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Zobot257

I'm no good with cyphers, but could the Alexander key be something to do with Alexander the Great?

Barring that, I'll ask our Past Janus guide if the name Alexander rings any bells for him or reminds him of anything. Maybe I'll get lucky...

**Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:05 pm

FuzzyGoodle · Veteran Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 125

We know the key starts with "Alexander" because http://janusarchive.wikidot.com/ja1169s784k5 contains a hidden link to the Wikipedia article on the Gates of Alexander (so it does have to do with Alexander the Great, but the second word is probably related to something else in the Present zone).

Meanwhile, it has occurred to me that the "- 3" in the page name of this page probably refers to the digraphs. I'm assuming it means we need to shift the letters of the first couple digraphs (the ones from the top of the Past page) down 3 letters, although it could also refer to all of letters.

That would give us either

**Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:40 pm

booba · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 1433

Wow, great movement people!

As to the codes, I've spent some time on them, and this is my best opinion so far anyway

Iut senaaymt,enaata b..irptsel lptehneaye on htfrtmeig r lasiprat h adwsli owsem otbtslnesuo h hr.Bodsituo h at ayda tm et
fdai tsew ontl..d tyaupt neo op nerm d f.

looks like http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/coltrans.php

which would need a string of single digit numbers ala 1 9 4 8 to decode

EDIT to add: or maybe this
http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/coltrans-double.php
aren't there two 3 digit numbers some where?

Dn hn eN | Wg ri | Ce bb fK | Px ro | Lo bb dx | Ce wo | Za uh ub | Og yb pF | Ku qj

Looks like http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/playfair.php

With separate four, five and six letter capitalized words or names

Edit to add
Oh nevermind... can't get anything to work with the above.

EDIT one more time- probably just random but Dn hn eN with the playfair key alexanderheaven is Babel

**Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:53 pm

Zobot257

Is there a specific website or program we use to translate these cyphers?

**Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:59 pm

reesylou · Decorated Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 260

**Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:36 pm

FuzzyGoodle · Veteran Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 125

Two updates! First is that Kalan replied again (I had guessed "Alexander Gorge" for the second one, because someone had mentioned "Gorge" before):

**Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:58 pm

booba · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 1433

Wonderful fuzzy!
The "above" clue might point to Alexander Heaven ?

**Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 8:11 pm

FuzzyGoodle · Veteran Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 125

I haven't been able to decipher anything with that yet, but I asked Kalan since its the best we've got. Fingers crossed!

That's really unfortunate about the extra space. It looks like I just subconsciously deleted it when I was making the grids and when I pasted the code into rumkin. It never even occurred to me that it might be important. Which is good, evidently.

**Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 10:30 pm

amandel

Am

to admit I didn't look at that cipher & now I can't trace the origin of that passage. The rails only track when you paste it to rumkin from the source code.

Maybe a tip for the future? Knew if I posted just to applaud y'alls diligence I might rant on about being 2 weeks in w/o any Wallace & Louise so will just mention that I've worked daily on the playfair letters searching with no joy for some Angel of Heaven b/c the Ja1169s784k5 jpeg saves as "agah" & the PAST's saved as "sgah".

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 6:29 am

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booba · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 1433

Dn hn eN does playfair to Babel with Alexander Heaven (the cap X is added by the encoder to complete a set)

The Tower of Babel has a loose connection to Alexander the Great and The Great Ziggurat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:06 am

Zobot257

Regardless, that was a great find! Good job, Booba and Fuzzy!

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:44 am

FuzzyGoodle · Veteran Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 125

Success! I have no idea why that's it or what the rest of the playfair text is supposed to say, but I received this response from Kalan:

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:33 pm

Zobot257

Well done! We've completed the first step towards... whatever the goal we're supposed to be doing is.

I think restoring the archive, which is the logical conclusion, but I also imagine we're supposed to be saving Wallace and Louise, and so far we haven't had a connection between the two other than what's been happening.

Still, so far so good! I need to try learning cyphers, it seems, if I'm gonna be helpful...

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 3:04 pm

booba · Unfictologist Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 1433

**Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 4:00 pm

FuzzyGoodle · Veteran Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 125

Ok, so stuff happened, but it was not at all what I thought was going to happen.

First of all, all three guides responded. Here's our exchange: http://pastebin.com/hv8TK1gm

So those three encryption keys were just for the Present zone, and we are down to 9 guesses with the other two guides.

However, we shouldn't need 9 guesses, since it turns out I was, once again, being stupid. The three keys do in fact unlock the first three files on the Present Key Checker page. Each one contains a picture of some kind of report or message about UFOs and has some new text (codes) added. If you ROT-13 them, you get the following 3 things:

**Posted:** Sat Feb 25, 2012 3:09 am