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[Rolepgeek]

He might surrender. But yeah, we need to show who's boss.

[Taricus]

Beserker? Well thank goodness for that, We can count on this actually being a fair fight.

[vishdafish]

Still 1.
It would be a shame to kill him though... Then again, I suppose our life is more important than his.

[Taricus]

We don't necessarily have to kill him, a few well placed blows and we can assure he won't go to valhalla.

[vkiNm]

1. Aye, we can hurt him so bad he'll never have a glorious death.

Such is the fate of anyone who question our courage. We deny them of ever going to Valhalla. Bitch.

[Ghazkull]

Preparations

To the confusion of the tribesmen a large circle is drawn and three shields each are laid nearby for you or Hrolfr to take.

[9-20]
Rules are quickly agreed upon: death, surrender, incapitation or leaving the Holme (the circle which proscribes the area of the duel) would end the Holmgang.

The Winner may claim everything the loser owns. You raise the eyebrows at how quickly Hrolf rattles down these rulings...until you remember that Corv mentioned something of him being a professional duellist (one of the reasons the Geat had to leave Sweden).

Even as you prepare yourself and trade some last words with Odd you watch as the geat swallows a weird mixture of herbs. Corv walks over to you, his face concerned.

"Boy i hope you know what you are doing. Hrolf is a berserker."

The Plan for the Duel:

Enter Here []

Some Tips: Incapitating or shoving someone out of the ring counts as a victory if you want to defeat Hrolf and keep him alive without destroying his reputation.
Forcing him to surrender would destroy his reputation and draw his ire but he would still be alive.
Of course you could be way more callous...

Of course you could use your charm and attempt to establish the more ritualistic rules from Iceland here. (When someone loses his third shield the duel is over or when first blood is drawn) Your decision will also determine how later on holmgangs are fought in all of Vinland (until you set the law on this at least)

[vishdafish]

Will attempting to incapacitate him, or trying to shove him out of the circle have a lesser chance of success than trying to kill him?

[Ghazkull]

It will be more difficult. Pushing him out of the ring simply due to his sheer mass, he is at least two heads larger than you and significantly broader. The man is called Half-Troll for a reason.

Incapitating someone while not killing him with a sharpened axe carries its own problems. Simply burying the blade in his skull or bleeding him out is easier than bashing him over the head enough times with the blunt side so that he is knocked out.

[Taricus]

He's going to be a berserk during all this, which means we best be prepared for him to come at us. Of course, this may also give us a little leeway in regards to combat itself, since he won't be focused on our actions as he would be with our defeat.

Either way, the plan would be to either incapacitate or shove Hrolf out of the ring. Any strikes we make with a blade are aimed more at Hrolf's arms and legs, the only blows we make to his body will be shield bashes to stagger and shove him. If we have an axe, we concentrate our strikes to break his shield first; we do that while we still have ours he'll have a more difficult time fighting. If he goes for our shield, we attempt to catch the blows on the edge of the shield rather than the main body of it to ensure the shield survives combat longer.

Mind you, after this I have half a mind to ensure that the only weapon someone can use in these duals would be the shield.

[VoidSlayer]

You lot in this guys mind are a bunch of cravens.

Kill the git, maybe goad him into attacking recklessly then deliver a heavy bleeding blow to the head or legs and let the blood flow out.  Then fight defensively until he looses enough blood then cut off his disloyal head.

We do not need guys like this, we have a settlement to build.  We can get more vikings from the hundreds who will arrive with the new settlers.  What we need is to prove our courage to help future recruitment.

[vishdafish]

I think we should fight our best and try to strike killing blows. It would be pretty foolish to try incapacitate a beserker, and dangerous to us as well. As for strategy, I think that we should try to be defensive/counterattack, and dodge or block his strikes until we see an opportunity to strike him or he gets tired. His swings will be pretty wild, so hopefully we should get a few counterattack opportunities.

[Taricus]

The problem with killing Hrolf is that he's the best navigator we have, and we need those skills. Hence why we have to take him down without killing him. Not to mention while it is more risky, going out of our way to ensure that he doesn't die will have a positive effect on our reputation; it takes skill to get a berserker to back down.

[vishdafish]

Personally, I feel our life is more important. He is berserking, so I doubt he will have any mercy. He will feel a very limited amount of pain, and is massive. I just cant see any way of taking him down non-lethally.

[TealNinja]

I'm with vishdafish.  Plan for lethal strikes.  If an opportunity arises to strike a nonlethal blow, or to throw him out of the holmgang, then we can take it, but this man is at least our equal in martial skill, we can't pull any punches.

[Taricus]

Who says we need to aim for pain? I mean severing tendons and the like; harm his ability to fight without killing.