Explorer’s Diary – Episode 10

This is the 10th episode of the Explorer’s Diary. In this series of articles, we aim to present to you minor secrets, allusions and curiosities. We hope that you will enjoy some of the secrets described below, because I have prepared quite a few of them for you. Please treat this episode of the Diary as a special anniversary one.

Gothic tales

Surely many of you have played or at least heard of the Gothic game series. Interestingly, this game originates from Germany, just like Tibia. We are sure that one of the developers is a fan, because the arena in Svargrond probably contains an interesting allusion to this game series. If we ask Thorwulf walking near the battle arena about „rumours” he will tell us a story…

Interesting. In the place dedicated to the greatest warriors of the Svargrond arena, the statue of Alrik has been removed from its pedestal, and no trace of the hero himself remains in the city.

The name Alrik is of Nordic origin and thus very fitting for the Ice Islands and Svargrond, but it turns out that a character named Alrik also appears in Gothic II. Alrik is a warrior who organizes battles and fights himself… in the arena in the port district of Khorinis. What is interesting, while playing Gothic II we can confront Alrik. This is probably not a coincidence.

Bloodthirsty Flamingos

Have you ever visited fansite of our partner – TibiaGoals? If not, we strongly encourage you to do so. It is a site focused on game motivation and goals players set for themselves. After reading one of the stories, I started wondering about such goals. Most players love leveling up and aim for the highest possible character level. But what about unusual goals? There are players like Ironmen, decorators, bosshunters, rare collectors etc. I decided to set a really unique and absurd goal I decided that at least one of my characters should become the worst character in the whole Tibia. Isn’t it crazy? But how to achieve it?

Some time ago, while browsing kill statistics on guildstats.eu I noticed an interesting and unusual thing. Well, 4 times in Tibia history monster „Deer” killed a player…

How can this be? After all, the Deers are running away from us and not attacking us at all! Is that right? Well, not exactly. I must admit that it took me a long time to find a way to die from Deer. But in the end I did.

I probably became the fifth player in history to die being trampled by Deer. But I didn’t stop there. I tried the method I had learned on the Bog Frog.

And on Adventurer.

I wanted to achieve something 'more’. Perhaps death by the hand (or wing?) of Flamingo would have been more „spectacular”?

What do you think? Did I achieve my goal and Mysz Komputerowa became the worst character in the game? After all, it was the first time ever that a flamingo, one of the weakest monsters in the entire game killed a player.

All right. All joking aside. You are probably curious how it came to this. Well, Mysz Komputerowa is a 20+ level knight. The „challenge” spell, the popular „exeta”, is responsible for everything.

This spell causes the target of monsters’ attacks to be turned towards you. A side effect of this spell is that some monsters that usually don’t attack us, such as butterfly, start to do so. If you are curious what weak and usually non-attacking monsters are susceptible to this spell and what damage they deal, I have asked a question on TibiaQA website.

What weak monsters that don’t usually attack us can kill us? – TibiaQA

Maybe someone will do some research on this topic and will answer it. I’ve also noticed that e.g., pigs and butterflies attack us but they don’t deal damage (only clouds appear on the character). Also, I wonder if these weak monsters have any offensive spells. I think this is a topic worth exploring. Maybe you can try killing yourself in this unusual way? Death from Fish would certainly be very spectacular.

„BTW. Knight is the worst profession in the game. Only knight can die at the hands of such terrifying monsters as Flamingo or Deer. No offence Bosst „

Resurrection

Have you ever hunted Diremaws? If so, you might have noticed a strange thing while hunting. It turns out that from a dead Diremaw’s body a new one can be spawned!

I have conducted a little research on this topic. If you are interested in its results, I invite you here. It’s interesting that diremaw’s bodies can be „pushed” to another location and there you can also spawn a monster.

Mr Bottle

In our last article about Nomads, we mentioned Denson Larika. He is a former Content Designer of Cipsoft, the person responsible for creating various types of content for the game. It turns out that Denson created a very unusual and funny NPC. It’s no other than good old Buddel.

„It was difficult to choose one certain place as I have positive feelings for so many things I created. The three dead bureaucrats, the dream sequence, the Nomads Hideout, the 'Troll Sabotage’-Quest or Buddel who once was called Beorn and always makes me smile when I talk to him.”

Most of us know Buddel from his drunken mistakes in navigating his boat. Yes, this is the guy who, when drunk, can take us to a different place than the one we wanted to go to. This is not the only interesting mechanic this NPC is equipped with. Buddel will gladly buy compasses from us because he thinks most of them are broken.

He is fascinated by Dwarven rings and if we give him one before the journey, he will not make any navigation mistakes.

Buddel also tells unbelievable, strange stories. You can really ask him about all sorts of things. Some statements you may be surprised by, while others will make you laugh to tears.

But is there a bigger secret behind this NPC? It turns out there is. And not just one!

Buddel used to be called Bejorn, but everyone still calls him Buddel.

Have you ever wondered why? Well, Buddel loves rum!

As you can see, he really is a great admirer of rum! Moreover, it turns out that in German the word Buddel means not just a bottle but a huge flask. So, we got to know the origin of his strange name. Buddel is simply a reference to a large flask of rum.

I mentioned that Denson Larika is responsible for creating Buddel. Do you know what other NPC this person created? It’s Klaus.

You will probably ask why I am writing about this. It turns out that there is a certain music band…

What do you guys think? Considering that both NPCs were added in different updates it shows how thoughtful Denson’s designs were.

Moving on. As you can see in one of the images above, Buddel buys rum from Breezelda (interesting name, right?). If we ask her where she gets her Rum from, she says Port Hope.

What is so strange about that? And have you seen rum anywhere in Port Hope? It’s not available in shops. Not in barrels. No NPC even mentions it. The biggest drinker in Port Hope, Brewster, doesn’t seem to know the word rum. Even in the smugglers’ caves near the city there is no trace of it. Strange, isn’t it?

Or maybe Breezelda buys Rum in some other Port Hope?

It is possible that the rum that buys Breezelda is an allusion to a certain historical place. Although we’re not entirely sure about that. Treat this information as an unproven curiosity. You can find more information about this place here. Or maybe you have a better explanation for this strange story of Port Hope rum? If so, let us know in the comments under the article or on our channel on Discord.

You probably know Buddel’s story with the Dwarven Rings. We can give him such a ring. As a reward, Buddel will take us to a chosen place without making a mistake in navigation. But the interesting thing is that this is not the only item we can give to Buddel. He simply loves rum. So much so that he is even capable of taking an empty bottle of it from us. I’m sure you haven’t heard about it because I couldn’t find any information about it on the entire Internet. In order to give Buddel an empty bottle of rum you need to have one in your inventory and say the word „test” to him.

The question arises here. Why was such a mechanic implemented for this NPC? Does giving away empty bottles serve any purpose? It is really hard to say. I haven’t found a clear answer to this question. One possibility is that Buddel wants to trick us into completing the Barbarian Test Quest. But are we sure about that? After all, in Barbarian Test Quest we get pretty clear, precise instructions from NPC Sven on how to complete it. Note that after giving Buddel the empty bottle of rum, he thanks us for the rum, not the empty bottle, and this is also very puzzling. Perhaps there is a bigger mystery behind the rum and Buddel? Take a look at the text below. It is a letter from Buddel to the player written by a Cipsoft employee:

„Ha, ha, halloh my dear Inhaling Chronic,

SHALALA, I met a, a lovely ladyyyy, she wrote, wrote this down for meee – YOHO an’ a bottle of RUM, TRALAAA! Don’t write that down, you, lady! This is a verrry imp… imp… – ssssseriousss message to a goodoldfriendofmine, d’y hear? At least, I *think* he is. Or isn’t she? The, the one, the, with the, the six eyes. Bug eyes. Yes, that’sss correct. An’ the funny smell! You write that on the address, er, envy, envelope. An’ he needs to know exxxxxxactly what’s going on here! Oh. Where’d she go? Oh, well. Anyway, mygoodfriend, thiss tavern hasalmostrunoutofrum, what a shame! It’sss the rats, they are alllll around the place! Ssstealing! They’re in league with the, with the, wossname, pink! I fear we havetossssetsails to findanewplacccce to drink! I know jussst the place in fact! Just north, of, north of, you know, our special place! Let’ssss meet there! All we need is a little, er, a little, little, bottle of rum for the way there! Like that one, except that it’s empty. Hey! Why’s the rum gone? Nooo! Stop them! Stop! Stop that, ele, elelephant! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

Trust this finds you in good health,

Captain of the rumbaaaa,

Buddel”

Source: https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=2292#buddel

Perhaps a very drunk Buddel could so unfortunate stray and transport us to that special place described in this letter? It is only a theory, but not impossible after all. Note that Buddel mentions an empty bottle of rum in the letter. Maybe the fact that we can give him one is not a coincidence at all? If only we could find a way and force him to take a full bottle…

Two more interesting facts about Buddel are worth noting. This old drunk sings about nothing but a bottle of rum.

Bradford has remarkably similar chants in its repertoire. Take a look for yourself.

Buddel seems to be a very important NPC not only for Denson Larika but also for Cipsoft itself.

Take a look at what has appeared on the Tibia Facebook Fanpage this year.

We strongly encourage you to do your own Buddel research. There is a good chance that there is something else behind this NPC…

Alcohol and skeletons

Let’s stay on the topic of liquors for a while. During the course of the Pits of Inferno Quest we encounter so-called dead bureaucrats. These are very interesting NPCs. Anyone who has done this quest certainly remembers the fun of acquiring and bringing back forms to these NPCs. Bureaucracy in full swing! Some time ago I noticed that these NPCs respond to a small number of words. But one in particular caught my eye. That word is „alcohol”. Look how these NPCs react to this word.

What the hell do skeletons have to do with alcohol? Maybe you can use alcohol to speed up your quests? Maybe you need to bring them a container of alcohol to unlock a hidden dialogue line? Or maybe it’s some kind of cleverly hidden hint? For now, I leave these questions unanswered. Maybe you will find the solution?

Old games

While exploring the Oasis Tomb recently I came across a strange thing. In one of the chambers there are single respawns of Elf, Amazon and Dwarf. I must admit that it’s very unusual and these monsters do not fit the atmosphere of Pharaonic Tombs at all. After a while of thinking I managed to understand what secret these monsters hide. Look what is on the floor of the room.

These are the dead non-decaying bodies of a Ghost, a Ghoul and a Skeleton. No doubt this is an allusion to the game Ghoul’n Ghosts. We have already described a similar curiosity here. But what about the Elf, Amazon and Dwarf? It so happens that I played a game a very long time ago and I managed to associate these monsters with this very game. Take a look at the picture below.

Do you still have any doubts? Dwarf, Amazon and Elf are an allusion to Golden Axe, a great game of its time. Playable characters in this game are Amazon, Dwarf and Blond-haired Barbarian. You may ask why Cipsoft used an elf instead of a barbarian in this case? After all, there are also barbarians in Tibia. It turns out that at the time when tombs were created, there was no such monster as a barbarian yet and Cipsoft decided to use a character that resembles the one on the cover above. Blond haired Elf fits here perfectly.

What is interesting, it is not the only allusion to the game in Tibia. There is an unusual item in the game:

Its description explains beyond any doubt what we are dealing with here. If you like decorative items, please note that the body of the ghost as well as the other bodies from this chamber do not decay and you can take them with you.

Unfortunately, this is the end of this article, but not the end of our work. We are still looking for interesting facts to share with you later. Stay tuned. We will meet again in the new year 2022.

So what shall we do with the drunken sailor?

Shave his belly with a rusty razor

Sources:

http://www.rpg.sztab.com/poradniki,Gothic-2,17,12.html

https://guildstats.eu/monsters

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2185386

https://www.northumberlandnews.com/news-story/8462893-port-hope-had-a-history-of-rum-running/

https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=newsarchive&id=1951