Sugarcane

<<if $thenorth eq "2">>"Take Dvorshk, for instance. It was only a little more than a year after we met outside Reuss, but already your mercy seemed to be abandoning you in waves.<<else>>"And after I escaped you tracked me. All throughout the north. You lost me. A year later you turned up in Dvorshk.<<endif>>\n\n"I was gone before you even got close, and I've had no reason to return. But I know what you did there.\n\n"You burned the town the the ground, its people with it. And not by accident, and not as some last-ditch measure of escape. You did it long after you found out I was gone. The person I grew up alongside wouldn't have done that without very good reason, so I have to ask - //why//?"\n\n[["To remove all traces of your corruption"|To remove all traces of his corruption there]]\n\n[["The townspeople deserved their ends"|The townspeople deserved their ends]]\n\n[["To destroy its strategic value"|To destroy its strategic value]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $power = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>You tell him that this very power was the cause of countless deaths and unquantifiable suffering. \n\nHe can't control this place, and neither can you. It has a will that leans inherently towards destruction, and it must be sealed away to prevent its use.\n\n[[The first response|seal]]

He's silent, and then: "Very well. I suppose it's just hard to believe that you were dishonest //then//. We were close, you know?"\n\n[["I know"|I know]]

Whatever the reason, you're not ready yet.\n\n[[Leave the dungeon]]\n\n[[Change your mind, open the door|Don't turn back]]

"You know that I regret what happened. I regret a lot of it, and every day I was out there those regrets grew. But I had a purpose. I still feel I do, here."\n\nHe looks away. "I'm a little...well, surprised that you wanted to kill me even then. When I was running from the city that night I was too scared to think much about your intentions. But looking back now I suppose I'm surprised. \n\n"You really didn't hesitate before running into that burning forest, looking to spill my blood?"\n\nHe looks at you.\n\n[[Look away]]\n\n[[Don't]]

"Did you love her?"\n\n[["Yes"|Regrets]]\n\n[["No"|Regrets]]\n\n[["It doesn't matter"|Regrets]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $Dvorshk = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>"For following me? Perhaps they did. But the entirety of Dvorshk? Hundreds of lives. They didn't stand in your way, but still you set those fires. I believe that one of your companions even barricaded the doors to keep people in.\n\n<<if $thenorth eq "2">>"So I'll repeat the question: //what changed//? A few months previously you had judged me on the outskirts of Reuss and found me salvageable. In Dvorshk you judged all that multitude of people and found them - to a man, woman, and child - entirely wanting. I'd like to believe that you had good reason."\n\n[["It was different"|It was different]]\n\n[["They did terrible things"|They did terrible things]]\n\n[["I don't need to justify my actions to you"|You don't need to justify your actions]]\n\n[["Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue"|Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue]]<<else>>"I'd like to believe that you had good reason to go that far."\n\n[["They did terrible things"|They did terrible things]]\n\n[["I don't need to justify my actions to you"|You don't need to justify your actions]]\n\n[["Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue"|Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue]]<<endif>>

<<silently>>\n<<set $counsel = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>He told you that it needed to be destroyed. There was a flare in his nostrils and a heat in his breath that shook you. You had never seen him scared. He concealed it well, but it shook you all the same.\n\n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

His voice changes once again: sonorous, menacing, too loud for this confined place. \n\n"Then you followed me again. You and your people - the witch from the north, the two prisoners from Dvorshk, and your wild barbarian companion. All of you followed me into the passages beneath the mountains.\n\n"You tracked my movements through those tunnels, reading fragments of my journals by candlelight as you rested - soaking in the knowledge you plundered from Dvorshk. And finally you stumbled out of those narrow corridors into a vast hall buried fathoms deep into the roots of the earth.\n\n"The visions came to each of you then, just as they came to me. Memories and confabulations of some great, nameless creature resting there. Unaccountably old. Not dead, but something close to it."\n\n[[Remember]]

You reconsider your words:\n\n<<if $thenorth eq "2">>[["It was different"|It was different]]\n\n[["They did terrible things"|They did terrible things]]\n\n[["Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue"|Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue]]<<else>>[["They did terrible things"|They did terrible things]]\n\n[["Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue"|Their evil couldn't be allowed to continue]]<<endif>>

"If you had left them they likely would have continued on the path I set them down. They would have killed more farmers and travellers and refugees who stumbled from the road. You likely prevented that, so maybe it was all for the greater good. But I wonder if you don't struggle somewhat with that."\n\n[[The forth question|Say nothing]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $counsel = 4>>\n<<endsilently>>He had seemed wholly broken when you pulled him from the fires of Dvorshk, but he became lucid there under the mountain. Speaking to you, he was eloquent, he was convincing, and, more so than any of the others he recognised his own vast insignificance in the face of such a creature.\n \n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

He shrugs. "Who knows."\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $thenorth = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>The people of Reuss were going to find him. Regardless of what he had done - regardless of what you wanted - you weren't going to let that happen.\n\nWhen you were both children they told you stories about Reuss - about the cruelty and violence of those peoples. Frankly, you were surprised he decided to run //there// of all places. \n\nWhen you went into the forest after him you weren't sure what you were going to do. Maybe kill him out of mercy. Maybe subdue him and take him back home to face justice. You didn't owe him anything, but back then you planned to give him at least that much.\n\n[[The second response|mercy]]

He laughs. "Don't I? Where did you get the idea that //you// have the privilege of defining who you are?\n\n"Do you really want to stand here and count up all the terrible things we've both done, and then declare that you're good and I'm evil? It doesn't work like that. We're not as different as you want us to be."\n\n[["You're wrong"|separate]]\n\n[[say nothing|The penultimate question]]

You were faced with a decision, but you had so little time to //think//. You weren't sure what he deserved, and you're still not sure you know. So you stood there, and time passed.\n\n[[The final question]]

"You still seek to fix things, then. Maybe that'll even be allowed.\n\n"This place is thick with the blood of the earth. It flows up to meet us and it won't easily be convinced to flow back down again. It will resist you when you try to use it for such constructive purposes, and even if you succeed it will resist you when you try to leave it behind. //Know// that."\n\n[[The second question]]

"Okay, [[shall we get this over with|The end]] then?"

"Who could have predicted how far you'd go in search of allies. I have to admit that seeing the banners of Reuss hanging over the battlefield gave me something of a shock; the prophecised saviour cavorting with a city of butchers and slave-drivers. \n\n"<<if $belief eq "1">>Not only did you trick thousands of free men into following you, but you had nearly five thousand press-ganged slaves bolstering their numbers. <<else>>You had nearly ten cohorts of press-ganged slaves bolstering your forces. <<endif>>The kind of people we saw in Reuss so long ago. The conquered and the undesirables and the politically maladjusted.\n\n"And you used them so effectively. Setting them crashing down to shake my lines with their sickles and field axes. Breaking upon my army's flanks like a wave.\n\n"I trust the Reussians were productive allies. I know how keenly you sought them out."\n\n[["They were useful"|They were useful]]\n\n[["They deserved justice too"|They deserved justice too]] \n\n[["There was political pressure to act"|There was political pressure to act]]\n

"Is there? Do you want us to stand here and count up all the terrible things we've both done, and then declare that the one with the lesser amount is good and the other evil?\n\n"Are your transgressions forgivable simply because they were fewer in number than mine?"\n\nYou try to speak, but he interrupts: \n\n"God, //enough//. Why don't we let our mistakes speak for themselves, just this once?"\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

"Remember at the start of all this - when I stole a horse and fled home? How the village gave you a sword and sent you after me. How you tracked me through the wilderness, all the way to Reuss. And then followed me into the north when I escaped from that city.\n\n"I remember watching the fires spread in the distance as the Reussians tried to burn me out of the forest. Before any of this - before I even knew of this place.\n\n"You could have left and returned home; let them do your job for you. But you came after me. Why?"\n\n[["To kill you"|To kill him]]\n\n[["To bring you back home"|To bring him back home]]\n\n[["To save you from their retribution"|To save him from the city's retribution]]

"Would she still be alive had you not taken her into the north? Certainly she would have had warmth, safety, access to medicine. But would that have made a difference, considering?\n\n"She was a //Paladin//. She spent a lifetime fighting [[corruption|paladin corruption]]. That child was a death sentence. That's the way her order //works//.\n\n"Part of me hates to say this, but you weren't responsible for her death. Do you understand that?"\n\n[["Let's move on"|The penultimate question]]

Your long journey is nearly over. You'll find him through that door. He won't wait forever.\n\n[[Don't turn back|Don't turn back again]]

He looks at you. "Thank you, really. That'll make this easier to face."\n\n[[The final question]]

His voice comes first:\n\n"I figure it has to end like this. After all this time. After Reuss, and the north. After what you did in Lausitz. After Brunn, Dvorshk, the Vistulan woods. After //everything//.\n\n"I don't expect to win this war any longer. The power in this place will bend to your will the moment you kill me. I know this has to happen - I //know// it now. Please just do me the courtesy of giving me some answers before that moment arrives."\n\n[[The first question]]

"It's strange to feel grateful now, here, after so long. But in a way it's also troubling. What //changed//? I'm having trouble connecting the dots."\n\n[[The third question]]

There is a silence before he speaks again. He looks at you. His face isn't readable.\n\n[[Look at him|under the mountain question]]\n\n[[Look away|under the mountain question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $responsibility = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>Your hands may be dirty, but your conscience is clean. Difficult choices had to be made, but you don't regret a single decision, a single moment that's passed.\n\n[[The response|no responsibility]]

"It was. But I don't know if it was different enough. They did terrible things there, but when you chased me down in that forest I had done my own share of evil.\n\n"I wonder though: if you and I met now on the outskirts of Reuss for the first time, how would you find me? Wanting? Salvageable? It's a difficult thought."\n\n[[The fourth question|Say nothing]]

You don't know why you did what you did. You didn't act without thinking, exactly - you made a decision. But you can't explain it to him any more than you can make yourself understand.\n\n[[The final question]]

"I'm not saying I deserved something different. I'm just surprised."\n\n[[The third question]]

"You believe in those things because that's the narrative they taught you. You think you've discovered some new truth about the world but you're merely operating within the framework that they laid out for us."\n\n[["No"|No]]

She kept bleeding until long after she had died. The snow melted and steamed where the blood had touched it.\n\nThe cartographer - her husband - was still there. The witch also. And you. It was late, and once the bodies had been moved away from the camp [[you all slept.]]

He winces - visibly, almost audibly so. His eyes are closed, and he exhales. \n\n"Thanks" \n\n[[The penultimate question]]

You ran into the woods after him because you thought he could still be salvaged. Then you found him. He had done so much harm, but when you looked into his eyes for those brief moments you only saw fear. \n\nA kind of innocent fear that made you recognise him for the first time in so long. You decided in that moment to end the chase and give him a chance to come back home. Back to the village, for //good//.\n\nHe tries to speak: "You know - you know it was an accident. When I left, I never meant for y-" You stop him. \n\n[["I know. It's done."|bring back]]

After everything he's done he deserved the death you gave him. <<if $belief eq "2">>You are an instrument of fate. You didn't make the judgement, you merely held the sword"<<else>>You made that judgement. How could you not?<<endif>>\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $henchman_status = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>You bandage his wounds and tie off the severed vessels. Eventually the bleeding slows, then seems to stop. He should survive, as far as you can tell.\n \n[[Take the key from him|key save]]

Some people can claw their way back from the darkness through sheer force of will, but not him. He was too far gone to come back. \n\n[[The final question]]

"You underestimate yourself. There was no way I could have taken it from you. It had no interest in me. Your companions were there, and it had no interest in them either. It was only interested in //you//."\n\n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

You reach down and take the key from his [[body.|body]]\n\n[[Go to the door|The door]]

His face hardens: "I shouldn't have expected anything from you, I suppose. Can't you let this end without inflicting more suffering? Is that something you're even //capable// of?" He's shaking for a moment or two, but then it's gone.\n\n[[The final question]]

"Part of me hates to say this, but you weren't responsible for her death. Do you understand that?"\n\n[["Let's move on"|The penultimate question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $whypretend = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>You needed an army to beat him, and you played on those deep-seated superstitions in order to raise one. That was all there was to it.\n\n\n[[The response|useful]]

<<if $henchman_status eq "3">>He looks at you for a while\n\nEventually: "You really have nothing to say?"\n\n[["No"|Don't answer save]]\n\n[[reconsider|Don't answer wait]]<<else>>He looks at you for a long time.\n\nEventually: "You really have //nothing// to say? //Nothing?//"\n\n[["No"|Don't answer cont.]]\n\n[[reconsider|Don't answer wait]]<<endif>>

<<silently>>\n<<set $counsel = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>She alone took you aside, away from the others. She told you to destroy it, as you had expected. But she was intelligent, and she had seen much, and you respected her words.\n\n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

Your knuckles are [[white.]]

"That's an...interesting approach. I fear you'd be throwing away too much, though. I've wondered what you could do with all this.\n\n"I could only do so little, and here we are. But I've seen you." His voice changes. "I //know// you - the child born grasping a blood clot in its fist. This place could be used for so much with a healthy application of your will. But if you'd rather bury it beneath the bones of these mountains, well, I suppose that'll soon be your right."\n\n[[The second question]]

"What do you intend to do? How will you use the power here once I no longer have any say in the matter?"\n\n[["To gain strength"|Use it for personal gain]]\n\n[["To rebuild what's been lost"|Use it for the common good]]\n\n[["It needs to be sealed off forever"|Seal it off forever]]

"You're wrong, though"\n\nHe looks hard at you. "You didn't lead an army because fate decreed that you would, or because some prophecy called for your ascension. You led an army because you were born in a very unusual way, and people reinterpreted old, vague stories to give those events meaning.\n\n"They set you up from childhood to believe that you would be great, and they did all they could to thrust greatness on you. They did the opposite with me, and I reacted by becoming, slowly, who I am. Not because it was destined to be so, but because they //made// it so. We've both played our part - not in the narrative of fate, but in a very human system."\n\n\n[["After everything you've seen you refuse to accept the possibility of a guiding power?"|Fate question]]

"It doesn't matter what you believe.\n\n"You didn't lead an army because fate decreed that you would, or because some prophecy called for your ascension. You led an army because you were born in a very unusual way, and people reinterpreted old, vague stories to give those events meaning.\n\n"They set you up from childhood to believe that you would be great, and they did all they could to thrust greatness on you. They did the opposite with me, and I reacted by becoming, slowly, who I am. Not because it was destined to be so, but because they //made// it so. We've both played our part - not in the narrative of fate, but in a very human system."\n\n\n[["After everything you've seen you refuse to accept the possibility of a guiding power?"|Fate question]]

He doesn't say anything for a while.\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $Dvorshk = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>The town was of great strategic importance for him, even once you brought down the stronghold. You didn't want him to come back after you were gone and salvage what was still there. Even in those early days you had to look at it as a war of attrition. \n\n[[The third response|strategy]]

"But that's all beside the point, I suppose. What matters is that you won. You broke up my remaining forces and tore down the walls of my last cities.\n\n"And I fled once again into the north. Back through the mountains and into the cold tundras beyond. Where your legions couldn't follow. But once again you gave chase. Just you and your faithful companions.\n\n"What happened out there?"\n\n[["The barbarian left us"|The barbarian left us]]

You felt yourself shaking as you stood above him. All these years. All this time wasted. People dead and cities razed and //everything// that you've lost.\n\nYou stood above him, thinking of the Paladin, out there unburied in the cold. Her husband. Your sister. Your home.\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $destroycreature = 1>>\n<<endsilently>><<if $themountain eq "2">>The fear you felt when you first saw the creature didn't compare to the terror that came when it spoke. The long-dead languages that bore down into your ears. The unimaginable force welling up inside its shifting bones. It simply can't be comprehended, and there was no way it could be controlled.<<else>>You explain how it felt when it spoke to you. How its long-dead languages resonated inside your skull. How its memories depicted things that you couldn't comprehend, let alone describe. How, in those hours you became more and more sure that it could never be controlled. It was too vast, too powerful, and too //different//.<<endif>>\n\n\n[[The response|control]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $responsibility = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>"Interesting, but if we were to stand around talking about our regrets we'd be here all day. I don't want to take up too much more of your time, so let's try to narrow it down. Looking back, what exactly hit you the hardest?"\n\n<<if $whypretend eq "1">>\n[["Driving the barbarian away"|Driving the barbarian away]]\n\n[["The Paladin's death"|The Paladin's death]]\n\n[["The cartographer's death"|The cartographer's death]]\n\n[["What happened in Dvorshk"|What happened in Dvorshk]]\n\n[["Destroying the creature under the mountain"|Destroying the creature under the mountain]]\n\n[["Allying with Reuss"|Allying with Reuss]]\n\n[["Using the people's belief to lead them into war"|Using the people's belief to lead them into war]]\n\n[["The witch's departure"|That the witch left]]\n\n[["Everything that's happened between the two of us"|Everything that's happened between the two of us]]\n\n<<else>>\n\n[["Driving the barbarian away"|Driving the barbarian away]]\n\n[["The Paladin's death"|The Paladin's death]]\n\n[["The cartographer's death"|The cartographer's death]]\n\n[["What happened in Dvorshk"|What happened in Dvorshk]]\n\n[["Destroying the creature under the mountain"|Destroying the creature under the mountain]]\n\n[["Allying with Reuss"|Allying with Reuss]]\n\n[["The witch's departure"|That the witch left]]\n\n[["Everything that's happened between the two of us"|Everything that's happened between the two of us]]\n\n<<endif>>

"//Really?// Now that's an interesting one. Care to elaborate?"<<if $destroycreature eq "1">>\n\n\n[["There's so much we'll never have the chance to learn"|mountain cont.]]\n\n[["It's hard to describe"|mountain cont.]]<<else>>\n\n\n[["It could have been of great use"|mountain use]]\n\n[["There's so much we'll never have the chance to learn"|mountain cont.]]\n\n[["It's hard to describe"|mountain cont.]]<<endif>>

"Or your companions - how many of them followed you because of the false beliefs you sowed?<<if $northdeaths eq "2">>\n\n[["You said that I wasn't responsible for their choices"|companions choice]]\n\n[["I don't know"|The penultimate question]]\n\n[[say nothing|The penultimate question]]<<else>>\n\n[["I don't know"|The penultimate question]]\n\n[[say nothing|The penultimate question]]<<endif>>\n

The next morning the witch shook you awake and there was just the two of you. The soil was too frozen to dig, so you left the bodies there and kept moving.\n\n[[The next question]]

"If I'll say one thing I'll say this: they made their choices. You didn't trick them, or press-gang them into your service. They followed you willingly, and the weight of those decisions doesn't rest solely on you."\n\n[["I know"|The Witch Awkward]]\n\n[["You're wrong"|The Witch Awkward]]\n\n[[Don't speak|The Witch Awkward]]\n\n[["Thank you"|The Witch Awkward]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $counsel = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>She understood a lot of what you said. More than anyone else could.\n\nShe was calm, considering her words a great deal before speaking. She said that none of you could ever understand the creature before you, nor could you possibly predict what would happen if it awoke and crawled up into daylight. She thought it was too great a risk to let it live. You trusted her a great deal.\n \n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

"Very well. I suppose we'll move on." \n\n[[The penultimate question]]

He was going to die anyway. There was nothing else you could do to help him. You stood there and you ended his long, long suffering.\n\n[[The final question]]

"There //was// power in that place even after I left. It still rests there now - dug down into the bedrock, as you say. It doesn't simply disintegrate into nothing. It nestles there in the rock quietly.\n\n"But because of your actions that power is inaccessible now, and perhaps it always will be. by burning the town and killing its people you severed the link we had made. So maybe they needed to die. I'll let you be the judge."\n\n[[The fourth question|Say nothing]]

You kneel down beside him. He's gone now. The warmth is abandoning his body in waves. His [[eyes]] are open and already cold.\n\n[[Stand up|The door]]

"The man outside these doors - my oldest and last lieutenant.\n\n"He's still alive, you know. Why did you decide to save him? After everything that's happened, I can't for the life of me understand it." \n\n[["I felt mercy"|felt mercy]]\n\n[["He can still be salvaged"|salvageable]]\n\n[["He needs to answer for what he's done"|answer for crimes]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]\n\n[[don't answer|Don't answer]]

"The man outside these doors - my oldest and last lieutenant.\n\n"He's dead now, obviously. Why did you just leave him there to die? I can't imagine you were too squeamish to deliver the final blow."\n\n[["I couldn't decide what to do"|couldn't decide]]\n\n[["He didn't deserve to live, but I couldn't kill him"|didn't deserve]]\n\n[["I wanted him to suffer before he died"|suffer before death]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]\n\n[[don't answer|Don't answer]]

She keeled over in the face of the winds. By the time you pulled her up there was fluid frozen to her legs. You made camp where she fell and shortly after she entered childbirth.\n\nShe was only a few months pregnant. When [[the child]] came it was dead, and she kept bleeding until long after she herself had died. The snow melted and steamed where the blood had touched it. \n\nThe cartographer - her husband - was still there. The witch also. And you. It was late, and once the bodies had been moved away from the camp [[you all slept.]]\n\n\n

"I suppose we all make sacrifices in times of war. For whatever reason, and towards whatever end. Sometimes we're betrayed by our own sacrifices - you and I both know that. Let's hope that yours at least were worth something."\n\n[["They were"|In the north]]\n\n[["I don't know"|In the north]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $power = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>Too much damage has been done. He has left great scars in his wake. You intend to undo the evil he's brought about, using this power to rebuild.\n\n[[The first response|good]]

"Indeed. And they suffered for it."\n\n[[The fourth question|Say nothing]]

Some people can claw their way back from the darkness through sheer force of will. You have reason to believe that he's not so far gone as to be utterly irretrievable. Maybe he'll never be able to right the wrongs he's inflicted, but nevertheless he'll have the opportunity.\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $left_dungeon = false>>\n<<endsilently>>This will end today, one way or another.\n\n[[Open the door]]

He pauses, awkwardly. After a moment he continues: "So you were left with the witch. The two of you kept moving further north, together.\n\n"But you're alone now. Where is she?"\n\n[["She's gone"|love]]\n\n[["I don't know"|love]]\n\n[["She didn't say"|love]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $henchman_status = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>You feel the resistance of the metal cutting deep into unfamiliar tissue. Blood follows the blade from the wound, and the body's stillness gives way to the inchoative twitches of his death throes.\n\n[[Take the key from his body|key kill]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $responsibility = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>"Indeed. We certainly should. Tell me though - you've done so much. What hits you the hardest?"\n\n<<if $whypretend eq "1">>\n[["Driving the barbarian away"|Driving the barbarian away]]\n\n[["The Paladin's death"|The Paladin's death]]\n\n[["The cartographer's death"|The cartographer's death]]\n\n[["What happened in Dvorshk"|What happened in Dvorshk]]\n\n[["Destroying the creature under the mountain"|Destroying the creature under the mountain]]\n\n[["Allying with Reuss"|Allying with Reuss]]\n\n[["Using the people's belief to lead them into war"|Using the people's belief to lead them into war]]\n\n[["The witch's departure"|That the witch left]]\n\n[["Everything that's happened between the two of us"|Everything that's happened between the two of us]]\n\n<<else>>\n\n[["Driving the barbarian away"|Driving the barbarian away]]\n\n[["The Paladin's death"|The Paladin's death]]\n\n[["The cartographer's death"|The cartographer's death]]\n\n[["What happened in Dvorshk"|What happened in Dvorshk]]\n\n[["Destroying the creature under the mountain"|Destroying the creature under the mountain]]\n\n[["Allying with Reuss"|Allying with Reuss]]\n\n[["The witch's departure"|That the witch left]]\n\n[["Everything that's happened between the two of us"|Everything that's happened between the two of us]]\n\n<<endif>>

<<silently>>\n<<set $northdeaths = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>They had been with you for a long time. To lose nearly all of them, and so quickly - it wasn't an easy thing.\n\n[[The response|grief]]

He looks at you for a long time.\n\n"How did you feel, knowing that they had followed you down that path?"\n\n[["I felt grief"|I felt grief]]\n\n[["I felt remorse"|I felt remorse]]\n\n[["I knew that they had done their duty"|I knew that they had done their duty]]

After everything he did he deserved nothing less. All these years. All this time wasted. People dead and cities razed and //everything// that you've lost. \n\nYou stood above him and watched him die, thinking of the Paladin, out there unburied in the cold. Her husband. Your sister. Your //home//. [[He deserved nothing less.]]

"What then, everything you had always told me - about the meaninglessness of prophecy and augury and fate - they were just lies? And in reality you //always// believed me to be some terrible aberration, even as you assured me otherwise?"\n\n[["I've been honest with you now, at least"|always believed honest]]\n\n[["It's not like that"|always believed 1]]

Your long journey is nearly over. You'll find him through that door. He won't wait forever, but perhaps he can wait for a time. \n\n[[Don't turn back]]\n\n[[Turn back|Procrastinate]]

[[Nick Keirle|https://twitter.com/nicholaskeirle]]

You slot the key in the lock and the heavy doors open of their accord. The hum of metal and the sound of shifting stone. There is great strength welling up in this place.\n\nHe stands there, waiting for you. There have been years leading up to this moment.\n\n[[Talk]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $bpretend = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>The region was paralysed with fear. Rumours had spread about his preternatural power - how he threw down the gates of warring cities with his own hand. How he brought together the scattered Vistulan tribes with offers of dark magic.\n\nThey were fanciful tales, but people believed them. You realised that they needed something new to believe in, if they were to fight at all.\n\n[[The response|believe]]

"Year passed, again. And when our armies met for the final time outside Lausitz you had half the continent under your banner.\n\n"I couldn't understand how one person could unify all those nations that had so recently been at each other's throats. And then I realised. Far too late, but I realised that they weren't really following you - they were following what you represented. The auguries that surrounded your birth. The child born grasping a blood clot in its fist.\n\n"You had always told me that these prophecies were nonsense. But there you were, doing your best to convince the world that your hand was guided by destiny. Was it all just some cynical ploy, or did you somehow believe in what you were saying?"\n\n[["I didn't believe it"|I didn't believe it]]\n\n[["I believed"|I believed]]

"They didn't serve an ideal, they served //you//.<<if $belief eq "2">>\n\n\n"Their hands were not guided by fate. If I could achieve one thing it'd be to make you see that.<<endif>>"\n\n[[Listen|The Witch]]

"But you were //there//. Maybe I never would have managed, but you were another matter entirely. It shifted in the rock at your presence. It //spoke// to you. You could have learnt how. You could have come to control it fully. It could have -"\n\n[["No. It couldn't."|control continued]]

"You succeeded then. Your false calls to the beliefs of your followers raised an army in weeks. A ragtag band of wandering tribesmen and superstitious farmers, but an army nonetheless.\n<<if $power eq "3">>Now months have passed, and after countless deaths and unquantifiable suffering here we are, with you very much holding the upper hand. So //well played//."<<else>>Thousands of people died, and months passed, but bit by bit you destroyed every remnant of power that I held onto. And here we are in this place, with you very much holding the upper hand."<<endif>>\n\n[[The next question|Reuss question]]

"//Yes//. Yes yes yes. What then, do you abandon everything you used to believe because the world happened to be wider and more complex than you previously knew? \n\n"They set you up from childhood to believe that you would be great, and they did all they could to thrust greatness on you. They did the opposite with me, and I reacted by becoming, slowly, who I am. Not because it was destined to be so, but because they //made// it so. We've both played our part - not in the narrative of fate, but in a very human system."\n\n[["After everything you've seen you refuse to accept the possibility of fate?"|Fate question]]\n\n

You take the key. He looks up at you with open eyes, and you turn away from him.\n\n[[The door]]

"I said you weren't //wholly// responsible. Yes, they made their choices willingly, but you did your best to define the boundaries of those choices. You can't avoid placing some measure of responsibility upon yourself."\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

"The man outside these doors - my oldest and last lieutenant.\n\n"Now he's dead, and everyone else is gone." He pauses for a moment. "Well, at least someone stood by me up until the end.\n\n"But you killed him, when he was at your mercy. Why?"\n\n[["I killed him out of mercy"|mercy death]]\n\n[["He deserved what he got"|he deserved]]\n\n[["He was too corrupted to salvage"|He was unsalvageable]]\n\n[["I was angry"|I was angry]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]\n\n[[don't answer|Don't answer]]

Your long journey is nearly over. A flash of metal and he falls to the ground.\n\nHe's losing blood.\n\n[[Kill him]]\n\n[[Leave him to die]]\n\n[[Help him]]

"What about the slaves from Reuss? Did they deserve a free choice?"\n\n[["I don't know"|people's belief cont. cont.]]\n\n[["That was different"|people's belief cont. cont.]]\n\n[["I did what was necessary"|people's belief cont. cont.]]\n\n[[say nothing|people's belief cont. cont.]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $northdeaths = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>They served an ideal. Most of them served it admirably, right up until the end. Certainly, the barbarian betrayed himself, but the others? You were //proud// of them.\n\n[[The response|duty]]

"This has all been...well, illuminating. But I'm still struggling with a few things. It's been a long time since we've had the chance to talk, and you seem so different from the person I knew. And on the other hand, looking at you now, hearing you talk - you seem so...//untouched// by it all.\n\n"I can't get a handle on you. You've done so -." He pauses for a long time. "I've had a lot of time to think recently. Don't you feel //regret// for anything that's happened?"\n\n<<if $northdeaths eq "2">>[["Yes, some"|Yes, some]]\n\n[["I feel a great deal"|For a great deal]]<<else>>[["No"|You feel none]]\n\n[["Yes, some"|Yes, some]]\n\n[["I feel a great deal"|For a great deal]]<<endif>>

"Do you have any idea what happened to him?"\n\n[["No"|barbarian cont.]]

"I lost much there, and it took a long time for me to recover. So maybe those people needed to die. I don't know. I'll let you be the judge."\n\n[[The fourth question|Say nothing]]

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"Don't worry, we're nearly done. Only a couple more questions left."\n\n<<if $henchman_status eq "1">>[[continue|penultimate 1]]<<endif>><<if $henchman_status eq "2">>[[continue|penultimate 2]]<<endif>><<if $henchman_status eq "3">>[[continue|penultimate 3]]<<endif>>\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $themountain = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>No one had seen such things in thousands of years. You doubt anyone was meant to see such things. As you looked upon that alien power, your head filling with its memories of long dead ages, you were grasped by a quiet terror you couldn't understand. You understand it now though - it was the fear of someone finally coming to understand their small place in a vast and horrifying world.\n\n[[What happened in the mountain]]

It's been so long. A great deal has happened, but he's not the person you're here for.\n\nBefore you get to your feet you look at his face once again. It hangs there without sight, sound, or feeling. His eyes watch you.\n\n[[Close his eyes]]\n\n[[No|open eyes]]

He laughs. "Sometimes I really don't understand you."\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

You remember vast spider-like appendages broken through the roof of the cavern; limbs the length and breadth of city streets. You saw dim, dark eyes and you heard foreign thoughts.\n\n"And so you came to know what it was that I was seeking. You realised then that I wasn't just a madman with a little bit of power; I was attempting to rouse unimaginable forces from the corners of the world.\n\n"What passed through your head at that moment - when you saw that ancient creature for the first time?"\n\n[["Awe"|You were in awe]]\n\n[["Curiosity"|You were filled with curiosity]]\n\n[["Fear"|You were terrified]]

He's no danger anymore, and it'd be too easy for him to die. Once you're through here you'll take him with you, back to civilisation, where he can face justice.\n\n[[The response|henchman justice cont.]]

There is something in his eyes that you don't care to look at. You see his hand shaking for a moment or two, but then it's gone.\n\nHe doesn't say anything for a while. \n\n[[The final question]]

"That's it, then. I'm not entirely sure I got all the answers I was looking for, but it was nice to delay the inevitable for a time.\n\n"I //am// curious, though. We've talked for so long; has it been at all illuminating for you? Has it caused you to reconsider anything - anything at all? Where you came from? Where you're going?\n\n"You spoke so confidently before, but now I can't tell. So I'll ask you again - how will you use this place once I'm gone?"\n\n[["To gain strength"|Last]]\n\n[["To rebuild"|Last]]\n\n[["I'll seal it off for good"|Last]]

"I'm sorry, I know the two of you were close."\n\n[["We were"|The penultimate question]]\n\n[["Thank you"|The penultimate question]]\n\n[[look away|The penultimate question]]

This will end today, one way or another.\n\n[[Open the door]]

"You didn't really answer my question, though I suppose I can understand. Don't worry, it doesn't matter."\n\n[[Listen|The Witch]]

"I have to admit, it wasn't easy to watch it die. It wasn't just about power - there was something quite sad about the whole affair."\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

<<if $power eq "3">>"Very well. I suppose you're at least consistent in your judgements."<<else>>"But what, then? You think this place will be different? You were too scared to take control of that weakened mass of ossified flesh, but you're happy to try with this place? You //know// what power reaches out to you here. Are you so confident that it would be different?"<<endif>>\n\n[[The next question|prophecy question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $eyes_status = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>You close his eyes, then stand and turn to [[the door|The door]].

<<silently>>\n<<set $belief = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>"Did you, now?" There is great agitation in his voice, for the first time. "Did you go mad on your travels, changed in some way by the time you spent chasing me? Because the person I knew didn't put stock in those old folktales. The person //I// grew up with was far too sensible for that.\n\n"Or maybe I didn't know that person at all."\n\n\n[["I always believed"|I always believed]]\n\n[["I began, in time, to believe it"|I began to believe]]

End Boss

"Maybe I deserved what they would have done to me - I'm not in a position to say. But I appreciate your intentions. It would have been awful to die there, in that way. \n\n"I was //terrified// of dying that night, but it would have been far easier to face it with you there."\n\n[[The third question]]

"He lost faith. It's hard to blame him for that." \n\n[["I don't"|The penultimate question]]\n\n[["There must have been something I could have done"|cartographer cont.]]

You knew exactly what he deserved. There was no benefit in letting him live, but your hand was held back by - something. You found you couldn't make yourself act, so you waited, and soon the act was no longer necessary.\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $Reuss = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>You were losing, or something close to it. Whole armies were being lost, and even when you won battles there was the slow, steady grinding out of men and supplies and morale. Important allies were losing faith in the whole endeavour, ready to pull their forces back to their own national borders. \n\nThey demanded progress. Some of the more brazen outright demanded you call upon the Reussians for aid. It could have so easily come crashing down at a moment's notice.\n\n[[The response|pressure]]\n

"Oh, but you are."\n\nHe watches you.\n\n[[Silence|Reuss question]]

"Who knows, maybe you'll find her again one day."\n\n[["Maybe"|The penultimate question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $henchman_status = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>You leave his body there, alone, and turn to the [[door|The door]].

<<silently>>\n<<set $thenorth = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>You ran into the woods after him because you thought he could still be salvaged. Then you found him. He had done so much harm, but when you looked into his eyes for those brief moments you only saw fear. \n\nA kind of innocent fear that made you recognise him for the first time in so long. You decided in that moment to end the chase and give him a chance to come back home. Back to the village, for //good//.\n\nYour hand is balled into a [[fist]]\n\nHe tries to speak: "You know - you know it was an accident. When I left, I never meant for y-" You stop him.\n\n[["I know. It's done"|bring back]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $thenorth = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>He had damned himself in your eyes. Your sister had //died//, and you couldn't forgive him for that. \n\nHe tries to interrupt you but you stop him. You //know// it was an accident. You //know//.\n\nBut it doesn't matter. It was his actions and his choices and all //his// violence that led to that mistake. You were going to chase him as far as he fled into the north and leave his body out there. \n\n[[The second response|kill]]

The two of you fell into an argument one night; you can no longer remember what about. But it grew and grew until it enveloped all the years you had spent together. You stood inches apart, screaming at each other for what felt like hours. \n\nYou had a vivid memory then. You saw him grasping a living man's skull, crushing it between his hands; his fingers digging into the two yielding sockets. You grew afraid of his anger. \n\nBut he merely turned away and, in silence, he packed up his things and left. You remember watching his form vanish in the distance.\n\nThen you all kept walking.\n\n[["The Paladin went into labour a few days later"|The Paladin went into labour a few days later]]

He looks at you with a darkness in his eyes.\n\n"Please, promise me something - promise me that you won't have them kill him, or torture him, or //anything like that//. He doesn't deserve that."\n\n[["Fine, you have my word"|my word]]\n\n[["I can't promise that"|no promise]]\n\n[["I won't promise that"|no promise]]

"I had been trying for weeks to communicate with it, but you stumbled in and it all came so //naturally// to you. It recognised you. I could only ever hear its murmurs, and your companions did no better than me. You alone heard the clear voices of that distant past. You alone, almost instantly.\n\n"You could have come to fully control it in such a short space of time. But instead you used its power to bring the mountain down, destroying it, and nearly killing all of us in the process. I still don't understand why."\n\n[["To prevent you from controlling it"|To prevent you from controlling it]]\n\n[["It couldn't be controlled"|It couldn't be controlled]]\n\n[["I acted on my companions' counsel"|I acted on my companions' words]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $northdeaths = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>They were there because they trusted you. And now they're gone.\n\n[[The response|remorse]]

She had told you about the consequences of her actions. The corruption that seeps into the bodies of people like her. Unnatural channels in the flesh. Tumours filled with hair and teeth. Dark pits in her forearms. When she learned she was pregnant she was afraid.\n \n[[continue|Paladin's death 1]]

"I understand your anger; you haven't come out of this unscathed. But your maliciousness is, even now, shocking.\n\n"He and I were very close. And this - it's something I'm not sure I can forgive." \n\nHe composes himself: "Let's move on."\n\n[[The final question]]

He pauses for a moment. And then: "So you were left with the witch. The two of you kept moving further north, together.\n\n"But you're alone now. Where is she?"\n\n[["She's gone"|love]]\n\n[["I don't know"|love]]\n\n[["She didn't say"|love]]

It really seemed simpler then. But thousands of people died without having a say in the matter. Because of a single decision you made. Perhaps it was necessary - you don't know.\n\n[[The penultimate question]]

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $power = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>You seek to use the strength here. You can feel it reaching for you even now. You've come too far and sacrificed too much to throw that power away. \n\n[[The first response|gain]]

<<timedinsert 1.6s >>End Boss<<endtimedinsert>>\n\n<<timedinsert 3.2s >>by Nick Keirle<<endtimedinsert>>\n\n<<timedinsert 4.8s >> [[Haruspex Games|http://haruspexgames.com/2013/11/04/some-thoughts-on-end-boss/]]<<endtimedinsert>>

<<silently>>\n<<set $destroycreature = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>Once you had severed the link you spoke with your companions. They told you what they'd seen, and you told them how //little// it was. You listened to their advice, and then you - you alone - made a decision.\n\nHe speaks: "And who did you listen to? Who tipped you over the edge?"\n\n[["The witch"|The witch]]\n\n[["The barbarian"|The barbarian]]\n\n[["The Paladin"|The Paladin]]\n\n[["Her husband, the cartographer"|Her husband, the cartographer]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $whybelief = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>You always felt it. As a child, even. At first you didn't understand, and when you did you fought against it. But you always felt it somehow, and as you grew its presence grew also.\n\n[[The response|always believed]]

"You're right - you don't. I just wanted to see if you could."\n\n[[Say nothing]]\n\n[[Reconsider]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $Reuss = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>They turned the tide, didn't they? This war isn't - wasn't - about them. They gave men, arms, supplies - that all was needed, and in great quantities. \n\n[[The response|useful alliance]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<<<set $left_dungeon = true>>\n<<endsilently>>You go back into that wide open world, knowing that you can't delay this moment forever.\n\nTime passes.\n\n[[Return|The door return]]

You think:\n\n<<if $henchman_status eq "1">>\n\n[["I killed him out of //mercy//"|mercy death]]\n\n[["He deserved what he got"|he deserved]]\n\n[["He was too corrupted to salvage"|He was unsalvageable]]\n\n[["I was angry"|I was angry]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]<<endif>><<if $henchman_status eq "2">>\n\n[["I couldn't decide what to do"|couldn't decide]]\n\n[["He didn't deserve to live, but I couldn't kill him"|didn't deserve]]\n\n[["I wanted him to suffer before he died"|suffer before death]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]<<endif>><<if $henchman_status eq "3">>\n\n[["I felt mercy"|felt mercy]]\n\n[["He can still be salvaged"|salvageable]]\n\n[["He needs to answer for what he's done"|answer for crimes]]\n\n[["I don't know"|I don't know]]\n\n<<endif>>

"And how does that work then? You say you always believed that you were marked by fate. But was I, somehow, exempt? If your hands were guided by fate and prophecy then so were mine."\n\n[["Listen"|Listen]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $destroycreature = 2>>\n<<endsilently>><<if $Dvorshk eq "3">>Again, you saw it as a war of attrition.<<endif>>You knew how driven he was to control the power that creature emanated. You were certain that he'd never stop trying to take it from you, so you destroyed it, and denied him that chance.\n\n[[The response|prevent]]

"<<if $whypretend eq "1">>How very practical. <<endif>><<if $Dvorshk eq "3">>Ever the practical one, aren't you? <<endif>> Such a simple decision to make.<<if $thenorth eq "3">>\n\n"But you risked your life to save me from them once, long ago. Was I of greater value to you than the thousands of people the Reussians press-ganged into your service, or has your viewpoint merely hardened over the years? I wonder.<<endif>>" \n\n[[The next question|In the north]]

"If you're only interested in digging in your heels then I've no interest in arguing the point. You win. Let's move on." \n\n[[The penultimate question]]

"So much blood on your hands. And every time you shake it off it's replaced by another coating. It's getting easier and easier to piece you together."\n\n[["You have no idea who I am"|Who I am]] \n\n[["There's far more blood on your hands than mine"|more blood on yours]]\n\n[[hesitate]]\n

You couldn't kill him. He was too afraid, his life too fragile in your hands. Perhaps you'll come to regret it one day, but in that moment you couldn't bear to do anything else.\n\n[[The final question]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $themountain = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>No one had seen such things in thousands of years. You looked up at the creature held in the walls of the mountain - it spoke to you and your companions, each separately, each silently. It showed you visions of the vast span of ages collected in its memory, and it filled you with a powerful sense of awe.\n\n[[What happened in the mountain]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $Reuss = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>You try to explain, but he interrupts: "<<if $thenorth eq "3">>You tried to save me from their cruelty long ago. How quickly you learnt to make peace with that cruelty, and how competently you utilised it in the end.\n\n"But <<endif>>I wonder how you weighed the justice of the matter. Was their retribution against me worth the lives they threw around? And now that the Reussians have had their justice what of their captives - who'll stand up so nobly to defend their justice?"\n\n[[The next question|In the north]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $belief = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>He is agitated: "Then why did you pretend otherwise? Why did you whisper false prophecies into the open ears of kings and holy men?"\n\n[["It was useful"|It was useful]]\n\n[["People needed to believe in something"|People needed to believe]]

"Really? Is that honestly the way you feel? After everything that's happened surely you -"\n\n[["No. I don't."|Nothing]]

It was ill-formed. Framed by black blood, it held clenched in its fist a mass of clotted fluid. \n\n[[continue]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $whybelief = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>After everything you saw how could you not come to believe? You became aware of the fundamental mechanisms driving both his life and yours. Driving them together and apart again. \n\nSometimes signs and auguries are not human inventions, but instead messages seared into your ignorant yet waiting flesh. \n\n[[The response|began to believe]]

"I know I don't have a great deal of time left. But if somehow I were to survive what's about to happen...well, I expect I'd spend the rest of my life wondering about what happened that day.\n\n"Anyway, why don't we move on."\n\n[[The penultimate question]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $Dvorshk = 1>>\n<<endsilently>>Dvorshk was already lost long before you reached it. His actions had corrupted the very earth; the dark magic he brought to that place dug down into the bedrock and withered it away. Nothing could live there again until that place - and its people - were cleansed.\n\n[[The third response|corruption]]\n

<<silently>>\n<<set $themountain = 3>>\n<<endsilently>>You had never seen anything to compare. As a child you had devoured books and books and books that talked about the secrets hidden throughout the world. One wrote of the excavation of a great beast found fossilised in the depths of a quarry. They found it there and chipped it from the surrounding rock - a long-dead creature of inconceivable form, nearly one thousand hands high.\n\nBut those books were //nothing// compared to this. In that moment your curiosity burned more painfully than ever before.\n\n[[What happened in the mountain]]

"Well that's just it. I've //seen// such things at work. I've grasped the preternatural in my hands and utilised it. You're asking me to believe in something I can't see or hear or utilise, for no reason and for no benefit.\n\n"How can I believe it? Believe that everything was meant to be like this. I can't believe that anything was meant to be like //this//.\n\n"I didn't become who I am because there's some inherent hardness in me. They made me like this - their words, their silence, //their// actions. They left impressions of themselves in us, like thumbprints in grasped clay. If the circumstances of our births were exchanged I would be in roughly your position and you would, roughly speaking, be in mine."\n\n[["I would never be like you"|I would never be like you]]\n\n[[Silence|Reuss question]]

"I'm not saying I deserved something different. I'm just surprised."\n\n[[The third question]]

"Why do you feel so strongly about //that// in particular? They needed to fight in order to survive. What good would the truth have done them?"\n\n[["They would have had a free choice"|people's belief cont.]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $henchman_status = 2>>\n<<endsilently>>You take the key from his body and go. As you turn he closes his eyes and drifts painlessly into unconsciousness.\n\n[[The door]]

"I see. I hope that you'll learn to control it fully. I never could, and sometimes as I pushed I felt that power pushing back. This is a dangerous place, and it changes you. //Know// that."\n\n[[The second question]]