[SOLVED] 2 vials - 4/17/07

lg15panda · Post by **lg15panda** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:03 pm

Luminous wrote:Deagol arrived at this last night, but as of yet, we have found no matching key.

Well that's good, though we still don't know whether that is the right track or not.

I had an idea that the word "bill" might be mentioned somewhere in the Seuss book "Oh Say Can You Say", so I tried to track the book down online (I don't own the book). I was able to find an audio version of it on YouTube here: part1 part2
Though I had a great time watching it, "bill" wasn't mentioned. Darn.

trainer101 · Post by **trainer101** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:23 pm

Based on an earlier chat with Maddison, it appears that this is indeed the right track.

lorien wrote:Following many of us discussing how much we needed more information, Maddison entered the chat.

Two distinct points were made:

1) Maddison very much liked the idea that "hurry" is the last word. She then prodded our knowledge of ciphers in order to determine whether there is a way for us to break the code with the knowledge that hurry is the last word.

2) It was discussed that many keys had been attempted. Maddison asked which keys. I responded, "saltwater, saline, ocean, references from the Seuss poem, musical references, 'Is This Thing On Check One'". Maddison suggested we try synonyms of those.

At this point, it seems we are looking for synonyms of "saltwater", "sea" or "ocean" as the key.

bethy · Post by **bethy** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:28 pm

The hubby's not having any luck either.

He said it's probably sitting there staring at him but he's not seeing it.

nowherepixie · Post by **nowherepixie** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:49 pm

Maybe it's referring to 'sea' as in lots of things?

Like a sea of faces or something?

You know so words like abundance, multitude etc....

...maybe?

ignatzmouse · Post by **ignatzmouse** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:31 pm

lg15panda wrote:I hope I didn't mess up somewhere, but if "hurry" is the last word and this is a vigenere cipher, then I think we're looking for a passphrase that ends in "obill" and starts with either 3, 5, or 15 more letters before "obill." Someone check me on this?

Passphrase would then be either:
---obill
-----obill
---------------obill

The passphrase wraps around, so it could be:

obill
billxo
obillxx
xxxobill
billxxxxo
xxxxxobill
xxobillxxxx
billxxxxxxxo
lxxxxxxxxobil
xxxxxxxobillxx
...

like you said IF it's Vigenere and IF it's hurry and and and

ETA: Unless the plaintext starts "Enotw" or "Rglt" the passphrases starting "obill" or "bill" are knocked out.

ETA2: In fact, every one of the above keys generates rubbish. So IF it's Vigenere and IF it's hurry THEN the keylength is greater than 13.

honeybee627 · Post by **honeybee627** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:41 pm

Maybe she meant "homonym" instead of "synonym," as in "see"?

("Oh Say can you Say/See"...okay just grasping at straws.)

ignatzmouse · Post by **ignatzmouse** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:50 pm

bethy wrote:Okay, the hubby is looking at it now...said it's a little harder than he thought it was going to be.

Ooh really? I'm so shocked.

bethy · Post by **bethy** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:21 pm

He's still working on it.

Although I've no idea why at this point.

lorien · Post by **lorien** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:02 pm

Solution to Code

Foutain Town - Stormy Venue - No Post No Bills - 8404? Hurry

Vigenere AutoKey: http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/vigenere-autokey.php
Decrypt.
Passphrase: "NaclH2o"
Your Message: "Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404← Vvzcj"

We've been poking at this all day, literally. Several of us determined early that since codes need keys, and this code came with two vials, the vials must be the key. Maddison's intuition confirmed this thought later in chat. Therefore, the collective chat group plus Maddison developed lists of synonyms. Maddison specifically wanted us to focus on compounds of the synonyms.

We were running them through VigNormal, VigAutoKey, Keyed Vig, and Keyed Caesar.

"salt, water, salt water, finney, wine, winery, fish, seuss, fresh, ocean, h20, nacl, red sea, sodium, agua, sal, river, saline, gulf, gulf ocean, ocean gulf, salt wave, gulf sea, river water, river salt, salt river, salt sea, sea salt, saltwater fish, saltwater ocean, saltwater sea, sal agua, agua de sal, mar de sal, fish salt, aquarium, bottled salt water, evaporation, oxygen, hydrogen, hydrogen oxygen, hydrogen oxygen sodium, salt water wine, finney fish, fresh saltwater fish, hydrogen oxygen nacl, agua salada, naclh20, hydrogren oxygen sodium chloride, sodium chloride, fried fish, microphone, spice, flavor,"

We were consistently very close, but always falling just this short. Finally, Maddison had the idea of specifically having us run through a few of the synonyms from the list (h2onacl, and naclh2o) through the codebreakers. I realized I had been typing h20 (zero) rather than h2o. Problem solved.

Maddison's intuition and persistence saved our sanity! Mr. Zipp was clearly correct in thinking she's of value in this struggle.

The result is:
Foutain Town - Stormy Venue - No Post No Bills - 8404? Hurry

bethy · Post by **bethy** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:04 pm

Passphrase: "NaclH2o"

Yup. Right in front of your face the whole time.

satansgurl · Post by **satansgurl** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:07 pm

*sob* I tried that but backwards this afternoon! I was SO close!!!

kellylen · Post by **kellylen** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:08 pm

we figure this is a drop so we need all your help everyone trying to figure out the location

bethy · Post by **bethy** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:11 pm

"Foutain"

Note the missing N?

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:13 pm

bethy wrote:He's still working on it.

Although I've no idea why at this point.

Hahaha Bethy

The next step is addiction lol

GreenLaceBeauty · Post by **GreenLaceBeauty** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:14 pm

Kansas City is the City of Fountains.
8404 Wornall Rd is Church's Chicken.

Also found Fountain Hills, AZ
Fountain, CO

I'm sure there are a million others...

...i HAVE to stop posting.