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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
Monarch (Trailhead?)
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booba
Unfictologist


Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 1433

Ahh, there it is.
Working backwards from T.i.n.a.p.'s excellent solve:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Keyed Caeser, shift 10, keyword twelvetwentythree


PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:16 pm
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This is not a pipe
Greenhorn

Joined: 29 Dec 2012
Posts: 8
Location: This side of the sky.

Decrypting the webpage.
A shoddy explanation of how we went about solving the puzzle of the cipher.

Heh, thank you. Yes, that's right, though I didn't reach it in quite such a way as to be able to properly describe it.

For brevity I will not mention the long periods of vain searching before I "realize" something, but rest assured, they were there.

I started with a table of the transpositions we knew from www.mediafire.com:

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


I had become convinced the appearance of the intervals
1, 2, 2, 3,
were coincidental, and from this realised the key was not at the beginning of the cipher due to the bundle of DFGI.
The gaps in this bundle are of course DEFGHI. The gap between B and D can only be C. I realised these missing letters were of course letters present in the key, as Caesar cipher doesn't use repetitions.
So the key lay instead at the end of the cipher ( I was not accounting for a shift, thinking they had only moved it one across and stuck it on the end).

This helped a lot in finding the key which I previously thought was a number that would specify transpositions for each letter, and then had thought it was a name or other noun.

Looking at the Pig picture workthrough by ecw82 and xrmterm was the breakthrough for me.
twelvet/entythr/etwelve or twelvetentythretwelve.
There were random missing letters and needless repetitions, so either the messed up spelling was crucial, or it had no effect at all. Once a letter appears once, it never gets recorded again for a Caeser cipher, so even a very long key gets shortened, and twelvetwentythree becomes just
TWELVNYHR. This also makes it nigh unrecognisable in the cipher, and was the bulk, I'd like to think, of our troubles with this particular puzzle.
I had previously tried to fit 'twenty' into the space between W and Y on the known transpositions, along with various other related words. This time, it actually worked, and then I now had
Code:
 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 B C D F G I - - M - - - S - X - T W E L V N Y H R -


Then just filled in the rest and transposed the url.

Code:

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 B C D F G I J K M O P Q S U X Z T W E L V N Y H R A

yyy.sgfmbimwg.dxs/?xvfc1lox7ozevx1
www.mediafire.com/?oudb1tjo7jpsuo1


Hopefully this explanation proves useful as we uncover more and find out just who Jane, Monarch and Atalanta are and what happened on the 23/12.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:49 am
Last edited by This is not a pipe on Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:24 am; edited 1 time in total
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xrmterm
Greenhorn

Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 3

I forewarn a stretch that would make a pyramidologist proud follows.

I might have identified the blue-tinged person in the twitter background. Compare the twitter background with the following photos of somebody called Lyn-Z Way.

The person in question plays bass for Mindless Self Indulgence. MSI plays a song called "Written in cold blood" This oh-so-very-authoritative source suggests some of their rights have ended up with the (rather large) Chrysalis Group. You can also get random two thirds of our target dates to match here and there, but that's only to be expected with a large enough body of data.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:37 pm
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This is not a pipe
Greenhorn

Joined: 29 Dec 2012
Posts: 8
Location: This side of the sky.

Quote:
"You might consider turning down the music. You're going to wake up the whole block. Shhhhhh." -Monarch's Twitter account on 8th December.


Music is referenced, at least once, so there is another thread of credibility to the band there.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:00 am
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Swiftrook
Greenhorn


Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 4

Hi,
I'm very new to ARGs, but they seem like my kind of thing. I've been lurking for a week and watching this topic as it was fairly new and I thought it would help me learn. Anyways I've finally signed up because I think I might have something to contribute:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I was playing about with that MP3 file, because I figured there had to be more to it. So I tried using MP3stego to see if anything was hidden in the file. After a few bad guesses, using "journal" as a password seems to extract a hidden text file. Journal being the thing that is written in cold blood I guess.

My computer doesn't understand all the characters in the text file, and at a first glance looks like it is written in another language, but I'm thinking it could be a different file type altogether. Anyways its getting late here so I'm gonna leave it there for today.

And because I don't really know what I'm doing with MP3stego or ARGs in general, I starting to wonder if I've made a mistake somewhere and the text file is nothing to do with the ARG, and its just a glitch lol. Can MP3Stego create nonsense files if you do something wrong?


PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 7:22 pm
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Dravenz
Veteran


Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 110
Location: Dunfermline, Scotland

MP3?

Could someone attach the MP3 to a post so I can have a play with it?

mediafire is blocked on my work network Sad

It would be appreciated.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:10 am
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Swiftrook
Greenhorn


Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 4

Quote:
Could someone attach the MP3 to a post so I can have a play with it?

Here ya go.
pig for slaughter.mp3
Description 
mp3

 Download 
Filename  pig for slaughter.mp3 
Filesize  538.82KB 
Downloaded  94 Time(s) 

PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 12:10 pm
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Dravenz
Veteran


Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 110
Location: Dunfermline, Scotland

Thanks Swiftrook Smile

PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:06 pm
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Dravenz
Veteran


Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 110
Location: Dunfermline, Scotland

I could just be looking for something where nothing exists and could have convinced myself I am hearing something I, in fact, am not BUT; the static after the final whispered "you" when reversed, pitch altered and slowed down sounds like "me".

It is probably nothing though and my audio editing skills are minimal (to none).

Just seems a bit weird to have "static" or random noise at the end of the mp3 is all.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:05 am
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This is not a pipe
Greenhorn

Joined: 29 Dec 2012
Posts: 8
Location: This side of the sky.

The silence suggests we still have more to find...
Comments and discussion.

It does strike me as odd that the distortion plays (inconsistently) before the words, which might hint of an independent track (which as the distortion sounds very much of reversed sounds, is likely). I'm still far too busy to dedicate more effort into it at the moment, though I intend to. Keep playing with it though, try also perhaps the "written in cold blood" line.

Swiftrook, if also you could post the stegged text you found (unless it really does just look like nothing), I can't run a mp3 destegger on my mac Sad

PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:14 pm
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Swiftrook
Greenhorn


Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 4

Yeah I'm pretty sure the file I got was a false positive. Just in case I looked at the hex, tried identifying it as a different file-type, and looking for any kind of pattern or clue and got nothing. I did a search on this forum and found people have gotten similar files from mp3stego on different ARGs and it never seems to be relevant. They've even gotten different false positives by using different passwords on the same file. I was convinced at first, because the idea that the word 'journal' just happened to extract info, seemed too close to be a coincidence.

Here's the text I got(just in case):

䬹둎ැ﵂纞㽩ꄏ瑠꣨膁ᑘ染孬㶉屑뺹ᙜ鷕⍹䘟鬀才⚚稂ง㮜⸏ɐ涫層ͩ똔㱄፜ㅭ呬ș塲肳䷻苤᱌꼞䇝쾗ꪪ釛訐獂㝗騷ಒ搯蜯ᛵ뗥䥓麹ߍ鳈钥ㅤ၉㺰▢챋䝙霏ꭟ

(Depending on what OS/language-packs/unicode-character-sets, your using, you might see a lot of random characters, or a lot of blank squares)

So yeah, don't think I've been helpful at all. Sad

Still feel like there should be more to this mp3 though. Wonder if we've missed something.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:48 pm
Last edited by Swiftrook on Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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Dravenz
Veteran


Joined: 20 Mar 2012
Posts: 110
Location: Dunfermline, Scotland

I also get that output when running it through the app you mentioned.

When the text found in the MP3, as posted above, is translated from Chinese (the auto detected language in Google translate), the following English is found:

䬹 둎 ැ  ﵂ Lian  㽩 ꄏ 瑠 ꣨ Yan   ᑘ dye  NAO 㶉 crumbs  뺹 ᙜ  Yu cry of hen pheasant ⍹ 䘟 Ti only ⚚   grass ง  㮜 ⸏ ɐ Guan layer ͩ 똔  㱄 ፜ ㅭ Chi ş ChangWen ䷻ kohlrabi ᱌ 꼞 䇝 쾗 ꪪ Ba pry Yuan 㝗 Sao ಒ  dig  Bang ᛵ  뗥 䥓 Kojimachi ᙞ ߍ Quan key ㅤ 9 㺰 the ▢ 챋 䝙 Fei ꭟ

When all of the unrecognized characters are removed (boxes) you get:

The 䬹 둎 ැ the Lian 㽩 瑠 the Yan ᑘ dye Nao 㶉 crumbs 뺹 ᙜ Yu cry of hen pheasant 䘟 Ti only the grass ง 㮜 ɐ Guan layer ͩ 똔 㱄 ㅭ Chi ş Chang Wen kohlrabi 꼞 䇝 쾗 Ba pry Yuan 㝗 Sao ಒ dig the the the Bang 뗥 䥓 Kojimachi ᙞ Quanthe key the ㅤ 㺰 ▢ 챋 䝙 Fei

I doubt there is anything in there and reckon it probably is a false positive to be honest Sad

PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:55 am
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Swiftrook
Greenhorn


Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 4

Been doing a little searching in my spare time, and found this:

http://archive.heinessen.com/x/thread/11276272

Looks like Monarch posted some more information we never seen. Haven't got the time to go through it now, but from a quick glance it looks like there are more clues.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 2:41 pm
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magnet0
Unfettered


Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 398

Happy Birthday to -who-?

I am currently playing around with the audio file. Good find BTW. It certainly sounds like there may be two tracks here and one seems to be reversed. My audio skills are not that great but I'll see what I can do.
_________________
1 / ∞ ≠ 0

PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:27 pm
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BananaBrains
Boot

Joined: 22 Nov 2011
Posts: 21

so on the /x/ thread, Monarch posted a couple of pictures of Jane, as well as another hint we hadn't seen before:

73 32 99 108 101 97 114 108 121 32 97 115 107 101 100 32 116 104 105 115 32 98 105 116 99 104 32 102 111 114 32 97 32 99 111 111 107 105 101 46 32 32 74 117 115 116 32 108 105 107 101 32 109 121 32 109 111 116 104 101 114 44 32 115 104 101 32 110 101 118 101 114 32 114 101 116 117 114 110 101 100 32 105 116 46

Which translates to
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I clearly asked this bitch for a cookie. Just like my mother, she never returned it.


It's supposed to go to an article, but I don't think anyone's found it yet. Monarch also left us a rather creepy photo, if anyone wants to poke around in that for any exif data, be my guest.

Along with the picture, we got some base64 that translates to
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
It's only a matter of time now.
Until the dawn breaks,
Sweet Dreams.

https://twitter.com/Monarch1223


I think that's everything we've got so far!

PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:07 am
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