New WTF post

[Goldude]

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).

The period generally indicates the end o a sentence, but since it's in the middle of a couple of words, I got rid of all punctuation whatsoever. That makes the words "Jqvsxk", "Xo", "Kyo", "Qkte", and "E".

[AceOfSpades]

From what I gather from your previous comments and translations is that, whomever or whatever wrote those letters is also being threatened and is crying for help. Judging by the threatening letters he received earlier, I come to one conclusion. Much of the threats he is getting are from, those afraid he might have stumbled upon a world where someone, much like him is trying to find out the truth about worlds outside their own. Someone who too is being threatened in the same manner as Joe or worse. I also believe whomever sent that picture to him, might be the same one that sent that particular letter. I believe that because those two are the only non-threatening messages he has been sent so by process of elimination, 90 percent of his mail pile is threats, the other 10 are cries for help.

[Scarab]

I believe that because those two are the only non-threatening messages he has been sent so by process of elimination, 90 percent of his mail pile is threats, the other 10 are cries for help.

So essentially, Joe has a lot more reading to do, then?

If only we could talk to the people sending the letters directly and find out what they want...

Urgh, I am terrible at these kind of code things, I'm sort of useless here...

[AceOfSpades]

Actually Scarab that is right on the money. If Joe could some how find a way to respond to the non threats maybe it would help him understand what is going on.

[Dryunya]

Someone PM'd me asking whether Joe could find the Cat's address on that Hogwarts letter, while we're at it.

[Telcontar]

I've checked all Caeser shifts on the text, and each gives gibberish. There may be two layers, it may be a different kind of monoalphabetic substitution (expecting us to crack something harder with so little sample text is nigh-impossible) or the majority of it could be nonsense to throw us off. The end sentence is the only thing which makes sense.

[Dryunya]

I believe there are 2 possible ways now:
1. Not minding the spaces and trying to solve it without them, because if we are wrong about them, the code is unsolvable.
2. Trying either transposition or polyalphabetic substitution ciphers. The last sentence may be a key.
3 (yeah). Trying to make sense of Poirot's hint.
I'm going to have to leave it for several more hours. Sorry, I'm not of much use here.

[Quantumawesome]

What if each letter is substituted with the letter opposite in the alphabet? A = Z, B = Y, C = X, etc... Did anyone try that?

[NeverSlender]

I think the spaces are right because the last sentence makes sense.

I've tried shifting letters forward, shifting them backwards and alternating backwards and forwards. No luck
I think the best clue is the single letter words and what Poirot said about the flags could mean some letters are different.

[AceOfSpades]

Maybe the rest is radio/telegraph static. Essentially like say you are sending a message in morse code, but could only get a few clear words out rather than the whole message.

[Silversweeper]

I am not certain that there only is one cipher in use, given that we would get "ii" or "aa" on the seventh row if we replaced Z with I or A, which would make sense as they are the only one-letter words in the English language. Also, locking the letters in the last sentence would give us a word starting with "ujuur" on the fourth row, which is nonsense as far as I can tell.

Has anyone tried looking for a message in the columns or right-to-left?

[AceOfSpades]

I am not certain that there only is one cipher in use, given that we would get "ii" or "aa" on the seventh row if we replaced Z with I or A, which would make sense as they are the only one-letter words in the English language. Also, locking the letters in the last sentence would give us a word starting with "ujuur" on the fourth row, which is nonsense as far as I can tell.

Has anyone tried looking for a message in the columns or right-to-left?

If you are going by columns the first would be going by how IslaKariese sorted it out. T A S R I C A S.

[Sicon112]

I am not certain that there only is one cipher in use, given that we would get "ii" or "aa" on the seventh row if we replaced Z with I or A, which would make sense as they are the only one-letter words in the English language. Also, locking the letters in the last sentence would give us a word starting with "ujuur" on the fourth row, which is nonsense as far as I can tell.

Has anyone tried looking for a message in the columns or right-to-left?

Darn it, someone ninja'd me! I came up with the idea for columns and right to left reading on the way back from physics five mins ago. Not sure if it will pan out, but I'm gonna take a look. Nice job catching that.

[FeetontheCeiling]

Alright, so I managed to ask a friend who's more familiar with the story the code is from, and he says that the men with flags don't just represent capital letters - they represent the end of words, too. Sorry if this was already mentioned, but I just wanted to confirm it as well :3

[Sicon112]

If a vertical or right to left reading is going to be attempted, the lines must be re-aligned. This:

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.

Does not line up exactly to the original lines of the letter. Gimme a sec and I will reformat it.

[Sicon112]

Never mind, looks like someone posted it like this before.

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

How about trying some of the previous cyphers from right to left and down columns now?

[AceOfSpades]

If a vertical or right to left reading is going to be attempted, the lines must be re-aligned. This:

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.

Does not line up exactly to the original lines of the letter. Gimme a sec and I will reformat it.

Hang on I am looking at the line before the last line. I could be wrong or to obvious but it looks like "oK" is the only one in clear english. Now what phrases often end in the word "ok"? "We hope you're..." "Are you...." "Is it...." etc.

[NeverSlender]

If a vertical or right to left reading is going to be attempted, the lines must be re-aligned. This:

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.

Does not line up exactly to the original lines of the letter. Gimme a sec and I will reformat it.

Hang on I am looking at the line before the last line. I could be wrong or to obvious but it looks like "oK" is the only one in clear english. Now what phrases often end in the word "ok"? "We hope you're..." "Are you...." "Is it...." etc.

I don't think so. Only two words, both quite long. Instructions maybe?

[AceOfSpades]

That's another option, I mostly assumed it was a phrase. One major rule of foreign languages is if you are translating it into english, the foreign word is often longer than it's english counterpart.

[Scarab]

Actually Scarab that is right on the money. If Joe could some how find a way to respond to the non threats maybe it would help him understand what is going on.

So... I'm helping? Yay!

Then maybe we could use a topic dealing with how we might DO that, if we don't have one already? Sounds like there are letter-senders who just want help and they're being drowned out by the threatening ones, might be able to tell us more than any of the Characters we know so far have.

You guys have some epic decoding skills going on here...

[Adell]

Alright, so I managed to ask a friend who's more familiar with the story the code is from, and he says that the men with flags don't just represent capital letters - they represent the end of words, too. Sorry if this was already mentioned, but I just wanted to confirm it as well :3

Alright, well that's good to know.

[Victin]

OK, since I caught up now, and I think that I may have lost something, what are the possibilities we have right now for it?
EDIT: Okay, first of all I apologize for not being able to help today because I have stuff to do, so I will post one of the ideas I have right now: could it be a Vigenère Cipher? If it were one, could the keyword be flag, flags or even the uppercased letters?

[The Finch]

I honestly don't know. Maybe the Letter is secretly a Red Herring from the Breaker('s) of the Wall?

[Adell]

OK, since I caught up now, and I think that I may have lost something, what are the possibilities we have right now for it?
EDIT: Okay, first of all I apologize for not being able to help today because I have stuff to do, so I will post one of the ideas I have right now: could it be a Vigenère Cipher? If it were one, could the keyword be flag, flags or even the uppercased letters?

Vigenere Cipher could work, but I think we need some sort of key to decipher it then. The text alone is not enough.

[NeverSlender]

Maybe the last line is a key?