[Doug52392]

Sylvia wrote:

Way to go. So wikipedia says this about Transcendental numbers; Quote: Transcendental number From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search In mathematics, a transcendental number is a real or complex number which is not algebraic, that is, not a solution of a non-zero polynomial equation, with rational coefficients. The most prominent examples of transcendental numbers are π and e. Only a few classes of transcendental numbers are known, and proving that a given number is transcendental can be extremely difficult. pi = 3.14159265 e = e = 2.71828183 So here we go again. We need to use those somehow to get into. http://www.bullerman.net/hide/

I was just about to say that. So which transcendental number do you think the user name or password is?

[Sylvia]

Way to go.

So wikipedia says this about Transcendental numbers;

Quote:

Transcendental number From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search In mathematics, a transcendental number is a real or complex number which is not algebraic, that is, not a solution of a non-zero polynomial equation, with rational coefficients. The most prominent examples of transcendental numbers are π and e. Only a few classes of transcendental numbers are known, and proving that a given number is transcendental can be extremely difficult.

pi = 3.14159265
e = 2.71828183

So here we go again. We need to use those somehow to get into. http://www.bullerman.net/hide/

edited to fix typo

[faeryqueen21]

Dang it! I was just in the process of figuring that out and you just barely beat me to it! That was fun though! Good work!

Thanks for rotating it Sylvia, I know I wouldn't have figured it out without it.

[EDIT] I wish I had figured out how to use the cryptogram solver, I was sitting here doing the whole thing on paper!

[yellowcard]

I used a cryptogram solver and got two possible "solutions" when the diagram is rotated 90deg counterclockwise:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The first one included the word "pun" instead of fun, so I think the second one is most likely closest to the solution. I'm guessing that proper names may be throwing the complete thing off. "USE THE ABOVE NUMBER TRANSCENDENTAL ANDOTNET WWWDOTBUTLERM SARK THIS IS NECES HAVING FUN WORTHLESS NOTHING GIBBERISH"

Oh, hey! How about this?

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

With 90deg clockwise rotation: GIBBERISH NOTHING WORTHLESS HAVING FUN THIS IS NECESSARY WWWDOTBUTLERMANDOTNET TRANSCENDENTAL NUMBER USE THE ABOVE EDIT: I think they meant "WWWDOTBULLERMANDOTNET"

[Sylvia]

I only get that there are 20 letters in it. but I could be wrong.

The image, as it was, was sort of hard to follow. So, I rotated it 90 degrees and got this to work with.

Code:

L M E   K B E   G H S J E            R L Q H E P K P G R M I E R D E R K G V G R D S K R E K Z Z Z D S K H L V V E P Q M G P Y K B C M   C M   R E I E M B G J C R A   F L R Z S P K B V E M M R S K B C R A A C H H E P C M E

Next I took the rotated image and flipped it vertically and got this to work with:

Code:

G I B B E V I J H                        R S K H I R G W S V K H P E J J H A M F R G   F L R K H I J   I J   R E C E J J A V Y W W W D S K B L P P E V Q A R D S K R E K K V A R J C E R D E R K A P R L Q B E V L J E   K H E   A B S M E

[Doug52392]

yellowcard wrote:

Lunsford wrote: does anyone know where to begin with this one? what kind of "message" does this look like to you guys? There appear to be exactly 26 possible symbols. I'm cooking a late lunch, so I can't give much attention to this at the moment.

If there are 26 letters in it, it's most likely similar to the message we were stuck on a few weeks ago. I have to do something now, but I'll be back on in an hour to take a closer look at it.

[Lunsford]

looking at this "glyph" i think that on the seventh row, the first three characters are www??? maybe redirecting to a website... only makes sense with three characters in a row.. and it kinda looks like it in a weird ancient way...

[yellowcard]

Lunsford wrote:

does anyone know where to begin with this one? what kind of "message" does this look like to you guys?

There appear to be exactly 26 possible symbols. I'm cooking a late lunch, so I can't give much attention to this at the moment.

[Sylvia]

It's a pigpen cipher http://www.purplehell.com/riddletools/pigpen.htm which is a simple substitution cipher.

But anyone can create there own code using the # and X so these may not help.

So we have to figure out what letter of the alphabet each symbol represents.

[Musicluver315]

Reminds me of an old, simple code. You have two tic-tac toe boards, First without dots, then with. Then you have two Xs one w/o dots one with. Each space is given a letter, usually in ABC order.

[Lunsford]

does anyone know where to begin with this one? what kind of "message" does this look like to you guys?

[Sylvia]

Update on bullerman.net

[Lunsford]

todays' the day.... !! Let's see what happens

[yellowcard]

I'm back from Christmas vacation and everything looks cool so far. I think Sylvia's really onto something with the whole Steve/JB thing. It makes sense that Steve is truly dead and that JB is posing as Steve.

Today's the big day, huh? I hope so.

[MrToasty]

Sylvia wrote:

I checked with frappr to see if any unfiction players live in Iowa. but I didn't find any. http://www.frappr.com/unfiction Do any of you guys know anyone from Iowa?

Hey all. I just noticed this trailhead last night and read all 50 pages. I haven't had a chance to watch any of the videos yet, but intend to tonight.

Anyway, I live in Iowa City, just south of Cedar Rapids, which is why this caught my attention. My wife is from CR and my in-laws live there. Even trippier, my boss's husband works at Duane Arnold in Palo. After reading everything, I don't know that you actually need any ground truth information for this campaign, but feel free to PM me if you need any information about the local flavor.

Oh, and just a little useless FYI - the Cedar Rapids newspaper is the Gazette (no Daily Chronicle around here AFAIK) and even though it's spelled Tripoli, it's pronounced tri-PO-luh (I have no idea why).