Thread: Kryptonomicon Teaser official solution guide

Stupid mistake on my part!!!!!!! I wrote
avka
nees
afyi
nose
Ecui!!!!!!!!!
AAACCCKKK!!!!!! 2e's STupid, stupid, stupid!!
As a finish carpenter I am mortified. Measure twice, cut once.
I should have columnized once, checked twice!!!!!!
Great puzzle and had a blast! I look forward to more.

Here is my take on how things went down, and explanations of all my official clues.

Possum broke the transposition encryption in under 24 hours. I wanted to congratulate him for that, but he had the phrases out of order and there was still work to be done.

Clue #1

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

Find the "keys" and answer the riddle and you should know the keyword. The solution is a single word.

These simply are instructions on how to solve the puzzle.

Clue #2

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

Super-surprise offical clue #2 coming soon...
(because it's killing me to see you moving around the answer and not finding it)

I enjoyed the confusion around this one. The clue was right there in the post, and most people were waiting for another post. The original clue I planned was "because its killing me to see you spiraling around the answer and not finding it". At this point the keys were not found. I decided to change 'spiraling' to 'moving around' so I would not give away too much. Domino figured out 'Spiral Vine' but nobody picked up on it. I tried to confirm he was correct by saying this:

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

I am trying to make you dizzy. Drinking will probably help. Ask Domino. A little vertigo never hurt anyone.

I felt like I was hitting people over the head with a hammer here. But nobody pursued 'Toil Kicker' after this.

Clue #3

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

This snake goes by several names. Red pipe snake. False Coral Snake. But the name that makes this a clue is its scientific name, Anilius Scytale. I figured some of you would go down the path of trying to locate the image and therefore jump right to the solution. I hid the true color of the snake by using a sepia filter in Photoshop. After nobody got the clue right away I hinted at the importance with this:

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

...I'll admit, it is not the best clue. Clue #3 is much better.

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

Negatory on venom and asp. You will know when you get it. The answer fits the puzzle and all of my clues.

I thought there was a good chance somebody would find the snakes name and then reverse-engineer the keys.

Clue #4

Originally Posted by rdshackleford

Official Clue #4.1:

Official Clue #4.2:

At this point the keys were causing people trouble. So, at this point I decided to confirm what the keys were and hint to the juxtaposition solution. Gabi keenly noticed the names of the image files which confirmed they were clues to the keys. The original names of those files were clue4.1 and clue4.2. I changed the names hoping somebody would notice them and have confirmation they were key clues.

Soon after the keys being confirmed, lots of activity took place and Sluggy solved it. Moscow made a very nice deconstruction of almost all the pertinent clues. The critical piece of info he ignored was "An Ancient Cipher You Have Found". This was the central riddle.

Gabi was closest to the solution before Sluggy nailed it. She totally reinvented the scytale cipher without knowing the name of it.

Originally Posted by gabi

The way I see it, what it is telling us, is that we have to write the coded text in a vertical strip (by the second part of clue 4) and then wrap it around something like in the image in clue 4.1. If we find the right something to wrap the text around we should be able to read something which is probably the key or a definition of the key.

Originally Posted by gabi

If we think of a string of letters as a snake, we have to get that snake folding together in a way (like the spiral vine) in which we can read some letters next to the others and make sense of them.

Looking at the 4 keys we have, I think they are too short and we have to use the rest of the text (80 letters are more flexible and we have many more combinations than with just 20) to find the answer.

This was exactly correct. Once this was posted, I knew the solution was imminent.

I guess I hid the riddle pretty well. Even after the transposition cipher was broken, the riddle and the answer remained hidden and unsolved for 13 days.

-Rusty

p.s. Bonus points awards still to come.

To Possum: For breaking the transposition encryption, 50 points!
To Domino: For completing the encryption and finding the first key, 50 points!
To Neville, er, I mean Lafitte: For keeping the hunt lively and lighthearted, 50 points!
To Gabi: For confirming the keys and reinventing the scytale cipher, first runner up prize of 100 points!

By the way, points means Twollars. I just felt like Dumbledore this morning.

-Rusty

Neville?

Maybe Hermione would have been funnier. I didn't know how to spell that, and I didn't feel like looking it up at the time.

-Rusty

HAHAH!! Funny you choose that character. I used to cut out of High School and spend my days at the Grand Army Plaza library. Devoured all I could.

Thanks Rusty.

Hadny been on here in a few, figured I'd pop in and find it solved sooner or later.

Next!

On On

I just got back from the King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaos exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philly. It was awesome! Over 130 objects from the tomb discovered by Carter in 1922. Including the golden fan I used in the Kryptonomicon banner graphic. It was very cool to see that piece in person.



-Rusty