text: [Themes: Surreal, Horror, Egypt]
  
  > look at your surroundings
  Great Hall (by screens)
  You are at the south end of a magnificent dining hall. The east and west walls stand thirty feet tall; near the top, stained-glass windows bearing coats of arms admit the light of the full moon. Below the windows hang pictures of past Masters of the college and illustrious former alumni, gazing down over the long rows of tables and benches. Shadowy rafters support the peaked roof.
  
  To the south, wooden screens half the height of the walls separate the hall from an east-west passageway. Double doors set in the screens are locked and bolted shut.
  
  In the rafters at the far end of the hall, a duck perches incongruously on a beam.
  
  > examine the doors
  The elaborate wooden screens serve to turn a space at the south end of the hall, where the original doors stand, into a passage connecting the college courts. The locks on the new doors set in the screens are secure, though the protruding designs on the screens make them climbable.
  
  > examine thread
  About fifty feet of sewing thread.
  It is tied to a squash ball and a net.
  
  > untie the net
  It comes apart fairly easily into one long piece of string. You don't really feel like trying to weave it back together again.
  
  > climb the screens
  Abandoning thoughts of retrieving the duck, you clamber over the screens and safely away.
  
  You open your eyes in front of the fireplace, feeling rather dizzy all of a sudden. Surely things aren't supposed to happen this way.
  
  This spacious room is comfortably if sparsely furnished. A plush sofa and two matching armchairs are arranged around a low wooden tea-table. Curtains hang over the long windows on the south wall, keeping the warmth from the old electric fireplace in; a clock hangs over the mantelpiece. The overall effect might even be cosy, were it not for the stark white glare of the unshielded bulb dangling from the ceiling.
  
  A simple wooden staircase on the west wall leads up to the first floor; underneath the stairs is an utility closet. The kitchen can be seen through the empty doorway to the east.
  
  You shudder at the sight of a large spider hanging in the kitchen doorway.
  
  The front door is reassuringly and securely locked.
  
  You can also see a college photograph and a can of white paint here.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a length of string
  a catapult
  a squash ball
  a canvas satchel (which is open)
  a length of sewing thread
  
  > tie the string to the thread
  You tie the length of string to the length of sewing thread.
  
  > examine the rafters
  You'd guess that the lowest beams, upon one of which the duck rests, are 30 feet high. They run east-west across the breadth of the hall.
  
  > Go north
  You are in the middle of a magnificent dining hall. The east and west walls stand thirty feet tall; near the top, stained-glass windows bearing coats of arms admit the light of the full moon. Below the windows hang pictures of past Masters of the college and illustrious former alumni, gazing down over the long rows of tables and benches. Shadowy rafters support the peaked roof.
  
  Directly above you is a hexagonal skylight set in the middle of the high ceiling.
  
  In the rafters at the north end of the hall, a duck perches incongruously on a beam.
  
  A double length of rope runs up the east wall to the skylight, presumably for opening and closing it. Its bottom ends are tied to the leg of a table just next to the wall.
  
  > examine the skylight
  The skylight rises like a little turret from the very centre of the roof, illuminated by the full moon. The rope runs through a ring at the top of the window.
  
  > untie the rope
  You untie the length of rope from the table.
  
  > take the rope
  Most of it isn't within your reach at the moment. You'll have to get it down first.
  
  > tie the rope to string
  You tie the length of rope to the length of string.
  
  > shoot ball at rafters
  Taking careful aim, you let fly with the squash ball, which flies just over the beam on which the duck sits in a graceful arc... and hits the huge portrait on the north wall. Your heart sinks as you hear the glass shatter, and your only thought is to flee...
  
  You open your eyes in front of the fireplace, feeling rather dizzy all of a sudden. Surely things aren't supposed to happen this way.
  
  This spacious room is comfortably if sparsely furnished. A plush sofa and two matching armchairs are arranged around a low wooden tea-table. Curtains hang over the long windows on the south wall, keeping the warmth from the old electric fireplace in; a clock hangs over the mantelpiece. The overall effect might even be cosy, were it not for the stark white glare of the unshielded bulb dangling from the ceiling.
  
  A simple wooden staircase on the west wall leads up to the first floor; underneath the stairs is an utility closet. The kitchen can be seen through the empty doorway to the east.
  
  You shudder at the sight of a large spider hanging in the kitchen doorway.
  
  The front door is reassuringly and securely locked.
  
  You can also see a college photograph and a can of white paint here.
  1
  
  > get the portrait
  That's hardly portable.
  
  > move the portrait
  You are unable to.
  
  > shoot ball at ceiling
  There's little point in shooting that.
  
  > look at the beam
  You'd guess that the lowest beams, upon one of which the duck rests, are 30 feet high. They run east-west across the breadth of the hall.
  
  > look at the table
  The wooden tables are long and very heavy.