ImangineAnew has replied to questions from myself and CMYK, but I’m not clear on how to decrypt them:
Your message decrypts to something that starts “message received.” I haven’t bothered to decrypt the whole message or CMYK’s message. To do so, do what I did in my example above. Go to paragraph 56 of the Gutenburg Huck Finn. Write the cipher text above, and write the text that starts on paragraph 56 below. I’m not going to work the whole thing out (you need to learn this for yourself if you want to solve further ciphers), but I’ll give you a start:
VXXCEV26TQJ3
isetdownonet
MESSAGERECEI
To decode, here’s your character set:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
The way this person is doing it, “a” means go back one position when decoding. “b” means go back two. “c” means go back three. And so on.
V-i = M (go back 9 positions from V to get M)
X-S = E (go back 19 positions from X to get E)
X-E = S (go back 5 positions from X to get S)
And so on. If you get to the beginning, as in the next character:
C-t = S (go back 20 positions)
you just wrap around and continue counting from the “0” character. So, if I need to be clearer, you’re counting like this:
“B,A,0,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,Z,Y,X,W,V,U,T,S” when you’re going back 20 positions from C.
Here’s a table for reference - encrypted text on the left, Huck Finn (encryption key) across the top. Hopefully it’s readable this way. If not, take the text and put it into another document and pretty it up. I did one in Excel.
It should be relatively easy to write a script to take the encrypted message and the key and spit out an answer, but I’m not going to do that.
**ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
A** 0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
**B** a0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcb
**C** ba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedc
**D** cba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfed
**E** dcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfe
**F **edcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgf
**G** fedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihg
**H** gfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjih
**I **hgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkji
**J** ihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkj
**K** jihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlk
**L** kjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponml
**M** lkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqponm
**N** mlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqpon
**O** nmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqpo
**P** onmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrqp
**Q** ponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsrq
**R** qponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvutsr
**S** rqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvuts
**T **srqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvut
**U** tsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwvu
**V** utsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxwv
**W** vutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyxw
**X** wvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zyx
**Y** xwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321zy
**Z **yxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321z
**1** zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654321
**2** 1zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba098765432
**3 **21zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba09876543
**4** 321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987654
**5** 4321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba098765
**6** 54321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba09876
**7** 654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0987
**8** 7654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba098
**9** 87654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba09
**0** 987654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0
As an intermediate step, it’s not too hard to use Excel CODE and CHAR functions, along with some simple nested IFs, to decrypt by subtracting ASCII values.
Anyway, seems to me the next obvious step is to apply the leftover bit of the Huck Finn cipher to the unused portion of the Fibonacci string. I tried that with no luck, but then again I suck at decryption.
Here’s one way of doing it in C (warning, I am not a programmer, so there’s probably a more elegant way of doing this. I hope I’ve included enough error checking. If anyone sees any blatant bad coding, please point it out so I can learn.):
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
char cipher[] = "iwz3tbi5xajt1yvcu1fgn7osu2sux1pu992v31ydc9zzdmu9hxd2fdz9fj0nprvsw6300h300mcigc63fg304g6g630cc9yhh6yhy7ff";
char sequence[] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890";
char key[] = "theverywordsiwasasayinnolongeragothnthisminutetosisterutterbacknshelltellyousoherselfshshelookatthatairr";
int cipherlen = strlen(cipher);
char * index;
int ciphervalue;
int keyvalue;
int decodevalue;
int i;
if (strlen(key)<strlen(cipher)) {
printf("Key is shorter than ciphertext!
");
return 1;
}
for (i=0; i<cipherlen; i++) {
index = strchr(sequence, cipher*);
if (index == NULL) {
printf("Invalid character in ciphertext!
");
return 1;
}
ciphervalue = index - sequence;
index = strchr(sequence, key*);
if (index == NULL) {
printf("Invalid character in key text!
");
return 1;
}
keyvalue = index - sequence;
decodevalue = ciphervalue - keyvalue - 1;
if (decodevalue<0) {
decodevalue += strlen(sequence);
}
printf("%c", sequence[decodevalue]);
}
return 0;
}
Missed the edit:
You might want to add
printf("
");
before the “return 0;” at the end for cleaner formatting.
OK, I ran Here Come Dots’s cipher through my program and got:
MESSAGE RECEIVED NO REPLY XXXXXXXXX (etc…)
Same with cmyk’s message.
I just tried doing the Fibonacci spiral backwards and got “smiteangina”. This leads to http://twitter.com/smiteangina
There is Wuthering Heights as the picture and another code. Decoded, the message reads: YOU FOLLOWED THE RIGHT PATH IN THE WRONG DIRECTION A FIBONACCI SPIRAL RADIATES OUT FROM THE CENTER
So, a dead end. But it reinforces that the ImagineAnew account is the right spot to be in.
Also of interest (maybe it’s obvious), but Three out of four is an anagram of “route thou offer” and SmiteAngina is an anagram of “it’s an enigma”. What are anagram candidates for ImagineAnew? Maybe that’s the next path.
Nice work. I had been wondering whether the characters at the end of the Fibonacci spiral had any meaning, and it looks like they do, for people decoding the Fibonacci puzzle in the wrong directions. I hadn’t thought of that. Hmm… I wonder what further clues the Fibonacci puzzle holds.
Let’s see. IMAGINE ANEW also contains all the letters of “enigma,” leaving us with the letters IANEW, if that helps.
Has anyone else noticed the straight lines in the background of the fibonacci picture. They are in amongst the smaller spirals and look as though the picture could be folded or cut along these lines.
Perhaps this has something to do with the other dimension to the puzzle.
Looking at the PDFs again, I don’t see the lines you’re talking about, but I did notice that the pages are titled 0N3, 7W0, 7HR33 and F0UR.
ImagineAnew = A new image in
The lines are there if you zoom in on the pdf–it’s a pixel overlay at the edge of therepeat pattern in the background.
The 0N3, 7W0, 7HR33 and F0UR thing are the original four locations, which at least ties in with the Huck Finn code use of numerals.
If this is a properly designed puzzle, we’d need some bit of information obtained by solving the Huck Finn puzzle in order to complete the next step (or, rather, we’d need the information at some point). Otherwise solving the Huck Finn puzzle is just a red herring.
HOLY S@#T! I CRACKED IT.
It helps to print the pages out and then tape them together—except discard page 3 (out of 4). Then fold pages 2 and 4 so they meet and form three sides of a cube. (The missing dimension.) The spiral aligns exactly, and the new code name is ImagineAnts!
Rock on! Let’s see if this next cipher is the same as the last.
Could you upload Dracula using the same numbering technique you used for Huck Finn?
Nevermind. I got the numbering down and the same decrypting algorithm works for this piece. Let me get back to you in a few with the decoded versions.
Here it is. Some of my paragraph numbering was off, so I had to try a few surrounding paragraphs to find the right keys, but here they are:
P652 –
BEGINRIDDLETEXTXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
P1119 –
IANGAITSMENISNOTMYREALNAMEBUTWEALLCOULDUSEAGOODPSEUDONYMEVERYNOWANDTHENTOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
P578 –
KEEPEVERYONEGUESSINGTHATSAIDWHENYOUAREPREPAREDTODECIPHERTHENEXTRIDDLEIXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
P75 - SUGGESTYOUWRITETOTHEGENUINEEMAILADDRESSIMAINTAINANDALWAYSCHECKATGMAILDOTCOMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
P1962 –
ENDRIDDLETEXTXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
P915 –
PSIRECOMMENDUSINGTIMESNEWROMANANDPROPERPUNCTUATIONXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX