You've got mail!

I have a secret to share, and it's a giveaway code! But you have to find at least 11 of the 16 keys hidden in the file above, and I do mean the email file not pastebin html, don't get ahead of yourself. Some keys are obvious, and some less, others still are hidden very, very well. Some may issue you a puzzling challenge. But bottom line is, you don't have to find all of them, just 11 out of 16.

The file is an actual *.eml file, something conforming to MIME etc, but if you don't have an email client that opens it, you don't really need it, you'll just have to decode the base64 encoded attachment yourself (it's an encrypted 7z file). Make sure you're not using something like XLATE for that part, this is a binary file not some obfuscated text. There are other online tools that would work, however. In general you are likely going to need a lot of tools, many of which if not all can be found online, but if you download something make sure you're not installing some shady stuff.

Side note: although you may indeed mess up the part above if using something like XLATE instead of proper decoder for binary files, generally speaking if you are unpacking an encrypted archive and your tool tells you the file is corrupted, 99 out of 100 times the file is allright, you are just putting in a wrong password. Seriously. Think again if the password really is what you think it is. Had some folks on my other puzzle who didn't realize that.

I don't even know why I'm telling you this. If you didn't realize that you are probably not going to do well anyway.

Anyway, you will not only need the keys, but actually you also have to know what to do with them. It is something heavily hinted at, but never fully explained. If you can't do your research, because using google for some keywords is too much for you, then finding the keys will not help you.

I have included a handy itstoohard quiz so you can confirm that you have found a proper key. It's there mainly as an aid, altough in the end I did decide to include a small reward for finding all keys and solving that quiz. But it's mainly a huge sense of achievement I guess?

This puzzle is a charlie foxtrot of hidden stuff. Knowing tropes that run on steamgifts is useful, including ideas of my own I used before. That's going to be extremely helpful as otherwise there are no hints and you're on your own. Although sometimes I invert the tropes instead of playing them straight, and sometimes I'm doing quite new stuff, too. Linking you Zelghadis's guide as a cop out instead of providing actual hints is all you get. Looking for my past puzzles, even if made well over a year ago, also may prove fruitful.

But otherwise yes, this is the epitome of this type of "puzzle" where the maker doesn't tell you much, stuff can be hidden anywhere, and.. good luck. If you don't have stomach for it, I suggest not trying. This is not for everyone. This is not something where I embed hints to make your life easier, I outright tell you to read about past puzzles, the ways people do stuff, for inspiration, if you don't already know what to do... but that is it. And there are likely elements noone else around here did yet, not even I.

Nonetheless, this is fourth puzzle in my current puzzling miniseries and will be required for the season's recap puzzle. I may start dropping some hints later on but no promises. Hints are more likely to be presented after the giveaway is done, to help with completion of the whole series, but first I have to see if people are interested in finding all of the keys not just a subset and maybe reward some folks for going the extra mile before dropping more hints.

As always, this is a challenge for individuals not for cooperating teams. Do not share keys, hints, etc.

Giveaway Timer (2014 01 23 1230 ZULU) (CV $32.10) (ENDED)
Bonus sweet timer (2014 01 25 2200 ZULU) (ENDED)

I may have made it last for too little time, so get onto it xD I just liked the date, 01-23 and made an ending hour to match. There's no particular reason why the date is as it is, I just fancied it like that.

Good luck, have fun.

Note: Turns out you are best off finding exactly the same tool that I used as other tools potentially may be implementing the idea differently. It should not be a problem once you've answered Q17 on the key confirmation sheet. I used the same format as the tool gave me. Other tools, even if you translate to their format, may not work, even if they claim to work on the same principle. Huh. Probably slightly different implementation or different data structure beyond the index or other elements. Have to admit I haven't checked other tools, but again, the one I used will be easy to google once you know what to do.

Giveaways ended, although puzzle to be considered still active!

Yup that's still active because it's a part of miniseries and for solving all puzzles there gonna be something extra, like I said multiple times (gawd I hope I haven't hyped that too much xD ).

So you'll have to wait like month for the full solution, maybe more, and please continue keeping it spoiler free here and on the main giveaway. Meanwhile, I posted a reasonably verbose, even though still just partial, solution/roadmap for all the keys on the giveaway page. For which, again, you just need to find 11 keys out of 16.

I'll just make it somewhat easier for future solvers for now: the main concept behind the keys (and answer to Q17) was Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme (alternatively Shamir's Secret Sharing was accepted, too).

I did say where to look for inspiration - Zelghadis's guide, but also among my past puzzles. Pity it's not easy to find posts / threads made by users within SG, so you'd have to use google (something that Zelghadis's guide suggested actually). But most of the inspiration could've been found in my very first puzzle, A picture is worth 1000 words (615 days ago! :O 147 entries on first stage :O like 40 solvers on second :O - also, I have restored it to former glory :D originally paste was set to expire, but I found it in google's trash bin), also in Alchemia, and perhaps one bit in What sound does a (puzzle) giveaway make?. And alamarjan's Quick Fix 8 - X Marks The Spot could be a useful inspiration, too, by the way.