I just want you to know, I did it your way when I made a handful of additions. You were right about the elsifs spiraling out of control. Here is the updated version. :)

sub story {
  my ($source,$magic) = @_;
  my $tab = 3;
  
  my $inc = 0;
  my @sections;
  my @toc;
  while (my $line = <$source>) {
    chomp($line);
    next if !$line;
    
    if ($line =~ /^2/) {
      my ($number,$text) = split(/ /,$line,2);
      push @toc, anchor(textify($text), { href => '#'.idify($text) });
      $inc++;
    }
    
    push @{$sections[$inc]}, $line;
  }

  $inc = 0;
  for my $section (@sections) {
    if ($section) {
      section($tab, sub {
        for my $line (@{$section}) {
          line($tab, $line),     next if $line =~ /^</;
          line($tab, "<$line>"), next if $line =~ /^[bh]r$/;
          $magic->{$1}->(),      next if $line =~ /^&\s+(.*)/;
          blockquote($tab, $1),  next if $line =~ /^bq\s(.*)/;
          item($tab, $1),        next if $line =~ /^\*\s(.*)/;
          item($tab, $2, { value => $1 }), next if $line =~ /^\*(\d+)\
+s(.*)/;
          heading($tab, $1, $2, { id => idify($2) }),    next if $line
+ =~ /^([1-6])\s+(.*)/;
          paragraph($tab, $line, { class => 'author' }), next if $line
+ =~ /^by /;
          paragraph($tab, $line);
        }
      });
    }
    if ($inc == 0 && @toc > 3) {
      section($tab, sub {
        my $class = @toc > 25 ? @toc > 50 ? 'four' : 'three' : 'two';
        my $style = @toc > 50 ? 'font-size:smaller' : undef;
        list($tab, 'u', \@toc, { class => $class, style => $style });
      }, { class => 'contents'} );
    }
    $inc++;
  }
  
#  paragraph($tab,"written by $root_user", { class => 'author' });
}
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