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[Xofrevlis]

Heh, I'm terrible at ciphers. I think I'll just stick to drawing, speaking of which

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stravitch this time, and oh my it turned out a little blurry. Quite a shame, I'll see if I can trace over it sometime to make a cleaner looking version. Took me a while to find the description for "Enteredlanced the Unseen Chances" but I got it eventually, and other than that I was kinda stuck with my imagination. Er, unless I missed some description somewhere, I'd love to make corrections if someone would point me in the right direction. After all, it is more than 30 pages of posts.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

He looks like an overbearing bastard who likes to use that mace, so I from what I've read, that's stravich.
Awesome beard.

[Stravitch]

Amazing drawing Xofrevlis!  I really enjoy it,  these spoiler boxes are a blessing and a curse.  I want to hover over them, but I want to work it out for myself!  Oh, Lenod, guide me in my time of weakness! I shall not falter!

[Jools]

Options for working on the cypher... no solution though.

Besides, I've just got a donkey sanctuary, I'd hate to be greedy...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, could be words backwards again, but it doesn't look like that. The cyphers themselves being back to front doesn't work either, it blows the letter count. The temptation to see it as a four-symbol system is there but just doesn't work either. Could be a simple substitution cypher on top of the stenograph.

Or... two phrases pop out at me: "Smostostrambegozru Ngedlu" and "Bax Unostotho dutsmon Olsmo". Same number of letters in each, though they don't also match the decoded letters. Anyone got any ideas about this?

[Kuli]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nevermind.  I can't deal with grids.  If it was anything else I'd have a chance.  But show me a grid and my mind flies out the window for some reason.

Well, I might still try.  I can't find any information on Bacon's Stenograph on Google or Wikipedia.  Do you know where I could find out more about it, Makrond?

[Heavy Flak]

I just got out of a meeting, and my coworkers don't know how to take a compliment.  I told one of them, "I'm really glad you have skin." and he just got confused.  "What do you mean, you're glad I have skin?"

"I mean, if you didn't have skin you'd look really gross.  I wouldn't want to talk to you.  But you do, and I'm glad for that."

Then he left the room.  What a jerk.

Xofrevlis: Awesome work, absolutely awesome!  I've got to admit, when I think "mace", I think of the cartoonish round spiky thing stuffed onto the end of a stick, but the one you've given Stravitch seems more realistic and much more menacing.  I'm absolutely flattered you like this story enough to spend time drawing characters from it  

Flar Moonchill: 42 is always the answer.

And a quick note about the cipher: You guys are coming up with a lot of good ideas, and some of you are definitely on the right track.  I'll wait a few days before saying more on the scheme itself, but I will give a small hint.  By now, you're probably aware that I like to mess with you guys.  I reverse words, or whole sentences.  Keep in mind, with encryption, following the steps to the letter could make it easy to decode.  Sometimes the ciphers should be used as a template, the broad idea, and the execution altered.

Also: Happy 500th!

[Kuli]

We're getting close to 1/3 the length of Nist Akath!  Woo!

[Daniel Charms]

I think I got a bit further with the cryptogram, but I'm not sure where...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First of all, it seems to me that the real cyphertext is, in fact, hidden inside the message. If you look at the cryptogram, you'll notice that some of the A's and B's are bigger than others. To be more exact, 25 of them are, which means you can nicely arrange them into a grid:

ABBAA
ABAAA
BAAAB
AAAAA
ABABB

Which works out into "nisam". But this makes no sense. This is all I've got.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I think Nisam is a word in dwarvish

[Jools]

I think I got a bit further with the cryptogram, but I'm not sure where...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First of all, it seems to me that the real cyphertext is, in fact, hidden inside the message. If you look at the cryptogram, you'll notice that some of the A's and B's are bigger than others. To be more exact, 25 of them are, which means you can nicely arrange them into a grid:

ABBAA
ABAAA
BAAAB
AAAAA
ABABB

Which works out into "nisam". But this makes no sense. This is all I've got.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or EYRBF is you read it across and not down. I think. Though I'd be less surprised if NISAM and perhaps OLSMO weren't the beginnings of some sort of cypher key... or adding/subtracting NISAM to the letters of the code e.g. S+N, D+I, R+S, O+A, A+M, Y+N etc.

Not come up with anything yet, but something feels more right about the slightly larger letters being a key and not a second part of the message.

I could be dead wrong, though. None of this has got me anything intelligible.

On edit - nisam is "COUNSEL" in Human. Nothing in Dwarfish, Elvish, or Goblin that I could find. I might not be using the right dictionary though.

[Heavy Flak]

Might as well put the spoiler tags to use since I was so happy about finally getting them. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't want to stifle anyone's creativity, but I need to step in before you guys get way too far off track.  In the hints and information you post, some of it is very relevant to the current crypto.  Some of it is not.  Let me come out now and remind you all that The Dreaded Polybius Square, and his numerous and equally terrible children, have been temporarily banned from playing with you all.  They're grounded until they can learn to play nicer.  I'm only saying this so you all don't put more work into false leads, but the translation from gibberish-to-human is just an unfortunate coincidence that I didn't prepare for.

It does, however, give me lots of ideas for future ciphers.  You can punish Daniel Charms, Maggarg and Jools for that, if you want

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

No, no, please no!
Not the hammerer!
*wails*

[Stravitch]

I got something different than you did Makrond

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

I get all the same letters as you except the 4th
and 6th group decoding.

 In the 4th the 1st and 3rd character are capitals
and in the 6th group the 3rd and 5th letters are
capitals. 

I'm not sure if you can go from there, but that is
where I've dead ended and decided to come back
to the thread where I noticed you've gotten the
same cipher method.

BAAAB AABAA E

AAABB AAABB D

BAAAA AAABB D

ABBAB BABAA W

AAAAA BAABB U-V

BABBA AABAB F

AAAAB BAABB U-V

AABBA ABAAA I-J

AAAAB ABAAA I-J

AAAAA BABAB X

ABABA BAABB U-V

ABBBA AABAA E

AAAAB AAAAB B


[Jools]

Maggarg, it's either the Hammerer, or Stravitch and that mace of his. Personally I'd rather take my chances with the Hammerer...

Good spot, Stravitch (please don't hit me ;-D) - though we still need to work out what devious twist Heavy Flak has put on the end of that double-message encoding...

[Stravitch]

I wish there was a way to lock open or closed the spoiler windows -_-