text: [Themes: Fantasy, female protagonist]
  
  > talk to the dragon
  "Have at thee, villain!" you cry, waving your sword.
  
  The dragon pushes closer, biting at the air by your head.
  
  > kill the dragon
  The mighty sword whistles through the air as you swing at the dragon. With a loud "snick" you slice through his head.
  
  Out pour buckets and buckets of...
  
  ...candy!
  
  The costumed crowd cheers and scrambles towards you to pick through the remains of the dragon, while a voice over the loudspeaker proclaims:
  
  "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to..."
  
  The theme park of the century! by Mathbrush
  
  Your family gathers around you while an attendant takes the sword.
  
  "That was awesome!" shouts David.
  
  "Pretty cool," says Alice.
  
  "Thanks for choosing this as your wish, kid," says your Dad.
  
  "Alright, let's go! Lily has the run of the park for the day, so the rest of you go ahead. Happy birthday, Lily," your Mom says to you and kisses your head. Then they all run off to the east.
  
  > take the candy
  The crowd already took all the candy in their mad scramble for sweets.
  
  > About you
  You are Lily Lee, and this is your eleventh birthday! You are Queen of Grooverland for a day.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are a young queen without possessions.
  
  > look
  The crowd has gone, leaving you free to enter the park to the
  east.
  
  The shell of the red papier-mâché dragon is all that remains here. So strange, how lifelike it was!
  
  > go east
  You walk towards the entrance of Grooverland and are impressed by its extravagance and size.
  
  Grooverland is surrounded by a plastic castle wall pierced by two tall gates to the east, one red and one white. Streams of people
  flow in and out of them and you can hear screams and laughter from inside.
  
  A gate guard in a paisley vest sitting in a Welcome Booth waves you over. "Welcome, Your Majesty! Let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, go out there and have fun!" he says, handing you a flier.
  
  A smiling woman (accompanied by dog) is standing near the booth and holding a sign that says "Lily". That's your name!
  
  > read the flier
  As our royal guest of honor, you are cordially invited to your own private coronation tonight at sundown!
  
  To enter the castle, you must find a full set of regalia. This includes:
  
  a ring,
  a Sugar Plum Crown,
  a royal scepter,
  a mantle,
  and a sun orb.
  Each can be found in a different attraction.
  
  The park is laid out from west to east. Shops are available off the Melancholy Mall. Animals both gentle and dangerous can be found
  off the Prowling Promenade. Exciting rides are found off of the Mechanical Marvels. Halloween-themed spooky attractions are
  available year-round in the Spooky Sideshow! And our performers
  and the Queen's Castle itself are available in the Bitter End.
  
  The Mirrored Queen and the Scarlet Empress welcome you to Grooverland!
  
  > ask the guard about the gates
  "We're not a medieval castle. The gates are open all day!" he says.
  
  > ask the guard about mirrored Queen
  He says, "Well, there's two people in charge of this park: her, and the Scarlet Empress. And let me tell you, if you have to meet one of them, you'd better hope it's the queen!"
  
  > ask the guard about scarlet Empress
  The gate guard looks at you seriously. "Lily, if you're involved with the Scarlet Empress, then you're in for a world of hurt."
  
  > ask guard about Mall
  You can only ASK someone about an important thing or person you've seen. For instance, you could ASK the gate guard ABOUT David, the royal scepter, or Dad.
  
  > ask the guard about the mantle
  "It's a traditional garment worn by royals in Europe," he says. "This one is your size."
  
  > ask the guard about the orb
  He says, "It was traditional for kings of old in some cultures to hold an orb that siginified the earth being in the rulers' hands. But this orb represents the sun."
  
  > examine the dog
  dog is a mixed breed dog, somewhere between a spaniel and a terrier, with a collar and a name tag that says "Toby".
  
  > look at the woman
  This is a professional-looking woman holding a sign with your name on it and standing next to a dog.
  
  > talk to the woman
  "Are you Lily?" the woman asks, crouching down. You nod.
  
  "Hi, Lily! I'm from the 'Kids Paws the Game' Foundation. We've donated our own gift for the big day." She pulls out a whistle on a chain and hands it to you.
  
  "If you ever get lost, just blow this whistle and Toby here will come find you," she says, ruffling the hair of the dog next to you. "We'll let you get on with the big day. Hope you have fun!"
  
  She gives you a wink, and then she vanishes, leaving Toby behind. You blink, but nobody else seems to have noticed her disappearance. Toby licks your hand reassuringly. You place the whistle around your neck.
  
  > look at Toby
  Toby is a mixed breed dog, somewhere between a spaniel and a terrier, with a collar and a name tag that says "Toby".
  
  > Pet toby
  Toby smiles and barks, as if to say, "I am indeed a good boy!"
  
  > Smell toby
  Everything in this park has a smell like peppermint mixed with copper.
  
  > ask toby about Queen
  (the Mirrored Queen)
  Toby doesn't understand you, but he puts a paw on your hand and stares into your eyes, letting you know that he'll wait for you here until you blow the whistle.
  
  > ask the guard about Dad
  "Your father seems like a swell fellow, really knows his way around a map. He was hanging around Mechanical Marvels or thereabout, if I remember," says the guard.
  
  > ask the guard about white gate
  You can only ASK someone about an important thing or person you've seen. For instance, you could ASK the gate guard ABOUT Grooverland, the Scarlet Empress, or the ring.
  
  > go east
  As you enter the gates, the full beauty of Grooverland is exposed to your view. You smell a bizarre mixture of sweets and metal, you hear screams from unseen rides, and, far off to the east, you see the distant castle. That's where your coronation ceremony will be tonight, if you can find everything you need, of course!
  
  [You can check the flier in your inventory to see the requirements for entering the Queen's Castle.]
  
  You are standing in the main thoroughfare for Grooverland. Park-goers wearing masks and carrying cricket bats pass all around you, and you see quite a few children holding jelly-covered ice cream cones.
  
  A sign to the north says "Sugar Plum Snack Bar".
  
  A sign to the south is labeled "Painful Purchases Gift Shop". Underneath the name is a tagline: "All Magic Has a Price".
  
  east to the Prowling Promenade.
  
  > Go north
  This snack shop is one of the highest-rated attractions at the park, according to your sister.
  
  A harried-looking snack attendant stands at the register dispensing drinks out to ticket-holders.
  
  A mighty confectionery castle cake rises here, wider than a wedding cake. Each piece is made of a different substance in various layers. The uppermost layer of the cake is the Devil's Food Tower, made of dark, dense chocolate cake. A little sign nearby says "For Lily".
  
  > look at the cake
  An enormous cake made of decadent foods. Currently you can see the Devil's Food Tower, made of dark, dense chocolate cake.
  
  > examine the attendant
  Imagine Betty White in her 50's dressed as a carnival showman, while also being very drunk. This woman is the complete opposite of that.
  
  > ask the attendant about the cake
  "Oh, that cake's all for you. There's a prize if you eat it, sugar," says the attendant.
  
  > eat the cake
  You gorge yourself on the Devil's Food Tower, squishing your fingers through and through the spongy mass. Underneath, you see a library made of marshmallow.
  
  > eat the library
  Your mouth is too dry to eat more.
  
  > ask the attendant for the drink
  (the snack attendant first taking the drinks)
  You can TALK TO the snack attendant or ASK the snack attendant ABOUT something you've seen.
  
  > talk to the attendant
  "First time?" she asks, peering down at you with a polite smile. "Drinks are free, but only if you have a ticket. You see any drink tickets, bring them to me and I'll trade them in for a drink. Okay, hun?" She peers closer at you. "Oh, you're Lily, right? The cake is yours, too. There's a prize if you can eat the whole thing!"
  
  She then goes back to serving the other customers.
  
  > go south
  You are standing in the main thoroughfare for Grooverland. Park-goers wearing masks and carrying cricket bats pass all around you, and you see quite a few children holding jelly-covered ice cream cones.
  
  A sign to the north says "Sugar Plum Snack Bar".
  
  A sign to the south is labeled "Painful Purchases Gift Shop". Underneath the name is a tagline: "All Magic Has a Price".
  
  east to the Prowling Promenade.
  
  > go south
  You are standing in Painful Purchases, the gift shop for Grooverland. Everything is decorated in burgundy and beige.
  
  Here, there are rows and rows of pristine merchandise.
  
  A book of poems is on display. A little dollhouse is here as well, filled with simulated rot and rust.
  
  A shop clerk is waiting patiently for your mom to finish her purchases.
  
  Your mom is here, browsing through the merchandise.
  
  > look at the dollhouse
  This house is filled with all sorts of little furniture. It has a label that says, "The house is insignificant, a worthless husk, too tiny to love. It is entirely too small. Please do not shake the house."
  
  It's filled with little furniture.
  
  > look at the furniture
  The dollhouse is filled with little, immovable pieces of furniture. There are plastic doves' nests in little holes. Ridged vines coil over tiles painted with cracks. The rug is a sponge, pre-moistened to a swampy state. The abandoned chairs are crumpled into a pile. A little crooked painting of an elderly woman adorns the wall. There is a little wooden cabinet. There are bookcases with plastic moss and little black wax candles like fingers, black logs in the fireplace with an oversized mantel.
  
  > examine the elderly woman
  I wonder who she is.
  
  > examine the cabinet
  Hmm, this cabinet looks shinier than the rest of the furniture.
  
  > open it
  You open the little cabinet, revealing a winding key.
  
  > take the winding key
  You grab the winding key.
  
  > examine the poems
  You flip through the book.
  
  "They say it is a haunted place.
  In ages past a priest lived there
  and when his prayers were not
  answered he starved himself.
  His body transformed into rats
  and they destroyed the sacred
  books and holy scrolls..."
  
  It goes on like this for some time.
  
  > examine mom
  Mom is wearing her sandals and capri pants. She has her pencil out and is jotting down everything she sees into a present list. She clicks and mutters every time she spots something new.
  
  > examine clerk
  The clerk is short and thin, and he has extremely long golden hair.
  
  > ask the clerk about the dollhouse
  He laughs. "I'm not, like, into dolls, man. I don't know."
  
  > examine the dollhouse
  This house is filled with all sorts of little furniture. It has a label that says, "The house is insignificant, a worthless husk, too tiny to love. It is entirely too small. Please do not shake the house."
  
  It's filled with little furniture, including an open cabinet.
  
  > examine the bookcases
  The moss on the bookcases must have taken forever to make.
  
  > examine the rug
  Gross.
  
  > examine the candles
  They are honestly pretty disgusting.
  
  > look at the logs
  Why is there so much detail in this dollhouse?
  
  > examine the bats
  They're marked with some kind of weird alphabet or sigils. It looks burned into the wood; in fact, some of the bats are still smoking.
  
  > asthe park-goers about the bats
  You can only ASK someone about an important thing or person you've seen. For instance, you could ASK the mall crowd ABOUT the Painful Purchases Gift Shop, the book of poems, or the dollhouse.
  
  > go east
  The crowd is more or less divided here, with younger kids and families headed west to the Melancholy Mall and more adventurous teens
  and adults headed east to Mechanical Marvels.
  
  A sign to the north proclaims "Cragne Meatpacking Presents:
  Petting Zoo". Some graffiti applied to the sign proclaims, "TOBY KNOWS."
  
  A sign to the south says "The Queen's Menagerie". You've heard
  this is where more dangerous animals are displayed.
  
  There are three food sellers here: a sausage seller, a ceviche chef, and a jelly man, each with their own menu and cart. But something about the food they're selling seems weird.
  
  > Examine seller
  A heavy-set man with thick stubble and a layer of grease all over him.
  
  He's standing in front of the sausage menu.
  
  > examine the sausage menu
  "Try our delightfully bloody food!
  
  B/S/R FOOD
  
  4/2/1 TAGHAIRM DELUXE
  3/2/2 BARON'S BREAKFAST
  4/1/2 HUNTED UNICORN"
  
  > XYZZY
  
  You are in a debris room filled with stuff washed in from the surface. A low wide passage with cobbles becomes plugged with mud and debris here, but an awkward canyon leads upward and west. At least, it used to. Now it's blocked by an iron portcullis"
  
  A note on the wall says, "Magic word XYZZY."
  
  You can see a blasting rod here.
  
  > take the rod
  You grab the blasting rod.
  
  > Go west
  (first opening the iron portcullis)
  (first unlocking the iron portcullis)
  You lack a key that fits the iron portcullis.
  
  > Xyzzy
  Grooverland is surrounded by a plastic castle wall pierced by two tall gates to the east, one red and one white. Streams of people
  flow in and out of them and you can hear screams and laughter from inside.
  
  David is contemplating the various attractions and people in the park with wide eyes. He's holding his favorite plush chimera.
  
  In between the two gates is a Welcome Booth with a kindly-looking gate guard standing inside.
  
  Toby waits patiently here for the next time you'll need him.
  
  > ask the guard about the rod
  Oh no! When you say the words "blasting rod", it explodes!
  
  > go to the east
  You are standing in the main thoroughfare for Grooverland. Park-goers wearing masks and carrying cricket bats pass all around you, and you see quite a few children holding jelly-covered ice cream cones.
  
  A sign to the north says "Sugar Plum Snack Bar".
  
  A sign to the south is labeled "Painful Purchases Gift Shop". Underneath the name is a tagline: "All Magic Has a Price".
  
  east to the Prowling Promenade.
  
  Spike the park inspector comes up to you and grabs the blasting rod. "Not safe for children!" he yells over his shoulder.
  
  Now your blasting rod is gone forever. Which is good, because it was just a silly toy implemented in an out-of-game action and doesn't accomplish anything.
  
  > examine chef
  A thin and almost rubbery-looking woman with bulging eyes.
  
  She's standing in front of the ceviche menu.
  
  > examine the ceviche menu
  "No one is more raw than us!
  
  B/S/R FOOD
  
  1/2/4 BRINY BYTE
  2/2/3 CRAGNE CRAWFISH
  2/1/4 PICKLED PRIORESS"
  
  > look at the jelly menu
  "The sloppiest scraps you'll ever find!
  
  B/S/R FOOD
  
  2/4/1 JELLIED EELS
  1/4/2 MOLTEN MONOLITH
  2/3/2 PORCINE PUREE"
  
  > Go north
  "Queen coming through!" shouts someone in the crowd, and the petting zoo slowly clears out. Personal time with the animals is one of your perks for the day.
  
  This homey-looking area surrounded by a gleaming chrome fence has several soft animals (and, in one case, squishy) for you to pet or feed. A gleaming chrome food table provides snacks for the animals: a lettuce tray, a crate of mushrooms, and a plate of bratwursts.
  
  A placid and professional zookeeper stands watch over the animals.
  
  A racing slug is oozing around here.
  
  A truffle pig is sniffing around the petting zoo.
  
  A tailypo is stalking back and forth.
  
  > Pet slug
  It's very squishy, but you do it. The slug looks happy.
  
  > examine the pig
  Well, it's called a truffle pig, but it looks like a regular pig.
  
  > Pet pig
  It oinks merrily at your touch.
  
  > examine the tailypo
  Black shape. Whiskers. Big eyes. Sharp claws. Long tail.
  
  > ask the zookeeper about the tailypo
  "Now he's a weird little creature," says the zookeeper. "Looks so smart I swear he could talk, but I've never heard a peep out of him."
  
  > talk to tailypo
  The tailypo looks at you in utter confusion.
  
  > Pet tailypo
  It bristles but allows you to pet it. It does look less grumpy.
  
  > examine the lettuce
  Which do you mean, the 1) lettuce tray or the 2) lettuce leaf?
  
  > Leaf
  It is almost disgustingly healthy and vibrant.
  
  > look at mushrooms
  An open crate filled with mushroom caps.
  
  In the crate of mushrooms is a mushroom cap.
  
  > look at the bratwurst
  Which do you mean, the 1) plate of bratwursts or the 2) limp bratwurst?
  
  > Limp
  This bratwurst is dripping with grease.
  
  > talk to the zookeeper
  "This part of the park is mostly for the younger kids, but I think you might like it, too," says the zookeeper. It's not as frightening as the menagerie and its strange little keeper.
  
  "We're also missing our monkey, so I'm sorry about that. He's a clever little scamp and likes to disappear from time to time."
  
  > ask the zookeeper about the monkey
  "I do wonder where our monkey has gone to," says the zookeeper worriedly. "He loves to pick fights."
  
  > give the leaf to the slug
  (first taking the lettuce leaf)
  The slug devours the lettuce greedily. It squeaks and gurgles in a gelatinous joy.
  
  > give the cap to the pig
  (first taking the mushroom cap)
  The pig leans forward to sniff the mushroom, enjoying its fungal scent. It takes a small bite, rolling it around on its tongue to enjoy the flavor, before delicately swallowing it. Then it chomps down on the rest, eating it in one gulp and almost taking off your hand.
  
  > give the limp to tailypo
  (first taking the limp bratwurst)
  The tailypo devourse the bratwurst greedily, splashing bits of grease and skin all over itself before cleaning itself.