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Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » QU13E

[Trailhead] Splinternails.com 2014

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supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

no_moon wrote:

More likely what he wants to say is hidden in either the capital or lower case letters somewhere. An anagram, a word jumble.... He's a little Nabokovian, I think, sometimes.

My biggest concern is that said clue harks back to an almost decade-old clue that I can't possibly be au fait with.

Quote:

By the way, the qu31e email address seems to be out. I tried it for the first time just now and it bounced with a message saying "recipient not found." How very odd. Maybe he's on to the muses thing now. The message did say not to use any one tree branch twice.

Most probably, yes. I never received a response to my request for the message to be resent, which means I've lost 4.4mb of clues.

It seems secrets must be kept.

Syke wrote:

after reading through what you guys just posted...i went through that image with the capital letters.

some of the actually make sense...others dont.

heres what i got per line:

SHEGRIEF
WEREDUST
INKISEE
SELL
GOHERE
DODGIVEGET
UNDOFALL
SOULIAR
CONLMNTIS
FREE YOU SHUTUP!!!
WHKNESIE
CKERCAECHR

not sure if ANY of that makes sense....

but there it is.

ill be back...

*goes back to lurking*

Don't lurk! We could definitely use some new ideas. The capital letters have been extracted before and can be found on the German ARG wikia. I've realised that I've treaded on a lot of old ground myself but thankfully there's not too much to step on.

http://www.argwiki.de/index.php5?title=QU13E_-_Ungel%C3%B6ste_R%C3%A4tsel

My initial thought was that the gibberish might be an anagram for a Japanese word - but I found someone mention this back in 2007-8. No one replied to said point, but probably because it was a dead lead.

Perhaps someone else could fire out some emails to the *Muses*@qu13e.com to give us some evidence towards our suspicions.

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 6:08 pm

Syke
Decorated

Joined: 28 Aug 2004
Posts: 258
Location: CA

ok...

lol ill try not to lurk too much....
im just good at it Razz

one other small thing i noticed, in the source code of the qu13e.com:

source1.JPG
Description
Filesize	49.53KB
Viewed	103 Time(s)

_________________
-Syke (AKA Fazer)
NowPlaying:
NUNYA
Lurking...AlwaysLurking Shifty Eyes

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 7:15 pm

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

[redacted]

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:07 pm
Last edited by no_moon on Sat Sep 06, 2014 3:54 am; edited 1 time in total

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

[redacted]

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:52 am
Last edited by no_moon on Sat Sep 06, 2014 3:56 am; edited 1 time in total

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

Wheel Spinning
Or Exercises in Futility

I've researched and applied everything that I think can be done with that image. There are no alterations and no metadata changes to it other than what I think is some left over padding and packet information from selectively removing all Exif data except for the XPComment, which I didn't even have to open in notepad to find if I would have just checked the image properties first. Thinking about it now, I wonder if that's why it was called "SnaresIllPint", it kind of knocked me off the trail for a while...

So while I was heads down with this all day, it looks like a lot happened. Welcome Syke! Thanks for helping out. And lurking. It's not creepy, really. Very Happy

Quote:

So I contacted calliopeSPLATqu13e.com and received a response that contained a 4.4mb file from qu13eSPLATqu13e.com. Unfortunately, I can't actually open that file nor read the email's contents due to file size constraints on the email provider I was using. I've asked to be resent the email on another account but have not received a response so far.

That's a really small and really lame attachment constraint. It seems likely that if the email provider won't allow an attachment of that size that they probably never get it on their servers, so this probably won't work, but have you tried forwarding it to another account?

Quote:

one other small thing i noticed, in the source code of the qu13e.com:

That is one of my favorite puzzles at Qu13e, I wish I would have been around when it was solved. It's something that makes no sense, and even when it was solved, there was no doubt that you solved it, even if you didn't know what to do with the answer when you did. I use it as a guide for when I make my guesses about how to solve/look for other riddles, cause I'm hoping they will all end up this surprisingly clean in the end.

Anyway, here is the solution: http://www.argwiki.de/index.php5?title=QU13E_-_Gel%C3%B6ste_R%C3%A4tsel There's not an anchor to go directly to the answer, just do a search for "between the echos" on that page.

Quote:

There are additional thumbnails not listed in this wiki that are floating in the qu31e frontpage. I know because I saw a post that said "Shimbashi" and there's only one for "Tokyo" here. Might do to refresh the page and make sure we've got all the photos.

That would be awesome if there was another picture. I've never seen a noticeable update to Qu13e, although I know there were a few when it first went up. I guess that will be my rabbit hole for tomorrow...

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 3:03 am
Last edited by punkbass on Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:23 am; edited 1 time in total

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

Re: Wheel Spinning
Or Exercises in Futility

punkbass wrote:

I think you spotted this but just in case, SnaresIllPint is imply an anagram of splinternails. On that note, it occurred to me that 9starpills is an anagram of splinternails, with the letters in the word nine replaced by an actual 9. Ninestarpills = splinternails.

Ought to have spotted that one sooner.

With snares a probable reference to a red herring, and the '9' a reference to the nine muses, I might have a lead towards interpreting some of qu13e's cryptic phrases. As well as qu13e itself...

I don't believe that has been any puzzle involving numbers that hasn't involved converting numbers into letters and words. Hence they lie. Please let me know if I'm wrong on this one.

Nabokovian indeed.

Quote:

Unfortunately I can't - the email was rejected. No response to my pleas for a resend. However, I did receive a response from an email sent to Polyhymnia. If my assumptions are correct ("... of each tree once and only once", each muse may only be emailed once. That means we have six emails to the muses below. I have no intention of emailing them at this point in time, I leave that to other's perusal.

~~Calliope~~ , Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene????, ~~Polyhymnia~~ , Terpsichore, ~~Thalia~~ and Urania

By the way did the previous trail liaise with Mnemosyne or Melpomene? I think I've been reading it as Mnemosyne.

Just to be clear, there's no question at this point that each image refers to a specific muse. I don't think this is a lead though, I think it was supposed to be obvious from the start.

To find the muse each image refers to, save it and open it in notepad. You'll find spaced text such as s a c r e d or c o m e d y, which refers to the domain of a specific muse.

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 11:08 am

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

Quote:

To find the muse each image refers to, save it and open it in notepad. You'll find spaced text such as s a c r e d or c o m e d y, which refers to the domain of a specific muse.

I also believe the images are in order of the muse's birth.

Quote:

By the way did the previous trail liaise with Mnemosyne or Melpomene? I think I've been reading it as Mnemosyne.

~~I'm not clear what you are asking, but in greek mythology Melpomene was one of the muses. Mnemosyne was the god of memory... Which also seems relevant.~~ Sorry, I misunderstood the question. We worked with Melpomene. But she stopped responding, and whoever started answering on the other end said she was dead.

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:04 pm
Last edited by punkbass on Sat Sep 06, 2014 1:56 am; edited 1 time in total

Syke
Decorated

Joined: 28 Aug 2004
Posts: 258
Location: CA

Re: Wheel Spinning
Or Exercises in Futility

punkbass wrote:

Also, I noticed that HR has removed all his posts again. His new one says:

Quote:

Mitaka, Japan Today @ 5:15 pm 2.

Along with this picture:

That is the same image that was on one of the comments on HR's original post about splinternails that led us to him.

It looks like he's +1ed a journal entry on a newly created splinterbitch profile.

Thanks for the welcome Punkbass! Smile

i dont necessarily like lurking, but like i said im good at it Razz

and most of the time, i end up posting trout :/ which is probably why i lurk so much haha

sorry if its creepy :S

in other news, splinterbitch's LJ has been deleted.....or at least thats what it says when you click on the link you posted

_________________
-Syke (AKA Fazer)
NowPlaying:
NUNYA
Lurking...AlwaysLurking Shifty Eyes

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 4:33 pm

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

Sisyphus

I went back to the drawing board and I'm going to focus on tackling the qu13e uppercase/lowercase puzzle (if it is a puzzle). I haven't looked at it so far.

Did a bit more reading on the previous trail and discovered some oddities and things of interest.

- Splinterbitch was a webmaster and acted in a technical capacity, she expressed concern on the 26th August 2003 that Random Martin vanished, and had a site expressing this too.

- Random Martin is splinternails, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

- Random Martin may have been known for creating puzzles in Tokyo.

- The LJ account 'hetiesmeup' needs to be reviewed and is almost certainly relevant. The user of this account now goes by the name 'demica' and can be found online.

- The 31st October does actually appear to be Random Martin's birthday.

- I had another look at the Vampires song. The date for creation is set to 31/10/2004 15:37. The quality of the song means that either a) it was recorded with dated recording equipment b) it was recorded with a phone or other piece of inappropriate equipment c) it was recorded at a live venue d) the sound has been modified or finally e) some combination of the above. I think it was a) and I think it's as you said Punkbass, an old splintersong of Random Martin's.

- I think the lyrics may refer to Random Martin, "are you sure you are alive you could be dead". These may not be the exact words as this portion of the song is difficult to make out.

- I continue to suspect that 'secrets must be kept' means that we should be careful of what we share on here.

- I need to pay more attention to wordplay.

- I still have no clue on where to proceed or how much value to place on the various things we have to go on.

- ... Pretty clueless in general actually.

Regarding no_moon's redacted posts, perhaps there's value in seeing what was and wasn't redacted.

I think there's a possibility of stego being used on HR's latest image, check the two pictures below to note the peculiar artifacts.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 1:22 pm

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

Your historical information seems accurate. But this is a new game afoot; I am not sure to what degree history has bearing.

We should move forward only with caution and respect.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:09 pm
Last edited by no_moon on Sun Sep 07, 2014 2:27 am; edited 2 times in total

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

no_moon wrote:

I am as ever rM's friend, and I would like him to know it. If he said secrets beware, I must keep mine. To be honest I hadn't read most of the previous past posts of this ARG on this forum until now (too long), and now realize that in the past, participants were warned to ask permission to share info. We should have done so from the outset. That said, there's no true value in what I did or did not redact. Please do not waste time on that.

Your historical information seems accurate. But this is a new game afoot; I am not sure to what degree history has bearing.

We should move forward only with caution and respect.

Who said rM said secrets must be kept?

HR said it.

No_moon I believe you have betrayed yourself Razz

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:35 pm

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

I really recommend reading up on the previous threads about this ARG. Part of it seems to have been that we are given clues we must solve and some of those clues are meant for us alone. If the guide shares them with multiple people, then we can make them public on the forum. HR only echoed the games of previous years. Before, the guide used warnings like "secrets beware" repeatedly.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:36 pm
Last edited by no_moon on Sun Sep 07, 2014 2:28 am; edited 1 time in total

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

I didn't post any of HR's social media online or share them with anyone, and I have no intention of doing so. There are no justifications for copy pasting Japanese lyrics from tumblr and accusing me of doxxing.

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:06 am

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

Re: Sisyphus

supersekretsrsly wrote:

I went back to the drawing board and I'm going to focus on tackling the qu13e uppercase/lowercase puzzle (if it is a puzzle). I haven't looked at it so far.

I think this is a good idea. I've been trying to nail down the puzzle on the last image, the one that says "I am the Key". I'm also thinking that not only do we have to email the right muse the right answer to the puzzle, but I think the muse associated with the puzzle is a hint as to how to solve it. One thing I am not entirely convinced of, however, is that the muse associated with the image via the key word in the image's comment is the right muse to contact. Since we've never solved one of the puzzles correctly through the muse, it's hard to say for sure... but I guess it's probably a good place to start.

Quote:

- The LJ account 'hetiesmeup' needs to be reviewed and is almost certainly relevant. The user of this account now goes by the name 'demica' and can be found online.

I actually did this today, thanks to my 1337 stalxor skillz. I think, like HR, this is someone who played the game previously, and expressed an interest in splinternails in hopes of getting contact from him. So I left it at that, I didn't contact this person, and I don't think we need to.

At one point when the game had been on hiatus for a while, splinternails once contacted some of the main players via lj or other means of social media. I think a lot of players started making it clear they were interested in splinternails in hopes of also receiving a mysterious message... In fact, telling the story reminds me that the reason my email signature contains my skype contact was because I was hoping for the very same thing! Very Happy

Anyway, the point of the story being, I think HR is aware of the game, but is not game related. I think we should start expecting it to be very obvious when an external source is game related (comment directed towards all involved)(including me Smile

Quote:

- I think the lyrics may refer to Random Martin, "are you sure you are alive you could be dead". These may not be the exact words as this portion of the song is difficult to make out.

I hadn't thought of this. The first line, "There's something here that's deeper than the sea" Makes me think that it's saying there's a puzzle there that we have to dig a little bit to find. I also think it's possible that the point of the site was to either a) alert the masses that the PM is ready to play Qu13e again, or b) alert the masses that a new game is coming in Oct/Nov. (I secretly hope it's a, as much as I would love to see another game, I would hate to spend the rest of my life not knowing the answer to Qu13e)(oops, sounded stalxor again...)

Quote:

- I continue to suspect that 'secrets must be kept' means that we should be careful of what we share on here.

I'm starting to realize the same thing, well, I think we all are.

Quote:

- I need to pay more attention to wordplay.

- I still have no clue on where to proceed or how much value to place on the various things we have to go on.

- ... Pretty clueless in general actually.

Then I'm not alone!

Anyway, waiting a response from Urania. I will let you know if I get anything worthwhile.

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:42 am
Last edited by punkbass on Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:18 am; edited 1 time in total

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

New Thumbnails

no_moon wrote:

The photos can be accessed systematically by following the pattern in the URL, each thumbnail for an image starts with a letter and ends with one of the 9 two digit numbers all the other thumbnails use. I used this pattern and did not find any additional thumbnails, nor did I see anything new with a few attempts at refreshing the splash screen.

I'm not clear by your comment about a post(?) that said "Shimbashi"? what were you referring to?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:44 am

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