Dark Secret Found in Isle of Dread

[J1NG]

There's the possibility all of those were simply added for flavour, and it's more akin to seeing Velah plotting the events of Vault of Night out in the House P bar, rather than an actual quest mechanic. So players may be overthinking things.

We also must remind ourselves that this isn't the actual end of the story. And that some of those elements may be brought up again in a future adventure pack, much like how new NPCs were added around Stormreach as new content was about to be launched that related to them. With future actual Wizards content relating to Vecna, some stuff may not be allowed to SSG to deploy right now until it is released first.

So in either event, players may be jumping the gun a bit on that front, even though things in game would allude to it.

J1NG

[Arkat]

I saw something either in the forums or on a another site that essentially said that the whole "Dark Secret" thing that you guys have found outside of the raid was the remnant of an idea that was dropped during the development of IoD and that the remnants of that idea were just never stripped out of the pack.

It might have been something a Dev said in one of the DDO Discord channels and quoted either in the DDO Forums or on another site.

I think this is a snipe hunt.

[Mindos]

What if you have to say your own toon's name?

[Magnus_Arcanis]

There's the possibility all of those were simply added for flavour, and it's more akin to seeing Velah plotting the events of Vault of Night out in the House P bar, rather than an actual quest mechanic. So players may be overthinking things.

We also must remind ourselves that this isn't the actual end of the story. And that some of those elements may be brought up again in a future adventure pack, much like how new NPCs were added around Stormreach as new content was about to be launched that related to them. With future actual Wizards content relating to Vecna, some stuff may not be allowed to SSG to deploy right now until it is released first.

So in either event, players may be jumping the gun a bit on that front, even though things in game would allude to it.

J1NG

We do know that IoD is meant to be a 2 end chest raid and the chest in part 2 isn't one of the 2 raid chests.

All of the dialogue and even the description of the effects on the ghost flame point towards there being an alternate ending to the raid. One where, instead of just passing the test and defeating the ghost flame, we break their pact.

That being said, there could be a simpler solution and have tried a bunch of those as well, but we lack direction on the thing to try (for now).

[Magnus_Arcanis]

I saw something either in the forums or on a another site that essentially said that the whole "Dark Secret" thing that you guys have found outside of the raid was the remnant of an idea that was dropped during the development of IoD and that the remnants of that idea were just never stripped out of the pack.

It might have been something a Dev said in one of the DDO Discord channels and quoted either in the DDO Forums or on another site.

I think this is a snipe hunt.

The original dark secret we found before the raid released was a placeholder and really wasn't ready for us to interact with. Post raid release however, with exception to All Hail the King's, the dark secrets are very much intended to be in the game.

All voice lined and some require specific keys to open. They tell a bit of story from Lindal's POV.

[ahpook]

I saw something either in the forums or on a another site that essentially said that the whole "Dark Secret" thing that you guys have found outside of the raid was the remnant of an idea that was dropped during the development of IoD and that the remnants of that idea were just never stripped out of the pack.

It might have been something a Dev said in one of the DDO Discord channels and quoted either in the DDO Forums or on another site.

I think this is a snipe hunt.

I have been reading this thread with interest and with Admiration for the effort by those looking for meaning in the dark secrets. But as with you, I think this is at least 70%/30% a pointless effort. Between bugs and changes in direction, SSG's track record on delivering these types of "mysteries" and stories makes such effort not worth the time. But I will keep reading to see if I am wrong.

[Arkat]

We do know that IoD is meant to be a 2 end chest raid

Link?

[Magnus_Arcanis]

Link?

Apologies, I don't know the exact source. I've been told it was from one of the q&a sessions. Whether that was official stream/video, one of strimtom's chats, or something in discord or on lam... I don't recall.

More recently though, one of the folks following along asked a dev for clarification on about the part 2 chest, and mentioned that the chest in part 2 was not the one they had alluded to.

[Arkat]

Apologies, I don't know the exact source. I've been told it was from one of the q&a sessions. Whether that was official stream/video, one of strimtom's chats, or something in discord or on lam... I don't recall.

More recently though, one of the folks following along asked a dev for clarification on about the part 2 chest, and mentioned that the chest in part 2 was not the one they had alluded to.

Hmmm...ok. Thanks.

[droid327]

This seems like something the devs should either confirm or deny whether it exists and was implemented fully in IoD

It seems unfair to let people keep hunting if it was never finished or never intended in the first place. They didnt keep the Dull Dagger or Nebula Fragment scavenger hunts a secret, either.

[Yamani]

This seems like something the devs should either confirm or deny whether it exists and was implemented fully in IoD

It seems unfair to let people keep hunting if it was never finished or never intended in the first place. They didnt keep the Dull Dagger or Nebula Fragment scavenger hunts a secret, either.

I'd honestly like to see a confirmation too.

[Xoham]

Unfortunately, all of my best attempts and guesses have not gotten any sort of reaction from the quest which likely means we need more clues. As I believe we’ve exhausted everything in the expansion concerning dark secrets we’re left with few options.

I'm sorry to hear that

Master Document

I just had a quick look through - and again thank you for recording all of this! Probably this is just clutching at straws; but did you try the following as variations for the Ghost Flame's name?

• "the ghost flame" (with or without the 'the', as per #13);
• "the flame of hope".

The motivation is that the article 'the' appeared in some of the Vecna names. Also, all lowercase works for the Vecna names, so I assume case doesn't matter.

Also, definitely clutching at straws; but two other things I haven't tried in part 3 that can affect visuals are Shadow Walk and Malchor's Undersun Goggles. I see no lore reason why they would work.

Final, almost certainly red herrings, given Yarrow "appears to be merely a human woman in her prime, with only a touch of greenish flame to hint at her power"; but here is a halfling Yarrow wearing green:

• https://ddowiki.com/page/Alleine_Yarrow

and confirmation that Yarrow is a halfling surname in DDO:

• https://ddowiki.com/page/Donric_Yarrow

Maybe posting more here will help elicit a developer clue

[Magnus_Arcanis]

Reviewing the doc, I did have a thought and added the following to the test list:

Ritual may require someone standing on each of the platforms.

Derived from
(Say): Dark Secret says, 'From the shadows it told me the words. It showed me the symbols.'
(Say): Dark Secret says, 'Five friends. Five Souls. Five fingers on a hand. The darkness beckoned.'

Additional secrets could need to be said.
- The whole line
- Five fingers on a hand.

- Might just need to be standing in the right spots when ghostflame is killed.

But I'm 99% sure all of my tests did not have 5 people standing on the platforms at the same time at any point in the raid. Which could let me us run the whole gauntlet again with that condition. I'll of course try this on the weekend, but if folks out there have an opportunity.

[Sarkastik]

I saw something either in the forums or on a another site that essentially said that the whole "Dark Secret" thing that you guys have found outside of the raid was the remnant of an idea that was dropped during the development of IoD and that the remnants of that idea were just never stripped out of the pack.

It might have been something a Dev said in one of the DDO Discord channels and quoted either in the DDO Forums or on another site.

I think this is a snipe hunt.

I think you're referring to the bit mentioned in "known issues" of the 55.3 release notes. It's very to specific to just All Hail the King, however, which by implication means the others are very much intentional.

[Kelledren]

I'm sorry to hear that



Final, almost certainly red herrings, given Yarrow "appears to be merely a human woman in her prime, with only a touch of greenish flame to hint at her power"; but here is a halfling Yarrow wearing green:

• https://ddowiki.com/page/Alleine_Yarrow

and confirmation that Yarrow is a halfling surname in DDO:

• https://ddowiki.com/page/Donric_Yarrow

Maybe posting more here will help elicit a developer clue

Hmmm interesting, thanks for posting. Could be pure coincidence.

Either way if this was all much ado about nothing then Lyn would have stepped in and said as much.. much like the dark secret in All Hail the King. The silence on this topic I believe speaks volumes.

[Oliphant]

Wonder if there is any secrets worth telling the five thralls in their respective circles while still alive.

[LightBear]

Has anybody tried to be killed by the dark secrets in the quests and look at the dark secret's names while dead?

[Oliphant]

Maybe

/say secret

on the platforms, like old school text adventure games

[Magnus_Arcanis]

Maybe

/say secret

on the platforms, like old school text adventure games

Oh, I didn't have it on the doc, but I did try that. Will add it the following:

secret
secrets
dark secret
dark secrets

(tried at all stages of the raid)

But, like everything else, I didn't test them with having someone being on each platform.

[Xoham]

One of the raid dark secrets is: "From the shadows it told me the words. It showed me the symbols." I just had a quick hunt around for Kopru symbols (the simpler ones with the Kopru; not the complicated ones with the humans / Egyptian looking ones).

Using Magnus_Arcanis's transliteration of the 12 Kopru symbols, I always seem to only find the symbol list, and the same three words (written up or down, or left or right mirror'd):

• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (length 12)
• 11 9 7 8 3 (length 5)
• 5 1 12 10 9 9 9 7 9 6 2 2 2 (length 13)
• 2 1 9 10 8 6 2 1 12 7 7 6 2 2 (length 14)

The only symbol that doesn't appear to be used outside of the symbol list is "4". I suppose some questions are:

• Has anyone found any other Kopru words?
• What alphabet has 12 letters?
• Is the five letter word Vecna or Kopru?
• Do we have to anagram like in the Vecna names?
• Five symbols is a nice length, are there any kopru symbols in the raid area (I can't easily make it to part three to explore)?
• Are these a complete red herring, and just nice artwork?

I will say, I quite like the artwork.