The Lurking Horror

The Terminal Room Area

Check your inventory. Read your assignment, then drop it. Sit at the PC. Examine the PC. ("This is a beyond-state-of-the-art personal computer. It has a 1024 by 1024 pixel color monitor, a mouse, an attached hard disk, and a local area network connection." O rly? *snicker*) Turn on the PC. Log in: Type 872325412 ; password, type uhlersoth. Click box. Click paper. Read paper. Click more. Repeat clicking "more" three times until you faint and awaken in Place. Go down twice to At Platform. Get the stone. Wait twice.

When you wake up in the Terminal Room again, examine the PC. Wait two turns while the hacker comes over and checks things out. After he tells you your paper is gone, go south and west to the Kitchen. Open the fridge and get the carton and the Coke. Hold on to the Coke and drink it when the game tells you you are tired. Open the carton. Open the microwave and put the carton of Chinese food inside. (Er. I hope this isn't the kind of carton that has a little wire handle...) Close the microwave. Press 5, 0, 0, HI, and START. Wait. After the microwave finishes, open it and get the carton. Return east and north to the Terminal Room and give the Chinese food to the hacker. Ask him about missing students, stone (that is, the stone you picked up in the previous scene), the PC, urchins, and his keyring. Ask him for the master key.

For Your Amusement:
Take the PC out of the Terminal Room.
Press the Help key.
Ask the hacker for help at various times.
Turn off the PC while the hacker is working on it.
Examine the Chinese food before microwaving it, cook it for 10 minutes, then examine it again. (save first; the hacker won't give you the master key if you overcook the food)
Eat the Funny Bones from the Kitchen.
Show the hacker the stone.
Give the hacker the bottle of Coke.
Show the hacker the Chinese food (rather than giving it).
Ask the hacker about himself (ask hacker about hacker) and about Lovecraft.
Attack the hacker.


Basement and Steam Tunnel

Go south to Second Floor and press the down elevator button. Wait two turns. When the elevator doors open, go south to enter the elevator. Open the access panel and get the flashlight. Press B for the basement. Wait 5 turns, then go north to exit the elevator.

Go east to the Temporary Basement. Get the gloves and crowbar. Wear the gloves. Go west twice to Aero Basement. Get in the forklift and turn it on. Turn on the flashlight. Drive east three times to Dead Storage. Move junk with forklift four times. When you've "built a fairly narrow ... path", turn off the forklift and get out of it.

Go east to Ancient Storage. Move the manhole cover with the crowbar. Go down into Brick Tunnel, north, and down to Before the Altar. Take the knife. Go up, south, up, west five times, down, and northwest to the Tomb. Unlock the padlock with the key, and take the padlock. Open the hatch. Save the game.

Go down into the Steam Tunnel , then east to the middle of the five Steam Tunnel locations. Hit the valve with the crowbar. Go west twice to the end of the Steam Tunnel, then return east twice and open the valve. (...Ew. Steamed rat, anyone?) Close the valve again. Go east twice to a Steam Tunnel location where the pipe turns upwards. Break wall with crowbar and then pry the (now loosened) brick with the crowbar. Pry new brick with crowbar (i.e. the one "less well mortared than its fellows"), revealing a reinforcing rod we'll be back to later. Go west three times, up, southeast, up, up, and south into the Infinite Corridor.

For Your Amusement:
Repeatedly read the graffiti in the elevator.
Open and look in the iron plate near the altar.
Examine the graffiti in the Tomb.
Try to escape the rats by climbing the cables. (save first)
Try to eat the dead rat.
Show the dead rat to the hacker.


Great Dome and Alchemy Department

Get the plastic container. Go east three times to an Infinite Corridor location with an emergency cabinet. (You will have to wait one to three turns each time for the maintenance man to move: "the floor waxer waxes away to the east"). Break the glass of the emergency cabinet. (You can use the crowbar or stone, or, since you are wearing the gloves, you can do it with your fists.) Get the axe. Return west once to the Infinite Corridor location with the wall socket. Cut the cord with the axe.

Go up to the Great Dome. Open the container, wait one turn, and pour the wax on the maintenance man. Drop the container. Climb rope to Top of Dome (you can't just say up in this case). Open the door and go north to Roof of Great Dome, then up to On the Great Dome. Lift the bronze plug and drop it. Get the paper and return down and south to Top of Dome. Close the door. Read the note. (Don't worry about why the name seems familiar; the game will tell you in a few moves.)

Lower the ladder and climb down twice to the Infinite Corridor. Go east twice, then go south to the Chemistry Building. Read the door. Knock on the door. Wait one turn. When you are let in to the Department of Alchemy, examine the sign-up sheet. Ask the professor about the hyrax, the sign-up sheet, missing students, and Lovecraft. Show the note to the professor. (Notice that the description of his gaze changes.)

Go south into the lab. The professor will push you inside of a pentagram. Read the label on the vat. Ask the professor about the vat. The professor will enter another pentagram, besides the one he pushed you into. (You need to wait until the professor is in his own pentagram to take action, or he'll just redraw the line on yours and take away all your possessions.)

Don't hesitate during the following moves (even if the game tells you you are tired; wait until the excitement is over to drink the Coke). Cut the chalk line with the knife. Leave pentagram, move the lab bench, open the trapdoor and go down to the Cinderblock Tunnel. Be sure the flashlight is on, then open the trapdoor again and go back up to the Lab. Get the brass hyrax. Go north to the Department of Alchemy, open the door, and go north three more times to Fruits and Nuts.

For Your Amusement:
Read the inscription over the western entrance to GUE Tech.
Read the container of floor wax.
Before cutting the cable, throw the axe or the stone at the maintenance man.
Hang around while the maintenance man slips on the wax.
Pour the Coke on the pentagram. (save first, as this wastes time)


Brown Building and Elevator Hacking

Go down and southeast to the Brown Basement. Get the boots and wear them. Go up twice to the Top Floor. Read the sign. Unlock the door with the key, open it, and go west and up to Inside Dome. Dig in the earth of the peach tree. Get the hand. Go down to Skyscraper Roof. Throw the stone at the flying creature. Go east and close the door. Go down, south to Small Courtyard, get the stone, and then return north to Brown Building. Go down, northwest, up, south three times to the Department of Alchemy. Again be sure your light is on before entering the Lab, then go south. Put the hand in the vat and wait two turns until it tries to crawl out. Get the hand.

Now that you have reanimated the hand, be on the lookout for the urchin. When you spot him, ask him about himself (ask urchin about urchin), missing students, and missing urchins. Show him the hand. Get the bolt cutter that he drops.

Go down, north, up, and west three times to the Basement. Open the elevator doors. (Yes, you can open them from the outside, by hand, when the elevator is not present. It took me quite a while to realize this was possible, even given the Invisiclues. I dunno about all y'all, but if this is normal for elevators, I feel like it's hardly common knowledge!) You want to see "a tangle of machinery is visible. One bit of the tangle is very much like a hook". If you can't open the doors, or if you see "the dark shaft opens like a waiting mouth", you first need to get the elevator car in position one floor above you: go up to the Computer Center, press the down button on the elevator (to call it to that floor), return down to the Basement, and wait until "You no longer hear the elevator moving". Then try again to open the doors.

Wedge doors with crowbar. Go down into Concrete Box, otherwise known as the elevator shaft. Get the chain. Attach it to the rod and lock it with the padlock. Go up to Basement and attach the chain to the hook on the elevator. Take the crowbar. Go up twice to Second Floor and press the up button. Wait one turn and you will hear the "rumbling crash" of the brick wall being destroyed. Go down twice, east, and up to the Temporary Lab. Get the flask, which contains liquid nitrogen. (Anyone for ice cream?) Return down and west to the Basement.

For Your Amusement:
Examine, listen to, and smell the winged creature.
Pour the tarry liquid out of the vat.
Put the dead rat (from the Steam Tunnel) in the vat.
Try to microwave the reanimated hand.
After setting up the chain and rod arrangement in the elevator shaft, go up to Second Floor and press the up call button without first taking the crowbar. Then return to the elevator shaft (down from the Basement) and take the crowbar while inside the shaft. (save first)
Show the hand to the hacker.
Pour the flask on yourself (save first). (Sadly, though I understand why, they didn't implement many fun responses to the liquid nitrogen; most things just "freeze and then shatter from the cold.")


The Lurking Horror

If you still haven't encountered the urchin, wander around in the Steam Tunnels, Basement and floors directly above it, and Infinite Corridor (two west from Basement, up to Aero Lobby, and south to the westernmost of the five Infinite Corridor locations) until you find him. (The northwest/southeast passage between the Subbasement and Tomb is inventory-restricted, so if you go that way you will have to drop the the flask and axe and pick them up again later.) Once you have the bolt cutters, if you dropped the axe and flask in the Sub-basement, go get them.

Make your way back to the Basement. Open the elevator doors and go down to the Concrete Box. Go north into the Steam Tunnel, west six times to the Muddy Tunnel, then down to the Large Chamber. Cut the wires with the bolt cutter. Go down into the Wet Tunnel. This is, joy of joys, a maze! But thankfully, you needn't map it. Put the hyrax on the hand. Follow the directions the hand points (north, down, south, south, down).

When you see "a curtain of moldy slime covers the south wall" and the hyrax is directing you south again, open the flask and pour the liquid on the curtain. Unlock the ancient door with the key and open it. Go south to the Inner Lair. Open the box. Disconnect the coaxial cable. Reach into the pool. Get the power line. Cut the line with the axe three times, until "the line parts". Plug the line into the socket, thus frying the mass. Wait one turn until the stone is "glowing with a bright-red heat", then throw the stone at the creature.

After the show, pick up the stone and relax. Congratulations, Investigator!

For Your Amusement:
Attack the urchin.
Examine, smell, and listen to the creature in the Inner Lair.


Extras

For further entertainment, you may be interested in:
Lists of bugs in The Lurking Horror: Nathan Simpson, Graeme Cree, XyzzyNews
Posts about this game at The Digital Antiquarian and SPAG
Source code


Points

Action Points
Terminal Room Area  
Get stone 5
Get master key 5
   
Basement and Steam Tunnel  
Enter Ancient Storage 5
Enter Brick Tunnel 5
Enter Steam Tunnel 5
Kill the rats 5
   
Great Dome and Alchemy Dept.  
Pour wax on maintenance man 5
Arrive at Top of Dome 5
Get note 5
Enter Cinderblock Tunnel 5
   
Brown Building and Elevator Hacking  
Dig in peach tree 5
Throw stone at creature 5
Get reanimated hand 5
Get bolt cutter 5
Enter Concrete Box 5
Destroy brick wall 5
   
The Lurking Horror  
Cut wires in Large Chamber 5
Pour liquid nitrogen on curtain 5
Electrocute the mass in Inner Lair 5
Throw stone at creature 5
   
Total 100

Last updated: 4/28/2021