Man, I was busy with moving homes and only started the quiz today. The egyptian gods are killing me, only 4 solved so far and searched so much...
Edit: Oh god, did it somehow. Let's see how far I'll come with the second Egyptian puzzle.
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I've been trying to solve the gods since yesterday. Wish I had your skillz to solve it so fast. :)
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I believe in you!! I'd like to give you a hint, but I don't know if that is against the rules and I need to leave for work soon. :(
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Now I'm just missing Alien Communication Q3. But I should really sleep. D:
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I'm stuck on AE1 Q2, Q8 reading through the post now to find hints, but felt this is a good reason for a secret bump ;)
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Thanks for the help escollo, but I believe the answer to Q8 isn't even a god/goddess
I solved Q2, though. \o/
EDIT and just figured Q8 out !!!!
while I didn't brute force I was inspired by you to look at all of them one more time and closer, thanks
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Oh please don't link to sources like that, escollo! This is not a group puzzle!
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Thanks for the puzzle. I couldn't get to the very end - the "chessboard" got me stuck, I'd be very interested in the solution, if you don't mind posting it.. Thankies.
Shout out also to jeffhowe for starting the idea of pyramid puzzles.
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Yeah, I'm stuck there too. I would love to see the solution :D
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Great puzzles.Learned a lot from them so you could call them educational as well. Reached the top but couldn't solve that final puzzle.
Anyway, thank you for the ride
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Yes ! Yes yes yeeeeeeeesssss !!! Finally solved the final puzzle !
I can't say if you're a genius or completely crazy tough... :D
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Bump for solved!! 31 minutes remaining...arf ^^
Thank you so much!
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Event is over!
Thanks to everyone who provided extra GAs for hints, jeffhowe for giving me inspiration, and to all the participants and solvers. Apart from a few snags, which is to be expected in an event of this size, everything worked out great. I'm happy that despite the amount of time needed to solve it all, we had 66 complete solvers in total! 431 players started the journey on the first ITH, and 239 people completed that first step. 106 people reached the final puzzle.
Once I've gone through the rewards, I will write down the solution to a few puzzles that people stumbled on, and then I'll let you ask any questions you have for answers on ITHs you couldn't solve.
Spoilers ahead
For the people who didn't reach the top. This may have been my last Puzzle Agency. If you reached the finale you'll know that Nordh was taken away on a spaceship. There are still stories to be told, and with the huge following this event got I may have gotten a bit more motivation again.
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Than Kiou for the interesting and challenging event. Have a relaxing time in the other planet, rest.. come back!
PS. Stopped at the runes, tried some combinations, got busy.. puzzle ended..
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12 rerolls to be dealt with. The two cheaters I caught won 6 games, and then there were two people that hadn't activated their won games in the last month, so rerolling them as well. Crazy that cheaters would "win" so many games.
I have otherwise dealt with all 90 games (except for Rogue Stormers, which is a Steamgift, so waiting to come in contact with him).
I hope the hint GAs have had good luck with their winners!
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Wow, that is... um. Well anyway, thank you so, so, so much for all of the hard work on the creation of this amazing event, Nordh! I had a blast bashing my brain against this pyramid!!
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6 rerolls made from the people that hadn't activated games in the last month (which earned them a suspension as well), of course one of the rerolls ended up on one of the cheaters. :P So still 7 rerolls to be made.
PS. I'm waiting for all games to be handed out until I post solution.
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The event may be over, but I wanted to give you one last big thank you! I had a lot of fun (and frustration) solving those puzzles, it has been a blast.
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So, can I finally know how that last puzzle with all the pieces was supposed to be solved? After all those hints I was still lost.
Thanks for the giveaways, man. I have taken the time to confirm and redeem my own wins.
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Yeah, will try to get around and post it this afternoon sometime.
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Being backpacking I wasn't able to continue the event.
I had the chessboard for the final ITH pretty early, but was lead astray by the third hint.
The cubic art hint really wasted my time since I was trying to find a particular painting I once saw which was pretty much identical to the final board.
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Where did the ZIl0Ke6l code come from? I made the chessboard and figured out that I was looking for a binary code but I couldn't find one.
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Worked my way up to the top of the pyramid, but could just not solve the final puzzle, unfortunately. Would love to see the solution sometime!
Still won two awesome games though, so thank you very much for the amazing puzzles and the gifts! ^_^
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With the colors on the chessboard you have 8 binary code (black=0 white=1) and you'd must make a conversion of these code in ascii
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Update: Support still hasn't handled rerolls of the cheaters of the event, so I now have a few not received since it's over 7 days since the GAs ended. As previously said, I will post solution once the GAs has been dealt with.
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Also, one of the hint giveaways still has about 2 days remaining.
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Damn, I missed finishing your puzzle... well, probably wouldn't have solved the last part, I was way too much on the wrong track anyway, I guess... eager to see the final solution. Thank you again for all the nice puzzles!
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Solutions
Puzzle 1:
The writing on the documents is in Navajo. A language used as a code during WW2. FIVE is spelled out in the code instead of 5, which would thus give you an 8 letter code to use for an ITH address.
Puzzle 2:
The viking runes were of the Elder Futhark kind. Because C and K uses the same symbol it was 4 variations that could be correct, so some bruteforcing was required. This also leads to an ITH address.
Puzzle 3:
The Greek alphabet used was Linear B and is the first written language in Greece. The 3 symbols spells out Po - Ta - To, and you had to press the buttons on the keypad reflecting each letter. 2 = a, b, and c for example.
Puzzle 4:
This is simply egyptian hieroglyphs spelling out 8 letters for an ITH address.
Puzzle 5:
Throughout the puzzle you were given 29 sets of 4 symbol codes. These were custom chess annotations.
Example: WNC3
W = White (colour of piece)
N = Knight (type of piece. The symbol does not matter for the puzzle, it's there as a hint that you need to use a chessboard.)
C3 = Position on a chessboard.
Once you had positioned all 29 pieces you'd have something like the image below (I think this was the final version at least, I made a few different ones). Careful examination shows that all white pieces are positioned on black, and vice versa. When I was talking about repainting the board, I meant that literally. Imagine that the black pieces colours the square they are standing on to black, and the white pieces colours the square they are standing on to white.
What you have left is a 8x8 grid of black and white square, and most importantly you can see the the first column is all black. That's a telltale sign of binary being used, because binary will always start with a 0 if it's translatable to a-z, A-Z and 0-9. That also means we can deduce that black = 0 and white = 1.
So once you've deciphered the binary to text you reach the final ITH and the end of the puzzle.
If there are any specific ITH questions you're wondering about, let me know!
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wow, fuck me. I had everything to the letter, even the chessboard and since you were all about ciphers the ones before I was thinking of something like the Drunken Bishop method or even grilles but not in the slightest about a simple binary code xD.
well, thank you very much for all the effort you put in and all the fun I had trying to solve it, looking forward to your next puzzle ;P.
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You can solve my next puzzle TODAY by heading over to the Down the Rabbit Hole thread. :)
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I had assumed it was binary but I hadn't a clue how to decipher it and I'm still not so sure.
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I finally get it now - I was just a bit dumb :P
I was doing it mostly right, but I wasn't using the chessboard tiles which lacked a chess piece. It's so obvious now I don't know how it never occured to me.
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By far the hardest part is figuring out what the pieces meant. I had no idea how they represented position.
The coloring bit with cubist art really confused me, I was looking for some sort of visual representation appearing. Like a child's coloring book. Color by numbers.
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Since this quiz, every time the song Sugagabes - Denial is on, I still think of pyramids.
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Yesssssss. I had the right idea (puzzle 5), but was too short on time to do it thoroughly. Then I got unsure if it was even the right way to go on about and then..................well so it goes. :D chain of unfortunate events.... or rather found the puzzle too late.....lame excuse - I know ;P
All in all thanks so much for the event, it was real fun. A shout out to Jeff as well. Between the two of you, you have shaped the steamgifts puzzle- world new and I really appreciate it.
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The Puzzle Agency Storyline has been going on for almost a year, and this is the 9th part. No previous experience is required though, so join us on this adventure, and enjoy the event.
Solutions
Optional Story:
When you arrive back from your mission to take down the Order of the Jigidi, you're met by a young girl who introduces herself as Katie. Nordh tells you he met Katie and her mother Cathy almost a year ago while working undercover inside Quiz HQ, a building shaped like a pyramid and home of the International Terror Heathens, or ITH for short. Even though they worked there, it was noticable that the staff didn't have any idea what was really going on behind the scenes.
"While mom, Cathy, was investigating some strange things going down at the Quiz HQ she just disappeared", Katie explains. "I haven't heard from her in over a week, and she told me if things went bad I could always count on Nordh here to help me."
Katie hands you her Security badge from work. "You can use this to gain entrance to the bottom level of the Quiz HQ. Nordh tells me you did an excellent job undercover in the last place and if he trusts you, I do as well. So, please, find my mom and bring her safely back home."
Well, you asked when the next one was going to be, but you had at least hoped there'd be a short time to rest up between missions. And while you knew you had to take on ITH one day, this new development makes it even more important.
Ancient Egypt Passcodes to reach the next level
Ancient Greece Passcodes to reach the next level
Vikings Passcodes to reach the next level
World War 2 Passcodes to reach the next level
This Puzzle Agency story takes place in two different locations. Nordh will help you from the Puzzle Agency mansion to try and guide you to the top of the Quiz HQ pyramid. There will be a set of quiz-like ITHs that symbolizes the different floors of the pyramid. You must start at the bottom and solve the first 5 ITH links before you can unlock the next level. Between each floor a more proper puzzle has to be solved to continue on your way upwards.
Codes deciphered are used on itstoohard.com.
No more hints can be bought.
Hint system
You can buy hints for everyone to use by creating GAs and sending me links privately. Let me know if you're interested. The GAs will then be added as rewards for solving the different levels, and a hint(s) for that level will be added.
Level 1 (WW2): 1-4 points GA value
Level 2 (Vikings): 5-9 points GA value
Level 3 (Ancient Greece): 10-19 points GA value
Level 4 (Ancient Egypt): 20-29 points GA value
Level 5 (The top): 30+ points GA value
You can, for example, create 3x10 point GAs for a level 5 hint. Or 1x8 points can give you two hints for level 1. You can even make a train with someone else to reach a higher level if you hand them in together.
As an addition, it should be games. No clickteam fusion GAs ;P
Last chance to buy hints will be January 16th, after that I will remind all complete solvers to check the top for any new GAs that may have arrived so they have a chance to check them out.
If anything seems wrong with an answer, tell me what question it is and I'll give it a look. You can try to drop subtle hints on what the answer should have been.
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