Hinck’s Gazette - Volume 1, Issue 6

In this issue of the Gazette has Hincksville being used as a filming location for a pirate caper, but the script seems to have gone awry. Various letters are repeated, rather than the Arrrrrrr you’re expecting from a high seas adventure. We must sort out the letters’ true meaning before deciphering how we’ll be spending our Friday evening. 

There is no obvious starting location noted by the various sections’ text, so I began in the quiz, identifying that the four responses under each question were clearly Sherlock Holmes, Mario, Spiderman, and Ariel the little mermaid. No obvious way to continue from there, so over to the spelling bee, where the puzzle proves that the English language is a total mess. I don’t know how anyone ever learns it. Basically, the spelling bee contestants should have asked for the words to be used in context, as they spelled the wrong homophone. The pairs are: 

• Muscles - Mussels
• Profit - Prophet
• Aloud - Allowed
• Gambles - Gambols
• Compliment - Complement
• Principles - Principals

So far, so good. The next is to find the words on a 4x4 grid, another easy task. Woohoo, feeling smart. And then I get absolutely stuck. I can tell that the traceries make symbols, cued by far far too much time reading Masonic cipher recently. I try to make that make sense, completely ignoring that I can *see* another grid just to the left. Brain no work. So, I get a hint. It sends me to the grid. The shapes are part of the Masonic cipher, yes, but half of that cipher is based on a simple tic tac toe style 3x3 grid. Aligning the shapes, you get a series of Xs and Os, based on the played out game. Then, you read the hint to use that series of Xs and Os to apply to the quotes, which are also all 6 words. Duh…. I may have felt like a bit of an idiot. 

So, Finish the pat turn [pattern] then play sure lock [Sherlock] answers on the key board. 

The pattern on the keys isn’t obvious, or wasn’t to me, until I actually wrote out the differences between keys: +1, -2, +2, -2, +3, -2, +4, -2… etc. Ok, got it. Filled out all the way to the end. Then I got stuck again, trying to play the Sherlock answers individually, rather than realizing the 20 keys on the keyboard corresponded to all 20 of the answers, meaning it wasn’t 1, 4, 4, 2, 3, but 1, 8, 12, 14, 19. Those keys, in turn, gave the numbers 1, 5, 12, 17, and 28. Then, because the hint says backwards, I took those tracks backwards, giving match nonsense to proper nouns then solve. 

The nonsense in question were the non-Rs in the original article. The proper nouns are the names in the article: Zodiac, Violet, Eckhoff, Quinn, Network. Then, we know which letter of each to take by counting the number of letters. There are 5 Zs, so the 5th letter of Zodiac, A. Continue the pattern and you get ALONE. I will be spending Friday night alone. Thanks Hincks. Thanks…. :)

 

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Truth Puzzles

As part of my new year’s resolution of playing through my archive of Assassin’s Creed games, and having finished AC II’s hidden messages in The Truth video, I’m now on to Brotherhood, the third game in the series, but not AC III, which gets a bit confusing on the nomenclature. Anyhow, starting in on the AC:Brotherhood The Truth files, I was disappointed not to find hidden messages in either Cluster 1 or Cluster 2. Cluster 3, at least, has a brief message for me.

Cluster 3

On the entrance to the cluster, there is the following message: Missing -.. .- .-.   -.- -. . … … .-.. --- … - -.. -. ..- -- -… This translates to Darkness Lost D Numb. Not sure if there is something wrong with my translation, or if the extraneous D will be useful later. Doesn’t sound like Subject 16 is doing well. 

Cluster 4

I didn’t find any ciphers hidden in this cluster, but we start to see the AI becoming more. Is it perhaps a remnant of Subject 16? Reminiscent of Blade Runner.

Apples oranges pears cucumbers radishes carrots spinach dates wood juniper steel aluminum water rain shanty village town city country spring summer fall winter to walk to sing to dance to play to eat to smile to cry to laugh to kill to see to know death regret love.

It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence. I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m after is just a mediocre brain.

The obvious puzzles cite Harry Dexter White, the Soviets, and Alan Turing, who is the author of the second quote.

Cluster 5

This cluster makes up for the ones so far that didn’t have any puzzles. So much information and fun to decipher. It’s also very much a history lesson for things that they don’t teach in school. Fascinating. 

Scanning scanning scanning what am i what am I lost

There’s a song clip that plays, but I don’t recognize it. Perhaps something from one of the revolutions in the following scene.

The next part of the puzzle is a series of overlapping images, a familiar style. Using the x-ray feature, we see a bunch of clips regarding coup d’états in Chile, Iran, and Argentina. The header is: From a bolt of electricity, governments fell

• Argentina 1970s: 30,000 people disappeared in the raids. 
• H. K. Masterminded it. (Presumably Henry Kissinger, who apparently supported the Argentine coup leaders)
• Salvador Allende wanted the people to own Chile’s corporations 
• Chile, 1964. The people cheered his name until 1973. (Until he was assassinated). 
• “We would like your economic program to succeed and we will do our best to help you: 
• Nature shows us basic order and hierarchy are necessary - Augusto Pinochet (Chilean dictator after Allende was assassinated.)
• The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves. (Another Pinochet quote).
• Iran, 1953 - Hired Actor
• Mossadegh wanted oil profits to go to the people. (Mohammed Mossadegh, the former Iranian Prime Minister, whose coup d’état was supported by US and UK intelligence services). 
• Coup d’état. 
• Shah Pahlavi, Sha’baan Ja’fari and SAVAK take over to terrorize citizens and protect capitalist oil interests. But was that their only motive? 

On the image of the lighting bolt, which is in the top left corner, and the ‘answer’ to the puzzle, if you hover over it long enough you also see EYE TEA TEE - ITT?

Then there are a series of text ciphers hidden in and around the images. It turns out to be a straightforward RotN cipher, where N = 6. I didn’t see a 6 hidden anywhere, but to be fair I wasn’t looking for it at that point. The messages continue the theme of US and international conglomerates meddling in

Top left: GRRKTYK CGY MUOTM ZU TGZOUTGROFK ZNKS. YKVZKSHKX KRKBKTZN. Allende was going to nationalize them. September Eleventh (The date of Salvador Allende’s death in 1973).

Bottom left: ATOZKJ LXAOZ IUSVGTE, AY HGTQY, IGX IUSVGTOKY ZXGTYLKXXKJ ZNKOX IUXVUXGZK JKHZ ZU ZNK GXMKTZOTK VAHROI. United Fruit Company, US Banks, car companies transferred their corporate debt to the Argentine public.

Car plate: LUXJ, Ford then below: SUXK ZNGT ZNXKK ZNUAYGTJ QORRKJ. More than three thousand killed.

On the Quarantine page, there is a message in the middle: “Wages should be (lowered to keep the middle class subservient to us (?) ) left to fair and free competition of the market, and should never be controlled by the interference of (a popularly elected government (?)) the legislature” This turns out to be an edit of a quote by David Ricardo who, to quote his wiki page, was “a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill.” Clearly Abstergo had opinions.

Cluster 6

I was very frustrated by this cluster, because I could see the puzzle, but not actually physically see it well enough to transcribe and solve. This was especially frustrating as, given Russia’s war in Ukraine, the subject of what they were probably sending messages about would be most interesting. Alas, however, because they went with a musical cipher, and my eyesight isn’t perfect, I couldn’t see and transcribe and solve. If anyone can get a good image of them, I’d love to go in and play with them. 

Still, there were plaintext messages to be found using the x-ray function, even if I couldn’t easily read the musical code. Important men befriended russia as the iron curtain was blown apart. But the most influential comrade stayed out of the spotlight.

• August 1991: Declared the white knight of the people, Yeltsin stands up to communist threat! Gorbachev loses popularity.
• December 1991: secret meeting called in the Belavezhskaya Forest. Yeltsin unseats Gorbachev, becomes leader of Russia. (Music cipher)
• 1992: Russian economy opened to elite oligarchs, private companies. (Music cipher)
• 1993: Parliament disbanded by Yeltsin as he seizes control of Russia! Decree 1400! Constitutional court disbanded. 
• 1993 2.5 billion in aid from the U.S. Congress to Yeltsin after he disbands parliament. 
• Perestroika: the dream of a democratic state led by the people. 
• Bush photo - music symbols behind in 4/4 time

For the code wheel - the missing numbers are given in the cipher at the top. Then there is another musical code in the quarantine page, hidden in/on a picture of Yeltsin and someone who I presume is Putin. 

Cluster 7

30. 476. 1337. 1431. 1520. 1776. 1861. Dates of revolutions. 

I found this whole puzzle both prescient and timely, which is funny as AC: Brotherhood was released in 2010. Like they could see what was coming. The text over an image of the then-Supreme Court reads: Citizens united to wed the US to the Templars’ will. Even reading the plaintext quotes hidden in the mouse over, knowing what we know now about the role of money in our democracy, and being reminded of that Administration and that Court’s self dealing linkages to the private sector, and now with the January 6th insurrection, is infuriating. 

• Kennedy: We now concluded that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption (in Government).
• Alito: I believe very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement, and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values. 
• Roberts: Congress may not prohibit political speech, even if the speaker is a corporation
• Scalia: Indeed, to exclude or impede corporate speech is to muzzle the principal agency’s of the modern free economy. We should celebrate rather than condemn the addition of this speech to the public debate.
• Thomas: We don’t issue mandates to businesses that you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that. 
• Don Evans: It is the government’s role to create the conditions, the friendly environment, that will attract capital. CEO of Tom Brown Inc. Oil, US Commerce Secretary 2001-2004. 
• Condoleeza Rice: The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world is an asset in the promotion of human rights and individual liberty, and it should be understood and used as such. Chevron Board, Hewlett-Packard Board, US Secretary of State 2005-2009
• George W. Bush: I know it’s going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we’re in. Director of Harken,President of the United States 2001-2009. 
• Dick Cheney: We have to make America the best place in the world to do business. CEO of Halliburton, VP 2001-2009
• Donald Rumsfeld: Scour the department of defense for functions that could be performed better and more cheaply through commercial outsourcing. Chairman of Gilead Sciences, US Defense Secretary 2001-2006. 
• Paul Wolfowitz: When it comes back to the test of whether we are doing our job or not, it’s whether we’re promoting development, not whether we’re promoting democracy. President of the WB, US Dep. Sec. Defense 2001-2005. 

Hidden within the images are flashing text, that can are linked to the wheel puzzle on the next section: M9. NK. 3Z. C, as well as Row, Row, Row your BOAT and GILD $7.45 2001, $84 2007 - The stock ticker for Gilead, Rumsfeld’s company over his tenure as SecDef. 

And, gleefully, there is also a set of ciphers to break.

• 251, 280, 53, 107, 181, 254, 274, 133, 183, 24, 223, 214, 9, 291, 284, 259, 267, 234, 136, 255, 279, 203, 129, 88, 162, 8, 28, 79, 102, 147, 48, 204, 202, 192, 41, 225, 263, 242. 
• 24, 4, 113, 2, 77, 30, 46, 10, 37, 81, 58, 187, 167, 198, 99, 56, 100, 181, 124, 81, 11, 9, 166, 3, 77, 42, 200, 101, 223.
• 230, 129, 213, 218, 251, 261, 194, 35, 11, 263, 9, 261, 203, 214, 225, 77: 192, 153, 67, 20, 280, 241, 143, 20, 251, 221, 114, 254, 159, 121, 81, 279, 47, 61, 169. 
• 101, 270, 156, 264, 50, 262, 94,301, 192, 295, 263, 284, 168.

Given the way BOAT is highlighted elsewhere, I try a Vigenere cipher, which generally uses a codeword. Turns out ChatGPT can do this a LOT faster than I can. 

• 251, 280, 53, 107, 181, 254, 274, 133, 183, 24, 223, 214, 9, 291, 284, 259, 267, 234, 136, 255, 279, 203, 129, 88, 162, 8, 28, 79, 102, 147, 48, 204, 202, 192, 41, 225, 263, 242. ->  THE CIPHER IS WORKING WELL THIS MESSAGE IS ENCRYPTED
• 24, 4, 113, 2, 77, 30, 46, 10, 37, 81, 58, 187, 167, 198, 99, 56, 100, 181, 124, 81, 11, 9, 166, 3, 77, 42, 200, 101, 223. -> AESTHETIC IS IMPORTANT WHEN IT COMES TO CIPHERS
• 230, 129, 213, 218, 251, 261, 194, 35, 11, 263, 9, 261, 203, 214, 225, 77: 192, 153, 67, 20, 280, 241, 143, 20, 251, 221, 114, 254, 159, 121, 81, 279, 47, 61, 169. -> SECURITY IS ALWAYS THE PRIORITY IN CRYPTOGRAPHY
• 101, 270, 156, 264, 50, 262, 94,301, 192, 295, 263, 284, 168. -> THE CIPHER IS NOW DECRYPTED

Cluster 8

No ciphers found :(

Cluster 9

Is subject 16 becoming (has become?) the computer Ai?

No ciphers found

Cluster 10

The AI has achieved sentience. Or reconstituted Subject 16. Either way, it knows its purpose now

Within and around the photos are a series of cipher texts again. This time, they’re obviously elements, which we then need to convert to their atomic number, then solve using an alphanumeric conversion. 

• CaOBBeFLiCaHCaPArKLiHSiCaLiArScKOFCa
• CaOBFArLiPSiCaArPMgFKKMgFSSTSiN.
• CaOBPMgFNHArLiOKLiHSiCaNaFMgMgFCa.
• MgBHTiBCaOBAICaOBFArVPArCaOMgBKKSFBLiBKPCSHSBAr.
• LiOBAlFKCaArMNVFMgMgPSBSiFCa
• HHeKCaBArNPPVSiKFCaHMgMgHeScCaSiPCaMnPSc.
• BeBLiBAlHeBArScCaMg.

These become:

• 20 08 05 04 09 03 20 01 20 15 18 19 03 01 14 20 03 18 21 19 08 09 20 
• 20 08 05 09 18 03 15 14 20 18 15 12 09 19 19 12 09 16 16 22 14 07
• 20 08 05 15 12 09 07 01 18 03 08 19 03 01 14 20 11 09 12 12 09 20
• 12 05 01 22 05 20 08 05 13 20 08 05 09 18 23 15 18 20 08 12 05 19 19 16 09 05 03 05 19 15 06 16 01 16 05 18
• 03 08 05 13 09 19 20 18 25 23 09 12 12 15 16 05 14 09 20 
• 01 02 19 20 05 18 07 15 15 23 14 19 09 20 01 12 12 02 21 20 14 15 20 25 15 21
• 04 05 03 05 13 02 05 18 21 20 12 

From there:

• The Dictators Can’t Crush It
• Their Control Is Slipping
• The Oligarchs Can’t Kill It
• Leave Them Their Worthless Piece Of Paper
• Chemistry Will Open It
• Abstergo Owns It All But Not You
• December UTL (?)

All of these make sense to me until the UTL - Unable to Locate? Is it a typo in my translation? Not at all sure. What is 21/20/12?

Within the photos there are also a few plaintext messages.

• Stand against them. United
• Nothing is True, everything is permitted

At first I thought there was a glitch in the code wheel, which appears to start out as Fibonacci,  2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 work, but the next is then 24, not 34, which gives 45, not 55… 24+45 = 69, which isn’t an option. Go with 66. 45 +66 = 111. Then, there is the audio hint from Sean, pointing out that it’s NOT Fibonacci, but instead the numbers in each column, tens and ones, are changing differently. So, recognize that the tens column is being multiplied, and the ones column is being added. 2*4=8, 4+5=9. Next number is 89. 8*4=32, 5+9=14. Next is 334? Yep, that solves it. 

H. Act II, Sc.2 192. Abran Los Ojos. Tuam Libéra Mentem. Open your Eyes, Free Your Mind

Achievements morse code: .. .- -- .- .-.. .. ...- . I Am Alive

Video Message

While there aren’t hidden messages on the first two clusters, the second cluster begins putting text overlays on the final video clip. Not sure if they’ll be retained in the final combined video, so recording here as well. 

1. (None)
2. The
3. Mir
4. A
5. Cle 
6. Is
7. In
8. The
9. Exe
10. Cution

The miracle is in the execution, at which point they realize it’s not a video file, but a program. Tada!

Assassin’s Creed 2 - Truth Puzzles

Part of my New Year’s resolution is to go back and finish all of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve started and wandered off in the middle of. I’ve loved the series since first playing Brotherhood, and between Steam and Ubisoft have most, possibly all, of the franchise. However, I’m really bad at finishing them. I get distracted, or the character annoys me (*cough* Connor *cough*). Still, I dislike having so many unfinished games, and I want to actually understand the full backstory, outside the Animus, of Abstergo and the Assassins. I finished AC 1 already, a very straight forward game. AC 2, however, is another matter. Beyond introducing Ezio Auditore, who in later games becomes ‘The Most Interesting Man in the Room,’ it turns out that Desmond’s predecessor in the Animus, known only as Subject 16, has left glyphs throughout Desmond’s memories of Ezio, leading to files which, taken together, form The Truth. Each glyph file needs to be opened, and they get increasingly… fragmented… as the game goes on. What’s interesting, and why I am writing this blog post, is because in addition to the information needed to solve the actual glyph puzzle, there are Easter Eggs hidden in the pictures and such that, while not required to beat the game or do anything, are still really neat, and I couldn’t find a source that had all of them in one place. So, creating one, with both the solution to the glyph and any hidden text I find. 

NB: Once you’ve ‘beaten’ the glyph, you can still find them by going into database—locations—and picking the appropriate location. Locations with glyphs are marked with an eye. They unlock in a certain order, regardless of location you found them. Not all of them have hidden messages, unfortunately. Additionally I’ve glossed over the non-hidden puzzle bits. There is a great solution manual for the rings and such by Artoriaz on Steam 

1. In the Beginning

Pick the ones with an apple/ball. Passcode 24568

2. Sixty-four Squares

Solve the rotating ring pictures. PoE 2- apple, PoE 1 - apple, PoE 3 - apple. Passcode 10352

3. Descendants

There is pigpen/Masonic cipher on the blackboard. WMC GASHPS JRHTDMW ES ABRHSS WMC SCA DCHRDC UASMEPDWHP QASSCK EW HP.  Ok, Masonic cipher with a secondary encoding. The repeat of WMC makes me think that it’s THE. The number difference between W and T is different than H and M, so it’s not a straightforward RotN, unfortunately.  Looks like I get to play cryptoquip - I used the Boxentriq manual solver for this, to make my life easier. The Masons brought it across the sea. George Washington passed it on. Apple is in the briefcase. This time it’s Morse to the right of Houdini. - …. . -.-- …. .. - …. .. -- .. -.  - …. . … - --- -- .- -.-. …. They hit him in the stomach. The apple is by his head. More Morse in the top right. - …. . -… ..- .-.. .-.. . - …. .. - …. .. -- .. -. - …. . -.-. …. . … - The bullet hit him in the chest. The apple is on his right arm. Passcode 14523. 

4. Infinite Knowledge

The first photo was chaotic, and I expected to find a hidden message, but did not. Photo is in teh mouth of the launcher. The next photo has a helpful hexagram on top of hex/ASCII code on the street area.  41 6e 74 69 6b 79 74 68 65 72 61 20 4d 65 63 68 61 6e 69 73 6d 2c 20 6d 75 63 68 20 6f 6c 64 65 72 20 74 68 61 6e 20 31 35 30 20 42 2e 43 2e 45 2e. Translated: Antikythera Mechanism, much older than 150 B.C.E. The photo you need to find is on the crouching man’s hat. The next image has code in the sky on the top left. 65 110 99 105 101 110 116 32 99 105 116 121 44 32 82 97 106 97 115 116 104 97 110 44 32 73 110 100 105 97 44 32 105 114 114 97 100105 97 116 101 100 32 98 121 32 80 111 69. Between the trees about center is A = 65, which is another clue for ASCII. Translated: Ancient city, Rajasthan, India, irradiated by PoE. Picture you need is just down right of center. On the Buddha’s face, there is b-2, and then binary 01010011 01110101 01101101 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100001 01101110 00101110 00100000 01001101 01100101 00100000 00110010 00110011 00101110. Translated: Sumerian. Me 23. Piece of Eden 4 is in the fiery hand in the top right. Passcode 72114

5. Instruments of power

Choose the pictures holding things that cut. PoE 25 - sword. Choose the pictures with people leaning on a stick - PoE 34 - staff. Passcode 81492

6. Brothers

Solve several rotating puzzles relating to Cain and Abel. Once calved, there is Morse Code at the bottom under the pictures. - . -- .--. .-.. .- .-.  - . -..- - … .- -.. .- .--. - . -.. -… -.-- -- .-. .-.-.- … -- .. - …. Which translates to: Templar texts adapted by Mr. Smith. Passcode 52931. 

7. Keep on Seeking, and You Shall Find

Chose the images with red featuring prominently. SPQR. Senatus Populusque Romanus, Roman soldiers. Not really a code, but hidden text - They Took It.  PoE 66 - Shroud

8. Martyrs

The first image doesn’t have anything hidden, just highlight the Tsar’s staff - PoE 37, however, the next, Jeanne d’Arc, has binary/ASCII hidden on the alter cloth. 00110011 00110000 00100000  01001101 01100001 01111001 00101100 00100000 00110001 00110100 00110011 00110001. This translates to 30 May, 1431, the day Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake. Choose the sword at her hip - PoE 25. Connect the fire to Joan of Arc - They Took It. Connect Rasputin to the Tsar - Rasputin took it to Tunguska. Passcode 69185. 

9. Hat-Trick

Use a heartbeat to find the AoE in Houdini’s coat - about where you’d think an appendix would be. Then the heart in Gandhi’s chest. Then the file is for the Kennedy assassination. A simple 6=1 is written in between photos. Set the wheel and solve. 867 becomes 312, revealing a note about using Pieces of Eden to train assassins. 

10. Apollo

Something was up there, something abandoned long ago. This one has hidden text. First, there is a pigpen cipher, aka the Masonic cipher. Hidden on the moon, close to the top, it first reads as a bit of gibberish. NHMPSHP UAS HPC HL WMCG. WMC JCCS KRHPC WHH. LHOOHU WMC GHPCV. Looks like I get to play cryptoquip, again, though thankfully they use the same cipher as the first one (see 3). Johnson was one of them. The bees drone too. Follow the money. Admittedly the middle doesn’t make much sense, but it fits the overall key. Seems to be the generally accepted result on the forums that I could find as well. Johnson is presumably Katherine Johnson, who calculated the Apollo 11 trajectory. Once you’ve solved it, use the beeping to find the Eagle lunar module from the mission in the bottom left. Then solve the wheels - I found it easiest to align the tiniest sliver as it was the most distinct. Then find the AoE in the shadow of the flag, which also has Templar markings. Passcode 10352. 

11. The Inventor

Nikola Tesla and his intent to bring free energy to all. Light up the bulbs. Wardenclyffe Tower. There are Tesla quotes hidden in the sky, unencoded. 

Fights between individuals, as well as governments and nations, invariably result from misunderstandings in the broadest interpretation of this term.  - Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another’s point of view. The best way to dispel ignorance of the doings of others is by a systematic spread of general knowledge. With this object in view, it is most important to aid exchange of thought and intercourse. 

The picture to get to the next image is under the tower on the arch. The next picture, once you turn on the infrared, shows another hidden message. On the ball is A=C, then in the lightning you have JG WUGF KV VQ FGXGNQR C DQVVQONGUU UQWTEG QH GPGTIA. VGNGHWPMGP YKTGNGUU UVCVKQP. The hint gives us our key for the Caesar/RotN cipher (Rot2): He used it to develop a bottomless source of energy. Telefunken Wireless Station. The it in question presumably being the AoE, which is on his lap in the photo - he found it in Croatia, apparently.  Passcode 61902

12. Titans of Industry

Another wheel puzzle. At the bottom of the left hand image, apparently stolen from Tesla, is the key 4=1. 917 becomes 240. Then knock out all the lights as Edison and Morgan slander Tesla and pull his funding. Then there’s a horrible snuff film of an elephant, Topsy, which is actual footage. It’s horrifying. I looked it up, Topsy’s death was after the war of the currents, but they really did electrocute the poor elephant. Humans are horrible. The next image, with Edison and Tesla, has a series of Morse Code at the top. - …. . -.--   ..- … . -.. .. - --- -- .- -.- . - . … .-.. .- --.  --- .. -. … .- -. . - …. . --- .-. --. .- -. .. --.. .- - .. --- -. - --- --- -.- …. .. … .-. . … . .- .-. -.-. …. .- .-.. .. . -. .--. .-. --- .--. .  .-. - -.--  -.-. ..- … - --- -.. .. .- -. --- ..-. ..-. .. -.-. . Or, They used it to make Tesla go insane. The Organization took his research. Alien Property Custodian Office.  The orb is the one glowing in front of Edison 

Then to the Ford Archive. This one took me a while to see, but there is a 2 on the race car, and a ||.. symbol on the newspaper. Align the wheels. | is worth three ., per the math, so 139 becomes ||., |||, |.. That in turn gives us a letter from Ford to Edison. Passcode 61902 - same as the last?   

13. Trinity Archive

I am become death, destroyer of worlds. This one is fairly straightforward to solve - there’s a highlighted triangle in front of a bomb prototype, and a 9 in the cloud by the tower. Align the wheel so the 9 and the triangle are together, and solve the password. Each symbol is the sum of the two before it, so 529 becomes circle square square, circle, triangle. From there you get a note authorizing the Trinity nuclear tests, from the Abstergo archives. A red button and test footage. A Geiger counter gives you the password: 71645

14. Bloodlines

Pick out the images with god-human interaction. Glad you paid attention in Greek mythology class?! Passcode 80945. No hidden message :(

15. Guardians 

Start with a picture wheel. The death of all tyrants will set the people free. Then it quotes several tyrants and or their supporters - Rasputin, Stalin, etc. John Wilkes Booth presumably for his Sic Semper Tyranis. Passcode 23414. 

16. The Cavalry

More notes to Tesla, who may have helped destroy an Apple of Eden with his electricity, causing the Tunguska Event. Passcode 81126

17. The Bunker

There is a < = on the building in the bottom left, and a 4 that fades in and out by the soldiers. Align those, then realize that the progression is to add another sharp angle to the symbol as it goes round. 791 then is 4 angles, 6 angles, 8 angles. The next image is a bunker, and the picture helpfully starts with a zoom over the text A=H on the conical building. The message is on the small square building nearby. AOL KVBISL DHZ RPSSLK PU AOL IBURLY.  Nearby, but not part of the message, apparently, is RIP on the ground. A=H tells us it’s a RotN cipher, giving us The double was killed in the bunker. Find the symbol on the top right of the tall building. Passcode 01545

18. Synapses

Ok, this puzzle hated me, and the feeling was mutual. You know you need to line up the 5 because it’s sitting there in the brain. It doesn’t make ANY sense after that until you get the hint from the team that it’s Sumerian numerals (of course, right?!) and the tree thing is 1 and the right angle is 10. Apparently they saw no need for 5s. Then you eventually get a hint from an online board because you’re going nuts and realize that the math in the left box is the pattern. So, the numbers around the outside will be 1 (+2) 3 (+6) 9 (+2) 11 (+1) 12 (+5) 17 (+3) 20 (+5) 25 (+6) 31 (+4) 35. Which means, if you set 5 to the one tree, then 603 becomes 3 17 31. Or, three trees, one angle and seven trees, three angles and one tree. Because of course… Read about neurotransmitters, turn on the neurons. Passcode 65119

19. The Fourth Day

Choose pictures of the sun. Which may have wiped out the Isu, which we don’t learn about in this game yet ;) No hidden codes, but hidden plaintext. Passcode 69185, same as 8. 

Near the day of purification there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky - Hopi

They died in the fire from the heavens

Toba, 75ka, was not a volcano 

A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky which could burn the lands and boil the oceans - Hopi

20. The Origin of the Species

Solve the puzzle wheel. It has been hidden, altered. No hidden messages in the picture, beyond things that may also be different PoE. Find the Vitruvian man in the open eye at the top. Any random symbols seem to activate the wheel. Run the AoE over the skeleton Passcode 00000. 

I woke up thinking that the pattern of the 5 digit numbers would mean something, but not all correspond to the passcodes found, so am a bit stuck there. There’s apparently something called a VIC cipher that’s 5 digits, but it would need a key, and I’m not sure what that would be. I tried feeding it the Me 23 from the Sumerian puzzle, or the key 00000 from the passcode, but no dice. Still, lots of fun solving! 

Not as think as I bright I am - Hincks Gazette Issues 4 & 5

It’s a freezing weekend, so great to be inside drinking tea and doing puzzles. These two issues were fun, but not as fun as the last, through no fault of their own, rather my rusty puzzling skills and that I am apparently not a literal enough thinker. Also, possibly the ridiculous Christmas music my cafe of choice is blasting. In January. I’m so tired of Christmas music there aren’t words. 

Anyhow…. 

Issue 4

This issue has us trying to find the reset password for some misbehaving robots at the all robot hotel. AI malfunction, apparently. Don’t ask what happened to your luggage, or why there is plaid flannel in your omelette. 

As with the others, Issue 4 gives you a clear place to start - the Crafty Corner says “start quilting immediately!” This puzzle I had a LOT of issues with, and eventually just read through the clues. It’s two grids, with letter pairs and words in italics interspaced. It’s fairly obvious that they’re meant to be interwoven somehow, but this was not a puzzle for me - it relies on some strenuous stretching of rhyming to make numbers from one to eighteen. Barely. I get glue is two, but how is heaven eleven and not seven? And how is per bean thirteen? I gave up on that one and just read the numbers from the hints section. 

Then you go forward, pairing the nun/one with letters PU, etc., until you get Push Speech Up for a Home Score Down for Away. 

That takes us to the little league game, a series of 1s and 0s I’d initially thought would need to be some sort of binary code. The Speech in question is from the Arts section, a gobbledygook of letters with the hint “The Literal Thinker will be Rewarded”. I am not a literal thinker. I ran versions of RotN ciphers, trying to modify the letters themselves. Eventually, with a hint, they really mean LITERALLY. So, rather than one line of text, you get three. Take the + first, then 0, then -,  and you get Fold Right Edge to Star, Fold Left to Diamond. 

Thankfully I’d noticed the drawing of the robot on the front had neat decorations, and that part of the text from the advertisement was the wrong font. Literally folding the page, you get the message: From Opinion, take 1st from 1st, to 7th from 7th. Going to the opinion section, you get Take upside-down pins from beginnings otherwise ends. 

I had a bit of trouble on this as I was taking single characters, but eventually tried taking ALL of them up to the number from the quotes in the ad, EXTERMINATE. Hincks’ makers are nerds. I love it. 

Issue 5

The 5th issue has us trying to find the name of a dinosaur at the Museum of Extinct Terrestrials Engaged in Otherworldly Reconnaissance (METEOR), so we can sign the petition to keep the Lobby for Actual Museum Entities (LAME) from shutting them down. Lol. 

There is no obviously labeled ‘start’ on this, but the Nonogram is simple enough, and says ‘greeting’, so maybe that’s a start hint? Anyhow, filling out the nonogram is quick, and yields SH, which in turn takes us to the Book Club, where I go down today’s first rabbit hole. Trying to take the first two letters of each, as SHhhh is capitalized goes nowhere. I then spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find the ‘real’ names of the books, as with the movie puzzle. I get convinced that “A Halo Fate” is a reference to Aegis, from the video game, and Ryben was a character in Game of Thrones somewhere… I go down many internet rabbit holes to come up with nothing. I give up and look for a clue, at which point the system points out that that’s 9 titles with 9 letters, like the nonogram… *sigh*. Overlaying the titles with the nonogram yields Half the Savories, Triple the Sweets, sending us to the Recipe Roundup.

I can math with the best of them, but I still hit a snag. I SHOULD have thought of the trick for the last answer - taking ALL of the letters. I do not. I bang my head *a lot*. I try to unscramble and rescramble and the answer is neither ‘my Socrates note’ or ‘too many secrets.’ I ask for a hint. Take the word with the length specified, then UP TO that letter. Argh. Pair Bulletins, Spot Common. 

The bulletins in question were obviously paired already, and I appreciated the nerdy Time Bandits reference - Mom, Dad, don’t touch it! It’s evil! Anyhow, finding the words in common is straightforward and yields: Middle Character from Critics. That, in turn yields us [space] rex. SPACE REX

Thank you for another fun puzzle, Hincks. I’ll try to puzzle better next time. 

This really is fun - Hincks Gazette Volume 1, Issue 3

Yesterday really was great, loved getting back into puzzling. So, after confirming that Volume 1, Issue 1 really does require the whole Elevator kit (which I’ve done but didn’t write up, maybe eventually) I jumped into Volume 1, Issue 3, which involves Quail Mail gone horribly awry. We need to decode someone’s mail for them. 

Hincks Gazette, I appreciate, has, so far, always told you where to start with the word ‘start’ somewhere in the title or header for the section. In this case it’s movie titles, given as hints about the plot itself. For example, Best Part of this Franchise, I was leads you to Star Wars. In order, the moves are:

• Back to the Future
• The Lord of the Rings
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Titanic
• Harry Potter
• Shrek
• Toy Story
• Star Wars

The puzzle also gives you “times.” Which are really clues to the letters you need in the form of wordnumber:letternumber. The result spells Connect the OTS. After staring at the puzzle, and then going online to make sure I wasn’t missing a ‘d’ somewhere, nope, that’s intentional, the only place with that much text is the ‘Dear Hincksy’ section. Where there are, happily enough, multiple words with ‘ot’ in them. Having done that, scratched my head again, connect them how?! Oh, they’re all by numbers (although the one near X for 10 baffled me for longer than I care to admit. Insufficient caffeine). Connected in order, and twice for the merlot, they form a star. Where does the word ‘star’ appear? On the Thrift ad on the opposite page. Holding the paper up to the light, you see that the points of the star are on five of the images. 

• Purple - Grapes
• Material - Wood
• Result - Death/Dead
• Location - Park
• Smaller than city - Town

I got that far, then got stumped. A quick check reminded me of the puzzle on the other side - the days. A quick flip gets you:

• Monday - Township
• Tuesday - Deadline (yes, I was staring at “deathline” for far too long before that made sense. More caffeine, please)
• Wednesday - Grapevine
• Thursday - Woodwind
• Friday - Parkway

Back to the mysterious message: rUESdONDFRIaWEDNhtTH. Using the appropriate letters from the words associated with each day of the week, we get: Read Down Paragraph Two. Paragraph two of the opening article gives us: ADOPT, the correct answer to Issue. 

Thanks Hincks Gazette for restoring my faith in my puzzling prowess. I’m now off to get more caffeine so I stop forgetting that newspapers have two sides, and deathline isn’t a thing. 

Slowly Coming Back - Hincks Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 2.

So, a *LOT* has happened since my last post, including the complete betrayal and heartbreaking of me by my former puzzling partner, the one who I had thought, had hoped was going to be my puzzling partner for life. Very much not. It hurt more than I thought anything could, and I haven’t been in the mood for puzzles for a very long time. But my therapist - yes, it was bad enough that I finally started therapy - has encouraged me to try to take baby steps into the things I used to love so much, and puzzles and conundrums are definitely at the top of that list. I’m also looking at some long distance hikes for my next vacation. Baby steps, though, so I took myself to a local cafe, ordered two massive pots of tea and some amazingly delicious avocado eggs benedict, and tried the first individual issue of the Hincks Gazette. 

Hincks Gazette is a one page newspaper of puzzles. It’s not like the Curios and Conundrums multi page, multi volume, onion like puzzle experience, but for someone easing her way back into it, it’s a great place to start. Issue 2 is actually the first separate one, as Issue 1 was shipped as part of the more well known Hincks puzzle - the Hincks Elevator. When I entered the answer for Issue 2 on the website, it does seem as there’s a completely different Issue 1 that is now for sale separately, but I’ll just start with Issue 2, where mean plants have taken over Hincksville. Little shop of horrors-esque, and it turns out that the plants, which were supposed to be nice, were accidentally set to “Psycho-Plant” and are insulting everyone. Oh no! We simply must find the password to make them nice again :) 

That info is all in the first paragraph/article of the gazette, above the fold, and the rest of the issue is puzzles. Below the article is a cartoon with fish speaking nonsense, and then on the back, an unpoetic poem, a set of cryptic clues for a word search, the word search itself, and worryingly, an explainer of morse code… My initial fear is that I’m going to need to decode the dashes and dots of the fishes’ water tank, but that, thankfully, turns out not to be the case. 

I start with the word search, and the cryptic clues above it. They’re fun - phonetic. For example, spoilers: shout, not high, wags when happy == yell, low, tail == Yellowtail. Got that one easily enough, but some of the others - 12 in total - were much harder. A couple I solved in reverse, I admit. The hardest, not being an east coaster, was Confused sound, in PA, after seven. That I just had to make the word search show me. Beneath the word search is the ultimate clue though - It’s not what you find, but what you don’t, that brings the light. The message is pretty clear, helping me find affiliate (Philly = in PA. Ugh) and sending me to the next part of the puzzle. Hello puzzler proceed by collecting the first insult letters next lop off the first of each poetic last then mix and Mach and you’ll be on your way chum. 

So, the insults are Atrocious, Deplorable, Asinine, Fraidycat, Obtuse, Dense, and Vapid. The last words of the poem are Wish, Towels, Ire, Lots, Ill, Ether, and Rashes. Mix and matching gets us: Fish Vowels Are Dots, All Other Dashes. So, to the fish!

Translating the fish gobbledygook speech appropriately gets us Surname Poet Anagram. And, dear reader, this is when I had to go to the internet. I am TERRIBLE at anagrams. Scrabble is *not* my game. The surname is CHAPSTONY, and I couldn’t get past Cosy pant. That is where my brain is these days. That I put on real clothes to come to this cafe on a weekend when I could legitimately just hang around the house with the cats in my cozy pants is a big step. So, with many thanks to the internet for its anagram unscrambling talents, I was able to come up with SYCOPHANT, which makes a lot more sense for a password to make the talking robot(?) plants be nice to you. Plugged that into the website and voila! Entered into the long! (It’s been out since at least 2020) line of people waiting for customer service on our Compli-plants. I hope the hold music is good. 

Thanks for listening to my ramble, if anyone other than me reads this :)