text: [Themes: Cave crawl, Zorkian, old school]
  
  > Look around
  Smothered in a suffocating red haze, half-conscious at best, your
  position seems hopeless. The lily's membrane is tough as
  crocodile-skin and beyond it is perhaps a thousand feet of water? The
  pressure seals you in as well as any rockfall could. Indeed, only the
  pressure makes it possible at all for one Ambassador and one giant
  hatched lizard to share a space barely six feet in diameter.
  
  The creature wriggles, dripping a saliva that burns to the touch, but
  seems lapsed back into embryonic sleep.
  
  The creature wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > Fill drum
  But there's no water here to carry.
  
  The compression tightens.
  
  > enter the coffer
  That's not something you can enter.
  
  The compression tightens.
  
  > Memorise ruther
  You commit the ruther spell to memory.
  
  The compression tightens.
  
  > Ruther telescope
  The spell misfires, perhaps because the hand telescope is not pure but
  a mixture or an alloy.
  
  The creature wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > Ruther creature
  The spell misfires, perhaps because the embryonic hornet is not pure
  but a mixture or an alloy.
  
  > open the pod
  The membrane seems impervious to everything.
  
  > Spells
  The jilnix spell is indelibly etched on your memory. Other than that,
  you have the ruther spell, piroo spell and chiaro spell memorised.
  
  The membrane walls exude some kind of digestive fluid.
  
  > Piroo creature
  Nothing happens, perhaps because the embryonic hornet was already
  unfastened.
  
  > Chiaro diamond
  The magic has no effect, perhaps because the diamond's crystalline
  structure is too strong.
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, perhaps dreaming.
  
  > search the hornet
  You find nothing of interest.
  
  Your shoulders are being folded together, like a recalcitrant
  cardboard box.
  
  The hornet wriggles in sleep, talons rustling.
  
  > Ruther window
  The spell misfires, perhaps because the quartz window is not pure but
  a mixture or an alloy.
  
  > cut the window
  Cutting that up would achieve little.
  
  > look in the window
  Tantalisingly, you can only see darkness within.
  
  > Chiaro window
  The spell dissipates, perhaps because the quartz window is already
  giving off light.
  
  > look at the window through telescope
  The quartz window is too close to you to make that worthwhile.
  
  > Ruther wall
  (the masoned wall)
  The spell misfires, perhaps because the masoned wall is not pure but a
  mixture or an alloy.
  
  > memorize ruther
  That would be highly hazardous!
  You commit the ruther spell to memory.
  
  > Ruther doorway
  You commit the ruther spell to memory once again.
  Blue magical light crackles over the doorway, reconstituting the
  poison on the archway.
  
  > look at the doorway
  coated with a runny, nasty-looking paste which drips out of tiny
  pores.
  
  > Ruther doorway
  Blue magical light crackles over the doorway, abating to leave it...
  greenly glowing.
  
  > examine the doorway
  The doorway glows with green phosphorescence.
  
  > Go south
  An upward slope from the arched doorway to north, this is an irregular
  burrow wriggled out of soft earth. Strange tracks have been dragged,
  making wavy lines which meet at the distant top, where the burrow
  opens out.
  
  > Ruther doorway
  Blue magical light crackles over the doorway, reconstituting the
  poison on the archway.
  
  > Go south
  As you pass through the archway, clouds of vapour and drips of arsenic
  seep into your nose and ears! Death is immediate.
  
  > Go north
  An expanse of shingle and boulders sloping haphazardly across an irregularly-shaped floor a hundred feet across, only smoothed out at
  its centre by a stream which pools just to the north. A furrow in the
  rocky walls leads southwest, alongside a scree-fall which lies roughly
  south; while the cave narrows into a canyon to the east.
  
  The cone of the cedar hangs vertiginously over you, its tip perhaps 9
  feet off the floor.
  
  An improvised ladder of sticks, lashed together with vines and
  creepers, rests against the tip of the cedar, leading up into its
  branches.
  
  You can also see a joint of cured ham here.
  
  > go south
  An upward slope from the arched doorway to north, this is an irregular
  burrow wriggled out of soft earth. Strange tracks have been dragged,
  making wavy lines which meet at the distant top, where the burrow
  opens out.
  
  You can see a joint of cured ham here.
  
  > eat the banana
  Delicious! Just as you reach the last morsel, there is another
  blinding flash of light.
  
  The hornet wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > Piroo lily
  Abruptly the lily-pod bursts. A detached observer would think its
  graceful explosion reminiscent of seeds released onto a spring wind.
  But with the pressure of the water smashing into you like a hammer,
  you are soon detached from all observation, all reminiscence.
  
  > wake the hornet
  The hornet sleeps soundly (thank heavens).
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, talons rustling.
  
  > kick the hornet
  Does it not occur to you that you and the hornet are in the same boat,
  or in this case the same submarine?
  
  The compression tightens.
  
  > examine the hornet
  A sleek, beautiful marvel, half-insect, half-reptile. Its gauzy wings
  are only undeveloped stubs and a little amniotic fluid still coats
  them; but its sting, painted like a brimstone butterfly, looks deadly
  already.
  
  The creature wriggles in sleep, perhaps dreaming.
  
  > examine the sting
  The tip slightly exudes some kind of poison.
  
  The membrane walls exude some kind of digestive fluid.
  
  > Poison arrow
  You'll have to be more exact about how to do that.
  
  Your shoulders are being folded together, like a recalcitrant
  cardboard box.
  
  > Break stinger
  You'd have to be very careful about that.
  
  Your shoulders are being folded together, like a recalcitrant
  cardboard box.
  
  > shoot the hornet
  What, in this confined space?
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  
  The pressure is now almost unbearable!
  
  > put the ham on the stinger
  Putting things on the stinger would achieve nothing.
  
  With a sudden convulsion of fibres, the lily pod crunches you up
  entirely, with merciful speed.
  
  > Hint
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  > Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  Hints: Casting Spells
  > Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  > Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  > Egg Chamber and Lily
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  > Can the creature be revived?
  When will the egg hatch?
  Will the amniotic fluid harm my hands?
  The lily is crushing me.
  My possessions are lost!
  Can I go back to the house for something?
  What's the broad leaf for?
  
  > go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Can the creature be revived?
  > When will the egg hatch?
  Will the amniotic fluid harm my hands?
  The lily is crushing me.
  My possessions are lost!
  Can I go back to the house for something?
  What's the broad leaf for?
  
  > go to the north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Can the creature be revived?
  When will the egg hatch?
  > Will the amniotic fluid harm my hands?
  The lily is crushing me.
  My possessions are lost!
  Can I go back to the house for something?
  What's the broad leaf for?
  
  > go to the north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Can the creature be revived?
  When will the egg hatch?
  Will the amniotic fluid harm my hands?
  > The lily is crushing me.
  My possessions are lost!
  Can I go back to the house for something?
  What's the broad leaf for?
  (Press H for more, or SPACE to return.)
  
  You must find a way of immobilising it, without exploding it.
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Can the creature be revived?
  When will the egg hatch?
  Will the amniotic fluid harm my hands?
  > The lily is crushing me.
  My possessions are lost!
  Can I go back to the house for something?
  What's the broad leaf for?
  (Press H for more, or SPACE to return.)
  
  You must find a way of immobilising it, without exploding it.
  
  > squeeze the stinger
  With extreme care you squeeze the hornet's stinger, and poison drips
  out to form a tiny pool in the base of the lily pod. In this
  compressed space you're just able to keep your feet out of it, for the
  time it takes to soak into the membrane walls of the pod.
  
  > wait for a while
  Time passes.
  
  There is a hissing sound from the base of the pod.
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  poison! The whole pod rocks a little in the underwater currents,
  fraying away from the stalk.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  Suddenly the pod pulls free, and although you can see nothing of the
  waters outside, your best guess is that it's drifting westward and
  rising slightly.
  
  You begin to feel a certain concern for, of all things, your
  belongings. When the pod collapses, what will the water do to them?
  
  > Piroo
  Abruptly the lily-pod bursts. A detached observer would think its
  graceful explosion reminiscent of seeds released onto a spring wind.
  But with the pressure of the water smashing into you like a hammer,
  you are soon detached from all observation, all reminiscence.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  The pod bumps against an obstacle, checking its westward motion. Now
  it is only rising, rising.
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > put all in the coffer
  old document: Done.
  colour chart: Done.
  length of light rope: Done.
  boomerang: Done.
  gleaming uncut diamond: Done.
  formal credentials: Done.
  shard of pottery: Done.
  small wickerwork hamper: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  drum: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  bow: Done.
  handwritten note: Done.
  Experimental Spell Book #5: Done.
  Ambassador's trunk: Done.
  brass lantern: Done.
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces: Done.
  joint of cured ham: Done.
  hunk of cheese: Done.
  clove of garlic: Done.
  
  Finally the pod breaks surface and bursts into disparate leaves, no
  longer bound up by the pressure. In confusion you strike out, treading
  water, but after a couple of minutes' panic realise that the water is
  only waist deep here. You wade toward a slight light.
  
  From the natural light, dim and far above, you'd guess this cave was distinctly higher up than the cedar-cavern floor. A natural limestone
  cavity, beautiful and thankfully unused, it's a chance to rest and
  think. A single winding path leads vaguely north.
  
  A burnished lantern lies discarded in the sand.
  
  Dead leaves float out on the water, but of the hornet there is no
  trace.
  
  One broad leaf, though, has washed up beside you.
  
  > put all in the coffer
  old document: Done.
  colour chart: Done.
  length of light rope: Done.
  boomerang: Done.
  gleaming uncut diamond: Done.
  formal credentials: Done.
  shard of pottery: Done.
  small wickerwork hamper: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  drum: Done.
  arrow: Done.
  bow: Done.
  handwritten note: Done.
  Experimental Spell Book #5: Done.
  Ambassador's trunk: Done.
  brass lantern: Done.
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces: Done.
  joint of cured ham: Done.
  hunk of cheese: Done.
  clove of garlic: Done.
  
  Suddenly the pod pulls free, and although you can see nothing of the
  waters outside, your best guess is that it's drifting westward and
  rising slightly.
  
  You begin to feel a certain concern for, of all things, your
  belongings. When the pod collapses, what will the water do to them?
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > close the coffer
  You close the coffer.
  
  The pod bumps against an obstacle, checking its westward motion. Now
  it is only rising, rising.
  
  The hornet wriggles in sleep, talons rustling.
  
  > take the coffer
  You already have that.
  
  Finally the pod breaks surface and bursts into disparate leaves, no
  longer bound up by the pressure. In confusion you strike out, treading
  water, but after a couple of minutes' panic realise that the water is
  only waist deep here. You wade toward a slight light.
  
  From the natural light, dim and far above, you'd guess this cave was distinctly higher up than the cedar-cavern floor. A natural limestone
  cavity, beautiful and thankfully unused, it's a chance to rest and
  think. A single winding path leads vaguely north.
  
  A burnished lantern lies discarded in the sand.
  
  Dead leaves float out on the water, but of the hornet there is no
  trace.
  
  One broad leaf, though, has washed up beside you.
  
  > get the leaf and the lantern
  broad green leaf: Taken.
  burnished lantern: Taken.
  
  > take it
  You are carrying:
  a burnished lantern
  a broad green leaf
  
  You already have that.
  
  > examine the lantern
  The burnished lantern is currently switched off.
  
  > Spells
  The jilnix spell is indelibly etched on your memory. Other than that,
  you have the piroo spell and chiaro spell memorised.
  
  > Go north
  It is pitch black. You are in danger of falling into a pit if you move
  around in this.
  
  > turn on the lantern
  You light the lantern.
  
  This is only half a cave; the western half, to be exact. It's a dark
  place full of crevices (you would have missed the stony passage back
  south if you hadn't already known about it). Boxes, bottles and crates
  are stored here, and to judge from scrape-marks are used by whoever
  lives through the broad passage northwest.
  
  What divides this cave is a solid, floor-to-ceiling stone wall running
  north to south, masoned with mortar and seemingly recent. You feel
  quite certain that the cave continues.
  
  The stub of a stock-keeper's note lies forgotten beside the stores.
  
  > examine the stub
  Just the torn end of a tally-sheet of some kind:
  
  Make of that what you will!
  
  > Examine boxes
  The stores piled up here are heavy and there's quite a supply,
  covering half the wall: enough for a dozen men to last out for weeks.
  
  > Search boxes
  You manage to uncover what seems to be a secret doorway in the masoned
  wall. An emergency escape-route, prudently added by whoever is using
  the stores?
  
  > open the door
  You open the secret door.
  
  > go to the east
  This is only half a cave; the eastern half, to be exact. It's a dark
  place full of crevices (you would have missed the slide passage back
  north if you hadn't already known about it); chief among them a
  distinctive triangular cavity, 1 foot or so high, and blocked by a
  rough quartz window.
  
  the cave, after all.
  
  > Go west
  This is only half a cave; the western half, to be exact. It's a dark
  place full of crevices (you would have missed the stony passage back
  south if you hadn't already known about it). Boxes, bottles and crates
  are stored here, and to judge from scrape-marks are used by whoever
  lives through the broad passage northwest.
  
  the cave, after all.
  
  > Go northwest
  Wheel Cave (South)
  A circular corridor-cave, like a cartwheel's rim and unmistakably
  artificial. Yet no mason of the Duchy could cut so smooth a wall! The
  arc hoops around northeast and northwest, while a broad passage runs
  southeast back to the stores.
  
  > go northeast
  Wheel Cave (East)
  A circular corridor-cave, like a cartwheel's rim and unmistakably
  artificial. The arc hoops around northwest and southwest.
  
  A white scroll, in pristine condition, rests in a niche.
  
  > examine the scroll
  The scroll reads "ploor spell (nation shall speak peace unto nation)".
  
  > go northwest
  Wheel Cave (North)
  A circular corridor-cave, like a cartwheel's rim and unmistakably
  artificial. The arc hoops around southwest and southeast.
  
  On the northern wall is a wooden rack, of the kind used by bakers to
  cool cakes, or painters to dry watercolours.
  
  On the wooden rack are seven unwritten vellum scrolls.
  
  > look at the scroll
  The scroll is as yet unwritten.
  
  > get all
  wooden rack: That's fixed in place.
  
  > get all from the rack
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Removed.
  
  > go southwest
  Wheel Cave (West)
  A circular corridor-cave, like a cartwheel's rim and unmistakably
  artificial. The arc hoops around northeast and southeast.
  
  of the great wheel.
  
  A clear funnel chimney rises vertically up, like a glass-blower's vent
  or something from a furnace, lined with smooth-curving brick.
  
  Beneath the chimney is a huge, irregular, metallic lodestone,
  presumably a meteor fallen to earth.
  
  A thick, viscous green beam of magical light reflects from the meteor
  through a right-angle: straight upward through the chimney, to a level
  path east through the archway.
  
  > look at the scroll
  Which do you mean, an unwritten vellum scroll or the white scroll in
  pristine condition?
  
  > Unwritten
  The scroll is as yet unwritten.
  
  > Go east
  The presence everywhere of tools and instruments makes this place
  rather homely to a Duchy-born man like yourself: it's like a smithy,
  but of the colours of light, not the alloys of metal.
  
  At the workshop's centre is the Anvil, a hard stone mounting and,
  perhaps, the fulcrum of the new Northlands Empire that is to come. The
  beam of light courses in through the eastern archway to strike the top
  of the Anvil dead-centre.
  
  workshop, and can be turned anywhere on the calibrated dial from 1 to
  180 degrees. It now stands at 37.12.
  
  wooden cot, apparently in a deep sleep or coma.
  
  On the floor beneath Clotspinner's outstretched hand are the fragments
  of a broken glass prism, smashed by the fall. It's a tableau like a
  narrative painting: you feel a curious urge to disturb nothing.
  
  > look at Clotspinner
  One of the few wise men to be widely known across the continent, he is Clotspinner, renowned for his optical experiments. They've
  revolutionised the practice of lense-making in the Duchy, but the
  Empress was far less impressed with such footling activities. Nothing
  has been known of him since his "resignation" from the Imperial
  Academy -- until now, that is.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  seven unwritten vellum scrolls (which is unwritten)
  a white scroll in pristine condition (of the ploor spell)
  a stub of a stock-keeper's note
  a burnished lantern (providing light)
  a broad green leaf
  
  > wake Clotspinner
  Clotspinner lies prone, close to death, his pulse thready and weak,
  his breath too slight to feel on your hand. Surely nothing on earth
  could revive him now.
  
  > look at the dial
  It seems to be possible to put something into it.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  some provisions - a banana, a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese
  and a clove of garlic
  
  > drop all
  coffer: Dropped.
  old document: Dropped.
  colour chart: Dropped.
  length of light rope: Dropped.
  boomerang: Dropped.
  formal credentials: Dropped.
  shard of pottery: Dropped.
  small wickerwork hamper: Dropped.
  arrow: Dropped.
  arrow: Dropped.
  arrow: Dropped.
  arrow: Dropped.
  bow: Dropped.
  handwritten note: Dropped.
  Experimental Spell Book #5: Dropped.
  Ambassador's trunk: Dropped.
  brass lantern: Dropped.
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces: Dropped.
  banana: Dropped.
  joint of cured ham: Dropped.
  hunk of cheese: Dropped.
  clove of garlic: Dropped.
  
  > Go north
  An expanse of shingle and boulders sloping haphazardly across an irregularly-shaped floor a hundred feet across, only smoothed out at
  its centre by a stream which pools just to the north. A furrow in the
  rocky walls leads southwest, alongside a scree-fall which lies roughly
  south; while the cave narrows into a canyon to the east.
  
  The cone of the cedar hangs vertiginously over you, its tip perhaps 9
  feet off the floor.
  
  An improvised ladder of sticks, lashed together with vines and
  creepers, rests against the tip of the cedar, leading up into its
  branches.
  
  Your length of rope is here.
  
  You can also see some provisions - a clove of garlic, a hunk of
  cheese, a joint of cured ham and a banana, The Guide For Travellers To
  The Lower Northlands and Surrounding Provinces, a brass lantern
  (providing light), your Ambassador's trunk (in which is a hand
  telescope), Experimental Spell Book #5, the handwritten note, a bow,
  four arrows, a small wickerwork hamper (which is empty), a shard of
  pottery (providing light), your formal credentials, a boomerang
  (providing light), a colour chart, an old document and a coffer (which
  is empty) here.
  
  > light it
  That's already on.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  There is a hissing sound from the base of the pod.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  poison! The whole pod rocks a little in the underwater currents,
  fraying away from the stalk.
  
  The creature wriggles in sleep, talons rustling.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  Suddenly the pod pulls free, and although you can see nothing of the
  waters outside, your best guess is that it's drifting westward and
  rising slightly.
  
  You begin to feel a certain concern for, of all things, your
  belongings. When the pod collapses, what will the water do to them?
  
  The hatchling wriggles in sleep, stirring.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The pod bumps against an obstacle, checking its westward motion. Now
  it is only rising, rising.
  
  The hornet wriggles in sleep, perhaps dreaming.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  Finally the pod breaks surface and bursts into disparate leaves, no
  longer bound up by the pressure. In confusion you strike out, treading
  water, but after a couple of minutes' panic realise that the water is
  only waist deep here. You wade toward a slight light.
  
  From the natural light, dim and far above, you'd guess this cave was distinctly higher up than the cedar-cavern floor. A natural limestone
  cavity, beautiful and thankfully unused, it's a chance to rest and
  think. A single winding path leads vaguely north.
  
  A burnished lantern lies discarded in the sand.
  
  Dead leaves float out on the water, but of the hornet there is no
  trace.
  
  One broad leaf, though, has washed up beside you.
  
  > get the leaf and the lantern
  broad green leaf: Taken.
  burnished lantern: Taken.
  
  > Go north
  It is pitch black. You are in danger of falling into a pit if you move
  around in this.
  
  > turn on the lantern
  You light the lantern.
  
  This is only half a cave; the western half, to be exact. It's a dark
  place full of crevices (you would have missed the stony passage back
  south if you hadn't already known about it). Boxes, bottles and crates
  are stored here, and to judge from scrape-marks are used by whoever
  lives through the broad passage northwest.
  
  What divides this cave is a solid, floor-to-ceiling stone wall running
  north to south, masoned with mortar and seemingly recent. You feel
  quite certain that the cave continues.
  
  The stub of a stock-keeper's note lies forgotten beside the stores.
  
  > jump
  (to the tree, presumably, rather than plunging into the abyss and
  certain death)
  You take a short run-up and leap across, just managing to catch the
  nearest branch! Painfully slowly, you haul yourself in.
  
  You are perched inside the dense, broad first branches down from the
  cedar's roots, which splay across the rocky ceiling like buttresses on
  a perpendicular gothic column. Through the dappled green cover, you
  can just make out the long ledge, but it's too far up to jump across.
  
  A tree-house has been constructed here, though it's little more than a
  wooden lean-to on a log platform.