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[Wish You Were Here] Enigma Game

MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
zs5xnlvfci13.jpg
You thought your day was over until, about to leave the office, an envelope slipped through the mail slot. And that's when your life turned upside-down.

A mysterious criminal taunts you from afar, dangling his next moves in front you. Will you succeed where until now all others have failed? Use your wits, intuition, and research skills to puzzle your way through 5 postcards packed with codes, ciphers, puzzles, and other mysteries.

Wish You Were Here is a "postcard" puzzle game by The Enigma Emporium. A series of postcards will each contain multiple puzzles. Solutions will often require a bit of internet searching to figure out. Both sides of the cards will contain multiple messages to discover.

I will be posting them one at a time. Any submitted answers should be marked spoiler. We'll wait a bit after answers so anyone can catch up before proceeding to the next.

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Posts

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Card 1

    xaiafhlsqmda.jpg
    tj2e1ar3df5g.jpg

  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Card 1:
    The crime takes place in Rome, at the "IL MUSEO NAZIONALE" gallery. The criminal was hired by a cult.
    FRONT:
    We've got pictures of US Presidents: Reagan (40), Obama (44), Monroe (5), and Eisenhower (34)
    (A little tricky on Monroe, because that's not his presidential portrait! I had to do a reverse image search for that guy.)

    At first I was looking for a number connection, but then I realized their initials spelled out, left-to-right, ROME.

    BACK:
    The smudged letters are a message:
    ILMUSEONAZIONALEDOTCOM

    Which is... a website owned by Enigma Emporium, so we're on the right track. It being in Italian gave me the reasoning for ROME on the front.

    Finally, the numbers are presidential terms. Let's see which ones they are, and assign them by number:
    9 23 1 19
    8 9 18 5
    4 2 25 1
    3 21 12 20

    All below 26, so probably a letter-number cypher. Let's plug this into a converter, and we get:
    i w a s
    h i r e
    d b y a
    c u l t

    Edit: The Leonardo da Vinci connection from the stamp leads me to believe that the crime is to steal his painting "Lady with an Ermine" which is shown on the museum page.

    Bursar on
    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
    Spoilered until images are unborked. egc6gp2emz1v.png
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    oof

    Okay, I burned out on it.
    Mostly agree and had the above.
    Didn't get the president mugshots, cause distracted.

    Then the smudged letters
    text on the page has
    "This exhibition marks a huge success in the art world. For the first time, all the great masters are gathered under one roof. These paintings form the link from one age to the next, and for the next couple of months we will be celebrating that link. Book your tickets today."

    A lot of the paintings are from William Hanslow.
    Didn't pick the one Da Vinci.
    Ordering paintings by creation order doesn't seem to do much.
    Can't see much order to the titles or artists.

    Sort of felt like I was missing a key to this page, but if it's just the stamp then ok

    discrider on
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Hint to discrider: look closer at the word on front of the postcard.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    ???

    Dumping data:
    Eight bells, Winslow homer, 1886
    The vet in a new field, Winslow Homer, 1865
    Gulf Stream, Winslow Homer, 1889, NYC
    Breezing Up, Winslow Homer, 1876

    Rembrandt

    Rembrandt:Raphael:Pieter Lastman, 1621

    The anatomy lesson of Dr Nic. - 1632
    Belshazzar's Feast - 1635
    Sistine chapel, two cherubs - 1513
    Jonah and the Whale - 1621 Pieter Lastman

    Michelangelo in his studio, 1849-50
    Cecilia Gallerani, Da vinci, 1489
    Symphony in White, No. 3, 1865-1867
    Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice, 1879-80

    Whistler's Mother, 1871
    Seated Woman, 1909, Pablo Picasso
    Le Gourmet, 1901
    Mother and Child, 1901

    The Japanese Footbridge, 1899
    San Giorgio Maggiore, 1908
    Édouard Manet, 1874
    SacoBay, 1896

    Date order:
    Cecilia Gallerani, Da vinci, 1489
    Sistine chapel, two cherubs - 1513
    Jonah and the Whale - 1621 Pieter Lastman
    The anatomy lesson of Dr Nic. - 1632
    Belshazzar's Feast - 1635
    Michelangelo in his studio, 1849-50
    Symphony in White, No. 3, 1865-1867
    The vet in a new field, Winslow Homer, 1865
    Eight bells, Winslow homer, 1886
    Whistler's Mother, 1871
    Édouard Manet, 1874
    Breezing Up, 1876
    Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice, 1879-80
    Gulf Stream, 1889, NYC
    SacoBay, 1896
    The Japanese Footbridge, 1899
    Le Gourmet, 1901
    Mother and Child, 1901
    San Giorgio Maggiore, 1908
    Seated Woman, 1909, Pablo Picasso

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Connect the front of the card to the website.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Well clearly
    The actual museum in Rome is more sculptures and Michelangelo's workshop is there, so surely he must be stealing David

    ...
    Unless it's Madonna and Child because of the row of mother pictures

    discrider on
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    A word on the front of the card appears on the website.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Okay, well that just confirms Bursar's pick then

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Collegamento is a hidden hyperlink

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Card 2

    qzkqq4oi9yku.jpg


    y92oley7636o.jpg

    MrBody on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Ok, back code and graphic
    don't know what the atomic shell diagram is for, but the encoded message appears to be all chemical letters, likely linking to their atomic number, and then back to letter number

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Front graphic:
    smudges mark chemicals
    that rearranged spell AtHeNS

    Decoded message:
    If you've followed this far, maybe you can save me. I have stolen but not by choice...

    Stamps that I don't know what they do
    The one on the right appears to be a depiction of Jesse James? Might need to wait until later in the puzzles for that to make sense.
    Otherwise we have the numbers.

    Portrait lines:
    Inverse LCD display gives 302103249531
    Which is apparently a number for a bank in Athens

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    About the rings on the back:
    This looks like an electron shell diagram for a chemical.
    Electron shields fill according to the periodic table.
    1st shell only has two positions.
    2nd has two and then an additional 6.
    3rd has 2 + 6 but also an additional 10, but these get filled after some of the 4th layer.
    4th has 2 + 6 + 10 + more, etc.
    Looking at this one, we only have 1 electron in the outermost layer.
    so it's Cesium

    Stamps that I do know what they do:
    The numbers are atomic weights


    ...
    And the pictures are probably bank robbers

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    So I guess the crime is
    Stealing Caesium bars from a bank in Athens?
    Why are there Caesium bars anywhere.
    Have to keep them in oil and refrigerated probably.

    discrider on
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Shell solution is much simpler
    Just count the total number of electrons

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    >:(
    Then they've drawn it wrong
    I don't have time to count when that single electron is hanging out in the outer shell.

    But yeah.
    Mean trick when the inner three rings have the right number of electrons in each.

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    I'm going to have to fix it.
    It may be less readable though :/



    ...
    I'm probably wrong actually.
    I thought the one in the outer shell would relate to the first column of the periodic table, but that electron is not the first one lost if there are more electrons filling bigger shells closer in..
    So yeah, Au would have only one electron there, but the inner shells would have more.

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Colorized rings:
    o3b0dh1z11mu.png

    Unsure where the green ? should be.
    I don't think it should be there?
    Which might meant the colors should be closer in?
    or maybe the next ring out?

    ..
    Yeah, the green ? should actually be blue and in the next ring out.
    It's the only wrong dot.

    discrider on
  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    The crime is
    Stealing gold from "Bank Saderat Iran" in Athens? Because the cult thinks it'll make them psychic or our thief is being mind-controlled?!
    FRONT
    Obviously a periodic table. The marked elements are:

    He, N, S, At = an anagram for "AtHeNS"
    (Maybe he's stealing chickens!)

    The LCD display is a reverse for "302103249531". A search for this reveals... either a periodic table(?) or a the phone number of a bank in Athens, "Bank Saderat Iran". Strangely, the bank number shows up in multiple results, it has a wikipedia page, and this appears to be a real bank not linked to the puzzle company. It could be a coincidence... I'm not inclined to call and find out. But the Athens connection from the front certainly makes it the strongest contender.

    I have to think that the element and Mendeleev links from a Google search are because people have been searching for this number + "Mendeleev" so much that it broke their algorithm. It also has a lot of returns from people who are also playing this puzzle. Whoops!

    BACK:
    Count the electrons on that image: 79. Luckily I have a periodic table open right now... That's gold, Jerry!

    The Stamps are:
    John Dillinger/ Boron / 5 (B or E?)
    Ma Barker / Potassium / 19 (K or S?)
    Jesse James / Sulfur / 16 (S or P?)
    Aside from them all being famous thieves, I'm not sure there's a direct connection. The arrow points to the gold. Thieves -> Gold.
    But the ESP angle, knowing that there's a cult involved... Hmm...

    The Message is like in Card 1: Convert the element symbols into numbers, then run them through a simple conversion:
    FC MnPSc'TiB CPMgMgPVBBe
    9 6 25 15 21 ' 22 5 6 15 12 12 15 23 5 4
    CaOFK CHAr, AlHMnHeB MnPSc
    20 8 9 19 8 1 18, 13 1 25 2 5 25 15 21
    LiHSi KHTiB AlB. F OHTiB
    3 1 14 19 1 22 5 13 5. 9 8 1 22 5
    KCaPMgBSi HeScCa SiPCa
    19 2o 15 12 5 14 2 21 20 14 15 20
    HeMn LiOPFLiB...
    2 25 3 8 15 9 3 5...

    if you've followed
    this far, maybe you
    can save me. i have
    stolen but not
    by choice...

    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
    Spoilered until images are unborked. egc6gp2emz1v.png
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Card 3

    wztqei30lgzj.jpg

    i6s9q4bqp8l2.jpg


  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    Photo:
    Is braille for rogueagent

    Dates:
    dates that countries entered the UN
    Benin, Bhutan, Guinea, Belize
    NAGue?
    No.. Prague, Cyprus

    Flags:
    Brazil, Pakistan, Kosovo, Uganda, Tunisia, sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Spain, st Lucia, turkyie, ???
    A, S, S, A, S, S, I, N, A, T ?e?

    Front and back
    likely have to superimpose the crosses on the back side
    Once you get Mr Body to bang the card with a hammer on all the crosses, it spells out "They have my wife"

    So the crime is to
    Assassinate a rogue agent in Prague

    discrider on
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    You solved and typed all that out in less than 21 minutes???

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited June 2023
    It was hard to do all of it in my phone yes.
    Otherwise I would have been quicker.
    (And it was an hour : ten minutes)

    I have to wonder if the postcards are getting more rushed though.


    ...
    Yeah, I only started that post 21 minutes after you posted.
    And then spent the next hour filling it in.

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    With rushed:
    It just seems like the antagonist here went to a whole lot of trouble setting up the museum webpage in an inscrutable manner, and now this postcard we have codes and answers that are less than a couple of words, and it's making me feel like the guy is getting pursued/rushed by his collaborators.
    Looking forward to seeing whether my feeling persists in the story.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Card 4

    wfairrc8wnpv.jpg
    nlve4gsrmowz.jpg

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited July 2023
    Left hand, back numbers:
    ISBNs
    Highlights indicates letter in title
    They are cal[le]d ouroborus

    Stamps:
    Protect and defend
    My gun is quick
    Mother land

    ...
    To the library
    ..
    And they're not here

    Front messages
    author quotes
    spells out Istanbul

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Unsure about stamps and the right hand back side.
    Maybe the right back side
    is related to the quotes, as there are the same number of things there

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Card 5

    z7ywckg177n8.jpg

    b80s7vrsqyhl.jpg

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Can I ask, what sort of play session are the cards sort of envisioning?
    Because I think I'm hard pressed doing this card on paper.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Are you talking about the QR code? It works when I hold my phone up to the screen.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Well, I haven't looked at the QR code yet, but more the back code looks a bit hard to crack without sitting down and fiddling with it for an extended period of time.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited July 2023
    ...
    Found the key.
    But only after fiddling with it for an extended period of time.

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited July 2023
    5th card Code solution:
    5lp0mgzqua8x.png

    discrider on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Bar Code:
    Is not a bar code
    solution:
    J A S O N C L A R K
    I S M Y N A M E

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    oh right. and the stamps do a thing that I did anyway.
    QR code is a thing that I suppose you have to use:
    Agent[J]asperMeeks{@}gmail.com
    I assume the FBI agent he wants you to contact.

    I should look at that fourth card again

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Dear lord that barcode puzzle.

    Did you email them?

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Nah.
    I haven't got the fourth card.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    I read the hints and answers to the barcode and still don't see it...

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited July 2023
    MrBody wrote: »
    I read the hints and answers to the barcode and still don't see it...

    Barcode explanation
    It's Morse, read left to right, with bold bars being dashes and thin bars being dots.
    And the long bars count.

    discrider on
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