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[Kuroiken]

arnezami,

I have a few problems with this method. Although at first I thought that this would be the way to do it and finally crack the puzzle, I am beginning to wonder if we're walking down a false path.

My reasoning is that we knwo that Professor Sente Kiteway was involved, based on the reply from Garnet. So, we must assume that at least one of those three words woud appear in the coded text, or at least something linking to him. So far, testing on all the methods, none of them have given anything other than garbled rubbish.

I am at a loss where to proceed, but still, won't give up as I'm sure the solution is around the corner!

[miamo_tutti]

[arnezami]

[Kuroiken]

Unfortunately i don't have the puzzlecard yet, so i can't see a full close up of the puzzle, only the posted scans/pictures which aren't high enough resolution.

There are numerous ways the key could be hidden, but the main options would be:

in the whispered phrase "If entropy wins, outward looks should leave you cold."
within the 10 disappearing letters
in the order of the cards
or built into the code itself

the only other method without being supplied the key is the A-B route.

We must assume that Garnet knew no other information than we have been supplied (so this would ignore the suited cards on other puzzle cards). We must also assume that the cards were in the standard pack order as he said they were untouched.

the joker with the star undoubtedly points to the solitaire cipher as marking one of the jokers is needed to distinguish between the two.

The cryptic clue given with the whispered message, in my opinion, indicates that the disappearing letters should be ignored. This gives us just the one option of trying different words in a 54/54 split (or other - although this seems more likely with the 54 cards per deck and two messages being needed).

Anyway, i digress... and now i've forgotten my point

****
arne, by testing all methods, i mean using all the relevant words (SENTE, KITEWAY, PROFESSOR, etc) in all the ciphertext styles you implemented in your program.

[arnezami]

Added 4 more ciphertext arrangements. inwards/outwards per 1 or 5.

There are probably more to think of. you can also put the ciphertexts in manually btw.

[fretty]

Don't know if already been mensioned but couldn't it be some variation of a keyphrase cipher, we have been given a phrase that we can use.

[manleym]

[UKver2.0]

Or like this,

I F E N T
R O P Y W
S U A D L
K H V C B
G J M X Z

but I'm sure we've covered it before. I don't know if I've seen it since page two of the first Shuffled thread. No harm in trying again I suppose.

[kian]

I like arnezami's idea of trying to identify words in the ciphertext. Actually, while trying certain likely words, I came across this anomoly...

[themandotcom]

I emailed Mr.Schneier about how to do a (A+K)-B+K thing.

[Guin]

has anyone tried Von's hint recently?

[Guin]

just a thought (actually quite a frightening one as it means me reworking a load of stuff by hand )

the applets on the site uses the deck as always being 1-54 at the start

If the deck order in the pack is relevant - then we will need to have a starting deck of 53 54 14-26 1-13 27-52 before using and pass phrase on the deck

can anyone amend the code (its on the site) to change the starting deck accordingly?

This may be worth doing to help automate the process more

[EDIT] I could host it on the 13th site [/EDIT]

[EDIT 2] am sorting something [/EDIT 2]

PS i so cant beleive i only thought of this

[Sh1ft]

[Bendover]

arnezami if I understand your program, submit a word or phrase pick your options and see if a word or part of a word is out putted.

[arnezami]