The Mysterious Artefacts of Yalahar
Let me start by saying that I personally think this inconspicuous question is one of the best on TibiaQA. Why? I think my answer will tell you that. So here we go.
Take a look at the image below.When Anubora asked the question in August 2022 I didn't pay much attention to it. I completely changed my approach to the question the moment my friends from TibiaSecrets team (I am a co-founder of the site) and I started researching the Explorer Society Quest.
The image above shows the state of the questlog after completing all the commonly known missions. We started to wonder why the questlog says we don't have other badges. In my opinion, this suggests that further badges could be available after completing special missions as is the case with the Sea Scout Badge. After a brief review of the quest, we noticed that the NPC Timothy is the only representative of the explorers from the outposts who does not give us any missions. We found this very interesting and puzzling. At this point, I went back to the above question on TibiaQA and started thinking about it.
I found this dialogue interesting because quest dialogues are similar after all. It implies that we can assist Timothy in some way. Let me repeat: we can ASSIST this NPC. After all, various quests in Tibia start in a similar way. This NPC also says that he would be happy to buy such an artefact from us. My colleagues and I started to think about what items could be these artefacts. And we think we have found the answer. They are probably the following crystals:
They were introduced in the same update as Timothy and the whole Yalahar. Note how well they fit the description of Timothy's artefacts. They have different colour, shape (this is debatable) and size. In addition, they have unique and interesting descriptions which certainly allows us to recognise them (as Timothy says). It is worth adding that, so far, they are thought to have no other use than purely decorative. Interestingly, the possibility of selling them was introduced in a later update so at the time of their introduction to the game the crystals seemed completely useless...
Taking a closer look at the Explorer Society Quest, we realise that a large part of the quests involves finding and bringing back an item to the quest giver. Some of them we could call ... artefacts.
So, let's recap:
- Questlog of the Explorer Society Quest gives hope to think that this is not a fully completed quest
- NPC Timothy is the only NPC from the Explorer Society outposts who has no mission for us
- Timothy is looking for artefacts. We know that the artefacts may be crystals which, so far, were thought to be of no use
- The dialogues of NPC Timothy look like the beginning of some mission/quest
The above clues could indicate that NPC Timothy has a task for us or simply wants to buy an artefact from us. But why does he send us to his friend Palimuth to help him and not Timothy?
This seemed somehow illogical to me. That is why I started to dig into the subject further. I got the enlightenment by looking through the spoilers of In Service of Yalahar Quest. During the first quest called "The Way to Yalahar" we are tasked by the NPC Wyrdin to go to Yalahar, to Timothy and collect Research Notes from him. Take a look at how the dialogue with Timothy looks during this mission. Pay attention to the last line that the NPC says:
How is it possible for an NPC to say the same line with two completely different dialogues? At this point, I realised that Timothy's spoken NPC issues are bugged and he shouldn't send us to Palimuth if we offer him an artefact. In October 2022, I wrote a ticket to Cipsoft about this issue.
It turned out that there was indeed a bug there. I thought: Wow. This could be something really groundbreaking! However, I started to wonder why Cipsoft gave the submission category a LOW. Suppose Timothy actually has a quest for us, and a bug prevents it from starting. Could Cipsoft have given a LOW category for such a submission? Well, it turns out that Cipsoft Team often give such a category for bugs that do not create some kind of advantage for the player using the bug. That's what this minor adverse effect means. For example, we waited months for the bugged Transmutator achievement to be fixed, yet it was quite an important discovery for the community. It can therefore be assumed that the category given by Cipsoft for my submission should not imply that there is not some previously unrecognised quest behind the bug.
At this point we can answer Anubora's main question:
Certainly, Timothy is looking for artefacts. Technically it is not possible to sell the artefacts to Timothy because a bug in the game prevents this.
And this is my answer to additional questions:
Q: “More interesting what item could be considered a real Yalahari artefact?”
A: This cannot be verified due to a bug in the game. In my opinion, there is a good probability that these are: Crystal of Focus, Crystal of Balance and Crystal of Power.
Q: “If such items exists what will Timothy pay for them?”
A: The bug makes it impossible to check this. But it is also likely.
I decided to answer this question before the final solution (bug fix) because already at this stage the whole story related to Timothy seems fascinating. And I hope that many people will be as impatient as I am to see this bug fixed. I will, of course, update my response once it has been fixed.
However, not to get too much excited about the bug, remember that although the clues may indicate that Timothy has some previously undiscovered quest/mission for us, after the bug has been fixed it may turn out that this is not the case and, for example, Timothy will just buy the artefacts back from us. And that will be all. However, the clues for me personally as well as most of my colleagues are very convincing, which is why I wanted to describe it all.
***
Supplement to answer
I could stop there, but there are a few leads that could indicate that there is a hidden quest or quests in the update introducing Yalahar (the same one in which Timothy was added) to the game, but these leads cannot be clearly linked to Timothy and the Explorer Society. I thought such knowledge would be cool to elaborate on my answer. Therefore, let me present a few selected clues to show you the bigger picture. Do not take them too seriously. A lot of it is my imagination but I think they are interesting. Consider them as a supplement to my answer. This part is for those people who are interested in the possibility of the existence of a hidden quest somewhere in Yalahar.
Beregar
To the best of known knowledge, no player has managed to complete the Hidden City of Beregar. Furthermore, a previously unknown Unlikely Pathfinder achievement related to this quest was discovered quite recently. To date, according to common knowledge, no one has managed to complete the Forgotten Passage quest.
Beregar hides mysterious NPCs who refuse to hold a conversation with us. Perhaps some kind of started mission is needed to talk to them?
In the town, there is a mushroom farm which is a completely empty and unnecessary location. In Kazordoon we can have very interesting dialogues with NPCs which look like part of some quest.
Interestingly, the above dialogues only unlock once we discover Beregar and set foot there.
This all leads one to believe that there may be missions in Beregar that are still unresolved today. Interestingly, getting to Beregar itself is rather enigmatic. We don't have an introductory mission here in which someone send us to reach the hidden city. Could the person commissioning us for such a hypothetical mission be Timothy? Absolutely. After all, he is a member of the Explorers Society! Interestingly, we find a crystal of focus in the vaults of Beregar.
Vengoth
With Yalahar, Vengoth was also introduced. We get access to the lowest crypt after giving 100 Vampire Lord Tokens to the NPC Storkus. As a reward, we also receive the Blood Skull and the achievement RAZING! Is that enough reward for such a sacrifice? Collecting 100 tokens is a daunting task, and in the days of Yalahar's introduction to the game, extremely difficult. Many players believe that there may be something more behind the Blood Skull and the crypt alone. Players point out that Blood Skull has a "use with "option. So far no one has managed to use this skull on any object.
Yalahar Centre
Shortly before Yalahar was introduced to Tibia, fansites received a set of graphics showing the new locations. We managed to get to one such graphic. It depicts one of the Content Designers of the time, Chayenne, standing next to the Palimuth building in Yalahar.
And this is what the location looks like today:
Do you notice the differences? Probably shortly before the introduction of the game, the entrance to the edifice was secured by quest doors. Now they are located inside the edifice. What was defended by the original Quest Door? Access to the NPC Palimuth - the same one Timothy sends us to. Why was this changed and the new Quest door put further back allowing free access to the NPC Palimuth? Hard to say but no doubt interesting. Let's fantasise a little - perhaps to enter through that original Quest door we first had to do something for Timothy?
Note that we have no access to the upper levels of this building complex. We can suspect that a portal system is in place on the upper floors.
There's even a whole Teleportation Hub. Interesting...
Alchemist Quarter
Some time ago, the Transmutator achievement was discovered in this location. It was discovered more than a decade after the introduction of the game, But that's not the only interesting thing about this location. There are cells with monsters and various levers here. This is not linked to any quest. It should be added that not all levers work...
Overall, it looks as if there is some sort of quest going on here. I wonder why these underwater cells are empty.
Looks like something is missing here...
The Mercury Blob is a rare monster in Tibia but is common in the Alchemist Quarter. As we read in the Library on the Tibia website, the Mercury Blob is a remnant of experiments related to teleportation and travel to other dimensions. There is a certain unexplored teleport in the Alchemist Quarter.
Is this the teleport that was experimented on? Few people know that this teleport really works. We can drop an item into it and it will be teleported somewhere. Where does this teleport lead? To another dimension as the description suggests. Why is it inaccessible if it moves objects to a location? Perhaps it can be accessed somehow?
Tibiantis
And now I'm going to go a little crazy and fantasise a lot :) Along with Yalahar, this book has been introduced.
Diabolic creatures.... With Yalahar, a monster sprite like this was introduced into the game:
To this day, no player has encountered this monster in the game. Or are these diabolical creatures from Tibiantis? They could very well be some kind of underwater demons. Their appearance even fits this. Interestingly, Explorer Society representatives like to send us on underwater missions. :)
Mysterious Items
The image below shows some items added with Yalahar. The image is from the official update teaser.
In the image, we can see the Yalahari Figurine and a certain candle, unavailable at the time, alongside other items. Or perhaps the Yalahari Figurine was available as a prize in some mission? Hmm? Note that our "potential Timothy artefacts" lie on the same crystal tables as these previously unavailable items...
I hope my answer is satisfactory at this point. Although I was tempted to ramble a little in the second part of my answer, I am sure the author of the question as well as many of you will learn a lot from this reading. Although it was me personally who managed to find the bug in this dialogue, I have to thank at the very end all my colleagues from Tibiasecrets: Bosst, Haishen, Mirius, Elkolorado, Meadek and Lehula Dohon (random order) and Anubora who asked an inconspicuous but very good question. You have helped me a lot on this journey in Yalahar.
Thanks!
Sources:
https://www.tibia.com/library/?subtopic=creatures&race=mercuryblob
https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Updates/8.40#Update_Teasers
https://tibiopedia.pl/quests/In_Service_of_Yalahar_Quest
https://tibiasecrets.com/beregar-into-the-unknown/
https://tibiasecrets.com/secrets-of-the-alchemist-quarter/
https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Unused_Sprites
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