Anolelona by Caleb Wilson - Transcript

Played February 9, 2025.
Wordcount: ~11,900

		
((Double parentheses indicate player's notes.))



After you die, if your coffin isn't sealed all around with pewter nails, you'll seep down through the soil. Thinner than mist, you'll drain past root, worm, and stone, through the spigot, and into Lozengy.

Anolelona
An Interactive Fiction by Caleb Wilson
Release 1 / Serial number 250123 / Inform 7 v10.1.2
Vorple version 4.0.1

Talk to other characters with >TALK TO. Other verbs are Inform standard. Type ABOUT for further information.

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

A chime rings out. A new resident is ready to arrive.

>about
Anolelona was written by Caleb Wilson for ShuffleComp 2024. The songs which inspired it are "Barrett's Privateers," by Stan Rogers, "Slice," by O. (and more specifically its video by Yevheniia Vynokurova), and "Step on Me," by the Cardigans.

Many thanks to Jason Love for testing!

>x me
You are Lohihm Tung, a temporary factotum of Lozengy.

((Factotum means "An employee or assistant who serves in a wide range of capacities" or "A person employed to do all kinds of work or business; a person with many different responsibilities". So I'm a temporary employee for this place. Alright.))

>i
You are carrying:
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>x cape
Residents of Lozengy don't normally wear clothing, but since you were going to be here longer than normal, Anolelona thought you might get cold, and made you this cape. It used to be warmer, and bluer.

((Already fascinating. I'm intrigued. And who is this titular Anolelona?))

>x crooked hat
Residents of Lozengy don't normally wear clothing, but Anolelona thought you might like to wear something while you were acting as factotum, so they made you this brownish hat. Its tall pointed crown slumps and its brim wavers, but it's an impressive piece of crafting for a creature as distractable as Anolelona.

>x letter
This is the letter Anolelona gave you after you agreed to take over their factotum duties for a short while. That was ages ago, and now the letter has mostly been worn into illegibility, except for the last sentence, which reads "Thanks again for helping me out, you are a good friend, do not worry, I will be back soon - Anolelona." Fortunately you know the beginning lines of the letter by heart, in which Anolelona explained the duties you agreed to perform in their absence.

((And the game conveniently doesn't tell you the beginning lines of the letter? Classic.))

>l
Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>x grass
The grass tangles in blue and purple spirals.

>x atmosphere
You can't see any such thing.

>x ground
The grass tangles in blue and purple spirals.

>x staircase
You can't see any such thing.

((Seems a little light on implementation. It's a jam game, so that's fine. Let's move on.))

>n
You hike up the hill, wild air whistling in your ears.

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

>x statue
That the statue is visible at all from this distance is testament to its immensity. Anolelona always loved to visit and experience its mystery, and from time to time you accompanied them there.

>x river
The water runs through a channel it carved itself on its endless quest toward lower ground, before eventually pouring over the cliff.

It is opaquely green, like dyed milk. You do not know why it hums, and neither did Anolelona, though they often wondered.

>x grass
The grass is wind-whipped but it always springs back.

>x plaques
The clay shines with all the colors. What is it this substance, you once asked Anolelona, is it actual clay? I don't think so, they said, though I mean, what's actual clay? But we have to call it something, and that term might as well be clay...

The bulges are marked with shallow depressions, numbering in the hundreds and shaped like people, where thoughtquartz was placed on clay and clay awoke, sat up and eventually stood up and walked away, in the form of a new resident.

>x thoughtquartz
You can't see any such thing.

>x wind
The wind brushes your face like a chilly, invisible beast pressing past.

>x hut
Anolelona used to sleep in the hut. Now you do.

((Pretty. Let's continue on...))

>w

Factotum's Hut
The fibrous, woven walls and ceiling let through a little light. In a more active realm its materials would have long since crumbled away to rubble. Through a doorway to the east you see the bulging clay of the highlands.

A crude string hammock stretches from one wall to the other. Anolelona hung it up when they lived here. You suppose it's yours to use now.

Anolelona also brought in a machine of rusty metal, which sits in the corner and comes to the height of your waist.

((Active realm? So are there many different realms, of which this Lozengy is only one, and some are more "active" than others? I guess it stands to reason that an afterlife realm would be less "active", and pretty chill.))

>x hammock
The hammock is empty.

>x machine
It's a cakepress, according to what Anolelona told you. Over their long tenure as a factotum they discovered dozens of ramshackle machines in distant regions of Lozengy, though most weren't worth reassembling like this one or the leafcutter near Yoalm.

The machinery consists of an iron, a plate, a crank, and a release button, standing up on five spindly metal legs.

>x release button
You can press it to release the iron.

>x plate
When the iron presses down onto the plate, something remarkable will congeal from the atmosphere of Lozengy.

>x crank
You can turn it to raise the iron.

>x legs
You can't see any such thing.

>x walls
The hut's materials are humble indeed, but you never asked for anything more.

>x light
You can't see any such thing.

>x east
You see nothing unexpected in that direction.

>press button
Nothing happens.

>crank the crank
That's not a verb I recognize.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a thin layer of cake congealed on the surface of the plate.

>x plate
When the iron presses down onto the plate, something remarkable will congeal from the atmosphere of Lozengy.

On the plate is a slice of cake.

>x cake
A ghostly slice of cake, with one fragile tier.

You recall Anolelona's excitement when they finally got the cakepress working. Why are you running around and smiling so wide with both your mouths? you wondered. You know how our sense of taste is so faded here? they almost shouted. Now, this machine will condense the sparse flavors of Lozengy into something that even we strange creatures can taste.

You're not strange, you told Anolelona. I'm a lizard with two front halves, they said, I'm the very definition of strange.

((I have no idea why I operated that machine, but maybe I'll need it for something. In parser games it's good form to try everything you can, and this doesn't seem like the kind of game that would punish you for it. Anyway, free cake!

Anolelona is apparently a lizard with two front halves. Interesting character design to say the least. I have to say, from what I've heard of them so far, I'm growing fond.

Anyway, let's eat this cake and also see how large of a cake you can get, exactly. Can we make a multi-tier cake?))

>eat cake
(first taking the slice of cake)
The cake dissolves into floating slime as you try to pick it up.

((Aw man. Probably need more cake.))

>press button
Nothing happens.

((Right, you need to turn the crank and then press the button.))

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a thin layer of cake congealed on the surface of the plate.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a second thin layer of cake perched on top of the first.

>x cake
A ghostly slice of cake, with two wispy tiers.

You recall Anolelona's excitement when they finally got the cakepress working. Why are you running around and smiling so wide with both your mouths? you wondered. You know how our sense of taste is so faded here? they almost shouted. Now, this machine will condense the sparse flavors of Lozengy into something that even we strange creatures can taste.

You're not strange, you told Anolelona. I'm a lizard with two front halves, they said, I'm the very definition of strange.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a third thin layer of cake stacked on top of the second.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

When the iron slowly lifts, the cake is entirely gone. It must have collapsed, after having gotten too large to support itself.

((Whoops. Makes sense that three is the max, I guess. That's traditional. Let's do it again. Why not?))

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a thin layer of cake congealed on the surface of the plate.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a second thin layer of cake perched on top of the first.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>press button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a third thin layer of cake stacked on top of the second.

>x cake
A ghostly slice of cake, with three delicate tiers.

You recall Anolelona's excitement when they finally got the cakepress working. Why are you running around and smiling so wide with both your mouths? you wondered. You know how our sense of taste is so faded here? they almost shouted. Now, this machine will condense the sparse flavors of Lozengy into something that even we strange creatures can taste.

You're not strange, you told Anolelona. I'm a lizard with two front halves, they said, I'm the very definition of strange.

>take cake
You gently extract the three-tiered slice of cake from the cakepress.

>eat cake
You take a tiny taste of the cake, and the flavor—of lemon, no, that's blueberry, or maybe mint—is so delightful you gobble up the whole slice.

>i
You are carrying:
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

((Haha. And the cake is gone. I'll probably need to do that again. Actually, let's just make another cake, because we can, but this time we'll take it with us. Knowing parser games, we might need one later.))

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>push button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a thin layer of cake congealed on the surface of the plate.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>push button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a second thin layer of cake perched on top of the first.

>turn crank
The iron rises from the plate as you turn the crank.

>push button
The mechanism clicks. The iron slams down against the plate.

The iron slowly lifts, leaving a third thin layer of cake stacked on top of the second.

>take cake
You gently extract the three-tiered slice of cake from the cakepress.

>i
You are carrying:
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter
  
((Aw yeah. I know I've spent the vast majority of this game so far just faffing about with the cake machine and doing nothing important, but isn't that what games are for? Also, a machine that makes cake from nothing is inherently interesting. Wish I had a free cake machine in real life.))

>l
Factotum's Hut
The fibrous, woven walls and ceiling let through a little light. In a more active realm its materials would have long since crumbled away to rubble. Through a doorway to the east you see the bulging clay of the highlands.

A crude string hammock stretches from one wall to the other. Anolelona hung it up when they lived here. You suppose it's yours to use now.

Anolelona also brought in a machine of rusty metal, which sits in the corner and comes to the height of your waist.

>sit on hammock
You get into the hammock.

>x hammock
You see nothing special about the hammock.

>x me
You are Lohihm Tung, a temporary factotum of Lozengy.

>get off hammock
But you aren't on the hammock at the moment.

>e
You would have to get out of the hammock first.

>get out of hammock
I only understood you as far as wanting to get outside.

>get out
You get out of the hammock.

Factotum's Hut
The fibrous, woven walls and ceiling let through a little light. In a more active realm its materials would have long since crumbled away to rubble. Through a doorway to the east you see the bulging clay of the highlands.

A crude string hammock stretches from one wall to the other. Anolelona hung it up when they lived here. You suppose it's yours to use now.

Anolelona also brought in a machine of rusty metal, which sits in the corner and comes to the height of your waist.

((Seems like there's nothing more to be done here. Fun fact: the hammock is entirely decorative and in the very first version it was inescapable and would render the game unwinnable if you sat in it. At least there's a command to leave it now.))

>e

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

>e
There's nothing of interest in that direction. Anolelona checked.

>x statue
That the statue is visible at all from this distance is testament to its immensity. Anolelona always loved to visit and experience its mystery, and from time to time you accompanied them there.

((So I don't need to go that way? Back it is. Shame the statue doesn't get more of a description. I'm curious what exactly it looks like. Striking image.))

>s

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

((Let's go east. We can go in compass direction order: North, East, South, West. Then down.))

>e
You step up onto the bridge and walk out across the water.

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>x water
The water runs through a channel it carved itself on its endless quest toward lower ground, before eventually pouring over the cliff.

It is opaquely green, like dyed milk. You do not know why it hums, and neither did Anolelona, though they often wondered.

>x landing
You can't see any such thing.

>x bridge
The bridge has a bit of bounce to it but it hasn't fallen, to the best of your knowledge, so it must be sturdy.

>s
You can't go that way.

((Figured, but couldn't hurt to try. Pretty region. Moving on...))

>e

Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

((Lots to investigate here, but first I looked up the definition of "causeway": "A raised roadway, as across water or marshland" or "A paved highway" or "A way or road raised above the natural level of the ground, serving as a dry passage over wet or marshy ground". It occurs to me that I've encountered quite a few causeways in my life, often when hiking near rivers and in wetlands, but didn't know this specific word existed to describe them. TIL?))

>x bricks
You can't see any such thing.

>x causeway
You can't see any such thing.

>x pools
These colorless pools likely contain, according to Anolelona, the primordial fluid from which all of Lozengy congealed. Though, they complained, we would probably never know for sure, since Yoalm wouldn't let anyone past to study the monochrome waters.

>x choirmount
You can't see any such thing.

>x mechanism
Anolelona found this odd machine, a leafcutter, somewhere in the mazy wilds of Lozengy. According to what they told you, Lozengy used to be fully automated with machines like this.

The machinery consists of a curved blade, a spring, and lever for the factotum to pull.

>x blade
A sharp sickle set on a pivoting arm.

>x spring
When wound, the spring makes the sickle swing.

>x lever
The lever is the leafcutter's trigger.

>x yoalm
Yoalm has a bulbous stem-body covered with leaves the size of dinner plates. Eyeball fruits peer from between the leaves in all directions.

According to Anolelona, Yoalm was the first factotum of Lozengy, and was for the long time the only one. In those days, they claimed, the choristers' masks followed no pattern, with pure chance making eye and mouth holes in Yoalm's leaves.

((Dictionary says a chorister is "a singer in a choir" or "a leader of a choir". Maybe choristers are the leaders of this place; might explain the name of Choirmount, at least. Who knows. It also seems like factotum, in this context, doesn't just mean "employee" but is perhaps some kind of creation of Lozengy? What does it mean that I'm a temporary factotum? If Yoalm, a factotum, is a leafy plant thing with fruits for eyeballs, and Anolelona is a weird lizard, then what does "Lohihm Tung" actually look like?

Anyway, I suspect I'll need to pull that lever, but I don't want to hurt this Yoalm unnecessarily, so let's wait until later. We'll go for now.))

>x bog
These colorless pools likely contain, according to Anolelona, the primordial fluid from which all of Lozengy congealed. Though, they complained, we would probably never know for sure, since Yoalm wouldn't let anyone past to study the monochrome waters.

>w

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>w

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>s
That way is nought but open air.

>w
You crouch-step, with reverence, and to keep from braining yourself on jagged rock, through the passageway.

Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

>x walls
The mossy stones of the grotto are piled as if by chance. And yet, as Anolelona often remarked, the space this chance produced is perfectly proportioned, and as harmonious in form and function as any designed building of the upper world.

>x dome
The mossy stones of the grotto are piled as if by chance. And yet, as Anolelona often remarked, the space this chance produced is perfectly proportioned, and as harmonious in form and function as any designed building of the upper world.

>x light
You can't see any such thing.

>x spigot
It is through this spigot that new residents to Lozengy drip.

>x marble
Once Anolelona told you they dreamed of a city built of this same black and pink marble. I suppose we'll never see such a thing now, you said. Yet we still may! shouted Anolelona, I have only just begun to plumb the mysteries of this place.

>take marble
That's fixed in place.

>x chunks
You can't see any such thing.

>x stone
The mossy stones of the grotto are piled as if by chance. And yet, as Anolelona often remarked, the space this chance produced is perfectly proportioned, and as harmonious in form and function as any designed building of the upper world.

>touch marble
You feel nothing unexpected.

((Hm. Not sure what to do here. There was the chime that announced a new resident at the start of the game, but I can't see anything coming from the spigot or puddling on top of the marble, which is what I'd expect if it was dripping liquid. Leaving for now.))

>e

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>down

Cliff Stair
Just enough stone has been carved free of the cliff face to make this zig-zag stairway.

Whatever chisel did the carving left the steps steep, as sharp as flint knives, and slanted outward. However close you hug the stone, your elbow on the other side hangs out over nothingness. Despite all that there is a fine view.

Northeast is a low archway, with a dim stone-bound room beyond it, and the stairs go up and down from here.

((Scary. I wouldn't like to fall down there. Do you just plummet into Oblivion forever?))

>down

Quartz Wall
The stair, running up and down, winds around a jut in the cliff wall. Fist-sized thoughtquartz crystals protrude from the jagged grey stone, though none within your reach.

Aowma perches a few yards beside the stairs, on an outcropping so tiny as to be invisible. Her paws shift and tail swishes to keep her balanced.

She is holding a thoughtquartz crystal in her mouth.

((We'll go all the way down first, then come back up and explore as we go.))

>down

Submeadow
A serene dampness gathers here at the cliff's base. You should probably climb the stairs back up before you become too stained or sodden. Otherwise, admire briefly the ivory sedges, which clump around the rims of still green pools.

((Dictionary says "sedge": "Any of numerous grasslike plants of the family Cyperaceae, characteristically having solid three-sided stems, leaves arranged in three rows, and spikelets of inconspicuous flowers." Or "A flock of herons", but that's probably not it.))

>x sedges
Yellowish white stems, like little daggers, bristle in clusters.

You find something rather sentimental lying admist the sedges: the chorister's mask you were to have worn, had you not taken Anolelona's place as factotum.

Now the leaf mask is slick and rotten. It must have been lying here at the bottom of the cliff ever since Anelona tossed it over the edge. Are you sure? you remember them asking. Fling it, you said, I won't need it, I believe in your project.

>take mask
You pick the mask up as gently as you can, and yet it still splits between your fingertips. It's fragments, it's shreds, and then it's gone.

((Interesting. Assuming I was right about the choristers previously, was the main character going to become one, but denied the promotion, for lack of a better word, because of this "project" Anolelona is attempting? Probably has to do with wherever they've disappeared to.))

>x pools
The hummingwater, having fallen down the cliff and finally discovered the low ground, lies motionless.

>e
You can't go that way.

>down
You can't go that way.

>up

Quartz Wall
The stair, running up and down, winds around a jut in the cliff wall. Fist-sized thoughtquartz crystals protrude from the jagged grey stone, though none within your reach.

Aowma perches a few yards beside the stairs, on an outcropping so tiny as to be invisible. Her paws shift and tail swishes to keep her balanced.

She is holding a thoughtquartz crystal in her mouth.

>x aowma
Aowma is a giant eight-limbed cat with russet fur whose duty is to scale this cliff wall and gather thoughtquartz crystals.

Once, Anolelona told you, it wasn't necessary for a factotum with such remarkable agility to gather the crystals from this cliff. In fact, they were scattered widely throughout Lozengy, many near enough the polychromatic clay for new arrivals to coalesce without the aid of any factotum. Nobody needed to put the crystals below the spigot? you wondered. It seems not, Anolelona told you. The droplets focused as they fell, each unerringly striking a crystal. A marvel!

Aowma, clinging to the vertical stone wall with all her limbs, also clasps a thoughtquartz crystal in her mouth.

((So that's what I need to do in the Decanting Grotto. Put a quartz crystal on top of the marble. To aid this new arrival...))

>take crystal from aowma
That seems to belong to Aowma.

>talk to aowma
Instead of trying to speak, with a toss of her head she flings the crystal to you. Fortunately, you catch it neatly.

>talk to aowma
Aowma says "The thoughtquartz is humming today."

>talk to aowma
Aowma says "I don't know why the quartz hums, it does that sometimes."

>talk to aowma
Aowma says "Don't worry, I won't pounce and make you fall down the stairs. That would be mean."

>talk to aowma
Aowma says "The thoughtquartz is humming today."

((So it just repeats. Alright, shouldn't need to talk to her again. Realizing I never talked to the plant, so I should go try that later.))

>x crystals
You can't see any such thing.

>i
You are carrying:
  a thoughtquartz crystal
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>x crystal
The thoughtquartz is cold in your hand, and clear as calm water.

>l
Quartz Wall
The stair, running up and down, winds around a jut in the cliff wall. Fist-sized thoughtquartz crystals protrude from the jagged grey stone, though none within your reach.

Aowma perches a few yards beside the stairs, on an outcropping so tiny as to be invisible. Her paws shift and tail swishes to keep her balanced.

((Seems like that's it. Let's go.))

>up

Cliff Stair
Just enough stone has been carved free of the cliff face to make this zig-zag stairway.

Whatever chisel did the carving left the steps steep, as sharp as flint knives, and slanted outward. However close you hug the stone, your elbow on the other side hangs out over nothingness. Despite all that there is a fine view.

Northeast is a low archway, with a dim stone-bound room beyond it, and the stairs go up and down from here.

>ne

Atelier
A prism of negative space, excavated not far inside the cliff face. The way out is southwest. Underfoot is a soft mat of dead leaf matter, cut into fragments as small as confetti, though beneath that must be the same smooth stone as the walls and ceiling.

Pzouz lies here on the leaf carpet of its own creation. It's puffy greyish length is curled in a huge hoop, with the black mechanisms of its mandibles hanging down to the height of your head.

The great worm drums its legs in the leaf litter, as if in excitement at your arrival.

>x pzouz
Pzouz is a cutworm as large as a school bus. You asked Anolelona once how Pzouz got through the small archway of the workshop, and Anolelona said it was simple: when the worm moved into the workshop it was much smaller. But the further question, they said, was why did they move? For once, according to Anolelona, Pzouz had crawled near Yoalm, making each fallen leaf into a perfect mask where it fell, which meant a third factotum wasn't required to transport leaves between Yoalm and Pzouz. This way, said Anolelona, there's more work just to keep us busy.

((So Pzouz makes Yoalm's leaves into chorister masks. But now someone, probably me, needs to transport Yoalm's leaves to Pzouz in this chamber. That must be what the cutting machine near Yoalm was for.))

>talk to pzouz
Pzouz says "I had another dream about the perfect leaf."

>talk to pzouz
Pzouz says "A tasty leaf, a most delicious leaf."

>talk to pzouz
Pzouz says "Anolelona told me a joke once, it was funny, but I can't remember it now."

>talk to pzouz
Pzouz says "I had another dream about the perfect leaf."

((Three looping lines of dialogue, like Aowma had.))

>sw

Cliff Stair
Just enough stone has been carved free of the cliff face to make this zig-zag stairway.

Whatever chisel did the carving left the steps steep, as sharp as flint knives, and slanted outward. However close you hug the stone, your elbow on the other side hangs out over nothingness. Despite all that there is a fine view.

Northeast is a low archway, with a dim stone-bound room beyond it, and the stairs go up and down from here.

>up

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

((I have something of an idea of what to do now. Let's start with the crystal, since I did that first.))

>put crystal on block
You place the thoughtquartz crystal onto the marble block.

A gleaming bead of liquid falls from the spigot and strikes the crystal.

Its gleam soaks into the quartz.

>x crystal
The thoughtquartz is warm in your hand, and infused with a milky glow.

>i
You are carrying:
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter
  
((Alright, I don't have the crystal, despite its description. I can probabably leave.))

>e

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>e
You step up onto the bridge and walk out across the water.

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>e

Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

>talk to yoalm
Yoalm says "Nothing to report, the causeway is secure."

>talk to yoalm
Yoalm says "When's Anolelona coming back? They always made me laugh."

>talk to yoalm
Yoalm says "I can see you're working hard today, Lohihm. Keep up the good pace."

((Let's get the leaf now.))

>x mechanism
Anolelona found this odd machine, a leafcutter, somewhere in the mazy wilds of Lozengy. According to what they told you, Lozengy used to be fully automated with machines like this.

The machinery consists of a curved blade, a spring, and lever for the factotum to pull.

>pull lever
Nothing happens.

>pull lever
Nothing happens.

>x blade
A sharp sickle set on a pivoting arm.

>x spring
When wound, the spring makes the sickle swing.

((Oh, had to wind the spring first. Like the cake machine. Whoops.))

>wind spring
Metal clicks as you wind up the spring. The leafcutter mechanism trembles in readiness.

>pull lever
The mechanisms of the leafcutter click, and the sickle swings on its arm, slicing first through the air, then severing one of Yoalm's leaves from its stalk. The leaf falls to the ground. Yoalm rattles in appreciation.

>take leaf
Taken.

>i
You are carrying:
  Yoalm's fallen leaf
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>save
Save failed.

((It keeps saying that, so I'll keep it in the transcript for accuracy, but rest assured it actually worked. I'm just not sure how many leaves I'm actually supposed to cut.))

>wind spring
Metal clicks as you wind up the spring. The leafcutter mechanism trembles in readiness.

>pull lever
Yoalm rattles warningly. "Don't you dare, I only give one leaf per chime!"

((Oh, nevermind. I could only do it once. So we'll get this back to the worm and see what happens...))

>w

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>w

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>down

Cliff Stair
Just enough stone has been carved free of the cliff face to make this zig-zag stairway.

Whatever chisel did the carving left the steps steep, as sharp as flint knives, and slanted outward. However close you hug the stone, your elbow on the other side hangs out over nothingness. Despite all that there is a fine view.

Northeast is a low archway, with a dim stone-bound room beyond it, and the stairs go up and down from here.

>ne

Atelier
A prism of negative space, excavated not far inside the cliff face. The way out is southwest. Underfoot is a soft mat of dead leaf matter, cut into fragments as small as confetti, though beneath that must be the same smooth stone as the walls and ceiling.

Pzouz lies here on the leaf carpet of its own creation. It's puffy greyish length is curled in a huge hoop, with the black mechanisms of its mandibles hanging down to the height of your head.

The great worm drums its legs in the leaf litter, as if in excitement at your arrival.

>give leaf to pzouz
(Yoalm's fallen leaf to Pzouz)
You hold Yoalm's leaf up to Pzouz's mandibles. The worm accepts it carefully, then nibbles away at the edge while turning it. Small pieces of the leaf flutter to the floor's litter, and when Pzouz is done, it hands you what it has cut from the leaf: a mask.

>take mask
You already have that.

>i
You are carrying:
  a new chorister's mask
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>x mask
All residents must wear a chorister's mask like this in order to visit Choirmount and join the eternal chorus there.

>talk to pzouz
Pzouz says "A tasty leaf, a most delicious leaf."

>sw

Cliff Stair
Just enough stone has been carved free of the cliff face to make this zig-zag stairway.

Whatever chisel did the carving left the steps steep, as sharp as flint knives, and slanted outward. However close you hug the stone, your elbow on the other side hangs out over nothingness. Despite all that there is a fine view.

Northeast is a low archway, with a dim stone-bound room beyond it, and the stairs go up and down from here.

>up

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>w
You crouch-step, with reverence, and to keep from braining yourself on jagged rock, through the passageway.

Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

On the marble block is a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>i
You are carrying:
  a new chorister's mask
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>x crystal
The thoughtquartz is warm in your hand, and infused with a milky glow.

>x marble
Once Anolelona told you they dreamed of a city built of this same black and pink marble. I suppose we'll never see such a thing now, you said. Yet we still may! shouted Anolelona, I have only just begun to plumb the mysteries of this place.

On the marble block is a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>i
You are carrying:
  a new chorister's mask
  a slice of cake
  a cape (being worn)
  a crooked hat (being worn)
  a letter

>put mask on marble
You put the new chorister's mask on the marble block.

>l
Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

On the marble block are a new chorister's mask and a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>take mask
Taken.

((Okay, now I'm stuck. But wait... if I discarded my old mask, can I just go wear this new one and become a chorister? Does that work? I don't think it's the intended solution, but it might be worth trying because I'm out of ideas.))

>save
Save failed.

((Again, it worked, but it just doesn't say so.))

>wear mask
You put on the new chorister's mask.

>l
Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

On the marble block is a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>w
You can't go that way.

>e

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>e
You step up onto the bridge and walk out across the water.

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>e

Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

>ne
Yoalm lets you past.

You start up the causeway. It slowly rises away from the bog. The verses of the eternal chorus grows louder as you approach.

Your heart is beating faster. How foolish, was it really, to forsake this opportunity in service to Anolelona? This is what you were meant to do, the whole reason you came to Lozengy. What were you thinking?

One last glance back, at the top of the causeway. The music, just past the silver gate, is so loud your teeth rattle, and yet glorious. You feel it in every cell. And Lozengy has hidden itself behind a staticky fog.

"I'm here, I'm here," you cry, and the words emerge from your lips as song, in perfect time and tune with the rest of the chorus, and tears of joy gather in the corners of your eyes.



    *** The End ***




Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, or UNDO the last command?

((Oh. This is really lovely. I don't think it's the intended ending, though, unfortunately for our protagonist, so let's undo...))

>undo

Crumbling Causeway
[Previous turn undone.]

>ls
That's not a verb I recognize.

((Not the first time this has happened to me. Pains of using Bash.))

>l
Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

>remove mask
You take off the new chorister's mask.

((Hmm. I remember reading something about clay, so maybe I need to put clay on the marble too. Just a thought, but it could work.))

>w

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

>w

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>n
You hike up the hill, wild air whistling in your ears.

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

((Wait, I never tried going northeast from here. Derp.))

>ne
On the long walk through blue and purple hummocks, your mind wanders.

You think of another time you came this way. Anolelona was at your side. Actually, they were running circles around you in excitement, switching directions now and then so each head had the chance to go first.

I've discovered something amazing, they told you, I found a way out of here, the way to what's next. We know what's next, you said, it's the Choirmount, it's the eternal chorus. No! cried Anolelona. Choirmount is a dead end! I mean to keep exploring forever!

By Statue
A red sandstone statue the size of a skyscraper lies here on its back, sunk halfway into the ground like it's on a soft featherbed.

From the statue's ear floods humming green water, the source of the river which runs southwest.

The statue's head, a rough bald bulwark, has a closed door in the middle of its crown, leading northwest.

((Dictionary says "hummock": "A low mound or ridge of earth; a knoll." And "bulwark": "A wall or embankment raised as a defensive fortification; a rampart. Something serving as a defense or safeguard. A breakwater."))

>x statue
Here it lies, like a sleeping building, its stone arms folded over its chest, eyes closed, a vast unknowable smile on its skyward face.

((Yep, I was definitely supposed to come here. Imagine, complaining about not knowing what the statue looks like when I could've gone over to it the whole time.))

>x smile
The statue's smile never ceased to fascinate Anolelona. How does it feel, they would ask, to carve something so serene?

>x eyes
If a statue sleeps with closed eyes, Anolelona wondered, does it dream?

And if does, you asked, of what does it dream?

We will find out, Anolelona promised.

>x arms
Anolelona believed the arms folded over the chest indicate that this statue was built to recline.

>x head
In the middle of the statue's head is a rectangular door, of the same red sandstone. It's closed.

>open door
It seems to be locked.

>x door
In the middle of the statue's head is a rectangular door, of the same red sandstone. It's closed.

>nw
(first opening the head)
It seems to be locked.

>feed cake to statue
You can only do that to something animate.

((Well, I was excited to find this place but don't know what to do with it. Haven't found a single key. Guess I'll go back and try the clay thing.))

>sw

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

>e
There's nothing of interest in that direction. Anolelona checked.

>take clay
That's hardly portable.

>take plaque
That's hardly portable.

((Nevermind. I'm stuck again.))

>s

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>x rocks
From the top of the heap protrudes a white ceramic pipe.

>x pipe
The pipe stretches up and up, toward regions of rusty ore, swirling waters, or possible stars, reaching those limits where Lozengy begins to discohere.

>take pipe
The pipe is beyond reach.

((...))

((Cut. I've just come back from fifteen or so minutes of wandering around. I just had the brilliant idea of taking the now-glowing crystal and putting it on the clay. Why not? You can't take the clay and bring it to the crystal, but perhaps the other way around is the solution!))

>w
You crouch-step, with reverence, and to keep from braining yourself on jagged rock, through the passageway.

Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

On the marble block is a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>give cake to spigot
You can only do that to something animate.

>give cake to crystal
You can only do that to something animate.

>take crystal
Taken.

>put crystal on marble
You put the gleaming thoughtquartz crystal on the marble block.

>l
Decanting Grotto
Underfoot are tottering chunks of stone. The mossy walls are piled up without a straight angle, converging overhead into a dome. You are stuck by the stillness, as in a seldom-entered chapel. East is a crack of light.

At the center of the dome, at chandelier height, is a white ceramic spigot.

Directly below the spigot is a block of pink and black marble the size of a washing machine.

On the marble block is a gleaming thoughtquartz crystal.

>x crystal
The thoughtquartz is warm in your hand, and infused with a milky glow.

>take crystal
Taken.

>e

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>n
You hike up the hill, wild air whistling in your ears.

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

>put crystal on clay
You find an unawakened section of clay that is large enough to contain a human body. Here, at the place where the resident's head will be, you place the thoughtquartz crystal.

The crystal resonates, sending a ripple throughout the nearby clay. Very slowly, the clay splits and peels in an outline forming the shape of the person soon-to-be.

The crystal sinks down into the center of the face and the clay closes over it.

Bright clay, red, yellow, purple, and golden, twitches all across the coalescing body. With spastic motions the new resident sits, partly rises, and falls from their birth hollow into the tangled grass.

((Yes! It worked!))

>l
Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

Zoda Snu crouches here, shivering and almost catatonic.

((Oh, poor thing. Should probably get this person some clothes. I took off my cape and hat while I was wandering around figuring out what to do, and this cake is definitely meant for them...))

>i
You are carrying:
  a new chorister's mask
  a slice of cake
  a cape
  a crooked hat
  a letter

>x snu
The resident Zoda Snu is a man of medium size. His surface is mottled with many colors of polychromatic clay.

You asked Anolelona once how it was that nobody in Lozengy ever needed introduction. It's a fine question, Lohihm, they said, though not one I've found the time yet to research! Perhaps we can one day puzzle out the answer together...

>give snu cape
Zoda Snu doesn't seem interested.

>talk to snu
Zoda Snu says "No no no," then groans without force or strength. It's nothing to worry about, new residents are often a little wobbly until they get their chorister's mask.

>give snu mask
Zoda Snu takes the chorister's mask unthinkingly. He stares at it for a few moments, then with an abrupt movement clamps it onto his face. He stands, knees shaking, then stumbles off southward, down the hill, veering eastward as he goes.

>e
There's nothing of interest in that direction. Anolelona checked.

>s

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>e
You step up onto the bridge and walk out across the water.

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

Zoda Snu slumps in the middle of the bridge, masked face bent toward the hummingwater.

>x snu
The resident Zoda Snu is a man of medium size. His surface is mottled with many colors of polychromatic clay. Though he is wearing the chorister's mask you gave him, he has paused here on the bridge, where it seems the hummingwater has caught his attention.

>talk to snu
Zoda Snu says "I joined the crew of a pirate ship, the Ibex she was, and Shelby Bowers her captain, we sailed around the world in search of ships even slower and leakier than the Ibex because we wanted to steal all their things."

>talk to snu
Zoda Snu says "Instead we found our doom, the vessel we chased lacked speed but not cannons, I had never imagined so many splinters to be concealed in the boards of the Ibex. A cannonball smashed Bowers like a bowl of eggs, I fell into the sea and clung to a spar, this saved me from drowning, but not from dehydration."

>talk to snu
Zoda Snu says "Alone I drifted, on the waters and into a delirium, I chewed the strands of kelp which drifted with me, my rotting scarves, my old friends, I ate them, I choked on them. Now my mouth is stained with sea-rot, my teeth are scaly with sea-rot, I breathe sea-rot in and sea-rot out, I will never know a taste other than sea-rot, so I despair."

>talk to snu
Zoda Snu says "I joined the crew of a pirate ship, the Ibex she was, and Shelby Bowers her captain, we sailed around the world in search of ships even slower and leakier than the Ibex because we wanted to steal all their things."

((Hmm. Yeah, this guy could definitely use a cake.))

>give snu cake
Zoda Snu takes the cake and sniffs it thoughtfully. "Have you brought me a new flavor, to remove the taste of sea-rot from my tongue?"

He removes his mask and takes a bite. He takes another and another, gobbling it faster, then licks his lips and shouts, "Lemon! Licorice! Maple! The rot is covered over so I hardly taste it, you performed a miracle, Lohihm!"

There is a pause.

"Lohihm," he says again, "There is something with your name written on the side of it, right down there in the water. Let me grab it up for you, my friend."

Zoda Snu leans down to the hummingwater, and pulls up something dripping, from where the current had lodged it against the center pile of the bridge. It's a brown seed-pod as long as your arm.

He walks east, shouting to the sky, "Licorice! Maple! Lemon!"

((Nice. I can feel the heartwarming sense of pride and accomplishment within me.))

>e

Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Zoda Snu stands here, unmasked face lifted.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

Zoda Snu puts the chorister's mask back on, then brushes past Yoalm's shivering leaves. For long minutes you watch him ascend the crumbling causeway toward Choirmount.

>l
Crumbling Causeway
Everywhere but south, which is over the cliff, and west, back across the hummingwater, lies flickering black and silver bog.

A causeway built of faded blue and red bricks starts here, then runs northeast over the fizzy monochrome pools, winding higher and higher toward the distant Choirmount.

Yoalm grows here, having sprouted up through the landing's decaying brickwork. To continue along the causeway you'd have to push past Yoalm's leafy bulk, though there'd be no way to avoid the glares of its eyeball fruits, which number twenty or more.

A shining metal mechanism perches beside Yoalm on three jointed legs.

((So now this Snu guy is in Heaven, or close enough. Is the implication that everyone goes to Heaven in this universe? Pretty nice of them, I have to say.))

>i
You are carrying:
  a cape
  a crooked hat
  a letter
  
((Oh, I apparently didn't get the seedpod. He just pulled it up for me.))

>w

Hummingwater
You're on a bridge made of red and yellow twigs, tightly woven together is if by some gigantic painstaking bird.

Water like green milk bubbles under the bridge, southward, toward a cliff. The water gives off a crackling hum you can feel throughout your body.

West is a lawn, east a landing of crumbled brick.

You can see a seed-pod (closed) here.

>x seed-pod
The seed-pod has the shine of polished wood. It is closed.

>take seed-pod
Taken.

>open pod
You open the seed-pod, revealing a tendriled glove and a note.

>x glove
Thin, thin fabric, like black gauze, and between its fingers, which droop twice as long as needed, dangle dozens of tendrils.

>x note
The note is written on damp paper in runny ink which is only barely legible. It reads: "I found this glove down here, which will help you, and this seed for an envelope. I have faith it will somehow find you. There are infinite glories below the statue, all for us to explore. Come meet me. Your friend, Anolelona."

((How lovely! Let's go over to the statue. I think I have an idea of what to do with this glove.))

>take all
There are none at all available!

>take pod
You already have that.

>i
You are carrying:
  a seed-pod (open)
    a tendriled glove
    a note
  a cape
  a crooked hat
  a letter

>w

Great Lawn
This resting place is almost wide enough to allow a ball game (if there were other players), but the ground is lumpy and the tangled blue and purple grass would hide all but the biggest ball. The atmosphere is cool and damp, moving in fitful billows.

North, the ground rises to a high field. South is a cliff's edge, and beyond it, open air. A staircase, chiseled into the cliff's face, zigzags downward.

East, green water flows south over the cliff to fall alongside the stairs. A bridge will let you across.

West is a church-sized heap of cracked rocks. A low passage leads into the heart of the mound.

>n
You hike up the hill, wild air whistling in your ears.

Highland
Throughout these high fields, deposits of polychrome clay have bulged from the soil, then hardened into oblong plaques as long as school buses.

Where the clay hasn't smothered them, blue and purple grass stems flail. The shape of the wind is made known as it flattens and darkens the grass in momentary patterns.

There's a little hut to the west, made of woven branches.

South, down a slope, are calmer parts of Lozengy.

Just east, the green river hums. You can barely see its source, a vast reclining statue, far to the northeast.

>n
There's nothing of interest in that direction. Anolelona checked.

>ne
On the long walk through blue and purple hummocks, your mind wanders.

You think of another time you came this way. Anolelona was at your side. Actually, they were running circles around you in excitement, switching directions now and then so each head had the chance to go first.

I've discovered something amazing, they told you, I found a way out of here, the way to what's next. We know what's next, you said, it's the Choirmount, it's the eternal chorus. No! cried Anolelona. Choirmount is a dead end! I mean to keep exploring forever!

By Statue
A red sandstone statue the size of a skyscraper lies here on its back, sunk halfway into the ground like it's on a soft featherbed.

From the statue's ear floods humming green water, the source of the river which runs southwest.

The statue's head, a rough bald bulwark, has a closed door in the middle of its crown, leading northwest.

>open door
You reach toward the door with the hand wearing the tendriled glove. As its tendrils near the sandstone, they begin to vibrate, fluttering around the door's handle, slipping into its keyhole, darting and probing and flailing until the door unlocks with a clunk.

You open the head.

>x door
In the middle of the statue's head is a rectangular door, of the same red sandstone. It's open, revealing only darkness.

>nw
You take one step into the head of the statue, then another.

The air is warm and smells of mold and flowers. Stairs run downward in almost nonsensical profusion, like the bubbled blobs of ice in a frozen waterfall. Somewhere down there, you hear a dry giggle.

Anolelona.

"I'm coming down!" you cry. There is no answer, not yet, but there is plenty of time for that, so much time, all the time.



    *** The End ***
    
((Ah, how sweet. I really love this ending.))