<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/zv0GqKC.jpg)<br/><div align="center"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Quick Stats</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div style="text-align: left;"><strong>Hit Points:</strong> 43/43<br/><strong>Armor Class:</strong> 17<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Passive Scores</span></strong><br/><strong>Perception:</strong> 13<br/><strong>Sense Motive:</strong> 19<br/><strong>Knowledge Arcana:</strong> 17<br/><strong>Knowledge Dungeoneering:</strong> 17<br/><strong>Knowledge Geography:</strong> 17<br/><strong>Knowledge History:</strong> 17<br/><strong>Knowledge Nature:</strong> 17<br/><strong>Knowledge Religion:</strong> 17<br/><br/><strong>Languages:</strong><br/>Common, Dwarven, Skald (Ulfen)<br/></div></div></div></div></div>Alfhild silently cursed her own temper but Ulfgar had it coming. All of the men in this town loved to get their cheap thrills by grabbing or swatting the women in the tavern but, he was the worst of them all. She could almost understand why all of the other girls wore the double-layered dresses common to Ulfen women but, she was a warrior, a shield maiden, and she refused to be dressed up like some common serving wench even though that was what she had become.<br/><br/>As she sat on the floor, wet clothes clinging to her lithe form, she thought back to how she had come to be in this position. It was this past Spring and she had begged her father, Jarl Koenig, to let her sail with the first raiding parties. Four years past, after she had seen her thirteenth summer, he had given her permission to train with the Shield Maidens and Skalds, something she had wanted to do since she was a little girl. She had trained hard, harder than anyone else in the village and she was good, good enough to best most of the men in single combat. She was ready to join the raids and had approached her father with pride in her heart.<br/><br/>Now that she would be eighteen there was no reason for him to deny her request but, he did. It turns out that he had let her train only to appease her fiery temper but he never intended to let her go raiding with her sisters. He had always intended to marry her off like some prized animal to another Jarl to solidify an alliance with the other clan. What was worse, he had found someone willing to take the headstrong and spirited young woman and make a wife of her. He was indeed another Jarl but he was an old man, older than even her father, too old to lead raids anymore which meant she would be stuck at home being bred like a sheep to give him heirs. It was not the life she had wanted for herself.<br/><br/>So, on that first day of Spring, she stood on the docks with the sea air tearing at her cloak and the sun on her face while the men loaded the longships. Nobody recognized her because she had stolen a helmet, a breastplate, and the shield of another maiden who was too sick to make the journey. Tucking her long, brown hair into the helmet and smearing her face with dirt had made it hard for anyone to recognize her so nobody thought to challenge her when she boarded the ship for her first raid. She knew there would be trouble when she returned, defying her father as she was, but she didn’t care, she would prove herself in battle and then he would be forced to reconsider this ill-conceived marriage.<br/><br/>Alfhild’s plans didn’t turn out as she had intended. It was still early Spring which meant that the raiding ships could only travel so far. Their target for this raid would be Asleifar, another Ulfen village on the border of the Lands of the Linorm Kings, one who traded openly with the southerners that most Ulfen despised. She wouldn’t get to see foreign lands on this journey but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t still be a chance for glory in battle.<br/><br/>As the longships made landfall up the coast from the whaling village, she strapped on her shield and gripped her axe in anticipation. Since the port was better defended than the inland side of town, the group of raiders had decided to attack from there but the town was not unprepared and the warning bell rang long before they got there. With an Ulfen war cry the raiders attacked and the fighting was fierce. During the battle, she was struck on the helm and knocked unconscious. When she awoke, she found out that the raid had been successful but she had been taken captive and would be a slave to the Innkeeper in recompense for the damage done.<br/><br/>In her naivety, Alfhild told them who she was and demanded her release. However, the Innkeeper had other plans and sent word to her father demanding weregild for her return. Furious that she had disobeyed him, Jarl Koenig refused to pay the weregild and now she was forced to work it off for herself. So, the Innkeeper put her to work as a serving girl and, in the evenings, she would sing for coins.<br/><br/>Now she was in trouble ... again ... and forced to sit here behind the bar, chained to the post for everyone to see. It was completely humiliating but not the first, nor would it be the last time it happened. She was a proud woman and wouldn’t be manhandled by lowly fishermen. So, here she sat frustrated with how things had turned out but determined to earn her freedom.<br/><br/>Alfhild was too wrapped up in her own misery to notice the conversation between the Innkeeper and the foreigner so she was taken by surprise when she felt a tingling in the air around her, almost like a static charge. She knew how magic felt because of her time training to be a Skald although this felt totally foreign to her. She gasped as the air around her heated up and her clothes and hair were suddenly dry.<br/><br/>Turning her head she glowered at the man standing over her across the bar, ”neat trick southerner,”  she spat with a smirk, ”but risky. Many men in this village fear what they don’t understand and most only understand the magic of the Skalds. They also wouldn’t be happy knowing that you helped me, I’m not exactly well liked here. I’m not sure it’s an honor but my name is Alfhild Koenigsdaughter from Aegos on the Broken Bay. You’d do best to leave me be”.