text: [Themes: Horror, Seasonal, Surreal, holiday theme, halloween]
  
  Katherine and you always did love Halloween parties. You used to be the life of them, back in your home town. Having just moved to New York city a month ago, however, you had not expected to get into one this year. Especially since Katherine had elected to stay behind, leaving you here on your own.
  
  Enter your old net-friend Miseri, with an introduction to a Mr deMause, a strange and eccentric fellow who would just love to have you over for his Halloween Masque this year. All you have to do now is figure out how to find your way to Mr deMause's apartment.
  
  No easy task, since Miseri had neglected to give you directions. Add to that the pea-soup fog rolling about outside....
  
  Sigh. If only Katherine were here....
  
  It's your apartment, and it's in the usual mess. The mess, in fact, threatens to take control of the whole apartment. Not that you have too much time to worry about it right now, of course. You have to find your way to Mr deMause's apartment ... The door to the south leads out into the foggy night, and that seems like a good place to start.
  
  > go south
  You hadn't realised until stepping out tonight how dim the fog could be. The pea-souper spreads out in all directions, obscuring your vision. The steps leading down to the south disappear into it. Back to the north, the door leads back into the warmth of home.
  
  You can see a Jack O'Lantern (which is closed) here.
  
  > get the pumpkin
  Taken.
  
  > open the pumpkin
  As you look into the pumpkin, a disembodied hand leaps out onto your shoulder! You scream in fright, and the thing scuttles off into the fog. Regaining your composure, you look inside the pumpkin....
  
  In the Jack O'Lantern is a note.
  
  > read the note
  The writing is spidery, and you realise that it is written in blood. Real blood. But perhaps the creepiest thing of all is the sheer friendliness of the message: "Midas (the hand) is your guide to Mr deMause's apartment. Do remember to cross his palm with silver, or something of the sort.... Katherine's already here at the apartment, and she's waiting for you."
  
  You had no idea that Katherine was anywhere near New York. There's a mystery afoot here. Or at hand....
  
  > Go south
  Pea-souper fog blankets everything. You know more by instinct than anything else that the way home is just to the north. Otherwise, all the streets leading out from here are alien to you.
  
  You notice the disembodied hand near the traffic lights, leaping at the red light. It misses. The light turns green, and the hand scuttles away.
  
  > Go south
  You wander down the street into the fog, but the fog confuses you, and you soon find yourself back in Washington Square.
  
  > Go south
  You notice the disembodied hand near the traffic lights, leaping at the red light. It misses. The light turns green, and the hand scuttles away.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a Jack O'Lantern (which is open)
  a note
  a red glass
  
  > examine the glass
  A shard of red glass. You have no idea where you picked it up, or why you held on to it. Only the village idiot would find any use for it.
  
  Without warning, the disembodied hand scuttles across your path, pausing to wave a finger at you before disappearing into the fog.
  
  > enter the fog
  That's not something you can enter.
  
  You hear a faint scuttling through the fog, as of some spider lurking in the darkness.
  
  > put the glass in the lantern
  You put the red glass into the Jack O'Lantern.
  
  You notice the disembodied hand near the traffic lights, leaping at the red light. It misses. The light turns green, and the hand scuttles away.
  
  > drop the lantern
  Dropped.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  Without warning, the disembodied hand scuttles across your path, pausing to wave a finger at you before disappearing into the fog.
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  You hear a faint scuttling through the fog, as of some spider lurking in the darkness.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  You notice the disembodied hand near the traffic lights, leaping at the red light. It misses. The light turns green, and the hand scuttles away.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a Jack O'Lantern (which is open)
  a red glass
  a note
  
  > look at the note
  The writing is spidery, and you realise that it is written in blood. Real blood. But perhaps the creepiest thing of all is the sheer friendliness of the message: "Midas (the hand) is your guide to Mr deMause's apartment. Do remember to cross his palm with silver, or something of the sort.... Katherine's already here at the apartment, and she's waiting for you."
  
  You had no idea that Katherine was anywhere near New York. There's a mystery afoot here. Or at hand....
  
  Without warning, the disembodied hand scuttles across your path, pausing to wave a finger at you before disappearing into the fog.
  
  > drop the red
  A few moments after dropping the shard of red glass, the hand scuttles across the square towards you and settles down to examine it. If you want to pick it up, now's your chance.
  
  > get the hand
  You gently pick the thing up by the wrist, gruesome though the thought may be. The fingers wiggle back at you questioningly.
  
  > look at the hand
  A disembodied hand! What's more, an animated disembodied hand! Creepier and creepier ... didn't this sort of thing only happen in the movies? The hand seems to be wearing a signet ring on its index finger.
  
  > examine the ring
  It's an elegant, gold signet ring. Something about it strikes you as being oddly familiar, though you can't imagine what. There seems to be a small depression in the ring, apparently made to hold something.
  
  > get the ring
  The hand struggles in protest as you reach for the ring. You decide that it might not be such a good idea....
  
  > look at the glass
  A shard of red glass. You have no idea where you picked it up, or why you held on to it. Only the village idiot would find any use for it.
  
  > cut yourself
  Cutting you up would achieve little.
  
  > cut the hand
  Cutting him up would achieve little.
  
  > put the hand in the pumpkin
  You put the disembodied hand into the Jack O'Lantern.