The euphoria of the victory over the troll scouts evaporated the moment Nym revealed the true scale of the threat with the sketch of the Mountain King, with his obsidian skin and his iron crown it was a chilling and deeply sobering reality check. The clan was not facing a disorganized horde of monsters but an army. An army with a king that was coming to reclaim its home.
The weight of this new and terrifying reality settled upon Ruk like a physical burden. He had just won the clans favor and had just begun to forge a new world but now, it was all about to be swept away in a tide of blood and stone. He felt a flicker of the old despair, the despair of Aiden Cross, a man who had always been destined to lose and he crushed it. He was not Aiden Cross anymore, he was now Ruk, and he would not lose. He would not let his people be slaughtered and his new world die before it had even been born.
He called a war council in the privacy of his command grotto.
It was a small and exclusive council of ones he could trust. Just him, Nym and Grasha. The three pillars of his new regime and the minds that would decide the fate of the Black Tusk Clan.
The mood in the grotto was grim as they looked upon the sketch of the Mountain King that lay on the stone table between them, a silent presence filled the air with a thick scent of fear and terrifying realization that they were hopelessly outmatched.
"We cannot win..." Nym said, in an almost defeated whisper. "They are too many and we have fifty warriors. They have thousands. It is not a battle, its a slaughter"
"She is right Ruk" Grasha added sounding troubled. "We cannot fight them like this. We must run and abandon the mountain. We must find a new home"
It was the logical choice and the only choice that offered any hope of survival. But it was a choice that Ruk, with a certainty that was as deep and as unshakeable as the mountain itself knew that he could not make.
"No" he said with a firm voice, his gaze fixed on the sketch of the Mountain King. "We do not run or hide. We fight"
"Fight?" Nym exclaimed with a mixture of disbelief and fear. "With what? Our fifty warriors against their thousands? It is suicide"
"It is not suicide" Ruk replied. "It is strategy and tactics. It is war and it is a war that we can win"
He then laid out his plan of such insanity that both Nym and Grasha were left speechless. He was not just planning to defend the cavern but was planning to defeat the Mountain King and take his mountain.
"We will not fight them in the open" Ruk explained with his finger tracing a path on the map of the tunnels. "We will fight them in the dark narrow places where their numbers count for nothing and our discipline counts for everything. We will bleed them, exhaust them, break them and then when they are weak, confused and demoralized, we will kill their king!"
It was a plan that was born of desperation and understanding of the enemy's weakness. The trolls were strong but they were also stupid and predictable. They were creatures of brute force and deeply ingrained herd mentality. They followed their king and obeyed his commands like a single celled organism.
"And how do you propose we do that Ruk?" Grasha asked. "How do we kill a mountain god?"
"We become gods ourselves, simple" Ruk replied as he then looked at Nym. "I need more scouts" he said with a command. "I need to know everything about the Mountain King. His habits, patterns and weaknesses. I need to know when he sleeps, eats and when he shits. I need to know him better than he knows himself"
He then looked at Grasha. "I need more warriors" with his voice a low and deeply urgent plea. "Not just the males but the females, old ones and the whelps. Anyone who can hold a spear and throw a rock. We are all soldiers now"
It was a radical and a heretical idea he presented. The orc females, old ones and the whelp? They were not warriors but were the heart of the clan, they are the ones who raised the young, tended the fires and who preserved the traditions. To send them into battle was to risk the very soul of the clan.
But Ruk knew that he had no choice and this was not a war for glory but for survival and in a war for survival, there were no civilians only soldiers and the dead.
Grasha with her mind scrambling from the audacity and insanity of Ruk's plan did not argue or question his plan. She simply nodded and had chosen her king. She would follow him to victory or to death.
"I will do it" she said with a deeply resolute murmur. "I will rally the females and forge them into a new and terrible army. We will be your Valkyries Ruk. Your shield maidens and your queens of war"
Nym with her fear now replaced by a new sense of purpose, she also nodded. "I will get you your information Ruk," she said with a deeply confident whisper. "I will be your eyes and ears, I will be your shadow and your dagger in the dark"
The war council was over and the plan was set. The three of them were about to lead their clan into a war that they could not possibly win against a god. A war for the fate of their world.
But as the news of Ruk's plan and his decision to arm the females, old ones and the whelps, began to spread through the cavern the first cracks began to appear in the clan's newfound unity. The warriors with their pride wounded and traditions threatened, began to murmur about the situations. The old ones with their hearts heavy, began to weep. The whelps terrified understanding of the world had began to cry.
The fear that had been transformed into hope, was now beginning to curdle into a new far more dangerous emotion of despair.
Grak, Ruk's first and most loyal convert came to him that evening. His face was a expression of confusion, doubt and a deeply unsettling fear.
"The warriors are not happy War General" he said. "They say that this is not our way and that you are leading us to our deaths"
"And what do you say Grak?" Ruk asked with his gaze fixed on the warrior's troubled face.
"I say… I say that I will follow you War General" Grak replied. "To victory orr to death. But the others… they are not so sure yet"
Ruk knew that he was losing them. He was losing the war before it had even begun and he needed to do something to restore their faith and remind them of his power. Something to show them that he was not just a War General but a god.
He walked to the center of the cavern and stood before the assembled Clan with an utter confidence. He raised his hand and a silence fell over the cavern.
"I know that you are afraid, I know that you doubt and that you think that I am leading you to your deaths. But I am not. I am leading you to your salvation of a new world. A world where we are not the prey but the predators. A world where we are not the slaves but the masters. A world where we are not just orcs but are gods!"
He then did something that sent a fresh wave of shock and sense of wonder through the cavern. He began to glow a faint blue and ethereal light, it began to emanate from his body. It was the light of his DESIRE stat, a power that he was now for the first time consciously and deliberately unleashing upon everyone.
The light grew brighter, stronger and more intense with every passing moment. It washed over the clan like a wave of pure power. It was a power that was not of this world was… divine.
The clan stared in awe at something they found almost religious. They were witnessing a miracle and a new revelation.
"I am your god!" Ruk declared convincing the crowd of what he is. "And I will not be denied!!"
The doubt and the despair vanished from the clans faces.
The clan knelt before him as their new god and savior. They had come to see a madman but stared witness to a miracle and they had left as the first religion of a new order.
The religion of Ruk.