Author
Message
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
gott_sei_dank wrote:
Barbara Locci who was one of the victims of The Monster of Florence was known as Ape Regina (Queen Bee). On the datastore drop-down box I had in the past tried entering what looks like an ISO date, tried the same with date the file was added 20120930 but no joy.
I had already tried to guess some of the commands at the prompt, help and ls work, login looks like it shouldn't be parsed at all
Using the login command without further parameters returns a parser error message. Using it with anything (e.g. "login kadath" or "login qadhos") returns only a string of numbers and letters:
d3c3b5cb55d3c6d0c6122eedccc3dcf3
The same string is also visible on the error message.
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:58 am
Maevrim
Boot
Joined: 01 Apr 2011 Posts: 47
Oh nice on the 16 candles
We hadn't mentioned it because until at least when I went to bed last night, the video linked was still the thunder/lightning that was playing also on Qadhos.com. I kept having to turn my speakers off because I couldn't tell what was the computer and what was the hurricane.
The nanna gate status keeps changing. With that and the login strings being returned, anyone know the significance of the characters the base64 decodes to?
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:38 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
Maevrim wrote:
The nanna gate status keeps changing. With that and the login strings being returned, anyone know the significance of the characters the base64 decodes to?
Tried base64 on the login string but got no wiser.. I'm very new to this stuff, so maybe I just didn't know how to do it right.
It's true that the nanna gate status keeps changing. Maybe it's some kind of a countdown? Nanna is the first of the gates listed.
I think everyone has googled (or searched in wikipedia) the commands/picture names mentioned earlier. They all correspond to Babylonian deities and the picture of the celestial body associated to each seems to be an analogy of that deity in the Roman pantheon with the exception that Nergal (here represented by the image of Mars) is the Babylonian god of fire and of the negative and destructive aspects of the sun god. Mars in Roman pantheon is the war god. Ninib or Ninurta (here represented by Saturn) is the Babylonian god of war, and Saturn in Roman mythology is a god of agriculture and time...
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:07 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
Confirmed that the Nanna gate status is a countdown.
The status number is an amount of seconds in hexadecimal.
I tried the status command three times in a row, exactly 30 seconds apart. Here are the results and conversions to decimal numbers:
3818e --> 229774
38170 --> 229744
38152 --> 229714
That gives us about 2 days, 15 hours and 30 mins at the time of this post, give or take a few minutes.
If I recall correct, earlier there was a mention about next update being 31st October? (that was when the comm site had a space view and no thunder, before the second e-mail)
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:23 am
snorkle256
Unfettered
Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 631 Location: West Central Wisconsin
Good work all! Unfortunately for me, qadhos.com is block at work as a placeholder website. I will have to work hard from home in the evenings.
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:23 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
That countdown ends at midnight, at the change of October/November, Montreal time. (UTC -4)
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:04 am
AnamCara
Kilroy
Joined: 29 Oct 2012 Posts: 2
Erm...new here So, Basically just pasting what it said to me. WARNING Leak detected - Agent snorkle256 at http://bit.ly/SqE8KN
You are authenticated. Session ready, Base64 encoding activated.
Public command: status, userslist, exit, help
> status
Server Report as of Mon October 29 2012 @ 11:30:24
-------------------------------------------------
- System Status ---------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Mainframe Online
Historical Database Online
Barbizon Database Online
Chamber Access OFFLINE
Video Feed OFFLINE
-------------------------------------------------
- Gate Status -----------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Nanna Gate Connection Failed
Nebo Gate Connection Failed
Ishtar Gate Connection Failed
Shammash Gate Connection Failed
Nergal Gate Connection Failed
Marduk Gate Connection Failed
Ninib Gate Connection Failed
-------------------------------------------------
- Communication Relay ---------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Online @ www.qadhos.com/comm/
-------------------------------------------------
- Message Log -----------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
Nanna gate status: 344a0
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:31 am
barbarossa
Veteran
Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 73
aseameba wrote:
I think the song is linked to the Il Mostro because there were 16 victims.
ok so I'm new and just followed the link at the top of unfiction saying that is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die.
that lead to this: https://twitter.com/qadhos/status/262633587411664896
if you follow the link and use the number of murders committed by Il Mostro (16) in the archived file box you get this: http://imgur.com/0jQbr
There is a command list!
never mind I'm behind and slow....
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:37 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
"That is not dead, which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die" is a Cthulhu mythos reference.
H.P. Lovecraft still seems to be the theme of this ARG, since references to his texts are abundant, especially to Randolph Carter books. In the beginning the Qadhos comm system asks for a password for Dream-Quest, a direct reference to "Dream-Quest for Unknown Kadath"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream-Quest_of_Unknown_Kadath
References to this particular book are all over the place. Username and password for the comm site; text quote you get if you enter "kadath" at the prompt (beginning passage of the book)
The quote in the trailhead beginning image with the pastebin url is from another Randolph Carter book by H.P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silver_Key
This is the final chapter of "Behind The Yellow Curtain" ARG and it might have something to do with opening gates for the Great Old Ones to pass through to make the end of the world happen.. December 2012 is said to be the time for the awakening of the Great Cthulhu and it's the end of the Maya calendar.
Just some random thoughts considering the Mythos aspect of the game.
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:52 am
barbarossa
Veteran
Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 73
disregard this post. I'm a idiot.
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:23 pm
Last edited by barbarossa on Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
bambusar
Unfettered
Joined: 02 May 2012 Posts: 395
hi
This is my first episode of btyc
I was pulling my hair on how to convert those base64 strings into working jpgs
converting them with http://home.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/ and pastinf to any text editor didnt work, since all the editors (even notepad++) hanged NULL sign to ? or �
I was looking for previous BTYC threads but dind find the answer
finally i found online solution
http://www.mobilefish.com/services/base64/base64.php
after you put base64 string in you gate error message:
The output contains control characters and can not be shown in the textbox.
Instead the decoded data is saved into a file.
Download Download file
Click the Download and rename the file afterwards to name.jpg
DONE!
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:40 pm
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
Have you noticed the date in front of each text block that appears when a name of a gate is typed in the console?
I removed the spoiler tags, since the topic of these images/text blocks is discussed openly. Also edited the base64 picture file text blocks out for more clarity:
Maevrim wrote:
> nanna October 31, 2012
> nebo November 3, 2012
> ishtar November 6, 2012
> shammash November 9, 2012
> nergal November 11, 2012
> marduk November 13, 2012
> ninib November 16, 2012
Since "status" command has a countdown of "Nanna Gate status" going on, that will reach zero at midnight (Montreal time or UTC -4) Oct 31, I'm guessing that each of these gates will go active at midnight of their specified timestamps... which means a new gate will go active every three days.
I think it's fair to expect some kind of closure to this game after November 16. (or at least some momentous thing happening)
Anyone care to take a guess what we are supposed to do in the meantime? Can we do anything else than just sit and wait?
Why are there so much references to Randolph Carter books and what are the hidden "classified commands" and how can we use them? How can we access the historical database or the Barbizol database?
Barbizol seems to be a town in central France and also the name of a famous art school there. Any thoughts?
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:16 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
Have any of you made any progress about the Qadhos datastore?
The file hint was "86. Monster of Florence" Which gave us Il Mostro, and his 16 victims and the song "16 candles" gave us the file ID 16.
What does that "86." in the hint mean? Do you have any ideas about the background image of the datastore? (the TV-screen looking thing) This is my first time with BTYC, so I don't know if it's the same as before. Is it?
The distorted city image appears to be Montreal by night (lucky guess)
http://www.globalphotos.org/montreal/20050521/IMG_0418.jpg
I have no idea what the orange thing in the upper part of the screen is. Maybe a part of a picture of a planet, like Mars or Jupiter? Maybe something completely different. Maybe it's totally irrelevant.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:49 am
aseameba
Boot
Joined: 28 Oct 2012 Posts: 51
aseameba wrote:
I have no idea what the orange thing in the upper part of the screen is. Maybe a part of a picture of a planet, like Mars or Jupiter? Maybe something completely different. Maybe it's totally irrelevant.
Correction. I have an idea, what the upper part is. It seems to be a random picture of tv noise, used in many places, so I don't think it's meaningful as such.
http://lifeasahuman.com/files/2010/04/117680556_4044d73804_b.jpg
Thank you, TinEye
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:17 am
Maevrim
Boot
Joined: 01 Apr 2011 Posts: 47
aseameba wrote:
I think it's fair to expect some kind of closure to this game after November 16. (or at least some momentous thing happening)
Probably going to the next stage after the last gate opens.
Quote:
Why are there so much references to Randolph Carter books and what are the hidden "classified commands" and how can we use them? How can we access the historical database or the Barbizol database?
Barbizol seems to be a town in central France and also the name of a famous art school there. Any thoughts?
I feel like this episode is harkening back to Episode 4 in a major way. Check back through http://yellowcurtain.wikibruce.com/ to see summaries and links to the threads there. Most of your questions are answered in the Episode 4 thread.
I also recommend getting a searchable copy of Lovecraft's works. I use the PDF from http://cthulhuchick.com/complete-works-lovecraft-pdf/ quite often.
Quote:
The distorted city image appears to be Montreal by night (lucky guess)
I think it's an image used in previous episodes. It's titled "my city" backwards.
Quote:
What does that "86." in the hint mean?
I'd been wondering this as well. I thought it might be that the first killing was 1986, which is why I was trying the Aug 21 date as the ID. Or we could be done with it for the moment.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:05 am
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