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 (Unlisted)	No description given Requires three Red Herrings. When given to Grendel, the user is given ten random ingredients.
Dubious Potion (Unlisted)	No description given 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). The rest were added at different intervals.

Name	Clue
An Elusive Remedy	Remedy for sense’s blight, flower blooming in the bright, inside yellow, outside white, this and rue purged Adam’s sight
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?
Discarded Scrap of Paper
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
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.
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
Chiseled Tree	The Enigma Stone looks different... you try to make sense of its newfound engravings.
Defaced Drawing	A scrap of paper catches your eye. Upon it is an illustration which someone has scrawled over...
The Hellenic Alchemist	A flowing metal thought to heal Transmutation tried with zeal Search on for its compound name “Water-silver” is the aim
Historian's Documents	Pages and pages of documents are scattered all around the Enigma Stone. How did they get here?
Recipe for Disaster	Fiery remnants left to cool, Brimstone found in gold of fool, Salt that grows on wasted stool, These three form a potent fuel
Chiseled Grid	The Enigma Stone looks different, somehow...
The Leafless Tree	A dismal site, a leafless tree A downward door to misery Fallen here for all to see In display of authority

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

The Chronomicon

This is the main goal of the ARG. The Chronomicon will ask for a certain item and the community will then have to feed it said item.

Rune	Hint	Item needed
1 / ᚱ	The Chronomicon desires a scarlet elixir of lasting vigour.	Crimson Ichor
2 / ᛇ	The Chronomicon hungers for an anguished spirit trapped against its will.	Bottled Soul
3 / ᛞ	The Chronomicon requests a means of taking to the skies.	Whooping Crane
4 / ᛟ	The Chronomicon craves a sinister brew of amnesia.	Enigmous
5 / ᚨ	a substance to shapeshift	Morph Brew
6 / ᛃ	The Chronomicon hungers for a perception-altering poison.	Skunk Blind
7 / ᛏ	The Chronomicon hungers for a paralyzing toxin that flies straight and true.	Xeno's Arrow
8 / ᚦ	The Chronomicon craves a philter of withering insanity.	Necrotic Venom

The End (?)

At 03:22AM UTC on the 27th of November 2017, 2 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes after the ARG began, the final rune on the tome was completed. We were then shown a countdown until the next day's sale and opening of the tome.

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.