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The Letters
After hearing that 5 and Tinker have received some magiqal mail (and seeing the postage on 5’s), I thought it might be a good time to make a collaborative space.
Because I’m pretty sure I know at least part of the contents.
And it might make it easier to have a separate place than to bog down Saberlane’s Cabinet post.
IT’S PUZZLE TIME!
But seriously, we Mounties puzzle best together, and help is always available if needed beyond the clue in the main letter that came in the box.
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56 Replies
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Ohhh! Good idea! So, here’s some pictures!
This is what’s contained in the envelope.
This is the card and what was inside it.
And this is what’s inside the note, with the word “Baymor” written on it.
Now, I do know this cipher somewhat. It’s something along the lines of a page number, word, then letter.
Edit: Also, Baymor is the name of one of the old Houses.
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First column doesn’t seem to go above 72, so you’re looking for a short book if it is a page number. Second column is very likely to be word though, as it doesn’t go above 15.The frequency of the last coloumn going into double digits doesn’t really suggest a letter with most words having a lower number of characters. Page, line, word maybe? Though the pairing seems weird for this kind of cypher. Any thoughts on a docutment, book, or something we could try this with?
Sorry, been itching for a puzzle, lol
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The Guide to Magiq is the one I first thought of. It’s only 86 pages long.
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Hmm… I want to say there was some sort of clue in another letter in the box, one that wasn’t just a bunch of numbers.
(This is probably why I’ve never got
) I didn’t make myself a copy before I closed the box back up and shipped it off. @Saberlane, any help with this one?(Or @Catherine, if you happen to know where it’s hiding?)
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Came across this letter yesterday while looking for something else (still working on getting everything organized post-move, things tended to get jumbled up in various unlabeled boxes), but it struck me as something that would probably be useful at some point, so I set it aside. Could it be the missing clue you’re looking for?
The print is pretty small but I zoomed in on the part I thought was most relevant. It says: “The Eye granted me the two cyphers used, and left with a clue to decrypt it. The book will Guide you to play fair.”
To echo the original author of the letter, it means nothing to me, but it may to you?
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I think the hardest part is going to be finding the book that’s the key for this. It can’t be the Guideti Magiq and Fauna and Flora as neither book fits and both have parts that don’t work with the key.
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The book will Guide you… Guide. With a capital G.
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To help us all, here is a typed version of that note:
“Through one of our mutual acquaintances, Marcy came to access what the men seem to be calling the All-Seeing Eye. Knowing it for what it was, she sent it on to me in her last correspondence, believing someone of my House would know what to ask.
When the Eye opened to me, it told me of the Hope for the fight in which our mundane brethren are embroiled. As for the second request, a far future was Illuminated. One where our Houses no longer have need to meet in secret between one another as we do now.
It is with those descendants in mind that we leave their messages. Each of our secret group has written a small note, twice-encoded to keep others in our respective houses from stopping us, addressed to our future counterparts. To my knowledge, none of them contain any Earth-shattering information about our houses, just a short greeting from each of us.
The Eye granted me the two cyphers used, and left with a clue to decrypt it.
The book will Guide you to play fair.
It means nothing to me, but it may to you.
Until your time comes, we shall continue to protect It, even from one another.
Faithfully Yours,
H.A.
As a more substantial gift from us, your predecessors, we have included some of our, shall we say, less mundane botanical artefacts. May they survive the years until this comes into your possession.”
Soooo, if all of this is true, six people should be getting letters in the mail (looks like 5 for Bali and possibly Tinker for Flinterforge, which leaves Weatherwatch, Ebenguard, Thornmouth, and Gossmere up in the air). And apparently this H.A. fellow consulted with the Oracular Eye and asked for hope and illumination (just like we did, notably) and this happened a long time ago. During a mundane war but that’s… a bit tricky to narrow down. At any rate, I definitely agree with Sel that the clue leads us to the Guide.
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Ok so, problem time. If we’re doing this based on page, line, word, then it won’t work for the Guide. Page 66, line 7, doesn’t have a 10th word.
And Page 66, word 7 doesn’t have a 10th letter. Maybe there’s something more to the hint?-
So page/line/word doesn’t work…
And page/word/letter doesn’t work…
I also see that some of the third numbers go into the 20s and 30s, I don’t think the pages are wide enough for that many words per line…
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/5858edb1-f9d7-4d10-8015-e742dda861e5#HJPYeEbf6X.copy
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8155af61-d90b-4db7-a7cc-a6ae831e9b43#HyrevWVZfaX.copy
Only follow if you really need it.
Same with this one, only if you really need it for the second half.
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I was gonna say maybe its a forum post, so post number, word, letter? Also, theres more than just the G in guide capitalized. Perhaps we use the (non sentence starting) capitals in some way?
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That would make sense, but then the question is what thread?
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Thats the issue, innit? Id almost say if it has to do with the collectors and old houses itd make sense to check there but idk if any of those info posts from steve get that long. Ill take a quick scroll.
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If I was at my computer I’d take a look alongside you. Sleep deprived me sees stuff normal me doesn’t, lol. Plus I have time to kill when I finally get back to my flat. Hang on, 2 cyphers? Maybe we need to do something before we can do line, word, letter? I thought it was odd seeing them in pairs. Maybe there’s something to the pairs?
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hah, fair enough. Ill work with you on all this crap tomorrow maybe if these crazy code-breakers havent figured it out by 6am again. i did notice the two cypers. they said it was double encoded. maybe once you decypher it, its scrambled? id say we want to go through the first cypher before jumping too far ahead of ourselves.
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Oh that’s a good point. We have confirmation of at least one other mysterious letter possibly being out in the wild. So maybe a sit and wait deal unless anyone has any good ideas?
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Oh I meant to ask, @Tinker did that mysterious letter turn out to be related or is it still en-route to your current residence?
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I think it’s still en route…I left before the mail arrived and haven’t been home yet, so there’s a chance it’ll be waiting for me…fingers crossed
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Well sad news friends…nothing in the mail for me today. I was told it was put in the mail on Saturday…which means it probably didn’t go out until Monday…so at the risk of jinxing it, maybe tomorrow?
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Lets hope that letter illuminates some stuff.
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So if the letters have reached a Balimora and a Flinter… it may be interesting to note they are the opposing guilds on the Chronocompass.
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hmmmmmmmmmmm. more cyphers.
could the words hint at the key?
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The words have all been the old houses. Flints, Mer Gost, and Baymor
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P.S. – one of these will have a different stamp, because somebody at the post office had to rain on the brilliant idea of adding a 67 cent butterfly stamp to make it equal international postage and still be magiqal.
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Maybe it’s Vigenere? Keyword is the word on the front, numbers relate to line word number? That’s why decoding certain bits may look like nonsense? Maybe you have to decrypt it twice.
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How would we use the old house names as keys?
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https://pages.mtu.edu/~shene/NSF-4/Tutorial/VIG/Vig-Base.html
Probably a better explanation than what I could do^^
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Hello again –
Based on the clue of The book will Guide you to play fair. I’m thinking it’s a playfair cipher – Playfair cipher – Wikipedia
What we have to do with it – I haven’t figured out yet because I just started reading back. But just an idea that someone can perhaps work on
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So my idea – using the Guide, the first column are the pages and the next two are the letters. So for the first Baymor one – it would go OI UW…etc.
Edit: so. tedious. only got the first column done of the Baymor one. My thought was that maybe it’s a playfair cipher using Baymor as the alphabet key but I’m not sure if that’s even correct.
I should probably get back to work but I’ve put what I’ve done under the cut.
Summary
OI
UW
TL
AA
AW
OB
OD
DE
HU
LA
II
UO
SA
LR
TW
OO
DO
ET
IR
UO
OO
LH
YY
UY
IF
NN
AM
AE
IT
TE
OY
OL
OI
NF
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We missed you @Kelsey. Play fair cipher sounds like a good approach.
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So, uh, on the one Tinker received…
Third column, second pair from the bottom, 15/1/7 is supposed to be 15/1/6
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Hey @Tinker I’m working on your cypher at the moment, could you take a picture of everything that has words on it?? Many thanks
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) I didn’t make myself a copy before I closed the box back up and shipped it off. 
And Page 66, word 7 doesn’t have a 10th letter. Maybe there’s something more to the hint?
