Best coding for text adventure with conditional text?

[Strangelander]

I know only basic Javascript. I'm making a choose-your-own-adventure game, but want parts of each "page" to display conditionally. For example:

You see a sword, a hat, and a helmet here.

• Take sword
• Wear hat
• Wear helmet
• Continue into swamp

Clicking "Take sword" would set a variable "haveSword" to true, and the page would display:

You heft the sword, testing its razor edge against your thumb.

You see a hat and a helmet here.

• Wear hat
• Wear helmet
• Continue into swamp

It tells you the results of your action, then repeats the main part, but updated to reflect any changes. If you then pick "Wear helmet," it shows the action and main paragraph, but updated to reflect that change, etc., all in any order that you choose. This is a simple example, but I would like a system that allows for more complex interactions, that you can perform all in the same "room."

Later on in the adventure, when you enter the dragon's lair, you get a page detailing the encounter: if you have the sword, you can attack the dragon, or else you get a paragraph about being powerless. The dragon attacks you, and if you have the helmet, it protects you; if you only have the hat, you get a sentence about it going up in flames before you die; and if you have neither, you just die.

The concept is pretty simple, but I don't know how to code it cleanly in Javascript.

I currently have each "page" contained in a hidden <div> tag with its own id. I put them in the body instead of as vars in the script because fiction has lots of single and double quotes which need escaped and make it hard to type and read (e.g., \"How\'re you doin\'?\" he asked.). I'd like to keep it that way, but maybe that's unrealistic.

I have two placeholder divs in the body. OnLoad puts the first "page" of the adventure into placeholder2 using innerHTML. Clicking on a link in the text, like "Take sword," puts "You heft the sword..." into placeholder1 and refreshes the text of placeholder2. But I need that text to stop displaying the "Take sword" option if "haveSword" is now true, and not mention the sword in the room description...

A different story that shows what I'm looking for, but is unfinished and unsustainably messy, can be found at http://taleofwayfinder.webs.com/red_0_2.html

tl;dr
How can I insert a paragraph using innerHTML (or whatever method) and have it evaluate what parts/options to display when it inserts?