text: [Themes: Fantasy, haunted house]
  
  > look around
  You are standing just inside the gate of uncle Zebulon's garden, on
  the weed-infested gravel path that leads east up to the porch of the
  house. On the north side of the lawn, almost hidden behind the huge,
  unkempt rosebushes, is the garden shed. The bright summer sun glistens
  on the wet grass, and the air, fresh from the recent rain, is alive
  with the buzzing of insects and filled with sweet fragrances.
  
  > examine the rosebushes
  Uncle Zebulon wasn't very much of a gardener, so the garden isn't
  exactly a showpiece: the lawn is shaggy, the flower beds full of
  weeds, the rose bushes would need some trimming. Still, it's a
  pleasant place on a summer morning like this.
  
  > Inventory
  You are empty-handed.
  
  > Xyzzy
  Are you sure you're playing the right game?
  
  > About yourself
  You look about the same as always.
  
  > look at the shed
  There's nothing unusual about Uncle Zebulon's garden shed: it's a
  windowless, ramshackle building that could do with a new coat of paint.
  
  > Go north
  The shed door opens only reluctantly, with a creaking sound from the
  rusty hinges.
  
  This shed was used by uncle Zebulon for his goldmaking: strange
  experiments that could often be smelt from across town, even occasional
  explosions. Your uncle spoke very little of his experiments, and never
  showed any signs of making money out of them, yet people generally
  assumed that they were successful and a source of great wealth. In all
  other matters, your family regarded uncle Zebulon as a useless dreamer,
  even an embarrassment, but they took a certain reluctant pride in his
  reputation as a goldmaker.
  
  As a consequence of your relatives' frantic search for valuables,
  the place is in an even greater mess than you remember. The workbench
  has been cleared of the usual odds and ends, and all even remotely
  useful tools or utensils have been removed. Large heaps of junk and
  broken glass remain in the corners, and in the centre of the room is a
  large, hideous statue of a three-eyed dog - probably some exotic idol
  brought home from your uncle's travels. You can't remember ever seeing
  it before.
  
  On the workbench you see a scrap of paper.
  
  > look at the paper
  It seems to be a torn-out page from a notebook, with a few lines of
  writing on it.
  
  > examine the dog
  The statue is made of some dark, hard wood that must once have been
  nicely polished but is now rather scratched and dented. It depicts a
  huge, hideous dog - even though it's sitting on its haunches, it's
  still taller than you are - that seems to be staring in a slightly
  melancholy way at the workbench, as if lamenting the mess. It looks
  very much out of place in this shed.
  Apart from its general ugliness, one thing about the dog immediately
  catches your attention: for some unfathomable reason, it has three
  eyes - two in the normal places, and one in the centre of its forehead.
  There is also something very strange about its ears.
  
  The centre eye socket contains a blue glass lens.
  
  > take the lens
  However much you try, you can't pry it loose from the statue's eye
  socket.
  
  > examine the ears
  You can only look at one thing at a time.
  
  > examine the ear
  Which ear do you mean, the dog's left ear, or the dog's right ear?
  
  > Left ear
  The dog's ears look as if they don't really belong to the statue, but
  were added as an afterthought - and in a rather curious way as well.
  In fact, it seems as if both ears are fastened so that they can turn
  around their own axes. Curious indeed.
  
  > take the scrap
  Taken.
  
  > read it
  "I'm a great step closer to the goal: I have discovered an acid
  that actually transmutes noble metals into base ones. If only the
  process could be reversed!"
  
  > turn the left ear
  As you turn the ear there is a distinct click. A loud humming noise
  comes from inside the statue, and a beam of blue light shoots out from
  its centre eye, illuminating a circle in the centre of the workbench.
  After a while, however, the light flickers and goes out, and the
  humming sound stops.
  
  > turn the right ear
  Nothing happens.
  
  > examine workbench
  The marble surface of the workbench is pitted by acids, discoloured by
  strange chemicals and still sooty in places from the explosions that
  all too often ended uncle Zeb's experiments. In the exact centre of
  the workbench, a small bronze stand has been fastened to the surface.
  
  > put the scrap on the bench
  Done.
  
  > examine the junk
  You search through the junk for a while, but find nothing interesting,
  just lots of broken glassware, old newspapers, fragments of burned
  wood, large clumps of slag, you name it.
  
  > Go east
  On this rickety porch, uncle Zebulon used to spend the long summer
  evenings, relaxing in his rocking chair and smoking his pipe. Your
  parents used to sneer at his laziness; why couldn't he use all that
  spare time to make his garden look a little more respectable?
  The rocking chair is still there, right outside the front door of
  the house. It is not occupied by uncle Zebulon, though, but by a
  sneering, rather mean-looking demon.
  The demon is picking his claws with a rather nasty-looking dagger.
  
  > look at the demon
  If you remember your Basic Demonology classes correctly, he must be a
  member of one of the lower castes of familiar demons, usually employed
  as servants by wizards. As demons go, this one isn't very big or
  dangerous-looking. Indeed, he looks positively benign (for a demon,
  that is: he still looks pretty mean by human standards). Of course,
  all this still doesn't mean that he's to be messed with.
  
  > Hi
  The demon quite pointedly ignores you, apparently preferring to study
  some interesting spots on the floor.
  
  > ask demon about the demon
  "Oh, don't mind me. Just pretend I'm the milkman or something."
  
  > ask the demon about yourself
  The demon looks at you a bit quizzically and starts to say something,
  but changes his mind and just shrugs instead.
  
  > ask the demon about the gold
  The demon starts humming a merry little demon song, pretending not to
  hear you.
  
  > ask the demon about the dagger
  The demon puts his dagger away (seemingly into thin air), pulls out a
  newspaper (also out of thin air) and opens it. "Sorry, did you say
  something?"
  
  > ask the demon about the newspaper
  shoulder, where it disappears with a loud pop, and instead pulls out a
  dagger out of thin air and starts picking his claws. He gives no sign
  of having heard you.
  
  > look at the door
  It's closed.
  
  > open it
  Opened.
  
  > Go east
  As you walk past the demon (slightly apprehensively, of course, you
  never know with demons), he nods at you. "Let's see, you must be
  Richard, right? My late master hasn't treated you very generously in
  his will, has he?" He quickly checks a list.
  "Let's see. You're allowed to take one thing - not more - from the
  house through this door. Of course, your relatives have pretty much
  scoured the place for valuables, so I'm afraid there's not very much
  left for you." For a moment, you imagine you can trace some genuine
  pity in the demon's expression; however, it soon returns to his usual
  sneer. "Not that they found very much of value, either. You should
  have seen their faces when they realized the house wasn't filled with
  gold..."
  The demon starts to wave you past, when he suddenly seems to
  remember something. "Ah, yes, this is for you," he says off-handedly,
  holding out a letter towards you.
  
  > take the letter
  Taken.
  
  > read it
  The letter is written in uncle Zebulon's familiar hand.
  "My dear Richard,
  When you read this, I'm afraid I'll have left this world for good. By
  now you should have heard of my will and of the little jokes I have
  played on your relatives. I am sure they are all furious; they had
  hoped for far more. Perhaps you too are angry with me, perhaps you
  think I should have been more generous towards you?
  Well, let me tell you this: you've always been my favourite nephew,
  because we share (I hope) the same basic outlook on life: it's all a
  rather cruel game, with rules that are there to be circumvented.
  Playing fair doesn't mean you shouldn't do the unexpected! I don't
  want to openly favour you before your cousins, but I think you're far
  more likely than they are to exploit the advantages of the situation.
  You may call it a little test, or game, or whatever. My final advice
  to you is: follow the rules by the letter and you may find that new
  possibilities open up.
  
  Your affectionate uncle, Zeb."
  
  [Your score just went up 5 points]
  
  > drop all
  letter: Dropped.
  
  > Go east
  The demon lets you past with a slightly amused sneer.
  
  hall, but at least there is this small room, with just enough space for
  a coathanger and a narrow staircase up to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
  Wooden doors lead north, east, west and south.
  You see a lead coin here.
  
  As soon as you enter you realize, with a sinking feeling, just how
  thoroughly your relatives have searched the house for valuables -
  basically everything of value has been removed. The coin on the floor
  must have been dropped there by oversight.
  
  > examine the coin
  Lead may not the most practical of materials for coinmaking, but this
  coin is actually made of grey, soft lead. Not only the metal, but also
  the shape, of the coin is unusual: it's octagonal. It bears the image
  of a trident, surrounded by curious letters you can't read.
  (In fact, this coin happens to be a genuine quarter-frob piece from
  the country of Frobnizzia. The Frobnizzian coins are notable for the
  great variety of materials used in making them; especially notable is
  the one-gnark coin (one gnark being equal to 27 2/3 frobs), which was a
  granite disk two feet in diameter. The size and weight of this coin
  were intended to deter purse-snatchers; unfortunately, they had other
  effects as well, such as being the major cause of the collapse of the
  Frobnizzian economy.)
  
  > go north
  (Opening the kitchen door)
  Kitchen
  The kitchen is probably tidier now than it ever was during uncle
  Zebulon's lifetime. The well-worn pine table and the large cupboard
  are still there, but all traces of atmosphere seem to have vanished
  along with the piles of unwashed dishes. Your relatives have evidently
  been hard at work, removing all the kitchenware and utensils, even the
  iron stove. They've left the kitchen sink behind, though - probably by
  oversight.
  You see a large carrot here.
  
  > eat it
  The large carrot looks rather dry and doesn't seem very appetizing. It
  doesn't smell very appetizing either. Come to think of it, you're not
  very hungry.
  
  > look at the sink
  It's just an old, rather dirty, kitchen sink of galvanized iron. There
  are no taps - uncle Zebulon never bothered to install running water,
  but used to fetch his from the village well.
  
  > open cupboard
  Opening the cupboard reveals a blue bottle.
  
  > look at it
  diameter - and is made of thick glass of a beautiful, deep blue colour.
  You estimate that it will hold about half a litre of liquid. It seems
  to contain a silver coin.
  
  > examine it
  This coin, a Frobnizzian nineteen-frob piece, is hexagonal and made of
  silver. It bears the picture of a crescent.
  
  > go to the north
  The only exit is the door back to the hall, to the south.
  
  > go to the south
  hall, but at least there is this small room, with just enough space for
  a coathanger and a narrow staircase up to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
  Wooden doors lead north, east, west and south.
  
  > Go south
  (Opening the south door)
  Study
  You are in what uncle Zebulon used to call his study, but which also
  doubled as his bedroom. You remember this room as being full of books:
  bookshelves crammed with them, books on the overflowing desk, stacks of
  books on the floor.
  Now, the bookshelves gape empty; the narrow, rickety bed is gone, as
  are the soft carpets. Only your uncle's desk remains, along with the
  smell of old books and stale tobacco smoke. The only door leads north,
  back into the hall.
  On the desk you see a book and a crystal ball.
  
  > take book
  As you open the book and flip through the pages, you find that it's a
  
  the entire story changes in response to choices made by the reader.
  This particular one happens to be one of the great classics of the
  genre: 'Dork', the story of a young man entering a great underground
  computing centre, vanquishing the evil Hacker of Foobar, and finally
  becoming System Manager. Of course, the story may sound a bit childish
  - everyone knows that computers only exist in fairytales and that
  hackers are purely mythical creatures - but it's still immensely
  popular.
  
  As you close the book again, a sheet of paper falls out of it and
  flutters to the ground.
  
  [Your score just went up 5 points]
  
  Taken.
  
  > look at it
  On the paper, the following text is written in uncle Zebulon's neat,
  regular hand:
  
  A perfect match! Yet all illusion
  A total likeness! And yet
  As different as left from right
  Forever kept apart by glass
  Until the touch of magic stars
  Turns glass to air
  And image to reality
  
  Then open will the SECOND PORTAL
  A dark, forbidding one, that scares
  And rightly so! Yet victory
  Awaits the one who enters it
  
  Gateway to great adventures
  Guarded by Gods of Time and War and Love
  An offering for each, and you may pass
  Each gift should match one guardian.
  
  You can't help thinking that while Uncle Zebulon may have been a great
  storyteller, he was clearly an inferior poet.
  
  > look at the ball
  It's about fifteen centimetres in diameter. Unlike ordinary crystal,
  it doesn't sparkle in the light; instead, it seems to glow with a misty
  radiance. You feel an almost irresistible urge to gaze into it, as if
  you were some common fortune-teller.
  
  > look in the ball
  The interior of the crystal ball is surprisingly cloudy, almost as if
  you were looking into murky water. Soon, however, the mist seems to
  clear, giving place to an image of uncle Zebulon putting coins into a
  bottle.
  Presently, the vision fades away, and the crystal gets cloudy again.
  
  > look in the ball
  The interior of the crystal ball is surprisingly cloudy, almost as if
  you were looking into murky water. Soon, however, the mist seems to
  clear, giving place to an image of yourself searching through a large
  packing crate.
  Presently, the vision fades away, and the crystal gets cloudy again.
  
  > look in the ball
  The interior of the crystal ball is surprisingly cloudy, almost as if
  you were looking into murky water. Soon, however, the mist seems to
  clear, giving place to an image of a young girl throwing a coin into a
  well, making a wish with her eyes closed.
  Presently, the vision fades away, and the crystal gets cloudy again.
  
  > look in the ball
  The interior of the crystal ball is surprisingly cloudy, almost as if
  you were looking into murky water. Soon, however, the mist seems to
  clear, giving place to an image of uncle Zebulon aiming a wand at a
  large carrot. The carrot turns into a very surprised-looking rabbit.
  Uncle Zebulon chuckles.
  Presently, the vision fades away, and the crystal gets cloudy again.
  
  > look in the ball
  The interior of the crystal ball is surprisingly cloudy, almost as if
  you were looking into murky water. Soon, however, the mist seems to
  clear, giving place to an image of yourself looking into a crystal
  ball.
  Presently, the vision fades away, and the crystal gets cloudy again.
  
  > examine the desk
  that used to cover it (uncle Zebulon always had to clear off part of it
  when he wanted to write). It is made of oak and has a single drawer,
  which is closed.
  On the desk you see a crystal ball.
  
  > open the drawer
  Opening the drawer reveals a green glass lens.
  
  > look at the lens
  It's about ten millimetres in diameter.
  
  > Search desk
  that used to cover it (uncle Zebulon always had to clear off part of it
  when he wanted to write). It is made of oak and has a single drawer,
  which is open.
  On the desk you see a crystal ball.
  
  > put the coins in the bottle
  You can only do that to one thing at a time.
  
  > put the silver coin in the bottle
  Done.
  
  > examine the door
  It's open.
  
  > Go north
  hall, but at least there is this small room, with just enough space for
  a coathanger and a narrow staircase up to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
  Wooden doors lead north, east, west and south.
  
  > go east
  (Opening the east door)
  Sitting room
  After your relatives have gone over it, uncle Zebulon's sitting room
  looks curiously empty. Most of the furniture has been removed. Of all
  the things that used to give the room its atmosphere, just a few,
  obviously not very valuable ones, remain: the old armchair where you
  used to sit and watch uncle Zebulon entertain you with his magic (or
  "conjuring tricks", as your down-to-earth parents preferred to call
  it), your uncle's pipe rack, the large mirror on the north wall.
  You see a green bottle here.
  
  > examine rack
  It's empty. Apparently, there's a keen smoker among your relatives.
  
  > examine the green
  Which green do you mean, the green glass lens, or the green bottle?
  
  > Bottle
  diameter - and is made of thick glass of a beautiful, sea-green colour.
  You estimate that it will hold about half a litre of liquid. A neatly
  handwritten label says 'FILL ME'. The bottle is empty.
  
  > look at the chair
  It may not be a great looker, but this battered old armchair has always
  been your fave piece of furniture. On stormy autumn nights you'd relax
  in its comfy depths, cosy in front of the roaring fire, while your
  uncle would tell you the most hair-raising ghost stories or entertain
  you with some magic tricks (which you steadfastly insisted were real
  magic, even though your parents tried hard to convince you they were
  just sleight of hand).
  Even today, a decade later, you feel an almost irresistible urge to
  sit in that armchair once more, just to recall the feeling of those
  long-gone days.
  
  > sit in the chair
  sigh. However, it doesn't seem as comfortable as you recall it.
  Strange...
  After a while, you realize that you're sitting on something hard.
  There seems to be something hidden within the armchair.
  
  > Search chair
  You find a magic wand hidden deep inside the armchair.
  
  (Don't feel too smug about it, though; I suppose nobody could have sat
  in the armchair without feeling the wand.)
  
  > examine the wand
  around the country: a narrow, tapering rod, about thirty centimetres
  long, and made of some dark wood, probably ebony. Your uncle used to
  have several, and you've often seen him point them at things, with
  various interesting results.
  
  > point the wand at the carrot
  The wand sputters, emitting a stream of brilliantly shining stars. The
  stars collect in a cloud around the carrot, which starts to undergo a
  curious transformation, growing smaller and rounder and redder and...
  When the stars gradually fade away, you see that the carrot has turned
  into a big, succulent tomato. Amazing - you must have found a wand of
  Vegetable Polymorphism!
  
  > point the wand at the tomato
  The wand sputters, emitting a stream of brilliantly shining stars that
  strike the tomato and explode with little popping noises. The tomato
  starts to elongate, its colour changing into orange, and has sooned
  turned back into a carrot. Those wands of Vegetable Polymorphism may
  be pretty useless, but they are great fun, aren't they?
  
  > examine the mirror
  You're a bit surprised that your relatives left this mirror behind,
  since it's probably quite valuable, or at least old. Perhaps its size
  has something to do with it: it's almost a metre wide and taller than
  you are. When you were a kid you used to fantasize about this being a
  magic mirror, and you imagined that when looking into it you could see
  into another world.
  
  > look in the mirror
  The glass is old and slightly flawed, so the image isn't as crisp as
  you'd expect from a newer mirror. Your reflection looks like you, yet
  somehow like a different person, more cynical, with a slightly cunning
  look. The old glass makes it hard to make out all the detail, but the
  reflection of the room behind you looks slightly different, too.
  
  > point the wand at the mirror
  The wand sputters, emitting a stream of brilliantly shining stars.
  Amazingly, the stars seem to pass straight through the mirror. They
  strike your mirror image, which is standing there with a wand in its
  hand, looking at you with a slightly silly expression. With a strange,
  tearing sound, your mirror image wavers and disappears.
  Shocked, you look again. Sure, you can see the mirror image of the
  room, and everything in it, but not your own image. You take a quick
  look down at yourself, just to check - yes, you're still visible.
  Running up to check the mirror, you realize that the glass is gone; the
  empty frame forms a portal into a room behind, where no room ought to
  be.
  
  [Your score just went up 10 points]
  
  > Go inside
  (the mirror)
  Feeling like Alice in Wonderland, you step through the empty mirror
  frame. A curious wrenching sensation passes through your body, as if
  you've been disassembled into atoms and then rapidly put together
  again.
  
  Well, what do you call a perfect mirror image of a sitting room?
  Superficially, this room looks exactly like its counterpart on the
  other side of the mirror, except for the eerie fact that everything's
  inverted, of course; there's an armchair, and a pipe rack, an empty
  mirror frame on the south wall, and a wooden door leading west.
  You see a small glass flask here.
  
  This room shouldn't be here at all. After all, you've seen your
  uncle's house from the outside many times, and it simply isn't large
  enough to accommodate one more room...
  
  > look at the flask
  This is a small glass flask, of the type often found in alchemistry
  labs. It contains a quantity of greenish liquid.
  
  > look at rack
  It looks exactly like its counterpart on the other side of the mirror.
  
  > look at the chair
  It looks exactly as its counterpart on the other side of the mirror,
  only inverted. For example, the large stain on the right armrest is on
  the left one - or is it the other way round?
  
  > Go west
  mirror image of the hall, but to a narrow spiral staircase that leads
  up a circular stairwell with stone walls, and through a hole in the
  ceiling.
  
  You are in a rather small, circular room that seems to be the top
  floor of a high tower. Four large windows, one in each compass
  direction, give you a panoramic view of a wild and marvellous
  landscape: a mountain range of impossibly steep crags to the north; to
  the west, the sea; to the south and east a wide, sandy desert. Far
  away to the southwest, where the sea meets the desert, stands a
  fantastic fairy-tale city of marble and shimmering gold, needle-sharp
  spires and bulbous crystal domes. The scene is illuminated not by the
  sun, but by cold starlight from a sky like black velvet studded with
  diamonds; nameless stars in constellations you don't recognize.
  
  a curious mechanism. A spiral staircase leads down.
  You see a scroll here.
  
  > examine the mechanism
  This beautiful piece of intricate machinery seems to be a model of the
  solar system. On a large disk of black marble, studded with silver
  stars, the orbits of the planets are laid out as narrow tracks. The
  planets are represented by small disks of precious stones that move,
  ever so slowly, along their tracks, driven by some hidden clockwork.
  In the centre of the disk is the sun: a golden ball, resting on a
  small bronze stand.
  
  > look at the ball
  Which ball do you mean, the crystal ball, or the gold ball?
  
  > Gold
  It's the size of a large marble - about a centimetre and a half in
  diameter - and surprisingly heavy. Surely it can't be made of solid
  gold?
  
  > examine the city
  The city is too far away for you to see very much detail, but it
  doesn't resemble any city you've ever seen. Despite its breathtaking
  beauty, something about it seems wrong; it's brightly lit, yet seems
  curiously devoid of life. If only you could get there to
  investigate...
  
  > examine the scroll
  The scroll is a rolled-up piece of rather thick paper. To your
  amazement, you notice that there's something written on it, and in
  uncle Zebulon's handwriting (what a surprise!).
  
  > read it
  My dear nephew,
  
  I'm glad that you've discovered the way through the mirror, and into
  my secret tower. It's here, in the realm you can see from the windows,
  that I've spent most of my time the last few years, the time you and
  your relatives thought I was just pent up inside my house. I may not
  have collected much gold and belongings in your world, but in the world
  of Vhyl and the city of Cyr-Dhool are treasures beyond belief and
  adventures that surpass your wildest dreams.
  
  The portal to Vhyl is hidden, but I have no doubt that you will find
  it. Once you've opened it, and passed the portal that's beyond it,
  your true inheritance awaits you, at the end of a quest I shall never
  have the time to finish. Your relatives have no doubt already removed
  what little there is of value in my house; what they have left behind,
  however, may be of more use to you.
  
  With hope of your success,
  your affectionate uncle,
  Zebulon
  
  > examine the pedestal
  The pedestal is about a metre high and not very interesting; the
  mechanism that's resting on top of it is, though.
  
  > examine the stars
  You don't recognize the constellations. You must be very far indeed
  from home.
  
  > Go east
  The only way out is via the stairs.