Code Conundrum

[Deleted]

NOTE: To make this solo a little more interactive for you, dear reader, I will be including several kinds of codes in these posts. For the first one, I'll be a nice guy and give you the key. For the second one, you'll know what kind of code it is, but as for the key, you'll only get a riddle. After that, the code type will change, and then it's up to you figure out not only the key, but what kind of code I'm using as well. Once you think you have the answer, send a PM to @proflayton, a special account made just for this thread (and maybe others). He'll let you know whether you're right or not in the most gentlemanly way possible. Thanks for reading my rambling drivel, and good luck.

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD. FOR THOSE  OF YOU WITH TL;DR COMPLEXES, ABANDON IMMEDIATELY.

Words: 1,455

It was a bright sunny day when Oxford woke up in his guild room. It was big and spacious, as any guild leader's right hand man's room should be. It had a bed, and a desk...and that was about it. Of course, the transition from his old room to his new room was still in progress. After all, he still had boxes upon boxes of notes to migrate, as well as Omo's knick-knacks. After the customary morning shower and hygeine session, it was time for the most important part of the day: putting on clothes. And then getting to work on that new subclass he switched to. Now, it's not because Oxford wasn't happy being a Scribe that he made the transition. More like a change of pace. If stick to the same routine day after day, you get stuck in a rut. Real life didn't really offer a lot of opportunities where you can just dump your current job and grab a new one to see what that's like. But luckily for everyone here, game life did, and Ox was ready to grab life by the horns, rip its stinking head off, and mount it above a fireplace while curling up with a good book and a hot cup of cider. Unfortunately, he didn't have a mount to put life's head on, a fireplace, a good book, or even a cup of cider. But he knew where to get at least one of those items. Or two. Or armfuls. That's right, the bookstore!...Sadly, there weren't any good bookstores around that offered musty, archaic books that contained the arcane knowledge of alchemy, but whatever. The library had spades of books. Surely there was gem or two hidden in there. The guardian changed to casual wear as he began his jog down to the Londinium library, taking in the sights of the city as the first signs of fall hit his eyes. The leaves of trees and shrubs were showing fringes of reds, oranges and yellows as he jogged down the cobbled path. With these arboreal giants on both sides of the path to the library, to Oxford it felt like they were heralding his arrival, their limbs waving and swaying in the light breeze. Once inside, he made sure to calm his breathing as he walked to the information desk. The last thing he wanted was the somewhat pretty library Lander lady think he was some sort of creep, with him breathing heavily like he was doing at the moment. A loud thump could be heard every now and then as she whomped a rubber stamper on the inside cover of a book. Apparently she'd been busy, as stacks of books were scattered all across the desk. "Hey, you wouldn't happen *pant* to have any books *pant* on alchemy, would you?" Ox fanned himself with a piece of spare parchment he had on him while the Lander gave the guardian an somewhat disgusted look as she looked at him. Ox offered her a smile as he continued to fan himself, hoping that that would ease her. The lady rolled her eyes as she adjusted her glasses, then waved her hand in front of her as a read-out similar to an adventurer's inventory screen materialized. Instead of showing information about herself, it seemed to contain a map of the library and locations of all the currently available books in certain sections. Menus and message boxes flickered back and forth as the Lander speedily sifted through the information. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like we have any books that would help you at the moment," she said. Oxford leaned in closer, staring at a section of the holographic map that just so happened to be at the same eye level as the librarian's more than ample chests, er, chest. The female Lander glowered at Ox, who was oblivious to everything else going on around him (as usual). "What about this area right here?" he said as he pointed to the section in front of him, as well as the Lander's bosom. "Seems like a place that would be good to check out." "SIR! May I remind you where you are!" she said in stern, and somewhat vocal, manner. Oxford gave her a confused look, then looked around him to make sure he was still in the same spot he arrived at just a couple of paragraphs ago. "Well, we're in the library, obviously. And you, ma'am, are raising your voice and distracting your esteemed patrons." Oxford clicked his tongue in mock disapproval as he shook his head. "For shame, madam. For shame. And you call yourself a librarian." The red-faced lady didn't utter another word. Just a steely gaze and an incredulous hmph were the only things he got from the librarian. She hastily turned back to her work in a vain attempt to ignore the assumed lecherous young man before her. But sudden movements within the crowded confines of a desk and stacks of books were not a good combination. Two stacks came tumbling down, the thick volumes ringing loudly against the floor boards as the librarian moaned in despair. "Now look what you've done!" she wailed. "Ah, sorry. Here, let me help," Ox offered as he began to scoop up the books. He gathered up one stack as she gathered up the ones on the other side. The last book he hefted was much thicker than the rest, it's cover having the quality of rich, aged leather and its pages were thick and yellowed. The first page read Alchemia: Alchemy and Its Uses In Conjunction With the JSYV IPIQIRXW. Those last two words in the title reeeally piqued Oxford's curiosity. Hell, they were practically screaming "HELLO, I AM SUSPICIOUS!" Four circles with drawings of fire, water, rocks, and clouds adorned the bottom of the page beneath the title. And beneath the drawing was another mish-mash of letters: UKQNFKQNJAUOPWNPODANA "AAAAH! GIVE THAT BAAAACK!" screamed the librarian as she lunged for the book. Ox snapped the book shut and sprawled backward to get himself away from her, but no such luck. The librarian was already on top of him, the two of them entwined like they were playing a random game of Twister on the library floor. Other adventurers and Landers began to look around to find the source of all the commotion. Meanwhile, Ox was trying to ask her questions while her love pillows were getting shoved right in his face. "Whmf sho greap amout fis bood?" "WHAT?!" He let out a gasp as she snatched the book out his hand and sat herself back onto the floor. "Phwah. As I said before, what's so great about this book?" "It's a part of my research. Apparently, its the oldest of the alchemical texts we keep here in the library." "Waitasecond. You just told me that you wouldn't have any books that would help me." "Yes. And that's important becaaaaause...?" "Well, I'm an alchemist, for one thing! And that," he said as he pointed at the book, "would help me greatly in my pursuit of understanding the wonderful world of alchemy!" "Aw, well that's too bad. You can't have it." "Alright, how much do you want for it?" "This book is priceless!" "..Does that mean its free?" "No! It means that it's 'priceless', as in you can't put a value on it!" "Well, could you let me borrow one of your other books instead?" "I'm afraid not! Not after the way you treated an upstanding lady such as my self." "...Says the woman who screamed and clawed to get a smelly old book back." She opened her mouth, then shut it, unable to think of a retort to lash back at the guardian with. After sitting there for awhile, she suddenly turned to Ox. "Well, you're a pervert! I don't lend books to perverts like you!" she said sternly. "You mean this isn't the first time something like this has happened?" In an instant, the book the librarian was holding hit Oxford square in the face. The impact was enough to almost make his nose bleed (Thank God for no damage within the city grounds). It was then that both realized what the other had done. "Alright, so the holding period for a book was seven days, wasn't it?" he asked as the librarian stammered a bit as she internally chastised herself for making such a bone-headed mistake. "Don't worry, I'll bring it back before I'm charged with late fees. Ciao!" And with that, Oxford was out the door and into the great beyond of Londinium, the Lander's shouts echoing in the air as Ox ran like he committed some great heist of malicious criminal intent.

template coded by oxford of ET

Code #1: The first code, as some of you have already guessed, uses the Caesar cipher. The Caesar cipher is the most basic in all forms of cryptography, and generally involves rotating letters over a certain amount. Since this is the first code, I'll go ahead and tell you that the key is [4]. So, take the first code:

JSYV IPIQIRXW

and shift it over by four to get:

FOUR ELEMENTS

The key is still the same for the second one, but as to whether you go left or right, well...I'll let you figure it out for yourself.

UKQNFKQNJAUOPWNPODANA

[Deleted]

Good day to you all. My name is Hershel Layton, and I teach archaeology at the Gressenheller University in London. I am also a well-known puzzle enthusiast within my circle of colleagues.

I am here to monitor you, the dear readers, and your responses to these coding puzzles found within these snippets of a story. I am also here to let you know of a special point system I have devised in case you find yourself in a rut.

For every answer you get right, you will be awarded +2 Hint Coins.

Cherish these coins, for they shall be your salvation should you find yourself in the dark corners of frustration and despair.

Before you hastily cash these coins in, let me tell you as to what the rates of coin consumption go towards:

1 Hint Coin: Basic Hint - A helpful hint to hopefully help you get on the right track

2 Hint Coins: Intermediate Hint - Reveals as to what kind of cipher the message is encoded with.

4 Hint Coins: Master Hint - Reveals cipher type, key, and information in the basic hint.

Now that you have all this information, here is a list of our current contestants and their winnings:

- Elfriede: 2 

- @dindeen: 2 

- @jimtheking: 2 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once a new story reply is made, you WILL NOT receive Hint Coins responding to the previous puzzle (as the answer will be revealed in the updated post).

[Deleted]

Words: 848

Oxford ran back to his room at the Abbey/guild house post-haste, giggling like a madman as he closed the door behind him. He took a second to admire his illegitimately obtained textbook, observing every inch of the cover and bindings to see if there were any secret compartments or anything of the sort. Since this was a book of magic he was holding, you never knew what kind of goodies the author might have hidden in it. One book he found had emitted fire upon opening it. Not really a surprise, but still pretty neat in its own right. Ox set the book atop his desk, turning on the Bug Lamp he picked up at the market to get a better look at this hefty volume before him. After assessing the tome, he opened it back to the first couple of pages where he had started at, taking note of those odd strings of characters he saw from before. It almost looked like the author had decided to write random letters all over the pages or something. Probably hiding information in plain sight. Or a deranged fanatic hiding random words behind layers of cryptography. The former scribe pulled out one of his many prized possessions, his Sorcerer’s Quill, and applied its tip to the pages. To be more specific, on the random set of letters themselves. When the magic-infused tip touched the letters, they began to cycle through rapidly through all the letters of the alphabet, the letter turning to its original glyph when Ox lifted the quill from the page. The same effect repeated when he tried touching the other letters with his custom pen. However, when the words he could already read did nothing when touched, their ink forms lifeless as they slumbered deep with the fibers of the ancient parchment. He absent-mindedly scratched his head as he continued to mess around with the symbols, rearranging their order to see if that would reveal anything. To his dismay, once the letter was moved from its spot, it sprang back to its original position once the pen was no longer touching it. The emblem with the four elemental symbols stared back at him as he concentrated his glare upon the cryptic characters, daring them to move. In fact, a good ten minutes was spent by Oxford on focusing on the letters, silently willing them to move/transform into meaningful words that he could decipher. No such luck. So what’s the deal? What am I missing here? Getting frustrated, Oxford decided to skip it for now and turn to the next page. But then again, it’s kind of hard to do that when the pages were all stuck to the back cover of the book. The familiar blue light of magic glowed from inside the clump of pages. A small spark of blue light etched itself onto the current page Ox was on, leaving behind a sentence before slowing fading away with its written words: The path to gold is paved with codes. To put it bluntly, Ox couldn’t progress any further in the book until the code was broken. “Oho, so it’s a challenge now, is it?” Ox grinned as he rolled up his sleeves. Determination and motivation at this new challenge whirled around inside him, filling him with an energy that can only be felt when undertaking a grand operation. Deep magic was at work here, and he was hell-bent on tapping this ancestral supply of techniques. To start it off, the guardian tapped into his moderate supply of code-breaking techniques. If his assumption about the first codes being the easier ones were right, then these two must use the age-old Caesar cipher. The thing of it was, what was the key? Well, how about the number 4? After all, the emblem had four designs in the symbol, so to Ox it was as good a start as any. Taking his quill, he drew a number four on the page. Placing the tip on the number, he dragged the numerical character to the first letter of the cryptic words. Almost as if it was magic (oh wait, it is magic), the letter shifted to the right four characters. Repeating the process spelled out the words ‘FOUR ELEMENTS. The same thing happened with the other set of words, but this one went four to the left, spelling out the following: YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE “Well, alrighty then!” The ancient tome almost seemed to hum with a magical energy as Ox turned to the next page. This book not only piqued his curiosity, but also successfully covered his arms in goose bumps of anticipation. Then again, maybe the book had something to do with that. Ah well, back to research. Neat, precise hand-written script covered the next n-teenth pages. Luckily, it wasn’t super small, but damn, there was a lot of text in there. AMHEF- LYENM- CISCA- HSCEN- -ETIOA Another set of cryptic clumps of words sat at the end of it all, guarding the contents of the next chapter like a boss monster guarding a mountain of treasure.

template coded by oxford of ET

Code #2: Alright, you're on your own now. From here on out, you'll have to use your knowledge and your wits to solve these. Remember, hints can be bought with your Hint Coins that you earn. Oh, and a bit of a friendly-tip: Don't miss the forest for the trees. Don't get fixated on tiny discrepancies, because sometimes, cryptographers like to throw code breakers off by inserting null characters (as in, characters that don't mean anything).

And one more tip, since I'm feeling particularly generous today: There isn't a key for this one. All the information required is already provided inside the code.