Cracking the Code

System Message: Year 1, Shemu II-30, around 5.15pm

Search out the hidden scrolls and try to decipher the messages. Who are they from? Who are they being passed to? That item you find, there may be those who are willing to trade for it. Keep your ears (and eyes) open!

Calendar Event Message: ends Tuesday Sep 21, 11.14am (GMT+10)

House security chiefs are concerned about the potential of incursions by nomadic peoples from the south seeking opportunities for territorial expansion, given failure of autumn rains.  Be alert, but unalarmed, and report any strange people or camps on wiki events page...

Sightings of unusual activity...

• 0 jugs
• 30 jugs of salt water
• Scroll found 893, 6265 Giza, Deciphered to read "Delay abduction of Prince one week, Supplies delivered by courier tomorrow, keep safe and keep quiet. Fairy

• Scroll found 1969,7668 Bitter Lakes on the shore (typos in original text):

terrain in the south posis signicant difficulties to troop movements
nile is impassible in flood
sea routes confirmed optimum strategy

The wreckage with the scroll also contains:

• 1 "Alchemic Aparatus"
• 10 lime
• 4 cuttable garnets
• 5 scorpions brood mushrooms

Original:
990099 Code Red transferred offshore. 880099 Code Red Message follows. A=1. 20 5 18 18 1/ 9 14: 9 14: 20/ 8 5: 19 15 21/ 20 8: 16 15 19/ 9 19: 19 9 7/ 14 9 3 1 14/ 20: 4 9 6 6/ 9 3 21 12 20/ 9 5 19: 20 15:/ 20 18 15 15 16:/ 13 15 22 5 13/ 5 14 20 19:: 14/ 9 12 5: 9 19:/ 9 13 16 1 19/ 19 9 2 12 5:/ 9 14: 6 12 15/ 15 4:: 19 5 1:/ 18 15 21 20 5/ 19: 3 15 14 6/ 9 18 13 5 4:/15 16 20 9 13/ 21 13: 19 20 18/ 1 20 5 7 25::880099 A=1

---

delay abduction of prince k one week
supplies delivered by courier tomrrow
keep safe and keep quiet

1396, 7383

• 2 Mirrors
• 5 Salt Water Fungus
• 5 Salt

Water stained scroll

This looks suspicious, someone has lost their message and some of it is in code. It could be really important ... I wonder who needs to know about this?

Message to His Eminence follows. 990099 Code Red A=1 19 8 9 16: 1/ 22 1 9 20 19:/ 1 20: 4 18 15/ 16 6 6: 3 15/ 22 5:<damage>14 12 5 19 19:/ 5 15 14 6 9/ 18 13 1 20 9/ 15 14: 18 5 3/ 9 22 5 4: 2/ 25: 3 15 21 18/ 9 5 18:://99099 A=1

ship avaits at dropff cove <damage>nless eonfirmation recived by courier

<post your findings and speculations here>

• Is "prince k" correct text, and what does the 'k' refer to; a name? Do we even have a prince? Maybe he's from somewhere else - and we're caught in the middle of a different conflict. Is the abduction letter from the same people who wrote the troop movement letter? What were they doing with that Alchemic Aparatus? And if someone else wants it, is it a good idea to give it to them? -Theresa
  • It is the correct decoding of the coded message I was given. I wrote code to do it, not by hand. There is a bunch of lore in Saga of the Houses but I didn't see a prince named. - Kirie (talk) 19:43, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
    • I think "His Eminence" refers to a title on the level of archbishop. Not the head of any religious or state organization - and probably on the religious side (not that there's a big difference). I just noticed the "Code Red transferred offshore" though - maybe Code Red isn't the message protocol, but an actual person or thing. Theresa (talk) 22:45, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

• Wild speculation: Prince K is an unspecified person from House Kush, and the abduction will be used to sow discord before an invasion from the sea (so we need to be prepared to show unity). Or - Prince K is not from Egypt, and the abduction is a false flag to create an excuse for a full-scale invasion of Egypt (so we need to be prepared to warn Prince K somehow). Either way, we may need to fortify the coast and expect (al)chemical attacks. I have no idea how the raiders play into this, but I think they're different groups. Might need to play one against the other. (Is Prince K a raider?) Theresa (talk) 22:45, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
• I don't know what the 990099 and 880099 mean. My first instinct is colors. Could be peoples' IDs. The /s and :s in the messages are, : to separate words, and / to separate every five letters. :: separates sentences. I don't know why the "every 5 letters" is in there, unless it's for flavor, but you can use it to tell how many letters (mod 5) there are in damaged sections. It's possible to arrange the messages into a tall column five letters wide, according to the slashes. If you tip it sideways, it looks something like this - I give it 90% that this is meaningless, but 10% there's something here, maybe indexed into in some other way. Theresa (talk) 01:35, 17 September 2021 (UTC)


TIHTINTIITMEIISIORSIOUA
ENEHSIDCERONLMINDOCRPMT
RISPSCIUSOVTEPBFSUOMTSE
RNOOIAFLTOESIALLETNEITG
ATUSGNFTOPMNSSEOAEFDMRY