[News]Hidden Temple Hidden Story

[Lord Gareth]

Hidden Temple Hidden Story
Saturday, March 19, 2011
By: Merik
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Please note before reading
-I am writing most of this story from memory, pictures I took and Nyx’s Temple walk through guide. I apologize if I miss your name or your guild name during lists but I’m trying my best to remember. To not break the ROC I have purposely left out some player and guild names in certain sections.

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The Temple event wasn’t your everyday run of the mill event to find the monster and kill the monster. It challenged you by describing locations through a collection of stories leaving you to extract the information that was relevant. Once you accomplished this you would either apply it to the knowledge you already knew about Malas locations or use different maps to pin point the specific locations you would need to travel to. Once there you would need to find items such parchment stuffed in a crack or a skull that had writing etched into it.

Once you found the item (Which was unfortunately spoiled by Ctrl Shift) it would describe what you were looking at and give you a word in parentheses.

I had the pleasure of working together with players from the guilds of Shadow Hunters Empire, Alien Beings, Order Among the Hated, Damage Inc, Very Important People, Royal Britannia Guards and Baja Role Players Alliance Chapter. We started the event early in the morning with SHE members Lycan, Rivi Ravenwynd, Zelda of Zed, Clair, Ozog and Shelra in their ventrilo (Hope I got that right) During that time we solved half of the books together but we were stuck on that good for nothing little…… Hermit man located East of Luna.

Book #1 Natural Phenomena
South Luna wall [scroll in the crack with the word ENTRY]
Book #2 Luna Defenses
City of Luna, West inside corner wall lights up [corner wall with word BEARING]
Book #3 Forestry Findings
DOOM [books with word WORTHY]
Book #4 Life of Natives IV
Grimswind Ruins Area [cornerstone word GUARDS]
Book #5 A Night at the Hostel
[5 gold boxes with the letters T H O S E]

Book #6 Islands In Stars
North of the main mountain range [Crystal with word TEMPLE]
Book #7 Defeat of the Demons
White Tree over the South Bridge from Luna [ Mushrooms word JUDGE]
Book #8 Life of Natives I
Large abandoned fort on the Southern Island of Malas [Banner on west wall with word HEARTS]
Book #9 Life of Natives II
Small Orc fort above and to the left of Luna [skull with word SHALL]
Book #10 Life of Natives III
Camp bottom of the Northern Crags and to the left [Fur word SOULS]
Book #11 Life of Natives V
The HERMIT [statue engraved III II III II - And This Shall Guide Thee]

As players logged on we began working through ICQ as well, coordinating with the different guild Leaders Abby Normal, Nezuna and Nyx. Global chat at that time was of very little use or help even after we tried to explain they were following the Blue, Red and Gold Path books from the old Livery Quest.

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Once we were able to get everyone back on track and communicating between each other, solving the locations described in the Library took half the time it should of. We were later joined in Ventrilo by Demon Slayer, Sundina and a few others who didn’t want the answers but it did not take them long to reach the same spot we were stuck on.

While running around Malas I stumbled upon a pink gate and was greeted by Elder EM Dudley. At that time I had no idea why Dudley had appeared or what the pink gate was.

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It was not until later in the midnight hours that I would find out the gate was the entrance to the next area and Elder EM Dudley was there fixing “1/2” of the teleport trick to enter the temple. I was saddened when I learned Dudley was not stalking me.

[Fast forward 8hours -work-]

I was informed by a few players that the EMs fixed a few bugs like the wall switch (which you could still just self resurrect in the room and resurrect others) and teleporting to the pink gate (which you could still do from the left side) but we will get to that interesting topic and my own opinion at the end.

Now moving along to the different areas leading to the temple which I must say were impressive and amazing. Once you walked through the pink gate you were sent into to a very interesting room.

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(Only part of the cup room is shown in this picture)​

In here the undead were not the only thing you had to worry about almost killing you. You had to worry about the cups too!!! One wrong sip and you were zapped by lighting that took you to zero hit points, Fortunately Pooper was there to provide many resurrections.

The room was setup perfectly with enough cups around to make it interesting. You were able to test a few of the cups before having energy bolts and fireballs flying at you from the undead. The cup that allowed you to move on to the next area was on the North table located on the West side of the room.

This room had a clue that said “Only the honorable shall pass” Once you double clicked the door you were taken to what has been named “The tear pouring, keyboard slamming, mouse button breaking pull out your hair while screaming Hallway from Hell!”

In this hallway you were greeted by blade spirits that could have only been created by Satan himself! The blade spirits only hit you for 1,024 hit points….nothing major or anything!!! Don’t worry there was a few “options” to get past them. If you took the time to understand the honor text you could have used the Honor virtue, Ethereal Voyage, 120parry with max DCI or Self resurrection. Another option was to have your friend resurrect you which was frowned upon but did not stop anyone from doing it.

This brings us to the absolutely most important part of this event, THE TEMPLE DESIGN!!! This design leaves you in awe and wonder!!! When do they go on sale?!? Where can I buy one?!? And can I have one placed in my house?!?

Just take a few minutes to look it over and all of its detail and wonderfulness!

Now the temple….

Okay wait let’s just take another look!

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Can we get a shot of just the temple please?

Okay I am done I swear! You find yourself standing before a beautifully designed, perfectly constructed and wonderfully colored temple! After all your hard work and frustrating grunts you have finally claimed your prize which is seeing this temple….oh and some blue thing you get from clicking it.

With that all said we shall go back to the teleporting and wall switch topic that appears to have overshadowed the complete awesomeness and design of this event and.

Throughout the entire night as the EMs slept, players assisted one another by resurrecting each other’s characters and allowing them to claim the prize. Without naming player names or guild names let’s just say it was ALLOT of players and guilds.

What’s interesting about the situation is this, the reason behind the tricks or its official name “Circumventing Event Design” was the fear of the prize being turned off. Each player I was able to speak to still wanted to solve the event correctly but knew it would take more time then they had. With the prize being claimed by the masses and understanding if this happens the prize will be turned off. Many players I was able to speak to in the room felt they had the following options.

1. Solve it the correct way by working really hard and have the prize turned off before you finish.
or
2. Claim the prize while you still can and then finish the event solving it the correct way.

Now obviously this brings up the debate of it’s about the story and not about items. Since I am very opinionated I will give you mine. I am not going to spend countless hours on an event with no reward, that’s like asking me to do NPC Escort quest for hours and hours with no reward. I solved this debate by attending other Shard EM events in my spare time to get rewards that I enjoy having the chance to obtain while also enjoying the storyline at the same time.

Now I also feel that something very important was overlooked and that is, EM Dudley and EM Drosselmeyer wanted to create a prize that was just for you, the Chesapeake players, which meant something to you and commemorated your success in solving this massive and challenging event. Maybe it’s just me but throughout all the years I have spent running communities and doing community events, finding people who think like this is a rare find.

So that is my opinion….