Tarrok

Free Mine · The mines

"Well done, morra. You found me."

Ur-Shak's blood bonded

Tarrok is Ur-Shak's blood bonded and a former orc slave hiding after the mine raid. When the Hero finds him and uses an orcish phrase, Tarrok is surprised that a morra knows his name and asks how he could have spoken with Ur-Shak.

The Hero needs Tarrok's help to make an Ulu-Mulu, but Tarrok warns that the weapon is not easy to build and asks whether the required materials have truly been gathered.

A slave who ran

Asked what he is doing in hiding, Tarrok says the answer should be obvious: he was a slave for many, many winters before he ran. He refuses to return to the fighting, saying, I have no spirit to fight on. The blue morra broke me, and I was a coward when the red ones came.

He has made his peace with staying away, even after the raid ends.

The materials for the Ulu-Mulu

Tarrok names the materials Ur-Shak described: the horn of a great shadowbeast, the tusk of a great troll, the tongue of a great fire lizard, and the teeth of a mother swampshark. While the Hero gathers them, Tarrok waits and tells him not to die.

When everything is returned, he inspects the trophies and asks whether the Hero crushed all the beasts himself.

Zarr and honour

Tarrok can make the Ulu-Mulu, but he says one thing is still missing: zarr, the life, change, and death that spills in an honourable fight. He explains that the orcs put chains around his honour when they made him a slave, and that he cannot return to the ordôkh in his exhausted state.

The Hero is forced to fight Tarrok to the death so that the Ulu-Mulu can be made whole. Tarrok gives the weapon with the honour it carries, even though the final step costs him his life.

What other NPCs say

Ur-Shak brings up Tarrok while reflecting on an orc hunt and then on Tarrok's death. The contrast between describing him as a strong warrior and admitting the emptiness left by his loss gives the name personal weight beyond the usual orc reputation for strength. Ur-Shak gives the memory an intimate detail by recalling the phrase he and Tarrok used when they still hunted together, before asking the Hero to find him and make the Ulu-Mulu.

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