View topic - New to the game? Have questions?

unforum
a.r.g.b.b

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.

Our Esteemed Contributors

The time now is Wed Nov 13, 2024 7:18 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 » ARG: Acheron

New to the game? Have questions?

Page 1 of 3 [34 Posts]

Goto page: 1, 2, 3 Next

Author

Message

addlepated
Unfictologist

Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 1885
Location: Austin, Texas

New to the game? Have questions?

On the excellent suggestion of a new player, this thread is specifically for people who are just coming into Acheron and have questions about past puzzles, interaction, plot, or anything else that comes to mind. I declare this thread a trout-free zone!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:16 pm

MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?

Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

INFO: Reference Desk

I would also like to point out our fine reference section, full of character information and bios, websites found and ID/passwords. The pre-game information is in the locked section that follows all the other Acheron sections, feel free to read through it as see where the first rabbit hole was located.

/me looks at Addlepated, "I guess I could also turn my AIM and YIM back on too, huh?"

**EDIT**
Although, you could probably find more information in the #acheron chat room on IRC Chat-solutions.org.

_________________
Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:37 pm

Guest
Guest

Question about Caretaker

To identify Caretaker I started a list of the known facts about him please check for errors and omissions. I didn't write down where this info comes from - I think all of it is from transcripts of chats and from Reggies time log.

1. Knows Jake (brought him in from hiding)

2. Knows Turgonev and helped him defect. PRobably from the conference in Finland. Something about Monty Python being how they helped him to defect?

3. May have been inside agent in Russia; maybe part of SPECTRUM and participated in some way in US secret report.

4. Knows Reggie/ Marcus (at least now he does): meets with Reggie/Marcus in the hospital and tries to reach him.

5. Jake seems to think we should know who he is

6. HAs been seen on campus at NRU?? Does this narrow the possibilites?

7. If he helped Turgonev defect, he would know the neice Kat[rina]?

8. What do we think his age would be? About that of Turgonev now?

9. Probably not Craig Decker -security guy (see another post below about him)

10. He wants to find out who is setting up Jake and is trying to get information from Reggie-Marcus about the computer system Archeron??

11. It seems pretty sure he is a man -but I don't know if this is established.

12. Didn't Jake or Reggie say he saw him on campus? And was surprised because he thought he was somewhere else in Arizona?

13. Anyway it could be one of the lawyers? Probably not as Jake and Reggie don't trust the lawyers [and Caretaker helped them get away for a while?.]

I can add the transcript info supporting each point later this weekend. I worked from various notes. It helps me to write out the facts we know .

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:37 am

Guest
Guest

crossword puzzle

I put this here because I am knew and the x-word has been such a problem that you have probably already considered and dismissed my ideas.

Still- The numbers given are a series of pairs of numbers with the following relationships:

1. The pair has a specific order - not interchangable (I base this on the fact that 22 appears twice and is the same clue and appears in the same position in the pair but 5 appears twice and has two different clues and appears in different position in the pairs.

2. The series has some meaning or relationship - even if it is just chapter and verse of Revelations- among pairs or at least one pair and the next.

3. We can write the pairs as follows:
3 16
22 20
5 8
6 12
22 18
11 5

IS it possible that we should be looking down each column instead of across? I am not a good enough mathematician to see a patter if any. Any genius see something here?

BUt I do know that Caretaker thought the Bible is promising : One question why would the first clue be John 3:16 and the others from Revelations?? Only because that has the correct chapters?

ANd , we are assuming the clues DO NOt refer to the answers of the puzzle (the actual words.) I guess because we don't see how the PM could know what the words would be , but he could be sure that the puzzle would be large enough to contain the number clues he needed.

Are there any codes that are in pairs?? I thought of Semiphore positions as a clokc face, but that doesn't work. Could the second number be a clue of how far to shift in the alpha bet to find the next letter??
The only thing for sure indicated by pairs are points on a grid (chart, map,etc.) time ;dates (month and day), some football plays.. Anything else? Any new bells ringing??

I think you decided there was no correlation with the Coyote Dispatch puzzle.

I am taking full advantage of trout immunity here.

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:01 am

Guest
Guest

crossword puzzle

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:01 am

MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?

Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

META: Guest passes, please sign in

It would be helpful to both the old guard and the newcomers if everyone made an effor to either place a nickmane of some type in your messages so we know who we are talking with. I'm not saying you need to register, but as a guest you can have a non-registered nick show on your messages, or at least place a signature of some manner on the bottom of your posts. This will help us to remember to say Hello to you when we pass you in the hallway and chat areas.

Thanks,
Steffeny (aka Magesteff)

_________________
Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 11:15 am

MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?

Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

Re: Question about Caretaker

Answers to some questions about Caretaker:

5. Jake seems to think we should know who he is

It appears that way.

6. Has been seen on campus at NRU?? Does this narrow the possibilites?

He had never been on campus before the start of the game. He may have been on campus once since then, but I am a bit fuzzy if that is the case or not. I will need to do some digging on that. If you find the reference please add it.

7. If he helped Turgonev defect, he would know the neice Kat[rina]?

It appears to be so. I would think she would have come with the Professor from Espoo, I think Caretaker said the Professor would not have defected without her.

8. What do we think his age would be? About that of Turgonev now?

That seems reasonable, I believe Caretaker knew Turgenev when he was working on the Russian project, and that was a while ago.

9. Probably not Craig Decker -security guy (see another post below about him)

Craig Becker. Probably not. Especially since Mr. Becker handled the arrest warrant on Jake, and is the head of NRU security at least in name if not in fact. I think all three contacts we have, Caretaker, Reggie and Jake (maybe not Jake) referred to Becker as a Boyscout.

10. He wants to find out who is setting up Jake and is trying to get information from Reggie-Marcus about the computer system Archeron??

Yes on getting info from Reggie/Marcus. I have my own suspicions on who is setting up Jake, but don't have the evidence to make that a public speculation at this time.

11. It seems pretty sure he is a man -but I don't know if this is established.

No, the gender of Caretaker is not established by us in person, but Jake and Reggie have both refered to him with male pronouns. They have seen him.

12. Didn't Jake or Reggie say he saw him on campus? And was surprised because he thought he was somewhere else in Arizona?

Reggie has never been on campus, but he remembers when there was nothing but scrub brush in the area where the campus is now. So he at least is familiar with the area. Caretaker saw Jake and his wife walking around town, so Caretaker has been in Catalina at least once.

13. Anyway it could be one of the lawyers? Probably not as Jake and Reggie don't trust the lawyers [and Caretaker helped them get away for a while?.]

Reggie likes (and probably trusts) Stephen Lake, said he was a good man that ran when he needed to do so. So while it is possible that Caretaker could be one of the Lawyers, we also have not heard from the other two members of that firm.

I can add the transcript info supporting each point later this weekend. I worked from various notes. It helps me to write out the facts we know .[/quote]

_________________
Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 11:48 am

MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?

Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

Re: crossword puzzle

Anonymous wrote:

BUt I do know that Caretaker thought the Bible is promising : One question why would the first clue be John 3:16 and the others from Revelations?? Only because that has the correct chapters?

And , we are assuming the clues DO NOt refer to the answers of the puzzle (the actual words.) I guess because we don't see how the PM could know what the words would be , but he could be sure that the puzzle would be large enough to contain the number clues he needed.

Are there any codes that are in pairs?? I thought of Semiphore positions as a clokc face, but that doesn't work. Could the second number be a clue of how far to shift in the alpha bet to find the next letter??
The only thing for sure indicated by pairs are points on a grid (chart, map,etc.) time ;dates (month and day), some football plays.. Anything else? Any new bells ringing??

I think you decided there was no correlation with the Coyote Dispatch puzzle.

I am taking full advantage of trout immunity here.

Heh, you could have added this to the puzzle section without sweating.

Why John 3:16, and not another verse? No particular reason except that it is possibly the most famous of the New Testament verses. It could also refer to that verse in Revelations instead, or even both. It could also refer to the Quran or any other religious text that counts chapters and verse. It may not refer to religious works at all, but so far the clues point in the biblical direction, with the biggest hit Reggie's reaction to Caretaker picking up the bible and waiting as if expecting something.

Pairings: there are any number of ways to look at those. It could mean two words with six letters; latitude/longitude; City/State; ID or Nick/ Password; etc. Nothing has been completely ruled out.

Could the puzzle section of Coyote Dispatch hold a clue? Possible. If you read through the articles something very interesting begins to show up there, many of the articles, contain words or phrases that could also be the names of different ways to encode messages. The Article on Serpent handling. Serpent is one of many ways to encode. Serpent handling also has a religious nature to it for some people, who believe that a higher power will protect them from being bitten by the poisonous snakes they handle.

Are we assumming that the clues are not the words references by the puzzle? They have not been entirely ruled out, however, there is no way that Reggie (or the PM's) would have access to that information ahead of time. He could only be certain there would be a crossword puzzle with about a certain number of clues. He would also not be able to control which clues were across and which were down. Not saying a smart person couldn't come up with something to utilize that information on the fly at the last second, but it appears less likely as we gather more clues from Reggie's behavior. We may still be missing bits of information that will help in clearing up the direction we need to go. That is the biggest ? hanging over us currently.

_________________
Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:13 pm

Rosebud
Guest

JAVA

I wasn't sure where to put this - but - the Scrabble clue seemed to come at the same time Reggie/ Marcus was spouting programming language

Can't 8141 also stand for JAVA ??

Caretaker gave us the values 8 is J or K

and 4 is fhvwy

In an earlier chat Caretaker mentioned something about an obvious password to the system and used the example of pasting the password to the keyboard,etc.

The Scrabble clue definitely came after the puzzle and while he was talking in a sort of code.

i don't know where to got with this you might read the chat logs with caretaker from October again?? See what you think.

The Scrabble clue could be linked to the language and not the solution to the crossword.

Rose

"the long and winding rose'" John Lennon
[/code]

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:40 pm

addlepated
Unfictologist

Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 1885
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: JAVA

Rosebud wrote:

Can't 8141 also stand for JAVA ??

Why yes, as a matter of fact, it can. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm. You should go post this in the Crossword thread in puzzles.

Like Caretaker, I haven't coded anything since using BASIC, so I'm not hip on whether goto is a java command or not. Definitely interesting!

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:35 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

Where is Craig Decker?

I find it odd that the Oct 20 edition of the Coyote Dispatch was unable to locate the infamous Craig Becker (as in Boyscout) to speak about the power outages on their second trip to campus.

The information in the affidavit for the Search Warrant for Jake was removed at his request.

He obviously knows a lot, does he know "too much"??

Does anyone else think he might be the next person going missing or set up in this whole conspiracy?

As I find no answers to the open questions, I am speculating on what might happen next.

Are we almost there yet?

Rose

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 11:09 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

Reggie

Re: the source code on the Acheron Registration page that says "Reggie has the key. You've seen his name before But you've probably forgotten. Where did we see his name before?

And what is Hexic and getting 3 black pearls?

I know this is going way back into the early parts of the game but maybe it will help us.

_________________
I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:12 pm

konamouse
Official uF Dietitian

Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 8010
Location: My own alternate reality

Re: Reggie

rose wrote:

And what is Hexic and getting 3 black pearls?

I know this is going way back into the early parts of the game but maybe it will help us.

Hexic and the 3 black pearls refer to a MSN.com game called Hexic where the object is to rotate colored gems to create a "flower" pattern - yielding a "star", and then manuevering the stars into another flower pattern to get a black pearl. The game is "won" if you can get three black pearls.

This game was being played by a few #uf people at the same time reggie's blog appeared, with the nick "hexeditor" and we had a little play on words. The game itself (Hexic) does not appear related to Acheron.

_________________
'squeek'
r u a Sammeeeee? I am Forever!

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 3:02 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

Movie Clues

Did you guys figure out and use all of the movie clues? It's difficult for me to peice that together. There seem to be a number of movies referenced by Reggie.

_________________
I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2003 1:23 pm

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

Movie Clues

Did you guys figure out and use all of the movie clues? It's difficult for me to peice that together. There seem to be a number of movies referenced by Reggie.

_________________
I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2003 1:23 pm

Display posts from previous: Sort by:

Page 1 of 3 [34 Posts]

Goto page: 1, 2, 3 Next

Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Acheron

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