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Message
degravedi
Unfictologist
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1458 Location: New Orleans
[Trailhead] Find Emma Ward A Dirk & Steele Mystery http://passionfruitgames.com/2010/05/01/participate-in-our-alternate-reality-game/
Quote:
Participate in our alternate reality game!
Posted by passionfruit in News on May 1st, 2010
Calling all wannabe detectives: we're hosting an awesome alternate reality game, aka "online scavenger hunt"! Think you have the sleuth skills to figure what happened to boisterous tour guide Emma Ward? Investigate her disappearance and find yourself participating in a Dirk & Steele mystery! Start your investigation here: www.bouldersandboatsadventures.com .
http://www.bouldersandboatsadventures.com - Business site of Emma and Ainsley Ward.
http://bbaoffice.blogspot.com - Ainsley's blog.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ainsley-Ward/119522601391540 - Ainsley's Facebook.
http://bbaexcursions.blogspot.com - Emma's blog. (inaccessible without invitation)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emma-Ward/114062211948714 - Emma's Facebook
From Emma's Facebook:
Quote:
Decode the image and email me the phrase in the subject line to get access to my blog…
Email: 35 11 55 35 11 34 41 42 43 31 53 23 53 34 11 41 53
Description
Image to decode
Filesize
16.71KB
Viewed
99 Time(s)
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 3:35 pm
natas
PHP Ninja
Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 3177 Location: Northwest Indiana
EDIT:
[/strike]
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:03 pm
Last edited by natas on Sun May 02, 2010 9:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
notgordian
Unfictologist
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 1383 Location: Philly
Haha dammit...didn't see this thread -- luckily, I managed to delete my repost in time.
Story summary: Ainsley and Emma are twin sisters that run a tourist business out in Colorado. Ainsley handles the business end of things, while Emma handles the tours themselves. During one outing, one of the tourists found a "beautiful carved stone" and gave it to Emma.
Over the next week, Emma showed the following symptoms: headaches, nightmares, and multiple bouts of deja vu. The nightmares kept getting worse until a week ago, Emma dreamed of the stone carving and went to find the guy who gave it to her.
Her last post, "Can't Sleep," reads
Quote:
It's all about nature's pantry at this point. The nightmares are too terrifying without it.
On the Nature's Pantry website, one of the players discovered the remedy Emma's taking to help fight the nightmares. (Cool! Integration into an existing site!)
Solution to access Emma's blog:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Passcode: Intellect of Intuition (by creatively removing lines from the boxes) -- email is WaywardinColorado at Gmail.com, although I can't see how the purported column/row technique made things line up, myself.
As an aside, I really like the design blog for the company.
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:12 pm
notgordian
Unfictologist
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 1383 Location: Philly
Double post for the new puzzle:
Emma's review for the product contains the following puzzle:
Quote:
Ive been having horrible nightmares and this product is the only thing that allows to steal a few hours of sleep here and there. Thank you. If you need to contact me, my AIM handle is: Estf shsomdy mohjy - Emma W.
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:24 pm
amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee
Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 4096 Location: Nederland
notgordian wrote:
Emma's review for the product contains the following puzzle:
Quote:
Ive been having horrible nightmares and this product is the only thing that allows to steal a few hours of sleep here and there. Thank you. If you need to contact me, my AIM handle is: Estf shsomdy mohjy - Emma W.
TY for the trailhead and help posts. Couple of possible letter subs. 'Ward against night' looks promising to me.
_________________ "I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent."
"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:54 pm
degravedi
Unfictologist
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1458 Location: New Orleans
amandel wrote:
TY for the trailhead and help posts. Couple of possible letter subs. 'Ward against night' looks promising to me.
You're right about that. AIM user WardAgainstNight has link to a series of riddles as their away message.
What number is in the middle of five?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
4 (IV is 4 in roman numerals)
I am surrounded by darkness, but have billions of ways to see.
I have four lobes, but have billions of ways to hear.
I control two hemispheres without any muscles.
My reasoning is never right on, and my creativity is never left off.
What am I?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
human brain
How would my favorite character pronounce "Elvis has left the building"?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Ilfees Hes Lefft zee Booeelding
From her Facebook, her favorite character is the Swedish Chef from the muppets. I put it through the Dialectizer. http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
End gets you:
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 5:11 pm
notgordian
Unfictologist
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 1383 Location: Philly
"Sail away while new odd / scents reek through your air" sounds highly contrived and puzzle-like...
...I also find "Pieubrecht Air" to be a suspicious name for an airline. Still, now we know Emma headed to Seattle on the 24th, presumably because that's where the guy who gave her the stone lives -- ticket says Flight 1 of 3, though, so Seattle might not be the final destination.
As an aside, the art on Yahyuk's page looks stylistically similar to the images of Emma and Ainsley -- I'm assuming we now know our meta-artist (who lives in Seattle...interesting).
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:58 pm
mycroft7
Decorated
Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 202 Location: England
i'm onboard,
also (probably) meta - the owner of yakhyuk.com was involved in artwork for an earlier game, based on the nancy drew mysteries, with a character called cody - which is also the name emma says provided her and her sister with portraits to use on their blogs
mycroft
_________________this revolution is faceless
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 8:33 pm
I Am The End Of The World
Decorated
Joined: 11 Aug 2009 Posts: 188
I'm up for it.
Any idea on the ""Sail away while new odd / scents reek through your air"
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 10:54 pm
notgordian
Unfictologist
Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 1383 Location: Philly
First letter of each word in the first line spells out "SAW NO..."
That doesn't explain what SRTYA would mean though.
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 11:06 am
diszaster
Unfettered
Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 405
OoOo these are the ppl that did the Nancy Drew Dossiers! *squee*
_________________
ARGNet Staff Writer and random fangirl .
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 12:19 pm
degravedi
Unfictologist
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1458 Location: New Orleans
diszaster wrote:
OoOo these are the ppl that did the Nancy Drew Dossiers! *squee*
OMG! That makes it even better. Have to try harder to solve!
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:44 pm
Twiler
Decorated
Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 209
I gave Ainsley Emma's address via facebook. That might help get things moving.
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:39 pm
mycroft7
Decorated
Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 202 Location: England
random thoughts on the two 'clues' to solve:
the pieubrecht air ticket is obviously a mad eup name - an anagram maybe? for example 'tube cipher'? or some other hint to a code that we can apply to the words in the other picture clue?
the sail away thing feels like an anagram, or some other encoded message. the wording is too unnatural, but unfortunately i can't spot a key to even begin to hazard a guess as to what the 'answer' is. what do people think - are we looking for an address where she's gone, the name of the person she went to meet, or maybe an email addy or online site for him?
mycroft
_________________this revolution is faceless
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:46 pm
Twiler
Decorated
Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 209
I was wondering if the zipper at the bottom of the Boulders & Boats image might be a clue, as it doesn't seem to fit thematically. I tried running stegdetect on the image, but found nothing.
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:01 pm
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