Challenge puzzles, hints and brainstorming (now COMPLETE)

[psim_]

Maybe some collaboration will stop me (and others) from going mad.

I have solved the first two pretty quickly, so I can give hints there.

I have no idea what #3 is about, the hint (Aether) didn't really tell me much.

Haven't tried #4 and #5.

For #6 I know that there are the Polybius Square and the Sator Square, which can both be found on Wikipedia, but just looking up the letters in either (and trying to combine them) didn't yield any good results yet.

For #7 I have calculated the values for x, y and z, but I don't know how to go from there. I tried to apply the three mathematical steps to each of the numbers below, but that didn't seem to work. However, I'm not sure if I'm doing the Shift operation correctly. I tried changing each letter into 7-digit binary, or 8-digit binary, and shifting these by x digits.

Haven't looked at #8-#12 yet.

EDIT:
Current status:
#1: SOLVED
#2: SOLVED
#3: SOLVED
#4: SOLVED
#5: SOLVED
#6: SOLVED
#7: SOLVED
#8: SOLVED
#9: SOLVED
#10: SOLVED
#11: SOLVED
#12: SOLVED

[psim_]

Yup, that's where I'm stuck too at the moment, but surely the password part can't be coincidence?

[psim_]

I've also played a bit around with #12, but no real clue yet.

Both coordinates are in the river Thames. The overlapping area seems to be called Chiswick? It's somewhere in London anyway...

The pigpen code doesn't seem to be following the typical structure with two 3x3 grids, rather it might be something like the templar cipher with 6 groups of 4 (one of which, presumably X-Z, does not appear in the code). I've played around with some of the combinations, but haven't found anything that looks like a sentence yet. But maybe it's not even supposed to.

[solsummoner]

I solved #11 using your hints. It is exactly as what you suggested.

hint: You should have realized that this cipher refers to the base pair. You may find one of your 4 combinations corresponds to one type of the base pair and that's the answer

[psim_]

Damn you, biology! Thanks.

[Curious Duck]

6 has me stumped.

I've made the Polybius square and used SATOR for the top row. I've tried combinations of the lowest frequency letters however the only one that results in anything is removing Z which gives me (TRYARIKENUSTU)

Which makes no sense to me.

[Eraser]

I just solved number 6. Spoilery hints below:

1. Use the Sator Square as a key (google it).

2. You will find a phrase that almost makes sense but has missing letters. Find the missing letters.

3. The answer is a single word.

[Eraser]

Stuck on Puzzle 12. Partial clues below:


1. Both given coordinates are on the River Thames in London.

2. Found the two intersections at the marked distances from the coordinates.

3. The first points to a nondescript area near the corner of Binns Terrace and Dale St.

4. The second points to this church[en.wikipedia.org].

5. According to the Wiki, the church has a memorial plaque to Astrologer and Mathematician John Dee, who lived next to the church.

6. John Dee might be related to the puzzle, but I found nothing concrete so far. Some of his writings contain occult symbols that look a bit like the Pigpen Cypher in the puzzle. In particular the Monas Hieroglyphica[en.wikipedia.org].

[psim_]

Question for #6: Are the missing letters only letters that cannot be found in the Sator square? Do you think Polybius is only a general reference to the method of looking up letters in a square, or is it related to the solution?

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out. For those interested: one of the missing letters is also in the square. And Polybius probably only does refer to the method.

For #12: I think the church and John Dee are promising, apparently he also used to live right across from there. You can more or less find all of the symbols from the code within this Monas hieroglyph. But how to go from there? Should we try to set up a pigpen code that uses this symbol? It's not much to go on.

If you want to get on the crazy train, I suggest skimming this translated manuscript: http://www.esotericarchives.com/dee/monad.htm

The symbol of the circled dot below the code should represent the Sun, if we're going in the right direction. I tried guessing some of the repeated letters to see if I would get to any phrase that seemed to make sense, but especially with the last four symbols that are all unique there are just too many degrees of freedom...

[Spoon]

For #10 i have the first line, the second line im sure i have the key, just not sure how to apply it to the cipher, any tips?

[psim_]

The line from Wikipedia that helped me out most: Most notably, a Playfair digraph and its reverse (e.g. AB and BA) will decrypt to the same letter pattern in the plaintext (e.g. RE and ER).

[psim_]

Anybody got anything for #3?

I have no idea what to take from the hint, it's so general and nothing seems linked directly to cryptography or the planets. Is the 24 an indication that we should do something with the time one day takes on the different planets?

[Spoon]

@psim that looks like it will help with the 3rd line s:

[psim_]

This is my reference figure for #12: https://imgur.com/a/00hL8
Assuming the connection with John Dee/the Monas symbol is correct at all, it could work something like this, where symbols with close numbers possibly refer to letters which are close, while the corresponding symbols with dots should be a fixed number of letters away (12? 13? Groups of 4?). Still... not very much to go on.

For #3 still no idea. I tried all kinds of permutations of MVEMJSUN (going by size or length of a day for the respective planets) as a key for the cipher, but that doesn't seem to be it.

For #9 I still have almost nothing. The hint says that solving the first writing system will help with the second, but there are only four symbols. Not really a large basis to solve anything. It does look like superimposed capital letters and/or numbers, as you would have on a digital display. But even assuming that it's only two symbols each, there are tons of combinations. In this interpretation the second symbol definitely has an N, and the third has an R. The first should have a T or and I. The fourth could be almost anything. And what then? This doesn't solve anything.

And I don't know if this is it, in the second line there are some symbols that look entirely different, and nothing much that looks like conventional letters, or repeated overlays of the same sub-symbols.

[HIKKA]

For #9 There are no identical symbols here. I think you should pay attention to the:
1. the number of dashes that make up the symbols
2. number of corners, intersections, and curve...

[psim_]

Did you solve it that way, or is that just a feeling? I've been trying this on the first line in a number of ways, but I'm not seeing any patterns yet.