4-1 was unlocked. Inside was a single image and two letters in the description: JZ. The image was a jpg, which tends to be a signifyer to LOOK TO THE FUTURE, which means decrypt it in Futureboy. The jpg file name was 2_27_39_44_64_72.jpg and I thought if it’s Numerical cipher, then 2 would be B, 27 would be 26+1 so you go back 1 and get Y. Thus I was able to predict that the code was BYLETH and that was spot on.
Only issue is… the Futureboy has a longer version of this cipher and it does not work like I thought it did! So while I was scrambling to figure out how to solve, Ardat kept on the offensive and kept Marking and Shutting until it was just Chris and I left. And then BRAIN BLAST! It’s not a back and forth numerical cipher. It’s even easier. You take the difference between the two numbers and that difference corresponds to the letter in A1Z26! So we quickly finished it off and got:
Your hands easy weight, teasing the bees hived in my hair
Hmm how very poetic. Solving this unlocks 4-2. The image is rather easy to solve but the code contained within the Futureboy decryption proves to be much harder. While all of this decoding and defending was happening, I kept using my Scholar powers to continue grinding the various decodes from the lore videos. Still a 100% hit rate!
Around 3am, Ardat announces that all of the time penalties we’ve incurred up to this point will be erased because she is exhausted and needs to sleep. Our deadline is once more at 10pm!
The next morning, I am able to figure out the mess that is 4-2’s cipher. Thank the many gods of technology and whoever programmed dcode’s cipher identifier!
your smile at the slope of my cheek. On the
Wait, this really DOES look familiar. It’s Remembrance by Maya Angelou! In fact, a phrase that kept popping up during the gauntlet, “mystery rapes my reason” also comes from it!
Oh and Geminy, in Victoria’s place, uses her Songtress power to get the remainder of Key 4!
Those Who Find Out Will Forget Immediately
Those Who Know It Will Never Use It Against Us, thus combining it with 2-1 as instructed, the full key is:
In Here Is Our Secret
Our Secret Will Stay In Here
Nobody Will Discover It
Nobody Will Know It
Those Who Find Out Will Forget Immediately
Those Who Know It Will Never Use It Against Us
4-3 is unlocked. Within it, an odd video which leads us to
made itself known. A massive set of upside down numbers block our paths temporarily while we are all working together using our abilities to crib through everything else. Thankfully, this code is easy once it is fully transcribed!
IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FOURTH KEY, TRY THINKING LIKE A DEMON. DO EVERYTHING BACKWARDS. THINK IN THINK IN REVERSE, THEN ACT THAT WAY
4-4 is open! But unfortunately, I was taken at the exact worst moment while I was helpless watching Faustus, our lone friend, try to desperately open the image file. Thankfully, the shutting was very temporary and I was able to help him unlock the image file. Unlocking it gives us
But something about this video title looked really familiar to me. Almost like I’ve done this exact cipher plenty of times in the nonferal world investigation. REVERSE MY WORLD! So first you reverse the string then you group it up in pairs, then read down the columns… kinda.
Cn
rw
ya
pD
t
I t
ca
C
sh
ta
N
First, left column, top to bottom: CRYPTIC
Next, bottom four rows, starting with C - CHANTS
Third, above the C - AT
Last, start at D, go up - DAWN
CRYPTIC CHANTS AT DAWN
And the final bit of webcode we’ve been needing is finished too! We gained a portal to the halfway point of the match: OROBAS SEERE AMDUSIAS