The morning of April 6th brought us another
Serpent/Hermes email: 06/04/2002(archived). Hermes is pretty ticked at Serpent, for
seemingly putting his "project"
before human life. It's of note that Hermes
uses another /slash/ hint at something.
The I-Ching symbol behind this message is:
(07) Shih / Recruiting Allies
That evening, certain JawBreakers suddenly
started receiving emails from Hermes himself!
Attached to each message was a picture of
a piece of a ripped up document. There were
a total of 14 pieces, which were each named
various letters, such as _A.jpg. When combined
and rearranged, they spell ADD UP THE NUMBER.
Hmm.
More importanly right now, when pieced together,
the paper formed a spiral message that read:
[Inside-spiraling text, starting from the
outside]
"where do i even start... there was
so much going on that you never
knew, that i only half knew, things moving
in the background, terrible
things... I should have known to get out.
It was all too strange how
suddenly jules was gone. remember the forums
just before then? no, not
those forums, the ones you didn't have access
too because you didn't
see the inside, the dark interior that drove
this naive crew down an
unpaved road to an imagined - false - noble
victory over the "real"
evil forces... you would have never known
she existed, let alone that
she pulled the strings... jules defied her
and landed in prison, the
rest of them gave her free reign over us,
the gophers. i knew what
happened but i didn't stand against her,
didn't even have the courage
to leave. so she got me to send you. moot,"
[Outward-spiraling text, starting from the
inside]
"off to your death with "one of
the kids" at the wheel. none of us knew
what the point was, what the bigger picture
was. she didn't tell us,
me. now you're dead. i didn't go to your
funeral, didnt even know
where it was. they kept your name out of
the paper, family only. did
they play chopins funeral march, i wonder?
i would play holsts mars.
you felt disconnected from the rest of us,
so i sent you, make you
part of the group. you didn't speak the lingo
but you grasped the
ideals, the purpose, better than any of us.
now, i know youd warn me
off this, but theres no time for wu wei.
i am not a stream and she is
not a boulder. you went away and for the
first time i understood...
you won't be here to see it, but i found"
In the middle of the image were two chinese
characters. These characters were found to
translate loosely to:"The Use of Emptiness."
So apparently, Moot is dead!! This is seemingly
a note from Hermes to the deceased Moot,
feeling very badly about what he got Moot
into. And who is Jules?
It seems that Moot and another "one
of the kids" were killed in a car accident.
Is this referring to Holly and her fiancee
again? A closer look reveals that this isn't
likely, as the details and time-frame don't
fit that earlier "accident."
Hmm, some unanswered questions for now. Things
will probably become clearer once we can
see...
Over the next two days, the last two Serpent/Hermes
emails became available at URF:
07/04/2002(archived)-Serpent gives us more details
about the car accident, while Hermes indicates
that Serpent could have protected the two
victims, somehow.
I-Ching meaning: Li / Igniting
08/04/2002(archived)-Hermes resigns. Also, there's a little hidden
text in the source code: <--#k +-->.
Have no idea what that could mean.
I-Ching meaning: Huan / Dissolution
Well, so among these messages to/from Hermes
and Serpent, the I-Chings are giving us a
definite clue to something. The clue from
the spiral.jpg pieces, "ADD UP THE NUMBER"
seem to be telling us to add up the number
of these I-Ching symbols somehow.
As we researched the I-Ching, we discovered
that each symbol has a unique number to it.
We learned there were four different books/translations,
each using a slightly different numbering
system. So, following the spec that we needed
to add up these numbers, we proceeded as
follows:
| Date | Name | Book 1 | Book 2 | Book 3 | Book 4 |
| April 1 | Hsu - Waiting (Nourishment) | 5 | 58 | 72 | 999696 |
| April 2 | Ts'ui - Gathering Together [Massing] | 45 | 6 | 6 | 666996 |
| April 3 | Chin - Progress | 35 | 5 | 5 | 666969 |
| April 4 | P'i - Standstill [Stagnation] | 12 | 7 | 7 | 666999 |
| April 5 | Chun - Difficulty at the Beginning | 3 | 34 | 42 | 966696 |
| April 6 | Shih - The Army | 7 | 16 | 20 | 696666 |
| April 7 | Li - The Clinging, Fire | 30 | 45 | 55 | 969969 |
| April 8 | Huan-Dispersion [Dissolution] | 59 | 19 | 23 | 696699 |
| TOTALS | 196 | 190 | 230 | 6330690 |
Okay, trying 196 around URF gives us a result!
At www.10101-10010-110.org/196/, we see the page entitled: which book are you using? Looks like we might be onto something here!
Clicking on the different digits gives us
four kickout pages, all having to do with
wrong numbers. Okay, we can see a theme when
we're hit over the head.
Trying the other numbers, 190, 230 and 6330690
all give us negative results, though. Hmm,
we're obviously missing something. Let's
look at the email pages a little more closely......
Aha! In the source code of the final email,
08/04/2002, we see the little hidden text has changed:<--#kb
+ -->. Okay, kb = kilobytes. So, it seems
we may be needing to add up the sizes of
some files. Seems very odd that we're being
pointed in two different directions, but
just for fun, let's add up the sizes of the
various .jpg files Hermes sent us.
They total 68. Sure enough, there is something
at www.10101-10010-110.org/68/. The page is entitled ISBN 0 486 29792 6,
and it shows a number 68 with a question
mark. This ISBN number, according to Amazon.com,
referrs to a book entitled "Tao Te Ching
(Dover Thrift Editions)".
What's going on? Now we seem to be being
pointed back at I-Ching books! A little wild
goose chase, perhaps?
Okay, back to square one on this. The clue
seems to be ADD UP THE NUMBER. Not numbers,
number. Add up the number of something? Now there's a possibility. Let's
see, if we add up the number of paper shreds
Hermes sent us we get 14. After trying it
at URF, we come up with nothing. Hmm, what
else?
If we add up the number of emails between
Hermes and Serpent, we get 8. Surely not....
Another Automobile Accident (AAA)
Wait a minute! That couldn't have been the
answer to the I-Ching puzzle, could it?!
Trying www.10101-10010-110.org/8/ gives us
01.04.02, a newspaper article about an automobile
accident.
The article describes a single-car accident
(presumably on April 1st, due to the page
title) in which 2 people died when their
car went off the road and exploded. The really
sinister part of all this is how the Moreland
County Police were assisted by the newly
formed Moreland Ambulance Corp.
So, now we know some more details about the
"accident" that took the lives
of Moot and his young friend. From putting
all the emails together with this article
we can surmise a few things:
Assuming that the accident occured on April
1st, and noting that the Serpent/Hermes email
fight we've been seeing started on that date,
it becomes clear that Serpent and Hermes
have been arguing about Moot's car accident
(and not Class 3/Credibility's accident that
occured some time ago). From this, it looks
like Serpent instructed Hermes to send Moot
and another URFer to get the mystery "tape"
in Moreland.
From the accident report, it looks like they
were returning from Moreland (heading west,
away from Moreland). It seems that they may
have gotten the tape and left town before
GanMed (or whomever) caught up with them.
Futhermore, note that moot & xURFer were
pronouced dead on the scene @ 6AM Monday
April 1, 2002. Remembering that this was
the Monday after Easter weekend, Vad was
showing Barbie around Moreland this same
weekend as well, so maybe they ran into each
other at some point.
Back to the spiral eulogy, Hermes refers
to "Jules" a couple of times: "It
was all too strange how suddenly Jules was
gone." and "...you would have never
known she existed, let alone that she pulled
the strings...jules defied her and landed
in prison,"
We find that the whois information about
URF shows "Jules Carmentis" as
their contact person. Coupling this with
the old URF "discontinuity" information,
and Serpent's threats to Hermes in their
email arguments: "You're rapidly outliving
your usefulness as an intermediary, and you've
seen what happens to people in similar situations,"
we can guess that Jules used to run URF and
be Serpent's intermediary to the rest of
"the kids". Somehow Jules crossed
her, so Serpent got her arrested and put
in prison. Hermes took over, and has been
acting as intermediary. Apparently, he's
now gotten on her bad side, and is about
to face the consequences.
On Monday, April 8th, ODES at Gen-Tel went active. At about the same
time, those of us who had emailed Lauren
Woods asking for more info a while back started
receiving responses from her. There were
a couple interesting ones:
Steve,
Thank you for your interest in General Telometrics.
First of all, let
me apologize for the delay in response time;
the company has been
changing servers to allow for a new data
entry system, and many
emails got lost in the works.
With regards to your question, if you would
simply like more
information about the research we do, please
email Dr. John Missoli
(jmissoli@general-telometrics.com), the head
of the GenTel research
department. If you are interested in possibly
cooperating with us in
supplying vaccines to Haiti, you would have
to email the president of
the company, Andrew Talloway (atalloway@general-telometrics.com).
Any
information beyond what the website offers
is beyond me as well, I
assure you.
Thank you,
Lauren Woods
The name John Missoli rings a vague bell.
A little digging, and we find the Dr. Missoli
used to work for Ganmed (!) with Dr. Wolfe
and Dr. Thomas, according to the hacked Ganmed memo found at URF a while back.
The other email of interest:
Hi shelmerritt,
Thank you for your interest in General Telometrics.
First of all, let
me apologize for the delay in response time;
the company has been
changing servers to allow for a new data
entry system, and many
emails got lost in the works.
I hate to dissappoint you, but I am actually
not a research scientist
at GenTel; I work in human resources. The
best I can do for you is
refer you to my boyfriend who works in the
Telometry department,
Kevin Asgort (kasgort@general-telometrics.com).
Hopefully he will be
able to answer any questions you may have.
Good luck!
Thank You,
Lauren Woods
Hmm, Kevin Asgort. His girlfriend's name
is Lauren. Well, it's worth a shot. Username:
kasgort. Password: Lauren........
Kevin Asgort Amino Acids Puzzle
Welcome to ODES:kasgort (you'll have to enter the username/password
in order to enter this secure page). Here,
we can see links to 3 pages of documents.
Interestingly, these documents are dates
a few weeks in the future, for some reason
(secial thanks to crfets for giving me an
accurate explanation of these):
ODES 4/5/02 p1-A weekly Telometry Research Update, dated
5/5/02. Other than some scary organic chemistry,
we see that GenTel is trying to design an
enzyme that will help them "construct
a TTAGGG sequence," i.e. manipulate
DNA in some way.
ODES 4/5/02 p2-The second page of the weekly update, with
part of the DNA sequence that codes for their
designer enzyme. There is also an "analysis
of the enzyme" in the form of a gel.
ODES 4/5/02 p3-This page contains a particular segment
of the DNA (or RNA in this case) that Kevin
found "most interesting." He mentions
that the corresponding amino acid sequence
was especially interesting, so translating
(no bio pun intended) each set of three bases
(or codon) into its one-letter amino acid
abbreviation gives us the following message:
Gentel Secret Someone: I know you're watching.
More to follow.
Also, at the end of the list are two sets
of numbers:T5T 4M2(1742) and 55425(N172). A little digging found that
these two main numbers were zip codes with
something in common:
T5T 4M2 The West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada. North America's second-largest
shopping facility.
55425 The Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
USA. North America's largest shopping facility.
Even more intriguingly, the numbers in parenthesis
were found have meaning, too: According to
the Mall of America Store Directory, N172
is a Bath and Body Works store, and 1742
(for West Edmonton Mall) is the location
of a Body Shop store.
What the heck??! How do bath and soap stores
fit into all this???
Well, it wouldn't be Monday without a Horoscope update:
Aries (Ganmed): "Don't stop now, Aries! You've
started moving again, and although rest seems
to be a good idea, in reality stagnation
does nothing for you but make you smell funny." Perhaps there'll be some other updates coming
up at Ganmed. Whatever.
Taurus (Net:Sight): "You're buoyed by the
successes of the past week, but you've yet
to show the fruits of your labors to anyone
else. Think about when that should be; sooner
rather than later." Looks like they've finished a major project,
but have yet to release it.
Gemini (Moreland): "The events of the last
few weeks look set to continue. Don't get
complacent though; you may have had it easy
recently, but there's no indication that
won't change."
Cancer (URF): "Sometimes you don't know which
way is up, and sometimes you just don't care.
This is a dangerous time for you, decisions
you make now will affect you and those around
you for a long time to come. Choose wisely,
and your path will lead you back to your
friends. Choose poorly, and you might lose
those friends you still have." Obviously the Hermes/Serpent conflict.
Leo (Gen-Tel): "Though you may only suspect
it, you have friends in high places that
are looking out for you. Keep up the good
work and you may be rewarded more than you
expect." GenTel seems to be turning out to be the
virtuous one in this whole saga.
Virgo (Barbie): "You haven’t been very focused
lately. You’ve put most of your energy into
your social life. That’s fine…if that’s all
you want. Get back to work. If you’re stuck
in a rut, maybe you should think about taking
on a new project." Get back to work? Taking on a new project
may mean she needs to join Vad in saving
the day in Moreland.
Libra (TerraShape): "You've been playing
your cards close to your chest, but you need
to take off that poker face and let people
know how you feel. Criticism can be a good
thing, if it helps you grow. Let your friends
know that they matter, and they'll help you
come out on top!" We can expect more info from TerraShape soon?
Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia): "Change is inevitable.
You'll find yourself in a tricky situation,
but if you play your cards right you'll come
out ahead." Another reference to the current situation
Serpent is in.
Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars): "Have you been playing
the blues? It’s time to get out of that funk.
You’re missing out on life, and that’s never
a good thing. Wake up, hop in the shower
and face the day. If you can get a hold of
yourself, there’s nothing that you can’t
handle." A reference to the "happy" Eric??
Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl): "Has your phone been
ringing a lot lately? Telemarketers have
just gotten to be way too much. It used to
be that you’d get 2 calls a day, now it seems
like it’s every couple hours. How many times
can you say “No”? Perhaps you should consider
blocking the number." Is this a scolding for the Jawbreakers' recent
scripting attacks? "How many times can
you say "No"? Perhaps you should
consider blocking the number."
Aquarius (WiredSouls): "The teeming masses love
you, but you knew that. Check your number--is
there perhaps one among you who is more--and
less--than he seems to be? Trust, but verify."
Interesting reference to someone being "more--and
less--than he appears to be. Funny, quoting
Ronald Reagan, "trust, but verify,"
considering Rev. Lee's disdain of Reagan.
Why does he hate Reagan, btw?
Pisces (Vad): "Life has been good, albeit
a bit confusing. Perhaps that’s because you’ve
been living with your head in the sand. It’s
time to look up, brush the sand out of your
hair, and accept what you see." Thing's have been good for Vad, what with
the new job and
all, but it's time for him to look around
and realize what's going on.
Interesting note. A few of these can be seen
to be pointing at specific individuals, if
you want to look at them that way: Taurus/Eric
Wyndgarde, Sagittarius/CaveBear, Aquarius/Rev.
Lee, Cancer/Hermes, and perhaps Libra/Jo
Burgess. Many of the sites definitely seem
to have one major character at the forefront,
but I wouldn't take these too literally in
this instance.
Again, no major clues to anything, but mostly
just additional insights into what's going
on around the LockJaw world.
There was one other update at G-E-G that
looked noteworthy. It's entitled Puppets for Social Change, and it's an interview with Devi, a young
Zero Population Growth advocate in Seattle.
There's evidence in the article that leads
us to believe that Devi may in fact be Mayor
Devenish's daughter. First there's her "name,"
then she mentions someone who bears a resemblance
to Nadine Devenish: "...Well, it was
sort of my mom’s fault. When I was little
the two of us would plant a garden each year
and spend a little time together each day
working on it..."
When you think about it, a Zero Population
Growth group would be just about as opposed
as one could get to anyone trying to extend
the human life span, let alone attain immortality.
Maybe the Mayor and his wife are in on things
a little more than we realize, and Devi is
trying to do her part to counter their actions.
Suddenly, the little squares at the bottom
of the Ganmed pages took on meaning. Various squares now
link to some apparently blank white pages:
http://www.ganmed.com/1.html
http://www.ganmed.com/2.html
http://www.ganmed.com/3.html
http://www.ganmed.com/4.html
http://www.ganmed.com/5.html
http://www.ganmed.com/6.html
A closer look reveals hidden white gibberish
code on a white background on each page.
Each page is entitled "breadcrumbs"
and contains a different message. "Breadcrumbs"
refers to the messages we found on the old
URF site Admin Inbox.
There are snippets of text that can be found
in each message, however:
1.html - inerators can handle five or six
at
2.html - obody missed them. That's the great
thing about the homeless--you can drop them
off
3.html - week and we could have had them
out of the tunnels and burned. Too bad those
ki
4.html - ot sure. The report listed ten of
th
5.html - aid there would be 'treatment failures,'
especially early on. I guess 'treatment failure'
sounds better than 'de
6.html - she was upset, but I took care of
Breadcrumbs, indeed! Looks like we have bits
and pieces of a hidden message embedded in
what was determined to be a split-up Ganmed
Logo .gif file.
Homeless people being used as guinea pigs
for some treatment? If so, looks like they
died and their bodies were stored in tunnels
to be incinerated later. Their deaths were
called "treatment failure."
Nice. I guess we know who were in those body
bags now.
April 9th brings an update at ThePythia.
The contellation now links to EASTERN, which shows the same snake on a branch
with the text: WHEN EVIL BEFALLS HIM HE IS
DESPONDANT
Letters that are lighter in color: N S I,
which last time was an anagram. There's also
some hidden text, according to the source
code: 'IT'S straightforward. quite"
The URL of the page is www.thepythia.net/allhave.html.
Using the "allhave" and the NSI
as clues, we're pretty easily led to the
conclusion "SIN" (All have sin(ned)).
Entering SIN at the LostSouls Sounds page takes us to PATH, which is another confession from Chet Doan.
Seems like Chet is being tortured by nightmares.
I can't imagine why!
EASTERN PATH is apparently a Zen term for
the Meaning of Life. Looks like Chet my be
on a little search for just that. Also, the
quotes interspersed with Chet's new confession
are from from the Quran. The chapter (or
Sura) is entitled _The Ladders_
(al-Ma`arij/al-ma`aarij), an obvious tie-in
with genetics.
April 10th brought some new email updates
over at the DCMC Underground at nocars.org.
We get new emails from April 8th throught
the 1oth:
Vad-Barbie wants to know if everything's okay with Vad, and invites
Vad to their weekly Euchre game.
Barbara-Well, Vad seems a little aloof or preoccupied. Cave Bear seems pretty happy, and Creeper wants to go shopping.
Creeper-Barbie talks about her completed
manuals project, and invites Creeper to help her
spend some of her new check. There's also
a copy of Cave Bear's happy email.
Cave Bear-Nothing new here. Nobody seems
to want to write Cave Bear. Hmm, I wonder
why?
Barbie and Vad played Euchre again on April
10th. A good chunk of the chat was posted
in JB Message #2474. Vad gave us another puzzle, this time 20
lines of cards as follows:
9s Kc Jh / Ad Jh 10h Jc Jh Qd
10s / 10h Kc Ks / Ah Jc Qs 10h Qs 10s
Kc / Ad Jc Jh 9s Js? 9s Kc Jh / Qh
Ks Ks Jd 10s/ 10h Kc Ks/ Qc Ks 10h
Jc Qs Ad/ 10s 9d 10s 10h Ks Qc/ Ac
Jh 9s Js? 9s Kc Jh / Qd Ks As 10c
Ks 10s/ As 10h Qd As Js 10h Qs 10s/
Jh Kh Kh/10h KcKs/ Qc As Jd 10s?
9s Kc Jh/ Qh Ks Ks Jd 10s/ 10h Kc
Ks/ Qc As Jc 10h Qs As Js 10s/ 10d
Js Ac Ks Jc/ 9s Jc As Jd 10s? 9s
Kc Jh/ Kc Jh Qd Ac 10s/ Ah As Ad
Qh/ 10h Kc Ks/ Ks Qd Ks Ad 10h Jc
Qs Ad/ Ad As Jc? 9s Kc Jh/ Qc As
Qh Ks 10s/ 10s 10h Ks 10c Ks/ Kd 10d
10h Ks Js Ah Ks Jc Kd/ As/ 10s 10h
As Jc? 9s Kc Jh/ Jc Jh Ah 10s/ Ad
As 10c Ks/ Kh Qs 10s Kc/Jh Kh/10h
Kc Ks Qs Jc/ 10s Qs Kd Kc 10h? 9s
Kc Jh/ Jc Qs Kd 10s/ Ks 10c Ks Jc
9d/ Jh 10s Ad As Jc/ Js Qs Kd Kc 10h?
This turned out to be a simple substitution
cypher, which when decoded says:
W H O / C O (n) T R O L
S / T H E / B R I T I S
H / C R O W N? W H O / K
E E P S / T H E / M E T
R I C / S Y S T E M / D
O W N? W H O / L E A V
E S / A T L A N T I S /
O F F / T H E / M A P S?
W H O / K E E P S / T H
E / M A R T I A N S / U
N D E R / W R A P S? W
H O / H O L D S / B A C
K / T H E / E L E C T R
I C / C A R? W H O / M A
K E S / S T E V E / G U
T E N B E R G / A / S T
A R? W H O / R O B S / C
A V E / F I S H / O F / T
H E I R / S I G H T? W
H O / R I G S / E V E R
Y / O S C A R / N I G H T?
The answer is obvious to Simpsons fans: "We
do! We do!" This is a song lyric (quite
funny!) from the episode where Homer joins
the super secret Stonecutters, and sure enough,
look what we find at www.moreland-wv.org/stonecutters/:
These turn out to be Elder Futhark runes,
which are translated using one of many online
references to read as follows:
My father would be so proud:
Who says you can't teach an old dog new alphabets?
Found this lot in the usual way, (the trash)
Maybe you can make something of it:
Stonecutter's Pieces
This leads us to www.moreland-wv.org/stonecutters/pieces/
When the shredded document is reassembled,
it turns out to be a memo from Chet Doan
to an unknown person at Moreland. The memo
reads:
[GANMED letterhead]
As per our telephone conversation of this
morning, you should plan on
providing Arney with a private office for
the remainder of the week,
even if you need to rearrange your entire
security department to do
so. You are instructed to treat him as royalty
with unrestricted
access to all areas. You are NOT to question
his actions or motives.
Arney assures me that he has taken care of
the issue of the two kids
who were found snooping around. He confiscated
the material they had
taken and sent them on their way. In his
words, he "scared the life
out of them and they won't be back."
In the event they do return,
notify the police and have them escorted
out of the town limits.
Your annoyance at being called so early was
quite clear in our
conversation. I'm beginning to wonder if
I made an error in placing
you in such a sensitive position; I thought
I was abundantly clear
when you accepted the job that you were expected
to be available 24
hours a day. That expectation HAS NOT changed.
CD
There are 4 shreds left over that don't fit
into the Ganmed memo or to each other. Either
they are extras thrown it to confuse things,
or there isanother document out there with
more pieces to be found later.
An image of the reassembled memo can be found
here.
(Thanks, Gupfee!)
Additional little squares at Ganmed were
updated on April 11th to link to 3 more breadcrumbs:
http://www.ganmed.com/7.html
http://www.ganmed.com/8.html
http://www.ganmed.com/9.html
More white-on-white jibberish with inserted
text:
7.html anywhere. Even in tunnels. How many
there are, I'm
8.html em, but there are names for some and
aliases for others. I still have a copy of
the report that that
9.html or 'we fucked up big.' We're covered
Combined with the first six crumbs, a message
is starting to fall into place:
Recap:
---------------
5/9: ...aid there would be 'treatment failures,'
especially early on. I guess 'treatment failure'
sounds better than 'dead' or 'we fucked up
big.' We're covered.
---------------
2/7/4/8: ...obody missed them. That's the
great thing about the homeless--you can drop
them off anywhere. Even in tunnels. How many
there are, I'm not sure. The report listed
ten of them, but there are names for some
and aliases for others. I still have a copy
of the report that that...
---------------
Remaining:
1.html - inerators can handle five or six
at
3.html - week and we could have had them
out of the tunnels and burned. Too bad those
ki
6.html - she was upset, but I took care of
Hmm, I guess we know who our Ten Little Indians
were now. We'll be watching for more breadcrumbs
tomorrow.
April 10th also gave us some new messages
in Jo Burgess's email box at Terrashape:
Scream [from: KW] gives us an encoded message:
eqeiy tsu siez vggssulgu mn kgwi ecogwex
yam yzpl zgv yiad xtfq mq sirmn
pg pfx tdq vf poosvv qe
This is a Vigenere cipher (remember the name
of the new stor in Moreland?). Using the
key 'scream' -- as per the title -- gives
the following:
money has been deposited in your account
you will not hear from me again
do not try to locate me
God I hate this is a note from Jo to herself about the muzak
chosen for the ice arena.
RE: [from: witheld] is a very alarming email
thread. Is Jo on the take from someone? Taking
our cues from the phrases, "I'll tell
you in person" and "I wonder, does
the company know about our little liaisons?"
we can assume that the sender of these emails
if someone in Moreland with Jo.
RE: Success! [from: Iain Fitzboyle] indicates something
very important has been accomplished, but
we have no indication as to what it is.
A word to the wiser [from: John Hathaway] talks about "the
toff" and the problems he/she is causing
by nosing around. What is the toff?
Thought [from: Aleks Canzovich] (who is a woman,
by the way, and the head of the Ecology Dept.)
is simply four quotes from different sources:
1-Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh; 2-Unknown;
3-Sun Tzu, The Art of War; 4-Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass.
The email is concluded with a graphic with
more Chinese characters of unknown meaning.
The only info we seems to have is that both
strips look like labels for something. The
red one reads something like "name(?)
taken wine something home choice". A
wine label perhaps?
The white one is shaped like an envelope.
The writing is extremely difficult to make
out.
With all the clues we had in the G-E-G article, it's amazing that this one sat here for
so long unsolved. I'm especially embarassed
as I've read just about every Stephen King
book written.
The password for Kathy's Ganmed Employee Login (garrettk) is 'pennywise,' who was the clown
character in the novel "IT." Pennywise
was an evil. Pennywise was a monster that
lived underground. Pennywise was played by
Tim Curry. I knew that.
On April 10th, Reverend Lee posted a message
to his flock on Whispers:
Update for the flock
Greetings from Germany, friends!
I'm on a rather shaky connection in a small
cyber cafe right now. It
is late evening on the 10th. There's so much
to say but I'll try and
be uncharacteristically brief since I'm afraid
the connection will go
bad at any second. I've tried sending a message
for three days now,
with no success.
Yesterday was spent leisurely strolling along
the Königsallee and
dropping by the utterly fabulous Ko Galerie.
So much to buy, so
little time! I much prefer the Galerie to
the Ko Center, as the
Galerie seems to be of a higher caliber than
the Center. Not that
the Center doesn't have its own charms, indeed
it does. The value-
added tax here is 16% (can I have an OUCH?!).
The day before that, I visited one of my
favorite areas, the area
known as Japanese Dusseldorf. I absolutely
never, ever visit
Dusseldorf without going there. It's a large
area of predominantly
Japanese, and has some of the most fabulous
dining establishments
anywhere. The shops are literally piled one
atop another and have a
wide array of offerings. Just walking through
the area is simply
wonderful.
I'm off to Zum Uerige in the Altstadt tonight.
Such wonderful
atmosphere! Stained glass windows, carved
woodwork...one could
easily have a religious experience in this
setting, if it weren't for
the cheeky waiters and the beer.
I can't believe I've been here nearly a week.
How time flies! I
hope you've been treated kindly by the webmaster
in my absence. I
left instructions to approve members and
take care of the day-to-day
of the site and the board.
On Friday I'm off to visit Paris again, then
back home, with a
brief stopover to visit a friend in Washington.
More chat will
follow as time and technology permit.
Discreet overseas smooches,
Reverend Lee
Well, at least he's discreetly smooching.
Interesting that we hear about Dusseldorf
again. Dusseldorf is one of the maps on Pythia,
our second map, to be exact: 144re. This seems to help back up the idea that
the pics/maps at Pythia chronicled Rev. Lee's
trip 'round the world.
Late on April 12th, Jo Burgess' Terrashape email was updated to include an email entitled
Calimacus. The mail was simply a list of old, archaic
words and some hidden-text numbers:
From CB Re: Calimacus
A preview of what's to come:
goliard
terebinth
cymmhorth
lant
dreaming-bread
petty-fogger
feague
fleam
bowssen
sockdolager
[hiddent text]
18 22 26 1 20 22 2 13 14 18 15 4 24 13 19
2 8 18 15 19 10 11 20 17
11 9 23 11 17 7 13 13 9 3 9 20 10 6 10 13
10 1 9 23 21 16 8 13 8 6 22
15 25 7 1 6 14 17 18 21 19 26 18 15 16 17
8 6 4 18 18 12 13 17 9 5 26
20 17 9 23 7 17 5 18 8 14 5 10 21 12 14 26
16 23 5 21 9 21 15 24 17 9
2 26 26 20 17 9 23 1 14 12 23 17 20 7 16
8 13 15 24 13 14 18 21 16 14
1 15 20 3 18 7 22 17 25 2 13 6 9 5 10 13
16 24 4 15 16 1 9 9 4 14 26
1 1 21 16 5 10 14 8 15 7 22 24 17 1 16 11
18 15 13 16 9 23 12 15 19 5
23 11 15 16 1 8 2 26 26 2 17 9 17 14 17 20
3 14 6 11 19 9 9 1 8 13 4
16 17 21 5 13 14 20 22 18 14 3 5 24 16 16
10 21 5 16 7 1 6 22 15 8 21
4 2 7 8 9 2 21 13 23 11 9 14 21 20 7 16 20
3 16 9 22 8 9 20 13 8 12 5
16 4 1 6 9 11 23 5 18 21 11 18 9 7 21 23
22 15 20 17 11 9 23 11 15 12
17 26 6 5 10 1 17 20 10 15 7 5 2 8 21 17
16 16 19 13 10 1 5 10 12 13
12 18 8 11 16 2 26 26 12 20 17 8 10 1 20
2 1 14 23 5 2 7 1 6 13 14 7
5 17 20 10 2 15 18 16 2 23 5 2 2 17 7 11
17 17 5 11 13 22 22 15 12 17
13 19 20 1 17 4 22 16 5 10 14 8 9 3 15 15
26 17 20 10 11 9 20 4 23 23
23 10 14 16 8 13 14 20 1 19 23 22 15 8 14
16 14 26 8 9 8 1 10 3 23 15
26 17 20 10 15 7 5 2 8 9 15 24 1 14 23 13
17 16 23 15 14 3 16 1 20 17
14 26 5 16 5 13 26 23 3 5 18 6 9 11 16 15
7 1 6 22 15 17 5 3 25 10 8
20 3 15 8 14 15 26 20 2 19 10 16 20 17 24
13 19 13 9 26 1 10 10 22 15
12 13 26 23 7 9 1 17 13 19 23 17 20 24 25
10 22 15 12 19 26 3 13 9 1
17 23 22 12 1 5 13 17 26 1 4 17 23 10 3 14
10 25 19 8 10 8
Well, it seems the list is of a bunch of
obsolete, almost extinct words. An initial
search for definitions yielded the following:
goliard: A wandering student in medieval Europe
disposed to
conviviality, license, and the making of
ribald and satirical Latin
songs.
terebinth: turpentine tree, small deciduous tree (Pistacia
terebinthus) of the family Anacardiaceae
(sumac family), native to
the Mediterranean region. It yielded probably
the earliest-known form
of turpentine, said to have been used in
medicine by the ancient
Greeks. The yield of the terebinth is now
called Chian, Scio, or
Cyprian turpentine.
-also-
A resinated wine additive to prevent wine
from turning into
vinegar. Tree resins--pine, cedar, and often
terebinth (which Pliny
described as the "best and most elegant"
resin)--were added to Roman
wines for just this purpose. Roman also used
resins for medicinal
purposes; indeed, modern chemical investigations
have proven that
resins can kill certain bacteria, thereby
protecting organic
compounds from degradation.
cymmhorth: A Medieval Welsh term for "ale-drinking
benefit", or a drinking
party such as a wedding reception.
lant: The Saxon word for urine, used through
the 19th century for the
stale human urine that was used for a variety
of domestic and
industrial purposes.
dreaming-bread: "The Infar-Cake, or Dreaming Bread."
A decorated cake of shortbread
is still the national bride's cake of rural
Scotland, and was
formerly used as infer-cake. The breaking
of the infar-cake over the
head of the bride, on the threshold of her
new home, is a very
ancient custom. Portions were distributed
to the young men and
maidens "to dream on".
petty-fogger: a lawyer willing to undertake any case
feague: to beat or whip
fleam: a medical instrument used in the letting
of blood
bowssen: To drench; to soak; especially, to immerse
(in water
believed to have curative properties). [Obs.]
sockdolager: A conclusive blow or remark.
As far as the numbers go, there was no immediate
progress on a solution.
Recap 6: What do we know?
Moot (and URFer-X) is dead! We're not sure
exactly who did it or why. It seems that
James Arney and the Moreland Ambulance Corp.
were involved somehow.
Thomas and Wolfe used to work with John Missoli,
but Missoli left Ganmed for unknown reasons
to work at Gen-Tel. Thomas and Wolfe's project
was taken from them and given to someone
else to work on for a while (probably Gen-Tel),
which has left them feeling a little perturbed.
Hermes has had enough of working with Serpent
on his project. Horrified by the deaths and
all he has seen, Hermes resigned from Serpent's
service, but there may be consequences to
outliving his usefullness with him.
Kevin Asgort is apparently in kahoots with
a "secret someone" at Gentel. He's
sending coded information to them via his
ODES reports.
Ganmed has been carrying out "treatments"
on homeless people. When they died, they
were stored in body bags in the DC Metro
underground, awaiting incineration. These
are the unfortunate souls our crawlers discovered.
Chet Doan is an emotionally tortured individual,
who can't sleep at night. Apparently all
of the nefarious things Ganmed is involved
in is finally catching up with him.
Besides having the vocabulary of a sailor,
Jo Burgess is apparently on the take, perhaps
taking hush-money to cover something up.
She's seems to definitely be under somebody
else's control somehow.
Vad seems a little preoccupied or something.
He just didn't seem himself in the recent
emails to Barbie. Is he eating the apples??
Or friend Reverend Lee is traipsing around
the world, gleefully posting about his adventures.
Still don't know whether he can be trusted
or not.
Things that are unsolved:
- Calimacus email
- Various Ganmed Passwords (especially Arney's and DeLaPuma's
- Various ODES Passwords
- Various Moreland's Residential logins
- Various TerraShape passwords
- Terrashape Department Icons?
- Who is The Toff?
- Mall Store references in Asgort's ODES report
- The Various lists in Jo Burgess's email box
- The meaning of re:48
- Moot, Hermes and Serpent's true identities
- Who KW and John Hathaway are
- Remaining puzzles in the first two ODES pages?
Our crawler friends got some new emails for
us to look at:
Vad-Only one new email for Vad (he's not quite
as popular as he used to be). CaveBear sent
him a rather strange message entitled standing idle:
Hey now
Since it costs a lot to win and even more
to lose, you and me bound to spend some time
wondering what to choose. Don't you understand
what I'm trying to say, and can't you feel
the fears I'm feeling today? If the button
is pushed, there's no running away, there'll
be no one to save, will the world in a grave.
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to
scare you.
Am I ready to lay down my life for the brethren
and to take up my cross? Have I surrendered
to the will of God or am I still acting like
the boss? Am I ready, hope I'm ready. When
destruction cometh swiftly and there's no
time to say a fare-thee-well, have you decided
whether you want to be in heaven or in hell?
Hold away despair, more than this I will
not ask.
Faced with mysteries deep and vast, statements
just seem vain at last. My life has changed
in oh so many ways, my independence seems
to vanish in the haze. But every now and
then I feel so insecure. I know that I just
need you like I've never done before.
a Bear looking to connect
It was determined that these are lyrics from
the following songs:
Deal (Grateful Dead [surprise!])
Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire)
Are You Ready? (Bob Dylan)
Terrapin Station (Grateful Dead)
Help (Beatles)
D-E-A-T-H.
How nice. Must be a clue, ya think?
Also on Vad's page, there's a new, intriguing
link to a page called The Beaten Track. This seems to be a list of busy thoroughfares
of various sorts around the world, with one
(different colored) exception: Chagrin River
Road.
No immediate progress was made on what exactly
this is, either.
Okay, moving to Barbara's Page, we see an email dated April 12th from CaveBear announcing some new files
being uploaded to the platform. Oh good,
new stuff! Problem is, the "Icon Platform"
is gone! We can't seem to access it any more.
I wonder why CaveBear would've moved it?
Note that CaveBear didn't email Vad about
this. Also, TopSider apparently hasn't been
heard from in a while.
Journal is a message from Creeper about Vad apparently
meeting Arney. She also says something about
uploading something from her journal to the
platform. Ergh! Too bad we can't find it!
Lastly, there are two more emails from CaveBear and Creeper, replying to a message they got from Barbie.
Apparently Barbie must've told them about
her private conversation with Urban Zombie! Their advice seems to be leaning toward
not contact him again, but we'll see. Plus,
CaveBear mentions something about tightening
the security at the site, just in case UrbanZombie
is some sort of hacker.
On CaveBear's page, in addition to what we've seen so far,
there's a question from Barbie apparently as to whether she should call/email
Vad about Arney being the same policeman
as before.
Next is a reply from Barbie about the files uploaded to the Platform.
This seems to be in response to CaveBear's
quesion as to whether Vad was the one who
wrote about the 1st Recon.
Something to think about confirms that Barbie did indeed reveal her
conversation with UrbanZombie! Apparently,
Vad doesn't know.
Creeper's page doesn't reveal any additional emails, and
there's nothing else new there that we can
tell.
So, we have some new goodies awaiting us
at the Platform page, but we can't seem to
find it! We have a new Platform login, without the "ahead/behind" trouble
hidden text, so we must be needing to find
a new handle/password. Wrong anwers here
kick us out back to the turnstile.asp page. We seem to be going around in circles.
After spening the afternoon and evening searching
for a new handle/password, it was discovered
that the links to the two files on Creeper's Page still worked. Looking at the URLs of the
links, we noticed that they pointed to a
new directory: /1nfo_b00th/ (NOTE: This directory
has changed again since this time). Well,
it was worth a little experiment. The old
Icon Platform where all the files were had
been located at .../1nof0rmati0nb00th/pl4tf0rm.htm,
so let's try /1nfo_b00th/pl4tf0rm.htm.....
Success!!! Looking at all the additional
icons, we must have a whole bunch of new
info here! Click!
Huh? Oh, man! Did we find this prematurely?
It seems none of the links are valid, we
get 404 errors on all of them. It looks like
the files aren't really there yet.
Or are they??? Here we go again. Things aren't
quite what they seem here. Seems the links
arent quite correct. Looks like the directory
has been misspelled:"1nfob00th" should be "1nfo_b00th". Well, that's easy
enough to fix manually.....
Yes! In addition to what we've already seen,
there are seven(!) new files:
Three brand new ones:
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/gps1.jpg
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/gps2.jpg
This is a journal entry from Creeper dated
12/3/2001. In it, we learn that Anson is
GPS! At least, we can assume that based on the
title of the images. Also, Arney came to
the funeral, watching from the back. Afterward,
he talked at length with Sherpa. Also.....Anson's
full name was Anson Lee.
Anson Lee?
Anson Lee!
Holy cow!, was GPS/Anson related to Reverend
Dan Lee??!! His son or brother, perhaps??
Could Reverend Lee be looking to bring down
Chet Doan and Ganmed in revenge?
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/nyavecrawl/2462.htm
This is a very eye-opening message thread
(all the links work) from the original DCMC
site. It's about the 2nd recon crawl to New
York Street Station, (at least, this confirms
our suspicions that it was NY St. Station).
This is the crawl that started it all, detailing
the discovery of the body bags. It details
the date (August 25-26), how that bodies
were found, and tells us more about who was
there and who wasn't:
Confirmed on crawl: Credibility, Class Three,
Creeper, Cave Bear, Popper, Vad, Barbie.
Confirmed not on crawl: GPS, Sherpa, Terra
Incognito, TopSider, Urban Legend.
As of now, the dead or missing are:
Dead: Popper, Class Three, Credibility, GPS
Missing: RebaR, possibly TopSider
Now, it definitely seems odd that GPS/Anson
is dead, but wasn't on this crawl. Was his
death merely an accident, or is there even
more going on here that we don't know about
yet. Was Anson in love with Barbie, so Vad
pushed him onto the 3rd rail to get him out
of the way??? Okay, just kidding (I think).
Next are four documents we've seen before:
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/memo.jpg
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/purchase.jpg
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/together.jpg
http://www.nocars.org/station/1nfo_b00th/req.jpg
Now, the important thing to realize here,
is that the Crawlers now have knowledge of
everything revealed in these documents:
- They know Arney works for Ganmed.
- They know Arney is in Moreland and that Moreland and Ganmed have some kind of connection.
- They know someone in Moreland is buying extra medical supplies.
- They may know Jo's password and thus have access to her email.
It's interesting to note that the day after
this directory was discovered, the links
on the New Platform page were corrected (for the most part)
and the links on Creeper's page went back
to being the old "broken" ones.
Did we in fact stumble upon this before we
were supposed to?? Hmmm.
One of the JawBreakers (just one that we know of) received an email from Hermes on April 14th:Looks like Ane apparently discovered something the rest of us haven't, or was perhaps the first one to do so. Checking the message archive, Ane was the one who discovered wht #kb meant, leading her/us to the /8/ and /68/ directories at URF, which gave us I-Ching clues.
Subject: ...
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 18:36:49 -0400
quickly now, she isn't happy, wont leav
e this end loose for long. she never le
aves loose ends for long, j
ules proved that. jules fou
nd something, hid it deep,
action through inaction. sh
e wanted it back, jules off
ered defiance. that wasn't
the answer she was seeking.
saw from the server logs yo
u've followed the path, fou
nd the source. don't know t
he essence, time is a circl
e and meaning flows both in
and out. moot would know, m
oot always knew, but moot i
s gone and meaning now is d
ammed. he would say /we sho
uld blunt our sharp points,
and unravel the complicatio
ns of things; we should att
emper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others.../
The part between the slashes is a quote from the tao teh ching, chapter 4. On a whim, someone went to www.10101-10010-110.org/tao/
This is a valid page and gives us "yes, this is the right track, the right book. there is nothing before the Tao.".
Looks like we missed something...
Then, it was noticed that the quote between the slashes is from chapter 4 of the Tao book, sometimes called "The Fountainless".
And lo and behold there is a new directory at www.10101-10010-110.org/fountainless/.
Wow! Looks like URF is set to rise from the ashes! Currently there is a flash animation with inactive links to archives, links, and manifesto. During the animation, it was noticed that various cities around the globe are being subtly highlighted (possibly Brazil, Sudan, India, San Francisco, and Australia)
, plus the Kanji from spiral.jpg can be seen flying by. Underneath the graphic is the message, "april fourteen oh two: shhh... keep it a secret. still building."
We're still pretty unclear as to whether this was something we were being directed to all along, with this being just a more obvious hint, or whether this is something new. As pieces fall into place either way, I'll try to get a summary of this posted here.
Either way, it seems clear that URF is in no way down for the count. Plus, it looks like they've been busy elsewhere.....
NOTE: URF is now active at the above link.
Looks like our friend the serpent is melting!
The Pythia's home page seems to have been hacked (this is how it
looked at the time). It's now a cool, "melting"
version of the snake image we've become so
accustomed to. It also no longer clicks through
to the various subway pictures. They're still there, but just no longer accessible through the
front page.
NOTE: The next day, the original page reappeared.
Looks like Pythia didn't take it.
When Rev. Lee left, he mentioned that everything
would be in the capable hands of his webmaster,
whom he'd given the passwords to. I just
wanted to confirm this, so for what it's
worth, I posted a question to him (the webmaster).
Here is the complete message thread:
From: WM1
Subject: Disclosure
In another post, Reverend Lee said:
"I hope you've been treated kindly by
the webmaster in my absence. I
left instructions to approve members and
take care of the day-to-day
of the site and the board."
Just to let everyone know, that would be
me. I trust there are no complaints. I check
a couple of times a day.
Reverend Lee will probably be back home on
Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
WM (that's WebMaster)
-----------------------------------
From: vpisteve
Reply to: WM1 [ Message 1 ]
Subject: RE: Disclosure
Are you also Rev. Lee's webmaster for the
LostSouls site? Again, I
may be able to help with those sound files.
-vpisteve
----------------------------------------------------------
From: WM1
Reply to: vpisteve [ Message 2 ]
Subject: RE: RE: Disclosure
Yes, I do upkeep and such on the WiredSouls
site as well as keeping
an eye on things here on the board.
It's been fairly easy to check in here. Reverend
Lee thought it would
be much busier and a much bigger job than
it has turned out to be to
keep up with this part. I know he was concerned
about adding more to
my workload since I don't get paid to do
this.
Once he gets home I'll let him know you may
be able to be of
assistance with the sound files. I may suggest
we discontinue the
message board part since it's not very high
traffic and he wanted it
to help fill in the loss of the sound archive.
Thanks!
--WM1
April 15th brought us a new seat of breadcrumbs,
again linked through additional little squares
throughout the Ganmed site:
www.ganmed.com/10.html
www.ganmed.com/11.html
www.ganmed.com/12.html
These gave us three additional snippets of
sentences, which then fit into the rest as
follows:
10/3- ...re: the screw up down there, things
are fine. One more week and we could have
had them out of the tunnels and burned. Too
bad those ki...
---------------
2/7/4/8- ...obody missed them. That's the
great thing about the homeless – you can
drop them off anywhere. Even in tunnels.
How many there are I'm not sure. The report
listed ten of them, but there are names for
some and aliases for others. I still have
a copy of the report that that...
----------------
12/5/9- ...too. You can't imagine how hot
they get. CD said there would be `treatment
failures,' especially early on. I guess `treatment
failure' sounds better thatn `dead' or `we
fucked up big.' We're covered.
----------------
6/11- ...she was upset, but I took care of
her. She's not upset anymore.
which leaves….
1- ...inerators can handle five or six at...
Looks like we're still missing a few.
At around 11am on April 15th, first_tienle
was Private Messaged while in the #jawbreakers
IRC channel! He received the following message
from a LaoTze:
/obscurity/what you seek comes from nothing,
like the emptiness of a vessel.
www.10101-10010-110.org/obscurity/ gives us this message:
you have the right book, the one you didn't
read. it instructs in the Way of things,
and how we all should be; what you seek comes
from nothing, like the emptiness of a vessel.
Wow, talk about a clue! But a clue to what??
Repeated attempts at finding additional directories
based on the LaoTze book has yielded no results.
Realize though, that this means an in-game
character knows about us in #jb. Whether
that will end up making sense story-wise,
or is just another desperate attempt by the
PMs to help us dopes find something that's
apparently obvious remains to be seen.
New horoscopes for the 10th week:
Aries (Ganmed): "Feeling a little smug? Well,
don't. We all have vulnerabilities that can
be exploited to the advantage of another.
Don't get caught with your pants down."
Hmm, I hope this is referring to Ganmed as
a company and not to Chet Doan literally.
Taurus (Net:Sight): "You're working hard,
and it looks like that's not going to change
for a while; you're keeping your project
under wraps for now, but when you show it
to your friends they'll see a whole other
side to you." Alright already! What's this new mystery
product?
Gemini (Moreland): "Spring cleaning, spring
gardening, springing into action. Your planet's
alignments are asking you to choose, and
choose wisely. Water signs need to be aware
of the give and take of other elementals
this week!" Well, looks like something's gonna really
get started at Moreland soon.
Cancer (URF): "It’s time to get your bearings
and steer a clear course. It may look like
smooth sailing, but those dark waters hide
dangerous things." Are treacherous times ahead for the URF
kids, despite their promising rise from the
ashes?
Leo (Gen-Tel): "Sometimes everyone has
something they want you to do, and sometimes
you feel like no one knows you're alive.
Don't loose heart, things are about to change.
Hard work and determination will make sure
that change is for the better, but remember,
success is nothing if you don't have the
time to enjoy it!" Is this a hint that Gen-Tel may start to
play a more active part in what's going on?
Virgo (Barbie): "The theme for the week:
trust your gut. It’s important to heed the
advice of friends, but they don’t always
have the whole story. You know what you need
to do, so get out there and do it."
I hope this means that Barbie will trust
us and contact us.
Libra (TerraShape): "Balance in confusion,
deceit wrapped inside of good intentions.
At some point your karma will equalize, and
you'll be lucky to have anyone there to help
pick up the pieces or hold your hand."
Deceit wrapped inside of good intentions.
That might indeed summarize what Jo Burgess
has been up to.
Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia): "The ground beneath
your feet is starting to tremble this week.
Remember those disaster drills you had in
school? Keep them in mind." A not-so-subtle reference to the recent hack
of Pythia?
Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars): "Today is like any other
day: an opportunity to prepare for the future.
What can you bring to today, what have you
brought to yesterday, what will you bring
to tomorrow, in order to clarify your future?"
Maybe we should be expecting more of the
same at nocars. Perhaps another map giving
us hints to our next handle/password.
Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl): "You’ve chosen a path
and stuck to it. The way looks clear and
you are headed on your way. You need to make
sure that you’ve chosen the right one, it
would be a horrible fate to walk all that
way to find a port-a-potty instead of a water
fountain." Don't really know what to make of that port-a-potty
analogy.
Aquarius (WiredSouls): "Be cautious when choosing
your words this week, water-bearer. What
you say--or DON'T say--may give people the
wrong impression about you." A warning to Rev. Lee about remaining silent
about things. Maybe we should give him a
chance to open up to us?
Pisces (Vad): "You haven’t been very careful
about who you trust. Is this wise? Beware;
you may cross a wolf in sheep’s clothing."
Vad may have met a "bad-guy" at
Moreland. Who is Oscar??
Rev. Lee posted a new message to us at Whispers
on April 15th:
-------------------------------------------------
Apr-15-2002 10:22 AM Message 5 of 7
Group: Disclosure
From: Dan_Lee
Reply to: WM1 [ Message 3 ]
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Disclosure
Greetings, Friends!
I've just returned from walking on the Champs
Elysées. Bliss. Utter, unadulterated bliss.
I'll be packing for my flight soon but simply
had to stop by and see what I've missed.
I must apologize for not letting you know
about WM1. It slipped my mind, addled as
I've been with this trip coming up and all.
It's not like me to forget things like that,
and I profusely apologize.
Quoth WM1:
"Reverend Lee thought it would be much
busier and a much bigger job than it has
turned out to be "
So glad to hear it, my friend. I was concerned
but I knew you could handle it. The throngs
haven't teemed quite like I expected.
Continueth WM1:
"I may suggest we discontinue the message
board part since it's not very high traffic
and he wanted it to help fill in the loss
of the sound archive."
I rather enjoy the interactive nature of
this. Perhaps, in light of Net:Sight's troubles,
we can jettison the sound archive and keep
the message board. It's much less one-sided
(even though I understand you've all come
to love those netcasts) and feels more like
contact than me sitting enthroned while the
masses grovel at my electronic feet.
We can discuss this in our meeting. I will
add it to the agenda.
The supreme being loves you in spite of your
haircut,
Reverend Lee
-------------------------------------------------
I'm starting to kinda like this guy! He's
strangely endearing, especially when you
realize that he's apparently lost a loved-one
to Ganmed.
Later that same day, the Webmaster responded
to another question about the sound archives:
-------------------------------------------------
Apr-15-2002 5:45 PM Message 7 of 7
Group: Disclosure
From: WM1
Reply to: OphilyeStar [ Message 4 ]
Subject: RE: RE: Disclosure
Sorry, I don't actually physically have the
archives. I know the Reverend Lee mentioned
they were in NSA format (NetSightAudio, if
you wondered) but the actual archives are
stored on Netsight servers. I don't think
he understood when he posted, but that's
OK. He'll freely admit that he does good
just turning the computer on and finding
the site :) It's less like a standard audio
file residing on your local machine and more
like a streaming audio file...that's the
best way I can describe the Netsight system.
Not entirely accurate, but you get the general
idea.
Yes, I do know the Reverend. We've met on
several occasions. I'm also member #421 of
the Wired Souls Club. I'm wearing my T-shirt
as we speak.
I don't do HTML coding for a living, just
as a hobby. If I had to support myself with
web design I'd be even thinner than I am
now.
As for taking care of the site and board,
think nothing of it. It's a labor of love
for a person I believe in.
Talk to you later--
WM1
-----------------------------------------
Hmm, this guy is sure talkative for a webmaster.
In fact, with him referring to himself being
thin, there is speculation that WM1 may be
our friend CaveBear. Worth watching for more
clues to confirm this.
April 16th brings a new message in Jo Burgess' box at Moreland, obviously a "note to self"
about the Calimacus cypher:
Not simple sub. Previous was vig, but gave
keyword. Calimacus doesn't work. Old words
don't work either. Is list red herring?
White's handle from AZ was Calimacus. Where
does that fit in?
Maybe not simple vig. Perhaps bi-directional?
Still need keyword. Perhaps am supposed to
guess? Need to get length first. How do I
do that? Also, assuming alphabet is used
unscrambled. Might not be.
Presumably not goon like White. More sophisticated.
More subtle. Expects me to solve it.
Might need help with this.
Well, it seems that White is probably KW
from the first Vigenere puzzle. Other than that it seems we're getting
some more hints at to what we may be doing
wrong.
Whoever sent this, it doesn't seem to be
White (the "goon' who put money in Jo's
account). The calimacus reference with the
list of words might be a message of some
sort saying that White is obsolete or no
longer in use.
Well, I took a chance and thought I'd throw
a little hook in the water to see if Rev.
Lee bites. I posted a message to Whispers,
to which WM1 (CaveBear??) replied:
------------------------------------------------
Apr-16-2002 8:04 AM Message 1 of 2
Group: How do I deal with grief?
From: vpisteve
Subject: How do I deal with grief?
I'm hoping that you can help me deal with
something. A few months back, a good friend
of mine died, and I'm still having trouble
dealing with it.
I have nightmares, have lost my appetite,
and most of all, just miss him. I hadn't
been out to DC to see him in a while, and
I regret not having a chance to say some
things to him before he died.
I should have been there. I couldn't even
go to the funeral.
I would have done anything for Anson, but
I feel like I let him down somehow. I also
really wonder where he is now, what really
happens to us when we die, you know, that
kind of thing.
I hope your sound archive goes online soon.
I really need some comfort and encouragement.
Can you help me?
Thank you,
vpisteve
-------------------------------------
Apr-16-2002 12:57 PM Message 2 of 2
Group: How do I deal with grief?
From: WM1
Reply to: vpisteve [ Message 1 ]
Subject: RE: How do I deal with grief?
Yikes!
Internet addiction AND depression! Man, sucks
to be you!
Seriously, I'll be sure and let Reverend
Lee know to check for your message when he
returns home.
Sorry for your loss. I don't have any wise
words to offer...how about two shoulders,
very absorbent, no waiting?
--WM1
---------------------------------------
Wow, your sympathy is staggering, WM1.
And no, as a matter of fact. It doesn't suck
to be me....
We'll see if the good Reverend picks up on
my saying I'm a friend of Anson's. We'll
see, we'll see....
More new emails at our four heroes' DCMC
underground pages:
There's an odd email thread between Barbie
and Creeper entitled Nude Woman, which seems to be alluding to all the fragmented
bits of information she's getting from various
sources, and her effort to make them all
make sense somehow. Messages 2813 and 2819 for a couple different perspectives.
Creeper wants to figure out what's going
on too, so she emails CaveBear. They're both a little nervous about Barbie
divulging too much at Euchre.
Lastly, looks like we have some clues as
to what the Beaten Track is. On the Road Again talks about it, and Cave Bear's reply gives us some more hints:
Taking a look now at The Beaten Track, we see five columns of 20 roads. One road
is highlighted, Chagrin River Road, but that's
the only hint we get. There is speculation
that all of these are busy roads around the
world, or favorite cycling roads.
We're assuming that this is somehow going
to give us a password to something, but don't
know exactly what, yet. It seems interesting
that in CaveBear's email Standing Idle, he quotes lyrics from 5 songs. Could these
5 columns correspond to those 5 songs some
way?
Or perhaps they're related to trains or music,
using the term Track as either a path, or
maybe corresponding to track numbers on certain
CDs.
Well, we're not getting anywhere here, so
maybe we'll get some hints at tonight's Euchre
Game.
The game itself was pretty boring, but there
was some important conversation.
A very important conversation occured privately
between Barbie and UrbanZombie2. Here's the
transcript:
notadoll70: Hi
urbanzombie2: Why, hello.
notadoll70: i've been thinking about what
you said
urbanzombie2: I'm glad to hear it. I understand
that you have a great deal to think about.
notadoll70: why do you say that?
urbanzombie2: It seems you've had quite an
unusual couple of months.
notadoll70: yes, that is true
urbanzombie2: I am afraid that I can do little
to ease your burden at this time. However,
if you have questions, I may have answers.
notadoll70: why did you send me the msg
notadoll70: what are your intentions
notadoll70: realizing that you'll not answer
that truthfully
urbanzombie2: Because, as strange as it may
seem, your friend Vad may have the opportunity
to right many wrongs.
notadoll70: what do you mean
notadoll70: you seemed concerned before
notadoll70: now you want him to act
urbanzombie2: I am not asking anything of
him, or you.
urbanzombie2: But he is a good man in an
unfortunate situation, and I hope the best
for him.
notadoll70: what situation?
urbanzombie2: I do not want to force you
into anything... I do not know everything,
but I may know more than you care to see.
Are you sure you want my help?
notadoll70: no, I'm not sure at all
notadoll70: in fact I'd say that I'm very
unsure
notadoll70: and I'm very nervous about this
right now
urbanzombie2: Understandable. Again, if you
have questions, I have answers Ms. Mills.
notadoll70: I don't know what the questions
are
notadoll70: i don't know how you found us
notadoll70: i don't know what is happening
urbanzombie2: Do you believe in fate, Ms.
Mills?
urbanzombie2: Last week, while playing a
casual game of Euchre, I discovered a nice
couple, one of whom lives in an unusual town
named Moreland.
urbanzombie2: Two hours later, I discovered
that a close friend of mine was murdered,
just miles outside of the very same Moreland.
urbanzombie2: I don't believe in fate, Ms.
Mills, but I do believe in justice.
urbanzombie2: Ganmed Biotechnical has murdered
to conceal their secrets. They have murdered,
and they shall do so again.
urbanzombie2: Your friend Vad may be the
hero of this tale, or he may be a victim.
Time will tell. But I will help if I can.
notadoll70: what do you know about Arney?
urbanzombie2: Jim Arney? The more I know
about that wretched shadow of a man, the
less I wish to know.
notadoll70: that's my gut too
urbanzombie2: I would avoid him at all costs...
have you been in contact with him?
notadoll70: no
notadoll70: not recently
urbanzombie2: That is good. Your life will
be both longer and happier for it.
urbanzombie2: I must admit a certain degree
of concern here, Ms. Mills. What *is* your
relation to Jim Arney?
notadoll70: I have no relation to Jim Arney
notadoll70: I've just heard the name a couple
times recently
urbanzombie2: I can understand. His thumb
is in many pies...
notadoll70: it's probably not a good idea
for us to be doing this
urbanzombie2: If you don't want to know the
truth, I will not force open your eyes. It
may be for the best.
notadoll70: you want the truth...you can't
handle the truth
urbanzombie2: :D
urbanzombie2: I apologize for being so mysterious...
it's a bad habit, I realize.
notadoll70: why do I fear that statement
is so very true in my case
urbanzombie2: However, if I can tell you
nothing else, it would be to keep Mr. Hollman
away from James Arney. He will kill to conceal
Moreland's secrets.
notadoll70: I'll let him know
notadoll70: thank you
urbanzombie2: If you want to start searching
for yourself, start at the source. www.ganmed.com
If you need help, remember that there are
friends here for you.
urbanzombie2: If you're feeling particularly
investigative, you might find Chet Doan's
mailbox interesting. His password is 'shelley'.
notadoll70: thank you
notadoll70: where do I use it
notadoll70: how do I get in?
urbanzombie2: http://www.ganmed.com/login.asp
Really, I think you could have found that
yourself, Ms. Mills... :D
notadoll70: probably
notadoll70: but why not ask
notadoll70: you obviously know where it is
urbanzombie2: You can always ask
urbanzombie2: Here's some light reading you
might enjoy, also. If you have any further
questions, I can be contacted at qamu@xxxx.xx
urbanzombie2: Be well, Ms. Mills.
Urban Zombie2 sent Barbie the decoded Ganmed Navajo memo and the Exploding Grandmas email. This is huge! Finally, looks like we're
able to share our findings with someone in
the game. We'll see how this turns out.
In the Euchre game, Vad and Barbie chatted
it up a bit, talking about how much better
CaveBear has been doing lately. We still
don't know exactly why that is, by the way.
A transcript of the chat can be found in
Message 2702.
Then, Vad dropped a clue, presumably pointing
at another file he's hidden at Moreland:
vad: B: Rouen and Paris, so different, yet
so similar
doll: ok
Initially, we had absolutely no idea what
to make of this. Searches to find similarities
between Rouen and Paris yielded nothing.
Later that same night, the Iduna Newsletter
at Moreland realeased a new edition.
Hmm, looks like Gina Genet has been elected
to be in charge of the Community Council.
It's really interesting that her name just
keeps popping up all over the place.
There's another story about gardening, listing
a bunch of flowers. Looking them up in the
Language of the Flowers gives us some pretty
alarming references:
Zennae = Absent friends
Tomato Seedling = tomato is typically a symbol
of the heart)
Basil = Hatred (or, less often, Give me your
good wishes)
Deep Red Carnation = Alas! for my poor heart.
Red Columbine = Great Anxiety
Marigold = Grief, Trouble, Pain
Black Thorn = Difficulty
Rosebay = Beware – Danger
Black Mulberry = I shall not survive you.
Amaranth = Immortality
Field Anemone = Sickness, Illness
Meadow Saffron = My happiest days are past.
Pine Apple = Perfection; you are perfect.
Seems to paint a darker, more desparate picture.
Many references to pain, danger and the heart.
Also of note on the Iduna page is an article
about Ambrosia. Remember, Ambrosia was the
substance that gave the Greek Gods immortality.
On the morning of April 18th, two more little
squares at Ganmed pointed at two additional
breadcrumbs:
13.html a time. They're fast,
14.html as far as the test patients, n
This brings our assembled messages to be:
10/3 ...re: the screw up down there, things
are fine. One more week and we could have
had them out of the tunnels and burned. Too
bad those ki...
---------------
14/2/7/4/8 ...as far as the test patients,
nobody missed them. That's the great thing
about the homeless – you can drop them off
anywhere. Even in tunnels. How many there
are I'm not sure. The report listed ten of
them, but there are names for some and aliases
for others. I still have a copy of the report
that that...
----------------
> 1/13/12/5/9 ...inerators can handle
five or six at a time. They're fast, too.
You can't imagine how hot they get. CD said
there would be `treatment failures,' especially
early on. I guess `treatment failure' sounds
better than `dead' or `we fucked up big.'
We're covered.
----------------
6/11 ...she was upset, but I took care of
her. She's not upset anymore.
As of yet, we still don't have an idea who
these messages are to, be we can probably
assume they're from James Arney.
Suddenly, we noticed that the Statistics
page at Moreland had been updated. Hmm, a
cursory look doesn't reveal anything interesting.
Wait! Hmm, seems that the population of folks
from West Virginia has gone down by two.
How does that happen? Did they move away?
Were they in a terrible car accident perhaps?
Rev. Lee replied to my post about Anson on
April 17th. He didn't bite, and in fact changed
the name or "misread" it as "Ansel."
What can that mean?
Here's the post:
---------------------------------------------
Apr-17-2002 10:35 AM Message 3 of 3
Group: How do I deal with grief?
From: Dan_Lee
Reply to: vpisteve [ Message 1 ]
Subject: RE: How do I deal with grief?
Greetings, Friend!
Loss is never easy for we mortals. I assume
this friend was someone in relatively good
health. Death, whether expected or not, is
always
a shock and something you are never prepared
for when it arrives.
One of the greatest things spirituality affords
is the faith that our loved ones are not
truly "gone," just in a different
state of being. If you are athiest, your
friend lives in the hearts and minds of his
friends. If you believe in a Supreme Being,
then comfort can be found in the knowledge
that Ansel is in a place where he is happy
and understands that you cared--and more
importantly that you feel guilt and regret.
Would he really want someone he cared about
to carry around guilty feelings? Not very
likely, in my humble opinion.
Funerals are for the living. You could just
as easily make your peace with him and say
good-bye from your office chair as you could
by travelling to where the funeral was. Either
way, I tend to believe he hears you and knows.
Where is Ansel now? Such difficult theological
issues! I would dare to venture he now lives
in the light of his personal Supreme Being
and, being free of this mortal coil, only
wishes for you happiness. Treasure your memories
and cast off your regrets.
Fear not death, for it is simply a transition
into a new form of being. We mourn our friends,
but faith tells us we will all be reunited
in time, never again to be apart. What a
fabulous party that will be!
Here are some resources you may find helpful
in your journey back into daylight:
http://www.griefjournal.com/
http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/grief/griefA1.html
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross also has some excellent
death and dying books available; I believe
most of her writing can be found in bookstores
or at libraries.
Seconding the "two shoulders, no waiting,"
Reverend Lee
---------------------------------------------
Well, I just couldn't let that Ansel mistake
slide, so I responded:
---------------------------------------------
Apr-17-2002 11:26 AM Message 4 of 5
Group: How do I deal with grief?
From:vpisteve
Reply to:Dan_Lee [ Message 3 ]
Subject:RE: RE: How do I deal with grief?
Wow,
Thank you so much! The links you gave me
were very helpful, too!
Realizing that Anson is in a better place
now, and that I mourn not so muchfor him
but for the void now left in my life, has
really helped.
The only thing I struggle with now is a mounting
anger, as I'm learning very disturbing things
about the circumstances of his death.
My heart cries out for justice, perhaps vengeance,
and I know that's wrong.Hopefully this is
just a phase of the grieving process and
these feelings will pass. But that doesn't
change the sinister facts that are coming
to light. I don't know what to do with this.
Make public what I know, or just let it go
and let the past be the past?
Sorry, I'm rambling (another symptom of grief?
:) ).
Thanks again for your most effective words
of comfort. Glad you had a good trip!
vpisteve
---------------------------------------------
Well, his response seems to indicate he may
not be related to Anson after all, or he's
just holding his cards very close to his
chest:
---------------------------------------------
Apr-17-2002 12:27 PM Message 5 of 5
Group: How do I deal with grief?
From: Dan_Lee
Reply to: vpisteve [ Message 4 ]
Subject: RE: RE: RE: How do I deal with grief?
Greetings Again, Friend!
anSON. anSON. Not anSEL. Pardon while I self-flagellate
and allow me to offer profound apologies
for mangling your friend's name.
Is that his first name or last? The only
time I've ever heard it as a first name was
Anson Williams, he of "Happy Days"
fame. Yes, I'm dating myself.
Your response makes me think you suspect
foul play of some sort. If that is indeed
the case, may I suggest contacting the proper
authorities? As I
mentioned under another heading, forgiveness
does not preclude justice in the physical
world.
Spaketh you:
"My heart cries out for justice, perhaps
vengeance, and I know that's wrong."
I would advise that if a loved one has been
snatched away from you by violent means,
the feelings you have are perfectly normal
and
natural. The human part of us always wants
to hurt those who have wronged us.
Continueth you:
"I don't know what to do with this.
Make public what I know, or just let it go
and let the past be the past?"
In my opinion, you have a moral obligation
to inform the authorities if you have substantial
information. By "make public,"
I assume that is what
you mean, rather than going to a newspaper;
that, I suspect, would land you in deep rivers
of doodoo if the authorities find you are
withholding information from them.
Good luck, my troubled friend.
The supreme being's sounding board,
Reverend Lee
---------------------------------------------
Well, this doesn't seem to be getting us
anywhere. Maybe I'll respond again, maybe
not. In the meantime, we've still got a pretty
tough puzzle staring us in the face:
On April 18th and 19th, Jo Burgess got some
help in her email box:
RE: Frustration from a Daniel Johns gives us a pretty detailed
rundown of how we should go about tackling
this puzzle, giving us more details on a
Vigenere cypher. Seems he's confirming the
need for both a keyword and scrambler word.
Getting close now gives us a clue to what the scrambler word
needed to decode the message could be. Great,
something obvious that seems to really tick
Jo off when she discovers it.
With all of our best efforts on this throughout
the day and into the evening, nobody could
make any progress. Seemed like the PMs were
hitting us over the head with hints, but
we just couldn't make any headway. After
a week of trying, the solution came from
out of the blue.
A new member who just happened to be a cryptography
expert joined JawBreakers after hearing about
our dilemma in a newsgroup. In just a few
minutes, bbi_scryer succeeded where none
of us could.
Keyword: WHITE; SCRAMBLER:bnwapr (apparently,
he didn't need no stinkin' scrambler, this
was an "equivalent" scrambler.
Later though, it was determined the actual
scrambler was eugarp, or prague spelled backwards)
solved the message as follows:
idontknowhowyoumanagedtofindmycolleaguebutrestassuredyouwillhavenosuchlucklocatingmeitwouldnotbewiseforyoutoregardthatasachalleng
ethisridiculouseccentricactofyoursmayfoolthoseincompetentsyouworkwithbutwebothknowwhatkindofpersonyoureallyareiwonderwhattheirreact
ionwouldbeiftheyweretofindoutabouttheeventsinphoenixdoihaveyourattentionnowyouhavethemoneynowitstimeforyoutoupholdyoursideofthede
alensurethattherearenorecordsoftheeventleftbehindandthatnoonecanlinkittoyourememberthatwecangettoyoubeforeyoucangettousmaybeyouh
adbettercheckonyourdaughter
Adding spaces and punctuation:
I don't know how you managed to find my colleague,
but rest assured you
will have no such luck locating me. It would
not be wise for you to regard
that as a challenge.
This ridiculous eccentric act of yours may
fool those incompetents you work with,
but we both know what kind of person you
really are. I wonder what their reaction
would be if they were to find out about the
events in Phoenix. Do I have your
attention now?
You have the money, now its time for you
to uphold your side of the deal.
Ensure that there are no records of the event
left behind, and that no one
can link it to you. Remember that we can
get to you before you can get to us.
Maybe you had better check on your daughter.
So, now we know: Jo has a daughter, who just
might be in danger :(
Something happened in Phoenix, something
that someone doesn't want anyone to find
out about.
Jo has been getting money to cover up any
existance of this event, but she still hasn't
done her side of the deal.
She's found this someone's colleague. (White
in Phoenix??)
This raises some brand new questions, like
who's been sending these (Serpent? Chet Doan?)
and what the event was (Who knows...).
Next thing we knew, there was a new link
at Pythia, through the words, "pay attention to the signs."
The new page was simply two traffic signs:
H (Hospital) and a Pedestrian Crossing sign,
along with the number 2
Immediate speculation was a hint about Hermes
(H) doublecrossing Serpent, etc.
Pretty quickly, the source code was updated
to include some hidden clues:
<!-- /hospital -->
<!-- pedestrian -->
Okay, so we know we're on the right track,
at least...
Underground Update April 20/21
New emails in Barbie's, Creeper's, Vad's and Bear's inboxes. In Check the Platform, Cavebear is letting them know about a list
he's uploaded to the platform. Problem is,
he's moved the platform again, and it looks
like we'll need to crack the password-again!
Other highlights, include Vad finding out
about Barbie fibbing to him, (Odd and re:Odd) and more hints about the Rouen/Paris puzzle
(re:France).
Also, apparently to help Creeper out, CaveBear
sends her a link to another, simplified version of The Beaten Path in his message to her dated April 19th. This version has
less roads listed, plus another, more obviously
highlighted road, Cheddar Gorge. Hmm. It
just doesn't seem to help very much. Still
no headway on this.
Well, to help morale, PATTS was updated so
that the hidden text now read:
<!-- /ho spital -->
<!-- pe destrian -->
<!-- he's taken many lives. -->
Okay, we don't need to get hit over the head
with it. The first two letters of hospital
and pedestrian spells HOPE.
Let's go to www.thepythia.net/hope.html.
It's a page entitled REVELATIONS that shows
us a newpaper clipping from 1987 about a
guy named Sam J. Nearey. Seems this name
anagrams to James Arney (surprise, surprise)
and gives us a little look into Mr. Arney's
background.
Written underneath the article, in Serpent's
'handwriting' is: Seems Dr. Doan's ship of
fools has a loose cannon.
So maybe Chet Doan is in the dark about Arney's
nefarious methods. Then again, maybe not.
On April 22nd, a random stab looking for
synonyms for 'death' at Pythia found Chet
Doan's 3rd confession, entitled Eucharist (loss.html).
We don't know when we were 'supposed' to
find this, but this confession gives us a
lot of info about Doan's relationship with
a mysterious woman whose initials are LA.
This relationship came to an end, hence Doan's
'loss.'
Plus, we get to see a picture of Doan and
this woman.
Our break in this puzzle came when someone
discovered that Rouen and Paris were, among
other things, two different styles of playing
card decks. At www.usplayingcard.com/tradition/cardhistory.html, it there is a table near the bottom of
the page that shows the similarities between
the face cards in the two decks. One of the
kings common to both the Rouen and Paris
decks is Caesar. So, let's try www.moreland-wv.org/caesar/. Hmm, it returns a 403 error instead of
a 404, which means that there's a valid directory
there. Let's try plugging in some of the
other face cards that are common to both
decks.
Trying www.moreland-wv.org/david/ doesn't
work, but www.moreland-wv.org/caesar/david/ returns another 403 error. We're defnitely
onto something here. Looks like we just need
to find the right order to put things in.
After some trial and error, we have success!
The combination turns out to be:
www.moreland-wv.org/caesar/david/la_hire/pallas/judas_maccabee/, the title of which is "Nothing to
see here, move along." Is that so? Well,
checking the source code reveals the message:
<!-- report.jpg -->
<!-- crawl1.txt -->
Okay, easy enough. Looks like Vad's hidden
two documents for Barbie:
http://www.moreland-wv.org/caesar/david/la_hire/pallas/judas_maccabee/report.jpg
http://www.moreland-wv.org/caesar/david/la_hire/pallas/judas_maccabee/crawl1.txt
Report.jpg shows us a medical report about somebody
who had a little problem at Moreland. To
translate some medical jargon: The patient
complained of of swelling and fluid buildup
in the throat, and a diagnosis of a severe
allergic reaction was made. The question
is, what was the allergen? Apples, perhaps??
This doesn't really resemble exploding grandmother
syndrome, so what's going on here?
Crawl1.txt details the crawl to the station under construction.
With linebreaks added to make it easier to
read:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TS: Here's a quick little thing on the crawl
last weekend for the
site. Believe it or not neither of the brothers
showed so you're
stuck with my write up. Hope it works. If
you need help with the
site let me know. My html is coming along
:)
CONCEPTION
Six lucky people got the first glimpse of
the new station planned
between Rhode Island Ave and Union Station
on one mysterious Saturday
evening in June. Yes, that is correct, we
saw the new station. The
plan was not to explore the site, it was
to make sure that we could
get there and back safely. Since I am here
writing about this, you
know that at least one person succeeded.
Being the sort of person
that reads the last page of a book first,
I'll let you in on a
secret: we all made it there and back safely.
There are two ways to get to the new station.
One can enter at Union
Station or at RI. In order to assure our
approach, we split into 2
teams. Billy and Newbie each headed a team
of two guys. Man, were
they lucky or what! GPS and I were led by
Newbie to Union station
where we took over for her. The Cogster followed
the love birds to
RI. We met up again at the construction site.
We poked around for a few minutes. I must
say, it was an
engineer's dream. I was in heaven as I checked
out the little bit that I saw.
Future crawls will be a blast! The others
were a bit nervous as
sHErPA was only able to help us through the
tunnels. We had a good
story, but with six of us, it wouldn't fly.
Anxious to confirm
what the other teams noted, we split after
just a few minutes. The dust
from the construction was unbearable, so
it was a welcome relief to
get back into the tunnels. Future note: bring
a lot of water.
The trip to the construction was easier than
anticipated. There are
a lot of trains, but there are good breaks
and enough distance that
you can make them. sHErPA's notes were invaluable.
Any and all
future attempts down the line should definitely
have at least one
copy available. We made it back to the stations
in a little over an
hour. Far too short of a crawl, but a thrill
none the less. Dude,
there is a new station being built and we
get to watch it happen!
How cool is that?!?
Notes:
pictures as soon as GPS gets them to us
detailed notes on the lines will be put into
the files.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New horoscopes for the 11th week (11 weeks
of this??!!):
Aries (Ganmed): "Someone you thought you
knew well turns out to be much more than
you originally thought. Action will be required
to avoid disaster." Well, somebody at Ganmed has a secret past.
I wonder who it could be?
Taurus (Net:Sight): "Old friends often drop
in at unexpected times! Keep your calendar
clear this week and see what happens. You
never know who might be about to knock on
your door. Just remember, sometimes old friends
bring with them old problems." Hmm, is Rev. Lee going to visit Eric Wyndgarde
again? Or perhaps there's somebody else we
know who knows somebody at Net:Sight, be
we don't know who it is, or know who they
know, ya know?
Gemini (Moreland): "In your heart of hearts,
you're trying your best to be good and right
and peaceful. However, every step you take
towards your goals is a step back towards
what you most fear. Understudies and last-minute
script changes - how frustrating!" I think this is a reference to the medical
report we just saw. Note the reference to
the heart, and every step you take toward
your goal (immortality?) is a step back towards
what you most fear (death).
Cancer (URF): "Confused and unhappy at work?
Remember that a little planning and a whole
lot of hard work can turn any situation around.
Set a goal for yourself this week and don't
let anything stand in the way of achieving
it. Your friends really will understand your
need for determined action, and before you
know it your worries will be gone!"
We should expect uRf to reappear at any moment.
Leo (Gen-Tel): "Be careful what you say,
you never know who's listening. If you really
must share that juicy story you heard passed
on from a friend of a friend, at least try
to be discrete. Imagine how you would feel
if you found out your friends were talking
about you behind your back!" Ooh, gossip! And it looks like the gossiper
might have some secrets of his/her own.
Virgo (Barbie): "Sometimes the world changes
so slowly you don't notice, and other times
everything seems to explode at once. Pay
attention to your friends, but play your
cards close to your chest until you know
what sort of week you're facing." Explode?? Well, hopefully Barbie will get
up to speed on what's going on at Moreland
and Ganmed thanks to us.
Libra (TerraShape): "That was certainly an
eventful week, Libra, and you managed to
overcome a few significant obstacles. Remember
that many obstacles are ultimately of your
own making: if you complain about life being
too easy, this is your just reward. Looking
to the future, it looks like you have an
overseas journey planned. If you're heading
to a new country, make sure you keep your
wits about you." Heh heh. Okay, I wasn't the one complaining
about the puzzles being too easy. I mean,
we had to recruit the guy who cracked the
CIA Headquarters cypher, for cryin' out loud!
And what's this about a journey abroad? Are
we going to Prague??
Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia): "Rein in your impulsive
nature for a little while. Remember that
slow and steady wins the race, not fast and
sloppy." Looks like Serpent may have been acting a
little rashly lately.
Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars): "Who's on first? The
questions have been piling up and this week
you're going to have to sit down and figure
out what you know and more importantly, what
you need to know. Don't be afraid to ask
for help, but don't be hurt if people don't
tell you everything. Every day is a learning
experience, but what you learn is up to you."
I hope this is an encouragement to our nocars
friends to trust us and seek our help. After
all, we can be trusted, can't we???
Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl): "Day in, day out. Day
in, day out. Day in, da--wait, what's that?
Pull back the veil just a little. Surprises
await those who can see beyond the ordinary."
Hmm, no ideas what this could mean.
Aquarius (WiredSouls): "Mind your P's and Q's
this week. A slip of the tongue in front
of friends could cause you unnecessary stress.
Could it be that Rev. Lee might have a habit
of divulging too much information on occasion?
Pisces (Vad): "The planets might be in alignment,
but your own life is spinning out of control.
Maybe you should have thought ahead about
the consequences of your actions. But don't
give up. Each day is a new opportunity to
reach out and connect with the world."
Is Vad going to regret his actions? Hmmm.
On April 22nd, a new feature article was posted on G-E-G. It tells about author
Sheri Tepper and her novel Gibbon's Decline
and Fall. Seems the theme of the novel is
choices and consequences. The last paragraph
is interesting:
Sheri Tepper builds her novels on ethical
quicksand and provides the reader with a
disturbing reflection of the hidden costs
of paradise. Her books demonstrate the choices
that lead into and away from the carnival
mirrors and the possibilities they hold,
but it is up to the reader to decide which
path is right, which destination is the best.
So what will you do with the information
you’re given? What mirror will you choose?
Seems to be talking about Moreland, doesn't
it?
Early on the morning of April 23rd, the Jawbreakers
morning shift awoke to find that all of the
DCMC Underground pages were gone, replaced
with a message:
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
We are getting smarter and you are using
the same old tricks. We will succeed.
This message can still be seen to this day
on pages like this.
For those of you new to the game, you may
wonder what brute-forcing is, and what happens
when it's done. Well, this is what happens
when anyone runs any kind of automated script
against the game pages. The actions by a
few individuals resulted in every single
DCMC Underground page being taken away!
You see, the folks behind the game aren't
Microsoft, and they're paying the costs out
of their own pockets. When software is used
to run automated searches for new pages or
passwords, the game sites get pounded, using
up valuable bandwidth, which isn't free.
So the moral of the story is, be kind to
the PMs and don't run any sort of automation
aimed at any game-site. Oh, and say 'no'
to drugs. You know who you are.
Well, at least we weren't left to wallow
in self-pity, because the morning also brought
some new info over at Gen-Tel. Clicking through the ODES link on the front
page takes us to a brand new, spiffed up
ODES Research login page with a bunch of new names/accounts to try
to hack into! Well, considering we have absolutely
no information on any of these new people,
let's just check Kevin Asgort's login for
fun.
Clicking through on Kevin's link gives us
his ODES page (remember to enter kasgort/lauren to access
this area). Aha! new stuff here!
Private Files:
NOTES 04/18/2002-Apparently some submissions for something
called the GT Light Side. Looks like a bunch
of potential password clues to me.
MEMO 01/28/2002-A memo from our ex-Ganmed friend J. Missoli
introducing Gen-Tel's newest staff member,
Linda Alvaro. Linda Alvaro, hmmm.
Linda Alvaro.....L....A....LA! <george castanza
voice> Aaah-Haa!!!! </george castanza voice>. Well, it looks
like we've found poor ol' Chet's lost love.
Workin' for the competition. Ooh, that's
gonna leave a mark!
Sometime ago NetSight posted about a party
(message 1008).
Various JawBreakers had written to Eric about
interest in the party and one of them received
this email:
--------------------------------------------
Date: 23 Apr 2002 19:06:08 +0000
Subject: Party
Brenda,
You asked me some time ago about the party;
thought you'd like to
know that it's looking like it'll be in about
3 or 4 weeks time. Not
sure of location yet. Probably a couple of
big rooms in various
cities linked with video walls, is the current
thinking.
Eric.
--------------------------------------------
Well, that's certainly intriguing. I wonder
where they'll be? Well, I wonder if they'll
be IRW. Anybody know a good caterer?
Another Wednesday, another Euchre game. As
the Guide is getting kind of long as it is,
I won't post the transcript this time. The
transcript of the Euchre game can be found
in Message 3010. The only thing really worth noting was
that UrbanZombie was late, and couldn't connect
with Barbie.
During the game, Barbie mentioned an image
she says she posted. Searching around, we
found it on her Notadoll Yahoo Profile Page. Sure looks like some sort of puzzle to
me.......
The picture is of an envelope with an algebraic
equation on it. The solution: a=1; j=11;
q=12; k=13. This subbed out 252.
Trying www.nocars.org/252.htm returns a blank page with title 'Did you
forget something?
Hmm. Looking a little closer, we see that
the name of the image is 'marginalia.'
Trying www.nocars.org/marginalia/252.htm gives another blank page with title 'notquite.'
A little more trial-and-error gives us the
solution:
www.nocars.org/marginalia252/platform.asp. Furthermore, replacing /station/ in all
of the Underground URLs with /marginalia252/
restores everything that was taken away bacause
of the brute-force attacks.
NOTE: To make all the previous DCMC Underground
links work, I've revised them to all point
to the new directory. Hopefully, everything
will still make sense that way.
The morning of April 25th, uRf became fully active again. All of the old forums and articles
are back, with a slightly different look
to them. In addition, there's a link to pinstruck.com, where someone has apparently sent Serpent
a curse!
The apparent puzzle of the opening flash
sequence remains unsolved, though.
Also, if you look under the manifesto image you see some new text:
sombodys tryng to sneak in but i know its
not her she doesnt cheat like that... she.
i think she'll get a kick out of the mechanical
king... where to start though...
Ouch! Looks like another brute-forcing hand
slap.
With the renewed access to the nocars DCMC
pages comes a new message from CaveBear to
Creeper about the Beaten Track. Reminder gives us a link entitled there is no peace, which takes us to yet another Beaten Track
page o' hints.
In it, we see what looks like a 5 stanza
song, with the lyrics replaced by the word
"ROAD". Two of the ROADs are highlighted
in the same manner as on the "short"
Beaten Track hint he sent her earlier. These
highlighted sections correlate from column
number to stanza number, and also to line
numbers within each stanza (the number within
each column).
Furthermore, notice the hidden text:
<!-- give me -->
<!-- so many... -->
Both allude to Greatful Dead song titles
"Give Me Five" and "So Many
Roads". Probably telling us to find
5 roads.
The morning of April 25th gives us a new file on Kevin Asgort's ODES page (remember, kasgort/lauren).
Looks like Gen-Tel's horoscope sign (Leo)
on the ninja suit.
The Greek letters are gamma tau | lambda
sigma. That would stand for "General
Telometrics / Lite Side".
The "gossip mistress" presumably
alludes to Lauren's editorship of the company
newsletter "Lite Side".
That same morning, we got a new message from
Serpent in black-on-black text on the bottom
of his/her homepage:
"a primitive programming style, one
in which the programmer relies on
the computer's processing power instead of
using his or her own
intelligence to simplify the problem"
tsk, tsk.
I thought I raised you better.
Alright already! Our collective butts have
been spanked yet again.
The solution was finally found on April 25th:
It seems that the "road road road"
aren't lyrics, but song tracks from the Grateful
Dead "So Many Roads" box set. You
can see the
complete track listing here: www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Aoadjvwnia92k.
Using this, that makes the highlighted words
"Death" and "Liberty".
Using these on Platform 2, with "liberty" as the Handle,
and "death" as the password, takes
you here:
www.nocars.org/marginalia252/411B00TH/platf0rm.htm
which appears to be the old Icon Platform,
but with some new links.
Everything that we've previously found is
now all here, with one new link. Clicking
on the main picture now takes us to What we know. This is a list of facts, compiled by CaveBear.
Hopefully, this will be updated in the future
as we feed them more information. We should
be able to combine this with the other documents
we have found and start coming up with a
conclusive list of who was on what crawl,
and who is missing or dead.
A good spec summarizing how we were supposed
to solve this puzzle is as follows:
We knew CaveBear was a big Grateful Dead
fan to start. The title
was "The Beaten Tracks", which
was a clue: the "track" part was
not
referring to the fact that these were roads,
but tracks to an album
(as someone previously specced). I suppose
we were supposed to see
the list and think something like "wow,
that's a lot of roads" or,
more precisely, "so many roads."
Since there were five lists of
roads and five sets on the GD So Many Roads
album, we were supposed
to pick out what was highlighted, the entire
title of the fourth
track on the fifth set, which was "liberty".
The second "Beaten Tracks" hint
was a way to narrow down the hints.
The lists were pared to match exactly the
lists of tracks, so that
each list had the same number as tracks on
that set on the album.
Also notice that "Cheddar" was
highlighted in addition to "Chagrin
River Road", the marker for "liberty."
Because only Cheddar was
highlighted, and not the full Cheddar Gorge,
we were supposed to look
at the first word of the title, not the whole
title. That
corresponded to "death". Hence
"liberty" and "death".
Well, it's certainly been a while since we've
seen anything new over at Net:Sight. On the
afternoon of April 25th (April 26th in England),
the products page was updated to include some new product
pages with screen shots:
Net:Sight Browser
Net:Sight Mail
Net:Sight Editor
Net:Sight Web:Server
The screenshot from the mail client shows
a mail with the subject "1564/1593".
Trying 1564 as a directory
www.netsightsolutions.net/1564/
gives you a page titled "you didn't
say the magic word". In the source code
is also:
<netsight data="%8F3t>xr}kln/zvj7Hp~/mvk>fj*qxv}wy9g`*mk}p5>xzk*L*c}
r{9m`)*|{9gva/idd/du`4xcqb/sxs|:ucu$ Skj`/k%hf`9q4ik$">
Now that's interesting. 'Netsight data.'
Perhaps we should try loooking at this page
with the Net:Sight Browser.
Bingo! Using that browser, you get a popup
that says:
"I'm afraid not.
But you're trying so hard, and I like you,
so you can play with
game.zip.
Just a bit of fun."
Trying www.netsightsolutions.net/1564/game.zip give us a valid file, which when unzipped
is what looks like a wad file for Doom!
As of yet, when installed and played, no
additional clues have been found in this
Doom level. But it was a good nostalgic experience
for all.
It was later determined that all of the numbers
displayed in the various screenshots correspond
to the birth/death of the authors of the
quotes decyphered from Mephista, way back
at the beginning of the game. The only one
missing was Shakespeare, which was probably
pointing us to him as the solution.
Now, digging a little further, it was discovered
that 1564 was the year Shakespeare was born.
Googling that date, we also found his year
of death, 1616.
Going to www.netsightsolutions.net/1564/1616 with your Netsight browser reveals another
popup, audio of someone chasing one of our
crawlers, and a picture of what appears to
be an Egyptian ankh.
Here's the popup message:
Brother-
They came for me. Had to get away.
Couldn't call in case they traced.
They must not know.
R.
Here's a transcript of the embedded sound
file:
:knock knock
:Mr. Henninger.. Mr Henninger...
:We need to speak to you for a moment sir.
:no answer.
:come on.
[door opens]
1:Hello
Boss:He must be inside
2:What do you want us to do now, boss?
1: I don't see him.
Boss:Look for him idiots, he might be hiding.
[papers shuffle]
1:You want us to mess up the place, boss?
Boss:No, it needs to look natural. And don't
take anything either.
Boss:I know you're here Henninger. I can
smell your cologne.
Boss:You know why were here, i think. You
brought us here.
Boss:You can consider us karma.
1:He's not here boss.
2:We can't find him. We looked all over.
Boss:Damn it!
1:I thought I saw something through the window
when we were outside.
Boss:He must have seen us coming. Damn him!
Boss:Check the back door. He's trying to
give us the slip.
Incidentally, the title of this page is:history
to the bone | memory to the marrow
This is a hunk of lyrics from the song "Step
Inside" off of the "Bring it On"
album by Gomez.
Well, it looks like Eric's brother Paul (Rebar)
is alive, and has escaped to England, where
he must be working for Net:Sight, or at least
is friends with someone there.
Well, it seems we missed another little hint
planted by Vad at Moreland. On Friday, April
26th someone noticed some new hidden text
in the source code of the various Moreland
pages. When assembled, these bits of text
read:
"It's just like the story of the grasshopper
and the octopus.
All year long, the grasshopper kept burying
acorns for the winter,
while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend
and watchedTV.
But then the winter came, and the grasshopper
died,
and the octopus ate all his acorns.
And also he got a racecar.
Is any of thisgetting through to you?"
Turns out this is a quote from the character
Fry from the show Futurama. So we have http://moreland-wv.org/fry/, which is entitled 'five and a half minutes,'
another reference to the House of Leaves.
Seems there was a hallway in the house that
went on forever, called the Five and a Half
Minute Hallway.
Looking at the source code here, we find:
<!--
oh two and oh three and oh four a and b and
oh five a
and b and oh
six and oh seven a and b -->
A little digging reveals a bunch of pictures:
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/01.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/02.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/03.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/04a.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/04b.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/05a.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/05b.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/06.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/07a.jpg
www.moreland-wv.org/fry/07b.jpg
These seem to all be pictures of architectural
models and drawings of buildings at Moreland.
Perhaps they are relating to the cancelled
project in the Hardcastle emails. Note that
many of the pictures are two versions of
something, indicating that perhaps plans
were changed to enable materials ordered
to be used elsewhere.
So it's still not entirely clear what's been
going on at Moreland, but it seems there
have been some 'secret' structures built
that nobody knows about.
On April 26th, the constellation link at
Pythia changed again, to link to HISTORIC. The new message says, 'Let him stand in
awe of causing divisions," with the
words let, stand and awe highlighted.
Entering 'letstandawe' in the box at WiredSouls Sound Archives takes us to EUCHARIST, our 4th Chet Doan confession. This confession
is also interspersed with quotes from Frankenstein.
Seems like Chet is struggling more and more
with guilt and remorse at what he's done.
Seems he's discovering the price of his actions.
Seems Ninjababe has snuck in behind our backs
and joined Whispers. Seems she's struggling with a moral dilemma
about the stuff she's hearing about in relation
to her secret gossip page. On April 26th,
she posted the following message:
-----------------------------------------------
Gossip_Queen unable to tell her tales
Rev. Lee,
I’m so torn and I know that you’ll be able
to help me work through this.
With the help of a friend, I set up a little
secret page on our company website. It’s
really nothing. I mean it’s just a place
to put up the events and happenings that
are important to those of us stuck in the
middle of things. It’s fun. A lot of people
get a huge kick out of it. So, what’s the
problem?
I’m not sure. It’s turned into a bit of a
gossip site. Which I love! I mean what’s
life without a bit to dish about. Now people
qualify everything they tell me. I swear
that I’ll kill the next person that says,
“Don’t put this on the page, but...” It really
sucks, I’m getting all this scoop and I don’t
know what to do with it. I mean, I just heard
that one of the researcher’s computer is
filled with nothing but porn. I’d love to
put it up there, but no. I was told the stupid
dreaded words.
Is it wrong for me to go ahead and put some
of this stuff on the page? What would you
do? If they hate me I could always give them
a swift kick or two. :)
_dying to tell my tales!
-----------------------------------------------
Rev. Lee's rather odd reply on April 27th:
-----------------------------------------------
RE: Gossip_Queen unable to tell her tales
Greetings, Friend!
My goodness, what a dilemma you're in. The
Reverend appreciates "dish" as
much as the next person, but one must always
remain mindful of the privacy of the gossipee.
The Reverend sympathizes with the need to
break up the day-to-day boredom and tedium
of the workplace, but you must balance the
workplace entertainment with the fact that
you are there to work, after all, and be
careful not to cross the line into libelous
statements.
Perhaps you could be conveniently vague in
your statements. Perhaps you could strike
a balance by using your page to report both
good and bad, like a newspaper or magazine
does.
Perhaps if it's really THAT dark you should
come sit next to me :)
Really, though, my thought is that the truly
dark material shouldn't be out there in your
coworkers' faces where it could potentially
bite you in the rear. Possibly confine the
darker content to whispered asides; in the
long run this provides a much more fabulous
rumor. You know how word-of-mouth stories
mutate as they circulate.
Oh, and when someone prefaces their story
with "Don't put this on the page, but"
calmly inform them that they can "talk
to the hand 'cause the head ain't listening."
Scandalously close to the Supreme Being,
Reverend Lee
-----------------------------------------------
Wow, if we could just find that secret gossip
page, I'm sure we'd find a wealth of inside
info that could prove to be very valuable.
Recap 7: What do we know?
It seems Paul is alive and taking refuge
in England! This would explain why Eric became
so happy all of a sudden a few weeks ago.
Arney and his henchmen missed him when they
went to his apartment initially, and Paul
recorded the evidence. James Arney is almost
surely a man with past criminal connections.
Barbie is finally trusting us, through our
representative UrbanZombie, and we're now
able to feed her important information as
we find it.
Jo Burgess is defnitely in the middle of
something bad, but it looks like she's being
blackmailed into helping somebody out, under
threat of harm to her daughter.
There may already be some health problems
going on at Moreland. Things just might be
ready to explode there.
Things that are unsolved:
- uRf flash animation
- Lauren Woods' secret page
- Who is Jo Burgess dealing with?
- Who is in the hospital at Moreland?
- What is Linda Alvaro's link to all of this?
- Will there really be a Net:Sight party?
- Various Ganmed Passwords (especially Arney's and DeLaPuma's)
- Various ODES Passwords
- Various Moreland's Residential logins
- Various TerraShape passwords
- Terrashape Department Icons?
- Who is The Toff?
