Kiss of the Revenant

Kiss of the Revenant
Completed
Type	Official
Creators	Alice & Smith & Funcom
Discovered	2017-06-16

List of Investigations > Kiss of the Revenant

Kiss of the Revenant was an ARG related to Secret World Legends. Kiss of the Revenant was released shortly before the "re-launch" of Secret World Legends, which had initially released in 2012 as The Secret World. By completing the ARG puzzles, Secret World Legends players could claim in-game rewards after the re-launch on June 26, 2017. Kiss of the Revenant was created by Alice & Smith in collaboration with Funcom, the developers of The Secret World and Secret World Legends.

Initial Announcement

The puzzle hosted on mmorpg.com

A "cursed soul" being clicked

On June 16, 2017, the official Black Watchmen Twitter page posted a link to kissoftherevenant.com.

The website led to the following message:

THE SPIRITS ARE CHANNELING THEIR ENERGIES INTO REVEALING THE NEXT CHAPTER.

The bolded letters in the message spelled out AHEOET. In the page's source code, every big letter's HTML tag also contained a number; the numbers were 98 105 116 46 108 121. When converted from decimal to ASCII, these numbers read bit.ly. This was combined with the bolded letters to get the link bit.ly/AHEOET, which redirected to an animated GIF. The GIF showcased a new "Shadow-Bound" weapon, one of the rewards that players would earn by participating in the ARG:

Animated GIF showing the shadow bound weapon, one of the possible rewards, in action.

Furthermore, on the puzzle page, a "cursed soul" would occasionally appear at a random position, and could be clicked by the player. While the purpose of these cursed souls was not initially clear, eventually they were used to unlock "group rewards" after the conclusion of the ARG.

First Chapter

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The secret page included with the first puzzle

On June 17, 2017, the first puzzle unlocked. Clicking on the puzzle would play a short video, where the player is addressed by a narrator:

Step closer. Let me see you. Mmmh. You'll do, you'll do. So then, let me tell you a story.
Time was 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.

"Henderson" refers to Archibald Henderson, a character in Secret World Legends. The video didn't contain any clues needed to solve the puzzle.

After the video, a puzzle with the prompt "Draw first upon the ground" was displayed, requiring a 9-letter answer. A "secret page" was accessible from this screen, containing four tarot cards and the hint "That which is lost more than others". 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

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  The first puzzle, unsolved
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  The first puzzle, solved

The only tarot suit that isn't represented in the four tarot cards is the suit of pentacles. Pentacles may also be drawn "first upon the ground" at the start of a ritual. As such, the answer to the first puzzle was Pentacles.

Second Chapter

The secret page included with the second puzzle

On June 18, 2017, the second puzzle unlocked. Clicking on the puzzle played another short video with the following transcript:

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.

"Innsmouth" refers to Innsmouth Academy, a location in Secret World Legends.

After the video, a puzzle with the prompt "Dried and held under the tongue" was displayed, requiring a 7-letter answer. Another "secret page" was accessible from this screen, containing the hint "That which is distilled," as well as an image of a berry labelled "Green bottle, square faced... father's basement".

• 
  The second puzzle, unsolved
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  The second puzzle, solved

The berry depicted on the secret page is a Juniper berry, which is distilled to make gin. Accordingly, Juniper was the answer to the second puzzle.

Third Chapter

The secret page included with the third puzzle.

On June 22, 2017, Funcom hosted a "Beyond the Veil" development stream on their Twitch channel. During this stream, the community reached 13000 total claimed "cursed souls," and the third mission was unlocked. Clicking on the third puzzle played another short video with the following transcript:

I see you're making progress on Sam's little project.
This was her act of desperation, this ritual she made up...
She was trying to make her tools control her pop's creations.
She was a pure heart and uncorrupted by the darkness around her.
She didn't want power for its own sake, no. She wasn't fighting for the world or against it.
She just wanted something to protect herself so she could steal away with her sweetheart and escape from old man Henderson once and for all.
(A woman laughing)
Love is sweet; freedom is even sweeter. Keep going, and see how you do.

The third puzzle had the prompt "Place a replica at the center of the pentacle for the new moon" and required a 2-word phrase; the first word had 6 letters and the second word had 7 letters. The secret page featured the clue "That which is precious" and contained two pictures: an photo of a cathedral labeled "My visit to the St Mary's Cathedral," and a photo of a man with a torn label reading "Uncle George, Bishop of..." The secret page also had a label with no image, reading "M&W 1910 replica of uncle's treasure".

• 
  The third puzzle, unsolved
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  The third puzzle, solved

The cathedral in the photograph is St Mary's Cathedral of Limerick. The man labelled "Uncle George" is George Butler, who was once the bishop of St. Mary's Cathedral. During Butler's time as bishop, an artifact called the "Ardagh Chalice" was discovered. A replica of the Ardagh Chalice was created in 1910 by Mappin & Webb - the "M&W" mentioned on the secret page. As such, the answer to the third puzzle was Ardagh Chalice.

Fourth Chapter

The secret page included with the fourth puzzle

On June 24, 2017, the fourth chapter was unlocked. Clicking on the new chapter played another short video with the following transcript:

So far, so good.
You know Sam's story doesn't have a happy ending,
and nothing you do here can change that.
There is one moment of true happiness for Sam and her true love: stealing kisses along the pumpkins.
They say that Jack the Lad had sweet talked Samantha. But it went the other way around. She had a plan and Jack was part of it.
That midnight embrace was an invocation that depowered her weapon. And it almost worked. Almost.
... Let's see if you could take that a little further.

The hint this time was "Spill the blood of the cat", and the answer was 6 letters long. The clue on the secret page read "That which strike terror and fear", and included a "The Magician" tarot card, as well as a few other clues.

• 
  The fourth puzzle, unsolved
• 
  The fourth puzzle, solved

The initials S.L.M.M. and the year 1889 from the secret page point to a particular edition of the Lesser Key of Solomon, a grimoire published by S. L. MacGregor Mathers in 1889. The bloody markings on the secret page reading B.II c.VIII point towards Book 2, Chapter 8 of this grimoire, which contains the phrase "strike terror and fear" from the secret page:

But as for the knife with the black hilt (see Figure 62) for making the circle, wherewith to strike terror and fear into the spirits, it should be made in the same manner, except that it should be done in the day and hour of Saturn, and dipped in the blood of a black cat and in the juice of hemlock, the characters and names a shown in Figure 62 being written thereon, from the point towards the hilt.

This quote contains the phrase "knife with the black hilt," which fits into the redacted text from the secret page (Witch's xxxxx wxxx txx bxxxx hxxx). Another name for the knife described in this passage is an athame, and so Athame is the solution to the puzzle.

Fifth Chapter

The secret page included with the fifth puzzle

On June 25, 2017, the fifth chapter was unlocked, containing another short video with the following transcript:

And here we take a sharp turn into tragedy.
Sam and Jack found fleeting happiness together, but their moment of sweetness was cut short.
Nobody can say for sure if Old Man Henderson found them together or if his scarecrows did.
But I'm sure that Sam didn't get a chance to end her invocation. She lost her life to her father's scarecrows instead.
You might think this means that she failed. But you'd be wrong. She didn't fail at all. She was successful, beyond her wildest dreams.
You are almost there. You can't stop now.

The prompt this time was "Fix your gaze on high", and the puzzle required a 10-letter answer. The secret page contained the phrase "That which is brightest" along with a map of constellations. One of the stars was highlighted.

• 
  The fifth puzzle, unsolved
• 
  The fifth puzzle, solved

The constellation in the center of the image is Ophiuchus, and the highlighted star in the image (which happens to be the brightest star in the constellation) is named Rasalhague. Accordingly, Rasalhague is the answer to the fifth puzzle.

The Ritual

Immediately after completing the Fifth Chapter, it became possible to do the ritual. One weapon had to be selected for the ritual, and then the correct sequence of runes had to be selected. Five dots would light up in Mastermind style: red to indicate on of the selected runes is on the correct position, followed by grey dots for every correct rune in the wrong position. Every guess would take up some energy, and once the energy bar got empty there would be a short cooldown before it filled up again.

There was a choice out of six runes for five positions, so at least one rune wasn't used. By trying to fill up all positions with one rune, for every run, it was easy to guess which rune(s) didn't get used, and how often the other runes should be used. After that it is simply a matter of guessing a rune in the first position and filling the rest up with an unused rune until the first rune is guessed correctly (indicated by a single red dot lighting up). The same process can be repeated for all the other positions until the correct sequence is found.

Once the ritual completed, players could leave their e-mail to receive the code, which would be send during the waxing crescent. The moon started its waxing crescent on 2017-06-24 and it will end on 2017-07-01.

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  Selecting a weapon
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  A weapon is selected
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  The ritual itself
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  The ritual is completed
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  The end

After the ritual, there was a final video. Transcript:

Well, I'll be damned. You did it. You captured the monster and lay poor Samantha Henderson to rest at last.
Be careful with that thing though. The revenant is always in there, waiting. He'll come and fight with you. And for you from time to time.
But it is always going to be in there. So if you are not careful... well you know what revenants do.
Watch your back, friend. Or else someone might have to fend this your story too.

Rewards

The possible rewards..

After the first puzzle was unlocked, the rewards screen became available, giving a preview of all possible 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.

The last reward was finally unlocked at 03:47GMT 2017-06-25, when 15000 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

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  The full background, only the center is visible in the frame.
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  An image showing various icons used. Note that the chapter numbering isn't correct.
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  The rewards page as of 08:39GMT 2017-06-18.
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  The rewards page as of 20:41GMT 2017-06-18.
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  The rewards page as of 20:36GMT 2017-06-20. Notice the updated second reward.
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  The rewards page as of 16:19GMT 2017-06-26, with all rewards unlocked.
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  The first puzzle is unlocked.
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  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.
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  The screen shown when clicking on the second puzzle while it was locked.
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  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.
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  The reward of the third puzzle. It is a concept art of Jack dating back to 2008 (4 years before TSW launched).
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  The 'home' screen after the third puzzle is complete.
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  The reward of the fourth puzzle, showing some concept art of a revenant.
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  The 'home' screen after the fourth puzzle is complete.
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  The reward of the fifth puzzle, showing a design document for the revenant.
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  The 'home' screen after the fifth puzzle is complete.
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  The 'home' screen after the ritual is complete.