Facility J [Drop Contents] - "Dei Sub Numine Viget"

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:59 pm

lg15panda wrote:While we're talking about "8", what is up with the 8 stones? Do you guys think that the stones are a clue to the puzzle?

There are so many references to eight. I think it's one more device he has used to call our attention to 8 being an important clue. We haven't figured out what to do with it though.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:19 pm

OK, so now what are we looking for? The text itself that we need to decode?

ignatzmouse · Post by **ignatzmouse** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:24 pm

janesalteredstates wrote:OK, so now what are we looking for? The text itself that we need to decode?

Walter has dropped heavy hints that we've got everything we need. So I suspect we're waiting for, er, brilliant inspiration.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:26 pm

Right, I mean are we trying to figure out what we need to decode using the number sequence?

What have we gotten with 24 instead of 28 (I new 28 was odd (er, well it's even strictly speaking... lol))?

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:31 pm

janesalteredstates wrote:Right, I mean are we trying to figure out what we need to decode using the number sequence?

It seems so. Not exactly being a genius in these things, I could be wrong. I'm currently running everything I can find throught the viginere deciphering tool, using ikyoiyk as the key, in every permutation I can possibly imagine up to "8" times. Eight, of course being the magic number.

There was something I did late last night that returned a result with a series of aaaaaaaaaaaa's. Unfortunately, I was tired, didn't save it and haven't been able to recreate it this morning. In the light of day, I'm wondering if the a's might have been part of a DNA sequence - which is what I think we are looking for - at least if this puzzle is consistent with past puzzles.

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:34 pm

Luminous wrote:
janesalteredstates wrote:Right, I mean are we trying to figure out what we need to decode using the number sequence?
It seems so. Not exactly being a genius in these things, I could be wrong. I'm currently running everything I can find throught the viginere deciphering tool, using ikyoiyk as the key, in every permutation I can possibly imagine up to "8" times. Eight, of course being the magic number.

There was something I did late last night that returned a result with a series of aaaaaaaaaaaa's. Unfortunately, I was tired, didn't save it and haven't been able to recreate it this morning. In the light of day, I'm wondering if the a's might have been part of a DNA sequence - which is what I think we are looking for - at least if this puzzle is consistent with past puzzles.

You'd better remember buster!

Do we think the word "multiplicity" was a clue?

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:38 pm

janesalteredstates wrote:
Luminous wrote:
janesalteredstates wrote:Right, I mean are we trying to figure out what we need to decode using the number sequence?
It seems so. Not exactly being a genius in these things, I could be wrong. I'm currently running everything I can find throught the viginere deciphering tool, using ikyoiyk as the key, in every permutation I can possibly imagine up to "8" times. Eight, of course being the magic number.

There was something I did late last night that returned a result with a series of aaaaaaaaaaaa's. Unfortunately, I was tired, didn't save it and haven't been able to recreate it this morning. In the light of day, I'm wondering if the a's might have been part of a DNA sequence - which is what I think we are looking for - at least if this puzzle is consistent with past puzzles.

You'd better remember buster!

Do we think the word "multiplicity" was a clue?

I don't imagine Walter chose his words lightly. That's why I have been running things eight time - although this may not be the multiplicity he's talking about. I don't know.

ignatzmouse · Post by **ignatzmouse** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:46 pm

Luminous wrote:There was something I did late last night that returned a result with a series of aaaaaaaaaaaa's. Unfortunately, I was tired, didn't save it and haven't been able to recreate it this morning. In the light of day, I'm wondering if the a's might have been part of a DNA sequence - which is what I think we are looking for - at least if this puzzle is consistent with past puzzles.

You can get aaaa... very easily out of a Vigenere Cipher, by decrypting a message with itself. So most likely that's what happened at some point in the wee hours of the morning!

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:50 pm

So, since we've totally hit a wall it's time for more random looking stuff up! I am actually researching each letter. I love to research things not knowing what I'm looking for. I always learn stuff

K led me to this which looked interesing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28Y-DNA%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28mtDNA%29

Bah! I can't figure this out.

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:02 pm

ignatzmouse wrote:
Luminous wrote:There was something I did late last night that returned a result with a series of aaaaaaaaaaaa's. Unfortunately, I was tired, didn't save it and haven't been able to recreate it this morning. In the light of day, I'm wondering if the a's might have been part of a DNA sequence - which is what I think we are looking for - at least if this puzzle is consistent with past puzzles.
You can get aaaa... very easily out of a Vigenere Cipher, by decrypting a message with itself. So most likely that's what happened at some point in the wee hours of the morning!

That's a relief! Whew! I was afraid I'd stumbled across a solution, then deleted it. Now I feel better.

ShardinsKitten · Post by **ShardinsKitten** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:04 pm

lg15panda wrote:While we're talking about "8", what is up with the 8 stones? Do you guys think that the stones are a clue to the puzzle?

I think it was just another way to show that 8 is important, in some way to this puzzle. Which has yet to be discovered.

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:05 pm

janesalteredstates wrote:So, since we've totally hit a wall it's time for more random looking stuff up! I am actually researching each letter. I love to research things not knowing what I'm looking for. I always learn stuff

K led me to this which looked interesing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28Y-DNA%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28mtDNA%29

Bah! I can't figure this out.

Let me add mine - DNA Supercoil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercoil

Related to 8? Doubt it, but it might be related to Daniel's symbol, which is totally unrelated to our topic.

lg15panda · Post by **lg15panda** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:14 pm

janesalteredstates wrote: K led me to this which looked interesing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28Y-DNA%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_K_%28mtDNA%29

Piggybacking on this idea, since I'm stuck as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_O_%28Y-DNA%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_I_%28Y-DNA%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Y-ch ... aplogroups

I am out of ideas for now...

ignatzmouse · Post by **ignatzmouse** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:37 pm

A vaguely promising idea, but it's a dead end I think... Using the offsets as multiplicative rather than additive values, gives:

I=9*8=72=20=T
T=20*-8=-160=-4=22=V
I=9*16=144=14=N
Y=25*-16=-400=-10=16=P
E=5*16=80=2=B
T=20*-16=-320=-8=18=R
I=9*24=216=8=H

All arithmetic is done mod 26, as per usual for these kinds of cipher systems (e.g. 9*8 =72 = 2*26 + 20 and T is the 20th letter of the alphabet).

If you use A=0 rather than A=1 then you get different gibberish:

I=8*8=64=12=M
T=19*-8=-152=-22=4=E
I=8*16=128=24=Y
Y=24*-16=-384=-20=6=G
E=4*16=64=12=M
T=19*-16=-304=-18=8=I
I=8*24=192=10=K

Well, it's a dead end, but (a) I may have loused up the arithmetic, and b) it may spark brilliant thoughts in somene else.

(And restricting to multiples of 8 makes this a particularly rotten ciphersystem, as you can only encrypt letters which are multiples of 2.)

TOSG · Post by **TOSG** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:48 pm

ignantzmouse: come join the chat - it sounds like you're pretty sharp on this stuff, and we could use more minds for brainstorming.

http://toad-one.org/tools/irc/irc.cgi

Join one of the freenode servers, with channel #FacilityJ.