Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Wed Nov 13, 2024 6:06 pm
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Slumberil
Game Story
View previous topicView next topic
Page 1 of 2 [30 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
Author Message
yanka
Fickle


Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 1214
Location: undesirable

 		 Game Story
I'm going to try to compile something along the lines of "the story so far".

[EDIT] I think I'll just keep editing this until someone has a guide-type-thing set up. [/EDIT]

Slumberil (a little blue pill that keeps you *asleep*) is somehow either a daughter company, or an affiliate, or a partner of Wright Research (it has a ticker symbol of MCEX: SLMB). Wright Research, as far as I'm able to tell, also makes: Elysium (a little yellow pill that somehow makes you *bliss*fully unaware (of the Matrix)); and Tranquiline (Rebecca Night, whom you will meet a little later on, helped develop Tranquline). The Wright Research building exists in MxO (actually, if someone could do a summary on the MxO, that'd be really nice Smile ).

We have three executives from Slumberil; two of them haven't really entered the stage yet: Willhiem Schlaf (CEO), and Marcel Usurier (VP and CFO). Third up is Rebecca Night, Slumberil's VP of R&D; we think she might be our protagonist.

The "secure access" area on the site lead us to a bunch of user folders:
Code:
 lumberg/                02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 
 murphy/                 00-Jan-1999 00:00      - 
 night/                  02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 
 philips/                02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 
 schlaf/                 02-Jan-1999 16:17      - 
 usurier/                02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 
 weyland/                02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 
 wilson/                 02-Jan-1999 16:31      - 


(Orphaen keeps mirrors on xmyth, and here is colin's mirror of the secure area from that day).

Ms. Night was the only one to have anything other than parent directory links in her folder: a .txt file with "w4k3up" in it.

It is interesting to note that the user murphy was added some time later (the exact time could probably be found on the xmyth boards) and features a rather strange (non-existent) date. So far it seems that the game timeline parallels ours, with the exception of a 6-year offset.

Logging in to the secure area with user:pandora, pw:w4k3up yielded this note:
Quote:
SYSTEM ACCESS

1. View Access Logs
2. Reset Access Logs
3. View Security Camera Images
4. Reset Security Camera Images
5. View System Messages
6. Reset System Messages

Timestamp: 1999-01-02 06:00:00
Subject: Commencement

I am Pandora.

The fact that you are here and reading this means that for now, my clumsy tinkering with the Slumberil mainframe has gone unnoticed. This is a luxury neither of us can take for granted long term.

My goal is simple: to provide you with the information necessary to stand, one or all, against the coming storm. I care not for the laws that bound my blue pill existence, for you and I both know they mean nothing.

I was under the illusion that my work meant something, now I have no such comfort.

What do you do out there in the real to combat the ravaging truth?

This is my stand. I care not for the consequence; let the foundation of lies shake asunder under the onslaught of my terrible truth. Let the tower of ignorance topple from its lofty perch. Let wisdom shared grant wings to all the damned that they might sully forth and leave this hell once and for all to build a better tomorrow for all mankind…

But I must focus on the now, and not a future's fancy that I will not share.

Any of you that find the way may ask of me anything your heart or curiosity desires. Nothing is sacred - no longer will I keep the secret trust of those who seek to manipulate your existence. If you want to know the secrets of The Matrix that have been hidden from you all these long and weary years, ask and I shall answer.

You can rest assured that I will not jeopardize your anonymity; any correspondence will be used to further this record of revelation, and to that end you can contact me at this secure location: PandoraSPLATslumberil.com

I cannot stress how short this opportunity is. If you need any information on the current state of The Matrix, strike now while I still have the breath. I would ask that you keep this communication private in an…

…Someone is coming, I will return as soon as I am able.


Another message from Pandora appeared on a corrupted version of the Elysium page:
Quote:
Open your eyes Redpills, do not be fooled by promises of bliss and plenty. There is no return to the deceitful ignorance that you once called your life. Elysium as "they" have come to call your instrument of destruction, is a fatal placebo. If you make the journey to Wright Research you will not return, "they" are waiting for those redpills, foolish enough to seek its embrace. There is no happy ending, not as advertised by this vehicle of doom, the real, the truth you know is harsh and cold but at least its freedom, and a chance at a better tomorrow.


I'm compelled to tell you this, for a great part of this burden lies sqaurely on my shoulders. For the best part of my life I have engineered life changing pharmaceuticals, I knew... no... believed I was making a difference with my dedication and inspiration. All however was lies, a sick perversion of the truth, yes my gifts have surely changed our world, but as surely, they are far from instruments of good.


Regardless of the personal cost I must make amends, I will not falter in this pledge even if my life be forfeit, this cost is trivial when compared to the evil I have wrought. You may ask of me anything you need, perhaps forearmed with this insight you will in your numbers undo together the horror of my lifes work.


I care not for laws or contracts, I am bound to a greater law now. However you and I both know my time here is short, but time enough for me to pass on the secrets of the Matrix, to those that would ask the worthy questions.


If you went through certain steps (which are detailed here), you would get this message:
Quote:
Pandora Transmission Schedule MWF


On January 5 (a Wednesday), Pandora e-mailed this (from a Rebecca Night <pandora@slumberil.com> account):
Quote:
I must be brief…

I'm in real danger and I don't know who to turn to, some of you warned
me that my clumsy tinkering with the mainframe might have been detected
and right now that hunch seems to be dead on.

The Slumberil Labs are swarming with corporate security and men in
black, I can only assume they are F.B.I, and further that they are here
for me.

I know it's much to ask, you don't know me but you are my only hope. I
need 2 things as quickly as you are able to; my very life depends on
your haste.

I need you to seek out any evidence on the www.slumberil.com site that
may implicate my involvement. I have no clue where to look and even
less time, but if its there it must be found and purged.

The second act may have some of you uncomfortable but it must be done
if only to grant me a window of opportunity so that you may learn from
me the secrets of the Matrix. I would appeal to the purpose serving a
greater good but the hollow noble notion leaves a bitter taste in my
mouth.

If there are logs of my movements or actions, a trail of some kind I
know you wont be able to erase it completely, you will have to alter
the incriminating evidence, to point the trail at another.

I don't have time to debate the morality of such an act; I only know
that without you I am lost before we have even begun.

Please do not forsake me I beg you…

Pandora


It is my opinion that so far we have not succeeded in accomplishing either of the two things she asked us.

Enter Neil.

On the same day, the secure are started displaying this message:
Quote:
Greetings.
Your actions are being logged.
Quit messing up our system.
We will prosecute.
This is MY house.

-Neil aka God


The following autoresponders were sent:

Quote:
From : Neil, Server Admin <pandora@slumberil.com>
Sent : 05 January 2005
To : (Munchkin's e-mail)
Subject : Re:

All mail accounts are frozen while an internal audit is performed.

All of you that have been abusing this system will be tracked down and
dealt with.

This is MY house.

Neil.


We first learned of Neil's existence through this exchange on the secure area:

note to greg c.txt wrote:
Greg. Make sure you take a look at the .htaccess on this folder. Someone
keeps messing with the settings whatever you do don't tell Quinn about
it. If he finds out this has happened more than once this week we are
seriously fubar. I think it might be one of the airhead researchers but
they shouldn't even have access to this part of the network.

Neil

ATTENTION-NEIL-READ-THIS.TXT wrote:
WTF IS THIS! Call me as soon as you read this. You know my number stop
leaving messages on the zai. Better yet install the mail prog like you
were supposed to you lazy stupid pos. We only have till morning.

G.


That morning, everything on the secure area was removed (save for the lovely warning from Neil), and we learned of Zai Mail.

Today three steg messages have been found:

in http://www.slumberil.com/images/elysiumbox.jpg
Code:
Pre-Postal Gankfest Angst Volume 777
Jesus H farting Christ I need to burn this mother down. The breath on that hell spawn Quinn could slay a rhino at 40 paces, not to mention his bitch boy, goodie two shoes, fairy princess, Greg, my dog can code circles round that 1053r.
My mother always said I would amount to nothing and this place just about sums it up. WTF am I doing wasting my youth in this pit. I might as well head up to the roof access and take a one-way trip to salvation.
These geishas don't need the lil blue pill that keeps you where you want to be…asleep, they should bottle their inane, moronic, conversation its far more effective. Quinn has a full on chubby for my every breath, its like I go to the cooler, I swear to JC he's checkin out the wiggle in my jiggle.
And another thing while I'm at it, that assclown Greg tells me to install this POS mail sys one more bloody time, I'm going to install this software, box, and all right up where the sun don't shine, pansy ass choir boy!


in http://www.slumberil.com/images/elysiumpill.jpg
Code:
Neil Musings 1 am 1nv1c1bl3 778

I have to admit that I am without doubt utterly brilliant. My continued piss take of Greg's web content gives me no end of personal fulfillment and ego stroking. 778 embedded posts and not even Quinnbot has uncovered my nefarious opus.

I believe without this relief I would have gone totally bonkers at day 3 of my employment here in the dungeon of gloom. Wait a sec…

…Ah nuts rot breath just passed my secondary proximity perimeter, guess this one will have to wait till after I hear what part of the world needs saving now.

Btw supposedly the entire research team has been sequestered pending investigation; again I knew one of those pharm geeks was messing in my house. Whoever gets stuck with the rap I will fabricate some logs just to ensure mandatory 10 to 20 in the big house. "Who's your Daddy, Dr Punk?"


and in http://www.slumberil.com/images/incriminate.jpg
Code:
Bye-Bye Greg 779

-------------
Even if I find the 1053r that soiled MY house, Greg is still going out the door. I figure make hay while the sun shines, nail him with appropriate evidence, then take my time tracking down the real culprit for blackmail at a later date.

Never know if I'm lucky I might get some sweet loving out of this deal long term, that Rebecca is h4wt.

d**n! 1_4M_g0d! if it works for Greg might as well apply the same method to Ms. Night regardless of guilt, candy from babies, easy street everytime.
-------------

______________________________________________________________

What's going on?

- Rebecca Night is probably Pandora
- she is aware (or at least knows) of the Matrix, and wants to tell us... um, something. Something about the Matrix, the blue pills, and Elysium
- we haven't had any communication from her after her last e-mail on Wedensday

- Neil is Slumberil's Server Admin, Greg C. is the web designer, and Quinn seems to be their boss
- Neil hates Greg, is very arrogant, and possibly homophobic Mr. Green
- Neil is also eeevil: he wants to get rid of Greg by framing him; he also wants to obtain sexual favors from Rebecca by blackmailing her Geek

_____________________________________________________________

What happened today, January 8th?

Slumberil put out a press release, the source of which was filled with binary - yes, you guessed it, it's another humble message from Neil. Philter on xmyth boards found from that the login to Zai Mail: neil/1_AM_g0d!
The passwords for two other users were found immediately after in Neil's sent folder: quinn/tr0n5uck5 and greg/314_is_l1f3

What can we glean from the e-mails prior to Jan. 9th? Neil hates Greg and Quinn. Greg hates Neil (and, possibly Quinn). Quinn hates Neil and Greg. There is a pronounced lack of sweet loving at Slumberil; maybe they should invite Wongmo for some corporate seminars or something.

On the bright side, Neil has a small manhood.

Here's a not-so-inclusive list of things that we learned from the e-mails (the full list of mails up to Jan. 9th is here):
- CEO of Slumberil (Schlaf) tells Quinn that either he finds the "rot in this company" or he's fired within 24 hours
- Quinn (Neil's and Greg's boss) tells both of them to fix the situation (including the "situation" on the ftp, which was player-created) asap or one of them will get fired (and worse)
- Greg whines to Neil and Quinn about "the situation" not being his fault
- Neil knows that "the rot" is Pandora, and is planning to blackmail her (see the stuff about sexual favors above)
- Quinn must have gotten really scared, 'cause he started searching for jobs
- Neil lives with his mother and doesn't have a car
- Quinn has a lovely wife Very Happy


At this point, Zai Mail is somewhat of a disaster - send/move functions are enabled for players, and over the course of the evening the mailboxes have been filling up with player-sent e-mails; so my advice to you is to ignore anything that was sent from Neil's/Greg's/Quinn's acct after Jan. 8th.

Last, this e-mail was sent to Neil by ZaiMail tech support:

Quote:
Date: 1999-01-09 01:01:01

From: supportSPLATzaiserve.zai
To: neil


Subject: ZaiMail Vulnerability Warning


Valued ZaiMail Customer,

It has recently come to our attention that a flaw in the current release build of ZaiMail (build 0101) causes system instability on servers when too many messages are sent or received by the system while in audit mode.

Our engineers are currently working on a patch to resolve this issue. Until said patch is ready for distribution, we suggest you try to limit send/receive transactions on any servers running ZaiMail in audit mode. Failure to do so could result in catastrophic system instability and data loss.

We will inform you when the patch is ready for installation. Thank you for your understanding and patience.


Regards,


ZaiServer Systems
Technical Support Dept.


Oh, and another thing: the prompt on /private changed from "Pandora's Box" to "Dead End Look Elsewhere" ("elsewhere" possibly being anything on the secure area, other zmail accts, and Pandora's folder).

_____________________________________________________________

What happened today, Jan. 9th?

Suddenly Zai Mail crashed. Perhaps it was due to the incessant sending and receiving of messages by players, which, as we were warned "causes system instability on servers... while in audit mode."

The old /confidential directory was dumped to /trash. Logging to /trash/confidential with the old user/pw of Pandora/w4k3up worked, and there was another message from Pandora.

It seems Pandora is thanking us for help, though I am not sure we have really done that which she requested; and we're not sure how to do that which she asks of us in her latest transmission (for that matter, I'm not even sure what it is she is asking us to do).

Unsolved stuff: of note is the binary thing in zmail error message.


_____________________________________________________________

Huge thanks to Orphaen for his daily updates; everyone who solved, found, and posted stuff; and all the other boards discussing this game for compiling the info. And to Space, as always, for uF Very Happy

** stickied -- jamesi
_________________
Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:17 am
Last edited by yanka on Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:28 pm; edited 5 times in total
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Omnie
Entrenched


Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 772

 		Awesome. Just one thing:
yanka wrote:
- Neil was hired by Slumberil on... what is it, Monday? (I'm counting three days back from the appearance of elysiumpill.jpg)

I didn't read his "I would have gone insane by day 3 of my employment" comment as meaning that this actually is day 3. I think his comments about the webspace being *his* imply that he's been here for a while.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:30 am
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Reppie
Guest


 		The number of notes Neil claims to have left must indicate that he was hired a long, long time before the current time of this ARG.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:30 am
 Back to top 
yanka
Fickle


Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 1214
Location: undesirable

 		Thanks, guys; I've taken it out.
_________________
Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:43 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Munchkin
Veteran

Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland (that small place to the north of England!)

 		Not important but just to add a little more:
The company that made Elysium and Slumberil have also made a chemical called Tranquiline. (Actually - I thought this was a real medical chemical used as a tranquiliser.)
- C

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:37 am
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
AnthraX101
Entrenched

Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Posts: 797

 		Steg Passwords (All with JPHide v5)

elysiumbox.jpg: j5042100
elysiumpill.jpg: ZAISV0101
incriminate.jpg: redpill

(Thanks to the Matrix Dojo Forums)

AnthraX101
_________________
VGhlcmUgaXMgbm8gc3Bvb24u
ll----ll--ll--ll----l---ll---llll---ll--l--ll---llll-ll-l-ll-llll--l-.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:53 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
simo66
Guest


 		Matrix dojo only found one of those.
xmyth.proboards44.com found one
and radiofreezion found the other

PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:01 pm
 Back to top 
Ehsan
Entrenched

Joined: 09 May 2003
Posts: 992
simo66 wrote:
Matrix dojo only found one of those.
xmyth.proboards44.com found one
and radiofreezion found the other


And unfiction didn't get anything? Sad

I'm really trying to get into this thing, but being so stubborn refuse to go to other boards (or have enough time for that matter).

So right now I have a problem.. I don't understand how the game is progressing.. I don't want to go somewhere else to find out how a picture was destegged or where a password comes from. What happened to the good old days when everything was posted here??

And now this latest zai thingy doesn't make sense because there are fake messages? One of them has binary that decodes to another board.. argh! Sorry I just feel left out and that was my rant..

PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 2:22 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
yanka
Fickle


Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 1214
Location: undesirable

 		Ehsan! I'm so happy to see you... again! You need to go to #slumberil Smile
_________________
Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 2:43 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Munchkin
Veteran

Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland (that small place to the north of England!)
Ehsan wrote:
simo66 wrote:
Matrix dojo only found one of those.
xmyth.proboards44.com found one
and radiofreezion found the other


And unfiction didn't get anything? Sad

I'm really trying to get into this thing, but being so stubborn refuse to go to other boards (or have enough time for that matter).

So right now I have a problem.. I don't understand how the game is progressing.. I don't want to go somewhere else to find out how a picture was destegged or where a password comes from. What happened to the good old days when everything was posted here??

And now this latest zai thingy doesn't make sense because there are fake messages? One of them has binary that decodes to another board.. argh! Sorry I just feel left out and that was my rant..


Although I'm pretty new to unfiction it seems really great! - But I think for this one I'm visiting other boards - just because so much got done earlier.
Lots of the e-mails that appear in zmail are just people spamming this - though this seems to have stopped now. Smile
The real e-mails all have different dates (aside from a few e-mails with from addresses outside of zmail). Hope that was vaguely useful. Smile
- C

PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:26 am
 View user's profile MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
niobexrev2
Greenhorn

Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 5

 		Questions

Okay, I'm back under a slightly new name since I forgot my unfiction account. Nevermind that.

I just have a few questions about this ARG.

Is it connected to the Metacortechs ARG? If so Embarassed since I forgot my e-mail account as well (haven't used yahoo mail for a while) I probably have missed some important messages.

If not, is it still a fan ARG or an official Matrix connected ARG? Contrary to last time, I'm actually kind of hoping it's fan ARG. If it's official, then it's probably connected to Matrix online, and I can't play Matrix online on this crappy computer, soon when I get a better one maybe.

So anyway, although last time, I was sort of hoping metacortechs.com was officially connected, I actually enjoyed it as a fan ARG just the same. But unlike last time, the argument about whether or not it was official was partially based on the fact that the ARG never makes mention of "The Matrix" or characters in it (unless you count the extremely common name of Thomas Anderson and the metacortechs building). But here, I've been looking at the websites, the puzzles, the secret messages, and this ARG is more brave about its connection to the Matrix.

So anyway, yes, I'm hoping this is a fan ARG. But if it's official, it's still okay as long as it doesn't require you to play Matrix online.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:04 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
yanka|tage
Guest


 		It doesn't seem to be connected with the Metacortechs game.

It does seem to be official - this is the MxO screenshot of the day for Jan. 03, and it was captioned with a link to slumberil.com.

Not sure if any of it matters so much, since the whole thing is sort of dead right now (though I'm really really hoping for a revival).

PostPosted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 3:45 pm
 Back to top 
niobexrev2
Greenhorn

Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 5

 		*sigh* Well, I'll keep up with this but I hope it doesn't require me to play some video game I may never end up being able to play.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:25 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
orphaen
Veteran


Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Posts: 142
Location: southern Louisiana

 		Don't be such a gloomy gus, it hasn't so far. Wink I'm fairly sure it won't, either.
It's dead, but you can idly chat with us over at xMyth, we're half-assedly covering Neurocam Wink
_________________
Here I am, Paradox Personified.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:38 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 ICQ Number 
 Back to top 
niobexrev2
Greenhorn

Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 5
orphaen wrote:
Don't be such a gloomy gus, it hasn't so far. Wink I'm fairly sure it won't, either.
It's dead, but you can idly chat with us over at xMyth, we're half-assedly covering Neurocam Wink


When was the last update?

PostPosted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:33 am
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 1 of 2 [30 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Slumberil
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group