text: [Themes: Afterlife]
  
  > describe your surroundings
  Solar Sphere (on the Jewelled Globe)
  You are in a large spherical vault of polished stone, black as night, though your feline vision reveals all. In the exact center a magnificent amulet of tremendous size hangs in the darkness: a spherical mosaic of emerald and lapis lazuli and brown jasper.
  
  Surely those gems lack their full glory in such darkness.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball down the west arc of the chamber.
  
  > climb the ball
  The cage-ball is out of reach: the mechanical scarab is pushing it down the west arc of the chamber....
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball east along the bottom arc of the chamber.
  
  > Examine
  What do you want to examine?
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball up the east arc of the chamber.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball west across the top arc of the chamber.
  
  > sing Gold
  (Gold Digger)
  Voicelessly you voice Gold Digger.
  
  Gold seems like such a yielding material....
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball down the west arc of the chamber.
  
  > enter the ball
  The cage-ball is out of reach: the mechanical scarab is pushing it down the west arc of the chamber....
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball east along the bottom arc of the chamber.
  
  The mood of Gold Digger fades.
  
  > sing Gold
  (Gold Digger)
  Voicelessly you voice Gold Digger.
  
  Gold seems like such a yielding material....
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball up the east arc of the chamber.
  
  > wait a while
  Time passes.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball down the west arc of the chamber.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball east along the bottom arc of the chamber.
  
  > enter ball
  (getting off the Jewelled Globe)
  You slip through the yielding gold wire.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball up the east arc of the chamber with you inside.
  
  The mood of Gold Digger fades.
  
  > put the Obelisk in the spool
  The little obelisk fits firmly into the square hole in the spool.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball west across the top arc of the chamber with you inside.
  
  > pull leather
  Pulling the strap spins the spool, fast. The obelisk spins with it; its point whines against the singed cone, which begins to glow dull red.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its lacy metal ball down the west arc of the chamber with you inside.
  
  > Press bellows
  A fine mist sprays from the tiny bellows, blowing across the glowing cone. The mist becomes a spray of fire, and in an instant the wire of the cage is all aflame. The ball burns bright as the sun; its light scintillates among the lands of the jewelled globe.
  
  Dawn has come.
  
  Near the west pole of this spherical chamber, the dawn-light reveals an arched doorway that was not there before this moment.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its fiery metal ball east along the bottom arc of the chamber with you inside.
  
  > sing Gold
  (Gold Digger)
  Voicelessly you voice Gold Digger.
  
  Gold seems like such a yielding material....
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its fiery metal ball up the east arc of the chamber with you inside.
  
  > Exit
  You slip through the yielding gold lace. As the ball is rolling up the side of the chamber, you fall out and tumble back down to the low point.
  
  The clockwork scarab is pushing its fiery metal ball west across the top arc of the chamber.
  
  The mood of Gold Digger fades.
  
  > go to the west
  Confidently crossing your sceptres before you, you step out through the westward arch.
  
  This chamber is a cube almost too big to see. A hole in the apex admits a single, broad beam of sunlight which stabs down to the floor, sparkling dust and making a bright circle on the floor, in the exact center of the dim space.
  
  In the circle of light, a life-sized doll, finely crafted to resemble a learned old man, sits on a three-legged stool before a game board. Beneath his robes you can hear gears and flywheels whirring and ticking. His gaze follows you with uncanny smoothness.
  
  > look at the game board
  The game is Hounds and Jackals, but this is some complex variant you've never seen before. You have played on a small hand-held board, with two short trails of peg-holes mirrored side by side. But this is a large, elaborately carved oval table on a thin pedestal. It has separate, identical trails of peg-holes at each end of the oval; between them is a bowl shape holding two very large knucklebone dice. Each side's trail is criss-crossed with dozens of the short-cut paths that can so rapidly change a player's fortunes.
  
  Seven Jackal pegs wait in the starting holes beneath the clockwork sage's hand; seven Hound pegs wait in the starting holes at your side of the game board.
  
  > play the game
  You pick up the dice and throw...
  
  ...the doll plays its side of the board with steely concentration, humming mechanically as it weighs its tactics...
  
  ...you find you can adapt to the wildly complex board, but before long you are losing. The clockwork sage's silver fingers throw the knucklebones with musical precision; he knows the peg-paths like the back of his hand...
  
  ...in fact, you see that the board's layout is indeed engraved upon the back of the doll's hand...
  
  ...he exploits every opportunity and pulls ahead rapidly; at length your position seems completely hopeless. You study the board once more: the sage needs but one more indifferently lucky throw to bring home his last Jackal, while your Hounds would need at least a dozen turns to catch up...
  
  ...it is your move, but it seems futile even to pick up the dice.
  
  > Sing lost
  Voicelessly you voice Lost Memories.
  
  The song evokes a mood of long ago. You glance at your sceptres again in growing doubt. These served me well among men. But against a blind genius automaton?
  
  > get the dice
  Dreading the result, you pick up the dice again...
  
  ...sure enough, the mechanical master handily defeats you...
  
  ...silently (but for a faint ticking) he begins to reset his pegs for a fresh game. Silently, you do the same.