Dungeon Master Forum

Somehow...always when I see that scroll something in the back of my head says "The Bard's Tale"...

"U os dey" or "Os dey" (and "u" as "a" or something) respectively still looks as a spell for me. Let think: We know (from the algorithm) that this is not a new spell, but it might be an old (well-known) one.

Now, try this: Take all old (known) spells which have ** *** letters (not very much, huh?, 3 or how much if I remember). E. g. "Ya bro"; I mean "ya" = "os" nad "bro" = "dey". And say: for each letter in each word, there is another system of translation. I mean, in each of the words in our sentence, 1st letter can be "translated" as x = (a+y), where "x" is order of letter from our sentence in alphabet, "a" is order of letter of known spell (ya bro e.g.) in alphabet and "y" is ??? (constant for every 1st letter in all the words), every 2nd letter in all the words in our sentence can be translated as (b + z), where "b" is order of this letter in alphabet and "z" constant (I mean, y do not = z, but in each the word y = y and z = z ). In another words, for each $th letter in every word of sentence another constant to add to gain the real letter.

So we must try to find a system, with which it might work. I mean system of changing of constants btw. each next $th letter. (e.g. "when "o" = "y", it means 1st letter in every word in our sentence is (minus 9 or what)th letter in normal alphabet, and when "s" = "a", then 2nd letter in each word is (+ 18)" etc.). Then make a hypothesis: the constants "y", "z" etc. will change so: -9, 18, -9, 18... or -9, 18, 9, - 18 etc; and test it on the "spell". The spell is a help for us. Try it for each known spell ** ***.

It´s just an example, It might work in another way - but it´s about finding a system).

But it might be a red herring as well.

Sorry for my English..

Actually I believe that it is not the result of a mathematical code, because aquantana looks much to alike to an actual word or name, I think it was made up manually.

Well, nice try. Actually, that was my brother´s idea. But I think, we are moving in circles. Is anybody here able to sum up all our attempts, and determine, which of them we still haven´t refused???

hi everyone

well i love secrets ... so here are my thoughts:

I think the sentence is called:


GRYNZX
JERNUM QUEY KZ
SKEBOW REDNZM
U OS DEY
WEFNA ENOCARN
AQUANTANA


There is no I ... it's a Z.

But doesn't matter at all, cause i believe that the meaning of the sentence is not important...but the numbers are...

well look:

we got 6 rows.

row1: 6 characters 0 spaces = 6
row2: 12 characters 2 spaces= 14
row3: 12 characters 1 space = 13
row4: 6 characters 2 spaces = 8
row5: 12 characters 1 space = 13
row6: 9 characters 0 spaces = 9

hmm...
row1 + row2 ... 6 + 14 = 20
row3 + row4 ... 13 + 8 = 21
row5 + row6 ... 13 + 9 = 22

if we look at the characters only:
row1 + row2 ... 6 + 12 = 18
row3 + row4 ... 12 + 6 = 18
row5 + row6 ... 12 + 9 = 21

if we look at the spaces:
row1 + row2 ... 0 + 2 = 2
row3 + row4 ... 1 + 2 = 3
row5 + row6 ... 1 + 0 = 1

But there is something more mysterious if we look at the arrangement of the characters.

row1: 6 = 6
row2: 6 + 4 + 2 = 12 or 642
row3: 6 + 6 = 12 or 66
row4: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 or 123
row5: 5 + 7 = 12 or 57
row6: 9 = 9 or 9

Well there is a linear structure in the small text...so it seems not to be a random thingy.

well ... there are some numerical series, too.
6 - 4 - 2 = value decreases about 2
1 - 2 - 3 = value increases about 1
5 - 7 - 9 = value increases about 2

remaining values: 6 and 6 + 6. well this is also a numerical series.

But, what first came into my mind when i saw these numbers is this:
we got:
1,2,2,3,4,5,6,6,6,6,7,9 ... 2x2 and 4x6
well 2+6= 8
and 6+6=12
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12

I don't know DM but i think these numbers wanna show us a position on the worldmap, like (08,06,35) ... the sentence itself has one thing that made me perplex. aquantana. i don't know but for me it sounds like the name of a city or something what should not be translated. in germany we call this "Eigenwort" but i can't find a translation für that.

Maybe i am wrong and the text is written in a language from east-eruope. (jugoslavia or sth like that)

does anyone know where the designers of the game came from?

btw...does these coordinates exist: (24,42,43) ???
if yes...plz go to them and look if sth is there.

mfg,
zork

I guess nobody tried to understand why I said these are vexirk names. Have a better look at level 8 of CSB, and look for the monsters section...

I tired to work out what you meant before, but I thought you were just messing about! :-) Are you just random guessing? I can't see any connection with the Vexirks, other than the fact that the scroll is in the chest by the Vexirk Cult.

What are you getting at.....????

By the way Zork, you're wrong about there being no "I" and that they are all "Z"s... check the extracted font bitmap using CSBExtract and you'll see that those letters are indeed the letter "I"

I also cannot undertstand what you mean with vexirks, Sphenx...

Sphenx: What, you mean use the hint oracle/monster scroll for the vexirk hall passed the 'no fireballs' area?

What I mean is that if you look the scroll, you see 2 lines with 1 word, 2 lines with 2 words, and 2 lines with 3 words.
If you check the vexirks room, there are 2 groups of 1 vexirk, 2 groups of 2 vexirks, 2 groups of 3 vexirks ..... and 1 group of 4! that's the bad part.
So, my theory is that it was too ridiculous to have 4 words on 1 line, they would have been too shorts ... By the way, it's enough frustrating for a vexirk to be named "U". The most famous vexirk is "Aquantana". Maybe 'she' is a vexirk female.

That's it. :)

Well...interesting. But im so tired after neverlasting "solving" this problem that...I´m going to think about it at least...

Gappling for straws... ;) But I admit that's as good a theory as any sphenx...
This must be the longest thread in the meanwhile and we're not really closer to solving it - or is there anything I've missed?

I'm grapling at straws here, but I had a thought that the last three characters ANA may be a key. Perhaps they represent an instruction, ANAGRAM, and so can be removed from the available letters. This might make things easier, and it gives us better 6 letter groupings as Beowuuf stated. But having said that, I haven't had the time to look into it!

Uhhh, I´m just a poor natural-scientist (or, better, I´m trying to be one). I think we are closing to some kind of metaphysics (or what) here, which I cannot undestand (what parts of zodiac the designers of CSB were born in?).

We hear the grass growing! (what if the shape of the words on our scroll represents a head of...animated armor?)(uhh..)

Everyone has got his own, independent, theory, or at least hypothesis. Everybody is talking about st. completely different. What a nice example of postmodernism in science... Someone HAS to make a summary of our approaches, or we´re going to move in circles, inventing old (refused) things!

i think the numbers attempt is quite interesting. but i also think my head is gonna explode if i think deeper about it...

Wow it's been awhile since i've posted here..sure did miss alot(and of course i'm still an idiot for not geting my password right).

Anyways on topic I was just wondering if anyone ever tried an unscramling method(if you have ignore this) if not I'll try giving a go at it..esp.since i've been gone for some time. From the looks of it it might be just some scrambled words who knows..but i'll give this a go.

I havent seen dermott cassidy post in the other boards lately. Lunever must have scared him away :-)

Jardice: If so, I'm actually sorry about that.

Unscrambling in english has been tried by both Christophe and me (at least we both posted it here). Feel free to try again though ;)

Regards PitD

Lunever: I wouldn't worry about it. He probably wasn't planning on being a regular anyways.

PitD; Thanks for telling me that. I figured I missed something in the post..well time to get cracking On the so-far most baffaling DM mystery ever to come to Life.

OK, I know the meaning of this scroll, it was in a magazine interview of FTL a long time ago.

GRYNIX JERNUM QUEY KI SKEBOW REDNIM U OS DEY WEFNA EDNOCARN AQUANTANA

=

?

(will be completed as soon as my bank account in Switzerland will be credited with $1.000.000)

Well sorry guys for this easy joke, but the thread is already so long anyway.

Hahaha...uhh...euchm. Funny! (uchmm)
I think we left the sphenx-vexirks theory too fast... Lets think about it more!

"Don't try to read the scroll...that's impossible. Instead, merely try to understand the truth...there is no scroll..."
- Kid from 'The Matrix'

"There IS a scroll you strange child from the matrix, look!" *thwack "See!" *thwack* "Tell me the meaning dammit"" *thwack*
- Beowuuf, going mad from this mystery

Yeah, if you start confusing the matrix with DM it's time to start looking for help ;)

Beowuuf - maybe some of your home countries finer spirits could inspire a solution ? ;)

Regards PitD

Uhh, I think we needed more wise-ones to solve this. My head is spoiling and my brain´s capacity is overloaded. I have no more idea (but I still mean we must think about vexirk´s names more).

Beowuuf: lol

Lunever is very lazy when he makes sentences.

A bottle of brain medicine *whiskey* for everyone, and two for Lunevar and his short sentences : )

Simplicity is definitely the key, if a key is needed here...a 50 times roudn the hills algorithm would be just too obscure
It has to be something basic - or somehting lateral
If you have to do more than two -three differnt methods to the sentence, my guess is you are barking up the wrong tree...

I suggest an entirely different approach: Let us make a petition to someone who hes been at FTL signed by all dm players available to reveal the solution to this riddle. I don't think that any other approach will be successful. If I get some response here, I will try to gather agreements of as much players as possible via mail. Of course this would require someone -anyone- to provide some mail adress of someone who has been at ftl or to forward it there.

And yes, I know this is capitulation. It's time for that, you know.

Well, I'm not really sure a petition will make a lot of difference. If FTL bods want to tell us the answer, I'm sure they will do so in their own time.

Anyway, there's a good chance that I might have some more concrete information about this puzzle fairly soon...