Jake's murder.
Shutting down Sparkmaster 5000 without a fight.
The elemental riddle north of Cysael.
I'll admit that I just charged in and wrecked the Sparkmaster, but as for the other two, how are they smart puzzles? Jake's murder is a series of steps which involve basically speaking to everyone you meet and exploring everything. As for the elemental riddle, do you mean the statues? That's one of the most obvious "puzzles" in the game.
You have to figure out
that you have to break in into Esmeralda's cellar and get into the secret room.
Basically figuring out where the important clues could be hidden. I searched throughout quite a few other houses like the Mayors, the Inn, etc. for this quest.
And yes, the quest line was clever, or did you think it would turn out that
both the healer and the apprentice were working for the Conduit basically?
