The Secret World

The Secret World
Active since 2017-06-16
The Secret World: Legends puzzle trail, also known as "Kiss of the Revenant".
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
Creator	Alice & Smith / Funcom
Discovered	2017-06-16

Main Page > List of Investigations > The Secret World

The Kiss of the Revenant puzzle trail is a promotional series of puzzles linked to The Secret World: Legends. It was created by Alice & Smith, who also created the Waking Titan and Dawn Bloom ARGs.

This page is a work in progress, and will be updated as new developments emerge.

This page documents the Kiss of the Revenant puzzle trail. Be warned - there are puzzle spoilers on this page!

Initial Announcement

The ARG began when the official twitter for The Black Watchmen posted a link kissoftherevenant.com. It had already been hinted at during the Developer stream on 16 Jun. 2017, the day before the announcement, that there would be something coming up.

It's started... http://kissoftherevenant.com  #SecretWorldLegends

Following the URL redirects to mmorpg.com/puzzle.cfm where the ARG is located.

A screenshot of the ARG's frame on mmorpg.com.

It was quickly discovered that some letters were bigger than others, spelling out AHEOET. Examining the page's source code, every big letter's HTML tag also had a number. The numbers are 98 105 116 46 108 121, which is the ASCII decimal representation of bit.ly. Using AHEOET as a bit.ly link, people would end up at cdn.kissoftherevenant.com/shadow-bound-anim.gif.

The gif found at the bit.ly link. This gif shows a shadow bound weapon, one of the possible rewards, in action.

Furthermore, on the ARG page a 'cursed soul' can randomly appear at a random position within the frame. When clicked, the text '+1 cursed soul' pops up, but outside of that nothing seems to happen.

A soul appears at a random location. When clicked, the '+1 cursed soul' text appears.

People on reddit started analyzing the page's javascript code. This made clear that a server decides when a soul shows up, and is notified when that soul gets clicked on. Outside of that there isn't anything immediately useful to be found in the could, only some references that likely will be used in later parts of the ARG, as well as that the ARG will consist of multiple chapters.

First Chapter

The secret page included with the first puzzle.

At approximately 12:18GMT 2017-07-17 the first puzzle unlocked. Clicking on the puzzle would play a short video, after which the hint 'Draw first upon the ground' is displayed. A secret page was given as well, containing four tarot cards without the hint 'That which is lost more than others'.

The Henderson mentioned in the video likely is Archibald Henderson. The video only provides some context however, and doesn't contain any clues. The Russian text seen in the video are Film leader. Here's a transcript of the narrator in the video:

Step closer. Let me see you. Mmmh. You'll do, you'll do. So then, let me tell you a story.
Timewise? a family lived around here. Tragic. But someone like you? I'm sure you have heard it all before.
Old man Henderson tried to walk away from power. Instead he lost everything... he ever build, everyone he ever loved.
But this story isn't about him, but about his younger daughter, Samantha, and her struggle to be free of him.
I see you found Sam's notebook. Maybe you can finish her work in binding the revenant.
Hangs around here, y'know. Takes a lot of brains and a lot of guts. But the weapon you make sure'll be worth it.
Come on, see if you can make heads or tails of it.

The first puzzle.

1st hint: SPOILER

The answer is what you would draw first upon the ground when binding a revenant.

2nd hint: SPOILER

The secret page provides another hint. The cards displayed are:

• Three of Swords, without the swords
• The Moon, without the moon
• Five of Cups, without the cups
• Page of Wands, without the wand

The tarot deck consists of the Major Arcana and the Minor arcana, which can be divided up in four suits. A trump card from the Major Arcana and cards of three of the four suits of the Minor Arcana are present, although they are all missing something.

2nd hint, part 2: SPOILER

What is missing the most however is the fourth suit of the Major Arcana, the Suit of Coins, which has no card at all.

Solution: SPOILER

The Suit of Coins also known as the Suit of Pentacles, entering pentacles as the answer completes the first puzzle. The solution was posted on reddit as well.

The first puzzle is solved.

Rewards

The possible rewards..

After the first puzzle was unlocked, the rewards screen became available, giving a preview of all the rewards. These rewards include:

• A 'Shadow Bound Weapon' which has a 20% chance to summon a revenant with every hit. The revenant will cast raven blade which deals physical damage. The preview video is the same as the gif found at the start, except with a higher quality.
• Weapon/talisman distillates.
• Black Watchmen hoodie
• +5 AP and +5 SP potion
• Black Watchmen jacket

Only the weapons were unlocked when the rewards screen came available. The rest of the rewards had to be unlocked by collecting souls.

The second reward was unlocked at 19:27GMT 2017-06-17, when 2500 souls were reached.

Media

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  The full background, only the center is visible in the frame.

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  The first puzzle is unlocked.

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  The reward of the first puzzle. The image shows The Black House in the Savage Coast, and is also a loading screen in TSW. According to the file's metadata, this image was created 2012-05-01.

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  The 'home' screen after the first puzzle is complete.

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  The screen shown when clicking on the second puzzle.