text: artled to discover that the crescent in the graffiti conceals some kind of keyhole.
  
  > look at the door
  An iron door flush with the embankment. It is dirty, but without rust, and unmarked except for a crescent-shaped window. There is no handle.
  
  > put the key in the keyhole
  The stonework key fits into the mural with a tingle, as though an alchemical glyph has been completed. The world blurs into the rain, and the rain into the world, and you see it -- a change in
  the order of the skeins that are woven before you.
  the order of the skeins that are woven before you.The iron door swings open.
  
  > enter
  In this lightless passage, the air is still and the sounds of the world seem to die. Yet the tunnel is alive nonetheless: it teems with raindrops, seeping from unseen cracks, sparkling with mirth as they reflect the dancing eye of your animus-light.
  
  To the west, you hear the echoing roar of the Bilious Canal. In the east, there is murmuring, and a candlelit glow.
  
  > look at the glow
  The east flickers.
  
  > go east
  You are in a massive subterranean chamber, dark but for glittering glyphs and candlelight. There are countless pipes and galvanic lines running from the city's workings into the heart of this chamber; and there a great sculpture rises, many-headed and many-armed, like a monstrous irradiated god.
  
  A crowd of worshippers, all mutants, is kneeling before the sculpture in prayer. A green-robed patriarch stands among them, overseeing the ceremony; and he looks at you.
  ceremony; and he looks at you."Hello, child."
  ceremony; and he looks at you."Hello, child."His is a voice that throbs, as though it were bubbles of vocalization escaping from broth. He regards you with a face full of holes and crinkles his jaw in a way approximating a smile.
  
  1) <Recoil instinctively.>
  2) "Hello." <Try to stay calm.>
  
  > 2
  "H -- Hello," you muster. Your voice is trembling.
  "H -- Hello," you muster. Your voice is trembling."Oh... Oh!" the mutant exclaims. "You are not of our kind. My sincerest apologies."
  mutant exclaims. "You are not of our kind. My sincerest apologies."He -- at least you think it is a he -- he reaches behind himself with a gaunt arm and pulls his hood up. Colorful streamers dangle in front of his face, veiling its ragged angles from sight.
  his face, veiling its ragged angles from sight."I am so very sorry for the shock." He steps closer. "We receive so few visitors. Especially from the world above."
  
  1) "My name is Marid."
  2) "Who are you?"
  3) "What is this place?"
  4) "I hope I'm not trespassing..."
  5) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 4
  "I hope I'm not trespassing," you say. "I... There was a woman who dropped a key in a hurry, and..."
  
  The patriarch tilts his head. "You are a friend of ours, are you not?"
  
  The patriarch tilts his head. "You are a friend of ours, are you not?""Um..."
  
  not?""Um...""If you are not, I am afraid this conversation will take a rather unpleasant turn."
  
  rather unpleasant turn.""...Yes," you say. "Yes, I'm a friend."
  
  rather unpleasant turn.""...Yes," you say. "Yes, I'm a friend.""Then you have nothing to worry about." He chuckles, his chest heaving wetly. "As long as you pledge to leave us in peace, we shall afford you the same respect. I trust we are clear on this."
  
  you the same respect. I trust we are clear on this.""Yes, sir."
  
  you the same respect. I trust we are clear on this.""Yes, sir.""Very good."
  
  1) "My name is Marid."
  2) "Who are you?"
  3) "What is this place?"
  4) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 1
  "My name is Marid," you say.
  
  "Greetings, Marid." The mutant inclines his head. "Marid Orpheia, is it not? You are a brave woman to venture so far from home."
  
  1) "Who are you?"
  2) "What is this place?"
  3) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 1
  "Who are you?"
  
  "Ah! I have forgotten my manners." He clasps his hands together. "Forgive me. I am Natos, Natos Web-eye; but most here call me Patriarch Natos.
  
  "Here I am..." He sweeps a robed arm around the chamber. "Here is my congregation."
  
  1) "What is this place?"
  2) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 1
  "What is this place?"
  
  You gaze at the terrible hydra in steel, and the dozens of mutants prostrating themselves before it.
  
  "You are not from the basilica, then. Thank the stars." The patriarch laughs wetly and shakes his head. "And here I was, preparing to offer you a bribe."
  you a bribe.""A bribe?"
  you a bribe.""A bribe?""We are outcasts, my child. Cast out from the temple of your people to walk the dark places. Tell me --"
  temple of your people to walk the dark places. Tell me --"He fixes you with an eyeless gaze. "What do you know of Reason, and of mutantkind?"
  
  1) "Reason is the law that governs all things, just as the Philosophers govern society."
  2) "Mutants -- your people -- you were exiled to the Dark Lands,
  and mutated by the irradiata."
  3) "...I've come to realize that I know a lot less about the world than I thought I did."
  
  > 3
  "...I've come to realize that I know a lot less about the world than I thought I did."
  
  The patriarch regards you quietly for a while, a little eerily, though not without fondness.
  
  not without fondness."You are wiser than I was at your age," he says.
  
  not without fondness."You are wiser than I was at your age," he says."There are many things I don't know," you say. "And I've seen some things that made me question myself."
  
  some things that made me question myself.""Very well... very well..."
  
  some things that made me question myself.""Very well... very well..."He nods, and for a moment you wonder if he is not smiling beneath his hood. Then, with a gnarled hand, he gestures at the statue of the hydra.
  
  of the hydra."Now it is my turn to answer," he says. "You asked me, my child: what is this place? It is a church, if you would like to call it that. Here we worship, and we pray, and we venerate the old traditions from the Dark Lands. Our rites have been handed down through generation after generation of mutants; and so they have passed into my care.
  
  passed into my care."Before you is a likeness of Anu Va, the Hydra God. It is one of the powers in the world, although the Philosophers would have you believe that it is not so. Trust me, for I have seen the Hydra with my own eyes. We worship and give offerings so that its terrible chaos does not consume us."
  
  terrible chaos does not consume us.""And you do this in secret," you say.
  
  say."Indeed," Patriarch Natos says. "The Philosophers do not take kindly to those who challenge their sacred idols: Reason, or Knowledge, or the Scientific Method. They call us 'cultists,' or else 'subversives,' and persecute us as they persecuted our ancestors. They will not admit that there are answers that cannot be found in textbooks, or that there are things Reason cannot explain.
  
  textbooks, or that there are things Reason cannot explain."That is why we hold our services in this abandoned cistern... and why we have to bribe Council officials from time to time."
  
  1) "Do you know a mutant woman with a distinctive smile? One with
  lots of teeth?"
  2) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 1
  "Do you know a mutant woman with a distinctive smile? One with lots of teeth?"
  
  The patriarch nods grimly.
  
  "I knew the one of whom you speak," he says. "Carnicer was her name. We had not seen her here in some time... I had my misgivings about the paths in life she had chosen. It is a tragedy that her choices led her to such a terrible end."
  
  1) "Are you aware that the Channelworks District is under
  quarantine?"
  
  > 1
  "What do you mean, 'cursed'?"
  
  "I mean what I say." He lowers his head solemnly. "Ever since we began our worship here, all who have chanced to go into the passage have died."
  
  1) "How did the deaths happen?"
  2) "Can I see the bodies?"
  3) "Does anyone else know about this curse?"
  4) "Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."
  
  > 1
  "How did the deaths happen?" you ask.
  
  "It is different every time," Patriarch Natos says. "Now and again, one of us is foolhardy enough to brave the passage. They will go, and they will return, seemingly none the worse for wear. They always say the same thing: that it is only an old, disused aqueduct, and there is nothing for us to fear.
  
  "And yet, within the week, it will transpire that some terrible malady has befallen the explorer. They will bleed from within, or they will go insane, or their flesh will melt off their bones. And then they will die."
  
  1) "Can I see the bodies?"
  2) "Does anyone else know about this curse?"
  3) "Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."
  
  > 1
  "Can I see the bodies?"
  
  "I am afraid not," Patriarch Natos says. "There was a time when we buried those who had succumbed to the curse, but we soon found that the curse could linger in the graves. These days, we incinerate the bodies. We do not take chances."
  
  1) "Does anyone else know about this curse?"
  2) "Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."
  
  > 1
  "Does anyone else know about this curse?"
  
  He shrugs. "In the beginning, we tried to get help. Discreetly, of course. There is an appeal, somewhere in the basilica, that a magistrate sympathetic to us has filed. But no one has come. I can only assume that it has fallen through the cracks of your bureaucracy."
  
  1) "Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."
  
  > 1
  "Thank you for the warning," you say. "I'll be careful."
  
  "You do not seem to be dissuaded," Patriarch Natos observes.
  
  "You do not seem to be dissuaded," Patriarch Natos observes.You think of Reden's black eyes, full of forlorn hope. You feel the weight of your pendant on your skin.
  
  your pendant on your skin."...I see," the patriarch says. "You are determined. Very well. I hope you know what you are doing."
  
  determined. Very well. I hope you know what you are doing."He unlocks the grate, and with a tumultous creaking, pulls it open on its hinges. The ink-stained curtain billows like a flag.
  
  The ink-stained curtain billows like a flag."Thank you," you say. "For showing me the way."
  
  showing me the way."He nods. "Good luck on your journey, Marid Orpheia. May the Hydra have mercy upon you."
  
  Orpheia. May the Hydra have mercy upon you."## Church of One Thousand Faces
  You are in a massive subterranean chamber, dark but for glittering glyphs and candlelight. There are countless pipes and galvanic lines running from the city's workings into the heart of this chamber; and there a great sculpture rises, many-headed and many-armed, like a monstrous irradiated god.
  
  To the west is the passage back to the surface. To the north, an abandoned aqueduct leads to a Channelworks maintenance tunnel.
  
  A crowd of worshippers, all mutants, is kneeling before the sculpture in prayer. Patriarch Natos stands before them, overseeing the ceremony.
  
  > examine the sculpture
  It is a strange and terrible mutant built of optical illusions and alien angles. Many times larger than a man, it looks down on the worshipping congregation with one thousand fearsome heads, each one an impressionistic smear blending into the next.
  
  > Go north
  The candlelight dies here, where the aqueduct narrows. The ragged curtain hides a dark and dismal tunnel which bristles with rusted wires and broken pressure valves. And all around you, pale and half-formed, lurking in the crevices of your consciousness, are the spirits of the dead.
  
  You can follow the aqueduct south to the underground church, or northwest where it opens out onto the pouring rain.
  
  > examine the spirits
  They are the apparitions of unfamiliar mutants, somehow damaged and tied to this place. Some are skeletal, missing flesh. Others are without faces or limbs.
  
  > talk to them
  You fix the wandering spirits in your mind's eye. The tunnel melts into the rain and catches fire and shifts.
  This is a dead place.
  This is a dead place.You should not be here.
  This is a dead place.You should not be here.1)
  "I come in peace."
  2) "Who are you?"
  3) "What happened to you?"
  4) "I'm here on an important mission..."
  
  > 1
  "I come in peace."
  
  Then why do you disturb us?
  
  1) "Who are you?"
  2) "What happened to you?"
  3) "I'm here on an important mission..."
  
  > 1
  "Who are you?"
  
  ...
  ...It has been so long since anyone asked our names.
  ...It has been so long since anyone asked our
  names.We do not remember.
  names.We do not remember.That part of us is
  gone.
  1) "What happened to you?"
  2) "I'm here on an important mission..."
  
  > 1
  "What happened to you?"
  
  ...We died.
  
  ...We died.There is something here that kills.
  
  ...We died.There is something here that kills.We
  did not heed the warnings.
  
  did not heed the warnings.We were young and foolhardy.
  
  did not heed the warnings.We were young and
  foolhardy.Too bad it took death to humble us.
  
  1) "I'm here on an important mission..."
  
  > 1
  "I'm here on an important mission," you say. "Hundreds of people are dead in the district. I think it may have something to do with the Channelworks. It might even be related to how you died."
  
  ...
  ...So the curse has found the upper city at last.
  ...So the curse has found the upper city at
  last.So that is what it took for them to send someone.
  last.So that is what it took for them to send
  someone.What do you want?
  1) "Do you know what exactly killed you?"
  2) "What do you remember of your time in this passage?"
  3) "Do you have any advice for me?"
  
  > 1
  "Do you know what exactly killed you?"
  
  No.
  No.Death came for us without a sound.
  No.Death came for us without a sound.If we knew,
  we would have told the others.
  1) "What do you remember of your time in this passage?"
  2) "Do you have any advice for me?"
  3) "Thank you for your help."
  
  > 1
  "What do you remember of your time in this passage?"
  
  This passage is our grave.
  
  This passage is our grave.We remember it clearly...
  
  This passage is our grave.We remember it
  clearly...Or do we?
  
  clearly...Or do we?We do not remember the end.
  
  clearly...Or do we?We do not remember the
  end.None of us do.
  
  end.None of us do.Strange.
  
  end.None of us do.Strange.It never seemed
  relevant.
  
  1) "Do you think your memories were manipulated?"
  2) "Do you have any advice for me?"
  3) "Thank you for your help."
  
  > 1
  The way none of the spirits remember the end of the passage is suspicious. It reminds you of an old rumor you once heard at college. You never really believed it, but now...
  
  You never really believed it, but now..."Do you think your memories were manipulated?" you ask. "Like what they say the Philosophers once did to dissidents?"
  
  did to dissidents?"...
  
  did to dissidents?"...What you speak of is only a
  rumor.
  
  rumor.We do not know what to believe.
  
  rumor.We do not know what to believe.It may be as
  you say, but...
  
  you say, but...We would rather not speculate on ghost
  stories.
  
  1) "Do you have any advice for me?"
  2) "Thank you for your help."
  
  > 1
  "Do you have any advice for me?"
  
  ...
  ......Don't die.
  1) "Thank you for your help."
  
  > 1
  "Thank you for your help."
  
  ...
  ...Good luck... girl who talks to spirits.
  ...Good luck... girl who talks to spirits.You close
  your mind's eye. The fire consumes you and the world shifts.
  Terminal Vein
  The candlelight dies here, where the aqueduct narrows. The ragged curtain hides a dark and dismal tunnel which bristles with rusted wires and broken pressure valves. And all around you, pale and half-formed, lurking in the crevices of your consciousness, are the spirits of the dead.
  
  You can follow the aqueduct south to the underground church, or northwest where it opens out onto the pouring rain.
  
  > go to the north-west
  In the shadow of the Channelworks is this little crumbling ledge, where the roof has caved in and rain batters stone. Here is a manhole, and a waterway heaving with the Hydra Aquifera's runoff;
  beside it is a broken old chair surrounded by dozens of wine bottles. In their glass, you see distorted the face of the Channelworks above and the fury of the Bilious Canal below.
  
  To the southeast, the aqueduct leads back to the mutant church. To the north, you can enter the bowels of the Channelworks.
  
  A tiny string of glistering black runs along the ground and disappears into the north pipe.
  
  > look at the manhole
  A rusted manhole with a dented grille.
  
  On closer examination, it's too small for you to fit into. But a goblin-sized person might be able to climb in. It looks like a shaft runs all the way from this manhole to Riggertown.
  runs all the way from this manhole to Riggertown.Your guess is that a certain goblin has been using this manhole to sneak onto this ledge beneath the Channelworks.
  
  > look at waterway
  A solution of horrible-smelling alchemical detritus. It runs from the wastewater channels leading out of the Channelworks.
  
  > examine the chair
  A tiny, rickety folding steel chair. You see the stamp of the Council of Works on its backrest.
  
  > look at the stamp
  The chair has probably been stolen from the Channelworks and left out here.
  
  > Bottles
  It's the same brand you saw in Reden's shack.
  
  > examine the string
  It's a trail of some kind of liquid, shadowy in its consistency. You would have missed it if not for the way it caught your lantern's animus-light.
  animus-light.Something about it feels wrong.
  
  > examine Channelworks
  Hydra Aquifera, pride of the district, cathedral to Knowledge
  and Power. Stunning bas-relief adorns its architecture, and the Bilious Canal flows from its mouth.
  
  > examinbas-reliefs
  It's too far away to make out.
  
  > go to the north
  You are in the belly of the beast now, in one of the many pipes that radiate from the Channelworks' pumping heart. Here the walls are sloped and plated in ancient sigiled brass, leaving you only a precarious steel catwalk to tread upon. Below and alongside you, rushing water flows, filling the pipe with a roaring echo like a tempestuous ocean.
  
  You can follow the pipe north or south.
  
  A black ribbon winds through a hairline crack in the brass plating, flowing in a steady drip from the north.
  
  > look at the ribbon
  Its shadowy length is a throbbing scar on your retina.
  
  > look at the catwalk
  It leans a little when you shift your weight.
  
  > go to the north
  From this observation deck, you can see the grand scale of the operation of the Channelworks. A solid mass of machinery extends everywhere within this ancient building, filling its domed chambers and its high stone arches. Everywhere you look, pipes converge in a dizzying cacophony of hissing steam and flowing water, of whirling turbines and rolling metal drums.
  
  A foul-smelling tunnel leads out of the Channelworks to the south.
  
  There is a console here, and a hydraulic door to the east which stands out from all the others. The black trail flows from one of the leaking pipes near this door.
  
  > examine the console
  A grand table finished in rosewood and orichalcum. There are a myriad different needles and indicator bulbs, labeled with arcane symbols and organized with geometric precision.
  
  An inkstained memo has been left on one wing of the console. Beside it, there is a row of pistons with handles that can be pushed or pulled.
  
  Currently, the I piston is retracted, the II piston is extended, the IV piston is retracted, the VII piston is extended, and the X piston is extended.
  
  > examine the memo
  I've shut the laboratory until the crisis blows over. No seal yet,
  but the pressure safety lock should be enough to keep muties out.
  -S
  
  > get it
  You shouldn't. If you tampered with the memo, the Channelworks operators might realize you've been trespassing.
  
  > look at the machinery
  These are the workings that underpin a society, which so few are able to glimpse.
  
  > examine the door
  A steel-and-brass door that looks like it pistons open and shut. It's currently shut, with a protesting pressure gauge in place of a lock.
  
  "HYDRAULIC PRESSURE BELOW SAFETY LIMITS," the rotary disc informs you.
  
  > look at the trail
  The leak is thin and insidious, so difficult to see that you might not have noticed it under any other circumstance. It seems to be coming from the other side of the hydraulic door.
  
  > look at the disc
  "HYDRAULIC PRESSURE BELOW SAFETY LIMITS," the rotary disc informs you.
  
  > examine the piston i.
  A brass piston labeled with the number 1. It can be pushed or pulled using the handle on its end. At the moment, it is retracted.
  
  > examine piston III
  Which do you mean, the I piston, the II piston, the IV piston, the VII piston, or the X piston?
  
  > pull the vii
  The VII piston is already extended.
  
  > pull the i.
  The I piston extends out of the console with a weighty hiss.
  
  Now, the I piston is extended, the II piston is extended, the IV piston is retracted, the VII piston is retracted, and the X piston is extended.
  
  > pull the IV
  (the Fourth of Aquaria copy of the Libri Liberi)
  Nothing obvious happens.
  
  > pull the piston iv
  The IV piston extends out of the console with a weighty hiss.
  
  Now, the I piston is extended, the II piston is extended, the IV piston is extended, the VII piston is retracted, and the X piston is extended.
  
  The pressure lock on the door makes a grating sound. Now it says "HYDRAULIC PRESSURE BELOW SAFETY LIMITS."
  
  > pull the piston vii
  The VII piston extends out of the console with a weighty hiss.
  
  Now, the I piston is extended, the II piston is extended, the IV piston is extended, the VII piston is extended, and the X piston is retracted.