Strange Antiquities – How to Solve ‘Voice of Cernunnos’ Puzzle

As you delve deeper into the arcane and mysterious world of Strange Antiquities, your customers’ requests will evolve from simple object-finding to complex, lore-based puzzles that will test your knowledge and perception. One of the most fascinating of these challenges is the request from the scholar, Edmond Bishop, which will send you on a hunt for a divine artifact known as the “Voice of Cernunnos.”

This particular puzzle is a brilliant example of the game’s depth, as its solution cannot be found simply by looking through your unorganized shelves of artifacts. Instead, it requires you to connect clues from your reference books to the very environment of your shop itself. This guide will provide you with a complete, step-by-step walkthrough for this entire puzzle. We will show you how to interpret Mr. Bishop’s request, how to find the item that is cleverly hidden in plain sight, and how to correctly identify it to satisfy your customer and progress his intriguing storyline.

The Art of Identification: Using Lore to Solve Puzzles

Before we tackle this specific puzzle, it’s crucial to understand a core principle of Strange Antiquities: many of the game’s most difficult puzzles are not about matching simple shapes or sounds, but about understanding the rich lore of the world. Your reference books are not just a catalog; they are your most important tool for deciphering the history and context of the objects you handle.

The Voice of Cernunnos puzzle is a perfect example of this. The key to solving it isn’t just finding any “bronze torc”; it’s about understanding the mythological context of the pagan god Cernunnos in order to find the correct and specific torc that your customer is seeking. As a master antiquarian, you must learn to read between the lines. The entries in your compendium often contain hidden clues about an item’s origin, its cultural significance, or even its physical location, not just its basic properties. Always read every new entry carefully.

The Edmond Bishop Puzzle: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

This multi-stage puzzle begins with a visit from the historian, Edmond Bishop.

Step 1: Deciphering Edmond Bishop’s Request

Edmond Bishop, a well-dressed scholar and historian of ancient pagan traditions, will visit your shop with a very specific need. He will explain that he is researching the forest god, Cernunnos, and requires an artifact that can help him “read the hidden patterns of nature.” He is looking for a specific tool that can reveal secrets that are otherwise hidden to our normal senses. This is your primary objective.

Step 2: Research in the Compendium of Arcane Artifacts

Your first action after receiving any new request should be to consult your library. Open your main reference book, the Compendium of Arcane Artifacts, and search for entries related to the keywords from Mr. Bishop’s request: “nature,” “patterns,” or, most importantly, “Cernunnos.”

You will find a new entry that you have likely discovered, titled “Voice of Cernunnos.” This entry contains all the crucial information you need:

• The Item: It is described as a bronze torc (a type of rigid, open-fronted neck ring, often associated with ancient Celtic and pagan cultures).
• The Properties: It is imbued with special properties that, with skill, allow the user to perceive and understand the hidden patterns of the natural world.
• The Lore: The entry explains that Cernunnos is a pagan god of the forest and nature. He is typically depicted as a man with the antlers of a stag and is often shown wearing or holding a torc.

Step 3: The “Aha!” Moment – Finding the Item Hidden in Plain Sight

This is the brilliant central puzzle of the quest. After reading the book, you may be tempted to search your shelves and drawers for an unidentified bronze torc. However, the item is not in your inventory—at least, not at first.

The key to this puzzle is that the item is part of the shop’s permanent decoration. Look around your main shop room for a large, decorative statue of a man with the antlers of a stag. This is a statue of the god Cernunnos himself, a fixture that has been in your shop since the beginning. If you look closely at the statue, you will see that it is wearing a bronze torc around its neck. This is the Voice of Cernunnos.

Step 4: Acquiring and Identifying the Torc

1. Approach the statue of Cernunnos and interact with it. You will be given the option to carefully remove the bronze torc. The item will now be added to your inventory.
2. Take the bronze torc to your main examination desk to confirm its identity. Cross-reference it with the entry in your compendium. The material (bronze), the shape (a torc), and its origin (taken directly from a depiction of Cernunnos) all perfectly match the book’s description. You have found the correct artifact.

Step 5: Labeling and Presenting the Artifact

As with any other request, you must correctly identify the item before you can give it to a customer.

1. Go to your labeling station.
2. Carefully type out the full name of the artifact: Voice of Cernunnos.
3. Attach the new label to the torc.
4. Finally, place the correctly identified and labeled Voice of Cernunnos on the customer service bell on your counter to summon and present it to Edmond Bishop.

A pleased and impressed Edmond Bishop will thank you for your astute work and for providing him with such a rare and powerful artifact. He will reward you for your efforts, and his personal storyline will progress. By solving puzzles like this, you will often unlock new book entries for other mysterious items, such as the “Spirit Eye,” which you may need for a different customer on a different day.

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