text: > go down
  Velvet spills over the grand stairway in a crimson flood. The huge
  door to the east stands open, and wind whistles down the length of the castle.
  
  High on the wall are displayed the arms of the Marquis Semix.
  
  EXITS: UP EAST WEST
  
  > take all from the casket
  ruby lens: You discorporate your hand so as to reach through the
  glass.
  
  Taken.
  gladius: You discorporate your hand so as to reach through the glass.
  
  Taken.
  
  > Go upwards
  You dig your claws into the wall and begin climbing.
  
  The walls of this chamber are hung with dark curtains, flickering in the light of tall candelabrae. An ostentatious couch runs the length
  of the hall. To the west is a huge door.
  
  EXITS: EAST DOWN WEST
  
  > go to the east
  There has been no feasting here for some time, and the long table is covered in dust. At the east end of the room, a grand window looks out on the Ch??teau gardens.
  
  There's a staircase sticking out of the ceiling.
  
  EXITS: UP EAST WEST
  
  > go to the east
  Your body melts into bluish, incorporeal smoke, and you pass through the glass.
  
  A labyrinth of sculpted greenery stretches before you: A frivolous distraction. You climb atop the hedge-wall, and find it solid enough
  to traverse.
  
  The rain is relentless.
  
  EXITS: EAST WEST
  
  You reconstitute your physical form.
  
  > go east
  Those who manage to navigate the hedge maze are rewarded with this nightmarish sight: Giant roses growing wild over what was once a tasteful garden, thorny tendrils spreading like a blight across the yellowed grass. The intense collective aroma of all these flowers, while not unpleasant, is almost enough to make you swoon.
  
  EXITS: WEST
  
  A woman is growing among the vines. She blinks at you languidly. You wave.
  
  "Good evening, mademoiselle. I have come here seeking information concerning the Marquis."
  
  "You have come to assassinate the Marquis," she hisses. "I have been apprised of your arrival, Inquisitor."
  
  You bow stiffly. "An unnecessary and unbecoming deception. I beg your pardon, mademoiselle."
  
  "My name is Mandragora," she says, as lightning illuminates her
  emerald skin. "and I am bound by duty to destroy the enemies of the Marquis."
  
  "I see. I, similarly, am bound by duty to destroy the accomplices of the Marquis, as well as his experiments."
  
  "Your duty is of no interest to me, Inquisitor. Come and face me, or else leave my garden." Mandragora's tendrils ripple around her, and
  the field of brambles lurches toward you as a single body.
  
  You nod. "Very well. My name is Vultrine, by the way."
  
  > examine the woman
  It is not illegal to grow a living, thinking plant, but it does seem cruel: This woman will never see anything beyond the walls of this garden. She will never visit museums, or climb mountains, or walk
  along a beach.
  
  You cut your sympathies short: This individual is interfering with
  your investigation. She must be dealt with.
  
  > examine the flowers
  The flowers are unnaturally robust, probably as a result of
  melliphytic interference.
  
  > hit with stick
  You bring the walking stick down on Mandragora and deal 4 damage. The stick itself snaps in half and is destroyed.
  
  Mandragora swipes at you with a thorny vine, cutting an ugly gash in your cape.
  
  > Hit with the sickle
  You slice into Mandragora with the sickle, dealing 4 damage. The blade snaps off, and the weapon is destroyed.
  
  Another lash from Mandragora's tendrils lands painfully on your cheek.
  
  > Hit with gladius
  You plunge the gladius into your enemy, dealing 4 damage. The weapon
  is disintegrated by the force of impact.
  
  You duck to avoid one of her attacks???and are momentarily ensconced in a pit of brambles. But you pull yourself out.
  
  > hit with the scythe
  You swing the scythe in a deadly arc, dealing 3 damage. The scythe shatters.
  
  She stops moving. She blinks.
  
  And then she withers away, and her form is not that of a woman, but of a gnarled twig. Her brambles blacken and fall to pieces. Only the
  roses remain.
  
  And one length of vine, covered in thorns.
  
  > look at the vine
  A vine that Mandragora used in her attempt to kill you. The thicker
  end is smooth enough to grip as a handle; the opposite end is covered in menacing thorns. Its attack power is 7.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are carrying:
  a thorn whip
  a ruby lens
  the form of the ghost
  an athame
  a copper harp
  a word of animation
  a machete
  a wakizashi
  Thembriaud
  the master's key
  a cinqueda
  a flail
  some clawed gloves (being worn)
  a mace
  a scimitar
  a tattered cape (being worn)
  a white dagger
  
  > examine the cape
  Long gouges have been torn out of your beloved cape. It remains to be seen whether Clarienne will be able to restore it.
  
  You resolve not to let the question bother you. Clarienne is a miracle worker.
  
  > look
  A field of oversized roses, filling the air with unbearable sweetness. At their center is the stump that once was Mandragora.
  
  EXITS: WEST
  
  > look at the stump
  A vaguely humanoid bit of plant matter is all that remains of Mandragora. It's not impossible that she'll manage to regrow herself???Perhaps in a few years.
  
  > take the roses
  You pick one rose and install it in your buttonhole. At once you feel yourself surrounded by an aura of its cloying perfume.
  
  > Go west
  Standing atop the hedges, you can dash from one end of the maze to the other in a few moments.
  
  The rain is relentless.
  
  EXITS: EAST WEST
  
  > go west
  Your body melts into bluish, incorporeal smoke, and you pass through the glass.
  
  There has been no feasting here for some time, and the long table is covered in dust. At the east end of the room, a grand window looks out on the Ch??teau gardens.
  
  There's a staircase sticking out of the ceiling.
  
  EXITS: UP EAST WEST
  
  You reconstitute your physical form.
  
  > go upwards
  Here the walls are bare wood, and dust covers the cold stone floor. It is doubtful that the Marquis has found a use for this concealed
  redoubt in recent years.
  
  A rusty lever is set in the far wall.
  
  EXITS: DOWN WEST
  
  > go west
  The Marquis does not sleep here (or indeed at all). The great bed is unused, the fireplace is spotless.
  
  A chill wind issues from the spiral staircase, and a tapestry hung on the easten wall ripples gently.
  
  EXITS: UP EAST WEST
  
  > Go upwards
  Rain falls in sheets, and the narrow walkway is like a sluice. On one side is the tower wall, ascending into the storm; on the other,
  statues of Nephreine and Alithedora look out over the countryside, serenely ignoring the precipitous drop to the castle grounds at their feet. Happily, a staircase nearby enables a safer descent.
  
  EXITS: UP DOWN WEST
  
  > Go west
  The rose's atmosphere surrounds you, forming a bubble of sweet air
  with enough solidity to repel the toxic gas surrounding the western tower. You continue along the walkway and enter.
  
  Here, if any further evidence were needed, is proof positive: The Marquis is not merely dabbling, but devoting considerable resources to his study of melliphysis. You recognize the banned materials on the bookshelves at a glance. Diagrams on the wall depict physical space being folded into unnatural shapes.
  
  And most damning of all, in the far corner of the chamber is a
  pinprick of darkness???a rent torn through the very air???through which a
  viridescent miasma is slowly leaking into this dimension.
  
  EXITS: EAST
  
  A loose page lies on the workbench, with some sort of formula scrawled on it.
  
  > take page
  At the first step you take toward the workbench, something skitters
  out from underneath it: A furry, many-legged creature you cannot immediately recognize.
  
  It opens a toothy maw and growls breathily at you, standing between
  you and the pitted desk. It dawns on you that this is a famulus, conjured by the Marquis. Besides interfering with your investigation, the monster itself is illegal.
  
  > examine the famulus
  A melliphytic famulus is sculpted with the limbs, sensory organs???even the specific intellectual faculties required by its summoner. Presumably when this one is not acting as a mere guard dog, it is able to assist the Marquis in his depraved studies.
  
  > Hit with the vine
  You swipe at the famulus with the thorny whip, slicing deep and
  dealing 7 damage. But then the whip withers away, like the rest of Mandragora's armament.
  
  cape, tearing off a sizable strip of fabric.
  
  > hit with the poleaxe
  You bring down Thembriaud with a mighty swing and deal 5 damage. The legendary weapon is destroyed.
  
  The famulus tries to bite down on your arm, but you smack it away.
  
  > hit with the mace
  You slam the mace into the famulus. The mace bursts into a cloud of shrapnel, but not before dealing 3 damage.
  
  The famulus utters one last creaking whine???and then it disappears with
  a hideous popping sound.
  
  A magic particle rises into the air over the spot: A spell you recognize as a word of vexation. This must have been what imparted
  such orneriness to the creature. You take possession of it.
  
  > hit with the scimitar
  With a practiced hand you slice into the famulus and deal 2 damage.
  The force of your blow is enough to snap the blade into two pieces of useless steel.
  
  The famulus whines pitifully???and then climbs up your shirt, to snap at
  your neck. You shove it back to the floor.
  
  > examine the vexation
  The word of vexation is a magic spell which you hold more in your mind than in your hand. Its attack power is 7.
  
  > look at the page
  The formula on the scrap of paper is a glyph of interruption, specifically designed to suspend the effects of some other magic for a limited time. To inscribe the glyph would require a specialized ritual instrument.
  
  > examine the pinprick
  The perforation is so miniscule in size as to seemingly disappear when observed directly. You have dealt with such things before, however: Even the most diminutive of melliphytic phenomena can have disastrous effects.
  
  > look at miasma
  The gas flows steadily out of the air, filling the laboratory,
  drifting out of the windows. It will go on flowing out of the Ch??teau, across the countryside, into farms and villages. You will have to procure a specialist to seal the perforation as soon as possible???as soon as you have executed your own duties.
  
  > Examine banned
  Your instinct is to destroy the most heretical books at once, but they will need to be taken in as evidence after you've dealt with the Marquis.
  
  A spherical vial of hythic acid is sitting atop one shelf.
  
  > examine the vial
  Though it has applications in any number of unseemly or unlawful endeavors, mere possession of hythic acid is perfectly legal. Its attack power is 6.
  
  > look
  Here, if any further evidence were needed, is proof positive: The Marquis is not merely dabbling, but devoting considerable resources to his study of melliphysis. You recognize the banned materials on the bookshelves at a glance. Diagrams on the wall depict physical space being folded into unnatural shapes.
  
  And most damning of all, in the far corner of the chamber is a
  pinprick of darkness???a rent torn through the very air???through which a
  viridescent miasma is slowly leaking into this dimension.
  
  EXITS: EAST
  
  > go to the east
  You lean down and carve the glyph of interruption with the athame, suspending the enchantment just long enough for you to pass through
  the archway.
  
  Slumped stalagmites surround a pool of greenish liquid, its depths obscured by unnatural mist.
  
  EXITS: WEST
  
  > look at the pool
  You peer over the edge of the pool.
  
  Something peers back up at you.
  
  It swims up at you, undulating eerily, faster and faster until it emerges with a viscous splashing at the water's edge. You recognize
  its shape: A Nemertean.
  
  "Ah, a friend of the Marquis," it utters, the words muffled by its many-lobed mouth. "I was not apprised of your visitation. All the
  same, I am happy to take on another pupil."
  
  "Then it was you who instructed the Marquis in the art of
  melliphysis?" you ask.
  
  Its eye opens in a grim smirk. "I recognize the questioning of an Inquisitor," it spits back. "You may spare me any rehearsed remarks upon the necessity of my eradication???I have had it all from your predecessor, in the moments before he was devoured."
  
  You nod. "Then I will proceed directly to the eradication."
  
  "Attempt this if you must," it says, unsheathing a chitinous pincer, "but I have fed so recently???It is all the same to me if you choose to flee with your life."
  
  > Hit with the vexation
  You speak the word of vexation: The Nemertean shrieks in unfathomable fury, taking 7 damage. But the spell fades away.
  
  The Nemertean's membranes billow, and it flies up into the dark
  heights of the cave.
  
  It swoops down upon you???you leap out of the way???your cape is caught in
  its pincer.
  
  It yanks on the tattered garment, drawing you in. You pull in the
  other direction until your cape is torn from your shoulders. You leap out of range and whirl around to see the monster shredding what remained of your cape to ribbons. Then it turns toward you.
  
  > hit with the vial
  The vial shatters, and hythic acid splashes all over the Nemertean.
  The liquid then erupts in flames, dealing 6 damage.
  
  The Nemertean thrusts in response, but you dodge the blow.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a glyph of interruption
  a rose (being worn)
  a ruby lens
  the form of the ghost
  an athame
  a copper harp
  a word of animation
  a machete
  a wakizashi
  the master's key
  a cinqueda
  a flail
  some clawed gloves (being worn)
  a scimitar
  a white dagger
  
  > hit with the flail
  You swing the flail around and around, building up speed???Then you swing it into the Nemertean, and it explodes, dealing 3 damage.
  
  You duck behind a stalagmite to avoid another swipe of the creature's pincer.
  
  > hit with the harp
  The harp is an awkward weapon, but you quickly judge how best to slam it into the Nemertean. Your foe takes 4 damage, but the instrument
  does not survive the process.
  
  The bulbous creature stops in its tracks.
  
  "Have it your own way, Inquisitor. Go and wreak your justice upon the Marquis. We Nemerteans love nothing more than to see vampire turn against vampire."
  
  The noise it produces next might be a hollow laugh, or else a death-rattle: For the Nemertean collapses, its unearthly organs squelching and shriveling before your eyes.
  
  You look over the remains: Its air-membrane, shrunken into a form not unlike your beloved silk cape, and its deadly pincer.
  
  > examine pincer
  One of the few rigid elements of Nemertean anatomy is the pincer. A grisly trophy to be sure, but its efficacy in combat far outweighs its distastefulness. Its attack power is 8.
  
  > look at the membrane
  The material is remarkably smooth and soft, considering its origin.
  You have seen firsthand how its folds take in surrounding air and converts the pressure into a powerful upward force.