text: > Go down
  You slide backwards and drop back into the lobby.
  
  You're crouching on your hands and knees in a perfect stale-gingerbread recreation of the hotel's lobby. It should just be possible to crawl north or east, crawl OUT again, or go up the elevator shaft.
  
  > Go east
  You crawl east into the Natatorium.
  
  You're on your hands and knees in a gingerbread recreation of the hotel natatorium. The pool has been faithfully recreated in blue buttercream frosting. You can back out to the west.
  
  > eat the frosting
  It's hard as cement! It's gotta be awful old, too.
  
  > examine the pool
  It looks like it was probably creamy and delicious a couple of decades ago.
  
  > Go west
  You back up, returning to the hotel lobby.
  
  You're crouching on your hands and knees in a perfect stale-gingerbread recreation of the hotel's lobby. It should just be possible to crawl north or east, crawl OUT again, or go up the elevator shaft.
  
  > go outside
  You crawl back out through the tiny front doors in the Arctic Suite.
  
  This room doesn't look like it's been used in years. Everything's covered in a thick coat of dust-the Benzedrine bottles scattered on the floor, the drafting table shoved in the corner, and most especially the enormous scale model of the Poseidon Hotel which dominates the room.
  
  A typewritten note is affixed to the model.
  
  > examine table
  Looks like an ordinary drafting table.
  
  > enter the model
  You manage to squeeze yourself through the tiny front doors and into a perfect model of the hotel.
  
  You're crouching on your hands and knees in a perfect stale-gingerbread recreation of the hotel's lobby. It should just be possible to crawl north or east, crawl OUT again, or go up the elevator shaft.
  
  > Go upward
  You push your way up the elevator shaft and scoot into the second floor hall.
  
  You're lying on your stomach in a recreation of the second floor corridor. It's a very tight squeeze, and you can't do much here besides sliding back down. However, one of the gingerbread doors is open a crack to the northeast.
  
  > look at the model
  A smaller model of the model you're currently inside, also made out of gingerbread. This one has wires coming out of it and it's ticking in a frankly kind of worrying way. A big red candy button on the hotel's face is marked "EMERGENCY DEFUSE".
  
  > press the candy
  You can't reach it from here. You can get your hands just about far enough into the room to touch your face, and that's it. Gee, if only your tongue was about a foot longer! For lots of reasons.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  an art theory textbook
  a stinky stocking
  your best set of glad rags (being worn)
  
  > examine the bottles
  Someone must've really been burning the midnight oil! Staying up all night, you can understand. But staying up all night to work?
  
  > Go south
  Second Floor Corridor, East End
  You're standing at the eastern end of a long hall that runs the length of the Grand Poseidon's second floor. Doors to the north and south lead to luxury suites, and the hallway continues to the west.
  
  A laundry cart trundles slowly along the edge of the hallway, brass wheels squeaking.
  
  > Go west
  Second Floor Corridor, Right in the Middle
  You're standing around the midpoint of a long hall that runs the length of the Grand Poseidon's second floor. There's a small closet to the south, and the hallway continues to the east and west.
  
  > go west
  Second Floor Corridor, West End
  You're standing at the western end of a long hall that runs the length of the Grand Poseidon's second floor. Doors to the north and south lead to luxury suites. The hallway continues to the east. This is also the 2nd floor elevator stop, and you can push the pearl button to summon an elevator.
  
  > Go north
  "Ah," says a voice as you enter the darkened room. "The spirits inform me that a new seeker has arrived. That is well. Eight is a very powerful number. In the tongue of the Orient, 'eight' holds the same meaning as 'life.' Come, join us, pilgrim. SIT IN this chair, take our hands, and help us breach the very veil between this life and the next."
  
  As your eyes begin to the adjust the darkness, you see figures seated around a table. Looks like you wandered into a real live seance! Ain't that just the elephant's manicure?
  
  The room is dark, the air thick with the smell of incense and burning spices. Half a dozen men and women are gathered around a table in the center of the room, holding hands, their eyes closed. The door back to the hall is to your south.
  
  Madame Ping Ping sits at the far side of the table, hands clasped with the other seance-goers, eyes closed in concentration. Directly across from her is an inviting-looking tasseled chair.
  
  > sit on the chair
  The Atlantic Suite (in the tasseled chair)
  The room is dark, the air thick with the smell of incense and burning spices. Half a dozen men and women are gathered around a table in the center of the room, holding hands, their eyes closed. The door back to the hall is to your south.
  
  Madame Ping Ping sits at the far side of the table, hands clasped with the other seance-goers, eyes closed in concentration. Directly across from her is an inviting-looking tasseled chair.
  
  You ease yourself into the comfortable tasseled chair and join hands with the seance-goers to either side of you. Across from you, Madame Ping Ping clears her throat, and the seance resumes.
  
  "Spirit", Madame Ping Ping says, "we beseech you to show your presence!"
  
  > wait for a while
  Time passes.
  
  "Knock once on the table, spirit!"
  
  > knock on the table
  You're holding hands with the people to either side, and if you let go, they're sure to smell something fishy.
  
  The seance-goers mumble their agreement.
  
  > wait
  Time passes.
  
  "All it will take is one knock. We must know you are here!"
  
  > Keep going
  Time passes.
  
  "Knock, spirit! Knock on the table!"
  
  > examine table
  A round table, perfect for dancing on, covering with drinks, or (in a very distant third place) holding a seance around, apparently.
  
  "Spirit", Madame Ping Ping says, "we beseech you to show your presence!"
  
  > get up
  You let go of the hands to either side of you and stand up.
  
  The room is dark, the air thick with the smell of incense and burning spices. Half a dozen men and women are gathered around a table in the center of the room, holding hands, their eyes closed. The door back to the hall is to your south.
  
  Madame Ping Ping sits at the far side of the table, hands clasped with the other seance-goers, eyes closed in concentration. Directly across from her is an inviting-looking tasseled chair.
  
  > look at Madame
  A plump woman about your mother's age, dressed in a shimmering Chinese dress and a silken cape. Her black wig looks like it came from a Cleopatra fancy-dress costume.
  
  > Go south
  An ordinary hotel room, neat as a pin. It doesn't look like anyone's staying in this one. A scenic picture hangs over the freshly-made bed. The only exit is north, back the way you came.
  
  > look at the picture
  It depicts a pirate ship sailing across rough seas, the pirates happily hoisting mugs of grog. You could sure go for some grog right now, and you're not even sure what it is.
  
  > move the picture
  It is fixed in place.
  
  > press the button
  The elevator doors slide open, and there's the elevator operator, some cute little sheba in a fancy aquamarine uniform, young enough that she's proably still got a handprint on her hindquarters from when the doctor slapped her.
  
  "Oh, good!" she chirps when she sees you. "You're awake! Gosh, did you ever take a real whack-a-roo on the noggin!"
  
  1) "And how! My head is still pounding."
  2) "You couldn't have called a doctor?"
  
  > 1
  ["And how! My head is still pounding."]
  
  She nods. "That's one of the thirty telltale signs on a genuine ghostly encounter! Residual aches in the head, spine, shoulders, legs, or fundament, dizzyness, sallow complexion, general biliousness, distemper, soul rot, flashbacks, blackouts, inversions of balance, ennui, malaise, fever, generalized pox, itching, bloating, excess perspiration, not enough perspiration, wandering tongue--"
  
  1) "Ghostly encounter?"
  
  > 1
  ["Ghostly encounter?"]
  
  "Oh, yes! This hotel is haunted, you know. All sorts of horrible things happened here!" She beams at you. "You were covered with spectral residue when we found you. Everyone else said that was just gunk from the locker room floor, but I knew the truth. I knew you'd touched the other world!"
  
  1) "Kiddo, the only thing I want to touch right now is an ice pack and a few drinks to empty it into."
  
  > 1
  ["Kiddo, the only thing I want to touch right now is an ice pack
  and a few drinks to empty it into."]
  
  "Sorry, Miss, but there's not a drop in the whole place. I think that's the work of the ghost, too. Because I know who the
  ghost is!" She leans forward and sticks out one white-gloved hand. "Kipper Fanucci, student of the paranormal! Is me, I mean. Not the ghost."
  
  1) "Hazel Greene, student of the alcoholic!"
  
  > 1
  ["Hazel Greene, student of the alcoholic!"]
  
  "Nice to meet you, Hazel!" Kipper pumps your hand up and down vigourously. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting someone with the Sight!"
  
  1) "What is 'the Sight'?"
  2) "Who is the ghost?"
  3) "How did an elevator operator become a 'student of the paranormal'?"
  
  > 1
  ["What is 'the Sight'?"]
  
  "It means you can see into the spiritual realm...at least, a little bit. More than I can, anyway," she murmurs, a wistful look crossing her face. "You oughtta treasure it. It's a rare gift!"
  
  1) "Who is the ghost?"
  2) "How did an elevator operator become a 'student of the paranormal'?"
  
  > 1
  ["Who is the ghost?"]
  
  "Her name is Mildred Waverly. She was a temperance crusader who disappeared in this very hotel eight years ago
  tonight, give or take a couple of weeks, and her body was
  never found! There have been events for years! Drinks
  mysteriously going bad, strange sounds coming from the basement...but never anything like this!"
  
  1) "So this bluenose from beyond the grave has got us all stuck in a bone-dry haunted house, and I'm the only one who can see her?"
  2) "How did an elevator operator become a 'student of the paranormal'?"
  
  > 1
  ["So this bluenose from beyond the grave has got us all stuck in a bone-dry haunted house, and I'm the only one who can see her?"]
  
  Kipper nods vigorously. "Now you're on the trolley!"
  
  She pulls a battered pair of old-fashioned, wire-rimmed cheaters out of her pocket. "Take a gander at these! They were found in Mildred Waverly's room on the night she disappeared. She wore 'em everywhere, which means, according to Epstein's Principle of Sympathetic Resonance, they should be attuned to her. They might make it easier to find spectral traces. I've been looking through 'em all day, but if you don't have the Sight, they're just a pair of old glasses. Go ahead - try them on. Maybe you'll see something!"
  
  1) Put on the glasses.
  
  > 1
  [Put on the glasses.]
  
  This still sounds like a barrel of banana oil to you, but you may as well humor the kid. You slip the glasses on, and -
  
  There's a mysterious patch on the wall of the elevator, a sort of glowing greasy stain of light. It twists and quivers, seeming to sense that you're taking a gander at it, and finally peels away and reforms and - holy smokes, there's a ghost here!
  
  There's a ghost right here, looking at you with its little
  piggy ghosty eyes, making itself comfortable with a nice perch right on Kipper's shoulder! You take off the cheaters and rub your eyes, but the ghost is still there. Looks like once they decide to come out to play, you don't need the glasses to see them.
  
  1) >LOOK GHOST.
  2) >KILL GHOST.
  3) >TALK TO GHOST.
  
  > 1
  [>LOOK GHOST.]
  
  It looks a splash of liquid, like the moment when a drink got dumped out or tossed in someone's face was frozen forever. When it sees that you're looking at it, it vamps like Clara Bow.
  
  1) >ASK KIPPER ABOUT GHOST.
  2) >KILL GHOST.
  3) >TALK TO GHOST.
  
  > 3
  [>TALK TO GHOST.]
  
  The ghost just giggles wetly.
  
  1) >ASK KIPPER ABOUT GHOST.
  2) >KILL GHOST.
  3) >TAKE GHOST.
  
  > 1
  [>ASK KIPPER ABOUT GHOST.]
  
  "You want to hear more about Mildred Waverly? Sure! According to Winslow's Three Precepts, a paranormal entity intersects the physical plane when one of Breznev's Five Conditions is met, and going by the Rule of Least Co-Corporeality..."
  
  Boy, this sheba can beat her gums when she gets going!
  
  1) >KILL GHOST.
  2) >TAKE GHOST.
  3) >OPEN GHOST.
  
  > 2
  [>TAKE GHOST.]
  
  You can't seem to get a grip on it. It's like trying to hold on to a damp tissue in a dream.
  
  1) >KILL GHOST.
  2) >OPEN GHOST.
  3) >SMELL GHOST.
  
  > 3
  [>SMELL GHOST.]
  
  It smells a lot like a bucket of gin.
  
  1) >KILL GHOST.
  2) >OPEN GHOST.
  3) >DRINK GHOST.
  
  > 3
  [>DRINK GHOST.]
  
  You lunge forward, put you lips on the ghost, and suck in, not really expecting it to work any better than anything else you've tried...but to your shock, it does! You slurp the ghost shrieking down your gullet. Not only did that get rid of the ghost, you really needed that drink!
  
  Apparently this is how you get rid of ghosts. Who knew?
  
  You draw back to see Kipper goggling at you. "W-what was that? One of those kisses they do to say hello in France?" She blushes. "Gee! I've never been French-kissed before!"
  
  1) "No, I wasn't trying to kiss you! I was drinking a ghost off of your shoulder."
  
  > 1
  ["No, I wasn't trying to kiss you! I was drinking a ghost off of
  your shoulder."]
  
  Kipper rolls her eyes. "Sure, like I haven't heard that line before. Wait - you're serious, aren't you? You actually succeeded in enclosing a second-order roaming malevolent sub-spirit in an organic containment matrix? Oh, Miss Greene, that's just the cat's pajamas! You don't just have the Sight! You have the Taste!"
  
  She practically pushes you out of the elevator. "You put on those glasses and see what else you can find. I bet this place is just dripping with second-order roaming malevolent sub-spirits! Oooooh, gosh, this is exciting!"
  
  Second Floor Corridor, West End
  You're standing at the western end of a long hall that runs the length of the Grand Poseidon's second floor. Doors to the north and south lead to luxury suites. The hallway continues to the east. This is also the 2nd floor elevator stop, and you can push the pearl button to summon an elevator.