text: [Themes: Zorkian, Cave crawl, fantasy, old school]
  
  > look around
  Heaped up against the southern cave wall like a sloping rampart, and
  rising 50 feet above the stream, the scree fall is made up not of
  fallen stones but of masonry, broken terracotta tiles, wrecked
  alabaster murals and those marbly bits you can't ever remember the
  name of: as if the veil of a temple has been rent in twain. But what
  the catastrophe can have been, and where the building stood, you
  cannot say.
  
  A black scroll, like a roll of remembrance, is curled around the top
  few feet of scree.
  
  Your length of rope is here. One end is tied around you, and the other
  to the black, memorial scroll.
  
  > go west
  You skitter nervously down the very steep western side of the scree.
  
  The rope plucks out the scroll... and your sideways leap is only just
  in time to clear the thundering avalanche of masonry which results!
  
  The furrow has been burrowed and extended by primitive mine workings,
  hewn chiefly by hand or at best stone tools. But the seam has been
  exhausted, and the striations in the rock scraped clean of ore.
  
  You can see a black, memorial scroll here.
  
  > untie the rope
  You loose the rope from your waist.
  
  > put the azzev in spell book
  Your spell book begins to glow softly. Almost imperceptibly, the
  binding swells and closes over the edge of the black, memorial scroll,
  which straightens and becomes the new azzev spell page. The book's
  brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > memorize azzev
  You commit the azzev spell to memory.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  You see the painfully slow carving-out of the seam, by miners
  centuries gone; and the anguish on their faces as the ore runs out,
  never to be found again.
  
  > Go south
  Heaped up against the southern cave wall like a sloping rampart, and
  rising 40 feet above the stream, the scree fall is made up not of
  fallen stones but of masonry, broken terracotta tiles, wrecked
  alabaster murals and those marbly bits you can't ever remember the
  name of: as if the veil of a temple has been rent in twain. But what
  the catastrophe can have been, and where the building stood, you
  cannot say.
  
  The avalanche has cleared away part of the scree, leaving open behind
  it a crudely arched doorway into the southern cave wall. Above the
  doorway, a skull and crossbones has been carved.
  
  > Continue
  You commit the azzev spell to memory once again.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  The scree slope being built, by teams of slaves, under an overseer
  terrified that the doorway would ever be revealed again, but in a
  desperate hurry... constantly glancing over his shoulder at the
  corridor behind him... and the slope being completed, and his final
  act laying the black scroll at its apex, to stand warning down all
  time.
  
  > look at the doorway
  coated with a runny, nasty-looking paste which drips out of tiny
  pores.
  
  > get the paste
  That's fixed in place.
  
  > Go south
  As you pass through the archway, clouds of vapour and drips of arsenic
  seep into your nose and ears! Death is immediate.
  
  > put arrow in the doorway
  The use of poisoned projectiles is strictly prohibited by the Protocol
  of Collioure, one of the great triumphs of your early career.
  
  > put the ham in the doorway
  into something else.
  
  > Poison ham with arsenic
  ham.
  
  > touch the doorway with the ham
  doorway.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a length of light rope
  an improvised ladder
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open)
  an apple
  four 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
  your formal credentials
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  four ancient treasures:
  a golden fir-cone
  a platinum egg
  a jewelled scarab
  a jade figurine
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  
  > Azzev lily
  The spell backfires, and you somehow feel it wrong to apply it to
  individual objects.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  Green lilies proliferating in the depths of the pool.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  An old man rocks back and forth in a chair, puffing smoke rings from a
  long briar pipe.
  
  > Azzev
  You haven't got that spell committed to memory. [Type "spells" to see
  what you do remember.]
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  The wall being masoned, but quite recently, by Northlands soldiers
  working on the other side.
  
  > Go south
  Thanks to the wall, the slide passage is the only way out.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  Seas of garbage rain down through the crack onto the mound, rapidly decomposing or washing away so that the process fights itself to a
  standstill.
  
  > memorize azzev
  You commit the azzev spell to memory a third time. You have so much
  rushing around in your head, though, that something may easily have
  been lost in the confusion.
  
  > Go north
  The increasingly earthy rock blocks your way. The only viable routes
  are west, south and northeast.
  
  > look at azzev
  azzev spell (view the past).
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  A very ancient time, when the tree has not grown: the doorway is being
  cut with enervating slowness.
  
  > Go southeast
  This long parapet thins to nothing further on, appearing to lead
  nowhere after all: the nearest other ledge being 50 feet vertically
  below.
  
  the inverted cedar, giving you a magnificent view of this botanic
  marvel.
  
  There's an iron ring fixed to the wall, the kind used to tie up
  horses, though how anyone could possibly get a horse up here you can't imagine.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  The tree, sprouting confidentally downwards.
  
  > Spells
  The jilnix spell is indelibly etched on your memory. Other than that,
  you have the azzev spell, chiaro spell and piroo spell memorised.
  
  > look at Cedar with telescope
  You raise the brass telescope expertly to your eye. There seems to be
  a crude wooden house built into it halfway down.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open)
  an apple
  four 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
  your formal credentials
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  four ancient treasures:
  a golden fir-cone
  a platinum egg
  a jewelled scarab
  a jade figurine
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  
  > go north
  You edge northwest along the ledge.
  
  Just where the shelf flattens at the foot of rocky steps (climbing
  westward), a square-cut doorway has been hewn into the north wall. The
  ledge, which begins to curve southeast, is at its broadest here, yet
  your feeling of vertigo hardly abates.
  
  southwest, 30 feet away.
  
  A watchful oil-snake coils and uncoils itself restlessly, occupying
  its territory but making no move towards you as yet.
  
  > Go north
  The oil-snake oozes and rears itself up to bar your way.
  
  > get the rope
  You can't take the rope; it's tied to the iron ring.
  
  > show the apple to the snake
  (first taking the apple)
  The oil-snake is unimpressed.
  
  > give the apple to the snake
  The snake snatches and swallows whole the apple, its neck distending
  to fit.
  
  But something mysterious is wrong! It chokes, seizing up horribly and thrashing about, its great body squeezing away from you until it
  topples over the lip of the ledge, plunging out of sight to its
  presumed demise.
  
  > eat the apple
  Just in time, you stop yourself from taking a bite as you notice
  little puncture-marks and a faint discolouration. This apple has been poisoned!
  
  > eat the cheese
  You eat the hunk of cheese. Not bad.
  
  > give the apple to snake
  The snake snatches and swallows whole the poisoned apple, its neck
  distending to fit.
  It chokes, seizing up horribly and thrashing about, its great body
  squeezing away from you until it topples over the lip of the ledge,
  plunging out of sight to its presumed demise.
  
  > Go north
  This is a pale corridor filled with a cold, pearly light, ranging from near-darkness at the southern end to a bright glow from the east.
  
  You are in the almost ghostly presence of a gaunt, long-haired man, an Adventurer who looks as if he has just stepped out of a weaving of a
  scene from the old Empire.
  
  > look at the man
  If legends may be believed, although basically trustworthy he would do
  almost anything for treasure.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  Even in your vision, the Adventurer stalks, untired and yet
  unsatisfied.
  
  > Hello
  The Adventurer is already serving under one geas, and you have little
  chance of talking him out of it.
  
  > Go east
  eastward continuation.
  
  "The Chamber is private to my Master!" he booms, in a voice not his
  own.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  your formal credentials
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  four ancient treasures:
  a golden fir-cone
  a platinum egg
  a jewelled scarab
  a jade figurine
  some provisions - a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese and a clove
  of garlic
  
  > give the egg to the man
  The Adventurer's eyes gleam. Treasure! He wants only more and more of
  it.
  
  > give the figurine to Adventurer
  (first taking the jade figurine)
  The ghostly Adventurer guards the pile of treasure zealously.
  
  > look
  This is a pale corridor filled with a cold, pearly light, ranging from near-darkness at the southern end to a bright glow from the east.
  
  You are in the almost ghostly presence of a gaunt, long-haired man, an Adventurer who looks as if he has just stepped out of a weaving of a
  scene from the old Empire.
  
  You can also see four ancient treasures (a golden fir-cone, a jade
  figurine, a jewelled scarab and a platinum egg) here.
  
  > give the pottery to Adventurer
  The Adventurer is incorruptible. Well, fairly incorruptible. Unless
  something valuable is on offer, anyway.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  your formal credentials
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > give credentials to Adventurer
  (first taking the formal credentials)
  He is unimpressed, perhaps because he speaks a language centuries
  before your own.
  
  > get the telescope then give it to Adventurer
  Taken.
  The Adventurer is incorruptible. Well, fairly incorruptible. Unless
  something valuable is on offer, anyway.
  
  > Go south
  Just where the shelf flattens at the foot of rocky steps (climbing
  westward), a square-cut doorway has been hewn into the north wall. The
  ledge, which begins to curve southeast, is at its broadest here, yet
  your feeling of vertigo hardly abates.
  
  southwest, 30 feet away.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  Terribly slowly, the stream erodes this channel into existence.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > shoot the lily
  snap!
  
  > Fill drum
  The placid water pools slowly in the drum, then drains out of the
  gauze. Nothing appears to result from this.
  
  > Fill drum
  Water sluices through the gauze drum, panning and leaving a sludge of
  wet sediment behind.
  
  > look at the sludge
  The sludge is a mucky aggregation of river debris; clay, sand, small
  stones of all sizes.
  
  > Fill drum
  Water washes through the sludge, filtering away the lighter sediment
  until a gleaming (if tiny) lump of ore remains!
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a drum
  a tiny lump of tin ore
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > Jilnix doorway
  As your brows frown, the air around you gathers with vile winged
  insects, which surge forward to plague the crudely arched doorway. But
  nothing results from this, and they dissipate again.
  
  > Chiaro tin
  There is an almost blinding flash as the tiny lump of tin ore takes on
  a glow! Not for a long moment is the light level tolerable.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a tiny lump of tin ore (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a drum
  a sludge of sediment
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > Fill drum
  Water sluices the sludge away to nothing. Then again, panning is all
  about luck and persistence.
  
  > Go east
  You edge along the northern wall of the cave, descending the rocky
  stairs.
  
  Just where the shelf flattens at the foot of rocky steps (climbing
  westward), a square-cut doorway has been hewn into the north wall. The
  ledge, which begins to curve southeast, is at its broadest here, yet
  your feeling of vertigo hardly abates.
  
  southwest, 30 feet away.
  
  > Go north
  This is a pale corridor filled with a cold, pearly light, ranging from near-darkness at the southern end to a bright glow from the east.
  
  You are in the almost ghostly presence of a gaunt, long-haired man, an Adventurer who looks as if he has just stepped out of a weaving of a
  scene from the old Empire.
  
  You can also see four ancient treasures (a golden fir-cone, a jade
  figurine, a jewelled scarab and a platinum egg) here.
  
  > give the ore to the ghost
  The Adventurer is incorruptible. Well, fairly incorruptible. Unless
  something valuable is on offer, anyway.
  
  > Fill drum
  Effervescent, glowing spring water cascades magically around the pan.
  There is a sudden flash of light!
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  The Guide For Travellers To The Lower Northlands and Surrounding
  Provinces
  some provisions - a banana, a joint of cured ham, a hunk of cheese
  and a clove of garlic
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying:
  a tiny lump of tin ore (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > Fill drum
  Effervescent, glowing spring water cascades magically around the pan.
  There is a sudden flash of light!
  
  > put the drum in the pool
  The drum drops silently into the spring water, vanishing without
  trace.
  
  > put the ore in pool
  The tiny lump of tin ore drops silently into the spring water,
  vanishing without trace.
  
  > Drink water
  You feel it would be highly dangerous to drink further.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  Deranged, kaleidoscopic visions of great force and power, signifying
  nothing.
  
  > examine the Spell Book
  The chiaro spell (cause inanimate object to radiate light).
  The jilnix spell (summon small plague of insects).
  The piroo spell (unfasten object).
  The azzev spell (view the past).
  
  > touch the tin to poll
  ore.
  
  > Chiaro drum
  There is an almost blinding flash as the drum takes on a glow! Not for
  a long moment is the light level tolerable.
  
  > eat the banana
  Delicious! Just as you reach the last morsel, there is another
  blinding flash of light.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying:
  a drum (providing light and empty)
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four arrows
  a bow
  the "destruction order"
  Experimental Spell Book #5
  your Ambassador's trunk (which is open)
  a hand telescope
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > put the ladder on the floor
  The jilnix spell is indelibly etched on your memory. Other than that,
  you have the azzev spell and piroo spell memorised.
  
  (the cave floor)
  You hang the ladder so that it runs from the cave floor up to the tip
  of the tree.
  
  > DDD
  Enter saved game to load: Restore failed.
  
  > look at the drum
  It resembles a tambourine without chimes. Some kind of coarse gauze is stretched taut along the bottom of a wooden drum-frame.
  
  > 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
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go to the 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
  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
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go to the 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
  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
  Hints: Casting Spells
  Hints: General
  
  > go to the north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  I can't get back up.
  The treehouse is impenetrable.
  The scree slope is too unstable!
  > The arched doorway seems very dangerous.
  What's the drum for?
  Does the water-lily play a part?
  
  > go to the north
  N = next subject                                                  P =
  RETURN = read subject                                        Q = prev
  ious menu
  
  I can't get back up.
  The treehouse is impenetrable.
  The scree slope is too unstable!
  The arched doorway seems very dangerous.
  > What's the drum for?
  Does the water-lily play a part?
  (Press H for more, or SPACE to return.)
  
  It's not for percussion.
  
  > look at the ledge with the telescope
  You raise the brass telescope expertly to your eye. The ledge looks
  much as you remember it. From here, however, you can see a cave
  opening below the southeastern end of the ledge, concealed from above
  by the overhang. But it's a very long way from here, and you can't see anything inside.
  
  > drop the rope
  The length of light rope is already on the floor.
  
  > look
  This long parapet thins to nothing further on, appearing to lead
  nowhere after all: the nearest other ledge being 50 feet vertically
  below.
  
  There's an iron ring fixed to the wall, the kind used to tie up
  horses, though how anyone could possibly get a horse up here you can't imagine.
  
  Your length of rope is here. One end is tied to the ring, the other
  hangs down from the ledge.
  
  the inverted cedar, giving you a magnificent view of this botanic
  marvel.
  
  > tie the rope to yourself
  You tie the rope around you.
  
  > tie the rope to ring
  You make a secure little knot. One end is tied around you, and the
  other to the iron ring.
  
  > jump
  You make a wild jump out into the cave, swinging down until the rope
  comes full stretch and catches you with an almost bone-breaking lurch.
  So you're feeling quite dizzy as you swing back under the ledge and,
  by ridiculous good fortune, into a cave mouth halfway up the wall
  (which had been invisible from above).
  
  An almost inaccessible side-chamber, which leads only a little way
  northeast, giving you the feeling of being suspended in midair halfway
  up the cedar cavern. It would make a splendid eyrie, but thankfully
  there is no sign of eagles.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a tiny lump of tin ore (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  You are carrying:
  a tiny lump of tin ore (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > drop the rope
  (first untying it from yourself)
  The length of light rope is already on the floor.
  
  > go to the northeast
  Cruelly, the tight cave comes to what every adventurer dreads: a dead
  end, leaving nothing for it but to go back southwest.
  
  An ingot of silver was, presumably, quite safely stored here up to
  now.
  
  > get the silver
  Taken.
  
  > examine it
  The ingot is marked in ancient runes with the word: "TOGNI". No,
  actually: you were looking at it back to front.
  
  > Go southwest
  An almost inaccessible side-chamber, which leads only a little way
  northeast, giving you the feeling of being suspended in midair halfway
  up the cedar cavern. It would make a splendid eyrie, but thankfully
  there is no sign of eagles.
  
  > get the rope
  The rope is too far out.
  
  > wait awhile
  Time passes.
  
  Suddenly and without warning, the boomerang spins back in from the
  cave and gives you a nasty bruise on the head.
  
  In the process, it recoils off the rope hanging in mid-air and swings
  that (rather more slowly) toward you. Forgetting about rubbing your
  temple, you grab at the rope and tie it back around your waist for
  safety.
  
  > Go up
  You jump back out and haul yourself painfully up the rope again.
  
  > Go outside
  This long parapet thins to nothing further on, appearing to lead
  nowhere after all: the nearest other ledge being 50 feet vertically
  below.
  
  the inverted cedar, giving you a magnificent view of this botanic
  marvel.
  
  Your length of rope is here. One end is tied around you, and the other
  to the iron ring.
  
  There's an iron ring fixed to the wall, the kind used to tie up
  horses, though how anyone could possibly get a horse up here you can't imagine.
  
  But you aren't in anything at the moment.
  
  > Go north
  You edge northwest along the ledge.
  
  Just where the shelf flattens at the foot of rocky steps (climbing
  westward), a square-cut doorway has been hewn into the north wall. The
  ledge, which begins to curve southeast, is at its broadest here, yet
  your feeling of vertigo hardly abates.
  
  southwest, 30 feet away.
  
  > Go north
  This is a pale corridor filled with a cold, pearly light, ranging from near-darkness at the southern end to a bright glow from the east.
  
  You are in the almost ghostly presence of a gaunt, long-haired man, an Adventurer who looks as if he has just stepped out of a weaving of a
  scene from the old Empire.
  
  You can also see four ancient treasures (a golden fir-cone, a jade
  figurine, a jewelled scarab and a platinum egg) here.
  
  > give the silver to the ghost
  The Adventurer, having now acquired the whole nearby wealth of
  treasure, spreads his arms around the pile of loot. As he does so, he
  and they vanish like the dawn into the past where, perhaps, they
  belong.
  
  > Go east
  The corridor funnels out into a chamber, turning once again to the
  south. Though smoother, the walls become hung with cobwebs and you
  have a sense of disturbing centuries of quiet.
  
  An ancient coffer, a chest of precious or personal papers, rests to
  one side.
  
  > open it
  You open the coffer, revealing an old document and a colour chart.
  
  > Azzev
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  curious colour-chart.
  
  > look at the chart
  This chart, very ancient though it is, gives the impression of being
  work in progress rather than a finished diagram, in that different
  patches seem to have been drawn in at different times. It consists of
  colours and symbols rather than words:
  
  Red-black --> ? --> ? -->
  
  Copper --> Silver-white --> Bright yellow -->
  
  Black --> Dull silver --> Dull grey -->
  
  Vivid green --> Skull symbol -->
  
  Flame symbol --> Yellow -->
  
  Chalky white --> Dark silver -->
  
  > look at the document
  Scratchy handwriting adorns this text, and the writing's in a dialect
  almost unrecognisable today. But, like any diplomat worth his salt,
  you've a way with languages: it writes of a way to tap the
  Philosopher's Stone, a source of Riches by Transmutation, but which is
  only workable fairly near the Stone itself... A sketch diagram
  suggests that the author was familiar with the route back up to the
  Customs House, and may even have lived there.
  
  > get the chart and the document
  colour chart: You already have that.
  old document: Taken.
  
  > look
  The corridor funnels out into a chamber, turning once again to the
  south. Though smoother, the walls become hung with cobwebs and you
  have a sense of disturbing centuries of quiet.
  
  An ancient coffer, a chest of precious or personal papers, rests to
  one side.
  
  > go to the south
  The serene white illumination comes as a shock to your eyes after
  following dim lamplight for so long, but this chamber is patient while
  you blink; a circular room with smooth walls and concentric steps down
  to a shallow well.
  
  The Stone itself is resting in the well: an obelisk whose irregular
  facets contrast so sharply with the perfect roundness of the walls
  that it almost seems alive.
  
  On the Philosopher's Stone is a spotless scroll.
  
  > examine the scroll
  The scroll reads "ruther spell (transmute pure chemical elements)".
  
  > 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 spotless scroll, which straightens and becomes the new ruther spell page. The book's
  brightness fades as the corners settle to perfect right angles.
  
  > memorize azzev
  You commit the azzev spell to memory.
  A cloud of green smoke gathers and swirls in the air like cream poured
  into soup, and a vision briefly appears...
  
  A wily gentleman casts a dazzling spell onto an ingot of silver, and
  it becomes gold! He is enriched, but unsurprised.
  You commit the azzev spell to memory.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a tiny lump of tin ore (providing light)
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > memorize ruther
  You commit the ruther spell to memory.
  
  > Ruther tin
  (This powerful enchantment easily cancels the earlier "chiaro" spell.)
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a tiny lump of lead ore
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > Ruther lead
  power! And it is transmuted into a gleaming uncut diamond.
  
  > look at the coffer
  The coffer is empty.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a coffer (which is open but empty)
  an old document
  a colour chart
  a length of light rope
  a boomerang (providing light)
  a gleaming uncut diamond
  your formal credentials
  a shard of pottery (providing light)
  a small wickerwork hamper (which is open but empty)
  four 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
  a brass lantern (providing light)
  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
  
  > examine the telescope
  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!
  
  > Ruther diamond
  The magic has no effect, perhaps because the diamond's crystalline
  structure is too strong.
  
  > Ruther lantern
  You commit the ruther spell to memory.
  The spell misfires, perhaps because the brass lantern is not pure but
  a mixture or an alloy.
  
  > look
  The serene white illumination comes as a shock to your eyes after
  following dim lamplight for so long, but this chamber is patient while
  you blink; a circular room with smooth walls and concentric steps down
  to a shallow well.
  
  The Stone itself is resting in the well: an obelisk whose irregular
  facets contrast so sharply with the perfect roundness of the walls
  that it almost seems alive.