text: [Themes: Fantasy]
  
  > examine the cliff
  The great mountain soars high above you, its lofty peak disappearing into the clouds overhead. Before you, a great cliff rises abruptly, stretching far up the mountain's northern face. At the very foot of the cliff, a deep alcove has been hollowed out.
  
  > About you
  You are tall for your seventeen years, despite your meager existence on the farm. The tattered clothes of a peasant adorn your lanky frame.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are empty-handed.
  
  > enter the cave
  The stone steps continue southward, descending deeper into the mountain. Here, the steps are less well defined. The previously smooth stone is littered with rubble that has fallen into the stairway over the centuries. The echoing sound of dripping water fills this place with a sense of dampness and cold. Less light penetrates from the entrance far above and it is becoming more difficult to negotiate the slippery stones.
  
  > look at the stones
  The boulders, like the rest of this dark passage, are mottled granite.
  
  > examine the steps
  Behind you the stone steps climb steeply upward, as if yearning for the pale daylight that spills in through the entrance above. Downward, they quickly decay into an irregular slope of boulders.
  
  > go to the south
  You are in a great, damp cavern, carved from hard granite by the incessant fingers of rainwater trickling down through the heart of the great mountain. Along the cavern's western wall, a small stream emerges from a crevice in the solid rock. The stream splashes downward over the tumble of stones that make up the cavern's floor until it vanishes beneath an iron door. The door is set in a small hollow where the southernmost extremity of the cavern's roof dips down toward the jagged floor. Against the western wall is a pile of loose shale that seems incongruent with the larger stones that make up the balance of the cavern's floor.
  
  As you crawl deeper into the dark cavern, you notice that the amulet hanging about your neck begins to glow with a wan, greenish light. It seems to grow brighter as the fading light from above dwindles to darkness. The amulet provides you with just enough illumination to see by.
  
  > Inventory
  You have a golden amulet (being worn).
  
  > examine amulet
  It is the golden amulet the council of elders gave you as you set out on your journey. It is quite finely made, probably well beyond the skills of the smithies of your land, it must have come from some far-off place.
  
  The council commanded you sternly to wear it at all times. One of the most grizzled and ancient of the elders seized your shoulder in an iron grip, his tangled, silver brow knitted in a grim glare. He told you that the amulet was necessary to summon the oracle from her hiding place. "When all is prepared," he growled, "cast the amulet into the heart of the mountain."
  
  > Drink stream
  The stream's water is clear, cold and delicious.
  
  > examine the stream
  The stream emerges from a crevice in the wall and splashes southward through the cavern where it disappears beneath the iron door.
  
  > examine the shale
  Heaped against the western wall is a loose pile of stone shards.
  
  > search it
  You rummage through the jagged flakes of rock, the sharp edges biting into your bare hands. Hidden just below the surface, you uncover a rusted iron chain. It is threaded between the stones as if it had been intentionally concealed.
  
  > look at the chain
  The chain is about the thickness of you thumb, and is crusted with brown-red rust.
  
  > examine the door
  The door has been beaten from a single, great slab of iron. It is as tall as a man, and almost equally wide. Its hinges are set in the solid stone of the cavern's walls. It is locked with a great padlock which has rusted terribly over the centuries.
  
  > open the door
  It's locked.
  
  > pull the chain
  You pull at the chain, drawing a portion of its length out from between the boulders that make up the cavern's floor. One end appears to be fastened to the very stone that forms this chamber. The other end is attached to something that rests, concealed, in the stream. It feels as though another sturdy tug on the chain would free it from its hiding place.
  
  > pull the chain
  You pull again at the rusted chain. A long metal box hauls out of the stream and clatters to a rest on one of the stones.
  
  > Examine box
  The box is constructed from thick copper plates bound together with iron straps and rivets. It is narrow, perhaps a hand's breadth across, and if stood on end it would probably reach waist height. The iron chain is fastened to a sturdy padeye, riveted to the box at one end.
  
  > open the box
  The metal box creaks open. Resting within is a great sword, badly rusted and decayed.
  
  > examine the sword
  The sword was once a beautiful weapon, but centuries of immersion in the stream have nearly destroyed it. Its once brilliant blade is now pitted with rust. The leather binding of its grip has long since disintegrated. You wonder at how such an exquisite treasure came to rest in this cavern. It must have been hidden ages ago as an offering to the great oracle.
  
  > get it
  Taken.
  
  > hit the padlock with the sword
  You deal the padlock a mighty blow with the ancient sword. The padlock beats against the great door with a resonant clang. The force of the blow sends a painful jolt through your hands and arms. The lock is badly damaged and appears almost ready to fall apart, but the rusted metal still holds the great door shut.
  
  > hit the padlock with the sword
  You deal the padlock a mighty blow with the ancient sword. The padlock's hasp cracks in two and the door's latch swings open.
  
  > open the door
  You push against the door's cold metal with all your strength, but the ancient hinges, caked with rust, hold fast.
  
  Then with a crack, the hinges break free and the great door grinds open with an ear-splitting creak.