unforum

[gott_sei_dank]

I think that maybe two events have conflated, our failure to close Nebo and the opening of Ishtar. I personally assumed that the email was related to Nebo, an extra hint, now I think it was related to Ishtar. It could also be that the PM could have confused things.

I believe Mata Hari is the focus, it is quite likely that the next gate will open before we work out Ishtar, that's assuming what I've theorised above is true

[aseameba]

Only 32 hours remaining..

I'm not at all confident that after the timer goes to zero the thing will just reset and we can continue. I think it will do exactly what it says: "imminent system wide failure".

Mainframe and the databases have been rebooting for a LONG time. I don't think that's helping, either.

I thought that since typically help received by e-mail is in the form of an automated reply, having some clue in the signature or something, maybe the answer from Mata Hari IS the clue, even if it seems there is no help. Literally translated her message reads: "I hope you will have an answer before 21 December 2012."

Maybe the date IS the clue. She hopes we will figure it out before the world ends. Well, so do I.

Should we try inputting commands containing the date or "End of the World" or "Le Fin du Monde" in some way?

My brain is shutting down. I'm way too tired now to think further about this. And, as a OOG sidenote, I really hope the world doesn't end on Dec 21st, since I'm attending a LARP on the 22nd.. a Lovecraft themed game, the final episode of a long campaign, where we travel to the Antarktis to try to stop the awakening of Great Old Ones under the ice, to stop them from devouring the World or die trying. The GM has promised that if we succeed, he will get us all T-shirts with the text: "I saved the World on Dec 22nd 2012 and all I got for it was this stupid shirt."

[aseameba]

Hello...?

12 hours to go and still no progress.

Can we do nothing but watch the counter go?

[Gently]

Still here. Still working.

I think there IS something we're supposed to do to prevent the system failure. Probably just because a system failure and big red screen just seem really, really BAD. I haven't participated in the earlier episodes, so I don't know what might happen if we don't prevent it, but I think we can stop it and should try, and need to get on it right now.

I think Mata Hari's message is a clue specifically to prevent the failure - and not for something else- because we weren't pointed to her until we missed the deadline on the Nebo gate. (Apparently some agents- not me- got an email at that time that mentioned her.) Adam also pointed us to her when asked for help. So, no conflation. I believe we're on track.

To restate aseameba, what we have to work with is the name Mata Hari and the date- December 21 2012- which is winter solstice and believed by some to be the end of the world as indicated by the Mayan Long Count Calendar, and, possibly, the fact that her email was in French.

If I'm right, either we have all the information we need and aren't seeing the solution, OR we are missing a vital piece of info to stop the failure. I'm inclined to think we have everything we need to stop this, because our only other sources of information thus far have been Adam and Mata Hari, and they're not responding right now.

If we have everything, then the solution is either one of those simple, right-under-our-noses answers

[aseameba]

From Wikipedia:

German documents unsealed in the 1970s prove that Mata Hari was truly a German agent. In the autumn of 1915, she entered German service, and on orders of section III B-Chief Walter Nicolai, she was instructed about her duties by Major Roepell during a stay in Cologne. Her reports were to be sent to the Kriegsnachrichtenstelle West (War News Post West) in Düsseldorf under Roepell as well as to the Agent mission in the German embassy in Madrid under Major Arnold Kalle, with her direct handler being Captain Hoffmann, who also gave her the code name H21.

Tried "H21" on Datastore, but no luck.

EDIT: On French Wikipedia page the code is H-21 (with a dash) but no luck with that either. Tried it in datastore and in Qadhos interface with all possible connections (load H-21, execute H-21 etc..) but to no avail

[augusta.echo]

Not sure if it's a glitch, but typing "help" now sends me straight to the datastore for the image of the paper with the command list and classified commands.

[Gently]

[augusta.echo]

[Ameliå]

[aseameba]

Got through the second puzzle.

[aseameba]

Well, together me, my wife and a friend here solved the last puzzle and got through the gate.

[aseameba]

This all seems very strange, since the things in this gate were not (IMO) in any way connected to Ishtar or Venus, for that matter.. yet the gate loaded with the command "load ishtar".

Anyway, here are some clues about the third puzzle:

[aseameba]

In the Qadhos interface (which still is reached only through clicking on "play the pre-launch puzzle" -link) the status command lists everything still as "rebooting", but with the runes on the right side of screen they are "online".

Also, the "chamber access" has become online.. though I'm unable to use it in any way. Ideas?

[gott_sei_dank]

There have been a couple of attempts to Facebook-ify BTYC, I think we just sit back now and wait (and drum up some some love for BTYC if you actually use social media sites which I don't )

Anyway I'm pretty sure I'm down with Queen Bea

[augusta.echo]

So, after completing the third part, I clicked on the grid instead of the subroutine link, and I got this: