Hidden Secrets from Vecna Unleashed [Completed] [Spoilers]

[Arcanaverse]

Update from the surprise stream: Lets go find dust!

Thanks to Yamani for letting me share in his adventure a bit.

Day 14 gets us the ability (up to 1 per day) of the ML 1, BTA goggles. Steps' Lenses of Seeing Hidden Hand Secrets

This lets us see the invisible stuff hidden throughout the game world. Like the altar in the rafters as well as the dust chests.

Dust Locations found so far:
Vecna Unleashed
The Hand and Eyes

Full information in the doc in the main post. Will do a better update when I can. Will go over it again on the normal Sunday at 4pm eastern stream.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

What a great thread!

 

[PurpleSerpent]

Update from the surprise stream: Lets go find dust!

Thanks to Yamani for letting me share in his adventure a bit.

Day 14 gets us the ability (up to 1 per day) of the ML 1, BTA goggles. Steps' Lenses of Seeing Hidden Hand Secrets

This lets us see the invisible stuff hidden throughout the game world. Like the altar in the rafters as well as the dust chests.

Dust Locations found so far:
Vecna Unleashed
The Hand and Eyes

Full information in the doc in the main post. Will do a better update when I can. Will go over it again on the normal Sunday at 4pm eastern stream.

No Neothelid, then? Boo.

(Well, unless there's something a bit further on in Vecna Denied - a single hidden chest isn't really "the rest of the quest", is it?)

The next step, I think, is to get somebody with the goggles into Fire Over Morgrave and see what they can see. (My bet's on a jumping puzzle to open a portal to that Marilith miniboss mentioned earlier.)

 

[Eoin]

It should also be worth noting the goggles are BtA and ML1. So only one character needs to do the 14days of dialogue per account.

Nice! Gives one of my bank mules something to do.

 

[PurpleSerpent]

I've updated the wiki with as much information as I can gather without possessing the Lenses themselves. In the meantime, here's a list of possible locations for other hidden chests in all the other Vecna-related content, rated by how likely they are to contain something.

The Icemount Curse and Immortality Lessons (extremely unlikely)
Vecna did technically show up in these two - although he was masquerading as a Mysterious Stranger at the time - but there was no sign of the Hidden Hand anywhere.

Seizing the Dawn / Beautiful Nightmares (very unlikely)
The Hidden Hand show up in both of these, but they're on someone else's patch, with no established territory - in fact, by the time you get to Beautiful Nightmares, they're all dead.

Eye Know Whodunnit / An Element of Chaos (unlikely)
These are the two quests in Peril of the Planar Eyes with any significant Hidden Hand presence - a little hidden cloister in Eye Know and a secret cave in Element of Chaos - but neither of them seem big or permanent enough for the Hidden Hand to bother hiding things there.

Dread Sea Scrolls (extremely unlikely)
No Hidden Hand, not even a direct appearance from Vecna...

Captive of the Hidden God / Fall of the Forbidden Temple (unlikely)
These are the only two locations in Isle of Dread I think are at all likely to have a hidden area. Captive of the Hidden God is the only quest in the chain to have the Hidden Hand at all (and that's one guy), and Fall of the Forbidden Temple is frankly just gut feeling on my part.

The rest of Isle of Dread (very unlikely)
Lots of Vecna, but no Hidden Hand - and they're the ones who've been hiding these things.

Order in the Court! (fairly likely)
There aren't many quests in the game where you walk into the Hidden Hand's turf, instead of them attacking you or you racing them to a Macguffin. This is one of them, though. We know Barington Worthridge is already in the business of hiding incriminating evidence for questionable acquaintances - why not a secret chest?

The rest of Grip of the Hidden Hand (unlikely)
There's already one chest in this pack, which is a good sign, but two quests (Army of Eternal Night and Three Paths to Battle) don't have the Hidden Hand at all, and they're only in a couple of bushes in Growing Pains.

Grand Theft Aureon, Law and Order, Party 101, Turn the Page, The Devils to Pay, The Evil We Know, What Dreams May Come (very unlikely)
I'm only really including these because they're in Vecna Unleashed - they've got nothing to do with Vecna or the Hidden Hand.

Paper Trail, Enemy of My Enemy, Vecna Unleashed, The Bark and the Blade
These four quests all have the Hidden Hand attacking places, rather than you attacking the Hidden Hand - that said, I can think of possible locations in all four. (The weird secret door near Haska Torlath's room in Paper Trail, Giv Chromar's portal in Enemy, Sir Jarus ir'Omik's room in Vecna Unleashed, and the Cannith ruin in Bark and the Blade, for the record.)

Taken in Hand (likely)
It would make a lot of sense for the Hidden Hand's largest base to contain some sort of hidden secret.

Fire Over Morgrave (almost certain)
There's got to be something here, right?

 

[Arkat]

Fire Over Morgrave (almost certain)
There's got to be something here, right?

The third chest, maybe?

Of course, it will suck for those of us who haven't been speaking with Steps regularly to have to listen to the others in the raid group (who have been speaking with Steps and got the goggles) pulling their raid loot while we get nothing.

 

[Thorntoe]

I hate to have to ask this, but I have 8 more days to go until I can check for myself......

Do the goggles actually reveal a quest entrance, or any kind of entrance that you can use in the fountain, or is that still a mystery?

 

[PurpleSerpent]

The third chest, maybe?

Of course, it will suck for those of us who haven't been speaking with Steps regularly to have to listen to the others in the raid group (who have been speaking with Steps and got the goggles) pulling their raid loot while we get nothing.

That's a point. Does anyone know if you have to be able to see the chest to loot it after someone with the goggles opens it?

 

[Arcanaverse]

That's a point. Does anyone know if you have to be able to see the chest to loot it after someone with the goggles opens it?

For the dust chests yes. It won't be visible to you to loot it if you don't have the goggles.

As for the raid... unknown. secret stuff hasn't been found in there so unsure of the exact mechanic. quite possible that an alternate end could reveal a non-hidden chest. Just don't know yet.

 

[Arcanaverse]

also, we're up to 3 known locations (doc updated). one more and then weapon/item crafting can begin.

 

[CBDunk]

So, thus far three hidden chests have been found... each in a different quest from the Vecna Unleashed set. It sounds like each is dropping a different color of dust and thus there is one color still missing. If correct, that implies that the last chest is likely ALSO in one of the Vecna Unleashed quests.

From there, theory seems to be that you need both goggles AND a weapon crafted using the dusts to possibly see a third chest in the raid.

 

[PurpleSerpent]

So, thus far three hidden chests have been found... each in a different quest from the Vecna Unleashed set. It sounds like each is dropping a different color of dust and thus there is one color still missing. If correct, that implies that the last chest is likely ALSO in one of the Vecna Unleashed quests.

From there, theory seems to be that you need both goggles AND a weapon crafted using the dusts to possibly see a third chest in the raid.

One was in Grip of the Hidden Hand, actually - near the Beholder room in The Hand and the Eyes.

 

[Contessor]

So, thus far three hidden chests have been found... each in a different quest from the Vecna Unleashed set. It sounds like each is dropping a different color of dust and thus there is one color still missing. If correct, that implies that the last chest is likely ALSO in one of the Vecna Unleashed quests.

From there, theory seems to be that you need both goggles AND a weapon crafted using the dusts to possibly see a third chest in the raid.

2 from Vecna Unleashed
1 from Grip of the Hidden Hand

 

[Griglok (Karatemack)]

also, we're up to 3 known locations (doc updated). one more and then weapon/item crafting can begin.

Yamani is doing great work! We all owe them for putting this all together.

 

[Nickodeamous]

I'm sure this has been brought up, but I just entered devils to pay and the load screen had an angel wearing sunglasses...just seemed kinda hint-ish

even Matarkeia has them on in the room...interetsing

 

[Contessor]

Isn’t that the person you turn the quill into at the end for the optional with the extra Orthon?

 

[PurpleSerpent]

Isn’t that the person you turn the quill into at the end for the optional with the extra Orthon?

Matarkeia's the final boss. You never actually give anyone the quill - after fighting the extra Orthon, you can pick it up to finish the optional.

 

[nenetteblackmoor]

The conversation on the 11th day with Steps was a bit different. Is it because I'm a Paladin?


STEP OBLISS
What, because they're evil?

...Look. I get that you have more than a passing connection to the Divine, "Chara Name". But me? I've got a past. It's messy. I try to do right by people, but sometimes that means ruffling more than a few Owlbear feathers, y'know?

I'd still love your help. Maybe we can put them to a good use.

 

[Contessor]

The conversation on the 11th day with Steps was a bit different. Is it because I'm a Paladin?


STEP OBLISS
What, because they're evil?

...Look. I get that you have more than a passing connection to the Divine, "Chara Name". But me? I've got a past. It's messy. I try to do right by people, but sometimes that means ruffling more than a few Owlbear feathers, y'know?

I'd still love your help. Maybe we can put them to a good use.

That is the same as posted in the google docs

 

[SteelStar]

Hey everyone!

While there are still a few little details connected to it that may not be known yet, I wanted to chime in to let people know that at this time, all the major secrets connected to the Vecna Unleashed secret loot hunt have been found!

I know there was quite a bit of speculation about a bigger ending to this all, perhaps an extra optional in Fire Over Morgrave or something similar, but there isn't one this time around, and I didn't want to have you all keep looking for something that won't be found. A spectacular ending would have been cool for sure, but it wasn't in the cards for this (mini) expansion - That said, responses to both the Dread and Vecna Unleashed secrets may lead to us to being able to go bigger in the future.

All that said, thank you to everyone who took place in this little adventure. Like we said before, it may not have been everyone's cup of tea or in a format where every single person felt they could participate to the degree they would have liked; we've seen that feedback, and will bear it in mind for the next, almost-certainly-very-different set of secrets.

And this set of secrets will remain in place! There's quite a bit of treasure (both Heroic and Legendary!) to be had for those anyone who reaches the end in their own time. There's a bit of epilogue you can trigger under certain conditions while talking to Steps as well.

Thanks again everyone, and happy hunting!

-SteelStar