text: [Themes: Lovecraftian, Horror, child death, body horror, incest, strong NPCs, horror]
  
  > Go downward
  The stairs end here at a huge, greenish-gold door set into the north wall. There is nothing else here; nowhere to go but onward or back.
  
  > look at the door
  The door is enormous, nearly fifteen feet on a side, and made entirely of some smooth, greenish-gold metal that reflects your light with an oily, wavery sheen. There is no handle, no keyhole or latch of any kind. There seems to be no physical way of opening the door at all -- just the smooth rectangle of metal, adorned with a single symbol etched into its center.
  
  > look at the symbol
  The emblem in the center of the door is that of a stylized open eye, surrounded by wavy, radiating lines which resemble nothing less than a crown of sinuous tentacles. You shudder, unable to suppress the feeling that you have seen that eye somewhere before.
  
  > ascend
  You start back up the wide steps...
  
  The vast, stone staircase plunges down into the earth. The seemingly interminable steps curve in a gentle sweep from the southwest, above you, dropping toward black, unplumbed depths to the north.
  
  > go southwest
  The passageway turns east here, the stone floor dropping down in a series of wide steps carved into the living rock. The stairs continue down to the northeast, eventually curving out of sight. The only other way on from here is a narrow, oddly-angled corridor in the northwest corner.
  
  A thin and decrepit rope bridge spans the pit, shivering occasionally in the wind.
  
  > look in the telescope
  The swirling hole in the sky fills the telescope's field of view, turning silently as you watch. The upper depths of the maelstrom are too dark to see, though occasionally you make out sparks of green energy as they arc across the gap.
  
  > put the lens in the telescope
  (first taking the strange black disk)
  (slipping the silver locket into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
  The strange black disk drops neatly into the slot.
  
  > look in the telescope
  For a few moments all you can see is a murky, swirling blackness; then patterns of colors begin to emerge, like the rainbow sheen of oil on water. The black disk grows translucent, stars become visible through the swirling haze, and then...
  
  Dear Christ.
  
  Dear Christ, you can see it.
  
  The comet, roaring silently through the endless void, streaking toward Earth, and it's alive, this thing that is coming is ALIVE, tendrils that must be hundreds, thousands of miles long streaming before it, reaching out to grasp and strangle and devour whole worlds, and it is coming here, it is coming to Earth, and its great, lidless, red-rimmed eye rolls over in a vast lake of vitreous fluid, and it
  
  ...you wake up some time later, shaking your head. You're not
  sure what, exactly, you just witnessed; whether it was a genuine astronomical phenomenon, or a hallucination, or the actual form of some Dark God from the Outer Reaches, come to devour the world. You're not even entirely sure you remember what it looked like. The only thing you can clearly recall is a single name, pulsing in your brain like a bruise:
  
  "Ialdabaoloth".
  
  And that's all.
  
  > turn cheval
  The bottle of light Cheval Blanc rotates a quarter-turn clockwise, then snaps back with a loud "click". A rumbling grating sound suddenly fills the wine cellar, and the racks and a portion of the stone wall behind them swing back, revealing a dark passageway to the north from which blows a hot, foul wind.
  
  > go to the north
  Carefully, you edge out onto the swaying planks. The ropes creak ominously as you cross. A couple of the tattered lines snap just as you reach the halfway mark, and the bridge lists sharply to the left. A few more steps, however, and you are safely on the other side.
  
  The passageway turns east here, the stone floor dropping down in a series of wide steps carved into the living rock. The stairs continue down to the northeast, eventually curving out of sight. The only other way on from here is a narrow, oddly-angled corridor in the northwest corner.
  
  A thin and decrepit rope bridge spans the pit, shivering occasionally in the wind.
  
  Another blast of hot, foul-smelling air comes shrieking out of the pit.
  
  > Ialdabaoloth
  The metallic door suddenly rings out as if struck; it vibrates in aching harmony with the blasphemous name -- a shrill, grating sound like a dentist's drill. The air grows thick and terrible shapes waver and melt in the air before you -- shapes that twitch and move with hungry purpose, and seem to look at you -- and then the ringing fades away. There is a moment of stillness, and then the gleaming door swings smoothly open on perfectly balanced and utterly silent hinges.
  
  > go north
  The doorway opens out into a large, dome-ceilinged cavern. You stand at the threshold for a moment, peering into the strange, phosphorescent gloom, before your eyes can make out enough details to see what this place is; even then, it is almost a full minute before your mind can accept what you are seeing...
  
  The cave is lined, floor to ceiling, with mummified human corpses. Shrunken and desiccated, they lie in jumbled heaps inside irregularly carved niches. Carvings cover the rock walls in between the niches -- grotesque, leering faces too horrible even to look upon, their features twitching and smirking in the wavering light that sifts down from above.
  
  And dominating the center of the chamber: a dark monolith rising up through the green, murky light -- what you first took to be a large, supporting pillar, you now realize can only be the true base of the town square obelisk.
  
  At the narrower, northern end of the vaguely egg-shaped cavern sits a massive stone altar, flanked on either side by a pair of strange, vibrating columns.
  
  > examine the corpses
  These bodies are very, very old; even the shapes of the skulls call to mind a more primitive and degenerate sort of folk than even the denizens of this town. This must be the inside of an ancient burial mound, although what sort of Indian tribe could have erected such a huge and monstrous obelisk, you can't imagine.
  
  > examine the carvings
  Which do you mean, the first pictogram, the second pictogram, the third pictogram or the fourth pictogram?
  
  > examine the first pictogram
  A circle of stick-men, dancing or worshipping around a shape like an upturned bowl -- perhaps a hill, or perhaps this very mound you're standing in was once above ground.
  
  > look at second pictogram
  A fiery star-burst, decorated with trailing lines (perhaps indicating a comet or shooting star?) descends from the sky, and rains fire and death upon the people of the mound.
  
  > look at the third pictogram
  The stick men are again pictured in a circle around the mound. One figure stands on top of the mound, raising a dagger over a second stick man bent backwards over some kind of altar. The mound is decorated with wavy lines radiating from the altar at the top down to the bottom -- perhaps indicating streams of blood?
  
  > look at the fourth pictogram
  The mound is now deserted, and the stick men seem to be constructing a tower of stones for some unclear purpose. The comet-symbol has returned, although there is an added eye-motif; the comet appears to be looking down on the tower with approval. Wavy lines radiate from the eye in all directions, several of them converging to join at the tower's tip.
  
  > look at the obelisk
  It is simply enormous. Nearly ten feet to a side at its base, the massive structure rises straight up through the ceiling, its tip penetrating the surface after what must be twenty or thirty feet of intervening rock. The hieroglyphs on this portion of the obelisk, untouched by eroding weather, are much clearer and deeper than the ones above.
  
  > examine the altar
  A single block of jet-black, featureless stone, approximately the size of a queen-sized bed. It is flanked by a pair of metal pillars.
  
  > get on the altar
  You clamber onto the great stone block.
  
  > play the flute
  (the strange metal flute)
  You blow an open chord into the little flute, and it resonates with an eerie, metallic warble.
  
  The columns' vibrations seem to grow momentarily stronger while the flute's sound lingers, their dissonant ringing resonating strangely with the warbling, metallic notes.
  
  > Down
  You'll have to get off the altar first.
  
  > look at the columns
  Which do you mean, the left-hand column or the right-hand column?
  
  > get off the altar
  You get off the altar.
  
  The cave is lined, floor to ceiling, with mummified human corpses. Shrunken and desiccated, they lie in jumbled heaps inside irregularly carved niches. Carvings cover the rock walls in between the niches -- grotesque, leering faces too horrible even to look upon, their features twitching and smirking in the wavering light that sifts down from above.
  
  The obelisk base stands before you, vast and shadowy in the green, murky light.
  
  At the narrower, northern end of the vaguely egg-shaped cavern sits a massive stone altar, flanked on either side by a pair of strange, vibrating columns.
  
  > look athe left-hand column
  The column is approximately seven feet high and cylindrical, made of some oily, greenish metal. It is vibrating very slightly, almost imperceptibly; only a thin shimmering around its edges and the faint ringing noise betray any motion at all.
  
  > climb obelisk
  The sides are much too steep to climb.
  
  > cover the hole
  Which do you mean, the first flute hole, the second flute hole, the third flute hole, the fourth flute hole, the fifth flute hole, the sixth flute hole or the seventh flute hole?
  
  > First
  You place your finger over the first flute hole.
  
  > play the flute
  (the strange metal flute)
  The flute emits an eerie, almost sub-sonic note.
  
  The columns' vibrations seem to grow momentarily stronger while the flute's sound lingers, their dissonant ringing resonating strangely with the warbling, metallic notes.
  
  > Uncover first hole
  You lift your finger from the first flute hole.
  
  > play the flute
  (the strange metal flute)
  The flute emits an eerie, deep note.
  
  The columns' vibrations seem to grow momentarily stronger while the flute's sound lingers, their dissonant ringing resonating strangely with the warbling, metallic notes.
  
  > Uncover second hole
  You lift your finger from the second flute hole.
  
  > play the flute
  (the strange metal flute)
  The flute emits an eerie, low-pitched note.
  
  The right-hand column's vibrations suddenly grow stronger, resonating in harmony with the warbling, metallic note of the flute. The two dissonances seem to intertwine, reinforcing each other, and for a single instant you think you see a strange rippling effect in the air over the altar. Then it is gone, and the sound fades.
  
  > Search corpses
  When you touch them you get an unpleasant feeling, a crawling sensation of filth and infection. You back away, wiping your hands down the front of your clothes.
  
  > Go south
  The stairs end here at a huge, greenish-gold door set into the north wall. There is nothing else here; nowhere to go but onward or back.
  
  > Go southwest
  The passageway turns east here, the stone floor dropping down in a series of wide steps carved into the living rock. The stairs continue down to the northeast, eventually curving out of sight. The only other way on from here is a narrow, oddly-angled corridor in the northwest corner.
  
  A thin and decrepit rope bridge spans the pit, shivering occasionally in the wind.
  
  Another blast of hot, foul-smelling air comes shrieking out of the pit.
  
  > open the door
  You open the front door.
  
  A cold, noiseless draft coils through the narrow entrance hall. You shiver, wondering where it came from.
  
  > Go south
  The lane runs up from the southeast and ends at a wide clearing surrounded by gnarled and ancient trees. A wide, curving driveway runs up to the front door of your house, which lies north.
  
  The front door stands open to the north.
  
  The Verlac mansion looms before you, casting an air of menace over the clearing.
  
  The hairs on the back of your neck prickle as you step outside. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong with the air. A heavy, charged sensation, like standing next to high-tension wires; a faint odor of spoiled meat drifting on the wind; you can't put your finger on it, but it might have something to do with that strange hole in the sky.
  
  > examine the hole
  (the sky)
  There is a spinning, churning hole in the clouds, directly over the lighthouse; an inverted whirlpool sucking streamers of gray up into itself. You'd think it was some sort of funnel cloud, except that it's not moving anywhere. It's simply hanging, turning slowly in the sky. The sight of that horrible, whirling hole makes you shudder, involuntarily recalling that hideous entity that lurks behind those clouds.
  
  > close the door
  You close the front door.
  
  A gust of wind blows your hair into your face.
  
  > examine obelisk
  You can just make out the shape of the obelisk from here.
  
  > Go south
  The forest grows denser as you go, crowding thickly up to either side of the road. The groping, tangled branches block out what little sunlight there is left. Your footsteps are muffled; whispering leaves and the slow drip of water are the only sounds you can hear. Beyond the watching trees, the shadows are impenetrably thick. The road stretches interminably, north to south.
  
  There's something strangely familiar about the woods here... scenes from last night's dream flicker through your memory, but you are unable to recall the details.
  
  > look at the trees
  You scrutinize the edge of the road carefully, looking for whatever it was you saw...
  
  There. On the west side. That stump, and the twisted sapling growing next to it; you recognize them. And just beyond them... the path. It's the path you took in your dream, a narrow rut running west through the underbrush. You can hardly believe it, but there it is.
  
  > examine the stump
  It's the rotted stump of a tree that must have fallen long ago. It's unremarkable, almost completely buried by the underbrush; the only reason you even noticed it is because of your dream.
  
  > examine the sapling
  A bent and stunted sapling, barely taller than you are, grows from the mulchy ground around the rotting stump. It's a perfectly ordinary-looking sapling, just like many others you've spotted growing here in and there among the trees -- except that this one was in your dream.
  
  > Go west
  The tangled undergrowth has been beaten down in a path leading roughly from the east to the southwest. Shrubs and grass have been flattened and pushed aside, vines torn down, and small trees bent or even snapped in half, as though something heavy with huge, flat feet had simply trampled its way through.
  
  > Go southwest
  The decayed remains of an old slaughterhouse stand here, now little more than a shell of crumbling brick and gaping holes, surrounded by a clearing of yellow, sickly grass. A path leads northeast, back toward the road; to the west, a gaping hole that might once have been a doorway leads into the rotting building.
  
  The forest is unnaturally quiet here, you notice; there are no birds calling, no leaves rustling or branches creaking; even the whippoorwills have fallen silent. All is still, holding its collective breath in an expectant hush.
  
  A flurry of dead leaves goes skittering along the ground, swirling past you in the wind.
  
  > look at the house
  It's an ordinary-looking key. The word "house" is written on a tiny piece of tape affixed to the key's tab.
  
  The cold wind blows harder, tugging at the hem of your trenchcoat.
  
  > examine building
  The ancient walls are barely even holding themselves together. The only reason you can tell it used to be a slaughterhouse is the faded paint on one wall: "Crompton Meat Processing".
  
  > go west
  The roof has collapsed, leaving the interior open to the sky; the floor is nothing but bare, beaten dirt. Gaps in the bricks lead east and south. Although nothing stands now but the tottering, crumbling stonework (and that only barely), you fancy you can still detect a faint miasma of death -- a palpable, chilling reminder of the bloody work which once went on within these walls.
  
  There's something odd about the ground here; some faint marking or pattern.
  
  An old rusty meat hook sticks out of the ground nearby, its point half-buried in the dirt.
  
  Over in the far corner, a tattered sheet of drawing paper lies discarded on the ground.
  
  > examine the hook
  The crossbar fits in your palm, leaving the hook part to stick out between the third and fourth fingers. It's a heavy sucker, nearly fifteen inches long from handle to point, made for hauling around carcasses with a minimum of ceremony. You wouldn't like to think what this could do to a living person.
  
  > take the hook
  Taken.
  
  > take the paper
  (the tattered drawing)
  (slipping the strange metal flute into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
  You pick up the tattered drawing. The drawing is of a pair of crudely rendered figures, scrawled with dark, heavy lines that occasionally punch right through the paper. The two figures are holding hands. The one on the left is a smiling woman with long, straight hair; the one on the right...
  
  Well, you don't know. Frankly, you'd rather not speculate. An octopus on human legs, maybe, if you could believe any healthy child would conceive of such a thing. Above the first figure is scribbled the word "MOMY"; above the second, "WILAM (ME)".
  
  > examine the ground
  The marks in the dirt are tracks of some kind, but not of any animal you're familiar with, unless there's a lame elephant loose in the New England woods. The prints are large -- quite a bit larger than your outspread hand, and vaguely round. They criss-cross the ground in every direction. Whatever made them obviously lives here, or at least visits quite often.
  
  > open the gold locket
  You open the gold locket, revealing a woman's picture.
  
  > go to the south
  Beyond the south wall of the old slaughterhouse, there is nothing but a tangled thicket so dense as to be impenetrable in every direction except to the north, where you can slip back into the ruined slaughterhouse through a hole in the wall.
  
  Rising from the midst of the underbrush is a squat circle of stone: the top of an ancient well. A circle of rotting plywood covers the opening.
  
  > examine well
  It's built of mortared stone, and comes about to the level of your waist. The top of the well is covered by a circle of rotting plywood.
  
  > look at the plywood
  Nothing but a thick sheet of plywood cut into a rough circle, about a yard across.
  
  > move the plywood
  You dig your fingers under the edge of the plywood and, straining as hard as you can, manage to slide the heavy cover off the top of the well and onto the grass.
  
  A flurry of dead leaves goes skittering along the ground, swirling past you in the wind.
  
  > look in well
  The well is very deep, although the rough stonework would probably allow you to safely climb down. Its depths are too shadowy for you to make out any details at the bottom.
  
  > turn on the flashlight
  The flashlight emits a warm yellow beam.