> i
You have with you a quill.

> x sheets
Something about the sheets… ah! You look closer and see a small, round object wrapped up in the sheets. Unwrapping them reveals a wooden ball, about the size of your hand. You pick it up, curious as to why it was wrapped up in the sheets.

> look under bed
You peer under the bed at the area of oppressive darkness. But rather than being the gateway to a nether dimension or something equally unpleasant, it's actually just an area of floor which has not been swept since your untimely demise...
Oh, hang on! What's that?
You crawl under the bed a few inches and find a match. An unused one as well. It looks like one of the servants must have been having a good smoke in here before you were brought back from your tomb. Well, well...
You decide to keep it with you as while you doubt it's possible to kill yourself with a single match, it's certainly worth keeping hold of.

Another wave of disappointment sweeps over you. In theory, this should be the happiest day of your life: you're alive again, free from the clutches of the Grim Reaper and given back to the calling you were born for. But instead you just feel… empty. Being King is a difficult job at the best of times but when you rule over a people who seem to think the idea of negotiating mean burning their neighbouring countries cities to the ground, you're just faced with an even more difficult job. The constant fear of war, of assassination attempts, of poison in every meal you eat…Oh, it's so not good to be back.

> x table
It's elaborately carved from a single block of marble and costs… well, you're a king and not an expert on how much marble tables cost but you imagine you could pay your entire staff's wages for a month or two with a table like this. A pile of papers have been thrown untidily on the table and there is also a bowl of fruit here. There is also an unsightly ink stain on the table (no doubt some clumsy clerk making a mess and then failing to clean it up).

An idea occurs to you. Just for a brief instant. Just fleetingly. Just… an idea.What if you died again? It could happen easily enough. After all, you were assassinated before despite the best efforts of the palace guards to keep you safe. It could certainly happen again. Back to that lovely old tomb with its darkness and dankness and, best of all, no work. No worries. No fears. No nothing. All you have to do is lie there and… do nothing.

> dip quill in ink stain
You dab the quill into the ink, wetting its tip. It is now ready to write with.

The idea has more and more appeal the longer you think about it. Yes. You will kill yourself. You will leave this horrible place behind once more and return to your lovely tomb. Damn Verenor and damn the rest! You did your duty for forty years and that's more than enough for any man. Let your son rule.Now… all you have to do is find a way to kill yourself.

> look under table
Thrown under the table, you find, of all things, a coconut. Puzzled as to why a coconut has been thrown under the small table in your bedchamber, you pick it up.

> read papers
You run your eyes over them, searching for something that takes your fancy.
Several of the papers bear headings that draw your attention:

Q1) Murder Most Foul
Q2) Committing Suicide The Easy Way
Q3) Security Procedures
Q4) Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Apples But Were Afraid To Ask

> q4
You glance at this peculiarly titled paper and read:

'Recently it has come to be known that certain apples are highly poisonous and can be certain to kill anyone eating them in a matter of seconds. Safe apples are generally those of a green, orange, black or red colour. Anything else can be considered fatal if consumed.'

> x bowl of fruit
There are several apples in the bowl, each of a different colour: green, red, orange, purple and black. Now you've never encountered apples anything other than green or red before, but you have to admit that the other colours certainly look different.

> eat purple apple
You take a bite of the apple. Hmmm… not especially tasty but certainly the best apple you've eaten for the past seven ye-
Urk!!!

You give a sudden cry as the poison contained in the apple explodes into your mouth but before you have the chance to do more than think yes, I succeeded in killing myself! the lights go out once more…

[more]

The first thing you see is Verenor's face looming over yours. This isn't the sort of thing you really want to see upon waking and if not for the fact that you have just been resurrected, you suspect the shock might well have killed you.
"Aaraagaahahaha!" you cry.
"Greetings, Your Highness," says Verenor, seemingly not put off by your reaction. "It is good to have you back."
"I was… poisoned," you say, clutching at your throat. You can almost feel the poisoned apple still in there. "The apple…"
"Indeed, Your Highness. It appears that a particularly virulent poison has found its way into a batch of apples and, as such, eating them is potentially fatal. As you have discovered for yourself, Your Highness. Fortunately, the High Arcanist's resurrection skills were equal to the task at hand. Fear not, I have had the delivery boy severely punished."
"The delivery boy? Why? What did he do?"
"Well, Your Highness, he delivered the poison apples."
"But did he know they were poisoned?"
"I doubt it very much, Your Highness."
"But you still had him punished?"
"Of course, Your Highness."
You will never understand Verenor. You order him out.

> eat coconut
You raise the coconut to your mouth and bite into it.
A second later you are dead.

… you hear voices …
… you experience a tugging sensation …
… you feel something being pulled out of you …

You awake.
"Your Highness!" cries Verenor. "It is good to have you back!"
You splutter a bit, still a little disorientated by your death and subsequent return, and struggle to regain your bearings. It seems you are in your bedchamber once more.
"Verenor," you gasp, feeling like death (which is quite apt as it happens). "What… happened?"
"A foul assassination attempt, Your Highness," says Verenor, face grave. "The coconut you ate was laced with a fell poison that delivered you once more into the realm of the dead; fortunately it was a simple matter for the High Arcanist to send the Grim Reaper from you and return you to life once more, Your Highness. Rest assured, the cook and his apprentices have been duly punished."
"Punished?" You recall the coconut and frown. "But that coconut had been lying there for months. Years even. Most likely Gadrian dropped it during the time he originally killed me."
Verenor nods. "Indeed, Your Highness. That was also the conclusion myself and the High Arcanist reached. But as Gadrian is not here to be punished, we had the cook and his apprentices killed instead. If there is nothing more you require from me, Your Highness, I shall depart and oversee their burial in unholy ground."
You order him out.

> e

LABORATORY

You look around at your laboratory, noticing that little has changed in the years since you last used it. Your collection of scrolls are still stored on the shelf over the desk; your trunk (a wooden monstrosity purchased from a travelling merchant years before) rests in the corner; the alchemical table, where you practised your experiments, is as overloaded with potions as it ever was. And there, in the middle of the floor, is the very same pentagram you drew when you first assumed the mantle of kingship. Doorways lead west to your bedchamber and north to your throne room.

> read scrolls
You take a look at some of them and decide to read individual ones instead of all of them together:

A1) Call Down The Wrath Of The Gods.
A2) Demon Summonation.
A3) Explosions & Mayhem In The Modern World.
A4) Flower Arranging.

> a1
You peruse the scroll and see the following:

'Calling down the wrath of the Gods is a dangerous enterprise indeed and many are the foolish people who have endeavoured to achieve this and become utterly destroyed as a result. Many things must be done to call down the wrath of the High Ones: the area must be purified; the one calling down the wrath must be holy of both mind and spirit; then, and only then, must the Words of Power be uttered. These Words are-'

Here the scroll is torn.

> open trunk
You open your trunk, expecting to see an item of great personal value... and instead see a fuse.

Hmmm. You guess all the items of great personal value must have been removed while you were dead and unable to do anything about it. Well, you take the fuse anyway because there's no point in leaving it lying in the bottom of a trunk.

> x potions
These are dangerous potions, each and every last one of them. The deadliest assassins in the land probably have use potent stuff on their victims than what is contained in these potions. Even picking them up is considered tantamount to an invitation for peril and misfortune to come over the carrier. The potions, from left to right along the table, are red, green, purple, white and black. Aside from the difference in colours, they appear uniform in appearance.

> drink green potion
You take a sip from the green potion. At first it tastes of nothing, then a faint powdery taste creeps in, then it tastes of aniseed, then it starts to burn your throat and then, finally, your head explodes!

[more]



You have a headache. This is surprising because the last thing you were aware of was that you didn't even have a head. But, apparently, you now have a head again. And, worse, it's aching.
It seems you're alive again.
"Welcome back, Your Highness," says Verenor, standing at the side of your bed. "It is good to have you back."
You reach up gingerly and touch your face. It feels intact.
"The potion," you say. Your words come out sounding far too much like your own for you to entertain any real hope that you might be dead after all. "It exploded. My head exploded."

"Yes, Your Highness. It seems you were force fed one of your very own exploding potions. This behaviour on the behalf of the palace guards is unacceptable and I have had them thoroughly disciplined for allowing such a thing to happen."
You start to point out that you drank the potion of your own volition but your High Chancellor only hears what he wants to hear and that you tried to kill yourself is definitely not what he would want to hear.
"I shall leave you to recover your wits, Your Highness," says Verenor and departs.

> e

LABORATORY
You look around at your laboratory, noticing that little has changed in the years since you last used it. Your collection of scrolls are still stored on the shelf over the desk; your trunk (a wooden monstrosity purchased from a travelling merchant years before) rests in the corner; the alchemical table, where you practised your experiments, is as overloaded with potions as it ever was. And there, in the middle of the floor, is the very same pentagram you drew when you first assumed the mantle of kingship. Doorways lead west to your bedchamber and north to your throne room.

> drink purple potion
The potion feels unpleasantly hot to the touch, although you can tell that drinking it would not kill you. However, the idea occurs to you that if you have found anything that might need heating up, this potion could well do the trick.

> stand in pentagram
As you step into the centre of the pentagram, you experience an unpleasant sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. At the same time, something groans and seems to break free of its prison within the pentagram and fly away towards the ceiling. You can see it only vaguely, as a translucent shadow, before it disappears into the very ceiling itself.

> x ceiling
Of the strange creature that fled into the ceiling you can see no sign but the ceiling itself is marred with cracks, no doubt a remnant from all your experiments over the years. It's a miracle the whole thing has never come crashing down on you before now.

> x cracks
The cracks cover the entire ceiling and while some are little more than a few millimetres wide, several are inches thick and look like they are on the verge of collapsing. Hmmm… You wonder at the possibility of a well aimed throw with some item bringing the entire ceiling down.

> throw wooden ball at cracks
You throw the wooden ball. It hits the cracks in the ceiling and then drops back down into your hand. The ceiling groans - quite an audible groan as it happens - but remains in place. Maybe another go will do it.

> throw wooden ball at cracks
A second time the ball bounces off the ceiling and a second time the ceiling groans.
Louder this time.
But, frustratingly, the ceiling remains intact.

> throw wooden ball at cracks
The balls bounces off the ceiling and drops back down into your hand. But the ceiling, as before, does not collapse. Maybe it's not going to collapse at all. Or maybe…

And then the ceiling falls on you!

[more]

"Ah, Your Highness," says the ever dulcet tones of your High Chancellor. "It is good to have you back."
You groan almost as loud as the ceiling groaned when it collapsed on top of you.
"The… ceiling…" you say, staring up at the ceiling above you which looks alarmingly intact. A lot more intact than it did a short while ago.
Verenor follows your gaze and nods. "The High Constructionist did an excellent job on the ceiling, Your Highness. The cracks have been shored up so that the possibility of it ever collapsing again is zero. But do not concern yourself, Your Highness. The builder who did such shoddy work has been severely punished."
You suppress a groan.
"It was for the best, Your Highness," says Verenor. "By the time his charred remains have cooled down, I suspect this whole sorry incident might well be put behind us."
You offer him a brief nod - indicative of precisely nothing - and he leaves you alone.

> n

THRONE ROOM

This large room is open to the sky (and a real pain in the rainy season) to allow the majesty of the heavens to shine down upon you when you meet with important delegates. Your throne is set on a raised pedestal in the centre of the room and fairly glistens in the light from the overhead sun. The crown jewels themselves gleam in their display cases; each is worth a small kingdom and together they account for the largest amount of wealth in the known world. Southwards leads back to your laboratory while a smaller corridor leads away to the north and the rest of the royal palace.

> call guards
You let out a yell. A moment later a guard's voice calls: "yus, Your Highness?"
"Come in here, man!" you call. "I can't hold a conversation like this."
"It's against the High Chuncellor's orders, Your Highness! He said it wus a head-chopping offence to be present in the same room as Your Highness, Your Highness."
"But that's-" Ridiculous? Well, it is. But it's also the sort of thing you could well imagine Verenor decreeing, particularly after your assassination at the hands of Gadrian the assassin who got to within striking distance of you by posing as a common servant.
You sigh. "Very well," you call.
"What do yus want, Your Highness?" calls the servant.
What indeed?

1) I want some reading materials.
2) Bring me a weapon. Something really deadly.
3) How about a visit from some of my family.
4) I need to see Verenor.

> 1
"At unce, Your Highness!" cries the guard with the strange speech impediment.
Everything goes quiet for a few minutes then you hear the sound of footsteps and a moment later several items are thrown into the room.
"You could have walked in and dropped them there," you call testily.

"It is against urders, Your Highness!" calls the guard. "The High Chancellor has threatened to flay the flesh from the bones of anyone who dares set foot in the presence of Your Highness whilst delivering reading materials."
You have to hand it to Verenor. He certainly covers all the angles.

> get all
You take the tatty parchment, the mouldy parchment and the scabby parchment.

> read tatty parchment
The title of this parchment reads Kaboom! and it seems to detail precisely the steps needed to be followed to successfully build an explosive device. It seems gunpowder, a barrel, a fuse and a match must be gathered together and then the magic words - which look to be "make bomb" - are uttered and what happens next is pretty much the title of the parchment. It advises people of a nervous disposition to stand well clear and, preferably, to wear clothes that are blood red in colour.

> read mouldy parchment
You quickly peruse the parchment and find that it is, of all things, a coupon for ordering goods. There are six rows of items available, although the coupon only entitles you to three of them. It looks like you need to put a tick in the box next to the item you want then give it to the guards and they will fetch whatever you have ticked. A glance down the coupon lists: 1) vial of fiery poison (guaranteed to kill a man in five seconds flat or your money back); 2) some gunpowder; 3) a barrel; 4) a figurine of Yandalla the High Priestess; 5) an extra coupon; 6) a genie in a bottle.
At the moment, none of the boxes are ticked.

> tick box 1
You put a tick in box 1.

> tick box 2
You put a tick in box 2.

> tick box 3
You put a tick in box 3.

> give parchment to guards
You throw the coupon out into the corridor and hear the sounds of a guard scrambling for it.
"This shull be delivered immediately, Your Highness!" he calls and the sound of someone running off echoes briefly along the corridor. It seems all you can do now is wait.

> wait
Three items come flying into the room. You start to berate the guards for being so careless with your belongings but realise that they are simply obeying Verenor's wishes. Sighing, you bend down to see what you have had delivered.

> get all
You take the gunpowder, the barrel and the vial of fiery poison.

> drink fiery poison
You raise the vial to your lips and - could it really be this easy? you wonder - gulp it down in one go. Then you prepare yourself for the inevitable doom that is even now creeping its way along your veins, pulsing around your heart, clogging up your lungs, corroding…

A minute later you're still alive. And not because Verenor has once again had the High Arcanist bring you back to life but simply because you never died. Annoyed, you look carefully at the vial, not empty, and notice the words on the bottom: "best before end 1287".
8 years ago!
Of all the cursed luck!

> call guards
"Whut can I do for you, Your Highness?" calls the guard.

1) I want some reading materials.
2) Bring me a weapon. Something really deadly.
3) How about a visit from some of my family.
4) I need to see Verenor.

> 3
There is a brief, whispered discussion and then: "I can ask if the Prince Toromin has a few moments to spare if you luke, Your Highness."
"What about my wife?" you call.
"She is… otherwise enguged, Your Highness!" is the reply.
Ah. It seems that your darling wife, the jewel of your eye, the love of your life, the shining light of your heart, is dead drunk. Well…
"Send Prince Toromin to me then," you order.

[more]


A few minutes later a small object comes flying into the chamber. At the same time, there is an agonised squeal (although you're not entirely sure where it came from). You pick the item up, noticing that it is a ring.
"This doesn't look like Toromin," you say, staring at the ring. "He was taller than this. More man-like. I'm sure of it."
--put me on-- comes a voice speaking in your mind.
Confused you do.
--greeting, father-- says the voice. --it is I. Toromin--
"Toromin," you say. "What are you doing in that ring?"
--it's a communications device, father. High Chancellor Verenor believes it might be dangerous for us to be seen together in case assassins strike. Separate we are safer. Supposedly anyway, but being thrown onto the floor like that was painful to say the least--
"You can feel things even though you're not in the ring?"
--unfortunately it seems so. Verenor thought it might teach me to be more careful. What is it you wish, father?--
You bite down the urge to threaten to throttle Verenor but realise he might have a good point. After all, it was here, seven years ago, that Gadrian the assassin killed you. The last thing you want is a similar event occurring, and with the added nightmare of your son being present.
"Well, son," you say. "It's like this…"

AA) I want you to abdicate. You're not up to the task of ruling this great nation of ours.
BB) Tell me about yourself, son. What have you done in my absence?
CC) I need you to grow up and start acting responsibly, Toromin. You're the boss now. You need to start acting like it.
DD) Toromin, just out of curiosity… do you know any good ways to die?

> smash ring
Acting on a hunch, you bend down and bash the ring onto the floor. At once there is a terrified scream-
--OOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
"Sorry, son," you say. "Did that hurt?"
--good grief, father! Have you any idea how painful that was? Oh, my head is splitting! What did you do that for?

> cc
"Toromin," you say, "it's time to start acting like a man and not like a boy."
--but I don't want-
You raise the ring as if considering bashing it on the floor again.
--NO! Not that! Okay, okay, maybe I was neglecting my duties just a tad. I mean, I can understand that some people were probably a bit miffed that I went off to the theatre while the barbarian hordes were invading but it was a good play- Okay, okay! Stop making the threatening hand gestures! I'll reform! I'll… er… I'll do whatever it is people in my position are supposed to do-
"Rule," you suggest.
--yes, that. I'll even ask Verenor for help if you want. You have my word on that. But don't threaten the ring again. I'm not good with anything that's not good for me.
You're not entirely sure whether Toromin's word is enough but it's the best you're going to get. Satisfied that you have turned your wayward son around, you throw the ring back to the guards.

> s
As you leave the throne room, your ears prick up at a sound. You hesitate, listening for it again, but hear nothing.

> listen
You listen again. This time, you detect the sound of someone moving around in your apartments. Verenor? A servant or guard?
Or someone else?
You had best be careful. Unpleasant visions of what happened in this very room seven years ago spring to mind and eager to die again though you may be, you don't particularly want it to be at the hands of an assassin like Gadrian. Not to mention the fact that the death he sent you to was hardly a permanent one.

> s
LABORATORY
You look around at your laboratory, noticing that little has changed in the years since you last used it. Your collection of scrolls are still stored on the shelf over the desk; your trunk (a wooden monstrosity purchased from a travelling merchant years before) rests in the corner; the alchemical table, where you practised your experiments, is as overloaded with potions as it ever was. And there, in the middle of the floor, is the very same pentagram you drew when you first assumed the mantle of kingship. Doorways lead west to your bedchamber and north to your throne room.

You step into your laboratory, eyes wide for the telltale signs of an intruder. You notice nothing out of the ordinary but sense a presence in your bedchamber to the west.
There is someone in there!

> call guards
You call for the palace guards and they come running.
"Assassin!" you tell them. "In my bedchamber!"
"Leave the swine to us, Your Highness!" the captain of the guard. "We'll make mincemeat of him!"
They rush into your bedchamber and there comes the sound of a tremendous fight taking place which lasts for several minutes. You keep well clear of the whole unpleasant incident.
The guards emerge after everything has fallen quiet. Several of them look bloodied but they are at least in one piece which is more than can be said for the poor unfortunate they are carrying between them.
"He resisted arrest, Your Highness," says the captain of the guard. "And so it was decided to use force." He has the decency to at least wince. "Quite a bit of force as it happens…"
"It was entirely necessary in the circumstances, Your Highness," says Verenor, appearing at your shoulder. "And we did recover these from the corpse of the assassin."
He hands you a knife and a leaf.
"The purpose of the knife is evident, Your Highness," Verenor says, "but the leaf is perhaps more puzzling. Would you like to keep them as a reminder of your victory over the foul assassin, Your Highness?"
You start to explain that you didn't actually do anything aside from call the palace guards but decide in the end to keep quiet, take the knife and the leaf, and let Verenor and the guards depart, the dead body of the assassin carried between them.

> stab yourself with knife
Having decided that life no longer holds any appeal for you, you raise the knife, grit your teeth, offer up a short prayer to whatever God it is that watches over kings about to commit suicide, then plunge the knife into your stomach.
It HURTS!!!!
Dear merciful God, it hurts!
While you guess you shouldn't be surprised by this - after all, you have just stabbed a knife into your body - you are still surprised by just how much it hurts. No wonder no one ever tries this sort of thing twice…
But finally - finally! - you see everything start to go dark, you feel a rushing wind, you see a tunnel and a light at the end of it and-

[more]



You come to, lying on your bed.
"Ah… hell," you mutter.
"It is good to have you back, Your Highness," says Verenor, who, quite predictably, is standing by the side of the bed, wearing an expression of joy that you have once more been brought back from beyond the veil of death. "Rest assured, the culprits behind this unfortunate incident have been severely punished."
"Punished…" You shake your head, trying to clear the fog. Returning from the grave kind of disorientates you. "Who did you punish, Verenor?"
"Why, the guards, Your Highness," replies your High Chancellor, seeming quite surprised at the question. "For their terrible lack of discipline in letting the assassin into your chambers."
"Assassin?"
"The one who stabbed you, Your Highness."
"But I stabbed myself, Verenor!"
The High Chancellor nods. "Indeed, Your Highness. It is good that you seek to protect your citizenry, even the ones who attempt to kill you in such a foul manner, but I am not gifted with the same kind of God-like forgiveness that you are. I have seen the guards punished and, I dare say, the assassin will soon follow a similar route."
You sigh. "The assassin who doesn't exist?"
"Quite, Your Highness. When the High Torturer is finished with him, he will, indeed, not exist."
You order Verenor out before he can start going into the details.

> s
BALCONY
At one time you always found the balcony to be a lethal contraption, bolted as it is onto the side of the palace by bolts which you are sure are a little on the thin side. A drop of some fifty feet (calculated at just slightly further than a spear can be thrown by a strong man) below you is Steinmaster Plaza, the heart of the city. Back to the north is your bedchamber.
You avoided the balcony as often as you could during your reign. Despite Verenor's assurances that the fifty foot distance between here and the ground was too far for anybody to stand a chance of throwing a spear at you, you were always a little hesitant to put that to the test.

> make bomb
You put the gunpowder in the barrel, poke the fuse into the side and strike the match.
"If a more certain way of killing myself exists, I've not come across it," you say and lower the burning match to the fuse.

BOOM!!!!!

[more]



You blink.
It's not a nice blink. It means, for starters, that you are still alive. But how? How? You blew yourself up. You-
"Welcome back, Your Highness," says High Chancellor Verenor, standing in his usual place at the side of your bed. "It is good to have you back."
You suppress a groan. "How did you bring me back, High Chancellor?"
"It was fortunate indeed, Your Highness. It seems some foul miscreant - who I assure you has been punished to the full extent of our ability to punish miscreants - had smuggled some kind of explosive device into the palace."
You nod for him to go on.
"Good fortunate was with us, Your Highness, as it seems the miscreant who devised the explosive device was a blithering idiot."
You wince but nod again for him to continue.
"Indeed. Little did the blithering idiot miscreant realise, Your Highness, that gunpowder such as that is completely inadequate to destroy a human body. So while you did die, Your Highness, it was a simple matter for the High Arcanist to bring you back."
You offer a grumbled thanks to the High Arcanist and order Verenor out.

> s

BALCONY
The explosion has pretty much put paid to the balcony and while it still clings precariously to the side of the palace, anyone with a wish to live really would be heading back inside right now. A drop of some fifty feet (calculated at just slightly further than a spear can be thrown by a strong man) below you is Steinmaster Plaza, the heart of the city. Back to the north is your bedchamber.

> jump
You climb up onto the balcony, give a cry of "goodbye, cruel world!" and throw yourself off into space.

Your body is discovered, so you are told, by a couple of passersby, one of whom got a substantial bruise on his head from where you landed on him. After running around in a frenzied panic for a few moments, they came to their senses and ran to inform the palace guards of what had occurred. High Chancellor Verenor came himself and had your corpse carted inside the palace. He then had one of the passersby hung for daring to touch the royal presence and the other hung for not stopping the first passerby from touching the royal presence.

This was all related to you by the High Chancellor after you were brought back from the dead.
"Those responsible have been punished, Your Highness," says Verenor. "Rest assured, their heads are even now adorning the Avenue of Kings aloft wooden spikes."
"But I threw myself off the balcony, Verenor!" you protest. "Those poor fellows didn't do a thing!"
Verenor nods. "Indeed, Your Highness. It is most gracious of you to try and protect those despicable scoundrels despite their deplorable actions. Perhaps a visit to the Avenue to gaze upon their severed heads would be an amusing diversion…"
You order Verenor out.

> e

LABORATORY
You look around at your laboratory, noticing that little has changed in the years since you last used it. Your collection of scrolls are still stored on the shelf over the desk; your trunk (a wooden monstrosity purchased from a travelling merchant years before) rests in the corner; the alchemical table, where you practised your experiments, is as overloaded with potions as it ever was. And there, in the middle of the floor, is the very same pentagram you drew when you first assumed the mantle of kingship. Doorways lead west to your bedchamber and north to your throne room.

> put leaf in purple potion
The moment the leaf touches the potion, it emits a horrid, choky smell which quickly fills the laboratory. You gasp, splutter, cough, retch and shudder. All to no avail.
A minute later your corpse is lying stretched out on the floor.

[more]



But not, it seems, for long.
"It is good to have you back, Your Highness," says the voice of Verenor.
You open your eyes. It doesn't come as any great surprise to find that you are still alive. Or, rather, that you have been returned to life once more. It seems the High Arcanist is certainly getting a fair amount of practice at his art recently due to your deathly endeavours.
"I take it certain people have been punished, Verenor," you say with a sigh.
The High Chancellor nods. "Several of the palace guards for allowing whoever it was who poisoned you into the palace; some serving girls; one of the cooks; and some fellow who was passing by the palace at the moment you died and, thus, immediately became a suspect. Rest assured, Your Highness, none of them shall make an attempt on your life again."
Cursing bitterly, you order Verenor out so you can be alone with your thoughts.

> e

LABORATORY
You look around at your laboratory, noticing that little has changed in the years since you last used it. Your collection of scrolls are still stored on the shelf over the desk; your trunk (a wooden monstrosity purchased from a travelling merchant years before) rests in the corner; the alchemical table, where you practised your experiments, is as overloaded with potions as it ever was. And there, in the middle of the floor, is the very same pentagram you drew when you first assumed the mantle of kingship. Doorways lead west to your bedchamber and north to your throne room.

> x desk
Your desk hunches beneath the shelf, appearing almost as if it is trying to hide itself away from prying eyes. It is a shoddy, battered little thing - the unfortunate result of its close proximity to your alchemical projects. When things that tend to go 'boom' go 'kaboom' in a most explosive manner, anything nearby is likely to not remain in mint condition for long. But you have fond memories of your desk. In the sole remaining drawer is stored your journal. Resting atop the desk is a bowl filled with holy water.

> drink holy water
You sip some holy water and immediately feel purified of mind and spirit.

> fill vial with holy water
You fill the vial with holy water.

> n

THRONE ROOM
This large room is open to the sky (and a real pain in the rainy season) to allow the majesty of the heavens to shine down upon you when you meet with important delegates. Your throne is set on a raised pedestal in the centre of the room and fairly glistens in the light from the overhead sun. The crown jewels themselves gleam in their display cases; each is worth a small kingdom and together they account for the largest amount of wealth in the known world. Southwards leads back to your laboratory while a smaller corridor leads away to the north and the rest of the royal palace.

> sprinkle holy water
You sprinkle the holy water on the floor of the throne room, thus cleansing the area of any harmful influences.

> say the words of power
You invoke the ritual to call down the wrath of the Gods upon you. The sky above you flickers with storm clouds and then a face - a huge, God-like face - can be seen up there. You have a moment's grace in the viewpoint of one of the celestial beings and then a bolt from the blue comes tearing down upon you.

"What do you mean," comes the ghostly voice of Verenor, your High Chancellor, "he can't be resurrected? Why, there's almost a bucketful left of him!"
"Indeed," comes the equally ghostly voice of the High Arcanist, "but resurrection here is a feat beyond my means."
You view all this from your vantage point near the ceiling where your current out of body experience is underway. Only this time you don't think you'll be going back.
A bucketful was a bit generous.
"Well…" Verenor prods what's left of you. "I guess it can't be helped. I was quite devastated when I first heard what had happened - struck down by the Gods of all things! - but I'm relieved that Prince - or, rather, King - Toromin seems to finally be assuming his royal duties. I doubt he shall be an adequate replacement for his father but he should suffice."
His words reassure you that while you won't be doing any ruling yourself, at least you have managed to leave a reasonable replacement in your stead.
Satisfied that everything has gone according to plan, you fade away.

An ending to be sure - and the best one in the game to boot! You brought your wayward son around and succeeded in well and truly killing yourself in such a way that you can never be resurrected again. Well done!