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[Flidget Jerome]

[Puzzle] #243 Silver - Shuffled

[spugmeistress]

not even got a clue how to go about this one, but just a quick question, what does the signature at the bottom say? who's the narrator? i thought they didn't know who made the djnn worm?

rach =)

[Flidget Jerome]

The signature seems to say 'Garnet'.

I don't think this case is about someone who wrote the Djinn Worm, just someone who used it to break into the Academy systems?

[MarcB]

There looks to be some kind of code on the side of the pack of cards but due to the crappy quality I can't make it out

[Flidget Jerome]

You're right!

I didn't even notice.

I'm being dragged out to dinner now. When I get home I'll start doing whatever small details scans people request.

[am520dj]

ahHA! i was wondering about that... so we may not be entirely hopeless! nevertheless enjoy your dinner, i'm settling down now, unlike when you first started posting scans.

[cassandra]

If the star on the front is the same on the joker, I suppose we might be looking at the nautical star/directions and the laws of thermodynamics

Silver is the most difficult, yes?

[SocialElite]

Depending on what the smaller details of the card indicate, it sounds like this one might need to be solved by someone buying a pack of cards, marking a star on one joker, and then fiddling extensively.

With so little info so far almost anything is speculation, but the use of a pack of cards here reminds me quite a bit of the coding system from Cryptonomicon. Athena, it might have been called?

Also, when the narrator refers to it as looking untouched, do we know whether they use standard Western 52-card decks? Or a different style of cards?

[Leeravitz]

Yeah, this is suitably baffling, I agree. Internal plot - wise, it's interesting that we seem to be encountering Garnet Reed (Academy Team Cryptography expert) claiming that he was used to try and prevent an internal security leak. And there he is at the Five of Cups, huh? Only a little time after we've speculated that he might have been tracking Salk and TA's meetings as well!!

But, as to the puzzle...nothing clever seems to be emerging yet...still 'If entropy wins, outward looks should leave you cold.' ? Seems like that's maybe a play both on the second Law of Thermodynamics (because if Entropy *did* win, according to the Classical theory, then surely all heat would have dissipated) and on the poker tournament, where the players, playing to win, will have been searching for giveaway signs on their fellow players' faces. But that's hardly very helpful, is it?

Given this is a cryptographic card, could the line be a substitution key? I suppose too many letters get repeated in it, and, after all, what code do we have to crack??

[toongoon]

If I remember my Thermodynamics correctly entropy is that all closed systems without any added influence will tend toward disorder. Enthalpy is related to heat content which is related to the free energy and entropy.

Okay I'll actually look it up.

1. Symbol S For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Does this mean we need to scramble something (cards, words etc) or that we shouldn't?

[tanner]

just initial thoughts

star on joker means 54 identifiable cards

entropy with cards is obviously shuffle

the writing on one edge is unusual (useful for certain conjuring tricks)

also kites are diamonds = ice

[SteveC]

my only comment on it so far is that a number of the royal cards are looking left or right rather than outwards. Hence "one eyed jacks"... Can't see the relevance however.... BUT they are as follows:

Kh Out/Left (suicide king)
Kd Left
Ks Out/Right
Kc Out/Left
Qh Out/Left
Qd Out/Left
Qs Out/Right
Qc Out/Left
Jh Left
Jd Out/Left
Js Right
Jc Out Right

[SteveC]

by the way, I think the "card" in the back is actually a deck in it's box. Hence the writing is likely the copyright notice...

[tanner]

[BrianEnigma]

Re: [Puzzle] #243 Silver - Shuffled