Quest for the Holy Scroll

[Steve Hall]

Meynaf, what do you mean by vexirk writing? I dont recall any example of their "literature" in the game to compare it to....

People have assumed that the scroll is a puzzle not associated with any other element (puzzle) within the game, so I dont believe that looking for other elements in the data files will really yeild any answers (unless the solution was imbedded in the file as redundent code - we wish!).

Anyway, why not send it to the people at mensa - they like these puzzles....

[Jenda]

It would to be end of Mensa, this strange fellowship! Hehehe!

[beowuuf]

Wow, if you use 'mensa' as a keyword, you get somethign that makes even less sense!
I think we are close now *twitch* very very close *twitch*

[Jenda]

Yes! Yes! We are closing! "Keyword", it´s the key. Because "key" means "key" and "word" means "a group of letters". Yes, THIS may go. Yes.

Because the index of determination (R square) btw. word rank and their number of letters in this f-word-ing sentence is 0,45721. I´m not joking, try it, and you will see! I used SPSS 10.1 for Windows (and Enter method of regression analysis).

Now, its clear, because 0 is level and 45 and 721 are numbers of... blah blah

Yes, I´ll stop smoking THIS and drinking THAT. And lets promise we all will stop doing this!

Now, its already not funny. So, whoever knows solution of this quest, write it here. As I said, it´s not funny. It was a good joke for a long time, but now it is not. So write it and do not drive me mad!

[Jenda]

So stop hiding the solution and write it! I know, you know it, you Secret Stranger! I know, who are you! So write it and nothing will happen! I´m gonna forget THIS all! Really!

So, please, write it! umfff.... PLEASE!

[Zyx]

it












(You're welcome)

[Zyx]

Alright, here something more constructive. Or is it deconstructive? ;-)

Idea: somebody from the Clueless and Handicaped, yet Elegant Community of Scroll Undeciphering Maniacs take this thread and make a dungeon with a riddle scroll for each and every encryption method proposed here.
This unbelievable dungeon would be called the gibberish dungeon and would be full of gigglers (gibberish - gigglers, surely I don't have to explain here the intrinsic cryptogrammic relations to our now expert readers) carrying more and more encrypted messages, and as they steal you the scrolls you are reading, the result is that you keep loosing track of which scroll was found where, which is of course a capital information to solve the riddles.
Simultaneously, sudden and partial words would appear and disappear on the wall and on the floor (triggered randomly by running gigglers in a remote part of the dungeon) to give the players some inspiration about the possible keys of the codes used to cypher the texts. These words would be cloned almost to the infinite through the entire levels of the entire dungeon.

Who wants to start the dungeon?

[Zyx]

I meant
Clueless and Handicaped, yet Elegant Community of Kaos Scroll Undeciphering Maniacs of course, I guessed you already all corrected it by yourself...

[Lunever]

LOL The most elusive secret order I've ever heard of :-)

[PicturesInTheDark]

Anyone who has followed this thread for longer than 6 months and not yet gone crazy, please raise their hands...

*shiver*

Regards, PitD

[beowuuf]

*raises hand*

wait, it's a flipper, never mind...

[Steve Hall]

I've just started a new thread on the little green desktop about this little conundrum......

Hopefully it will bring new victims this maddening puzzle.

http://www.atari.st/forum/list.php?f=9


I wonder if the answer to the scroll lies in the number 42? (sorry- obscure joke!!)

Steve Hall

[beowuuf]

Don't worry, my flipper joke came from the same place (...turning into a penguin...)

[Paul Stevens]

Flora provided the necessary hints:
======= quote =====
simple just shift letter every word:
....

rearrange words once you picked letter
========== end quote ============

So I set the computer to rearranging the letters
and then rearranging the resulting words (on the
rather rare occasion when words appeared).

Result:

Yes, some men now beware any unique, quick, dark
Dragon. Nary a fun exit.


And of course there are two exits from that area of
the dungeon. One to four Knights and one to a uniquely
mean and well-fed Dragon. Neither looks like fun.

[Zyx]

Another brain bites the dust...

--------------------------------------

As for the 42, try the google calculator:

http://www.google.com/search?q=answer+t ... everything

-------------------------------------
Steve Bruce:
In the little green desktop, you quote JERNUM instead of ERNUM
the letter J appears in old CSBwin versions because of a bug.
I am not registered and couldn't post in your thread.

Here's the thread:
http://www.atari.st/forum/read.php?f=9&i=11450&t=11450

[PicturesInTheDark]

This thread has probably lost it's mind and wandered off to seek professional help.. or does anybody have new ideas on how to revitalize the patient ?

Regards, PitD

[Zyx]

Alright, here's something:
in one of the posts I made, I isolated a few words by a special method.
Read them from the last to the first and you'll obtain a possible solution for the scroll.

[Gambit37]

I remember that post well -- I commented on it at the time, but my post disappeared due to the problems with the forums.

While your clues were interesting, I really think you are just having a laugh at our expense! Checksums indeed!

[beowuuf]

i thought it was the one about all the clue objects...

skeletons, bows, etc

[Zyx]

No, no, I'm talking about an possible answer in 4 words.

[PicturesInTheDark]

Errr... I'm lost, I admit it. But we made it 200 posts in this thread alone now.... unbelievable.

Regards, PitD

[beowuuf]

You realise at least 5 posts of that are you saying how long this thread has become?

Edit: I've searched backwards and i can't see the four word bit rfered to...ah well...

[Charlatan75]

Hello!

Hmmm... I think Zyx is talking about 4 words written in bold characters, about 15 posts before this one ^^

- Charlatan75 -

[Toni Y]

Time to ressurrect the thread! I think the answer is not as much linquistic, as it is algorithmic (doesn't preclude hand tuning the result). We have to remember that these guys were computer programmers after all.

I ran the message (without the error 'j' in it) through a ASCII value counter which sums up all the letters in a word. The result with lowercase letters is not overly interesting. The result with uppercase letters is more interesting:

Code: Select all

GRYNIX ERNUM QUEY KI  SKEBOW REDNIM  U   OS   DEY WEFNA ENOCARN AQUANTANA
 481    391  324  148  459    447    85  162  226  369    518      666

Someone in this thread earlier made reference to some DM/CSB site/book saying that "aquant" means "water demon". Word AQUANT-ANA counting to 666, number commonly associated with Devil/demons, seems either a hint, or a very lucky coincidence.

However, I would not disregard the possiblity of the coincidence, but this seems like a worthy angle to examine the problem from. Is there a discernable patter, or can the numbers be broken to represent something?

For reference, here are the individual values counted for the letters:

Code: Select all

G 71; R 82; Y 89; N 78; I 73; X 88;
Sum: 481
E 69; R 82; N 78; U 85; M 77;
Sum: 391
Q 81; U 85; E 69; Y 89;
Sum: 324
K 75; I 73;
Sum: 148
S 83; K 75; E 69; B 66; O 79; W 87;
Sum: 459
R 82; E 69; D 68; N 78; I 73; M 77;
Sum: 447
U 85;
Sum: 85
O 79; S 83;
Sum: 162
D 68; E 69; Y 89;
Sum: 226
W 87; E 69; F 70; N 78; A 65;
Sum: 369
E 69; N 78; O 79; C 67; A 65; R 82; N 78;
Sum: 518
A 65; Q 81; U 85; A 65; N 78; T 84; A 65; N 78; A 65;
Sum: 666

And the lowercase string values:
673 551 452 212 651 639 117 226 322 529 742 954[/code][/i]

[Guest]

Has anyone thought about looking into WW2 decoders?

That could take a loooong time.

I still feel for god knows what reason that the answer is something to do with the mythology of the game rather than something technical.

What about greek or Latin or Egyptian theories on writing?

[303]

I think that we need to go on in solving this problem. I've tried almost everything (including marihuana and heroin - what a sacrifice!). Right now I'm working with Vodka "Kaiser Franz Joseph", but it still doesn't help. Smoking, drinking, Lou Reed, nothing helps. Any ideas? Maybe we might try to unify our powers --- maybe if we smoked grass all together, it would lead to some solution, don't you think? Na zdraví - na zdarovje!

[dg2]

Dear all,

I just discovered this site and find it excellent. I remember having discussed in one DM/CSB forum years ago (in 1999), when George Gilbert was beginning his fantastic DMUTE, things have changed a lot since then !

About this "holy scroll", maybe I can share with you a few thoughts...

1) I am convinced that it means something, but since it is hard to understand, I think it is either some sort of "spoiler" or some useless stuff (remember "This wall says nothing" at the 1st level in DM...)

2) If it means something useful for the game I presume it is supposed to give some help to the player although the help is not mandatory to finish the game.

3) I have always been convinced that the trick the scroll would mention would be that of the 4 keys of B which allow you to avoid the big fight with the demons at the uppermost level. For this reason I have always thought "U OS DEY" would mean "KEY OF B" backwards but I do no see what the rest of the scroll could mean. Or maybe the "U OS" could mean "I AM", I do not see what a one and two letter words could be else.

4) Since it "looks" like a language, maybe vowels are scrambled as vowels (almost) and consonants as consonants (almost).

5) If so and if one believes that a vowels corresponds always to the same vowel within a word then maybe the last word is useful ("AQUANTANA") There are very few English words whose 1st, 4th, 7th and 9th letters are the same vowel. The only word (apart from technical words) is "ELSEWHERE" which would fit well within such a scroll. But first the "U" would correspond to a consonant and the two "N" to different consonants. Still it seems to me to be a promising issue. I ahve fould various ASCII english dictionaries so that it is easy to perform such searches.

6) Finally I also had a crazy idea: I have heard that the PC stats and name are encrypted in a very complicated way within the savegame files. Would it be possible to see if such encryption could give such text ?

[beowuuf]

If you use the holy scroll text as a character you get a very messed up but stable result - but the stats and name make it obvious it's just a nkce ocincidence and by no means a planned thing
Also, the name isn't encrypted, merely the stats - see CSBuild or DMBuild for more information

[303]

I think that we are moving in a circle (if that is any kind of movement at all...), or in circles, which are still bigger and bigger. Or, maybe, it is some kind of spiral, leading downwards. However, we are still in the same point as 15 years before with this problem - the progress is 0.

Nevertheless, I will try to sum up all our theories to make it more clear.

[beowuuf]

I think you just did

= 0

: )