[SOLVED] 2 vials - 4/17/07

[giddeanx]

is it table salt the grain is pretty rough like a kosher salt or sea salt

[Kasdeja]

Yeah, it looks like sea salt to me, too.

[lg15panda]

I notice that in the coded message there's an arrow after "8404", as in:

Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404<-- Vvzcj!

I wonder what could that mean?

[giddeanx]

I notice that in the coded message there's an arrow after "8404", as in:

Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404<-- Vvzcj!

I wonder what could that mean?

Kind of like looky heres the key, but what would the vials be for. Or is it saying apply vvzcj to the rest of the message

[ignatzmouse]

If the last word is Hurry! that part of the key would be 'obill'

Just to expand on Deagol's observation...

If this is a Vigenere cipher, then it's subject to what's called a "known plaintext" attack, that is you make a guess as to part of the message, and use that to recover part of the key. The easiest way to do this is to go to the Rumkin Vigenere tool and enter the ciphertext as both "passphrase" and "your message". Select decrypt and you'll get all As back. For example:

Passphrase: Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404← Vvzcj!
Your message: Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404← Vvzcj!
This is your encoded or decoded text: Aaaaaaa Aaaa - Aaaaaa Aaaaa - Aa Aaaa Aa Aaaaa - 8404← Aaaaa!

Now make a guess as to part of the plaintext (e.g. guess that "Vvzcj" decodes to "Hurry") and edit the passphrase appropriately, and you'll get back a fragment of the key, e.g.:

Passphrase: Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404← Hurry!
Your message: Sowehws Hipn - Aghfil Nxblq - Lj Tbmx Ac Qwdef - 8404← Vvzcj!
This is your encoded or decoded text: Aaaaaaa Aaaa - Aaaaaa Aaaaa - Aa Aaaa Aa Aaaaa - 8404← Obill!

Of course this only helps if we can make good guesses as to what part of the message is... There are those two-letter words sitting there, but I've not made much progress with those.

[Lola]

I just tried searching Saline (salt water) and Nacogdoches and a bunch of stuff popped up. A Saline Rd?

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/onl ... /exn2.html

[marlasinger]

You know, the thing about the "Vvzcj" is that it starts with two vs. The only words I can think of that start with two of the same letter are...

Lloyd

...uh that's it.

But the arrow points to the left, and I can think of a few words that END in two of the same letter. Lots of -ee words, five letters too. Agree, Decree, Spree, Three, etc.

Are we reading this the right way?

Jczvv ---> 4048 fedwq ca xbmt jl qlbxn lifhga npih swhewos

?

edit: the ! at the end sorta makes me think this is isn't valid.

[Lola]

also Aaron, oozes, oozed

[Luminous]

I'd like to point out that there's a typo in the transcription. It's Tbmx not Tmbx.

First off, how the heck did you figure out that there's a typo in jibberish? And secondly, if this is a typo, does that point to the cipher being shifted by hand, rather than using a tool?

[giddeanx]

I'd like to point out that there's a typo in the transcription. It's Tbmx not Tmbx.

First off, how the heck did you figure out that there's a typo in jibberish? And secondly, if this is a typo, does that point to the cipher being shifted by hand, rather than using a tool?

I imagine she edited the original after deogle corrected her

[silverblue]

You know, the thing about the "Vvzcj" is that it starts with two vs. The only words I can think of that start with two of the same letter are...

Lloyd

I found this on wikipedia:

Words beginning with a double letter are generally very rare. The most common combination is probably oo- (oodles, oolong, oomph, oops, ooze, and a number of less familiar examples, mostly technical words incorporating the prefix oo-, meaning "egg"), followed by aa- (familiar examples being aardvark and Aaron), and ee- (eel, eerie, eek, eesome (attractive)).

Otherwise such words are unlikely to be considered part of the English vocabulary, and almost entirely of foreign origin. Some examples are Ccoya (Inca queen), ʻiʻiwi (a Hawaiian bird), llama, llano (a grassy plain), and llanero (someone who lives on a llano). There are, however, numerous Welsh placenames beginning Ll- (e.g. Llandudno, Llanberis)—plus the familiar personal names Lloyd and Llewel(l)yn—and a smaller number beginning Ff- (e.g. Ffestiniog, Ffrith). A number of Japanese names begin Ii- when transliterated into the Roman alphabet.

[trainer101]

I'd like to point out that there's a typo in the transcription. It's Tbmx not Tmbx.

First off, how the heck did you figure out that there's a typo in jibberish? And secondly, if this is a typo, does that point to the cipher being shifted by hand, rather than using a tool?

Deagol did what no one else did. He took a second to actually look at the picture in the first post.

[sparkybennett]

also eerie

[Luminous]

I'd like to point out that there's a typo in the transcription. It's Tbmx not Tmbx.

First off, how the heck did you figure out that there's a typo in jibberish? And secondly, if this is a typo, does that point to the cipher being shifted by hand, rather than using a tool?

Deagol did what no one else did. He took a second to actually look at the picture in the first post.

lol guess that's what I should have done, eh?

[ignatzmouse]

You know, the thing about the "Vvzcj" is that it starts with two vs. The only words I can think of that start with two of the same letter are...

This makes me suspect it's not a substitution cipher.