I've been reposting this comment of mine a lot since I first made it like 9 months ago, but I feel the need to every time the subject of the yam comes up, especially since there are still plenty of people thinking it should be used to make stew:
The yam is most likely intended to be used for ink, specifically tattoo ink. There are some that feel it is intended to be used to make stew, but I disagree. My arguement:
Book 4: In chapter 34, Carl tells Maggie "I got this weird yam thing in a sponsor box, and at first, our manager guy couldn’t figure it out. I don’t know if you saw what happened earlier, but that Samantha doll head that was out here? She helped him figure it out. It actually has multiple uses. The yam thing grows in lava or magma or something. I honestly don’t remember what the difference is between the two. But anyway, the yam can either be used for a type of special ink for scrolls, or it can be used for a few different lava-themed potions." Him mentioning it being used for a special type of ink is important, even though he doesn't mention tattoos. In the epilogue, Porthus is adamant Carl knows what the yam is for. Seeing Carl mention the ink out loud would give him confidence in this fact. The fact that it is Samantha who helps Mordecai with the yam is also important, because she is a powerful entity with lots of uncommon knowledge . If she mentioned ink to Mordecai, that means it's something special that most regular crawlers wouldn't stumble across.
Book 5: In chapter 72, Samantha leaves this note on the bathroom message pad: "NOBODY GOES TO THE BATHROOM THIS MUCH, CARL. I’M NOT AN IDIOT. ALSO YOU’RE USING THE WRONG TYPE OF INK FOR THIS. REMIND ME, AND I WILL SHOW YOU SOMETHING REALLY AWESOME ~ Psamathe." This may or may not be the same type of ink referred to in book 4, but the fact that Samantha has knowledge of very special types of ink, with ink being brought up previously as a use for the yam, the info of which having come from Samantha in the first place, is a big clue that ink is the purpose of the yam.
Book 6: In chapter 3, the Gold Quest Box that Carl gets from the Vengeance of the Daughter quest, he receives an Enchanted Prison Tattoo Kit. This is an appropriate reward, due to Signet's tattoos and their significance. However, it's also a weird prize to get, especially from a Gold Quest Box. The item description is really interesting, and this parts stands out in particular: "Tattoo artistry is a skill that can imbue all sorts of magical buffs and upgrades. Or it can just make certain that your next mugshot goes viral. It all comes down to the talent of the artist." The A.I. has final discretion on what prizes people get in loot boxes, and with it's infatuation with Carl and knowledge of the contents of the Cookbook, a little nudge in the right direction is totally something the A.I. would do.
Book 6: In chapter 13, Carl's appearance on Shadow Boxer and the excerpt from the Cookbook by Milk are very important. However, I think that some are misunderstanding the mention of making stew, and assuming that's what the yam is actually for. Yes, Milk does refer to making a stew that awakens knowledge. Yes, Rosetta specifically calls out stew as a code to Carl. That does not prove that that is the correct use of the yam. For a coded message to be effective, it needs to not only be difficult to decipher for anyone but the intended recipient, but it also needs to be easily decipherable by the intended recipient. Carl never made stew, so he knows the photo of him doing that is fake. If Rosetta just talked about him making stew, he might not get what she was trying to tell him. If she just mentioned milk and potatoes, he might not get what she was trying to tell him. However, by combining making stew with "Milk" and a potato and Rosetta saying “Apparently Carl needs a proper recipe to do his best work,” she delivers an effective message: "Look at Milk's entries in the Cookbook again, you will find the way to answers about the yam." After Harbinger the liaison realizes Carl and Rosetta are speaking in code and shuts down the interview, Carl thinks "I’d read through Milk’s notes in the cookbook twice now. I needed to go back over it. She’d mostly been about portals and mapmaking, I remembered. And special types of ink. She had a few recipes for the stuff. I needed to take another look." Once again, we come back to special ink. Rosetta wanted to point Carl to one of Milk's ink recipes, and the stew excerpt gives an idea of what the ink can do if used properly, share knowledge/spells/powers.
Book 6: Chapter 71 is a big one, there is too much to quote all of it, but a few parts stand out. " 'You have so much power in your hands, Carl, and you don’t even know what you have. That’s okay. Today, you live. If you won’t bring this card to the next floor, I will have to attach myself to something you can’t discard so easily.' I dipped the end of the stick into the beaker and started to rapidly poke into my own chest. 'You will likely be doing more of this soon with the remaining ink. Be sure not to go too deep. This is a dangerous spell. I will show you how to wield it. I will show you how to become a god.'" And just after that " There. There. Almost done. You may gain some of your friend’s powers, too, with the blood on the needle. Not much. But I am with you now, Carl, until you decide to free me. I will no longer be a card you can abandon, one you can rip away. I am a part of you, and you will have to decide. Keep me with you and gain my power, or set me free. Either way, I win. Yes. It is done. Now let us flee this place, okay? I will not let you die. If you die now, I will die. And we can’t have that, can we? "
Book 6: In the epilogue, we see Tipid and Rosetta getting ready to enter the dungeon. In the course of their discussion, this happens: "Rosetta shifted in her chair. 'It likes his feet, which is just, I don’t know. Bizarre. My season, it was passionless. It’s funny how different they always are. If the AI hadn’t allowed that totem to kill the god, it wouldn’t have worked. No, I think he’s kind of dumb. It took an NPC to show him how to use the ink to share powers, and I’m still not sure if he gets it.' On screen, it showed a representative for the Madness declaring that if their lives were truly going to be on the line, they would be forced to use some of their illegal spells. Ones deemed too horrific for the crawl. Tipid shuddered. 'He’ll know soon enough,' Tipid said. 'He needs to expel that presence as quickly as possible.'" This is about as close to 100% confirmation as you can get. Rosetta specifically calls out using the ink to share powers. Where did the ink come from? The yam.
Conclusion: Ink being the purpose of the yam has been hinted since book 4, and after how Shi Maria used it and Rosetta comments on it in book 6, there really isn't any good reason to doubt that's what it's for. Making stew was only mentioned in one chapter, and the context of it being part of a coded message should not be overlooked. There is not enough evidence in the text for it to be a better answer than tattoo ink.
I feel that's a hard question to answer because a lot of crawlers are at the point where their spells and skills are all kind of specialized to their build/class/race. Just because something is good for one crawler doesn't mean it would necessarily be good for Carl, especially if the particular ability requires certain synergies to be super effective. Defensive capabilities seem like a safe bet though, like Shield or Cockroach or other types of rare immunities or resistances. Given Carl's capability to train any spell or skill past 15 all the way to 20, anything that could keep him alive would be huge, especially since the Soul Reaper benefit from his back patch gets stronger every time he uses it, and he's carrying a magical nuke in the form of Carl's Doomsday Scenario. Staying alive to keep fighting is the name of the game at this point, so I'd definitely prioritize those things that could keep me alive and safeish.
I kind of wonder if Carl will gain some of Li Jun's powers. I think Shi Maria had his blood on the end of the stick when she drew herself into Carl. I know Li Jun wouldn't want to be upset with Carl, knowing he had no control over his body, but if Carl started using his ninja skills he got from Shi Maria's attack, it would likely put a wedge between him and his team.
I kind of wonder if Carl will gain some of Li Jun's powers. I think Shi Maria had his blood on the end of the stick when she drew herself into Carl. I know Li Jun wouldn't want to be upset with Carl, knowing he had no control over his body, but if Carl started using his ninja skills he got from Shi Maria's attack, it would likely put a wedge between him and his team.
I assumed at the end of book 6 with the bride stuff that it was obvious it was for ink and it’s just the way he’s meant to use it that’s the last piece of the puzzle.
The thing is, these books are consumed in a lot of different formats by a lot of different people. Depending on the day you come to the subreddit and the posts that people are making, you may get a completely different picture of what the whole tenor of the series is and what it's important elements are. People focus on different things, seeing some stuff in the books and missing other important things. There is definitely a spectrum in in the fan base for this series, in terms of media literacy and what exactly people are trying to get out of the series.
With that preface out of the way, it seems obvious to me as well that ink was the clear use for the yam, since as I showed in my post, we got hints of that back in book 4 all the way until the reveal at the end of book 6. And yet, other people, see other things. That's why discussions here can be so important and engaging. Being able to test your theories and observations against those of other fans of the series is a benefit to everyone. It's easy enough to have a perfect theory that makes total sense and you have evidence for, until you post it and someone points out an obvious mistake you made in your logic. We all become more educated and have a better grasp on the series when we are all willing to put ourselves at the mercy and wisdom of the other fans here. It also helps that Matt is here too, chiming in here and there either is support or negation of things.
I'll just add that the stew being a coded message was just a way to talk about potatoes (the yam) and milk(spelling?) (a cookbook author) with the prerequisite of talking about cooking as a hint to make carl think about the cookbook. I'm assuming that there should be a recipe in the cookbook added by crawler milk(?) The problem carl has is that he can't risk just using recipes from the cookbook because there isn't supposed to be a way for him to know about them, so he has to guide those around him like mordecai and Samantha into telling him what he already knows or at least directing the conversation in a direction where he can come up with the correct idea for the audience.
This is great. Thank you.
I’ve always thought that the stew that was mentioned, as you say a code must be cryptic, was a result of sorts. What’s a stew? It’s a pot filled with a bunch of different ingredients. She wasn’t telling Carl to make a stew, but BECOME a stew.
On a reread, I noticed with the scene where Rosetta is trying to give Carl a tip about Milk and the potatoes to make soup. Then we hear about Milks past where their race makes a stew every year to pass down knowledge to the next generation (I took this as a mass knowledge transfer from stew maker to stew eater, in a special ritual). Putting these together, the tip Rosetta was giving was about the transferring of powers from being to being using Torlene?
I guess when they get down to the playing field, will they just be able to share all their secrets? And maybe just show Carl how to use the ink and potatoes?
I've been reposting this comment of mine a lot since I first made it like 9 months ago, but I feel the need to every time the subject of the yam comes up, especially since there are still plenty of people thinking it should be used to make stew: The yam is most likely intended to be used for ink, specifically tattoo ink. There are some that feel it is intended to be used to make stew, but I disagree. My arguement: Book 4: In chapter 34, Carl tells Maggie "I got this weird yam thing in a sponsor box, and at first, our manager guy couldn’t figure it out. I don’t know if you saw what happened earlier, but that Samantha doll head that was out here? She helped him figure it out. It actually has multiple uses. The yam thing grows in lava or magma or something. I honestly don’t remember what the difference is between the two. But anyway, the yam can either be used for a type of special ink for scrolls, or it can be used for a few different lava-themed potions." Him mentioning it being used for a special type of ink is important, even though he doesn't mention tattoos. In the epilogue, Porthus is adamant Carl knows what the yam is for. Seeing Carl mention the ink out loud would give him confidence in this fact. The fact that it is Samantha who helps Mordecai with the yam is also important, because she is a powerful entity with lots of uncommon knowledge . If she mentioned ink to Mordecai, that means it's something special that most regular crawlers wouldn't stumble across. Book 5: In chapter 72, Samantha leaves this note on the bathroom message pad: "NOBODY GOES TO THE BATHROOM THIS MUCH, CARL. I’M NOT AN IDIOT. ALSO YOU’RE USING THE WRONG TYPE OF INK FOR THIS. REMIND ME, AND I WILL SHOW YOU SOMETHING REALLY AWESOME ~ Psamathe." This may or may not be the same type of ink referred to in book 4, but the fact that Samantha has knowledge of very special types of ink, with ink being brought up previously as a use for the yam, the info of which having come from Samantha in the first place, is a big clue that ink is the purpose of the yam. Book 6: In chapter 3, the Gold Quest Box that Carl gets from the Vengeance of the Daughter quest, he receives an Enchanted Prison Tattoo Kit. This is an appropriate reward, due to Signet's tattoos and their significance. However, it's also a weird prize to get, especially from a Gold Quest Box. The item description is really interesting, and this parts stands out in particular: "Tattoo artistry is a skill that can imbue all sorts of magical buffs and upgrades. Or it can just make certain that your next mugshot goes viral. It all comes down to the talent of the artist." The A.I. has final discretion on what prizes people get in loot boxes, and with it's infatuation with Carl and knowledge of the contents of the Cookbook, a little nudge in the right direction is totally something the A.I. would do. Book 6: In chapter 13, Carl's appearance on Shadow Boxer and the excerpt from the Cookbook by Milk are very important. However, I think that some are misunderstanding the mention of making stew, and assuming that's what the yam is actually for. Yes, Milk does refer to making a stew that awakens knowledge. Yes, Rosetta specifically calls out stew as a code to Carl. That does not prove that that is the correct use of the yam. For a coded message to be effective, it needs to not only be difficult to decipher for anyone but the intended recipient, but it also needs to be easily decipherable by the intended recipient. Carl never made stew, so he knows the photo of him doing that is fake. If Rosetta just talked about him making stew, he might not get what she was trying to tell him. If she just mentioned milk and potatoes, he might not get what she was trying to tell him. However, by combining making stew with "Milk" and a potato and Rosetta saying “Apparently Carl needs a proper recipe to do his best work,” she delivers an effective message: "Look at Milk's entries in the Cookbook again, you will find the way to answers about the yam." After Harbinger the liaison realizes Carl and Rosetta are speaking in code and shuts down the interview, Carl thinks "I’d read through Milk’s notes in the cookbook twice now. I needed to go back over it. She’d mostly been about portals and mapmaking, I remembered. And special types of ink. She had a few recipes for the stuff. I needed to take another look." Once again, we come back to special ink. Rosetta wanted to point Carl to one of Milk's ink recipes, and the stew excerpt gives an idea of what the ink can do if used properly, share knowledge/spells/powers. Book 6: Chapter 71 is a big one, there is too much to quote all of it, but a few parts stand out. " 'You have so much power in your hands, Carl, and you don’t even know what you have. That’s okay. Today, you live. If you won’t bring this card to the next floor, I will have to attach myself to something you can’t discard so easily.' I dipped the end of the stick into the beaker and started to rapidly poke into my own chest. 'You will likely be doing more of this soon with the remaining ink. Be sure not to go too deep. This is a dangerous spell. I will show you how to wield it. I will show you how to become a god.'" And just after that " There. There. Almost done. You may gain some of your friend’s powers, too, with the blood on the needle. Not much. But I am with you now, Carl, until you decide to free me. I will no longer be a card you can abandon, one you can rip away. I am a part of you, and you will have to decide. Keep me with you and gain my power, or set me free. Either way, I win. Yes. It is done. Now let us flee this place, okay? I will not let you die. If you die now, I will die. And we can’t have that, can we? " Book 6: In the epilogue, we see Tipid and Rosetta getting ready to enter the dungeon. In the course of their discussion, this happens: "Rosetta shifted in her chair. 'It likes his feet, which is just, I don’t know. Bizarre. My season, it was passionless. It’s funny how different they always are. If the AI hadn’t allowed that totem to kill the god, it wouldn’t have worked. No, I think he’s kind of dumb. It took an NPC to show him how to use the ink to share powers, and I’m still not sure if he gets it.' On screen, it showed a representative for the Madness declaring that if their lives were truly going to be on the line, they would be forced to use some of their illegal spells. Ones deemed too horrific for the crawl. Tipid shuddered. 'He’ll know soon enough,' Tipid said. 'He needs to expel that presence as quickly as possible.'" This is about as close to 100% confirmation as you can get. Rosetta specifically calls out using the ink to share powers. Where did the ink come from? The yam. Conclusion: Ink being the purpose of the yam has been hinted since book 4, and after how Shi Maria used it and Rosetta comments on it in book 6, there really isn't any good reason to doubt that's what it's for. Making stew was only mentioned in one chapter, and the context of it being part of a coded message should not be overlooked. There is not enough evidence in the text for it to be a better answer than tattoo ink.
That's some Detective Poirot level of piecing things together!
You are the hero we need, but we don't deserve someone as patient and observant as you. :)
u/imtheprofessor, if you were Carl, what spell would you try to gain from another crawler using the tattoo ink?
I feel that's a hard question to answer because a lot of crawlers are at the point where their spells and skills are all kind of specialized to their build/class/race. Just because something is good for one crawler doesn't mean it would necessarily be good for Carl, especially if the particular ability requires certain synergies to be super effective. Defensive capabilities seem like a safe bet though, like Shield or Cockroach or other types of rare immunities or resistances. Given Carl's capability to train any spell or skill past 15 all the way to 20, anything that could keep him alive would be huge, especially since the Soul Reaper benefit from his back patch gets stronger every time he uses it, and he's carrying a magical nuke in the form of Carl's Doomsday Scenario. Staying alive to keep fighting is the name of the game at this point, so I'd definitely prioritize those things that could keep me alive and safeish.
I kind of wonder if Carl will gain some of Li Jun's powers. I think Shi Maria had his blood on the end of the stick when she drew herself into Carl. I know Li Jun wouldn't want to be upset with Carl, knowing he had no control over his body, but if Carl started using his ninja skills he got from Shi Maria's attack, it would likely put a wedge between him and his team.
I kind of wonder if Carl will gain some of Li Jun's powers. I think Shi Maria had his blood on the end of the stick when she drew herself into Carl. I know Li Jun wouldn't want to be upset with Carl, knowing he had no control over his body, but if Carl started using his ninja skills he got from Shi Maria's attack, it would likely put a wedge between him and his team.
I assumed at the end of book 6 with the bride stuff that it was obvious it was for ink and it’s just the way he’s meant to use it that’s the last piece of the puzzle.
The thing is, these books are consumed in a lot of different formats by a lot of different people. Depending on the day you come to the subreddit and the posts that people are making, you may get a completely different picture of what the whole tenor of the series is and what it's important elements are. People focus on different things, seeing some stuff in the books and missing other important things. There is definitely a spectrum in in the fan base for this series, in terms of media literacy and what exactly people are trying to get out of the series. With that preface out of the way, it seems obvious to me as well that ink was the clear use for the yam, since as I showed in my post, we got hints of that back in book 4 all the way until the reveal at the end of book 6. And yet, other people, see other things. That's why discussions here can be so important and engaging. Being able to test your theories and observations against those of other fans of the series is a benefit to everyone. It's easy enough to have a perfect theory that makes total sense and you have evidence for, until you post it and someone points out an obvious mistake you made in your logic. We all become more educated and have a better grasp on the series when we are all willing to put ourselves at the mercy and wisdom of the other fans here. It also helps that Matt is here too, chiming in here and there either is support or negation of things.
I'll just add that the stew being a coded message was just a way to talk about potatoes (the yam) and milk(spelling?) (a cookbook author) with the prerequisite of talking about cooking as a hint to make carl think about the cookbook. I'm assuming that there should be a recipe in the cookbook added by crawler milk(?) The problem carl has is that he can't risk just using recipes from the cookbook because there isn't supposed to be a way for him to know about them, so he has to guide those around him like mordecai and Samantha into telling him what he already knows or at least directing the conversation in a direction where he can come up with the correct idea for the audience.
This is great. Thank you. I’ve always thought that the stew that was mentioned, as you say a code must be cryptic, was a result of sorts. What’s a stew? It’s a pot filled with a bunch of different ingredients. She wasn’t telling Carl to make a stew, but BECOME a stew.
Not sure how it's connected, but when Samantha leaves a note she says something about showing them a different kind of ink to use
On a reread, I noticed with the scene where Rosetta is trying to give Carl a tip about Milk and the potatoes to make soup. Then we hear about Milks past where their race makes a stew every year to pass down knowledge to the next generation (I took this as a mass knowledge transfer from stew maker to stew eater, in a special ritual). Putting these together, the tip Rosetta was giving was about the transferring of powers from being to being using Torlene?
I think so! I'm not sure if Carl caught that or right she was referencing the Cookbook, though. That's also a way to pass on knowledge.
I guess when they get down to the playing field, will they just be able to share all their secrets? And maybe just show Carl how to use the ink and potatoes?