Golden Path Challenge

The Golden Path Challenge is an and competition that serves as part of the build up to the release of Menaphos. The first part of it was released on 25 April 2017, alongside the Menaphos trailer and website.

Anyone that completes the challenge will be rewarded with a Menaphos themed prize. Three people who complete the challenge will win an all-expenses paid trip to RuneFest 2017 or a lifetime standard membership subscription.

The Legend of the Golden Path
On 18 May 2017, a newspost was published regarding the challenge and a hint:

The first letters of all of the words in this hint results in the word 'cinematic'.

Previously, on 25 April 2017, a cinematic trailer for the upcoming Menaphos update was released. 14 seconds into the video, corrupted forms of Het, Scabaras, Apmeken and Crondis are shown, along with text in the Menaphite language,.

The language was previously used in the Stolen Hearts and Diamond in the Rough quests. Translated, the text reads "bit.ly/gotogoldenpath", which is a shortened link leading to a hidden page on the RuneScape website.

The website contains more text written in the Menaphite language, with versions in English, German, French and Brazilian Portuguese. Translated, the English version of the text reads:

"The Legend of the Golden Path The golden city of Menaphos stands today as it has for generations: resplendent, affluent and prosperous.

But beneath the surface lies corruption, decay and destruction. The Pharoah [sic] grows richer, while the poor of nearby Sophanem rot in ditches. Menaphos's four districts are ruled by four leaders - a commander, admiral, worker and grand vizier - each in some way complicit in the citi's [sic] desolation.

These four faction leaders hold the key to riches beyond compare. Dare you embark on the Golden Path Challenge? A once-in-a-lifetime reward awaits the winner.

The code is the key."

The source code for the page contains text reading "The path to Menaphos shines in the sun.", pointing towards the newly added sundial to the north of Menaphos. Interacting with the sundial allows players to rotate the gnomon to point to letters in Menaphite script.

Admiral Wadud
The source code of the Golden Path page also contains a commented out link to an Instagram page supposedly belonging to an Admiral W. When first discovered, the account only had two posts, but an additional three were released over the following three days. Each post contains a screenshot of a character or location, and a small text riddle.

The first letters of each of these characters and locations spells W-A-D-U-D, revealing the Admiral's true name to be Admiral Wadud. If the matching Menaphite  are entered into the sundial, it will click and the following messages will be printed in the chat:



Hero Batal
On 9 May 2017, the same date indicated by the in-game message from the last step, a Menaphos related official livestream took place. Throughout the livestream, various plush toys are visible on the table in front of the Jagex Moderators, including a cat. In the second half of the stream, the cat gains a sticker of a YouTube logo over the scarab symbol it was wearing.

Three days later, the third episode in the official Road to Menaphos series on RuneScape's YouTube channel was uploaded. At around 2:25 in that video, a cat meowing can audibly be heard. The image on the video during that time was of a corrupted thrall, which can also be seen as a promotional image on the microsite for Menaphos. At the bottom of the image were red and yellow distorted characters and symbols.

If the image was opened with a hex editor (or notepad), it displays ASCII art resembling the Reddit logo, and several words of text, including 'HERO_BATAL'. A Reddit user with the same name was found, who has a number of comments on various posts tangentially related to Menaphos. These comments include three instances of the message "I am the code". When entering into the sundial, it will click and the following messages will be printed in the chat:



Vizier Ehsan
After taking the first letter of each word before the punctuation marks in the last message (friend, outcast, risk-taker, underdog, memorandum, shadow), it spells out F-O-R-U-M-S, which indicated that the next clue would be posted on the RuneScape Forums.

On 15 May 2017, a thread for that week's update was posted on the forums. In the same thread, a post by a Jagex Moderator called Vizier E was posted. The message posted was in Arabic, اتبع لي إذا كنت تستطيع, which translates to "Follow me if you can." The account also posted in the forums for other languages.

On 16 May 2017, the same forum user posted again in another thread with the following message:

This text is a using the keyword "TUMEKEN". When decrypted, it says:

During the Road to Menaphos stream on the same day, various concept art was shown and information regarding Slayer in Menaphos. In one image, there are faint Menaphite script characters at the top and bottom which translate to "Keep looking". In the same image, the characters ("UM") can be seen on all four corners. This can be read as "Keep looking [in the] forums".

It was discovered that the first post in the forum thread that the Vizier E account posted in, by Mod Kalaya, had been edited by the vizier. When comparing the forum post to the near identical news post, the difference reveals that the bottom of the post is different. On the forum post, it is signed off with:

A chatbot was found that uses the name of 'Grand Vizier E'. The bot contains responses that are triggered by certain words and phrases. Upon entering certain words, clues are given:


 * Crocodile
 * Grand Vizier E: Haha, welcome back – Crondis’ brethren has come through for you. Number 2 is a little tougher – it’s both the second and seventh letter of the alphabet. Grab the letter, take it home – Find the next clue in the catacombs!

This refers to the letter H.


 * Tombs
 * Grand Vizier E: Like a snake traversing the arid plain, Your next letter slithers in vain. Hissing and spitting, lovers cleft and twain – Do you choose the ibis, or do you choose the crane?

This refers to the letter S.


 * Crane
 * Grand Vizier E: Always starting, never finishing – The indefinite article is always unforgiving. Your penultimate letter is also the first. Our final path is elsewhere, it’s well-versed.

This refers to the letter A.


 * Sarcophagus
 * Grand Vizier E: Your final letter – the last hurrah. It's found in everything, but even more so in nothing. The Golden Path, does it have another victim? Go forth adventurer – it is my dictum!

This refers to the letter N, which appears twice in the word 'nothing' and once in the word 'everything'.

When entering into the sundial, it will click and the following messages will be printed in the chat:



Commander A
On 21 May 2017, a promotional video for Menaphos was released by Jagex. During the video, a lot of concept art can be seen for around half a second each. There are Menaphite characters on the art that read "The Golden City of Menaphos", apart from one that read "The Golden Path of Menaphos", which displays the four faction leaders. In the art, the second person's sword has characters on it that read "CMNDR_A", and directly underneath it on her leg is the Twitter logo.

On 22 May 2017, a Twitter account named 'Commander__A' posted concept art for the lower levels of Menaphos under the hashtag #goldenpath.

On 23 May 2017, the account posted another piece of concept art that depicts the upper levels of Menaphos.

The capitalised letters in the tweet spell out "I'm a fake".

Trivia

 * The letters W-A-D-U-D were guessed by a player on 26 April 2017 after they tried different combinations of Egyptian and Arabic names using only the first three letters that were confirmed at the time.
 * The letters E-H-S-A-N were guessed by a player on 15 May 2017 after trying different Arabic names that began with the letter 'E'.