SpiritFryer
July 4th, 2014, 02:45 AM
Winner:
Fatalis
Hello everyone,
I made this puzzle up from scratch by myself. I hope you have fun solving it. PM me your guess once you have one! I will keep an updated list of the people who solved this.
Group work on this is advised. If you think you're onto something, share it here - IN SPOILER TAGS! - since this might be too difficult to solve alone.
You may also ask yes / no questions here and I will give the answer in a spoiler tag! I will keep an updated list of answers so far.
I will only accept solutions where you give me the answer to each step in the puzzle, not just the final password! :P
Well? What are you waiting for? GET CRACKING!
What is the password?
You were recruited by a top secret agency to help them decipher a top secret password to a top secret encryption. It is crucial that you keep this operation top secret!
You can find the password by decoding the following message:
"Gur erfg nyfb haqrejrag gur glcvpny Pnrfne pvcure. Due mekbt ru fhekt, yv edbo oek qhhqdwut jxu vebbemydw udshofjut cuiiqwu igkqhubo, qdt ydjuhfhujut yj jef je rejjec: jittixiyhqumieffeimwqhyiw"
Combine the answers to the following riddles to get a hint on decoding the message above!
Note: Each riddle is separate from the others. You only need to combine the answer to each riddle in the order they appear in, and you'll get a hint to decrypt the above message.
1. I am the end of every adventurer, though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread, and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.
2. I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa (http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/chansub-global-emoticon-ddc6e3a8732cb50f-25x28.png) and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place. I am behind every official ban on trade.
3. I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world.
4. Keep in mind that last month (June 2014) we had a Friday the 13th!
Hints
The nature of answer is the same to the first three riddles. The fourth is slightly different.
The answer to each riddle is either a single letter, or a number (between 1 and 10000).
It is about arranging the final encrypted text in some way on multiple lines. Look at the previous hints. Count the number of letters in the encrypted text. After you arranged it correctly, how do you read it? That's also answered in previous hints.
The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Neo would be proud if only you arranged the following encrypted message squarely and interpreted it top to bottom: tsddshsiraewsopposwgarisg
Questions and Answers
Where is the start and end of the palindrome in number 3? Because oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world is not a palindrome.
The answer is the beginning and the end of a palindrome. The palindrome's description is oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world. If you were to Google "define X", where X is this palindrome, then Google's reply would be similar to this description. Perhaps to the world would be better, but I won't edit the original riddle now.
Solutions
1. I am the end of every adventurer, though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread, and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.
Answer: The letter 'r'.
Explanation:
- "I am the end of every adventurer,": The word "adventurer" ends with the letter 'r'.
- "though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread,": The word "roads" begins with the letter 'r'.
- "and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.": The middle letter of the word "journey" is 'r'.
2. I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa (http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/chansub-global-emoticon-ddc6e3a8732cb50f-25x28.png) and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place. I am behind every official ban on trade.
Answer: The letter 'o'.
Explanation:
- "I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place.": In Half-Life, Sector F is the "Lambda Complex" and its symbol is the Greek letter lambda. The homes of kappa and lambda is the Greek alphabet. The end of the Greek alphabet is the letter omega. The beginning of omega is the letter 'o'.
- "I am behind every official ban on trade.": One of the definitions of the word "embargo" is "an official ban on trade". "Behind" in this context means "the end of". The word "embargo" ends with the letter 'o'.
3. I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world.
Answer: The letter 't'.
Explanation:
- "I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome": The answer is the letter that a certain palindromic phrase begins and ends with.
- "oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world": The palindrome is "tut-tut". (Note: "to the world" would probably have been better wording.)
4. Keep in mind that last month (June 2014) we had a Friday the 13th![/FONT]
Answer: The number 13.
Explanation:
- This wasn't much of a riddle. The number 13 is even highlighted.
If you put the answers together, in the order they appear in, you get "rot13".
If you Google "ROT13" you'd find out that it is a simple substitution cipher where you rotate each letter in your text-to-be-encrypted by 13 positions.
The special thing about ROT13 is that if you apply it to the encrypted text then you get back the original text. (This is because there are 26 letters in the alphabet, so if you rotate a letter by 13 positions, and then 13 again, then you arrive back to the same letter.)
This hints that the message containing the password was encrypted using ROT13.
Encrypted text:
"Gur erfg nyfb haqrejrag gur glcvpny Pnrfne pvcure. Due mekbt ru fhekt, yv edbo oek qhhqdwut jxu vebbemydw udshofjut cuiiqwu igkqhubo, qdt ydjuhfhujut yj jef je rejjec: jittixiyhqumieffeimwqhyiw"
By applying ROT13 to the above, you get the following (I used the following: http://www.rot13.com/):
Decrypted text step 1:
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Qhr zrxog eh surxg, li rqob brx duudqjhg wkh iroorzlqj hqfubswhg phvvdjh vtxduhob, dqg lqwhusuhwhg lw wrs wr erwwrp: wvggvkvludhzvrssrvzjdulvj"
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher." If you Google "Caesar cipher", you would find out that Caesar used to encrypt his messages by rotating each letter forward by 3 positions. So if you rotate the letters in the rest of the message 3 positions back (or 23 positions forward), then you get the following (I used the following: http://www.xarg.org/tools/caesar-cipher/. Set the key to 23.):
Decrypted text step 2:
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Neo would be proud, if only you arranged the following encrypted message squarely, and interpreted it top to bottom: tsddshsiraewsopposwgarisg
There are various hints as to what you need to do with that encrypted message.
- "Neo": This refers to the character in the movie "The Matrix". The hint here is the word "matrix", as you need to arrange the letters in a matrix.
- "squarely": This hints you to arrange the letters in a square.
- "interpreted it top to bottom": This tells you how you should read the text once arranged in a square.
If you count the number of letters then you would see that there are 25 letters - so they can be arranged in a 5x5 square. Arranging them so, left to right, top to bottom, you get the following:
t s d d s
h s i r a
e w s o p
p o s w g
a r i s g
Reading it from top to bottom, left to right, you get the final message:
thepasswordissidrowsapgg
The password is "sidrowsapgg", which is the solution to the whole puzzle.
Fatalis
Hello everyone,
I made this puzzle up from scratch by myself. I hope you have fun solving it. PM me your guess once you have one! I will keep an updated list of the people who solved this.
Group work on this is advised. If you think you're onto something, share it here - IN SPOILER TAGS! - since this might be too difficult to solve alone.
You may also ask yes / no questions here and I will give the answer in a spoiler tag! I will keep an updated list of answers so far.
I will only accept solutions where you give me the answer to each step in the puzzle, not just the final password! :P
Well? What are you waiting for? GET CRACKING!
What is the password?
You were recruited by a top secret agency to help them decipher a top secret password to a top secret encryption. It is crucial that you keep this operation top secret!
You can find the password by decoding the following message:
"Gur erfg nyfb haqrejrag gur glcvpny Pnrfne pvcure. Due mekbt ru fhekt, yv edbo oek qhhqdwut jxu vebbemydw udshofjut cuiiqwu igkqhubo, qdt ydjuhfhujut yj jef je rejjec: jittixiyhqumieffeimwqhyiw"
Combine the answers to the following riddles to get a hint on decoding the message above!
Note: Each riddle is separate from the others. You only need to combine the answer to each riddle in the order they appear in, and you'll get a hint to decrypt the above message.
1. I am the end of every adventurer, though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread, and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.
2. I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa (http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/chansub-global-emoticon-ddc6e3a8732cb50f-25x28.png) and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place. I am behind every official ban on trade.
3. I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world.
4. Keep in mind that last month (June 2014) we had a Friday the 13th!
Hints
The nature of answer is the same to the first three riddles. The fourth is slightly different.
The answer to each riddle is either a single letter, or a number (between 1 and 10000).
It is about arranging the final encrypted text in some way on multiple lines. Look at the previous hints. Count the number of letters in the encrypted text. After you arranged it correctly, how do you read it? That's also answered in previous hints.
The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Neo would be proud if only you arranged the following encrypted message squarely and interpreted it top to bottom: tsddshsiraewsopposwgarisg
Questions and Answers
Where is the start and end of the palindrome in number 3? Because oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world is not a palindrome.
The answer is the beginning and the end of a palindrome. The palindrome's description is oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world. If you were to Google "define X", where X is this palindrome, then Google's reply would be similar to this description. Perhaps to the world would be better, but I won't edit the original riddle now.
Solutions
1. I am the end of every adventurer, though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread, and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.
Answer: The letter 'r'.
Explanation:
- "I am the end of every adventurer,": The word "adventurer" ends with the letter 'r'.
- "though they can find me at the beginning of all the roads they may tread,": The word "roads" begins with the letter 'r'.
- "and at the middle of every journey they may embark upon.": The middle letter of the word "journey" is 'r'.
2. I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa (http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/chansub-global-emoticon-ddc6e3a8732cb50f-25x28.png) and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place. I am behind every official ban on trade.
Answer: The letter 'o'.
Explanation:
- "I am the beginning of the end of the homes of Kappa and his follower, the symbol of Sector F of Gordon Freeman's work place.": In Half-Life, Sector F is the "Lambda Complex" and its symbol is the Greek letter lambda. The homes of kappa and lambda is the Greek alphabet. The end of the Greek alphabet is the letter omega. The beginning of omega is the letter 'o'.
- "I am behind every official ban on trade.": One of the definitions of the word "embargo" is "an official ban on trade". "Behind" in this context means "the end of". The word "embargo" ends with the letter 'o'.
3. I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world.
Answer: The letter 't'.
Explanation:
- "I am the beginning and the end of the palindrome": The answer is the letter that a certain palindromic phrase begins and ends with.
- "oh so annoyed, expressing disapproval at the world": The palindrome is "tut-tut". (Note: "to the world" would probably have been better wording.)
4. Keep in mind that last month (June 2014) we had a Friday the 13th![/FONT]
Answer: The number 13.
Explanation:
- This wasn't much of a riddle. The number 13 is even highlighted.
If you put the answers together, in the order they appear in, you get "rot13".
If you Google "ROT13" you'd find out that it is a simple substitution cipher where you rotate each letter in your text-to-be-encrypted by 13 positions.
The special thing about ROT13 is that if you apply it to the encrypted text then you get back the original text. (This is because there are 26 letters in the alphabet, so if you rotate a letter by 13 positions, and then 13 again, then you arrive back to the same letter.)
This hints that the message containing the password was encrypted using ROT13.
Encrypted text:
"Gur erfg nyfb haqrejrag gur glcvpny Pnrfne pvcure. Due mekbt ru fhekt, yv edbo oek qhhqdwut jxu vebbemydw udshofjut cuiiqwu igkqhubo, qdt ydjuhfhujut yj jef je rejjec: jittixiyhqumieffeimwqhyiw"
By applying ROT13 to the above, you get the following (I used the following: http://www.rot13.com/):
Decrypted text step 1:
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Qhr zrxog eh surxg, li rqob brx duudqjhg wkh iroorzlqj hqfubswhg phvvdjh vtxduhob, dqg lqwhusuhwhg lw wrs wr erwwrp: wvggvkvludhzvrssrvzjdulvj"
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher." If you Google "Caesar cipher", you would find out that Caesar used to encrypt his messages by rotating each letter forward by 3 positions. So if you rotate the letters in the rest of the message 3 positions back (or 23 positions forward), then you get the following (I used the following: http://www.xarg.org/tools/caesar-cipher/. Set the key to 23.):
Decrypted text step 2:
"The rest also underwent the typical Caesar cipher. Neo would be proud, if only you arranged the following encrypted message squarely, and interpreted it top to bottom: tsddshsiraewsopposwgarisg
There are various hints as to what you need to do with that encrypted message.
- "Neo": This refers to the character in the movie "The Matrix". The hint here is the word "matrix", as you need to arrange the letters in a matrix.
- "squarely": This hints you to arrange the letters in a square.
- "interpreted it top to bottom": This tells you how you should read the text once arranged in a square.
If you count the number of letters then you would see that there are 25 letters - so they can be arranged in a 5x5 square. Arranging them so, left to right, top to bottom, you get the following:
t s d d s
h s i r a
e w s o p
p o s w g
a r i s g
Reading it from top to bottom, left to right, you get the final message:
thepasswordissidrowsapgg
The password is "sidrowsapgg", which is the solution to the whole puzzle.