TOPIC: Omelette and scrambled are probably my favorite

I have a friendly request for all you super-sleuths and/or folks who just got lucky:
If you should discover some or all of your objectives, please consider not posting the details until Monday. Perhaps allow others the fun of finding them for themselves. I realize this is contrary to social media culture where the first one to show off their epeen wins, but maybe you could hold off just a little?
Grazie

Well, part of the problem with collectively brainstorming is that you may have absolutely no idea that you're totally onto something significant...

I mean, there have been instances where someone just made an offhand joke about a puzzle and totally solved it, without having any idea.

Trust me, you'll know.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the brainstorming process. I'm referring to people that definitively make the discovery and feel the need to intentionally spoil it for others.

alesiev - Alex wrote: @ 5 (time?) see start tea (cup? green?) medal (second?) look for small 2 eggs

I think it's "at 5c (aka Central/Goblin time) start to look for small eggs"; as in, once the runs began earlier this evening

Druegar wrote: Trust me, you'll know.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the brainstorming process. I'm referring to people that definitively make the discovery and feel the need to intentionally spoil it for others.

Should we NOT share our findings? Just to be clear I thought this was more of a puzzle/contest than a just-for-fun thing. I hadn't realized that =/

It’s been a busy day and a half for me, and I haven’t been able to do as much puzzling as I’d like, but this is where I’m at so far…

Druegar wrote: If you had been looking closely,
And not for clues grandiosely,
You could have seen--they're not scary
But they've sat since January.

We’re trying to solve a meta-puzzle (EDIT: Hunting an Easter Egg, not solving a Puzzle or Contest) which has been baked into VTD since January (ie, in the 2024 VTD series, VTD 20 thru 27)

Please heed these words my gentle friend
Bother not your kind golem guide
In the hours before the end
For they see not where eggs are lied.

We’re looking at something the Golems can’t see… so, basically, the interface screen?

They clues/eggs are small (minute) and may be related to any of the following:

Indiana Jones / hat / 1981 movie
Climbing
Something deep
Something blue?
Something on fire / hot?
Something Grunnel / goblin-esque?

I think it's time for these clues to end
This one here is the last(?) I shall send.
I hope you grin at this diversion,
But if not, please cast no aspersion.

Despite his comment that this is the last, there was a pretty blatant “At 5 central Start to look for small eggs” clue, which basically confirms that whatever we’re looking for is explicitly a VTD thing.

And if we don’t get it today, we may have one more chance at the next VTD

(Whether this is a puzzle which will be left open until everyone gets that second chance, or will wrap once enough people figure it out, I’m not sure. Druegar’s request that people hold off on sharing their discoveries until Monday suggests - to me, at least - that this meta-puzzle is being solved this weekend, not next VTD.)

That said, I just played my VTD run, and couldn’t figure it out. This may be due to the fact that my connection is *ahem* “sub optimal”. Like, the border is pretty fuzzy to me much of the time (I don’t play on HD mode, as it makes things lag abominably) .. and sometimes, when we’re doing a puzzle, I just click directly on the Golem-cam feed, so I can make out the letters or visuals in the puzzle room more clearly. Maybe other people can see things in the VTD interface which I can’t.

I wish everyone the best of luck, and I look forward to hearing how this pans out, come Monday!

Fizzikx wrote: I thought this was more of a puzzle/contest than a just-for-fun thing.

This is a silly little nothingburger. Well, burgers.

This is in no way, shape, or form a contest! There is no reward other than the satisfaction of finding a hidden gem. (I realize "gem" may be a bit generous.) That's why I asked folks not to spill the beans. The fun is the act of discovery, not being told by some internet bigmouth. Post your theories and ideas to your heart's content. Will someone inadvertently post the answer? It's not out of the realm of possibilities. But that's not the same as saying, "I have found the things and the things are here and here."

I always thought it was suspicious that the scorpion walked across the bottom of the screen. I still don't know if there's any significance to that.

The Scorpion is the "halfway" marker for a room. It lets you know you are 6 minutes into the room.

Or are you looking for something more significant than that?

Druegar wrote:

Dave wrote: I hope it's not really as complicated or difficult as we're making it.

dream !crushed

Whenever I see that "!" used by a programmer, I think of the bang meaning, "not." (EDIT: Bang, not interrobang)

So, does that mean Dream = NOT crushed.
ie, it's really not as complicated as we're making it?

Or is Druegar crushing this dream, and it *is* complicated? .. Tho I'd put the exclamation at the end, then.

Having read this whole thread through a couple more times, I'm guessing it may be the former:
This isn't very complicated... it's just hard to see.

Maybe?

Sorry for so many posts in a row... I'm done my only* VTD run for this weekend, and am no closer to finding this Easter Egg than I was before, so I'm just tossing out ideas, in hopes that it helps someone else : )

Things we "know"
NOT Token-related
NOT EGG (E. Gary Gygax) related
Not a Contest or Puzzle (So, Not an "Insert Fish by Noon on Day Two" kind of Meta Puzzle, with time-sensitive instructions

Pulling together some thoughts (and comments from other posters)

Wow, it's cold in this thread.
Maybe y'all should warm yourselves near a fire.

^^ There's a fire / Brazier in the VTD interface screen
Maybe we're looking for something in the heiroglyphics, close to that?

Druegar posted a Very Tiny Hat, with the filename JennaSidonia1.jpg = (anagram of) Indiana Jones (1) = First movie 1981 premiere

All that seems to be pushing us in the Indiana Jones direction pretty hard.

You've not much time, so seek and climb.
Two find the eggs, look in the dregs.
Dig deep in lore in eighty one
In cinemas where we had fun.
Make this no chore or you'll be blue.
A hat could be a subtle clue!

Is the hat a clue that it's Indiana Jones? Or something more than that?
Dig Deep in Lore = Hint to do more Indiana Jones research (as some forumites have done) .. Or pointing us "deep" down? ... Maybe a Well of Souls reference?
There's also comments to "climb" or "clime" .. Maybe climbing down a rope into the well?

Random thought: Any chance this is a reference to the Angkor Wat / Siem Reap Temple, which was the basis for the Temple in Indiana Jones?

Look in the dregs = The dregs is at the botom. Bottom of the well? (full of snakes) or bottom of the screen (where the heiroglyphics are)
Those heiroglyphics are kind of interesting... like, there's one which seems to have a Helicoptor? And other not-so-Ancient glyphs. But I don't see anything glaringly obvious, or Indiana Jones related.

There's lots of comments that it’s small
and that we need to look / use eyes
… it’s a search & find thing?
Are we looking for a teeny Indiana Jones?
Or a Grunnel dressed as Indiana Jones?

There's a picture of Grunnel saying "I like eggs too! But only from Vervain Hummingbirds!"
and it's repeated later, with the comment "In addition, remember this face:" and "Every minute detail"

Clocks have faces, and minutes... (as others have commented)
also:
Vervain hummingbird eggs - smallest of the hummingbirds, and lay very tiny eggs?
Specifically TWO very tiny eggs (the word 2 was emphasized previously, and others noted Vervain hummingbirds lay 2 eggs at a time.

Are we looking for something with a face, like a clock? Or are we looking for something hummingbird related?
Note: Hummingbirds can hover, like a Helicopter can?
Are we looking for TWO things (Answer:YES, ithat much is made clear later)

This most recent riddle/post is

At seventeen in the middle
Is your chance to solve this... dilemma.
Take a closer look and see what
has been there but your eyes were shut.

If you find the first, well done jo!
But don't stop there, there's one to go.
Before you put your sleuth to bed
look for what "I said" twice this thread.

He's very small and hard to see.
And if you're not all filled with glee
After finding discovery,
I never said I was Albee.

So, it says "He's hard to see" which makes me think we're looking for a single thing / character / item, not a series of glyphs. Are we looking for the same thing hidden twice? Or two different things? A tiny Grunnel? A tiny Harrison Ford?

"At seventeen" makes me thing 1700, ie 5pm, when VTD started; "in the middle" maybe "in the middle of playing VTD" ?

"solve this ... dilemma" is obviously supposed to rhyme with "riddle" .. but it's not a riddle, just a tricky task?
Arg. I feel like I'd be better at riddles : P

"Well done jo!" Not sure what this means.. Is it supposed to sound like "Dungeon"? or is "Jo" some GenZ phrase i'm unfamiliar with?

"Put your sleuth to bed" - any relevance to this phrasing? Or am I just tired and wanting to go to bed now? *yawn*

"Look for what "I said" twice" ... Is that referring to the post of Grunnel (and his comment about Vervain Hummingbird eggs)? ... it's posted twice; and has a Word Bubble of someone talking, tho not technically Druegar...

"I never said I was Albee" - I have no clue who Albee is.
*google search*
Edward Albee? (Playwright famous for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) also does Theater of the Absurd ?

Okay. That's all I can come up with right now. Enough Brainstorming.

Good luck everyone!
I hope someone figures this out : )


*Unless, for some reason, I suddenly decide to grab another run, just to get a High Res screenshot of the VTD interface screen... but probably not.

Druegar wrote: This is a silly little nothingburger. Well, burgers.

This is in no way, shape, or form a contest! There is no reward other than the satisfaction of finding a hidden gem.

As someone who makes/builds puzzles for people at work to complete (granted, for prizes most of the time), I appreciate the opportunity to have others come up with puzzles for me to complete, prize or no prize. So thanks for the extra bit of fun!