Talk:The Hidden City/Retired

Adventures

Well, I've started spading the adventures for the Hidden City, and listed all the ones I've got so far. -PFC Walker 12:07, 25 June 2007 (CDT)

Beware the Altars!! Putting the wrong thing in the bowl-shaped depression will lose you 3 adventures and give you the effect "Just barely poisoned." 3 Adventures! Also, none of the spheres the protector spirits give you seem to work, even though it feels like they should.

I can at least confirm that the mossy sphere doesn't work with the bulbasaur-god, the smooth sphere doesn't work with the squirtle-god, the cracked and rough spheres do not work with the charmander-god, and the cracked sphere does not work with the pikachu-god.

--Flyingarmadillo 13:08, 25 June 2007 (CDT)

Meh, I can't do pokemon descriptions, but the cracked sphere goes in the one with arms and claws either side, a face at the bottom, and a flower on his head. Image properties indicate Nature for that one. The god of Water takes the rough sphere. Picachu takes the mossy sphere (I Can at least identify that one! :P) and so the pretzel shaped god of Fire takes Smooth.

--Denarius 14:18, 25 June 2007 (CDT)

The above combinations did not work for me. Appears to vary from person to person. --Foobar 18:43, 25 June 2007 (CDT)

Other

Sorry if this is awful, but I want to give complete data of my run for better use later. It's my first serious post, and I'm having trouble formatting things correctly at 4 AM, so be gentle. ~ b.e.

As indicated in correlated discussions, the combinations of spheres to alters differs for each person. I adventured through each "Unexplored" ruin from top to bottom, left to right and uncovered adventures as described in detail below, all in one day (e.g. no rollover between adventures). If you don't like extensive detail, just go to the next comment/ignore me.

Map = text

Key:: $=standard combat; %=non-combat but not "special" (+stats); A=Altar; S=ancient protector spirit (sphere drop); D=Dr. "Dakota"; T=Temple

• $ $ $ $ $
• A A S % $
• $ A % S S
• S % $ T $
• $ $ A D S

Sequence of special events

1. Alter: Squirticthulli > god of water & doorknobs" > image: alter2.gif

• 

2. Alter: Bulbazinalli > god of plants & nature > image: alter4.gif

• 

3. ancient protector spirit > dropped: mossy stone sphere > image: spheremoss.gif

• 

4. Alter: Pikachutlotal > god of lightening & thunder > image: alter1.gif

• 

5. ancient protector spirit > dropped: rough stone sphere > image: sphererough.gif

• 

6. ancient protector spirit > dropped: smooth stone sphere > image: spheresmooth.gif

• 

7. ancient protector spirit > dropped: obsidian dagger > image: obsdagger.gif

• 

8. A Smallish Temple (Mansion House of the Black Friars > image: liltemple.gif

• 

9. Alter: Charcoatl > god of fire & war > image: alter3.gif

• 

10. Doctor "Dakota" (sorry, neglected image recording here).

11. ancient protector spirit > dropped: cracked stone sphere > image: spherecrack.gif

• 

The item drops for the "Dr. Dakota" adventure included both the archaeologist's notebook (a usable quest item) and a cool whip (basic weapon).

Reading (using) my archaeologist's notebook resulted in the following sequence:

Most of the entries in the notebook are either illegal, immoral, or fatte... wait.

Most of the entries in the notebook are either useless, incomprehensible, or disintegrating, but you do find one page with some useful information on it:

Pikachutlotal, god of thunder and lightning

Bulbazinalli, god of plants and nature

Charcoatl, god of fire and war

Squirtlcthulli, god of water and doorknobs"

Attempts to use the stones in combat revealed hints to the correlations of stones to their appropriate alters (sorry, no exact text):

• using moss: red light, flames dealt 8 (hot damage) to enemy
• using rough: blue light, etherial mist regenerated 4 HP
• using smooth: yellow light, lightening, shockwave dealt 8 damage to enemy
• using cracked: green light, vines "restrained" enemy

Considering the above, I attempted the following (and was successful with each):

• moss sphere inserted into the Charcoatl (fire) altar > correct/no turn or poison penalty
• rough sphere inserted into the Squirtlcthulli (water) altar > correct/no turn or poison penalty
• smooth sphere inserted into the Pikachutlotal (lightening) altar > correct/no turn or poison penalty
• cracked sphere inserted into the Bulbazinalli (nature) altar > correct/no turn or poison penalty

At each altar I received one triangular stone () upon inserting the proper sphere.

I then adventured at "A Smallish Temple", text:

Mansion House of the Black Friars

You cut your way through the vines and branches and discover a stone building that appears to be another, smaller temple. The door is an intricately-carved stone slab -- you don't see any obvious way to open it, but closer inspection of the carvings reveals four triangular depressions in the center, as though some parts were missing.

... with the button saying "Place the stone triangles into the carving". I clicked and received the following text:

You carefully socket the four triangular stones into their places in the carving, and step back as the door slowly slides to one side with a loud grinding noise. Cautiously, you peer inside...

The interior is a single large chamber, the walls decorated with elaborate carvings and frescoes showing the four gods of the city raining punishment down upon the wicked (and whatever innocent bystanders happened to be nearby). A large, ornate stone dais stands in the center of the chamber, with a mummy lying in repose atop it.

The figure's elaborate headdress and golden jewelery indicates that he must have been a high priest or something of the sort. A large circular amulet on the mummy's chest particularly draws your attention.

You creep up to the mummy and poke it with your weapon. Nothing happens, so you poke it again, a little more bravely. Nothing happens. Satisfied, you reach for the amulet.

With a shriek of rage, a ghostly, luminescent spectre leaps from the mummy and reaches for your throat with spectral claws.

Uh-oh.

Clicking the linked text at the bottom (the usual "Uh-oh" we know from elsewhere), I began combat:

You're fighting a Protector Spectre

This is the ghost of a mummy of an ancient high priest, which is pretty scary, but not as scary as the ghost of a mummy of an ancient werewolf high priest would be. Man, that'd be terrifying. And if he'd been a vampire before he caught lycanthropy? Wow. ...But I digress.

Anyway, he seems pretty ticked at you for trying to swipe his amulet, and he's expressing this anger by trying to claw out your organs.

You acquire an item: ancient amulet

You acquire an item: spectre scepter

You gain 25 Strengthliness. You gain 56 Mysteriousness. You gain 40 Chutzpah.

(This is the result from a level 14 Sauceror with a multitude of buffs and enhancing equipment, so the stats aren't clean.)

For reference, the images are and . Now, I'm not too sure of the item ID numbers but I hope this works.

Also... When an area already "explored" on the map is seen, the text changes to "Ruins" on the map, but additionally, attempting to adventure specifically in "protector spirit" areas again (when sober) offers the text "This part of the city is awfully unremarkable, now that you've cleared that ancient protector spirit out."

~ ~ ~ ~ Again, I'm sorry for this sucking so bad right now.

--Elskan 04:10, 26 June 2007 (CDT)

---

Note: Using the spheres (cracked, smooth, moss, ) in combat gave me different results (and thus different clues and thus different correct alters to put the spheres on). --Darkness 11:49, 26 June 2007 (CDT)

---

Yep, as is discussed elsewhere, each person has a different combination of notebook entries, altars and spheres.

--Elskan 12:30, 26 June 2007 (CDT)

The pygmy blow gunner has 149 hit points.

All of the monsters here do spooky damage, and have a weakness to hot damage. Ama laria 13:45, 27 June 2007 (CDT)

Just met a pygmy witch psychiatrist, who dropped some shrinking powder. Unfortunately, I failed to copy the adventure text.

"This is a tiny bag of the powder the pygmies use to shrink peoples' heads. Be careful not to spill any in your lap.

Type: combat item

Cannot be discarded" --00p 17:19, 27 June 2007 (CDT)

When I placed a 1-ball onto the Pikachutlotal altar, it said that it wasn't what the God was looking for exactly, but was close. Then it gave me the blessing of Pikachutlotal as an effect. --Canadajoe101 01:58, 29 June 2007 (CDT)

Oh, man, that is awesome. --Jonrock 02:01, 29 June 2007 (CDT)

Doorknobs

Has anyone tried putting the sack-of-doorknobs in the Squirtlchuli altar? I've already completed the quest and can't even check if it CAN be placed. --Lauren zi an wormhole 21:16, 10 July 2007 (CDT)

• Just tried. It's a no go, unfortunately.--Dorf (t|c) 18:37, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

References

The pokemon references are obvious. But the second part of the gods' names? Are all just meant to be aztec-sounding or are they references too? For example, Charcoatl: coatl (snake) also in Quetzalcoatl, the aztec god. But Squirtlcthulli, the 'Cthulli' looks like Cthulu which would suggest Lovecraft.. I wouldn't know what to make of Pikachutlotal or Bulbazinalli, though. --Nappa 10:05, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

Balls and altars

• My 6-ball does not work on the Bulbazinalli altar it actually works on my Squirtlchuti altar, where my mossy sphere worked.

I don't have any of the other balls yet, but I think that the balls correspond to sphere and not altar. --Dfmchfhf 20:42, 13 July 2007 (CDT)

• To add: my 6-ball also worked on the Squirtlcthulli altar, but gave me the Blessing of Bulbazini. Mossy sphere also on Squirtlcthulli.--Ryo Sangnoir 15:19, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

• My mossy sphere actually worked for Charcoatl this time, but the 6-ball and 2-ball effects were mixed up - Bulbazinalli blessing came from Squirtlcthulli altar, and vice-versa. Bug reported, and mixup noted.--Dorf (t|c) 20:47, 31 July 2007 (CDT)

Round Things

I thought it might be somewhat worthwhile to compile the list of "round things" one can place in an altar. Though the "blessings" have already been spaded out (to some extent, it seems there are a few more things to consider), we may as well confirm that nothing else works. Here's what I happen to have on me today, and an example of how I think this should look:

Item	Pikachutlotal	Squirtlcthulli	Charcoatl	Bulbazinalli	Result
1-ball	YES	no	?	?	Blessing of Pikachutlotal
2-ball	?	no (may be a bug)	?	YES (may be a bug?)	Blessing of Squirtlcthulli
3-ball	?	no	?	?	?
4-ball	?	no	?	?	?
5-ball	?	no	YES	?	Blessing of Charcoatl
6-ball	no	YES (may be bug?)	no	no (may be bug?)	Blessing of Bulbazinalli
7-ball	?	no	?	?	?
8-ball	?	no	?	?	?
9-ball	?	?	?	?	?
bartender skull	no	no	no	no	none
baseball	no	no	no	no	none
brainy skull	no	no	no	no	none
broken skull	no	no	no	no	none
chef skull	no	no	no	no	none
coconut shell	no	no	no	no	none
continuum transfunctioner	no	no	no	no	none
disco ball	no	no	no	no	none
fuzzbump	no	no	no	no	none
grapefruit	no	no	no	no	none
meat globe	no	no	no	no	none
Mon Tiki	?	?	?	?	?
Neuromancer	no	no	no	no	none
orange	no	no	no	no	none
pink pony	?	?	?	?	?
slip 'n' slide	?	?	?	?	?
smart skull	no	no	no	no	none
spooky shrunken head	no	no	no	no	none
teqiwila slammer	?	?	?	?	?
tomato	no	no	no	no	none
vodka stratocaster	?	?	?	?	?

--Dorf (t|c) 15:21, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

No Minimum Stat

As part of my stat requirement message spading I tried to find one for the Hidden City. With buffed stats of 1/1/1 I was able to adventure here with no minimum stat message coming up. --Club (#66669) (Talk) 20:37, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

• I asked about this on the radio a few weeks back. "There's no stat requirement because it's not actually a zone"--Cannonfire40 (talk) 00:50, 14 May 2013 (UTC)