Heyho folks, I figured I'd set up a thread for each of the current missions. While the use of spoiler tags is encouraged for the first page of the thread, it is not enforced, as the policy is still being worked out, so there may be spoilers! After the missions are completed - i.e. no longer available in the client - I'll either merge the relevant threads into one and store them together in the Archived Missions section, or they will be stored individually; it depends on what is most efficient, and to some extent, on the size of the threads. Keep in mind: This is only a proposal as to how we can structure mission relevant communication, so any feedback is more than welcome - i.e. would it be better to have the whole "batch" of missions centered around a single thread. Mission 18: "The Rogue Agent" One of our veteran agents has betrayed us. It is imperative that you track him down immediately.
While I can confirm the location that Deepthroat mentions, I've not found anything relating to it that works as the passphrase, so I'm working under the assumption that we need the solution to Page 1 first; and in those regards, I've at a complete hard-lock. So far, I've attempted: Spoiler: I dun Identifying where the notes come from. Both by note-search engines (where you "play in" the notes and search), as well as transcribed note search (e'8 d'8 f'8 a'8 b'2 g'2 c'2) - but either due to my musical ineptitude, or because of it being the wrong approach, I found nothing of relevance. Identifying where Hapsburg Etude points to. I must admit in this regard, I've made absolutely no headway, as I've found nothing by that exact name (or translated; etude = studio, I believe). It's possible it refers to a specific musical piece written in Hapsburg, which is one of the possibilities I'll be researching next. Identifying what encryption was used for the cipher. I've yet to find any 7-letter grouped cipher, but I did find a very basic music-based encryption method, albeit the types of letters involved in the cipher seems to exclude that possibility. Likewise, I've not found any identifying factors in the letters used. Modifying the cipher itself. Throwing it through the good ol' ROT-machine gave no noteworthy variations. I've also attempted to convert all the letters to their numerical value (A=1, B=2), and added up the sum total of each 7-letter group, in order to see if it was - as the numbers would point to initially - a masked decimal code. Steps I have in mind next: Spoiler: Next up Looking closer at the pastebin, to see if I've missed a potential lead there. Searching for musical pieces written in Hapsburg, and see if that leads me to anyone - or where - in particular. Anyone else having any headway?
I made a number of rather pathetic tries myself: Spoiler étude is the French word for study (étudier = to study). A musical étude is a difficult piece of music to help one hone their skills. Calling this an étude may be a hint in the puzzle or may be a meta comment referencing the difficult nature of this mission and its existence to challenge playerbase and programming alike while alpha testing continues. As for Hapsburg, I thought it was referring to the dynasty, personally, and I had tried to read up on that. Interesting to note that one of the Habsburgs was the owner of the fabled Voynich Manuscript. I too had tried to transcribe the musical notation to code last night (EDFABGC/5461273 if going numerically), but wasn't able to do much with it by itself. What I had done with the cipher was, like you, tried a 7x7 pairing, I was primarily focusing on transpositions such as swagman, bifid, and a variety of other methods I'll have to dig up. Here is where I tried to further apply the music key. I attempted to ascribed it numerically to the values of the letters and to each 'word' and made an effort to swap it about differently. So far my transpositions have failed me. I even resorted to physically transpose the key on top of the sheet music we have to see where the note stems hit a value, if nothing else. This was largely unproductive tangent.
Agents- Spoiler: Open at your own risk You have made progress. Put all of your focus onto the first page for now. DO NOT TAKE THE OBVIOUS AT ITS FACE. Rework your ideas you've written here and think about the pieces in another way.
Ok, I have been thinking about pieces in a different way. I don’t have anything concrete to offer, but here is what I have tried with some interesting (to me) but not fruitful results so far. . . Spoiler I am working the angle that this is not a substitution scheme but a sequencing scheme. The frequency of letters in the message seems to correspond to the frequency of letters in the English language at least. It is heavy on o,a,t,e,h and there is no j,x,q,z for example. This leads me to believe it is just a jumble of plain text words. I started with EDFABGC as the key and assigned numbers to these letters as everyone else seems to be doing. But I tried three different numbering schemes: alpha numeric, diatonic scale, and order of appearance. For example: E could be 5 since it is the 5th letter in the alphabet, it can be 3 since it is the 3rd note in the major scale of C, or it can be 1 since it is the first character in the key string. After having selected a numbering scheme I then treated the words in the message as a vector and ordered them by row and then the letters in each row by column. And then I tried the reverse. By this method I obtained several sequences to bang my head against. I then used the music to try to discern how many characters to use or skip. For example: use the first four letters of each sequence (to match the first 4 connected eighth notes) , skip one , use one (to match the next half note), skip one, use one, skip one, use one, repeat from first measure. I looped around to the beginning when I got to the end of the sequence. The result is still a jumble but with some “words” popping out here and there. Reduced to such haruspexy I searched based on the words and found “Etude for Ghosts” which lead down a path that initially looked promising, but so far it has not panned out for me. I am still convinced this is just a fancy word jumble, and I only have to find the order of jumbling. If nothing else at least I got some ideas for my own encoding scheme some day.
The sheet music gives us the number 1200 (quarter note = 120; four quarter notes = 480; three half notes = six quarter notes = 720), but I'm at a loss for the moment on what to do with that number.
This is what I have so far on the sheet music: Spoiler: Hint 1 The sheet music is a key. Spoiler: Hint 2 One other hint is a cyphertext. Spoiler: Hint 3 The cyphertext needs to be written one word per row, to obtain columns. Spoiler: Hint 4 It's a column transposition cypher. Spoiler: Hint 5 The sheet music, once written in German notation, provides the key. Spoiler: Partial solution The plaintext goes: A TALE FOR A YOUTH NOBODYS HOME BUT GHOSTS AND A HEAVENLY DOG I don't currently know where to go from there.
It's come to my attention that certain online tools that agents may use do not decipher the message as intended. I apologize for that frustration. But I guess it's also good that we found that out :]
Nice find! I tried reproducing the steps, but found that almost all online tools produced the wrong deciphered text (double-checking that all settings were correct, of course.) So, for those wanting to reproduce the results, here's the elbow-grease version: (Fair warning; only one spoiler here) Spoiler: Get in there (spoilers!) Take the cipher text (AYBMOAL TAOOHDN LOOESHY FTYUSAO OHSTAVG EUDBTED ARNHGNE), and arrange each group into its own column, starting with the first group as column 1: ATLFOEA YAOTHUR BOOYSDN MOEUTBH OHSSATG ADHAVEN LNYOGDE Now, translate the notes on the sheet music from alphabet (EDFABGC) to numeral (C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, etc.), you should get: 3246751 Now, take the previous matrix you wrote using the 7-letter groups from the cipher, and re-arrange the columns, putting the column under "1" as the first column: 3246751 ATLFOEA YAOTHUR BOOYSDN MOEUTBH OHSSATG ADHAVEN LNYOGDE Becomes 1234567 ATALEFO RAYOUTH NOBODYS HOMEBUT GHOSTSA NDAHEAV ENLYDOG Then write each row after the other, starting with the top, and adding each subsequent row to the end of the sentence: ATALEFORAYOUTHNOBODYSHOMEBUTGHOSTSANDAHEAVENLYDOG A TALE FOR A YOUTH NOBODYS HOME BUT GHOSTS AND A HEAVENLY DOG Edit: Step 1 solved. Spoiler: Hints and comments A heads-up: while I've tried to articulate these as hints, they are nearly spoilers - the answer is not mentioned outright, however. Spoiler: Hint 1 Looking up the line itself, or snippets of the line, yield nothing - from what I could find at least. The main themes of the line however, are, obviously, Death (ghosts) and the afterlife (heavenly). So we know either the topic, or the theme. Spoiler: Hint 2 We know from the letter that this is taking place in Montreal, which gives us a location. Spoiler: Notes While I was not able to link the line directly to the solution, I was, partly thanks to the format hint, able to deduce what the line was meant to hint at. However, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that establishing what exactly about the line is referencing the answer, is needed for the next step. I do, however, have classes, so unfortunately I'll have to cut my investigation short - and hopefully the pondering will help me stay awake as I make my sleep-deprived drive to Uni in half an hour.
Spoiler: Foiled! This is what I tried, however I was doing A=1, B=2, ... I'm not very musically inclined, evidently! Wonderful find, I wouldn't have found it myself.
Can someone just confirm for me when 100% of the mission is completed? I'll post the ending brief then.
Step 2 completed. Spoiler: Spoiler-esque hints Spoiler: Hint 1 For the sake of completeness, I'll assume the second page image has not been identified. A reverse image search may help, and if not, remember where the picture was likely taken. Spoiler: Hint 2 We now have a secondary location, and a primary, arguably leaving us with two likely options: Either it is a point between those two locations, or it is a connection between the two. Spoiler: Hint 3 It is the latter. Spoiler: Solution The key-phrase does not relate to the department store itself (i.e. founder), but is instead related by name. A different spelling of Ogilvy would be Ogilvie. Looking up the names of interred at the location found in Page 1, we find two candidates. One fits with the format hint.
Spoiler: Post-mission debrief Agents, thank you for your hard work. Suzuki was indeed found in the Mount Royal Cemetery in a shack near the indicated grave. Following a sweep by Division-42, he has been retrieved and is safe in holding at HQ. Unfortunately, we cannot call this one a victory; Agent Nichols found no trace of an enemy correspondent at the dead drop, and there's the matter of Suzuki himself. There are many ways we lose agents in this line of work, it is a dangerous job, but we mustn't forget that not every enemy is on the outside. You have been on only a few missions, but you will encounter horrors beyond your understanding. Our job is to not let this dark influence consume the world, your job is to not let it consume you, as it has Suzuki. He was no rogue agent, there was no rival organization, just a man with a shattered mind, afraid and alone. He was a good agent and a good man. Remember him and his story well. When you need help, ask.
Oh wow, I was actually close I was so close! Spoiler The c-scale method was one I had considered, but it was back when I was too tired to continue on with the mission, and I hadn't any time to go back to it. This was the same procedure I'd done save for the key's scale number. However, I should really add this, as this is actually how you would have known what key to use, figuratively and literally, from what I can see: Spoiler I should note that this isn't necessarily the 'German' method like you claim earlier. It's just the C Major scale, which is actually what the sheet music says it is. The Hapsburg Etude is in the key of C. I didn't initially pay that any heed originally because it's so common that I'm practically programmed to ignore it. CDEFGABC - 12345671. This is how you play the scale. C is always first. This music wanted us to put the letters into the key of C Major in the appropriate order to play it.
Spoiler: Mission Sequence Spoilers! Do Not Read ;( Now that it's been finished, I just wanted to do a couple notes: The intended sequence of this mission Notice that the recurring sequence of 7. 7 notes, 7 letters, 7 'words.' This was to indicate that it would be some kind of 7x7 grid based cipher. Originally the words were going to be written out in a picture 'on grid paper,' but I have no photoshop skills. Sorry! haha After setting up the grid and determining a columnar transposition cipher, you must look for the key. I think all possible keys have been covered :] Most obvious choice would be to make an alphabetical cipher using EDFABGC, but that doesn't work. I wanted the puzzle to be solvable by someone even if they don't know how to read music. If you search for 'Musical Notation' on google, you find the page for "Numbered Musical Notation" on that page. It's called the Cipher System in German! I couldn't resist. And on this page the correct scale, C major, is the first set explained. (I considered transposing it to G major or something else, decided against it. You're welcome.) Gives you sequence 3246751 Columnar transposition with the number sequence gives you the sentence: "A tale for a youth, Nobody's home but ghosts and a heavenly dog." Santiak rearranged the rows into columns in his explanation, but that is not necessary. All it does is lets you read the resulting sentence horizontally instead of vertically. I wanted the sentence to be in plaintext so you could immediately see when you solved it. If you wrote out the columns you might notice one line being a complete jumble of 7 letter word, Nobodys. Although guessable on its own, with some googling you can make your way to Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book." First phrase tells you that you're looking for a book, second phrase description of the story, the protagonist's name is Nobody and he lives with ghosts in a graveyard, 'heavenly dog' is a last bit of confirmation since on that page mentions a chapter called "The Hounds of God." Zerosh found it pretty quick when I tested him Graveyard + Montreal gives you 3 options on google, only one fits, the Royal Mount Cemetery. Hapsburg Etude was intended to be a little nudge that the "Royal" cemetery was the correct one, as the Hapsburgs are a European royal family. I only noticed later that its the German spelling which aligned with the Ziffersystem sequence before. Part 2 has been thoroughly explained by Santiak. It was more of a test than a challenge, because I wanted to know what two-part missions would be like. I wrote the mission as though there would be a group of mixed musical experience and ciphering ability. That's why there are a lot of false trails in there. Hope you enjoyed banging your head against a wall/desk/piano/other nearby instrument.
Hey Nikel - thanks for that mission. But finally, I had to look in the spoilers I hope nobody is yawning because I have to comment on all missions but I wanted to give you feedback on your work! Spoiler: Too far... After deciphering the 7x7 matrix with the cool music key, I was stuck with the "A tale for youth" text. It was not obvious for me to get to the book and thereby to the graveyard. Googling brings it up on first place with "(book) youth nobody hounds of god" but something totally different with "book youth nobody heavenly dog". In the latter case you end up with a scifi novel named "Nobody's Home" in a series calles The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers. Especially, as you had to do another step in your mind -book title to graveyards in Montreal with correct letter number - this was one step too far for me. Otherwise the riddle was well played. In step 2 it was a bit putting together the clues from number 1 and 2 after I had found the window. Although it was not nice that in fact 32 real Ogilvys are buried on that cemetery... Ah and one last thing: The debriefing video increased my blood pressure and I longed for another coffee. I though I had found mission 17. Damn this game getsme addicted. It seems I am losing red clearance soon
I was led on a wild goose chase by Spoiler The film 'Oh! Heavenly dog'. It's a kid-friendly flick, so 'a tale for a youth', and it deals with death and the afterlife. The connection was so blindingly obvious, especially after I found that the movie was actually filmed in Montreal, that I could only waste hours trying to find out exact filming locations and other possible connections. Did you do that on purpose?
