Watch the Footage archive

Just before the last sentence I've got "ok", but before THAT it seems like "qvmxkX".

Neither am I it seems... And I'm working on number-coding each simbol, then I will (would?) throw the matrix at excel and work my math and search/replace commands on it... Standard Criptogram Resolution Procedure...

Should I keep going, or is it pointless now? Or perhaps solving it this way could result in another, non-gibberish first part maybe?

Pixelmage wrote:Neither am I it seems... And I'm working on number-coding each simbol, then I will (would?) throw the matix at excel and work my math and search/replace commands on it... Standard Criptogram Resolution Procedure...

Should I keep going, or is it pointless now?

Try it and see what happens. Better to know 100% that we get nothing out of it then never know for sure. Nothing ventured nothing gained?

Once someone has completely translated it using the guide (or however you translated it), post an image or copy the text over onto this thread so we can look it over. Even if it's complete gibberish.

Give me the capitalized letters so I can rearrange them together.

The capitalized letters in the Cryptogram are the ones holding hats (At least, I think they're hats.)

Just look at those ones for now, I guess?

I believe it's meant to be flags.

What I have so far (starting from line six, after the period):

lcqwQoksUrxaiF : hfzzfzprxaJ. qvmxkX. ok. yoUarEouRonlYhopEjoE.

Not entirely confident, but that's the best I can do for now. I have to stop working on this for a while; I'll check back when I can.

Hmmm.... can I get a transcript of the gibberish? I can try doing some mental gymnastics to try and see what kind of trick they are pulling. In fact... Wait a sec, I literally just realized something while typing this. Transcript please. I may see a pattern!

EDIT: Or is that the whole thing right above this?

Adell wrote:I believe it's meant to be flags.

I (vaguely) had that impression at first, but then I noticed one of the guys was doing a handstand. Something tells me the Unown route would be a bit more accurate.

Well... I was handling flag holders as different from the other ones, so most of my current work is kind of wasted...
I should finish sorting them and merge the flag numbers with the non-flag numbers... But that'll take a while to fix.

EDIT: Scratch that, I made some mistakes and missed some figures (fuck trying to do annotations on Paint.NET), I'll just start over and merge flags and no-flags. Capitalization is easy to apply after a full traslation is done. And there are way more types than characters if we assume the flags mean different characters, so... Bad call on my side.

But, what if using the table returns this "You're our only hope, Joe" to mislead us and the beginning is not actually gibberish and the underlined word translates to, say, "die"?

Not likely, I know, but I don't think the gibberish is actually gibberish. And an anagram this size is just silly.

Maybe the Capital letters and lowercase letters that are giberish are the code. Just throwing out a guess

I've got a read on the gibberish. Possibly. Two options: They changed code midway just to screw with us, or the gibberish is actually a second layer of the cipher. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but if it is a two layer code, it appears to involve some kind of consonant substitution. My Genre Savvy-ness and my pattern recognition are telling me it will likely have something to do with the order the letters come in the alphabet. After all, they already use a basic letters to numbers substitution, who says they can't add a new twist?

I'll soon be absent for at least an hour. I guess I'll post what I've done so far (Just finished the 'j').
Here it is.
Hint: it's faster if you translate all of instances of one letter, and then move on to the next one. (It's pretty obvious).

Sicon112 wrote:I've got a read on the gibberish. Possibly. Two options: They changed code midway just to screw with us, or the gibberish is actually a second layer of the cipher. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but if it is a two layer code, it appears to involve some kind of consonant substitution. My Genre Savvy-ness and my pattern recognition are telling me it will likely have something to do with the order the letters come in the alphabet. After all, they already use a basic letters to numbers substitution, who says they can't add a new twist?

"lcqwQoksUrxaiF : hfzzfzprxaJ. qvmxkX"

There's a zz, how many words have double-character, and how many characters actually go double like that? If it's a Alphabet Shift Z moves to most likely O or E. There are no spaces to help, but it's not likely to be an L as in "actually" or other cases like it thanks to word lenght.

"Bigger" for instance would break turning F into I then F into E.

The issue is, how does the capitalization fit together? The way it is now makes me think that everything up to the last line is both substituted and backwards, making this a triple layer cipher...

Here's what I ended up with from the letter, though there could be errors I missed going through it.

EDIT: Late theory, but what if the capital letters signify the last letter of each word? That's the only pattern I could find with the handful of decoded words.

Sicon112 wrote:The issue is, how does the capitalization fit together? The way it is now makes me think that everything up to the last line is both substituted and backwards, making this a triple layer cipher...

Honestly? I'd love to call Occam's Razor on this.
Two layers is pretty standard practice though, so there's that...

Actually, that would mean the whole thing looks like gibberish, therefore it must be gibberish... So forget that.

I'm trying to piece together another solution to the substitution cypher. I find little sense in underlining "Joe" as he was the recevier: It's clear that whoever wrote it knew who he was.
If this was a threat, or the warning of some danger, then i'd make sense to underline "Die" for emphasis.

FeetontheCeiling wrote:Here's what I ended up with from the letter, though there could be errors I missed going through it.

Looks solid to me, but it looks like only the last line translates directly (as was shown earlier). In my opinion, the bottom line is correct, even it seems odd to underline Joe's name. I have no idea how to go about translating the rest.

...Maybe Piorot can help with this one?

Adell wrote:

FeetontheCeiling wrote:Here's what I ended up with from the letter, though there could be errors I missed going through it.

Looks solid to me, but it looks like only the last line translates directly (as was shown earlier). In my opinion, the bottom line is correct, even it seems odd to underline Joe's name. I have no idea how to go about translating the rest.

...Maybe Piorot can help with this one?

Just tweeted the cat as well. He is good with riddles and maybe he will decide to help with this one.

Adell wrote:Looks solid to me, but it looks like only the last line translates directly (as was shown earlier). In my opinion, the bottom line is correct, even it seems odd to underline Joe's name. I have no idea how to go about translating the rest.

...Maybe Piorot can help with this one?

Good idea. He seems to think you are OK Adell, so you should probably ask him. Say a friend of yours has been recieving illegal, threatening letters from an unknown sender, and you are trying to help him out. Link only the picture and the cipher, not this site itself. That should ensure the best possible reaction.

Also, if he calls you out for the cipher being from Sherlock Holmes, come up with some excuse, e.g. "This guy has some really twisted sense of humor" or something.

Still, somehow I get the feeling things won't nearly be that easy. Five bucks says he blows you off with "I'm busy" or some variant thereof or just takes so long to post the comment that we figure it out before he is done.

Good idea. Maybe he knows Holmes.

Alright, this is what I could get from the cipher, give or take a few mistakes from inexperience:

ZtwmQaeokuqRkteJxakf
aIrkIrarDkWdagdejm
HsgPZraXpyQjvqZkAs
rdJpaQ.kteJujuurzpqr
XirKliarVtedeacRzrz
cvdklE.lcqwjQoymUrx
aiF:hfzzfzprxaJ.qv
sxkX.oK.yoUarEouRo
nlYhopEjoE.

It seems as though the last two lines are the real message, and the rest is just fodder. Unless, of course, there's more to it. Which there likely is.

EDIT: Nevermind, of course there's gonna be people faster than me at translating this thing.

Well, if the rest IS fodder this is still VERY interesting. Almost every 'character' up till this point has made it clear that they want Joe to stop, by force if necessary.

This is the first letter to seemingly be SUPPORTING Joe. Whoever wrote it wants him to keep doing what he's doing...so maybe not everyone that has escaped the fictional world WANTS to be here? Thoughts?

Also, people, this isn't a race. Don't feel down on yourself if someone figures it before you, we're a team remember?

Perhaps. I get the feeling that this character believes that because Joe was the only one to notice (besides Mr. A, but...) that he would be key in discovering the source of the panic. I don't doubt it, especially with how determined Joe is to see this through.

Adell wrote:Well, if the rest IS fodder this is still VERY interesting. Almost every 'character' up till this point has made it clear that they want Joe to stop, by force if necessary.

This is the first letter to seemingly be SUPPORTING Joe. Whoever wrote it wants him to keep doing what he's doing...so maybe not everyone that has escaped the fictional world WANTS to be here? Thoughts?

When did Joe state that HE is trying to send them back? All he says is that he wants to make sense of these strange events. That's all. If one fictional being is supportive and wants Joe's help, it might not be to go back.
The one saying we have to send them back is Mr. A, that might just be his agenda.

What Joe IS doing is shedding light on the weirdness.
So, extrapolating on that, the author of this letter is happy to be noticed? If realizing they are here is "their only hope", then what could be the problem? Are they being forgotten?

If he really thinks Joe can help, the gibberish must have some information on how to do that. Otherwise it's just asking to get a kitten in a tree and then pointing to the Rainforest... If you're near you'll notice, otherwise, you have no clue where to look.