Are you talking about my question? It was Spoiler the smoking room, room on the right on a rainy day. Yeah, I replayed the first one, too. You get to see the Spoiler other ticket that's in the trunk in the secret closet in the guest bedroom .
Amazingly, the historical society did finally reply. They were very helpful indeed. And with the additional help of some very generous locals, I've completed that page. That was amazing! Hats off to Tiger Style for this entire experience. It is a lot of legwork, but do-able, even working solo. However, some things still don't quite add up. Spoiler And above all secrecy.
Erik: Congratulations! Honestly, I found some of the answers, like the date of the will, but it was Subrom who organized the reddit thread that got us those dates. I noticed the key, too. I don't know if that means the key is backward (which doesn't matter since we don't have the whole thing, or any of it at all for all we know), or if it means the text is backwards (either in its entirety or mirror writing (backwards line by line). When taken as mirror writing, the ciphertext doesn't have any repeated sequences, but it has two when the whole text is backwards or forwards. That leads me to believe that the key is backwards. The key with the missing piece in the game could be for this text, or it could be for something else that you discover in Vermont. I've tried the pieces of the key that we have in a cracking site that lets you use partial keys and sort of guess at the rest but I've never been able to get any clear text to emerge. I've tried the pieces of the key we have forwards, backwards and each way I've tried it on the ciphertext forwards, backwards, mirror writing, every third letter forwards, backwards, mirror, etc. No luck. There's a chance that it's using more than one type of encryption, like the earlier documents mention. Or, maybe the key with the missing piece in the game decrypts pieces of the papers from before that the TELARO key didn't? That's where I'm headed next. I've also been playing the game trying to figure out where/how to get the last piece of the key. It seems to be Ellen (or Eleanor) Malvina Brooks with letters missing. Anyone else made any more progress?
Nope. Still stuck.... Although I have enjoyed reading books about Vermont geneaology and gravestone markings and also enjoyed listening to music composed by the count.... But enjoying is not the same as solving ;-) Here is something pleasant I found in my roundabout internet travels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAwYDR68pkc
No luck here either. Tried all the combos I could think of. I was hoping our "mutual friend" would be more active with his emails but alas I've only had the one.
I didn't have lots of time these two last weeks, but i tried something. During your researches, you must have read the name of Iona Miller. She is a writer who made a big work about Saint Germain and other mysteries, and with facebook, i asked her about TELARO and NOTAMARGATET words. She told me these are anagrams and invocation words to give life to a golem, or something like that... I don't know if it has a link with our story, what do you guys think ?
Tetragrammaton is the true name Of Yahweh, used to give life. A lot of the Masonic ritual words are Hebrew and Latin words either backwards or anagrammed. Notamargatet certainly has a role in the story.
The hard part is that we don't really know it's a Vigenere cipher. It probably is, but if it's not, If it's only supposed to be deciphered once you get that book or are in Vermont, we may be out of luck. I'm still betting it is though.
Music knowledge, a travel to Vermont, esoteric rituals, the Tetragram... This ARG is going really far. And in a very classy way, don't you think ?
I just noticed that the upper left corner of papers_5 is visible on the qoesco page "The Reform" with the library and the orange triangle image near the top. I'm looking for maybe more clues to what might help us solve the cipher.
Ahhhh.... interesting. This was updated sometime recently (maybe after the equinox). I have been saving the html source of these pages and it was previously a "holdings.html" placeholder and is now a "holdings.gif" image. Perhaps, due to the name, there may be a clue in the ledger that this is directly below. I have always wondered why part of the ledger title is blacked out.... Spoiler EDIT: ...and that ledger is definitely in the current library: http://www.worldcat.org/title/inventory-of-real-estate-stocks-and-mortgages-1882-aug-1/oclc/773089732 EDIT2: ...and jumping out at me is the "Leavenworth mortgage" which may indeed relate to a property. I found this guy that seems to be from the right time and place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_E._Leavenworth A bit of history with the areas schools and "Academy" And final EDIT3: this mighty tome of a book refers to the Brattleboro Academy (formerly Melrose Seminary moved from Marlboro) where Leavenworth started a boys school for a time. https://archive.org/stream/annalsofbrattleb00cabo#page/n7/mode/2up RANDY: I have found this book in my previous travels but only now see the significance on page 9. A photo of Frederick Holbrook and edited by Mary R. Cabot. with a Kipling quote to boot! coincidence maybe???
Any of you guys have a theory about he butler? He's involved, obviously. My theory is that he was in love with the red shoes woman. My tentative theory is that he was either the faithful servant of the brothers, helping them dig up bodies and out rocks in coffins, or he wasn't initiated and freaked out and thought they were hurting people or the woman or something or both. Also there's the kid P. Fenn. I wonder if there was rivalry between the Bryce child and P Fenn? Still working....
I was deciphering as much of the four papers last night and came across the passage that says "Do the third purpose whenever, but do the first two at certain times, when the moon, sun, earth are aligned (new moon). It also says that Spoiler in your dwelling you may have a chamber to observe the first purpose for knowledge and a chamber to observe the sec1ond purpose for retention and a chamber to observe the third purpose for vitality where you enjoy music you may obtain the score six sonatas for two violins by the empyreal knyght composed with symbolic significance . So I would think that the organ does involve the Spoiler Third Purpose but that might just be, you know, solving the mansion's mysteries. A little research reveals that Spoiler Comte de St. Germain did compose music, including sonatas for two violins.
I just found this... http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9057463r/f40.image.r=.langEN Tried a couple of the Primo Violin and Harpsichord starting parts as codes but no luck yet.
I have tried many different things with that. The different keys of the six pieces are FBEGGA.... No luck and others have tried multiple permutations of this. It was the BEGGA part that led me down the path of the gregorian chants for Saint Begga I posted earlier. No luck there either.
