Necromancy For Beginners

Necromancy For Beginners
Active since 2017-11-24
Chrono.gg's second ARG. Involving potion brewing.
Type	Unofficial ARG
Creator	Chrono.gg
Discovered	2017-11-24

Main Page > List of Investigations > Necromancy For Beginners

The hints

It started with a hint on the chrono.gg discord #secrets channel:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a book of powerful deals,
Like the blackest of Friday steals.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
See the path with a westward gaze,
Thus begins a challenge for days.

This is an edited excerpt from Macbeth.

People then realized that the next ARG had begun so started looking around for clues. Immediately a URL was noticed in the deal banner for the day's sale.

Necromancy For Beginners

Users must first register to access the rest of the ARG. You will be assigned a name consisting of a first and last half. Do not lose this. Upon opening, the user is shown a cauldron and an empty shelf.

If you click the recipe book in the top left you are shown the following pages:

The Recipe Book

Recipe	Description
Page 1	With toil and trouble bound for thee, Brew specimens of nature, three Contrive to burn or salve the soul TheChronomicon: your goal The EnigmaStone will bear its fruits, From fungus to enchanted roots These, the tools for your new quest Unseal the tome once laid to rest
Bottled Soul	Swap this for an enemy's essence. Lovers and family will be unperturbed. You hold the bar, and your puppet will dance. Screaming tree root Gossamer Precious stone
Cave Slop	A benign mixture, the choice of cave-dwellers and misanthropes. No good for good men. Mix spawn of frog, fungus and arachnid excretion. Brew for as long as you want. It hardly matters.
Crimson Ichor	The deep red of this elixir mirrors the rosy cheeks of youth. Drink daily to stay young and healthy. Beware full moons. Mix blood of insect, foot of hare, spine of tree dweller.
Dazzle Flask	A solution to make dull objects sparkle like gemstones - common folk will be drawn to them as magpies. Blend a crystal, the scales of a fish, a magic root.
Enigmous	A confounding potion. Those who imbibe its contents slowly lose their memories - then, their humanity. Forest mushroom Flowering plant Mystic root Avoid overmixing, wise men have been known to scream with madness.
Fire Balm	Ward off heat for safe cooking, or to help you survive, however briefly, in a dreadful inferno. Mix root of mandrake and spider's home over a low heat. Add animal quill and simmer until thick as swamp mud.
Morph Brew	Like a changeling you will be, from sunset to sunrise. Your facade will wane with the moon. Chopped wolfsbane, mushroom, frog larva.
Necrotic Venom	Madness in a vial. Your victim now wanders the earth as a shadow, a dark curse on his loved ones. Sorrow, plague and terror are afoot. Juiced insect, quill of echidna, diamond or similar. Do not let this potion cross your skin.
Skunk Blind	Three drops and the most beautiful maiden will appear as a foul wench in your enemy's eyes. The most delicate sights become repugnant filth. A dismal curse fit only for those who suffer its effects already. Angelfish scales Beetle essence Rabbit foot
Whooping Crane	Said to give flight to daydreamers. A loud crow and you will sail to the sun. Few ever come down. Use: Frogspawn Mandrake root Angelfish skin
Xeno's Arrow	Time stands still for the unwitting fool who imbibes this catatonic concoction. Fish scale Echidna Spine Spiderweb
Ominous Crystal	Make a crystal glow with mysterious vigour. Its full effects remain unknown, but tales tell of strong warriors bested by peasants. Common crystal Insect juice Wolfsbane
Essence of Nature	Sup upon this elixir and the beasts of the wild will be at your service. Except pigs. They will bite you. One rabbit's foot, mixed briskly with a cobweb or two, followed by a mysterious forest root.
Note from Grendel	Send me your discarded things, spoils from the forest or concoctions brewed. Find me in the swamp, or send things through your powers. I will return you a gift. - Grendel
Unremarkable Fish Filet	Requires three Red Herrings. When given to Grendel, the user is given ten random ingredients.
Dubious Potion	Obtained when mixing three ingredients that do not make any other potion. Offering to Grendel yields 1 random ingredient.

Page 1 was later updated to add links to TheChronomicon and EnigmaStone, when the Puppetmasters realized that the clues to them being domain names had been missed.

The Puzzles

Once the link to EnigmaStone was added, the players of the ARG were faced with three separate puzzles. Each time a puzzle is completed by a user, that user is rewarded with 4 random ingredients (It was originally 2 but was upped soon after the ARG's release).

Name	Clue	Solution	Explanation
An Elusive Remedy	Remedy for sense’s blight, flower blooming in the bright, inside yellow, outside white, this and rue purged Adam’s sight	To be released after the end of the game
A Thief That Can	A secret tongue, the peddler's French, Used by villain, rogue, and wench. A question posed, and pay it mind: A thief that can must answer in kind. Balolot, kumba, akoy, urtel, be: laf mon i?	To be released after the end of the game
Discarded Scrap of Paper		To be released after the end of the game
The Perilous Game	The gamblers play this perilous game, A pair of dice between them Wagers made to nick the main Can undo a man or redeem him	To be released after the end of the game
Uranologist's Desk	You stumble into a small, abandoned hut, some distance from the Enigma Stone, and try to make sense of the papers lying on the desk therein.	To be released after the end of the game
Wielding Wordplay	My first is a room, potentially great My second, an airborne vertebrate My whole is wielded against a knight A spike and a blade resolve the fight	To be released after the end of the game
Chiseled Tree	The Enigma Stone looks different... you try to make sense of its newfound engravings.	To be released after the end of the game

Items

Name	Image	Uses
Mushroom		Cave Slop Morph Brew Enigmous
Crystal		Dazzle Flask Necrotic Venom Ominous Crystal
Spiderweb		Essence Of Nature Xeno's Arrow Fire Balm Cave Slop Dubious Potion
Rabbit Foot		Crimson Ichor Essence Of Nature Skunk Blind
Echidna Spine		Crimson Ichor Fire Balm Necrotic Venom Xeno's Arrow
Beetle Blood		Crimson Ichor Necrotic Venom Skunk Blind Ominous Crystal
Angelfish Scales		Bottled Soul Dazzle Flask Skunk Blind Whooping Crane Xeno's Arrow Dubious Potion
Mandrake Root		Bottled Soul Dazzle Flask Enigmous Fire Balm Whooping Crane Essence of Nature Dubious Potion
Wolfsbane		Enigmous Morph Brew Ominous Crystal
Frogspawn		Cave Slop Morph Brew Whooping Crane
Red Herring		Unremarkable Fish Fillet

Resources

• The master spreadsheet from which, most things are tracked.
• The chrono.gg Discord channel where the ARG is discussed
• The Game Detectives Discord has a #necromancy-for-beginners channel for investigations. This is less active than the chrono.gg discord.

From here onward is working notes

The rune on the book started as a level1 and once 10 Crimson Ichors were offered it reached level2, 20 - level3 and we're now up to 23. The current theory is that we've got 17 left till this rune reaches max level, then 10 more until that rune is "finished" for a total of 50 potions per rune. The chronomicon will then highlight a new rune and asking for a new Elixir.

Rune finished

New rune wants souls

We're at 29 souls but the rune is still level1

Red Herrings have been given to two users, both hadn't done anything except complete puzzles.

Users have now gained red herrings from grendel