Well... Taldor's not exactly the friendliest nation out there, and you are inside, essentially, a KGB training facility.
|
Just to be on the safe side, I am not sure if this has been coverd since it was posted a month ago
"The keenest eyes cannot see everything. Always remember to see the big picture." have we ran into anything like that of note? I was reviewing the posts and there was a note of a picture of Grand Prince Stavian III in the secret room.
It's safe to say you've already bypassed the riddle where the Grand Prince Stavian III's portraits would have been meaningful. Now it's just an ugly old man grinning madly in every room like a certain real world leader from an isolated country...
I said previously that Paizo's boards are really bad at showing URLs in text. Here's the link.
And here it's raw: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LmK9NK2ZLGMG4MAShqXcGjoNhGub3sde/view?usp= sharing
|
it doesn't look like you have enough clues yet to crack the cipher. All we have so far is that it might be read backwards at every X/3 letters.
Currently, that gives you QFMOEWK. The only thing I can draw from this is that it's a 7 letter word that has no repeating letters. Alternatively, it could be a 4 and 3 letter phrase, like FAST LIE / LIE FAST. It probably would be a lot clearer with at least one more clue.
I just found out that the secret code in the handout is wrong. Isn't that dandy? Here's the corrected one. Just one letter was off.
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
There's very little to do anymore, so play this one out.
I do apologize for the very chaotic structure of the play. I could have made maybe a more comprehensive environment where to present the clues, rooms and their description, and include the rules of each room.
|
|
I cannot figure out the substitution cipher used in Taldan Cipher 3. I can't seem to find the logic behind how it works at all, so I skipped it and went to Taldan Cipher 2.
Following the same code as this cipher, the message translates like this.
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
N-B-Y-Z-N-F-C-F-M-M-P-G-P-C-F-J-J-F-T-I-F
W?
Yeah, that doesn't work, even read backwards or skipping letters. Well, let's try the same thing, but in reverse, so vowels move 2 forward and consonants move 3 backwards.
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
H-A-S-T-H-Z-G-Z-Q-Q-J-K-J-G-Z-D-D-Z-N-C-Z
V?
Well, I see HAS TH-, so it started off with something interesting. What if we drop the whole vowel/consonant thing and just move everything backwards 3?
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
H-A-S-T-H-Z-B-Z-L-L-J-F-J-B-Z-D-D-Z-N-C-Z
HAS TH- B-LL? Just as a hunch, lets change the Z's in that last thing to E's and figure out how we got there (moving forward 2).
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
H-A-S-T-H-E-B-E-L-L-J-F-J-B-E-D-D-E-N-C-E
HAS THE BELL JFJBEDDENCE
Well, we moved the C's forward 2, might as well try all of the other letters in this last section.
K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-G-G-C-Q-F-C
H-A-S-T-H-E-B-E-L-L-J-F-J-B-E-D-D-E-N-C-E
H-A-S-T-H-E-B-E-L-L-O-K-O-G-E-I-I-E-S-H-E
And I have no idea where to go to with this information. Do they really expect irl players to solve this at the end of a 4 hour scenario? This took me like 2 hours to get this much.
I did not solve it, but I think I'm close, so this is more like a super big hint for you grand lodge players if you get stuck.
|
Okay, basically, I did everything that Darven did, and got the same result. I'm posting everything else in the open.
1. I just scratched it all and went to Clue 3.
2. The ciphertext and message have the same number of letters, and lining them up (forward to forward, no skipping) gives
Message Cipher
A W
B Y
C K
D T
E F
F E
G J
H Q
I O
J #N/A
K C
L W
M #N/A
N V
O I
P #N/A
Q #N/A
R Z
S P
T D
U M
V #N/A
W A
X #N/A
Y #N/A
Z #N/A
Given many of the letters are paired - A/W, E/F, I/O, etc. - I assumed the missing letters can be filled in by their pairs.
A/W and L/W appear to be a mistake - the ciphertext's seventh word should be DQFVX, not DQFVW. That's a simple enough fix.
3. Applying the Clue 3 decipher to the given text, I get CBNACKFKIIUOUFKJJKHEK, or taking every third letter backwards, HJUIFAC.
I started going through double-cipher methods.
4. Decipher 3, then Decipher 2: FEQYFNINGGSMSINMMNKCN, or KMSGIYF.
5. Decipher 2, then Decipher 3: VABRVEKEUUSJSKEGGEDOE, or DGSUKRV.
Similar to Darven, I tried the "reverse" Cipher 2, since there's some ambiguity in the clue.
6. Decipher 3, then Decipher 2': ZYKCZHCHKKWQWCHGGHEGH or EGWKCCZ.
7. Decipher 2', then Decipher 3: QNPDQRJRHHGCGJRTTRVKR or VTGHJDQ.
You're starting to get it right. Like you described, you get two "tracks" from which you have to choose letter by letter the correct one.
I copied the ones you have, since it does spell out the solution.
[code]
H-A-S-T-H-E-B-E-L-L-J-F-J-B-E-D-D-E-N-C-E
H-A-S-T-H-E-B-E-L-L-O-K-O-G-E-I-I-E-S-H-E
[/code]
And it's a callback to a scenario from Season 1. Not a good scenario, by any means.
The time I played this I had a linguistic in my group, who latched onto this puzzle the minute he got it. IIRC he solved in some 5 to 10 minutes. But, as I said, a linguistic.
|
|
Okay, so I have a message. Not sure it's correct.
I was poking at two things: 1. how the frequency of letters is super odd (some letters are unusually common), and also 2. how close Darven seemed to be getting English words, and I realized: the ciphertext is going to have degeneracy.
D (plaintext) goes to G, but I (plaintext) also goes to G (ciphertext).
M (ciphertext) can be J (plaintext) or O (plaintext)!
Applying only the Clue 2 cipher gives
HAS[T/Y]H[E/Z]B[E/Z]LL[J/O]F[J/O]B[E/Z]D[D/I][E/Z]NC[E/Z]
Presumably, Darven (and I) were using an Excel LOOKUP function, which only returns the first match. Coincidentally, it returns the "correct" value for T/Y and E/Z ... but the wrong one for J/O and D/I.
HAS THE BELL OF OBEDIENCE
This would mean Cipher 3 and Cipher 1 are red herrings.
|
|
Okay, more support that we have it:
Cipher 2 can only be read one way unless Cipher 1 is applied first. Both in the interpretation of C (ciphertext) -> A (plaintext) and A (ciphertext) -> D (plaintext), F (ciphertext) cannot be formed. Since there is an F in the original ciphertext, either it's dummy text or cipher 2 is only interpretable in one manner.
If Cipher 3 were used, there is a Q (ciphertext) -> H (plaintext), as well as a E (ciphertext) -> F (plaintext), even if Cipher 1 were used. Both H and F are uninterpretable in one interpretation of Cipher 2 or the other. The only "double" cipher possible yields QWPDQFYFXXGEGYFTTFVKF, or VTGXYDQ.
"HAS THE BELL OF OBEDIENCE" has got to be it, unless we've missed a fourth clue that can put another angle on this.
I'm quitting for the night.
Well that's correct, so sleep tight!
I agree, it should be a task for the characters.
I'll do the wrap-up tonight (UTC+2, it's 10:20am at the time of this post).
I really wish Paizo would enter the 21st century and have digital, fillable PDFs. I've been talking about them for 10 years now.
I'm going to assume everyone to be on the normal track. I forget to ask this, because I've never met anyone who wanted to do the slow track.
Sometimes I amaze even myself... I managed to cook up those chronicle sheets in just 20 minutes. All of them! I did do some groundwork before that though...
Here's the link. Click here. Yes, here.
----
I do have to admit I made a big cockup there. I confused two rooms with each other. The fight against the foo monsters should have happened in the secret (not top secret) room, and the desk with the potions and a needle trap should have been before that.
I also screwed up an issue with locked doors. There should have been locked doors behind the guardian, which lead to the second corridor. Getting them open would have meant either using Disable Device or tell the guardian "a clever riddle whose answer is “a lion,” “the Guardian,” “Taldor,” or something else that would appeal to its
egotistical sensibilities."[sic]
And the foo fighters' room should have been locked too.
I partly blame the scenario formatting for stating stuff only once in totally unrelated sections, but ultimately blame falls to me for not reading them well enough.
This was the first time I've run the scenario as a PbP and boy it needs some real-time bookkeeping! Only the time it takes to search the rooms is listed as a room, but all the moving from one to another, talking with the caretaker, opening locks with take 20... all up to the GM's discretion. And if there's a combat, 1d6 minutes off the clock. Fortunately there aren't many events happening at certain intervals, only those dramatic booming music sequences at 15, 60, and 100 minutes.
I hope I made the scenario entertaining for Makras and Gillie, who weren't really in their comfort zone.
My chronicle sheet feels like it tells the story, "I was also present at that mission!" since everything is crossed out lol
Also yeah, my least favorite part of GMing scenarios is the paperwork of chronicle sheets.
Yeah, this scenario doesn't really hand out special boons to other than faction members. Not that I mind though. While I like the implication of a bonus, they are so conditional that even if the situation might rise where it could be used, you easily forget about it.
Anyone who has played a retired scenario (because it was very bad) Asmodeus Mirage, it gave a +1 diplomacy bonus when dealing with gnolls from western Katapesh... so naturally if I ever encounter gnolls who aren't attacking outright, I ask if they are from western Katapesh. Even if I don't have the boon.
Makras and Gillie, once you've downloaded the chronicle sheet, please reply so I know when I can make this game inactive.