Re: Cryptomania
 

Coryphaeus- either a leader of a choir, or Joe Stalin :)
elementary - Sherlock/Watson :thinking:


:doubt:....

Re: Cryptomania
 

About silo princeps: Forget the shaped template, you don't need to look for shapes. As Bolaf said: the kEy tells you where to punch the holes.
(remember you have two texts: Silo's and Bolaf's)

And everybody could have said elementary as a hint here, no need to remember Holmes.

Re: Cryptomania
 

I'm almost done with a new one. Time to look at ACT 6...
- hmmm... 26 red letters... interesting.
- "whose lives" ... good question. Seems to be about people, or at least creatures...
- I suppose 'elementary' means 'simple' (aka easy) here?
Needs some brainstorming...

Re: Cryptomania
 

I didn't count the red or black letters... I used the ones I considered necessary (and some others that weren't really needed, but helped to write a meaningful word.)

...And elementary means elementary :nodder:

[edit] I've just realized my comment could mislead you: Both black and red letters are needed here. I added either additional red or additional black in order to make words. Some "extra" info, so to say, helpful but not really necessary.

Re: Cryptomania
 

- Given that 'Elementary' is a hint, does it relate to binary? Or is it a periodic table thing again?
- Stripping the blanks, we get 95 letters. Should we consider a 5*19 grid?
- Do the words have an actual meaning (Sir/Mister fighting chimp and his strong facts/chart) which gives needful information?

Re: Cryptomania
 

- Given that 'Elementary' is a hint, does it relate to binary? Attachment 78372

Or is it a periodic table thing again? :tongue: I had to think of something and prepare it fast, first thing that came to mind was the periodic table

- Stripping the blanks, we get 95 letters. Should we consider a 5*19 grid? No, I didn't count the letters. I could have added more or used less than 95

- Do the words have an actual meaning (Sir/Mister fighting chimp and his strong facts/chart) which gives needful information? Attachment 78372 No. I realized I could make a sentence and tried to do so. If I had worked harder on it I could have written a "real meaningful cohesive and coherent" text. It would have been a nicer, more polished way of hiding my message; but just for aesthetic purposes... and for fun.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Before I start overthinking... did you use a pure element symbol <-> element number (or vice versa) lookup?
Are additional methods (e.g. Caesar, number conversion) involved?

Re: Cryptomania
 

No, there aren't additional methods, no double or triple encoding. What you get -when you find what to do- is what you need.
And I used the Symbols as they appear in the (current) periodic table, no need to look for old tables or strange symbols.

About overthinking.... well, I thought of something fast to do... but I'm not so sure it's also fast to solve. I might have found an elaborated one right when I wasn't trying to do it. :tongue: ...maybe not my typical bruja-esque stupid encodings....

[edit] And I didn't mention "numbers" anywhere... :winky:

Re: Cryptomania
 

... the Symbols as they appear ...
Ok, so our letter material is H, HE, LI, BE, B, C, N, O, F,... etc.?

Are the blanks (thus word lengths/positions) important too?

And I wonder if Hel is still cursing Silo... :lol:

Re: Cryptomania
 

The right way of writing symbols is He, Li, Be.... isn't it?

You couldn't solve it without the blanks, they are the spaces. (not very sure about "space"... maybe "delimiters" is a better term)

Or cursing you, instead... or even me :sweat:

Re: Cryptomania
 

This gets more and more confusing. Perhaps I'm already overthinking as hell... :dizzy:

... right way of writing ... He, Li, Be ...
Sure, but is upper and lower case relevant for solving it?

... the blanks, they are the spaces ...
You mean they're the spaces in the solution too? So we'll get 20 words in the end?

Re: Cryptomania
 

Probably you're thinking on the wrong direction and I'm not giving the right hints.

is upper and lower case relevant for solving it? :nodder:

Spaces wasn't the right term, but I can't find a better one... You'll get 20 letters in the end, each "group" defines a letter, so the blanks are there to separate groups.

You'll set the right spaces between words when you find the letters.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Finally beat him... now struggling again ;)

Tried to 'translate' the red letters....

Re: Cryptomania
 

Let's see... you see a red E and N in BENT, so you wonder whether it could be Neon; No, that can't be, the correct symbol is Ne, you never write a symbol with two capital letters.
And upper and lowercase are important :nodder: I wouldn't have used uppercase for both letters in a symbol, that wouldn't be right.

Re: Cryptomania
 

So not all the red letters are elements then?

Re: Cryptomania
 

Yes, all of them, black or red, are elements.

Maybe another hint?

Let me say it again: Yes, all of them are elements

Re: Cryptomania
 

Red means radioactive? :doubt:

Do your letter groups refer to chemical groups? :doubt:

... all of them, black or red, are elements ...
Never heard of A, D, E, G, M, R or T :no:

... all of them are elements ...
So each of your letters stands for more than one element? :doubt:
A: Ac, Ag, Al, Am, Ar, As, At, Au
B: B, Ba, Be, Bh, Bi, Bk, Br
C: C, Ca, Cd, Ce, Cf, Cl, Cm, Cn, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu
D: Db, Ds, Dy
E: Er, Es, Eu
F: F, Fe, Fl, Fm, Fr
G: Ga, Gd, Ge
H: H, He, Hf, Hg, Ho, Hs
I: I, In, Ir
M: Md, Mg, Mn, Mo, Mt
N: N, Na, Nb, Nd, Ne, Ni, No, Np
O: O, Os
P: P, Pa, Pb, Pd, Pm, Po, Pr, Pt, Pu
R: Ra, Rb, Re, Rf, Rg, Rh, Rn, Ru
S: S, Sb, Sc, Se, Sg, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr
T: Ta, Tb, Tc, Te, Th, Ti, Tl

Re: Cryptomania
 

Now we're getting somewhere :nodder:

Let's summarize what we have: I said symbols are written using a capital letter and a lowercase one, you asked whether lowercase was important, and I said lowercase was important, then Hel tried to identify the symbols, but I said he needed lowercase, now you made a list of elements, and they have lowercase letters....

So:
Never heard of A, D, E, G, M, R or T ....Maybe they're missing something :tongue:
So each of your letters stands for more than one element? ....As they're written they could stand for any of those you just listed, but... maybe they're missing something

And now I missed something :sweat: (Hadn't read your first question): Red and black colours are widely used the way I used them (at least when used with numbers)

Re: Cryptomania
 

Ok, ignoring some minor errors, I spot 'Bolaf and Hel, gentlemen'.

Re: Cryptomania
 

minor errors.... :embarasse I should have checked it one more time.
Will I ever post an error-free one? Or, better: Will I ever use a tool (any tool) instead of relying on my pen-and-pencil skills? :rolleyes:

Your turn to make us suffer! :jossun:

Re: Cryptomania
 

----------

Welcome to a new (lengthy and mysterious) episode of The Lives and Adventures of Bruja, Hel and Bolaf...


ACT THREE
Rocky burial

[The curtain opens. Heaps of boulders in the background. A hissing TV set in the foreground.]


[Bruja and Hel enter the stage.]

Bruja: «Hey, that's me! But why am I so noisy?»
Hel: «Antenna problem. Poor reception.»
Bruja: «Hasn't Bolaf put it on top of a meticulously constructed pile of stones?»
Hel (pointing at the boulders): «Yes, but his pile collapsed; and now the antenna lies buried under rocks.»
Bruja: «Buried by rocks? No wonder that the signal is so interfered.»
Hel: «It's even worse. Since Bolaf "repaired" it, we get only this strange channel with two still frames... Ah, the picture has changed, see?»


Bruja (disgruntled): «So that's all we can watch?»
Hel: «I'm afraid so.»

[Sudden mysterious light illuminates the stage.]

Bruja and Hel (conjointly): «Huh?»

Chorus:
«Cooperation soon will bring
decipherment to fruition:
A girl shall subtly then reveal
the key to the solution.»

[The word 'solution' is the cue for Coryphaeus to appear from behind the boulders.]

Coryphaeus (excited): «What a TOY, MY Keen Thinkers! In short, a TOYMYKT!»

[A weird looking apparatus sinks from the sky and hovers above the scene.]

Deus ex machina:
«I like the noise,
the steep surprise,
the lack of choice,
a nice disguise,
a twist that shocks.
But TOYMYKT rocks!»

[Bruja and Hel look at each other with raised eyebrows, shrug their shoulders and leave the stage. Light gets dimmed. A spotlight cuts the darkness and points onto the boulders in the background. A cough from inside a small heap. Then a very thin voice...]

Bolaf (barely audible): «... please... TOYMYKT... please...»

[The spotlight gets turned off. Darkness. Curtain.]

Re: Cryptomania
 

I had thought of doing a similar one... also using the yin-yang symbol :sweat: But it proved to be too difficult for me. Did you do it "on your own" or is there a useful tool that -obviously- I'm unaware of?

That's what I got:


Now let's go for the TOYMYKT...

Re: Cryptomania
 

:nod: Well found. Step 1 accomplished.

Step 2: Figure out what keyword the ghost picture hints at.

Step 3: Apply keyword to TOYMYKT (nothing fancy, method known from earlier posts).

Re: Cryptomania
 

That's the girl in "Poltergeist".... is that important?

...The Poltergeist House was at 4267 Roxbury Street!

Re: Cryptomania
 

:) The keyword appeared. Step 2 accomplished.

Re: Cryptomania
 

How did you do that in the first place:)? I can see that you get it by some sort of adding process, but did you find a way to work on a pixel by pixel basis :confused:?



:lol: well, thats ROXBURY x TOYMYKT then - not that I remember what non-fancy method would apply... ;)

Re: Cryptomania
 

Saved both images first. Then used "paste from" in Paint.
I pasted one image, then when I pasted the second one it went directly on top of the first one, I didn't have to move them or toggle settings, just selected the "no background" option:
Attachment 78465

I don't know the method's name, just used my vigenere table and used the letters of Roxbury as the key... but I have nothing ready and can't think of something, so I can't answer for the moment... :frown:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Nothing to add.

As a sidenote, there's more than one way to get the ghost image:
Bruja's way of overlapping (while setting the transparent colour to white) was of course the most logical way to look through both images (see all their black pixels) at once.
Hel's method results in a discernible picture too.
And one could have created an animated gif with both images and let them flicker by setting their duration to 1 ms each. This produces the Poltergeist image in a quality comparable to Hel's method.

Also, besides vigenère, one could have applied one-time pad as shown on the rumkin page - because he uses addition/subtraction (same letter shifting algorithm as vigenère's).

Re: Cryptomania
 

I used that one-time pad, but I only got "kcvnsbr" as the answer, that's why I solved it using pen-and-pencil, as always. Now I've tried it again... But this time I selected "decrypt", something it seems I forgot to do the first time :lol:
That proves online tools can't help me, I need dumb-proof tools :rolleyes:

A fast -not very elaborated- one, while I decide whether to go on working with the one I started or just forget it (I need more neurons):

"The lives and adventures..." Episode 7, Part II, Act 6, Scene 4

Bolaf is there, covered in dust, he still has some debris over his head and shoulders. Hel and Bruja enter the scene. Hel is carrying a huge TV, Bruja holds the cable attached to it

Hel (proudly): Look, Bolaf, a TV and a cable. Is that what you wanted?
Bolaf (coughs): mi pilin ike
Hel (at Bruja): What is he saying?
Bruja: No idea...
Hel: Bolaf, are you OK?
Bolaf (coughs again): lawa mi li pakala
Hel: Stop playing the fool! What on hell are you saying?
Bolaf: .... mi sona ala.....
Bruja: You're starting to frighten me, are you OK? Do you need a doctor?
Bolaf (coughs): pana e mi telo
Hel: Come on, Bolaf! We want to help you...
Bolaf: telo, mi wile telo

Hel: (to Bruja): I think he wants something....can't you call those friend of yours and ask them to help us?
Bruja (shouting): Coryphaeus!! Deus!! Come here right now!

The coryphaeus enters the scene

Coryphaeus (singing): Bolaf, what do you want?, Wat wil je?, ¿qué quieres?, cosa vuoi?, was wollen Sie?, que voulez vous?, kion vi volas?

Bolaf: telo, mi wile telo...

Deus ex machina flies over the scene, suddenly the rope that anchors him to the roof breaks and he lands on Bolaf, squashing him

Deus ex machina: Take Other Knowledge In Place Or New Approaches

Bolaf (barely audible): telo.... telo... telo....

Re: Cryptomania
 

Meanwhile I recovered from my trauma...

... and wanted to thank you for helping me.
Just one little thing: can I have it in its solid state?

Re: Cryptomania
 

:rotfl: But of course!

Let me help: Attachment 78493

BTW: I have checked my Elements... no, I think I didn't make any mistakes. Remember red usually stands for negative, so you add the lowercase letters in the black elements, but subtract the ones in red.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Ok, then you really were consistent.
I was interpreting it slightly different: negate the red (strip existing and set non-existing letters) and see which letter appears in all elements. Luckily the result was similar enough to figure out the right sentence... :rolleyes:

On to the drawing board...

Re: Cryptomania
 

So the answer to all our problems was cable tv :)?

[edit] I'm getting really frustrated with this game...:banghead: :biggrin:


[edit] Well, one good thing came out of this: I just found out how to do transparencies on colours I selected my self in photofiltre :lol:

Re: Cryptomania
 

----------

Attachment 78500

Re: Cryptomania
 

Haha, well that's one code where an online tool is no help:



[edit] The symbols all seem to be mirrored, maybe as an 'imprint' in mud or whatever, so should we read the 'text' like this instead?



[edit2]

Apparently not ;)

Re: Cryptomania
 

:arms: Minoan code demystified!

Roll your disk, Hel :jossun:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Continuing the never ending story of The Lives and Adventures of Bruja, Hel and Bolaf...


ACT ? TOO FAR GONE TO COUNT- in which they seek outside help


[Bolaf sitting in a puddle of water, Bruja avidly watching black-and-white TV by candlelight, Hel scratching his head with a puzzled look on his face.]


Hel: «Well, obviously, this is not going to work.»
Bolaf: «What do you mean? I'm always around to solve your problems, aren't I?»
Bruja: «SHHH! Frame 1 is about to come on!»
Hel: «What I mean is, there doesn't seem to be an end to all this, with just the three of us. We aren't getting any further. And that Korean character that you keep calling in isn't doing any good either.»
Bolaf: «So? You got a better idea?»
Bruja: «SHHH! Now I missed it and I have to watch frame 2 all over again!»
Hel: «Of course I have. What I think we should do is take count of the situation, sum up our options, and then act in a mature and realistic way.»
Bolaf: «Oh?»
Bruja: «Can't we at least wait until the end of the broadcast????»

Hel (connects the puddle and the TV): «It's all over now.
Here's what we will do. First, of the three of us, Bruja is obviously the best qualified to start:

+057-001
+051-054
+056-002
+591-002
+055-065
+598-002
+592-226

Then Bolaf can come in:

+048-091
+031-050
+352-004
+420-377
+049-651
+041-061
+043-662

Then comes what is really the hard part. But I think I'll get away with it:

+976-011
+086-028
+084-004
+855-023
+065-653
+062-021
+675-852

Now unfortunately, we need a fourth, so can you get your Coriolis friend back?»

Bruja (walks off to her library) : «His name is Coryphaeus, you know.»
Hel: «Whatever.
But never mind, let him sweat a bit:

+235-051
+218-322
+020-045
+249-183
+234-076
+237-000
+242-028

That should do it. So, now can you see what we should do?»

Re: Cryptomania
 

"Bruja avidly watching black-and-white TV by candlelight" :lol:
Connecting puddle + TV will not only harm the TV... remember Bolaf is sitting on the puddle!

Well.... there seems to be a lot of things to do. I guess "take count" and "sum up" are hints. Assigning each group of numbers to a different person could imply they are to be solved in different ways (even if that's not right I'll have to try different approaches, so...). And the only thing I remember about coriolis is something related to water rotating in different directions (although I also remember reading this is not really true in our house's sinks)

Re: Cryptomania
 

"I guess "take count" and "sum up" are hints." - Hmmm, yes and no ;)
"Assigning each group to a different person" - there is a logic behind it, but you'll probably only see that after solving the whole thing; it's not needed for the solving itself.
"coriolis" - that's just a name I 'could' remember :)

Re: Cryptomania
 

- We see 28 number pairs. The four names (Bruja, Bolaf, Helanren, Coryphaeus) have 28 letters altogether. Coincidence?

- The first non-zero digit of the first number is in a rather narrow range for Bruja (5: 57, 51, 56, 591, 55, 598, 592), Bolaf (3/4: 48, 31, 352, 420, 49, 41, 43) and Cory (2: 235, 218, 20, 249, 234, 237, 242). Coincidence?

Re: Cryptomania
 

Yep, total coincidence :biggrin:. It's 4*7 by design, but that's just because of my own liking for symmetry; I could have also used (a bit) less numbers per name, or (almost unlimited) more if I'd wanted to ;)

Nope, that's not coincidental - though I'm not to blame nor praise for it ;)