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[Tomasque]

 ((Bump.))

[TD1]

>North

Please be Ozymandias, please be Ozymandias

[Tomasque]

Great Desert

 The desert spreads out like a vast road before you. Many paths to take, but only one of them leads back home. You look for landmarks, trails, or signs of your passing, but the endless wind builds and rebuilds the dunes like the fickle creator it is. Unless you can piece together the path you took here, it shall also be the decisive destroyer...

of his town; A kind mirage.
albeit found none
does it hear his call?
to home of distant laughter.
by that lonely one,
His shattered family, sought
That traveler who after
his longest journey,
beneath seizing, sinking sand?
He can, in desert's collage,
Is it there at all
see every instance
He ponders of his homeland
though it seemed to him he ought.
- in the vast distance -
alone, returned he

 ...with a worried glance, you look behind you at the gates of the city to the SOUTH. Perhaps it is not yet time to cross.
>_

[Tomasque]

((Not Ozymendias. Sorry.

       A puzzle, though!))

[TD1]

>South back to city, then south to wilderness

[Tomasque]

Dark City

 You stand in the remains of a city. All around you, wreckages of houses litter the the streets, and broken furniture fills their hollows. The tall buildings still standing point like crooked fingers, as if signalling a dark omen - or the cause of their demise - in the thick heavy cloud that covers the city. Its black visage seems to hold an almost malevolent disposition, and you feel unsafe as you stand in the shadow of this false sky. You endeavor to ignore the thing, and instead look to world around you to distract yourself from its presence. To SOUTH you see a worn path into the wilderness, while to the NORTH lie the city gates - and past them, the Great Desert, a treacherous stretch of sand that some never leave. As you look around to make your decision, your eyes fall on a small building to the EAST, seemingly untouched by whatever cataclysm befell this place. Peculiar.

 POEM: Unknown
>South

Dripping Forest

 Puddles cover the forest floor, and a few lie on the path you stand on. Above you, the autumn branches shake with the wind and let loose small showers onto the damp leaves that seem to cover the ground in every direction. Except for that, there is no sound for miles in the rain-scented air. From the NORTH runs a small road, and splits to the EAST and WEST at the point where you stand.

 You feel the air growing colder as the sun’s warmth weakens. In the sky, the clouds are growing black, blocking the light and casting an ever-darkening shadow over the woods.

 POEM: Unknown
>_

[TD1]

>East

(Hey, isn't this the forest from the start? If not, then Frost's "The Road not Taken")

[Tomasque]

>East

(Hey, isn't this the forest from the start? If not, then Frost's "The Road not Taken")

Yes it is... wait, are you confused because it seems to defy reality somehow? Maybe I got a direction messed up.

Monastery

 Before you stands a large, stone building. The path here is overgrown, covered with ferns and other underbrush, but you can see it lead up to the mossy, cobblestone steps that sit under the engraved DOOR. Above it, the walls rise up to form a single tower - a strange addition to the otherwise flat-topped monastery. Despite your knowledge that it’s walls mean sanctuary, this place puts you at unease, though the featureless stone and silent grasses provide no explanation for your feeling. There is a path to the WEST to take you out of here, and you feel a little better thinking about it.

 To the WEST, the clouds begin to darken. Soon the sky above the forest will be completely black.

 POEM: Unknown
>_

[TD1]

>Go through door

[Tomasque]

Monastery

 Before you stands a large, stone building. The path here is overgrown, covered with ferns and other underbrush, but you can see it lead up to the mossy, cobblestone steps that sit under the engraved DOOR. Above it, the walls rise up to form a single tower - a strange addition to the otherwise flat-topped monastery. Despite your knowledge that it’s walls mean sanctuary, this place puts you at unease, though the featureless stone and silent grasses provide no explanation for your feeling. There is a path to the WEST to take you out of here, and you feel a little better thinking about it.

 To the WEST, the clouds begin to darken. Soon the sky above the forest will be completely black.

 POEM: Unknown
>Go through door
 You try to open the door, but it doesn’t budge. After a brief moment of hesitation, you give the door a sharp knock, and call out for the good measure. However, no one inside answers you, nor bothers to look out from the tower window. You yell again, but only the silence returns your call as it surges softly back.

[TD1]

Okay. If I didn't get what you were shooting at here, I would kill myself and then you. Walter de la Mare, The Listeners. One of my all time favourites.

>Yell "Tell them I came, that I kept my word!"

The above is a joke.

Really:

>Examine engraving

((Can I do that, or is it only things which are capitalised like WEST and DOOR?))

[Tomasque]

((Can I do that, or is it only things which are capitalised like WEST and DOOR?))

((You can examine anything in an area. When something is bolded, all that means is that it leads to a new area. Also, you can't pick up items unless they're underlined, but you haven't come across that, yet.))

Monastery

 Before you stands a large, stone building. The path here is overgrown, covered with ferns and other underbrush, but you can see it lead up to the mossy, cobblestone steps that sit under the engraved DOOR. Above it, the walls rise up to form a single tower - a strange addition to the otherwise flat-topped monastery. Despite your knowledge that it’s walls mean sanctuary, this place puts you at unease,though the featureless stone and silent grasses provide no explanation for your feeling. There is a path to the WEST to take you out of here, and you feel a little better thinking about it.

 To the WEST, the clouds begin to darken. Soon the sky above the forest will be completely black.

 POEM: Unknown
>Go through door
 You try to open the door, but it doesn’t budge. After a brief moment of hesitation, you give the door a sharp knock, and call out for the good measure. However, no one inside answers you, nor bothers to look out from the tower window. You yell again, but only the silence returns your call as it surges softly back.
>Name Walter de la Mare, The Listeners
 Correct.

 "Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grass
Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

 You recognize the engravings on the door - you’ve seen them before, during that fateful night! As the firelight flickered on the invaders’ robes, you saw this symbol sewn into their back. You’re so close to saving them now - you can feel it!
>_

((You ended examining the markings anyway, so I assume you'd want to stop there.))

[TD1]

((Hey, where's my in-game posting of the poem! Poetry for the poetry god! Who is, of course, metaphorical!))

> Climb to window

[Tomasque]

((Hey, where's my in-game posting of the poem! Poetry for the poetry god! Who is, of course, metaphorical!))

Oops. Fixed it.

Monastery

 Before you stands a large, stone building. The path here is overgrown, covered with ferns and other underbrush, but you can see it lead up to the mossy, cobblestone steps that sit under the engraved DOOR. Above it, the walls rise up to form a single tower - a strange addition to the otherwise flat-topped monastery. Despite your knowledge that it’s walls mean sanctuary, this place puts you at unease, though the featureless stone and silent grasses provide no explanation for your feeling. There is a path to the WEST to take you out of here, and you feel a little better thinking about it.

 To the WEST, the clouds begin to darken. Soon the sky above the forest will be completely black.

 POEM: Unknown
>Go through door
 You try to open the door, but it doesn’t budge. After a brief moment of hesitation, you give the door a sharp knock, and call out for the good measure. However, no one inside answers you, nor bothers to look out from the tower window. You yell again, but only the silence returns your call as it surges softly back.
>Name Walter de la Mare, The Listeners
 Correct.

 "Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grass
Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

 You recognize the engravings on the door - you’ve seen them before, during that fateful night! As the firelight flickered on the invaders’ robes, you saw this symbol sewn into their back. You’re so close to saving them now - you can feel it!
>Climb to window
 You run your hand down the smooth stone, but not handholds present themselves. Alas, climbing seems impossible.

[TD1]

>Curse. Go West.