Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Thu Nov 14, 2024 1:15 am
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » TRAIL: Soogees
Soogees #2 puzzle trail
View previous topicView next topic
Page 4 of 5 [61 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next
Author Message
Abraxas
Unfettered

Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 736
Location: Cologne, Germany

 		I think I'll pass on this one...I give you all the stuff I got so far, first.

First off, what I noticed by looking at the cipher...the second-most-frequent symbol appears only once in the first 5 rows and there are also 4 columns which include neither the most-frequent nor the second-most-frequent symbol. That's strange.

I used Leftbrained's frequency table for the symbols and assigned letters to each of them from top left to bottom right. There are 30 symbols so I had to use 1,2,3 and 4 as well.
Then I "deciphered" the text with that table and put the result into this frequency counter. That one also has forms to fill in and get a deciphered text. I played around a bit, mainly using the assumption that the 4 additional symbols represent TH and whatever - never got beyond that point.
First it made sense, because the TH (I interpreted the N from LB's table to be TH due to NZ being the most-frequent digraph) reduces the frequency of T which would explain why it's not the second-most-frequent letter in the text any more. I also tried WNZ = THE, because WNZ is the most frequent trigraph, but ended up with contradictions and unlikely digraphs.

If you want to try the frequency calculator for yourself, here is the - hopefully correct - block of text to put in there (with Leftbrained's table as reference):
AQPGSHZUNXGMXGDVMZ
FYNMV2YVM3IWJOGSCHZZ
ESNREUZDRQ3VMAZLJ3ZK
UJOFPMXQFXBNMTGQ1G14
YVMSCZMIREUZQ1NZDFVM
ZPSFRGCZWNZQWXUWAHZ
PFPWWNZF4UWXQBMKULAH
ZWOTHOBYEEGZHTKOG1NQ
CUNZIWZSIAZWLJ3ZKOHP
FZDIOESNYPQJYNMVG3BS
ULHVIYLYTAJOWNZOXKZH
ZWWNZ3NZZHJOOJKWTGZW
TKGCMIREUHZH2ASZUXKZ

By now we are not even sure the cipher is in English. I only noticed a few minutes ago that a German text would have 30 symbols...26 latin letters, 3 umlauts and the esset (ß). A perfect match. And while knowing that I noticed it only now, keep in mind, I am German. Laughing
Maybe I try that later if need be.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 12:35 am
 View user's profile
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
SuperJerms
Unfettered


Joined: 21 Aug 2004
Posts: 537
Location: indiana

 		Assuming it's not a foreign language, how do you know it's not a vigenere cipher?
_________________
"If we could make your toaster print something we would." - Jordan Weisman

PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:41 am
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address MSN Messenger
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
i thought that maybe some of the symbols are punctuations. so started aribitrarily removing 1 or more symbols then doing simple substitution. removing all of the instances of the 12 o'clock symbol (first symbol in the cipher text - occurs 7 times thoughout), i started getting some words such as "candle shining" "let the wheel of fortune" "powers of magic" "desire", etc. googled and found:

Candle shining in the night
With your flame enchanted
By the powers of magic might
May my wish be granted
When the candle sheds its gleam
At the mystic hour
Let fulfillment of my dream
Gather secret power
Flame of magic brightly burn
Spirit of the fire
Let the wheel of fortune turn
Grant me my desire

except the cipher was missing one word: dream

Next page: http://www.soogees.com/s2/rottenpuzzle/dream

Leads to: http://www.soogees.com/s2/roofhouse/


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:09 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
the bars look interesting?

http://www.soogees.com/s2/roofhouse/bars gave "Yes, very nice bars with nice colors."

http://www.soogees.com/s2/roofhouse/colors gave "Right, what's up with the colors then."

there are 15 bars but it's a repeating pattern of 5 different colors. looking at the RGB values of each bar

112 114 111
112 101 108
108 101 114
115 32 114
117 108 101

which is ASCII for: propellers rule

next page: http://www.soogees.com/s2/roofhouse/propellersrule (this also works: http://www.soogees.com/s2/roofhouse/propellers%20rule)

leads to: http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:10 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
notice the title of the page: lateral thinking

You get all sorts of weird stuff when you put in directions such as http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/north or http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/east or http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/w and even
http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/north/south

Tried: http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/exit and you get "You want to exit, but you don't know how."

If you stumble around enough you might get: "You are in a twisty maze of little passages, all different. This whole situation is like a very bad Dream!"

notice "Dream" is capitalize?

The answer: http://www.soogees.com/s2/adventure/wakeup

leads to: http://www.soogees.com/s2/scarystuff/


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:12 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
letters diagonally across look like a bunch of phobias

try http://www.soogees.com/s2/scarystuff/phobias gives "Right.. which ones?"

the phobias (with spaces added) are: anglo acoustico ephebi allodoxa catoptro lutra eneto nosocome geronto pogono trypano myrmeco triskaideka

which are fears of: english noise teenagers opinions mirrors otters pins hospitals oldpeople beards injections ants thirteen

taking first letters gives "entomophobia" (fear of insects)

next page: http://www.soogees.com/s2/scarystuff/entomophobia13

leads to: http://www.soogees.com/s2/roaches/


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:14 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660
Spoiler (Rollover to View):

following the instructions of the ROACHSPEAK in the source:

trace out the path of the moving roaches (they each pause twice in their path). if you connect the spots where they pause,

you'll get a diagram of a cube...

next page: http://www.soogees.com/s2/roaches/cube

leads to: http://www.soogees.com/s2/evilcube/


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:15 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Abraxas
Unfettered

Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 736
Location: Cologne, Germany

 		Shocked Shocked Shocked

I absolutely don't get how the cipher works. For example, you have "I" in the first row, but there's not another symbol like that in the second although it must be somewhere around there in the solved cipher...I'm at a loss here. Confused

PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:55 am
 View user's profile
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Abraxas wrote:
I absolutely don't get how the cipher works. ...I'm at a loss here.

If you're asking about the compass cipher, I can get you started:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
There are 30 symbols: 26 are letters, and 4 are simple compass directions. The first symbol is pointing UP, meaning that all of the symbols AFTER it are oriented correctly on the page. Reading across, the simple substitution gives you "candleshiningin" -- and then you hit a WEST symbol. At this point, you need to reorient your alphabet or the symbols (but not the page), and continue translating. The next time you hit the UP symbol, the text reads "epowersofmagicmi"... etc.

I have most of it in a spreadsheet.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:30 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

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

 		I built the Evil Cube out of marshmallows and toothpicks!
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The video ends with an assembled cube, the faces facing us spell out OTHERSIDE. The background image has that in the center too. So, we must duplicate that cube! (and http://www.soogees.com/s2/evilcube/otherside confirms it)

Actually, the puzzle is called a Snake Cube, being a specific arrangements of smaller cubes attached by elastic, which can be coiled in upon itself in a special way to form the larger cube. The opposite faces of this one spelled out "INFATUATE" -- which, i'm told, was a word related to the Evil Cube phase of the Art of the Heist game.

So, go look where http://www.soogees.com/s2/evilcube/infatuate.htm takes us!


PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:53 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
grumpyboy
Unfettered

Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Posts: 660

 		just so peole know and keep digging, there IS a congrats/credits page somewhere Wink

PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:00 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
anaerin
Unfettered


Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 391
Location: Regina, SK, CA Posts: 1337

 		I found it.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Don't be so fast to click on "Proceed", and you'll find in the source of that page "endofs2", which leads us to:

http://www.soogees.com/s2/endofs2

Welcome to the end.


Sneaky.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:57 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
Atrophied
Entrenched


Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 1133
Location: 53742E 4A6F686E27732C 4E4C00

 		Nice trail.. I thoroughly enjoyed most of this trail...(now, be honest, who wasn't pissed off at some point in the trail Razz).

I'm hoping for another one that I can get involved in Smile keep up the good work Ehsan Smile
_________________
"It will be happened; it shall be going to happening; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future." -- Time travel, as explained by Arnold J. Rimmer

"The Future's bright, the Future's Cuboid" - Juxta

PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:44 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
misery_of_pain
Unfettered


Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Posts: 407
Location: The beach, UK

 		Fantastic trail... I think it could of been longer tho. Maybe next time * Wink Wink * you could keep adding puzzles to it, as an when you get new ideas, or when players submit ideas, like Zest Riddle.

I can't say I'm surprised how quickly you guys got through it!
_________________
I just can't look, it's killing me...
making cakes damages braincells
ARGolonists: miseryme
Zest level: Perplexed by 63

PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:03 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
dekethedog
Boot

Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 18
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

 		Yes, thanks for putting together a well done trail for us. Can't wait for the next one Razz

PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:31 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 4 of 5 [61 Posts]   Goto page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » TRAIL: Soogees
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group