Watch the Footage archive

I know Mr.A is the one who wants to send them back. What I'm getting at is the threatening letters, at least my thoughts on them, is that they were being sent to Joe to tell him to stop, so Mr.A wouldn't find the clues of where they are and send them back. They were aware people were looking for them...that's why i thought they were sending the letters.

Either way, it's weird to see one looking for Joe for help. The rest of the message very well could be their reasoning for needing his help, but we can't be sure until we decipher it. I wonder why he specifically is their "only hope."

http://belgianamongtheenglish.wordpress ... comment-64

Periot replied, "The flags were often thought to mean one thing, when they meant another."

So perhaps we can directly translate this into an actual letter, but the flagged figures represent different letters? We think they mean one thing when they mean another...hrmmm.

Adell wrote:http://belgianamongtheenglish.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/an-olive-branch-foresaken/comment-page-1/#comment-64

Periot replied, "The flags were often thought to mean one thing, when they meant another."

So perhaps we can directly translate this into an actual letter, but the flagged figures represent different letters? We think they mean one thing when they mean another...hrmmm.

That would mean too many characters. More than the alphabet has, actually.
In that case, they're not capitalization marks, but rather, hint at another path for the substitution...

Look carefully:

oK.yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

The flags=>capital letters=>the end of a word. That's how we separate the wall of letters into encrypted words.

Just want to throw this out there every other character seems to want to stay here. And from what we know these are average characters. Could be a bad guy trying to say 'yeah continue to point this all out'. Could just as easily be lime man trying to encourage another person so do with it as you may.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy. Looks like I have a good read on Poirot and his reactions, at least.

Well, it seems like some blood has begun to seep back into my caffeine system and I have some physics homework that needs to be done before I rejoin the mortal, non-insomniac population, so I'm going to head off. I'll keep this puzzle in the back of my head, though, and with any luck I should have a fridge logic moment soon.

YankeeWhite wrote:Look carefully:

oK.yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

The flags=>capital letters=>the end of a word. That's how we separate the wall of letters into encrypted words.

Except that the first word apparently starts with a capital Z? How does that work, or does that mean that the Z is it's own word (like it translates to I or A something)

I'm heading to bed myself, I need some fresh eyes if I'm gonna be of any help.

Right then. Here's the message minus the capital letters and the intelligible words, as well as all the caps in order:

_twm_aeokuq_kte_xakf
aIrkIrar_k_dagdejm
_sg__ra_py_jvq_k_s
rd_pa_.kte_ujuurzpqr
_ir_liar_tedeac_zrz
cvdkl_.lcqwj_oym_rx
ai_:hfzzfzprxa_.qv
sxk_.

ZQRJDWHPZXQZAJQJXKVREQUFJX

Still doesn't make a lot of sense at first glance, but I'm not mistress at this sort of thing.

Adell wrote:Except that the first word apparently starts with a capital Z? How does that work, or does that mean that the Z is it's own word (like it translates to I or A something)

I'm heading to bed myself, I need some fresh eyes if I'm gonna be of any help.

Very possibly. Also, I find it likely that every letter included in the sensible part, "yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE" is a correct, non encoded letter int he gibberish sections. AKA, all appearances of those specific letters (Capitalization is important) should be the correct letters. All others have some kind of substitution code, or some other complex cypher. Make of that what you will.

Adell wrote:

YankeeWhite wrote:Look carefully:

oK.yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

The flags=>capital letters=>the end of a word. That's how we separate the wall of letters into encrypted words.

Except that the first word apparently starts with a capital Z? How does that work, or does that mean that the Z is it's own word (like it translates to I or A something)

That's kind of my point, the cypher changes or the translation is wrong. If so, Z becomes I or A, it's a GREAT start.

Z twmQ aeokuqR kteJ xakfaI
rkI rarD kW dagdejmH
sgP Z raX pyQ jvqZ kA srdJ
paQ. kteJ ujuurzpqrX
irK liarV tedeacR zrzcvdklE.
lcqwjQ oymU rxaiF:
hfzzfzprxaJ. qvsxkX. oK.
yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

Sorted only... Oh, you have no IDEA how I could play with this baby now that I can handle it outside that Paint.NET thingy.

Also, as the last sentence makes sense, I think the capital letters are still part of the message. Not _ spaces.

I ran the thingy through a Caesarian shifter. Nothing intelligible.

I know I said I was going to sleep, but how about shifting all characters BUT the ones that are included in the already translated last line by one (So Z is A) or by nine (so Z is I)? I don't know what will happen, and I don't think it will work right either. I've been thinking of a shifting cypher since I looked at the gibberish, but I think the capitals mean something too...

Perhaps a change in the shift variable?

Pixelmage wrote:That's kind of my point, the cypher changes or the translation is wrong. If so, Z becomes I or A, it's a GREAT start.

Z twmQ aeokuqR kteJ xakfaI
rkI rarD kW dagdejmH
sgP Z raX pyQ jvqZ kA srdJ
paQ. kteJ ujuurzpqrX
irK liarV tedeacR zrzcvdklE.
lcqwjQ oymU rxaiF:
hfzzfzprxaJ. qvsxkX. oK.
yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

Sorted only... Oh, you have no IDEA how I could play with this baby now that I can handle it outside that Paint.NET thingy.

Also, as the last sentence makes sense, I think the capital letters are still part of the message. Not _ spaces.

Agreed. And I've gotten the same spacing as well, just to confirm.

For those trying to decode the cipher by hand, this might help.

One of those example cyphers looks really similar...

Good grief I have a headache... Those capital letters signify something. The spaces idea is good, and likely correct, but I have a feeling that they mean something else as well. I don't think Poirot's hint was about something as obvious as spacing...

It almost certainly is a substitution cypher. However, most good cyphers require a key to be solved. A key that we have.

That last line, with or without the OK has to be the key. If none of the substitutions we are doing work now, try them on every letter but the ones used in that final line. Make sure to account for caps, as they are a different symbol in the original code.

Does anyone know a english dictonary that allows for Regular Expression searchs?
ujuurzpqrX
For this exemple is a prefix A¹B¹A² ten character length word. If I can run that I can narrow down A LOT of possibilites...

The last line might not be set in stone, because if it is "aeokuqR" is really a length 7 word "aeok??r" could be a character name, but does not ring any of my bells.

Z is most likely I, though.

So far I'd limit myself to think the capitals are just word limiters. Attributing many meanings to a single key-element is confusing even for the intended decoder.

What I meant was that yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE AKA the letters a, E, h, j, l, n, o, p, r, R, u, U, and y (As well as POSSIBLY the letter K) shouldn't need to be translated. Since capitals are created with a different character in the original letter, the should be treated as different letters altogether.

"ujuurzpqrX" substitutes into these nine words
*BABBLINGLY
*BABBLISHLY
*BUBBLINGLY
LOLLARDIAN
MAMMETRIES
NONNATURAL
PUPPETRIES
*TATTLINGLY
ZYZZOGETON

The ones with a * are Z=I substitutes.
I use this http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/cryptogram-solver.php
It's kinda helping

If you can, do that for every word, but I'm thinking that we are missing something after all. I hate to leave, cause I know that when I get back, you guys will have solved this, but I really do need to go and get some IRL stuff taken care of. Guess I will just come back in a few hours and see how close or horribly off track my guesses were.

Pixelmage wrote:Does anyone know a english dictonary that allows for Regular Expression searchs?

Since you seem geeky enough, I'd suggest /usr/share/dict/words and grep, which is the only thing that came into my mind. I don't have access to one, though. I feel useless now, so I've downloaded some random monoalphabetic code breaker. So far it thinks that the first letter is "n", and doesn't want to think otherwise.
If we did get the spaces correctly, the first letter is either "a" or "i" - these are the only one-letter words I can think of. But in both cases, plain substitution gets that word with "a?aa" in the middle - or worse, "i?ii" - I don't even think there are words like this.

You know what... Screw this, it's about time I go to sleep. You'll do fine without me.

YankeeWhite wrote:"ujuurzpqrX" substitutes into these nine words
*BABBLINGLY
*BABBLISHLY
*BUBBLINGLY
LOLLARDIAN
MAMMETRIES
NONNATURAL
PUPPETRIES
*TATTLINGLY
ZYZZOGETON

The ones with a * are Z=I substitutes.
I use this http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/cryptogram-solver.php
It's kinda helping

VERY HELPFUL!

Also, if we don't want to mess up the last line, that does not work, as "u" is set thanks to the "you" part, and no known words fit the u?uu pattern. I'd say that perhaps the last line should be mixed up, maybe?

What if the last sentence is there to let us not that we extracted the drawings correctly, but is not part of the real message? We could try assuming the code as a brand new cypher and see where it takes us.

Dryunya wrote:If we did get the spaces correctly, the first letter is either "a" or "i"

What if we DIDN'T get the spaces right?

Ztwm Qaeokuq Rkte Jxakfa
Irk Irar Dk Wdagdejm
Hsg P Zra Xpy Qjvq Zk Asrd
Jpa Q.kte Jujuurzpqr Xir
Kliar Vtedeac Rzrzcvdkl
E.lcqwj Qoym Urxai F:hfzzfzprxa
J.qvsxk X.o K.yo Uar
Eou Ronl Yhop Ejo E.

The capitals could mean the first character like they do on names.
That would mean indeed that the last line is not intended to stay the way it is. And that the . and : are characters themselves. I did a excel replace ignoring them earlier and got to 23 different characters, since there's 26 avaiable, we DO have the room for two more...

Ztwm Qaeokuq Rkte Jxakfa
Irk Irar Dk Wdagdejm
Hsg P Zra Xpy Qjvq Zk Asrd
Jpa Q.kte Jujuurzpqr Xir
Kliar Vtedeac Rzrzcvdkl
E.lcqwj Qoym Urxai F:hfzzfzprxa
J.qvsxk X.o K.yo Uar
Eou Ronl Yhop Ejo E.

The only 1-letter words are A and I. If we go by that, that makes P and E the only single words.

Z twmQ aeokuqR kteJ xakfaI
rkI rarD kW dagdejmH
sgP Z raX pyQ jvqZ kA srdJ
paQ. kteJ ujuurzpqrX
irK liarV tedeacR zrzcvdklE.
lcqwjQ oymU rxaiF:
hfzzfzprxaJ. qvsxkX. oK.
yoU arE ouR onlY hopE joE.

But if we go by that, Z is the only 1-letter word.

Goldude wrote:

Ztwm Qaeokuq Rkte Jxakfa
Irk Irar Dk Wdagdejm
Hsg P Zra Xpy Qjvq Zk Asrd
Jpa Q.kte Jujuurzpqr Xir
Kliar Vtedeac Rzrzcvdkl
E.lcqwj Qoym Urxai F:hfzzfzprxa
J.qvsxk X.o K.yo Uar
Eou Ronl Yhop Ejo E.

The only 1-letter words are A and I. If we go by that, that makes P and E the only single words.

No, because that'd make "J.qvsxk", "X.o", "K.yo" and "Q.kte" igonre the . if E is alone. Therefore "E." is the word...

I'm about to make a very silly question, so i'll put a disclaimer saying that english is not my natural language, so forgive me for that. Does there exist a end sentence to fit this 4-3-2 pattern on this spacing? (I can think of someone ending a sentence with "like so", and "as if" seems somewhat reasonable, but neither fit).

EDIT: Blurring and overthinking everything here... No need for a new post, so I'll just edit this one to say I'm gone to hunt some sleeping time, I'll come back when I'm fresh again.