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From above and behind you, you hear a metallic "THUNK." Since you feel like you may still be alive, that may have been the correct lever.\n<<set $ladderdown to "yes">>\n<<display "In the cave">>

<<set $haveorb to "no">>You offer the lady the tongs by the handles, but she easily grabs the crystal in her bare hands. The silver chain whips off of her waist, out of the water, and then coils slowly around the crystal itself. The chain twists into a malevolent shape, an altar for the fire crystal.\n<<set $nagafree to "yes">>\nThe lady slithers out of the bath.\n\n"Oh my," she says, "I was going to just give you the key, but now I'm soooo hungry." she licks her lips and wraps her tail around your throat. Just as you begin to panic, she lets go, takes off her necklace, and hands it to you. <<set $havekey to "yes">>\n\n"Just kidding. Have you seen the meat in the kitchen?" she asks. You nod; you have. Their stockpile was impressive.\n\n[[GO GET THAT TREASURE!|Up the stairs]]

The boulder stays in place. Maybe you misheard?<<display "Outside actions">>

For many years, Ali Baba and his band of thieves have stolen all the treasures in the land. With a stroke of luck, you happened upon his band last night, and silently followed them home.\n\nOnce you reached their hideout, you decided to wait until they left the next morning. After a long, hot day in the desert sun, you finally hear their stone door open, and Ali Baba lead his men out.\n<<nobr>>\n<<set $sesameopen = "no">>\n<<set $noticed = "no">>\n<<set $haddinner = "no">>\n<<set $havekey = "no">>\n<<set $ladderdown = "no">>\n<<set $gemfound = "no">>\n<<set $nagafree = "no">>\n<<set $haveorb = "no">>\n<<set $nagafriendship = 0>>\n<<set $nagaquest = "no">>\n<<endnobr>>\n\n<<display 'Outside the cave'>>

Laughing, you take the key and leave. She mutters curses at you as you head back to unlock Ali Baba's door.\n[[Go get that treasure!|Up the stairs]]

You blindly walk down the dark path. Presumably there is a bend in the path to keep those less brave than yourself from seeing the well-lit parts of the hideout, where they keep the treasure, right?\n\nWrong. As you pass into the pitch-black part of the cave, your feet discover a sudden, steep slope, heading down. You attempt to steady yourself, but this slope is also apparently oiled up. You careen down for what feels like hours (and is barely a couple of seconds in reality), before landing on the back wall of the cave.\n\nWhich has been decorated in long, iron blades.\n\nYou die slowly, bleeding out at the bottom of a pitch-black cave, among a few dozen other skeletons.

You follow the hallway, wary of any traps that might be set along the way. You eventually reach the room at the end of the hall.\n<<if $haveorb is "no">>\nThis particular room is lavish, with gilded marble columns, statues of nude women, and an actual nude woman bathing in a steaming bath on the other side. Her breasts are perfectly round, quivering, shimmering from the steam, her skin looks as smooth as silk, her hair is long and black and she has eyes of some color. Probably brown.\n\nShe sees you approach, but pays you no mind. She doesn't even bother to lower her chest below the water, even though you can't appear to remove your eyes from her bosom.\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>\n<<elseif $haveorb is "yes">>You approach the bath, holding the crystaly by the tongs.\n\n"Very nice," the lady says. "Give it to me."\n<<display 'Naga negotiation'>><<endif>>

"You may call me a Naga, if you must," she says.\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>

"That's funny. I have something similar," she says, confusing you briefly. A giant snake's tail whips out of the water and grabs you by the ankle, pulling you into the bath. As the tail wraps around you and holds you underwater, you see that the woman is a snake from the waist down.\n\nThis doesn't matter much to you; you're simultaneously being drowned and crushed to death, but at least now you understand her joke.

You wait. Nothing happens. As tends to happen when you wait around.\n<<display "Outside actions">>

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There's basically one path. You can't see to the end of the cave, <<if $sesameopen is "yes">>even with the light from outside.<<else>>but you can still kind of see your immediate surroundings, so there must be light coming from somewhere.<<endif>>\n<<actions "Walk down the dark cave" "Check the walls" "Check the ceiling" "Close Sesame">>

You are in a circular room. Directly in front of you is a [[staircase|Up the stairs]] going up to a gilded door. To your [[left|Left doorway]] and [[right|Right doorway]] there are other, less majestic doors. You can also see that, behind the staircase, there is another [[hallway|Long hall]] on your level.

<<if $sesameopen is "yes" and $ladderdown is "no">><<set $noticed to "yes">>There's nothing much to see. <<elseif $sesameopen is "no" and $ladderdown is "no">>You can kind of see a little light coming in some cracks that, oddly enough, appear perfectly rectangular. <<elseif $ladderdown is "yes">> A ladder hangs down just within reach.\n[[Go up the ladder]]<<endif>>

"Of course. Only a fool would do anything but leer at me," she says.\n\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>

The ground falls out from beneath you, and you land at the bottom of a pit. The only thing to cushion your landing is a bed of iron spikes.\n\nBefore you pass out from the pain, you check around to see if there's any way up, but there isn't. Only death.\n\nSorry.

"I believe they keep it in the kitchen, somewhere," she says. It's to the right of the central room.\n<<set $nagaquest to "yes">>\n[[Go find the kitchen|Main hall]]

Now that you have the key, part of you is tempted to not let the snake-woman go free.\n\nNah, just kidding, you're better than that (or have, possibly, already seen the results of alternative timelines). You give her the crystal. The silver chain whips off of her waist, out of the water, and then coils slowly around the crystal itself. The chain twists into a malevolent shape, an altar for the fire crystal.\n<<set $haveorb to "no">>\nThe lady slithers out of the bath.\n<<set $nagafree to "yes">>\n"Oh my," she says, "I was going to just give you the key, but now I'm soooo hungry." she licks her lips and wraps her tail around your throat. Just as you begin to panic, she lets go, laughing.\n\n"Just kidding. Have you seen the meat in the kitchen?" she asks. You nod; you have. Their stockpile was impressive.\n\n[[GO GET THAT TREASURE!|Up the stairs]]

The boulder slides gracefully out of the way, leaving the entrance of the hideout completely open.\n<<set $sesameopen to "yes">>\n<<display "Outside the cave">>

This door leads into the kitchen. The big table where the thieves eat during the day is here, too. <<if $haddinner is "no">>Since nobody's around, and you haven't eaten anything, you sit down to make yourself a meal. Part of you may want to do something else, like steal some treasure and get the fuck out of Ali Baba's hideout, but your stomach has already started cooking a nice steak.<<set $haddinner to "yes">><<endif>> <<if $nagaquest is "yes">>You consider the thought that the fire in the stove was burning at just the right temperature, even without having to stoke it, or even set it on fire. You open the stove's doors, and see that, indeed, it is just a very hot crystal. With the help of a nearby pair of tongs, you take it out, and hurry back to the lady. <<set $haveorb to "yes">><<set $nagaquest to "no">><<endif>>\n[[Return to central room|Main hall]]

<<if $havekey is "no">><<actions "Alright, here" "Give me the key first">><<elseif $havekey is "yes">><<actions "Leave without giving her the crystal" "Honor the bargain">><<endif>>

"Oh, the vault is somewhere off of Ali Baba's room," she says. She briefly touches her necklace. She then takes a moment to move her breasts so you can see the golden key hanging between them.\n\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>

You are at the bottom of a rocky valley. <<if $sesameopen is "yes">>The rock that hides the entrance to Ali Baba's cave is off to the side, leaving an open cave mouth.\n[[Enter cave|Cave Entrance]]<<endif>>\n<<if $sesameopen is "no">> Ali Baba's hideout is hidden behind a massive boulder. This morning you witnessed them open it with a pair of words, which makes sense. It's not like you can move that thing out of the way with your bare hands, so why not a magic phrase?\n\nAnyway, now that the thieves have all gone, it's time to do your thing!\n<<display "Outside actions">><<endif>>

The wall slides down into the floor.\n\nFinally, the holy grail! All of the treasure Ali Baba has ever sto--\n\nOh, holy shit, he's actually got the Holy Grail in here.\n\nYup, a whole lot of treasure. You begin stuffing all of it into the sack you brought, until you find a jewel-encrusted cart made of gold, and start loading things into that, and then remember that you had to climb a ladder to get in here, and you couldn't possibly carry a cart made of pure gold down a ladder.\n\nAnd then you realize that the cart had to get in here somehow, so you go back to loading things into the cart, and plan to find another way out.\n\n"Aha!" cries a man's voice from the entrance to the treasure room. You turn around; Ali Baba's here. Along with all his thieves. "You are quite ingenious to have made it this far, but I'm afraid I can't let you leave with all of that."\n<<nobr>><<if $nagafree is "no">>\nYou try to grin as innocently as possible.\n\n"In fact, I only let you get this far because I suspected you would be a good recruit," he says, smiling back. The grin switches to a frown, and he draws his scimitar. "Unfortunately, I have no room for a man who would break his promises so easily, much less a man who would gladly leave a beautiful woman, even one as monstrous as our naga, chained up in the bath."\n\nHe removes your head with one clean stroke.\n<<endif>><<endnobr>><<if $nagafree is "yes">>\nYou try to appear as innocent as possible.\n\n"Oh, don't worry, young man," Ali Baba says. "I only let you get this far as a test. I've been looking for a new recruit, and you followed us home at just the right time. What do you say?"\n\nYou stare, befuddled.\n\n"It was a little hard to convince the naga to chain herself up like that," Ali says with pride, "but it was the best way to test your character. We're all friends here, and since you've made it this far, please come join us. Make it an even forty."\n\nWhat else can you say?\n\n[[I'll join up.|The end]]\n<<endif>>

<<if $sesameopen is "yes" and $noticed is "yes">>You pull yourself up the ladder, but someone pulls you down. Apparently, somebody came back a little early. The thief, with impeccable skill, slices your head off before you even manage to touch the ground. In the final seconds before you die, you are able to admire the fine craftsmanship of the man's scimitar. <<elseif $sesameopen is "no" and $noticed is "yes">>As you pull yourself up the ladder, you hear the rumble of the boulder moving aside. Your hope that you can still escape, and that none of the thieves saw the opened sesame before you close it are dashed as arrows fly into your legs. You pull yourself up the ladder, but more arrows fly up the hole and into you. But even through the pain, your arms still manage.\n\nJust before you reach the light at the top of the hole, you are hit directly in the testicles. This level of pain is so great that you can no longer keep a grip on the ladder. You fall. <<else>> You climb up the ladder, and reach [[Ali Baba's true hideout|Main hall]].<<endif>>

<<nobr>><<set $nagafriendship += 1>><<endnobr>>\n"You see, darling, that mean old king of thieves keeps me chained up in here," she says. A giant snake's tail lazily pops out of the steaming bath and waves at you. "Apparently, I'm very, very dangerous." She pulls up and out of the water, so you can see the long, silver chain wrapped around her waist and leading to a statue just on the other side of the bath. "It's so inconvenient."\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>

You find a long room with beds arranged against the walls, with ratty old blankets and personal trinkets belonging to the thieves. You rummage through the thieves' personal belongings for a bit, before determining that there is nothing of value. The treasures must be kept elsewhere, since you'd have to be an idiot to keep anything worth money in a room full of thieves.\n\n[[Return to the central room|Main hall]]

You huff and your puff and you push and nearly kill yourself trying to do something you know is pointless. You've been waiting in a barren desert valley all day, with no breakfast, lunch or dinner! And you're pretty sure a rock like this would be too heavy to move even if you'd been in a cool place, feasting all day.\n<<display "Outside actions">>

You walk up the stairs, to the big gilded door. <<if $havekey is "no">>It's locked. You can at least look through the keyhole, where you see a very fancy bed. This must be Ali Baba's room.[[Go back|Main hall]]<<elseif$havekey is "yes">>You put the key in the keyhole, and the door swings open as if by magic. Even though it's got a knob. Somebody here must have a thing for magic doors. [[Enter Ali Baba's Room|Ali's Room]]<<endif>>

This appears to be a simple, dark, cave. Made completely by nature. If you didn't know better, you'd expect it to only house terrifying animals. <<display "In the cave">>

"What?" she asks. You repeat yourself, stating (and I'm paraphrasing here) that you can't be absolutely sure you can trust her, since she is a snake-woman, after all.\n\n"Well... fine," she says. She takes off the necklace with the key, and tosses it to you.\n<<set $havekey to "yes">>\n<<display 'Naga negotiation'>>

<<if $sesameopen is "yes">><<set $noticed to "yes">><<endif>> There's not much around, except you can feel a couple of loose stones stuck in the rock, right next to each other, on a horizontal axis. With a close look, you can just make out their shapes. Both look kind of like birds in flight, but one has the [[beak pointing up|Upward lever]], and the other has the [[beak pointing down|Downward lever]].

<<set $sesameopen to "no">>Smart move. You speak the phrase that closes the door. The boulder slides back into place, leaving you in the dark. If the sun weren't setting, and you weren't in a cave on the bottom of a valley, this might be stupid, but at least now you don't have to worry about anyone who might come back early.\n\n<<display "In the cave">>

<<nobr>><<set $nagafriendship +=1>><<endnobr>>\n"This chain was once made to hold back a crystal of pure fire. If you get it back from where Ali Baba put it, and give it to me, the chain will let me go," she says.\n<<display 'Naga conversation'>>

Ali Baba's room is... magnificent. You have never seen into the palace of a sultan, but you have imagined them. Ali Baba's room makes the sultan's palace of your imagination look like the shack you grew up in. And you're pretty sure the sultan's palace of your imagination would make a real sultan feel like he lived in the shack you grew up in.\n\nYour childhood was not happy, needless to say. Why else would you be here?\n\nGold and silk adorn everything. Despite being in an underground cave, there is a pond filled with fish, and sunlight, and palm trees woven together to hang veils over the thief king's bed. A bed which could easily hold twenty people.\n\nStill, you're here to take things that aren't nailed down, and all the gold and jewels in this room are, decidedly, nailed down, stuck tightly in marble and stone and other gold, silver and jewels.\n\nYou find, to your left, a golden wall. Windows of glass show intricate machinery on the interior. In the middle, there is a circular pattern showing a map of the night sky, with each constellation of the zodiac illustrated. There are three raised orbs with engravings on them forming a triangle around the map, one on top showing an eye, and two on the bottom showing a left and right hand. For some reason, the hands are on the wrong sides.\n\n\nAnd below all of that, right at eye level, is a dial. A lever points straight up, like a clock. Unlike a clock, there are five engravings of animals. Judging by the handle on the lever, you have to pick one...\n\n[[The rabbit!|Treasure room]]\n[[The swan!|Treasure room]]\n[[The elephant!|Treasure room]]\n[[The tiger!|Treasure room]]\n[[The frog!|Treasure room]]\n[[Close your eyes, spin the lever around really fast, and pick at random!|Treasure room]]

Sam B. Hutton

<<actions "Open Sex Me" "Push with your bare hands" "Wait for a while" "Open Sesame">>

You work up the nerve to speak <<if visited() >= 1>>once again <<endif>>to the woman.\n<<actions "Wanna see my trouser snake?" "Where do they keep the treasure?" "What is a beautiful woman like you doing in a place like this?">>\n<<if $nagafriendship >= 1>><<actions "So you are some kind of snake thing?" "How can I free you?" "They treat you with honor, I hope?">><<endif>>\n<<if $nagafriendship >= 2>><<actions "Where can I find it?">><<endif>>

Ali Baba's Cave