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Post by phraca on Mar 31, 2017 23:16:35 GMT -5
Just a quick update on my library adventure. I had to modify my plans slightly. I was not able into visit the Pittsburgh location today since it was closed by the time we drive through. We will now be stopping at the Atlanta location in another week on our way home (if not too tired)
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Post by jollywandering on Apr 4, 2017 12:58:53 GMT -5
Just a quick update on my library adventure. I had to modify my plans slightly. I was not able into visit the Pittsburgh location today since it was closed by the time we drive through. We will now be stopping at the Atlanta location in another week on our way home (if not too tired) What will you be looking for when you get inside? I'm in Austin, so I can visit two of the libraries, but I wouldn't have a clue what to look for once I got there.
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Post by dmikester on Apr 4, 2017 20:37:07 GMT -5
I'm going to be in the area of one of the bigger libraries on the list tomorrow, and will stop in and try to do some research. There are a ton of different possibilities, but I'm primarily focusing on the four authors and books that the titles reference, as the titles were how we got to the Harvest Time website in the first place. These were also specifically mentioned during the Strawberry Adventure. They are:
• A New Era of Thought by Charles Howard Hinton • The Child of the Cavern; or, Strange Doings Underground (AKA Les Indes Noires) by Jules Verne • The Complete Works of Ben Jonson ("Underwoods")- specifically the poem THE MIND OF THE FRONTISPIECE TO A BOOK, which has the phrase From Death to Dark Oblivion • At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
There are also of course all of the author names spread throughout the locks, and the authors and books referenced by various curios, like Lilliput and Nightmare Abbey. But as I've thought about this, I'm convinced that if this is the right path, it's going to focus on these titles.
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Post by dmikester on Apr 5, 2017 15:34:47 GMT -5
Well, I ended up having much less time than I was expecting to have at the library, but I did get a chance to look at two out of the four books, specifically Child of the Cavern and Underwoods. The library didn't have A New Era of Thought and At the Mountains of Madness was only included in an anthology, which didn't seem like it would make sense.
I came up short with Child of the Cavern and with Underwoods in terms of finding anything relevant, though the Underwoods book was a beautiful old book that was fun to just flip through. Several things to note, specifically with Underwoods:
One is that page 72 of the book I was looking at featured several poems about Shrubs, though I think Jonson was referring more to women being like Shrubs (I didn't have time to read closely, so this makes about as much sense to you as it does to me). Two is that the Underwoods book had odd seemingly random words at the corners of pages and in several cases had blurred marks that looked very much like the Spine letters from Volume 2. Finally, and here's where we can all use our assembled tinfoil hats, when I asked the librarian for Underwoods, he reacted by saying "Oh yeah, that book came up a while ago" as if someone had asked for it somewhat recently (it's definitely an odd book to ask for). Maybe it was one of us following the same thread, maybe it was an MPC person, maybe it was someone noticing something the MPC had hidden in the book and removing it, and most likely nothing. But who knows...
Overall, I came up empty on the search, but it was super fun to do. I will say that unless someone goes down a different track than I did with the titles of the newspapers, I doubt that this is what we're supposed to do unless enough time has passed that whatever was hidden in the books has been removed.
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Post by phraca on Apr 6, 2017 14:08:21 GMT -5
I have low expectations after Todd threw cold water on my plans 😀
I had a longer list of things to look for; it's in a spoilered post upthread.
I'll post any findings early next week.
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Post by Todd on Apr 6, 2017 14:57:47 GMT -5
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Post by dmikester on Apr 6, 2017 17:13:35 GMT -5
The sections about shrubs that I was referring to in my previous post can be found on pages 40 and 41 of the University of Toronto library version. I forgot to mention that very odd "Here something is wanting" line with the dots; not sure if that's an editorial footnote or something in Jonson's writing itself.
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Post by wortelboer on Apr 8, 2017 19:02:44 GMT -5
I was playing around with the Vault answers and the message is spells out. There are some odd words here and there. Hawthorne, Alcott, Gaskell are the authors....but trying to figure out where racecar may come in.
Maybe the list of libraries is the fool's errand and we should be looking for what3words in the vault answers will be another location where the numbers make more sense??? Just trying to approach it from another direction..
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Post by wortelboer on Apr 9, 2017 6:18:46 GMT -5
I believe that Andrew's "mutterings" are indeed the key to solving this..."books, coordinates, skytale". We know the list of 4 books from the Day Lock Vault message. We know the coordinates from Harvest Time....and I keep thinking the simple solution is that the numbers refer to page numbers of each of the 4 books. Following Andrew's instructions there should be inserted a string of text that would be used with a skytale to reveal a message. That still gives me questions though: what should the diameter of the skytale be? There must be a hint somewhere in one of the articles...or I may have to go back to the Strawberry game....I remember a detailed description of a cane? and maybe in the description it detailed how thick it was.
again....where does the word racecar fit into all of this?
Does "stained" refer to the stain on the Bingo card and do we need those numbers also?
and then, do we need to add other books referenced in the night locks?
However, I'm assuming Phraca has already tried this and has not met with success. Since I am not near any of the libraries and cannot get to them, I will have to leave this puzzle to others to solve. Wishing I had the time and the funds to fly to one of the locations and spend a couple of days digging in the library. Good luck hunters! Looking forward to seeing this marked "solved" at some point soon.
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Post by wortelboer on Apr 10, 2017 17:37:20 GMT -5
Interesting find. So I have a friend who may be able to at the Library of Congress in DC. So to make things quicker for them, I figured I would pull up the call numbers so that they could locate the books quickly. Oddly enough, they do not have The Scarlett Letter in their catalogue. Also, Treasure Island, North and South and Little Women are available, but only upon request as they are not stored onsite. You have to go to a special reading room and request the book and then the request is processed and the book is delivered to the library.
Given this, I think it is highly unlikely that anything would be in these volumes.
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Post by dmikester on Apr 10, 2017 18:12:58 GMT -5
I'd be surprised if it was those specific books as they were used so extensively in other puzzles. It's possible, but it seems more likely that they would use something different, like the bingo card.
I'm convinced that there's nothing hidden at the libraries themselves unless Phraca makes a huge discovery; Todd made a very convincing argument against it several pages back, and I came up empty on a short trip to one of the bigger libraries on the list pursuing a different track.
At this point, I'm honestly tempted to e-mail the MPC and ask if they can steer us in some kind of subtle direction, as we've "solved" the puzzle but are sort of chasing our tails at this point. I doubt anything would happen, but I feel like it can't hurt to at least try.
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Post by wortelboer on Apr 10, 2017 19:02:45 GMT -5
If based on the numbers from longitude and latitude could it be: a very simplified Short Weather Cipher?
The short weather cipher coded weather reports using a polyphonic single-letter code with X missing
A = +28° ◦ B = +27° ◦ C = +26° ◦ D = +25° ◦ . . . ◦ W = +6° ◦ Y= +5° ◦ Z = +4° ◦
A = +3° ◦ B = +2° ◦ C = +1° ◦ D = 0° ◦ E =−1° ◦ F =−2° ◦ . . . ◦ Z = −21° ◦
Still need to do some more research on this one...has anyone else looked at this as a possibility? I don't want to repeat work already done.
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Post by phraca on Apr 10, 2017 22:56:02 GMT -5
unless Phraca makes a huge discovery..,. Unfortunately, due to changes to my travel schedule, I was passing through Atlanta on Sunday evening and could not afford to delay until this morning when the library opened. I'm hoping that at least my plans can inspire a few others who are close to do some more checking.
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Post by dmikester on Apr 11, 2017 21:11:37 GMT -5
OK, this is REALLY grasping at straws, but bear with me. Going back to the idea that the missive locks may have something to do with this, I went back to some of the e-mails and noticed that one of them mentioned the following: "Where the next puzzle will appear is a bit of a mystery. The Professor may pass it to us to print in the next missive, or it may only appear on Facebook." As far as I know, none of these puzzles "only" appeared on Facebook; I believe they were all both posted to Facebook and sent to us via e-mail. So I went to MPC's Facebook page, and discovered a post, made in late January, that referenced this article: www.atlasobscura.com/places/library-of-congress-card-catalogNote the following : Library of Congress (one of the libraries on the list), coordinates from Atlas Obscura, and a card catalogue that has been digitized. Could very easily be nothing, but who knows...
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Post by wortelboer on Apr 12, 2017 14:55:36 GMT -5
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