Author
Message
HarleyQuinn
Guest
[TRAILHEAD] Carcosa Got this in an email this morning. Looks promising!
I don't have time to try anything right now, but I thought I'd post it ASAP. At least now I have something to do on my lunch break.
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:09 am
Minz
Decorated
Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 183
Very interesting
Somehow this looks like a screenshot from the indie game Amnesia.
Example screenshot :
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/474942-amnesia-the-dark-descent-windows-screenshot-you-ll-find-many.jpg
The poem is also on a wiki page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcosa
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The city was later used more extensively in Robert W. Chambers' book of horror short stories published in 1895 entitled The King in Yellow. Chambers had read Bierce's work and had also borrowed a few other names (including Hali and Hastur) from Bierce's work.
In Chambers' stories, and within the apocryphal play (also titled The King in Yellow) which is mentioned several times within them, the city is a mysterious, ancient, and possibly cursed place. The most precise description of its location given is that it said to be located on the shores of Lake Hali in the Hyades. The descriptions given of it, however, make it clear that it must be located on another planet, or possibly even in another universe.
I guess we can assume that this ARG will be horror-themed then
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:55 am
d3333n
Boot
Joined: 18 Jul 2010 Posts: 17 Location: The Netherlands
Very interesting indeed!
I will also be looking into it.
for c/ping:
Code:
4155787770 QUAWQ LKIX fjzcfkzoxvloir@dtpd.zf
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:04 am
user1353
Decorated
Joined: 12 Feb 2011 Posts: 234
hahahaha omg...
i just had an awkward meta moment with the postmaster XD!!
4155787770
is a number that's connected to the person's ipod text messaging system.
i first called the number and found out that its a number solely based for texting on the ipod.
me:carcosa
?:txt, plz
?: Sorry, this is a text app on an iPod touch.
me: My apologies, I thought this was a number related to a game I'm playing.
?: Well, it is if it's related to carcosa
?:(awkward meta moment. sorry)
me: Oh then my apologies pm, please let me start over.
me: Hello? are you from carcosa?
?: Please do. =)
?: No.
edit:
me: QUAWQ LKIX
?: ?
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:19 pm
user1353
Decorated
Joined: 12 Feb 2011 Posts: 234
ran quawq lkix through a cipher,
i got alpha bets
?: What about that?
?: Rl xlt hklv Aofb Pizra?
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:44 pm
AUZ505
Unfictologist
Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 1599 Location: Germany
user1353 wrote:
ran quawq lkix through a cipher,
i got alpha bets
Which programme did you use? Normally such short substitution texts could not be resolved automatically and in general a lot of different solutions are possible, e.g. "RUMOR FITS" would fit, too
_________________Playing:
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:54 pm
HarleyQuinn
Guest
Tried the e-mail (imaginaryworldSPLAT hush.ai), but it failed. Looks like we're stuck with texting. :\
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:53 pm
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 4109 Location: Silicon Valley, CA
I'm not convinced that there is a single possible answer to the substitution (unless I've missed some external clues)
What I see so far is:
Code:
QUAWQ LKIX
fjzcfkzoxvloir / dtpd.zf
Rl xlt hklv Aofb Pizra?
And taking some valuable input from the posts above mine, I've gotten this much so far:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
????? ONLY
imaginaryworld / ?u??.ai
Do you know Eric ?lade
I'm not as willing to try all possible domain names for the email as some of you might be. (btw, the country code .ai = Anguilla)
p.s., could we please not embed images? just give the link http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z435/10813/thing.png
It is too wide for my window, plus it burdens people with restricted bandwidth who just want to read text. kthx
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:38 pm
aterribleoldman
Greenhorn
Joined: 08 Mar 2011 Posts: 7
Pretty sure I worked it out at work.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
using a keyed caesar: key should be pbrae with a shift of 25
plaintext alphabet goes to encrypted -
zpbraecdefghijklmnoqstuvwxy
rl xlt hklv aofb pizra?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
do you know eric blade?
quawq lkix
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
svexs only
fjzcfkzoxvloirSPLAT dtpd.zf
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
imaginaryworldSPLAT hubh.ai
From that, all I could come up with is:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
that Eric Brooks is the Marvel hero Blade - as played by Wesley Snipes in the Blade trilogy of films.
Viral marketing for a new game/film/tv series?
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:50 pm
fezzik
Veteran
Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 131
terribleoldman,
I think you got close so all credit to you but I made a few modifications.
I think the key is
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
zebrascdfghijklmnopqtuvwxy
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
or, "zebras"
fjzcfkzoxvloirSPLAT dtpd.zf
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
imaginaryworldSPLAT hush.ai
rl xlt hklv aofb pizra?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
do you know eric slade?
quawq lkix
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
twext only (must be a mistake? clearly meant "text only")
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:02 am
aterribleoldman
Greenhorn
Joined: 08 Mar 2011 Posts: 7
Makes far more sense.
Damn.
However I can't find anything about
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Eric Slade
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:04 am
fezzik
Veteran
Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 131
well there's a lot of...that name... on the internet. so it's no so much a problem of lack of information as too much
also i tried the email address and it said the account had expired...meaning it was valid at one point but not any more, i guess?
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:05 am
-
Guest
I looked into the hush.ai adress and according to http://www.robtex.com/dns/hush.ai.html#summary
Quote:
Hush.ai ("Hush Communications Corporation") is a domain controlled by two name servers at hushmail.com.
And at http://www.hushmail.com/ it's possible to sign in by simply entering the email adress. I did that and was told
Quote:
Thank you for trying Hushmail
This account has not been accessed in the past three weeks. To keep your free Hushmail account active, you must sign in at least once every three weeks.
Don't know what to think of that.
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:33 am
HarleyQuinn
Guest
Tried to send an email to whoever sent me pic above (theKinginYellowSPLAT linuxmail.org), but my email hates me at the moment. You guys should have better luck, though.
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:37 am
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 4109 Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Building off what you posted (spoilers are a pain to nest), I agree with a tiny fix to the typo, and summarize:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Using this Keyed-Caesar tool
http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/caesar-keyed.php
and a keyword of ZEBRAS
QUAWQ LKIX
fjzcfkzoxvloir / dtpd.zf
Rl xlt hklv Aofb Pizra?
TVEXT ONLY
imaginaryworld / hush.ai
Do you know Eric Slade?
I can possibly see that as ".tv extension only" if it's not a slip up.
Thank you to multiple people for contributing to the solve (and teaching me more ways to approach a puzzle)
- wrote:
And at hushmail it's possible to sign in by simply entering the email adress. I did that and was told
Quote:
Thank you for trying Hushmail
This account has not been accessed in the past three weeks. To keep your free Hushmail account active, you must sign in at least once every three weeks.
Don't know what to think of that.
Excellent investigation technique. I was coming at it from hush.ai and pinging it to get a network block for hushmail.com as well, but didn't think about logging in that way. Does the owner need to login to read emails, or might they get forwarded elsewhere? At least they shouldn't be bouncing, right?
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:04 pm
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