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

Based on the clues given by @Senjut and @Fazza above, I believe I have found an easy way to decipher all of these messages.

Spoiler: Huge Spoiler - Cipher Clues

Assuming what they discovered is correct, I saw a pattern in the order of the symbols. It seemed as if each Letter corresponded to either a single symbol and a space or 2 symbols next to each other. This is basically what they both hinted at.

As I began plotting the solved ciphers actual letters versus the cipher symbols, I noticed that there was a repeating pattern. Once you figure out one of the letters (and using the SENET signature as the "known" letters to chart) it's simply a matter of starting at the "S" and completing the alphabet from there on.

NOTE ---- There are only a handful of symbols used for the first half of a letter and another handful of symbols used for the 2nd half. First half will be one of the following:
/
1 (this is a straight vertical line and not necessarily a one)
\
-
>
<

The 2nd half symbols will be one of the following:
.
:
0
8
[space] (just a space, no actual symbol)

That is also the order in which they will appear too. The first one will take the / and add the . to make /. The 2nd one will take the 1 and add the . to make 1. etc. Once you go through the first half set with the period (.), you then start over with the / and the : to make /:

Hope that makes sense. I did not see any "=" or "?" as others have mentioned in any of the Mysterious Notes that I have seen. If there are some that have these symbols on them, then perhaps my theory/pattern is wrong because I don't account for them being in there.

To give a better example, here is the pattern of symbols, using the first one as Letter "A" as an example:
A /.
B 1.
C \.
D -.
E >.
F <.
G /:
H 1:
I \:
J -:
K >:
L <:
M /0
N 10
O \0
P -0
Q >0
R <0
S /8
T 18
U \8
V -8
W \[space]
X 1[space]
Y >[space]
Z <[space]

So, when you find one of these, just get a scratch pad and write down the letters A through Z as I did above. Then, go to the last line of the note where it should be the signature SENET and find the first set of symbols for the letter "S". Now take that set of symbols and put it next to S on your scratch pad. After that, match that symbol pattern with the one I used in the example above and then repeat my pattern from that symbol onward for the letters T thru Z. Then keep repeating the pattern starting at your letter A thru R and you should have your cipher for that note.

Enjoy.

 

After further review, I believe my reply above is not 100% correct. Working on an update, but I believe I am almost correct.

 

If this helps: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t1T4bTYyUlAEQ_zMTa1XbDvTFtxZLWxXPg9tG8bWsyw/edit?usp=sharing

This is Senjut and my working file.

 

Ok, here is an update ... I don't think what I said above is 100% correct...

Spoiler

Here was my pattern for the Letter A above:
A /.
B 1.
C \.
D -.
E >.
F <.
G /:
H 1:
I \:
J -:
K >:
L <:
M /0
N 10
O \0
P -0
Q >0
R <0
S /8
T 18
U \8
V -8
W \[space]
X 1[space]
Y >[space]
Z <[space]

What I just realized is that there are two more single symbols with a space... /[space] and 1[space] (vertical line). I believe they will come after the -8 and before the /[space] for some patterns, although I'm not 100% certain yet why they were omitted in this one. Perhaps the missing letter at the top of the note is a clue for where 2 of them are omitted?

I also now realize that numbers may appear and not just numbers, so perhaps I don't have the complete pattern down yet. If I figure out more, I'll post below.

 

Amazing work
Hopfully the simple ROT-X means the rest is childsplay. Someone more talented than me could knock up a quick web app to automatically do the decode and rotation based on key after pasting it in.

One question - perhaps baffling me a little. How did you come up with '08' as a representation of '2'?





It would be hilarious if this was a mistake in rendering and somehow reveals the same obfuscation method used to hide secret data between clients and server.
"When the players crack the method, we'll upgrade the system. Not a moment before".

As the notes really seem to be arbitrary...


@Chris

 

We think it's a number, but not sure which number. It might be also based on the cypher rotation.

 

I believe both you and Fazza are correct. However:

Spoiler: What I think

Daxxe - your key is only displaying the 26 alpha characters - I think it also needs 0-9, making 36 possible characters in all. I think you're right on the first/second character bit, but I suspect there are six possible first characters and six possible second characters, making 36 total combinations (because that would cover the 36 alphanumeric characters you need replacements for).

Also Fazza, your rotation idea is spot on and I likewise believe the missing alphabetic character tells you where to start the replacement string on any given note, and then you are correct it stays in the same order each time. It's the old secret decoder ring (http://www-math.ucdenver.edu/~wcherowi/clockar5.html). But I think you also need to add the numbers 0-9 and the spot where the missing letter is should not be blank - it still gets a replacement character. I'd be curious to see the other note examples you found.

Anyway, I think you're both headed straight for it!

But the biggest thing I want to know is WHO IS THIS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND SENET??? The dude is Professor Moriarty, straight up. He's behind the scenes all over the place. If anyone's been to the Jack of Diamonds, let us know if you've seen him there! Maybe flash his name at people, see how they react.

Also would be really good to start catching a list of all the locations these notes are. I'm going to set aside solving the key and go looking around in game some more.

 

Cool.
My notes are your notes.

The missing blank one is due to not enough notes with known chars to fill it from.( One more note might do it!)

If I'm honest, I dont think loot location matters too much. I stuck to the orginal location and looted between two chars. It seems that it doesnt matter which char you use, there is a delay amyway between note spawn in a location. Doesnt matter if its multi/single/party zone. I got all 4 different notes below from the same one location.

I love your idea of asking NPCs about Senet.


Notes:

[c][000000]ABCDEFHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (G - 7)

|8 |: >. . -0 /. > /0 >. |0 |8 . \ \: <: <: . |. >. . \: |0 . |8 |: >. . /8 /. /0 >. . -0 <: /. \. >. . /. /8 . |. >. <. \0 <0 >. ..

/8 >. |0 >. |8

----


[c][000000]ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (I - 9)

08 . > /: |8 /: . >: -0 . | -: /: . >0 <0 /: |8 \. | >: >0 -0 .. . >0 -0 |0 /. . 0. . /: / >. \. <0 /: <. ..

/ /: -0 /: |



----


[c][000000]ABCDEGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (F - 6)

|: /8 . |: <0 . /8 |: <: -. . /8 |0 . <: |0 / -. . /: |0 |8 <0 -. <0 ..

<0 -. /0 -. /8



----


[c][000000]ABDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (C - 3)

/8 /. . > \ -: -: >: -0 . \: /. /. -0 . \ \0 . <: |: \ -: -: /. < .. . /8 \ >. -0 . |. >: |0 . -0 -. /. . \0 >. \. -: \0 ..

\0 /. -: /. -0



----



PS. The '[c][000000]' is included when I copy the note from clipboard ingame to out of game.
Doubt it is relevent. I know #000000 is the HTML color code for black. But apart from that I'm at a loss.

 

Spoiler: Slightly Spoilerish Spoiler Stuff

It's definitely a number, since it can't be A, I, or O, which are the only letters that can form a word by themselves (and O is a bit dicey). Also the second sentence can't be "Only I escaped" because I already has a different symbol in that note - in other words, for the same reason this is also definitely a number. Once we have the full key we'll know which numbers are which, but in the context of that note it hardly matters (i.e. some people went in, less people came out - whether six people were in the operation and only three escaped or five were and two escaped doesn't add much meaning at the moment).

 

Right, I don't think location matters as far as what the particular note says.

Spoiler: Spoilerish Conjectury Stuff

You can get two totally different notes from the same spot. And the notes themselves don't seem to be telling us particularly important things...so I'm moving on to the idea that where Senet is up to his shady dealings and what's around those areas might tell me something. For the moment I'm going with the belief that if these were just random/Easter egg type things, they wouldn't all be signed by the same guy. Who is apparently working with a lot of disconnected groups of rogues and thieves...or maybe they're not all so disconnected.

 

Love this.
'Senet' is going to be my first key word when talking with any NPC in the game from now on.
I guess the biggest lead we have so far is 'northern grunvald barrens' (but not a lot there!) in terms in in-game pointers.

 

the butler did it...

 

Spoiler: Pondering thought about SENET

Perhaps SENET = Seeing Eye Network aka the Oracle (or something similar) and not necessarily a person?

I do think that there are likely other notes out there to be found that might give more clues on the author though. If various versions of this note are spawning in the same location(s) then it might be easiest to just post an alt there and check for new ones every once in a while.

 

So.
Someone posted about the 'invitation to the game' note found in the apple shed originally. Not sure if this is related at all to this challange or not. They said they completed the quest. Either way, the contents can be found here:
https://pasteboard.co/HaJWMtM.jpg

And here is the reponse after aksking a ranom NPC Paladin in Brittanty fields about 'Senet' may not be related to senet at all but rather 'the game':
https://pasteboard.co/HaJXaBi.jpg


So, I mean. We could be on. This might not be a mistake.


For everyone else in this thread. I think we're about to try and take this quest private for the 4 guys working on it now.
Let us know if you need in.

 

You guys clearly need your little orphan Annie decoder ring for this!

 

@Daxxe Diggler Yeah I was wondering the same thing about Senet.

 

i think any response that starts with "how peculiar of you to say so!" is a generic "i don't understand", with scene-specific follow-up. probably asking him about pretty much anything random would get the same result.

 

Very true. It had passed our minds.
Likley just a pointer to the local 'the game' questline

 

It is his random response (i.e. it's not directly to "Senet" as a key word), but unlike seemingly everyone else in Brittany Fields, he has two random responses. One is the same one everyone else says, about people who go down in the sewers not coming out. But he will also say this one on occasion, and "Paladin Dupre" is the only NPC we can find who makes this reference to notes.

Also just FYI, I was able to get inside the building with the airship with scaffolding over it in Brittany Alleys (the one with the loose stone on the outside). Was also able to get up on the airship and to the top of the scaffolding...nothing there. I leaped into the building from the roof of a nearby player keep.

 

Looks like it's not a one way conversation