Tibia’s Excalibug Mystery: Decoding the NPC Clue Chain from Partos to Chatterbone

What the RealOTS Code Actually Shows

The Excalibug — catalogued in old item databases as the Magic Longsword — has no confirmed drop, no clean quest chain, and a king who quietly stopped offering a reward somewhere between version 7.7 and the present day. What the RealOTS source release put on the table is a set of commented-out NPC dialogue trees that were clearly designed as a structured, multi-step quest. None of it is random flavor. And together they draw a map — incomplete, but real.

Partos: A Grapes Gate That Unlocks Real Lore

Under normal gameplay, Partos tells you nothing. But the commented-out code shows a trade-item gate: bring him grapes (item Type 3592) and his whole dialogue branch opens. Once you’ve handed them over and said “excalibug”, he responds:

Topic=2,"excalibug" -> "My late mentor once told me he found a wallcarving about this sword in a cave beneath the castle."

Press further on “wallcarving” and he describes a cave-in that sealed that section of dungeon. Dead end, literally. But the word “wallcarving” is the actual payload — it’s the keyword that threads through several other NPCs and connects the trail.

Gating lore behind a trade item was a deliberate design choice in classic Tibia. It means whoever wrote this dialogue intended a multi-step quest, not background decoration. The cave-in blocking the wallcarving was probably a placeholder for a dungeon section that was never finished.

Bozo Links the Wallcarving to the Ruthless Seven

Ask the court jester Bozo in Thais castle about “wallcarving” and the chain jumps forward fast:

"wallcarving"  -> "Oh, I saw some demoncarvings in the dungeons as I hid there after a little joke on old Stutch."
"demoncarving" -> "Yes, they showed demons, seven actually, dancing around a sword! In a flaming pit of some kind."

Seven demons. A sword. A flaming pit. The Ruthless Seven are Tibia’s seven demon overlords, the same group at the center of the Pits of Inferno questline. The connection isn’t subtle at all. Bozo can’t take you further — he bounces you toward mages and mystics — but he’s the hinge between the sealed wallcarving Partos mentioned and an actual location in the game world.

Muriel and the Pits of Inferno

Following “flaming pit” to the NPC Muriel lands in familiar territory:

"flaming","pit"  -> "These pits, you refer to, might be the legendary 'Pits of Inferno', also known as the 'Nightmare Pits'."
"pits","inferno" -> "They are rumoured to be hidden somewhere in the Plains of Havoc, far to the east."

Most experienced players know PoI already. The real question this chain raises isn’t where PoI is — it’s whether the Excalibug is physically located somewhere inside it, or whether the Ruthless Seven’s link to the sword is symbolic. Carvings depicting demons dancing around a sword don’t necessarily mean the sword is in their domain. It could mean they’re guarding it, worshipping it, or that the carving is simply recording history.

Chatterbone: The Most Important Line in the Whole Thread

Everything else in the chain is hearsay — NPCs reporting what they heard or saw. Chatterbone is different. Ask him about Excalibug:

"excalibug" -> "... we hid it... so long ago... so long..."

That “we” is the detail that changes the picture. Chatterbone is undead, presumably a member of some ancient group with direct involvement in the sword’s concealment. He’s not referencing a legend — he’s claiming participation. He also responds to “flaming pit” with references to conquering and holding something “long ago,” which reinforces a connection to PoI or at least to whatever the Ruthless Seven controlled.

The practical implication here is worth spelling out: if Chatterbone was part of a group that hid the sword, other NPCs from that same group probably exist somewhere in the game. Other undead characters — especially those in or near PoI — might respond to “excalibug”, “wallcarving”, or “flaming pit” in ways nobody has tested yet. The keyword search the OP ran against the NPC files is exactly the right approach, and it probably hasn’t hit every file.

King Tibianus and the Dialogue That Changed

In version 7.7, Tibianus was explicit:

"excalibug" -> "It's the sword of the kings. If you could return this weapon to me I would reward you beyond your dreams."
"reward"    -> "Well, if you want a reward, go on a quest to bring me Excalibug!"

Current Tibianus tells you he doesn’t see how you’d deserve a reward right now. That’s a meaningful change. CipSoft either closed off the intended questline, gated the reward response behind actually holding the item, or pulled the trigger condition while the underlying quest stayed unfinished. The Magic Longsword does exist as an in-game item — at least one player reportedly holds one. What Tibianus says to someone who walks in carrying it is the genuine open question, and it’s one that could be tested right now by whoever owns the item.

What the Chain Looks Like End to End

Laid out in sequence: Partos (grapes) reveals a wallcarving. Bozo identifies the carving as showing the Ruthless Seven with a sword in a flaming pit. Muriel places the flaming pit in the Plains of Havoc. Chatterbone claims to have personally hidden the sword. Tibianus confirms it belongs to the kings and once promised a reward for its return.

That’s a complete narrative arc with a gated entry point, a location, and a delivery target. The arc exists. The quest just never shipped — or was quietly removed after it went in.

The commented-out status of the Partos dialogue is probably the biggest clue. Someone at CipSoft decided that branch shouldn’t be accessible, which means either it led somewhere that wasn’t ready, or it led somewhere they didn’t want players to go yet. Given that the other dialogue in the chain — Bozo, Muriel, Chatterbone, Tibianus — was never commented out, it reads less like an abandoned concept and more like a quest waiting for its trigger.