Zork



LURKING HORROR DATA: VERSION 1.0

You've waited until the last minute again. This time it's the end of the term, so all the TechNet terminals in the dorm are occupied. So, off you go to the old Comp Center. Too bad it's the worst storm of the winter (Murphy's Law, right?), and you practically froze to death slogging over here from the dorm. Not to mention jumping at every shadow, what with all the recent disappearances. Time to find a free machine, get to work, and write that twenty page paper. [START TERMINAL ROOM]

|Mass. Ave. | |

|This is the main entrance to the campus buildings. Blinding snow obscures the stately Grecian columns and rounded | |

|dome to the east. You can barely make out the inscription on the pediment (which reads "George Vnderwood Edwards, | |

|Fovnder; P. David Lebling, Architect"). West across Massachusetts Avenue are other buildings, but you can't see | |

|them. | |

|Infinite Corridor (1-west) | |

|The so-called infinite corridor runs from east to west in the main campus building. This is the west end. Side | |

|corridors lead north and south, and a set of doors leads west into the howling blizzard. | |

|Infinite Corridor (2) |(north, south) The offices are all closed, locked, and dark. |

|The so-called infinite corridor runs from east to west in the main campus building. The corridor extends both ways | |

|from here. Many closed and locked offices are to the north and south. | |

|Infinite Corridor (3) |(south) Remember, this is one of the doors that's always locked at night. You won't be able to get back in if you go |

|The so-called infinite corridor runs from east to west in the main campus building. The corridor extends both ways |out. |

|from here. A stairway leads up, and a door leads out to the Great Court. |(south) As you leave, the door closes and locks behind you. |

|WALL SOCKET (There is a wall socket on one wall, and a heavy-duty power cord is plugged into it. The cord (leads to|(open door) You can open the door, but it shuts automatically immediately thereafter. |

|a large floor waxer away to the east/west)/ (terminates in a severed stump). |(unlock with master key) The key fits perfectly in the lock, but the lock doesn't turn. The master key doesn't work on |

|POWER CORD |this lock. |

|OUTSIDE DOOR | |

| |(examine cord) The power cord (connects)/(, now a mere stub, formerly connected) a wall socket on the wall here with |

| |the floor waxer. |

| |(examine cord) The power cord connects a wall socket down the hall to the west with the floor waxer. |

| |(?) The power cord goes from a wall socket (to the west/east)(to the floor waxer which is to the east/west). Of course,|

| |the cord is severed. |

| |(unplug cord) You pull at the power cord , but it won't come loose! |

| |(break cord) You'll need more than your hands to sever this cord! |

| |(cut cord with axe) The axe crashes against the floor, and the power cord severs! The whine of floor waxer slows, and |

| |the maintenance man jerks to alertness. |

| |(cut cord with axe, again) You already sliced it once! Trying to make salami? |

| |(cut cord with OTHER) You hit the cord with OBJ, but it has no effect. |

| |(fix cord) It's beyond repair. |

|Infinite Corridor (4) |(north, south) The offices are all closed, locked, and dark. |

|The so-called infinite corridor runs from east to west in the main campus building. The corridor extends both ways | |

|from here. Many closed and locked offices are to the north and south. |(examine cabinet) It's one of those little cabinets you see in institutional buildings that usually contains a fire |

|EMERGENCY CABINET (There is a [formerly] glass-fronted emergency cabinet here.) |hose and a fire axe. It (has)/(had) a transparent window [but apparently some vandal smashed it]. There is writing on |

|[FIRE AXE] |the cabinet. |

| |(open cabinet) You should read the sign. |

| |(read cabinet) "In case of emergency, break glass." |

| |(look inside cabinet) Inside the cabinet you see a fire axe. |

| |(smash cabinet) You hit at the glass with your hands, but you can't hit hard enough to break it: you might cut yourself|

| |on the glass. |

| |(smash cabinet with plastic container) The light plastic bounces off the cabinet. |

| |(smash cabinet with OTHER) The glass survives unscathed. |

| |(smash cabinet while wearing gloves) Wearing the heavy gloves, you confidently smash the glass with a blow of your |

| |hands! |

| |(smash cabinet with crowbar) The glass smashes with a satisfying crash! |

| |(smash cabinet, again) The cabinet is already smashed. |

| |(?) This one seems to only have an axe. |

|Infinite Corridor (5) | |

|The so-called infinite corridor runs from east to west in the main campus building. This is the east end. The | |

|corridor branches north and south here. | |

|Aero Lobby | |

|This is the lobby of the Aeronautical Engineering Building. Stairs lead down and a corridor heads south towards the| |

|main building. Side corridors lead north and south, and a set of doors leads west into the howling blizzard. | |

|PLASTIC CONTAINER | |

|Engineering Building |(east, west, south) The offices are all closed, locked, and dark. |

|This building extends a long way south from the Infinite Corridor. It too is full of closed, locked offices. |(enter office/open door) The offices are inaccessible. |

|Great Court |(north) The door is locked. |

|In the spring and summer, this cheery green court is a haven from classwork. Right now, the majestic buildings of |(open door with master key) The door is securely locked. |

|the main campus are almost invisible in the howling blizzard. A locked door bars your way to the north. | |

|OUTSIDE DOOR | |

|Great Dome |(up) There is no stairway. |

|Here a walkway circles the base of a huge ornate dome. Below is the Infinite Corridor. From stories of Tech |(examine rope) The strand is wet and glistening. It extends upward into the dome, leading to a narrow catwalk. |

|Exploring trips, you recall that there is supposed to be a ladder here. On the other hand, there is a shiny |(take rope) It's wet, and when you touch it, some of the wetness sticks to your (gloves)/(hands, and stings). The |

|rope-like thing hanging near where the ladder used to be, and leading upward. [Below you, in the corridor, you can |strand twitches a little when you touch it. |

|see a floor waxer, busily waxing the floor.] |(climb rope) You start to climb up the strand, but the glistening wet stuff begins to burn your hands. You get a few |

|ROPY STRAND |feet up before the pain is too much. You drop back to the floor. |

|[WOODEN LADDER] (A wooden ladder leads up from here.) |(climb rope, wearing gloves) The wet stuff on the strand sticks to the gloves, but doesn't otherwise affect you. You |

| |have a little trouble climbing up to the catwalk, but grab the rail just before your strength gives out. You heave |

| |yourself up onto the catwalk. |

|Top of Dome |(first enter emit) You stand up on the catwalk, catching your breath for a moment. Your eyes stray along the strand you|

|Inside the great dome, near the top, a metal catwalk is precariously perched. There is no way further up, but a |climbed. It trails along the catwalk, where it joins something large and squishy squatting at the far side. A single, |

|small metal door is set in the side of the dome. [Frigid wind and snow blow through the open door.] |bright-blue eye opens in the squishy mass, and the tentacle (for that's what it is) retracts. The mass almost flows |

| |through the spaces in the catwalk railing and drops to the floor fifteen feet below. Before you can react, it's gone. |

|WOODEN LADDER (Where the pulpy mass was squatting, a wooden ladder lies on the catwalk.) | |

|CATWALK |(examine ladder) There is the same wet stuff on the ladder as on the tentacle. |

|DOOR |(put ladder on catwalk, lower ladder) You lower the ladder to the walkway below. It's just the right length to climb |

| |down. |

| |(lower ladder) You can’t lower it from here. |

| |(lower ladder) Lowered. |

| |(raise ladder) With a great effort, the ladder being quite heavy (it's a Type I), you pull the ladder up and lay it on |

| |the catwalk. |

| |(climb) The ladder doesn’t go anywhere yet. |

| |(?) The ladder is already set up. |

| |(?) You raise the ladder, leaning it against the catwalk above. |

| |(?) You can’t raise a ladder and hold the doors open at the same time! |

| |(set up ladder) There isn't much here to climb up to. |

| |(?) It's already taken down. |

| |(down) You scramble down the ladder. |

| |(walk under ladder) You trepidatiously walk under the ladder. Nothing seems to happen. |

| | |

| |(examine door) It's a small metal door, the same color as the dome. |

| |(open door) You open the door, and freezing air, blowing snow, and howling wind enter and whip around you. |

| |(close door) You close the door, shutting out the blizzard. |

| | |

| | |

| |(emits from this door???) |

| |(?) The door opens from this side. |

| |(?) The door is not keyed to this key. |

|Roof of Great Dome |(up) You scramble up icy surface of the dome, almost slipping a few times, but finally you make it to the top. |

|You are perched precariously on the roof of the Great Dome. A set of narrow indentations in the dome provides a | |

|dangerous route to the very tip-top of the dome. | |

|On the Great Dome |(other DIRECTION) There is nowhere to go but down. |

|This is the very top of the Great Dome, a favorite place for Tech fraternities to install cows, Volkswagen Beetles,|(take plug) You pry the plug out of its socket, revealing a cylindrical hole about the same diameter but somewhat |

|giant birthday candles, and other bizarre objects. The top is flat, round, and about five feet in diameter. It's |deeper. [There is a piece of paper in the hole.] |

|very windy, which has kept the snow from accumulating here. The only way off is down. |(put plug in hole) You insert the plug in the hole. |

|BRONZE PLUG (In the exact center of the flat area is a bronze plug.) |(examine hole) The cylindrical hole contains a piece of paper. |

|[CYLINDRICAL HOLE] |(examine hole, after removing paper) The hole is empty. |

|[PIECE OF PAPER] | |

|Chemistry Building |(examine door) This is a standard Tech door. It's made of black-painted wood and has a [badly cracked] frosted glass |

|This corridor is lined with closed, dark offices. At the south end of the corridor is a door with a light shining |window with "Department of Alchemy" painted on it. [There is a light on inside.] |

|behind it. |(read door) Painted on the door, in calligraphy indistinguishable from any other door at Tech, is the phrase |

|ALCHEMY DEPARTMENT DOOR |"Department of Alchemy." You always used to wonder what was behind that door. |

|FROSTED GLASS WINDOW |(look in door) Every so often, you see a shadow move across the window. |

| |(look in door) You don't see anything in particular, other than that the light is on inside. |

| |(open door) It’s locked. |

| |(unlock door with master key) The key fits perfectly in the lock, but the lock doesn’t turn. The master key doesn’t |

| |work on this lock. |

| |(unlock door with other) It doesn’t even fit the lock. |

| |(?) You don’t need to unlock it to open it from this side. |

| |(?) The door is open. |

| |(?) There is something written on the door. |

| |(?) The door closes behind you. |

| | |

| |(examine window) It's a frosted glass window. It's more or less opaque. [It's covered with a maze of cracks.] |

| |(break window) This has no effect, other than your hands getting somewhat sore and a lot of noise being produced. |

| |(break with axe, etc) You smash the glass, and cracks spread all over the pane from the point of impact. The window |

| |remains whole, though, as it's made of wire reinforced glass. |

| |(break window with harmless) The OBJ bounces harmlessly off the glass. |

| |(break after broken) Further attacks do little to worsen the damage. |

| |(knock on door/window) You knock on the door. The hollow sound reverberates down the hall. You sort of wish you had |

| |knocked more softly. |

| | |

| |(wait after knocking) The door opens partway, revealing a professorial man in a white lab coat. He smiles. ("Good |

| |evening! I don't get many visitors this late. You're not one of my students, are you?") / ("Back for another visit, are|

| |you?") He ushers you into the room without waiting for an answer, closing the door behind you. |

|Department of Alchemy |(examine door) This is a standard Tech door. It's made of black-painted wood and has a [badly cracked] frosted glass |

|This office is clinically clean, shiny, and modern. It looks like something out of a science fiction movie. (A |window with something painted on the other side. |

|closed)/(An open) door to the north leads back into the corridor and an archway opens to the south. |(read door) You can’t read it from this side. |

|PROFESSOR (The professor is here.) |(?) There is no sign of life behind the door. |

|SIGN-UP SHEET (Taped to the wall to the right of the archway is a sign-up sheet.) | |

|ALCHEMY DEPARTMENT DOOR |(examine sheet) This appears to be a sign-up sheet for the lab. Strangely, although few daytime segments are used, |

|ARCHWAY |almost all of the nighttime ones are. Most seem to have been taken by two different people, the professor and another, |

|[BRASS HYRAX] |presumably one of his graduate students. (The name of the graduate student is oddly familiar.)/(With a start, you |

| |realize that the author of the suicide note was the heavy user of the lab.) |

| |(take sheet) "You can't take that! It's the only way we have to keep track of who's signed up to use the lab." |

| | |

| |(examine archway) This archway, part of the oldest section of Tech, is between a lab and the headquarters of the |

| |Alchemy Department. To the right of the archway is a sheet of paper. It looks like a sign-up sheet. |

| | |

| | |

| |(south) The professor stops you, not too gently. "Sorry," he says, although he doesn't sound too sorry. "There are very|

| |delicate experiments going on in the lab. You might hurt something." All you can see before he guides you away from the|

| |archway is a great deal of odd apparatus and equipment. |

| |(south, after showing piece of paper) "Ah! You'd like to see the lab?" the professor asks in a rather unctuous tone. |

| |"Come right in!" He ushers you through the archway into the lab, following quickly behind you and turning on the |

| |lights. |

| | |

| |(examine professor) The man looks like a professor. He's wearing a white lab coat, rather stained with chemicals, and a|

| |G.U.E. Tech class ring. (He watches you with an ambiguously predatory air.) / (He's working on something at the lab |

| |bench in front of him.) |

| |(ask about missing students) "I don't know anything about them. Tech is high-pressure. Some people can't take it." |

| |(ask about lovecraft) "The machines in our department have names like that. Lovecraft wrote some stories about alchemy.|

| |We've got Paracelsus, Dunsany, and a couple of others, too." |

| |(ask about sheet) "We don't have much lab space. Everyone has to sign up for lab time." |

| |(ask about ring) "Just a trinket." |

| |(ask about vat) "Just a little experiment of mine. The label is just a joke." |

| |(ask about paper1) "What note is that?" he asks, nervously. |

| |(ask about paper, after showing) "Obviously a nut case. He knew he was going to flunk out, and this is clearly an |

| |attempt to put the blame somewhere else." |

| |(ask about ???) “You’ll get it. All in good time.” |

| |(ask about OTHER) The professor is uninterested. |

| |(professor, hello) The professor looks at you in much the way a cat looks at a mouse. |

| |(attack) With contemptuous ease, the professor prevents you. ["I'll take this," he says. "Just for safekeeping." He |

| |makes the OBJ disappear.] |

| |(show piece of paper) He reads it carefully. "What drivel! This just confirms my suspicions. He had clearly gone over |

| |the edge. Drug use, drinking, insanity. It's only too bad that I didn't realize what was happening. I might have helped|

| |him." |

| |(show knife/stone/hand) "Very interesting! I'll take that!" |

| |(show other) He doesn't seem interested. |

| | |

| |(professor emit) |

| |The professor (gazes)/(continues to gaze) at you in a bored and distracted way. |

| |…at you with a distinctly predatory air. |

| |…at you with malign intent. [AFTER EXAMINING RING] |

| | |

| |(examine/take ring) He thrusts his hand into his pocket. |

| | |

| |(?) It’s dark inside. |

|Lab |(north) You find it very hard to move. Your feet reach the chalk line and then seem to meet resistance, though there is|

|The lab is an ultramodern, fully equipped chemistry lab. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, you aren't a |nothing there but the chalk. |

|chemistry major, so the equipment might as well be magical. |(north, if pentagram broken) You find the archway barred by a force you can't push through. |

| |(down) There is no obvious way down from here. |

|[The lab is a shambles. It looks like something red and sticky has been spread over the walls, ceiling, and floor. |(down) The trapdoor bars your way. |

|Much of the equipment, particularly that near the center of the room, has been destroyed.] | |

| | |

| |The professor guides you to the center of the lab, where a strange pentagonal symbol is chalked on the floor. He cuts |

|LAB BENCH [VAT [TARRY LIQUID]] |one of the chalk lines with a small knife you had not previously noticed, pushes you into the center of the chalked |

|ALCHEMY DEPARTMENT COMPUTER |symbol, and redraws the line, muttering softly and rhythmically as he does so. "There, that's done. Don't move from |

|PENTAGRAM |there, it'll only make things worse for you." He makes some odd gestures at the archway and then goes over to the lab |

|CHALK LINE |bench. |

|[MIST] |The professor is preparing something at the lab bench. "Alchemy is my chosen field, and I've gotten ridiculed for it. |

|METAL PLATE (There is an open metal plate in the floor.) |It's like chemistry, except that chemists don't recognize that some natural laws are enforced by persons, not physics. |

|[BRASS HYRAX] |Some of them will grant power, or knowledge, but they must be placated, or even bribed. They're not of this earth, not |

| |demons or devils, and they aren't always friendly. To me it's just an unpleasant necessity on the path to power. When |

| |I'm done, they won't laugh anymore!" |

| |The professor enters another pentagram, and begins a highly choreographed ritual. "This may seem a little silly to you,|

| |but the symbology is what's important. Certain alignments, certain aspects. In a few moments, it won't matter anyway," |

| |he remarks. "There is very little room for error here, so be calm." He chants, he brandishes strange instruments, moves|

| |about inside the pentagram, and occasionally points to you. It becomes clear exactly what he meant by the word "bribe."|

| |The chant grows more complex[, the professor having difficulty with the almost unpronounceable words] , with rhythms |

| |and cadences that make you want to stop your ears. The room appears to be getting darker. [(?), clearly terrified of |

| |what may happen) |

| |A thick black mist begins to form in the room. Parts are darker, and parts lighter, and the dark parts form a |

| |disturbing shape. The professor chants and calls more loudly now[, his voice rising in a kind of hysteria] , and you |

| |realize the calls are being answered. |

| |The room is now freezing cold, though the windows are shuttered and tightly curtained. Low, bone-rattling vibrations |

| |shake the room in cadence with the chant. The black mist is growing thicker. The professor (chants more rapidly, |

| |producing strange guttural sounds, scarcely human.) / (gestures in your direction, an overtone of terror in his voice.)|

| |/ (is alternately looking at you and at the mist.) / |

| |The black mist swirls wildly around the room, and a deep bass voice gibbers out of thin air. (The professor’s brow |

| |drips with sweat.) / (The professor points madly toward you, and the mist follows.) |

| | |

| |(?) "No!" screams the professor, and jumps toward you out of his own pentagram. He realizes what he has done, and tries|

| |to reenter, but the mist grabs at him. |

| | |

| |A thing like a tentacle with a demonic face wraps slowly around you. The room recedes into a great distance as you are |

| |pulled away. Before you die, you see what the tentacle is a part of. |

| | |

| |(examine pentagram) For want of a better word, call this a pentagram. It isn't particularly pentagonal, but it's an odd|

| |shape chalked on the floor, and it's roughly pentagonal. |

| |(get out) Your feet approach the chalk line, and then stop. You can't push your way out. |

| |(get out, if line broken) You push your way through a soft spot just over the scuff marks, and are outside the |

| |pentagram. The air is thick and close. |

| |(action pentagram) Your hand won't pass over the chalk line. |

| |(cut pentagram with knife) You cut the outer lines of the pentagram. It no longer completely encloses you. The |

| |professor sees what you've done out of the corner of his eye. [He quickly slides over and redraws the pentagram. This |

| |time he performs a thorough search, removing all your possessions, tut-tutting all the while.] |

| |(cut pentagram with knife, on stage 3) He stares, horrified. "Stop, don't move!" he says between verses of the chant. |

| |The chant takes on a pleading tone. |

| |(cut with knife, again) You scuff it up some more. |

| |(cut with crowbar, axe, etc) The OBJ passes over the chalk line, but doesn't have any effect on it. |

| |(cut with OTHER) The OBJ doesn't even touch the chalk line. |

| |(?) You try, but no part of your body will touch the chalk lines. |

| |(pour coke on) …pours on the ground, spreading towards the lines of the pentagram. As it reaches the nearest line, it |

| |begins to smoke and boil away, but never quite touches the chalk. |

| |(?) The pentagram is now almost entirely effaced. |

| |(?) He repairs from scuff marks on it, muttering about sloppy students. He then… |

| |(close) You don’t have a piece of chalk to close it with. Besides, you don't know the incantation. |

| |(enter/exit) You get into/out of the pentagram, being careful not to further scuff the chalk. |

| | |

| |(?) You hear a deep bass voice, and a softer, pleading baritone. |

| |(?) Around the trapdoor… |

| |(?) …well enough from here to do that. |

| |(?) The professor, none too gently, prevent you. “Plenty of time for that later,” he cautions you. |

| |(?) The professor watches you in horror, stumbling over his ritual. |

| |(?) There is no reply. |

| |(?) They [(are)/(may be)] beyond help. |

| |(?) The professor is [performing a strange ritual] here. |

| |(?) The professor is intently following his ritual and won’t be distracted. |

| |(?) “I don’t like your insinuations.” |

| |(?) The professor is nervously following his ritual. |

| |(?) The mist protects him, almost possessively. |

| |(?) The professor, in his pentagram, is invulnerable. |

| | |

| |(examine bench) The bench is a chemistry lab bench. It has a marble top, and casters at each corner. Various equipment |

| |litters the bench, none of which you recognize[but the lab bench also contains a vat.] |

| |(look under bench) You can see a metal plate beneath the bench. Only part of it is visible. |

| |(look under bench, again) Nothing but concrete floor there. |

| |(move bench) It's heavy, but it moves, revealing a hinged metal trapdoor beneath. |

| |(move bench, again) It rolls a little. |

| | |

| |(examine vat) This is a large (a couple of liters, at least) glass or pyrex vat. It has a label stuck to it. [The vat |

| |contains a tarry liquid.] |

| |(read vat) The text is a long chemical-sounding name typed on a label affixed to the container. Below is written in |

| |pencil "Elixir of Life." |

| |(pour cold liquid in vat) The freezing liquid pours out onto the vat, boiling into cold mist almost immediately, but |

| |the vat freezes and then shatters from the cold. |

| | |

| |(examine liquid) The elixir is thick and tarry. Torpid bubbles break the surface every so often, though you can find no|

| |source of heat to produce them. |

| |(touch liquid) You touch the liquid with your finger. It's very unpleasant. The liquid is stingingly hot. You pull your|

| |finger out, and it is some time before it feels normal again. |

| |(drink liquid) It would be like drinking road tar. |

| |(pour liquid) Remember those ketchup commercials? Remember how slow the winning ketchup was? Well, this is a lot |

| |slower. The liquid has a very high surface tension, and pours so slowly that you'd be here all night waiting for it to |

| |finish. |

| |(take liquid) You can’t take it, it's a liquid. |

| |(put rat in liquid) You dip the dead rat into the elixir. Almost immediately it convulses, begins to flop around in the|

| |liquid, and then springs out onto the floor! It scurries away before you can catch it. |

| |(put hand in liquid) When you dip the mummified hand in the liquid, the elixir begins to bubble furiously. You can't |

| |really see the hand, except when a finger pokes up every so often. |

| |The hand bobs to the surface. It's odd, but it looked like one of the fingers moved. |

| |The hand splashes to the surface. The fingers are moving! |

| |The hand is trying to crawl out of the vat. [The fingers flex and grab at the slippery sides, but in vain.] |

| |(take hand) You grab the wiggling hand and draw it forth, newly animated, from the vat. As it emerges, the elixir flows|

| |off. The hand scuttles up your arm and perches quietly on your shoulder. |

| |(put hand in vat, again) Nothing unusual happens (compared to the first time, anyway). |

| |(put other in liquid) You drop OBJ into the vat, where it is completely covered by the tarry liquid. |

| |(take other) You reach into the liquid, fish around rapidly due to the horrible feel of the chemicals, and draw out the|

| |OBJ. As it emerges, the elixir flows off. |

| |(?) You feel the thick tarry liquid. |

| | |

| |(examine metal plate) It looks like a hinged metal plate. There is a handle on one edge. |

| |(open plate) It swings open easily. |

| |(down) From above, you hear a thunderous noise, a maniacal scream, and then the sound of equipment smashing. The |

| |trapdoor slams shut, but around it pours a blinding flash of light. Finally you hear an almost inaudible whimper, then |

| |nothing. The light fades, leaving you in the dark. |

| |(?) You see a dark tunnel below. |

| |(?) Your X-ray eyes appear to be nonfunctional today. |

| |(?)…the lab bench and goes no further. |

| | |

| |(examine computer) This machine looks just like the ones in the terminal room. Written with a marking pen on the |

| |display is "Lovecraft." [It's turned off.] |

| |(turn on computer) You turn the machine on, it performs a quick self-check, and then displays a message on the screen: |

| |"Unable to boot because: No disk inserted. Please insert a dismountable disk." |

| |(turn on again) It's on, for what little good that will do you. |

| |(?) The professor, who has been watching you, smiles. |

|Fruits and Nuts | |

|This is the central corridor of the Nutrition Building. The main building is south, and a stairway leads down. | |

|Cluttered Passage | |

|This cluttered passage leads southeast. It is full of apparently discarded electronic equipment, old rusty file | |

|cabinets, and other detritus. A stairway also leads up. | |

|CABINET | |

|EQUIPMENT | |

|DETRITUS | |

|Brown Basement | |

|This is a cluttered basement below the Brown Building. Discarded equipment nearly blocks an already narrow hallway | |

|that terminates in a stairway leading up. The passage itself continues northwest. | |

|EQUIPMENT | |

|PAIR OF RUBBER BOOTS | |

|Brown Building | |

|This is the lobby of the Brown Building, an eighteen-story skyscraper which houses the Meteorology Department and | |

|other outposts of the Earth Sciences. The elevator is out of order, but a long stairway leads up to the roof, and | |

|another leads down to the basement. A revolving door leads out into the night. | |

|Small Courtyard | |

|This courtyard is a triumph of modern architecture. It is spare, cold, angular, overwhelming in size, and bears a | |

|striking resemblance to a wind tunnel whenever the breeze picks up. Right now this is true of the whole campus, | |

|though. A huge mass lurks nearby, and an almost featureless skyscraper is to the north. | |

|MASS | |

|Top Floor |(west) The roof door is closed. |

|This is the top of the stairway. A door leads out to the roof here, and you can hear the wind blowing beyond. There| |

|is a sign on the door. |(open door) It’s locked. |

|ROOF DOOR |(unlock door with master key) The door is now unlocked. |

|SIGN |(lock door with master key) The door is now locked. |

| |(open door) You push the door open, revealing a windswept, snow-covered roof. Frigid wind whips snow into your face. |

| | |

| |(read sign) It says "NO ADMITTANCE!" In smaller, hand-written letters below, it says "This means you!" and below that |

| |in different handwriting, it says "Who, me?" |

|Skyscraper Roof |(examine dome) The dome is large and semitransparent. It's made of some sort of milky-colored plastic. It dominates the|

|A low parapet surrounds a small roof here. The air conditioning cooling tower and the small protrusion containing |roof. You can climb up to the entrance via a short ladder. |

|the stairs are dwarfed by a semitransparent dome which towers above you. The blowing snow obscures all detail of | |

|the city across the river to the south. |(jump) [The creature sees you preparing to leap, and springs toward you in a desperate effort, blood-red mouth |

|DOME |contorted with a cry of frustration, but it's too late.] You leap over the edge. Freezing ice crystals hitting you in |

|ROOF DOOR |the face as you fall. Then you hit the ground, which is more unpleasant still. |

| | |

| | |

| |(if creature in room) |

| |You hear a strange confusion of wings, and then something dark and shapeless smashes against the dome above you! |

| |The dark shape moves. Above the howl of the wind you hear a high-pitched keening noise. |

| |The shape drops, crunching into the snow almost next to you. Its scaly head turns toward you, eyes like coals staring |

| |into yours. |

| |The shape rises, baring needle-sharp teeth and pumping its wings painfully in the gale. |

| |The creature approaches, hissing at you as it nears. |

| | |

| |(east) The dark shape, its foul stench overpowering the wind, [drops from the dome and] blocks your escape. |

| |(east) The door leading inside is closed. |

| | |

| | |

| |(? Uncertain OBJ, perhaps “In Dome” or “Skyscraper Roof”) |

| |It’s made of concrete. |

| |It’s made of tiny, tarry cinders. |

|Inside Dome |(examine tree) It's a small peach tree planted in a very large tub of earth. It appears healthy, although as it is |

|You are inside a large domed area. The dome contains equipment that makes it clear it is a weather observation |wintertime, the tree has no leaves. |

|station. For some reason, it also contains a small peach tree. Wind whistles outside, and snow blasts against the |(feel tree) It feels like wood, but there is something slippery on it higher up. |

|semitransparent material of the dome. |(cut tree with axe) At the last second, you realize it would be an unspeakable act of vandalism. |

|EQUIPMENT |(shake tree) You shake it, but nothing drops. Its branches are bare. |

|PEACH TREE |(climb tree) You start to climb the tree, but as you get partway up, your hands encounter a slippery substance which |

|TUB OF DIRT [HUMAN HAND] |covers the limbs at this height. Not only is it extremely unpleasant to touch, it makes the tree too slippery to climb |

|[DARK SHAPE] (A dark shape watches balefully from nearby.) |any further. |

|[CREATURE] |(examine tub) The tub is full of dirt and "condo chips" (those pine bark chips that are spread around condos and |

| |shopping centers by the ton). The dirt has been disturbed recently. |

| |(search tub) You root around in the dirt for a while, when you encounter something hard. Further exploration reveals it|

| |to be a dried, chewed looking human hand. |

| |(search tub2) You find nothing further, which is something of a relief. |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| |(if have smooth stone in inventory) |

| |Something smashes against the glass of the dome! You turn and see a dark shape clinging to the outside of the |

| |structure. |

| |The dark shape moves. Above the howl of the wind you hear a high-pitched keening noise. |

| |The shape drops out of view. |

| |You hear, on the ladder outside, hard claws painfully climbing towards the dome entrance. |

| |The creature enters the dome, screaming viciously at you, its claws reaching out to grasp and rend. |

| | |

| |(examine dark shape) You can’t tell much from here. It's large and dark, but the dome obscures all detail. |

| |(throw stone at) The stone crashes against the wall of the dome. The shape screams, a hissing fit of anger and |

| |frustration. |

| |(take stone after throw) The noisome creature jabs at you with its razor beak, but appears unwilling to approach the |

| |stone. |

| | |

| |(examine creature) Like a black sheet flapping in the wind, the dark flier is hard to see. Red eyes glow like coals on |

| |its scaly, bullet-shaped head. Human-like hands clench and unclench. Sharp needles of teeth project wickedly from its |

| |twisted jaw. |

| |(smell) Its stench is that of a foul eater of carrion, overlaid with another smell you can't place, but which is even |

| |less appetizing. |

| |(listen to) At the moment, the creature is as quiet as a graveyard. |

| |(throw stone at) The stone hits the dark beast, and appears to go completely through it as though the creature was made|

| |of air. [The stone tumbles onto the floor. The creature, hissing vilely, retreats.]/[The smooth stone disappears over |

| |the south edge of the building, and the creature (follows it, screaming frustration into the storm.)/(watches it fall |

| |with cunning attention.)] |

| |(throw OBJ at) The creature darts to the side, dodging OBJ. |

| |(attack) Hissing and screeching, the creature fends off your attack. Its head jerks from side to side, watching you. |

| |(give hand to) In a snake-like strike, the creature attacks! Its toothy jaws close on your hand! Not your hand, but the|

| |mummified hand you dug out of the tub! With a disgusting gobbling noise, the flier swallows the hand, and then, (its |

| |wings beating feebly against the wind, it sails away into the gale.)/(using its wings to push itself away, it scuttles |

| |out into the cold and away.) |

| |(?) The shape becomes agitated, screeching and cawing as it approaches the stone. |

| |(?) …get close enough. |

| | |

| |(down) The creature is blocking your exit. |

| | |

| |(examine creature) The creature has disappeared as though it never was. |

|Computer Center | |

|This is the lobby of the Computer Center. An elevator and call buttons are to the south. Stairs also lead up and | |

|down, for the energetic. To the north is Smith Street. |(open doors) |

| | |

|URCHIN (Slouching nearby is an urchin.) [MOVES AROUND] | |

|[BOLT CUTTER] | |

|Elevator |(examine panel) This panel presumably opens to access the inner maintenance controls of the elevator. |

|This is a battered, rather dirty elevator. The fake wood walls are scratched and marred with graffiti. The elevator|(open) Opening the access panel reveals a flashlight. |

|doors are open/closed. To the right of the doors is an area with floor buttons (B and 1 through 3), an open button,|(examine panel) The panel conceals a small space which probably contained maintenance controls for the elevator once, |

|a close button, a stop switch, and an alarm button. Below these is an access panel which is closed/open. |but these have been torn out by someone, leaving a bare metal cavity. The access panel is empty. |

| | |

|FLOOR BUTTON |(open doors) The doors spring open. |

|B BUTTON |(open doors, again) The doors stay open. |

|1 BUTTON | |

|2 BUTTON |(press alarm) For as long as you hold the button down, an ear-splitting alarm bell rings. |

|3 BUTTON | |

|OPEN BUTTON |(read graffiti) |

|CLOSE BUTTON |Kilroy was here. |

|STOP SWITCH |Tech is hell. |

|ALARM BUTTON |I.H.T.F.P. |

|ACCESS PANEL |'God is dead' --Nietzsche |

|[FLASHLIGHT] |'Nietzsche is dead' –God |

|GRAFFITI | |

| |(misc unassigned elevator text) |

| |The butting is glowing. |

| |You push the button. |

| |The door is already closed. |

| |…moving, the door is closed. |

| |There are only three floors and a basement in this building. |

| |The button doesn’t light. |

| |The button for the |

| |The elevator doors bounce against, , trying to close. |

| |The noise stops. |

| |…in the hole stops. |

| |The elevator slows and comes to a stop. The button for the blinks off. |

| |You no longer… |

| |…is moving away from you. |

| |…is moving closer to you. [In fact, it’s very close. It must be just above your head]. |

| |…from the hole is getting… |

| |The elevator continues to move… |

| |From [the pit] below, you hear a… |

| |You flip the switch, but… |

| |There is an elevator there, unsurprisingly. |

| |You'll have to press one of the call buttons (up or down). |

| |The elevator doors are closed. |

| |The elevator doors are opened. |

| |The elevator doors are wedged open with , revealing [the elevator] / [a dim elevator shaft] beyond. |

| |You (take)/(pull) away, and the doors spring shut. |

| |It’s already wedged open with |

| |Not while the elevator is moving! |

| |You are looking at the inside of an [open] elevator door. [It’s held open by .] |

| |The elevator usually does that itself. |

| |You can see the basement of the Computer Center. |

| |You can see the elevator shaft. |

| | is already holding it open. |

| |…until it’s open. |

| |It’s not easy. |

| |You are in the elevator… |

| |…, so the doors will open when you press… |

| |…a call button. |

| |…the basement. |

| |…, revealing the basement of the Computer Center. |

| |…, revealing a lobby. |

| |…, revealing a corridor. |

| |…, revealing a dark elevator shaft. |

| |The whining noise… |

| |The elevator is… |

| |softer / louder |

| |You hear the elevator moving. |

| |You release the… |

| |Holding the doors open is all you can do. |

| |…the interior of the elevator. |

| |That button is already glowing. |

| |…into the elevator shaft. |

| |The elevator is still moving. |

| |The doors shut as soon as you release them… |

|Smith Street (west) |(west) Impenetrable snowdrifts block the street. |

|Smith Street runs east and west along the north side of the main campus area. At the moment, it is an arctic |(south) You push your way into the welcoming warmth inside. |

|wasteland of howling wind and drifting snow. On the other side of the street, barely visible, are the lidless eyes | |

|of streetlights. The street hasn't been plowed, or if it has been, it did no good. |(outdoor emit) |

| |Bitter, bone-cracking cold assaults you continuously. The temperature and the blizzard conditions are both horrible. |

| |You can feel the cold worming its way through your layers of clothing and biting into your flesh. |

| |You can no longer feel the tips of your fingers. As for your toes, they have long since ceased to report. |

| |Your eyes are icing up. |

| |Each breath you take is like swallowing knives. |

| |You are suffused with a warm, blissful numbness. It is marred only by the knowledge that before you wake again, you |

| |will die. |

| |(examine snow) It's still coming down. [You are inside.] |

|Smith Street (east) |(east) Impenetrable snow drifts block the street. |

|Smith Street runs west towards the computer center here. To the south is a dilapidated grey wooden building. The |(south) You push your way into the comparative warmth of a laboratory. |

|street is an impassable sea of blowing and drifting snow. | |

|Temporary Lab | |

|This is a laboratory of some sort. It takes up most of the building on this level, all the interior walls having | |

|been knocked down. (One reason these temporary buildings are still here is their flexibility: no one cares if they | |

|get more or less destroyed.) A stairway leads down, and a door leads north. | |

|METAL FLASK | |

|Second Floor |(press arrow) The down/up-arrow begins to glow. |

|This is the second floor of the Computer Center. An elevator and a call button are on the south side of the |You hear the elevator begin moving. |

|hallway. A large, noisy room is to the north. Stairs also lead up and down, for the energetic. To the west a |The down/up-arrow blinks off. |

|corridor leads into a smaller room. |The elevator doors slide open. |

| |(wait) The elevator doors slide closed. |

|DOWN-ARROW | |

|UP-ARROW | |

|ELEVATOR | |

|ELEVATOR DOORS |(examine doors) The elevator doors are closed. |

|ELEVATOR SHAFT |(open doors) You force the doors apart with your hands, barely able to hold them open. Beyond you see the elevator |

|TANGLE OF MACHINERY |shaft. |

| |[THIRD/FIRST FLOOR] In the elevator shaft a tangle of machinery is visible. The machinery has that malevolent |

| |mechanical appearance that means danger. |

| |[SECOND FLOOR] In the elevator shaft a tangle of machinery is visible. One bit of the tangle is very much like a hook[,|

| |and indeed, a chain is hanging from it][ (. You are holding the other end of the chain)/( . The other end of the chain |

| |is [(on the floor)/(in OBJ)/(dangling in the shaft below)].)] |

| |[BASEMENT] Beyond you see the bottom of the elevator shaft only a few feet below. |

| |(close doors) You release the doors, which spring shut. |

| |(wedge doors with plastic container) You force the doors apart with OBJ, revealing a dark elevator shaft. The plastic |

| |container holds the doors open for a moment, and then is crushed by the force. [The contents of the container spill to |

| |the ground.] |

| |(wedge doors with crowbar, axe, etc) You force the doors apart with OBJ, revealing a dark elevator shaft. The OBJ |

| |wedges nicely between the doors, holding them securely open. [The dark shaft opens like a waiting mouth.] |

| |(Look through doors) They're closed, opaque, and otherwise non-transparent. |

| | |

| |(open doors, from within elevator) |

| |You force the plates apart with your hands, barely able to hold them open. Beyond you see [LOCATION]. |

| | |

| | |

| |(examine shaft) |

| |[REGULAR FLOOR] The dark, grimy elevator shaft extends up into dimness and down into a dark pit below. |

| |[FLOOR BELOW ELEVATOR] The dark, grimy elevator shaft extends up into dimness and down to a tangle of dangerous-looking|

| |lifting machinery at about floor level. |

| |[BASEMENT] The dark, grimy elevator shaft extends up into dimness and down to a concrete-lined pit below. |

| |(enter shaft) It's a long way down. |

| | |

| |(unassigned text) |

| |You would fall onto the machinery. Not a pretty fate. |

| |A tangle of machinery blocks your way. |

| |It’s too tight a fit carrying… |

| |Gone. |

|Kitchen |(examine counter) On the kitchen counter is X. |

|This is a filthy kitchen. The exit is to the east. On the wall near a counter are a refrigerator and a microwave. | |

| |(examine fridge) This is a medium-sized refrigerator whose door is open/closed. There is a sign on the front. |

|FUNNY BONES (Sitting on the kitchen counter is a package of Funny Bones.) |(open fridge) Opening the refrigerator reveals a two liter bottle of Classic Coke and a cardboard carton. |

|KITCHEN COUNTER |(look inside fridge) The interior of the refrigerator is appalling. There are soggy lunch bags, ancient sandwiches and |

|REFRIGERATOR |other less identifiable items. More appetizingly, you see a two liter bottle of Classic Coke and a cardboard carton. |

|SIGN | |

|[TWO LITER BOTTLE OF CLASSIC COKE] |(examine sign) "Everything in this fridge must have a name and date on it!" (The sign has neither.) |

|[CARDBOARD CARTON] | |

|MICROWAVE OVEN |(examine microwave) The microwave oven hangs over the kitchen counter. It has more complicated controls than your pc. |

|MICROWAVE CONTROLS |There is an LED readout above the controls. The microwave is off/on and it’s closed. |

|DISPLAY |(unplug microwave) You can’t get to the plug. |

| |(open while running) The microwave oven shuts off, and is now open. |

| | |

| |(examine controls) There are controls labeled 0 to 9, WM, LO, MED, HI, START, CLEAR, and STOP. |

| |(examine display) The display is currently displaying (the current time)/(X:XX) and the word “(off)/(warm)/.” |

| | |

| |(press #) The timer display now reads X:XX. |

| |(press WM) The bottom of the display now reads “warm.” |

| |(press LO) The bottom of the display now reads “low.” |

| |(press MED) The bottom of the display now reads “medium.” |

| |(press HI) The bottom of the display now reads “high.” |

| |(press START) Nothing happens, as there's a safety interlock engaged when the door is open. |

| |(press START) Nothing happens, as no time set on it yet. |

| |(press START) It's already started. |

| |(press START) The microwave starts up. The timer begins counting down. |

| |(press CLEAR) The timer clears to zero. |

| |(press STOP) It’s already off. |

| |(press STOP) The microwave stops. The bottom of the display now reads “off.” |

| |(if human hand within) The hand scrabbles frantically around inside, and then at last lies still. |

| |(?) Why don't you try setting the timer to that? |

| |(?) … set it for that long a time. |

| |(?) … on the control panel! |

|Terminal Room | |

|This is a large room crammed with computer terminals, small computers, and printers. An exit leads south. Banners, | |

|posters, and signs festoon the walls. Most of the tables are covered with waste paper, old pizza boxes, and empty | |

|Coke cans. There are usually a lot of people here, but tonight it's almost deserted. | |

| | |

|PC (A really whiz-bang pc is right inside the door.) | |

|CHAIR (Nearby is one of those ugly molded plastic chairs.) | |

|HACKER (Sitting at a terminal is a hacker whom you recognize.) | |

| | |

| | |

|Third Floor |(north) There is a glass wall in the way. |

|This is the third floor of the Computer Center. An elevator and a call button are on the south side of the hallway.|(up) You push through the door to the roof. You enter the freezing, biting cold of the blizzard. |

|Stairs also lead down, for the energetic. To the north is a glass wall beyond which you can see a computer room | |

|crammed with computer equipment. A stairway leads up. |(open doors) You force the doors apart with your hands, barely able to hold them open. Beyond you see the elevator |

| |shaft. The dark shaft opens like a waiting mouth. |

|Roof | |

|This is the roof of the Computer Center. A door leads to the stairway. The roof is covered with tarred pea gravel | |

|and drifted snow. The wind howls around your ears. To the south and southeast you can dimly see the looming shapes | |

|of the Great Dome and the Brown Building. | |

|DREAM: Place |(wait) From below, a low noise begins, and slowly builds. You feel yourself drawn downward by the noise. |

|This is a place. Things move about on a broken, rocky surface. Harsh sounds split the air. Something sticky grabs | |

|at your feet. There is no color, everything is drained of brightness, dull and lifeless. A path descends into a | |

|shallow bowl of black basalt. | |

|DREAM: Basalt Bowl |(wait) The crowd around you begins to sway and groan. They are expecting something. You are drawn forward by the noise.|

|You are at the bottom of a deeply cut, smooth basalt bowl. Dimly seen shapes crowd you on all sides. Ahead, in the | |

|focus of the movement, is a rock platform. | |

|DREAM: At Platform |(up) You are prevented, as the crowd holds you back. |

|You stand before a low rock platform, more like an afterthought of piled rocks or a glacial moraine than a work of |(other DIRECTION) The crowding is such that you can barely move, much less walk. |

|artifice. You are pushed against the pile by the crowd around you. |(listen) It sounds like supplication. |

|SMOOTH STONE (One small stone stands out in the pile, smooth, shiny, and glowing with a blazing light.) | |

|PLATFORM |(examine platform) The platform is made of the same rocks as the surrounding terrain. In fact, you can't tell whether |

|THING |it is natural or constructed. |

| | |

| |(take stone) Suddenly, the dimness becomes darkness, and the crowd around you explodes with excitement. You are jostled|

| |and shoved from all sides. A low keening begins, building into a deafening, almost mechanical chant. The darkness |

| |before you compacts and deepens. |

| |(wait) The darkness before you, now visible, is a creature. It towers over the now-silent crowd. The thing jerks this |

| |way and that, spraying a foul ichor. Its palps twitch expectantly, then pound impatiently against the rock. You can |

| |feel the smooth stone vibrating in your hand. |

| |(wait) The thing now turns, sensing the presence of the stone. It quests almost blindly for it, then those surrounding |

| |you thrust you forward. The thing stoops, its mandibles grasping you. You are lifted towards its gaping maw. The stench|

| |and the sounds issuing from it are overwhelming, and you fall unconscious. |

| |You are awakened by the thump of your head hitting the terminal in front of you. Falling asleep over term papers! It |

| |must have been a nightmare. Embarrassed, you glance around. Yes, the hacker is looking in your direction. He must have |

| |heard the thump. (RETURN TO TERMINAL) |

| | |

| |(examine thing) |

| |You see a visible darkness, in a shape not easily grasped. |

| |It is large, smooth and yet scaly. It has too many limbs, and they are not in the right places. To look at it gives you|

| |a headache. |

| |(smell thing) The thing gives off a charnel stench. |

| |(thing, hello) There is no response. You are not even sure that you produced any sound when you spoke. |

|Cinderblock Tunnel |(up) The trapdoor isn’t open. |

|This is a tunnel whose walls are cinderblock, with a concrete floor and ceiling. A metal ladder leads up to a |(up, without light on) One should never assume the dark is safe. Something just grabbed you from behind and dragged you|

|closed/open metal plate in the ceiling, and the tunnel continues north, where the cinderblock walls become brick. |off to its lair. |

|METAL PLATE | |

|LADDER |(examine plate) It looks like a metal plate in the ceiling. |

| |(open/push plate) It lifts a few inches, but then hits something and goes no further. |

| |(open/push plate) It pushes open easily. |

| |(look in plate) Pushing the plate up as far as you can, you can see part of a workroom or lab of some kind. |

| |(look in plate) You see a laboratory. |

|Brick Tunnel |(examine manhole) It's a manhole. |

|This is an ancient tunnel constructed of roughly mortared bricks and stones. A slippery and almost invisible set |(look in hole) You can't see much. |

|of handholds leads up. The tunnel continues a long way north and south from here. | |

| | |

|MANHOLE | |

|Renovated Cave |(examine slab) The slab is roughly circular, made of indifferently dressed New England granite, and about three feet |

|You are in a huge, cave-like construction. A path leads down to a floor partly covered with rough concrete. The |high. |

|walls and ceiling are high and reinforced with beams of wood, iron, and steel. In the center of the floor you can |(read slab) You aren't close enough. |

|see a large, flat slab of granite. The only exit is behind you to the south. | |

|SLAB OF GRANITE |(emit while panel open) You can still hear faint groans and snarls from the larger cave. |

|Before the Altar |(examine slab) The slab is roughly circular, made of indifferently dressed New England granite, and about three feet |

|You are at the bottom of the cave. The huge slab of granite, in the center is a sort of altar. It is carved with |high. It is carved all over with odd glyphs, symbols, and strange animal (or part-animal?) figures. The top is covered |

|strange and disturbing symbols, the largest of which looks very familiar. Some of the symbols are obscured by rusty|with a brown stain shading to red at the edges. |

|red stains. Nearby is an iron plate set in the concrete of the floor. |(touch/push slab) An inexplicable revulsion prevents you from touching it. |

|SLAB OF GRANITE |(?) …slab warily. It is disquieting to look at. |

|IRON PLATE | |

|INCISED SYMBOL |(examine symbol) The symbol appears to be the oldest thing carved on the altar. It is beautifully incised in the rocks.|

|CARVINGS |Its age is apparent from its wear and the overlay of newer carvings and scratchings over it. |

|KNIFE (Lying to one side of the altar stone is a sharp, thin-bladed knife.) | |

| |(examine carvings) The carvings are in a variety of styles. Some are almost like graffiti, and have carved dates as |

| |early as 1655 and as recent as last year. Some are creatures, or people, or combinations of the two. Some are obscene, |

| |or revolting, or just indescribable. One is a strange incised symbol. Most are at least partly spotted with brown |

| |stains. |

| |(touch carvings) An inexplicable revulsion prevents you from touching it. |

| | |

| |(examine plate) The plate is iron, about two feet square, and [looks like it could be slid] open. A curious feature of |

| |the plate is that it has upward projecting dents in it which appear to have been punched from below. |

| |(life plate) It doesn't lift, it slides. |

| |(open plate) You slide open the panel, revealing a dark pit below. Immediately, there is a response from below. |

| |(close plate) You close the panel. You no longer hear the noises, much to your relief. |

| |(look in plate) You peer through the hole, shining your light into the stygian darkness below. The commotion below is |

| |growing louder, and suddenly you catch a glimpse of things moving in the pit. Without consciously realizing you have |

| |done it, you slam the panel shut, reeling away from the source of such images. Now you know what has been done with the|

| |missing students. |

| |(open plate) You would sooner die than open that panel again. |

| |(listen plate, while closed) You hear very faint noises through the closed panel. |

| |(listen plate, while open) Disturbing noises issue from the open panel. |

| |(drop OBJ in panel) The sounds from below increase in intensity. |

| |(drop FOOD in panel) Sounds of ghoulish excitement issue from the opening. |

| | |

| |(emit while plate open) A low, guttural, groaning and snarling issues from the opening. |

| | |

| |(search for students) You no longer need to look for them. You now understand the stains on the altar. |

| |(?) You're joking. |

|Ancient Storage |(down) There is a steel cover on the manhole. |

|What's deader than dead storage? That's what's in this room. Most of the contents have collapsed or rusted back to |(down) You push your way through cobwebs, damp fungus, and other obstructions. |

|the primordial ooze. There is mold growing on some of the unidentifiable piles. Stagnant puddles of water pollute | |

|the floor. You can now believe how old some of these foundations are said to be. |(examine manhole) It's a steel ring set in the floor. It's probably a manhole. |

|MANHOLE (There is a closed, disused-looking manhole here. / There is an open manhole here.) |(examine manhole) It's very dark inside, but you can see that crude brick handholds provide a slippery path down. Cool |

|MANHOLE COVER (In one corner of the room a manhole cover is partly buried in the dirt and crud.) |air rises out of the hole. |

|POOL |(open manhole) The only way would seem to be to remove the manhole cover. |

| |(look in hole) You see only the cover. |

| |(look in hole) You can see a dark, grimy tunnel below. |

| |(drop in hole) The manhole is covered right now. |

| |(drop in hole) You drop OBJ, and it hits the ground not far below. |

| |(examine cover) It's an old, rusty, steel manhole cover set in a steel ring embedded in the floor. |

| |(move cover) It doesn't budge. |

| |(take cover) You can’t get a good grip on it; it; it's heavy and in a steel ring; impossible to (just drag it |

| |away)/(push it off). |

| |(push cover) It's sitting inside a steel ring, so pushing it does nothing. |

| |(move cover with crowbar) You lever the manhole cover aside, and crusted dirt falls into a dark, partly obstructed hole|

| |below. |

| | |

| |(examine pool) It's a pool of rather yucky water. |

| | |

| | |

| |[FLOOR/CEILING for manhole and cover] |

| |(?) You manage to shove the manhole cover back over the hole. |

| |(?) An interesting idea, but how? |

| |(?) You move it a little way, but it’s very heavy. |

| |(?) The cover is heavy. |

| |(?) Your won’t thank you for this. |

| |(?) …manhole cover blocking your way. |

|Dead Storage |(east) You climb around on the junk for a while, and you get the impression that there is an opening 'way on the east |

|This is a storage room. It contains an incredible assemblage of discarded junk. Some of it is so old and mouldering|wall, but there is so much stuff in the way that you can't get to it. |

|that you can't be sure where one bit of junk stops and the next begins. It's piled to the ceiling on ancient, |(east) There is still no path all the way through the junk, but you can now tell for sure that there's a room to the |

|rotting pallets(; you can't even see the east wall.)/(. A narrow path winds eastward through the junk.) |east. |

|JUNK |(east, on forklift) There is no path through the junk for you, much less for a forklift. |

| |(east, on forklift) You’ll have to move some more junk first, I'm afraid. |

| | |

| |(examine junk) Looking more closely only emphasizes how completely entropy has taken over this room. |

| |(move junk) You have obviously underestimated the amount of junk in here. It's not only voluminous, it's heavy. |

| |(search junk) You find many worthless items of hardware, old discarded memos and papers, but nothing of any use or |

| |value. |

| |(move junk, forklift1) You have a little trouble using the forklift, but it's not really all that hard. You start |

| |clearing junk, moving it around and trying to create a passage. |

| |(move junk, forklift2,3) You continue moving junk, becoming more proficient with the forklift. |

| |(move junk forklift4) You've built a fairly narrow (about one forklift wide) path through the junk. You can see an |

| |opening into a further storage room beyond this one. |

| |(move junk, forklift5) I suppose you're planning to clear the entire room? You've made a nice path to the next room |

| |already. |

|Temporary Basement | |

|During the Second World War, some temporary buildings were built to house war-related research. Naturally, these | |

|buildings, though flimsy and ugly, are still around. This is the basement of one of them. The basement extends | |

|west, a stairway leads up, and a large passage is to the east. | |

|PAIR OF ELECTRICIAN’S GLOVES | |

|CROWBAR | |

|Basement |(examine cable) From floor to ceiling run wire channels and steam pipes. |

|Bare concrete walls line a wide corridor leading east and west. An elevator and call button are to the south. |(climb cable) You leap, grab the damp and moldy bundle of cable, and hang suspended off the floor. |

|Stairs also lead up, for the energetic. From floor to ceiling run wire channels and steam pipes. |(wait) Your grip on the cable, never too secure, loosens [fatally as an Einstein among rats, who was crawling along the|

|COAXIAL CABLE |cable itself, bites your fingers] (, and you drop to the floor.)/ (You fall, landing among the delighted rats.) [They |

|STEAM PIPES |swarm over you, a small army of furry bodies, and you are consumed in short order.] |

|[HOOK] |(cut able with OTHER) You can’t expect to cut cable with OBJ. |

|[TANGLE OF MACHINERY] | |

| | |

| |(open doors) You force the doors apart with your hands, barely able to hold them open. Beyond you see the bottom of the|

| |elevator shaft only a few feet below. In the elevator shaft a tangle of machinery is visible. One bit of the tangle is |

| |very much like a hook. |

| | |

| |(down) You drop to the floor below, which isn't all that far down. |

| | |

| |(examine tangle of machinery) The tangle of machinery is most notable for a metal hook [with a chain hanging on it]. |

| |(?) Only the hook seems capable of such a use, so you try that. |

| |(?) …just above the ceiling level… |

| |(?) …includes a hook-like protrusion just inside the door. [A greasy chain is hooked onto the protrusion, (terminating |

| |in your hands)/(dropping into the pit).] |

| | |

| |(examine hook) The hook is actually a very strong looking welded protrusion on the bottom of the elevator, but it is |

| |hook-like. [One end of a chain is hooked onto it, in fact.] |

| | |

| |(put chain on hook) You hook the chain to the hook, where it looks quite secure. |

| |(pull chain) It's pretty securely hooked. In fact, it feels pretty secure all around. |

| |(unhook chain) You remove the chain from the hook. |

| | |

| |(?) A greasy chain descends out of the shaft into a pile at your feet. |

|Aero Basement | |

|This basement level room is made of smooth, damp-seeming concrete. Fluorescent lights cast harsh shadows. To the | |

|west is a stairway, and to the east the basement area continues. | |

|FORKLIFT | |

|Stairway | |

|A dimly lit stairway leads up and down from here. A corridor continues east. | |

|Subbasement | |

|This is the subbasement of the Aeronautical Engineering Building. A stairway leads up. A narrow crack in the | |

|northwest corner of the room opens into a larger space. | |

|Tomb |(read graffiti) It reads "The Tomb of the Unknown Tool." |

|This is a tiny, narrow, ill-fitting room. It appears to have been a left over space from the joining of two | |

|preexisting buildings. It is roughly coffin shaped. The walls are covered by decades of overlaid graffiti, but |(examine hatch) The hatch is made of stamped, ridged steel. It was originally painted institutional grey, but has been |

|there is one which is painted in huge fluorescent letters that were apparently impossible for later artists to |the victim of innumerable graffiti artists since. You can still make out the stencilled warning "Authorized personnel |

|completely deface. On the floor is a rusty access hatch (locked with a huge padlock)/(which is open). |only" which has been carefully prefixed by "UN," and suffixed by "This means you!" both in a disgusting fiery red. The |

|HATCH |hatch is (locked with a padlock)/(unlocked). |

|PADLOCK |(open hatch) The padlock locks the hatch in place. |

|GRAFFITI |(open hatch) The hatch is heavy, and its hinges are rusty, but you pull and strain and it opens with a scream of metal.|

|[LADDER] |Revealed below is a rusty ladder leading down. Warm, fetid air coils up out of the hole. There is a burned out (no, |

| |smashed) utility light set in the wall a few feet down. |

| |(lock hatch with padlock) Locked up safe and secure! |

| |(look in hatch) You see a dark hole leading down. |

| |(?)n oddly shaped small room. |

| | |

| |(examine ladder) It's a rusty ladder made of welded iron set in the wall. |

|Steam Tunnel (1-east) |(east) The tunnel ends here, in a dank, dripping brick wall. |

|The steam pipe and coaxial cable turn upwards and disappear into the ceiling here. The tunnel itself comes to an |(south) You are trying to walk through a brick wall. |

|end in a grimy, damp, and dripping triad of crumbling brick walls. [The south wall looks particularly decrepit.] | |

|BRICK WALL |(feel wall) The wall is slimy, dank, and damp. [You feel a weak current of cool air coming from between some of the |

|[BROKEN BRICK] |bricks.] |

|[NEW BRICK] |(listen to) , and you can hear mechanical noises on the other side. |

|[HOLE] (The southern brick wall has a hole in it. [There is a vertical reinforcing rod visible in the middle of the|(examine wall1) The brick wall is in terrible shape. It's aged and crumbling, with grooves between bricks where the |

|hole.]) |mortar has fallen out. |

|[REINFORCING ROD] |(examine wall2) (?)loose brick in the wall, but you can't remove it with your hands. |

| |(examine wall3) The brick wall has a brick-size hole in it where a brick was removed. You can see a new-looking brick |

| |in the hole. The rest of the wall is in pretty bad shape. |

|[HOLE] The southern brick wall has an enormous hole ripped in it. |(examine wall4) |

| |(attack wall) It doesn't do much but loosen a brick in the wall. |

| |(attack wall, after taking brick) It doesn’t do much. |

| |(examine wall after destruction) The brick wall is demolished. There is now a large hole leading south into another |

| |room. |

| | |

| |(examine broken brick) It's a crumbling, broken brick. Little bits of mortar still cling to it. |

| |(take brick) You can’t get a good grip on the broken brick with your fingers. |

| |(?) Though there are loose bricks, they aren't loose enough for you to just pry them out with your fingers. |

| |(?) There aren't any more loose bricks. |

| |(pry brick with crowbar) The wall grudgingly yields to your efforts. A brick, less well mortared than its fellows, |

| |pulls out of the wall. |

| |(pry brick with crowbar, again) You already pried that brick loose, maybe you should attack the wall again. |

| | |

| |(examine new brick) It's a new brick. It appears to be of relatively recent vintage. |

| |(take brick) You can’t get a good grip on the new brick with your fingers. |

| |(pry brick with crowbar) The wall grudgingly yields to your efforts. A brick, less well mortared than its fellows, |

| |drops to the floor on the other side, making a hole through the wall. You can see a rusty steel reinforcing rod in the|

| |hole. |

| | |

| |(examine hole) There is a small hole in the wall where a brick was removed. |

| |(look in hole) You see another loose brick inside the hole. |

| |(examine hole2) There is a large hole here, with a reinforcing rod running through it. |

| |(look in hole2) There is an open space, a small room containing some machinery. You can't see too well, though. |

| |(enter hole) The hole is the size of a brick. You are somewhat larger. |

| |(reach in hole) You reach in and touch the reinforcing rod. |

| |(put brick in hole) You put the broken brick in the hole, but it doesn't fit very tightly any more, so it falls out |

| |again and drops to the floor. |

| |(put OTHER in hole) You put the OBJ in the hole, but as the hole is irregular, it falls out again and drops to the |

| |floor. |

| |(?) You hear a whining noise through the hole. |

| |(?) through it where bricks have been pried out. A steel rod is visible |

| |(?) comes loose and drops to the ground |

| | |

| |(examine reinforcing rod) It's rusty, obviously didn't help the wall all that much, and runs up and down through the |

| |hole you have made. [There is a length of greasy chain wrapped around it.] |

| | |

| |(follow cable) It runs down from the ceiling and off to the west. |

|Concrete Box |(up) You climb up the gritty wall and out into the basement. |

|This small room is pretty bare and featureless. The north wall is brick and the other three walls are concrete. The|(up, if rats) You leap up the wall towards the basement, but the rats are faster! They bite your fingers[, and you |

|east and west walls are adorned with rails not unlike railroad rails. Above you (and out of reach, the shaft is |release your hold, tumbling back to the pit!] |

|blocked by something.)/( is an empty shaft. On the north side of the shaft is an [elevator door wedged open by |(up, if doors closed) There is no apparent way through the closed elevator doors. |

|OBJ]/[elevator door which you are holding open].) |(up, if holding doors) You try to climb up while holding the doors open, but it's just outside the realm of |

| |possibility. |

|BRICK WALL | |

|RAILS |(examine brick wall) |

|[HOLE] (The brick wall has a hole in it. There is a vertical reinforcing rod visible in the middle of the hole. [A |The brick wall is in pretty good shape. It's relatively new, and you can only see one or two loose-looking bricks. |

|chain is looped around the rod.] [A padlock secures the chain.] |There is some sort of tunnel. You can’t see too wall, though. |

|GREASY CHAIN (There is [one end of] a greasy length of chain [coiled] on the floor here.) |You see and dark and grimy tunnel leading west. |

|REINFORCING ROD | |

| |(listen to wall) You place your ear to the wall, slimy and dank as it is, and hear nothing. However, you feel a weak |

|[HOLE] The brick wall has an enormous hole ripped in it. |current of cool air coming from between some of the bricks. |

| |(?) The hole is already quite large, and further demolition would have to involve structural supports. |

| |(?) small rectangular room on the other side of the wall. |

| |(?) You aren't strong enough to pull down a brick wall. |

| |(?) There don't seem to be any more bricks as loose as the first two. |

| |(?) There is a huge hole here, where the wall has collapsed. |

| |(?) The hole that's there now is big enough for you to walk through. Hence, no such luck. |

| |(?) Plenty of room there. |

| |(?) When you reach in you get the impression there is some metal in the hole. |

| |(?) There is cool air flowing out of the hole… |

| |(?) The cracks and crumbled mortar only go partway through. |

| |(?) a new-looking / pretty bad / an older, crumbly / okay |

| |(?) You hear the chittering of rats. |

| | |

| | |

| |(take brick) You can’t get a good grip on the new brick with your fingers. |

| |[CAN DO ALL PRYING HERE…] |

| | |

| |(examine after destruction) The brick wall is quite ruined. Fortunately it wasn't structural. There are big chunks of |

| |brick and concrete all over the floor here. |

| | |

| |(tie chain to rod) You wrap the chain around the rod, but find it too thick to actually tie it. |

| |(lock chain with padlock) You lock the chain with the padlock. It now forms a secure loop around the rod. |

| |(pull chain, with padlock) You pull as hard as you can, but you can't pull the rod |

| |out. In fact, it feels pretty secure all around. |

| |(pull chain, without padlock) It clatters along the rod and then falls off. |

| | |

| |(trying to leave basement with chain attached to rod) You reach the end of your chain pretty quickly. |

| | |

| |(other unassigned padlock/rod/chain emits) |

| |(?) is already locked to . |

| |(?) can’t lock onto . |

| |(?) …isn’t that broken. |

| |The hasp of the padlock won't fit around the rod. |

| |You don't seem to have anything to lock it with. |

| |It's pretty solidly mortared in. |

| |…and disappears up into the shaft [and trails down onto the floor]. |

| |(?) The chain is locked with a padlock. |

| |…and it disappears up… … and it’s… |

| |(unhook)/(unlock)/(unwrap) it first. |

| |The chain is too greasy to climb[, even wearing the gloves]. |

| |That’s pretty pointless, as the chain isn’t currently securing anything. |

| |…attached the ends of the chain to the hook at the rod. |

| |…retrieve one first. |

| |There isn’t enough extra chain to reach that far. |

| |A few feet hangs on one side of the rod, and the rest curves up from the rod towards the floor of the elevator. |

| |…wrapped the chain around the rod. |

| |You stretch out towards the hook, find the whole chain is just too much weight, and put most of it on the floor. Much |

| |easier! |

| |One end of the chain is all that will fit. |

| |The chain won’t attach to . |

| |…and it dangles in the elevator shaft. |

| |…and it’s hooked to the hook. |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| |RELATED TO ELEVATOR (if moving) |

| |A loud mechanical whining begins above you. |

| |A loud mechanical whining is audible through the hole. |

| |The elevator begins to move (upward)/(downward). |

| |You see an elevator shaft. |

| |You hear the whine of powerful machinery. |

| | |

| |(if in box when moving down) The machinery stops. Unfortunately, before doing so it squashed you into the concrete |

| |floor. Yuck! |

| | |

| |(if chain padlocked to rod and hooked to hook, and press up arrow on elevator) |

| |From below you hear tearing, rending sound, then a rumbling crash. |

| |(if in concrete room when the above happens) The length of chain grows taut, pulling at the rod. Suddenly, the bricks |

| |give up, and a steel reinforcing rod pulls free of the shattered wall. It flies across the room, impaling you with |

| |uncanny precision. |

| |(?) …metallic sliding sound, then silence. |

| |(if chain not padlocked) The chain slides off the rod and away into the air. |

| |(if holding chain) Suddenly, the chain is torn from your grasp! |

|Steam Tunnel (2) |(follow cable) It runs east and west along the ceiling. |

|The steam tunnel is narrow here, and its construction is more archaic. It's now mostly brick, although the floor is| |

|concrete. The steam pipe and coaxial cable continue along their appointed paths. The tunnel is damp and even a | |

|little muddy. | |

|STEAM PIPES | |

|COAXIAL CABLE | |

|Steam Tunnel (3) |(examine valve) It looks pretty rusty, but appears to be in working order. (It’s closed) / (It seems to be partly |

|This dank and grimy tunnel is largely filled with an imperfectly insulated steam pipe. The tunnel is uncomfortably |open.). |

|hot and damp. A thick bundle of coaxial cable runs east to west along the ceiling. There is a pressure release |(open valve) It's too rusty. You pull and strain, but nothing happens. |

|valve on the steam pipe here. |(close valve) The valve closes, more easily than it opened. |

|STEAM PIPES |(hit with crowbar) The valve, with a horrible scream of tortured metal, gives a little, and a small trickle of steam |

|COAXIAL CABLE |issues forth. [This further agitates the rats.] |

|PRESSURE VALVE |(examine steam, closed) It’s closed. |

|[DEAD RAT] |(examine steam, partly open) It's just a trickle. |

| |(examine steam, open) It looks like live steam. |

| |(open valve, after hit) The valve screeches open. A jet spray of live steam issues from it, filling the tunnel in front|

| |of you. [The rats are caught in the full force of the blast. Horrible squeals can be heard from the midst of the steam |

| |cloud, and scalded rats charge past you, all interest in anything but flight forgotten. One of their number remains, |

| |dead.] |

| |(?) …wide open and spewing live steam. |

| | |

| |(west, if valve open) You would be plunging into scalding steam. Not such a smart idea, if you ask me. |

| | |

| |(follow cable) It runs east and west along the ceiling. |

|Steam Tunnel (4) |(up, if rats in room) From below you can hear the chittering of the rats. |

|This dank and grimy tunnel is largely filled with an imperfectly insulated steam pipe. The tunnel is uncomfortably |(up`) You force your way through the mass of rats, grabbing onto the rusty ladder like a mast on a stormy sea, and |

|hot and damp. You have gone from the arctic to the tropics. The concrete tunnel has odd molds and fungi growing on |begin to pull your way up. A few rats drop off, squealing in anger. You climb higher, reaching the hatch, as the last |

|its walls and ceiling, and the floor is squishy. Torn clots of insulation litter the floor. Along the ceiling runs |of the rats drops to the floor below. |

|a thick tangle of coaxial cable. The tunnel heads east and west. A rusty metal ladder leads up. | |

|LADDER |(examine cable) The cable runs overhead in a fat bundle. It looks like the kind you've seen connecting nodes of the |

|STEAM PIPES |local net. This clump is pretty grotty looking, festooned with damp cobwebs, and stained with something that dripped |

|COAXIAL CABLE |from the ceiling. [It is somewhat out of reach of the rats.] |

| |(cut cable with cutters) You begin cutting the cables, and after a while you realize that the inner cables look |

| |different, sort of dead white and slimy. Then you notice that the cables you have cut are knitting back together. |

| |(follow cable) It runs east and west along the ceiling. |

|Steam Tunnel (5-west) |(west) You plunge into the mass of rats, but there are too many of them, and you can't force your way past. |

|This dank and grimy tunnel is largely filled with an imperfectly insulated steam pipe. The tunnel is uncomfortably | |

|hot and damp. A bundle of coaxial cable runs along the ceiling, festooned with damp mold and cobwebs. The tunnel |(follow cable) It runs east and west along the ceiling. |

|continues west. | |

|SEWER RATS |(emit1) You can hear, in the distance, a chittering, scratching sound. |

|STEAM PIPES |(emit2) The sound is louder. It sounds like small animals. Is it rats? |

|COAXIAL CABLE |(emit3) The sound continues. It's almost certainly rats. |

| |(emit4) The rat sounds are growing louder, but you still can't see any rats. |

| |(emit5) A troop of rats appears out of the darkness. The rats are momentarily startled by your presence, but soon the |

| |bolder ones begin to approach. There are more rats here than you have ever seen. |

| |(emit6) The rats attack! Slimy, snarling, and hungry, they swarm over your feet, biting at your legs and clinging |

| |desperately to your feet. |

| |(emit7) The troop of rats surges around you, scenting blood and the kill. There are rats clinging all over you, their |

| |nasty teeth biting down in a dozen places. |

| |(emit8) A particularly nasty rat, wise in the ways of death, makes its way up your arm to your neck. For a moment it |

| |stares at you, its yellow eyes hungry, and then it reaches your jugular. As you lose consciousness, you think for a |

| |moment that you see the rat laugh, exposing its own neck, and on its neck is branded a symbol. |

| |(if leaving) The rats follow, surging around you. [FOLLOWED BY NEXT EMIT] |

| |(climb cable) The rats leap toward you, maddened that you are out of reach!" |

| |(step on rat) You smash a rat, but it's one of hundreds. |

| |(attack rat) You strike out at the rats, but several clamp onto your hand. The pain is horrible. The rest are all the |

| |more frenzied by the drops of blood. |

| |(kick rat) You kick, throwing off a few biting at your foot and leg. These smash squealing into the wall, but others |

| |take their places. |

| |(listen to rats) The sewer rats sound annoyed and hungry. |

| |(smell rats) You catch a sharp odor over the background of damp and sewage. It's metallic, almost stinging. It's the |

| |odor of fresh blood. |

| |(examine rats) These are strange rats. They don't look like the usual sewer rats. There is more white in their fur, |

| |even dirty and encrusted as it is. Some are furless, and others piebald. Many of the older ones are scarred and look |

| |particularly cunning. |

| |(give FOOD) A small contingent of rats falls greedily upon FOOD, biting and scratching, fighting desperately for it. |

| |The rest of the rats are not distracted, however." |

| |(?) hits [(a rat)/(the rat)] with a satisfying squish. |

| | |

| |[ACTION ROUTINE FOR ‘DRIVE OBJ’] |

| |(?) You go hand-over-hand along the cable. [You reach the end, drop, and continue on.] [The rats follow, red eyes |

| |staring upward. Some of the bolder ones leap at your feet, and one hits with a thump.] |

| |(?) You let go of the cable and drop to the floor [among the now-frenzied rats]. |

|Tunnel Entrance |(follow cable) It runs down from the ceiling and off to the east. |

|The tunnel continues west from here, becoming narrow, muddy, and forbidding. The walls no longer seem to be as | |

|finished as they were. The steam pipe and coaxial cable disappear into the ceiling at this point. The temperature | |

|has dropped considerably, as well. | |

|STEAM PIPES | |

|COAXIAL CABLE | |

|Muddy Tunnel | |

|The tunnel you came through continues down, barely large enough to enter. It is made of sticky gelatinous mud | |

|that's been pushed by something into a semblance of a passage. | |

|Large Chamber |A small, furtive motion attracts your attention to the slots. |

|This is a wide spot in the tunnel, just as wet and muddy as elsewhere. The walls are slimy as well. Numerous slots |There is motion in the slots. In fact, there is motion in almost all of them. |

|or indentations about two feet wide and a foot high open here and there. (Thin, wire or ropelike growths emerge |Slowly, painfully, things emerge from the slots. They are pale, thin creatures with red mouths and staring eyes. Mold |

|from a hole |grows in their hair and wirelike streamers wrap their heads and join a bundle on the floor. You realize that these are |

|further down and) / (Stubs of the wire still) (enter each of the slots. There is background noise here, almost loud|urchins. |

|enough to hear clearly.) / (envelop the head of each urchin. The urchins are [catatonic. / saying or chanting | |

|something repetitive and monotonal, almost machinelike.]) | |

|SLOT |(examine slot) The slots are narrow burrows apparently dug by hand out of the mud of the chamber walls. [Most of the |

|WIRE |slots have a thin wire or rope heading into them. You begin to be quite certain that there is something moving inside |

|HOLE |the slot you are looking at.] |

|[URCHINS] (There are urchins here.) |(enter slot/north/east/west/south) You squeeze your way into one of the slots. The mud coats you with a cold, slimy |

| |coat which makes it barely possible to breathe. (You are about halfway in when your hands touch something fleshy in |

| |front of you. It's cold and dead. On the other hand, it moves.) / (You slide out with all the speed you can muster.) |

| |(look in) You can’t anything but the wet walls of the burrow. |

| |(reach in) You reach inside, oblivious to the cold clammy mud. At first you feel nothing, but just at the limit of your|

| |stretch, you feel flesh. It's cold and dead. You jerk your hand back out. |

| |(reach in, after urchins leave) There is nothing in the slots but cold, wet mud. |

| |(listen, before urchins leave) The noise, as you listen more carefully, resolves itself into voices. They are chanting,|

| |but the words are unknown to you. |

| | |

| |(examine hole) It's a slimy, muddy hole, but it's the only way down. |

| |(down) The urchins lurch, almost as one, into your way, grabbing at you feebly but effectively. Their pale, limp hands |

| |can't grab you, but they can stop you. There is no way past. |

| | |

| |(examine wire) These are thin, fibrous, ropy growths. They look very tough. |

| |(follow wire) They go from the (slots)/(urchins) down the tunnel. |

| |(cut wire with knife/axe) The knife/axe drives the wire into the mud, but doesn't cut it. |

| | |

| |(examine urchins) These are not normal looking urchins. Their clothes are muddy and tattered. They are barefoot in |

| |midwinter, and covered with mud. Around their heads are draped the [stubs of the] ropy growths that you've been |

| |noticing in this area. Although their eyes are open, they stare catatonically. |

| |(?) It's as though they don't hear you. |

| |(attack) They ignore you. |

| |(urchins, hello) The urchins turn to you in unison. They smile, revealing red, broken teeth. They never stop their |

| |deep-voiced, incomprehensible chant. |

| |(listen to) The strange chant never stops. They don't move their lips to make it. It resonates deep within their |

| |chests. |

| |(wake) They seem quite awake. |

| |(give OBJ) They ignore your offer, caught up in something only they can sense. |

| | |

| | |

| |(cut wire with bolt cutter) You strain and push the two handles of the bolt cutter together with all your strength. At |

| |first it looks like nothing will happen, but then, with a loud click, the jaws cut the wire! The wire, as though under |

| |tension, rapidly begins to curl up, disappearing down the tunnel and away. [Urchins burst forth from the slots.] The |

| |effect on the urchins is electric (perhaps literally). They twitch, jerk spasmodically, and fall to the ground almost |

| |in unison. They have lost all interest in you. |

| | |

| |(down, after cutting wires) A few of the urchins grab feebly at you as you pass, but none is a serious barrier. |

| |(down, ?) Something is blocking the downward passage. It's moving, slowly and painfully, trying to climb up. |

|Wet Tunnel (1) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger north and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (2) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger down and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (3) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger south and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (4) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger south and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (5) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger down and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (6) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger west and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (7) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger east and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (8) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger east and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (9) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger up and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (10) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger west and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (11) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. |The hand points its mutilated ring finger east and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|Wet Tunnel (12) | |

|You are lost in narrow, wet tunnels burrowed through the mud. Muddy, oily water covers the floor. (A curtain of |The hand points its mutilated ring finger south and grips your shoulder tightly. |

|moldy slime covers the south wall.)/(There is an ancient door in the south wall. The ancient door is | |

|[closed]/[open].) |(examine slime) The entire south wall is covered with a curtain of moldy phosphorescent slime. There is something about|

|SLIME CURTAIN |the slime that makes it appear unhealthy, as though the influences here are bad for anything living. |

|[CRAWLING SLIME] (There is slime crawling up your arm. It has reached your X.) |(take slime) The feel is greasy, wet, and at first cold. Then you get a burning sensation, like that from a sea-nettle |

|[ANCIENT DOOR] |sting. You jerk away, but some of the slime sticks to you! |

| |(take slime, wearing gloves) The curtain is very slick and wet. Some of it sticks to your gloves. The slime eats |

| |through your gloves! It begins to attack your hand, and you feel a hot, stinging sensation, like a sea-nettle sting. |

| |(take again) More slime flows onto [your hand]. |

| |(take again?) You already did that once. Twice would be stupid! |

| |(emit1) The slime is creeping slowly up your arm! It's reached your wrist. |

| |(emit2) The slime is creeping slowly up your arm! It's reached your elbow. |

| |(emit3) The slime is creeping slowly up your arm! It's reached your bicep. |

| |(emit4) The slime is creeping slowly up your arm! It's reached your shoulder. |

| |(emit5) The slime is creeping slowly up your arm! It's reached your neck. |

| |(emit6) The slime engulfs your nose! You cough, choke, and begin to suffocate! You fall to the floor, splashing in the |

| |water. You either suffocate or drown. After you're dead, it makes no difference. |

| | |

| |(attack slime with OBJ) OBJ touches the curtain, and immediately some of the slime attacks, flowing almost |

| |intelligently onto it. OBJ is now covered with slime. |

| |(wait) The slime has now flowed from OBJ[, devoured your gloves] , and begun attacking your hand. |

| | |

| |(examine crawling slime) It's flowing, dark-green, and undulates slowly as it crawls up your arm. |

| |(remove crawling slime) You try to scrape it off, but to no avail. It just flows back into place around your arm. [You |

| |only succeed in hurting your arm.] |

| |(pour flask on crawling) You succeed in pouring the freezing liquid all over your arm. This kills the slime. It also |

| |kills you, but then, one must make sacrifices, right? |

| | |

| |(pour flask on slime curtain) The liquid splashes onto the curtain, and a cold mist fills the room. The slime begins to|

| |freeze. (Patches of it shatter and fall, but the rest of the slime oozes into the ruined spots, and the curtain appears|

| |unharmed.)/(Nearly the entire curtain solidifies, shatters, and drops to the ground, revealing an ancient wooden door.)|

| | |

| |(examine ancient door) This door, blackened by age, is built of ancient, rotting timbers, but still looks very strong. |

| |It is set in a rough-hewn arch. Oddly, in addition to an old, rusted-away lock, there is another which looks new and |

| |shiny. The ancient door is [closed]/[open]. |

| |(open door) It’s locked. |

| |(hit door) You only bruise your hands. |

| |(hit door with OBJ) The door is surprisingly solid. |

| |(unlock door with key) The door is now unlocked. |

|Inner Lair |(if entering with human hand) Suddenly, the hand leaps from your shoulder into the slime-encrusted puddle. It dives |

|The floor here is a stagnant, slime infested pool of water. It feels [to your sodden feet] to be about six inches |beneath the water. |

|deep. Ropes or wires tumble down the slope, where they enter a large whitish mass which takes up much of the |(emit) The hand repeatedly dives and bobs to the surface in one part of the pool near your feet. |

|chamber. The noise is loud here, and comes from the mass, which undulates in synchrony with the noise. Wan, |(take hand) The human hand, muddy and wet, wiggles out of your grasp. |

|sourceless light illuminates the chamber. | |

|METAL BOX (Set on the wall, incongruous in its surroundings, is a metal box. On one side a coaxial cable enters the|(open door) It’s locked. |

|box. On the other, leads from the box to the mass. (There is a metal cover on the box.)/(The cover is off the box, |(unlock door with key) The lock doesn't appear to work from this side! |

|revealing electronic innards.) | |

|METAL COVER |(examine socket) It has a coaxial cable plugged into it. |

|WHITISH MASS |(examine socket) It's empty. |

|ANCIENT DOOR |(put line in socket) There's already OBJ in the socket. |

|COAXIAL CABLE | |

|CABLELIKE APPENDAGE |(examine coaxial cable) This looks like pretty standard coax to you. It appears almost spontaneously from high in the |

|SOCKET |wall, and enters the box, where [it disappears from sight.] |

|POOL |[ends next to an empty socket.] |

|[POWER LINE] |[cut.] |

|[HACKER] |[hanging loose next to a socket.] |

|[THING] |[plugged into the socket.] |

| |(take cable) You unscrew the cable. It now hangs unconnected inside the box. |

| |(?) It's threaded through the box: impossible to take. |

| |(cut with axe) You neatly snip the cable in two. |

| | |

| |(examine appendage) This is a cablelike appendage of the mass in the end of the cave. It enters the box and [disappears|

| |from sight.]/[connects to a connector inside it.]/[is cut.] The cable twitches periodically. |

| |(cut/throw) The tentacle whips out of your way. |

| |(cut while box open) You cut the tentacle in two inside the box, where it can't get away, precipitating a deafening |

| |shriek from the direction of the mass. |

| |(unplug while box open) There is no way to do that. The appendage and its socket blend together indistinguishably. |

| | |

| |(examine whitish mass) The mass is strangely, even wrongly, shaped. It is hard to get a fix on what's wrong with it, |

| |but it doesn't look like it could or should exist in any sane universe. It quivers and bubbles as though air were |

| |pumping through it. Many wires, tentacles, and combinations of the two enter the mass from all sides, making it almost |

| |fuzzy in appearance. |

| |(listen to) You listen closely to the sounds, which are loud and at first seem random. The more you listen, the more |

| |you sense a strange regularity to them. You get impressions, one after another, of electronic music, a simple sine wave|

| |pattern, and telephone crosstalk. They are all overlaid with speech, or something like speech, nearer random babbling, |

| |or many people talking at once. You can't understand any of it, but it's so near intelligibility that you feel that if |

| |you moved closer, you just might get it. |

| |(touch) You approach the mass and grab onto it. Immediately, your mind is overwhelmed with visions and vistas it cannot|

| |assimilate. As the mass pulls you into itself, it all becomes clearer, but it's much too late by then. |

| |**** You have changed **** |

| |(attack with OBJ) The OBJ is engulfed by the mass and disappears. The mass itself is unchanged. |

| |(talk to) When you speak, the noise stops, if only briefly. When it resumes, it's more insistent. |

| |(give OBJ) There is no reaction that you can detect. |

| |(touch mass with cut line) Deftly avoiding the exposed wire, the tentacles grab you and pull you into the rippling |

| |slime. |

| | |

| |(examine metal box) On one side a coaxial cable enters the box. On the other, leads from the box to the mass. (There is|

| |a metal cover on the box.)/(The cover is off the box, revealing electronic innards.) |

| | |

| |(examine metal cover) It's a metal cover with simple finger screws to hold it on. |

| |(close cover) It's already screwed on tightly. |

| |(open cover) You remove the cover, revealing a plethora of electronic innards. Most prominent are a socket [into which |

| |the coaxial cable is plugged]/[ (now empty) next to which a coaxial cable hangs] [, and a connector into which the |

| |glistening cablelike appendage disappears.] |

| |(open cover2) You already opened it. |

| |(close cover) You screw it back on. |

| | |

| |(examine pool) The floor is covered by a pool of stagnant water. Near your feet there is a slightly deeper part that |

| |seems to have something in it. |

| |(enter pool) You’re already in it. It covers most of the floor! |

| |(drink pool) You couldn't bear to drink the water from this pool. |

| |(reach in pool) You root around blindly in the gooey, slimy water. You feel something thick and slippery! A tentacle? |

| |No, it's cold and dead. It seems to be a line of some kind, just below the surface. |

| |(reach in pool2) You find nothing you would wish to touch again. |

| |(look in pool) You can’t see a thing, as the water is foul and murky. |

| |(?) …gets wet. |

| |(?) It's about as clear as mud. |

| |(?) It feels greasy, cold, and generally unpleasant. |

| |(?) The pool isn't that deep! |

| | |

| |(examine power line) It's still under the water. |

| |(examine) This is a thick, hard cable. It reminds you of a high voltage power line. |

| |(take) You pull a length of the line out of the water. It's like holding a large, heavy snake. |

| |(pull) You can’t pull any more of it out. |

| |(plug in socket) There's no end to the line that you could plug in. |

| |(break) You'd probably have as much success trying to bite it in two. |

| |(cut with cutters) The jaws of the bolt cutter won't open far enough to fit around the line. |

| |(cut with axe1) You strike the line with the axe, making a deep gash in the insulation. |

| |(cut with axe2) Your blow cuts through more insulation and into the conductors. |

| |(cut with axe3) The line parts! The two ends begin to sink towards the water as they straighten out. |

| |(take line after cutting) You carefully grab the line just as it's about to drop into the water. |

| |(examine after cutting) This is one end of a high voltage power line. The conductors are visible within the slashed |

| |outer insulation. |

| |(wait after cutting, not wearing boots) The exposed ends of the high voltage line drop into the water! Four thousand |

| |volts of electricity, only slightly attenuated by the resistance of the water, course through your body! The result is |

| |shocking. |

| |(wait after cutting, wearing boots) The exposed ends of the high voltage line drop into the water! Sparks and bubbles |

| |burst from the electrified water. |

| |(?) You splash around in the water, to no avail. You can't see the line. |

| |(take line if not wearing gloves) As you foolishly reach into the water for the line, your hands become electrified. |

| |Nanoseconds later, the rest of you does as well. |

| |(?) You are standing in electrified water. You are even grounded. Do you know what this means? Can you say "dead?" |

| | |

| |(hacker arrives emits) |

| |You hear noises outside the door. |

| |You hear a stumbling noise behind you, turn and see the hacker staggering into the cavern. The hacker stares at you, |

| |shocked. "It's you! When I gave you my key, I never suspected you'd get this far!" |

| |The hacker stares at the thing in the cave. "I got very suspicious about your problems with the net. I began to trace |

| |some coax, found some repeaters and bridges that weren't on the layout charts, and started following them. Anyway, here|

| |I am. That thing there, whatever it is, and those wires, are interfaced to the whole campus net. And that means it's |

| |tied into all the nets, commercial, government, even military, potentially." |

| |"I guess I better do something. It could be a serious compromise of system integrity if this thing isn't dealt with." |

| |He peers at the mass, as if evaluating it. He then reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small pair of wire strippers. |

| |The hacker advances on the mass, apparently planning to cut some of the wires leading into it. As he approaches it, the|

| |sound stops completely, and the wires begin a frantic, looping, twining dance. The mass begins to flow towards the |

| |hacker almost as quickly as he walks toward it. They reach each other and begin to merge together. He screams; a long, |

| |ululating cry that echoes through the cavern. Then he is engulfed. |

| |The mass is bulging, vibrating, and rippling. |

| |The mass is bulging, vibrating, and rippling. |

| |The mass is bulging, vibrating, and rippling. A huge tear is forming near where the hacker was absorbed. |

| |The hacker pulls himself out of the side of the mass. As he does, you think you can see many pairs of eyes appear |

| |briefly in the semitransparent mass, watching curiously. Wires and tentacles trail from his body, and tiny, almost |

| |rat-like creatures cling to his body everywhere, crawling about like ants. He walks slowly, jerkily towards you. "Be |

| |one!" he says, haltingly but fervently. |

| |The hacker grabs for you. "Join us! Serve the master!" he croaks. Some of the creatures leap onto you, biting at |

| |exposed skin. |

| |The hacker is surprisingly strong. He drags you toward the thing in the corner, exhorting you to join it, and at last, |

| |forcibly, you do. You are not the first, or the last. |

| |**** You have changed **** |

| |Sometimes, during your future existence, you remember your old life. At these times, you wish you had died instead. |

| | |

| |(examine hacker) He's muddy, wet, and tired looking. |

| |(?) A muddy, scratched-up hacker stands tiredly here. |

| |(?) He looks vacant-eyed and dangerous. |

| | |

| | |

| |(put power line in socket after cutting it and removing the coaxial able) |

| |You shove the exposed conductors into the socket, producing a shower of sparks! |

| |(if no gloves) The sparks burn your hands! You jerk back, dropping the line! |

| |(if gloves, if tentacle cut) The stump of the tentacle still connected to the connector shrivels and fries.] |

| |(if gloves, if tentacle not cut) The tentacle connected to the other socket begins to jerk and twitch spasmodically. |

| |The mass it's connected to quivers, and a horrible noise, almost like a huge machine running without oil, issues from |

| |the thing. |

| |The mass begins to change shape, compacting, darkening. You can briefly see human outlines within the grey, gelatinous |

| |mass. They surround something larger, of a shape not human, not animal, like nothing you've seen before. |

| |[The hacker screams soundlessly and drops into the water.] |

| |[Both ends of the line disappear into the water and mud of the lair.] |

| |The gelatinous mass solidifies and compacts, leaving behind a litter of smoking debris. In the debris squats a being. |

| |Huge, misshapen, it stares at you with baleful yellow eyes. Its scaly wings beat slowly, driving a fetid stench through|

| |the stale air of the cavern. A barbed tongue slides across its broken, daggerlike fangs. |

| |The smooth stone vibrates. It starts to feel warm. |

| | |

| | |

| |The thing tenses, preparing to leap. Its mouth opens, revealing not the glistening interior, but a dead-black outline |

| |like a hole into nothingness. |

| |The smooth stone is now glowing with a bright-red heat that nevertheless fails to burn you. |

| |The creature leaps, a mountain falling on you, and the darkness swallows you, never to brighten again. |

| |The smooth stone, all that's left where you were standing, drops quietly into the pool. |

| | |

| |(examine thing) It is not from any wholesome place. It is the stuff of nightmares. It is the thing that waits in the |

| |dark, the thing that scratches at your windows late at night. It is not death, for next to this, death is a friend to |

| |be cherished. |

| |(attack) Defiantly, the creature shrugs off your puny attack. |

| |(?) … force yourself to get that close to it. |

| |(throw stone, before emit #1) The stone hurtles through the air and is swallowed by the black nothing at its center. |

| |The creature howls in pain! |

| |(throw stone, before emit #2) The stone smashes into the creature, sticking to its ichorous hide. The thing thrashes |

| |about, trying to bite at the stone, which is glowing brighter and brighter. Small hands issue from beneath its scales |

| |to tug in vain at the irritant. The creature begins to show gaping holes of dark, light-devouring nothingness around |

| |the stone. Its wings spread painfully, as though it were trying to fly away, and then fold. It widens its jaw in an |

| |almost human scream of agony. The black hole of its maw overwhelms it, and indeed the creature appears to be swallowing|

| |itself. At last, a grey cloud of greasy smoke surrounds the glowing stone, still suspended in midair. Then even that |

| |vanishes, and the stone drops to the ground, no longer glowing. The thing is gone. |

| | |

| |(examine stone) The stone sits on a hummock of mud. From here it appears to have a crack in it. |

| |(take stone) You pick up the stone. It has a long jagged crack that almost breaks it in half. As you pick it up, you |

| |feel it bump to one side. Then, as you are holding it in your hand, something pushes its way out through the crack, |

| |breaking the stone into two pieces. Something small, pale, and damp blinks its watery eyes at you. It hisses, gaining |

| |strength, and spreads membranous wings. It takes to the air, at first clumsily, then with increased assurance, and |

| |disappears into the gloom. One eerie cry drifts back to where you stand. |

| |Something rises out of the mud, slowly straightening. The hacker, mud-covered and weak, staggers to his feet. "Can I |

| |have my key back?" he asks. |

| | |

| | |

|OBJECT LIST | |

|Assignment | |

|Laser printed on creamy bond paper, the assignment is due tomorrow. It's from your freshman course in "The Classics| |

|in the Modern Idiom," better known as "21.014." It reads, in part: "Twenty pages on modern analogues of Xenophon's | |

|'Anabasis.'" You're not sure whether this refers to the movie "The Warriors" or "Alien," but this is the last | |

|assignment you need to complete in this course this term. You wonder, yet again, why a technical school requires | |

|you to endure this sort of stuff. | |

|PC |(turn on PC) The computer powers up, goes through a remarkably fast self-check, and greets you, requesting "LOGIN |

|This is a beyond-state-of-the-art personal computer. It has a 1024 by 1024 pixel color monitor, a mouse, an |PLEASE:". The only sound you hear is a very low hum. |

|attached hard disk, and a local area network connection. Fortunately, one of its features is a prominent HELP key. |(turn on PC) It's on. Maybe you didn't notice. |

|[On the screen you see a (mouse)/(menu box)/(YAK editor)/(classics paper).] |(turn on PC while unplugged) It's unplugged. You should plug it in first. |

| |(unplug PC) Okay, it's unplugged now. |

|HELP Key |(plug in PC) You plug in the computer. |

|It says "HELP" in reassuring blue letters. |(turn off PC) The computer powers off. It no longer makes a sound. |

| |(input ) Nothing interesting happens, except that a yellow smiling face appears in a small box next to the legend.|

|MOUSE |“Sorry, Syntax Error. Hope you have a nice day anyway.” as the computer is powered off. |

|It's a plastic pointing device. | |

| |(press HELP) Well, nothing happens. Perhaps you should turn on the computer? |

|SCREEN |(press HELP) You push the friendly-looking HELP key. A spritely little box appears on the screen, which reads: “You |

|There’s nothing to read on the screen now. |should "LOGIN your-user-id" and then "PASSWORD your-password"." |

|“Edit Classics Paper.” |(login computer) The computer responds, "PASSWORD PLEASE:" |

|"YAK 5.3" |(login computer) It would help if you turned on the computer first. |

|There’s one for your paper. |(password WRONG) The computer responds, "INVALID LOGIN" and then "LOGIN PLEASE:". |

| |(login 872325412 / password uhlersoth) The computer responds, "Good evening. You're here awfully late." It displays a |

|MENU BOX |list of pending tasks, one of which is in blinking red letters, with large arrows pointing to it. The task reads |

|The most immediate thing you see is the red menu box that refers to an urgent task. |"Classics Paper," some particularly ominous words next to it say "DUE TOMORROW!" and more reassuringly, a menu box |

|There’s one for your paper. |next to that reads "Edit Classics Paper.” |

| |(press menu) The menu box is replaced by the YAK text editor and menu boxes listing the titles of your files. The one |

|YAK EDITOR |for your paper is highlighted in a rather urgent-looking shade of red. |

|You’ll have to touch the box for it first. |(press yak) You click the box for your paper, and the box grows reassuringly until it fills most of the screen. |

| |Unfortunately, the text that fills it bears no resemblance to your paper. The title is the same, but after that, there |

|CLASSICS PAPER |is something different, very different. |

|You’ll have to touch the box for it first. |(press yak, after dream) You click the box for your paper, and nothing happens. "Your paper is lost!" reminds the |

| |hacker.” |

|MORE BOX |(press classics) The paper appears to be a facsimile overlaid with occasional typescript. The text is mostly in a sort |

| |of "Olde English" you've never seen before. What you read is a combination of incomprehensible gibberish, latinate |

| |pseudowords, debased Hebrew and Arabic scripts, and an occasional disquieting phrase in English. |

| |(press classics, after dream) It’s been lost! |

| |(? Press more) You click the "MORE" box and read what appears. |

| |(emit1) As you look at it more closely, you find it hard to focus on the screen, but impossible to look away. Your |

| |finger strays toward the "MORE" box..." |

| |(emit2) Instead, you find your finger moving towards the MORE box, and you touch it. The screen feels oddly cold. |

| |The second page is much like the first, but around the edges, not when you look at it straight, it's almost readable. |

| |There is something about a "summoning," or a "visitor." |

| |(emit3) Instead, you find your finger moving towards the MORE box, and you touch it. The screen feels oddly cold. |

| |The third page is in the same script as the first, but laid out like a poem. There are woodcut illustrations which are |

| |queasily disturbing. |

| |There is a translation, or notes for one, typed between the lines of the poem: |

| | |

| |"He returns, he is called back (?) |

| |The loyal ones (acolytes?) make a sacrifice |

| |Those who survive will meet him (be absorbed? eaten?) |

| |They will live, yet die |

| |Forever will be (is?) nothing to them (to him?) |

| | |

| |"His place (lair? burrow?) must be prepared |

| |His food (offerings?) must be prepared |

| |Call him forth (invite him?) with great power |

| |Only an acceptable (tasteful?) sacrifice will call him forth |

| |He will be grateful (satiated?)" |

| | |

| |The rest is even more fragmentary. |

| | |

| |(emit4) Instead, you find your finger moving towards the MORE box, and you touch it. The screen feels oddly cold. |

| |The fourth page is a photograph. You try to recoil from the screen, but cannot. Fascinated and repelled at the same |

| |time, you wonder: is that a mouth, and what is in it?" |

| |(emit5) Instead, you find your finger moving towards the MORE box, and you touch it. The screen feels oddly cold. |

| |You faint, and when you awaken... [GOTO “PLACE”] |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| |(press) It's already displayed. It hasn't changed, either. |

| | |

| |(take mouse) It's attached to the computer. |

| |(push mouse) You’ll have to click something with the mouse. |

| |(move mouse) It rolls smoothly. |

| | |

| |(?) "Who's the hacker here?" he snarls. |

| |(?) Your throat tightens, and no sound issues forth. |

| |(?) Your body refuses to obey your brain's command. |

| | |

| | |

| |WHEN RETURN FROM DREAM: |

| |The hacker wanders over, trying to look nonchalant as he takes over your chair. "Losing, huh?" he asks wittily. He |

| |(glances at)/(turns on) your terminal, which displays a pattern of snow and unusual characters. He appears somewhat |

| |excited. |

| |The hacker, mumbling under his breath, begins a flurry of activity. First the screen returns to something nearly |

| |normal, then windows begin popping up like toadstools after a rain. The screen looks a lot like the top of his terminal|

| |table (or the bottom of a trash can). |

| |The hacker types furiously, and the screen displays what to you looks like an explosion in a teletype factory. After a |

| |while he says. "Chomping file system. Your directory has gone seriously west. I fixed it." He checks the screen. "It |

| |was mixed up on the file server with some files from the Department of Alchemy." He grunts. "People's names for their |

| |nodes are getting weird. This one is called 'Lovecraft.'" He pauses. "Your paper is gone, though. Sorry. Maybe they |

| |could help you down there." |

| |The hacker wanders back to his terminal and returns to his hacking. |

| | |

| |(read more box) It says "MORE" in a subdued typeface. |

| |(press more box) You haven't read the page yet. You probably shouldn't touch the MORE box until then. |

| |(press more box) You touch the MORE box, and a new page appears. |

| | |

| |(press help) |

| |Please [read the page on the screen and then] click the MORE box. |

| |Please click the box representing the file you wish to edit or view. I notice that one file is marked as urgent, so you|

| |should probably click its box. |

| |You should click the menu box, as you previously set it up as an urgent task. |

| |I can't help you at this point. |

|CHAIR |(get up) You get out of the chair. |

|It's a molded plastic chair, a cheap knock-off of a designer chair, and even more uncomfortable. |(sit in, if hacker using it) The hacker is already using it. |

| | |

| |(take chair, if hacker using it) It’s in use. |

|HACKER |(smell hacker) Either the hacker, his clothing, or both are in need of cleaning. |

|The hacker sits comfortably on an office chair facing a terminal table, or perhaps it's just a pile of old listings|(listen to hacker) He is humming something. It sounds classical, perhaps Bach? |

|as tall as a terminal table. He is typing madly, using just two fingers, but achieves speeds that typists using all|(ask about hacker) He's reluctant to boast. |

|ten fingers only dream of. He is apparently debugging a large assembly language program, as the screen of his |(ask about missing students) "Missing students? I knew one of them slightly. Not the sort who would go away, you know? |

|terminal looks like a spray of completely random characters. |He was sort of hackeresque, not dumb for an undergrad, either. Not the type to disappear." |

| |(ask about urchins) "There are always urchins around. I remember one or two who became hackers." |

|The hacker is staring/sitting at your terminal[, typing furiously] . Every so often, he pauses briefly and twirls a|(ask about keys) "I've accumulated a few keys over the years. I'm a licensed locksmith, which helps. I can get into any|

|lock of his hair. He is also humming under his breath. |room at Tech." He pulls the keyring out on its chain, and shows off a key you hadn't noticed before. "This is a master |

| |key," he says. |

|The hacker is dressed in blue jeans, an old work shirt, and what might once have been running shoes. Hanging from |The hacker turns to you and says, "I don't know where I can get something to eat, what with all the snow." |

|his belt is an enormous ring of keys. He is in need of a bath. |"I'd hate to leave, with the machines so empty. On the other hand, I'm seriously starving." |

| |"Why don't you see if you can cons up some food? Then I might be able to do something for you." |

| |(ask about master key) "That's one of my best keys. It's a Tech master key. Not that it really opens every door at |

| |Tech, but I'd say three out of five, at least. Naturally, some labs are off-limits even to this key." |

| |(ask about master key, before asking about keys) "Who said anything about any master keys?" he asks suspiciously. |

| |(ask about food) "Yeah! I'd love some yummy Chinese food. Szechuan style. Ummm!" |

| |(ask about stone) "I've never seen one like that. Pretty tasteful, I'd say." |

| |(ask about computer) "You should consult the documentation." He's preoccupied with his own debugging. |

| |(ask about computer2) "I'm looking at it. Be patient. This isn't some little micro. We're on a hairy OS on a hairy |

| |net." |

| |(ask about computer3) "I already looked at it. The bug is fixed in the sources. Your paper is gone, unless those |

| |Alchemy chompers have a copy." |

| |(ask about lovecraft) "Wasn't he a fantasy author?" |

| |(ask about other) The hacker studiously ignores you, loath to admit there is something he doesn't know about. |

| |(hacker, hello) "Greetingage." He turns back to his hacking. |

| |(hacker, help me) "Be patient!" |

| |(hacker, OTHER) "Mumble. Frotz." |

| |(take key) "Hey! No snarfage, loser!" You determine that this means, "Stop!" |

| |(give funny bones) "Hey, thanks!" He stuffs it down in no time. "I could really do with some Chinese food, though." |

| |(give coke) "I only drink Diet Coke," he complains. "I could really do with some Chinese food, though." |

| |(give carton) "Yuck! This is cold!" He thrusts it back into your hands. |

| |(give carton) "Yuck! This isn’t warm enough!" He thrusts it back into your hands. |

| |(give carton) "Ouch! This is ridiculous! You've overcooked it. Look at those poor shrimp! It's ruined, chomper!" He |

| |throws it away. |

| |(give carton) "Ah! Serious food!" He plunges into the food with all the delicacy and table manners of a shark at a |

| |feeding frenzy. Soon a satisfied expression appears on his face. "Now, what was it you were wanting?" he asks. |

| |(give OBJ) "No thanks, keep it for now." |

| |(attack) The hacker retreats. "I know karate!" he says, somewhat unconvincingly. |

| |(leave with PC) The hacker prevents you. "You can’t walk off with that! It's Tech property!" |

| |(ask hacker for keys) "Well, I can't give you [all] my keys, I need them." He fondles his keyring proudly. |

| |(ask hacker for master key) "Fat chance! This is a master key! What have you done for me lately?" |

| |(ask hacker for master key, after giving carton) "Well, I suppose I could loan you the master for a while. Just don't |

| |get into trouble, okay? I'll find you later, when I'm done with all this, and get it back." He hands you the key. |

| |(ask hacker for other keys) "Those are boring old keys. They don't open anything interesting." |

| |(ask hacker for stone) "I don't have that." |

| |(show Funny Bones, coke, carton) "Winnage! I could do with some of that." |

| |(show dead rat) "I have enough of those in my basement. Get rid of it!" |

| |(show stone) "Odd-looking thing. Are you a rock-jock?" |

| |(show hand) "Mondo grosso!" |

| |(show OBJ) He more or less grunts at you, but shows little interest in OBJ. |

| |(trade OBJ for OBJ) "That's not a good trade." |

| |(trade carton for key) "You give me the food first." |

| |(thank hacker) He blushes. |

| |(?) It doesn't impress him. |

| |(?) He sounds like an insincere Moonie. |

| |(?) He doesn't appear to be listening. |

| |(?) He listens, more or less. The impression he gives is that non-hackers don't know anything about the bugs they |

| |cause. |

| |(?) The hacker isn't too interested, and doesn't bother to get up and investigate more closely. He mumbles something |

| |about sending him a bug message, and returns to his work. |

| |(?) The hacker shows little interest in your remarks. |

| |(?) He is unharmed. "It is peaceful within," he remarks. |

| |(?) "Chomp!" he says. |

| |(?) You don't want to get that close to him. |

| |(?) The hacker replies, "Meld!" |

| |(?) "Help? I'm not a T.A. I've got work to do." |

| |(?) "I'll fix it!" |

| |(?) "I'm here, aren't I?" |

| |(?) "I haven't got time. I have new versions of the system, the assembler, the editor, and the debugger to finish |

| |hacking." |

| | |

| |(turn off PC while hacker working on it) The hacker stops you. "You'll mung the bits, chomper!" |

|KEYRING | |

|Hanging from the hacker's belt is a watchman's keyring. The large and almost full ring is connected by an | |

|extensible chain to a reel attached to the hacker's belt. It is difficult to lose such a keyring. There are | |

|multitudinous keys hanging on the keyring. Among them are a master key, a green aluminum Medeco key, a green brass | |

|Yale key, a green aluminum Yale key and a red aluminum Yale key | |

|GREEN ALUMINUM MEDECO KEY | |

|GREEN GRASS YALE KEY | |

|GREEN ALUMINUM YALE KEY | |

|RED ALUNINUM YALE KEY | |

|MASTER KEY |(?) You haven't seen any master key. |

|The key appears to be a master key. There is no indication of what locks it might fit, however. | |

|SMOOTH STONE |(feel stone) The stone is smooth and cool/warm. |

|It is a (cracked)/(smooth, shiny) piece of what might be obsidian. Scratched on it is a symbol. |(examine symbol) The symbol, on close examination, appeared to have been carved into the smooth stone, perhaps with a |

| |claw. The symbol (is like nothing you've ever seen, and yet somehow you know it has meaning.)/(seems just as odd as |

| |before.)/(looks oddly familiar.) |

| |(feel symbol) The symbol is rough. |

| | |

| |(drop stone) You can't. You go through the motions, but the stone doesn't leave your hand. |

| | |

|FUNNY BONES |(eat ) You [tear open the package and] devour the delicious food-like substance. |

|This is a[n empty/open] package of Funny Bones, a snack food made with peanut butter and chocolate cake. |(eat, heated) You tear open the package and discover that they are too hot to eat. |

| |(eat again) You already did. There's nothing left but the wrapper. |

| |(open) You open the package, revealing yummy junk food inside. |

|CARDBOARD CARTON |(examine symbol) It doesn’t look like Chinese, English, or any other language you know. The symbol (is like nothing |

|This is a cardboard carton with an incomprehensible symbol scrawled on the top. |you've ever seen, and yet somehow you know it has meaning.)/(seems just as odd as before.)/(looks oddly familiar.) |

|[CHINESE FOOD] |(open carton) Opening the cardboard carton reveals Chinese food. |

| |(eat) You might find the contents more agreeable than the carton itself. |

| |(?) The carton feels warm. |

|CHINESE FOOD |(take) If you take it out, it will spill all over you. Why not take the carton instead? |

|This is a carton of Szechuan shrimp. Lovely red peppers poke out of the sauce. |(eat) It's very (chemically) hot, spicy, and (cold)/(x). You immediately want to drink something to wash it down. |

|TWO LITER BOTTLE OF CLASSIC COKE |(taste) Tastes like the real thing. |

|This is a… |(shake) The Coke fizzes up. |

|full |(open) You fiddle with the cap for a while. What fun! Much better than working on your paper. |

|partly empty |(look inside) It looks like the inside of a Coke bottle. |

|partly full |(drink) Delicious! Contains caffeine, one of the four basic food groups. Too bad they make it with fructose these days,|

|nearly empty |instead of sucrose. You feel much more alert and awake now. |

|an empty |(drink) The bottle is empty. |

|…two-liter bottle of cold/lukewarm/warm/hot/volcanic/radioactive Classic Coke. |(eat) It tastes cold. |

| |(pour) You pour the Coke on the ground, wasting it. |

| |(pour) There is none left in the bottle. |

|CROWBAR | |

|PAIR OF ELECTRICIAN’S GLOVES |(look inside) They're kind of dirty inside, but there's nothing nasty hidden there. |

|This is a pair of electrician's rubber gloves. They look well used but serviceable. |(wear) You put on the gloves. They're a little big, but not really such a bad fit at all. |

| |(?) It's much too big. |

|FORKLIFT |(?) You're trying to operate the forklift by telepathy? |

|This is a rusty [and wheezing] old forklift. It looks like you could control it fairly easily, though. |(turn on) The forklift sputters to life. |

| |(turn on) It's wheezing away already. |

| |(turn off) The forklift coughs once, and dies. |

| |(DIRECTION) You can’t go anywhere in a forklift that isn't running. |

| |(DIRECTION) The forklift won't fit into the stairwell/elevator/shaft. |

| | |

| |(?) The forklift isn't that powerful. |

| |(?) … move anything with… |

| |(?) … on pallets here, hence the forklift is useless. |

| |(?) The forklift is ineffective in manipulating… |

|PADLOCK |(read padlock) The padlock has no identifiable brand or symbol on it. |

|The padlock has been spray painted many times by graffiti artists. It's currently fluorescent purple. In spite of |(open padlock) You’ll have to use a key for that. |

|the many coats of paint, the lock manages to be rusty and, in fact, almost slimy-looking. The padlock is (locked to|(unlock padlock with master key) The lock, though rusty and unwilling, opens, releasing the hatch. |

|the hatch)/(unlocked). |(close padlock) Okay, you've now closed the padlock. |

| |(hit padlock with stone) You smash against the padlock with the stone. As expected, there is no result. In fact, both |

| |stone and padlock are unmarred. |

| |(hit padlock with axe) All you succeed in doing is blunting the axe a little. |

| |(?) In spite of its present defacement, this is a good padlock. Your feeble attempts have no effect. |

|PLASTIC CONTAINER |(read) "Frobozz Magic Floor Wax (and Dessert Topping)" |

|It's a plain plastic container with something written on it. (The plastic container is closed/open.)/(It appears to|(open) You pull off the seal and open the container, revealing a smelly, viscous liquid. |

|be empty.) |(close) The container isn't open. |

| |(close) The container can't be resealed. |

| |(look in) The plastic container contains floor wax. |

| |(put large OBJ in container) You can’t get OBJ into the container. |

|MAINTENANCE MAN |(show OBJ) He doesn't react. |

|A maintenance man is here, riding a floor waxer. |(throw OBJ) The OBJ misses by a mile! |

|The maintenance man is very annoyed with you. |The maintenance man's down the hall, not here. |

| |(man, hello) He replies in a language you do not recognize. The words are guttural and jarring. |

| | |

|He looks tired, bored, almost zombie-like. |(after axe cuts cord…) |

| |The maintenance man, growling foul-sounding imprecations, descends from the floor waxer and (heads towards |

| |you.)/(blocks your way.) [But almost immediately, he slips on the floor wax.] |

| |The maintenance man stares with maniacal intensity at your throat. |

| |The maintenance man stares with maniacal intensity at your throat. He grabs you by the throat and lifts you off the |

| |ground with one hand. The hand feels very cold. Just as you expire, you realize you have never seen him blink. |

| |(try to escape) The maintenance man lurches toward you with surprising speed. (He is nearly upon you.) / (Just as he is|

| |about to grab you he slips on the wax. His hand whips by, inches from your throat, and he drops to the floor, screaming|

| |in frustration.) / (He encounters the floor wax, slips, and drops to the floor, screaming in frustration.) |

| |(?), attempting to get closer to you, enters the waxed part of the floor. He begins to slip and slide, barely able to |

| |maintain his balance, much less advance. |

| | |

| |(Man, hello) He snarls at you angrily. The words are guttural and jarring. |

| |(attack) You can’t hurt him with your hands! |

| |(attack with knife/crowbar, etc) The knife is pushed contemptuously aside, barely slowing his advance. |

| |(attack/throw with axe) The fire axe (chops into)/( sails through the air, end over end, and makes a direct hit in) his|

| |chest, where it sticks. Ed Ames would be proud. The force of the blow staggers him a bit. He looks down at the axe with|

| |a certain perplexity, then pulls it free, the wound making a sickening sucking sound. |

| |(pour liquid on) The cold liquid makes a good show, but none actually gets on him. |

| |(throw stone at) The smooth stone hits him right between the eyes. He falls to the ground, stunned. There is now what |

| |looks like a large burn mark on his forehead. He ignores it and rises. |

| |(?) The ??? sails toward him, but he bats it… |

| |(?) … is pushed… |

| |(attack with non-weapon) The OBJ does about as much damage as a piece of thistledown. |

| |(go around) You can’t evade him. |

| | |

| |(if go outside) The maintenance man waits patiently inside. |

| | |

| |(if wax on floor) The maintenance man reaches the wax and immediately slips and falls. He reminds you of a badly made |

| |windup toy. |

| |(more) The maintenance man continues slipping, falling, standing, and so on. He reminds you of a badly made windup toy.|

| |(more) The maintenance man appears to shorten and almost dissolve. There is a great commotion, as though he is |

| |undergoing a convulsion of some sort, and then he appears to explode into a crowd of small squealing creatures. These, |

| |seeing you, scuttle off in the opposite direction and disappear. |

| | |

| |Who is the maintenance man? |

| |He is nearly upon you. |

| |He is some ways down. |

| |He is quite a way down at the far end of the corridor. |

| |He's not here, but he might be soon! |

| | |

| |(?) … , grasping and panting. There is no way to go around him. |

| |(?) … as… slips again! |

| |(?) You can't reach him in… |

| | |

| |(?) You slip and slide on the wax. It's like walking on wet ice. You can barely keep upright, but [it's worse for the |

| |maintenance man. His gait is so jerky that each time he takes a step he falls! His persistence is impressive, but you |

| |slip (literally) by before he can grab you.]/[ you manage to lose your balance in just the right way to keep going.] |

|FLOOR WAXER |(listen to) It's very quiet. |

|There is a largish machine being operated down the hall to the (east)/(west). |(listen to) It makes a ghastly whirring, whining sound. [This close, it's almost unbearable.] |

|A disabled floor waxer looms nearby. |(ride) The maintenance man prevents you. He says something that probably means "No riders, buddy" (freely translated). |

| |(?) The maintenance man catches you with a surprisingly strong punch as you try to climb aboard. You fall to the floor,|

|You can’t see it too clearly, but it looks like a large waxing machine. |taken aback. |

|It's a large floor waxer, big enough to ride in[, and in fact there is a maintenance man riding it]. It actually |(turn off) You'd have to be riding in it to turn it off. |

|looks sort of like a small bulldozer. (A power cord connects it to the wall.)/(The severed remnant of a power cord |(break) The waxer is pretty sturdy. These things have been waxing the floors here for decades. |

|graces one end.) |(go around) You can’t evade it. |

| |(?) You see a nice, shiny floor. |

| |(DIRECTION while riding) The power cord is severed. It's not going anywhere. |

| | |

| |(emit) The floor waxer continues waxing a section of floor nearby. The maintenance man operating it stares at you |

| |suspiciously. |

| |(emit) The floor waxer waxes away to the east/west. |

| |(emit) The floor waxer, approaching from the east/west, is now here. |

| |(if moving in a room, random) In a deft maneuver, the maintenance man steers the floor waxer into your path, blocking |

| |your advance. |

|FLOOR WAX |(smell) It smells very pungent. |

|It seems to be floor wax. |(touch) It feels like floor wax. It's very slippery. |

|The floor here is covered with slippery, messy floor wax. |(pour into coke) Without a funnel, you are doomed to failure. It'll end up all over everything. |

| |(step on, while on floor) It's pretty slippery, all right. You can't walk on it very easily. |

| | |

| |(pour wax) It pours out and spreads like ants at a picnic. The floor is now covered from wall to wall with slippery |

| |floor wax. |

| |(?) The wax cascades down onto the corridor floor below, like Quasimodo's molten lead. |

| |(?)You pour it all over OBJ, and of course it pours right off onto the floor. |

| |(pour wax) There is no more wax to pour. |

|BRONZE PLUG | |

|This is a cylindrical bronze plug about two inches in diameter and one inch high. [It is set in the center of the | |

|flat part of the dome.] | |

|PIECE OF PAPER |(wait emit) Suddenly, you remember why the graduate student's name was familiar. He was a missing student, until his |

|You unroll the piece of paper and read the shaky handwriting: |body was found smashed and broken at the base of the tallest building on campus. |

| | |

|"I can no longer face what I've been doing. I can't sleep, I start at the | |

|slightest noise, and even dulling my senses with alcohol or drugs is no longer | |

|enough. I refuse to participate in what he is doing any more. Either he is | |

|insane, or I am insane, or (and this is what I fear most) the universe itself | |

|is insane. I have only one final warning: I am the only suicide, but I will not | |

|be the final death." | |

| | |

|The name signed to it is (oddly familiar.)/(that of the Alchemy Department graduate student.) | |

|WOODEN LADDER |(take) It's a heavy ladder, but you manage to take it. |

|(A wooden ladder leads down from here. |(climb while in inventory) Climbing it while holding it would be a neat trick. |

|(A wooden ladder leads up from here. | |

|(A wooden ladder rests here. |(?) The ladder extends from here, not . |

| |(?) It’s only a few feet (up)/(down). You don’t need a ladder for that! |

| |(?) The ladder doesn’t go anywhere yet. |

|FIRE AXE | |

|FLASHLIGHT |(turn on) The flashlight clicks on. |

|The flashlight is a heavy-duty shop-style light. [It is currently on.] |(turn off) The flashlight clicks off. |

| |(open) It doesn't open. It appears to be one of those rechargeable lights, so you can't easily get at the battery. |

| |(?) …burned out. |

| |(?) … has burned out. |

| | |

| |The flashlight is a little dimmer now. |

| |The flashlight is producing much less light. |

| |The flashlight is very dim. |

| |The flashlight is flickering. |

| |The flashlight is practically out. |

| |The flashlight fails. |

|METAL FLASK |(open) You open the flask, and a cold, white mist boils out. |

|This is a large metal flask, about the size of a water cooler bottle. (The metal flask is closed.)/( The flask is |(close) You screw the flask closed. |

|open, and a thin, cold mist flows out of it.) |(put OBJ in flask) The neck of the metal flask is too small. |

|[MIST] |(feel) The metal of the flask is [very] cold. |

|[COLD LIQUID] | |

| | |

| |(examine mist) The mist is boiling up (out of the flask)/(off of the ground). It is thin, white, and cold. |

| |(smell mist) The mist is odorless. |

| |(touch mist) The mist is very cold. |

| |(wait) Cold white mist continues to boil out of the flask. |

| |(wait) The mist dissipates. |

| | |

| |(examine liquid) The flask contains a clear, cold liquid with a thin white mist boiling off of it. |

| |(take) The liquid is extremely cold. In fact, you burn your finger on it. |

| |(take??) You manage to fish XX out without freezing your fingers somehow, but it's frozen solid. It's also fragile. It|

| |shatters into a million pieces, and is gone. |

| |(smell) The liquid has no smell. |

| |(pour out) The freezing liquid pours out [onto OBJ], boiling into cold mist almost immediately |

|KNIFE |(hone knife) The blade doesn't look any different after this operation. |

|This small knife is clean, sharp, and has a long, thin blade and a wooden handle. Only the tip of the blade appears| |

|at all dull or used. | |

|PAIR OF RUBBER BOOTS |(wear) Snug, but okay. |

|They are well-used rubber boots. | |

|BRASS HYRAX |(wear) The brass hyrax won't go on over the gloves. |

|The G.U.E. Tech class ring is a gold ring depicting a hyrax eating a twig. Such rings are familiarly known as |(remove ring, if gloves on second) You’ll have to take off your gloves first. |

|"brass hyraxes." |(wear) It fits surprisingly well. |

|DEAD RAT |(eat) You dangle the rat over your mouth by its tail. You think about it. You lower the rat towards your face. You |

|This rat appears to have been stepped on. A small trickle of blood has clotted around its mouth. Branded into its |think some more. Fortunately for your health, you change your mind. |

|neck is a strange symbol. |(step on) You crush the rat. You hear its bones snap. What a sadist! |

| |(take rat) As you take the dead rat, it moves, but then you realize that it's only lice and fleas bailing out. |

|[BRANDED SYMBOL] | |

|The symbol, on close examination, appears to have been scarred into the hide of the rat. There is no hair growing | |

|on it, and although it looks like scar tissue, the color is wrong – a sort of purplish green. The symbol looks | |

|oddly familiar | |

|HUMAN HAND |(feel) It's dry and cold. In fact, it's mummified. |

|The hand is very old. It's dry and very light, mummified in fact. There are stains, scars, and dried blood on it. |(put ring on) You can’t get the ring onto the dry flesh of the hand. |

|There is a tattoo on the back of it. The hand appears to have been severed by the application of very sharp teeth, | |

|perhaps an animal's. |(feel) The human hand scuttles away to your other shoulder. |

| |(put ring on) The ring fits the hand perfectly. |

|There are stains, scars, [a brass hyrax,] and a tattoo on the hand. [It's splashing in X.] It looks perfectly |(hand, hello) As you speak, the hand sits still, but there is no other noticeable result. |

|normal and alive, ignoring the fact that there is no arm attached to it. It doesn't appear to mind, so why should | |

|you? |(examine symbol) The tattoo is old and faded. It was done in red ink and is very artistically drawn. [SYMBOL MESSAGE] |

| |(feel symbol) This part of the hand feels particularly cold. |

| | |

| |(give OBJ, if in vat) The hand is preoccupied. |

| |(give OBJ) The hand doesn't react. |

| |(give OBJ) The hand scurries to OBJ and touches it all over, much as a blind person would examine something. |

| | |

| |(?) It's warm and dry. |

|BOLT CUTTER |(cutting something too thick) It’s too thick. |

|This is a heavy duty bolt or chain cutter, standard equipment for local bicycle thieves. It will defeat any but the| |

|heaviest bicycle chains. | |

|GREASY CHAIN | |

|This is a length of rather greasy chain. It looks strong [and it’s looped around the rod]. | |

| | |

|URCHIN |(urchin, hello) "I don't hafta say anything. I ain't done nothing." He seems very nervous about talking to you. |

|This is an urchin. He’s a youngish teenager wearing a ski hat, running shoes, and a bulky, suspiciously bumpy, |(urchin, COMMNAD) "I don't take no orders from bozos!" He seems very nervous about talking to you. |

|threadbare parka. He's jumpy, and looks suspiciously at you. |(attack urchin) The urchin backs off, and then draws a very large switchblade out of his coat pocket. "You watch out," |

| |he says, "I know how to use this. Get outa here!" |

| |(attack urchin2) The urchin laughs in your face, fending you off with his switchblade. |

| |(throw OBJ at) "I told you to back off, you clown! You guys been takin' my friends! Well, I'm gonna take one of you!" |

| |He knifes you with surprising dexterity. You exsanguinate. |

| |(show master key) "I got one already." |

| |(show human hand1) He stares at the hand, scared but holding his ground. "What's that?" he says, voice quavering. |

| |(show human hand2) The urchin sees the hand twitching. "I heard what happens around here! I'm not gettin' fed to a |

| |monster!" He lets loose a scream of fear and zooms away. [Something drops]/[Somethings drop] from beneath his parka as |

| |he departs. He slows for a moment, decides not to retrieve [it]/[them], and disappears into the distance. |

| |(show ?) "I seen a lot of those." |

| |(show ?) "You expect me to believe garbage like that?" the urchin sneers. |

| |(show OBJ) He makes an unconvincing show of disinterest. |

| |(give OBJ) "My momma said never take nothin' from no stranger." [He takes FOOD OBJ anyway, disposing of it in record |

| |time. "On the other hand, I'm hungry," he remarks.] |

| |(ask about urchin) "I just came in to get out of the snow. I wouldn't come in here if it wasn't snowing." |

| |(ask about missing students) "Hey, you guys got students gone missing? We got kids gone missing!" He looks at you |

| |suspiciously. "You ain't the one done it, are ya?" |

| |(ask about missing urchins) "The word is out on the street, man. Don't go to Tech, or you're gonna be gone, ya know? I |

| |wouldn't be here myself if I had a warm place to go." |

| |(ask about other) He doesn't reply. He seems very nervous about talking to you. |

| |(smell) He smells damp. There is also a slight odor of fast food. |

| | |

| |(examine clothing) It bulges in odd places. |

| |(take clothing) "Hey! Keep off, sucker! You can’t scare me!” |

| |(random entrance) The urchin saunters nonchalantly into the room, notices you, and beats a hasty retreat. |

| |(random emit) The urchin looks around nervously, obviously thinking of flight, but decides against it. |

| |(random emit) The urchin has disappeared. |

| | |

| |(?) "Hey! You go away, sucker." |

| |(?) "I didn't take it!" |

| |(?) How do you propose to do that? |

| |(follow?) He got away clean. You can’t follow him. |

Who is OTHER?

An excellent question.

Who is lovecraft?

I suggest you consult your local library or any practitioner of the occult arts.

Who is the professor?

The professor is no more.

Who is the missing urchins?

That's what students call the local children who sometimes hang around Tech. They are usually blamed when anything is stolen, generally mistrusted, and often booted off campus by the campus police.

UNKNOWN

(GAZE AT ?slimed-covered object?) First, it's covered with slime.

(?) You're getting ahead of yourself.

(?) You never did master X-rays. Freshman physics was such a drag.

(death) At first, you think "Maybe it was all just a bad dream," but no such luck. It appears to be for real. That's too bad, although something gnawing on your…

1. fingertips

2. toes

3. nose

4. ears

5. tongue

…thinks it's pretty wonderful, or at least fairly tasty.

(COMPARE SYMBOLS) Allowing for the different media in which the symbols are executed, they are identical.

(TIME) It seems like three o'clock in the morning.

(DAMN) Language like that was until recently grounds for probation!

(SHOOT OBJ) This explains why you aren't in ROTC.

(HOP) Not as fun as skipping class.

(SWING OBJ) Whoosh!

(SCREAM) The scream echoes back to you, subtly changed.

(BURY OBJ) You can never tell what will happen to something you bury.

(BARGAIN WITH OBJ) What are you, an M.B.A. student?

(HACK OBJ) Your use of such jargon is unconvincing.

(PRAY) You get an empty feeling.

(TALK TO ME) Talking to yourself is a sign of impending mental collapse.

(LOOK BEHIND ME) You look back over your shoulder.

1. Was that a flicker of movement in the distance?

2. You see something duck back into the shadows.

3. There’s nothing there.

(CONSUME OBJ) The food here is terrible, but this is ridiculous!

(THROW OBJ) You miss. (Now you know why few technical schools make it to the Rose Bowl.)

(SLEEP, if not tired) You try to sleep, but you can't relax.

(SLEEP, if outside) You would freeze to death before you woke.

(SLEEP) You've been up for a long time, and it was turning into an all-nighter. You can use the rest. You stretch out as best you can. You toss and turn fitfully, sleeping only in snatches.

You dream of…

1. …being late for class. First you can't find the classroom, and when you finally find it you realize they're giving an exam.

2. …standing on the roof of the Brown Building, looking down at the ground. You lose your balance...

3. … a dark curtain, blown gently in a breeze you don't feel. You try to rip it aside, but you can't, because you know what's behind it.

4. …being pursued. You trip, slip, fall, and can't make headway. It's not coming very fast, but you can't get away.

Your dream ends, and another begins. Something clawed and fanged grabs you, and you try to wake, but you already are!

(LISTEN)

You hear nothing unsettling.

(?) The sounds here are harsh and discordant.

(?) You hear a very odd noise, sort of like breathing.

(SCORE)

Graved on the curve, you are in the class of…

1. Freshman

2. Sophomore

3. Junior

4. Senior

5. Graduate Student

6. Post-doc Student

7. Assistant Professor

8. Professor

9. Department Head

10. Dean of Engineering

11. President of the Institute

(examine me)

You are…

1. …wide awake…

2. …beginning to tire…

3. …feeling tired…

4. …getting more and more tired…

5. …worn out…

6. …dead tired…

7. …so tired you can barely concentrate…

8. …moving on your last reserves of strength…

9. …practically asleep…

10. …barely able to keep your eyes open…

11. …about to keel over from exhaustion…

…, and are in…

12. …good health.

13. …good health by getting cold.

14. …danger of freezing to death.

15. …imminent danger of freezing to death.

You are so exhausted you can't stay awake any longer.

OBJ flags:

(providing light) [[for objects like flashlight]]

(slimed) [[for objects that have touched slime curtain?]]

(perched on your shoulder) [[for human hand]]

(?) It’s “Floppy Triangles,” a work of modern sculpture. [[in shaft??]]

(?) Verdict: suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed.

(?) You make your way along the long tunnel.

(?) You find yourself unable to…

(?) …, but not before it freezes you as well.

(?) It was a long way down. It was quick, though.

(?) It lifts a few inches, but then hits…

(?) He is totally unresponsive.

(?) I could stand a little snack, though.

(?) There is no response.

(?lurking horror) …ends in a blackened stump.

(?professor) All in good time…

(?professor) They’re not expected any time soon.

(?professor) He’s not expected any time soon.

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