Insignificant Little Vermin

A sword & sorcery simulation rendered in text

Escape slavery in Mount Bloodrock, an underground enclave of orcs and goblins preparing for war. What will you discover in these dark caves? What mayhem can you wreak on your way out? And how will your former captors remember you?

Tap the Start button below to explore a simulated living (and dying) world inhabited by AI actors, rendered through text. Or scroll down ↓ to learn more about the story.

About the story

In the end, it does not really matter how the orcs enslave you — a slave is a slave — but it does say something about your journey. Some people will shiver below a table when an orc's hand grabs them and another binds them with rope. Others squirm in a bag as they're being hauled on a war wolf away from their field. Yet others fall into primitive traps in the woods.

Not you. You became a slave by attacking an orc war camp, all by yourself.

It felt good at first. You screamed at the top of your lungs, axe raised over your head. It was your revenge. It was suicide, but it had meaning. It was beautiful.

It turned ugly fast. The first orc swatted your axe away easily, kicked you to the ground, and knocked you out cold.

The orcs took you back to their caves in Mount Bloodrock, a dark peak of the Aelphremede mountain range. It is visible from as far as the rich markets of Azerley or the giant corpses of Highwynd, and surrounded by the human kingdom of Grayshore — yet it has never been fully explored. You quickly learned this enclave is a kingdom of its own, with miles of tunnels, war forges, barracks, altars, and hundreds of slaves. You also learned the orcs and the goblins are not acting independently, and that the mountain has an evil of its own.

Your dream of a heroic deed and death became a nightmare of slavery.