RuneScape's Cryptic Clue Fest: A Retrospect

On 26 November 2009, following a system update, Mod Howes (pictured to the right) started the Cryptic Clue Fest, a series of puzzles sending players throughout the F2P world. All puzzles were needed to be done in sequence to finish the whole exercise.

Each step required talking to certain NPCs while carrying the correct quantities of various 'code items'. To find out which, how many and who, various cryptic messages needed to be deciphered: some involving interpretation and some involving mathematics. The Clue Fest proved to be very challenging to players with a poor wield of various skills and knowledge.

Day One
Required: Cartesian coordinates (mathematics)
Mod Howes posted the following introductory manuscript to the Clue Fest (here, Quick find code 42-43-341-59957404):

Dear candidates,

If you wish to join our group, you will need to pass a series of logic tests. This induction is expected to take four days to complete and you will get a new clue each day. We do not look favourably on cheaters or those who give away the answers! Only those smart enough will reap the reward!

The exercise works like this: Each stage of this task has two clues – one clue points to one of our contacts each day, the other to some specific ‘code items’. In order for our contacts to talk to you, you will need to have (in amongst your other inventory items) that very particular set of code items, all in the right quantities! You can find the clues about which items you need in our daily news letter. Our trusted contacts will then give you a new clue on who to speak to next. Here are your first two clues to point you to the right person with the right code items…

“To a sponger of Lumbridge is to whom you must speak, He asks folks for money, week after week.”

Know who that is? Good. We thought we’d start you off with an easy one. Talking to our contact is all well and good, but don’t forget the code items in order to give him the all clear to talk to you!

Here I have a selection of items in a grid, along with some letters. Use the clues below to point you to some secret words. Building these words will give you the coordinates for the right items on the table. The words begin with the letters down the left. Simple, isn’t it? Don’t worry; things will get much tougher later on!

Word for Item 1: “Hardly nutritious, but it can be frosted even during summer!”

Word for Item 2: “Oh my, sounds like a naked grizzly!”

Word for Item 3: “A judgement of quality you pass on things and people. Sometimes you do it highly, sometimes rather poorly.”

Know what those three items are? You’ll want to carry three of the first, two of the second and five of the third, so he knows you’re not just a lucky guesser!

Go and find our contact for today – he will tell you who the next contact is to be. Then read tomorrow’s edition of the newsletter for clues on the next set of code items. Fair well, hopefuls...

Lactopher best fitted the above description, asking "could you lend me some money?" when talked to.

Item 1: A cake can be frosted with icing and withstands the summer heat. The resulting (x,y) coordinates (KE,CA) on the grid refer to Rope.
Item 2: Bears can be grizzly, and bare is a homophone of bear. The resulting coordinates (RE,BA) on the grid refer to Bucket.
Item 3: A rating is a "judgement of quality", which can range from high to poor. The resulting coordinates (TE,RA) refer to Banana.

Therefore, to receive the clue for the second contact, Lactopher needed to be talked to while holding three Ropes, two Buckets and five Bananas.

Talking to him, he gave the following description of the second contact:

A bartender serves drinks, and is always found in a bar. The Wilderness is lawless territory, with the Wilderness Ditch bordering its south. The only bar near the Ditch is the Jolly Boar Inn. Therefore, the Bartender there needed to be talked to.

Day Two
Required: Roman numerals
Mod Howes updated the above thread to post the following manuscript:

Dear candidates,

I see you’ve made contact with our first link in the chain – this is good. He should have given you a clue regarding whom you’ll need to see next. See if you can figure out what code items you’ll need in order to get him to speak to you, then go and speak to him with those items in your inventory. Cast your gaze on the text below:


For this clue, you will need to have a great deal of insight, for there are many things in this world that are not always as they appear. Can you rise to the challenge?
When baking a cake, there’s a bucket of one ingredient you’ll need. Carry two of these.

It is a world full of mystery and magic, after all. You may need to cast your lines to the farthest reaches of Gielinor in order to obtain all you need.
You’d never catch Herring with empty line, so carry seven of this item to catch your contact.
Lumbridge, Draynor, Falador, Varrock, Edgeville, Al-Kharid; who knows where your adventures will take you? What treasures you will discover!
Ever heard of Roman numerals? You’ll need to carry CCXXVII gold coins!

I’m afraid I’ve told you all I can – you must now strike while the iron is hot! With wisdom comes the ability to read between the lines, so don’t let us down!
The final item is a tool used in creating your dwellings and protecting your body from attack. Hit the nail on the head with four of these.

Good luck!

The manuscript required "read[ing] between the lines". Highlighting the above text revealed obscured text between the paragraphs otherwise invisible to the naked eye:

When baking a cake, there’s a bucket of one ingredient you’ll need. Carry two of these.

You’d never catch Herring with empty line, so carry seven of this item to catch your contact.

Ever heard of Roman numerals? You’ll need to carry CCXXVII gold coins!

The final item is a tool used in creating your dwellings and protecting your body from attack. Hit the nail on the head with four of these.

The only ingredient of Cake carried in a bucket is Bucket of Milk.
Catching Herring from a Fishing spot requires Bait.
The above Roman numeral figure reads 227 in Hindu-Arabic numerals.
A Hammer is a Construction tool and also can be used defensively (as a Warhammer).

Therefore, to receive the clue for the third contact, Bartender needed to be talked to while holding two Buckets of Milk, seven lots of Bait, 227 Coins and four Hammers.

Talking to him, he gave the following description of the third contact:

Falador's buildings are built with white stone. Residing in the west, Herquin buys and sells gems. Therefore, Herquin needed to be talked to.

Day Three
Required: Equation solving (mathematics), business structures (law)
Mod Howes updated the above thread to post the following manuscript:

Candidates!

We must congratulate you on making it this far. It’s day three of your trial and you’re doing well. Hopefully, you’ll have the details of the third contact you will need to speak to. As always, we have a series of code items you’ll need to have with you in order to persuade our contact to speak.

The next batch of bewildering brain-teasers comes from the most fiendish annals of Varrock Museum. See if you can solve these age-old puzzles:


Puzzle 1

A tailor is making a new coat. He needs half the amount of threads that are in the hem for the collar. The sleeves need four times as many threads as the collar. The trim, which is the same as the hem, requires ten threads. The sides need five times less than the sleeves. If the tailor buys 55 threads, how many does he have left over once he’s made his coat?

The number of threads he has left is the same number of Red Spiders’ Eggs you’ll need.


Puzzle 2

Fred the Farmer and his brother, Geoff the Gardener, have acquired a ten-acre plot of land between them. They split the rights to the land evenly and go to work at planting seeds and crops on their half of the farmland.

Farmer Fred starts from the west, while Geoff the Gardener starts from the east. Fred plants seeds at twice the rate Geoff does, but Geoff ploughs an acre every ten minutes while Fred takes twenty-five minutes.

Selling all of their produce results in 400 gold coins between them.

How much of that wage is Fred entitled to? You will need to be carrying that same amount of gold coins.


Puzzle 3

My first is in jungle but not in rectangular,
My second is in blunder but not blender,
My third is in gallant but not in talent.

To this you will need to add the following:
My first is in dwarf but not in farced,
My second is in battle but not in mettle,
My third is in monster but not in ransomed,
My fourth is in mention but not in notion,
My fifth is in thread but not in death.

What am I? You’ll need to carry three!

Puzzle 1: Expressing the puzzle in algebraic form:

Collar = 0.5Hem
Sleeves = 4Collar
Trim = Hem = 10
Sides = 0.2Sleeves
Threads used = Collar + Hem + Sleeves + Trim + Sides
Threads left over = 55 - Threads used

Solving the above equations:

Collar = 0.5 × 10 = 5
Sleeves = 4 × 5 = 20
Sides = 0.2 × 20 = 4
Threads used = 5 + 10 + 20 + 10 + 4 = 49
Threads left over = 55 - 49 = 6 threads

Puzzle 2: The business structure of the farm is a partnership. There are two reasonings arriving at the same conclusion:

• Where no explicit arrangement with profit sharing is made, the default arrangement is an equal share between all partners. Therefore, Fred would be entitled to 200 gold coins.
• The profits from the partnership are shared according to the claim each partner has to the assets. Fred and Geoff each have half of the total claim on the land. Therefore, Fred would be entitled to 200 gold coins.

Puzzle 3: The above puzzle refers to the letters of the item's word.

J is in jungle but not in rectangular.
U is in blunder but not blender.
G is in gallant but not in talent.

W is in dwarf but not in farced.
A and B are in battle but not in mettle.
T is in monster but not in ransomed.
E and M are in mention but not in notion.
R is in thread but not in death.

According to the best fit of letters, this item is Jug of water.

Therefore, to receive the clue for the fourth contact, Herquin needed to be talked to while holding six lots of Red spiders' eggs, 200 Coins and three Jugs of water.

Talking to him, he gave the following description of the fourth contact:

Hot desert is well known for its sandy ground and high exposure to solar radiation. Al-Kharid is situated in the desert area. Faruq resides there and sells various tools for games. Therefore, Faruq needed to be talked to.

Day Four
Required: Arithmetic progressions (mathematics), rules of hop-scotch, map reading (geography), anagram solving, biological classification (science), economic output (economics)
Mod Howes updated the above thread to post the following manuscript:

Candidates,

You’re nearly there! You have the details of the final contact you’ll need to speak to. All you need are the code items to give him the go-ahead to share his knowledge with you. Get your cryptic-crunching craniums around this clue and you’ll be all set.

For your next brain-training endeavour, we asked our good friend Sir Tiffy Cashien to come up with a complex conundrum for you to contemplate.


“On one of my many journeys about Gielinor, I encountered the strange beast known as the Chaos Elemental. When I came across this swirling vortex of randomness it was holding a rather mundane looking chest.

“What items do you have in that chest?” I asked it.

The creature responded: “Its no Mirasol all Gentle cats can tilt red Romulans rear crease bulbs salt gate”

Thoroughly confused, I told him I didn’t understand. Again, the bizarre monster responded: “43 – 35 – 27 – 19 – 11… Use what follows to skip over the answer.”

Confused? By Jove, that’s an understatement! I was dumbstruck for a while, but I remembered my lessons in deciphering secret messages and eventually I cracked it! An odd assortment of items, but then the Chaos Elemental is a strange being!

Anyway, you’ll need three of the first item, ten of the second and the number you get if you take the first from the second for the third. Haha!”


If you can solve Sir Tiffy’s little puzzle then you should know what items you will need for this part of your test! Take them to our contact for your final set of clues.

Good luck, as ever.

43, 35, 27, 19, 11, ... is an arithmetic progression with first term a = 43 and common difference d = -8. What follows is the 6th term of the progression:

T_n = a + (n - 1)d
T₆ = 43 + (6 - 1) × (-8) = 3

Some letters are unneeded and need to be ignored. Skipping over every third letter reveals the following:

sMallnetairRunecabbage

Therefore, Faruq needed to be talked to while holding three Small fishing nets, ten Air runes and seven Cabbages.

Talking to him, he gave the following description of the final contact:

Inspecting the World Map, the following building met the above criteria:

Inside this building resided Roddeck.

"Active game player rescues our cliff imp" is an anagram of "Creative Gameplay: Forum Specific Rules". Information about the final items needed were in this section of the RuneScape Official Forums.

That location hosted the final set of clues:

Well done Adventurer! Here lies the final hurdle in the way of the items you’ll need to claim your reward! Here I have written a selection of my toughest challenges. I’m afraid you’ll need to solve all of them in order to figure out which items you'll need to get me to talk!

Good Luck!


Puzzle 1

Let me introduce Mod Mark H, Mod Kathy and Mod Crow. Each of them is going to tell you *one* of the items you will need. The only problem is – only one of them is telling the truth.

Mod Mark H: “You need a Cabbage”
Mod Kathy: “You need an Egg”
Mod Crow: “You need a Potato”

But who is lying?

Mod Mark H: “Don’t believe Mod Kathy; she always lies! She stole my princess crown!”
Mod Kathy: “Don’t listen to Mod Crow; he lies! He isn’t even a real bird!”
Mod Crow: “Don’t listen to either of them; they are both lying. They are both lesser beings, after all!”

Figure out who is telling the truth – you’ll need three of their item!



Puzzle 2

Below are five objects. One is the ‘Odd One Out’. The ‘Odd One Out’ is the kind of object you will need for this task. You’ll need eight of this object.

No hints for this one!



Puzzle 3

Ah, here’s one of my favourite little rhymes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

“As I was travelling to Falador, one bright and sunny day, I came across a group of knights, heading towards the other way.

There were thirteen knights in total, each noble in their attire. Each knight then had three attendants – officials known as squires.

Each peasant lad was charged with caring for three mules, or t’would be their hides. Each mule had then two packs apiece, in each pack a coin to pay glad tithes.

The number of coins the party possessed – this you must unravel! For the same amount of golden coins will surely complete your travel!”



Right, now you should have all the items you need in the correct quantities. Come and speak to me with those items in your inventory for your reward!

Puzzle 1: Mod Mark H is likely to be a male, in which case he cannot meet the definition of a princess. Mod Crow is likely to be a human (of the Mammalia class), in which case he cannot be of the Aves class. The description of "lesser being" violates common opinion concerning human dignity. Therefore, Mod Kathy is most likely to be telling the truth.
Puzzle 2: All items relate to Crafting. While all five items are products of production, only the Chisel is a capital good. Therefore, Chisel is the odd one out.
Puzzle 3: Expressing the puzzle mathematically:

Number of coins = 13 knights × 3 squires × 3 mules × 2 coins = 234 coins

Therefore, Roddeck needed to be talked to while holding three Eggs, eight Chisels and 234 Coins.

Talking to him concluded the Cryptic Clue Fest.

EDIT 6Dec09: Appended contact clues.
EDIT 10Dec09: Appended solutions.