+ 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

[drummeintheface]

:|a I'm still pretty sure it should be HE if it's included, not EA. It seems to line up, and ON and HE are both the third and fourth letters of the words.

[nonscriptum]

That's fair! Tbh I didn't look those parts over until I saw you mentioned using them, in which case this gives us:

HXYFINZUUOPOKC

[mypartnerintime]

AAAAAA I THINK IT SAYS "GO OUTSIDE"

... I might be completely wrong buuuuut:



So I used a "Queen of Hearts" keyword on a Playfair cipher, since the message was on the Queen of Hearts card. (Normally you eliminate the Q in the table, but since Queen has a Q in it, I just combined I and J, per Wikipedia). Solving it gave the paired letters on the right. Reading backwards (right to left, bottom to top) gives GOXOUTSIDE where the X is used to represent a space (or to separate a pair of repeated letters?)

So let's go outside and look around??

[drummeintheface]

AHH THAT'S AMAZING.

Specifically, this is on the Mirror Side which as less to look around in, so I think you're right! Exploring the grounds of the mirror side!

[vitaelamorte]

[The world is very, very, very gray on this side...

...Except for one spot on the ground marked with a red X. What will you do?]

[krmvgivv]

GET A SHOVEL LET'S DIG.

[vitaelamorte]

[You dig, dig, dig!

If you get a shovel and dig, you'll find a wooden book-shaped box with the name CARROLL printed on the front and on the spine. There is a key taped underneath the name on the front.

Hmmm. What're you gonna do with that?]

[drummeintheface]

Does the box have a keyhole?

[vitaelamorte]

[It sure does!]

[drummeintheface]

JAM THAT KEY IN

[vitaelamorte]

[ARE YOU GONNA TURN IT TOO??

I'm kidding, of course you are.

When you use the key to open the box there's...something inside. A whole lot of something.]

[drummeintheface]

D:!!!! I CAN DO JIGSAWS

[vitaelamorte]

[I'm sure you can, Potato Child. ♥]

[deathlessness]

YES a puzzle I can do I am also on it!

[drummeintheface]

HHHHHHHHHHH BREAK TIME

[mypartnerintime]

CARROLL HUH MODS. HUH.

[morethanasidekick]

It's amazing what Kenzi can accomplish with a bottle of tequila okay.

[drummeintheface]

Ahhh congrats! I got to 64% and I am actually really glad I can stop lol.

[morethanasidekick]

My brain is still fried from that ;;

[enciphers]

The message on the puzzle decrypted (Vigenère cipher, keyword CARROLL):

A SMALL GIFT FROM YOUR GRACIOUS HOST
THEY ARE MYSTERIOUS AS A GHOST
WILL THEY EVERY SHOW THEIR FACE?
PERHAPS IF YOU LOOK IN THIS PLACE!
A MILLION STORIES YOU CANNOT CLIMB
YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE THE TIME!
ON THE SECOND FLOOR YOU WILL FIND
SOMETHING THAT WILL FEED THE MIND

[vitaelamorte]

[Looks like you've cracked the code! But what does it all mean?!]

[fulllifeconsequences]

TO THE LIBRARY??? Is that too obvious?

[vitaelamorte]

[You head to the library! But sheesh, it's so big, and there are so many floors!
Do you know where you're looking, or what you're looking for?]

[sciencelizard]

Well, the clue says on the second floor, so the second floor of the library. There's no chance there's a copy of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland up there, is there...?

(I also don't know if the library is organized by dewey/library of congress/fucked up wonderland non-organization SO)

[vitaelamorte]

[Well, obviously. What a fantastic fiddle player.]