View topic - [S2] [Cards set] #163 Trailhead

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Forum index » Diversions » Perplex City Puzzle Cards » PXC: Purple Puzzle Cards

[S2] [Cards set] #163 Trailhead
Moderators: AnthraX101, bagsbee, BrianEnigma, cassandra, Giskard, lhall, Mikeyj, myf, poozle, RobMagus, xnbomb

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Mikeyj
Unfictologist

Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 1847
Location: London

[S2] [Cards set] #163 Trailhead
600 points

Guest puzzle architect: Tim Judkins

top left wrote:

>System error occurred.
>Expelling memory...
>Block exception found.
>Retrieving data...
>Data not identifiable.
>Backtracing data stream.
>Fatal error occurred.
>System crash imminent.
>Printing data log...

bottom centre and right wrote:

data.log page 1 of 1

purple 163 back.jpg
Description	Back
Filesize	20.14KB
Viewed	2045 Time(s)

purple 163.jpg
Description	Front
Filesize	18.86KB
Viewed	2028 Time(s)

_________________
Irrelevant musings.

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:20 pm

PuzzledPineapple
Unfettered

Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 352

Back:

Quote:

The young ladies uttered a cry as the table rattled and shook against the floor. One of them snatched her hands away to cover her mouth. The table fell still and Madame Blanca turned her grey eyes upon her.

"The hex has been broken. You must not disturb the energy of the spirits. Now you have angered Gyvann. He will not hear you."

Madame Blanca stood and straightened the folds of her dress. The distraught young lady wept.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. What can I - ?"

The old woman let her sob for a moment before sitting once more.

"I could interced with Gyvann on your behalf. It is not without its dangers, and my health is not what it was."

"Please, please, anything! I'll give you anything!"

The performance had proceeded long enough. I stood quickly and leaned my full weight on the table. My companion followed my lead, causing the table to topple towards us. Madame Blanca leapt from her chair like s spark from a fire.

The table came to rest and the purple cloth revealed a hole in the floorboards, through which passed a slender metal pole attached to the table's foot. For an instant, I believe I saw the serving man's face looking up at her through the hole.

That was the gateway to their 'other world'. That was their travesty.

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:34 pm

eratos
Greenhorn

Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 5

Hint

Hint:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

All three squares of letters have a triangular section that reads THESE ARE NOT NEEDED BY US. Find it by reading downwards

After that, I can't see what else to do with this card.

Also

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The distribution of the remaining letters looks like English, so I don't think there's a code involved, I think we just have to figure out how to read the remaining letters. I can't shake the feleing that the computer style error messages are somehow involved - they don't read like 'normal' computer behaviour.

(Of course, this may mean that the puzzle writer has little technical computer experience and has just written feasible sounding messages)

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:31 am

rdknight
Boot

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 10
Location: Petaluma, CA

This card puts me in mind of the...

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

scene in Contact, where they find that the pages of data connect at the corner like the inside of a cube corner

If that's the case, it seems to me that...

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The paths along each face of that inverted pyramid trace along certain letters in those grids, spelling something out

I took an initial stab at this, but no phrases jumped out at me from the possibilities.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:11 am

eratos
Greenhorn

Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 5

Hint:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The answer page requires 4 answers to be input, "in order" - which basically means there's 4 things we're looking for and that they have some kind of intrinsic order...

No, I've no idea either.

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:25 am

AndyAndyO
Veteran

Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Posts: 70

The last unsolved purple in season 2 wave 1.
Let's crack it! (Unless you have already!)

Something about this card seems to have led lots of puzzlers along certain lines.... in particular the search for physical trails like the Appalachian, Oregon, etc.

However, judging by the lack of obvious progress so far, should we be looking at different types of trails?

In particular ....

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

*- computer programming languages - debugging trails. (looking at the other clues on this card)

*- other code-languages or code systems - in the light of the various letters. (has anyone tried ROT-13 or other ROTs on the letters?)

*- if we are still looking at physical trails, should we be homing in on "not needed by us" and identifying people, vehicles, etc. that do not use trails.

[more ramblings - but we need to spark off a different approach to cracking this last purple!]

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:31 pm

eratos
Greenhorn

Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 5

Re: The last unsolved purple in season 2 wave 1.
Let's crack it! (Unless you have already!)

AndyAndyO wrote:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

*- other code-languages or code systems - in the light of the various letters. (has anyone tried ROT-13 or other ROTs on the letters?)

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Frequency analysis on the remaining letters after removing THESEARENOTNEEDEDBYUS shows nothing unusual - it looks like normal English text from there - so it probably is. I'm convinced we just need to figure out how to order the letters on the page into a message.

Having said that, I haven't found an ordering yet, so it may be harder than all that...

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:29 am

edXlau
Kilroy

Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 1
Location: CT, USA

One thought that has crossed my mind:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The "These are not needed by us" strings also appear in the lower left triangle of the upper right hand square, the upper right triangle of the lower left hand square, and the upper left hand triangle of the lower right hand square (rather than finding the letters in order by going top-down, left right). I don't know if this is important or a coincidence, but my next thought, based on the picture in the background, is that forming the three squares into 1/2 of a cube, and using the "path" displayed on the picture, might also help. I.E., cut out the upper left hand text, and fold the remainder into a cube, then follow the text from lower left hand square to upper right to lower right, etc. Hasn't gotten me anywhere yet, though.

EDIT: Just realized that this is what some of the previous posts here where implying - sorry!

Also, if we need 4 answers, and no more letters are eliminated, and it's not encoded, then each answer would need to be 21 characters long (if they're all the same length) - that seems to me to be too long - maybe more letters can be eliminated somehow?

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:12 pm

AndyAndyO
Veteran

Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Posts: 70

Trailhead - or head trail?
Give this web page a chance - see what you come up with!

I love this web puzzle that I unearthed in cracking this card!
Give it a try!

http://www.trailhead.com/fun/strange.html

My wife and I are both in the 98% !!
How did you score?

I'm not sure whether the answer can be entered in the solve box though.

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:34 pm

mqpippin
Boot

Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Posts: 29
Location: Houston, Tejas

I'm completely convinced I've lost my mind

Ok, Short Version.

I started with this:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

rnltshejanofeyeeattefgcchlamlbclslsesnaeiu
itaetslahtreatvepaparoydipotmeitaiclnihaaa

Now there's pieces of paper all over my room with words I saw, like a bad copy of the scene in "A Beautiful Mind".

Here's the final piece of paper that made me realize I need to stop:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

relative paranoid threat polygon
celsius each sheet family attempt
final jail cheat lease stab can

It's also the ONLY successful use of ALL the letters I had.

I have identified no less than 3 conspiracy theories in these stupid letters AND spotted Elvis.

I'm giving up on "First Solve". Here's my closest quesses:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

1. jacent if at least three angles -- with yehc left over
2. all sets of variables match -- with nanns left over
3. multiply each part -- with eipdiooateai left over

I narrowed my opinion down to what the subject matter is to one of the following three:
1. Triangles that do not have a 90 angle
2. Polygons or something Geometry related
3. Tempatures in Celcius that melt stuff

If all that drivel and mental mayhem helps anyone to figure this one out, PLEASE give me a clue which idea of mine was right, but don't tell me the answer (unless first solve isn't done!!).

If I'm as far off on this as I was on who CT was, then I'd appreciate if ya'll would let me know that before I go order another box of Season 2.

(as for CT, I was 100% certain that Garnet was Anna's killer, Caine was innocent, and the cube was in Central Park. I was certain CT was a man and that Sente was with the 3rd Power and he was V and had ordered Anna's death.)

_________________
------------
M.Q. Pippin - Elvin Rattail
Druids do it in the dirt!
Have a nIce DAy!

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:27 am

dextro142
Guest

hint
hint about the puzzle

you're right in rearranging the letters in the cubes however the actual way in which to order them is revealed by the text in the top left of the card. The sixth line in particular.

hope this helps without giving it away

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:14 pm

eratos
Greenhorn

Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 5

Re: hint
hint about the puzzle

dextro142 wrote:

Nope, this doesn't help at all!

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:33 pm

Jon606
Guest

Re: hint
hint about the puzzle

dextro142 wrote:

Didn't you just copy & paste that from the PXC forum?
http://www.welovepuzzles.com/jforum/posts/list/60.page#2535

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:47 pm

aliendial
Unfictologist

Joined: 29 Sep 2002
Posts: 3438
Location: Far Far Away. Nowhere Near You. Really.

Yeah, somebody is dangling hints over in perplexorum; still no solve there either.

_________________
aliendial

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:01 pm

steamer
Greenhorn

Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Posts: 8
Location: Wolverhampton/ Cardiff UK

nt sure were ne of this is really goin so far but this is my current attempt

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

i removed all letters that appear in all three squares to see what i gt left at the end

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Top:
J C H G

Lower Left:
M B L S S O F N S A A V S N A

Lower Right:
Y U P P D I P O O M T E I A I

looks like rubbish so far but can anyone see a cipher or pattern here

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:16 pm

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