Thread: Polybius Codes

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It has previously been shown that p. 47 frame contains a solved polybius code

(as to the relation, that letter 4 on phrase below is flipped 7, and p. 47 is "topsy turvy")

Originally Posted by

Since some interest has been expressed in the polybius application, will now begin a separate thread "Polybius Codes", using a simple p. 5 example.

On p. 5, the right frame phrase is

FOLLOWS HIS NOSE

Several items to note:

1) p. 5 and 5 x 5 polybius grid

2) In the frame

• Yellow rectangles form continuous string, do not group
• Red and Orange rectangles are not continuous, but form groups, never exceeding 5 in a group

3) Fandango "follows his nose"

• His nose points to the red L
• His nose points to the group of 2 red rectangles
• which is followed by 3 red rectangles

4) Thus yielding coordinates 2,3

Code:

. . 1 2 3 4 5
. . . . . . .
1 . A B C D E
2 . F G H I J
3 . K L M N o
4 . P . . . .
5 . . . . . . 

As Fandango's nose points to both the red L and the polybius code for the L, it is confirmed.

Lots more.

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Now that general clue for using polybius confirmed, continue by using the frame-side Fandango's nose is pointing to (p. 5)

orange, red.... orange, red .... orange, red ...

2,2 / 1,3 / 3,3 / 2,1 ....

TO MY ....

( using the "topsy-turvy" polybius matrix )

Code:

. . 1 2 3 4 5
. . . . . . .
1 . Z Y X W V
2 . U T S R P
3 . O N M L K
4 . J I H G F
5 . E D C B A

Originally Posted by

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Now that general clue for using polybius confirmed, continue by using the frame-side Fandango's nose is pointing to (p. 5)

orange, red.... orange, red .... orange, red ...

2,2 / 1,3 / 3,3 / 2,1 ....

TO MY ....

317 is area code for IN

3 times the word IN is confirmed on p. 17 frame

(reposting to p. 5 thread)

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p. 7

"I rule the sea"

As was previously mentioned, the planks measured, the planks are 1 inch apart.

Looking at Neptunes crown, and pairing the small vs large points. As separated by the large central point -

(large, small)

(1,2) (4,4)

Code:

. . 1 2 3 4 5
. . . . . .
1 . A B C D E
2 . F G H I J
3 . K L M N O
4 . P R S T U
5 . V W X Y Z 

I don't think the page 5 border could be a polybius code, there isn't enough variation, and it's too symmetrical, the opposing borders fit too nicely together. There's also no fours or fives, it's all ones, twos and threes, eliminating 16 letters from the 25 letter alphabet, pretty hard to spell anything meaningful with 9 letters...not impossible but difficult. I think the border colors, and matching borders between page 5 and 40 might be telling us we need to look at groups of pages together in order to solve this.

The very first post on this thread states "that p. 47 frame contains a solved polybius code". Can someone please explain how this was solved?

I do think that this border, and a few others, have hidden codes embedded in them. But I can not see how page 47 is a Polybius code. The geometric repeating pattern that surrounds page 47 looks like boxes that can be divided up into six smaller squares. However, one square in the same position is always yellow. So that leaves five boxes that can contain other colors. Some times all five boxes will be all one matching color. Other times you have up to three colors in the five squares. If this is a Polybius code, what do you assign a shape that is all one color? Or what do you assign a shape that has three different colors? If this has been solved, please explain how.

From the signs in the illustration on page 44, we get hints of "RED" and "YELLOW". Perhaps this is telling us to look at the borders surrounding the art. Most of them are simply red and yellow. But there are other borders that incorporate other colors as well. For example, page 40 has red, yellow and orange. Since the red color repeats itself in every-other rectangle shape, I would guess that it is the yellow and orange colors that are important. This could be a morse code, or something similar. We even have a flower from the art, that reaches down into the border, probably indicating a start point. So reading this clock-wise we would get: orange-yellow-orange-yellow-yellow-yellow-yellow-yellow-orange-orange-orange-orange-orange-yellow-yellow-orange-etc.... Could this be morse code?

On page 5, again, the border is red, yellow and orange. But this time the yellow repeats itself, so it would seem that only the red and orange are important.

Page 19 is similar to page 47, and complex.

Page 23 uses six colors, but they are not repeated in any kind of pattern.

I think these five pages (5, 19, 23, 40, 47) all contain some kind of cryptography in the borders. Perhaps we can start taking a closer look.

Originally Posted by Genetic Blend

The very first post on this thread states "that p. 47 frame contains a solved polybius code". Can someone please explain how this was solved?

There is no solved polybius code for this page, or any other page for that matter. Astree's "confirmers" are usually just odd associations. For instance 317 being the area code for IN,.....why would that be a clue? What is the connection to IN? to telephone area codes?
I don't believe that there are any sort of complex codes or ciphers involved.
I think the answer is simpler than we expect, and that it is staring us in the face.
I am fairly certain that Pel did expect that someone would have solved this by now,... we are going on 8 years already.

Originally Posted by Genetic Blend

From the signs in the illustration on page 44, we get hints of "RED" and "YELLOW". Perhaps this is telling us to look at the borders surrounding the art.

The hint from the signs on page 44 is RED YELLOW BOOK, in reference to the orange book on page 30, "In The Lake of The Woods" by Tim O'Brien. There is a clue from the story and I also believe that the ISBN # Pel drew on it holds a clue as well. It isn't the real ISBN # of the book (it isn't even the correct # of digits for any valid ISBN.) We might have to shuffle the digits or break them up somehow.

The author has said in an interview, that we only need "Fandango" to solve this hunt. It seems odd to me that not only does he give some kind of hint to "Masquerade", but to "In The Lake of the Woods" too. But like you said above, this hunt has not been solved for 8 years. At this point, I am open to anything! I will check it out! Thanks.

Found on ebay, "School of Violin Technique Op. 1 Part 4 NEW 014029818". The series is Secvik Violin Studies, and the ISBN is 014029818. And, it is yet another reference to music.