: Perplex City :: Primer :
   
             

 

The pre-game is now concluded; the primer will continue on the GameTimeline page. There is also an Updates section, which will list short descriptions and relevant links of updates as they happen.

This document is intended as a reader's digest version of a guide; if you're searching for something in particular, go to Nik_Doof's Wiki. If you are new to the game, to the genre, or to unfiction, please make sure to read the intro (that I shamelessly, shamelessly ripped off from joebrent's Project MU primer) below.

A few notes about etiquette and protocol: some of the threads on the forum undoubtedly will (and already have) grow(n) well over 10 pages long, so it’s perfectly understandable that you might have difficulty at first in simply finding pertinent information. So, familiarize yourself with the search tool. Usually, it’s best to isolate a specific question you might have, do a search on the keywords, and look up the earliest references first. As information gets abstracted and analyzed and picked apart to within an inch of its life, we can sometimes go off on tangents that might be confusing if you haven’t been sitting up all hours of the night slogging through recent posts day after day after day. If a search doesn’t answer your questions, feel free to PM me, or any of the more experienced members you encounter with specific questions, and I’m sure you’ll find that people are happy to point you in the right direction. Posting with a “what’s going on over here?” or “what does this code mean?” type question, especially as a new topic, should be a last resort.

For generally accepted guidelines on ARGing, please refer to BriEnigma's list of "do-s & don't-s".

: Pre-Launch :: Project Syzygy :

The game kicked off on unfiction on Feb. 24th with Adrian Hon's announcement of www.projectsyzygy.com.

The note:
0670875597
136-23-3
319-23-7
174-9-9

Solved by Diandra: the top line is the ISBN of William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition"; the lines below are page, line, and word, which amount to "change the world".

 

Braille at the bottom:
I CAN SEE YOU

 

sound clip

 

images at the bottom

 

luggage tag

 
 

Some snooping in the source code turned up the keywords:

TE OE K MQD J JE IFUDT JXU HUIJ EV OE KH BY VU IU BBYDW IKWQ HUT M QJUH EH TE OEK MQDJ JE…
DO YO U WAN T TO SPEND THE REST OF YO UR LI FE SE LLING SUGA RED W ATER OR DO YOU WANT TO…

LazarusLong identified the above as a "famous quote from Steve Jobs to John Sculley in 1984, when Jobs was trying to lure Sculley away from Pepsi and bring him to Apple. The remainder of the line is: CHANGE THE WORLD."

Some more snooping in the source code yielded www.predicaments.com (where the images were hosted, and where the music in the sound clip came from) and www.perplexcity.net (later a seemingly identical site, www.perplex-city.com was also found).
This is my cheap attempt at recreating perplexcity pages (circa Feb. 27 '04) from memory and google's cache (appearance only; you can see the source code in a separate document). The /perplexcity directory did not contain anything particularly interesting. The crypto line on the 2nd page reads: "a simple idea that will"... you guessed it, "change the world".

Starting February 29th, people that e-mailed sente@projectsyzygy.com received the following autoreply:

Hello

This is an autorespond to say thanks very much for your email and interest
in PS.

As promised we’ll be back in touch on the eve of the launch (late 2004)
and we’ll be able to go into much greater detail then.

Your early interest and patience will be rewarded.

Yours enigmatically,

The PS team

On March 2nd, a file called alison.rtf was added to the /images/_/ directory. It contained this text: 2oc3o.ptxt; a few hours later this text was changed to "2oc4o.ptxt". Uncertain of this being a puzzle, we made a few attempts to figure it out, but quickly wrote it off. A few days later we were informed that this is, in fact, a puzzle... an unsolvable one, apparently! In two days we spun "2oc4o" in hundreds of ways, were given a whole lot of very un-helpful hints (including this one), and were eventually told to just forget it (though the solution possibly had to take us trough this page: http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/laws/Abeale.html, whose tinyurl is 2oc4o). On March 15th the contents of the file changed to

'i7 re5t6urn8e11d, a2nd saw10 unde12r3 the sun, that the race is not to
the swift,
nor the battle to the strong9, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet
riches
to m1en of understanding, nor yet favour to men of sk413ill; but time
and chance
happeneth to them all.

page 60'.

The numbered letters spelled out "marketing week" - a UK-based magazine which contained an ad for the game; a similar ad was placed in "The Guardian". The text in the ads is

Ever imagined sitting behind the curtain helping craft a world changing, globe spanning immersive treasure hunt?

We’re creating a completely new type of game you play everywhere clues-surround you in newspapers, magazines, films, books video games via txt and across a spanning maze of websites. Whom can you trust? Where does fantasy end and reality begin?

You’ve passed the first test stage now follow the white rabbit.

www.projectsyzygy.com

see marketing week page 60 11/03/04.

with this extra line in the Guardian (Raze found that the "ntk" refers to www.ntk.net, where Project Syzygy was labeled as a "time-waster"):

ntk? this is not a "time-waster." sente.

AnthraX101 and grumpyboy determined the flipped hex strings in the Marketing Week ad to be an md5 hash (whatever that is) for dinah@projectsyzygy.com.

E-mails sent to that address were replied to with this:

On 5 Mar 2004, at 00:29, xxxx wrote:

I don't think I have anything more to add, except for the requisite
shout-outs to the immersive fiction community all over the web and
around the world (you know who you are). Anyone reading this should know
that it's going to get a lot harder and a lot more fun. You ain't seen
nothing yet.

One last thing - it all begins with AADAA...

xxxx

On 5 Mar 2004, at 00:13, xxxx wrote:

What a cool idea. I love it. All we'd need to do is sanitise our
email exchange by removing reference to things like xxxx and then put it
online somewhere. This could be the last email of our exchange we
publish.

Unless of course you follow this one with a witty reply that our
hard-core cryptographer friends would enjoy ;)

xxxx

On 4 Mar 2004, at 23:58, xxxx wrote:

Actually, yeah, I think you are probably right. As long as the puzzle
isn't *ridiculously* easy, then people aren't going to think worse of
it (especially if you put 'Easy wasn't it?' as a more difficult one!).
Simple substitution is a nice way to go.

Now I'm wondering what sort of code to use for the 'easy wasn't it'
thing...

It occurred to me this evening that a nice reward for ultra-hardcore
cryptographers would be to see this exchange of emails - it wouldn't
actually reveal anything at all about xxxx, and they'd probably
appreciate the thought that's gone into the ad puzzle. Perhaps we could
encrypt a key in the ad that would unlock these emails on the web
somewhere. Or maybe not. Just another random idea

xxxx

On 4 Mar 2004, at 23:48, xxxx wrote:

Fair point. I've been thinking about this a lot this evening. It's a
tricky balance we're trying to strike.

The code at the moment is laughably easy to crack but that's the
point. I think 99% of people reading the ad will feel pretty pleased with
themselves for cracking a Caesar shift or simple substitution cipher.
The image I have is of people stumbling across our ad while flicking
through a stack of job ads in a coffee shop. They'll be intrigued by
it but unless they have a hook to start solving it quickly I think
they'll give up and probably won't give it another thought.

Alternatively if they immediately see a way in and manage to solve it
on the back of a napkin within five or ten minutes then I think they'd
be very likely to check out the site and more importantly mention it
to other people.

In hindsight a simple substitution cipher probably makes more sense
than a Caesar shift – particularly if we leave the web address format
as it is. This provides the easy way in to give the average person a
foothold of four letters.

It’ll be a different matter when the game is live and people are xxxx
but in this instance I think a Vigenere cipher would require too much
effort for the average person. Obviously we wouldn't want to recruit
anyone for the full-time team who'd struggle to decode a Vigenere
cipher but this is a great opportunity to get a lot of people chatting
about the concept and the site itself. If the puzzle is too complex then
we lose all that and the fact we gain an average of higher quality
submissions probably doesn't offset it.

You're right in that we don't want to look like lightweight puzzle
designers so a way around this might be to hide a much more complex
code in the background that acknowledges the very important but tiny
minority of ultra smart folks. Perhaps something as simple as "Easy wasn't
it?"

Any thoughts??

Cheers

xxxx


On 4 Mar 2004, at 18:38, xxxx wrote:

Hi all,

I think the text of the ad is perfect, but I have some comments on
other aspects.

Firstly, I think a Caesar shift is too easy - I mean, even I could
figure that one out! If people are interested in the ad, then they'll
be willing to put at least a few minutes work into it - and if they're
not interested in the ad, it won't be because the cryptosystem is too
hard, it'll be because it just looks like gibberish. So I don't feel
there's anything wrong with knocking it up a notch and using, say, a
simple substitution cipher. These are easily broken using frequency
analysis or brute force, but it's a step up from Caesar.

Another possibility is using a Vigenere Cipher, which is essentially a
Caesar cipher done twice, using a keyword to determine the shift. It's
much more difficult to brute force without the keyword and very very
difficult for short texts, which obviously this one is, so we should
make the keyword available. A possible scenario would be to encode the
majority of the text in a Vigenere Cipher (which is immune to
frequency analysis) and encode the keyword (written in Braille or morse code
or baudot) with a simple substitution cipher or something similar.

Whichever system is used, it would be a mistake to write out the web
address in the usual 'http://www....com' format, simply because it'd
be very recognisable and thus provide an easy shortcut to crack the
puzzle (and that would be no fun for anyone). To be totally safe, I
would write it out as 'visit projectsyzygy dot com' so there isn't any
strange punctuation to give the game away.

So - if you went for the Vigenere route, here is how I would do it
(and obviously there are many other ways, many of which are undoubtedly
better):

1. In a corner or on the border of the ad, the phrase 'You're always
a day away' is written in morse or braille or baudot. Optionally, it
is encoded via a simple substitution cipher, or maybe just a Caesar
shift.

2. This phrase is obviously from the song 'Tomorrow' in the movie
'Annie'. Thus the keyword is 'Tomorrow' - it's not hard to figure out.

3. From there, if you recognise that the main text is encoded in
Vigenere, it is trivial to decode it using the keyword.

You could always highlight some of the letters in the text and use
them as a keyword for a future puzzle on the web - we wouldn't even
need to decide on them beforehand, we could just design the future
puzzle around them.

My reasoning for making the puzzle a bit harder and more circuituous
is because it involves the 'player' a little more and thus will give
them a bit more satisfaction on completion and also convince them
that we are not lightweights when it comes to cryptography. Furthermore,
if anyone did want to write a story about it, it's more interesting
this way

Of course, it is entirely possible that making the puzzle harder will
put people off, which is clearly not the goal. However, it will be
cracked by *someone* in short order, and the answer and instructions
will then be put on the web for all to see. Success!


xxxx


On 4 Mar 2004, at 16:32, xxxx wrote:

Here's a first stab at text for the ad that will be going into the
press over next week or so. I'm planning to put it into Marketing Week and
then play it by ear after that.

If anyone has any suggestions or improvements then give me a shout asap
since we're hoping to get this finished by midday on Monday. Might be
nice to hide a deeper clue in there somewhere as well. Any
suggestions? Perhaps we could very subtly highlight some of the letters (tiny
dot above or below) to spell out a new message. Or we could partially
hide the 'I can see you' Braille text somewhere within the design
around the edge of the text? Not very imaginative though!

I currently think that the best plan would be for the first sentence
to be unencrypted to hook people's interest and then encode the rest
of the text via a caesar shift (including the web address obviously!)
With a bit of luck it should get picked up and commented on by the
mainstream press.

Cheers

xxxx

AnthraX101 also noted that "AADAA was the beginning string to the "Arethusa" messages from Cryptonomicon. In the context of the book, it was one of those super hard codes that no one could crack. Finally, years later, one guy cracks it. It turns out not to be a message at all, rather the output of a Riemann zeta function using "COMSTOCK" as the seed."

Sometime around June the date of "eve of launch" in the autoreply from sente@projectsyzygy.com changed to "early 2005".

BACK TO

: Pre-Launch :: Perplex City :

On October 8th we found the update to www.perplexcity.com (the actual update to the site, as well as the taking of the other "perplex cities" offline, and reregistering them with DomainsByProxy took place some unknown number of days prior to Oct. 8th).

The main page has this letter on it; text below:

The Perplex City Academy

“Keep that which you value close; better to be vigilant than to rely upon the kindness of strangers.”
--Unknown, Perplex City, 179 BC

Cynicism is not, it must be said, an altogether admirable trait. Thus, despite the proverbial warning, I now offer my hand in friendship and hope, relying on your kindness. My name is Sente. I wish I were writing in happier times.

My people have lost something. Something so important and something that we should rightfully have kept close to hand. Something whose value to us is immeasurable, both materially and symbolically.

There is compelling evidence that an unknown party has taken the ???? Cube and concealed it somewhere in your world. As far as “hide and seek” games go, I imagine that this is an all-time record. But this is not a game.

I realize this communication raises more questions than it provides answers. At this moment, though, patience must be your most valued asset. I am marshalling all of my city’s resources to provide you with enough information to succeed in the task I have put to you. When my people are ready, we will contact you.

Please, help me find the Cube and return it to its rightful owners. The finder will be awarded Perplex City’s highest honour and receive a substantial financial reward.

Find the cube. Return it. May you succeed where I and my colleagues have failed.


Sente


……….. One Taversen Square, The Old Town….

Some observations/speculation about the letter:

If you click on the logo in the letter, you will be taken to this page. We're not really sure what that means (though we did manage to translate the Latin bit in the logo roughly as "search is the beginning of knowledge"). Nothing else particularly interesting there, except for a mention of "Zeller" (we'll see this name again a little later).

So, click on the block of blacked out text in the letter snippet, and you will be taken to this page. This is slightly more informative:

Marrec took a look at spacer.gif and found this directory. Now things are getting interesting!

There are a couple of logs taken at something called GATEHOUSE 24 (here and here). I think what we are meant to derive from those is that: a) anyone passing through gate 24 has their badges, biometrics and emotional states scanned; b) the logs may contain useful snippets of conversations (for example, we learn that the two Lings are siblings).

There are also some quite funny logs of e-mails about shoes. Seems the girls involved are using a project's resources (what project?) to copy some "earth" shoe designs (hence the shoe designer that no one in Perplex City would have heard of) in hopes of having them replicated by a shoemaker in Old Town (probably an area in Perplex City). Weird. But still funny :-)

Another e-mail exchange is between Sarah Covington (the person who suggested "expensing" the shoes) and Henrik Tanner; we learn from that that times are stressful for Henrik, and that S. (Sente?) is breathing down his neck. I wonder if it has anything to do with Sente's "marshalling" all of his resources to provide us with information.

Finally, there is a brief biography of Hesketh Zeller (remember this name from the logo?). Not much to learn here, except that he studied the Cube, and that he's dead.

Last bit of speculation: I think all of these people might be working at the Perplex City Academy (since Sente, who seems to be their big boss, uses the Academy's letterhead).

Wishi-san found what the filenames in the errorlog directory represent: they are 10-digit strings of consecutive digits in the number e. So far we don't know how to proceed with this information.

Some strange updates today (Oct. 14th). richjwild found a Cube for sale in a Firebox catalogue today (yep, it's our Cube):

And then - weirdness! - we find that Project Syzygy has been completed.

Perhaps as a confirmation of this rather strange turn of events, there is a new cache file in the errorlog directory:

From: Sandbox Mail Transport Daemon (build 19650602)
To: xxxxxxxx
Date: xxxxxxxx
Subject: Message Undelivered: Project Syzygy Completed

Hello,

This is the mailer daemon at incoming.sandbox.academy. I'm sorry, but I have
been unable to deliver your message (subject: Project Syzygy Completed) for the
last 24 hours. I shall keep trying every hour for the next 7 days. If you don't
hear from me again, you may assume your message has been delivered.

The reason why your message hasn't been delivered so far is that data integrity
transport checksums have failed on all transport attempts. Preliminary diagnostic
information available to me indicates that there has been a failure in Sandbox
Mail Transport Daemon (daemon subprocess 3ea5).

Should you wish further information on this error, please access your designated
support resource. Unfortunately, the security context for this instance dictates
I may not disclose your designated support resource.

--- Your original message follows:

Received: (Sandbox Mail Transport Daemon 4928 remote invocation); xxxxxxx
Received: from xxxxxxxx (HELO xxxxxxxx)
Date: xxxxxxxx
Subject: Project Syzygy Completed
To: xxxxxxxx
From: xxxxxxxx

Sente,

I am pleased to inform you that milestone 24 (Project Syzygy) has concluded
successfully. The team over here has now been assembled and you'll get a chance
to speak to everyone over the next week or so. We're all very excited to be
working with the Academy on this.

Yours,

xxxxxxxx (xxxxxxxx)

Apparently, someone reported to Sente that Project Syzygy has been completed (there is a spec floating around that Project Syzygy's objective has been merely to gather people around; actually, given the definition of "syzygy", it might not be such a bad spec), but his/her message did not get delivered. Hopefully we'll have more updates "over the next week or so"... preferably ones that will at least help us determine whether the game has started or not :-)

Well, it's been far longer than a week - today is Dec. 11, and we have another word from Sente. These postcards have been found in Bologna, Italy and North Carolina, USA (I know, I didn't really think I'd ever have those two in the same sentence either):

What we have determined:

What we have not yet determined:

BACK TO

Woo, it's only been a little over two months since the last time anything happened, and already there are huge updates :P
According to a video (a transcript of which can be found here) on the perplexcity site, we should be checking numerous newspapers over the next month or so (full list of newspapers is going to be updated a little farther below).

Sente also sent us an e-mail reminder about the video update:

From: Sente <sente@perplexcity.com>
To: Private
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:14:00 -1100
Subject: A Message from Perplex City

My name is Sente, and I am the Master of the Perplex City Academy.

On January 16th 2004, an object of immeasurable value was stolen from
our city. You kindly answered my plea to assist in its recovery. Over
many, many months, we at the Academy have been assembling information
to help you in this task.

Today, we break our silence. There is still so much to share with you,
but for now this fragment must suffice.

http://www.perplexcity.com/video.html

I will be in contact again soon.

Stay alert.

Sente

Btw, the headers reveal "unfiction" in SMTP - cute :-)

The most recent list of newspapers in the video:

17th February : USA Today
22nd February : New York Sun
23rd February : The Times, London
28th February : Sydney Daily Telegraph
2nd March: La Presse
5th March : Toronto Globe and Mail
8th March : LA Times
14th March: South China Morning Post
21st March : The Guardian

The text of the ads:

USA Today (Feb. 17)

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
not only an object of great significance to the city but also a technological wonder
www.perplexcity.com

 

New York Sun (Feb. 22 /23)

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
Able to trace it without any difficulty, wherever it may be. The Cube is
www.perplexcity.com

 

New York Sun (Feb. 22 /23)

LOST. A Trout. Reward offered.
Not only a pet of great significance to the group but also a biological wonder.
www.perplexcity.com

 

London Times (Feb. 23)

LOST The Cube. Reward Offered.
confirmed the thieves reprogrammed portions of the Academy's security systems, disabling three different
www.perplexcity.com

 

Sydney Daily Telegraph (Feb. 28)

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
the Academy, said in a statement today: "As is well-known, the cube is a unique object, with certain unusual properties. We have confidence that, using our knowledge of its composition, we will be
www.perplexcity.com

 

La Presse (Mar. 2)

Perdu Le Cube. Recompense.
Trouvez-les, et cela les apportera a la justice. "Sente Kiteway", Maitre de
www.perplexcity.com

[rough translation:
Lost The Cube. Reward.
Find them, and this will bring them to justice. "Sente Kiteway", Master of
www.perplexcity.com]

 

Toronto Globe and Mail (Mar. 5)

LOST. The Cube. Reward.
security on the ball, to make sure no one gatecrashes their exclusive party." In previous years, the annual ball has been the occasion of various student pranks including the "sofas in the stairwell" incident.
perplexcity.com

 

LA Times (Mar. 8)

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
The Receda Cube is an archaeological artifact of unknown origin. It has unusual scientific properties, and has been extensively investigated by the Academy over recent years. Several religious and mystical groups
www.perplexcity.com sente@perplexcity.com

 

South China Morning Post (Mar. 14)

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
forms of security without tripping warning alarms. Academy security personnel discovered the theft at 2am when security guard Mendling failed to check in for her shift change. Police as yet have no suspects and are still questioning ball attendees. Perplex City Council leader Camryn Scott confirmed today that a police task force will work with Academy experts to find the culprits. She said, "The murderers of Fran Mendling will pay for their crimes. Those who perpetrated this heinous act should know that we will
www.perplexcity.com

It looks like we might be able to join those snippets into a story, or, at the very least, gain some more details about the mysterious Cube and its disappearance. Oh, and, as a sidenote: the ad about a lost trout is simply hilarious - thanks for the much-needed laugh!

Btw, e-mailing sente@perplexcity.com returns this autoresponse:

Thank you for your email. I regret that I am unable to individually reply to mail sent to my public box. If your email is of an urgent or personal nature, I will reply shortly. Otherwise, I shall read your message in due time, and I beg your patience.

Sente

--
Perplex City Academy, One Taversen Square, Old Town
"When we were children, how we longed for the days when we would be grown. Yet now, see us here, gazing mournfully into our cups and wishing for the days when we were still free of the cares of the world."

The updates in the video clip as of March 11th are:

The webcam in the above link is located on Abbey Road, London, and at least four of the ³ people will be there on March 19th. The rest of us will be in chat, holding our breath.

Bagsbee found a postcard inside the "Alice in Wonderland" book at the library on the corner of Fifth and 40th in NYC. The card is the same as the ones that have been found previously, with the exception of a post-it on the front. The text on the post-it note:

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered.
around Perplex City hold the Cube as an
object of reverence.
It is housed in the Academy museum
and has been on public display
since 228AC. The last serious
attempt at theft
was in late April of 235AC

www.perplexcity.com

Well, it seems that we can now join at least a few of these fragments into larger chunks:

Speculation regarding the name of the Cube - Receda - is flying wild, with my favorite - atm - being "'Receda' is the name of the location where the Cube was found." Also note that we now have Sente's last name (Kiteway), as well as his title (or one of his titles).

So, what else do we know? We know that Marchant can't have been the one to steal the Cube (at least this time), as "the last serious attempt at theft" took place 87 years after he insisted on having it in his bare hands. That is, if he was talking about the Cube, and not something else entirely.
We also know now that the Cube was found - as opposed to "invented", or "brought back on an inter-galactic cruiser", for example - and we know that it tends to have a deep emotional/spiritual impact on people (S. Marchant; "several religious and mystical groups" of Perplexians; and, possibly, Hesketh Zeller).

Aside from that^, little else can be backed with any solid evidence, so we're back to "waiting for the game to start"...

Combining the text from the SCMP ad with a previous snippet yeilds:

So, Fran Mendling, the security guard at Gatehouse 24 (previously mentioned here) was murdered. It looks like the thieves used the [Academy's?] annual ball as a diversion (lots of people, security's busy), and had to kill Fran in order to pass through the Gatehouse.

Most exciting news today, brought to you by people returning from Abbey Road.

As they arrived to the location, they noticed 3 clues (apparently, one was on a statue, one - on a piece of paper, and one - on a wall):

LOST. The Cube. Dinah has been delayed at MC but she will
---------------------------------------------------------------------
hang exec www.perplexcity.com 1/3

LOST. The Cube. arrive before 13 hours. She will require a password
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ruined on www.perplexcity.com 2/3

LOST. The Cube. before handing over any information:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
stock market ( www.perplexcity.com 3/3

They quickly realized that the first clue anagrammed (as hinted at by the second clue, "ruined") to "exchange" (aka "stock market"), and that ended up being the password they gave to Dinah when she showed up (!). In return, Dinah gave them envelopes with all kinds of cool stuff: another text snippet and a cryptic message contained within an e-mail exchange similar to that received from dinah@projectsyzygy.com a few months ago (or, wait, that was actually over a year ago). Oh, and not to forget - our old friend, the postcard.

On 4 Mar 2005, at 20:02, Sente wrote:

I hardly think that's necessary.

 


On 4 Mar 2005, at 19:59, xxxx wrote:

What a cool idea, I love it. All we'd need to do is sanitize our email exchange by
removing reference to things like xxxx, print it out, and then give it to whoever
turns up on the day (I'm now thinking Dinah should do this btw!) This could be
the last email of our exchange we publish.

Unless of course you follow this one with a witty reply that our hard-core webcam
and ground ops friends would enjoy.

xxxx

 

On 4 March 2005 at 19:42, Sente wrote:

Very simple, but potentially interesting to our attendees:

AAPOR NFWGC IARUW KRPED BVTVI STKTK NSNYI NQRDK NIESA NUSMO
OMVOX VIWPZ SOCKO FTNVN NYQGG GNSRW AYQEM HMMXQ OPLTP OMENE
FKVMF IBEEB RXLWN AXVLT JZOEN NBCMG UELOC ERGLF SHXQU SNLWU
BYGAR TPKHA ATRQU XRSLS TUSEK LJATD TAYOS GASOB RRFIF EVPIO
NKUIV SNPIN ZEDQZ WAGPO FEGBS VULLF UTYGL XKHKB XVIPL YHUEU
YREEA MASBR VOEJG LXIBR OXNDG YTSNR WBAOE RTCKM AVUOD FABDB
DKLNT DLJTX IVQRO ZFTTE MGANO TBQIV UZGLU XVFOW YYWPH HRAOZ
IWHWY TZAOX WUETM QCVDM CZTPO WRNYC JYUVG GLVKT XBCDX GBPIG
JBFBC DWHRN RVHML LGVVV RFSHU MHZTB MQSGO BRSCR YLCRA YEZEF
SQKLY JMHVQ GCRSE SWBSC RATNY XNWYE UNATI UTTWM BNQXV BLIBG
WVYLP ABHVG LCLFX PUDBE QPGUD HUTPO PEFGO PRWBQ YTYRW XKLVN
GTXZC GMGOJ OHHRB RKGQA ERCVY PTBMF GVMDR APDVE LLMTU NTUCP
BPGRC LJXVF FPLPX EZPHQ OAOSM GBBGI VESAG YYCMR YIBZP IAMXO
GIWXZ AGRRV HMFES EPREK NYXTU CHCMO SFAJO VAIVO WRXNX ZEIAX
AKNDB ZPIQC AOZIT SORGB TJEUB VKJLA MHBGV FUMGH MAHUE IMODR
ZYVOL NCZHV FGAYF RKXAD UZZGG OVMSL YNRUM ILVOG YGPRL YTTET
TSRCS AABEF AYVNJ EZVXU RJBJM RIJXU ZTLGI UEOWW GFBEI QBARV
BEUGL BCHZZ ABXCR CWYKM WORXR TCSQE IZUIA IWRID XTNIT PYWAI
VQKIG UMTSP NEXTV AELEJ GHLMS HACCY AZGVO ZVIFE VGMLI VQFRR
CJVTX SGSIY RNIXR RRRLK NOVRZ HVFXK OYKBF ISTYN HBPIC GBLUI
OSEVJ ZLPOY MRYSX BVVYM QWNLQ XVIFP URSKN PREUB YMRCJ BKEDJ
JYMBU XKGSO LAUCP BPGRN VXAYO KKTQH XLBMB UZKFM DHOVH QVWKE
EBWVR ICTKP TGCNW EUVVS SFVTD EIFGN OCNVH PNYXL ETTRZ BRDAV
SECDU QTPUI YIIGL BXEPH NBWPR QWGIK EZTHE EKSVB WABAR GMPII
LMCSN OPCGH QCWRV QOPOB PERLP BYKZO ILNQI HRPRL FWBHH RZOTE
GBYYT LQCBX NYBLN PHFDC ATPOR UYYET YWHVS IEQFX MIDXL QIWGI
YVMII QOAFI FEZZC YECSX AOGRM VPXCU DHSOZ KBYFP HQLIE GGLCR
HUIMF FXIRP BZAVC QKBSQ RSRIB RXNET BRMSH LBGOS XQVDC RWFOL
BSTJE BBATS WBPDD BVTVI STKTF RMISB EQVTI RMJMT SZMIM KEZGZ
WCPBY WGIWX OLEBO OSQAX NEREI TYZKA HATDP DUVNI VPEFG OPCMY
PGRJN RWYZW XKQCV YOIVT QYBSR EVKCM GSZHV FSGCU EWWIJ VFOSE
SWPKE NYTJY BBATS WBPDK MRPTG DUDPB QIVQW TFPOP TQAYO NXEIL
OUIVA VDHAC CYAZC CFABT GWMEI EEKEI LSXVG MQCIF ZOPAL OAYNY
TJOCT LBAIX MGGLZ MXAIW YOGUE XKGSR QTJRW HKNOE UIKGU PGHZI
WYIRP OUWSN GFTJA BFLKE EWSRO XRGXF RTJGS ATLSB NRETJ OCTLZ
HVGEU VYJHY BWXQV QNDMW MBRSI PEQAH KEUGL XNCJV HCGHC JTVTA
CQHBY ATSQF JONVE CXDNY XTKPS CHMFF QBGTF VGPIN VGGNK RBIKH
JBHVR PKZWA FWEFF VIEVW WOGCI KUEZS ZKYKW BCYNY RNBDO VRESG
NBNZK RJRRH XYFYM PTRGO MFWMK ZTUVE UTIAH SOJGM GPFLX GBXPJ
GOADW GBEEF HCDJR ITFRF GBXUK XWJNI FZGGU LSSSB STJEI PEJED
LLXRU ULXVI WGNCA LGNOU TUTGR IRXOA EGXHL YVWNK PICYP LTPOG
CUBLC RANRJ IJXRH GHKHA IKTMW GRRDO RSBZE QFUNG KLMBC LOUIE
RMMEC MWZEV DGWVG HUTIG MIECR GMBCT BMGPT RDOAT BKJEE FEPBM
PESER FGAYF RKTBI WCVQN DMWMA AQARP IEITT CLRXQ IKBTB TSUDH
UHMBT AGUET TPRWA BJGEG DCREZ QUIFZ UNVMD VEVAS VIBHX OOEVR
ASMCT LBNTY MGGAD OFSRA GKFBR HNIJU SNCYR EHVVL GOVIA ZSCUF
FUTRW HRJIE TTBOW VLHNE GMKSE TGDCT URAEA LRQEI ECIKZ YKNBB
NLGOV GHQCP EDHEU TBUIG CRQIF IQRLT JATRJ GUOZO IPVGS HIVNR
IIRYW BDORM BWCLF DQUUV DWLGU EPHIQ FKEEH RVOLK TBVPI ZZGGT
PODAG EOPAO RSLNR FOXXN KTOMG HCIOY SWLFO HTHVT PREIA URQRD
IKAXI IICIH VOVYT MNAYQ TPRVC ERYXA IUEWB UEDPO OATXO CPYRA
ERWFW ZHVPS NXNIR PPTCG ITBUZ PCUEG HTEMO GGEKV EGDNR OXZHT
LROFE TOQTR QBATP RSZHV EJXVF FPLWU IFZOP ALOAY GBBGC WZIOT
JSMKC NDTLB TGQCS JAAKP LRGOR RMFMJ EFIIK KHLGI ZTRCY SATMN
DEEVO FONTV UWKUE GNMLV VMHHG IKUIK RTOEG HGFQE WZTZZ IMRYR
VTLTB WROFA JVSTB FENEK GMZSG HTBVM

Rather than presenting it in any elaborate format, suggest we simply pass this
email conversation on wholesale.

S.

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 19:29, Sente wrote:

My team is still here. I think the scribes would enjoy coming up with something
for this. I'll get back to you shortly.

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 19:26, xxxx wrote:

Not sure yet.

I've been thinking that it would be nice to give the people that turn up something
extra. Problem is we haven't really jot time to plan anything more elaborate at
this stage. I'll have a think on it tonight.

xxxx

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 19:16, Sente wrote:

Yes, that seems acceptable.

Who are you going to send?

S

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 14:51, xxxx wrote:

Abbey Road perhaps?

http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/virtual_visit/webcam/

xxxx

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 14:31, Sente wrote:

I'm not happy with the reliability of that webcam, do you have any other
suggestions? I have a SFC meeting now, let's discuss this later.

Thanks

S

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 14:27, xxxx wrote:

Fair point.

Makes sense to do something in London then.

xxxx suggested doing something with a webcam? That way people who can't get
to London can still see what's going on.

One of the guys from the office could be on the bench outside this pub or sitting
in one of the windows above it:

http://www.fujiint.co.uk/street/index.html

He could then give the text fragment to anyone who approached him with a
password??

This is the text by the way:

LOST. The Cube. Reward.

in its own right. We are committed to ensuring its safe return." He was not
available for further comment.

Possible motives for the theft remain unclear. A ransom demand is seen as one
likely development, as the Cube, whose value is almost incalculable, could not
be sold on the open market. John Ha, owner of the Ha Gallery on the Mobius
Strip, conjectured that the Cube may have been stolen "to order" for a wealthy
collector.

Academy insiders told reporters today that security has been notoriously lax on
the night of the winter ball, the high point of the Academy's social calendar, One
high-ranking Academy official who preferred not to be named, remarked,
"Security's a joke on ball night. The Academy focuses all its

perplexcity.com

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 12:05, Sente wrote:

xxxx mentioned the NY suggestion. It seems perfectly appropriate.

I'm anxious we don't spend any more time on this than necessary. As you know,
pressure is intensifying now. It's important we remain focused on key objectives.

S

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 11:49, xxxx wrote:

Hi Sente

I agree. We were actually talking about this last night. I think xxxx mentioned
the New York idea to you? Everyone over here seems happy with it.

This only leaves one slot. I'll get back to you later - I'll go and ask the others if
they've had any new ideas on this.

xxxx

 

On 4 Mar 2005, at 11:16, Sente wrote:

Please confirm your plans regarding the final two video slots. xxxx mentioned
you had been investigating some alternative strategies. I see no harm in
changing tack.

S

So, it seems that today's snippet should be joined with the one from Toronto Globe and Mail:

The Ha Gallery on Mobius Strip? What's next - the Klein Bottling company on Scale Field?

Now to the cipher: it was first cracked by enaxor by using this applet. In an aside, it seems to be composed of 7 names: "aiko anna caine garnet kurt tippy von".

As far as we can now tell, the Academy was founded in around 573 B.C; certainly it can be shown to exist by the year 571 B.C., when we learn from the journal of Degabus of Malme that an groupe of scholars have late taken residence in the city, purposing here to study both the antient and the modern mysteries. They have, for a year or more, taken rooms with Mrs. Feon of Kingdom Street, who complains mightily of the noxious stink emanating from the iralchymical experimentations, but I hear they have in mind to remove to the cellars late of Mr. Beston Brewer, so recently passed away.

Academy scholars will naturally be familiar with the Beston rooms. These are unlikely to be the original cellars once occupied by that scholarly fellowship, but do seem to be in roughly the right location. Later the same year, Degabus notes a behaviour pattern that might be familiar to them or ejunior members of the academy. Today the scholares of Beston Cellars may rightly be called the natural inheritors of those brewing rooms, for I observed this night in Thilke Market a sire turned home after dining with Mrs. Haarten, a supposed scholar whom I identified by his cap, drunken and reeling in the street. I made as to pass by him swiftly, but he being jovial in his cups, called out, “ Hi, sir, would you pass by a scholar without raising your arm?” Quoth I, “I see no scholar here, sir, unless it be a scholar of the sweetened sleep.” Quoth he, “sir, think you that viticulture is no subject for study.” Quoth I, “sir, I do not call your pursuit study, for the more you study in this fashion, the duller your mind becomes.”

I think I may consider myself the match in wit for any scholar called by some academicians. Despite the continuing disapproval of the towns folk, the Academy remained. It grew in size taking on additional rooms in the area of those original Beston Cellars, and offering a tuition service to the sons and daughters of wealthy townsfolk as a way of funding its continuing research. No scholars of note were yet resident in the Academy, although Varkin writes that she passed through on her way north and comments that she enjoyed an excellent dinner.

Though the tables of this Academy be fine indeed, the discourse of its scholars is finer yet. The Academy’s first significant expansion came in 452 B.C., with a gift from Nascent Taversen. Taversen, one of the city’s wealthiest and most influential landowners, had been fascinated by the studies of the Academy. He had sent his only daughter, Aetiant, to be educated by the scholars and is known to have observed some of Macelvoys early experiments with static electricity. Aetiant Taversen became a scholar at the Academy and apparently negotiated with her father the substantial gift he gave the institution in his last years. Taversen gifted his house along with various surrounding pieces of property to the Academy in perpetuity. With this bequest, the Academy was able to shore up its financial situation, which until then, had been uncertain at best. The patronage of Nascent Taversen also brought the Academy to the attention of many other wealthy and important people across the country. When in 443 B.C., Aetiant Taversen was elected by the other fellows of the Academy to become its first master, she was able to preside over an unprecedented period of growth and success in which for the first time the Academy was able to select its pupils.

Very nice bit of Academy history - probably taken from an old Perplex City archive, judging by the oddness of the language. Also, notice that we now have the first name to go with the previously-mysterious "Taversen".

The Gaurdian ad, courtesy of troubadour:

The complete press release can be found here.

And with that, we are finally live. Champagne all around!
So, I am going to close the pre-game section; the primer will continue on the GameTimeline page. There is also an Updates section, which will list short descriptions and relevant links of the updates as they happen.

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