text: [Themes: Fantasy, humour, rpg, mad science, silly, humor]
  
  > Go downwards
  Sa-ho! By Huron's vacticinal cowlick, this is a party! Here in this GRAVEL PIT, a collection of rowdies and jackanapes have made an outlaw camp, with drink and music and fighting galore! The center of attention seems to be a GLADIATOR'S RING.
  
  You see a nearby CHALLENGE POST, and a PARTY OF ROGUES stands by, engaged in revels and high jinks.
  
  > Regard ring
  The GLADIATOR'S RING is a simple open space where the gravel has been flattened in an open circle, to mark a place of battle.
  
  > Regard POST
  The CHALLENGE POST is a wooden pole hung with dyed banners, each representing a GLADIATOR willing to meet challengers. Beginning with the lowest, the banners are BLUE, GREEN, GOLD, and RED. There is room for one more banner above the others, but RED is presently the highest on the POST.
  
  A nearby rogue espies your curiosity, and sayeth "If ye wish a bout, barbarian, SEIZE the banner of your chosen foe, to display your challenge!"
  
  > Regard rogues
  The PARTY OF ROGUES seem quite the band of ne'er do wells!
  
  > seize blue
  As you pluck the BLUE BANNER from the CHALLENGE POST, the assembled rowdies cheer! You are ushered into the gladiator's ring, where you stand face-to-face with VON DARTH THE SLY! "It's good to face a worthy foe, barbarian!" he shouts, and salutes you.
  
  You take a moment to REGARD your opponent ... VON DARTH THE SLY is a short, mutated human with an extra arm sticking out of his neck. In this third arm he holds a wicked-looking MACHETE. With his free hands he gestures rudely for the crowd's amusement. He stands eagerly, waiting for your next move.
  
  > Assail darth
  By Huron's indigestible excretions, your GLADIUS SWORD lands home!
  You scored 6 points of damage!
  
  VON DARTH THE SLY attacks! You have suffered 9 hits of
  damage!
  
  > Surrender
  The phasic radiation must be clouding your thoughts, barbarian. Seek guidance with the HELP command.
  
  > Up
  The eager crowd is pressed around you; there is nowhere to go at the moment but back into the fray!
  
  VON DARTH THE SLY croaks a curse as he misses!
  
  > Assail darth
  A skillful attack if you do say so yourself! You scored 4 points
  of damage!
  
  VON DARTH brings his MACHETE to bear! You have suffered 7 hits of damage!
  
  > Assail darth
  You lunge deep, and strike! You scored 6 points of damage!
  
  VON DARTH THE SLY croaks a curse as he misses!
  
  > Assail darth
  You miss!
  
  With a happy snarl, VON DARTH leaps to the attack! You have
  suffered 9 hits of damage!
  
  You stumble, and fall to the ground. VON DARTH THE SLY has beaten you.
  
  The world goes black for a moment, as VON DARTH THE SLY lays you low with a hard stroke from his MACHETE.
  
  You are drawn from the darkness by the cheering crowd, showering VON DARTH with ale and praise. As your eyes refocus, you see his smiling face above you, and his third hand extended to help you to your feet.
  
  "You fought well, barbarian. It might just as easily been me lying there in the dust. Let yourself heal, and then return to challenge me once more! It was a pleasure to face a man with real spirit!"
  
  Sa-ho! By Huron's inscrutable Bridge partners, this is a party! Here in this GRAVEL PIT, a collection of rowdies and jackanapes have made an outlaw camp, with drink and music and fighting galore! The center of attention seems to be a GLADIATOR'S RING.
  
  You see a nearby CHALLENGE POST, and a PARTY OF ROGUES stands by, engaged in revels and high jinks.
  
  > Up
  This vast pit stands in the shadow of the snow-capped mountains to the east. It was here that the great stones were quarried to build the CASTLE of the SLAVER KING, and the walls of the nearby harbor town. The site is long-abandoned, or so it's told ... But you hear a riotous and happy din DOWN in the GRAVEL PIT.
  
  > Go west
  The SLAVER KING maintains this plank-paved highway for the good of his fat merchants, using slave labor. It is built on the backs of your people, and of any others his slave-catchers can beat into submission. Legend has it that a part of this road runs all the way distant to the UNKNOWN HIGHWAY! From here, however, it runs east to an ABANDONED QUARRY, and west into the pine-woods north of the CASTLE.
  
  > go west
  This is a peaceful forest of tall pines, with a well-worn road leading west, toward the SEASHORE, and east.
  
  You sure could use a good fight.
  
  > go west
  An elderly LIGHTHOUSE is here (you could go IN), warning ships against the dangers of the rocky coastline. This stretch includes some soft sand as well as rocks ... a small beach looking out on the SEA OF GREAT PERIL. Over some bluffs to the immediate south, you can hear the sounds of the SLAVER KING'S harbor town. To the east are some pines.
  
  > enter
  This old LIGHTHOUSE is in poor repair, but not quite abandoned. While no one seems to live here, you suppose it may be operated by a magic spell, or by someone keeping watch from the nearby harbor.
  
  You can see an ENORMOUS LAMP here.
  
  > Regard LAMP
  Unlike the structure supporting it, the ENORMOUS LAMP is in good repair (even the vast and fragile-looking reflector).
  
  > get LAMP
  The ENORMOUS LAMP is not your foe, barbarian.
  
  Thinkest again.
  
  > use LAMP
  You stare at the ENORMOUS LAMP as hard as you can, but it only makes your eyes hurt. Alas, the ways of the barbarian, while hallowed by the ages and kin to the wild, are so seldom useful.
  
  > use BAIT on SEA
  The STINKY BAIT is truly foul, but sometimes a man just feels the urge to expose his skin, smear it with rotted bait, bare it to the ocean and see if anything interesting happens. It's how your parents met.
  
  For a few minutes, the only noticeable effect is a migration of all the seabirds, who head to the harbor where the stench is more civilized. But then there is a visible movement out at sea ... a rising darkness in the clear green waters which resolves itself to a speeding mountain of scaly flesh, an errant island of rippling water washing over green-black muscle and sudden, fire-bright yellow eyes.
  
  When the ENORMOUS SEA-MONSTER rises out of the water, you wonder for a moment how the ocean ever contained it. It's larger than the nearby city!
  
  And then it eats you.
  
  SEA-MONSTER'S GULLET
  The floor is the squishy flesh of a monstrous gullet. The walls are the squishy flesh of a monstrous gullet. The ceiling is the squishy flesh of a monstrous gullet ... and the DIGESTIVE JUICES are rising to consume you.
  
  You can see a HALF-DIGESTED CORPSE bobbing in the rising, sizzling acid - the remains of some old sailor, you suppose. On the CORPSE you notice the EYEPATCH OF ODIN and FLESH-TOTEM OF DARTH VIRAXIS.
  
  You can feel your flesh sizzling as the DIGESTIVE JUICES continue to rise ...
  
  > Pillage
  EYEPATCH OF ODIN: Seized.
  FLESH-TOTEM OF DARTH VIRAXIS: Seized.
  
  You can feel your flesh sizzling as the DIGESTIVE JUICES continue to rise ...
  
  > check your inventory
  You bear the following (both on your person and stashed in your trusty THESKIAN DUFFEL BAG): a FLESH-TOTEM OF DARTH VIRAXIS, the EYEPATCH OF ODIN, a SUIT OF BURLAP ARMOR (being worn), a FLASHLIGHT, an ABSORBENT SPACE-RAG and a GLADIUS SWORD (held at the ready).
  
  You can feel your flesh sizzling as the DIGESTIVE JUICES continue to rise ...