Today is where your book begins...
The Unwritten Puzzle
On April 19, 2006, I announced the following puzzle with 6
encrypted messages and challenged readers to solve the puzzle
to earn a reward. The messages consisted of a sequence of
numbers with the four primary mathematical operations ( +, -,
*, and / ) sprinkled throughout.
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With many thanks to Ashtar, I am able to transfer these
six mysterious messages in their entirety to this
discussion board. Hopefully, you can all assist with the
decoding of these messages. The code looks different from
anything I've seen before. It looks like a cipher of some
sort, but the patterns seem to be keyed... indeed,
KI'd... to an external reference. I have an idea of where
to start, but I'm keeping that to myself for now to see
how the rest of you fare with this puzzle.
Message #1
14 4-1 2-11 11+11 10-2 8-1 * 7-6 14 13 5-8 8-1 5-1 3+12
7-3 9-3 / 3+11 13 10-8 * 7-3 5-3 2-8 11 5-3 7-12 * 5-7
3+13 * 4-14 14 * 9+12 7-3 8 * 1+11 6 11+6 12+12 4-3
3+12 1+13 5-8 5-3 / 3+3 10-2 8-1 8 * 5-2 7-12 14-6 14 *
3+3 10-2 13 8 * 10-9 10-1 1-3 7-12 10-4 14 / 10-11 2-12
14 3+12 * 5-12 11+12 2-12 2-11 5-14 * 6-13 2-11 12+12 *
1-3 * 6 10-4 12+6 * 11+12 9-3 12+6 10-2 12+12 1-13
Message #2
4 4-1 5-4 * 1+11 10-3 6-1 4-13 11 6 4-11 8-3 6 9-11 *
9-3 3+6 5-8 * 11+12 14-6 5-1 8-14 10-9 6 3+13 * 1-13
7-3 6+13 2-11 1+12 3+11 / 14 4 4-14 11+12 10-7 6 7-11 *
8-14 3+12 * 4 4-1 10-8 * 7-6 8-13 4-14 5-3 4-12 * 9
4-14 9-11 5-4 / 6 2-12 * 5-1 10-2 4 8 10-4 12+12 * 4-1
2-12 11+6 * 7+12 2-12 1+11 * 5-1 2-12 3+3 10-4 * 8-3
1+13 * 4-14 6-1 2-11 1+12 4
Message #3
1 9-3 3+11 * 1+13 8-1 14-6 * 14 1+12 5-3 * 5-7 4-13
8-13 1+12 10-1 12 6 10-2 4 7-3 / 3+12 13 10-4 10-3 *
3+12 8-1 5-4 * 2-8 5-2 11+12 3 6 5-4 14 3+13 * 3+13 13
2-12 11+6 / 8 8-1 14-6 * 5-11 4-14 3+11 8-1 * 9+12 2-11
1+12 * 2-3 1+11 3+13 3+11 * 1+13 1-3 4-11 10-4
Message #4
6-13 9-3 5-4 1 * 4 13 7-3 * 11+11 1-3 8-3 6 * 2-11 6 *
7+11 2-11 1+12 12+12 * 14 10-6 11 5-3 / 6-1 7-3 10-3
5-4 4-14 3+11 13 * 5 2-11 1+12 12+12 * 5-14 14-6 7-3
3+12 * 1 10-7 10-8 14 * 1-3 * 11+12 10-4 11+6 1-3 12+12
1-13 / 1+13 2-11 * 14 13 2-11 12+6 * 12+6 8-1 14-6
11+12 9-3 * 7+11 2-11 1+12 * 8-1 5-2 6+13 5-8 * 7-6
14-6 7-3 5-3
Message #5
4 2-12 * 3+13 10-4 10-8 * 3+11 8-1 5-4 * 12+6 8-14 3+12
7-3 11+11 5-14 8-14 1 4-13 * 13 9-3 12+12 5-8 / 2-11
5-12 7-3 10-3 * 1+12 5-11 * 1+13 8-1 9-3 * 2-8 10-9
11+12 8 5 * 11+6 5-9 5-3 2-8 2-11 12+6 / 6-3 8-14 10-12
1+13 1+12 12+12 9-3 * 1+13 13 10-8 * 9-12 4-13 2-12
11+6 8-3 10-3 9-11 * 3+13 7 4-1 10-4 11+11 14-6
Message #6
11+11 9-3 8-14 6-3 4-1 5-9 6 9-12 * 6-13 2-11 12+12 *
3+13 2-11 5-1 5-4 3+11 13 8-3 10-3 9-11 / 5-4 1 1+12
2-8 8-3 5-3 9-11 * 7+11 2-11 1+12 11+12 * 7-11 11+12
5-2 3+13 10-11 / 3+11 2-12 * 4 2-11 1+12 6-3 4-1 * 8-3
3+11 * 9+11 2-12 1+11 * 10-1 1+12 14 8 * 3+12 10-2 10-6
5-8 * 11+6 5-9 5-3 9-12
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Clues to deciphering the messages:
I included a few clues in the messages I had posted:
- The patterns are keyed... indeed, KI'd... to an
external reference
- ICly, the messages were found "through careful
analysis of fluctuations in the beam pulse in the
Great Zero"
Along the way, several smart people noticed that:
- All numbers in the messages are limited to values
1 through 14.
- The operators * and / correspond to word and line
breaks, while single numbers and pairs corresponded
to letters.
- Analysis of the cipher by pattern frequency would
be very challenging, because there are more than 26
values represented in the messages.
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How to decrypt the messages (straightforward answer):
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The answer to deciphering the messages is in the marker
missions to calibrate the Great Zero. There are 14 CGZM
missions. Different missions contain a different number
of markers. (Details here:
D'ni-Rezeero CGZM Mission Guides.) To solve each
message, you must treat each number as a mission
number, and replace it with the number of markers in
that mission.
The first message began: 14 4-1 2-11 11+11 10-2 8-1
Translated, this becomes: 19 20-12 24-9 9+9 25-24
20-12
Do the math: 19 8 15 18 1 8
You now have a direct 1-to-1 numeric/alphabetic
cipher. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, and so forth.
Answer: S H O R A H
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The solved messages are:
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#1: SHORAH BSHEHMTEE / THE ENDING IS AS YET UNWRITTEN /
VAHT AGES VAHT IMAGES / POST PROOF FOR A NEW REWARD
#2: THE UNBLINKING EYE REMAINS DEVOUT / STARING AT
THE BLANK PAGE / NO MATTER HOW YOU MOVE IT ABOUT
#3: LET THE SUN ILLUMINATE / THEN THE DARKNESS SHOW /
THE PATH YOU MUST TAKE
#4: FEEL THE RAIN ON YOUR SKIN / BENEATH YOUR FEET
LIES A REWARD / TO SHOW WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN
#5: TO SEE THE WATERFALL HERE / OPEN UP THE DIRTY
WINDOW / CAPTURE THE GLOWING SPHERE
#6: REACHING FOR SOMETHING / ELUDING YOUR GRASP / TO
TOUCH IT YOU MUST TAKE WING
(Note: Vaht is the D'ni word for Five.)
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After deciphering the messages, puzzle-solvers could see that
the first message is a set of instructions for solving the
five riddles that followed. Each riddle described a place
that I wanted shown in a picture. I received many good
answers, but I was looking for some very specific solutions.
These were:
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#2: The maintainer's mark, seen throughout the age of
Gahreesen, is that of an "unblinking eye" overlooking
the pages of a blank book. In most ages, the
maintainer's mark is affixed to a special place
symbolizing that Age's "Great Zero", and it cannot be
moved. In the first room you find in Gahreesen, where
the neighborhood balcony Bahro stone is found, there
are two maintainer's marks. The first, and best
answer, is the mark that is unattached to anything at
all. On the far side of the room is another answer,
where a maintainer's mark is affixed to a rod or
torch-like apparatus. I accepted either solution;
either mark can be moved about freely by nudging it
with your feet.
#3: In the Age of Kadish Tolesa is a pyramid shaped
building, where to proceed you must first open the
roof and let the sunlight shine upon the floor with
its many symbols. Once the floor tiles have been
charged with the sun's energy, you may close the roof
and the floor will begin to glow with new set of
symbols. Any picture of this room with the glowing
floor is the desired answer. Several people initially
believed the answer to this riddle to be the Moon
Room, but the light that illuminates the floor here
is not from the sun.
#4: There are only three places in Uru where you can
find rain: Eder Kemo, Relto, and the Cleft. At the
time of this puzzle, there were no rewards found on
the ground ("beneath your feet") in either Relto or
the Cleft, so the correct answer was the Relto page
in Eder Kemo. While preferring images with rain, I
accepted answers without.
#5: At the time this puzzle was presented, operable
windows could be found in structures in Relto,
Teledahn, and Ahnonay. The correct age for this
riddle is Teledahn. There is a telescope in Sharper's
Teledahn office from which you can see a waterfall in
the distance. The acceptable answer was any picture
capturing both the distant waterfall and the sun
passing by. KI snapshots cannot be taken through the
telescope, but it is still possible to get a good
picture past the left side.
#6: The only age where you can "take wing" normally
is to ride upon the air currents in the volcanic land
of Eder Gira. At the very start of your Journey there
is a cloth that can only be reached by letting the
air lift you up to a high ledge. Standing upon this
ledge is the correct answer.
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Finally, there was the matter of a reward. Each explorer who
solved the puzzle received a link to this webpage, which at
that time was a hidden page on this site.
Of course, the ending is tied to the beginning. Each of the
riddles also includes a lyric from Unwritten: "Staring at
the blank page", "Let the sun illuminate", "Feel the rain
on your skin", "Open up the dirty window", and "Reaching
for something" are all lines from the song. The instruction
(message 1) includes a more direct reference to the song,
taking the familiar "The Ending has not yet been Written"
line and re-writing it as "The Ending is as yet
Unwritten."
A round of applause for K'Huunah, D'Jerid, ChrisForsyth,
Andrew_C, and Taba, who were the five puzzle-solvers who
opened the reward for all.
The Making of Unwritten
Filming
I got the idea around mid-March and started working on the
concept March 26. I finalized details of how the puzzle would
work and what I would film on April 5.
Ashtar helped me curry favor with Yeesha shortly thereafter,
inspiring her to perform the lead role. He has a way with
VaultManagers that she apparently finds irresistable.
From there, it took about 2 weeks (really, just about 4 or 5
nights) worth of work capturing different angles for the same
scenes over and over. Initially I had Yeesha try a number of
different poses, including thank-yous and waving and even
sneezing, but I found those difficult to work into the song
and so those moments ended up on the cutting room floor.
(Sorry, no humorous outtakes are available.)
The most troublesome filming was in Eder Kemo because I had
no control over the rain cycle, and I had to wait for the
clouds to darken to begin filming each "take" of the rain
scene there. Although it always rains relatively soon after
linking to Kemo, the storm is short and the delay between
cycles is really quite long. It was tempting to ask the Bahro
to intervene, but Yeesha would not hear of it and threatened
to walk off the set.
Relto was fairly easy, though I had to refilm some parts due
to continuity errors (shots outside with the Relto windows
closed... whoops!). Also, I filmed a number of shots of
Yeesha opening the window before settling on the one used in
the video. On many takes, she walked "close" to the window
lever and would have to scoot sideways before pulling it, and
it just threw the timing off horribly. Other times, she'd
execute the lever pull perfectly, turn to face the camera
again... and forget to sing her lines. Eventually, she got it
right.
Finally, Ashtar generously spent about an hour with us during
the final major night of filming to co-ordinate multiple
people in the Cleft (which is normally impossible). We
discovered an interesting property of the cleft... only the
first person that links into a rainy cleft will see the
thunderstorm. Everyone else that joins will perceive a dry
cleft, even though all parties can see each other. So for the
second part, the camera had to link in first (to capture a
rainy cleft). Very curious stuff. Yeesha declined to comment
on why it worked that way.
Assembly
Assembly was performed following these steps:
- The original video and still pictures were captured with
FRAPS while connected
live to The Great Tree Until Uru shard (operated by Ashtar).
- The video segments and pictures, plus the Natasha
Bedingfield song, were then assembled in
Windows Movie Maker 2.1 (if installed, it should be
under Programs->Accessories->Entertainment).
The default export methods with WMM don't give much
control over quality; it just gives you some presets that
are pretty lousy. There is a package you can get called
Microsoft Windows Media Encoder. The package includes
the encoder program plus some controls such as the
Windows Media Profile Editor, and you'll need that to
more tightly control the output quality of your video.
- Installed Encoder package, ran Profile editor, created an
output profile with Quality VBR Windows Media Audio 9.1 and
Quality VBR Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile, with a
video size of 720x480 and a Video quality of 100. Specifying
100 is pretty close to saying "I don't care how big it is, I
want it to look perfect." Microsoft has a tutorial on
creating profiles. Important: The profile editor will prompt
you to save your new profile in the Encoder program's folder,
but WMM won't find it if you save it there. You need to
change the save folder to "<Drive>:Program Files\Movie
Maker\SharedProfiles" (where <Drive>: is probably C:).
- Performed the first pass save of the movie with the new
profile. The file was very big.
- Imported the resulting movie back into WMM and added the
linking sounds, exported with the custom profile again. The
file was still very big. smile.gif
- Rather than futz around with the Profile editor creating
profiles until I found one that I liked, for my final step I
instead launched the Windows Media Encoder program. This pops
up a helpful wizard where I selected the "Convert a file"
option. After that, at the Content Distribution prompt I
chose "File download," and on the Encoding Options page I
picked "DVD quality video (1 Mbps VBR)" and "CD quality audio
(VBR)". The output size was reduced down to 640x480 at this
step as well.
I suppose I could have made even better choices with more
experimentation, but I was happy with the results of the steps
above so that's where I stopped playing with it. I refined my
approach for the next video, Gorahyantee.
MPEG-4 (preferred): Unwritten MP4 (40MB)
Legacy Windows Media Video: Unwritten WMV (34MB)
Legacy Mac/Quicktime Movie:
Unwritten MOV (43MB)