Author
Message
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
My Special Mission!! When we had that Eye of Rambaldi Surveillance mission, I decided to have some fun with it. I sent them a message saying I found a paper on a town bulletin with the <0> on it and on the inside it said "Who.Sent.You? We.Are.Reasonable." which is the tagline/motto for the Followers of Rambaldi site from Season 1
They sent me this message back
Quote:
Agent Donahue:
Our analysts have expressed a keen interest in the item you discovered. We require increased surveillance in the vicinity of ********, NH. Please reply back to operatorSPLAT omnifam.org acknowledging your availability.
I replied, telling them I was available.
Then I got this
Quote:
Ongoing surveillance in your immediate area indicates local activity regarding the Followers Of Rambaldi. If such indications are confirmed, we may require travel within a 20 mile radius and things may get a bit physical. Please confirm your availability and suitability for such a mission. Details will follow once we have confirmation and completed analyzing relevant field reports and intercepts.
And then
Quote:
We've narrowed the radius to about 8 miles.
Under no circumstances are you expected to make contact with actual or suspected members of the Followers of Rambaldi. If you encounter members of the local cell during your operation, you are required to abort and immediately report your status back to Omnifam for further instructions.
Please advise us of your status and availability.
So, I did a little waiting (and pestering) and I finally go this:
Quote:
Operative Donahue:
Omnifam has recently intercepted a communique broadcast to all known local cells of Followers. Thanks to your diligence, we are in possession of the message to the cell uncovered in your area. We believe the threat to Mr. Sloane to be credible and immediate. Much of the message is obvious, but we require your services to decrypt the encoded portion of the message. Proceed with caution.
Listen
enclosures
Intercepted Letter
Intercepted Photo
This is a transcription of the message (at the bottom is the encoded text). The ?? are areas that I'm not sure about (the text was 'written' in a messy script font)
Quote:
My Fellow Brothers:
I have returned. Believe that it is true, for there is no greater error than to suppose that the first moment one tastes death is the end of one's existence. From my trials I have attained true knowledge and clarity. I am no longer under the influence of jealous affectios or devortions. I am present and alive. I am aware of my prophesied purpose and intend to act on it.
For this, I need the help of my fellow brothers. Arvin Sloane must be realeased from this corporeal (??) world. To follow said prohesy, the craggy nexus (??) of three holds the key.
Until The Return
dwlkoihrrhnjfdpzhjstdyddacdt
The picture was of a rock in the middle of a wet forest clearing with a great big H spray painted on it in orange. It looks like it could possibly have come from my area, but I don't know.
Anybody have ideas on the code? I've exhausted most of the basic ideas (ROT and Base64). I think the H has to do with the key code (or maybe Hylie?)
This is getting interesting....*cackles*
ETA: I uploaded the pics...
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:19 pm
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
Anybody have any ideas?
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:04 pm
Ursos
Decorated
Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 276 Location: Columbus, OH
Alright, well I've been looking at this stuff here. Of those two images, the one of the letter tests positive for a jphide using stegdetect with a sensativity of 1. The content of the letter, specifically "the craggy nexus of three holds the key" leads me to believe that's a pointer at the key to either the stegged file or the string of text at the end. I don't know anything about a prophecy or what the craggy nexus of three might mean, though...
I've tried various keys for "dwlkoihrrhnjfdpzhjstdyddacdt" though (FOR Hylie, (the) craggy nexus of three, until the return, etc) with no results. And as mentioned, ROTing leads to nothing... Still working on it, though. And still not sure where the "H" comes into play... Any other ideas?
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:08 am
orc_chops
Kilroy
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Lynchburg, VA
Hey, just a lurker here getting caught up on stuff.
Could "the craggy nexus of three" be an anagram for the key? Seems like a logical reason for the strange wording of the phrase. I've tried a few anagrams, both for the whole phrase and for single words found within the phrase (it contains "return" and "foxhunter", among others), but no luck so far, at least with Caesar or Vignere ciphers.
Sorry if this doesn't help, just trying to offer a couple of other options.
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 4:25 am
Ursos
Decorated
Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 276 Location: Columbus, OH
orc_chops wrote:
Hey, just a lurker here getting caught up on stuff.
Could "the craggy nexus of three" be an anagram for the key? Seems like a logical reason for the strange wording of the phrase. I've tried a few anagrams, both for the whole phrase and for single words found within the phrase (it contains "return" and "foxhunter", among others), but no luck so far, at least with Caesar or Vignere ciphers.
Sorry if this doesn't help, just trying to offer a couple of other options.
Hehe, nothing "doesn't help." It can always spark inspiration in someone else, so don't worry about that!
Actually, an anagram is a really good idea. I was thinking about that last night, but forgot to mention it. It'd be a tough one since it's so long... Eh, yeah, I have no idea...
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 10:09 am
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
Some developments...
In Photoshop (with the pic of the rock), when you do File > File Info, you get the date taken as 6/26/05, the State/Province is NH, and the Original transmission field is filled with the code from the FoR message.
Also, Operator sent me this
Quote:
Operative Donahue,
We believe the picture was taken somewhere in your area.
That rock most likely holds the key to decrypting the encrypted part of the communique.
Operator
I really don't want to have to go searching for a friggen' boulder
Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 4:12 pm
Soph
Boot
Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 25
i agree that there's something in the 'letter'..my steg detected it too. but have not yet found the passphrase.
What better way to spend a work day!
Have we found the source of the photo yet? as in where the picture was taken?
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:17 am
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
Somewhere in New Hampshire (where I live). This was confirmed by Omnifam and by the Embedded picture profile.
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:34 am
croupier
Guest
So, in looking at the photo, it looks more like a tombstone than just a rock to me, that might help narrow things down
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:12 pm
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
I know where I have to go (Omnifam gave me some hints). I dunno when I'm going yet though.
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:49 am
cnote1500
Boot
Joined: 22 Jun 2005 Posts: 34
Data Cards Do you think that the signature at the end of that message
Quote:
dwlkoihrrhnjfdpzhjstdyddacdt
could be the key to decode the images/info on the other data cards? Does anyone have the ability to ready/decode all of them? If so, I think it would be good to have them all in one place because I imagine they are all pieces of a puzzle.
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:58 pm
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
Omnifam lost faith in me
http://omnifam.org/290705field.pdf
Well at least it's off my chest now!
Did you notice the "from" section? Codename Evergreen from APO! That's Nadia![/quote]
ETA: THE CODE VIGENERE'S (wit HAP as key) to www.arcanuydashultor.com (the .s were dot) New trail!! Hmmm that's not a valid address....
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:14 pm
Last edited by johnahue42 on Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:27 pm; edited 2 times in total
xoxo_pr0ud
Decorated
Joined: 24 Jul 2005 Posts: 164
So now we have to decode this right?
Quote:
dwlkoihrrhnjfdpzhjstdyddacdt
Good luck...
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:25 pm
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
www.arcanum-ultor.com (I guess they made a typo...)
It was registered the same way as the rest of the domains and looks like it could be ingame....it's weird
ETA: They didn't make the typo, I did during my transcription of the code from the message. Sorry
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:35 pm
johnahue42
Veteran
Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 94 Location: USA
Weeeiiiirrrdddd stuff at that site. www.arcanum-ultor.com/images/sym.gif (NOTE!!!!: NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR PARENTS AROUND, FEATURES AN ALMOST NAKED WOMAN) I have no idea why that's on there. But if you just do arcanum-ultor.com/images you get www.greywethers.net which brings you to a strange poem. The letters vec.html are faded, go there and there's a latin poem. Someone @ SD-1 is working on a translation.
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:06 pm
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