text: [Themes: transformation, France, theatre]
  
  > About yourself
  You are currently out of character.
  
  > examine the eagle
  The backdrop features an unconvincing painting of pine-covered mountains and a dark, ominous sky in which a double-headed eagle is carrying off a schnitzel.
  
  CHORUS:
  The hour draws close when France shall rise or fall;
  The board writhes to last moves; alone, each piece is lost.
  Each has emerged, as we've shown by our Art;
  Our three are gathered: each must fill their part.
  
  High above a forested peak, a proud double-headed eagle is carrying off its natural prey, the schnitzel. Such unspeakable grandeur, such natural beauty, such cack-handed brushwork.
  
  > Bs
  A room of indefinite size, hemmed in with high curtains, hanging ropes, and cluttered with wardrobes and make-up tables. Various props lie scattered about the room. Through the curtains, an entrance leads onstage.
  
  On one wall, someone has hung a flyer.
  
  [ To go back onstage, type 'onstage' or simply 'os' ]
  
  You can see a cloth, a petticoat, a stick and a board here.
  
  > Examine flyer
  A flyer is plastered across one wall:
  
  *** WITHIN A WREATH OF DEWDROPS ***
  
  * JOHN  ACTOR as MAURICE  *  EVA ZAHA as ELISE *
  
  * and DUSTIN Q. CELEBRITY as THE WIZARD MCFAUD *
  
  At the center of the advertisement is a dramatic painting of a rapier-waving hero and a heaving-bodiced heroine, with a city on fire behind them. It's all rather exciting, really.
  
  > look at the board
  A wooden board, roughly square and about two and a half feet to a side. A metal handle is affixed to the centre. It's been coated in dark varnish to make it look a bit less like balsawood.
  
  > get all
  cloth: Taken.
  petticoat: Taken.
  stick: Taken.
  board: Taken.
  
  > examine the cloth
  It's a rectangle of cloth, so worn-out from being dyed, bleached and redyed that you are no longer able to make out what its colour is. Over the years it has seen service as a loin cloth, a pirate's sail, a shroud, the ghost of Hamlet's father, and as a poorly-rendered special effect of falling leaves.
  
  > examine script
  The chorus are an omniscient lot who remain out of sight but are always there to provide foreshadowing of things to come. Were it not for them, you would most certainly have forgotten to raise your tunic at the appropriate moment in The Stride of Hermes.
  
  > Os
  Stage (A German Forest)
  You are onstage, a wide expanse of blank floor facing onto darkness. Nestled behind a curtain's edge is the exit leading offstage.
  
  The backdrop features an unconvincing painting of pine-covered mountains and a dark, ominous sky in which a double-headed eagle is carrying off a schnitzel.
  
  > Wear cloth
  Costume changes onstage? This is experimental theatre, but there are limits. It would perhaps be better to do that sort of thing backstage, so as not to break the illusion.
  
  > Bs
  A room of indefinite size, hemmed in with high curtains, hanging ropes, and cluttered with wardrobes and make-up tables. Various props lie scattered about the room. Through the curtains, an entrance leads onstage.
  
  On one wall, someone has hung a flyer.
  
  > Wear cloth
  You swirl the cloth around your shoulders like a cloak, tilt your chin upwards at an arrogant angle, and take a few strutting steps. After a brief moment of concentration, you feel properly in character.
  
  > Leave
  [ To go back onstage, type 'onstage' or simply 'os' ]
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a shield
  a sword
  a petticoat
  a cloak (being worn)
  
  > About yourself
  You are playing the part of Captain Maurice Orignaux, honourable dandy of the Paris City Guard. Equally capable of composing timeless sonnets on the spur of the moment or slitting a Tartar's nose in a tavern brawl, Maurice is generally considered to be Entaille's paradigmatic hero. Some critics have defined this paradigm as 'a two-dimensional pugilist in tight hose' but you have always considered Maurice a character of many contradictions and shades of subtlety, brought out most clearly in his banter with Carelio and Longuin in the famous oyster-eating scene.
  
  You are playing the part of Captain Maurice Orignaux, honourable dandy of the Paris City Guard. Equally capable of composing timeless sonnets on the spur of the moment or slitting a Tartar's nose in a tavern brawl, Maurice is generally considered to be Entaille's paradigmatic hero. Some critics have defined this paradigm as 'a two-dimensional pugilist in tight hose' but you have always considered Maurice a character of many contradictions and shades of subtlety, brought out most clearly in his banter with Carelio and Longuin in the famous oyster-eating scene.
  
  > examine chorus
  The chorus are an omniscient lot who remain out of sight but are always there to provide foreshadowing of things to come. Were it not for them, you would most certainly have forgotten to raise your tunic at the appropriate moment in The Stride of Hermes.
  
  > examine audience
  There may well be an audience out there, but you can't see them for the glare of the lights. Best to just assume that they're there, and that somewhere in their midst is a theatre critic who is watching you with a discerning eye.
  
  > listen to the chorus
  The chorus is tied to the script, but repeats its lines again, for your benefit:
  
  CHORUS:
  The hour draws close when France shall rise or fall;
  The board writhes to last moves; alone, each piece is lost.
  Each has emerged, as we've shown by our Art;
  Our three are gathered: each must fill their part.
  
  > Bs
  A room of indefinite size, hemmed in with high curtains, hanging ropes, and cluttered with wardrobes and make-up tables. Various props lie scattered about the room. Through the curtains, an entrance leads onstage.
  
  On one wall, someone has hung a flyer.
  
  > wear the petticoat
  After a moment or two of hopping about, you work your way into the petticoat. Hunching your shoulders over, clawing your fingers and adopting a lecherous squint, you assume a new role.
  
  > About yourself
  You are playing the part of Herr Dr. Lysander Herculaneum Prufrock Gramercy McFaud, German theological scholar and on first-names terms with the Prince of Darkness. Originally your scheme was to ensnare Elise, but the purity of her humble beauty laid a seed of doubt in your black heart that was brilliantly explored in a long and profound soliloquy at the close of Act IV. When Maurice appeared to rescue her, you could no longer stomach the vileness of your existence and, though doomed to Hell yourself, vowed to give aid to the heroes in an even longer and more profound soliloquy in the middle of Act V.
  
  > Sing
  Your big song number, Oh, I Am So Atrocious was three scenes ago.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a board
  a staff
  a petticoat (being worn)
  a cloak (being worn)
  
  > examine the staff
  You cut this staff from a blasted oak in a miserable October rainstorm, and in a dark hour engraved deep symbols on its surface with a flint knife to transform it into a Beacon of the Nether Gate, an abomination before God whose very touch shrivels the humours. It also has a minor hex on it that facilitates cheating at polo.
  
  > Wave staff
  You feel a bit foolish waving the staff.
  
  > Act
  You hobble about, leering, wringing your hands and cackling softly in appallingly bad Latin.
  
  > read the next line
  What do you want to read in?