The Oracle

The Oracle is a monster who resides on a special level called "The Oracle Level" (or Delphi). She can provide a consultation for a fee, which is supposed to be one of the main ways the player learns about the game. In practice, players read spoilers, such as this one.

Level

The Oracle Level is located between level 5 and 9 inclusive in the Dungeons of Doom. It is eligible to leave bones, and monster creation is biased towards neutral monsters. Immediately below the Oracle Level is the level with the entrance to Sokoban.

The Oracle's room, with fountains and centaur statues. This screenshot uses DECgraphics.

There are five rooms to the sides of the above area, containing the stairs (in separate rooms), five random monsters, three random traps, and six random items; they are linked to each other and to the above room by corridors. The Oracle is at the center of the three by three room (called Delphi), amid the fountains. Delphi has a random empty doorway in one wall. There are two random monsters generated in the area surrounding Delphi. The marked statues are:

• two forest centaurs (northwest and southeast)
• two mountain centaurs (northeast and southwest)
• four plains centaurs (north, west, south, and east).

Monster

The Oracle is a human @ , and always starts peaceful. Attacking her in melee causes a spray of magic missiles to hit you; she has no active attacks of her own.

Consultations

The Oracle offers two services. Minor consultations are true rumors, like you get from a blessed fortune cookie. A major consultation is an extended description of some aspect of the game, for example:

Behold the cockatrice, whose diminutive stature belies its hidden might.  The
cockatrice can petrify any ordinary being it contacts--save those wise
adventurers who eat a dead lizard or blob of acid when they feel themselves
slowly turning to stone.

Major consultations can be found in the file Oracles.txt, for players that are not inclined to pay as they go.

Consultations cost money, but increase your score and give experience points for the first of each type:

Type of consultation	Score	Experience points	Cost
Minor (if not yet major)	21	5	50
Minor (if already major)	9	2	50
Major (if not yet minor)	210 + (21 * XL)	50 + (5 * XL)	500 + (50*XL)
Major (if already minor)	90 + (9 * XL)	20 + (2 * XL)	500 + (50*XL)

If you take a major consultation, but do not have enough money to pay for it, the Oracle will take all your money and give a special oracularity which references Oracle machine. You won't get any experience for this and will "use up" your one chance to get experience at the major level. Even the minor consultation will only give you 2 points afterwards. This can be trouble if you were relying on this for a pacifist character.

Mythology & History

The Oracle is primarily based on the Pythia, the priestess who presided over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi; the NetHack Oracle will welcome you to "Delphi" when she spots you arriving at her abode. Some behavior is also in reference to the Internet Oracle from rec.humor.oracle, which first appeared in 1989, as did the Oracle in NetHack 3.0.0.

Both of these predate the Oracle in The Matrix film series, which is not referenced.

The Oracle-level sound effects reference several different oracles:

"You hear a strange wind." 

The Oracle of Jupiter at Dodona

"You hear convulsive ravings." 

The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi

"You hear snoring snakes." 

The Oracle of Æsculapius at Epidaurus

The two hallucination sounds both reference the Internet Oracle:

"You hear someone say "No more woodchucks!"" 

In reference to the taboo question "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

"You hear a loud ZOT!" 

In reference to the traditional answer to this

Strategy

Pacifist characters should use the Oracle for levelling up.

The Oracle will not get angry if you dry up the fountains.

External Links

• Wikipedia article on the Pythia
• Wikipedia article on the Internet Oracle
• rec.humor.oracle

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This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
2. Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.