text: [Themes: Fantasy, physical simulation, fantasy, Historical]
  
  > Look around
  The air is cool here, protected by deep walls of stone. Heavy beams overhead support the weight of the upper floors. A thick dust overlays everything.
  
  An open russet door leads northeast.
  
  The wine-cellar door -- sturdy wood in yellowish brass panels -- stands open to the west.
  
  A closed red door leads east.
  
  A closed grey-blue door leads south.
  
  A heavy red door, wreathed in chains and locks, leads north into the vault, where the best wines were kept during your youth.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a blue glass jar (which is open)
  some sea-salt (which leaves the blue glass jar about half full)
  a rug
  a plate
  a chocolate leaf
  an Andouillettes Recipe
  some andouillettes
  a round metal tin (which is open but empty)
  a sack (which is open)
  an iron key
  a red glass jar (which is closed)
  a butcher knife
  a small portrait
  a jeweled pin
  a stone block
  a bottle of mead (which is closed)
  a dark wooden box (which is open)
  an mirror inset inside the box (reflecting white light from the sunlight)
  a pearl necklace
  an old letter
  a sword
  a snuffbox (which is open)
  a quantity of snuff
  a white handkerchief
  a swordstick
  six food items:
  some apples
  a bay leaf
  a sprig of parsley
  a sprig of mint
  a clove of garlic
  a single yellow onion
  two metal dishes:
  a hinge-lidded teapot (which is open but empty)
  a cup
  four books:
  Guide to Assorted Wines
  The World Is Hollow (which is open but empty)
  The Lavori d'Aracne
  On Vegetable Dyes
  a dashing hat (being worn)
  
  > link the red jar to red door
  Which do you mean, the red door leading east or the red vault door?
  
  > East
  The linkages on the doors are very old, and set with a power stronger than your raw will alone can manipulate.
  
  > link the red jar to vault door
  (first unlinking the red vault door)
  The linkages on the doors are very old, and set with a power stronger than your raw will alone can manipulate.
  
  > close the blue jar
  You close the blue glass jar.
  
  > Reverse link red jar to blue jar
  You valiantly try to link the two objects, but they are just a little too different. Maybe if they looked more alike.
  
  Reverse links are even pickier than regular links that way.
  
  > examine the snuffbox
  A little pastel-colored metal box in which you keep your supply of snuff.
  
  In the snuffbox is a quantity of snuff.
  
  > open the south door
  You open the grey-blue door leading south.
  
  > examine the russet door
  A russet door leading east, currently closed.
  
  > unlock it with the iron key
  (first taking the iron key)
  (putting the round metal tin into the sack to make room)
  You unlock the russet door leading east.
  
  > open the russet
  You open the russet door leading east.
  
  > go to the east
  Little remains -- the countess was exceedingly fond of her Rieslings, and it required constant restocking to keep this portion of the cellar properly supplied during her life.
  
  A closed green door leads north.
  
  A closed blue door leads east.
  
  An open russet door leads west.
  
  A dusty bottle of Sauvignon Blanc lies here.
  
  > get the wine
  (the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc)
  (putting the andouillettes into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > go west
  In your hunger, you imagine in great clarity the hearts of artichokes.
  
  Almost all gone now, though the labels still adhere to the racks, indicating where a '67 rested, or an '82, waiting to be taken up to the dining room.
  
  An open russet door leads east.
  
  An open grey-blue door leads north.
  
  There is a grey-blue trap door closed in the middle of the room, just visible among the dust as a less-dusty area.
  
  > Blanc
  That's already closed.
  
  > Go east
  Little remains -- the countess was exceedingly fond of her Rieslings, and it required constant restocking to keep this portion of the cellar properly supplied during her life.
  
  An open russet door leads west.
  
  A closed blue door leads east.
  
  A closed green door leads north.
  
  > go north
  With all the doors that lead out of this area, and the heavy pillars that support the roofbeams, there is little room for anything to be stored at all. The absence of racks has not prevented a heavy layer of dust from gathering here too, however.
  
  A closed peacock door leads east.
  
  An open green door leads north.
  
  An open green door leads south.
  
  A closed red door leads west.
  
  > go north
  Port, tokay, sherry; amontillado; casks, bottles furred with age and sealed with clots of red wax and ribbon seals.
  
  An open russet door leads east.
  
  An open peacock door leads southeast.
  
  An open green door leads south.
  
  A closed russet door leads southwest.
  
  > Go east
  This area is devoted to wines for second-class guests, which the Count reserved for the servants, visits from the curate, or hinting away a houseguest who had overstayed his welcome. "It seems that we are down to the Sangue de Toro," he would say, smoothing his vest with one delicate hand and looking regretful as he decanted a ruddy stream into the goblet of some unfortunate.
  
  On particularly bad occasions he would order the steward to shake the bottle in advance.
  
  The ransackers of the cellar seem not to have reached this room, however: many of the bottles sit intact on their shelves (if anyone cared to sample them).
  
  A closed white door leads south; it looks oddly streaked.
  
  An open russet door leads west.
  
  In one corner is a massive wine barrel.
  
  > look at the barrel
  A large barrel rolled into the corner.
  
  > open it
  You open the wine barrel, revealing a navy bundle.
  
  > take the bundle
  (putting the Andouillettes Recipe into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > examine it
  A sort of bundle or package of cloth wrapped around something.
  
  > open south
  (the white door leading south)
  You open the white door leading south. It swings more lightly than most of the doors hereabouts.
  
  > open the bundle
  You open up the cloth bundle, which turns out in fact to be a fine cloak, wrapped tightly around some documents. (A shame to risk such a good cloak, you reflect; the barrel is probably proof against damp, but there's always the chance of something getting inside. But perhaps whoever wrapped it up expected to be back soon.)
  
  In your hunger, you hallucinate little grey-pink mushrooms.
  
  > look at the documents
  A sheaf of documents, written over in the Count's handwriting, and bound together with a wrapping of thick oilskin.
  
  > read them
  The documents appear to be records of some of the Count's work: letters from highly-ranked members of the king's council; charts of family lines, with the relationships of blood marked in black and the human links marked in red, indicating members of rival families and dynasties held hostage to each other by magic.
  
  Several names leap out of the charts at you. D'Envers, the Count's several-times-distant cousin (and the source of your current distress). D'Envers' mother, recently deceased, formerly hostage-linked to the Countess... several other hostages, recently dead (but, you thought, for natural causes).
  
  But you know too little of the Count's business to guess what this would mean, except perhaps that the careful arrangements have begun to come unstuck lately. Even a local outbreak of plague could do that, if it killed too many of the wrong people at the same time.
  
  > examine the cloak
  A fine navy cloak for a woman, lined with swansdown.
  
  > Go west
  Port, tokay, sherry; amontillado; casks, bottles furred with age and sealed with clots of red wax and ribbon seals.
  
  An open russet door leads east.
  
  A closed russet door leads southwest.
  
  An open peacock door leads southeast.
  
  An open green door leads south.
  
  > Go south
  With all the doors that lead out of this area, and the heavy pillars that support the roofbeams, there is little room for anything to be stored at all. The absence of racks has not prevented a heavy layer of dust from gathering here too, however.
  
  An open green door leads north.
  
  A closed red door leads west.
  
  A closed peacock door leads east.
  
  An open green door leads south.
  
  > go to the south
  Little remains -- the countess was exceedingly fond of her Rieslings, and it required constant restocking to keep this portion of the cellar properly supplied during her life.
  
  An open green door leads north.
  
  An open russet door leads west.
  
  A closed blue door leads east.
  
  > Go west
  Almost all gone now, though the labels still adhere to the racks, indicating where a '67 rested, or an '82, waiting to be taken up to the dining room.
  
  An open russet door leads east.
  
  A closed grey-blue door leads north.
  
  A grey-blue trap door stands open in the middle of the room.
  
  > Go north
  (first opening the grey-blue door leading north)
  You open the grey-blue door leading north.
  
  The grey-blue door leading down shuts.
  
  The air is cool here, protected by deep walls of stone. Heavy beams overhead support the weight of the upper floors. A thick dust overlays everything.
  
  An open grey-blue door leads south.
  
  A closed red door leads east.
  
  A closed russet door leads northeast.
  
  The wine-cellar door -- sturdy wood in yellowish brass panels -- stands open to the west.
  
  A heavy red door, wreathed in chains and locks, leads north into the vault, where the best wines were kept during your youth.
  
  > look at the Clock
  It consists of the face, a pendulum and pair of weights, and a little door above the face that opens when the hour is struck. It is currently on and ticking. The clock shows the time to be 6:38.
  
  The cuckoo clock ticks sullenly.
  
  > set Clock to 12
  The clock now shows 12:00.
  
  The cuckoo clock ticks sullenly.
  
  > go north
  Originally a salon for the receiving of guests; but in recent years the Count has become increasingly interested in his own projects, and has taken over the entire room for the storage of books. Bookshelves line the walls, reaching above your head, leaving exits only east and south.
  
  The clockwork model universe has stopped; a beam of light from the "sun" at the center, focused through Jupiter, shines in the direction of the shelves, highlighting a spot where The World Is Hollow
  used to be.
  
  On one wall is an enormous portrait of the Count's father, from the hand of Hyacinthe Rigaud.
  
  > take the bauble
  (putting the plate into the sack to make room)
  The celestial bauble slips out of its holder, and the planets go dark.
  
  > put the salt in the red
  (first taking the red glass jar)
  (putting the rug into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  The blue glass jar isn't open.
  
  > put the salt in the red
  The red glass jar is closed.
  
  > open red
  You open the red glass jar.
  
  > put the salt in red
  You put some sea-salt in the red glass jar, exhausting the supply in the blue glass jar. There is still some room remaining in the red glass jar.
  
  > Jar
  You put the celestial bauble into the blue glass jar.
  
  > Jar
  A blue glass container with a wide mouth and a stopper.
  
  In the blue glass jar is a celestial bauble.
  
  > close the blue jar
  You close the blue glass jar.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a red glass jar (which is open)
  some sea-salt (which leaves the red glass jar about half full)
  a navy cloak
  some documents
  a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (which is closed)
  an iron key (which opens the russet door leading east)
  a blue glass jar (which is closed)
  a celestial bauble (providing blue light)
  a sack (which is open)
  a rug
  an Andouillettes Recipe
  some andouillettes
  a round metal tin (which is open but empty)
  a butcher knife
  a small portrait
  a jeweled pin
  a stone block
  a bottle of mead (which is closed)
  a dark wooden box (which is open)
  an mirror inset inside the box (reflecting white light from the sunlight)
  a pearl necklace
  an old letter
  a sword
  a snuffbox (which is open)
  a quantity of snuff
  a white handkerchief
  a swordstick
  six food items:
  some apples
  a bay leaf
  a sprig of parsley
  a sprig of mint
  a clove of garlic
  a single yellow onion
  four books:
  Guide to Assorted Wines
  The World Is Hollow (which is open but empty)
  The Lavori d'Aracne
  On Vegetable Dyes
  three metal dishes:
  a plate
  a chocolate leaf
  a hinge-lidded teapot (which is open but empty)
  a cup
  a dashing hat (being worn)
  
  > go to the east
  The air is cool here, protected by deep walls of stone. Heavy beams overhead support the weight of the upper floors. A thick dust overlays everything.
  
  An open grey-blue door leads south.
  
  A closed red door leads east.
  
  A closed russet door leads northeast.
  
  A heavy red door, wreathed in chains and locks, leads north into the vault, where the best wines were kept during your youth.
  
  The wine-cellar door -- sturdy wood in yellowish brass panels -- stands open to the west.
  
  > go northeast
  (first opening the russet door leading northeast)
  You open the russet door leading northeast. From the other side of the room comes the distinct sound of another door slamming shut.
  
  Port, tokay, sherry; amontillado; casks, bottles furred with age and sealed with clots of red wax and ribbon seals.
  
  A closed russet door leads east.
  
  An open peacock door leads southeast.
  
  An open green door leads south.
  
  An open russet door leads southwest.
  
  > Go east
  (first opening the russet door leading east)
  You open the russet door leading east.
  
  The russet door leading southwest closes.
  
  The ransackers of the cellar seem not to have reached this room, however: many of the bottles sit intact on their shelves (if anyone cared to sample them).
  
  An open white door leads south; it looks oddly streaked.
  
  An open russet door leads west.
  
  In one corner is a massive wine barrel.
  
  > Close white
  (the white door leading south)
  You close the white door leading south. It swings more lightly than most of the doors hereabouts.
  
  > Close box
  Which do you mean, the dark wooden box or the snuffbox?
  
  > Dark wooden
  You close the dark wooden box.
  
  > examine the south door
  On close examination, you have the impression that the paint on this door has either faded or been washed over with whitewash; you can still see faint streaks of some darker color, but their efficacy would seem to be gone.