[mortality]

More from everyone's favorite post-grad correspondent

[WolfHawk]

I just wanted to throw this out. It's obvious, but I had no connections to the previous game.

Is it safe to assume everyone knows Whitechapel was the location of the Jack the Ripper murders? It's also where the Salvation Army was started. Joseph Merrick (Elephant Man) was exhibited in a shop there as well before being helped by the doctor that later cared for him.

These little bits may have no bearing here but you never know.

[mortality]

The supplemental pages. A minor meta-conflict. Worlds are exploding due to paradox... (Lesson number one is to click almost every link on an in-game site. Never know what you'll find.)

Link to the supplemental pages is on the right hand side of the Open Cases website under the heading "pages."

Piechart(?) left a comment for Ethan at the Open Cases site:

Quote:

# piechart Comment by piechart | 2007/11/29 at 17:14:13 Ethan, not sure if this is the best way to contact you. I was going back over the page#, line#, word# key of letter 1 and noticed that the first word on line 9 of the Janissary Tree is not a whole word it is the second half of a hyphenated word from the end of the line above it. If they are counting only whole words then word number 12 would be commanded. Just a thought not sure yet how that could change the possible sentences that could be made from the words. piechart

That would make our sentence "three king only commanded the wise". Makes somewhat more sense with the story of the Magi and Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king.

"hinohi" and "enlehs" become the 2nd letter variants.

[noam]

mortality wrote:

This game is going to get really meta-confusing when you consider what Sebring's already caused. From the supplement (brackets are probably Ethan's

What has Sebring caused? Where is this supplement?

[mortality]

Further due diligence:
http://autumncountry.net/ac-e-nicjournal_2a.html

Quote:

I tried to think about my next steps with C and E, but all my options were still swarming around like pissed-off hornets in my head. Maybe I'd try to talk outright with C. Maybe snoop around a little on my own; quietly and very carefully. Maybe I'd fly to London and see what was behind The Whitechapel Foundation's solid old Pall Mall address. But, really, I had no idea what to do, and nothing seemed like a more sensible option than the next.

This game is going to get really meta-confusing when you consider what Sebring's already caused. From the supplement (brackets are probably Ethan's

Quote:

Finally we have W.Wallace from the land of the Faeries which seems to nicely tie it all to the AC storyline.[AC=Autumn Country a story by David Valley of Djinn Productions]

WCF is clearly part of the AC universe (see 1st quote) and yet its employees refer to AC as a story. So how will this whole "in the game but also observing the game" play out? The Djinn stories are more like historical fiction than fantasy to them?

Think we should ask about Calvin Michaels, given how frequently his name appears? I mean, whose signature is on this document, do ya think?

[noam]

A small update to what was previously there. Nothing new, just affirming our uncertainty

Quote:

Ahasuerus. Without further clarification the Foundation feels that this references either the Persian King chronicled in the biblical book of Esther or the Wandering Jew of legend. Although both figures are referenced in numerous Foundation research documents, Ahasuerus as Persian King has not been referenced in any past investigation. There are several references to Ahasuerus as the Wondering Jew in older Foundation archives, all of them from the 19th century. Each consists of nothing more than accounts of regional sightings of the figure from throughout Europe.

Shucks.

[zizka]

noam wrote:

Could someone please elucidate what Djinn Productions' website is all about? Weird links off to different places. Did I miss something or what?

In addition to what CB said, they also produced Autumn Country, of which Whitechapel may or may not be an extension.

My 0.02: Djinn is among the best indie ARG/IF/CF producers operating, even if Overwatch blowed up in our faces. They're not plugging a product (a point which I admire ***greatly***), and they're perfectly content to tell a story for a small audience (the 7 or 8 we have here now is double the final audience of OW, and Djinn was perfectly happy. Unfourtunately, we killed off all the characters ). I was a little miffed about the OW meltdown when it happened (and more than a little miffed about the finnish cypher, as you may guess from a few of my posts so far--and no, I am not kidding, they actually gave us a very, very nasty puzzle in OW which Surf/sebring/that minkey finally solved) <gasp> but I'm very pleased to see some new content from them. This should be a very good, very well-executed, and very interesting story to play/follow.[/metagush]

[Coffeebean]

djinn

[noam]

Could someone please elucidate what Djinn Productions' website is all about? Weird links off to different places. Did I miss something or what?

[zizka]

Coffeebean wrote:

Could have told me "no anagram" an hour ago and saved me some trouble. EACH ANSWER WILL USE A LULA ALL WILL USE EACH ANSWER U U WILL ALL USE EACH ANSWER ...... (maybe it anagrams into WASTE OF TIME )

what does "lula" mean in Finnish?

I'm of the opinion that we have incomplete info and more will come soon. I am hopeful, but not convinced this opinion is correct.

[mortality]

My hunches have been wrong before. Especially with Djinn.

[Coffeebean]

Could have told me "no anagram" an hour ago and saved me some trouble.

EACH ANSWER WILL USE A LULA
ALL WILL USE EACH ANSWER U
U WILL ALL USE EACH ANSWER
...... (maybe it anagrams into WASTE OF TIME )

[mortality]

FYI: The stains/dirt is definitely on the scanner, not the envelope. The front and back envelope scans both have the same pattern in the same place on the image. And if you rotate the note horizontally, I bet they'd be replicated as well.

However, it does look like they either shoved the envelope in the oven for a nice browning or dyed it in tea. Looks a little worse for wear.

Definitely not a security envelope, since you can see that note through the paper in the front scan. (I'll have to remember that as a good way to peruse someone else's mail without resorting to steam...)

And I don't think we're looking for an anagram on this one. That'd be brutal with so many letters. Even for Djinn.

[zizka]

Ok. I discovered that I can alter the shape of th triangle on the "cutting the knot" tool, and I have to say, I'm 99.9999999% certain that the idea (Sline through the period) was, shall we say, "inaccurate." The most I could get the line to touch (in 2 positions where it crossed the period) was a W and an A--and not at thte same time, mind you.

[mortality]

Quote:

Ethan, Yes, the URL was in your email signature. The blog made for better reading than you might expect. At least we've got a better feel for who you are, since some of you seem to know a bit about us already. One of the people working on the note, Pipakin, had an idea. Pip noticed that the original post on Open Cases said Ms. Fulmer tried to process the letters as she usually would, by slicing open the envelope. Pip wonders if maybe there was something written on the back of the taped-down envelope flaps. Also, you might want to amend your update to the supplemental page; I was mistakenly credited for insights that Sebring provided. Any word from Mr. Patel? We're currently trying a couple different ways of analyzing the new note. It could be a geometric code, a visual puzzle, or something else. There's been some discussion about whether Simson Lines may have some relevance to the shape. Best wishes, Mort