Kazordoon was not the only new place on the map. Directly southwest of this was the new desert area called Jakundaf desert, which was created by Ciryon and Lord Harry. This massive desert area also included a dungeon below the surface which had one of the most challenging and innovative quests in Tibia by this point. The sudden formation of the desert was said to be due to a magical accident after a long-forgotten battle (maybe Guido was bored during server save?)
From screenshots it looks like Lions were possibly here already but now they were confirmed to be here with the green grass replaced with sand. Players who walked on the sand would immediately notice a significant reduction in their movement speed due to the heavy friction of the tiles. This meant exploring the new area took more time, giving the impression that it was larger than it was. Ironically, there was little on the surface to explore as most of the interesting features were below ground or found on the far east side of the desert which was an easy walk.
A broken ruin could be seen close to where you would first enter the sands to the north. Some snakes and a few elemental fields guarded the unassuming area. Shoveling open the loose stone pile would take you to the dungeons below, but first we will discuss what could be found on the surface.
If you explored south, you would come across a stone tiled area with stairs leading down to NPC Adrenius. This area looked like an underground temple and the NPC would answer any questions you had. He had a deep dislike of the necromancer Netlios who published some books on adventuring. If you could answer his questions on the books he would be willing to part with key 4023 which you needed to get into the four vocation room inside the underground labyrinth. Of course this was no simple task and trying to answer the questions would cost you a 500gp donation to the temple which was a fair bit at the time. Also who was this Netlios guy and where would you even begin to look for something he had published. Do you talk to NPCs, explore the new area, or start a pilgrimage of Tibia's libraries to try to find the unknown author? The details Adrenius wanted were intimidating so this was likely going to be work even if you found all the lost tomes.
This was the start of the Desert Dungeon quest, and the process needed to get to the solution has been taken for granted in today's fast pace world. At the launch of Desert Dungeon there was no Wiki and players were vehemently discouraged from spoiling content to other players. The journey to solve any quest was absolutely herculean, but it was absolutely rewarding when you did, if not so much financially. Can you imagine navigating some of the current Tibian quests without any spoilers or help, apart from those who also were solving for the first time?
To even begin this quest you needed to find these books so after you had scoured every library from Thais to Carlin, talked to every NPC until your eyes where blurry, you would realize the lack of progress was because all the books lie hidden in the great land of Tibia. Fortunately you most content seems to get added around the place it was developed so that meant the books likely existed somewhere under the sands.
Before you delved into the dungeon below you might explore the rest of the desert. Further south of the underground temple was a small lake with an island in the middle. You could see a dead body here but there was no observable way to access it. A book found in the Desert Dungeon library remarked that there was a way to get to the island which sparked many rumors over the years on how it could be done and what was there. None of these rumors has ever proven true. As to who this long perished soul might be is anyone's guess. The most recent rumor I heard says that a HotS is hidden on the island but knowing KM it's likely a scroll chiding you for breaking the game if you were reading it.
If you explored the remaining desert, you would find nothing but some scorpions. You might note that the desert edged right to the water but a strip of green grass was between the sand and water tiles. This was because beach shore tiles didn't exist yet so map makers had to constantly innovate and when something was strange, they had to write a book on why it was perfectly normal and intended and stick it in a library somewhere.
The design of the area was a different then the mostly green grass and trees of the map. I think there was cacti in the desert and there were a few rocks and stones to break up the endless sand. One of the rocks could be broken with a pickaxe to reveal key 4055 which opened the Panpipes quest door deep below. You would know about this hollow stone through a book in the Desert Library, but you still had to find the stone and figure out how to get the key from it. Using a pick on the stone was a really out there concept so you had to be a cleaver explorer to stumble upon the solution yourself as very few other stones could be broken in this way so you'd have nothing to go on. Now you just click on the stone and get the key, no effort required.
Once you explored the map surface you would circle back to the lose stone pile and jump inside. The underground world below had another ominous hole at the west in. Those who jumped blindly down this hole had an immediately worrisome surprise. Once you dropped down you would not be able to escape the same way and you couldn't cheat by having a friend use a rope either as you fell three floors down instead of just one. This meant that the only way through was to explore the dungeon and find the exit. Those who dropped down the hole quickly learned that the place was a maze which held many secrets and interesting bits.
Upon entering the hole, you would find yourself surrounded by poison spiders. While you killed them you might have come across a ladder leading up. Above was I think a Poison Spider and a dead body with very basic starting loot inside. This body also had a book written by Erin Cropwell, a royal explorer who met his end while searching the new continent. With the grim reminder of what sometimes happens to adventurers firmly locked in your mind you would return to the floor below and see a path to the north which further branched into paths leading east and west.
Heading east would take you to a lava lake with a single square wood bridge. Upon entering the eerie red glowing room with the bridge over the lava you would be attacked by three Fire Devils, possibly your first as these creatures were very rarely seen. They would likely blast you with fireball explosions from a distance before you even know what was happening. Killing them left you disappointed as their loot was very poor, dropping only a little gold and nothing worth selling. Only in the earliest time could you get very lucky and loot a Steel Boots and sometimes a Red Spell wand. The wand sold very well to collectors and the boots were the best boots in game, which would replace the Leather Boots. Based on how many Steel Boots were in game when I was playing, the drop rate would have been similar to the Great Shield. I never looted these myself so who knows if it was even true? You really didn't know anything about the game, so much of the experience was sifting through rumor to discover the truth for yourself.
North of this area was a ladder leading up with a chest behind a door which had key 4009. Just south of this was another ladder which was called the star room and had many Fire Devils. The challenge with this room was that the lava pools prevented you from corralling all the monsters at once, so you had to chase each of them down while the others shot at you from safety. This room could be dangerous as you could also chase the Fire Devils around the outside edge, so tracking where you were being shot at was a bit difficult.
Heading south of the star room and west at the first intersection took you to a ladder where you would be deposited in a room with a strange wood wall in front of you. You might not suspect it, but that wall moved whenever someone stood on the library switch in another part of the dungeon. This route was an important escape route for PKs fleeing from high level attackers like the Mercs and it was not very well known. To use the secret passage you needed a second person to stand on a switch in the library which opened the wall. PKs achieved this by having a multicliented character ready on the switch. Once you killed the person you would flee into the dungeon, hide behind the wall, and log you other character out and wait for your PZ lock to go away. The nice part of this spot was there was a room below so they couldn't see you and if they hadn't done the quest they wouldn't even know that you were hidden inside. To them the exiva just showed you were elsewhere in the dungeon and even if they knew your hiding spot, they would need to have a char either ready at the switch or hidden behind the wall which was uncommon. As I was a Merc at the time it was recommended that we keep a char in either spot to help in case someone tried this. Unfortunately for us this happened much more frequently than you would think, and we often couldn't find someone online who had a char there. As map resets were frequent, your low level char would be teleported back to the temple and you would have to keep placing them back again.
If you headed southwest after the lava bridge, you would come across a locked door. Squinting through the tiny keyhole you would see a sign inside that proudly proclaimed this room the Hall of Lost Doors which could be opened by key 4037. Tibians maybe genetically unable to sit but their far sighted night seeing is second to none. To find this key you need to get into the Desert Dungeon Library and find a book on lost sight. Somewhere inside the dungeon was NPC Nemal who was blind and would give you the key if only he could see again. The spell called for a Rose, Bread Dough, a Cherry and a Mug to mix it in. Every adventurer has that in their backpack right?
Once you had those ingredients you could approach him for the key. Be wary as you need to have read the book as he will ask the time needed to cook the recipe which was 31 minutes, and the incantation needed to make the spell work which was "nalus murtu". Unfortunately the spell only lasts a short while which is why when you talk to him again he will still be blind.
The Hall of Lost Doors was a room with four doors with ladders leading up. Going up a ladder was a one way adventurer which was a new mechanic not seen elsewhere before. Before each of the doors was a sign with a phrase on them:
Door 1: This is door 1. The treasure is behind door 2 or 3.
Door 2: This is door 2. The treasure is behind door 1 or 4.
Door 3: This is door 3. The treasure is behind this door.
Door 4: This is door 4. The treasure is not behind this door.
You might rush to go up ladder 3 thinking this was an easy quest to solve. Unfortunately you would end up in a path with 4 Mino Archers, 2 Mino Mages, and 3 Mino Guards. You would fight your way to the only path forward which was a one way hole down to the lower level. For you trouble you would be back almost at the entrance to the Hall of Lost Doors. Bummer.
You would review the signs once again and think that the first sign says that the treasure is either behind the 2nd or the 3rd door. Since you know what was up the 3rd ladder, perhaps the 2nd was the place for the treasure. The sign could be trying to trick you, which might strengthen your conviction. You jump up the 2nd ladder to be immediately attacked by three strong Orc Berserkers. Yikes! Once you beat these back and made your escape down the one way hole you would again find yourself close by to try again.
While you had traveled up to the 4th ladder you would have noticed that the path also went to a room like the others but with no way down. Now that you had mapped some of this more you would realize that door 1 led to this point so you know that the only remaining choice was door 4. With the conviction that treasure would be yours you would run up the ladder but only find a short hallway with nothing but a one way drop out to the floor below would be your reward.
It is at this point that you might bitterly think that the room should be renamed Hall of Lost Treasure. Not all paths lead to treasure and not all quests result in loot. There really was nothing of value here no matter how badly you wished there to be.
To escape this dark misery, you would stop just before the lava bridge and head south. A ladder here would take you to a short path which had a nasty surprise to the south. A hole would intrigue you as to what might be inside. However, a sign close by said "Danger! Don't enter!" which let you know that the hole was bad news. If you dropped down it, you would become trapped in an area of fire fields and possibly a scorpion spawn. No problem you might think, you prepared for this and had a friend waiting above to rope you up. Unfortunately roping always put your char on the south square below the hole. In this case it meant that you were on the other side of where you wanted to be and that path led nowhere. Death was an unfortunate reality for this mistake, and this was a bad mistake as you couldn't even look your own body. More than one player just logged out and waited for one of the frequent map resets.
For those who either made the mistake before, or wisely listen to foreboding signs of doom, they would ignore the hole and make their way up two floors to a long path which wound its way northeast. There was a room along the way which led to a slime, but this slime would often be lured in the path and many of its summons would block the main path, making it tricky to clear. Further along was another intersection which had a round raised dirt ledge with a small house on the floor below which you could see from above. If you climbed down, you would be attacked by Fire Devils I believe. Inside the house was a chest and you could open the door with key 4001.
The easiest way to get key 4001 would be to backtrack to the northeast path before you got to the house and head west and down the hole. This was a one-way trip but if you headed south past the Orc Berserker you would find the key under a rock, but only if you used a pickaxe on it. If you thought yourself cleaver and had someone rope you up the hole you dropped down, you would find a surprise as you would be roped into the wall to the south. The game didn't keep tract of the legality of an action and relied on developers to plan for these possibilities. As the designer didn't intend for people to be roped up a one way drop, you would get trapped in a wall instead. Fortunately, you could just drop back down the hole, or I think even diagonal move to get out. Nothing bad appeared to happen other than some fun screenshots of the issue. Much later CIP revised the map here to accommodate for roped assistance.
To return to familiar ground you would head north, down the ladder, and hug the north wall of the path until you returned to the area of where you found key 4009. Heading back to the locked house and opening the door would earn you your first book for the Desert Dungeon quest, "Dangers of Adventures, Volume VI" (see below). Of course, when you read it (detailed below), it would make no sense and you wouldn't have any idea how to proceed. It would be clear at this point that you would likely need all of the books to even begin to make sense of this quest.
Dangers of Adventures
by Netlios
Volume VI
Because this topic seems the most important for me, I decided to write another book to warn people of the danger of being attacked by monsters. Two more of our adventurers (the ones I always tell about) were attacked by monsters:
Elaeus and the man, whos journey ended after 66 days, both were attacked by monsters. Both were jounger than Gadinius and the man who only barely escaped from the attacks of a mother-bear, who defended her babies. Heso, who too was one of our adventurers, never saw a bear in his whole life.
One of the five adventurers was attacked by a pack of trolls!
Once you made it back on the path before you got to the locked house you had to walk north and take a ladder slightly west which led up to the final floor of the dungeon and the exit. A short distance east would take you to the shiny blue portal of salvation and a sign cheerily proclaimed: Escape. If you had fallen prey to the doom hole from earlier you might have PTSD from signs and be unable to make a decision as to if it was safe. Fortunately there was one more area you could explore, a door leading to the north. This room was just a normal door anyone could enter and it led to the end of the quest but you wouldn't know this yet. The strange switches and sacrificial basins would intrigue your senses and you might quickly begin to understand that this quest required all four vocations to complete.
You likely know the short version of the Desert Dungeon quest of bringing a crossbow, apple, spellbook, and sword to the teleport room and warping yourself to the quest room for a free 10k and other goodies. Maybe you don't even bother doing this quest now as money seems to have lost its value, but when this first launched no one had any idea what the reward was. Rumor was that Steel Boots was the reward for the first to complete the quest after a map reset but what I got was very different than either of these (I won't spoil it until the end). Most would have to solve the quest the long way before they could do the short version as it was tough to get others to spoil quests.
This quest was quite a departure from previous quests which were mostly simple, or player designed. The Desert Dungeon quest offered a complex series of cryptic steps and puzzles. Unlike Tibia's quests today, there was no announcement of quests, let alone what the reward might be. The player had to discover these for themselves which made solving them very hard, but also very rewarding.
To start you had to find NPC Hagor who could be found by heading west at the entrance and south. Once you found a ladder head up and take the north path at the split until you find a door. This door was the library, but you needed to head north again and take the rope up spot. All the passages above here were separate from the rest of the area and exploring thoroughly would let you find the NPC to the far south, three levels down from the surface. You would know you were close as you would encounter a room with four Fire Devils nearby. Just before this room you would find a locked door were you could use the key you found on the desert surface and loot the Panpipe, a Power Ring, and 2 Small Amethyst from the chest inside.
Once you found Hagor, if you asked him about Morrin and mention a key, he will tell you he will honor the same deal and ask that you give him a roll. Fortunately, if you were a Druid or a Paladin you would be able to cast exevo pan and after several casts get the roll needed to trade. This would earn you key 4022 which unlocked the locked door we talked about near the star shaped Fire Devil area. Inside the chest was key 4009. Other vocations would need to source the roll from elsewhere which was difficult and likely involved asking a friend to cast exevo pan for a roll instead.
You might ask how you would even know how to trade for the key. Well, like most in game hints you would need to find a book in this case, but in other scenarios speaking to an NPC might reveal some hidden insight. The book in question is below:
"Diary of Morrin
It seems, I found the entrance to the library. Unfortunately the door is closed, but somehow i have to get in. I searched around, but everyone I met claimed he hasn't got the key... I believe this guy with the red shoes and the blue trousers, who eats rolls with ham all day long, has it; he seems suspicious to me... he didn't seem to trust me, and I think, that is the reason why I didn't get the key. Maybe somehow I can show him, that he can trust me...
YEAH! I got it! I got the key to the library, and I hope, I can find a solution for my problems there! Somehow I convinced the old man to trust me, and finally we were real good friends! What a pity, I had to leave the library before dawn..."
Once you had key 4009 you could open the library which was located by walking west from where you initially dropped down into Desert Dungeon, then heading immediately south. You would pass a double Beholder spawn which was reasonable place to camp and sometimes was lured into the main path. Continuing south would take you to a ladder were if you headed up and then west, would come across three paths in different directions. The north path would take you strait to the library door. Heading south would take you to several branches which led to the same place. Two floors up you would find a grey tiled square room with a chest. Inside was a Monty Python except on the holy hand grenade, the excerpt is below:
Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One.
And the Lord spake, saying:
"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."
This interesting book doesn't provide any lore to the game but was a fun reminder of the influence Monty Python's Holy Grail had on Tibia's Arthurian style lore. The PoH area and Nightmare Knights mythos specifically share elements from the Holy Grail such as Hugo the Demon Bunny.
After searching the library, you would find another four books by Netlios' "Dangers of Adventures" series. The library was missing two books though, but fortunately you likely had found one so you needed to find the last missing book to complete the puzzle. If you searched the library carefully you would have found a book vaguely detailing how hidden switches worked which would lead you to call a friend to try it out. Searching the mysterious and now missing wall would gain you the last book. The book in question I have detailed below. Early Tibian questing was far from easy.
Searching the library would net you another four books of Netlios' "Dangers of Adventures". The library was missing two books though, but fortunately you likely had found one so you needed to find the last missing book to complete the puzzle. If you searched the library carefully you would have found a book vaguely detailing how hidden switches worked which would lead you to call a friend to try it out. Searching the mysterious and now missing wall would gain you the last book. The book in question I have detailed below. Early Tibian questing was far from easy.
About strange mechanisms
In the last few years, people began to use strange mechanisms to do different kinds of things. For example it is popular nowadays, to open or unlock doors by switches. However, there are different ways to realize such a switch, e.g. by using hydraulic pressure. Only a few persons have the knowledge to construct such switches.
With all six books you now needed to return to the surface and speak with NPC Adrenius in the underground temple who would test you on your new knowledge for a 500gp donation. Passing would grant you key 4023 which would allow you to enter the four-vocation room.
This would be the point you would stop me and ask how the hell these six books somehow resulted in what the NPC wanted to know. To find out that question you had to build a matrix and use the hints in the books to cross off wrong choices and by deduction figure out each of the names in alphabetical order, their ages, fates, and length of journey. The above is the partial excel I filled out to help to figure out the quest. The below was what I told the NPC I think:
anaso, 41, bear, 117
elaeus, 39, dragon, 100
gadinius, 42, fire, 83
heso, 40, troll, 66
hestus, 38, poison, 134
One of the problems with this quest is that the NPC had a spelling mistake that wasn't corrected yet. I think I recall it was with bear which had the letters e and a reversed. After a frustrating few attempts I contacted Taghor who let me know that it was a goof that would get fixed in a future update. The error persisted into 2002 which likely derailed many attempts to solve by that time. Each failure cost 500gold so having an incorrect solution coded into the quest was a pretty bad error.
Once you wrestled the key away from the cheat, you would now be able to enter the Four Vocation Room. One of each vocation was needed to enter their respective portals, which was located by a ladder very close to the Hall of Lost Doors. You couldn't enter the portal of another vocation as it would warp you outside the room, so each player had to face the monsters inside themselves, or with a friend of the same vocation if needed. I believe the creatures are the same as the same ones listed in the Wiki (two Orc Berserkers for Knight, two Minotaur Archers for Paladin, two Fire Devils for Sorcerer and two Bears for Druid). The berserkers were the most dangerous due to how low a level the average player was at the time (likely level 20). Each of these rooms had a sign post inside detailing what item was required to be sacrificed. This is how you would know what items to bring to the final room, though everything was cryptic and vague.
It is interesting to note that the vocation rooms, just like library secret, was a favorite spot for PvP battles as a means of escape. Players would rush to the one way drop down spot and a second character in the sign room would rope them up to hide them. The chasing player would have to either be of the same vocation or have their own rope char in the correct room which was a pretty impossible bar. This feature wouldn't stop others from attacking you, but was a significant hurtle to be effective. Even if it was effective, players didn't use the same method of escape multiple times as the likelihood of a counter strategy increased the more often it was used.
Now that you knew the solution you could get your group of four friends to the quest room, put your items on the pedestals and each player would stand on the correct vocation spot. Which spot belongs to each vocation was simple with energy fields representing the sorcerer, knight statues representing the knight, flowers representing the druid, and the last space was paladins which would also be responsible for flipping the switch. The floor tiles were difficult to press as you had to place your item on the pedestal first and then step on the floor switch. If anyone messed up the switch would do nothing. Once ready the paladin pulled the switch and a chest would drop from the ceiling with the rewards.
Rumor was that the first time this quest was done each map reset would provide a pair of Steel Boots. I raced to be the first to do this quest on Premia and despite being the first, we never encountered any such items there so maybe it never was. The disappointing rewards we received were a Two-handed Sword, 58 gold, Steel Shield, and a Small Diamond.
Though this quest was large and complex, other quests like this would be added to Tibia such as the Paradox Tower quest in Beta 6.6. With the advent of Wiki, it's almost impossible to find an unspoiled quest, and even really interesting unannounced quests like the Supreme Cube are always eventually spoiled. This doesn't stop players from continuing to try to find old forgotten quests. I know for myself that solving this quest without a cheat guide is still one of my fondest memories from early Tibia.
