’s five women lying on your bed exhausted! How am I supposed to handle you in the future, hmm?!

It’s good to know everything works, but when we finally get married, no way I’m serving you at the same time together with these lowly sluts! And if you have this much energy, how did you deal with this until now, huh?”

Feeling slightly guilty but also helpless, Erik could only shrug.

“I can’t help it either! Slaanesh’s gifts are many and plentiful and not within my ability to control when set loose! Do you want me to, as soon as you marry me, immediately start adding official concubines and second wives? I don’t want to! First, I don’t want to carelessly give you ‘little sisters’ and secondly, I have high standards! As for before, well, it took a while to take care of by myself…”

Seeing Sigrun raise an eyebrow at the mention of ‘standards’ Erik could feel a storm brewing.

“So tell me, what are these standards? What would qualify a woman for you to want them? Big tits? A wide ass or hips? A nice face? And then tell me precisely what part of me attracted you, huh?

Is it these uncomfortable weights hanging from front or do you perhaps like the idea of taming a fire-haired she-wolf… mmhh? Hnnnn!”

Not quite expecting such a venomous reaction, Erik opted for a quick and effective two-steps solution.

First he sealed her mouth with a second deep kiss while intimately running his hands through her hair and over her back.

Then, after letting her catch her breath, he just honestly told her all the points that attracted him to her.

“Yes, your shapely breasts are certainly magnificent. I agree your ass feels very comfortable sitting in my lap like this. Your blazing red hair combined with your large, emerald green eyes perfectly enhance the shape and complexion of your face to the point I could stare at it for hours on end.

But apart from these, your most important points to me are your intelligence, your kindness, your ability to reason and especially how you stubbornly complete your tasks. But above all, what I like the most about you is that all these things are combined in one person, you, and that this you is mine alone and no-one else can have you!

That is what makes me the happiest man in Norsca right now! Oh, and I also like how you turn from a ‘fiery she-wolf’ as you eloquently put it, into a meek, embarrassed kitten when I hold you like this.”

As Erik honestly told her everything he liked about her, Sigrun shrunk more and more until her head hung so low her bangs of red hair covered her undoubtedly flustered expression.

“You really just say whatever comes up in your mind, idiot. Now I’m embarrassed for getting so worked up…”

*growl

Precisely at this moment, Erik’s stomach made itself heard, breaking the sweet and awkward atmosphere surrounding the two lovebirds.

Sigrun hopped off his lap and took a seat on another chair, letting the house thralls serve up breakfast before they quietly enjoyed the start of another day.

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In the blink of an eye, three weeks had passed once more and it was time for Erik to face off against Thane Yrret.

The stakes were considerably higher this time. Yrret, despite his relatively young age, had become a Thane through his own merit and had proven himself worthy of the title through strength of arms.

This fight was also different from the other two because now they would also be wearing armour. Erik had trained these three weeks while wearing a hastily assembled set of armour made from leather and furs, thus increasing his Medium Armour Proficiency by as much as possible. But without getting hit or actually using the armour, gains had been relatively small. At least it would give Erik some additional protection during the fight.

Yrret meanwhile had gone all out, not bothering with a show of equality by outfitting himself in a similar fashion. Instead, Yrret had donned a full set of Marauder plate armour, covering him from head to toe in thick metal plates leaving very little gaps.

And when Yrret picked a sword and shield as his weapons, it was clear he wanted to kill Erik for other reasons than to obtain his Marks while leaving as little as possible to chance.

No one defended his actions, most even showed contempt for a Thane that went all out to deal with an unproven youngster, Champion or not.

To say he wasn’t nervous would be a lie. Erik was very nervous. He knew it would be a very, very hard battle and that there was a very good chance of defeat. But nonetheless, he had to go.

His honour was challenged and if he ever wanted to face Sigrun again, let alone marry her, he had to take the challenge head on and win. If he backed out, he might preserve his life but all the respect he had painstakingly earned and the newfound love he had found would all immediately turn to ash if he showed cowardice here.

It was either victory & glory, or death in defeat. And as he waited, for the third time, atop his tower, he looked Sigrun in the eye for the last time. Giving her a determined smile, he shifted his gaze towards the armoured behemoth across from him.

With the odds firmly stacked against him, Erik had one last trump card prepared. Scaldar was performing the sacrifices once more. Before the fight, Scaldar had looked Erik in the eye and with a mysterious smile told him to have faith.

And after taking a final look at his current status in the GAO screen, the drums boomed in the distance for the third time.

~Bleep! – Player information displayed!

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

Player stats:
Strength (STR):               21 (+1)
Dexterity (DEX):             10
Constitution (CON):       14 (+2)
Wisdom (WIS):                30
Charisma (CHAR):          12

Player Favour:
Khorne:               163 (+87)
Slaanesh:            292 (+163)
Nurgle:                132 (+61)
Tzeentch:            26 (+1)

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

Player weapon proficiencies:
Unarmed:           81
One-handed:    89
Two-handed:    200 (current MAX)
Polearms:           161 (+111)
Archery:              50
Throwing:           113 (+63)
Firearms:            50

Player armour proficiencies:
Unarmoured:                   60
Medium armour:            92 (+62)
Heavy armour:                60
Magic armour:                 (LOCKED)

Player magic proficiencies: (LOCKED)~