unforum

[Sylvia]

[Typoxic]

[mortality]

Alright, I'll try to explain everything for Ethan and I'll post the email here. If I miss something, let me know and I'll send an appendix to him.

Luke, no worries. I emailed to tell him you were collaborating with us but hadn't posted the correspondence. In the future, it's probably best to just post any responses if he says anything remotely significant about the case. I'm guilty, too. I neglected to post a couple chats (I have since posted them) because they looked like chitchat, but after later developments, they seemed relevant. So...we should all be as diligent as possible with correspondence.

There are actually 4 names affiliated with the Triangle of Art. Michael is divided into 3 components. We'll have to do more research to know why he only commands three. Of course, it could just be that it meant "The only wise king" to narrow it down to Solomon.

Sylvia, the main thing is that one of the Autumn Country documents mentions the Whitechapel Foundation. And Calvin Michaels, the IT director for WF, is mentioned in the story. In a chat with Jade (actually one of the things I just mentioned), he said that David knows Calvin from way back and based the Autumn Country character on him. Jade is now IG (and David also based a character on him), so I'm inclined to believe that it's just a cover story. The Autumn Country Calvin and Autumn Country Jade are the same ones in this game.

I'll edit to add my email when I compose it.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Regarding Autumn Country...
How much, if any, of the following is previously undiscussed?

Nicholas' journal (various pages), etc.

Autumn Country Google site links (FF)
Autumn Country Google site links (IE)

I really only looked at the pages linked within the site, proper, previously.

ETA: Take note of the actual filenames when viewing them.

[mortality]

Igor, do you mean in this thread? I think it's been mentioned but not discussed, mostly because we didn't have many overt links and Ethan insisted Autumn Country is fiction...

[Rogi Ocnorb]

[mortality]

Dunno. I only started reading Autumn Country after receiving the email invite to the game. Like I said, I'm not usually interested in Faery Tales. (Horrible, horrible, pun.)

[Typoxic]

Isn't Michael associated with war? With that sword of his, he kind of reminds me of William Wallace. Maybe the other two names on our Triangle have similar associations? If so, that might indicate which things the king did command.

[mortality]

[Sylvia]

Ok, I'm convinced more than ever now that Autumn Country is somehow involved and maybe the videocast since it's now January. There are some strange things in AC that fit with this, for example Nicolas/Bishop/Nic/Rook uses # in the place of a person's name. And the incident of seeing the guy with no shadow was in St. Pete. Fl.. There is some more but I'm way to tired to go on anymore. I will try to read it more tomorrow. Nic may be the guy who sent the MSGs to WF and it's possible he will be our next contact. If so we may be able to find out where his new blog is by going to Neil's forum and searching for a user by the name of Bishop Rook. I'm too tired tonight to do anymore myself and I will be spending most of tomorrow absorbing the rest of AC and tracking down Nic. http://neilgaimanboard.com/6/ubb.x?cdra=Y&s=733605825

I just pray that this is not a wild goose chase/red herring. And if it is, I'm apologizing in advance.

Mort, you did a great job with the email to Ethan. Let's hope he can turn us on to something. By the way, remember when he told me that humans like to make connections or something like that about the number 23. Well Bishop makes a similar statement on Enclave's copy of his blog. http://www.autumncountry.net/ac-e-nicblog.html

[mortality]

Don't worry about looking like a jackass. If anything, this thread proves you'll be in good company.

It's good thinking and it looks like we have a growing consenus that they're connected. "How?" is the question...and how do we convince Ethan and WF, our friends, the skeptics?

New thought about the handwritten clues:
(1)...one ring, obviously (in hindsight). ^2 I liked the idea that it had to do with crowns and kings. Saul was the Hebrew's first king. His son succeeded him, but did not finish uniting the kingdowm.

King David was the first Hebrew ruler to defeat all of the Hebrew's enemies, thereby uniting Israel and Judah, bringing peace and creating the conditions for the Temple to be built. King Solomon was his son, and succeeded to the throne during a time of peace. He was therefore the second king of the unified state and the first (and last) to be able to build the temple. Every other succession had some sort of dispute.

Therefore: ^2=2nd crowned king of Israel/Judah, Solomon?

In combination with MSG1: Solomon's Seal (a ring that is not a ring).

/3\ is the three names of the Hebrew God written in the Triangle of Art, Solomon's Triangle?

So what is the square? The vessel Solomon eventually contained the summoned creatures in? Could 4 be the number of demons/djinn Solomon trapped? There's a huge set of literature, all of which disagrees about that number. The literature does seem to think that he either used a brass ring or a brass lamp as the vessel, tho. That doesn't exactly fit with a square.

Sylvia, you mentioned the square and compass are Masonic symbols. We have some other references to Masons and other secret societies. WF explicitly identified the Duke of Manchester as being a Mason. John Dee had ties to Rosicrucians. (Oddly enough, there's some speculation FreeMasons begin with Solomon building the Temple.)

That looks like a good lead for solving MSG4. Do the Masons have any words they associate with the square and compass? It could also be our clue to who created the puzzles. (ETA: Freemasons use signs [gestures], grips or tokens [handshakes] and words to gain admission to meetings and identify legitimate visitors. Sounds like the solution to MSG4 will provide us with the right words to talk to the people who provided our puzzles. But where?)

ETA: I sent Ethan an email correcting some of the mistakes in the previous one, and adding in the latest Solomon and puzzle speculation. I only found the stuff about words after I sent the email, so that still needs to be shared.

I don't think we should discuss AC with him until we have a more explicit link. He's especially skeptical of that kind of conspiracy talk. Just look at how he replied way earlier when I said Shannon might be in danger. So we need to ease him into it.

[dashcat]

Its really late for me too but I wanted to say a few things.

First, I think the order for the book puzzle is Only the wise king commands three Since Solomon is the only one who had the ring and could command.

Second, I wrote to Ethan about the coded messages in trackback but he hasn't replied to me. I see that he did reply to Luke and then Mort. Gibberish must be a clue because I can't see him dismissing those messages when they've already been labled as important.

Third, I know Sylvia and Rogi knew about the seal of Solomon. I know about the seal of Solomon. In all my research for this game so far I have come across it a bunch of times...again. The point is that I didn't menltion it because I made the assumption that everyone playing args must know about this stuff by now. Thats a bad assumption to make.

[mortality]

Sheesh, I'm still awake. Good thing I have a light day ahead.

Order for solution to MSG2: dashcat's order works. Does the order matter? Maybe if it has to be entered into Solomon's Triangle. If it doesn't, then maybe the clue's sole purpose was to direct us to Solomon.

Gibberish: agreed, it has to be in-game and relevant. The PMS are moderating the comments and they wouldn't let something be posted if it was unaffiliated. Ethan's now explicitly said so. We need to decode those comments. How was it encoded? Solution will provide a URL and means to contact the puzzle authors?

Solomon's Seal and gameplay meta: I, for one, was absolutely ignorant of it. This is my first fantasy ARG. And really the first time I've done more than superficial research into the occult. Other than briefly following a few old school viral campaigns (e.g. Mission: Impossible...I think I was on AOL at the time...sheesh), my participation with ARGs really began in June 2007.

Anyway, beyond my inexperience and ignorance of Solomon's Seal and its importance, I didn't see the Seal and MSG1's the "One Ring" linked in-thread.

I apologize for using the first person a lot, and for seeming to take credit for the obvious. I do try to pass credit along where possible.

So, since there are several players new to ARGs and occultism, let's follow daschat's lead and share background information, regardless of its possible obviousness. That's the brilliance of the hive mind: some people know the information, other people can provide a fresh perspective for it. Just have to share. Also, we have to explicitly tell these things to Ethan, anyway. We can't assume he knows them.

I'm trying my best not to trout, but my playing style is mostly kind of a brute force attack. See clue. See hint. Research both and absorb facts, Check for relevance, connection to puzzle and story. Check for redundancy. Draw conclusion. Repeat until satisfied (sometimes I skip this step). Throw answer at hive mind (hopefully in coherent English). See if the answer sticks. Return to beginning until puzzle or story is complete.

Who wants to create the Mort Flow Chart?

Fatal flaw: I don't really take notes until after the fact and I don't always provide linear explanations for how I thought of something. If we get a lull we should put together an outline/narrative that's more comprehensive than the Supplemental Pages Ethan's provided. Doing that usually fills in the gaps. I also have lots of trouble with ciphers and Finnish anagrams.

[mortality]

Ethan replied to the emails out of order, so a lot of his questions have already been answered...looks like I'm the jackass for not getting it right the first time, eh?

Mind you, the subject of my email did say "read the other first."

[Sylvia]

more comfirmation