Hopefully, if I’ve set up everything properly on my side, this post and all the ones published after it should be published automatically throughout the week. Cross your fingers! With any luck, I’m on an airplane right now, about to enjoy family and warmer temps. As you can probably guess, I won’t be able to check in with the blog throughout this week, but I most definitely will be able to respond to any comments as soon as I get home. If something is going horribly wrong with the blog, I can be reached via DMs to my Twitter account, @thefussypants.
With all the business stuff out of the way, I think it’s high time to actually get to the content of this post! For those who don’t know, for two years, I have organized a (pretty rockin’) Hallow’s End party, complete with scavenger hunts, transmog contests, and scary stories. The clues for the scavenger hunts aren’t your everyday clues though, they’re brilliantly crafted riddles by an amazing guildie of mine, Vin (shout out to you!).
We typically have contestants search around in the zone where the party is being hosted to look for the locations described, and then whisper one of the people running the party with their guesses. Teams are divided up into no more than 4 people and are encouraged to jump into separate voice channels to plan. The event usually takes about half an hour in total, but it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever had the pleasure of helping put together!
The Halloween season is pretty much over and our party has already occurred, but I would hate to see all these genius riddles go to waste. So, with Vin’s permission, I’m posting his riddles here for all of you if you are interested in either solving them or using them for your own scavenger hunts! Now’s the perfect time to begin planning for next year’s Halloween after all!
Our location was the Ruins of Gilneas, so all riddles describe a location contained within the zone itself.
Answers are posted below in white text and can be revealed by highlighting over them.
1.
In the shadow of divine spire, loom gnarled boughs o’er murk and earth charred
Souls lie ever dreaming in a Sepulcher, not of man’s design, but of The Dark Lady’s scheming
Their countenance…forever marred
A: In the courtyard of the Gilneas cathedral there are some dead, black trees. Beneath the trees are pools of fetid water and skeletons of dead Gilneans.
2.
A monolith oversees a marble town, where none will wake alive
Betwixt two budding beds, within circle and square, fourteen eyes to guide the dead
They cross the Styx, one torch between the five
A: In the main cemetery, there is a large stone in the center. Around the stone there are three grave plots, the left-most being a circle and the right-most being a square. There are a total of 14 lit candles (not counting the middle plot). The plot in the middle has 4 headstones and sarcophagus (total of 5 graves) with only one candle lit.
3.
In a hall of emerald radiance, where man and woman enjoy their vigil
A feast beneath the gibbous moon, wasted…for they left to soon
By lantern’s glow, how beautiful this sigil
A: In Gilneas manor, the main hall has a green stained glass window. There is a banquet set at the table, with a painting of a moon and sea over the dining table. To the right of the table is a tapestry with a family sigil of flowers. It is lit by a single lantern in the hall.
4.
They place them in this iron room, to wax upon the sadness
Rooftop islands in the sea, this edict fades, no more to be…
It drowned amidst this madness
A: There is a sunken area of the town where only the tops of the buildings are visible. If you swim down, there is a gibbet with a declaration of the criminal’s crimes beneath it. These buildings were flooded when the Forsaken sacked the city.
5.
Over the river and through Stygian wood, a gated monument, albeit grim
Twelve were they, so sad that to this day
But one sweet sentiment between them
A: If you leave the city by the bridge and go into the Blackwald forest, there is a lone house that guards a small graveyard (encircled with stone and an iron gate). There are twelve headstones and only one has a flower on it.
Hope you guys enjoy these as much as we did! And once again, thank you Vin for such awesome clues!
Growing up in Azeroth 
OMG, that seems so fun!!! I will get the attention to Lord of Icecrown and we will try to solve this! And they are so well written!
Let me know how you guys do! And all props to my guildie Vin for those, he’s amazing at riddle-writing!
This is brilliant, Gilneas is empty and it is a waste of space not to use it for something, i wonder if that will change in BfA? i think it’s time for the worgens to go back to their city.
Definitely agree! It’s such a gorgeous zone, so it’s a shame that it’s completely abandoned. Most of our guildies didn’t even realize that the zone was accessible uninstanced, which just goes to show you how criminally underutilized it is. With the siege of Lordaeron coming, let’s use the Ruins of Gilneas as a staging ground!
What awesome ideas. I didnt know 🙂 I used to host events in the game too, once, but much simpler ones, hah :p
I hope you are having a great time in real life out there o/
What a neat way to disguise the answers!
Ha ha, all the praise goes to Vin on these riddles, I had very little to do with their writing. He’s quite the clue master!
The rest of the event though, that’s something I’ve organized and ran for a few years now. It’s quite a fun one to do and definitely out of the ordinary for our typical guild events!
And thank you! It took me a bit to figure out how to hide the answers since WordPress doesn’t seem to support any sort of spoiler tag on the blogging side, but I think this solution worked pretty well!