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[Trailhead?] - Million Dollar Poem
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Catherwood was right about the ciphers here:
http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/ being Playfair. http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/playfair.php

After trying many things fairly, I (unfairly maybe) tried some brute force. I'm not hesitant to share the results, as I don't know how it could have been obtained otherwise.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
AUROTNGEPM


It's supposed to somehow be a contact for Aurora.
The group name may need further decoding?? I think it may be:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
the Conglomeration


PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 1:24 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
booba wrote:
...Playfair...
key
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
AUROTNGEPM


It's supposed to somehow be a contact for Aurora.
The group name may need further decoding?

It would have made sense to be keyed to Pit's Twitter handle, AuroraPoet, but clearly there is more to it. I've lost track of how this is meant to tie into a contact link, but perhaps it hinges on another earlier solve:
gsv mznrmt kzggvim lu gsv vnzroh hgrxph. Nrmv rh zfiliz.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
THE NAMING PATTERN OF THE EMAILS STICKS. MINE IS AURORA.

And I agree that there is a reason for the proper name being garbled in that solve. I assumed it was a typo, but a further encryption is more fun/challenging.

Oh, and this Playfair key only works on some of the text. Do you feel like brute stabbing some more?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 8:17 pm
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Aha, your gentle nudge helped with the ending.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
ThomsonPoet


As any previously letter can be used again, the first one could be something like

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
AuroraTonguePoem
???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:15 am
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Rainy day, so I'll update some recent events. The Playfair cipher here:
http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/home.html
Decoded with key AuroraTonguePoem to:

There's a group out there, called thn Ctemqrgcpursaa, vhat wants to turn us all into unnatural creatures, or machines - wretched beings, iust enough to consume, sleep, and wake to consume again. Never mind dreams, never mind love, never mind happiness. Never mind actual human connection - iust things that consume and keep consuming. It's slavery, but so indoctrinated by the media that it's all that we will know.X

This message is so important, the method can't get in the way.

I've only got one month left, and then it's all over.X


The Playfair here: http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/about.html
decoded with key AuroraTonguePoem

There is a fight out there taking place over the hearts and minds of the people. One side, our side, believes that love is more than a whip, that communities matter, that each and every one of us matters. The other side would prefer that everyone be slaves, easily controlled by media, always consuming and searching for something more, that they will never find. It sounds like a ioke. It sounds like all the fiction ever written. But look around you. Look at your TV, think about what it says. Look at 'iournalism'. Look at how everything's being reduced to profit, and the value to people is being lost. It's all real. I wish it wasn't.X

and key ThomsonPoet

ThqHumsfaycgeKgwbX told me that, when I found the right teachers and mentors, to be ready to find her. I've found three so far, which is the correct number I think? I need to reach her. She's my next step.

When I signed up for this at thirteen, I thought it was great fun. It's so much more dangerous than I thought. The other side, the side devoted to making this whole world and its happiness into a facade, they know of me already. They don't know you. X |

In high school, a young man is approached by a girl, who tells him that he's been chosen to ioin a small resistance against the other side - the Conglomeration, and get back in contact in five years.

The Conglomeration manipulates the markets so that the crash is much, much worse than it should be. It continues its indoctrination program through popular media and TV.

The young man gets in contact with a cell of the resistance, who tell him to contact their leader within the next four years, while she evades the Conglomeration.X

All the usual methods have failed. Trying anything less would result in four black vans coming by, or maybe a bullet in the back of the skull. Time to go big, or go home. www.million-dollar-poem.comX




The bit that i bolded above seems to want some further decoding to reveal the ladies name. I've poked around with it some, but no ceegar. Here's a wild guess based only on the spacing: PatCunninghamPoet

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 1:24 pm
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		a few bits remain unsolved on TheSummertimeMasquerade site...

on http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/tal-s-poetry.html I don't have the "Alphabet Key: First Author Surname of Article, Year" needed to crack that Vig Autokey block under the logo partial discovery
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
the logo is from the WikiWikiWeb site, and Tal gave a tweet about taking a "kiwikiwalk". Note our Passphrase hint says '(-kiwiki)'.


Do we know what "(This one's not about who's left but about who's right.)" means, under the woodcut?

Where the text decripts to
Quote:
called thn Ctemqrgcpursaa, vhat
we must be looking for a different key to turn it into
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
called the Conglomeration, that
and maybe the same key will untangle your last bolded bit.

Yesterday, Tal tweeted:
Quote:
Some are getting closer! Some are getting further...Some are getting confused. Pitter-PATter-pit. #Raindrops falling outside.
which is obviously the PM becoming impatient with us.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:29 pm
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Now I gotta cut loose, footloose Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise, pull me off of my knees
Happy dancin'

Add the other misplaced word from here: https://twitter.com/TalRuckus/status/655336925201494017

To ThomsonPoet as a playfair key on the original HolOrsoigmdinQdyeZ to see:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
TheSummertimeGirl

Now what to do with it? Weren't we supposed to give it to Tal or something?

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:44 am
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TacitusVigil
Boot


Joined: 19 Oct 2015
Posts: 15

 		New Messages from Pit
I got this 3 days ago and failed to notice due to some major electronic and major appliance woes hitting simultaneously...

From Pit, AuroraMasquerade@gmail:

I'm satisfied that you appreciate the value of vague information. I have discussed our level of secrecy with Tal. We've come to a compromise. It is...okay...to share all of the information that we have given you. As long as the information is discussed as though it was solely fiction.

In terms of the trail. I have a reason for the way I have laid the trail. I will not give the reason. But it should be fairly obvious after we are better acquainted. I have no desire for a personal encounter. I will leave that aspect of communication to Tal.

Tal is a strong visionary. Tal is also a terrible communicator when he is speaking, and occasionally through his writing as well. He has a severe tendency to attempt to explain everything he perceives. He confuses his audience in the process. Because of his inability to communicate effectively, the audience loses important information for the vision. The audience may misinterpret the meaning of his vision, because of his inability to communicate well.

I believe he has spoken to you. He mentioned as much very happily. If you are confused about any point. Please ask. I would prefer that your confusion was clarified. I believe you did ask within your email, so I will address that now.

I am unfamiliar with 'Stella'. I will have to ask for more information from you about 'Stella'.

The ARGs which I am marginally familiar with are the AI Movie's Beast, and Halo 2's ILoveBees. These ARGs are typically linear trails. Puzzles or codes or codes buried in pictures. Occasionally, they contact people in 'real life', immersing the contacted people in an alternate reality. Hence, the name of the genre. However, despite all the different facets of how they operate. Whether it's through websites, emails, audio, videos, phone calls or dead drops (physical drops at a particular location), they are essentially linear.


If you are to share this email with others, bearing in mind what I said at first, please emphasize the below paragraph.

The Summertime Masquerade is not linear. I will not say more. Think, rather than solve. Think about where the links are directed. Think about why they are directed as such. Think about the structure. You already have some of the answers from the ciphers. Now you must progress onward and inward. Higher up, and further in.

The questions which you are asking stem from a step which you, and those with you, missed along the way.

You realize that you are having difficulty finding Ket's contact details. Once you begin to think. You will find the answer.

A quick note:
Ket got frustrated. He left another avenue to contact him.

Ket's is the only email that does not follow this scheme. Predominantly because this is a burner account. I rarely check it. Ket does not have a burner account in this scheme.

I gave Ket the puzzles I needed coded. He did the computer work necessary. He is more savvy with computers than I. If you would have need to reach him. An important milestone for him to reach was 60. He is at that milestone now.

I believe that every person can achieve what they set out to achieve. As long as they do the work. I suspect that you will be heavily involved in finding those close to the girl that Tal is looking for. 'Those close to the girl' serve the same role as Ket and I do for Tal. However, I do not believe the girl herself will wish to speak with anyone but Tal.

The crash. I would prefer for you or those with you to come to those conclusions yourself. I will leave some more material for you to think about. And tell Tal to spread the word. We may use the other domain that Tal is sitting on. It will not be the website that bears his namesake. (Yes, he told me about your conversation.) These puzzles may take some time to create. So think about the structure of the available puzzles first. Another has come to me. Believing that he has solved the six-image puzzle. He has not understood it.

The connection to her is one I will address. She - the girl Tal is looking for - was the one who first told us about the crash. She directed us to perceive the warning signs. They are in the American news. They are on the Internet. In the trends of graphs. In the opinions of experts and historians and statisticians. In the path of history, repeated. Over and over.

We - the three of us and her group of three - all the way up the rank ladder - our organization as a whole, of which the three of us are an offshoot - are working to delay the crash significantly. While setting up for the worst-case scenario. The trouble is not the effects of the crash itself. Although those effects are bad enough. The trouble is what comes after the crash.

The crash will serve as an enormous wiping of the slate. People who are unaware of what is happening will panic and be in fear, and look toward the things which comfort them most. For our side, for the organization that the three of us work with and under, we would prefer (very strongly) for those 'comforting things' to be loved ones, significant others, creating new things, loving, being close to God, moving toward a better life. A healthy way to rebuild.

For our opposition, they would prefer to have those 'comforting things' be alcohol, drugs, violence, mindless sex, consuming disposable products. While giving 'distractions' via entertainment media ('blockbuster' video games being paramount), tweaked news. Ways and means they can control and manipulate people. By giving them hungers. Levers to pull to manipulate behavior. Appealing to primal drives. Shutting down the ability for people to think. Our opposition's organization is very highly placed in all the relevant industries. They have the best marketers in the world. They are already manipulating the factors necessary to come into control after the crash. They've been working at this for years. Then again...so have we.

The adversary. I don't know much about him. Tal's very scared of him, though. I don't know why. He's quite bad at explaining why clearly.

Tal wrote the original codes and ciphers on the landing page without consulting Ket first. Some of the ciphers are relevant as a separate puzzle. Some of the ciphers are relevant to those that you have already solved. Some of the ciphers are relevant to the next rung of the ladder. (I won't say too much more until you have thought about the paragraph I asked you to emphasize.) Some of them...very few...don't actually go anywhere at the moment, but will become relevant later.

Think about the different styles of learning. Some of those methods might help.

<<<

That's so much!! I'm very intrigued and yet I'm already lost in the yarnball of sites and puzzles. I will continue looking at the other blurbs Tal has posted for help, and I'm going to put up posters this weekend, as he asked.

I haven't been able to prior to this.

You guys are so much better at the ciphers than me!

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:35 pm
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happycat
Greenhorn

Joined: 18 Oct 2015
Posts: 3

 		... Pointing to an economic crash? Also the translations given I think are wrong http://imgur.com/a/VesWF

Cut V I think reads "To dare truth of sight amongst blind"

Cut VI I think "To flatten the way for the followers"

I also have a thing I see where on the thing called "rosy bridge" there are what look like occult symbols on two of the pillars of the bridge - does anyone know anything about that?

Also on here: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread12332/pg6

Some masons are saying that "he's coming, he's coming" is referring to a Goat? A quick google search of Goats and Masonry comes up with "baphomet"

PostPosted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 8:36 pm
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TacitusVigil
Boot


Joined: 19 Oct 2015
Posts: 15

 		I've been bogged down as a middle-manager quit at work and I've had to do his job...while doing mine...but this came.


>Hi Renee,

I've recently become aware of one of my old friends becoming active on the Internet again. If you're looking for more information, you might want to find him.

Someone asked me about the Conglomerate recently, I've pointed them towards Nicholas. There's an old blog of his and his cell that I've found again, and you could probably find them too. His cell was recruited around the same time I was, or actually slightly before - around 2007 or so, I believe. I've gone through and edited their old posts and things, but it should be relatively easily found again.

I hope you're doing well and that things are working wonderfully for you. Sorry I've gone for so long without contacting you or anything. The situation has been a bit...busy...around here. I'd say 'hectic' but I say that a bit too often, I think.

Anyway...take care.

Tal

PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:59 am
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TacitusVigil
Boot


Joined: 19 Oct 2015
Posts: 15

 		Oh, wow!! And this came overnight!!

>

A long time ago, before I settled on these two as my permanent friends...I had a group of five friends, who all played different roles. They've since moved onto greener pastures...but their records remain around. I had the opportunity to find their records again awhile back.

A friend of mine - currently - is doing a project which reminded me very strongly of what those five friends used to call themselves.

We used to be like brothers...brothers who were linked so closely together...but I always came in second place to their friendship.

They still have a blog posted on the Internet, posted in 2007 or so. I left a bit of reference to the people who've come the closest to me now...you're one of them, Renee.

Tal

PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:02 am
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [Trailhead?] - Million Dollar Poem
Re: New Messages from Pit
Just got here. ::waves:: Anyone got a quick list of stuff that still needs solving, so I don't waste a bunch of time on things that you've already handled?
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 3:00 am
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		Re: [Trailhead?] - Million Dollar Poem
Re: New Messages from Pit
Shad0 wrote:
Just got here. ::waves:: Anyone got a quick list of stuff that still needs solving, so I don't waste a bunch of time on things that you've already handled?

Going back to my notes, I still had one section unsolved on http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/tal-s-poetry.html
but just now I loaded that page and see the picture has changed and an extra bit of text was added in the lower left corner. Could this be, oh i don't know, a hint?

Honestly, I got bored with this one as it devolved into "Tal" implying that there were other blogs and/or websites that we should find. If he knows where they are, then why can't he just give us the link? Oh, maybe because "Tal" is the PM trying to force us to play at his pace. (end of minor rant, sorry)

There might be more puzzles to solve on those sites I never found. If someone wants to paste the ciphertext here, I'll give it a shot. Otherwise, I'm busy until December 1st. (It's NaNoWriMo now.)

PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 2:32 pm
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [Trailhead?] - Million Dollar Poem
Re: summermasquerade
Then a few more observations (NOT solves) on http://www.thesummertimemasquerade.com/tal-s-poetry.html:

catherwood wrote:
The second row has an image of a circle of white stones on a green background, and a block of ciphertext below it.

Clicking on it takes one to an apparently broken link... which is actually the four Japanese characters for komorebi, roughly translated as "Sunshine filtering through foliage."

catherwood wrote:
final solution
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
As he pondered further he understood why people enjoyed being enslaved, why they willingly sacrifice their freedom.

Houlahan, M. Annual Survey LV Shakespeare

The quote is from chapter 11 of the book, Pouliuli, though slightly paraphrased. The original is: "As he pondered further he understood more clearly why people enjoy being enslaved, why they willingly sacrifice their freedom..." The "Houlahan" attribution looks to refer to

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
'Think About Shakespeare': King Lear on Pacific Cliffs by Mark Houlahan -- which among other things discusses Pouliuli -- appearing in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Productions, vol. 55, "King Lear and its Afterlife," pp. 170 et seq.

Lots of references to King Lear in the middle of the page. In addition to the above, Pouliuli itself is essentially a Samoan version of the story, and the three quotes under the picture of the cliff are all from King Lear: Act I, sc. i; Act I, sc. iv; and Act IV, sc. i. (Too bad Sonnet 122 has no connection to King Lear, as far as I know, though some have speculated it might be related to Hamlet.)

So which is the part you haven't yet solved? Is it the cipher under the double constrictor knot, to the left of what I think is the High Priestess?
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 6:32 pm
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

 		Well, yes. It's one of those where I can't see the wood for the forest. Original pic is below, knot pic and line below are re-hinting (dumbing it down) for us.
Fresh eyes necessary.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://c2.com/cgi/wiki%3FWikiWikiWeb&ved=0CBsQFjAAahUKEwjtpqaM5v_IAhUCQT4KHf5JBbA&usg=AFQjCNFjxQk6hsUAI3j3Uq_LT3_mjXGAjQ

PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 10:51 pm
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CatWinters
Kilroy

Joined: 19 Oct 2015
Posts: 1

 		Source on the contact page of the summertime masquerade says:
"You can find me on Reddit. Ket."

I believe this is him:
https://www.reddit.com/user/ketruckus

PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:18 pm
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