text: [Themes: Zorkian, Cave crawl, spells]
  
  > Go downwards
  An expanse of shingle and boulders sloping haphazardly across an irregularly-shaped floor a hundred feet across, only smoothed out at
  its centre by a stream which pools just to the north. A furrow in the
  rocky walls leads southwest, alongside a scree-fall which lies roughly
  south; while the cave narrows into a canyon to the east.
  
  The cone of the cedar hangs vertiginously over you, its tip perhaps 9
  feet off the floor.
  
  An improvised ladder of sticks, lashed together with vines and
  creepers, rests against the tip of the cedar, leading up into its
  branches.
  
  Your length of rope is here.
  
  You can also see some provisions - a clove of garlic, a hunk of cheese
  and a joint of cured ham, The Guide For Travellers To The Lower
  Northlands and Surrounding Provinces, your Ambassador's trunk (in
  which is a hand telescope), Experimental Spell Book #5, the
  handwritten note, a bow, four arrows, a drum (which is empty), a small wickerwork hamper (which is empty), a shard of pottery (providing
  light), your formal credentials, a gleaming uncut diamond, a boomerang (providing light), a colour chart, an old document and a coffer (which
  is empty) here.
  
  > get all
  stream: You have nothing which will hold water.
  inverted cedar: You can't reach the tree from here.
  improvised ladder: Taken.
  clove of garlic: Taken.
  hunk of cheese: Taken.
  joint of cured ham: Taken.
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces: Taken.
  Ambassador's trunk: Taken.
  Experimental Spell Book #5: Taken.
  handwritten note: Taken.
  bow: Taken.
  arrow: Taken.
  drum: Taken.
  arrow: Taken.
  arrow: Taken.
  arrow: Taken.
  small wickerwork hamper: Taken.
  shard of pottery: Taken.
  formal credentials: Taken.
  gleaming uncut diamond: Taken.
  boomerang: Taken.
  length of light rope: Taken.
  colour chart: Taken.
  old document: Taken.
  coffer: Taken.
  
  > Memorise ploor
  You commit the ploor spell to memory.
  
  > get the scrolls
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  unwritten vellum scroll: Taken.
  
  > Ploor
  A brief babble in your ears clarifies and settles to a calm voice, a
  voice with the clarity of a thought. You are in telepathic conference
  with the Archduke Elect, the head of the Duchy's legislature and
  therefore of the whole Diplomatic Service!
  
  Somehow, without words, a perfect concord is achieved between you. He
  has received your report and is arranging for your escape: agents will
  be waiting at Watling Street to whisk you away. But your detailed
  impressions of what is going on will not be enough. No, you must
  somehow foil this new magic, if possible forever.
  
  (Only now do you realise how the poor watchmakers and craftsmen of the
  Duchy must feel. This "ploor" spell will make travelling diplomats
  entirely redundant.)
  
  > put the diamond on Anvil
  right across the calibrations on the far wall, in a weaker but still
  potent greenness.
  
  > turn the dial to 123
  You rotate the mounting to 123.00.
  
  > look
  The presence everywhere of tools and instruments makes this place
  rather homely to a Duchy-born man like yourself: it's like a smithy,
  but of the colours of light, not the alloys of metal.
  
  At the workshop's centre is the Anvil, a hard stone mounting and,
  perhaps, the fulcrum of the new Northlands Empire that is to come. The
  beam of light courses in through the eastern archway to strike the top
  of the Anvil dead-centre, where it is refracted by the diamond, right
  across the calibrations on the far wall.
  
  workshop, and can be turned anywhere on the calibrated dial from 1 to
  180 degrees. It now stands at 123.00.
  
  wooden cot, apparently in a deep sleep or coma.
  
  On the floor beneath Clotspinner's outstretched hand are the fragments
  of a broken glass prism, smashed by the fall. It's a tableau like a
  narrative painting: you feel a curious urge to disturb nothing.
  
  > put the scroll in the swivel
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  > look at the scroll
  (the newly-written scroll)
  The scroll reads "gloth spell (fold pastry dough 83 times)".
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  seven unwritten vellum scrolls
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a drum (which is empty)
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  a stub of a stock-keeper's note
  a broad green leaf
  a burnished lantern (providing light)
  
  > 85
  You rotate the mounting to 25.85.
  
  > put the scroll in dial
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  > look at the scroll
  (the newly-written scroll)
  The scroll reads "gloth spell (fold pastry dough 83 times)".
  
  > look at the scroll
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  (the newly-written scroll)
  The scroll reads "gloth spell (fold pastry dough 83 times)".
  
  > 48
  You rotate the mounting to 127.48.
  
  > examine the scroll
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  (the newly-written scroll)
  The scroll reads "corpax spell (make small-bore tunnel through light
  stone)".
  
  > put the scroll in the dial
  Which do you mean, the newly-written scroll or an unwritten vellum
  scroll?
  
  > Unwritten
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a newly-written scroll (of the corpax spell)
  five unwritten vellum scrolls
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a drum (which is empty)
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  a stub of a stock-keeper's note
  a broad green leaf
  a burnished lantern (providing light)
  
  > Spell
  Your spell book begins to glow softly. Almost imperceptibly, the
  binding swells and closes over the edge of the newly-written scroll,
  which straightens and becomes the new corpax spell page. The book's
  brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > get the scroll
  (the newly-written scroll)
  Taken.
  
  > put it in the Spell Book
  Your spell book begins to glow softly. Almost imperceptibly, the
  binding swells and closes over the edge of the newly-written scroll,
  which straightens and becomes the new gloth spell page. The book's
  brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > memorize the gloth
  You commit the gloth spell to memory.
  
  > 78
  You rotate the mounting to 75.78.
  
  > put unwritten scroll in the dial
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  By an ancient and powerful magic, as you stand clear of the green
  beam, one precise ray of one single shade strikes the paper in the
  mounting. A spell appears upon it!
  
  > examine newly
  The scroll reads "alsakan spell (pursue squirrel with spectral
  hounds)".
  
  > get the scroll
  (the newly-written scroll)
  Taken.
  
  > put it in the Spell Book
  Your spell book begins to glow softly. Almost imperceptibly, the
  binding swells and closes over the edge of the newly-written scroll,
  which straightens and becomes the new alsakan spell page. The book's brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > read the spellbook
  The chiaro spell (cause inanimate object to radiate light).
  The jilnix spell (summon small plague of insects).
  The piroo spell (unfasten object).
  The azzev spell (view the past).
  The ruther spell (transmute pure chemical elements).
  The ploor spell (nation shall speak peace unto nation).
  The corpax spell (make small-bore tunnel through light stone).
  The gloth spell (fold pastry dough 83 times).
  The alsakan spell (pursue squirrel with spectral hounds).
  
  > memorize the corpax
  You commit the corpax spell to memory.
  
  > Corpax meteor
  The spell misfires: it's far too dangerous to direct at any specific
  person or item.
  
  > Corpax
  It's the most exhausting spell you've ever cast, leaving you almost
  too wrung out to notice the pleasant rising tunnel now leading
  smoothly up from the walls.
  
  > take the chalk
  That much chalk is deceptively heavy.
  
  > look
  Wheel Cave (West)
  A circular corridor-cave, like a cartwheel's rim and unmistakably
  artificial. The arc hoops around northeast and southeast.
  
  of the great wheel.
  
  A clear funnel chimney rises vertically up, like a glass-blower's vent
  or something from a furnace, lined with smooth-curving brick.
  
  become, and into which the beam of magical light dissipates
  harmlessly.
  
  A smooth, recent tunnel rises up to natural light.
  
  > Up
  A half-cave, half-overhang among the mossy damp rocks of the central
  hillock in the hunting woods. It's a clear night, and a fresh cold
  breeze blows across your face.
  
  The tunnel runs downward, back into the wheel complex. But escape with
  your life is what matters now!
  
  > Go north
  "My dear Ambassador," purrs a familiar voice. "You are welcome
  indeed."
  
  A break in the dense foliage, caused mainly by the shadow of the
  rockface to the west, bathed by the unnatural light which fires over
  the hillock. Trees are clustered in on all sides and there's no sign
  of the boundary wall.
  
  Amilia is flanked by impassive guards, and is herself wearing a corset
  or jerkin of finely worked chain-mail, the kind favoured by assassins
  and very expensive courtesans.
  
  In her hand is an elegant spell book, bound in white kid leather
  (until this evening you had presumed it a diary): her long fingers
  gracefully point at you as she whispers something...
  
  And you are transmuted into a wolfhound. Your vision goes black and
  white, your hearing is suddenly acute. Of course, you can carry
  nothing. (It's an Ambassador's life, being a dog.)
  
  Weighing your options, you cock a leg over the nearest tree. Amilia
  giggles. "Can you guess what I do to dogs, you vermin?"
  
  > Spells
  As a wolfhound, you have no such ability.
  
  Amilia disposes of her other business, and scoops you up into her
  arms. It will save a good deal of unpleasantness to skip straight to
  the outcome:
  
  > go to the north
  It may be possible to go that way from further around the wheel.