What is the proper orb sequence in the Ruined Dungeon?

The Ruined Dungeon in ToME has 6 orbs, and 6 elite enemies you have to kill to activate the orbs. Once the enemies are dead, supposedly you have to touch the orbs in the right sequence. The wiki's description on this leaves something to be desired:

Defeat all 6 guardians to activate the orbs, then touch them in the proper sequence (see the zone's lore for hints).

I'm not interested in lore. I'm playing the game for strategy and slaughtering masses of enemies. What is the correct order to touch the orbs? If the lore varies game to game, what exactly do I have to look at in the lore to figure out the right order in the least effort?

tales-of-maj-eyal

Best Answer

The lore varies from game to game, but it's pretty easy to do this one.

Hit Escape to bring up the menu.
Go to "Show Known Lore".
Scroll down until you find the "Ruined Dungeon" lore.
The order the lore appears in the "Show Known Lore" log matters. This seems like terrible puzzle design to me, since you have to rely on the lore log sorting it correctly for you, but it is what it is. I've always ended up with 3 pieces of lore that, in total, mention 6 elements. They'll mention things like blood, earth (dust), magic, mind, fire, cold, etc. You need to hit the orbs in the same order that mentions of those elements appear in your lore log for the Ruined Dungeon.

If you screw it up, a usually minor monster or two will appear. Just kill them and start over.

Note that this puzzle can be greatly complicated by using the library your fortress, which will teach you all the lore your previous characters learned. This gives you too many possible answers for the riddle, as well as no guarantee of the order, and means you pretty much have to play a guessing game.