Valdelmar the Battleworn

Name:

Valdelmar the Battleworn

Race:

Barbarian

Class:

Warrior

Pride radiated from the smiles of Rodimus and Sharelle Wolfsong as they watched their son run off to join the pack of young men that were headed off to train for battle. Valdelmar, a nimble and dexterous young boy for a barbarian quickly learned to wield a sword as if it were but an extension of his arms. His fluid motions served him well in the heat of battle, and kept him from meeting his fate from a well placed blade.

As he grew in age, he also grew in size and strength. The young boy soon became a war hardened man with the cunning of a general. Many long battles had allowed

Valdelmar to show his skill and whit to those above him. Valdelmar was soon given charge of a battalion to lead against the wretches that infested Blackburrow.

This was to be a hard battle, as he was certain his men would be outnumbered greatly.

Their advantage was surprise and tact.

The barbarians flowed into the cavern of Blackblurrow like a flood. The rogues of the ranks slipped quietly up to the gnolls that stood guard at the entrance and silently slit them from ear to ear. The troops marched into the hollowed cave underground and an alarm sounded. They had been spotted. Loud clashes of metal upon metal echoed throughout the cave and drowned under the rumbling battle cries of the barbarian horde.

Blood stained the rocks of the cavern at the end of the battle. Valdelmar overlooked the carnage that had erupted in this burrow. Mangled corpses littered the ground around his feet and he curled his lip in disgust. The gnolls had fallen to the barbarians, but many northern brothers had breathed their last of foul gnoll air.

Valdelmar gave the order to collect the bodies of their fallen brethren so that they might get a respected burial in their own homelands.

They returned to the warm welcome of a festival to celebrate their success.

Valdelmar, however, felt nothing like celebrating. Their attack was retaliation for a raid on the barbarian farms that stood on the very edges of Halas. Though they had won, many lives had been forfeited. That was but a single clan of gnolls.

Valdelmar was certain more would come and the battles would only escalate.

He had to do something in order to protect his people. He had to become more than what he was. He set out to find the eldest of known shaman from his people.

Slytheron was known to live somewhere in the hazardous plains of Karana. The journey lasted several months and proved to test Valdelmar's strength, courage and endurance.

Hill giants, Griffins and lions of the highlands all seemed to have a hunger for his hide. And still the home of Slytheron was no where to be found. Valdelmar's resolve began to waver in the despair that he would never find the old shaman.

In the silence of night in the Karana plains, he heard the grass around him ruffle as something approached. He drew his sword and readied himself for the attack.

A long grey beard fell from the old man's chin as he stepped into the light of Valdelmar's fire. He introduced himself as Slytheron, and the shaman knew why he had come. Valdelmar listened as the shaman explained what could be done to sate his need to protect. Slytheron pulled a small vial from his skins. What animal had produced a skin like that, Valdelmar knew not, but his attention was fully on the vial.

"Drink," Slytheron instructed. "And your life shall forever be changed. I warn you of the dangers this vial holds. You will never again see your family, for they will not comprehend. You must not share this secret with others. And mostly, your duty to protect will encompass not simply your own people. Do you accept these?" Valdelmar gauged the old man with his clear blue eyes and nodded.

The clear liquid held no taste and no scent, but it filled Valdelmar with a burning heat unlike anything he had ever known. He felt a change within, a roaring power of incalculable strength. Even his armor had changed. From ruined, and tarnished to untouched and shimmering. Clarity entered his mind as well. The knowledge of what he now had to do, and how he was to do it. Valdelmar nodded to the old shaman in thanks and left to begin his duties and his existence anew.