You and your disciples set out across the mountains. The going is slow, because your disciples include some of the older and weaker orcs from the village, and you must break up several fights during the journey.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave with your disciples.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 3]]\n\n[[Tell your disciples to wait and the entrance and enter alone.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 0]]

The village is a cluster of yurts made from skin stretched over bone. The guards take you to the largest, whose entrance is decorated with fragments of shattered weapons. Inside, the stinging smoke from the central fire-pit and the all-pervading smell of sweat, blood, and dirt <<if $rage >= $discipline>>invigorate<<else>>threaten to overwhelm<</if>> you, like a brutal counterpart of the incense used in the monastery.\n\nOn the far side of the room, in the middle of a crowd of warriors and servants, an enormously muscular orc lounges on a throne decorated with human skulls. She is dressed in scraps of armour from defeated foes, and a great cleaver-like sword rests across her lap.\n\n<<if $orc_village_status <= 1>>\s\n\tThe guards throw you to the floor in front of the throne. "Caught this coward monk skulking outside the camp."\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe guards push you towards the chieftain's throne. "This coward monk walked right up to the camp."\n<</if>>\s\n\n"A coward monk!" the chieftain snarls. "I am General Krazgh of the Last Legion. My scouts told me your monastery had been destroyed. Have you come to beg me to take you in?"\n\n[[Pledge allegiance to the general and ask to join her tribe.|Village general pledge]]\n<<if !$started_road>>\s\n\n[[Ask the general for her help in hunting down the humans who destroyed the monastery.|Village general request]]\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Preach the ways of your Order.|Village general preach]]\n<<if $road_fought_raiders>>\s\n\n\t[[Tell the general how you killed the humans who attacked your monastery.|Village general boast]]\n<</if>>\s\n<<if $know_about_false_flag>>\s\n\n\t[[Accuse the general of manipulating the humans into destroying your monastery.|Village general accuse]]\n<</if>>\s\n<<if $started_boneyard>>\s\n\n\t[[Ask the general what she knows about the cave you saw in your vision.|Village general cave]]\n<</if>>\s

The human darts off the road and up a dusty slope. You scramble after him, but his feet kick up an avalanche of stinging gravel that momentarily blinds you. When you can see again, the human has vanished.\n\n<<if $started_boneyard>>\s\n\tYou scan the landscape for hiding places, and realise that it is familiar. This is the landscape around the cave you saw in your vision in the ancient battlefield. Once you realise that, you know there is only one place the human could be hiding: the cave itself.\n\n\t<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n\t[[Follow the human into the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 1]]\n\n\t[[Let him go and return to the road.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<<elseif $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t"He went into that cave!" an orcish voice shouts behind you. The orc warrior scrambles past you, bloody axe raised. "Now he's mine!"\n\n\t<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n\t[[Shoulder the other orc aside and chase the human into the cave.|Road outside cave shoulder orc aside]]\n\n\t[[Return to the road and let the other orc deal with the human.|Road outside cave with orc warriors]]\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t"Teacher!" one of your disciples shouts from the bottom of the slope. "I saw him go into that cave!"\n\n\t<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n\t[[Follow the human into the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 1]]\n\n\t[[Let him go and return to the road.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou scan the landscape for places where he might be hiding, but the craggy landscape is too hard for you to read. He must have found a hiding place that you can't see, and you know you are unlikely to find him now. You will have to content yourself with an almost-complete revenge.\n\n\t[[Return to the road.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe inner rage that the War God planted in your kind has always growled that the Order was weak and worthless, but you always used the Order's rituals to suppress and ignore it. Now, though, your rational mind finally sees that your rage was correct. The Order was so devoted to peace that it neglected its own defence, meaning that a small band of humans was able to overwhelm it. The Order of Peace was a noble dream, but an unachievable one.\n\n[[With a heavy heart, you set off for the nearest orc village.|Boneyard leave for village]]

The orcs heap the humans' bodies up in the middle of the road, and General Krazgh climbs onto a rocky crag to address her legion. "We have honoured the War God today!" she shouts. "Let it never be said that orcs will let an attack or insult go unavenged!"\n\nAs the orcs cheer and begin the process of looting and devouring the bodies, General Krazgh makes her way through the crowd to you. "The sacred cave of Valtash the War God is near here," she says. "Come and pray with me."\n\nSurrounded by Krazgh's loyal warriors, you know it would be suicide to refuse this request.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Follow General Krazgh into the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 2]]

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou strike at Thard before he can attack you, scoring a solid blow with your $weapon and knocking him to the ground. Your rage rises within you as you descend on him. There is no ending the fight now; it is you or him.\n\n<<include [[Cave fight]]>>

<<if $orc_village_status >= 2>>\s\n\tThat night you are given space in one of the warriors' communal huts. The tribe lost several members in their last raid on a human village, so there is space for you to sleep on piles of grubby furs, although you are crammed in tightly with the sweaty orc warriors.\n<<else>>\s\n\tThat night you are given space in one of the noncombatants' communal huts. It is chilly and overcrowded, with a floor of bare earth.\n<</if>>\s\n\nYou manage a few hours of fitful sleep, but wake early, with the orcs snoring all around you. The chilly air glows with pre-dawn light.\n\n[[Stay in the orc village and join them in their attack.|Village remain]]\n\n[[Slip away before the orcs wake up.|Village leave]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health = 50>>\s\nYou pick your way across the shattered glass to find what you need. You make a compress with some of the remaining herbs and press it into your wound while you wrap bandages around your chest. You are still wounded, but you will be able to be more active without worrying about your wounds becoming infected.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[The herbs sting your flesh, and performing the surgery on yourself is frustrating and awkward. You feel your rage rising...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

You <<if $weapon != "claws">>cast aside your $weapon and<</if>> pick up one of the humans' swords. It is plain but well-made and well-maintained, and despite your lack of combat training, your orcish reflexes tell you that it is well-balanced and would serve you well.\n<<set $weapon = "sword">>\s\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

<<if $orc_village_status < 2 && $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou try to impress the group by grabbing one of the talismans and throwing it, but you're not aggressive enough, and the players drive you away from their grisly target and back towards the fire.\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>\n<<else>>\n\t<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\n\t\tThe players growl threateningly as you approach them, but you growl back and grab one of the talismans from the pile by their feet, and they seem to be impressed enough to give you one throw.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tOne of the players hands you a talisman so you can make your throw.\n\t<</if>>\n\t<<include [[Village fake talisman description]]>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<include [[Village game throw]]>>\n<</if>>

[[An insistent drumming starts up from near the general's hut. It seems that the entire village is being gathered for an announcement.|Village announcement]]\n

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYour rage and that of the sword call out to one another, but you focus your mind and manage to pull your hand away.\n\nYou continue exploring the boneyard and eventually find another weapon, a sword that is still intact but does not call out to your rage. You clean the grime off it and find that it is of ancient design, but made of some gleaming metal that retains its shine and sharpness even after unknown centuries in the boneyard muck.\n\n[[Take the sword.|Boneyard take regular sword]]\n\n[[Leave the sword.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

Passage: <<print passage()>>\nTurn: <<print turns()>>\n\nstarted_road: $started_road\nstarted_village: $started_village\nstarted_boneyard: $started_boneyard\ncompanions: $companions\n\nmodifier: $modifier\norc_village_status: $orc_village_status\nhas_talisman: $has_talisman\ncan_find_cave: $can_find_cave\nknow_about_false_flag: $know_about_false_flag\nvillage_converts: $village_converts\nroad_fought_raiders: $road_fought_raiders\n\ncave_enemy: $cave_enemy\n\n<<nobr>>\n<<back>>\n<<link "Reset">>\n\t<<script>>\n\t\tEngine.restart();\n\t<</script>>\n<</link>>\n[[Edit stats/jump|Debug edit stats]]\n<</nobr>>

Entering the village, you can tell that its destruction was recent. The mountain plants have not had time to reclaim the ruins, and a stench of death and burning still shrouds the place.\n\nOn one edge of the village is a heap of bodies. They have been burned, but from what remains of their features you think that they were orc warriors. \s\n<<if $discipline >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $road_spotted_talisman = true>>\s\n\tSomething attached to the neck of one of the bodies stands out from the rest of their crude armour and catches your eye. \s\n<</if>>\s\nOn the other edge of the village is a row of freshly-dug graves. There are more of them than there are burned orcish bodies, and some of them are small, as if they contain children.\n\nMost of the village buildings were made of wood and have been burned, but one stone structure remains standing. The eight-pointed star above the door marks it as a temple to the human goddess.\n\nThe village nestles at the bottom of a steep slope, \s\n<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $road_spotted_path = true>>\s\n\tand your keen eyes spot a partially hidden path leading up away from the road.\n<<else>>\s\n\tand you can see no way out besides the path back to the mountain road.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

"You are wise," the priest says. "The soul is nothing if we allow the body to fail."\n\n<<nobr>>\n\tThe priest's healing technique is quick, and much less ritualised than that of Brother Tangath from the order. He\n\t<<if visited("Monastery wounds heal")>>\n\t\tremoves the blood-stained bandages you applied in the monastery,\n\t<</if>>\n\tcleans your wounds and rubs them with a stinging salve, then fetches a needle and stitches them closed. The salve does nothing to dull the pain,\n\t<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\t<<set $health += $MEDIUM_HEAL>>\n\t\tbut your mental discipline allows you ignore it and remain completely still so that the priest can do his work.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t<<set $health += $SMALL_HEAL>>\n\t\tand you can't help but writhe beneath the needle, making the priest's work less neat than it could have been.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n"There," the priest says. "Ready for battle again."\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

<<if !tags().includes("no-stats")>>\n\t<<set $rage = Math.clamp($rage, 0, 100)>>\n\t<<set $discipline = Math.clamp($discipline, 0, 100)>>\n\t<<set $health = Math.clamp($health, 0, 100)>>\n\n\t<<script>>\n\t\tsetPageElement("stats-box", "Stats");\n\t<</script>>\n\n\t<<if tags(previous()).includes("no-stats")>>\n\t\t<<script>>$("#stats-box").fadeIn(3000);<</script>>\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t<<script>>$("#stats-box").show();<</script>>\n\t<</if>>\n<<else>>\n\t<<if !tags(previous()).includes("no-stats")>>\n\t\t<<script>>$("#stats-box").fadeOut(3000);<</script>>\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t<<script>>$("#stats-box").hide();<</script>>\n\t<</if>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $debug_mode && !tags().includes("front-matter")>>\n\t<<script>>\n\t\tsetPageElement("debug-box", "Debug box");\n\t<</script>>\n<</if>>

<<if visited("Boneyard shelter centre")>>\s\n\tYou pick your way through piles of bones, shattered weapons, and twisted fungal growths that drip with foul-smelling water.\s\n\t<<if $boneyard_killed_monster>>\s\n\t\tEventually you find a well-worn trail leading up a mound of compacted bone to a twisted hulk of rusting metal. Creeping closer, you realise that it must be the nest of the monster you killed the previous day, made from the hollowed-out shell of an ancient war-vehicle. The bottom is covered in bones that look more recent than those of the ancient battlefield: the remains of modern-day orcs who have blundered into the boneyard and become the monster's meals.\n\n\t\tSomething at the bottom of the nest catches your eye. It is a sword, intact and shining, as if the boneyard monster has been keeping it clean. You feel your orcish rage swell within you, telling you that you desire it. It seems to hum with a rage of its own--a holy weapon of the War God.\n\n\t\t[[Take the sword.|Boneyard take magic sword]]\n\t\t\n\t\t[[Leave the sword.|Boneyard leave magic sword]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tYou see the silhouette of the boneyard monster looming out of the mist, but are able to avoid the area where it is roaming.\n\n\t\tSomething catches your eye: an intact sword. You clean the grime off it and find that it is of ancient design, but made of some gleaming metal that retains its shine and sharpness even after unknown centuries in the boneyard muck.\n\n\t\t[[Take the sword.|Boneyard take regular sword]]\n\n\t\t[[Leave the sword.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou spend the day exploring the outskirts of the boneyard, taking care not to venture into the more dangerous interior. Eventually you give up your search: it seems that everything of possible use has already been scavenged by local orc tribes.\n\n\t[[Empty-handed, you return to your shelter.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]\n<</if>>\s

The darkness beyond the target isn't complete, and your orcish vision has no trouble picking out one of the talismans that missed its mark. <<include [[Village fake talisman description]]>>\n\n<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>As you straighten up, a small object hits you in the back, and then another. There are guttural laughs, and you turn to see that the orc players have decided to use you as a target. <</if>>You drop the fake talisman and go back to the fire.\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>\n

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe Order has suffered many setback in the past, at the hands of orcs, humans, the inner rage of its members, and the natural world. In every case the members held fast to their mission--to allow orcs to live free of the War God's influence--and repaired and rebuilt. No past disaster has come close to the scale of this one, but the Order can rebuild again. You can rebuild it. A feeling of awe, untainted by rage, comes over you as you as you consider your place in the Order's history. Reduced to a single member, who rebuilt the Order to greater strength than ever before...\n\n[[With a new determination, you set off for the nearest orc village.|Boneyard leave for village]]

<<set $rage -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou stand in the road as the humans withdraw, watching you wearily until they are out of sight. Your rage <<if $rage >= $discipline>>pounds and screams within you<<else>>growls deep in its dungeon<</if>> at the bloody vengeance you have denied it, but without an outlet it eventually dies down.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors dead">>\s\n\t[[Soon you are alone with the bodies of the orc warriors.|Road raiders chieftain trail]]\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t[[Soon you are alone with your disciples.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Soon you are alone.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<</if>>\s\n

You and the other scouts return to the army. General Krazgh stands at the head of the army and watches your approach, arms crossed impatiently. "Find anything?"\n\n"Nothing. Still empty," one of the scouts mumbles.\n\n[[Krazgh calls for the army to continue along the road.|Road continue 2]]

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe ceremonial dagger reappears, now at your throat. You freeze.\n\n"Your cowardly Order was destroyed by a few humans, but you still persist in your apostasy," the priest snarls. "The general accepted you into this tribe and I will not disobey her...but you are not worthy to enter this shrine."\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\n"Truce!" you shout. "I want to talk!" You <<if $weapon != "claws">>lay down your $weapon and <</if>>raise your open hands.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors" && $told_general_about_ambush>>\n\t<br><br>\n\tYour shout is lost in the noise of battle as the orcs engage with the humans. The orc warriors around you push you into the fray.\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Road raiders fight]]\n<<else>>\n\t<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t\tYour voice rings out over the heads of the orcs, filling the startled silence as they recover from the ambush.\n\t<</if>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tFear and rage battle in your chest, but you manage to keep your voice level and your hands from shaking.\n\t\t<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t\t\tThe orcs pause, deferring to the tone of command in your voice, at least for the moment.\n\t\t<</if>>\n\t\tThe humans glance at their leader, who nods, and then they all lower their weapons. He beckons for you to approach, and the rest watch warily as you climb <<if hasVisited("Road raiders start high path")>>down<<else>>up<</if>> the slope to talk to him face-to-face. He removes his helmet to reveal a face with hollow eyes and filthy, unkempt stubble.\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t"My name is Tuvan," he says. "I am leader of what is left of the village you just passed. What could an orc have to say to us, after all this bloodshed?"\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t[[Ask them why they attacked your monastery.|Road raiders ask why]]\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t[[Attack Tuvan while he has his guard down.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou try to keep your voice level and your posture unthreatening, but you are not disciplined enough to keep your hands from shaking, and your shout of truce comes out as a snarl. The human leader shouts a command and humans all charge down the slope towards where you stand <<if $companions == "orc warriors">>amid the startled orc horde<<else>>with your guard down.<</if>>\n\n\t\t<<set $modifier -= $BIG_MOD>>\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Road raiders fight]]\n\t<</if>>\n<</if>>

Rage Quest: Disciple of Peace

You get to your feet and stagger out of the cave, moving slowly due to your exhaustion and to give your eyes time to adjust to the brightness. The mountains stretch around you, shining golden beneath the bright sun.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t<<include [[Ending army]]>>\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t<<include [[Ending disciples]]>>\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Ending alone]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<if $rage >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tYou brandish your $weapon in response to their spear-points, and greet their guttural snarls with one of your own. There is a moment of tension, and then the snarls break into laughter.\n\n\t"You're dressed like a coward monk, but you act like a real orc," one of the guards says. "Come. General wants to see you."\n\n\t<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t[[They lead you into the village.|Village general meet]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou brandish your $weapon in response to their spear-points, but your hands shake, and your threatening growl dies in your throat. The guards laugh cruelly and thrust at your with their spears, forcing you to <<if $weapon!="claws">>drop your $weapon and <</if>>raise your hands.\n\n\t"You trying to threaten us, coward monk?" one guard growls. "You're not a real orc. Don't try to act like one."\n\n\t"Come," says the other one. "General wants to see you."\n\n\t<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n\t<<set $weapon = "claws">>\s\n\t[[They drive you at spear-point into the village.|Village general meet]]\n<</if>>\s

The humans have numerous packs, and when you open them you find that they are filled with rolls of cloth. You can't discern their colour in the moonlight, but from the texture you guess that it is expensive cloth suitable for the sewing of fine clothes.\n\n<<if visited("Road merchants listen 2")>>\s\n\tIt seems what you guessed from overhearing the humans' conversation was correct: this was a merchant and her mercenary guards risking a crossing of the Orclands for the sake of profit.\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe more you see, the less likely it seems that these were the humans who attacked the monastery. It looks more like a merchant and their guards risking a crossing of the Orclands for the sake of profit.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

You reach the top of the pass and the place where you encountered the first group of humans, but the road there is now deserted.\n\n[[You rejoin the army and it continues on.|Village outside cave with orc warriors]]\n

Your momentary uncertainty vanishes, and you are yourself. <<include [[Ending possessed]]>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health += $BIG_HEAL>>\s\nYour inner rage is already excited by the scent of blood, and it needs no encouragement to guide your claws as your tear at the skin of your defeated enemies and cram the steaming raw meat into your mouth. You have never experienced the taste before, but it awakens a deep racial memory--this is what the War God intended you to eat after a victory, and he made it taste good.\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\n\tAround you, the orc warriors throw themselves on the meat, fighting over choice scraps and laughing about how it compares to other human meat they have eaten.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\n\tYour disciples follow your lead, and you see the rage burning in their eyes.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

<<set $health += $MEDIUM_HEAL>>\s\nYou tend to your wounds as best you can and then spend the day resting, trusting in your body's own healing ability. By the end of the day you are feeling noticeably stronger.\n\n[[Night begins to fall.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nGeneral Krazgh grins when she hears about this unsuspecting prey. <<include [[Road merchants report back 2]]>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou lie in bed until the orcs begin to rise, and then join them. They waste little time preparing to march, chewing on leftovers from the previous night's feast as they sharpen their weapons and pack the provisions they will need for the journey.\n\n<<if $weapon == "axe" || $weapon == "staff" || $weapon == "claws">>\s\n\t<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\s\n\t\tYour social status in the village is low, so the orcs higher in the pecking order have you running to fetch things from them. The orcs brandish their notched swords and laugh at your<<if $weapon=="axe">>woodcutting axe<<elseif $weapon=="staff">>simple staff<<elseif $weapon=="claws">>lack of a weapon<<else>>@@.error;Unexpected weapon $weapon@@<</if>>.\n\n\t\t<<include [[Village set off]]>>\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tOne of the other warriors notices that you are <<if $weapon=="axe">>armed only with a woodcutting axe<<elseif $weapon=="staff">>armed only with simple staff<<elseif $weapon=="claws">>unarmed<<else>>@@.error;Unexpected weapon $weapon@@<</if>>, and offers to give you a sword that belonged to his fallen comrade. Orc warbands get through warriors faster than they get through weapons, so there are plenty of spares.\n\n\t\t[[Take the orcish sword.|Village take sword]]\n\n\t\t[[Decline the sword.|Village decline sword]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Village set off]]>>\n<</if>>\s

Your home was destroyed, but you are still an orc. You go back to the Orclands and approach the orc village near the ruined monastery.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if hasVisited("Vilage remain")>>\n\t\tThe orcs remember how you joined them on their last raid, and accept you back to their ranks.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour meeting with the village guards is a one-sided battle that sees you knocked to your knees and captured. The orcs laugh at your puniness and take you back their village to be a low-status servant.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour meeting with the village guards is a tense confrontation, with both you and them testing one another's strength and aggression. Eventually they seem satisfied, and take you back their village to adopt you into their tribe.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYour meeting with the village guards turns violent almost immediately. You defeat three orc warriors in combat before they eventually subdue you, but rather than finishing you off, they take you back to their village and adopt you into their tribe.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou have lost almost all the mental discipline you learned in the Order. Eventually your time there seems like a bad dream, and you find yourself thinking like any other orc.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tThe discipline you learned in the Order remains with you, making you stand out as a calm and responsible member of the tribe.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tThe discipline you devoted your life to in the Order continues to inform all your actions, and the rest of the tribe comes to respect you for your calmness and wisdom. You become a trusted advisor to the chieftain, and even begin to bend the tribe's culture towards the Order's philosophy.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\nYou live out the rest of your life in the village, venturing far from it only when the tribe conducts raids on human communities or other orc tribes. You eventually die in the proper orcish way, in battle, with the battle-cries of your comrades and the screams of your enemies ringing in your ears.\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $weapon = "sword">>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou heft the sword. It is the first time you have held a weapon that was designed as one, rather than as a tool. It is sturdily made but poorly maintained: you can see ancient dried blood in the cracks between the blade and the hilt, and you are fairly sure that each of the nicks near the end of the blade represents a human death.\n\n<<include [[Village set off]]>>

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n"I come seeking guidance," you say. "I have had a vision, unlike anything I saw when I lived in the monastery. A cave in the mountains, where it looks like a dragon devours the setting sun. I want you to help me find it."\n\nKrazgh scowls, but some of the orcs around her look at you wide-eyed. "The Cave of Valtash," one of them whispers.\n\n<<if $orc_village_status >= 2>>\s\n\t"You survive the monastery attack, and then the War God chooses to bless you," Kragh says. "Perhaps he has a plan for you. Join my legion, fight with us, and I will take you to this cave."\n<<else>>\s\n\t"Why would the War God grant such a vision to a worm like you?" Krazgh spits. "I think you lie. But no matter. Perhaps I will take you on our next campaign and you can see how true orcs dedicate themselves at the cave."\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[The guards lead you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]

You settle in to your new body, filling its mind and its limbs, feeling its flesh knit back together under your power. <<include [[Ending possessed]]>>

<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou scrub away the blood as best you can, then take a piece of burned wood from the ruins and draw the soothing lines of the Order of Peace in its place, transforming the desecrated temple into a memorial. The careful action calms you and reminds you of the meditations you carried out in the monastery, and you find your rage fading.\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

General Krazgh is kneeling before the slab, her back to you. Lanterns made from human skulls sit on the slab, casting a flickering and shadow-filled light around the room, but they do as much to confuse your orcish low-light vision as they do to provide useful light. They illuminate the ritual weapons and bones that the general has spread out on the slab.\n\n"This is the sacred cave of the War God whom you rejected," Krazgh says. "Kneel and pray."\n\n[[Pray with the general.|Cave general pray]]\n\n[[Refuse.|Cave general refuse]]\n\n[[Attack the general from behind.|Cave general attack]]

The supernatural presence you felt when you entered the cave grows stronger, as if it is no longer dividing its attention between you and Thard but is focusing wholly on you. It seems to hover over you, as the unseen presence did in your dream, and you are certain that it is the same entity.\n\n//"So you have taught others to defy me. No matter. It is you that I want!"//\n\n<<include [[Cave noncombat possession]]>>

"No!" you say. "They are misled by their general and their evil god. Show that you are better than that. Let them go, and end this cycle of violence."\n\n<<if $discipline >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $rage -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $companions = "">>\s\n\tTuvan looks at you in disgust and raises his hand to strike you, but something in your eyes makes him pause. "Very well," he says. "Orcs! Get out of my sight before I change my mind."\n\n\tDefeated and demoralised, the surviving orcs shuffle away along the road.\n\n\t[[Now attack the human leader.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\n\t[[Part ways.|Road raiders goodbye]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\tTuvan slaps you across the face with the flat of his blade, nearly knocking you down. "Don't test me!" he snarls. "These orcs killed our families. Stand aside."\n\t\n\t<<include [[Road raiders watch them kill orcs]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<include [[Road end chapter 1]]>>\n\n<<include [[Village start]]>>\n

//A dark pathway. Cold air breathing on your face. It might be a stone corridor, an underground tunnel, or a road on a starless night. You sense it does not matter which.\n\nYou shuffle forward along the path. The cave recedes further behind you, along with the entire living world. Your pain, your rage, your discipline, everything that makes you who you are, begin to slip away.\n\nThe invisible presence fixes you in its gaze once again. "No...I can still use you. In my place of greatest power, even this mortal wound can heal."\n\nYou are thrown backwards, away from the dark path.//\n\nYou open your eyes. The pain is unbearable, but you can feel your chest wound knitting back together--and as it does so, a colossal rage flooding into your mind.\n\n[[Allow the presence to heal you.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n\n[[Resist using the Order's Ritual of Clarity.|Cave possession resist ritual]]\n\n[[Resist using sheer willpower.|Cave possession resist willpower]]

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYour rage builds, filling your limbs with strength but threatening to overwhelm your mind. The Order taught you to separate your rage from yourself by picturing it as a separate being, and you see it as a slavering monster, all teeth and fangs and burning eyes.\n\nYour hand automatically goes to the talisman hanging around your neck, and you begin to perform the Ritual of Clarity that will help you to control your rage--but you pause. Those who taught you the ritual and learned it alongside you lie dead, and your rage supplies the image of you hunting down those who killed them and enacting bloody vengeance.\n\n[[Perform the Ritual of Clarity. A quest for revenge will not bring your friends back.|Monastery ritual no revenge]]\n\n[[Perform the Ritual of Clarity. You will need patience and discipline in order to take your revenge on those who destroyed the Order.|Monastery ritual revenge]]\n\n[[The Order’s rituals did no good when it was attacked. You tear off the talisman and swear bloody vengeance on those who killed your friends.|Monastery no ritual revenge]]\n\n[[The Order’s rituals did your friends no good, but neither would a quest for vengeance. You leave the talisman with the bodies and end that chapter of your life.|Monastery no ritual no revenge]]

<<if !visited("Monastery wounds")>>\n\t[[Look for something to treat your wounds.|Monastery wounds]]<br><br>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery weapon")>>\n\t[[Look for a weapon.|Monastery weapon]]<br><br>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery funeral")>>\n\t[[Perform the Ritual of Peace for the dead.|Monastery funeral]]<br><br>\n<</if>>\n\n[[Leave the monastery.|Monastery leave]]\n

//The dark pathway is a mountain road under a crimson evening sky. On the horizon, the sun descends towards a jagged rock formation that looks like the upturned jaws of an enormous dragon.\n\nBuilt into the mountain here is a throne, on which sits a figure that fills you with terror and fills your inner rage with awe. His armour is forged from the armour of a hundred human heroes, and the mace that rests across his knees is the First Weapon, coated in the blood of every warrior to ever die in battle. The great helmeted head turns towards you, and two eyes like bloody moons bore into your soul.//

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou emerge into the chilly morning air, under a sky glowing with pre-dawn light.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tA pair of sentries is keeping watch over the village. They watch you hawkishly, but you stay calm and manage to look as if you are on some errand until you can get out of their sight.\n\n\t<<if $village_converts > 0>>\s\n\t\t<<include [[Village leave meet converts]]>>\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t<<include [[Village leave chapter end menu]]>>\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\tA pair of sentries is keeping watch over the village. You try to stay calm, but you fail to keep your nervousness under control. As you cross the village perimeter, you hear a shout from behind you. "Deserter!"\n\n\tYou break into a run. Arrows fly past you, and one of them embeds itself in your back.\n\n\t<<if $health <= 0>>\s\n\t\tYou fall, and before you can rise the sentries are upon you.\n\n\t\t<<dead>>\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tYou stumble but manage to keep running. The sentries' heavy armour slows them, and you eventually manage to outpace them and hide in the rocky landscape above the village.\n\n\t\t<<include [[Village leave chapter end menu]]>>\n\t<</if>>\s\n<</if>>\s

You look down at the bodies of the orc warriors who brought you here.\s\n<<if $know_about_false_flag>>\s\n\tThese are the ones who really destroyed your Order, by planting the false talismans that led the humans to you, and now you have had your vengeance.\n<</if>>\s\nFor all the General Krazgh's boasting, and for all the War God's engineering of your people, a horde of orcs could be defeated by a small band of humans.\n\nYou realise with a start that one body is missing: General Krazgh herself. But a trail of blood and disturbed stones leads up the mountainside and out of sight.\n\n[[Follow the trail|Road raiders chieftain trail follow]]\n\n[[Let her go.|Road chapter end menu]]

<<set _lb = false>>\n<<if !$started_road>>\n\t[[Head along the road in advance of the orc army.|Village leave end road]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !$started_boneyard>>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Go to the ancient battlefield.|Village leave end boneyard]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $started_boneyard && $started_road>>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Head back along the road in advance of the orc army, and search for the cave you saw in your vision in the ancient battlefield.|Village leave end cave]]\n<</if>>

"The priest always spoke of a place where a dragon devours the setting sun," Thard says.\n\nYou and your disciples scan the western horizon and find two ridges that look like jaws with jagged teeth. You climb up from the road, and after some searching you find a position from which the ridges look like a dragon's mouth up-raised to swallow the sun.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave with your disciples.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 3]]\n\n[[Tell your disciples to wait and the entrance and enter alone.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 0]]

You meet the chieftain's burning gaze. "This is my fight," you snarl. "If the humans who destroyed my home have reinfested this village, I should be the one to find them!"\n\n<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD && $orc_village_status >= 2>>\s\n\tKrazgh growls from between jagged teeth, looking like she is about to strike you, but backs down. You can feel the eyes of the other warriors on you, and you sense that Krazgh's reaction is not because you have intimidated her but because you have impressed the other warriors enough that she doesn't want to deny you in front of them.\n\n\t"Do what you like," she spits. "If you want to waste your time poking around human hovels for our leftovers, be my guest."\n\n\t[[You follow the scouts into the ruined village.|Road ruins enter]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\tWith a movement almost to quick to follow, Krazgh strikes you across the face with the flat of her sword, sending you reeling. "You dare question my orders, coward monk?" she roars. "You're here because I allow it. Now shut up before I decide you'll be more use as food than as a soldier."\n\n\t[[You wait with the army.|Road ruins stay with army]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $debug_mode = false>>\n\n/* Rage, Discipline, and Health are on a scale from 0 to 100 */\n<<set $rage = 50>>\n<<set $discipline = 50>>\n<<set $health = 1>>\n\n<<set $weapon = "claws">>\n\n/* Hidden variables */\n<<set $modifier = 0>>\t/* Situational modifier for a check */\n\n/* Whether you've started each chapter. */\n/* Can't rely on visited() for these as some of the first passages are included rather than linked to. */\n<<set $started_road = false>>\n<<set $started_village = false>>\n<<set $started_boneyard = false>>\n\n<<set $companions = "">>\n/* Possible values: */\n/* "" */\n/* "orc warriors" */\n/* "orc disciples" */\n\n\n<<set $orc_village_status = 0>>\n<<set $has_talisman = true>>\n<<set $can_find_cave = false>>\n<<set $know_about_false_flag = false>>\n<<set $boneyard_killed_monster = false>>\n<<set $met_thard = false>>\n<<set $orcs_fought_humans = false>>\n<<set $road_fought_raiders = false>>\n\n<<set $village_converts = 0>>\n/* Not actually the number of converts, but the number of times you've won some. */\n\n<<set $cave_enemy = 0>>\n/* 0 = no one */\n/* 1 = human leader */\n/* 2 = orc general */\n/* 3 = one of your disciples */\n\n/* Constants for different size changes of the main stats */\n<<set $HUGE_CHANGE = 10>>\n<<set $BIG_CHANGE = 5>>\n<<set $SMALL_CHANGE = 3>>\n\n/* To go up to the next difficulty threshold, you need four small changes, two big changes, or one huge change. */\n\n/* Constants for different difficulties of stat check. Check succeeds is stat is equal to or greater than the threshold. */\n<<set $EASY_THRESHOLD = 60>>\t/* Critical-path checks where you're taking the best approach e.g. greeting the orcs aggresively */\n<<set $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD = 70>>\t/* Critical-path checks where you're taking a sub-optimal approach e.g. greeting the orcs calmly */\n<<set $HARD_THRESHOLD = 80>>\t/* Checks for really good results or optional content */\n<<set $EPIC_THRESHOLD = 90>>\t/* Needed for winning endings */\n<<set $EPIC_SECONDARY_THRESHOLD = 50>>\t/* Needed for perfect endings. One stat must be EPIC and one must be EPIC_SECONDARY */\n\n<<set $SMALL_WOUND = 10>>\n<<set $MEDIUM_WOUND = 25>>\n<<set $BIG_WOUND = 50>>\n\n<<set $SMALL_MOD = 5>>\n<<set $BIG_MOD = 10>>\n\n<<set $SMALL_HEAL = 10>>\n<<set $MEDIUM_HEAL = 20>>\n<<set $BIG_HEAL = 50>>\n

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYour first impulse on waking up in the destroyed monastery was to seek revenge. The Order taught you to distrust your violent impulses, and you did not act on the impulse at once. But now that your survival needs are met, and you have had time to get over the initial shock and consider your options, you realise that your orcish rage is correct in this instance. This crime against your Order cannot be allowed to go unpunished.\n\n[[You set off to find the tracks of the humans.|Boneyard leave for road]]

<<if visited("Cave disciple alone")>>\s\n\tYour disciples look up at you in awe. They can sense something of what happened in the cave: they know you have won a great spiritual victory, and now revere you as a holy teacher.\n<<else>>\s\n\tYour disciples look up at you in a mixture of awe and fear when they see you emerge with the dead body of your disciple cradled in your arms. They can tell that you won a great spiritual victory, but that it came at the cost of one of their lives. Nevertheless, you can see that they revere you as a holy teacher and are prepared to follow you.\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Take your disciples and found a new community in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending commune]]\n\n[[Return to the monastery and try to rebuild the Order of Peace with your disciples.|Boneyard ending order]]\n\n[[Leave your disciples and try to find a place among the humans.|Road ending]]\n\n[[Leave your disciples and try to find a place in the orc village.|Village ending]]

The road hugs the side of the valley as it descends towards the village. In some places the ancient war-road has crumbled away, revealing a rusted iron skeleton. In some of these places the local orcs have repaired the road by laying crude slabs of stone or lattices of bone across the gaps.\n\n<<include [[Village start]]>>

<<set $modifier = 0>>\s\nPast the ruined village the road becomes more stable, showing signs of having been repaired by human hands. Loose stones have been cleared from it and heaped to the sides, at the bases of rocky slopes that rise on either side of the road.\n<<if $orcs_fought_humans>>\s\n\n\tYou pass a heap of orc bodies that have been piled by the side of the road and burned. They are fresh--you can see the marks in the road where they were dragged to where they now lie. It looks as if General Krazgh's army found the humans and were defeated.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<if $discipline >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $spotted_ambush = true>>\s\n\tYour mind is disciplined and alert as you scan the landscape, and you spot movement near a rock outcropping overlooking the road. You think someone may be preparing an ambush.\n\n\t<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t\t[[Warn General Krazgh.|Road orcs ambush warn]]\n\n\t\t[[Stay quiet.|Road raiders start with orcs]]\n\t<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t\t[[You quietly warn your disciples and continue along the road.|Road raiders start alone]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t[[On your guard, you continue along the road.|Road raiders start alone]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<elseif $companins == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t[[The army continues along the road.|Road raiders start with orcs]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[You continue along the road.|Road raiders start alone]]\n<</if>>\s

<<include [[Road end chapter 1]]>>\n\n<<include [[Boneyard start]]>>

<<set _lb = false>>\n<<if !hasVisited("Road ruins talisman") && $road_spotted_talisman>>\n\t[[Take a closer look at the object you spotted on the orc's body.|Road ruins talisman]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !hasVisited("Road ruins temple")>>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Investigate the temple.|Road ruins temple]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Leave the village and report back to the army.|Road ruins rejoin army]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<<else>>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Leave the village and continue along the road.|Road continue 2]]\n\t<<set _lb = true>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $road_spotted_path>>\n\t<<if _lb>><br><br><</if>>\n\t[[Leave the village and head up the mountain path you spotted.|Road continue path]]\n<</if>>

//A dark pathway, a cold breeze. The invisible presence that almost possessed your body looks down in disgust, then turns away. Your own inner rage is beginning to fade, along with all your other thoughts and emotions.\n\nYou shuffle forward, into the darkness. As your mind fades away, your last feeling is of triumph.//\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $village_converts += 1>>\s\n\tYou explain the basics of the Order's philosophy. Some of the noncombatants turn away in disgust, but Thard and several others listen with growing curiosity at the idea that life is possible to live outside of the War God's influence--and outside the strictures of orcish warrior society.\n\n\tBy the time the fire is dying down, you are leading a dozen servants in the Ritual of Clarity.\n\n\t"My mind is a fortress. Its walls are stone, its gates are iron..."\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\tThe servants listen with some curiosity at first, but gradually lose interest. It seems that no matter how eloquently you express yourself, these orcs know that the Order was destroyed, and see it only as a path of weakness. By the time you give up you are even starting to doubt yourself.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

It is difficult to speak without it coming out as a snarl of rage, but you manage to keep your voice level enough to be understood. "Why did you attack my home?" you ask. "Our order was peaceful."\n\n"Then why did you attack ours?" Tuvan shouts. "We found your talismans on the bodies of the orcs we killed, after they had killed our partners and children."\n\n[[Try to convince them that it wasn't you.|Road raiders not us]]\n\n<<if $know_about_false_flag>>\s\n\t[[Tell them about the fake talismans.|Road raiders tell about false flag]]\n\n<</if>>\s\n[[Attack Tuvan while he has his guard down.|Road raiders backstab]]

//A dark pathway, a cold breeze. The invisible presence that hovered over you gone, no longer interested in you. Your own inner rage is beginning to fade, along with all your other thoughts and emotions.\n\nThere is nothing left that can pull you back. You shuffle forward, into the darkness.//\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $weapon = "sword">>\s\nYou heft the weapon in your hand and give it a few practice swings. It is well-balanced, and still sharp. You tuck it into your belt and head back to your shelter.\n\n[[The new sword in your hand, you return to your shelter.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

<<set _rage_bar_width = $rage>>\n<<set _discipline_bar_width = $discipline>>\n<<set _health_bar_width = $health>>\n\n<a data-passage="About Stats" class="stats-box">\n\n<div class="statbar-back statbar-health-back">\n\t<<print "<div class='statbar-fill statbar-health' style='width:" + _health_bar_width + "%;'></div>">>\n\t<div class="statbar-text">Health: <span class="statbar-value">$health</span></div>\n</div>\n\n<div class="statbar-back statbar-rage-back">\n\t<<print "<div class='statbar-fill statbar-rage' style='width:" + _rage_bar_width + "%;'></div>">>\n\t<div class="statbar-text">Rage: <span class="statbar-value">$rage</span></div>\n</div>\n\n<div class="statbar-back statbar-discipline-back">\n\t<<print "<div class='statbar-fill statbar-discipline' style='width:" + _discipline_bar_width + "%;'></div>">>\n\t<div class="statbar-text">Discipline: <span class="statbar-value">$discipline</span></div>\n</div>\n\n<div class="statbar-back statbar-weapon-back">\n\t<div class="statbar-text"><span class="statbar-value"><<print $weapon.toUpperFirst()>></span></div>\n</div>\n\n</a>

<<set $health = 100>>\s\n<<set $rage = 100>>\s\n<<set $discipline = 100>>\s\nAlive again at last, with a new orcish body. Your new mind is acute from a lifetime of mental training, and your heart is filled with powerful orcish rage. Yes, this will be a good host.\n\nYou stride out of your cave and into the sunlight, your vision slowly adjusting after the dimness of the cave and the thousand years spent before that in the dark pathway. The mountains stretch around you like a forest of jagged blades, an auspicious place from which to launch a campaign of conquest.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\tA horde of orcish faces look up to you as you emerge. You hold up <<if $cave_enemy == 1>>the severed head of the human raider,<<elseif $cave_enemy == 2>>the severed head of General Krazgh,<<else>>your fist,<</if>> and they cheer and clash their swords against their shields. The rage within each of them recognises their true god. With this body as your vessel, you will be able to unite the orcish tribes, and then the unsuspecting human lands will be yours to conquer.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tA gaggle of puny orcs look up to you as you emerge. Rebels, cowards, defective orcs, who were able to be swayed away from their purpose as warriors. You smile as you see the horror dawning on their faces: something within them recognises their true god, and they know that their rebellion will be punished brutally.\n\n\tYes...these orcs will die in pain, but first, you will find a way to use them to unite the orcish tribes into a more useful army. And after that, the unsuspecting human lands will be yours to conquer.\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe mountain road stretches away, leading in one direction to the Orclands where you can gather an army of your creations, and in the other to the world of humans, yours now to conquer.\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $companions = "orc disciples">>\s\n"Come with me," you say. "I will take you away from here and teach you the ways of the Order of Peace."\n\nYour new disciples know the layout of the village and its surroundings better than their warrior masters do, and they show you a way to slip away without the guards spotting you.\n\n<<include [[Village leave chapter end menu]]>>

A little way from the fire, you find a group of orcs playing a game. They're standing near one of the human heads on spikes that mark the perimeter of the village, and throwing small objects at it, apparently trying to get them into its mouth or eye sockets. Looking closer, you see that the projectiles are small stones on strings, like pendants. The players whirl these around and release them, often with enough force to make the leering head shake on its spike if they hit it. If they miss, the projectiles vanish into the darkness beyond the village perimeter. A skinny orc child periodically runs into the darkness to gather the lost projectiles and bring them back, arm raised to shield her face.\n\nAs you approach the players, you get a look at the projectiles. They are Order of Peace talismans, like the one you <<if $has_talisman>>are wearing under your clothes<<else>>threw away before you left the monastery<</if>>.\n\n[[Ask to join the game.|Village game join]]\n\n<<if $has_talisman>>\s\n\t[[Produce your own talisman and join the game.|Village game join own talisman]]\n\n<</if>>\s\n[[Examine one of the talismans that missed its mark.|Village game examine missed talisman]]

The rest of the army continues to march while the scouts hurry ahead to the village. Around you, the warriors talk and laugh about how they destroyed the village. Their gory descriptions of battle and slaughter <<if $rage < $discipline>>disgust<<else>>excite<</if>> you.\n\nEventually the scouts return and report that the village is still empty.\n\n[[The army continues along the road.|Road continue 2]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n"Those humans lie dead on the mountain road!" you shout. "I killed them with my own hands!"\n\n"Our new warrior has forgotten what orcish vengeance means!" Krazgh shouts. "It is not enough to kill one band of humans. Orcish blood must be answered with human blood! We will travel to human lands and slaughter all we see until vengeance is satisfied!"\n\nThe crowd cheers, drowning out anything else you might say, and you are pushed off the stage.\n\n[[The general's speech ends, and the revels gradually wind down...|Village nightfall]]

<<widget dead>>\n\t<<if $args[0]>>\n\t\t[[$args[0]|Dead of wounds]]\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t[[You are dead.|Dead of wounds]]\n\t<</if>>\n<</widget>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYour rage swells your muscles as you charge at the boneyard monster. It turns its bony, one-eyed head towards you and roars, and you feel its rage answering yours. This is not an orc, but it is a fellow creature of the War God. A creature of pure rage, untainted by intelligence.\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\n\t<<set $modifier = $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tYour disciples run after you, rage and panic driving their claws, but they succeed in little but adding to the confusion of the battle.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<if $rage+$modifier >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tThe monster is huge, but ungainly, and it can't keep up with the ferocity of your attack. You dodge every swipe of its claws, suffering only insignificant scratches, while you land blow after blow.\n\n\t<<nobr>>\n\t\tAt last it tires enough to give you an opening, and \n\t\t<<switch $weapon>>\s\n\t\t\t<<case "claws">>you climb it like a wall, claws digging in to its dry flesh, until you can tear out its spindly throat.\n\t\t\t<<case "staff">>you knock its legs out from under it with your quarterstaff, then crack its skull.\n\t\t\t<<default>>you hack one of its bony legs until it falls like a tree, and then decapitate with a solid blow of your $weapon.\n\t\t<</switch>>\n\t<</nobr>>\n<<elseif $rage+$modifier >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $BIG_WOUND>>\s\n\tThe monster is huge, and its rage burns as brightly as yours. You and the monster chase one another through the bone piles, hacking at one another until blood drips down both your bodies and stains the bones beneath your feet.\n\n\t<<if $health <= 0>>\s\n\t\tIt is your body that gives out first. The monster's massive claw knocks you off your feet, and this time you are too exhausted to rise. The bloodstained creature roars in triumph, and a mouth full of jagged fangs descends towards your throat.\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tIt is the monster that tires first. After taking another of your blows, it sways, slips on a loose piece of bone, and comes crashing down like a felled tree. \n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health = 0>>\s\n\tThe monster is huge, and its rage burns more fiercely than yours. Great claws knock you off your feet and spatter your blood onto the ancient bones. You try to rise, but a bony foot pins you to the ground and a mouth full of jagged fangs descends towards your throat.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<if $health > 0>>\s\n\t<<include [[Boneyard monster victory menu]]>>\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<dead>>\n<</if>>\s

General Krazgh gives a rousing speech, and the warband sets off.\n\n[[March.|Village march]]

//A dark pathway. Cold air breathing on your face.\n\nYou remember collapsing, as your wounds became too much for your body to bear. But that memory is already slipping away, along with all the others.\n\nA presence hovers over you, and you sense it is disappointed. Its attention alights on you for a moment, then turns away.\n\nYou shuffle forward, into the darkness.//\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $told_general_about_ambush = 1>>\s\n"There's someone watching us," you say to the general, indicating the place you saw movement.\n\n"I don't see anything," one of the scouts says.\n\nKrazgh slaps the scout across the face. "Then perhaps this apostate has better eyes than you!" She turns to the rest of the horde. "Be alert! We are close to our foes, and they are aware of us! They tremble in their boots, and will try to ambush us like the cowards they are. Let us give them something to tremble about!"\n\n[[When the ambush comes, you are prepared.|Road raiders start with orcs]]

You wake to pre-dawn light that makes the miasma surrounding the boneyard seem to glow, as if you are inside a dim yellow lantern.\n\nYou set about the business of survival. You build a crude shelter out of bones, and forage for more edible fungus. Your immediate survival needs met, you must decide how to spend the rest of your day.\n\n<<include [[Boneyard after vision]]>>

Your brothers and sisters are around you, but they are not shuffling forward. They are lying dead on the floor of the monastery's great hall, blood seeping from fresh wounds.\n\nYour body throbs with pain, but you manage to get to your feet and examine your own wounds. Your robes are drenched with blood, and there is a deep wound in your chest where a sword ran you through. You know that Valtash the War God made orcs to be hard to kill, but even so, it is a wonder that you survived.\n\nThe hall is still now, but the sounds of battle echo in your ears. A dozen human warriors burst into the monastery and cut down every disciple they saw. Their leader wore a shield decorated with an eight-pointed star, the symbol of the humans' goddess. You and your brothers and sisters tried to fight back, but a lifetime of suppressing your orcish rage made you into a panicked, uncoordinated mass.\n\nSunlight slants through the shattered doorway and sends claws of shadow tearing across the bloody floor, slicing the already dismembered bodies of your friends into strips of light and darkness. \n\n<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYour inner rage and the atmosphere of this place both urge you on, so that it takes almost no conscious thought to spring across the cave and swing your $weapon at your cornered enemy.\n\n<<include [[Cave fight]]>>

<<if $spotted_ambush>>\s\n\t<<if $told_general_about_ambush>>\s\n\t\tThanks to your warning the horde is on the lookout for an ambush, and the scouts spot the archers beside the road before they have a chance to shoot. General Krazgh shouts quick commands, and the orcs advance on the humans with deadly efficiency.\n\t\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\s\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tYou are on the lookout for the ambush that you declined to tell General Krazgh about, so you are the only orc to spot the humans before they attack. You fall back and duck as a volley of arrows rains down from rocky outcroppings beside the road. A dozen orcs fall with arrows in their necks. The rest of the army becomes a disorganised mass, their rage making them lash out in every direction, some of them even striking one another. The ambushers have time to fire several more rounds before General Krazgh has forced the orcs into some kind of order.\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_MOD>>\s\n\tThe first you are aware of the humans is when a volley of arrows rains down from rocky outcroppings beside the road. A dozen orcs fall with arrows in their necks. The rest of the army becomes a disorganised mass, their rage making them lash out in every direction, some of them even striking one another. The ambushers have time to fire several more rounds before General Krazgh's shouts have forced the orcs into some kind of order.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road raiders description]]>>\n\n[[Shout a battle cry and attack the humans.|Road raiders intimidate]]\n\n[[Call out that you want to talk.|Road raiders talk]]

<<if $spotted_ambush>>\n\tYou are on the lookout for an ambush, so you spot the archers hiding behind the rocks beside the road before they can attack. One looses an arrow, but you are already dodging, rolling on the dusty ground and coming up with your $weapon raised.\n<<else>>\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tThe first you are aware of the humans is when an arrow strikes your arm. You immediately take up a defensive posture and look around to see a dozen humans emerging from behind rocky outcroppings on both sides of the road.\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t<br><br>\n\tYour disciples cluster around you and take up defensive postures. You can smell the fear and rage on them as they prepare to defend their teacher.\n<</if>>\n\n<br><br>\n<<include [[Road raiders description]]>>\n<br><br>\n[[Shout a battle cry and attack the humans.|Road raiders intimidate]]\n<br><br>\n[[Call out that you want to talk.|Road raiders talk]]

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $companions = "orc warriors dead">>\s\nYour rage burns more and more urgently while the humans unleash their arrows, and as soon as the orcs reach them to engage in hand-to-hand combat you enter the fray, your $weapon spattering orc blood across the rocks.\n\nAt last the orcs lie dead and you stand over their bodies, snarling and panting as your rage subsides. The humans back away from you in fear and disgust.\n\n[[Now attack the human leader.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\n[[Let them go.|Road raiders goodbye]]

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nThe priest's ruined face contorts into a smile, and he hisses through his remaining teeth.\n\n"Many young orcs feel a similar call," he says, and you wonder if he is talking about himself. "Perhaps you are the one destined to succeed. All who are called must try."\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health = 100>>\s\nYou run back to the main hall and throw yourself on the bodies of your dead brothers and sisters. You are violating the Order's most sacred teachings and dismembering your family--but the still-warm flesh tastes delicious, and you can feel the strength returning to your body. Your orcish instincts guide your claws as they scrabble inside the bodies for the parts you need to repair yours. At last you roll onto your back, satiated, and you can feel your wounds knitting themselves together as your body incorporates the new flesh into its own.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[Your inner rage roars as it feasts on orc flesh for the first time...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<set $boneyard_killed_monster = true>>\s\n[[Examine the monster's corpse.|Boneyard monster victory examine]]\n\n[[Continue to the heart of the boneyard.|Boneyard shelter centre]]

<<if !hasVisited("Cave enter")>>\n\t<<if !$started_boneyard>>\n\t\tDreams of the dark pathway continue to haunt you, and in them you feel the gaze of the presence that restored you to life after the attack on the monastery. As the years pass, however, the dreams become less frequent. You sense that the presence has given up on you and decided, finally, to leave you in peace.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tThe dark pathway continues to haunt your dreams, as does the cave you saw in your dream. In these dreams, you often feel the gaze of the presence that restored you to life after the attack on the monastery. Sometimes you wonder what you would have encountered if you had decided to travel to the cave, but you reassure yourself that by avoiding this spiritual confrontation you took the safer path, and perhaps avoided a great disaster.\n\t<</if>>\n<<elseif !hasVisited("Cave possession dungeon alive") && !hasVisited("Cave possession willpower survive")>>\n\tOccasionally you have dreams of the dark pathway, in which you feel Valtash the War God's presence silently glowering at you. His attempt to return to the living world in your body failed. Someday he might build up the strength to try again, but for now, thanks to you, the world is safe.\n<<else>>\n\tOccasionally you have dreams of the dark pathway, but you never again feel the presence of Valtash the War God looking down on you. You become increasingly certain that you not only prevented his return to the living world, but destroyed his soul completely. Orcs continue to live with the violent impulses that Valtash built into their minds, but Valtash himself will never again threaten the mortal world.\n<</if>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health -= 1>>\s\nYou scratch your palm with your claw and let a few drops of your blood fall onto the symbol of Valtash on the altar. Your inner rage sings with the pain, transforming it into a devotional offering. It might be your imagination, but you think you can feel Valtash the War God smiling down on you.\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

[[Spend the rest of the day resting.|Boneyard restore health]]\n\n[[Explore your environment for anything useful.|Boneyard explore]]\n\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t[[Teach your new followers.|Boneyard preach]]\n\n<</if>>\s\n[[Leave the boneyard.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou raise your $weapon and your voice to address the crowd.\n\n"My brothers and sisters! In the monastery I was taught to suppress my violent urges--but those teachings did not save us from the human raiders. Now I will return to the true orcish ways, embrace my rage, and destroy those who wronged me. Of you I ask only one more thing--let me tear out the throat of the human leader myself!"\n\nA violent cheer goes up from the village, a cacophony of whoops and the rattling of swords against shields. General Krazgh beams down at you.\n\n[[The general's speech ends, and the revels gradually wind down...|Village nightfall]]

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n//"Fool. I am your creator. It is your nature to serve me. Every other path will lead to failure and death. Come to me, where the dragon devours the setting sun."//\n\n[[The dream fades...|Boneyard wake up]]

<<set $companions = "">>\s\nAfter a few days of trekking through the mountains you see two ridges that look like jaws with jagged teeth. You climb up from the road, and after some searching you find a position from which the ridges look like the dragon's jaws you saw in your dream.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 0]]

You travel up the road back towards the abandoned monastery, and then turn off it and descend towards the ancient battlefield.\n\n<<include [[Boneyard start]]>>

<<set $discipline += $HUGE_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage -= $HUGE_CHANGE>>\s\n<<include [[Monastery ritual]]>> The urge to exact vengeance is still there, but you have chosen to ignore it. It is the voice of your rage, and following it will only bring more suffering. Instead you will keep the Order alive within you as you find your new path.\n\n<<if visited("Monastery leave")>>\s\n\t[[Leave the monastery.|Monastery leave delayed]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

You kneel and speak the long-rehearsed words.\n\n"My mind is a fortress. Its walls are stone, its gates are iron. The walls and gates decay, but I rebuild them.\n\n"Within the fortress is a garden. In it I keep all that is good and peaceful, all that makes me who I am. The rage of the War God cannot touch it.\n\n"Beneath the fortress is a dungeon. In it I keep the rage that the War God placed in my heart, bound with chains behind an iron door.\n\n"My rage is contained. My garden is peaceful. My fortress is secure."\n\nYou open your eyes and stand.

You are still between the orc village and the border of human lands when General Krazgh calls for an unexpected halt in the middle of the afternoon. The news goes down the line that the army has reached a cave that is sacred to the War God, and the general has gone inside to pray.\n\n"She wants you to join her," one of the general's guards says. The tone of his voice suggests it's not an offer the general extends to many orcs, and you'd better take it up if you want to survive.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 2]]

<<include [[Boneyard start]]>>\s\n\n

But the rage that fuelled your victory does not leave you. In fact, it feels as if it is increasing, more powerful than you could have imagined, as if you might burst in a flare of world-destroying fury.\n\n//A dark passageway, a cold breeze. The presence you felt before is here, descending, holding on to you as you return...\n\n"Yes...I have a foothold,"// the voice says, but this time you find your mouth is speaking the words out loud.\n\nYou turn and begin walking towards the cave exit, and there is enough of your own personality left to know that it is not you who are willing your feet to move, but the voice. But it is not unpleasant, and the rage within you roars in triumph. This is your destiny--the greatest honour that can be bestowed on an orc, to be a vessel for the War God himself...\n\n[[Accept your destiny.|Cave possession accept]]\n\n[[Resist using the Order's Ritual of Clarity.|Cave possession resist ritual]]\n\n[[Resist using sheer willpower.|Cave possession resist willpower]]

<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health += $SMALL_HEAL>>\s\nWhile the War God intended orcs to be carnivores--and often cannibals--the Order's teachings include an extensive knowledge of which of the mountain's plants are edible. You manage to gather a small meal of roots and berries, and eat it sitting beside the road.\s\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYour disciples help you to prepare food for the group.\s\n<</if>>\n\n[[Hunger satisfied, you continue your journey.|Road continue]]

You and your disciples explore the ancient battlefield until you find a place suitable for setting up a community, isolated from the nearest orc villages and the road to human lands. Occasionally the miasma clears enough for you to see the old monastery, and as the years pass you can see its stones crumble and the vegetation slowly reclaim it.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour new community is disorganised, and its early years are plagued by shortages and accidents caused by a lack of planning.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou organise your new community well enough that it does not suffer any severe accidents or shortages, but life for your disciples is hard, and most of their time is spent on the daily necessities of survival.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou set up your new community according to a careful and detailed plan, which your disciples find hard at first but which soon makes their lives easier through efficiency.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou have fully conquered your own rage, and your example helps your disciples to live free of their violent impulses, even without the strictness of the old Order.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou still struggle with your own inner rage, but you try constantly to control it, and your example helps your disciples to do the same.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tDisagreements among your disciples frequently break out into violence, and you often find yourself using more violence to keep order.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\nThere are hardships, but your new community eventually thrives under your leadership. When you become too old to continue to lead you hand over leadership to your most promising disciple, and live out the rest of your years as a revered elder.\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

You don't say anything, but it seems that no one was expecting you to. The general basks in the waves of noisy adulation from the crowd: cheers, shouts, battle songs, the clash of sword on shield.\n\nAt last the commotion dies down and the orcs return to their revels until eventually retiring for the night.\n\n[[The general's speech ends, and the revels gradually wind down...|Village nightfall]]

You open your eyes. You are <<if $health < 100>>wounded and <</if>>exhausted, but alive. The presence you felt in the cave is still there, but it is fading, as if retreating. Perhaps someday it will try again to re-enter the living world, but for now it is defeated.\n\n<<include [[Cave possession survived]]>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n"You destroyed my monastery!" you snarl, your rising rage adding power to your voice. "You made the humans think we had attacked them, and they retaliated."\n\nSome of the orcs around General Krazgh look startled, but Krazgh herself rises from her seat and slashes you across the face with her claws. "Silence, worm!" she shouts. "Scheming and lying is your domain, not ours. True orcs with the strength to fight have no need to resort to those schemes."\n\n[[The guards pick you up off the floor and drag you out of the hut.|Village gathering]]

<<set $discipline -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $has_talisman = false>>\s\nYou place the talisman on the floor near the bodies of your friends. There is no more Order, and you are no longer bound by its rituals.\n\nYou feel your orcish rage within you, pacing like a wild beast, scratching at the walls of the mental dungeon in which the Order has taught you to keep it. You turn away from it as well. You will not follow its path of vengeance, but, with the Order gone, you will find new ways to control it and live free of its influence.\n\n<<if visited("Monastery leave")>>\s\n\t[[Leave the monastery.|Monastery leave delayed]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

This is a game of skill rather than strength, and the mental discipline that you learned in the monastery <<if $discipline >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>serves you well<<else>>would have served you well had you played this game a few days ago<</if>>. You hold the talisman by its string, whirl it around, and release.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\n\tIt sails perfectly into the severed head's mouth and rests there, its string hanging from between the remaining teeth. The other players gasp, and then clap you on the back enthusiastically.\n\t<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\n\t\tYou seem to have impressed them enough that they welcome you into their group as an equal.\n\t\t<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\n\t<</if>>\n\tYou throw a few more times, getting talismans into its mouth and both eye sockets.\n<<else>>\n\t<<if $discipline >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tIt hits the target, but glances off the side of its head and falls to the ground beside it.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tIt goes wide, vanishing into the darkness beyond the target.\n\t<</if>>\n\t<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\n\t\tThe other players laugh cruelly and punch you to the ground, and you are forced to scramble away from the game to avoid being seriously injured.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tThe other players laugh and punch you good-naturedly. You throw a few more times, and manage to hit the target's forehead, but never get the talisman into the head's mouth.\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t<</if>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $orc_village_status >= 2>>\n\t<<set $know_about_false_flag = true>>\n\tAs you play, you manage to ask what the talismans are, without giving away what you know about them. The players think they are some kind of good luck charms, and don't know that they resemble talismans of the Order of Peace. Apparently the tribe's general had the warriors make them and wear them during their last raid on a human village, a week ago. That raid resulted in the village being destroyed and several humans killed, including the village chief, whose head now serves as the game's target. A few orcs were killed, and their bodies left in the ruins of the village--presumably with the fake talismans on their bodies.\n<</if>>\n\n<br><br>\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>\n

<<nobr>>\n\tAn orc shuffles furtively up to you as you approach the gate.\n\t<<if $met_thard>>\n\t\tYou recognise him as Thard, the servant you spoke to by the fire the previous evening. "Teacher," he says. "If you are leaving...please, take us with you."\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tHe is a young man whose skin is discoloured and whose right hand is withered by some wasting disease. "Teacher," he says. "My name is Thard. If you are leaving...please, take us with you."\n\t<</if>>\n\tHe motions to a group of orcs hovering near the noncombatant servants' huts.\n\t<<if $village_converts == 1>>\n\t\tIncluding Thard, there are half a dozen of them.\n\t<<elseif $village_converts == 2>>\n\t\tThere are about a dozen of them, perhaps half the noncombatant population of the village.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tThere are about two dozen of them, almost the entire noncombatant population of the village.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n[[Take the noncombatant orcs with you.|Village leave take converts]]\n\n[[Turn them away.|Village leave dont take converts]]

<<if $rage >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<nobr>>\n\t\t<<if $weapon == "staff">>\n\t\t\tYou bring the end of your quarterstaff down soundly on the guard's head, knocking him out in a single blow. After that it is quick work to take his sword and slit the throats of the other humans in their sleep.\n\t\t<<else>>\n\t\t\tYou draw your $weapon swiftly across the guard's throat, and lower his body soundlessly to the ground as the life drains out of him. After that it is quick work slit the throats of the other humans in their sleep.\n\t\t<</if>>\n\t<</nobr>>\n\n\t<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\t[[The humans lie dead.|Road merchants victory]]\n<<else>>\n\tYou raise your $weapon to dispatch the guard, but at the last moment your atrophied rage fails you, and your blow only injures him. He cries out, and the camp becomes a commotion of human warriors scrambling for their weapons.\n\n\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Road merchants fight]]\n<</if>>

<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t"Get back here!" one of the other scouts shouts at you. "We're here to scout the village, not wander off in the mountains."\n\n\t"I think it's time to go," the other scout says.\n\n\t[[Report back to the army.|Road ruins rejoin army]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe path winds up the steep slope and then runs parallel to the road. It is narrow and uneven, but you <<if $companions == "orc disciples">>and your disciples <</if>>are mostly hidden from the road, while breaks in the rocks give you views of the road for miles around.\n<<if $orcs_fought_humans>>\s\n\n\tLooking down, you see a heap of orc bodies that have been heaped at the side of the road and burned. They are fresh--you can see the marks in the road where they were dragged to where they now lie. It looks like General Krazgh's army found the humans and were defeated.\n<</if>>\s\n\n\tAfter a while the paths starts to descend back towards the road.\n\n\t[[You go around a corner and see a group of people in front of you.|Road raiders start high path]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou crouch inside a ruined skull and watch through its teeth as the monster comes closer. It looks like an emaciated corpse, with grey flesh stretched tight across misshapen bones and sometimes peeling back to reveal them.\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t<<set $modifier = 0 - $BIG_MOD>>\s\n\n\tWithout your monastic training, your disciples are not able to stay as quiet as you, and every one of their movements makes you fear the monster will notice you.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<if $discipline+$modifier >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\tYour hands tremble as your rage urges you to leap out of your hiding place and fight, but your disciplined mind keeps it under control. The creature claws at the bones near your hiding place for a few moments, then snorts and moves on.\n\n\t[[Once the sound of the monster has faded, you continue towards the heart of the boneyard.|Boneyard shelter centre]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $BIG_WOUND>>\s\n\tYour hands tremble as your rage urges you to leap out of your hiding place and fight, and eventually you can no longer keep it under control. You let out a grunt of frustration, and your shaking hand disturbs a finger-bone that goes clattering onto the ground.\n\n\tA bony head with a single burning eye turns straight to you, and then a vast claw slams into your hiding place. You are thrown across the ground, shards of bone tearing into your skin.\n\n\t<<if $health > 0>>\s\n\t\t[[You are forced to retreat to the outskirts.|Boneyard shelter outskirts]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t<<dead>>\n\t<</if>>\s\n<</if>>\s

<<set $rage -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n//You keep your eyes down and shuffle forward with your brothers and sisters. The Order of Peace is a single body, and where they go, you go.\n\nA vast presence stirs in the darkness above you. Its attention, like a ray of light but felt rather than seen, alights on one after another of your brothers and sisters, and then on you.\n\n"No...not you."\n\n[[You are plucked from the line by an invisible hand and thrust towards the light...|Monastery wake]]

You hurry out of the village while the orc army is still organising itself for the march. <<if $companions == "orc disciples">>Your new disciples are not as fit as orc warriors, but they are spurred to speed by the thought of the army on their heels.<<else>>Travelling alone, you make good time, and easily outpace the army.<</if>>\n\n<<include [[Road start]]>>

<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n<<set $village_converts += 1>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou spread your hands as the Order's Elders did when preaching the ways of meditation, and raise your voice above the crowd.\n\n"Brothers and sisters!" you begin. "I thank you for your hospitality, and for treating me as one of your kin--but violence is not the answer! Your violent urges were planted in you by the War God, but you can resist them--"\n\nYou are drowned out by angry jeers and pelted by bones, and then General Krazgh pushes you off the podium. Perhaps she did you a favour, since some of the orcs were brandishing bows and throwing axes.\n\nBut before you a pushed off the stage, you see some of the noncombatant orcs who had been serving the food looking at you with interest.\n\n[[The general's speech ends, and the revels gradually wind down...|Village nightfall]]

<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYour first impulse on waking up in the destroyed monastery was to seek revenge. The Order taught you to distrust your violent impulses, and you did not act on the impulse at once. Now that your survival needs are met, and you have had time to get over the initial shock and consider your options, you realise that revenge is not the wisest course.\n\nIf you simply kill the humans--even if you were able to do that alone--you would never know why they attacked the monastery. Humans have always hated orcs, but why now, when the monastery has stood for a hundred years; and why the monastery, when there are villages of warlike orcs equally accessible from human lands? The only way to find out will be to find the humans and ask them. After that, revenge may or may not seem like the best course.\n\n[[You set off to find the tracks of the humans.|Boneyard leave for road]]

You gather your disciples in a circle around you and teach them the essentials of the Order's philosophy and meditation techniques. Even though your disciples were noncombatants in the orc village, they still feel the unshackled rage of the War God burning strongly within them. They have little patience for your teachings and frequently break into arguments and fights.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\tYou are patient with them, however, and manage to defuse their conflicts and turn them into exercises in how to control their anger. They have many years of mental practice ahead of them before they can free their minds of the War God's influence, but they have made a good start today.\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\tYou try to break up the fights and use them as examples of anger that can be controlled, but your own mind is not disciplined enough and you end up joining the conflict more than de-escalating it. The lessons break off in confusion, and your disciples learn nothing today.\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[You return to your shelter.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

The village shrine is a tent decorated with even more than the usual number of bones and skulls, with the symbol of the War God daubed in blood on its sides. Hot, incense-laden smoke assaults your nostrils as you open the flap. Bandages and bottles of salves stacked around the edge of the tent suggest that this priest is also a healer.\n\n"Welcome, child." The war-priest's voice is a rasp. He is older than most orcs, a venerable veteran, with strands of grey hair falling down over a face that is a mass of scars. "So you are the surviving apostate. Have you come to dedicate yourself to the War God?"\n\n[[Dedicate yourself to the War God.|Village shrine dedicate]]\n\n[[Ask the priest see to your wounds.|Village shrine heal]]\n<<if $started_boneyard>>\s\n\n\t[[Talk about the vision you had in the boneyard.|Village shrine vision]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nThe images of your dream continue to haunt you. It may have been a band of humans who destroyed your Order, but your dream tells you that there are greater forces at work here--perhaps even Valtash the War God himself. If you will be able to find answers anywhere, it is in the cave you saw in your dream.\n\n<<if !$started_road>>\s\n\tFrom the landscape surrounding the cave you saw in your dream, you think you can find it on the road towards human lands.\n\n\t<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t\t[[Set out for the cave, taking your disciples with you.|Boneyard leave for road]]\n\n\t\t[[Leave your disciples and set out for the cave alone.|Boneyard leave for road][$companions = ""]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t[[You set off to find the cave.|Boneyard leave for road]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tThinking back to your dream, you recognise the landscape you saw as being the place where you encountered the human raiders. You think you could easily make the journey again and find the cave.\n\n\t<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t\t[[Set out for the cave, taking your disciples with you.|Cave travel disciples]]\n\n\t\t[[Leave your disciples and set out for the cave alone.|Cave travel alone]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t[[You set off to find the cave.|Cave travel alone]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<</if>>\s

Below you the slope opens out into a small shelf, on which a dozen humans sit around a simple camp. Their position on the shelf gives them a good view of the road while hiding them from sight, but the high mountain path has let you take them by surprise. \n\n<<include [[Road raiders description]]>>\n\nOne of the humans notices you and shouts a warning. They all scramble to their feet and raise their weapons, but they are disorganised and clearly unprepared for being approached from above.\n\n[[Shout a battle cry and attack the humans.|Road raiders intimidate]]\n\n[[Call out that you want to talk.|Road raiders talk]]

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\s\n"To beg?" you snarl. "A warrior who single-handedly slew a band of human murderers does not need to beg. Humans destroyed my Order, but I tracked them down, and they lie dead by my hands. You should be the one begging to accept me as member of your tribe!"\n\nYou can feel the stares of the orcs on you, but you stare them down. After your victory over the humans, they do not scare you.\n\nGeneral Krazgh breaks the silence with a laugh. "It seems I underestimated your Order! Either you are telling the truth, or you are a master of the art of boasting. Either way, my legion could use one like you!"\n\n[[The general's attendants growl and slap you on the back as the guards lead you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]

<<set $can_find_cave = true>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe priest's eyes widen. "The cave--that is where Valtash forged the first orcs. Few see it. Perhaps the War God has special plans for you."\n\n"What does it mean?"\n\n"To discover that, you must travel to the cave and pray there. It is in the mountains, between here and human lands. Look for the place where the dragon devours the setting sun, and you will find it."\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

<<set $health = 0>>\s\nWith a roar that unleashes every remaining drop of your strength and rage, you slam your bleeding body against the side of the cave entrance. The presence senses what you are doing and redoubles its efforts to control you; you feel your limbs jerk as you fight against yourself, but the presence cannot stop you from throwing yourself again and again against the rock wall. You feel the rock cracking beneath you. Dust falls, then small stones, and then the wall collapses beneath your blood-soaked onslaught and an avalanche of rock pours down, knocking you to the ground and cutting off the light from the outside world.\n\nThe presence jerks your muscles one last time, but you are trapped beneath the rocks and even its influence cannot give you the strength to lift them.\n\n[[You feel the presence leave you, defeated, at the same time as the last strength ebbs from your body.|Cave possession suicide dead]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou push through the tiredness. This task is more important than your physical health. You take each body to the crypt, arrange it in a dignified pose of rest, and speak the words of the Order's funeral rite. "To war you were born but in peace you have lived. Rest now in eternal peace."\n\nYou can feel the work putting a strain on your body, but the repeated actions calm you, and you find yourself better able to focus on your situation.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[But when you complete your task and see the entire Order laid out around you, you feel your long-suppressed orcish rage building once again...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<set $has_talisman = false>>\s\nYou pull the talisman from under your robe and prepare to throw it. <<include [[Village game throw]]>>

<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health += $MEDIUM_HEAL>>\s\nThe humans had already eaten their evening meal by the time you came upon them, but inside their packs you contain rations of dried meat, fruit, and biscuits. It is tough and bland, and makes you miss the austere but fresh food of the monastery, but the action of slowly chewing causes your mind to slow down and your rage to subside somewhat.\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\n\tThe warriors laugh at your squeamishness as the chew on bloody chunks of human flesh.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\n\tYou share the rations with your disciples, and explain to them how eating the flesh of humans and orcs feeds the rage they are trying to suppress.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

<<set $started_boneyard = true>>\s\nA bitter miasma fills the bowl of the valley, from which rise the towering bones of long-dead war-beasts. You recognise some of the skeletons from the Order's history books: siege ogres with clubs of solid bone for fists, trebuchet-beasts with throwing arms growing from their backs. Everywhere you tread are the shattered bones of orcs and humans.<<if $companions == "orc disciples">> Your disciples huddle together warily, jumping at every sound that echoes from the unnatural mist.<</if>>\n\nLittle pools of brackish water collect among the bones, surrounded by patches of twisted fungus. There is likely to be more water and life deeper in the valley, and perhaps even small animals you could hunt--but the way ahead is hidden by the mist, and you have heard stories of monsters that haunt the boneland that even the most warlike orcs fear to face.\n\n[[Stay on the outskirts.|Boneyard outskirts]]\n\n[[Venture deeper.|Boneyard deeper]]

<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYour superior night vision allows you to stick to the shadows and easily slip past the single human guard. Soon you have gone around a corner of the mountain path and the embers of the camp fire are hidden from view.\n\nOrcs need little sleep and you are not tired, but you become hungry. You will need to find something to eat.\n\n[[Forage for edible plants.|Road forage]]\n\n[[Hunt for an animal.|Road hunt]]

A cheer goes up from the tribe when you announce your intention to continue the old general's campaign. The tribe sets off once more, with you at its head. Your war-songs echo back to you from the mountains until it feels as if the entire world trembles at your approach.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour tribe attacks as disorderly mass, orcish instinct providing all the coordination you need.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou spend time before the attack planning your strategy, and find ways to gain an advantage that a less disciplined orcish army would have missed.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou spend time before the battle formulating a detailed strategy, and your orcs attack with the discipline of a professionally-trained legion.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou charge into battle at the head of your army, screaming wordless war-cries and slashing at your opponents left and right. \n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou charge into battle in the midst of your army, your rage singing along with theirs.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tAs your army charges into battle it almost leaves you behind and you find yourself leading from the rear, your rage eclipsed by that of your warriors.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\nIt is the first of many glorious victories. As word spreads of your conquests, and of your ordeal in the holy cave, other orcish chieftains pledge their allegiance to you, and you become the head of an orcish horde the like of which has not been seen since Valtash himself walked the earth. You conquer a swathe of human lands, enslave their population, and found an orcish empire that lasts a hundred years.\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

//"Have you strayed so far from the path that you do not recognise me?"\n\n<<include [[Dream throne image]]>>\n\n"I am Valtash, your god--creator and commander of the orcs!"\n\n[["\s"Why did you save me?\s""|Dream why did you save me]]\n\n[["\s"I will never serve you!\s""|Dream I will never serve you]]//

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $weapon = "staff">>\s\nThe walking stick used by Mother Urnak is unbroken, and its length and weight would make it a good weapon. You remember the tock-tock of its iron-shod ends on the stone floor as she patrolled the corridors looking for young initiates in need of reminding of their duties. Now she lies dead where <<if visited("Monastery funeral")>>you laid her<<else>>she fell<</if>>, with her staff by her side. You pick it up and feel its weight, and also see the devotional runes that Mother Urnak had spent her time whittling into its surface. This weapon will help you remember the Order that raised you, even as you set out into the dangerous world.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[Holding the staff and looking down at Mother Urnak's body, you recognise your long-suppressed Orcish rage building within you...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<set $started_village = true>>\s\nIt is fully dark by the time you reach the village gate. You were born in a village much like this one, but you barely remember it. You were a sickly child, and your mother, in an un-orcish moment of mercy, sent you to live with the Order rather than let you be killed in the cutthroat games of the orc children.\n\nThe two orcs who approach you look much like those who beat you up as a child, now grown to muscular adulthood.\n\n[[Greet them aggressively.|Village greet aggressive]]\n\n[[Greet them calmly.|Village greet calm]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe priest nods sagely. It seems that that answer satisfied him.\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

<<if !hasVisited("Dream who are you")>>\s\n\t<<include [[Dream throne image]]>>\n\n<</if>>\s\n//"My people have become weak."\n\nThe god on the throne gestures, and you look down from the mountains to see the orcs. You watch as they forge their weapons, hunt their meat, gather their warbands and attack the human lands--only to be driven back, again and again.\n\n"I am no longer here to lead them as I did in the first days. But you and your Order of Peace have learned a discipline that could make you a great leader, and turn the horde into an army once again. And with you at their head, vengeance and glory would be yours!"\n\n[["\s"I will never serve you!\s""|Dream I will never serve you]]\n\n[["\s"Yes, Master. I will command your army.\s""|Dream I will command your army]]//

<<set $road_fought_raiders = true>>\n<<if hasVisited("Road raiders start high path")>>\n\tApproaching the humans via the mountain path means you have the advantage of high ground.\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\n\tYou fight alongide the other orc warriors, your rage burning at one with theirs.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\n\t<<set $companions = "orc disciples dead">>\n\tYour disciples fight alongside you, but although they are orcs they are weak and sickly, and no match for armed human warriors. They are quickly cut down around you, and your rage roars with fresh desire for vengeance.\n\t<br><br>\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $weapon == "claws">>\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tAlthough your hands are sharp orcish claws, you are still unarmed, and at a disadvantage over the humans whose swords give them superior reach.\n<<elseif $weapon == "magic sword">>\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\n\tYour magic sword blazes with fire in the presence of humans, striking fear into their eyes and searing through their armour.\n<<else>>\n\tYour $weapon clashes against the humans' swords.\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $rage + $modifier >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\n\t<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\n\tYou are surrounded and outnumbered, but you feel as if the War God is guiding your $weapon. Time slows as you dance a ballet of rage, striking perfectly at the chinks in the humans' armour while their blades sluggishly stab at whatever space you have just left.\n<<else>>\n\t<<set $health -= $HARD_THRESHOLD - ($rage+$modifier)>>\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\n\tYour rage flows through you and it feels as if the War God himself is guiding your $weapon, but you are still surrounded and outnumbered, and you cannot fend off all of the humans' blows.\n<</if>>\n\n<br><br>\n\n<<if $health <= 0>>\n\t<<dead>>\n<<else>>\n\tOne by one the humans fall, until you are surrounded by a circle of human bodies. The last human panics and turns to run.\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Give chase.|Road raiders chase]]\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Let him go.|Road chapter end menu]]\n<</if>>\n

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<include [[Monastery ritual]]>> The urge to exact vengeance is still there, but harnessed, under conscious control. You end the ritual by swearing, calmly and decisively, to take revenge on those who destroyed your Order. You will become an instrument of vengeance, not because the War God drives you to, but because you choose to.\n\n<<if visited("Monastery leave")>>\s\n\t[[Leave the monastery.|Monastery leave delayed]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

/% Version 1.0 -- IFComp submission %/\n<div style="text-align:center">\n\t<div class="surtitle">\n\t\tRage Quest:\n\t</div>\n\t<br>\n\t<div class="title">\n\t\tDisciple of Peace\n\t</div>\n\t<br>\n\t<div class="author">by @@.inline-link;<a href="https://www.johnayliff.com" target="_blank">John Ayliff</a>@@</div>\n\n\t<br><br>\n\n\t<<if Save.autosave.has()>>\n\t\t<<linkreplace "Start" t8n>>\n\t\t\tThis will overwrite the saved game. [[Confirm|Intro]]\n\t\t<</linkreplace>>\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t[[Start|Intro]]\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<br><br>\n\n\t<<if Save.autosave.has()>>\n\t\t<<link "Continue">>\n\t\t\t<<script>>\n\t\t\t\tSave.autosave.load();\n\t\t\t\t$("#stats-box").stop();\n\t\t\t\t$("#stats-box").fadeIn(3000);\n\t\t\t<</script>>\n\t\t<</link>>\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t@@.disabled-button;Continue@@\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<br><br>\n\n\t[[About]]\n\n\t<br><br>\n\n\t[[Credits|Credits]]\n</div>

You set up a shelter in the ancient battlefield, and develop a routine of gathering food and water. You gradually become used to the solitude, and to the foulness of your surroundings. Occasionally the miasma clears enough for you to see the old monastery, and as the years pass you can see its stones crumble and the vegetation slowly reclaim it.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou live like an animal, prowling naked and filthy through the boneyard and solving every problem with your claws.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou manage to retain a semblance of a civilised life in your solitude, but you never again experience the order or mental clarity of your youth in the monastery.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYour disciplined mind lets you construct a routine that fends off the loneliness of your new life. When not working to survive, you spend your time in meditation, and achieve a spiritual peace you never could have had in the orc village or even in the monastery.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou lack the aggression to face the monstrous creatures of the boneyard, so you find yourself living in fear of them and hiding whenever they approach your shelter.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou manage to drive the boneyard monsters away from your shelter, but whenever you venture into the deeper boneyard you must be on your guard against attacks.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYour powerful orcish rage lets you fight off the boneyard monsters, and before long their primitive minds have learned not to go near your shelter and to cower whenever they see you moving through the bones.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

You take a last look along the road to the west, then turn away and head back east along the darkening mountain path, towards the Orclands.

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<if $rage >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tYou barge into the other orc, sending him tumbling down the slope. Nothing stands between you and the completion of your vengeance.\n\n\t[[Follow the human into the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 1]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\tYou barge into the other orc, but he pushes you back and sends you tumbling down the slope. "I said he's mine!"\n\n\tBy the time you get to your feet, the other orc is emerging from the cave, with the dead body of the last human draped over his shoulder.\n\n\t[[Return to the road.|Road outside cave with orc warriors]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n//No! It is not your time yet!\n\nYou break away from the line, pushing against one of the other disciples, who glances at you with blank eyes before shuffling forward again.\n\nA vast presence stirs in the darkness above you. Its attention, like a ray of light but felt rather than seen, fixes on you.\n\n"Yes...you have the flame that I need."\n\n[[A light appears in front of you, and you run into it...|Monastery wake]]

You barely glance at the scene of carnage before you run out of the monastery's ruined door. The sunlight stabs at your eyes like a spear, and the wound in your chest sends pain shooting through your body with every step.\n\n[[Your grunts of exertion become animal cries of rage, and you feel your long-suppressed Orcish rage building within you...|Monastery choose reaction]]

You continue along the road, and eventually the mountains give way to a landscape of well-maintained fields and verdant pastures, a far cry from the mountainous wilderness of the Orclands.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tThe humans greet you with hostility, and you lack the mental discipline to avoid violence in confrontations. You are driven away from every civilised community and must survive on the outskirts of human society.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tThe humans greet you with hostility, but your discipline lets you defuse the situation enough for them to give you a chance as a member of human society.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tThe humans greet you with hostility, but your lifetime of mental discipline gives you an aura of self-control that makes it clear you are not like other orcs.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou become a farmer. You have so mastered your orcish rage that you have no trouble getting on with other members of the human community, and eventually people seem to forget that you are an orc.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou become a farmer. Your orcish rage means that you are quick to anger in disputes, but you also find a place among the rowdier tavern-goers of the nearest village.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYour orcish rage means you have no patience for farming but are a formidable warrior, and you make a living as a mercenary.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n"Lies!" you shout, with enough force to stun the crowd into silence. "It was your own general who destroyed the monastery. The 'good luck charms' she gave you on your last raid are replicas of the Order's talisman. She tricked the humans into attacking my home, and now she's using it as an excuse for further bloodshed!"\n\nThat is all you manage to say before Krazgh slashes you with her claws and pushes you off the podium. "It is this one who lies," she snarls. "The foolish Order will say anything to prevent blood from being shed--even the blood of their enemies! Let us show their last surviving member what it means to be strong. What it means to be an orc!"\n\nThe crowd breaks out into chaotic noise, in equal parts shouting insults at you and battle cries in praise of the War God.\n\n[[The general's speech ends, and the revels gradually wind down...|Village nightfall]]

<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tYou walk towards the raised spear-points, running through one of the Order's rituals in your mind to keep both your rage and your fear in tight check. The guards growl menacingly, but seem at a loss when you show no sign of fear. Eventually one of them says, "Come. General wants to see you."\n\n\t[[They lead you into the village.|Village general meet]]\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou walk towards the raised spear-points, trying to keep your rage and your fear in check, but the fear wins out and by the time you reach the guards you are trembling.\n\n"Coward monk," one of the guards mutters.\n\n"Come," the other says. "General wants to see you."\n\n\t[[They drive you at spear-point into the village.|Village general meet]]\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\nYou kneel next to the general on the hard, uneven floor.\n\nThe presence you sensed when you entered the cave seems to hover above both of you.\n\nYour life in the monastery makes you expect the general to perform some solemn ritual, and you wait for her to do so. Your heart pounds and your rage paces and growls inside you. The hovering presence seems to be waiting for something.\n\nEventually the general picks up a dagger from the altar and turns it over in her hands. "Great Valtash," she whispers, "master of all warriors--accept this sacrifice!"\n\nToo late, you realise that the general's handling of the dagger has left it clenched sideways in her fist with its blade pointing towards your chest. You dodge quickly enough to avoid being stabbed in the heart, but the general's blade scores a bloody wound across your chest.\n\n[[Fight.|Cave fight]]

The supernatural presence grows stronger. It seems to hover over you, as the unseen presence did in your dream, and you are certain that it is the same entity.\n\n//"Yes...you came, as I knew you would. You will be a fine vessel..."//\n\n<<include [[Cave noncombat possession]]>>

//A dark pathway, a cold breeze.//\n\n"My mind is a fortress. Its walls are stone, its gates are iron..."\n\n//An invisible presence descending, clinging to you, using you as a conduit back into the world of the living.//\n\n"Within the fortress is a garden. In it I keep all that is good and peaceful, all that I have built, all that makes me who I am..."\n\n//Your inner rage, stirring in its dungeon, drawing strength from the presence. Never before has your rage seemed more like a foreign entity planted in your soul. It batters against the walls of your fortress, striving to tear them down more quickly than you can build them. //\n\n<<if $discipline >= $EPIC_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t//But your discipline is strong. Your fortress stands. Your rage is under your control, and the invading presence cannot use it to harm you. The presence batters against walls that it cannot penetrate. It draws away...//\n\n\t[[Let it go.|Cave possession resist let it go]]\n\n\t[[Harness your rage to destroy the invading presence.|Cave possession resist ritual dungeon]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t//Your discipline is not strong enough. The fortress's walls crumble faster than you can restore them. The presence floods in, trampling the garden, heading for the conduit back into the living world.//\n\n\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $started_road = true>>\s\nYou reach the high point of the pass and look down to see the red glow of a campfire. Half a dozen figures sit around it. From the shape of their silhouettes against the fire you can tell they are humans, not orcs.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t\tThe other two scouts crouch low and wait for your orders.\n\t<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t\tYour disciples hang back, waiting to follow your lead.\n\t<</if>>\n\tYour rage \n\t\t<<if $rage >= 50 && $discipline >= 50>>\n\t\t\tclaws against the walls of its dungeon,\n\t\t<<elseif $rage >= 50 && $discipline < 50>>\n\t\t\thowls from the parapets of your mental fortress,\n\t\t<<elseif $rage < 50 && $discipline >= 50>>\n\t\t\tgrowls sullenly in its dungeon,\n\t\t<<elseif $rage <50 && $discipline < 50>>\n\t\t\tpaces the corridors of your mental fortress,\n\t\t<</if>>\n\t\turging you to descend on the humans and claim your revenge.\n<</nobr>>\n\n[[Roar a battle cry and charge in.|Road merchants charge]]\n\n[[Creep closer and listen to their conversation.|Road merchants listen]]\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t[[Report back and tell General Krazgh about the humans.|Road merchants report back]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Wait until they go to sleep and then attack them in the dark.|Road merchants wait]]\n<</if>>\s

You survey the ancient battlefield and imagine living here permanently. You would be safe here from other orcs and human raiders, and you are confident that you could find enough to eat and fend off any other creatures you encountered. <<if $companions == "orc disciples">>You and your new disciples could found a new community.<<else>>It would be a solitary life, but that is perhaps the best option out of the alternatives presented to you.<</if>>\n\nBut the cave you saw in your dream continues to haunt you. Leaving now would mean giving up on solving its mystery.\n\n[[Forget about the cave and make your home in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending]]\n\n[[Reconsider.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

The monster is emaciated, with grey flesh stretched tight across misshapen bones and sometimes peeling back to reveal them. The flesh is mismatched, as if parts of many creatures have grown together, and fungal growths cover it in places.\n\nIts face, now that it lies still, looks vaguely orc-like. This is not an orc, if it ever was, but it is certainly another of the War God's creations.\n\n<<if visited("Monastery wounds feast")>>\s\n\tYou think back to how you healed your wounds by eating the flesh of your dead brothers and sisters. \s\n<<elseif visited("Monastery wounds heal")>>\s\n\tYou think back to how you were tempted to heal your wounds by eating the flesh of your dead brothers and sisters. \s\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou think of how orcs are able to heal their wounds by eating the flesh of similar creatures. \s\n<</if>>\s\nThe monster's mismatched flesh looks as if it has repaired itself with parts of the dead in the same way. Has it been here since the time of the ancient battle, repairing itself with the remains of its dead comrades and then with any creatures that ventured into the boneyard? Is this what happens when one of the War God's creatures repairs itself again and again, until nothing of the original is left and it is only a mindless engine of destruction and self-repair?\n\nThe flesh is too emaciated to be nourishing for you, even if you could bring yourself to eat it. You leave the body and turn away.\n\n[[Continue to the heart of the boneyard.|Boneyard shelter centre]]

<<include [[Dream start]]>>

<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou decide to stay in the outskirts and not risk an encounter with the boneyard's inhabitants.\n\n<<include [[Boneyard shelter outskirts]]>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $health += $MEDIUM_HEAL>>\s\nThe Order's food was mostly vegetarian, but your quest requires a strength that you can only gain from eating meat. After a little hunting you find the burrow of a mountain rabbit, and quickly catch it in your claws. You have nothing with which to start a fire, so you simply tear off its head with your claws and bite off chunks of the warm, raw flesh.\s\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYour disciples feast on the meat, relishing the chance to eat meat without the warriors snatching it away.\s\n<</if>>\n\n[[Hunger satisfied, you continue your journey.|Road continue]]

<<if visitedTags("monastery_ritual_choice")>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery leave delayed]]>>\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery leave immediate]]>>\n<</if>>\s

According to the Order's teachings, when Valtash the War God created orcs, he intended them to die in battle. Those that fail to do so rapidly lose their physical strength and become frail and sickly in old age. Many of the Order's elders walked with the aid of sticks, which now lie beside their bodies on the floor.\n\nThe community also owned a number of woodcutting axes. They were kept in a locked cabinet when not used, so that the large blades would not provoke the members' orcish rage, and in the chaos of the attack it appears that no one was quick enough to retrieve them. \n\n[[Take a walking stick to use as a quarterstaff.|Monastery weapon staff]]\n\n[[Break open a cabinet and take a woodcutting axe.|Monastery weapon axe]]

<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYou announce to your disciples that you will not be trying to find the cave, but will be devoting yourself to leading their new community.\n\n\t"Are we to rebuild the Order of Peace, Teacher?" Thard asks.\n\n\tYou consider this. Your new disciples could be the start of a restored Order of Peace if you lead them that way, but whether the Order of Peace deserves to be restored is something you now have the power to decide.\n\n\t[[Try to rebuild the Order of Peace.|Boneyard ending order]]\n\n\t[[Found a new community in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending commune]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Boneyard ending alone]]>>\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $orc_village_status = 1>>\s\n"I come to tell you about a new way of life," you say. "Let me teach the ways of the Order to any members of your tribe that wish to learn. I can teach you meditations that will let you control your rage and think clearly--"\n\nGeneral Krazgh only glares at you, but the warriors around her jeer and heckle. "A way of weakness!" "My sword will teach you to think clearly!"\n\n<<if $discipline >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tYou smoothly raise your voice so that you can be heard above the crowd but otherwise continue as before. "The War God made us to be slaves, with no purpose but to fight and die. I can teach you how to free your mind. When you fight, it will be because you choose to, not because you are driven to."\n\t\n\t<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t\tGeneral Krazgh makes a subtle hand gesture, and one of the guards kicks you in the stomach, nearly knocking you over. The orcs around you kick you and beat you with the flats of their weapons, knocking the wind out of you and drawing blood, but you continue speaking. Your words may be lost in the chaos of the hut, but you know the sight of you calmly taking blow after blow while continuing to speak is making an impression on the crowd.\n\t\t\n\t\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\t\t<<set $preached_before_general = true>>\s\n\t\t<<set $village_converts += 1>>\s\n\t\t"Enough!" Krazgh shouts at last, and the beating stops. You stop speaking, sensing you have made as much of an impression as you can. "Your path is misguided, Disciple of Peace, but let no one here say that you are a coward or a weakling. Stay here, perform your duties as a member of my legion, and you may preach to whomever you wish. We will see if any of my orcs adopt your ways before you adopt ours."\n\n\t\tMost of the orc warriors look confused or annoyed, but behind the general's throne you can see some servants looking at you with curiosity.\n\n\t\t[[The guards lead you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tGeneral Krazgh makes a subtle hand gesture, and one of the guards kicks you in the stomach, nearly knocking you over. You keep speaking for a while, but the orcs around you kick you and beat you with the flats of their weapons, and eventually the pain is too much and you cannot continue.\n\n\t\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\t\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t\t"Preaching is not welcome here," Krazgh says. "Take this thing out of my sight."\n\n\t\t[[There is renewed laughter as the guards drag you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tYour speech falters. You are not used to the rowdiness of orcish culture outside the monastery, and can't concentrate amid the heckling.\n\n\tGeneral Krazgh makes a subtle hand gesture, and one of the guards kicks you in the stomach, knocking you to the ground. "Preaching is not welcome here," she says. "Take this thing out of my sight."\n\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t[[There is renewed laughter as the guards drag you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n<</if>>\s

//A dark pathway, a cold breeze. The invisible presence that hovered over you is within you now. It rages against the walls of the mental dungeon, but it cannot escape. It is already beginning to fade, along with your own inner rage, along with all your own thoughts and emotions.\n\nThere is nothing left that can pull you back. You shuffle forward, into the darkness. Your last thought is one of quiet triumph.//\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n"I will fight in your army, but I will not bow to your god," you say.\n\n"No matter," Krazgh says, with a calm that surprises you. She gets to her feet carefully and turns to you, a dark and imposing shape in front of the skull lanterns. "Great Valtash," she says, so quietly you strain to hear, "master of all warriors--accept this sacrifice!"\n\nShe leaps towards you, and you see a ritual dagger gleaming in his hand.\n\n[[Fight.|Cave fight]]

The object is a pendant on a string that has managed to survive the flames. At first glance it looks like one of the talismans of the Order of Peace, but examining it more closely you see that it is a forgery. Real Order of Peace talismans are made with care, unlike this rough angles of this one. Hidden in the ashes you see similar objects at the necks of the other orcs.\n\n<<if $know_about_false_flag>>\s\n\tSeeing the symbol of your order around the necks of brutish orc warriors disgusts you, but you are not surprised. This is how General Krazgh pinned the blame for the attack on your Order and manipulated the humans into attacking you.\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $know_about_false_flag = true>>\s\n\tSeeing the symbol of your order around the necks of brutish orc warriors disgusts and confuses you. Why would orc warriors use the symbols of an Order that they despise?\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou fall to one knee and present your <<if $weapon=="claws">>open hands<<else>>$weapon<</if>> to the general. "Not to beg," you say, "but to pledge my allegiance if you will take it."\n\nThe general looks you up and down. It is as if her rage--a huge, scarred beast--is examining yours. The guards who brought you in <<if $orc_village_status<2>>look down with mocking smiles.<<else>>stand aside expectantly.<</if>>\n<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t"I see there is a flame in you that your Order was not able to extinguish," General Krazgh says. "Perhaps that is why you survived the attack. Add your flame to mine, and you will have your chance for revenge."\n\n\t[[The general's attendants growl and slap you on the back as the guards lead you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n\t<<set $orc_village_status = 2>>\s\n<<elseif $orc_village_status >= 2>>\n\t"I accept your pledge," the general says at last. "You do not seem like much of a warrior, but perhaps you will prove yourself."\n\n\t[[The guards lead you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n<<else>>\n\tWith a sudden movement the general leans forward<<if $weapon != "claws">>, knocks the $weapon out of your hands,<</if>> and slaps you into the dirt beside her throne. "We have a place even for a useless monk like you," she says, eliciting some laughter from the orcs filling the hut. "You can go first into battle, to blunt the enemy's blades with your body!"\n\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $weapon = "claws">>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $SMALL_WOUND>>\s\n\t[[There is laughter as the guards drag you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n<</if>>

<div id="background"></div>\n<div id="debug-box"></div>\n<div id="passages"></div>\n<div id="stats-box"></div>

<<if !visited("Road merchants search")>>\s\n\t[[Search the bodies for any clues about who the humans were.|Road merchants search]]\n\n<</if>>\s\n<<if !visited("Road merchants take weapon")>>\s\n\t<<if $weapon == "claws">>\s\n\t\t[[Take one of the humans' swords.|Road merchants take weapon]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t<<print "[[Replace your " + $weapon + " with one of the humans' swords.|Road merchants take weapon]]">>\n\t<</if>>\s\n\n<</if>>\s\n<<if !visited("Road merchants eat rations") && !visited("Road merchants eat humans")>>\s\n\t[[Help yourself to the humans' rations.|Road merchants eat rations]]\n\n\t[[Feast on human flesh.|Road merchants eat humans]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Continue along the road.|Road continue]]\n<</if>>\s

The road curves around the edge of a steep valley, with the village at one of the valley's ends. By descending and cutting across the valley, you can both avoid the village and shorten your journey.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\tThe ground is rocky and unstable, and your footfalls send pebbles clattering down the mountainside.\n\t<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou are half way across when a large rock slips away beneath your feet. You slide a little way but manage to grab a more stable outcropping and right yourself without being injured.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou are sent tumbling down the slope, sharp rocks tearing your skin and working gravel into the cuts, until you manage to arrest your descent.\n\t\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\n\t\t<<if $weapon != "claws">>\n\t\t\tYou lose your grip on your $weapon, and it goes tumbling down towards the valley floor and out of sight.\n\t\t\t<<set $weapon = "claws">>\n\t\t<</if>>\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n[[You rejoin the road on the other side of the valley.|Road continue 2]]

"No!" you snarl.\s\n<<if $health <= 0>>\s\n\t<<set $health = $SMALL_HEAL>>\s\n\tYour flesh knits painfully back together, bringing you back from the brink of death, but you ignore the healing.\s\n<</if>>\n\nWithin you, your own rage lashes out. It may have been created by the War God, but it is part of you--and you control it. It strikes at the presence trying to invade your mind. They circle, bite, wrestle with one another. Your blood rushes with the thrill of psychic combat.\n\n<<if $rage >= $EPIC_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tThe combat grinds to a stalemate. With effort, you find that you can still control your own body, but your opponent continues to press on, and you do not know how much longer you can resist. The very rage that lends strength to your fight is making it hard to concentrate. You may have only a few moments of freedom before you are overwhelmed.\n\n\t[[Use your last moments of control to collapse the cave entrance.|Cave possession resist willpower suicide]]\n\n\t[[Use mental discipline to control yourself until you can destroy the invading presence.|Cave possession resist willpower destroy]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tBut your rage is not strong enough. The presence pins your rage down and roars in victory, and you find your rage roaring along with it until they are a single voice.\n\n\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n<</if>>\s

The temple's wooden pews are heaped by the doors and smashed, as if the humans unsuccessfully used them as a barricade to keep out the rampaging orcs.\n\nAt the front of the temple is an altar, where the statue of the humans' goddess has been tossed to the ground and replaced by a blood-daubed symbol of the War God Valtash.\n\nYou know the orcish ritual of desecration. That is not human blood on the altar, but orcish. Each orc warrior who took part in the village's destruction would have shed a little of their blood on the altar as the symbol was drawn, claiming the victory for the whole tribe.\n\n[[Add some of your own blood to the symbol of Valtash.|Road ruins temple desecrate]]\n\n[[Scrape away the blood and replace it with the symbol the Order of Peace.|Road ruins order]]\n\n[[Scrape away the blood and restore the statue of the humans' goddess.|Road ruins temple restore]]\n\n[[Leave without touching the altar.|Road ruins temple nothing]]

<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\nYou and $opponent_name wrestle like animals, rolling in the bones on the floor, pounding one another into the stone. Bloodlust fills you and blood from both you and your opponent splashes onto the ground.\n\nThe fight is harder than you expected. It is as if something extraordinary is empowering your opponent, pumping $him full of orcish rage superior to yours.\n\nYou find yourself on your back on the stone altar, your opponent's blade flashing down towards you. You cannot get away; it is all you can do to fend off $his blows, and you know that any moment now you will falter and it will be the end.\n\nThe supernatural presence in the cave is almost tangible now: an unseen entity looking down at you in the darkness. You feel it try to push its way into your muscles. //"Take me into you. I will bring you victory."//\n\n[["\s"Help me!\s""|Cave accept help]]\n\n[["\s"Never!\s""|Cave refuse help]]

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou drop the body you were carrying. Its death-disfigured face leers up at you, as if judging you and finding you a failure for giving up on your task. You tell yourself again that it is pointless and you need to focus your energy on survival, but it does not make you feel any better. Tears in your eyes, you turn away.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[As frustration and despair overwhelm you, you feel your long-suppressed orcish rage welling in your gut...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

You survey your surroundings. This is an evil, unnatural place. Rock formations tower over the road, suggestive of twisted limbs and faces, as if they are the calcified remains of long-dead monsters. This part of the mountains is dead, without even the scrubby plants you have seen so far on your journey. The sun is high in the sky, but this place nevertheless reminds you of the long, dark path you saw before you awoke in the monastery.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t<br><br>\n\t"I remember the village priest talking about this place," Thard says. "There is a cave sacred to Valtash the War God near here."\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Search for the sacred cave.|Road search for cave with disciples]]\n<<elseif $started_boneyard>>\n\t<br><br>\n\tThe landscape around you seems familiar. You realise that it looks like the area around the cave you saw in your vision in the ancient battlefield.\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Search for the cave you saw in your vision in the boneyard.|Road search for cave]]\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !$started_village>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Return to the Orclands and go to the orc village.|Road end village]]\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !$started_boneyard>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[Return to the Orclands and go to the ancient battlefield.|Road end boneyard]]\n<</if>>\n\n<br><br>\n\n[[Continue along the road to the human lands.|Road ending premature confirm]]\n\n

"What you say may be true," Tuvan says to you. He turns to his companions, who still stand with their bows aimed at the ambushed orcs. "Spare this one. Kill the others."\n\nThe arrows fly, volley after volley. The orcs roar and rush up the slope, but the ambush and your momentary truce have given the humans a decisive advantage. It is clear that in moments General Krazgh's legion will be defeated.\n\n[[Kill the human leader while he is distracted.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\n[[Join them in slaughtering the orcs.|Road raiders join them kill orcs]]\n\n[[Watch as they kill the orcs.|Road raiders watch them kill orcs]]\n\n[[Try to stop them from killing the orcs.|Road raiders stop them killing orcs]]

You learn that the group consists of a silk merchant and five mercenaries she has hired to protect her as she takes a short-cut through the Orclands. The mercenaries talk about the prospect of encountering orcs: some are frightened (though they hide it well), while others are excited at the thought of some action, but they all speak about orcs as creatures they have never encountered before. Warriors who recently attacked an orcish monastery would not speak like that.\n\nOnce they have shared some tales of orcs as fearsome warriors (the rage within you stirs with pride, but you silence it), one of the frightened mercenaries tells a story that makes your ears prick up. Apparently the Orclands contain an order of orcish warrior monks whose ferocity is even more dangerous because of its martial training.\n\nThe other mercenaries laugh this story off--no orc has the intelligence for proper martial training!--and soon the group goes to sleep. Only one mercenary stays awake to keep watch, luckily with his back to your hiding place.\n\n[[Now that they are asleep, slit their throats.|Road merchants murder]]\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t[[Go back and tell General Krazgh there is easy prey ahead.|Road merchants report back]]\n\n\t[[Go back and tell General Krazgh that these are innocent humans who should be left alone.|Road merchants report back innocent]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Slip away.|Road merchants slip away]]\n<</if>>\s

<<include [[Village start]]>>

You follow General Krazgh's trail up the mountainside until it enters a cave.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 2]]

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou scrub away the blood as best you can, then take the statue of the human goddess and restore it to its place on the altar. She looks out at where her congregation once sat and prayed, sword in one hand and bread in the other, promising to provide for her worshippers and protect them from creatures like you.\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

You are at the edge of the Orclands. Towards the west, the road leads out of the mountains to the nearest human kingdom. It would be a long journey there, and you know that if you set out you would be unlikely to return.<<if $companions == "orc disciples">> You would also be abandoning your disciples, who are not willing to follow you out of the Orclands.<</if>>\n\n[[Set off for human lands, never to return.|Road ending]]\n\n[[Reconsider.|Road chapter end menu]]

//The presence retreats, defeated but not destroyed. You feel it returning to hover over the dark pathway, where it first plucked you from the line of shuffling disciples.//\n\n"My rage is contained. My garden is peaceful. My fortress is secure."\n\n<<if $dead>>\s\n\t//[[The dark pathway stretches in front of you.|Cave possession let it go dead]]//\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possession let it go alive]]\n<</if>>\s

You announce that General Krazgh is dead, and her campaign of conquest died with her. The tribe grumbles, but no one defies the orc who slew the previous general in the holy cave.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou rule according to your whims, with no overall plan.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou approach your new role diligently, and gain a reputation as a fair and clever leader.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou approach your role as ruler with self-sacrificing dedication, and find many ways in which your orcs could be better organised to make their lives easier.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour orcs grumble at your leadership, and you must rely on your lieutenants to intimidate them into submission.\n\t\t\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYour orcs grumble at your leadership, but you are able to intimidate them enough to make them back down.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYour orcs grumble at your leadership, but you make a brutal example of the first few to disobey, and the others soon fall into line.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\nYou rule for many years, until you are too old to properly intimidate the tribe and are deposed by a younger, ambitious orc. You live out the rest of your years as a respected elder, and the period of your leadership comes to be regarded as a golden age for the tribe.\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

"Those talismans you found are fakes," you say.\n<<if $has_talisman>>\n\tYou produce your own talisman and show Tuvan how it was made with loving care, unlike the crude fake talismans left in the village.\n<<else>>\n\tYou describe how the Order's own talismans are made with loving care, unlike the crude fake talismans left in the village.\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t"This orc band left them at your village so that you would blame my Order for the attack," you say, gesturing to the wounded horde behind you.\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<include [[Road raiders convinced with orcs]]>>\n<<else>>\n\t"Another orc band left them at your village so that you would blame us for the attack."\n\t<br><br>\n\t"Dumb orcs don't use those kind of tactics," one of the other humans scoffs.\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<include [[Road raiders convinced]]>>\n<</if>>

<<nobr>>\n\tThe last of the sunlight vanishes as you climb the rocky path, but one of the War God's gifts to your kind was the ability to see in darkness. You can navigate as easily at night as in the day, and you should have an advantage over the humans if\n\t<<if $rage >= $discipline>>\n\t\tyou can attack them\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tthey attack you\n\t<</if>>\n\tin the dark.\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Road start]]>>

//A dark pathway. Cold air breathing on your face. It might be a stone corridor, or an underground tunnel, or a road on a starless night. You sense it does not matter which.\n\nYou are in a line with the other members of the Order of Peace. You can hear the rustling of their robes as they shuffle forward, heads down.\n\nWhat is left of your memory is slipping away. You do not know where your brothers and sisters are going, but you know that there will be no return.\n\n[[Shuffle forward with your brothers and sisters.|Intro forward]]\n\n[[Break away from the line and run.|Intro run]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou remember that a cave where a dragon devours the setting sun features in orcish legends of the War God, but the monastery taught you only the basics of those legends. Orcs of the orc village might be able to tell you more.\n\n[[With a new sense of purpose, you set off for the nearest orc village.|Boneyard leave for village]]\n

<<set $village_converts = 0>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n"Where I am going, you cannot follow," you say. "My path is not to be your teacher. You should keep what I have said in your hearts, but find your own path."\n\nThe orcs retreat back to their huts, disappointed, while you slip through the village perimeter and away along the mountain road.\n\n<<include [[Village leave chapter end menu]]>>

Your rage subsides, sated for the moment, and you find you are hungry after your <<if visited("Road merchants wait")>>long wait and<</if>> exertion.<<if $companions == "orc warriors">> The rest of the orc army reaches you, and General Krazgh congratulates you and the other scouts on dealing with these humans on your own.<</if>>\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou settle down to wait at the top of the slope, out of sight or sound of the humans. The moon moves across the sky. Time and again, the humans look as if they are about to go to sleep, but then resume their conversation. You find your hands shaking. Your rage growls impatiently, and it as if you are locked in an inner battle to keep yourself from crying out and charging down the slope. You have never had this trouble controlling your rage before, but then again, you have never been in a situation that would bring it this close to the surface.\n\n<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tAt last you can take it no more. Your rage bursts forth, and a wordless shout of aggression escapes from your lips. The humans spring up from their half-sleep, drawing their swords.\n\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Road merchants fight]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou win the inner battle. Calling up the discipline you learned in the monastery, you order your rage back into its dungeon and watch patiently while the humans at last lie down on their bedrolls and stop moving. Only one remains awake to keep watch, and he has his back to you.\n\n\t[[You creep down the slope towards the unsuspecting guard|Road merchants murder]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $companions = "orc warriors">>\s\nThe orc warband marches through the mountains for most of the day. Much of the march is spent singing orcish war-songs, full of rhythmic repetition and lyrics full of blood and death. <<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>You try to sing along, but find it hard to match the enthusiasm of the other orcs, and the grisly lyrics make you uncomfortable.<<else>>You quickly pick up the refrains, and the rage in your heart howls along with you.<</if>>\n\nAfter you have passed the old monastery the path becomes steeper, and General Krazgh orders the orcs to be quiet. The army is nearing human lands, and she does not want to alert any humans to their presence prematurely.\n\nKrazgh grabs two orcs from the army. "You, you, go scout ahead." She turns to you. "You go with them. See if you recognise the humans who attacked your monastery."\n\nThe other two scouts are barely out of adolescence. It seems that scouting duty is something the chieftain reserves for young orcs who have not yet proved themselves.\s\n<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\s\n\tThe mocking looks they give you as you climb the mountain path beside them suggests that you have not proved yourself even to these lowly scouts.\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe scouts fall in behind you and wait for your orders.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<if !$started_road>>\s\n\t[[Scout ahead.|Road start]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Scout ahead.|Village scout ahead]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou take Thard's hands and looks into his eyes. They are wide and panicked, and behind them you can see rage, fear, willpower and discipline battling one another.\n\n"My mind is a fortress."\n\nYour disciple's eyes snap to you at the sound of your firm, calm voice. He follows your lead and speaks along with you.\n\n"My mind is a fortress. Its walls are stone, its gates are iron. The walls and gates decay, but I rebuild them.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t"Within the fortress is a garden..."\n\n\tAs you speak the words together, Thard's hands stop shaking and you see in his face that he is asserting control over himself. It is a delicate operation--to assert your will with confidence but without aggression, so as not to fuel the rage further--but under your guidance he succeeds.\n\n\t"I cannot stay here," he says, when the ritual is over. "This is a place of rage, and I do not have your discipline to resist it. I will wait for you outside."\n\n\t[[Thard heads back through the tunnel, leaving you alone with the presence of the cave.|Cave disciple alone]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t"Within the fortress is--aaaargh!"\n\n\tThard convulses, as if the rage in his mental dungeon has broken free and is lunging at you through his chest. His claws lash out, and you are too deep in the Ritual of Clarity to dodge effectively. He scores a deep wound on your chest, and his other claw rises for a second blow.\n\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Cave fight]]\n<</if>>

<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tPowered by your rage, your claw flashes up to the human's throat. You move too quickly for him to react, and his face shows only astonishment as he collapses to the ground, choking and bleeding. The other raiders advance on you, but they are visibly shaken after your execution of their leader.\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tYour claw flashes up towards the leader's exposed neck, but not quickly enough. The human grabs your wrist and then kicks you on the stomach. You desperately scrabble <<if $weapon == "claws">>to your feet<<else>>for your $weapon<</if>> as the humans advance on you, swords raised.\n\t<<set $modifier -= $BIG_MOD>>\s\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<include [[Road raiders fight]]>>

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n"Never!" you shout, but it comes out not as words but as a wordless, panicked cry.\n\n//"Then die, disciple of weakness!"//\n\n<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n<<set $health -= 100 - $rage>>\s\n<<if $health > 0>>\s\n\tThe presence in the cave pulls away from you, and your enemy's blade flashes down. But you slide aside, as if could use the withdrawal of the cave presence to propel you, and the blade glances off the altar stone. You manage to kick, pushing your opponent to the ground. Somehow a rock is in your hand and you bring it down on your opponent's head before it slips from your grasp and you collapse to the ground.\n\n//[["\s"You survive? Then perhaps you will be my vessel after all.\s""|Cave refuse help survive]]//\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe presence in the cave pulls away from you, and your enemy's blade flashes down. You try to move aside, but you are too slow. The blade pierces your chest. You taste blood in your mouth. Your vision swims and you feel the world of the living slipping away.\n\n\t//[[A dark pathway. A cold breeze.|Cave refuse help die]]//\n<</if>>\s

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou explore the area in the monster's path and find a steep-sided pit, the relic of some trench or crater from the ancient battle. You haul the ribs and femurs of a nearby war-giant skeleton over and balance them precariously over the pit, until it is covered in a fragile lattice.\s\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t<<set $modifier = $BIG_MOD>>\s\n\tWith the help of your disciples, you are able to create better trap than if you had worked alone.\s\n<</if>>\n\nYou can hear the monster closing in, attracted by the sound of your work. You stand on the far side of the pit trap and let it see you as it emerges from behind the bone piles. It charges, huge awkward limbs throwing up clouds of yellow dust.\n\n<<if $discipline+$modifier >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tThe monster's foot strikes the bone lattice and it collapses, sending the monster tumbling into the pit, limbs flailing.\n\n\tThere is a sound of roaring and clattering from the pit, and then claws hit the edge of the pit and begin scrabbling at the earth. From the rage in the monster's voice you can tell that the pit will not contain it for long, and it will not stop until you are dead.\n\n\tYou advance to the edge of the pit. You can't reach the monster with your $weapon, so you pick up a long, jagged-ended bone, and drive it into the trapped monster's heart.\s\n\t<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t\tYour makeshift spear goes straight through the monster's torso, and you pin it in place until its limbs stop flailing and its single eye goes dead.\n\n\t\t<<include [[Boneyard monster victory menu]]>>\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\t\tYour makeshift spear pierces the monster's chest, but not with enough force to finish it quickly. The dying monster grabs rocks from the pit bottom and hurls them at you.\s\n\t\t<<if $health > 0>>\s\n\t\t\tSeveral rocks hit you, but you manage to keep hold of the spear until the monster stops moving.\n\n\t\t\t<<include [[Boneyard monster victory menu]]>>\n\t\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t\tYou are knocked from your feet and lose your grip on the spear. Too exhausted to rise, the last thing you hear as you lose consciousness is the sound of the wounded monster clawing its way out of the pit towards you.\n\n\t\t\t<<dead "You are dead.">>\n\t\t<</if>>\s\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $BIG_WOUND>>\s\n\tYou have not constructed your trap carefully enough. The ground shakes under the monster's footfalls, and your bone lattice collapses into the pit. The monster adjusts its course without breaking its stride.\n\n\t<<if $health > 0>>\s\n\t\tYou turn and run. A claw slices into your side, but you manage to keep running through the pain, and once you get up to speed you are able to outpace the monster. Eventually it breaks off pursuit.\n\n\t\t[[Wounded and exhausted, you retreat back to the outskirts.|Boneyard shelter outskirts]]\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\tYou turn and run, but you are not fast enough. A claw knocks you off your feet and sends you tumbling into your own pit trap. The world darkens as the monster bends over you, blocking out the light, and a burning eye and many-fanged mouth descend towards you.\n\n\t\t<<dead>>\n\t<</if>>\s\n<</if>>\s

Config.saves.autosave = true;\n\nConfig.saves.isAllowed = function () {\n\treturn !tags().includes("front-matter");\n};

You open your eyes. You are <<if $health < 100>>wounded and <</if>>exhausted, but alive. The presence you felt when you entered the cave is gone. You have achieved the ultimate revenge and destroyed your evil creator.\n\n<<include [[Cave possession survived]]>>

General Krazgh climbs onto a podium outside her hut. The warrior sounding the gathering drum finishes with a martial flourish and then stands to attention, letting the vibrations of the drum fade into the tension of the silent crowd.\n\n"Orcs!" shouts the general. "Today we welcome a new warrior to our ranks!"\n\nShe gestures for you to be brought forward, and there is nothing you can do to resist as the nearest orcs <<if $orc_village_status < 2>>grab you and shove you onto the podium<<else>>triumphantly lift you to the podium<</if>>.\n\n"This orc was a member of the Order of Peace..."\n\nJeers and laughs go up from the crowd, and you dodge a thrown animal bone.\n\n"But the Order of Peace were still orcs, and an attack on them is an attack on all orc-kind! We will not let this insult go unavenged!"\n\nThe jeers turn into war cries, and bones and weapons are brandished in the air.\n\n"Tonight we feast--tomorrow we march! We will track the humans who did this and burn their homes to the ground! We will slaughter them and their families and take their possessions for our hoard. And the War God will know that we are faithful!"\n\nKrazgh stands tall and basks in the cheers and war cries sounding through the village. The noise is deafening, but from your position on the podium you might be able to cut through it, and after the general's introduction you think the orcs would listen to you.\n\n[[Say you support the general.|Village announcement support]]\n\n[[Say you disagree with the general's plan.|Village announcement disagree]]\n<<if $know_about_false_flag>>\s\n\t\n\t[[Tell them that the general caused the attack on the monastery by leaving forged talismans after a raid.|Village announcement false flag]]\n<</if>>\s\n<<if $road_fought_raiders>>\s\n\n\t[[Announce that you have already killed the humans who destroyed the monastery.|Village announcement already killed them]]\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Stay silent.|Village announcement silence]]

In your dream, the cave was marked by a rock formation that looked like a dragon was eating the setting sun. You scan the western horizon and find two ridges that look like jaws with jagged teeth. You climb up from the road, and after some searching you find a position from which the ridges look like the dragon's jaws you saw in your dream.\n\n<<include [[Cave entrance description]]>>\n\n[[Enter the cave.|Cave enter][$cave_enemy = 0]]

<<if $rage >= $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\tYour rage seems to burst from your chest, swelling your muscles and guiding your $weapon.\n<<else>>\n\tYour heart pounds with fear that your weakened rage is unable to overcome, and <<if $weapon=="claws">>your cannot keep your hands from trembling<<else>>you $weapon feels awkward in your hands<</if>>.\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\n\tThe other orc scouts fight by your side, screaming terrifying battle cries as they unleash their orcish rage.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t<<set $modifier += $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tYour disciples hesitate for a moment in confusion, but then rush into battle after you. Their orcish rage propels them but they are still weaker and less well armed than real orc warriors.\n<</if>>\n\n<<if $weapon == "claws">>\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tAlthough your hands are sharp orcish claws, you are still unarmed, and at a disadvantage over the human whose swords give them superior reach.\n<<elseif $weapon == "staff">>\n\t<<set $modifier -= $SMALL_MOD>>\n\tThe humans' armour is padded, and absorbs blows from your quarterstaff where a bladed weapon might slice through it.\n<<elseif $weapon == "magic sword">>\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\n\tYour magic sword blazes with fire in the presence of humans, striking fear into their eyes and searing through their armour.\n<<else>>\n\tYour $weapon clashes against the humans' swords and tears into their padded armour.\n<</if>>\n\n\n<<if $rage + $modifier >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\n\tYou \n\t<<switch $weapon>>\n\t\t<<case "claws">>tear out the first human's throat,\n\t\t<<case "staff">>crack the first human's skull,\n\t\t<<default>>lop off the first human's head,\n\t<</switch>>\n\tand then primal rage overtakes you and you are barely aware of the rest of the fight.\n\t<br><br>\n\tWhen you regain your senses the humans lie dead at your feet. You are covered in their blood, but their weapons have barely scratched you.\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[You are victorious.|Road merchants victory]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD - ($rage+$modifier)>>\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\n\tOne human parries your first blow, and then they are all around you. You lash out like a caged animal, your $weapon sometimes finding its mark, but their swords slice through your robes and into your flesh.\n\t<br><br>\n\t<<if $health <= 0>>\n\t\tA sword pierces your chest, and you collapse under an avalanche of pain.\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t<<dead>>\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tEventually you find that there are no more blows to dodge, and you are standing bleeding and exhausted over a pile of human corpses.\n\t\t<br><br>\n\t\t[[You are victorious.|Road merchants victory]]\n\t<</if>>\n<</if>>\n

The monastery's infirmary has been wrecked. Salves, unguents and herbs lie scattered across Brother Tangath's workbench, fluids drooling from teeth of shattered glass. You think you can find enough to practice basic first-aid on yourself, but proper surgery is out of the question.\n\nGnawing at the back of your mind, though, is the knowledge of another option. When the War God created orcs, he gave them the ability to repair themselves by eating the flesh of the dead. The Order of Peace eschews this practice, burying valuable meat in the ground rather than letting the feeding fuel their rage, but the bodies <<if visited("Monastery funeral persevere")>>that you lay to rest in the crypt<<else>>lying in the main hall<</if>> contain more than enough flesh to heal you completely.\n\n[[Treat your wounds using the Order's healing techniques.|Monastery wounds heal]]\n\n[[Feast on the bodies of the dead.|Monastery wounds feast]]

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<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $modifier += $BIG_MOD>>\s\n\tYour rage erupts from your throat in a deafening roar, fuelled by the memory of your loss and pain. You hurl yourself forward as the humans hesitate, a tidal wave of rage crashing against their armour.\n<<else>>\s\n\tYour rage roars forth, but as it echoes back to you from the mountains you can hear the fear in your own voice. These humans killed everyone else in your order and left you for dead.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<include [[Road raiders fight]]>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n"It is not your hospitality I seek, but your aid in battle," you say. "The humans who attacked us insulted all of our race. I intend to take revenge on them. Will you join me?"\n\n<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t"You may have been raised in the Order of Cowardice but I see you are still an orc at heart," General Krazgh says. "My legion and I will join you!"\n\n\t[[There are cheers as the guards drag you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t"You spend your lives preaching against violence then come crawling to me when you need it done for you?" The gathered orcs laugh, but the general's eyes are steel, and you think there is more going on in her mind than her words suggest. "Get out of my sight, coward monk. I will answer this insult to our kind--but I will not do it for you."\n\n\t[[There is more laughter as the guards drag you out of the general's hut and into the village.|Village gathering]]\n<</if>>\s\n

<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave travel disciples]]>>\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave travel alone]]>>\n<</if>>\s\n

"It was not us!" you shout, barely controlling your urge to tear his throat out for his lies. "If we had attacked you, would we have fallen so easily when you attacked us? Would we not have been better prepared?"\n\n<<if $discipline >= $HARD_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\t\t<<include [[Road raiders convinced with orcs]]>>\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t<<include [[Road raiders convinced]]>>\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n\tTuvan glances at his companion and nods. "I've heard enough," he says. "Let's finish this."\n\n\t[[The humans close in on you, and you have no option but to fight.|Road raiders fight]]\n<</if>>\s

There were two dozen Disciples of Peace besides yourself. Half of them lie dead in the main hall, and the others are scattered through the monastery. You start hauling their bodies to the monastery's crypt, but you find your arms straining under their weight and your feet slipping in their blood.\n\nTears well up in your eyes, both at your loss and at the pointlessness of your task. The Order is gone. What does it matter whether the disciples are interred in the crypt or left to be devoured by beasts?\n\n[[Abandon your task.|Monastery funeral abandon]]\n\n[[Persevere.|Monastery funeral persevere]]

Nothing you do here will bring back the villagers, or your fellow disciples, or the orcs who fell in the battle. You leave the temple.\n\n<<include [[Road ruins menu]]>>

You <<if $companions == "orc disciples">>and your disciples <</if>>pick your way across piles of bone and the flaky remains of rusted armour. The miasma and the bone heaps mean that you cannot see far ahead, so by the time you see something moving you are almost upon it.\n\nBrief glimpses through the bones paint a picture of something towering but slender. You see long claws and tusks flash past, and hear it moving with a lurching gait, stopping to pick at fungus-infested bone piles and then moving on again. It is moving in your direction but shows no sign of having noticed you.\n\n[[Attack the monster.|Boneyard monster attack]]\n\n[[Hide and wait for it to go past.|Boneyard monster hide]]\n\n[[Set a trap for it.|Boneyard monster ambush]]

The surviving human raider backs towards the far wall. Even your orcish vision has trouble making out details here; to his human eyes you must be a nothing but a menacing silhouette in front of the dim light of the entrance. You see yourself in the fear on his face: a growling, foul-smelling monster, the blood of his companions dripping from your $weapon.\n\nYou feel the rage swelling within you, stronger than ever before.\n\n[[Attack.|Cave human attack]]\n\n[[Don't attack.|Cave human don't attack]]

Tuvan holds his hand up to silence his companion. "What you say may be true," he says to you. "If it is, you have my apologies. But there is nothing more we can offer you. It is time for us to part ways in peace."\n\nYour hands twitch as your rage rises again. Is this all you get--a trite apology and a dismissal?\n\n[[You still want vengeance. Kill the human leader.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\n[[Part ways.|Road raiders goodbye]]\n

At the general's command the army advances up the slope, leaving the road and spreading out in order to surround the humans.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\tBy the time the human sentry is aware of you, it is too late for them to respond. The sentry's shout is cut short by a thrown axe that cracks his skull in two, and the other humans are still struggling out of their bedrolls as the orcs hack them to pieces.\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\tYou emerge over the rise to see that the humans are all standing, and have formed a defensive circle. It seems that you and the other scouts were not quiet enough, and some noise you made put them on guard.\n\n\tGeneral Krazgh shouts the attack order, and the orc horde charges at the small human group. Even alerted, the humans are outnumbered and do not stand a chance, but they fight hard and you and several other orcs are injured.\n<</if>>\s\n\nThe battle won, the orcs shout victory chants and hold up grisly trophies. The human bodies are stripped of their armour and the orcs begin eating their flesh.\n\n<<include [[Road merchants victory menu]]>>

''Health'' measures how much more punishment you can take and still survive. Orcs are exceptionally hardy and can keep fighting even when their health is low, but if it reaches zero, you will die.\n\n''Rage'' measures the strength of your orcish rage, and how much influence the War God has over you. High Rage makes you more effective in a fight and better at intimidating people and fitting in to orc warrior culture.\n\n''Discipline'' measures your commitment to the ways of the Order of Peace, and how much control you have over your rage and yourself generally. High Discipline makes you better at patience, stealth, and observation.\n\nYou can carry one ''weapon'' at a time. Different weapons are more effective against different enemies, and any weapon is better than relying on your orcish claws.\n\n<<back>>

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $companions = "orc warriors dead">>\s\nYou hang back as the humans unleash volley after volley of arrows into the orc horde, then slash with their swords at any who make it to the top of the slope. Your rage snarls within you at being kept from combat, but you keep it under control. Soon you cannot see any orcs left alive.\n\n[[Now attack the human leader.|Road raiders backstab]]\n\n[[Part ways.|Road raiders goodbye]]

/* Social media icons */\s\n<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">\s\n<div style="text-align:center;">\s\n''//Rage Quest: Disciple of Peace// created by''\nJohn Ayliff\n<<nobr>>\n\t<span style="font-size:75%">\n\t\t<a href="https://www.johnayliff.com" target="_blank" class="fa fa-home"></a>\n\t\t<a href="https://twitter.com/johnayliff" target="_blank" class="fa fa-twitter"></a>\n\t\t<a href="https://www.facebook.com/john.ayliff" target="_blank" class="fa fa-facebook"></a>\n\t\t<a href="https://www.patreon.com/johnayliff" target="_blank" class="fa fa-patreon" style="vertical-align:top">[img[patreon_logomark]]</a>\n\t\t<a href="mailto:contact@johnayliff.com" class="fa fa-envelope-o"></a>\n\t</span>\n<</nobr>>\n\n''Playtesters''\nKatherine Bowers\nMatthew Holland\nLitrouke\nMathbrush\nDavid Stark\n\n''$5+ Patreon backers''\nHenry Ayliff\nJay Ayliff\nMike Cripps\nNate\nMark Ogivie\nLUKE PEBLER\nAndrew Roach\nDavid Stark\n\n@@font-size: 75%;Written in <a href="http://twinery.org/" target="_blank">Twine 1.4.2</a> using the <a href="http://www.motoslave.net/sugarcube/2/" target="_blank">Sugarcube 2.18</a> story format\n\nCover image CC-BY Delapouite, from <a href="http://game-icons.net/" target="_blank">game-icons.net</a>@@\n\n<<back>>\s\n</div>\s

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe other two scouts report back about the number of humans they saw. You try to tell the general that these are innocent humans who should not be attacked, but you are met only with laughter from the general and the other orcs.\n\n<<include [[Road merchants report back 2]]>>

You try to harness your rage but not let it overwhelm you. You will accept nothing less than the destruction of this evil presence. You redouble your efforts, drawing on inner reserves of strength that you did not even know you had.\n\n<<if $discipline >= $EPIC_SECONDARY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tAt last the stalemate breaks. The invading presence collapses, exhausted. It tries to pull away, but your inner rage locks its jaws around its enemy. Nothing can stop you now from utterly destroying your opponent. You feel it bleeding memories, desires, magical knowledge--the creation of the orcs, grand plans for world conquest, how it hovered between life and death plotting its return--as you tear it to shreds. At last your inner rage roars in triumph as the psychic remains of its creator float away around it.\n\n\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possession willpower survive]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tBut even that is not enough. Your rage is strong, but your lack of discipline plays into your enemy's hands, and you cannot keep up the fight. The stalemate breaks, and your exhausted soul collapses in on itself as the presence flows into your body.\n\n\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n<</if>>\s

"Beneath the fortress is a dungeon. In it I keep the rage that the War God placed in my heart..."\n\n//But the presence cannot escape. Your own rage, under your control, envelops it and pulls it in. The walls of your fortress tremble as is struggles to escape...//\n\n"In it I keep the War God."\n\n<<if $rage >= $EPIC_SECONDARY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n//...but hold.//\n\n"My rage is contained. My garden is peaceful. My fortress is secure."\n\n\t<<if $health <= 0>>\s\n\t\t//[[The dark pathway stretches in front of you.|Cave possession dungeon dead]]//\n\t<<else>>\s\n\t\t[[You open your eyes.|Cave possession dungeon alive]]\n\t<</if>>\s\n<<else>>\s\n//...and fall.\n\nYour own rage is too weak. The presence bursts from the dungeon, shattering your mental fortress, trampling your garden, seizing you as a conduit back to the living world.//\n\n[[You open your eyes.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n<</if>>\s

The cave is a narrow cleft in the mountainside, and you might have missed it if you had not known it was there. But as you look at it, you feel your long-suppressed orcish rage stir strangely. It is as if the beast is urging you not to kill, but to enter reverently. You do not know what you will find here, but you know it will be important.

<<set $rage += $HUGE_CHANGE>>\s\nThe priest has you sit facing him across the central fire. He throws more incense into the blaze and stares into your eyes.\n\n"Do you pledge your strength to the War God Valtash, to bring him glory in your every combat?"\n\n"I do."\n\n"With every victory, will you remember that he is the one who gives you the strength to prevail?"\n\n"I will."\n\nThe questions continue, and as you answer each one in the affirmative, your rage swells within you, not only unrestrained but proud for the first time in your adult life.\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

You feel your feet move without your willing it as the presence takes control of your body. The rage within you roars, not in anger but in harmony. This is your destiny--the greatest honour that can be bestowed on an orc, to be a vessel for the War God himself...\n\n[[Accept your destiny.|Cave possession accept]]\n\n[[Resist using the Order's Ritual of Clarity.|Cave possession resist ritual]]\n\n[[Resist using sheer willpower.|Cave possession resist willpower]]

<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\tThe army camps for the night. The next morning, General Krazgh announces that the need for revenge is not satisfied, and the march will continue until her legion has won a more significant victory over the humans.\n<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYou continue your trek until your weaker disciples are too tired to go on, and camp for the night in a secluded spot out of sight of the road. You wake refreshed under a midday sun.\n<<else>>\s\n\tYour trek continues through the night and into the morning, until your <<if $rage >= $discipline>>rage<<else>>determination<</if>> can no longer override your exhaustion. You find a secluded spot to sleep out of sight of the road, wrap your tattered robes around you, and sleep until you wake beneath a midday sun. \n<</if>>\s\n\nThe sun is bright but the sky is pale, and the mountain air is cool and dry. After a few more hours of walking you crest another pass between two peaks and see a village in front of you, nestled at the bottom of a craggy cliff. The buildings are neat and rectangular, and you guess that you have crossed from the Orclands into the edge of human lands. As you come closer, however, you see that the village is in ruins: the buildings have been burned, and the central square is littered with debris.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>\s\n\tSome of the warriors begin laughing and pointing at the village. "That's our work," General Krazgh explains. "My legion sacked that village two days ago and killed a dozen humans."\n\n\tShe grabs the adolescents who accompanied you as scouts earlier. "Check to see if its been re-infested. Humans sometimes go back to their old nests." You move to follow them but she grabs your arm. "Not you. You stay here."\n\n\t[[Demand to go with the scouts.|Road ruins scout demand]]\n\n\t[[Stay with the army.|Road ruins stay with army]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\t\t"That must be the village General Krazgh destroyed the other day," Thard says.\n\n\t<</if>>\s\n\t[[Go through the ruined village.|Road ruins enter]]\n\n\t[[Leave the road and climb across the rocky mountain slope to avoid it.|Road ruins avoid]]\n<</if>>\s

//A dark pathway, a cold breeze. The other members of the Order of Peace are far in the distance now.\n\nThis time nothing draws you forward. You are standing on the threshold, close to the light that leads back to the land of the living.\n\nA vast, invisible presence hovers above you.\n\n[["\s"Who are you?\s""|Dream who are you]]\n\n[["\s"Why did you save me?\s""|Dream why did you save me]]

A horde of orcish faces look up to you as you emerge. You hold up the severed head of the former general, and they cheer and clash their swords against their shields. They may not have respected you before, but defeating their leader in single combat in their people's holiest place clearly gives you the right to command.\n\n[[Lead your tribe to the human lands to continue the old general's campaign of conquest.|Road ending conquer]]\n\n[[Lead your tribe back to their village.|Village ending chieftain]]\n\n[[Leave the tribe and continue alone towards human lands.|Road ending]]\n\n<<if hasVisited("Village leave take converts")>>\s\n\t[[Turn back and live with your disciples in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending commune]]\n\n\t[[Turn back and try to rebuild the Order of Peace with your disciples.|Boneyard ending order]]\n<<else>>\n\t[[Leave the tribe and live alone in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending alone]]\n<</if>>

<<set $health += $SMALL_HEAL>>\s\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYou and your disciples drink the water from the pools and use it to wash your wounds, and eat what fungus you can scrape off the bones. It tastes foul, and you cannot gather enough to satisfy your hunger. You set up camp in an ancient monster's rib cage and take turns to keep watch through the night.\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou drink the water from the pools and use it to wash your wounds, and eat what fungus you can scrape off the bones. It tastes foul, and you cannot gather enough to satisfy your hunger. You find a place to sleep nestled in an ancient moster's rib cage, confident that anything approaching you would make enough noise to wake you.\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Exhausted and hungry, you sleep.|Boneyard sleep]]

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<<include [[Road start]]>>

//Rage Quest: Disciple of Peace// is a choose-your-own-adventure fantasy novella. You control the story by clicking on links at the bottom of each passage of text. The game auto-saves every turn.\n\nWhen Valtash the War God created orcs he gave them an inner rage that constantly urged them towards violence. A few orcs learned to use meditation to control this rage, and founded a remote monastery where they could live free of the War God's influence. But when the monastery is destroyed by human raiders, the last surviving Disciple of Peace must decide whether to give in to their rage and seek blood-soaked revenge, or resist and choose another path.\n\n<<linkreplace "Content warnings" t8n>>Content warnings: violence, cannibalism, suicide.<</linkreplace>>\n\n<<linkreplace "Play length estimate" t8n>>A typical playthrough should take 30-45 minutes.<</linkreplace>>\n\n[[About the stats|About Stats]]\n\n<<back>>

The humans are wearing chain mail and carrying swords, and some of them have bandaged wounds. Their leader carries a shield decorated with an eight-pointed star. Your memory of the battle in the monastery flashes before your eyes, and you have no doubt that these are the humans who attacked your home.

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n//"Find me where the dragon devours the setting sun, and you will be rewarded..."//\n\n[[The dream fades...|Boneyard wake up]]

It looks as if most of the orcs are gathered around a fire in the centre of the village. Warriors are feasting on chunks of barely-cooked meat from an animal being roasted over the fire. Noncombatants--young children, the sickly, the disgraced--move through the gathering serving them meat and beer.\n\n<<if $orc_village_status < 2>>\s\n\tA mocking clamour goes up from the warriors when they see you emerge; it seems news of who you are has reached the gathering already. The general's guards push you towards the noncombatant servants and gesture for you to get to work. You are ravenous, but you can only snatch fragments of gristle in between shouts from the warriors for more.\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $health += $SMALL_HEAL>>\s\n\tAn enthusiastic clamour goes up from the warriors when they see you emerge; it seems news of who you are has reached the gathering already. Some of the warriors move over to make space for you to sit down, and a hunk of meat is thrust into your hands.\n<</if>>\s\n\nAs the orcs finish eating, the gathering splits into smaller groups. Some of the warriors head off to the edge of the village to play what looks like a game of skill involving throwing objects at a target. The servants huddle further away from the fire, talking in hushed voices. Opposite the chieftain's yurt, an elderly orc in ceremonial robes stands in front of a tent decorated with torches and symbols of the War God.\n\n[[Go over to the orcs playing the game.|Village game]]\n\n[[Talk to the servants.|Village noncombatants]]\n\n[[Visit the shrine of the War God.|Village shrine]]\n

The miasma dims towards blood red as the sun sets on your first full day in the boneyard. Your <<if $companions == "orc disciples">>time with your disciples<<else>>solitude<</if>> has given you time to consider your next step, and you have reached a decision:\n\n<<if !$started_road>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[I will have revenge on the humans who did this.|Boneyard leave revenge]]\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[I will seek out the humans who did this and demand to know why.|Boneyard leave ask why]]\n<</if>>\n\n<<if !$started_village>>\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[The Order failed me, and failed itself. I will join normal orc society.|Boneyard leave rejoin orcs]]\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[The Order should be rebuilt. I will go to the orc village in order to seek new recruits.|Boneyard leave seek recruits]]\n\t<br><br>\n\t[[I will go to the orc village and try to learn about the cave from them.|Boneyard leave ask orcs about cave]]\n<</if>>\n\n<br><br>\n[[I will seek out the cave I saw in my vision.|Boneyard leave seek cave]]\n<br><br>\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\n\t[[I will stay and found a new community with my disciples.|Boneyard ending premature confirm]]\n<<else>>\n\t[[I will stay and make a home in the boneyard.|Boneyard ending premature confirm]]\n<</if>>

<<set $health += $MEDIUM_HEAL>>\s\nAs you had hoped, more water has collected at the lowest point in the middle of the boneyard. There is a small lake here, surrounded by a forest of fungal vegetation that hangs in ropes from towering bones and turns the ground underfoot to stinking mush.\n\n<<if $companions == "orc disciples">>\s\n\tYou and your disciples drink some of the water, clean your wounds, and eat some of the fungus, which is foul-tasting but nourishing. You set up camp on a mound overlooking the water, from which you could defend yourself or flee if another boneyard monster were to find you.\n<<else>>\s\n\tYou drink some of the water, clean your wounds, and eat some of the fungus, which is foul-tasting but nourishing. You find a place to rest on a mound overlooking the water, from which you could defend yourself or flee if another boneyard monster were to find you.\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Exhausted but satiated, you sleep.|Boneyard sleep]]

<<if !tags().includes("front-matter") && !tags().includes("no-death-check") && $health <= 0>>\n\t<<goto [[Dead of wounds]]>>\n<</if>>

<<if $orc_village_status >= 2>>\s\n\tThe servants kneel in front of you and avoid eye contact.\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<set $met_thard = true>>\s\n\tThe servants shuffle aside to give you space to sit with them. One of them, a young man whose skin is discoloured and whose right hand is withered by some wasting disease, introduces himself as Thard. You recognise him as one of the servants who stood behind the chieftain in her hut.\n\t<<if $preached_before_general > 0>>\s\n\n\t\t"What you said in the general's hut, about the Order of Peace," Thard says. "Can you tell us more?" There are a few eager nods from the orcs around him.\n\t<</if>>\s\n<</if>>\s\n\n[[Tell them about the Order of Peace.|Village noncombatants preach]]\n\n[[Ask about recent events in the village.|Village noncombatants ask]]\n

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nSome of the orcs are confused, but others seem to have a new-found respect for your bravery at going into battle <<if $weapon=="">>unarmed<<else>>with only your simple weapon<</if>>.\n\n<<include [[Village set off]]>>

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou advance quietly, as if you are going to kneel next to the general, but at the same time you raise your $weapon.\n\nYou strike--but the general senses your attack, and dodges, granting you only a glancing blow. In a moment the general is on her feet, a ritual dagger gleaming in her hand.\n\n[[Fight.|Cave fight]]

John Ayliff

Next to you, your disciple Thard makes a sudden, frightened, strangled sound. His eyes are bulging and his hands are trembling. It is as if he is fighting off his orcish rage, but you have never seen an attack this strong or sudden.\n\nThe other disciples panic and run for the exit, leaving the two of you alone.\n\nAs you watch, your disciple's shaking hands form into claws and rise towards your throat.\n\n[[Talk him through the Ritual of Clarity.|Cave disciple ritual]]\n\n[[Attack him before he loses control and attacks you.|Cave disciple attack]]

<<nobr>>\nYou\n\t<<if $health <= 50>>\n\t\tstagger\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tstep\n\t<</if>>\n\tthrough the shattered portal onto the gravelly mountain path.\n\n\tThe sun is low in the sky, and darkness is beginning to creep from the eastern horizon like\n\t<<if $rage < $discipline>>\n\t\tsmoke from burning incense.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\ta spreading bruise.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if visited("Monastery ritual no revenge")>>\n\t\tYou clutch the talisman of the Order hanging around your neck, a reminder that you can control your violent urges despite the horror that has befallen you.\n\t<<elseif visited("Monastery ritual revenge")>>\n\t\tYou clutch the talisman of the Order hanging around your neck, a reminder of the oath you swore to avenge your brothers and sisters.\n\t<<elseif visited("Monastery no ritual revenge")>>\n\t\t<<if $weapon == "axe">>\n\t\t\tYour axe seems alive in your hand, hungry to drink the blood of those who wronged you.\n\t\t<<elseif $weapon == "quarterstaff">>\n\t\t\tYour quarterstaff thuds the ground with each step, as if preparing to smash the skulls of those who wronged you.\n\t\t<<else>>\n\t\t\tYour claws prick the tough skin of your palm, ready to rip and tear the flesh of those who wronged you.\n\t\t<</if>>\n\t<<elseif visited("Monastery no ritual no revenge")>>\n\t\tYou do not look back. Your old life is over, and you must now decide what to do with your new one.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\t@@.error;Should have visited exactly one of the monastery choice passages but had not.@@\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\nThe path winds down from the monastery to join an ancient, crumbling war-road. To the west, the road rises towards the mountain pass that leads from the barren Orclands to the human lands. To the east, it leads towards the nearest orc village, whose torches and are just visible from where you stand. Another path leads down towards the valley floor and the site of an ancient battlefield. Orcs rarely venture into the battlefield alone for fear of the unnatural creatures that roam among its bones, but you might be able to find enough food and water there to survive.\n\n[[Head towards the human lands.|Monastery leave to road]]\n\n[[Head towards the orc village.|Monastery leave to village]]\n\n[[Head towards the ancient battlefield.|Monastery leave to boneyard]]

<<set $discipline += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nYou command your rage to be quiet, at least for the moment, and pick your way down the gravelly slope towards the campfire<<if $companions == "orc warriors">>, leaving the other scouts at the top of the slope<<elseif $companions == "orc disciples">>, leaving your disciples at the top of the slope<</if>>.\s\n<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\tYou are half way down when a loose stone slips out under your foot. You try to recover, but your movements are not under as fine mental control as they were when you were living the peaceful life of a monk, and you fall onto your back and go sliding towards the campfire in a cloud of dust. Sharp rocks scratch your skin, and the noise of your fall alerts the humans. By the time you reach the bottom of the slope they are standing and have their swords drawn.\n\t\n\t<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n\t<<set $health -= $MEDIUM_WOUND>>\s\n\t[[You have no option but to fight.|Road merchants fight]]\n<<else>>\s\n\tA few pieces of loose gravel slip under your feet, but you manage to maintain your balance, and hide behind a scrubby bush close to the humans.\n\n\t[[You are close enough to hear their conversation.|Road merchants listen 2]]\n<</if>>\s

<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYour cry for help comes out not as words but as a roar of superhuman rage. Your opponent is thrown back, half by the roar and half by the new power that swells your muscles.\n\nRage overwhelms your vision; you can barely see, but are aware of the feel of flesh beneath your $weapon, the rich scent of newly-released blood, the sound of your enemy's dying scream.\n\n[[You stab again and again, long after your opponent has stopped moving, and then stand, blood-drenched, powerful, victorious.|Cave accept help 2]]

<<set $discipline -= $HUGE_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $rage += $HUGE_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $has_talisman = false>>\s\nThe talisman smashes against the stone wall. You follow it with a cry of rage that rises from your gut and out through your fangs to fill the building. It echoes back at you, filling your mind and body, making you feel powerful, as if the strongest part of you has been caged inside you for all your life by bars of ritual and has finally been unleashed.\n\nYour oath of vengeance has no words, but your mind is filled with images of how you will track down those who murdered your kin, how you will plunge your claws into their soft flesh, tear out their hearts, bathe yourself in their blood. You will chase them back to their homes, kill their children, burn their towns, rip and tear human flesh until you stand blood-drenched and victorious over all who have ever hurt you, and above you, looking down with cruel pride, a giant orc on a mountain throne...\n\n<<if visited("Monastery leave")>>\s\n\t[[Leave the monastery.|Monastery leave delayed]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

The monastery looks somehow smaller now that you return to it after your adventure, but your heart still aches to see your home in ruins. Your new disciples help you to bury the bodies of your brothers and sisters and make the monastery fit for habitation again.\n\n<<nobr>>\n\t<<if $discipline < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou can only partially remember the Order's teachings, and the routine you set up for your disciples leads to conflict and frustration.\n\t<<elseif $discipline < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou have a good understanding of the Order's teachings, and institute a well-ordered and peaceful way of life for your disciples.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou have a perfect understanding of the Order's philosophies, and institute a routine for your disciples that helps them to live peaceful and spiritually fulfilling lives.\n\t<</if>>\n\n\t<<if $rage < $EASY_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou have fully conquered your own rage, and are an excellent teacher.\n\t<<elseif $rage < $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\n\t\tYou have your own rage under control, and are a good teacher.\n\t<<else>>\n\t\tYou cannot control your own rage, and so lack the patience to be a good teacher.\n\t<</if>>\n<</nobr>>\n\n<<include [[Ending cave paragraph]]>>\n\nYou remain spiritual leader of the new Order of Peace for the rest of your life. The Order survives you, and becomes a beacon of hope for peace in a conflict-torn world.\n\n[[THE END|Postscript]]

Thard gestures to the animals roasting over the fire. "We're celebrating a victory," he says with pride. "Two days ago we burned down a human village. Those animals were part of the spoils."\n\n"That'll teach them to build villages in the mountains," says another servant.\n\n<<include [[Village announcement link]]>>

Health: <<textbox "$health" $health>>/100\nRage: <<textbox "$rage" $rage>>/100\nDiscipline: <<textbox "$discipline" $discipline>>/100\nWeapon: <<textbox "$weapon" $weapon>>\n\nJump to passage: <<textbox "_jump_to" "">>\n\n<<link "Done">>\n\t<<set $health = Number($health)>>\n\t<<set $rage = Number($rage)>>\n\t<<set $health = Number($health)>>\n\t<<set $rage = Math.clamp($rage, 0, 100)>>\n\t<<set $discipline = Math.clamp($discipline, 0, 100)>>\n\t<<set $health = Math.clamp($health, 0, 100)>>\n\t<<if _jump_to == "">>\n\t\t<<set _jump_to = previous()>>\n\t<</if>>\n\t<<goto _jump_to>>\n<</link>>\n

<<set $discipline += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\nYou lower your $weapon and approach slowly, but all you achieve is to give your opponent a chance to strike first. He flashes towards you, and you see a madness in his eyes that you ever expected to see in a human. It is as if he has an orcish rage of his own, bursting from within him to confront yours.\n\n<<include [[Cave fight]]>>

<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $weapon = "axe">>\s\nYou tear the cabinet's door from its hinges, and in moments you are hefting the axe in your hand. In your imagination your rage paints its blade with the blood of the humans who killed your friends.\n\n<<if !visited("Monastery choose reaction")>>\s\n\t[[Hefting the deadly instrument, you recognise your long-suppressed Orcish rage building within you...|Monastery choose reaction]]\n<<else>>\s\n\t<<include [[Monastery menu]]>>\n<</if>>\s

The priest's eyes widen in surprise. "Few are granted visions from the War God. I would never have thought that he would so bless an apostate...What did you see?"\n\n[["\s"I saw a cave, where the mountains look like a dragon is devouring the setting sun.\s""|Village shrine cave]]\n\n[["\s"Lies from a being that wants to control us. I will resist him.\s""|Village shrine lies]]\n\n[["\s"I am to lead the orcish people to greater glory.\s""|Village shrine glory]]\n\n[["\s"That is between me and the War God.\s""|Village shrine private]]\n

<<script>>\n\tSave.autosave.delete();\n<</script>>\s\nThank you for playing //Rage Quest: Disciple of Peace//!\n\nI'd like to thank my playtesters: Katherine Bowers, Matthew Holland, Litrouke, Mathbrush, and David Stark; and everyone who backed me on Patreon.\n\nExplore more of my works or contact me:\n<a href="https://www.johnayliff.com" target="_blank">Website</a> \s\n<a href="https://www.patreon.com/johnayliff" target="_blank">Patreon</a> \s\n<a href="https://twitter.com/johnayliff" target="_blank">Twitter</a>\n\n<<link "Title screen">>\s\n\t<<script>>\n\t\tEngine.restart();\n\t<</script>>\n<</link>>\s

With the talisman in your hand, you can tell that it's not a genuine talisman of the Order, but it's a good enough forgery to fool someone who had not handled a real talisman themselves.

<<set $weapon = "magic sword">>\s\n<<set $rage += $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n<<set $discipline -= $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\nThe sword's blade glows faintly as your hand nears it, and as soon as you touch it you feel a thrill as its rage intertwines with yours. Images of bloodshed and screaming human faces flash through your mind. The knowledge comes to you that this sword was once wielded by an ancient orcish commander, perhaps a lieutenant of the War God himself. Its enchantment makes it blaze in the presence of humans, burning through their flesh and armour.\n\n[[The new sword in your hand, you return to your shelter.|Boneyard end chapter menu]]

<<if $rage >= $MEDIUM_THRESHOLD>>\s\n\t<<set $modifier = $BIG_CHANGE>>\s\n\tThe humans are frozen in shock, barely managing to draw their swords before you are upon them.\n<<else>>\s\n\tThe humans look up and draw their swords. Their faces show surprise, but not the debilitating fear you had hoped that your battle cry would evoke.\n<</if>>\s\n\n<<set $rage += $SMALL_CHANGE>>\s\n<<include [[Road merchants fight]]>>

You open your eyes. You are <<if $health < 100>>wounded and <</if>>exhausted, but alive. The presence you felt when you entered the cave is gone. You can feel it within yourself instead, raging against the walls of your mental dungeon, but growing weaker, defeated.\n\n<<include [[Cave possession survived]]>>

<<set $health += $SMALL_HEAL>>\s\nYour opponent is not moving, but there is something else here: the presence you felt in your dreams seems to descend to where you are lying on the floor. You feel your rage uncoiling within you, rising to welcome the presence into you. It is not unpleasant--in fact, as the presence comes over you, the pain of your wounds fades, as if the wounds are healing under its power.\n\n[[Allow the presence to heal you.|Cave possessed and healed]]\n\n[[Resist using the Order's Ritual of Clarity.|Cave possession resist ritual]]\n\n[[Resist using sheer willpower.|Cave possession resist willpower]]

Your old home remains destroyed, and you must find a new path for the rest of your life. The road stretches away towards the Orclands in one direction and human lands in the other.\n\n[[Continue on and try to find a place among the humans.|Road ending]]\n\n[[Turn back and try to find a place in the orc village.|Village ending]]\n\n<<if hasVisited("Village leave take converts")>>\s\n\t[[Turn back and live with your disciples in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending commune]]\n\n\t[[Turn back and try to rebuild the Order of Peace with your disciples.|Boneyard ending order]]\s\n<<else>>\s\n\t[[Turn back and live alone in the ancient battlefield.|Boneyard ending alone]]\s\n<</if>>\s

The entrance leads to a narrow tunnel that twists back and forth before opening out into the cave proper. This winding tunnel means that the cave's extent was invisible from the outside, and also means that almost no light reaches in here.\n\nA shiver runs through you. The air here is cooler than outside, but it is more than that. There is a supernatural presence about this cave, something that awakens a deep orcish racial memory.\n\nThe cave is rectangular, and about the size of your monastery's main hall. The walls are straight, as if they have been carved from the rock, but the floor is uneven where rubble has fallen from the ceiling. Bones and refuse litter the floor, mixed with strange assemblages of twisted metal and shattered glass that look like the remains of cages and alchemical equipment. A flat slab of rock stands in the centre of the floor, like an altar, or the examination table in the monastery's infirmary.\n\n<<if $cave_enemy == 0>>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave confront presence]]>>\n<<elseif $cave_enemy == 1>>\s\n\t<<set $opponent_name="the human">><<set $he="he">><<set $his="his">><<set $him="him">>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave confront human]]>>\n<<elseif $cave_enemy == 2>>\s\n\t<<set $opponent_name="Krazgh">><<set $he="she">><<set $his="her">><<set $him="her">>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave confront general]]>>\n<<elseif $cave_enemy == 3>>\s\n\t<<set $opponent_name="Thard">><<set $he="he">><<set $his="his">><<set $him="him">>\s\n\t<<include [[Cave confront disciple]]>>\n<<else>>\s\n\t@@.error;Unexpected cave enemy $cave_enemy.@@\n<</if>>\s\n