A Halloween Puzzle: Spy-Crostic

The Game Room
61

Okay, just some brainstorming along the lines of “what if the clues don’t matter?” Or rather, “what if the meaning of the clues doesn’t matter?”

Each clue/answer pair is a string of words followed by a string of numbers. Some words are capitalized; let’s assume those are the only ones we care about. For example:

A. Former Name of Transylvania: [69, 95, 55, 174, 147, 11, 165, 137, 30, 91, 102, 181, 110]

There are 13 numbers in the answer. There are three important words in the clue. These words have 6, 4 and 12 letters. (As far as I can tell, none of the clue words have more letters than there are numbers in the answer.) So maybe the 6, 4, 12 maps to the 6th, 4th and 12th number in the answer:

11-174-181

Similarly you could go through the rest of the clues, and you’d end up with a string of numbers that you could then work on decoding. The vast majority of the numbers in the answers, and the meanings of the clues, are all just smokescreens.

Now I don’t know where you go from there, but it could be that some kind of scheme like this would let us cut out all of the red herrings and focus on the real message.

One advantage of a scheme like this is that it’s relatively simple to encode. You just write your clues (any clue will do) and then put the numbers you care about in the correct positions, filling in the rest with garbage numbers.

I don’t know how the Sentence part fits in, though.

62

This doesn’t work for Z. Enchantment

63

This is (unfortunately) true, and thanks for checking. It’s more the general concept that I’m trying to get across, though – look for word lengths, treat the clues as arbitrary strings of characters, etc.

For example, maybe you only use the last word in each clue, which would explain why something weird like “Eggs” gets thrown in there. (No, I haven’t checked the list against this new hypothesis either.)

64

yeah, I understand. I was just going through and trying them out.

65

**Former Prosecutor Found Dead **

Giles McGhee, who last prosecuted Boring Barlow for his wicked spy crimes, was discovered dead at home this morning. Police had been summoned to the house early today by McGhee, who expressed concern after finding a cryptic note tacked to his front door. The note was supposedly in the former of an acrostic puzzle.

When the cops arrived at the house, they found all doors and windows locked from the inside. Peering inside the house through the front window, police spotted the man lying unconscious on the floor. They then broke inside and found that McGhee was actually dead. He had been strangled.

It is not known how the killer could have gotten inside with everything locked. McGhee had mentioned finding an acrostic, but none was discovered at the residence and it is speculated the murderer may have taken the clue away.

McGhee had also apparently fired several shots from his revolver. There were bullet holes in the wall and floor, but no sign of any blood. Perhaps McGhee simply missed his target. The gun was still clutched in the dead man’s hand.

There was one entrance still open. A small dog flap door in the kitchen allowed McGhee’s small Scotch terrier to come and go. But police note this door was much too small to allow any human being to enter. The dog, at first thought missing, was found trembling under McGhee’s bed. The animal appears traumatized and a dog whisperer may have to be called on to help the severely frightened canine.

All electronic equipment in McGhee’s house had somehow been disabled. Police also commented on the expression on the face of McGhee. It was a look of “sheer terror.”

66

Since Boring Barlow seems to have mastered the art of reanimating dead limbs and sending them off to kill people, maybe he can lend us a hand with his brother Boris’ wretched puzzle.

:slight_smile:

67

Damn auto correct.

68

I have to give up on this until our CIA friends can offer some insight. The problem is that even if you have the correct solutions to the clues, you’d never know because it leads to nowheresville in the message. Could be that there is some kind of cipher applied to the message, but I don’t know what it is and I can’t account for why some spaces have multiple letters.

69

Jones came by earlier to let You know that You would now have 24 hour police protection. “Barlow tried to kill You before,” Jones reminds You. “We should be ready in case he tries again.”

You weakly protest and tell Jones that such protection is not necessary. But secretly You are glad to have the extra muscle around. Burly officer Carruthers, one of the toughest men on the local police force, will take the first watch.

Jones also informs You that he will forward You the reports from Agents White, Cooper and Brown as they become available. Despite assurances from White and Cooper that “a solution was just a short time away,” Jones doesn’t believe either is close to cracking the code. Brown has been tight-lipped so far.

And now, as You sit drinking your afternoon cup of coffee, the desktop computer beeps and You find in your Inbox the report from Agent White:

A solution will be forthcoming any time now.

I have determined that the secret to solving the acrostics is to find as many answers as possible to the clues. Then, after trying the various permutations, I expect to hit upon one that starts matching up the multiple reused letters. I am also forwarding all my answers to Agent Cooper, who will be working on various ways of entering the answers other than the straightforward way. Working together, we will certainly solve these puzzles. One mistake the amateurs are currently making is that they are looking for the simple answers. For instance, there are several dinosaur island movies other than the obvious Jurassic Park. Barlow is a trivia expert. We can’t expect him to go for the easy answer because then his acrostics would be easy as well. That would not do for a spy. Not at all.

Did You know there was a movie entitled (possibly NSFW) “Dinosaur Island?” And are we not looking for an answer that has fourteen letters? Yep, that’s the name of the island in the movie! Now this may not be the right movie, but I have watched it now five times looking for clues. We at the CIA must be thorough! Maybe I will catch something on a sixth viewing. Additionally, I have uncovered approximately thirteen or so other dinosaur island movies, and at least five other possible fourteen letter island names in my research.

Research is the answer, people! How many characters on* Dark Shadows* have the correct number of letters we are looking for? I have found fifteen so far. The amateurs likely forget people like “Nathan Forbes,” but not we experts!

I have found dozens of potential Necronomicon details. I can rattle off at least fifteen tentacle beings, some of them quite odd. Hitchcock had several well-received television episodes.

But that is why we are the pros here at the CIA. We can find answers that the inexperienced researcher cannot.

I don’t think the headline on the puzzle is important… at least my feelings lean that way. The first letters of the clues are an obvious red herring taunt. Pay them no heed.

That’s all for now. More (and probably the solutions) very soon.

— CIA Expert White

70

Continue working on puzzle or give Dinosaur Island a viewing? Tough call.

71

So based upon Our experience with the CIA, We can now conclusively conclude that the following facts are true:

  1. The answers to the clues are not important.
  2. The headline to the puzzle(s) are very important.
  3. The first letters of the clues are very important.
  4. Research and trivia scouring are probably not important. We likely have all of the information we need contained within the puzzles themselves.
    So time for another look through this lens…
72

If you reorder the numbers in each clue sequentially, for instance for H. Stephen King Novel: [179, 14, 50, 20, 103, 160, 51, 10, 157, 1, 85, 111]

if you reorder the numbers to: 1, 10, 14, 20, 50, 51, 85, 103, 111, 157, 160, 179

and use “Dreamcatcher” as the answer, then reorder clue I. Town in Answer H: [47, 1, 107, 82, 123, 153, 26, 159, 73, 90] to:

1, 26, 47, 73, 82, 90, 107, 123, 153, 159 and use “DerryMaine” as the answer then reorder clue V. The White Worm Author: [89, 113, 46, 121, 138, 128, 73, 174, 150, 129] to:

46, 73, 89, 113, 121, 128, 129, 138, 150, 174 and use “BramStoker” as the answer then numbers 1 and 73 line up between all the answers, so that 1 = D and 73 = R

I don’t have time to check any more.

73

Does not appear to work with our answers for:
S. Death Ray User: [60, 178, 33, 166, 15, 73, 22, 2, 152]
Reordered: 2,15,22,33,60,73,152,166,178
GRANDMOFF
73 = M

None of the so-far-mentioned Poe stories fit, either.
R. Edgar Allen Poe Story: [42, 133, 45, 33, 73, 111, 7, 40, 143, 76, 180, 36]
Reordered: 7,33,36,40,42,45,73,76,111,133,143,180

I’m wondering if the clues aren’t cryptic clues. We may need to dig much deeper than the surface reading of each clue, which will make trivial knowledge unnecessary.

74

I think that the report from our numbskull friends at the CIA is indicating that the clues are completely irrelevant. Although I like the idea of cryptic clues rather than trivial ones, along the lines of the puzzle being self-contained. It doesn’t seem to me that the clues contain enough cryptic-ish-ness to function that way, though. Unless it’s the same thing applied to all of them, like all of the clues are anagrams, or all of them contain a hidden number, or something of the sort.

Your point does make me think that the first-letter clue might be taken cryptically, though. So for “FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED”, you might interpret that as “cross out all of the letters in ‘frankenstein’ and see what’s left”. Similarly “IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM” might mean “get rid of the letters in ‘you scream’”.

But cross them out from what? I dunno.

75

I’ve tried substituting the first letter of matching lettered clue in for
A FUN ACROSTIC FOR YOU
F ESU FAESDETA ESE YSS
HALLOWEEN ACROSTIC
NIEENSAAA ISANRYOS
that doesn’t lead anywhere. I haven’t tried that with clue answers.

76

**From the Desk of Special Agent Cooper, Expert Decrypter:

Greetings. I am issuing this report to let everyone know that the acrostics should be solved in a very little while. Agent White has provided dozens of possible answers to most every clue in the two acrostics in question. Now it is up to me to see how to fit them properly to reveal the messages. Do the answers go forwards, backwards or both? Are some answers entered one way and some another different way? Do answers add letters, remove letters, rearrange letters or alter double letters? Do the answers even go with the matching clues? Perhaps Answer A is placed after clue B. Then Clue B’s answer comes after clue C and so on. This is all too much for the human mind!

The possible permutations are endless. Fortunately, I have devised a program that will quickly analyze all these possibilities and will then produce the answer. Yes, this is a problem for a computer, and fortunately I am an expert in that area. What about spaces that have one or two or more different letters for the same spot? No problem. I have added a check for that as well. So far the results have not been forthcoming, but rest assured that I will have the messages soon. I have even tried to work in the puzzle titles. This is the only area I disagree with my learned friend Agent White. I believe the titles are somehow relevant and should be studied intently. And that’s just what my magnificent acrostic decoding program will do. I really should win a Nobel Prize for this work.

Once again the talents of the best experienced minds at the CIA will save the country from peril. Amateurs looking for some other way to find the acrostic messages (other than answering the clues, which is after all how acrostics work) should probably stick to easier problems. May I suggest Penny Press word searches or the Daily Jumble in the newspaper?

—Agent Cooper, CIA Decoding Professional
**

77

**Hi, this is a report from Agent Brown. I have been doing my best to solve these acrostic puzzles, but so far I have not succeeded. I hope a few of my ideas can help others who are more experienced.

First of all, I have read the reports of Agents White and Cooper. Both have been working very hard on finding answers to the clues… and I am sure* if* that is the method for solving these acrostics, then they will succeed. But something doesn’t seem right to me. I mean no disrespect, but I think they are on the wrong track.

What bothers me about this case is that if the spies are sending puzzles to each other, how can they be sure the intended recipients can actually solve them? Over the years we have seen many very smart spy leaders, but the rank and file members… well they all don’t seem like the most brilliant of people. So if I am a spy leader sending out an acrostic full of clues to be solved, how do I know the puzzle will actually be solved by the grunts working for me? And if the puzzle is not solved then the message doesn’t get through. This is not how spies operate.

Maybe there is some place one can go online and find the clue answers. This” codebook” site might tell the spies the necessary solutions. But this doesn’t seem right either. Every spy code in the past has always been self-contained. In other words, as long as the spies knew how to decode the message, they could always do it without any special knowledge or outside sources.

Remember we heard that Boris Barlow solved the first acrostic puzzle while sitting at a cafeteria table? He wasn’t on a computer. He just sat down with a pencil, some paper and that was it. And it didn’t take him long to solve the puzzle either. If the clues were really trivia that had to be figured out and then somehow reorganized to get the message, wouldn’t it have taken him more time? Might he, even with his supposed trivia expertise, have needed to consult a reference source?

How else can one get a message from the acrostics? I don’t know. But one thought struck me. These puzzles look like normal acrostics in many ways. But there are differences. Most acrostics use every number only once. But not these. Of course Barlow wants to have his Halloween theme. You can’t make a normal acrostic using the answer letters just once and also have a tight theme for every clue. So I don’t think this a difference that is important.

But I notice these other differences.

  1. The first letters of the clues spell out something in our spy acrostics. In a normal acrostic the first letters of the answers spell out something, not the clues. Why the change? Red herring or what?

  2. Normal fair acrostics almost always give the number of words in the clue answer if it is more than one. These do not. Is Barlow just trying to be difficult? Or are all the clue answers really just one word each? Is there perhaps some other reason this helpful information is not given?

  3. Acrostics often have titles, so this may or not mean something. I can’t tell if there is anything strange about our spy titles or not. However there is something certainly abnormal about these acrostic clues. I can’t put my finger on the problem exactly. But something is definitely off. Why dinosaur “Eggs” and not just dinosaurs? Why a Hitchcock “Masterpiece” and not a Hitchcock “Thriller?” Isn’t the expression “cold like the grave” and not “chilly like the grave?” And what about “Aquatic Sea Demon”… isn’t that a bit redundant? Why not just simply “Sea Demon?”

I think there is at least one other difference besides the above, but I don’t know exactly what it is. Just a feeling I have. I tried comparing these acrostics to some real ones in various puzzle magazines, but I still couldn’t figure out what that other difference to a normal acrostic is. Yet I am certain that this other difference exists. What am I missing?

Well, that’s all I have got. I feel like if I can figure out what is wrong with the clues and how else these acrostics differ from normal ones, then I might see my way to the real solutions. Our CIA codebreaker friend once told me that the best way to solve any code was to “count everything.” But frankly I don’t see anything to count here. So what other methods should I be using? Right now, I just do not know.

-Agent Brown
**

78

I looked for the letter in the clue that lines up with the number of letters in the answer, for example:

A. Former Name of Transylvania: [69, 95, 55, 174, 147, 11, 165, 137, 30, 91, 102, 181, 110]
Answer is 13 letters.
13th letter in the clue is ‘T.’

Going through all 27 clues I get this:

TOEEEHLNWETOYIAENOUWOODRGNL

Could it be an anagram? I can piece together HALLOWEEN.

TOEEEHLNWETOYIAENOUWOODRGNL

Coincidence? Maybe.
What’s left is TOEETYIENOUWOODRGN, which I don’t have time at the moment to see if it makes anything.

79

  • A list of CIA operatives in Africa was stolen this evening from a Company office in Ohio. Same drill: Power outage, mass confusion, paper missing, and no suspects seen (though a guard did report noticing a strange animal skittering away from the area. But it was too dark for more specific details, and it is not like a deformed rabbit could really be the thief).

  • Several graves and morgues have been robbed over the past few days in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Just the arms missing.

  • The CIA found a fingerprint on an envelope in Judith Greene’s home. The fingerprint matches one Igor Rogers, a brilliant former professor at UCLA who went mad a few years ago and disappeared. If this Igor fellow is working along with Barlow, we could really all be in a world of trouble.

80

[update w/OOG content] Sorry, I have not been able to properly propel the story much this week. A hellish time at work. Just assume that more recently dead people’s arms have been stolen, more important Government plans are disappearing, more enemies of Barlow are receiving acrostics which disappear after the receiver is murdered and that the hapless (but well-meaning!) police arrive too late to prevent any of the crimes. [/update w/OOG content]