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.

If you want to discuss the puzzle or get live updates on it, then there are three places where you can do so:

• This Discord channel on the Game Detectives Discord.
• This thread on reddit.
• This thread on the Secret World forums.

This page is a mirror of this page on the Cry Gaia Wiki.

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 (behind spoiler tags)!

Initial Announcement

The puzzle 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 puzzle is located.

A screenshot of the puzzle'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 puzzle 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 seemed to happen. After the first chapter got unlocked, it became clear these unlock 'group rewards' when all chapters are completed (see the Rewards section down below).

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 code, only some references that likely will be used in later parts of the puzzle, as well as that the puzzle 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 with 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 built, 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 tip: SPOILER

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

2nd tip: SPOILER

The secret page provides another tip. The cards displayed are Tarot cards from the Major Arcana and Minor arcana:

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

2nd tip, more obvious: SPOILER

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 all have lost something. What has lost even more however is the fourth suit of the Major Arcana, the Suit of Coins, which has no card present at all.

Solution: SPOILER

The Suit of Coins also known as the Suit of Pentacles. A pentacle is what you would draw, and entering pentacles as the answer completes the first puzzle. The solution was posted on reddit.

The first puzzle is solved.

Second Chapter

The secret page included with the second puzzle.

At 17:34GMT 2017-06-18 the second puzzle unlocked. People who signed up to be notified received an e-mail stating:

Not bad, not bad.
Maybe you're enough like Sam to get the job done.
She was smart as a whip, half again as clever as anyone ever gave her credit for...

Clicking on the puzzle would play this video. Here's a transcript of the video:

Not bad, not bad.
Maybe you're enough like Sam to get the job done.
She was smart as a whip, half again as clever as anyone ever gave her credit for...
Took after her old man like they were peas in a pod. That is why they never got along.
Her pap tried to hide his past from the whole family. But Samantha was well aware of all his secrets.
She never got to Innsmouth herself. Shame. Given she had a talent for power.
When she learned a little from watching her paps, and a little more while rifling through his papers while he was out.
Y'know, what they say. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, friend.

The first part is the same as the email. Innsmouth refers to Innsmouth Academy most likely.

After the video a hint is displayed again, this time being 'Dried and held under the tongue'. Another secret page was given as well, this time containing the hint 'That which is distilled', together with an image annotated with the text 'green bottle, square faced... father's basement'.

The second puzzle.

1st tip: SPOILER

'That which is distilled' refers to the ingredient of something distilled. The ingredient is displayed in the image as well.

1st tip, more obvious: SPOILER

It is some sort of berry that is shown in the image.

Solution: SPOILER

The berry pictured is a Juniper berry, used to make gin.

The second 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. This reward got changed from 3 200xp distillates of each type to one 600xp distillate of each type during the puzzle.
• 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.

The third reward was unlocked at 17:16GMT 2017-06-18, when 5000 souls were reached.

The fourth reward was unlocked at 21:04GMT 2017-06-19, when 7500 souls were reached.

Around 13:17GMT 2017-06-19 people started reporting that the souls had reset to 2500. Anashel confirmed this was a bug in the Discord channel at 13:24GMT, and the issue was resolved a few minutes later.

(Yeah, we had to change the way the site is tracked because we are hitting the limit of 10m hits per month for google analytics... I guess it's a good news. :) - And in the process of tweaking it, we left a test variable on. Sorry for that)

A piece of artwork is also given as reward for completing each puzzle.

Media

• 

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

• 

  An image showing various icons used. Note that the chapter numbering isn't correct.

• 

  The rewards page as of 08:39GMT 2017-06-18.

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  The rewards page as of 20:41GMT 2017-06-18.

• 

  The first puzzle is unlocked.

• 

  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.

• 

  The screen shown when clicking on the second puzzle while it was locked.

• 

  The reward of the second puzzle. The image shows the graveyard used in the first part of the new tutorial.

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