A small musical piece in this cursed, cursed world…
Forum lore is back, we’re officially a trilogy (Or a Tetralogy if you include Food Fight (Or a Quintology if you also include Prometheus’ Arena Aftermath))
Smaller than the last two games, but after my exams are finished I promise the Second Act will be bigger.
This will make much more sense if you know the background of the previous two.
Forummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmer Curses - Off Topic - Arcane Odyssey
Forum Curses 2: Prometheus’ Arena - Off Topic - Arcane Odyssey
This story might have some not-lighthearted moments. This includes references to suicide, You have been warned.
Puzzles will contain no more than simple cryptology with the keys handed to you in all cases, you just have to look carefully.
Inspired by @Crimsonpants’ Lost in the Dark Sea ARG.
Welcome to a universe. You… look familiar… Well anyway, nice to meet you. I’m what’s best to call your consciousness for now - I won’t matter any longer than this conversation.
You looked shocked, surprised even?
Weren’t you expecting to be here? Worried that something would slip through from back there?
Oh the man with no head?
He’s dead, you know it. And the rest of them died infinites ago. You don’t have to worry about anything from the past affecting now,
And by the way, Curse has a different meaning over here, keep that in mind.
Five chapters of a story will follow five different characters, you will have three simple tasks and contributing to each will give you points - more points leads to more prizes.
Task 1: Identification. WHO ARE THEY
You must identify the following information about all five major characters:
Name: First
Name: Last
Name: Other
Age
Occupation/Role
Curse…?
Task 2: Decrypting.
In each chapter, there is one main encoded message, hidden along with clues on how to decrypt a message, and occasionally a hidden key for a cipher.
Solve them all, and information could be unveiled. You gain points for contributions to solving cipher puzzles.
When submitting the solution to a cipher, you must give both the method of encryption, ciphertext, decoded plaintext and any key’s used.
Task 3: Solving.
This is a game of logic and creativity. At any point you may submit a “conclusion” based on clues left in the story and your own interpretations. Conclusions can be written in any form, short story, bulletpointed list, seven chapters of detailed fanfiction. (Maybe not?).
Conclusions gain points for multiple things.
- Effort put into writing the conclusion.
- Quality of the conclusion
- Taking clues left by me over the past and future months into consideration.
- Closeness to key plot points.
- Creativity and originality.
The best conclusions will affect future chapters of Forum Curses. You have been warned.
Sources:
To assist with your endeavours, after each chapter there will be a vote to decide in what order the chapter’s Sources will be published. Sources are small snippets from the world, clues, words of sheets of papers, emails, records, etc.
Some sources will require previous sources to be published before you can gain access to them.
All sources:
Forum Curses Entr'acte: Who Am I? - #221 by Randomness
Prizes:
Helping solve the puzzle will give you points. You may DM me and ask to see how many points you own yourself, however you cannot ask to see other people’s points. That does not stop you sharing how many points you have personally.
First Place: Sunken Warriors Helmet (Clean)
Second Place: Three Boss Drops of your choice + 3 Fair Amulets + 3 Arcspheres.
Third Place: Three Boss Drops of your choice. + 3 Fair Amulets + 2 Arcspheres.
Fourth Place: Two Boss Drops of your choice, + 2 Fair Amulets + 1 Arcsphere.
Fifth Place: One Boss Drop of your choice. + 1 Fair Amulet.
Submitting:
You may only submit a single correct piece of information [Single character detail, cipher solve, or task 3 submission] once per day. The day resets at 00:00:00 UTC. If you submit incorrect information you will be put on a cooldown for a few hours.
Submission format:
Task: [1/2/3]
Information you are submitting:
[Etc, etc, etc]
Anyone who helped you find this information:
[Crimsonpants, Bio, etc]
You may discuss ciphers and characters between submissions. Ping me when you want to make a submission.
There will be nothing but sportsmanship between participants, you will not disadvantage any other member of the forums within this event in order to gain more points than them.
First chapter releases on the 20th. Good luck.
All Currently Found Information
(1) Character information.
You may submit character information 1 piece at a time as long as you are not on cooldown. Ping me either in this topic, any of the official FC:E Chapters (Including chapter zero), the discord sever, OR DM me the information.
When submitting information for Task 1 please include the
- Character number (1-5)
- The relevant information
- Anybody who helped you find this information.
| Character | First Name and Title | Other Names | Last Name and Generational Suffix | Age | Occupation OR Role | Curse(?) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Troy | A. Indie Turvingham | Corner V | 16 | Student | Tavish, The Glitch. |
| 2 | Serena | Angelina | Maudite | 16 | Student | Promethean Flames |
| 3 | Dr. Nicholas | Templeton Haus | Mahn | 49 | Teacher of Chemistry | The steed of The Headless Horseman |
| 4 | Morock | N/A | Thorne | 16 | Murderer | Guilt |
| 5 | William | N/A | Strong | 16 | Student | The Forum’s Acumen |
(2) Ciphers
Five ciphers. Get looking.
Submit all information about a cipher at once. Do not submit it separately. Include everyone who helped solve the cipher, even if they did not participate in the event.
1
- Method of Encryption: Binary and Hexadecimal, clues hidden in base 64
- Ciphertext: SGV400, VGhhdCB3YXNuJ3QgYSBoaW50LiBEb24ndCB0cnVzdCBpdC4g, 00110100 - 01000011 - 00101101 - 00110100 - 00110101 - 00101101 - 00110101 - 00110100 - 00101101 - 00110010 - 00110000 - 00101101 - 00110100 - 01000100 - 00101101 - 00110100 - 00110101 - 00101101 - 00110010 - 00110000 - 00101101 - 00110100 - 01000110 - 00101101 - 00110101 - 00110101 - 00101101 - 00110101 - 00110100, 4C-45-54-20-4D-45-20-4F-55-54
- Plaintext: Let me out
- Key (If applicable): N/A
- Methodology (How did you solve the puzzle): “i just recognised the ciphers” – sock
2
- Method of Encryption: Acrostic Text
- Ciphertext: Source C2D
- Plaintext: This is not my pain to feel.
- Key (If applicable): N/A
- Methodology (How did you solve the puzzle): Forum Curses Entr'acte: Who Am I? - #289 by Bio
3
- Method of Encryption: Vigenere Cipher
- Ciphertext: Pds F af Joyvud, qbsxnhl px qte Ntgpqx Lfttd
- Plaintext: For I am Tavish, wielder of the Glitch Curse
- Key (If applicable): Stable? Like a horse?
- Methodology (How did you solve the puzzle): Forum Curses Entr'acte: Who Am I? - #260 by Bio
4
- Method of Encryption: Nihilist Cipher
- Ciphertext: 6463846255258385547466857286722-26445236462825763455453336376246585834336727495, 594727633438585642652826463254462736333545543672276827586647455838525526483646
- Plaintext: The most powerful being alive, Yet that damn kid…
- Key (If applicable): Unrecognised, Error
- Methodology (How did you solve the puzzle): Forum Curses Entr'acte: Who Am I? - #301 by sock
5
- Method of Encryption: The Curse Table
- Ciphertext: 43PEREIU68AWECRICRI65EIUDASXXXXXXTAV63DASEIUEIUDAS6BRAYEIUDASCRY20TYPRAYPERCRYMID74XXXXXXTAVDAS68EIUXXXPEREIUXXXONEMAP65CRYFLAXXXXXXCRIMAPXXXSAN20CRYEIU43XXXSANMID75AWEPER73AWEMID65CRYBAN20AWEEIU54RAYBOY61CRICRY626C65
- Plaintext: Still thought that he was enough to stop me. Fool. My return is inevitable.
- Key (If applicable): See sock’s curse table.
- Methodology (How did you solve the puzzle): Forum Curses Entr'acte: Who Am I? - #310 by sock
(3) Conclusions
DM Me for more details on submitting a conclusion.
It can range in length from a few bullet points under one of the FC:E Topics to a whole dramatic literature (ah yes grammar) in writing, followed by a four page essay on why I should give you the sunken. (Do not)
