unforum

Vraal · Guest

Partial(?) Solve to Painting

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 9:53 am

Guest · Guest

I'm going to say....By George I think he's got it! Great work!
Only thing I've seen that actually works!

~cem

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 10:10 am

Sin Vraal · Decorated Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ

But the map remains...

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 7:13 pm

Caterpillar

LOL....I have taken a 24 hour sabbatical from LLL's map.(which is up sometime later this evening:))

What I'm wondering is.....and maybe some of the longtimers (won't say oldtimers) can help answer it....

Splinter came along and said he got the map after trying to sign up for a PM op.

The Client Referrals Page (where you signed up to help with the "game") is now disabled, citing security issues.

Splinter has never come back here (at least in that guise).

So....is signing up to help out "part of the actual game", for which you receive the map puzzle.

Or did Splinter hack something he shouldn't have?

Did we miss something, and LLL was dropping us a hint in the form of Splinter's post? (Did we get this puzzle in a legitimate drop?)

I'm frustrated as heck with that puzzle, and my main worry is that it isn't a puzzle with all the pieces. It's not like we solved something and advanced to it....Know what I mean Vern...er...I mean Vraal?

I don't know enough about the way the genre works, so I'm hoping someone can give me the most distinct possibility. (I realize "the times they are a-changing at any given moment, but someone plz give me your best educated guess)

Thanks!
~cem

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 7:41 pm

dashcat

Cemgate,

After reading your's and splinter's posts I filled out the PM survey. I answered it honestly, meaning I had to put down zero experience in all the applications and quite a few other catagories. I received the same map puzzle in reply. The day after I filled it out the survey was closed. I did the survey hoping to get a different piece of the map puzzle. I'm thinking what we got is the whole puzzle. I'm a little dismayed to hear about Splinter never coming back. I wonder what that means?

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 8:14 pm

Guest · Guest

Dashcat:
Maybe it means Splinter was a plant...lol
Well it's good to know it's a legit puzzle.
That's the main thing I was looking for.

And Vraal, I am well-aquainted with your cryptic posts dear sir... Wink

and after reading your post again, well...I am wondering "Have you already solved it and are giving me a nudge?" (Hey, I'll take anything I can get at this point and turn it into something else)...lol

~cem Very Happy

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 8:27 pm

Sin Vraal · Decorated Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ

Solving the map

**Posted:** Mon Jan 20, 2003 11:33 pm

Caterpillar

Well now the map is changed.
No numbers, just directions and fountains...blah I give up. (I get that it's Machu Pichu ...just can't look east, south, north, and west anymore)

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 12:35 am

Q Continuum · Kilroy Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 1

Okay, before the rumor mill runs totally amuck, there's a bit of TRUTH that needs telling.

On Friday evening, I IM'd Vraal about something or other and he told me he was conducting an interview concerning L3. Initially, I didn't even know what he was referring to, but he kindly pointed me to the relevant Unfiction posts and links and I caught up.

On Sunday, he asked me if I'd review his write-up of the interview (done for DeadDrop) when he finished. I agreed. While he was finalizing it, we exchanged a few IMs. In one, he told me he thought the charcoal markings underneath the painting constituted a message in semaphore because the marks appeared to emulate clock-hand positions. (Something made him think of this, he said, while discussing the TimeHunt "Saturn" puzzle with a newbie.) He asked if I had the time to see if the marks were translatable because he was extremely busy with finishing his write-up under a fast-approaching deadline, but he was highly curious to know if he was correct. As soon as I saw the marks, I knew where he was coming from -- quite an epiphany! I started translating, reporting back to him each character's translation as I went along. It was immediately apparent that the first line spelled "FAIL", so we were pretty excited that he was on to something. Neither one of us paid any attention to the time period when the painting was ostensibly created. Stupid, perhaps, but that's the way it went down.

Today, I find that a couple of people at Collective Detective are "100 percent" certain that Vraal and his posts are ingame as to L3. Not the case, I assure you. After coming up with "FAIL," the remaining letters were mostly nonsensical (at the time) consonants, so we thought it had turned into a wild goose chase. A few minutes later, he told me that it came out to "failsafe.html" but, having figured out that much, couldn't find where to use it. As a joke, I suggested he try it at JMX. LOL!

Similarly, some think Vraal's post pleading with Cemgate to solve the map puzzle was in fact a cryptic hint. Also not true. Although Vraal has been known to leave a cryptic post here and there (which I enjoy) when he's derived a solve, I've found that such a post will allude to that fact. It's his way of saying "it's doable." That wasn't the case here; he was just clearly hoping that Cemgate could go further toward the solve.

So, folks, Vraal is not ingame as to L3. Whatever ELSE he may be up to Rolling Eyes

, however, is always anyone's guess! Laughing

Unfortunately, this means that it's back to the drawing board!

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:43 am

dashcat

My map shows Machu Pichu too.

Guest · Guest

solve?

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:16 am

Caterpillar

Okay...

The map has changed. Is it a different, but similar puzzle or has the puzzle been changed because no one solved the first map?

One way to help narrow the possibilities is to find out if anyone mailed an answer to LL for Map1. I did as suggested and emailed the possible answer DRACO that I talked about in another thread. It was very shortly after this that the map changed. I emailed it to them and I also submitted through their "Contact Us" page.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone submitted the same answer before I did (which was somewhere about 10-15 mins before the map changed to Machu Pichu last night). Because this would clear up the possibility that the answer DRACO facilitated the change. (And I'm also wondering: If DRACO was indeed the correct answer, can PMs actually work that fast?)

Or have other answers to Map1 been submitted last evening that may have triggered the change?

I don't think I'm going to bust my brain on this one, but am interested to know what the catalyst was for the Map change.

~cem

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:27 am

Sin Vraal · Decorated Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ

Skeptical Guests

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 10:07 am

Caterpillar

Okay....so we know it wasn't the DRACO answer that facilitated the map change. So did anyone else submit a different answer or is it the same puzzle in a different light?

~cem

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:28 pm

SpaceBass

Re: Skeptical Guests

**Posted:** Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:37 pm

_________________
Alternate Reality Gaming
http://www.unfiction.com/