text: [Themes: Fantasy, Humor, Puzzle, old school, nonhuman protagonist, non-human protagonist]
  
  > Go down
  This is Mel's spooooky secret laboratory. I say "spooky" because it's lit bit a series of multicolored, floating orbs. Apart from the glowing elf balls, though, it's a relatively normal stone cellar. I can go up if you want to return to the shop proper.
  
  There's a big pot on the floor and a sign on the wall.
  
  > look at the balls
  Glowing balls in red and green and purple. They drift lazily around the room.
  
  > examine the pot
  I'm sure it's technically an "alchemical cauldron apparatus," but I will be referring to it as a "pot." The pot is filled with some kind of thick liquid, and there's a sigil embossed on its side.
  
  > look at the sign
  Save your notes! You do not like remaking potions from scratch.
  --Mel
  
  > examine the sigil
  It's some sort of intricate design. It means nothing to me, and it's way too complicated for me to describe to you. It looks impressively mystical and eldritch, though.
  
  > examine the liquid
  (the bottle of blue dye)
  This is a bottle of blue dye. It contains, in my estimation, enough to dye two ravens. That is not a suggestion.
  
  > examine the thick liquid
  This is some kind of gooey liquid. It resembles syrup, but it's not brown, and I don't detect any obvious odor from it. I'm assuming it's some sort of potion base, but that's really your department.
  
  > read the page
  Which do you mean, the vellum page or the torn page?
  
  > read the torn page
  This is a list of Midas potions:
  
  Components: unicorn fur, sapphire whiskey, and phoenix kidney
  
  Components: sapphire whiskey, ivory runestone, and daffodil blood
  
  Components: phoenix kidney, daffodil blood, and refined starmetal
  
  Components: unicorn fur, phoenix kidney, daffodil blood, and wizard ash
  
  Transmute any inanimate object to gold (there's a smudge after
  'gold', and I can't read what's written there)
  Components: unicorn fur, sapphire whiskey, ivory runestone, refined starmetal, and wizard ash
  
  Components: sapphire whiskey, phoenix kidney, ivory runestone, daffodil blood, refined starmetal, and wizard ash
  
  Components: unicorn fur, sapphire whiskey, phoenix kidney, ivory runestone, daffodil blood, refined starmetal, and wizard ash
  
  > Go upward
  Mel's Magnificent Mystical Minutiae is the real deal. You can get all sorts of magical things here. Some of it is cheap junk that doesn't work, and that's what most people get; but if you want serious magic (and you've got serious money), Mel's is the place. We're here to ask Mel for a Midas potion specifically, which might save your
  bacon.
  
  The exit to the street is to the west, and there's another, smaller area of the shop to the southeast. Now there's also a trapdoor leading down.
  
  Some of Mel's famous Exploding Cockroaches are on display here.
  
  Mel's at the counter.
  
  I can also see a pile of assorted trinkets here.
  
  > ask Mel about the credit
  Mel checks his ledger. "You've given me enough money and valuables for four spell ingredients."
  
  > check what you're carrying
  In my bag of holding, I have:
  a leather pouch (which is open but empty)
  a florin
  a torn bit of wool
  a vellum page
  some farming tools
  a cedar box (which is open but empty)
  a piece of yellow paper
  a piece of green paper
  a piece of violet paper
  a piece of red paper
  a fish
  a fishing rod
  a wanted poster
  a bottle of clear fluid
  a bottle of blue dye
  a torn page
  a spell book
  a red balloon
  a magic wand
  the mind of a foolish wizard
  
  > Inventory
  In my bag of holding, I have:
  a leather pouch (which is open but empty)
  a florin
  a torn bit of wool
  a vellum page
  some farming tools
  a cedar box (which is open but empty)
  a piece of yellow paper
  a piece of green paper
  a piece of violet paper
  a piece of red paper
  a fish
  a fishing rod
  a wanted poster
  a bottle of clear fluid
  a bottle of blue dye
  a torn page
  a spell book
  a red balloon
  a magic wand
  the mind of an annoying wizard
  
  > put yellow and the green and the violet and the red in the box
  Which do you mean, the piece of red paper or the red balloon?
  
  > put the yellow and green and the violet in the box
  piece of yellow paper: There is no more room in the cedar box.
  piece of green paper: There is no more room in the cedar box.
  piece of violet paper: There is no more room in the cedar box.
  
  > put the yellow and green and the violet in the pouch
  piece of yellow paper: Done.
  piece of green paper: Done.
  piece of violet paper: Done.
  
  > put red paper in the pouch
  Taken.
  There is no more room in the leather pouch.
  
  > take all from the pouch
  piece of violet paper: Removed.
  piece of green paper: Removed.
  piece of yellow paper: Removed.
  
  > drop the violet and the green and the yellow
  Dropped.
  piece of violet paper: Dropped.
  piece of green paper: Dropped.
  piece of yellow paper: Dropped.
  
  > drop wanted
  Dropped.
  
  > Inventory
  In my bag of holding, I have:
  a florin
  a torn bit of wool
  a vellum page
  some farming tools
  a fish
  a fishing rod
  a bottle of clear fluid
  a bottle of blue dye
  a torn page
  a spell book
  a red balloon
  a magic wand
  the mind of a foolish wizard
  
  > examine the rod
  Hey, you made this! It's your Fishing-Rod-With-Self-Baiting-Hook! Somebody is using something you made! Or, well, maybe they were at some point; they've apparently abandoned it. It still counts as a sale, though. There's no line or hook on the fishing rod; it looks a lot like a tree branch.
  
  > Wave rod
  Pfwarmp! A cricket materializes in the air in front of me and
  drops to the floor.
  
  > look at the cricket
  I despise the way these guys chirp. It's always satisfying
  when you catch one and then it's crunch crunch crunch crunch
  and one fewer chirpy annoyance. Crickets have a milder taste than grasshoppers.
  
  > eat the cricket
  (first taking the cricket)
  Crunch. Ah, always satisfying to do that.
  
  > Nfspecfic1
  %% Enter a save filename to read:
  
  > Specfic1
  [Restore failed.]
  
  > Nfspecfic1
  [Ok.]