I’ve been lax writing up my puzzling of late. I’m ‘suffering’ from the same feeling I suspect many are at this point - existential ennui, of the COVID-19 variety. The puzzling continues, though, and trying to crack whatever ciphers the games choose to throw at me, along with my puzzling pal, is what is keeping me this side of sane. No, I will not specify which side that is. Cheeky.
Thus, I was quite happy when, having run a couple of dungeons in ESO, my friend and I decided to take a break from the raining fire from the sky and stealing everything that wasn’t bolted down to take on Cryptex Hunt Chapter Two. We agreed to meet back in half an hour to discuss.
Well, this is where we find out that I’m impatient, and a fast reader. Having finished the chapter in five minutes from the time we hung up, I immediately started plugging in ideas to the clue box as I came up with them, all while cooking a very mediocre hamburger and pouring myself a glass of beer to have on the balcony. Where I am now, about to call my friend as soon as I sort this out.
A quick update. Chapter Two has our heroine, Paige, going into her first portal, a seemingly starter dungeon from any number of rpgs. She can allocate skill points (something that I would LOVE to be able to do, IRL), finds herself chased by Bunnicula, and eventually faced with another puzzle, with the clue this time being 24 25 38. This is written on the back of the door, which has a schematic, perhaps for the dungeon? Perhaps related to the front of the door on Chapter One? Unclear. In the schematic, arrows seem to point to three boxes, big enough for 6 digits, and, if 24, 25, 38 were written there, would point to 4 5 8. My brain immediately tries an A=01, which gives DEEH. Or, heed, if looked at backwards (the front of the door). Nope. Oh, and the reason I doubled E was because the intro bit talks about “The Second Helps Locate Not Once But Two Times”. However, as excited as I was to be able to tell my partner that I’d cracked the case before we’d even begun, heed is not the answer. (Nor is the original DEEH). I filled up my glass again and called.
Turns out he’d also been looking, and at the first thing I thought, too. Perhaps they’re page numbers. A quick check says it’s not the first words (after, and means nothing). Nor is it doubled in the sense of page 24, line 2, word four.
Then, we argued about which order the pages were in. He thinks 24 is on top, so we will start there. The top page has us taking something, which is a match of the page number, plugging it in somewhere and getting an answer. Hmm. Page 24, line 2, word 4 is THIS.
Then, we tried it a different way, page then # word. 24th page, 24th word: PASSCODE 38th page, 38th word: GROUP. Taking a wild guess, the 25th word on the 25th page is going to be ‘IS’. So: PASSCODE IS GROUP.
SUCCESS! Not bad for a couple of junior over-thinking sleuths. Thank you, Cryptex Hunt 2020 for another fun adventure. And now I’m going to finish my well-deserved beer, while trying to con my friend into another chapter...
Thus, I was quite happy when, having run a couple of dungeons in ESO, my friend and I decided to take a break from the raining fire from the sky and stealing everything that wasn’t bolted down to take on Cryptex Hunt Chapter Two. We agreed to meet back in half an hour to discuss.
Well, this is where we find out that I’m impatient, and a fast reader. Having finished the chapter in five minutes from the time we hung up, I immediately started plugging in ideas to the clue box as I came up with them, all while cooking a very mediocre hamburger and pouring myself a glass of beer to have on the balcony. Where I am now, about to call my friend as soon as I sort this out.
A quick update. Chapter Two has our heroine, Paige, going into her first portal, a seemingly starter dungeon from any number of rpgs. She can allocate skill points (something that I would LOVE to be able to do, IRL), finds herself chased by Bunnicula, and eventually faced with another puzzle, with the clue this time being 24 25 38. This is written on the back of the door, which has a schematic, perhaps for the dungeon? Perhaps related to the front of the door on Chapter One? Unclear. In the schematic, arrows seem to point to three boxes, big enough for 6 digits, and, if 24, 25, 38 were written there, would point to 4 5 8. My brain immediately tries an A=01, which gives DEEH. Or, heed, if looked at backwards (the front of the door). Nope. Oh, and the reason I doubled E was because the intro bit talks about “The Second Helps Locate Not Once But Two Times”. However, as excited as I was to be able to tell my partner that I’d cracked the case before we’d even begun, heed is not the answer. (Nor is the original DEEH). I filled up my glass again and called.
Turns out he’d also been looking, and at the first thing I thought, too. Perhaps they’re page numbers. A quick check says it’s not the first words (after, and means nothing). Nor is it doubled in the sense of page 24, line 2, word four.
Then, we argued about which order the pages were in. He thinks 24 is on top, so we will start there. The top page has us taking something, which is a match of the page number, plugging it in somewhere and getting an answer. Hmm. Page 24, line 2, word 4 is THIS.
Then, we tried it a different way, page then # word. 24th page, 24th word: PASSCODE 38th page, 38th word: GROUP. Taking a wild guess, the 25th word on the 25th page is going to be ‘IS’. So: PASSCODE IS GROUP.
SUCCESS! Not bad for a couple of junior over-thinking sleuths. Thank you, Cryptex Hunt 2020 for another fun adventure. And now I’m going to finish my well-deserved beer, while trying to con my friend into another chapter...
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