ARG: O.P. Smith-New

[Trailhead] O. P. Smith

aridsky@forums.unfiction.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:15:15 +0000

Did a search for "O. P. Smith", and there was nothing, so I'm guessing it's a trailhead.

I got this email at around 4 AM EST, from opsmith2009@gmail.com, subject: Please help me:

You do not know me. To be honest, I do not know you either, but I have pressing words about which you should know.

The old man said you could help me. He said you will know that you need to help me.

He suggested that I ask you to search, for the first encounter took my family. He said that you would be able to see it all then.

The old man said you have a group of people who can help, when hope is lost and when life is at stake.

I hope you can help me.

Regards,

O. P. Smith

PS He also said that this would be useful for you later on (but I have no idea what it is supposed to be):

ngx qkt zit ltegfr

Seeing "pressing words", I thought Wordpress, and sure enough: http://opsmith.wordpress.com/

EDIT: I sent this back:

Hello, O. P. Smith. You're right, I don't know you. Who is this "old man" that told you about me? What is the "first encounter"? If you answer these, I might be able to help you.

EDIT2: Seems this might be related to Rabbit Black, maybe a "sequel", maybe something else. In any case, I'm sure new people will be able to play this one even if they didn't play RB. Just in case they need to reference it, though, here's the thread: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27969

Okay, this summary is for people who didn't play RB:

3 people recieved emails from Rabbit Black, who we soon learn is called Tylean, and a woman named Abie the Time, who we learn is a former apprentice of Tylean. A group of "apprentices" are gathered, by people commenting on Tylean's blog, www.tylean.wordpress.com. We get lessons and tests, mostly about the Language. We also learn a bit about TEDO, an evil group. In a few days something called the Scattering happens, in which a book called the Book of Prophecy (a magical book that can speak, but only to a certain few) releases energy. This release of energy brings someone from a point in time named Binsakne, who we find out is Abie's brother, thought to be killed by TEDO. Tylean is eventually captured by TEDO, and Abie goes to save him, only to be caught as well, and they are both killed. Binsakne decides to perform a ritual in which he goes back in time and kills the original Tylean, and can then bring back Abie and Tylean. He does so, and finds out that the original Tylean is actually HIM, albeit much older. So, he kills him, takes his place as original Tylean, and brings (other)Tylean and Abie back to life. TEDO is defeated.

** Moved thread to O.P. Smith forum section. -- jamesi

[SPEC] The Language

Abraxas@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:53:39 +0000

I labelled this with [SPEC] just to avoid confusion with a thread about facts, because it has no label. I think usually a thread like that would be labelled with [REF].
I was thinking of compiling a list of the phonetics in here. We can talk about everything related to the Language in here.

Players of the previous game are familiar with the Language since pretty much the beginning. First, we have seen it in script with alien alphabets. We called the two versions of it black script and red script, respectively.
Both forms are heavy on the phonetics. There are slight variations of a basic character, representing the way to pronounce them.
Later in the game characters appeared, writing in the Language, but using the alphabet familiar to us.

The black script is a bastardisation of the Roman alphabet and English phonetics. Many characters look similar to their counterparts in "our" alphabet. The rest of them had to be found out as part of a simple substitution, once the more obvious characters had been identified. The speculation about the modelling of English phonetics is based on the fact that TH is encoded as a unique character, in two different pronunciations (soft and hard).

The red script is the "real deal". It consists of a unique set of 47 characters necessary to model an alphabet mostly similar to the Roman alphabet regarding the phonetics, but with different variations based on the pronunciation within the Language , rather than within the English language. For instance, DH is encoded as a single character.

linkage:
the alphabet (top part, as found in the belongings of ThisEve)
current translation of the alphabet
first encounter with both scripts

The above may be considered as almost-fact. :)

phonetics for the black script (there isn't much to tell from that one example that we got):

TH(1) - door-like symbol - soft, as in "the"
TH(2) - like TH(1), with a line through it - hard, as in "earth"
E(1) - three-like symbol - unpronounced/voiceless E
E(2) - like E(1) with a dash - pronounced E

List of words in the Language using a given character

A1 korpata(2), lorsham, tesmna, trunla, fain, aztlan(1), hienemfa, Donar'tnel
A2 korpata(1), da, iatux, aztlan(2), tratem, na, ank
B bi
C
CH tenchi
D dwond, TEDO, da, dor, Donar'tnel
DH dhrem
E1 tnel, etermul, nestrem(2), ejert, tratem, hienemfa(2), vexem(2)
E2 tenchi, profesul, fe, TEDO, tnem, tesmna, dhrem, nestrem(1), kontingem, prel, per, hienemfa(1), vexem(1), Donar'tnel
F profesul, fe, fain, hienemfa
G kontingem
H(?) prohim, hienemfa
I1 kontingem, prohim, hienemfa
I2
I3 tenchi
I4 iatux, fain, bi
J(?) ejert
K korpata, kontingem, kwn, ank
L profesul, tnel, lorsham, lulsh, etermul, ol, trunla, prel, swl, aztlan*, Donar'tnel
M tnem, lorsham, tesmna, etermul, dhrem, nestrem, kontingem, tratem, prohim, hienemfa, vexem
N1 tenchi, dwond, tnem, tnel, tesmna, nestrem, trunla, kontingem, kwn, fain, aztlan, na, hienemfa, ank, Donar'tnel
N2(?)
N3(?)
O1 korpata, profesul, TEDO, kontingem
O2 dwond, lorsham, prohim, Donar'tnel
O3
O4 ol, dor
P korpata, profesul, prel, per, prohim
R1 korpata, profesul, dor
R2
R3 lorsham, etermul, dhrem, nestrem, trunla, prel, per, ejert, tratem, prohim, Donar'tnel
S profesul, tesmna, nestrem, swl
SH lorsham, lulsh
T1 tenchi, korpata, TEDO, tnem, tnel, tesmna, etermul, nestrem, trunla, kontingem, iatux, aztlan, ejert, tratem, Donar'tnel
T2
U1 profesul, iatux
U2 lulsh, etermul, trunla
V vexem
W1(?)
X iatux, vexem
Z aztlan
Y(?)
W2
W3 dwond, kwn, swl
E3(?)
E4(?)
U3(?)
U4(?)

* In the first script it appeared, the L was missing.

I hope this will help to see which words are pronounced similarly.

[PUZZLE] Logo

kobrosti@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:19:26 +0000

the logo

All of us in contact with Eve (ThatEve :P ) received this logo along with this email

Ok I found this in Eve's bag. I think Blue suggested that I send you an "MS Paint" version. Well, I was going to wait until I could take a photo of it, but Eve is getting better. I guess the doc knew what he was doing. Anyway, I don't want to wait in case she gets too well for me to sneak into her bag. Well this one has some funny writing on it, but the logo is the same circle thingy as the symbol on the lab coat.

This one has three colours, but the lab coat one was obviously only in red (ie from the blood).

By the way, I don't know about your reality, but in mine, MicroSoft went bankrupt when Tesla Electrical merged with Domain for Office two years ago. Nobody uses Microsoft anymore. I mean, I have a windows emulator on my TE 125 running Domain Operating System 5, but really, nobody uses MS Paint. So I'm sending it in pdf format rather than the usual tep graphics format in case you don't have it.

I hope you can make something out of it, 'cause I can't!

--
Eve T Philomels

Administrator
Information Technology Services
Evandale North Outer-Urban General Hospital

:lol:

General description

Three circles. A big green one in the center. Two smaller ones, a red one on the left and a blue one on the right. The two smaller circles intersect with the bigger one. Looks like a Venn diagram according to Eve.
Colors may not be important since the one on Rhea Soutaine was drawn entirely with her blood.

16 characters of the Language (the "real" one in red script).
red script alphabet
7 unique characters.
2 characters each inside only the red or the blue circle. 8 characters inside the green circle. 2 characters each inside both the red and the green circle or inside both the blue and red circle.
In total each, 10 characters in the green circle, 4 in the red circle and 4 in the blue circle.
Here is the format and preliminary translation

dD
AdAAAE
DGdEFE
AA

put d for DH to keep the spacing intact

For first ideas, I'm just going to copy over from the on-going thread:

Blue's first transcript of the characters on the logo

So what I currently have for the sign is:
(x)D
S(x)SAAE
D(x)(x)EFE
SS

My transcript and further ramblings (no longer reflects the update)

Note that we can identify letters A, D, E and F. Then there is one unfamiliar character. And that's it. It's four out of the six first characters. Possibly five.

Could be digits, maybe. If the Language uses 10 digits, it would make sense if the first five characters are used, once without, once with dot/dash. But the F ruins this pattern. It's possible, that one out of the first six characters is left out and the count correctly goes to five characters used. But it just seems like an impractical system to me. The alternative is a base 12 system. Laughing
Or a good explanation for leaving one out. Maybe a letter that can't be pronounced differently. But I think that applies to both B and F, doesn't it?

Next problem...is it without then with dot/dash one after another? Or first all without, then those with dot/dash?
I'd say alternating, those without dot/dash are even digits, those with dot/dash are odd digits.

And then what?
I would assume the logo spells TEDO. There are 16 characters. Four character would encode one letter. I have no idea how. I am probably very wrong about this.

Could represent the "uniting of worlds" that TEDO is talking about.

[INFO]Rabbit Black Links

jaeger138@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:42:52 +0000

Thought I'd put a list of websites that have been used in the game for ease of access, more for me than anyone, hehe. But below are all the links that have been used so far. As I didn't play the original, if anyone woud like to tell me those website so I can put them up as well that would be good. If i miss anything, please let me know and I'll update the list accordingly.

http://rabbitblack.pbworks.com/ - the Wiki for the first game

http://rabbitblackreloaded.pbworks.com/ - the Wiki for the current game

http://www.youtube.com/user/TesmnaEtermulDhremOl#play/uploads/2/63peBNrIsk4 - TEDOs youtube channel

http://opsmith.wordpress.com/ - O.P. Smith's blog

http://www.youtube.com/user/opsmith2009 - O.P. Smith's youtube channel

http://enougeneralhospital.webs.com/ - The Evandale North Hospital's website

http://thetedo.blogspot.com/ - The TEDO's blog

http://twitter.com/evetphilomels - ThatEve's Twitter account

http://twitter.com/evephilomels - ThisEve's Twitter account

http://www.youtube.com/evetphilomels - ThatEve's youtube channel

Pretty sure that's everything for this game but I'll add more as they appear and as I'm told to.

Forum Guidelines - Please read before posting!

jamesi@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:17:19 +0000

A short summary of guidelines for these forums:

Please refer to the general unFiction posting guidelines here .
Please try and keep the forum as tidy as possible, which is mostly done by using the [search] function to see if what you want to post is not already being discussed! You'll find the [search] function at the top right-hand side at all times.
Tagging your posts also helps keep the forum clean and easily usable. Use for example tags like [META] or [PUZZLE]. If a puzzle is solved, the original poster is kindly asked to edit his or her post to add the tag [SOLVED] to the topic, to indicate that puzzle is now solved.
Please PM me or any of the other admins or forum-moderators if you have any questions regarding these guidelines or the forum in general Have fun!

[PRE-TRAILHEAD] Rabbit Black

RAD24@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:09:52 +0000

Since it's confirmed beeing an ARG I'd open an thread.

Three of us received a trail message by somebody named "Black Rabbit" from the email whiterabbitblackSPLATgmail.com

Here are the messages in the order, numbered by Black Rabbit (I marked underline all the typo phenomenon and weird words, even if pow'r and vict'ry seem to be poetic apostroph)

===> 1

kosmopol

You are the first

The sword is forged by a master's hand
The hammer rings on the steel white-hot
The ringing calls from a distan d land
The pow'r the ancients long ago forgot." - from the Book of the Prophecy
Abie the time my restless friend.
Patience wins if you endure to the end.
Read the message its words are wise.
Ever its thoughts will help yours to rise.
No hints are needed, for the signs are plain.
Do claim the vict'ry , and do not be slain.
I will await you, to add to your ken .
Zurkdorsh is coming; she's coming again.
You are the first:
Time travels long but length passes fast.
You are the first but wait for the last.
SSBoYXZlIGJlZW4gd2FpdGluZyBhIGxvbmcgdGltZSwNCkJ1dCB5b3UgbXVzdCBsb29rIGJleW9uZCB0aGUgcmh5bWUu1/3

(Thanx to thebruce for formatting :-) I received it through contact form on my webpage, the format was kinda broken.)

The coded message is

I have been waiting a long time,
But you must look beyond the rhyme.

===> 2

Psysop

You are the second:

Look for the press that holds every word. Enter the name completed from third.

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101101 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110000 01101001 01110100 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100111 01110100 01101000 01110011 00101100 00001101 00001010 01000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100111 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100101 01111000 01110100 01110010 01100101 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100101 01101110 01100111 01110100 01101000 01110011 00101110

2/3

which is

You must combine your capital strengths,
But don't go to extreme lengths.

He also got this cool and dramatic midi-file:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?mode=attach&id=18329

===> 3

AUZ505

"The sword is forged by a master's hand

The hammer rings on the steel white-hot

The ringing calls from a distand land

The pow'r the ancients long ago forgot."

- from the Book of the Prophecy

Abie the time my restless friend. Patience wins if you endure to the end.

Read the message its words are wise. Ever its thoughts will help yours to rise.

No hints are needed, for the signs are plain. Do claim the vict'ry, and do not be slain.

I will await you, to add to your ken. Zurkdorsh is coming; she's coming again.

You are the last:

Anyone's guess what answers you'll hold. Never forget you must let it unfold.

52 65 61 64 20 74 68 65 20 6d 65 73 73 61 67 65 2c 20 79 6f 75 20 61 72 65 20 6e 6f 74 20 61 6c 6c 20 74 68 65 20 73 61 6d 65 2c 20 0d 0a 54 68 65 6e 20 63 6f 6d 65 20 74 6f 20 66 69 6e 64 20 6d 65 2c 20 6f 6e 63 65 20 79 6f 75 20 6b 6e 6f 77 20 6d 79 20 6e 61 6d 65 2e

3/3

decoded to

Read the message, you are not all the same,
Then come to find me, once you know my name.

And a midi file too:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?mode=attach&id=18333

---------------------------

Some thoughts of players at [Analysis]Thread:

Just a thought: "Read the message its words are wise."
Maybe some missing letters/intentional typos? River Tam style?

T (distand)
E (pow'r)
D ("abie" the time)
O (vict'ry)

Possibly something to do with "APRENDIZ" (maybe on YouTube?)?
Based on most of the first (capital ) letters in the rhyme.

UPDATE. After my cryptic email to Black Rabbit (I just wrote: "Apprendiz?") he answered

On the right path you are my friend,
but the beginning hath not yet an end.
Watch your spelling; I watched mine.
Await the third and then you'll be fine.

So people, who is Number 3 and what's going on here?

** Moved thread to O.P. Smith forum section for reference. -- jamesi