+ CLUE POST +

[vitaelamorte]

Come on, guys. It's not an Eway party without puzzles.


Here's how it's going to work! Your characters have received invitations to four different parties that will be spread out over the course of the event. Each party log will contain a clue that will be the beginning to one of FOUR puzzle paths, leading to FOUR possible outcomes, including:

• Two routes that lead to who it was that invited everyone to Wonderland, given out in two different ways.


• One route that does not give the answer, but does reveal some interesting Background Information about Wonderland.


• And one route that is a red herring route that does not lead to anything useful at all.

We are NOT telling you which route is which, so you're just going to have to solve them all and find out for yourselves when you get to the end! Each route has 3 steps (except for the last route, which has 4) and will work like this:

ICLY: Your characters will find clues and attempt to solve them! Clues will regenerate after five minutes, so if for example, one character or group of characters finds a note with a clue on it and takes it with them, the note will re-appear for others to find. They'll (hopefully) solve the clues to find the next step of the route and so on and so forth until eventually they figure out where the clues are leading them. They may need to ICly seek out others for assistance if they do not have the knowledge or skills to progress further, and it is entirely possible that they may get ICly stuck on one route, and may need to change to a different one. If they stick with it though, they will be rewarded with information...unless they got the red herring route, of course.

OOCLY: These puzzles are a TEAM EFFORT. As each log is posted, we will post the first clue of each route whether the previous route has been solved or not (so on the 1st the House Party Route will start, and on the 3rd the Throne Room Party route will begin even if the House Party route has not been 100% solved, and so on until all the routes have been started). When you think you have solved a clue, reply to that clue on this post. If you're right, we will reveal the next clue in that route, and if you aren't then you can keep trying. We encourage you to use each puzzle route's thread for OOC collaboration and shouting ideas at each other, and even begging for clues if you're really stuck. Clues will NOT be revealed ICly until they are solved OOCly. For example, if puzzle route A's first clue leads to the roof it does not, nice try, the clue will not APPEAR there until someone solves the clue OOCly – this is partly to prevent spoilers, and partly to allow people to go about their lives in-game without having to retcon and be like “oh and there was a huge clue in the background of this thread”. We encourage EVERYONE to try their hand at the puzzles, whether their characters are working on that route or not. The routes will get solved faster with multiple people working on it as a big team, and we hope that it'll be a lot more fun that way!

PLEASE KEEP AS MUCH TO THIS POST AS YOU CAN - we know you guys love Plurk, but you'll be doing puzzles alongside people who haven't been in the RP scene in years and may not have access to puzzle-solving happening exclusively on plurk.

We are releasing the puzzle routes in order from hardest route to easiest route (in our opinion, as puzzle makers), since by nature there will be less time to work on the routes released last. If you have any questions about how the puzzle routes will work or anything along those lines, please bring them to the FAQ POST. If you have questions about specific riddles or need to demand hints, please keep those questions to their puzzle path threads so everyone can easily find the answers!

That should be about it! We'll begin releasing the first clues as each log goes up, and we wish you all the best of luck with our maddening puzzles! ♥

Comments

[notagoodloser]

I've tried ribbons and the name of every Wonderland NPC. No dice. Though it is probably of note that, on the "simple" page, there are 7 dashes and "ribbons" has 7 letters. I tried a second shift by 7 but nothing yet.

[forwearemany]

Interesting thing I noticed: the first sixteen letters unshifted is the same sequence of eight repeated twice.

Other than that... nothing.

[notagoodloser]

I also saw this! I had broken it down into four 4 letter words, because that would mean the vinegere is a 4 letter word? but it could also be an 8 letter word and shift that way and be the same word.

[goodwoofjames]

Isn't there a cypher that involves a literal ribbon that you run around a pole/cylinder in order to read? I don't know how they work or how numbers play into it though :c

[interpersonal]

i've been researching cyphers all night i am embarrassed to admit and i think you may be right!!

The rail fence cipher was used by the ancient Greeks in the scytale, a mechanical system of producing a transposition cipher. The system consisted of a cylinder and a ribbon that was wrapped around the cylinder. The message to be encrypted was written on the coiled ribbon. The letters of the original message would be rearranged when the ribbon was uncoiled from the cylinder. However, the message was easily decrypted when the ribbon was recoiled on a cylinder of the same diameter as the encrypting cylinder.

[notagoodloser]

oh, a rail fence cipher? I can try coding it like that and see if it works!

[interpersonal]

if that doesn't work we can ask to take a closer look at the ribbon and see if there are any more hints on it, but yay! this is great.

[notagoodloser]

that would be gr8 honestly because I am a little stumped haha. rail fence ciphers have a LOT of possibilities without having a physical item and I feel like it might be reaching a bit.

[goodwoofjames]

Yeah the best I can guess based on the blurb posted above is maybe an 8-something diameter pole? Or maybe wrapped around 8 times? Seems too loosey goosey to be right, though.

[notagoodloser]

honestly it seems like way too short a message to be working with 8 wraps. I tried 4 but I don't think I'm coding this right lmao.

edit: I gotta put this down for the night, sorry guys, good luck!!

[sciencelizard]

ok it's me again (alex) back on my actual eway rp account BUT:

I have reason to believe this may be a Double Transposition cipher, using "simple" and "ribbons" as the two keys from the coded text (using the cipher shifts, which I'll repost because I found some errors in my original translation):

NOT SHIFTED
N W C G N T Y C N W
C G N T Y C N W C G
U Y X A H A W L M

SHIFTED
V E K O V B G K V E
K O V B G K V E K O
C G F I P I E T U

my problem is. I am far, far too dumb to actually make heads or tails of this cipher. It is making me curse it's name. Is there anyone who can play around with this and see if I'm right?? or just screaming at my own ass

[vitaelamorte]

[ The ribbon is silky, and the perfect length to be tied into a little girl's hair in an adorable bow. Its seams are just a little frazzled, the way they would get after long but loving use. You turn it in the light, and it shimmers in a beautiful hue of dark blue. You also catch a singular blonde hair, still stuck to the fabric.

As you gaze at the ribbon it seems to gaze back at you, as if to say, "Leave me alone. I already gave you everything you need."

You wonder if it is angry for waking it up from its well-earned rest in the drawer. You wonder if wondering about the feelings of hair accessories is only the first sign of losing your mind to this mansion.

....For your own well-being you decide that there are no more clues to be found on the ribbon. ]

[mypartnerintime]

I think it has to be a four letter word! Letters 17 to 20 also match letters 1 to 4 and 9 to 12.

Like so:

14 23 03 07
14 20 25 03
14 23 03 07
14 20 25 03
14 23 03 07
followed by the remaining nine letters.

Which implies 14 23 03 07 is a separate word?

Uhm, has anyone tried shifting by 6, also? Since there are 6 dots in the printed card, though there are 8 in the rolled-up message.

[notagoodloser]

yeah, the first two lines DEF look like two 4 letter words repeating. but the final line is off so that might be separate. I tried shifting by everything but nothing came up haha

[nonscriptum]

I tried railfencing the largest prime numbers and came up with diddly, there are too many permutations and it's not obvious which prime numbers need to be used even though it's clear that there's a pattern with the first five rows as listed above.

see here and here

:/

[intelligently]

what if the ribbons were the dashes? there are 7 dashes and 7 letters in ribbons
idk idk

[demonstrate]

omg i was wondering if the dashes meant anything

i also tried taking the sentence in the parenthesis literally, i.e., only count the dots, and there's eight dots. so only count the eights. but i'm not sure what that would mean, either ...

[intelligently]

i tried putting the letters into the rail thingy with a 7 shift but i didn't get anything from it??? (if i even did it right)

i also shifted the letters by 8 after doing the rail thing :\

[nonscriptum]

normally my default for anything dots/dashes is WHERE'S THE MORSE CODE but since there's no discernible pattern my opinion is that the dashes may just be a red herring

[interspatial]

this stuff is not my forte but in case it helps i tried to follow some of the steps of work already done on this, and also added a shift by 6 before applying ribbons as the key. idk what 4 or 8 letter word to apply so i am now stuck...

in hopes that maybe a mistake i make might lead someone down the right path: here's my work also if anyone wants to take pity on me and point out mistakes or anything please speak up! i feel very out of my depth but i like to learn!

[interpersonal]

i wish i could help but last night all our brainstorming was all i got lmao

i wonder if we could ask for a small hint bc i'm honestly stumped

[vitaelamorte]

[ Your order for one (1) Small Hint is being processed. It may take up to 24 hours to arrive.

Meanwhile, why not use this time to rope more people into the puzzle, see if you can get some fresh perspective, and maybe even get ahead on your own! ]

[interpersonal]

[ that's ok i will order pizza for everyone in the meantime.

as i gather

the troops

. ]

a delicious clue arrives

[vitaelamorte]

Re: a delicious clue arrives

[drummeintheface]

Pizza has never lied to me before