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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Low-Volume Games
[WF][Trailhead] Whitechapel Foundation: Open Cases
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 428

 		Ethan's reply
Re: reporting 0702 to the Hawthorne Group
Quote:
Dear Mort,

Re: Shannon's deadline for filing a memo with Hawthorne; I don't think she has one. She is on a long-term assignment with them, so it's not like she's leaving any time soon. I'd say you've got a couple days at least [ed. to name ourselves].

Re: your other points; That's an interesting perspective, especially when you mention the "tone" of the ritual and the fact that it does appear to be pretty recent. Do you really think there is cause for caution? I guess we are so used to dealing with things that are either so old or so obviously "not real" (even when they are perceived by the observer as being very real) that we forget that sometimes there are aspects of this world that can be very dark (even if that is just a reflection of the darkness of a person's mind). Point taken. I'll mention this to her.

I'll also ask her if there is any documentation on who specifically has had access to that volume of the Amphitheatrum.

Thanks,

Ethan Grant
Associate Researcher
The Whitechapel Foundation

ethanSPLATwhitechapelfoundation.org
www.whitechapelfoundation.org

1)Shannon and the Group
A)I think it's better safe than sorry
B)I think there are reasons to be suspicious of the Hawthorne Group, both IG (the ash, how new the page looked, the age of the language, the limited access to the Black Library)
C) and OOG: the Hawthorne Group novel. Djinn has shown a proclivity for referencing literary works and sampling from their plot.

So I think she should delay on revealing the cipher until she has the answers to some questions. And she should certainly hold off on revealing the cleartext for a bit.

2)Our Name
A)We have time to decide what it is
B) And time to decide how to implement it...giving Ethan a roster, using it in correspondence, etc.

Thoughts?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:29 pm
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petunia
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Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 616
Location: MS

 		You guys can decide what to call us... the uC is fine with me.

Quick thoughts:
1. "when the night is black" = new moon
2. What is made of iron, magnetic, and glows red/orange?? Confused

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:43 pm
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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 		A lodestone or otherwise magnetized piece of iron heated in a fire. (Does heat remove magnetism?)

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:44 pm
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		Magnetism
Magnetism is caused by the atomic charges of atoms aligning with each other. Adding heat to iron removes this magnetism because the added heat adds enough quantum energy for the alignment to break out into a more random pattern.
~Red Hot Heat De-Magnetizes~
Any amount of heat short of molten (red hot) will not remove magnetism because the energy isn't adequate to break the atomic bonds.
Running a high level current of electricity through iron will remagnetise iron by realigning the atomic charges.

Isn't physics fun!

Red Hot Glowing loadstone = NO
loadstone set in a fire for a wee bit = YES
_________________
"CypherMonkey: A person required to do many hours of cryptology for free at the cost of MANY braincells."

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:24 pm
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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 		Well, how close to molten slag does it have to get? If it's hot enough to forge with a hammer, before being struck, will that remove the magnetism?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:28 pm
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petunia
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 		Yikes, like this ritual didn't sound dangerous enough before, now it involves holding a glowing HOT piece of iron... Rolling Eyes

So how is it possible to have a glowing red magnetized iron lodestone then? Would you have to heat it to red-hot, then hit it with a high current to remagnetize it? (If so, this ritual is starting to sound unnecessarily complicated.)

The stone doesn't have to be big, right? Can't you magnetize iron by running another magnet along it several times in one direction?

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:31 pm
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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petunia wrote:

The stone doesn't have to be big, right? Can't you magnetize iron by running another magnet along it several times in one direction?


I kind of think the ritual itself isn't important to the story...I don't think we encounter the results of it or need someone to perform it for us. Identifying it and its likely practitioners is probably the key.

As fascinating as this tangent that I've started is. Very Happy

(And yes, you can stroke iron with a magnet to magnetize. But that's complicated if you have to do it after the iron's been heated.)

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:33 pm
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WolfHawk
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Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis

 		I think the stone has to have a particular shape, though:
Quote:
If all is done in accordance, the glow
at draw of the shaped iron will be a
beacon for *********.

So does it have to be like a horseshoe magnet?

Quote:
Five to three is the rule to *ll (hell)

For what it's worth the 5 to 3 rule is the "Golden Ratio" in geometry which probably points us back to the simson lines in some way.
_________________
Having abandoned my search for the truth I am now looking for a good fantasy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be the headlight of an oncoming train.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:45 pm
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badaim68
Boot

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 38
Location: Sussex, UK

 		Amphitheatrum
Just in case it's relevant I emailed Ethan to ask what two pages of the Amphitheatrum the cipher page had been inserted between:

Quote:
That's an interesting point. Although Shannon has confirmed that there is no obvious contextual relationship between the two, there may be something on those pages that is related to the content. I'll pass this on to her and see what she says.

Regards,

Ethan Grant


.....oh, and just for interest the Aztecs represented the dying sun with White.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:59 pm
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mortality
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 		Good thought about where the pages were found. Also good job taking the initiative and emailing him.

So...what is a dying sun? One that's setting? One that's going nova?

Is it the name of a song on an album of the same title by a French death metal band? ( 1) You shouldn't ask, but since you insist: try wikipedia 2) Surf can attest that Jade, one of the people at Djinn, has some horrible musical taste, so we shouldn't put it past them.)

Aztec seems a little beyond the purview of the Autumn Country story. If they were going that direction, I assume we'd have been given hieroglyphs rather than encoded English. Plus, where's the human sacrifice? Oh, right. Shannon. Smile

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:42 pm
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Coffeebean
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Joined: 11 Jun 2007
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 		other theory (probably way off)
A lightning rod. The shape of a lightning rod was important when it was first designed. Then a guy named Tesla reinvented it. And a guy named DuPont also worked on it. (although I just tend to think pont is a misspelling). Metal....obviously. Attracts energy. Doubt it glows, but possible.

The circle with lines drawn on the page from same puzzle are the ones I was talking about using on the other triangle/wallace puzzle. I don't have a clue about simpson lines, so can someone that knows use those lines (from msg4) for anything?

I think I'll just go stare at the XxxXXxxXXxxXxX page some more.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:13 pm
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		Metals
From personal experience it is possible to heat a magnetized piece of iron to a barely glowing red and still have it retain it's magnetic properties. The color of the iron at this temperature is a black/orange which is very similar to the color you would expect to see from a setting/dieing sun, putting astrophysics aside of course.
Yes I'm aware that it's weird that I know this from experience but it's kind of weird that I know most of the stuff I know. Mort and CB can attest to this fact already. =D

The writer of cipher4 was right handed. I can tell from the slope of the circles in the upper right hand corner. (just an observation.)

[In defense of Jade's musical tastes he actually hates Spandau Ballet. His personal Blog states that this is the case. I can't vouch for the rest of his musical tastes as I've only heard one musical artist he states he likes.]
_________________
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:24 pm
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mortality
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Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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 		In which Ethan emails
I've had girlfriends I didn't talk to as much
Quote:
Dear Mort,

Thought I'd follow up with you re: the conversation I had with Shannon at the end of the day today. I mentioned the idea that maybe she shouldn't disclose the specifics of the deciphered text to the Hawthorne Group just yet, in case someone within the Group was the person who wrote it in the first place and in case they might not be pleased that the page had been deciphered (they already know, of course, that the page was found).

Let's just say that she thought that was a pretty odd suggestion. I don't think she thought it was so odd that she is going to mention it to Christopher and ask that he confirm my mental health - but you never know. Luckily Christopher already thinks I'm a little...unorthodox, so it won't really be any big deal if she does mention it. Needless to say, she will not be heeding that suggestion to keep things quiet to the H Group.

We both sort of laughed off the paranoia, and she said that she was still very interested in knowing who might have written the page and why. She thought it was a good idea to check the old records of who had access to the library. Unfortunately they are all hand-written ledgers (nothing has been updated into electronic form yet) and there is a big gap in the record keeping between 1987 and 2006 when the entire library was in storage and no one was supposed to have access to it. She's already checked the H Group's logs since 2006 and she is the first person to open the Amphitheatrum since they got it. There's no telling when she might have a chance to check to old ledgers.

I'll let you know if the deciphered text means anything to anyone at Hawthorne.

Ethan


Well, at least we can't be blamed if/when the Illuminati ritually vivisect her to summon the 23rd Level Spirit of Enlightened Vision.

My reply:
Quote:
Hey Ethan,
Sorry to put you in such an awkward spot. She's an adult which means either she'll get over the weirdness or she won't and you can hold it against her in perpetuity. Don't you just love a good intra-office grudge? Wink

Of course, since she's an adult, it also means she's free to evaluate advice and take it or not. I feel better that, in the event she was acting out of naievete, at least we did our due diligence and suggested she examine her situation more critically. My colleagues and I will all feel terrible if something happens, but at least we'll feel a bit less responsible. Sometimes that's all that matters for being able to sleep at night, ya know?

Maybe we've just read too many bad thriller novels by Thomas Hauser, but you have to admit that this is usually the point in the story where protagonists find themselves out of their depth and some secret society starts pulling strings. Smile

We truly hope nothing so dire comes of this and everyone gets a good laugh at the expense of me and my colleagues. Here's to getting some obvious, non-melodramatic leads in the near future.

Cheers,
Mort


I can't tell if I like the blend of credulity and skepticism our PMs/characters have towards us. Is it wrong that I want us to be able to say "I told you so!"? Schadenfreude never hurt anyone, right? ...and I'm remarkably unconcerned about giving warnings that make us look like the wolf-crying boy.

ETA: PM'd andh to solicit an opinion on our group name. If there's no objection from that quarter I'll let Ethan know we're The unCollective and pass along the name of everyone who has contributed in this thread.

We probably shouldn't refer to ourselves as The unCollective on public, IG communications (e.g. email should be tagged as coming from uC; comments left on blogs should not). Assuming we're going to face The Enclave from Autumn Country or their enemies, we shouldn't give the PMs the opportunity to steal our identity.

Ethan's blogging for the night
Quote:
Off to the wilds of…
Posted on December 11, 2007 by ethangrant

…Chattanooga for a day or so. Hopefully much closer to a day than to a so.

Unfortunately, it's nothing that seems likely to be very interesting, but I know a couple people down there so maybe I'll wrap up early and have a little time to visit (T.C. & Scotty, that's you - so put the Brown Cows in a vat of liquid nitrogen and stoke up the wood-burning coffee pot!).

I'll try to check on OC stuff if I can, but that's probably a little optimistic with the driving and the interviewing and the Brown Cow eating. We'll see.


So we get a short break to confer amongst ourselves. Like that old SNL Cawffee Tawk skit.

Random meta thought: do you think they'd let us do a kind of ARG back-seat quarterbacking. We come up with our own storyline, design some puzzles, submit them to Ethan and run a game-within-a-game? This is an open-source project...wouldn't that take it to another level? Whatever we created would be seeded through Ethan, and WF:OC...so they'd have the final say about whether it becomes canon.

I got the idea by re-reading the mission statements for Open Cases and WF, plus some of the stuff Jade wrote on his DeviantArt page, as well as the cryptic blog comments and the general nature of the characters being proxies for our PMs, not our actual PMs.

If this ends up happening, I claim the author's privilege of double jeopardy...just because a crime resembles something one writes about, doesn't make them a suspect!

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:51 am
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surfzoned
Decorated


Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Posts: 237
Location: City of Denial, Nation of Sheeple

 		?
META- Ohh, (I'm jumping up and down with excitement) can I write the ciphers? I so owe them a little pain and agony! I wonder if they can crack a tetragraph rail cipher coded in RC5-128 with a little xenociphering to round it out. [whats the sanscript symbol for headache?]

I kid, I kid. Even I can't break RC5-128bit encryption. =D

(For those of us that are confounded by the above text the translation to English is an UN-crackable headache that even Motrin, a case of JD & a vacation to a tropical island won't fix!)
_________________
"CypherMonkey: A person required to do many hours of cryptology for free at the cost of MANY braincells."

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:23 am
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Coffeebean
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Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 626

 		youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmIUY7lv5wA


This video was added a few days ago (9th). Simpson line. Maybe helpful, maybe not.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:35 am
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