The Case of Jerry's Missing Candy

The Case of Jerry's Missing Candy

This was one of TDN's biggest plots and lasted for several weeks. We released a new part every couple of days, for a total of eight parts. Overall we had more than 3,800 members participate and 111 who completed the plot through to the end!

The storyline was based around TDN's mascot Jerry's halloween candy going missing. The thief left a poem behind saying that if players can work out who he is then he would return Jerry's candy. In each part players had to complete a Neopian character's task to earn another clue to the thief's identity.

Part One: Mystic Riddles

Firstly, players had to seek out the Island Mystic based on the hint provided within this part's status image - an Island Mystic plushie. Once players worked out that the link to this part was contained within TDN's Island Mystic guide, they were able to begin the true part of the puzzle.

This part consisted of three riddles. The idea was that the Mystic would give them the information they were seeking if they could prove they were smart enough. His first riddle was:

Under midland mountain, a green Itchi now exists.

Incomprehensible as this first seems, it is actually quite simple - take the first letter of each word and you get the answer: ummagine.

The next riddle was much more literal:

Find the friend who you will never lose in the dark.

Friends on Neopets can mean your Neofriends, or more importantly in this riddle, your pets' friends - petpets. Players had to seek out the petpet that matched this riddle, which in this case was of course blobagus. The Blobagus' item description on Neopets is "The petpet you will never lose in the dark!" so that was players' tip-off to the correct answer.

The final riddle was very similar to the first, although most players did not solve it as such but rather followed a hint posted in the plot announcement thread by another member which told them to use characters from the Neopian calendar until they found the correct one. This was the riddle:

I was your first friend,
But we've yet to meet,
The question is why,
At the start of each year,
I am guided back to you,
Along central port lines,
In the middle of the day,
Though never at noon.
Who am I?

The proper way to solve this riddle was to follow what the lines said, literally, without paying attention to what the riddle as a whole says. If any of you are Harry Potter fans, this riddle is a tip-off to the Sphinx riddle Harry has to solve in the third Triwizard task. The first two lines indicate "f" as it is the first letter of friend and does not occur in the word meet. Next, we have "y" because of the word why and of course the start of year. The next two lines are probably harder to figure out - they were hard to write well enough that they made sense - but the essential bit was central port, indicating "or" which is the center of port. Finally, you get "a" from the middle of day, but never in the word noon. String them all together and you get the answer, Fyora.

Once players had completed all three riddles, the Island Mystic gave them a scrap of the thief's note and invited them to return if they needed any more help later.

Part Two: Spooky Bat Collecting

This part was released several days after the first part, and was located in the restocking guide on TDN's main site. Players had to assist the shopkeeper of Spooky Petpets in retrieving his escaped bats. This was interactive and straight-forward, although quite frustrating for some.

If players could catch 52 bats in under a minute, then the shopkeeper gave them another piece of the thief's note and, like the Mystic, invited them to return if they ever needed any help.

Part Three: Illusen's Party

In this part, players had to find Illusen over in the Customisation department. They then had to solve seven riddles for her and retrieve the piece of clothing each riddle referred to. These riddles were all much more straight-forward than the Island Mystic's.

Firstly, a trip to the mall is in store, I think, to find someone just made for me! = Earth Faerie Dress

Accessories are a must too, but I do hope these wings aren't too heavy! = Shell Faerie Wings

Ahh pretty sparkles! Better make sure I have some spare batteries though. = Sparkling Faerie Wand

Well, no party is complete without these... one that matches my dress of course. = Basic Green Balloon

I do love handcrafted shoes. = Earth Faerie Leaf Shoes

Perfect for gypsys, and perfect for me too I think! = Gypsy Girl Earrings

And finally a throughly non-exploding accessory, naturally. = Gormball Necklace

For the not-so-obvious riddles, the clues referred to things mentioned in the clothing item's description on Neopets. Again, once players had found all Illusen's clothing items they were given a piece of the thief's note.

Part Four: Finding Armin

This part was a giant maze. The starting point was found in the Hannah and the Ice Caves guide and players had to make their way through four sections of the Ice Caves to find Armin. Between each of the sections they came across a trap set up by the locals to keep out unwanted visitors. Each trap had a "codeword" that they had to shout to get past it safely - if players went back to visit the Spooky Petpets shopkeeper, he told them that he sometimes needed to visit his sister in the Ice Caves and gave them the words they needed to speak.

Once players made their way through all the sections of the maze and guided Armin back to Hannah, they received the fourth part of the thief's note.

Part Five: Finding the Book of Ages

A throwback to the Altador plot, for this part players visited the Archivist in part 14 of the Altador Plot coverage and learned that the Book of Ages had been lost somewhere in the Aldatorian Archives. They agree to try and find it for Finneus, who advises them that perhaps they should try asking someone to narrow down the search. If they then went back to visit the Island Mystic, they would find him with two robot petpets - a C430 Autobot and a Stopngo 400. Taking the numbers as co-ordinates, they needed to change the x and y values in the archives to 430 and 400 respectively. They then found the Autobot in the archive room:

Clicking on the shelf next to the robot petpet, players found the Book of Ages. When they returned it to Finneus, they received the next piece of the thief's note.

Part Six: Decoding Messages

The start to this part was found in the Moon Rock Rampage gameguide. Players then had to open the Resistance's message console and decode the ten messages they found within by applying the correct modifiers.

Each symbol corresponded to a number, and players could get a key from Hannah and Armin to let them know which symbol meant which number. The goal was to make each message equal 9999999 by using the modifier codes. Some messages required just one modifer and others needed two, while a couple also needed three. Once all the messages were decoded, players discovered that one was another piece of the thief's note.

Part Seven: Balthazar Battle

Where else would you go to find a battle? Located in TDN's Battlepedia, this part was a traditional battle - Jerry vs Balthazar. It appeared quite random, but actually each move players made altered an invisible score in a different way. When the score hit 27, Balthazar was defeated.

After Balthazar was defeated, another piece of the thief's note was unlocked.

Part Eight: Potion Making

The final part of the plot was found in the morphing potion guide, where players met Kayla. Kayla requests their help to make three potions for her. The recipes to these potions are found, she says, in a book called The Potion Handbook. If players returned to Finneus in the Altadorian Archnives, he was able to direct them to the Room of Spells where they could find a copy of the book.

After looking up and correctly making the three potions Kayla wanted to her satisfaction, she rewarded players with the final piece of the thief's note.

Final Riddle: Who Stole the Candy?

Once players had unlocked all 8 pieces of the thief's note, the final riddle and answer box appeared on the main plot page.

This riddle is a much simpler version of the third one in part one, each line indicated one letter of the thief's name. So who took the candy? Well, the meepits of course!

Thank you all for participating in the plot, and I hope you enjoyed puzzling your way through all the parts! Congrats to those who completed the plot ^_^