unforum

[D B]

I just wanted to summarize what are the puzzles we have left to solve. If there's been any progress on these fronts, please post.
1.) From the original post by Redford with the contents of the briefcase, there is a message originally thought to be Arabic, but now thought to be in Farsi?
2.) From the Mario's Italian Restaraunt website, there is a phone recording in poor Italian. Anyone have a good translation into English?
3.) Redford's blot has a presumably Vigenere cipher with unknown key.
4.) The Woman in Red has posted a business card with an unreadable set of letters on it.
5.) She also posted a photo from Q named 1steg. Any ideas on what files are contained within it?
6.) The WiR has also posted another presumably Vigenere cipher with unkown key.
Anything else out there we should be thinking about?

[D B]

The photo which is likely stegged is from the Erechthion which is on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/02085/Mythart/erechtheionenglish.htm
This didn't help me find the password, yet, though.

[ncfriend]

other missing information..

[Caterpillar]

Ooooh fun
I do enjoy a good list!
Most of this has been covered, but I added some linkage.
_________________________

*Illegible Arabic/Farsi letter from briefcase.

*Found it odd that the letter from Mario states "The terms are OK, 10,000 E now.." and yet Redford states the briefcase contains 10,525 Euros.

*"K-47" found on Keycard and John Q Smith's business card.

*The significance/meaning of the photo collection as a whole, from the briefcase.

*Significance of WIR's comment "put your lips together and blow" along with photo of St Mark's Basilica.
(Stegged w/ Slim/To Have and Have Not/Lauren Bacall?)

*Significance of the multiple use of the phrase Tuesdays are Free including its inclusion on John Q Smith's business card.
(The only reference I could find was that many museums are often free on Tuesdays).

*Illegible inverted text on John Q's business card.

*A thorough translation of the Italian voice message at (206) 208-9549 found at Mario's Ristorante Italia.

*What was John Q Smith doing at Redentore dressed as a living statue? Besides murdering someone I mean

*Cipher-text sent via email from WIR to Redford for his "little friends", along with the phrase Remember Smith, he loved Jimmy Durante.



Code:

FNVTE JQHES ZGMSD CVXUL DJIUM DGTHL PSWDR RVHSY NMGFA DQLZJ HWBUZ UIIQI XZCWW NWSCN MLQLS YTVLB SFXJJ WEWRQ TZCZB MWTIH BCWUC CNDNR IIXIX JSZZH CAQZA LFPTS GOWIU LURCW CKWJE PMYOA XZQAW BOGPC XVMMP PWIFL GXWJU OAGEW ENUBB XHESH UBNTQ TXQZZ LMIPW THRHV GHYSJ SNMJW NJCZC



*Questions from WIR's email: Why was Smith at Redentore in July of 2006? Why is Venice important.

*Photograph of the Porch of the Caryatids (at the Acropolis) proclaiming itself to be stegged. Photograph also boasts further illegible text and a CIA cornerstamp. The solution probably leads to the further hidden information/photos mentioned by WIR.

*Cipher-text posted on WIR's blog, along with "Remember who came first and who starred in the movie. And tell Red.":



Code:

WPOYJ PWVLJ WVAZJ ZPSYW JHVPZ VBFFQ HFQIB PSWSW POELJ WVSZO SRHDP LSVLF HOSYP FYHPG SMSTJ ZPJZA FDWHP NVLSZ OSZOM FVFVL PLSVE LFYJB JHHRP BPSWJ ZMVLP ESGPZ FFZPP HEPQS ZQFGP FWJBJ HHHPS CP



*How does the government fit into this? Mario mentions in his letter to Smith that he is "Mob" and Smith is "Government Goon". WIR mentions "their" use of The Patriot Act , and the latest photo of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion has a CIA cornerstamp.

___________________________

And humor me here, but..........

*What the hell does Frosty the Snowman have to do with all of this? Living Snowman/Living Statue?

Note: The comment WIR made in an email about there being "many ways to crack a walnut" makes me think that the code is not Vigenere.

[DarthBunny]

 Nice Lists

[ncfriend]

lips together and blow

[ncfriend]

Zion

[ncfriend]

Mario & Tonio's voice mail

[ncfriend]

Another Movie allusion

[D B]

I'm still working on it, but I haven't made any progress.
I can't figure out the password to the presumably stegged photo, nor can I decode the two puzzles we have been given. I'm hoping others who have more ARG experience can help us out.

[D B]

Based on the letter frequencies of the code on the WiR's website, I think that this code is a simple monalphabetic substitution, and that the letter spacing is simply there to throw us off. I think this is especially true considering that the last block only has two letters. The letter P appears 22 times -- maybe it stands for E?

[ncfriend]

DB, why cant I "IM" you ??? ;-D

I've found this site http://www.richkni.co.uk/php/crypta/index.php
recently and it seems nice... and I was also looking at straight cryptogram type of solution... what do you think of the first three letters being RED?


eta... really, i'm very good with those cryptograms in the newspaper and in puzzle books... but i never realized that knowing the length of the words HELPS SOOOO MUCH. just a big pile of letters is really difficult to solve when they're all running together... i imagine if i'm pulling my hair out now over this "simple" first one... then i might not be cracked up for these kinds of games...sigh...

[hellzbellz]

 

[hellzbellz]

 Cracked cipher!!!

[myf]

Oooh, well done! So where does that get us?

Pier 39 is a tourist attraction in San Francisco. So that fits.

April ten was yesterday. Hopefully something will be updated soon, to tell us what happened.