text: [Themes: Zorkian, Cave crawl, fantasy]
  
  > Look around
  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.
  
  On the Anvil is a torn-up broad green leaf.
  
  workshop, and can be turned anywhere on the calibrated dial from 1 to
  180 degrees. It now stands at 75.78.
  
  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 leaf on the dial
  The mounting is clearly meant to hold something, but not a torn-up
  broad green leaf.
  
  > examine the hand
  One thing about your home, the Duchy: you may not be a very powerful
  realm, but you certainly are fine inventors and craftsmen. Take this
  ten-inch brass "telescope", for example. Distant objects that you look
  at through the telescope actually seem closer to you!
  
  > feed the leaf to Clotspinner
  Clotspinner lies prone, close to death, his pulse thready and weak,
  his breath too slight to feel on your hand. Surely nothing on earth
  could revive him now.
  
  > memorize the ploor
  You commit the ploor spell to memory.
  
  > Ploor clotspinner
  A brief babble in your ears turns to a shriek. Whatever you're doing,
  you're not doing it correctly.
  
  > 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.
  
  workshop, and can be turned anywhere on the calibrated dial from 1 to
  180 degrees. It now stands at 75.78.
  
  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.
  
  > 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 west
  Into the Woods (as wolfhound)
  Running, running through the trackless woods, in search of the wall
  and escape. Everywhere looks like everywhere else.
  
  > Smell
  Of course, your sense of smell is by far your most acute, and with it
  you feel a whole landscape. To northeast a brook runs to the wall.
  
  > go to the northeast
  Under the Culvert (as wolfhound)
  The brook runs confidently uphill, gushing up under the culvert, under
  the wall to Watling Street. The pursuit seems to have been thrown off
  for the moment.
  
  > go north
  Watling Street, Again (as wolfhound)
  The meeting-point: where Watling Street crosses the culvert, through
  which the brook still flows.
  
  Agents of the Duchy, cloaked as all spies should be, huddle beside
  black horses.
  
  > Bark
  "Woof! Woof!"
  
  The agents shoo you away. The last thing they want is a barking dog to
  draw attention to them!
  
  > Bite agent
  The agents kick you savagely, and you yelp as if this were unprovoked.
  
  > sit
  (on the agents of the Duchy)
  As a wolfhound, you have no such ability.
  
  > About yourself
  Glossy coat, wet nose: you're a much better-looking dog than you ever
  were a human, really. Perhaps a trifle vainer.
  
  > Bite
  (the agents of the Duchy)
  The agents kick you savagely, and you yelp as if this were unprovoked.
  
  > Bark
  "Woof! Woof!"
  
  > listen
  Your ears prick up. A hundred noises of the copse: badger, hedge-rat,
  glow worm: Amilia's guards, crashing about deafeningly nearby: and,
  far away, other voices and perhaps a horse. But which way?
  
  > Drink brook
  The water is cold and magical, effervescent. You feel yourself
  changing again, just as you did at the russet pool. Your limbs stretch
  into arms and legs, your ears tuck back within human hair: yes, a man,
  but just a man. No magic left. It seems a fair bargain, almost.
  
  > Go north
  Watling Street, Again
  The meeting-point: where Watling Street crosses the culvert, through
  which the brook still flows.
  
  Agents of the Duchy, cloaked as all spies should be, huddle beside
  black horses.
  
  "Well met, Captain," you call out casually, giving no hint of your
  recent canine persona. They saddle up to smuggle you away from the
  Empire forever: for you'll never be persona grata here again.
  
  Perhaps the Duchy will flourish, now that the meteor is denied to
  Amilia's Empire. Still, it can only be a matter of time before
  Clotspinner succeeds in mastering the "ruther" spell, and then where
  are you? But then, that's diplomacy: so many missions end in a
  fifty-fifty impasse.
  
  > Hint
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  > Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  > Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  > Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  > The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  The Wheel and its Environs
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  > Are the supplies useful?
  How can I heal Clotspinner?
  He is suspicious of me.
  The beam strikes the anvil uselessly.
  The beam dissipates in the ore.
  What are the calibrations for?
  What does the swivel mounting hold?
  Is the meteor invulnerable?
  How can I leave the Wheel?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Are the supplies useful?
  How can I heal Clotspinner?
  He is suspicious of me.
  The beam strikes the anvil uselessly.
  The beam dissipates in the ore.
  What are the calibrations for?
  What does the swivel mounting hold?
  Is the meteor invulnerable?
  > How can I leave the Wheel?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  Are the supplies useful?
  How can I heal Clotspinner?
  He is suspicious of me.
  The beam strikes the anvil uselessly.
  The beam dissipates in the ore.
  What are the calibrations for?
  What does the swivel mounting hold?
  > Is the meteor invulnerable?
  How can I leave the Wheel?
  (Press H for more, or SPACE to return.)
  
  Well, it is a very heavy lump of elemental magnesium.
  
  > go to the west
  This is only half a cave; the western half, to be exact. It's a dark
  place full of crevices (you would have missed the stony passage back
  south if you hadn't already known about it). Boxes, bottles and crates
  are stored here, and to judge from scrape-marks are used by whoever
  lives through the broad passage northwest.
  
  the cave, after all.
  
  You can also see a burnished lantern (providing light) here.
  
  > put pottery in the cavity
  The quartz blocks all access.
  
  > Go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  > Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  > Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > Go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  > The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  > Amongst the Foundations
  Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                          Q = re
  sume game
  
  Instructions: How to play this game
  Briefings: A diplomatic background
  Hints: During the Procession
  The Customs House
  Amongst the Foundations
  > Ledge and Surroundings
  Cedar and Cave Floor
  Egg Chamber and Lily
  The Wheel and its Environs
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  Ledge and Surroundings
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  > How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  What's behind the quartz window?
  Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  How does the colour chart work?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  What's behind the quartz window?
  Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  > How does the colour chart work?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  What's behind the quartz window?
  Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  > What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  How does the colour chart work?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  What's behind the quartz window?
  Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  > How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  How does the colour chart work?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  What's behind the quartz window?
  > Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  How does the colour chart work?
  
  > P.
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  How do I get down from the ledge?
  I'm a good 20 feet short!
  I can't get back up from the Tiny Cave.
  Can I reach the tree from the ledge?
  What use is the flat curved stick?
  What's the significance of the shard?
  > What's behind the quartz window?
  Woodlice and ants are a problem.
  How do I pass the Pale Corridor?
  What is the Philosopher's Stone?
  How does the colour chart work?
  (Press H for more, or SPACE to return.)
  
  A cavity with a distinctive triangular shape.
  
  > shoot cavity
  You loose off the arrow across the cave and, satisfyingly, its arc
  takes it straight into the triangular cavity.
  The interior of the cavity is now lit up! You're still too far away
  here to make out anything, though.
  
  > look in the cavity with telescope
  cavity.
  
  > look in the cavity
  The cavity contains a kind of prehistoric shrine, lined with cave
  paintings. Preeminent among them is an intriguing sequence showing a
  man being roused from a coma, or perhaps even death, with an elixir:
  we see a shaman preparing this healing paste by tearing a broad leaf
  and then grinding it up with an arrow.
  
  > Grind fragments with arrow
  (the fragments of prism with the arrow)
  Violence isn't the answer to this one.
  
  > Grind leaf with arrow
  Using the arrow-head, you grind the leaf fragments down even further,
  so that their natural moisture is driven out until you are left with a
  dull green paste.
  
  > give the paste to Clotspinner
  The water-lily elixir has an immediate effect on Clotspinner! For a
  moment you think it will burn him out, and that he's too weak to
  withstand it: but then he rises from the cot, coughing and
  spluttering.
  
  "Well who are you?" he asks. "You needn't think I'm grateful. Can't
  even do myself in, it seems."
  
  Caught off-balance, you introduce yourself with a stammer, and make a
  passable Court bow. "I suppose you can prove that, young man?"
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a burnished lantern (providing light)
  four 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)
  three 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
  
  > show the credentials to Clotspinner
  "Thought so," he mutters. "Damnable headache. Pardon my suspicion and
  all that. Ever since I invented the "morglop spell: pry into darkest
  motives" I've been a little cynical, you know. Shan't be working for
  Amilia any more, that's for certain!"
  
  He staggers around the workshop, focusing his eyes again and generally rejoining the real world.
  
  > show the credentials to Clotspinner
  "Never mind that! What about my asylum?"
  
  (You are beginning to think he belongs in one.)
  
  "I shall want asylum, of course. Political asylum, from the Duchy,
  eh?"
  
  > memorize the ploor
  You commit the ploor spell to memory.
  
  "Of course I'll also need an official appointment."
  
  > Ploor
  Nothing happens, perhaps because you have already reported home to the
  Duchy.
  
  "And a little wooden house by the sea."
  
  > ask Clotspinner about the morglop
  questions.
  
  "And I'll need the best laboratories and assistants."
  
  > Memorise ploor
  You commit the ploor spell to memory.
  
  "With profiteroles every teatime, promptly at four."
  
  > Ploor
  Nothing happens, perhaps because you have already reported home to the
  Duchy.
  
  "And I trust there'll be dancing-girls, ten or twelve should suffice
  at a pinch."
  
  > Yes
  That was a rhetorical question.
  
  "Oh yes, my needs are simple," Clotspinner presses on.
  
  > Yes
  He looks pensive as you shake hands on the deal, wondering no doubt if
  he should have held out for more.
  
  "Well, first thing to do's to get me out of here. I believe we'll
  require a spell at, umm," (and he scribbles a quick calculation),
  "mental arithmetic always was overrated, always said so, let's see,
  172.88 degrees. Shall you do the honours?
  
  "But... the light has gone... ah, I see. Weeks I've spent, trying to
  dispose of that meteor, keep Amilia from using it! But just for the
  moment I'd like it back, if it's not too much trouble."
  
  > 88
  You rotate the mounting to 172.88.
  
  > put the scroll on the dial
  You put the unwritten vellum scroll on the calibrated swivel mounting.
  
  > Ruther chalk
  You commit the ruther spell to memory.
  The air around the chalk glows as it is transformed, slowly under the
  play of the green light, back into the meteor, whose burnished surface
  throws the beam back east through the archway!
  
  > Go east
  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 172.88 and holds a sheet of vellum
  paper.
  
  On the calibrated swivel mounting is a newly-written scroll.
  
  Clotspinner wanders the workshop pensively, looking over the
  equipment.
  
  > get the scroll
  (the newly-written scroll)
  Taken.
  
  > examine it
  The scroll reads "thrale spell (assist even old or wizened savant)".
  
  > 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 thrale spell page. The book's
  brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > memorize the thrale
  You commit the thrale spell to memory.
  
  > Thrale Clotspinner
  "Thank you very much," says Clotspinner as he begins to disappear. "I
  shall now be teleported direct to the Duchy. You, I'm afraid, will
  have to make other arran..."
  
  He's gone.
  
  > Go west
  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.
  
  Beneath the chimney is a huge, irregular, metallic lodestone,
  presumably a meteor fallen to earth.
  
  A thick, viscous green beam of magical light reflects from the meteor
  through a right-angle: straight upward through the chimney, to a level
  path east through the archway.
  
  A smooth, recent tunnel rises up to natural light.
  
  > Drink water
  The water is cold and magical, effervescent. You feel yourself
  changing again, just as you did at the russet pool. Your limbs stretch
  into arms and legs, your ears tuck back within human hair: yes, a man,
  but just a man. No magic left. It seems a fair bargain, almost.
  
  It tastes only of rue.
  
  > Go north
  Watling Street, Again
  The meeting-point: where Watling Street crosses the culvert, through
  which the brook still flows.
  
  Agents of the Duchy, cloaked as all spies should be, huddle beside
  black horses.
  
  "Well met, Captain," you call out casually, giving no hint of your
  recent canine persona. They saddle up to smuggle you away from the
  Empire forever: for you'll never be persona grata here again.
  
  But the Duchy will rise now. Tottering on the foundations laid by the
  Old Underground Empire, the bankrupt remains which are the Northland
  Empire of today will crumble at last. Unchecked, the Enlightenment
  will spread across the continent, and nothing will be as it was.
  
  Looking back from your horse, you only know that you will miss
  Borealis, its tradition and undoubted glory: ever the Ambassador's
  curse is to love the land he must one day betray and abandon. Still
  and all: