text: [Themes: Fantasy, strong NPCs, magic, France]
  
  > Go down
  Extremely spacious. It is its best with a half-dozen servants in livery. The floor is Italian marble, and a small door to the west is concealed by yellow silk hangings.
  
  The main staircase ascends to the corridor on the second floor, and a smaller version leads down into the dim basement. Doors also open north and northeast.
  
  On the wall is one of those mechanical clocks that pop open on the hour, allowing the ingenious internal figures out to play.
  
  Exactly on the hour, the cuckoo clock opens up its door and a mechanical bird flies forward. It sings 3 times, then withdraws into its little door.
  
  > put Chocolate in the contraption
  (the chocolate leaf in the delicate contraption)
  You put the chocolate leaf into the delicate contraption.
  
  > put the plate in the contraption
  (first taking the plate)
  Taken.
  
  You put the plate into the delicate contraption.
  
  > turn on the contraption
  There is a regretful clicking noise from the vicinity of the lid-catch. Just as you think you are going to have to close it yourself, a gloved mechanical hand reaches up and slams the contraption shut from the inside.
  
  The machine's gears spin into action; a series of fine flanges, like the keys of a music box, move into position against the surface of the cylinder, which rotates steadily. There is a faint grumbling from inside the machine, and the sounds of rearrangement...
  
  > Open contraption
  You open the contraption, revealing a plate, on top of which is a chocolate rose.
  
  > take the rose
  (putting the onion skin into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > link the roses to the chocolate rose
  (the roses to the chocolate rose)
  Bending your will, you form the link between the roses and the chocolate rose.
  
  > cut the chocolate rose with the knife
  Which do you mean, the table knife or the butcher knife?
  
  > Butcher
  (first taking the butcher knife)
  (putting the cup into the sack to make room)
  The chocolate rose cuts partway through, then splits of its own accord in rough surfaces, becoming a pile of small bits.
  
  The roses split into a pile of small bits.
  
  > look at the roses
  Ivory and powder-blue, with a tracery of blush roses.
  
  > examine the shed
  Built out of rough stones, not hewn into rectangular shape like those of the main house, and framed in weathered wood.
  
  In your hunger, you hallucinate dark squares of prepared chocolate.
  
  > enter the shed
  Disused for quite a long time, evidently. There is dirt in the corners, and some evidence of inhabitation by rodents or perhaps even a larger animal, now and then. Some rust stains on the walls indicate where tools used to hang, but no longer do.
  
  A rope ladder lies in a heap on the floor.
  
  > examine it
  Made of hefty rope and still apparently sound, with rungs made of wood. At the top on each side is a hook, allowing it to be put on something (rather than tied).
  
  > examine the rust
  Streaks on the wall, nothing more. The phantom shapes suggest the former presence of a shovel, hoe, etc. Why they've been removed is anyone's guess, but it's quite clear that much of the landscape around the house has been let go, the kitchen garden remaining tended longer than everything else.
  
  > examine the dirt
  Standard garden-variety dirt.
  
  > eat the dirt
  (first taking the dirt)
  Nothing to be gained by that, and you don't relish the idea much.
  
  > Go outside
  West is the wall of the kitchen. Most of the space along the wall is planted with herbs -- bay, parsley, stalks of mint -- left of the open doorway. To its right is only a drainage ditch, catching the outflow of a pipe that comes through the wall.
  
  In one corner of the plot is the well, drilled many deep feet; in another is the antique sundial.
  
  > Swim
  It would be a cold and unwelcoming swim.
  
  > go inside
  Your options are west into the kitchen or southeast into the shed.
  
  > put Tea in the contraption
  The spindle is shaped to hold exactly one cylinder at a time.
  
  > take Chocolate Recipe
  (putting the Andouillettes Recipe into the sack to make room)
  It takes a bit of wiggling to get the cylinder to come free, but you extricate it without too much difficulty.
  
  > put the cup in the contraption
  (first taking the cup)
  Taken.
  
  You put the cup into the delicate contraption.
  
  In your hunger, you dream of an omelette of herbs and chives.
  
  > put the water in the contraption
  You put some water in the delicate contraption, exhausting the supply in the hinge-lidded teapot. There is still some room remaining in the delicate contraption.
  
  > put the onion skin in the contraption
  (first taking the onion skin)
  Taken.
  
  You put the onion skin into the delicate contraption.
  
  > turn on the contraption
  The machine's gears spin into action; a series of fine flanges, like the keys of a music box, move into position against the surface of the cylinder, which rotates steadily. There is a bubbling, boiling noise from within the contraption.
  
  > open it
  You open the contraption, revealing a cup, inside which is some onion dye.
  
  > put the handkerchief in the dye
  Which do you mean, the onion dye in the cup or On Vegetable
  Dyes?
  
  > Onion
  (first taking the white handkerchief)
  (putting the hinge-lidded teapot into the sack to make room)
  
  > examine the hanky
  A square of good linen; rather nice, really. It is currently colored yellow.
  
  > cut the cement with the knife
  (the butcher knife)
  It's just an ordinary knife, not diamond-edged.
  
  > examine the stone
  Just a chunk of roughly squared stone from one of the nearby fields. Possibly once it had some value as masonry, but not any more.
  
  In your hunger, you dream of poached turbot on a platter.
  
  > take Recipe
  (the Tea Recipe)
  (putting the plate into the sack to make room)
  It takes a bit of wiggling to get the cylinder to come free, but you extricate it without too much difficulty.
  
  > put Chocolate in the contraption
  The cylinder slips into place with a satisfying click, as though some mechanism has engaged.
  
  > put Chocolate in the contraption
  (first taking the Chocolate Recipe)
  It takes a bit of wiggling to get the cylinder to come free, but you extricate it without too much difficulty.
  
  The cylinder slips into place with a satisfying click, as though some mechanism has engaged.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a Tea Recipe
  a yellow handkerchief (sodden)
  a cup
  not very much onion dye (which leaves some room in the cup)
  a rope ladder
  a butcher knife
  a sack (which is open)
  two metal dishes:
  a plate
  a hinge-lidded teapot (which is open but empty)
  an Andouillettes Recipe
  a dark wooden box (which is open)
  an mirror inset inside the box (reflecting white light from the sunlight)
  a pearl necklace
  an old letter
  a sword
  a cork
  a green glass jar (which is open)
  a celestial bauble (providing green light)
  a goat cheese
  four pieces of silverware:
  a table knife
  a spoon
  a fork
  a silver-plated corkscrew
  a red glass jar (which is open but empty)
  a navy cloak
  some documents
  a blue glass jar (which is open but empty)
  a rug
  a round metal tin (which is open but empty)
  a small portrait
  a jeweled pin
  a stone block
  a snuffbox (which is open)
  a quantity of snuff
  a swordstick
  two keys:
  a silver key (which opens the red door leading west)
  an iron key (which opens the russet door leading east)
  four books:
  On Vegetable Dyes
  The Lavori d'Aracne
  Guide to Assorted Wines
  The World Is Hollow (which is open but empty)
  eight food items:
  some cooked andouillettes
  a wedge of brie
  a salers
  some apples
  a bay leaf
  a sprig of parsley
  a sprig of mint
  a clove of garlic
  three bottles of wine:
  a blue bottle
  a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape (which is closed)
  a bottle of mead (which is closed)
  a dashing hat (being worn)
  
  > examine plate
  A plate, glossed in white and decorated with the crest of the family, just as though it belonged to the family china pattern.