text: [Themes: Fantasy, horror, fantasy, gender-neutral protagonist, dreams, telescopic descriptions, prince, gothic]
  
  Even after you ended your studies into the arcane, the nightmares continued to get worse.
  
  You see Amaranth in these dreams - a small and distant land that claims some vague portion of your ancestry - and the tyrant of a prince who rules it. You see everyone you have ever loved, everything you have ever cherished, shrivel and wither and fade - touched by his corrupting shadow.
  
  The Red Prince must die. You realise that now.
  
  Only then will the dreams stop.
  
  [If you have not previously visited Amaranth, in dreams or otherwise, type ABOUT and press return.]
  
  Wild forestland surrounds a quaint and shadowed village.
  
  A sheer cliff rises over the treetops, upon which is perched an ancient and gothic castle.
  
  (EXPLORE or X the land to find the means to the Red Prince's
  undoing.)
  
  [Author's Note: Welcome to Amaranth, foreigner. The Red Prince haunts your dreams, you say? If you want to overthrow our tyrant, you'll need to consider this whole blighted land at once.]
  
  > look at the village
  You follow deserted cobble roads between shuttered cottages and past a burnt-out church. Although barely a soul is to be found out of doors, there is movement in the windows of the local inn.
  
  > explore
  What do you want to explore?
  
  > look at the village
  You follow deserted cobble roads between shuttered cottages and past a burnt-out church. Although barely a soul is to be found out of doors, there is movement in the windows of the local inn.
  
  (If you get stuck, SLEEP. Your dreams brought you to Amaranth and
  they may still show you the way.)
  
  > look at inn
  The inn bears no name, only a hanging sign depicting an overflowing tankard. The windows are barred and the door is unusually heavyset, but the hearth within casts a friendly glow and the barstool is a welcome respite for your weary legs.
  
  The innkeeper nods a silent greeting, while a drunken carouser stamps his feet and slurs boisterous songs.
  
  (You may find out important information if you TALK TO the
  inhabitants of Amaranth.)
  
  > talk to the innkeeper
  The innkeeper sizes you up. "Don't get so many of your sort round here, least not these days. If you're looking for a drink, I have the best ale in all Amaranth."
  
  > talk to the carouser
  The carouser looms over you, his breath stinking of cheap ale. "We don't need any more of your sort around here. Why don't you bloody well bugger off back where you came from?"
  
  (ATTACK belligerent parties WITH any weapons you may have. If you
  have yet to find anything more suitable, you can always resort to your FISTS.)
  
  > examine the carouser
  Burly and red-nosed. He reeks of ale.
  
  > talk to the carouser
  The carouser slams his drink on the bar. "Get out! Your kind aren't welcome here! Or are you looking for a fight?"
  
  > About yourself
  One who has spent too many nights studying forgotten lore, and too few days in the sunlight.
  
  > attack the carouser with the fists
  You raise your fists to attack, and the carouser suddenly falls to his knees. "No, don't! I'm the last of my brothers and sisters left alive! This lighter's not worth much, but my father gave it to me. Take it, and we'll call it quits!"
  
  You pocket the lighter and lower your fists.
  
  > examine lighter
  The engraving reads, "Be sober, be vigilant."
  
  With this, you should be able to light anything suitably flammable.
  
  > talk to the carouser
  "I s'pose you'll be setting fire to all sorts of things now. You look the type."
  
  > set the fire to the carouser
  There seems little purpose in setting the carouser on fire.
  
  > ask the innkeeper for the drink
  The ale served in the inn proves lukewarm and watered down.
  
  The innkeeper meets your eye and smiles. You smile back.
  
  > talk to the innkeeper
  "They say the Armoured Lady has haunted the church graveyard for a hundred years. Never seen her myself, mind."
  
  scurry back to their homes. You retire to the local inn.
  
  flapping of leathery wings. Come morning, another poor soul is found pale, weak and proclaiming her love for the Red Prince.
  
  > look at the village
  You follow deserted cobble roads between shuttered cottages and past a burnt-out church. Although barely a soul is to be found out of doors, there is movement in the windows of the local inn.
  
  > examine the church
  Once grand and reverently architected, the windows are now empty, the roof open and the walls blackened by smoke. The spire remains standing, but the stairs up were apparently burned away in the original conflagration.
  
  Despite this blasphemy, the graveyard seems untouched.
  
  > examine the spire
  An accusing claw, pointing at the sky.
  
  > examine the graveyard
  Emerging from tangled weeds are a chaos of headstones topped with cherubs and angels. A mausoleum stands in one corner.
  
  Within the gates of this graveyard you feel watched.
  
  > examine the headstones
  There seems to have been a long lasting tradition of angel headstones in Amaranth. These stone guardians seem both protective and resigned to mute sadness.
  
  > move the headstone
  Those are fixed in place.
  
  > examine the mausoleum
  A small and gabled building of mossy stone. The silence around it is unnatural and oppressive.
  
  As soon as you step inside the mausoleum, a long-haired revenant stumbles shrieking from its depths, clad in chainmail and brandishing a gleaming sword. Her voice claws at your eardrums and you find yourself fleeing the graveyard in terror.
  
  She stops at the threshold of the mausoleum and watches you with empty eye sockets.
  
  > talk to the revenant
  Tip of her sword at your throat, the revenant speaks through parched lips. "Treachery at every turn. Betrayed by my own army. Failed by my heirs. Take this sword. Slay the one who trapped me in my own grave. Fail, and I shall recover it from your corpse and devour your heart. As I did with those who came before you."
  
  With a flash of white-hot light from her empty eye sockets, the armoured lady retreats into the mausoleum and disappears. You find yourself holding her silver sword.
  
  > examine the sword
  Its edge glints with an otherworldly light.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a silver sword
  an engraved lighter