You Are In A Maze Of Twisty Little Passages, All Alike (Meta)

madhatter5 challenged me to a forum swap. So this was my attempt at creating a MEOW. MEOWs definitely skew to the difficult side, so I have tried to give you a decent challenge. But I've also noticed that madhatter5 is not afraid to break the "rules" of crossword puzzle conventions. I have therefore followed suit. In fact, in what might be a first in the world of meta crosswords, you will have to solve the meta before you can complete the grid! Consequently, please don't reveal the central entry - you'll definitely spoil the fun. (If you're wondering, the puzzle title is a quote from Colossal Cave, the first text adventure game, which is playable here: https://grack.com/demos/adventure/) Answer and explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=1311&p=74839#p74839

Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!