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entranceway2016-08-31 05:09 pm
vitaelamorte) wrote in entranceway2016-08-31 05:09 pm
Entry tags:
+ CLUE POST +
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:
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 roofit 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! ♥
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
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! ♥
+ SOLUTIONS +
+ HOUSE PARTY ROUTE +
Characters who stay in the area long enough will notice that, every minute or so, the disco spotlight stops on the splashes, revealing a brief flash of hidden symbols. ]
↓
[ Reveal the splashes for the SUDOKU GRID that they are, solve the puzzle for the provided numbers, and check where the letters HERE overlap with the numbers 1865 aka. room #865 on the first floor, aka. Alice's Room. ]
+ ALICE'S ROOM +
↓
[ Those who don't go to sleep, but instead look below, will find a printed card hidden underneath Alice's bed.
( Very thorough and/or impatient characters may search the rest of the room already, and discover yet another message in Alice's ribbon drawer, rolled and wrapped neatly in a ribbon bow. ) ]
↓
[ Step 1: What is the simplest thing anyone could do with letters and numbers? Switch them out in a way where A equals 01, B equals 02, and so on! Do this to the printed number sequence and you get: ]
NW CG NT YC NW
CG NT YC NW CG
UY XA HA WL M
↓
[ The route was not solved beyond this point, but a generous host was very proud of everyone's efforts, and the party favours received at the end of the tenth day might very well be just as valuable and informative as reaching the end of this route! ]
+ ALICE'S ROOM, CONTINUED +
Step 2: Ribbons? Like the ribbons, in Alice's drawer! Like the ribbon wrapped around that other message! So. If the answer is SIMPLE! and you only need to count the dots, how many dots are there? Two? But then, what are all those dots and dashes trying to say? Morse code? YES!
It's SIMPLE! or - ... .. -- .--. .-.. . -.-.-- or (and don't forget that exclamation mark now) THIRTEEN dots. Now that we have the key, we just need the cipher, and VOILA!
NW CG NT YC NW
CG NT YC NW CG
UY XA HA WL M
becomes ]
UP UP UP UP UP
UP UP UP UP UP
BU TN OT OU T
↓
[ Up ten times, but not out on the roof? This calls for a look at the attic! ]
+ THE ATTIC +
AWJX W QNL PXBCKA MHQF MEAX EG NL
HAA BNIPXN CY YVTJQXO UNERXO MHQ HAAFX
XS VWFXBIE JCM PC YKFYAWM PVXI OEH OM KBVA KAAFX UCN CC
If you look around some more you will discover three items, which look cleaner, newer, and brighter than all the others.
One is a white book, which contains only three pages. They are all blank. The back of the book, however, reads this: "TAKE THEM BOTH TO FIND A HIDDEN QUEEN. WHAT REMAINS WILL GUIDE YOU, JUST AS YOU WERE GUIDED BEFORE."
Another is a red book, with the text 'First Edition' engraved on the cover. Every single page is torn in some place or other, but piecing them together reveals that they all read the same thing: "MY OLDEST GUESTS GAVE THE SAME ANSWER ALREADY. CAN YOU TELL? THE FIRST FLOOR IS FINE, OTHERWISE".
Finally there is a Valentine's Day card, with beautiful hearts all over, and golden letters wishing you HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! More hearts spring out when you open it, although the text inside is somewhat odd. "THIS IS ALL SHE HAD LEFT," is what it says. ]
↓
[ Want to think on that for a bit? Go ahead! Otherwise, proceed to the solution! ]
+ THE SOLUTION +
[ First you will need answers for the objects. You might not need to solve them in order, but the clues correspond to steps on the riddle path, so it will help with context a lot. So: First Edition, Second Month (February), Three Pages. ]
The red book hints at the RED QUEEN, which you get either by having someone remember that time RED QUEEN was a solution to Wonderland's door riddle, or by figuring out the theme of the new mansion's first floor.
The card hints at DINAH, the last memory Alice had left.
As for the white book, if you take BOTH ANSWERS from before and scramble them up you find A HIDDEN QUEEN, which is almost an anagram of RED QUEEN and DINAH. The only thing that remains is the letter R. If you let it guide you just as you were guided before, then you count only the dots again, which for an R in morse is TWO. Cue Vigenere Ciphere again, and you can FINALLY solve the floor text, which becomes
HAVE A CUP BEFORE YOUR TIME IS UP
THE NUMBER OF CHANCES GUIDES YOU THERE
BE CAREFUL NOT TO FORFEIT THEM ALL AT ONCE WHERE YOU GO
So? Cup hints at tea, the number of chances hint at five deaths, and forfeiting them all at once hints at the Mirror side. Annnnd VOILA
FIFTH FLOOR TEA ROOM MIRROR SIDE IS GO! ]
+ THRONE ROOM PARTY ROUTE +
However, each card also has something curious written on the back: ]
↓
[ What's 'Don't cheat'? It's a really great advice for this whole route, but it's also another way of saying PLAY FAIR, and wouldn't you know, there's a cipher for that!
Use the QUEENOFHEARTS as its key, and you get to ED IS TU OX OG, which, all backwards implications considered, should send characters outside on the Mirror side. ]
+ MIRROR SIDE, OUTSIDE +
Open the box, and a whole lot of puzzle pieces are waiting to be put in the right places! ]
↓
[ Do this, and voila, there is more for your character to decode! The cipher this time is Vigenère, the key is CARROLL, and the solution is this: ]
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
↓
[ The second floor? Stories you cannot climb? Sounds like a trip to the library is in order! ]
+ THE LIBRARY +
Open it, and find a loose scrap of paper inside. When unfolded, it reads: ]
Do you believe everything you read?
Maybe the key is belivng-n-nothing!
44 66 90 44 57 44 35 34 87 77 44 57 33 47 56 47 89 43 26 34 36 33 66
67 44 59 75 57 72? 49 90 54 26 66 66 56 66 76 84 28 66 54
75 70 97 75 46 33 45 46, 70 76 63 59 56 67 53 47 70 83 35 43 34 56 56
97 46 59 53 76 56 86! 80 63 45, 56 53 52, 69 59 45 26 65 47 56 87 66
46 58 73 54 33 78 57 86 49 72 '35 34 66 59 53 39 73 54 56
49 66 47 28 66 34 46 89 80 83.
↓
[ All this talk of everything and nothing, it sounds like a very Nihilist thing to do, and that is just the cipher characters need!
The key IS "believing in nothing" but it's also "Believing" and "Nothing" because it requires two keys to solve. The first step is to make a grid out of "believing" like in the playfair cipher from earlier, except that the grid has 1-5 on each side. Then you put NOTHING through it, and you get 21 35 45 32 14 21 22. Repeat that under each number in the puzzle until you hit the end, and then subtract the key from the numbers originally given. When you decode the results with the grid, you get ]
AFTER ALL WHERE DOES BELIEF
GET YOU? IT GETS OFF WITH
YOUR HEAD OFF TO THE DUNGEON
WITH YOU! OFF, OFF, MILES DOWN
IS WHERE YOU'LL FIND WHO
INVITED YOU.
↓
[ Well? Well? TO THE DUNGEONS with your characters! (On the Mirror side, in the basement, of course, because where else would the dungeons be?) ]
+ MIRROR SIDE, BASEMENT +
And when wound with the smallest key on the keyring, it plays this song from your benevolent host.
THE END
PS.: Although the other cells might be worth a look too... ]
+ BEACH PARTY ROUTE +
The message inside reads: ]
SO YOU'VE SNUCK OFF FROM THE ARTY
AND FOUND A CUE RESERVED FOR SMARTIES
CAN YOU LOOK ISIDE THE LINES
AND FIND ALL F THE HIDDEN SIGNS?
THEY'LL POINT YOU TO YUR DESTINATION
TO THE ONE WHO SENT THE INVITATON
↓
[ The missing letters spell out PLNOOI. Unscrambled they read IN POOL, which is exactly where the next clue awaits. To the indoor pool! ]
+ INDOOR POOL +
Retrieve one of each, and slips of paper will give you the following lines:
Blue egg: FORTUNATELY YOU CAN!
Pink egg: UNFORTUNATELY YOUR ANSWER ISN'T HERE
Orange egg: FORTUNATELY YOU'VE SOLVED THE PUZZLE!
Yellow egg: UNFORTUNATELY...CAN YOU?
Green egg: UNFORTUNATELY THEY CAN'T FILL IN THE BLANKS
White egg: FORTUNATELY THE GOLDFISH KNOW WHERE TO GO NEXT!
Put those in order and you get: ]
FORTUNATELY YOU'VE SOLVED THE PUZZLE!
UNFORTUNATELY YOUR ANSWER ISN'T HERE
FORTUNATELY THE GOLDFISH KNOW WHERE TO GO NEXT!
UNFORTUNATELY THEY CAN'T FILL IN THE BLANKS
FORTUNATELY YOU CAN!
UNFORTUNATELY...CAN YOU?
↓
[ Don't put them in order, and the goldfish are still the ones with the next clue, and where might you find them? Of course, in the pond, in the gardens! ]
+ THE POND, IN THE GARDENS +
FISH SO MANY, FISH A PLENTY!
FINALLY THE CONGNOSCENTI!
ONCE AGAIN YOU'VE FOUND THE CLUE:
ONLY RED, NO GREEN OR BLUE
ONE FLIGHT UP AND THEN ONE MORE
OH WHICH ROOM ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
↓
[ If you focus only on red, only on the deepest and most #FF0000 of reds, what does that get you? A RGB value of 255,0,0, aka. a good reason to look into room 255 on the third floor (of the regular mansion)! ]
+ ROOM 255, THIRD FLOOR +
Open the door anyway, and they will find it very... oddly decorated.
There are dozens of wooden red fish on the walls. There are fish tanks everywhere full of entire schools swimming around on loop. There are plush toys strewn about the room as well and...that smell? Why that was delicious smoked red herring, on a platter for you!
It's also exactly what this route is. A delicious Red Herring Route. Womp-womp!
THE END
+ FOREST PARTY ROUTE +
Characters who approach the bird carefully will be allowed to pull off the tiny scroll, and find the following message written on it: ]
i am who makes you cry
i am the reason for your smile
i bring the dead to life
and grant you eternal youth
i am created in an instant
but remain for the rest of your life
give me away to receive the next clue.
↓
[ The riddle refers to a memory, and where is the one place in Wonderland where you can trade memories for something else? The Vendors, of course! ]
+ THE VENDORS +
↓
[ The item in question is a kalimba. It is a musical instrument. You take it home to the music room. ]
+ THE MUSIC ROOM +
↓
[ Like a plushy red cushion, but delicious? Wait, velvet? OF COURSE! Red velvet cake! ]
+ CAKE!!! +
Characters may obtain this cake through a number of ways, either by going to the dining hall, or by finding one in the kitchen fridge, or even by passionately baking one themselves!
(Pre-made cakes may even come with a helpful EAT ME sign.) ]
↓
[ Once characters do eat the cake, then it will just so happen that the very last bite of the very last piece will have you taste a scrumptious... plastic capsule? Oh well, at least they get a reward for chipping your teeth! ♥
(How did this get into their homemade cake? Better not think about it...) ]
↓
[ A... maze. A MAZE. Could it be? YES! To the maze! ]
+ THE MAZE +
↓
[ Journey from blue bird to green kalimba to red cushion, all with some help from the colour code from that last capsule, and you reach BOX NUMBER 632. ]
+ BOX NUMBER 632 +
You sift through them, and find a bunch of yellowed maps underneath. You'll have to be careful when you handle them, seeing as they're already pretty brittle with age! The images are faded too, but you still recognise outlines of... cities? Countries? Whole worlds? You faintly make out a bunch of names, Lesuss, England, Sunnydale, Whitefall, Little Whinging, Westeros, Los Angeles, Denerim, Arcadia Bay, Jotunheim-- the list goes on, but you are guaranteed to find at least one familiar name among them.
Why, the only strange and unfamiliar thing about some of these maps is an emblem, painted in the bottom right corner of each map. It is sometimes torn, sometimes faded or scratched, and sometimes still very much legible: But it is always the same.
The box looks empty now, but you decide to run your hand through it one last time, just to be completely sure that you didn't miss a single thing. Lo and behold, your fingers snag up one final piece of paper stuck in the back corner.
You check the box again, but this time you truly find it all emptied out, your reward spilled into your hands at last. This is it, this is the end of the road. You wonder what it could all mean...
THE END ]