Is this a secret hidden in the heart of Central Brittany?

Arabella: Good day to you, Alley Oop! It is good to see you again, here in New Britannia! Welcome to Brittany Castle. If you are searching for its master, Lord Cochran, he is not currently present. As for my husband, Lord British... he too is on errands about the land, as is his way.

 

Figured it out, it is actually a hidden message.

Spoiler

So I went and found the loose stone and I got a totally different message. Working on deciphering that one now. I think the missing letter at the top is part of the key, the substitutions switch on every note. My note is missing the I, not the G.

 

Here is the text of the note:
ABCDEFHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

18_1:_>._._-0_/._>_/0_>._10_18_.__\__\:_<:_<:_._1._>._._\:_10_._18_1:_>._._/8_/._/0_>._._-0_<:_/._\._>.+._/._/8_._1._>._<._\0_<0_>._..

/8_>._10_>._18

So a couple of things...
The lack of a G in the primary is probably important.
I have substituted an _ for each space.
What looks like 18 in some cases is actually a / and 8 and others is actually 18
Is the 1 character a one or a lower case L or an Uppercase i? It appears there are only numbers and punctuation so I assume it is a one.

I have to say that to me this looks more like a mathematical statement or a grep command.

 

i remember that note from elsewhere

 

Nice... in that alphabet the E is missing. It the G is there.

 

Lords and ladys: either give this post a 'spoilers inside' warning in the topic or hide your spoilers please.
I don't mind it but there are enough ppl out there that do. Thanks.

That being said, nice find. I am curious what else you will find out ^^

 

Nope, it's an actual message, just have to decipher it. And here's the different mysterious note I got from the same place, which Aular Glorthalion and I were able to translate also (we worked on both of them together in Google Docs):

https://imgur.com/a/pHTc0

 

...?

 

The dead body is in a secret chamber past the fireplace in Chuckles' room.

 

Greetings @Senjut. Glad to see that there are more messages. You said you were able to translate "Aular Glorthalion and I were able to translate". Can you put one in a spoiler tag so we have a reference for the others?

 

There is a hint that there is more to the oracle temple (that Lord British alluded to) in the game files. The file size for the scene oracletemple.unity3d is 23MB, which compared to alot of the other scenes is relatively large. It is in the top 10% for the largest file sizes in the directory.

I went back and could not find anything myself, but I am sure that there is more there undiscovered.

 

Interesting. I've found a few of these notes - one missing a C, one missing a D. The images posted here include one missing a G, one missing an E, and one missing an I.
I can't remember now where I picked them up, as I gave up fiddling with this long ago assuming whatever it was didn't lead to anything. Now not so sure.

Spoiler

I think there's one under a loose stone in brit fields, that we found when doing a different 'hidden puzzle' that starts with a letter found in the apple shack called Invitation to the Game. That particular puzzle -is- completable.....

 

Wanted to give you all some time to take a crack at it...the first one says

Spoiler: Hidden Message

"The payment will be in the same place as before. SENET" (Senet appears to be the signer of all of these notes)

The one I got is a little trickier because

Spoiler: Clue to my message

it has two numbers in it.

Also

Spoiler: Hint about decoding

the letter replacements are different in each note, and the missing letter from the alphabet is a key, it shifts the replacement string.

 

Race between you and me then.
I got there eventually.

 

Ok here's some spoiler thoughts/further hints on the notes:

Spoiler: Further Hints and Info

First some more help on decoding. In all of the notes, the letter replacement characters are two characters - but watch your spaces, because in some of them one of the two characters is a space. Example: in Alley Oop's note, "< " is the letter A. Also, all of the notes so far are signed by "SENET". And in all of the notes, a single "." is a space (i.e. word break) and a double ".." is a period (end of a sentence). I thnk these notes all seem to be in places where there are gangs nearby (in Brittany Alleys, I believe they're in the sewers right below, and the note is near where you emerge into the Alleys) and apparently SENET is funding/dictating at least some of their activities. So the big question is who is this SENET? Don't remember anyone by that name offhand.

Also here's what my note said:

Spoiler: My note decoded

4? were in the operation. Only 1 escaped. SENET (still not entirely sure on the number replacements, but pretty sure the second number is 1)

And here's what Alley Oop's note says:

Spoiler: Alley Oop's note

2? miners spotted in Northern Grunvald Barrens. Ensure not funding. SENET

 

Y'all are wrong. Clearly 18 is greater than 10 which is greater then 18. *mic drop*

 

So @Senjut beat me to the first full decode using freqency analysis and such. I was almost there on the full decode!
Now its just a case of tabling it up and using the other notes in the series to fill in the missing letter replacements.

It seems to be a simple case of subsitution and rotation.

So if you were to table it up using the missing 'G' note. Knowing what we know, you'd get something like....

LETTER = CODE
A /=
B 1.
C \.
D -.
E >.

...... and so on, and so fourth.

Now, I have obtained a couple more notes that are missing the letters C, F & I.

I beleive all that is required to decrypt these is to use the number value of the letter's position in the alphabet when A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on, to rotate the decryption table you already have and fill out the blanks using the letters you know, such as the ones that make off the signing name at the bottom of all the notes.

It is easier to do this if you create a new table that would exist if there was a note with the letter 'A' missing.
This would end up somthing like...

LETTER = CODE
A /
B |
C \
D
E >

That way, for each note's letter. You take the number associated with that letter's poisition in the alphabet and know you need to shift your cypher decode table column that many places up.

So for any note that has 'B' missing from the key at the top.

LETTER = CODE
A |
B \
C
D >
E (the value of whatever F was)


You can then use this table to decode all the notes.
Hope this makes sense. Sadly I have to go off and spend the evening with the giflfriend (moan, mumble, grumble) instead of decoding them all.
Hopfully someone will get some sort of 'place anywhere' keep deed if they manage to decode them all and put some instuctions in order. Think of me if you beat me to it! Rent me a room or something.

So, in short. The facts:

* The two special character couples you see in the notes are simple subsitution for a single letter each.
* Words are split by single dots (The Period, Full Stop)
* Sentences are split by double dots (The Period, Full Stop)
* The rotation of your code sheet you are filling out using other notes, are (ROT-x) rotated based on the number representing the missing letter's position in the alphabet.

I'd guess the sentences in the books also have to be read in order. Probally using that note's missing letter's number in the alphabet for ordering rather than the rotation of your decode sheet.


I have a feeling @Senjut is going to win this one due to my forced downtime. So I thought I'd let others have a crack. It's pretty fun!

 

A picture of my mocked up tables for this. With it you should be able to decypher any of those books.
Although there seems to be some additional sets of paired chars that have duplicate letters to throw you off.
If you get a new pair of chars pop up in a book that dont show in the table yet, the chances are that its a new duplicate (as only missing one on my charts). Use a crossword solver if in doubt to complete your book messages.

Remember. You only really need the 'A' book table. Then just either move the letters in the alphabet down in the left column by the amount of spaces that are dictated your note's missing letter's numerical number in the alphabet. (eg. If the note is missing the 'C' at the key in the top. C is number 3 in the alphabet. So move the letters down by 3 places).
OR, of course, move the character symbols up by the same amount in the right hand column by the same amount, leaving the letters in the alphabet in place.

Picture below:

https://pasteboard.co/HaGP2Uz.jpg

 

Using my table and rotating as outlined.


note 'C' (or 3) reads: we cannot meet as planned. wait for the signs. senet

note 'F' (or 6) reads: it is time to move houses. senet

note 'G' (or 7) reads: the payment will be in the same place as before. senet

note 'I' (or 9) reads: *** 'x'(possibly 8) were in the operation. only 'x' (possibly 'I') escaped ****




I see senet is an Egyptian boardgame. Each squares are called 'houses'. House number 15 is the house of rebirth and has a sota-style ankh on it. Clutching at strawers here!







.... how do I hide spoilers in text guys?

 

Use

Code:

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