text: [Themes: Comedy, Lovecraftian, Lovecraft]
  
  > Go downwards
  Your reading glasses frost over at the edges. You feel a sharp pain from the cold spot on your shoulder, and feel like there's a library book you--or Emmett, perhaps--hasn't read yet from this location.
  
  Cragne Library Forbidden Annex - Under the Basement (Ivan Roth)
  You're in a rocky cavern, colder and wetter even than the dank basement. It is also dim and shadowy, but you can make out strange carvings on the rock walls, a sinister iron cage that dangles from the roof of the cave, and a large black cabinet of ornate design, set into the western wall. An ink-black tunnel entrance leads north.
  
  A pile of things lies on the cave floor, where Fedwick was standing.
  
  You can see The Conservative's Cookbook, a little stoppered
  vial of blue liquid, an old newspaper (smelling faintly of mildew), a faded delivery note (smelling faintly of mildew), The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three (smelling faintly of mildew), a postcard of Big Ben (smelling faintly of mildew), a moldy, waterlogged journal (smelling faintly of mildew) and a soggy tome (smelling faintly of mildew) here.
  
  > examine conservative
  It's a big, blocky book with a stain-proof cover and a picture of a guy with a chef's hat and a gavel on the cover. The title reads: "The Conservative's Cookbook, with Clarence T. Smokeless". The cover is stamped with the insignia of the Backwater Public Library, two back-to-back crescent moons joined by an eye looking down at an open book.
  
  > read it
  (first taking The Conservative's Cookbook)
  It's a bunch of recipes for baked goods and stuff. Nothing particularly revelatory there.
  
  As you finish reading the passage, your own hands grow cold, and the book briefly frosts over before fading again, leaving traces behind only in the library insignia.
  
  > get all
  little stoppered vial of blue liquid: Taken.
  
  old newspaper (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  faded delivery note (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  The Modern Girl's Divination Handbook -- Volume Three (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  postcard of Big Ben (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  moldy, waterlogged journal (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  soggy tome (smelling faintly of mildew): Taken.
  
  > open the cabinet
  You open the bookcase, revealing
  The Liquid Sky, by Robert N. Ostregot,
  In Defense of Reason,
  The History of the End, or, Last Men,
  Mysteries of the Red City,
  Beyond the Dream of Moons,
  The Ant That Breeds,
  Roceau's Dictionary of Crime and Criminality - Centennial
  edition,
  Across Black Oceans,
  The Searcher in Darkness,
  Out of the Screaming Planet,
  The Doctrine of the Long Stick,
  Reading the Sky and
  The Monolith.
  
  > examine Searcher in Darkness
  (first taking The Searcher in Darkness)
  
  Taken.
  
  This leatherbound, pocket-sized volume reminds you of those "worst-case survival" books, but the title etched on the cover in lacy handwriting suggests a different tone: Searcher in Darkness,
  by Endrew Skeinweld. It smells old, but maybe it's just mildewy.
  
  > read it
  You flip through the little pages of Searcher in Darkness.
  There's a lot of cave maps, and a diagram of an old-fashioned oil lamp. One unusual illustration catches your eye: What looks like a rubbing of a weird stone carving, a seven-pointed star encircled by an open eye. The caption says it was found in Gorogoth Cave, right here in Vermont, by a spelunker named Barnabus Trail. The second sentence of the caption has been blotted out with black ink, and a cursory glance suggests there's no further discussion of the carving.
  
  On the back cover, you notice a blemish, and you realize it's a smear of blood — but when you tilt your head you see that there are dozens of blood smears on the cover, spelling out a single word:
  ANGARITHEP. The P trails off, as if the one who
  scrawled it was being dragged away...
  
  > put Searcher in the cabinet
  You put The Searcher in Darkness, by Endrew Skeinweld into
  the bookcase.
  
  > look at the bat
  A black ball of fur and fangs flutters helplessly in the cage.
  
  > unlock Cage with the sinister iron key
  (first taking the sinister iron key)
  You unlock the hanging iron cage.
  
  > open Cage
  You let the creaking iron bars swing open.
  
  The vampire bat squeaks and flies out of the cage at top speed, circles a few times and zooms through the opening in the ceiling.
  
  > put the sinister iron key in kp
  You unzip the key pocket, deposit the sinister iron key, then zip the key pocket back up again.
  
  > go to the north
  Hesitantly, you enter the mouth of the cavern, and start feeling your way through the tunnel...
  
  You feel your way through enveloping darkness, and then pad in silence through the rough-hewn tunnels of the deeper caves...
  
  You clamber over domes of rock, and then claw apart loose basalt, stumble onto a cliff and peer over at the steaming jungle at the center of the earth... topple over...
  
  You collapse on blue soil, under an unknown moon...
  
  > go to the south
  Foyer (Greg Frost)
  Standing in the narrow entry hall is like being at the mouth of a cave. The only light comes in through tall windows on either side of the door and a half-round window above. All of the furniture has been removed from the foyer, leaving tracks in the heavy dust.
  
  The sky outside is purple, with a few stars already visible. Hallways lead west and east into other parts of the house. A doorway leads north; the front door is to the south.
  
  > go to the south
  Mudroom (Matt Weiner)
  The porch is a mudroom, a place for taking off coats and muddy shoes. The marble front wall seems like a sheer cliff face, the porch like a flimsy shelter built onto it. The front door leads inside to the north.
  
  In one corner of the porch a strangely shaped hook is fastened to the wall. A black cloak hangs beside it.
  
  In the other corner of the porch is a small wooden table.
  
  A slightly muddy welcome mat lies in front of the door.
  
  Against the front wall are a pair of blue cloth slippers and a single brown leather boot.
  
  You can also see the mate of the first leather boot here.
  
  > go to the south
  Front Walk (Matt Weiner)
  Cragne Manor looms to the north. Its light gray marble front is marred by a screened-in wooden porch, clearly tacked on well after the manor was built. A gravel path bends around the manor to the northeast and northwest, and the driveway leads south back to town.
  
  By the porch steps is a post with a placard reading "31." A strange little manikin is affixed to it.
  
  A ghostly trolley stop sign reads Purple Line -- Cragne Manor.
  
  > go to the south
  You round the path and find yourself in a familiar knoll flanked on three sides by tall, dark cliffs. In the center of a clearing before you is a huge pile of rusting railroad track.
  
  Leaning back against the pile of iron, Christabell gives you a fatigued wave and after some exertion of effort becomes more substantial.
  
  "Hello, again, Friend Naomi," she says weakly.
  
  Hillside Path (Jack Welch)
  You are in a hillside hollow flanked on three sides by sheer granite cliffs and on the other by gnarled vegetation.
  
  Three trailheads hold out some chance of respite: north, southwest, and southeast.
  
  You can see Christabell here.
  
  [ HINT: you can type "hints" for a hint for this location ]
  
  > talk the tea
  (the teapot (smelling faintly of mildew))
  Christabell squints as she looks at you, shading her eyes with her hand.
  
  "Runes of the Deep Ones preserve us, Naomi. By what
  Artefise are you so surfeited of Potence, that
  Louminance does burne mightily about you? Had I Haires upon my
  Bodie, they would upon their very Ends stand aright, you do so exude Glamour. By what Manner did that come to pass, I do wonder?
  
  > talk carol
  "When she were a Childe, she did come visit me frequently, standing as you do now. I do flatter mieself to thinke she did seek my Company for Wisedom and Solace, but let us also admit that for a Childe, the Crâne Manse was naught but a Place of Boredom most profound."
  
  The light plays strangely over Christabell and for a brief instant she appears ghostly and luminous rather than solid.
  
  > look at Carol
  Carol is wearing a her highschool uniform.
  
  Carol continues to comb her long hair.
  
  > examine table
  A small ivory-colored painted wooden table, just to the side of the window. A few items of makeup are arranged neatly on one corner, and a small, round mirror stands on the other
  
  > examine the mirror
  Your face is distorted in the makeup mirror and items behind you are a blur.