Unsolved Mysteries
Some people just like exploring and trying to solve puzzles.
Here's a few ponderous things whose solutions are either unknown or definitely not well known at least.
(There are of course many more and harder things to do, getting to big mobs, tricky areas, etc, but here I'm more interested in little things, that probably anybody can do. Small ponderous things)
If anybody wants to shoot the shit about these, let me know.
Dobra's Recipes
Dobra drops recipes, where to find all the ingredients and what they ultimately make?
The first is all 'aquatic stuff', coastal and marsh themed items.
You take a closer look at a piece of paper in inventory... _____________________________________________________________ / _\ \ | / | | | \_/__________________________________________________________/ \ \ \ Ambergris \ \ Thistle Down \ __\ Cattail Tubers \ / \ | A rotting fish carcass | | /_| | \__/__________________________________________________________/ .
The second recipe is all 'desert stuff'.
You take a closer look at a piece of paper in inventory... . _____________________________________________________________ / _\ \ | / | | | \_/__________________________________________________________/ \ \ \ Mole Beans \ \ Lanatana Berries \ __\ Newt Eyes \ / \ | a snakeskin | | /_| | \__/__________________________________________________________/ .
I know where some of the items are, but, haven't solved either recipe. Don't know anybody who has actually, but I'm not very social.
Tudrulk the Shaman
In "From The Stars" is Tudrulk the Shaman who says this:
Tudrulk the village shaman says 'I am waiting on supplies from Tar'pa Cithm, until then there is little I can do. '
Now, there's also a room in the area which is accessible by teleport-only, which contains a suggestion box for Sarakin, the area author. Within that room's description however is the comment ""Have you figured out the shaman yet?"
So, what is the puzzle here? What is this guy waiting for, and what happens if you find it and give it to him?
Curse of Prosperity
Inside the Inn, upstairs, is a mob who wears a ring that you can't get:
A triumphant adventurer is using: <worn around neck> (Red Aura) an emerald talisman on a pewter chain
When you attack them:
A triumphant adventurer exclaims 'You can't have it! It's mine!' A triumphant adventurer clasps her hand around her talisman before attacking. You parry a triumphant adventurer's attack.
Upon death, they cast invis on the item:
A triumphant adventurer is DEAD!! A triumphant adventurer says 'You're not getting it that easy!' A triumphant adventurer utters the words, 'uizug'. An emerald talisman fades out of existence.
The corpse is then empty, you can't see the item in corpse with detects etc.
This was on an AV and lvl49, perhaps a lowbie is required? Or its just puzzzzlllyyyy
Update - the item is attainable and known to someone because:
https://rodpedia.realmsofdespair.info/wiki/An_emerald_talisman_on_a_pewter_chain
Roll The Bones
Here's a vague one for ya.
Mob 'Jhyrta' in Barren Peaks has a skull and you can find 12 bones in/around/on her.
These seem to be a 'roll the bones' fortune telling thing, which seems like its just a novelty item (like the dicing cup). But, it's still not super clear how it works exactly. (Also... it seems general consensus is a lot of things in this area are broken/unfinished) Anyways...... ponderous!
The Pagan Woman
I'm pretty sure hardly anybody has explored Tipsy Lizard Tavern a lot, and the whole area is one giant puzzle, but there's one smaller puzzle nested within that is curious:
There's a pagan woman in the Txeru section who progs when a 25wis cleric enters:
You say 'higher purpose' The elder sits upright for a moment. The elder says 'Long ago, when my time came and Kaais called to me, I thought I would finally be at eternal peace.' The elder says 'Instead, Kaais blessed me with another chance at life and a very rare gift. The gift to speak directly with the Gods .. the gift of transcendence.' The elder says, 'I have only met one other who truly understood. He was a travelling warlock, seeking information from exotic lands .. including this place. We shared the rituals together, and he recorded them in a tome. I sheltered him from the rest of the tribe for as long as I could, but each day was a new risk and he took leave from here.' The elder says, 'The tome would be the only way to understand the gift. He sought to profit from the trade of his secret knowledge, so I would think that he would try and sell it in a trading village for those such things. Perhaps a copy of the tome can still be found, but without the gift of transcendence itself, it is worthless.' The elder closes her eyes and takes a long breath, relaxing back into a comfortable seating position.
Now "the Tome" is fairly easy to figure out and obtain, and once you have it and walk back to her:
The elder says 'Ah, the tome. Without the gift of transcendence from the Gods themselves, it is useless.' The elder says 'Return to me when you obtain both the gift and the tome.'
The gift however, is still unknown to me.
Ivetta's Ship
Ivetta Norval says 'Any news of my ship, the Sanguine Sun? It's been long due to port and I'm getting concerned.'
You wonder 'the Sanguine Sun?' Ivetta Norval says 'Have you any new of her? I should have been on it ages ago, but it's not returned from its run to the Blood Sea.'
You say 'the Blood Sea' Ivetta Norval says 'The Blood Sea is a dangerous stretch of water... hopefully my ship is ok.'
Where the F that ship at?
The Lonely Squid
(All of the above are ACTUAL things, for sure, that you could theoretically solve. This one is not. Pure speculation here)
In the Blood Sea, there is this one baby squid chilling in a room. He's always in that room and doesn't move, he is the ONLY static mob in this whole section of the area. He has no loot.
An injured squid floats in the water lethargically.
It looks like this squid barely escaped the jaws of a shark. Three or four parts of its body have chunks missing from them. It won't be long before its dead.
Killing it mentions blood in the water:
An injured squid's blood slowly clouds the surrounding water.
Ponderous. Is this chumming the water for something bigger? Healing him does nothing.
Here's a fun fact about the Blood Sea, the main section that seems like a big ocean maze is not really that maze-like, there are static paths, and if you map the static paths to 'new' rooms and hide all the exits that are loop-backs to previous rooms.... it makes an image:
See [HERE]
I believe this to be an image of IronCreeper, who resides at the very bottom, and who is described as a big ol snail-like creature with long eyestalk tentacle things.
The great Ironcreeper has the appearance of a mutated, enlarged snail, with two large tentacles sticking out from his front, and a bulky, muscular body.
Room descriptions in this ocean layer describe the shadowy image of that below the surface, and I think this area author is trying to be cute and drawing a picture of IronCreeper as seen from "above" looking down on him. Big snail shell round-ish body (even with little barnacles and mutations - the tiny static paths you can find along the main static branches), with 2 big tentacles hanging out front.
The squid is hanging out in the last room of the lower big ol tentacle in the above map. Those rooms on the tentacles are actually not static and become variable beyond where they are labeled in the map (their exits spin). You can track to him, or map all 150ish rooms in the area to find him.
Why's he hanging out on Ironcreeper's tentacle thing at the end of a path that is super tricky to truly map out? Seems like there should be something more to him. Again, puuuurrrrreeeee speculation. It just seems like there's something else to him.
Also... in lieu of how much time I spent mapping Blood Sea, I ain't found shit, so this seems like its all just neato easter-egg type area design stuff, but.... where is Ivetta's ship!?