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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[TRAILHEAD?] Howard Fair?
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Zobot257
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JehosephatDostoevsky wrote:
Hi

Just a couple of observations on the block of letters:

I think the 'pi' clue is a red herring. The text underneath the block of letters states 'thoughts can and will circle themselves too much resulting in insanity. Please be rational" etc. Pi is an irrational number, so I think we're being warned to stay away from pi. Likewise, I think the warning against circles could be suggesting that it's not ROT or a cylinder cipher.

But two thoughts which might be useful:

The nearest rational number to pi is 3 (I assume, don't really know maths), so maybe that is relevant somehow.

But I think an idea which might have more legs: if you add up the roman numerals, you get 39. There are 39 letters in each row. There must be something there. I'm gonna hazard a guess that if we take letters from each row based on the roman numerals (i.e. the first letter, then one letter after that, then two after, then three after, then three after etc) we might get something. And that's what I'm gonna do now, will let you know if anything at all comes out of it, but just thought I'd try and contribute with some comments.

Also, I hope the British Library thing is relevant, would love an ARG that requires going places that's based in London


I tried running an elimination of all the letters in the first row using the method you suggested, and I'm still just getting a jumble of letters with no sense to them. Although maybe we have to re-arrange the letters to form words or maybe it'll make sense when we do the entire thing? When I have more time I'll go back and do the whole thing... a friend of mine, the same one I keep mentioning, may be interested enough in this to help out. If she has any more input I'll either badger her into creating her own username or repost what she suggests.

Whee! Puzzles!

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 11:42 am
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morph
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draghkar wrote:
I got the same mail... with the same parchment.doc..

some interesting things.. (probably the name of the PM)
Spoiler (Rollover to View):

in the properties of the word document the name Paul Giffney is listed...


The cypher looks to me an elimination cypher.. one that had extra letters added between the letters of the sentences..

like the D between the . and the NET. I am just wondering what to eliminate..


So i googled the name didnt seem special but found a twitter

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
http://twitter.com/#!/Crescent123

where his last tweet was to blackhelix which lead me http://www.theblackhelix.com/


forgive me if this is old news and nothing special but thought id drop a line

* fixed tags. morph - Consider registering an account so you can fix your posts too - the benefits of having an account at unfiction are worthwhile! =) -thebruce

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 12:03 pm
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morph
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 		anywho sorry about the crappy link above. at the very least guess it shows its apossible arg. but back to looking at these letters xD feel like if i stare long enough something will jump out at me ^^

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 12:14 pm
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draghkar
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 		I think the black helix is another ARG, not related to this one.. black helix is about a kidnapped student, no relation to out magic using librarian...

Also, black helix is in northern ireland, while this one seems to be in london..

EDIT

plus there is a seperate thread for black helix:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31640
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 1:46 pm
Last edited by draghkar on Tue May 24, 2011 2:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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QAlchemist
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 		I think you're onto something there, with it being an elimination cipher.

I suspect that the key is hidden in the roman numerals off on the right side...

EDIT: Also, note the message on it. 'Please eliminate from existence'...
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 1:52 pm
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snorkle256
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 		I would hope we haven't completely eliminated Pi yet as the clue toward thoughts circling makes me think Pi is relevant.

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 3:22 pm
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draghkar
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 		The clue tells me to eliminate first, and than we need to rotate something.. no clue yet what and how, but I think we will end up with a web address.. somehow..

just a hunch..
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 3:43 pm
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JehosephatDostoevsky
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Zobot257 wrote:


I tried running an elimination of all the letters in the first row using the method you suggested, and I'm still just getting a jumble of letters with no sense to them. Although maybe we have to re-arrange the letters to form words or maybe it'll make sense when we do the entire thing? When I have more time I'll go back and do the whole thing... a friend of mine, the same one I keep mentioning, may be interested enough in this to help out. If she has any more input I'll either badger her into creating her own username or repost what she suggests.

Whee! Puzzles!



Well, I think there's two options (if I'm barking up the right tree) - either the letters left behind are significant, or the letter taken out are significant. If you look at the 'eliminated' letters, you get a 10x10 square. My mind's gone completely blank but isn't there a square-based cipher? If the message is warning us that 'circles lead to insanity', and pi being an irrational number, then if we think squares rather than circles, maybe there's something there?

I've got the 10x10 square of eliminated letters but couldn't make anything out of it. But maybe someone else can do something with it? Anyone want me to post the 10x10 square of letters?

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 3:58 pm
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draghkar
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 		yes please
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:01 pm
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JehosephatDostoevsky
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 		hope i got this correct and the jpg is embedded in this post, sorry if not. also uploaded it as an xls document to make it easier to copy/paste
letters.xls
 Description   
 Filesize   24KB
    48 Time(s)

Unfortunately, this file is no longer in our archives.
Letters.jpg
 Description   
 Filesize   274.74KB
    95 Time(s)

Unfortunately, this file is no longer in our archives.

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:22 pm
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draghkar
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 		sent an email:

Draghkar wrote:
Hello Howard..

Pleased to meet you, I am Draghkar.. Very happy to help,

A few questions for you..

* What is Axelrod?
* Are there more books from your great-uncle that you can research for clues on the parchment?
* Does the back of the parchment show something?

I would be happy to know the answers to this..

regards,

Draghkar



And got a reply back:

Howard wrote:
Axelrod? He's called David Axelrod, he has his own website: http://www.davidaxelrodmusic.com/- really cool earlier stuff.
Regarding parchment-back - nope - nothing visible.
Books - LOADS - but one thing at a time. He was heavily into this stuff... I'm getting there myself but not too sure about it.


Hope this helps
Howard.

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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 5:13 pm
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draghkar
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 		Just had a conversation with howard:

Howard: Any more progress?
Sent at 11:34 PM on Tuesday
me: not so far, we think that we need to eliminate letters in the grid, ending up with a 10x10 grid..
we also think we need then use some circular shaping to end up with a clue..
Howard: to go from, what 400 to 100 seems a lot...
Sent at 11:46 PM on Tuesday
Howard: Codes were never my thing - apart from Dewey! - I will have to go shortly - I am travelling to gain experience regarding a ritual to be conducted. This will occur until next week some time. I cannot be any more sure until then. Please, tell others who may be assisting that I wil be out of touch until then? Thanking you.
typo: [will]
me: the roman numerals to the right side translate to numbers which, when sorted differently represent PI.. we however think that this not fully relevant..
I will tell them..
Howard: Thanks. mmm would make sense of the circle comment at the bottom possibly? I will play around while on the train down to Avesbury. See you all next week.
typo [Avebury]
me: hope to hear from you soon, happy travels.
Howard: I'd send a postcard, but have no addresses for anyone...
Sent at 11:50 PM on Tuesday
Howard: The phone is ringing - I must go. Off tomorrow morning so packing tonight. Bye for now.

I think it has some hints in there...
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 5:54 pm
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JehosephatDostoevsky
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 		hmm, the fact he was rather dismissive of my square makes me think that might not be the right route :/

The question is - was the Dewey reference just a 'librarian joke'? (We all know what a fun-loving lot librarians are Razz ) OR is that some sort of clue for the letters? I'm thinking specifically the roman numerals might come into play here. I checked, and '112' is now an obsolete (eliminated?) category under the Dewey system... but it used to be the reference for the category 'methodology'.

The obvious flaw in that tentative connection is the Dewey categories are always three digits, and we have 10 numerals :/

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 6:20 pm
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Minz
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 		So far nothing i've tried on the table produced anything usable unfortunately Sad

I've tried blacking out columns corresponding to the PI sequence (and the exact opposite) but no luck so far.
I've also tried several other variants of only blacking out but either i'm not getting the right columns or they have to be rearranged before or afterwards

Nevertheless, here is the entire table in text form for anyone who wants to give it a go :

Code:
S R R O A I W E B T T V Y P D Y T T S T G D D U R I M E A K R Y B E L L S R I
E E A M B G O P D I W R R T N U L B E O E E N D R D R E N N L C O M E T H E S
A P N E E O W F W O D N N M L A H W O T H S L O T Y R P T G R H E S K Y L A R
T H E G G W M R E P D G I E A N E N U S N O E L E O A M R S W R S T H E M E R
K I E G E U E N L L N P G W W S A B I A N H U V H F R E A S U D I R D S O F X
U N D O E E F Y N Y O E H E E F A O F A O W W R B A L F N O H R I N G T O W E
S A R I S T T I E H U L E S A Y O H O R L E R R E B D P O F E E I G P R I N G
H E S S H O D K L U I S N A O A K R H R S T O E S T U V E I O L U S H T H E B
P Y T G P Y N I A O D E I E Y E S E T U I I H I U I O E L H Y A K A N D T H R
E A N D M A K E H I N N W O O E C . R O M P T T O Y I T N E Y U M O . D N E T


PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 6:50 pm
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Ofiuco
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Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The Paul Giffney/crescent/blackhelix stuff is OOG, in case you didn't already figure that out. Somebody forgot to edit their metadata, be nice. ;)

And you - you're welcome. You know who you are. :)


PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2011 12:08 am
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