Gingerly, you climb down the rickety wooden staircase, only to have it collapse as you reach the last step!  The opening to the closet above is now out-of-reach.

A collapsed staircase lays in a heap in this subterranean room beneath the hermit's shack.  The light has a strange, flickering quality, as if two sources of illumination were competing for dominance.   Passageways lead northeast and southwest.

What do you want to do?

>NORTHEAST, SOUTHEAST