Necromancy For Beginners

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

Main Page > List of Investigations > Necromancy For Beginners Necromancy For Beginners was an ARG created by Chrono.gg and Game Detectives.

The Hints

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

Frst hint.png

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.

Banner art.png


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.

Empty shelf.png

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

Bottled-soul.png

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

Cave-slop.png

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

Crimson-ichor.png

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

Dazzle-flask.png

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

Enigmous.png

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

Fire-balm.png

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

Morph-brew.png

Like a changeling you will be, from sunset to sunrise. Your facade will wane with the moon.

Chopped wolfsbane, mushroom, frog larva.

Necrotic Venom

Necrotic-venom.png

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

Skunk-blind.png

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

Whooping-crane.png

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

Xenos-arrow.png

Time stands still for the unwitting fool who imbibes this catatonic concoction.

Fish scale

Echidna Spine

Spiderweb

Ominous Crystal

Ominous-crystal.png

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

Essence-of-nature.png

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)

Unremarkable-fish-filet.png

No description given

Requires three Red Herrings. When given to Grendel, the user is given ten random ingredients.

Dubious Potion (Unlisted)

Dubious-potion.png

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

Scrap of paper.png

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. Uranologist.jpg

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.

Marble tree.png

Something Well-Tempered

A well-tempered object for well-crafted score

Dozens of quills that attack strings galore

Loudly or softly but no middle ground

Can still result in a beautiful sound

Defaced Drawing

A scrap of paper catches your eye. Upon it is an illustration which someone has scrawled over...

Runes.png

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?

Historian.jpg

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...

Marble grid.png

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 Mushroom.png

Cave Slop

Morph Brew

Enigmous

Crystal Crystal.png

Dazzle Flask

Necrotic Venom

Ominous Crystal

Spiderweb Spiderweb.png

Essence Of Nature

Xeno's Arrow

Fire Balm

Cave Slop

Dubious Potion

Rabbit Foot Rabbit-foot.png

Crimson Ichor

Essence Of Nature

Skunk Blind

Echidna Spine Echidna-spine.png

Crimson Ichor

Fire Balm

Necrotic Venom

Xeno's Arrow

Beetle Blood Beetle-blood.png

Crimson Ichor

Necrotic Venom

Skunk Blind

Ominous Crystal

Angelfish Scales Angelfish-scales.png

Bottled Soul

Dazzle Flask

Skunk Blind

Whooping Crane

Xeno's Arrow

Dubious Potion

Mandrake Root Mandrake-root.png

Bottled Soul

Dazzle Flask

Enigmous

Fire Balm

Whooping Crane

Essence of Nature

Dubious Potion

Wolfsbane Wolfsbane.png

Enigmous

Morph Brew

Ominous Crystal

Frogspawn Frogspawn.png

Cave Slop

Morph Brew

Whooping Crane

Red Herring Red-herring.png 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.

ᚱ.png

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.

ᛏ.png

Xeno's Arrow
8 / ᚦ The Chronomicon craves a philter of withering insanity.

ᚦ.png

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.

Chronogate.png

Once the countdown was over, Chrono.gg's black Friday deal was revealed.

Resources