Cake Guy's Blog Riddle. :P

[Rick Healey]

I don't want to sound mean with this, but you have no idea how hard I'm laughing. Though you may know, very soon.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Rick, you've BEEN laughing.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Rick has clarified that we need to figure out how he hid the message in there in order to find the message.

It occurs to me at this point that the title of the post-- "on various experiments"-- seems odd, considering that, unlike many posts, it's really only about one experiment.

[narrativedilettante]

It occurs to me at this point that the title of the post-- "on various experiments"-- seems odd, considering that, unlike many posts, it's really only about one experiment.

Well, two: the soup and the cheesy oatcakes.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Yes, but the cheesy oatcakes were just a past thing that he brought up in the context of discussing the soup. :/

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

I HAVE SOLVED IT.

...Okay, I haven't. BUT I ran the post in question through all of google translate and back to English again, and found the HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT passage that follows:

God came honestly and negative images of patients zatimkopoh project is being developed.

On libildodateeni - you do not need to. I do not recommend budepolevk program, but it will happen.

Etkesxet first ouatkakis sxnissit (cake) in the area of ​​toxic black swim Coach marupuranagondag example, memory is an important part of life, and I'm sorry. Dvuoduhodnezevstupn corn, wheat, meat / vegetables know what I can do.

[H22]

Phantom of the opera has a missing article! That must be the clue. Clearly we now need to run the whole thing through Vigniere with keyword 'the'!

[Pixelmage]

Just to add my cents... A Vigniere cypher whose cypher text is readable and grammatically accurate and semantically sound would be... Well, brilliance. It would also take ages to compose. Plus, that's Tom's signature, I don't think Rick would use the same encryption at the same time. And that post did go up while the ARG was underway.

Rick did mention that he could have taken advantages of linguistic nuances, though. So I'd advise focusing on English, French and Japanese. As these are the languages I'm aware Rick speaks. Russian, Portuguese and Spanish are also possibilities, considering player-relation, but to actually riddle with a language, I'd say it would be safer to stick to the ones best known.

That said, French is most likely to be the one to hide in, considering it's common ground between Qara and Rick, and it was efp that brought Qara into the game in the first place. Besides, only Mimsy, Sicon and I dabble into japanese, that I'm aware of, at any rate. And none of us is perfectly fluent in it. As opposed to Qara and French.

That's what I'd look into assuming a linguistic-related riddle key and basing it off only the information I have inside my head.

[Rick Healey]

Pix is right in that it'd be a masterstroke of sheer genius to make a Vigenere that's readable both in its original and its ciphered forms. I do appreciate the compliment that you guys think I could do that, but it's a bit beyond my means.

Beyond that, just want to remind folks to check their work. So far, I've seen several errors that you've made in analysis that could have been avoided with a check.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Are you speaking of this thread or the spreadsheet?

[Rick Healey]

You've communicated with me in many ways. For example, Jack had a theory that was interesting, but fell apart because he didn't pay attention to dates. And said theory was discussed with me in the chat.

[H22]

'Such is life' is normally quoted in French, even in English, not that that makes any sense, or probably has any relevance.

Pix is right in that it'd be a masterstroke of sheer genius to make a Vigenere that's readable both in its original and its ciphered forms. I do appreciate the compliment that you guys think I could do that, but it's a bit beyond my means.

*Hides in a corner* Not even I would seriously suggest that. Emphasis on the word 'seriously'. But don't feel I'm taking the compliment back, because I'm sure you could. Even non-sarcastically.

[Rick Healey]

One bit of update - remember how I previously said that the other PMs didn't know the message? With a later update that I did tell one other puppetmaster? Well, a third puppetmaster now knows - they found the message.

[eli_gone_crazy]

You've communicated with me in many ways. For example, Jack had a theory that was interesting, but fell apart because he didn't pay attention to dates. And said theory was discussed with me in the chat.

Fair, but we have no real record or way of finding the twitter madness, or the chat theories.

So are you telling us that we need to look more closely at the thread we have here, or the spreadsheet that's on a googledoc?

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

I'm still looking at metaphor/analogy, mostly because I can't fathom any other way it could have been hidden given the strictures we're working with, so I might be barking up the wrong tree; that said...

It bothered me that for a recipe that hadn't turned out as you wanted, you said you should have waited to make it when more people were over. After all, who wants to make a failed recipe for guests? So that's what primarily led me forward... And then Jack pointed something out about how you'd said that while it was an incredible flavour, the various flavours didn't muddle (a sentence that also caught my eye because of the word 'various' shared with the title), and while I was talking with Jack and eli and some others, I put a few ideas in line and came up with this:

ARG players need to work as a tram (or a team, I guess). One person, no matter how incredible, can't play the game alone, can't win the game alone; one person's ideas, no matter how delightful, are not enough-- because one person trying to play the game alone would be missing the point. The dish wouldn't come out right. An ARG is a team game. Heck, one of the purposes of TWWF was to build community. When playing an ARG, people should wait until they've got more people over before trying the dish. Having an overpowering bowl of just one person is not the best move.

[Scarab]

If Qara's above theory holds weight, then what exactly were we doing at about the time that that recipe was posted? Were too few people invovvled at that time? I don't recall any pointy where I felt nobody was working on this, or the running of the game was as dependant on the actions of one person...

Also, are we assuming this is in reference to the Metaguards here? Because maybe it's not? Maybe it's the CHARACTERS who are important in this Metaphor... they're the ones who're important in the dishes...

I still can't help feeling we're not seeing wood for the trees with the whole thing.

[Rick Healey]

There's a few things to say about this.

First off, there wasn't that much factional issues, particularly at that point in the ARG.

Second, the recipe was only a failure as a soup. As a puree side dish, and with a tweak in the amount of white wine, it's very tasty. It was just not a smashing success immediately.

Third, it was a very strong flavor, and eating the quantity I made was too much for one person. If I had company...

I can promise that you do have all the tools to double-check and thus find the answer.

Also, Scarab, that's a very good instinct. Very good indeed.

[Scarab]

...The entry talking about strong soup was on Oct 24th. That is the same day Qara and I'd completely nutso plan to contact him ran into a dead end.

We've considered the possibility that this is a reference to that - that the players came on a bit too strong, but I highly doubt Qara and I are the only ones who considered that possibility, I'm still convinced we could be reading too much into that. It's also the day:

• NotYourSayuchan's mother contacted us.
• The day Cinderella was announced to be alive and safe by Mr A.
• Lots of other stuff ... check the date on the timeline guys: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/R ... l.Timeline
  ...The recipe was with some of the characters, then? Did a character not play out the way it was expected or thought to? It became too overpowering in the story? Could it be cinerdella...

Wait the soup was pumpkin...

Rick, was the reference in the entry to Cinderella ? Did we get too involved with her? Or the characters? Did we miss a vital role she played because we weren't paying attention? I recall that she was Mister A's experiment to see if sending back fictionals via refic would work...

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Rick has already said that the efp riddle/message was not consciously a reference to stuff going on in-game, and that it can be solved as a self-contained thing without any reference to anything outside that post (except possibly a dictionary).

[Scarab]

Rick has already said that the efp riddle/message was not consciously a reference to stuff going on in-game, and that it can be solved as a self-contained thing without any reference to anything outside that post (except possibly a dictionary).

Bother, I forgot. My bad.

On the plus side, that means it's easier than I thought.

...it's not an acrostic or anything, is it? XD

[H22]

Well, I think the riddle is literally a riddle, like the Cat's riddles.

[Pixelmage]

Soooooo, say Rick, have you ever inspired an Opera?

[Rick Healey]

Have I inspired an opera? Not that I know of, at any rate. I have inspired frustration, puzzles, some changes at a role-playing session, more than the occasional munchkin moments, a story here and there, a few essays, and some really bizarre meals. But an opera? That would be new.

Unless this is an oblique reference to my web browser of choice... and even then, I don't think that I've inspired anyone to switch to Opera.

[Pixelmage]

There goes one of my small leads... .-.

On various experiments, 2-7-11. Every second, seventh and eleventh word of the post, in a sequence. It does start out reasonably readable with "I having previously inspired Opeara..." Then derails from there. I thought I might have to count punctuation or something like that, but if already doesn't work, might need to try something else.