The bird/worm puzzle

[cz]

~~~See update in first reply~~~


In general, I'm a devout fan of Alexis's creative spirit and style and voice. However, I have very little patience for his mini-ARG secret puzzles. Don't get me wrong, the lore/content/designer's notes themselves are always excellent reading, but the air of insufferable smugness around the whole thing is just not my cup of tea.

I found all of the Enigma content in Fallen London entirely on my own, and I've made it halfway through the whole bird/worm mystery, but I've futzed around trying various things and am stuck.

I guess I'm pretty true to the spirit of Cultist Simulator in that I find the process of unraveling the mystery to be unpleasant and exhausting, yet my combination of obsession and stubbornness means I will refuse to give up.

However, unlike the cultists in the game, I'm cynical enough and pragmatic enough that at this point I really just want to be spoiled so that I can read the interesting words at the end of the tunnel and get on with my life. (It doesn't help that I'm far less emotionally invested thus far in the world of CS, into which I've put a couple dozen hours of my life, than that of FL, into which I've put literally thousands.)

Alexis tweeted yesterday that there were ~75 people who had found their way onto one of the two ~~secret mailing lists~~, so if you're reading this and are willing to honor my sincere request to be spoiled/hinted, send me a PM with a hint and I will bake you cookies. The stronger the hint, the more cookies I will make. ;)

Where I'm at: I've found

the secret webpage from the clue in the save file, but I don't see how I can "indicate my choice." I suspect it has something to do with a certain e-mail address, but since there's presumably a human being at the other end of that and they're super busy with post-release, I don't want to send guesses there willy-nilly.

[cz]

Update: I got there on my own, with just checking my guess with a kindly soul on the Discord channel to make sure I was correct.

My disillusioned attitude towards this style of puzzle and my philosophical disagreement with creator-requested secrecy has not changed. I'm not going to share the answer(s) publicly, but if you're as cynical as me and don't wish to bang your head against the wall, feel free to shoot me a PM.

[Lou]

and there was me thinking that the worm/bird setting was some kind of obscure difficulty setting, lol

[cz]

Originally posted by Lou:

and there was me thinking that the worm/bird setting was some kind of obscure difficulty setting, lol

heh, that was my first thought as well. I think it was for a lot of people. But having done FL's Enigma, and seeing the weird hints on Alexis's twitter and elsewhere, I quickly sussed out that there was more to it

[Manuel Trigger]

But what do you get?

[cz]

Originally posted by Manuel Trigger:

But what do you get?

None of this has any in-game effect, if that's what you're asking

[ArdentSlacker]

Why not just explain it under a spoiler tag for those of us with *even less* patience? A PM in steam requires adding a friend. Also, I can't spot this save file hint.

[cz]

Well, if it were just up to me, I would certainly prefer to spew the answer far and wide, since I believe that creator-requested secrecy is bulls h i t, and that all human knowledge should be readily available to a person who is interested in learning about it.

However, the little community that has grown up around this enigma, chiefly on the CS discord, does not feel the same way, and since most of the further stages of the enigma are a lot easier and more fun when you have a community to discuss things with, I'd prefer not to be ostracized for "spoiling" things publicly. So for now, I toe the line of doing things according to the spirit of the game.

By the way, I only learned about the discord after I originally posted this thread, and it's a way better resource for getting help with these puzzles than PMing a rando like me on Steam :P though I'm always happy to help regardless!

As for the save file hint, you gotta look for where the value of the "bird/worm" slider is stored in your save file.

[Astraea]

I will not spoil it for you. I will however give you a hint.

At noon. A strange phrase. What could this refer to? A time, a place, a person. STE knows the way, but you'll have to turn your thinking around to get at the heart of the matter.

Originally posted by DannyboyO1:

Why not just explain it under a spoiler tag for those of us with *even less* patience? A PM in steam requires adding a friend. Also, I can't spot this save file hint.

Alexis has requested we don't outright tell people the answers, and besides, pilgrims have been erased for less. He does moderate these forums, after all, and he'd almost certainly remove it.

Don't let any of that frighten you off though! It's great fun, and it leads you through some fantastic convulutions.

[𝔅𝔬𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔦𝔫]

Could someone please confirm to me if I can do this all on my own without the use of third-party sites such as twitter/facebook etc meaning all the necessary information is in the game and not spread between countless websites? I've got no social media accounts and never will, so I'd just like a yes or no if this is something I can enjoy uncovering or be a bystander...


EDIT: Could someone also post me that discord channel? I've heard Alexis has written some clues for this whole thing which I'd like to soak up!

[Lyrositor]

Originally posted by 𝔅𝔬𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔦𝔫:

Could someone please confirm to me if I can do this all on my own without the use of third-party sites such as twitter/facebook etc meaning all the necessary information is in the game and not spread between countless websites? I've got no social media accounts and never will, so I'd just like a yes or no if this is something I can enjoy uncovering or be a bystander...


EDIT: Could someone also post me that discord channel? I've heard Alexis has written some clues for this whole thing which I'd like to soak up!

There is very little in the game, and it is indeed spread across websites. And at some point, an account may be required, though it could be anybody's account; you can also ask someone else for the relevant information at that point.

Here's a link to the Enigma channel on the Discord, #introduction-to-enigma: https://discord.gg/vebQjuk

Feel free to send me a DM if you'd like some hints. :) We abstain from giving them out in public, but are much more open in private.

[Astraea]

An involution has occurred, apparently. Toast is growing sparse and we cannot get out. So far, there has not yet been a brawl yet, but there were some scares when we thought some patrons had consumed other patrons.

[cz]

Relevant for newcomers to this old, old thread:

http://weatherfactory.biz/enigma-what-it-is-what-it-isnt/

[Chaos Boi]

i think worm may be related to the worms in the world curse and the worms in the museum of worms i dont know why i think this