The Guide v.X: LockJaw by Steve Peters

Feb. 7th - Mar. 18th - After Mar. 18th - After April 5th - After April 28th

Don't know what's going on here? Click here.

Introduction - Recap 1 - Recap 2 - Recap 3 - Recap 4 - Recap 5 - Recap 6 - Recap 7 - Recap 8 - Epilogue

---

Horoscopes Week 6

Another Monday update for the horoscopes at Grrl-E-Grrl. Many of the correlations are being solidified, but there are some that still don't make sense:

• Aquarius (We still don't have a good idea what Aquarius represents)-"The table is set, the pantry is stocked, and you're ready for the unruly crowd. At least I hope you are."
• Aries (Ganmed)-"You know how you feel when you have indigestion, that vague rumbling deep inside? That's what's happening to you spiritually. You need a psychic bicarbonate, and soon." Sort of vague, perhaps indicating that there's a fundamental problem developing at Ganmed. Perhaps they're succumbing to the Dark Side?
• Cancer (URF)-"Your life is moving forward, or is it going backwards? Maybe you should figure out where you are going. Look from the outside in and then turn yourself around. You’ll find your way just fine." Definitely a hint to the where.gif puzzle we've been trying to crack. The part about looking from the outside in and turning around seems to be pointing us at the reversed part of the image. Still beating our heads against the wall about where.gif.
• Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl)-"It seems as though you have led some friends astray. Perhaps you should spend this week redeeming yourself as a trusted pal." Perhaps pointing at some not-so-good hints we've gotten from the Grrl.
• Gemini (Moreland)-"The biography of your life is a fascinating read. Who wrote it? Perhaps you will learn more about yourself if you read between the lines." Seems to be pointing us to the history page at the Moreland site. Maybe we should be looking at that more closely.
• Leo (Jawbreakers?)-"Obstacles have prevented others from recognizing your influence, but once they learn to see you for who you really are, they will appreciate your experience." Perhaps telling us that if we play our cards right, we might be trusted by an in-game character.
• Libra (TerraShape)-"It's time to let people see your true colors. You've been lax in presenting the right image to the world, and you know full well that it isn't the whole story. Let the world see the real you." Hmm, something the world doesn't know about TerraShape?
• Pisces (Vad)-"An odd encounter leaves you unsettled. Trust your instincts but be careful how you act on them. You wouldn’t want to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar." The odd encounter mentioned may be with Vad's neighbors.
• Sagittarius (DCMC)-"Your station in life has never been more confusing. What once seemed to be a simple task now has you spinning. It is important to make a proper list, get your priorities straight, and then proceed with caution." An obvious reference to us trying to crack Creepers password. Looks like the method may be a little different than we've used in the past.
• Scorpio (Serpent)-"Feeling abandoned? Have your old friends forsaken you for someone flashier? Don't worry; they'll come back to you soon." Well, we haven't been visiting Pythia much since the first few weeks. Maybe if he'd give us some more of those hints he promised.
• Taurus (Net:Sight)-"On the surface you're all calm, Taurus, but underneath you're just full of ideas. Keep your clever thoughts quiet for just a little longer, but keep working on them. They'll be a sure-fire hit." Net:Sight's probably working on the newest version of their browser.
• Virgo (Barbara)-"A simple encounter with an old friend may not be so simple. Keep your plans to yourself or you may be surprised by who turns up. Be careful who you trust, you may get yourself into trouble." Barbie needs to be careful whom she trusts and confides in.

URF Forums Updated

On March 20th, the source code for http://www.10101-10010-110.org/forums.asp changed:
-------------------------------------------------------
<input type="text" name="textfield1" size="16" maxlength="99">
<input type="submit" value="admin"> <!-- when he exclaims "run,"
everyone goes in fear -->
<br>
<input type="text" name="textfield2" size="16" maxlength="99">
<input type="submit" value="downtime"> <!-- /where the grass is
greener -->
<br>
<input type="text" name="textfield3" size="16" maxlength="99">
<input type="submit" value="events">
-------------------------------------------------------

This seemed to tellus that someone is on the right track, with where.gif, but we need to be entering the password into the admin field, instead of the events field. Arrgh!

Barbie/Vad Emails

March 20th also brought us some new emails on Barbie and Vad's Underground. Seems they're missing each other an awful lot, but still beating around the bush (ah, young love!).

The most notable item in these emails is a "date" to play Euchre online at the Yahoo Euchre game tonight! Could we see our friends Vad and Barbie live and in person?? If so, what do we do? Keep quiet and watch? Try to pry information out of them?

Also listed is an earlier email from Creeper to Barbie. Dated 3/19, this message talks a lot about fashion, as lists some fashion designers:

louis vuitton
gaultier
donna karan
clinton hummel
gucci
missoni
balenciagas

A day later, balenciagas was updated to be balenciaga. This would lead us to conclude that this list is a clue of some sort. Hmm, fashion designers.

Iduna Newsletter Update

The Iduna newsletter also gave us an update, introducing us to the Mayor's wife, Nadine Devenish, complete with picture.

Nadine seems to be very interested in gardening, as she goes on and on about flowers and herbs and gardens. She does include a rather interesting list of blossoms: Cinquefoil, Buckbean, American Starwort, Balm of Gilead, Lotus, Trumpet Flower, clippings of Pitch Pine. Some rather interesting connections were found with these.

Cinquefoil: Maternal affection/Beloved child
Buckbean: Calm, Repose
American Starwort: Welcome to a stranger/Cheerfulness in old age
Balm of Gilead: Cure, Relief/I am healed
Lotus: Eloquence/Forgetful of the past
Trumpet Flower: Fame/Separation
Pitch Pine: Philosophy/Time and faith

If the speculations about some sort of fountain of youth are true, then these seem to all point to that sort of thing. There also seems to be a lot of numbers in her article. Here it is in it's entirety:

Spring is the season of hope, and what could be more filled with hope than the empty flower beds and gardens of Moreland? Each flower pot waiting for its flower, each empty patch of lawn waiting to be filled with blooms! Spring has not yet sprung, of course. I'm sure we'll get a few more cold nights, a few more grey mornings. Dreams of beautiful flowers, missed during the winter, are still just dreams. But the wind is warm, the trees are green, and a robin is building her nest outside my kitchen window.

I don't know about you, but I love this time of year. Everything is filled with hope and excitement. The seed catalogs have arrived in the mail, and the last grey days of winter fall away as I flip through those pages. Just look! Cinquefoil, Buckbean, American Starwort, Balm of Gilead, Lotus, Trumpet Flower, clippings of Pitch Pine. So many beautiful blossoms to choose from. I've planned out my flower beds a half dozen times already, and despite the chuckles I get from my husband, I'll probably plan it another ten times before I'm done.

Why not plan your garden along with me? Flower pots come in all shapes and colors, and in a range of prices. In fact, you can browse through the shops downtown and find a hundred different options without half trying! Ask the helpful salesperson in the gardening department about easy to grow flowers, or plants that will accentuate your home style. Of course, herbs are always a good choice since they require little care beyond water and sunlight, they add a wonderful scent to your kitchen area, and they make a lovely addition to your family's supper table (try adding fresh basil to a salad or pasta dish, you'll be amazed at the delicate taste!).

You might find yourself inspired to join our local floral club, or to try growing a few vegetables on your porch (tomatoes are easy to grow, take up little space, and taste wonderful fresh from the vine!). Let us all welcome the Spring with open arms, knowing that sunny mornings and bright flowers are waiting for us in this season of new life!

Nadine Devenish

Euchre

On the night of March 20th, we had our first live contact with in-game characters! Vad and Barbie met on Yahoo to play a little game of Euchre. While playing, many Jawbreakers entered the room to watch. This didn't go unnoticed by Vad and Barbie, and some conversations were started. We did learn some interesting information, though nothing really earth shattering. Besides learning how to play Euchre, we also learned the following:

* Jo Burgess may not be the brainchild of Moreland like we are being led to believe. She said during an orientation that she'd been handed the Moreland projects, at which point Vad interjected, saying he thought it was her idea. Jo then got very flustered, and then said that's what she meant. Here's a partial transcript of the chat:

(here, vad is talking to the JawBreakers about his boss again.)

vadindc: Well, that's the thing.
vadindc: all of her company's promo stuff lauds her as the head
desinger. I mean, she created this place, as far as I am concerned
ozymandias_y2k_in: but?
vadindc: well, she says the other day, during this long orientation
meeting how she got handed the project
vadindc: so i correct her, you know, as best as i can, trying to show
off that I've read the circulars and reports
SpaceBass98: heh, correcting the boss rarely goes over well
vadindc: i know
ozymandias_y2k_in: never hurts to sound prepared
vadindc: but it just seemed weird
SpaceBass98: what did she say?
ozymandias_y2k_in: did she say if she's reporting to/responsible to
someone?
vadindc: well that's just the thing. she recovered and then said
something like Well, that's what I meant
ozymandias_y2k_in: never too early to learn to play good office
politics. you want to know who you're really working for
ozymandias_y2k_in: sometime's it's more important to impress the boss'
boss, know what i mean?
vadindc: she actually stuttered for a few minutes, and then did lots of
smoothing of her clothes and stuff.
vadindc: weirdest. ever.


We also learned that:

* Barbie is planning to visit Vad in Moreland, possibly over Easter weekend. Vad is suitably overjoyed. ;)

* According to Barbie, Cave_Bear is still not doing terribly well.

* Vad was reluctant to talk too much about his job because of a complex nondisclosure agreement they made him sign.

* Vad has respect for his boss, (Jo Burgess) he just thinks she's kind of energetic and strange.

* Vad, in his words, moved from "the land of sports bars [he was ribbing Barbie all night about dragging him to them against his will, especially in the context of being forced to watch Orioles games] to the land of Swedish furniture showrooms".

On thing of note, was that Barbie got disconnected early in the game. Vad got rather worried, and okay, so did we. Could she have been abducted mid-game?? Did she meet the same fate as other crawlers?? Tune in next week.

Barbie/Creeper Emails

The next day, Barbie had some new email from Creeper. In the email thread dated 3/21, we learn a little more about Vad's boss, Jo Burgess, as Barbie relates her conversation with him about how weird she is. Barbie keeps insisting to Creeper that she and Vad are "just friends" (the two worst words to come out of a woman's mouth). She also references a scrap of paper that Vad found that he's scanned and sent to her that apparently has some sort of password on it. Hmm.

Creeper also gives a refers to the recon2 document, saying she accidentally uploaded to her own page instead of Platform. Grr, this sees to make finding her password all the more important. Curiously, creeper lists a few things that's she'll bring to Barbie's, which is kind of odd:

Scissors (thanks for letting me borrow them the other day, sorry I walked out with them)
Alligator belt (it will look fabulous with that outfit you just bought!)
Rusted Root cd that Bear borrowed (he knows which one, correct?)
Recon printout

We've looked at this list from all angles, but haven't come up with anything. Creeper sure likes lists, though, between this and the earlier list of fashion designers.

Okay, looking for the paper Barbie talks about leads us to a new file on Platform:

Pieces.jpg

This is a scan of a ripped up piece of paper with some kind of message on it. After some manipulation in photoship, and some folks actually printing it out and cutting it up, it was pieced together to reveal the following message:

3:19pm

IT department
password reminder
(scratched out bit)

Some Chinese Characters

4:05pm

Call Aleks back,
re: weather patterns
meteorological reports

It was discovered that the characters are pronounced "chang lung" in Mandarin and means "auspicious, prosperous". It's a phrase usually used to describe a successful business.

Aleks probably referrs to Aleks Canzovich, who's the department lead of the Ecology Department at TerraShape. So we know the writer of the note isn't him, at least.

So, Jawbreakers set out to the TerraShape email login page to start trying different usernames and passwords related to "chang lung." It didn't take long to crack this one:

Jo Burgess's Password/Email

Username: jburgess. Password: prosperity. Ding! Now we're looking at Jo Burgess's email account. Sweet!

A load of interesting information here, found in 6 messages:

Web Mail-Just a pretty standard message about the email system.

Order Confirmation-A confirmation of a purchase from a place called Bodhisattva's Lunchbox in San Francisco. We checked for related sites, found nothing

RE: Fwd: Plans-Things get a little interesting here. Seems Jo had sent some plans to a Robert Marshall-Hardcastle that had something to do with a "House of Leaves." Mr. Hardcastle needed to get the plans signed off by the "client," but after waiting and waiting for that to hapen, Jo finally cancels the whole thing altogether. Robert is not pleased. Looks like this may have been plans to something the "client" didn't know about, that Jo was trying to sneak in somehow, or perhaps just something the "client" changed their mind about. Or, maybe Jo discovered something sinister in the plans and put the kabosh on things herself. Lotta maybes

It was discovered that House of Leaves is a fictional book written by Mark Z. Danielewski, in which the presentation of the novel and its contents lends readers to believe that it is true (somewhat akin to the Blair Witch Project). The books is supposedly about dark urban legends.

Notes from this morning's meeting/conference call-Typical staff meeting stuff. One thing of note is the mention of a software audit. It might not be a good idea for someone to have something "unauthorized" on their computer.

Conference: An invitation to speak at a conference on Feng Shui and Tactile Living.

Notes: Early conceptual notes on Moreland. Interesting points include the use of a security system on both homes and the sewer system. Seems a little odd that a Utopia like this would need such tight security, and that Vad would have a little bit of a challenge exploring uderground there. Also a bit about sunshine being allowed to fall seems a bit odd. No mirrors? Plus, it seems she's putting off a write-up needing lots of metaphors. Could this be referring to the Moreland History page, which is full of them?

Where.gif Solution

March 25th brought another update to the where.gif image. A Seems like the PMs are mocking us just a little bit! A nice animated file showing us lots of pie, and hitting us over the head with very direct clues. The clues were pointing us to something being in pie (or pi), backwards. Or a backwards version of something found in pi. Following that line of thought, it looked lik the pic was also pointing us to 8x8, or 8 number eights. Searching for 88888888 in pie brought us to the 46663520th place in pi. 46663520 backwards is 02536664. 02536664 entered as the password in the Admin box at URF works! We've finally solved this puzzle! Looking back, it seems it was in fact a fair puzzle that could conceivably been solved from very early on. The very first images gave us enough to go on, and in fact, the answer was found earlier, just never entered backwards! Well, thus ends the JawBreakers most embarrassing episode of the game. Where.gif will be forever immortalized as the most hated puzzle ever! Urban Zombie posted a hilarious summary of our frustration at this one. Okay, so entering 02536664 into the Admin login takes us to the Admin Inbox:

(hit "refresh" to see the animation)

Admin Inbox

Here we find 4 email messages that are very interesting. Two messages from Serpent, one from Moot and one from a z-6. The emails are presumably to Hermes, since he runs the site.

In 'bread crumbs' Serpent is pointing Hermes to Ganmed. This message is dated February 26th, just before the calling card hack was found there. It also mentions something about Hermes keeping his cover among the other hackers, leading us to believe he may be a plant or a mole somehow. Or maybe he's not even the real Hermes any more.

In 'tilting' we see a side of Moot we haven't seen before. A side with a vocabulary! This is an interesting read, comparing himself to Don Quixote. Seems Moot's a leader after all.

Finally, the message from z-6 yields the most. At first, it looks like a simple "yeah, I'm in" response to being asked to help in the hack, but looking at the pasted replied-to message gives us some startling info. The big one is a reference to another company, General Telometrics. A little trial-and-error, and we find another new in-game site!

Gen-Tel

General Telometrics, or Gen-Tel, as quoted from the Research page, "strives to develop unique solutions to common problems".

Gen-Tel's main focus is Telometry, a study of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, but, also linked from the research page are their research into the fields of Oral Vaccines, Genetic Crop Enhancement, Anti-Cancer Pharmaceuticals, and Robotics.

The 4 main products made are iSee4U (robotic optical implants), Hydroclaritix (a form of anti-aging skin care therapy), FreezeQuick (bandages), and Noctylent (prevents night terrors, very strange). Four others are in development: Vicent, Inephamine, Preciprospermalin, and Lobaxtin.

An email addy is supplied on the Company Info page, interested@general-telometrics.com, for company info seekers, and a basic run-through of what they do is on the What We Do page. Emailing them returns the following response:

Thank you for your interest in General Telometrics.

We are currently unable to provide the information you are looking
for on our website. To continue your research, we ask that you please
send an email to Lauren Woods (lwoods@general-telometrics.com)
including a detailed question, and your mailing address. We will do
our best to respond to each email personally. We are always glad to
hear from interested GenTel customers.

Thank You

Sending email to Lauren Woods has resulted with no response of any kind, yet.

All of the pages are linked up to Net:Sight, at the bottom of each page. Also, GenTel appears to be a Leo, from the sqiggle in its logo. So much for my spec that Leo represents JawBreakers!

On the home page, there's an interesting little paragraph on the left:
"Employee Updates:
Please remember to format your research logs for the ODES"
A little snooping around seems in order. What exactly is odes. Trying http://www.argn.com/archives/lockjaw/www.general-telometrics.com/odes.htm, we find a typical error page....or is it? For one thing "unavailible" is spelled wrong. A view of the source code exposes the meaning of the acronym:

<!-- ODES= Online Data Entry System-->

Perhaps it's not active yet, or we have to hack our way in.

So, telometry is the study of telomeres. Since the somatic cells in the human body do not produce telomerases, those cells' chromosomes (as well as those of their descendents, if they're stem cells) gradually lose their telomeres as time goes on. This is thought to be a central cause of aging, and as such, research into telomeres would be right up Ganmed's alley.

Also worth noting is their expertise in oral vaccination, where they've genetically engineered fruit to produce antigens for various diseases that can be fed to people as an extremely cheap way to vaccinate them. This is suspiciously reminiscent of the "Iduna apples" spec that theorizes that Ganmed is feeding the people of Moreland its youth drug through Moreland's apple orchards.

We don't know exactly what part Gen-Tel is playing in all this, but I'm guessing that they're the "good-guy" bio-tech firm, as opposed to Ganmed and the questions surrounding them. The Leo horoscopes seem to indicate this, also.

Email to Moot

After much discussion in #JB, it was decided to go ahead and try to ally ourselves with the hackers at URF by sending them our translation of the 2nd Ganmed memo. It was decided to send it to Moot, as he seemed the most level-headed of the bunch. After opening a Yahoo email account under the name Jawbreakersgroup, we sent Moot the following message:

Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 17:14:48 -0800 (PST)
From: jawbreakersgroup@yahoo.com
Subject: Ganmed Translations
To: moot@10101-10010-110.org

Your friends are certainly taking their time. Mine have a little more
experience with this kind of thing. I hope we have been of assistance. Look
forward to hearing from you:

[following was the text of the translated Ganmed memo #2]

We pretty quickly received the following reply:

Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 20:11:39 -0500
From: "moot" <moot@10101-10010-110.org>
To: jawbreakersgroup@yahoo.com
Subject: ?

?
!

It seemed to be a very favorable response, sort of translating in Moot-speak to, "Huh? What's this???.......Holy crap!" It seemed we could make a good impact and impress URF with our hacking/decoding prowess, and therefore maybe get access to other things they may have found at Ganmed. But except for that initial response, they've been silent.

Horoscopes Week 7

Another Monday comes, another update:

Creeper's Password

Seemingly out of the blue, Creepers password was finally discovered. Running with the fashion clues in her emails to Barbie, the password was found to be: vogue.

Doing some reverse-engineering on the nocars map, we find that "V" is the first letter in "Van Dorn"; "O" is the second letter in "College Park"; "G" is the thrid letter in "Foggy Bottom"; "U" is the fourth letter in "Columbia"; and "E" is the fifth letter in "Clarendon". It just so happens that these positions correspond to the same positions in the word "Vogue."

Van dorn
cOllege park
foGgy bottom
colUmbia
clarEndon

This puzzle solution illustrates how easy it is to let yourself get trapped by previous successes. Anyway, we enter creeper/vogue in the boxes at the Platform, and we're whisked away to.......

2nd Recon and Lab Photo

Creeper's Underground page. Here we find what we've been looking for! A copy of the article about the 2nd Recon crawl, along with a photograph.
The recon document details a crawl back on August 11th, in which the crawlers stumble upon a several locked doors, and a secret passageway that leads them to some sort of lab. It also hints at other pictures that have apparently been misplaced, hopefully temporarily.

The lab looks pretty nondescript, but it's obvious that something's going on down there. It also is alluded to that the lab was recently occupied or in use. Hmm, looks like this was the beginning of the end for some of our intrepid explorers.

The only other thing of note on Creeper's page is some emails with Barbie about having a girls' night together watching the Academy Awards. Seems Cave Bear is becoming a little too much to take, and they just need a break from him. Can't say as I blame them.

Barbie also still seems undecided about going to visit Vad at Moreland. She even mentions some of us who were in the Euchre room with them the other night as talking about how difficult long-distance relationships can be. Looks like we may have some match-making to do soon.

Nocars Map 4 and Emails

March 27th turned out to be a busy day! Just about as soon as we solved Creeper's email, the nocars sit updated again, giving us a new map plus some new emails in the DCMC Underground. Starting with the map, we see the following:

Un-linked Stations are:

Columbia Heights
Addison Rd
Van Ness-UDC
Eastern Market
Braddock Ave
East Falls Church
Anacostia
Rhode Island Ave

As we expected, these stations spell out CAVEBEAR using all of the first letters.

Linked Stations are:

Glenmont
Arlington Cemetary
Branch Ave
Archives-Navy Memorial
U St.- Cardozo

Looks like we have three "memorials" (Cemetary, African-American Civil War Mem., and Navy Mem) and two "ends" (Branch and Glenmont form the ends of the green and red lines). Seems to be pointing us to some sort of literal Dead End, somehow.

Now, looking at the new emails, we find out that Vad and Barbie have another Euchre date tonight!

Iduna Newsletter 2nd Edition

On that same afternoon, the Iduna Newsletter updated to give us an entirely new page with another article about flowers, and another interesting article about a new shop in town.

First, looking at the flowers again, and searching for meanings, we get the following:

Iris -- Zinnia
I have a message for you -- I mourn your absence

Sorrel -- Cardamine -- Pink Verbena
Affection/Thoughts of absent friends/parental affection/wit ill-
timed -- paternal error -- family union


Red Rosebud -- Indian Cress -- Spruce Pine -- Evergreen Thorn -- Wood
Sorrel
Pure and lovely/you are young and beautiful -- resignation/warlike
trophy -- farewell/hope in adversity -- solace in adversity --
Joy/Maternal tenderness/parental affection

Hmm, perhaps these are little messages from Vad to Barbie, since Vad's working on the Moreland website now.

Now, looking at the new shop, it's interesting that Vigenere, the name of this shop, is also a polyalpaphabetic cypher. There are many places on the web with info about this particular encryption technique. So far, we can't see anyplace obvious that it would be used, though.

Also, we find a link to a photos section, that shows us some pictures from the Mayor's exciting Valentine's Day Party.

Okay, March 27th had some more in store for us.....

Euchre Chat 2

Once again, a crowd gathered to watch in awe as Vad and Notadoll (Barbie) rendezvouzed in the Yahoo Euchre Game Room for a little repartee. Transcripts of the conversations can be found on the Yahoo Message Board. Basically, what we learned was that Vad found another interesting document while rumaging through Jo Burgess's trash, but security is so high he can't send it out. We suggested lots of ways of sneaking it through, but he brushed them all off. Well, he seemed a little interested in hiding the image on the Moreland webpage, but ultimately said he definitely couldn't, even though he would be working on the page late that night.

Also, by the end of the night, Barbie was talked into going to visit Vad over the Easter weekend. It's so fun to be Cupid...All in all, the JawBreakers are getting better and better at casually extracting information from Vad and Barbie without weirding them out. This has definitely been one of the highlights of this, so far.

URF Site Hacked

Well, things weren't over for the day, yet. As we were all comparing notes on the Euchre game, somebody decided to stop by the URF site and made an amazing discovery: It was gone!! Everything, totally, absolutely gone! Attempting to access the root index yeilds a flash animation of typhon.gif swirling and fading into a negative-image of a 404. Very, very cool! Of course, if you've tried any of the previous links to URF in the Guide, you've already discovered this!

So, it seems that the Serpent has gotten in and deleted the entire URF site! Why? Was there some info about him/her or somebody else that he/she didn't want made public?? Or was he/she just ticked at the lack of progress the Rat-Faces were making with Ganmed? Or was he/she just flexing his/her hacker muscles?

There was also something a little out of the ordinary about the 404 error, beyond the spinning typhon, that is. If you look really carefully, there are some italicized letters in the original error message, before it turns to black. These letters are:

ehensgiewge

Initial anagrams, etc. have yielded no results in English, but we can get a German phrase: "Gehen Sie weg!" which means "Go away!"

Moreland Hidden Text

But wait, there's more! As we were all ready to go to bed after a full day of very satisfying Lockjaw updates, hacks and puzzle solutions, we watched another unfold. Poking around the Moreland website, we started discovering little hidden messages appearing in the source code. It seems that Vad took our Euchre advice to hide messages in the source code of his website:
<!-- m --> "frame" source
<!-- j --> NewsLetter (current)
<!-- o --> Mayor's welcome
<!-- p --> Town History
<!-- e --> Town Statistics
<!-- m --> Employment Opportunities

On a hunch, someone assumed we were missing a 'g' somewhere, (which was in fact later found on the page that is returned when your application is accepted) and found...

Memo.jpg

Memo.jpg, which shows us a crumpled TerraShape Memo, with really, really awful handwriting. After much effort, it was transcribed as:

"Sender: Robert Marshall-Hardcastle (Architecture)
Recipient(s): Ciaran O'Kerrigan (Construction)
Date: 19th March

Ciaran,
When I was looking over the materials requisition ____
this morning, I happened to note that you have asked
for an additional 6000 ____, 4000 concrete bricks and ten
tonnes of cement - on top of the original allocation, and
earmarked specifically for the medical center.
Sir, I demand an explanation for this immediately. My
original calculations were exact in every detail. They were
checked, double-checked and cross-checked thoroughly, in accordance
with policy. The only conclusion I can possibly draw,
therefore, is that you are colluding with parties unknown
to embezzle this company. You would not be the first to
try this. Do not forget with whom you are dealing, sir.

Robert Marshall-Hardcastle"

Well, looks like we have another piece of communication with our old friend, Robert Marshall-Hardcastle. He seems to be a very easygoing and pleasant chap! Well, we'll be watching him very closely, to see if he gets his due. But in the meantime, is there anything we can glean from this that might give us the password to his email account? I have a feeling that would be an interesting account to access.

Recap 4: What do we know?

Serpent was either dissatisfied with URF, or needing to cover something that may have been posted there, as he/she hacked into and destroyed their site completely. We're still not sure who Serpent is, but there is strong speculation that Serpent is Jo Burgess, though I remain unconvinced. We have not as yet discovered what has become of Hermes, Moot and friends, nor have we heard back from them about the 2nd Ganmed memo we sent them.

Barbie is going to visit Vad over Easter weekend. Will a romance bloom? Will they make some sinister discovery while on a moonlit walk around the lake? Will either of them find the courage to reveal their true feelings for one another? (cue organ music). Bruce (Vad) is enjoying his new job, but is beginning to notice strange things, and is forwarding photos of some things he's found to Barbie.

It turns out that Jo Burgess may not be the brains behind Moreland after all. Even though all the public brochures and documents point to her as being the visionary behind it all, seems she's indicated she's just been following "orders" from some other entity.

Something strange is definitely going on at Moreland. We're finding increasing evidence of some sort of drug or something being delivered to the population via the Iduna Apples that are always being pushed on everybody everywhere. Jo Burgess, may either be in the dark about any of this, or has discovered some things that she's trying to make public somehow.

General Telometrics (our reward for solving where.gif) seems like it may be the "good guy" in all of this, but it's very early to tell, yet.

The crawlers discovered a lab complex of some sort while exploring around an underground Metro construction site. All we have right now is a description of that recon crawl, and one picture of a lab. It was soon after this initial discovery that crawlers started dying.

Sites we've visited: General Telometrics

Sites we haven't visited:Seems there is at least one more undiscovered web-site.

Things that are unsolved:

• Cave Bear's password
• Moreland's Residential login
• "ehensgiewge" found in Serpent's "calling card" at URF
• Robert Marshall-Hardcastle's email password
• Terrashape Departmant Icons
• Prices on the URF Cafepress store
• Html files found within the Net:Sight browser
• The meaning of the Ten Little Indians reference.
• The meaning of the Holy Man reference.
• "To move from place to place."
• mrgt-03.gif and mrgt-03b.gif on URF main page.
• Bruce Hollman's Moreland email address.

---

Net:Sight April Fool's Day

At just after Midnight GMT, April 1st, Net:Sight's home page was updated to read as follows (plus <!hidden source code text>):

OXFORD, UK: Oxford-based software house Net:Sight Solutions today announced it was stepping down from its hard-fought position in the web browser market, and - in a move that surprised many - has outlined plans to move away from the industry altogether.

"Software is kind of boring" said CEO Jan van Holt at a press conference today, outlining his new strategy. "You know, for geeks. So I just thought, sod it: let's do something we believe in for a change!"

To that end, van Holt is shifting the company's focus away from software development and into interpretive dance.
<!-- Well, if you've got the legs for it...>

"Dance is an art form that, I feel, has been greatly overlooked in recent years; I simply felt it was time to redress the balance. My key staff are already taking masterclasses to improve their steps. I was initially concerned when Eric decided to specialise in the Time Warp, but that's turned out surprisingly well. <!-- Now that's a truly terrifying image --> I tell you this, when Seb and Harry do the Lambada it's every man for himself."

Geh. Well, it's good to know the PM's have a sense of humor, er, humour.

The site returned to normal the next day.

Grrl-E-Grrl April 1st Update

Rather than just the weekly Horoscope update, Grrl-E-Grrl had some additional updates due to April coming around. Now, seeing as this is April Fool's Day, we're not exactly sure what can be considered a real update and what is a prank, but most likely all of these updates are April Fool's jokes, except possibly the Horoscopes.

Editorials has been updated to read simply:

?

Could this be a hint that Barbie may be Moot?? Nothing is found in the source code, so we're just left to wonder, for now.

In the Love and Dating section, we find a new article entitled, "How to Make the Catch." This is a rather interesting article on how to get the relationship you want, and includes such helpful tips as: Play Mind Games, Don't Be Yourself, Be Needy, Avoid Communication, and Move Quickly. Pretty funny reading, actually!

In House and Home, we find a nice recipe for Apple Sugar Crisps. Looks pretty good until you realize that two of the ingredients are vinegar and baking soda. Don't try this at home. (It was noticed that this is a "recipe" that was originally distributed to various newspapers by the Las Vegas magicians Penn & Teller).

In the Entertain section, Drew Taylor has written a very nice article of the Mariah Carey movie "Glitter." Here's a quote from this marvelous review:
"When the film slows down a gear to allow us a glimpse into Billie’s state of mind, one can easily imagine lesser performers like Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins or Elizabeth Berkley who would have used this opportunity to showcase an array of thespian tricks and flourishes. In Mariah’s hands, we have no such artifice, as she manages to take those quiet moments and fill them with an inner life."

Cinema experts, indeed....

Um, okay, moving right along. The article "A Respectable Pet" gives us new insights on the value of owning, caring for, and loving the ultimate pet: The TROUT! Nice to know that Trout is a pet of respect.

If there were any doubt as to whether these are joke pages, notice the common letter "f" in each article's URL.

The updated Horoscopes page has no such letter, however. But the horoscopes this week are rather different than they have been in the past (Bold text for emphasis of the differences):

Aries (Ganmed)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid quiche. The excitement of your afternoon will be counting the tiles in the ceiling. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend a couple hours working on your taxes only to realize that you threw your W-2 away with the junk mail.

Taurus (Net:Sight)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid sushi. The excitement of your afternoon will be waiting for a phone call. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. After cleaning the dishes, you’ll take a nice long soak in the tub.

Gemini (Moreland)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid the salad bar. The excitement of your afternoon will be listening to your friend tell the same story for the millionth time. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You’ll settle into bed with a good book, only to fall asleep while reading the first page.

Cancer (URF)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid split pea soup. The excitement of your afternoon will be your visit to the dentist. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend the evening doing the laundry you’ve put off for far too long.

Leo (Gen-Tel)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid pasta. The excitement of your afternoon will be playing the William Tell Overture with your fingers on your desk. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend the evening hanging up on telemarketers.

Virgo (Barbie)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid potatoes. The excitement of your afternoon will be counting the jellybeans left in your Easter Basket. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. Your evening will be filled with a rousing game of checkers.

Libra (TerraShape)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid the tempting tuna melt. The excitement of your afternoon will be watching an ice cube melt. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend the evening calling people that you haven’t talked to in months and realizing why you haven’t talked to them in so long.

Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid pizza. The excitement of your afternoon will be timing the second hand on your watch to prove that it is running slowly. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You’ll spend the evening making Apple Sugar Crisps.

Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid tacos. The excitement of your afternoon will be counting the number of red cars that drive by your window. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend the evening going for a drive to look at the stars, unfortunately you will only see five due to light pollution.

Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid hamburgers. The excitement of your afternoon will be watching a cat clean itself. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You’ll watch some stupid show on tv and go to bed early.

Aquarius (Unknown)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid the chicken salad. The excitement of your afternoon will be waiting for a watched pot to boil. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will waste the evening chatting with friends online.

Pisces (Vad)
Today you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. The morning will go by very slowly. You will have a small snack to break the boredom. Lunch will be a great if you avoid fruit. The excitement of your afternoon will be watching the grass grow. After a brief nap, you will attempt to cook dinner. It will burn. You will spend the evening reorganizing your closet. Where did those jeans go?

There are a couple references that stand out immediately. The mention of 5 stars in Sagittarius is a direct reference to Cave Bear's email to Vad. Seems to be a clue to Cave Bear's password. Perhaps a dead 5-star General? A constellation made up of 5 stars? A 5-star restaurant?

Well, it would turn out the next day, April 2nd, would be very busy, indeed. Where to begin? Okay, we'll stop by our good friend Pythia's place first...

Pythia Update-ECCLESIASTIC

Well, it's been a while since we've seen anything new at The Pythia, so it was a pleasant surprise to find something new there early in the morning on April 2nd. Above the serpent, we were presented with a small picture of a constellation (Scorpio). This picture clicked us through to a page entitled ECCLESIASTIC, which was an image of a snake with the message, "woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."

This quote is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 4:10. Ecclesiates is also known as "The Preacher."

It was also noticed that there was a short message in the source code:

<ring.

ring.

ring.>

Hmm. Well this definitely seems to be pointing at some Biblical reference, but there's not a lot to go on here. But hold on, looks like something's new at Ganmed, too......

Ganmed Employee Login

Seems there's some new news at Ganmed. The News Update page gives us the following message:

" Important Update



The Express Messenger system is once again available.

You may begin using the service at any time.

If you have forgotten your user name or password, please contact Information Systems.

Thank you for your patience."

Really? Well, sure enough, looks like the Employee Login Page is now active, giving us directions, a BRIEF OVERVIEW, and a couple of user name/password boxes. Just what this game is missing, a user name/password puzzle. Well, considering we have no clues to any passwords yet, let's take a look around some more.

Well, whaddya know? I guess they were April Fool's jokes after all. There are new horoscopes and more showing up at Grrl-E-Grrl, and it's only like 7:00 a.m.

Grrl-E-Grrl Week 8

Well, let's start with the new horoscopes (didn't I just do this, yesterday??):

Aries (Ganmed): "See, all your friends were right. You clean up quite nicely...when you want to. Stay on top of your appearance and people may be persuaded to change their minds about you. Remember, Aries, it's not how you FEEL..." Looks like Ganmed may be embarking on a little PR campaign to help them look good.

Taurus (Net:Sight): "You're dreaming big, Taurus, and while that's a laudable trait you have to match your dreams to your abilities. Can you really achieve all you set out to? You can, if you're careful, and keep working at it." Does it look like Net:Sight might have bitten off more than they can chew with some projects they have promised?

Gemini (Moreland): "The ground is beginning to thaw, Gemini, so plant your feet firmly on the earth and your hands into the soil, so that you can take advantage of the foundations you've built. Try not to be discouraged by any illusions you perceive: life is what you make of it, after all." Is there something being built underground at Moreland?

Cancer (URF): "What a week! You have come to a wide river and it’s time to sink or swim. Well, there’s always the option of building a bridge. Once you get to the other side, how will you approach your life? Will you will emerge with a new outlook?" Poor URF hackers may have a comeback of some kind.

Leo (Gen-Tel): "Opposites may attract, but for you, nothing could be farther from the truth. You will find a trustworthy friend in someone with similar interests and goals, but watch for an enemy in the guise of a friend from the past." Gen-Tel will be betrayed by a former employee or associate?

Virgo (Barbie): "Now that you have some free time, maybe you should do a little gardening. It’s great to get out, dig a few holes, plant a few seeds, and see what grows. The only problem is that you get yourself dirty. Maybe you should just focus on work instead." Probably a reference to her "friendship" with Bruce/Vad.

Libra (TerraShape): "It's probably time you took stock of where you are. If you think people are being overly judgemental about your past decisions and indiscretions, you may be right. Have you considered that they may have a valid point?" What is it in TerraShape's past that we're supposed to find?

Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia): "Difficult situations call for bold action, Akrabh, and any one you make will upset somebody. The old adage rings true--you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs." Hmm, nice way of saying "the ends justify the means." Akrabh was found to mean "scorpion." Looks like Serpent is going to take drastic action of some kind.

Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars): "You will be given opportunities to prove your abilities. Clear out the noise and confusion and then focus on the task at hand. Remember to shoot for the moon. That way you can miss and still be amongst the stars. That is what you want isn’t it?" Okay, more hints at cracking Cave Bear's password, still nudging us toward stars.

Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl): "Have you been having fun lately? Too much fun? It’s time to buckle down and show what you are made of. On the other hand, try not to take yourself too seriously. All work and no play makes for one unhappy grrl." Probably a reference to yesterday's April Fool's pages.

Aquarius (Unknown): "The party starts now! Time for fun, frivolity and merry-making. Break out the wafers and pour the wine. Some of your guests may be under the impression that this is a masquerade. Should you lead them on? Everyone likes a good laugh." Wow, looks like it's time for us to find this new site, but how? There's another Biblical reference here, with the wafers and the wine. We're on the verge of something, I can feel it!

Pisces (Vad): "I know that it is difficult, but remember that curiosity killed the cat. If you must get involved, keep your mouth shut. Nobody likes a busybody." Some advice for Vad to keep his eyes and ears open and his mouth shut.

Well, the connections are solidifying even more, but what is that mystery site that Aquarius represents??

Well, looking around, there are some other very interesting things to be found at Grrl-E-Grrl this month. Let's explore.....

Editorial-A Tale of Friends: An editorial by Brooke about the challenges of keeping in touch with friends who aren't on-line.

Grrl in the News-Kathy Jarrett: A very interesting article about Kathy Jarrett, who happens to work at Ganmed! Tons of clues about her background and likes here. Perfect material to glean a password from, now that the Ganmed login is active. Let's remember to get back to that.

Love and Dating-Miles Apart: Hopefully Barbie will listen to her own advice about long-distance relationships.

Entertain-The House of Interpretations: Hmm, a review of the book, House of Leaves. References such as "a house that looks perfectly normal from the outside, but holds expansive physically-impossible secrets just inside its doors" seem to be referring to Moreland here.

Home LIfe-Bath Salts: An article about home-made bath salts.

Lip Goo: An article about home-made Lip Goo.

The Web-Is Your Soul Wired: Well, well, well. Looks like the wafers and wine reference in the horoscopes was pointing to Rev. Lee and his website, WiredSouls.org, our latest new in-game site!!

WiredSouls

First thing we notice is the font used in the logo. Seems to be the same font as can be found on the ECCLESIASTIC page on Pythia, so looks like Pythia is either related to this site somehow, or pointing us here the same way he/she pointed us to Ganmed early in the game.

WiredSouls is a site run by a Reverend Dan Lee, a charismatic narcissist if ever there was one. Apparently, they've been waiting on Net:Sight to deliver the product to enable the Reverend's messages to be made available. Rev. Lee has been to England to meet with Eric Wyndgarde himself.

It also seems he's very opposed to cloning, so that might give us a hint as to his leanings when it comes to what's seemingly going on at Moreland.

Along the bottom of the page (above the "divine" link to Net:Sight and a static counter permanently set to 45912, heh!), there are links to the following four pages:

Wired Souls Club - $1000 (!) buys you membership to the Wired Souls Club. Once a member, you get a t-shirt (Beefy T's you love to slouch around the house in when nobody can see you), discounts on WS merchandise, exclusive invitations to swanky meet-and-greet sessions, with the fabulous Rev. Lee, and best of all, E-Abolution (confession/absolution on line - woo hoo!).

Now, it's interesting to me that, in the g-e-g article, Dr. Lee mentions that the Wired Souls Club just welcomed its 1000th member in the first quarter of 2002. Where have I heard that before? Of course! Moreland also welcomed its 1000th member (Gina Genet) earlier this year, as mentioned in the first edition of the Iduna Newsletter. Hmm, now that's an odd coincidence.

Could Dr. Lee be a recruiter of sorts for Moreland?? Could signing up for the Wired Souls Club also put you at the top of the list at Moreland? Senior Citizens do flock to evangelists, and at $1000 a pop, he'd know they're not on a fixed income.

Also, notice that Gina Genet's name looks susupiciously like "gene" or "GENETics." It sure looks like there's some sort of connection here, between LostSouls and Moreland.

Search the Sound Archive! - An archive where you can search for and download Rev. Lee's messages. Unfortunately, it's not working as Net:Sight has not delivered on the required software.

Whispers Discussion Board-This link takes us to a new, empty discussion board called Whispers. It's apparently a place we can actually communicate with the good Reverend, and discuss all things spiritual, not to mention give out our contact information one more time. Hmm, why didn't he use Yahoo or MSN for this???

Anyway, within an hour, Reverend Lee posted some personal replies to our messages, so it should be fun trying to see what kind of conversations we can get going.

Previous Update - The front page from January. Apparently, their webcasts had been up and running, but due to Net:Sight's "legal snag" had to be discontinued. Rev. Lee definitely shows a penchant for loving to gossip ("...you KNOW if there's any dirt to be had, you'll hear it from me first...") and a strange obsession with fashion ("The only thing that spoiled it for me was that moment in Taiwan when I noticed the shop girl wearing white shoes. Hello?? It's months after Labor Day, missy. Didn't your mother teach you anything about style? I nearly had to go lie down after that episode."). Very funny. I picture - well, never mind who I picture.

Lee also mentions visiting the Sistine Chapel and seeing Michaelangelo's "Creation of Man" painting on the ceiling. I guess now we know where 211cw on Pythia came from.

He talks again about joining the Wired Souls Club, mentioning that 1000th member again. Interesting that the $1000 required to join is NOT tax-deductible.

Noting Rev. Lee's mention of an around the world trip, combined with stopping at the Sistine Chapel, it makes me wonder if the series of images at ThePythia.net are somehow representing or chronicling his trip. Trains and stations from all over the world, plus the Creation of Man, ending up in DC, and we know from the LS home page that he stopped there.

The biggest question here, though, is what to make of our little message from Serpent, "The holy man is your friend." First, is Serpent referring to Rev. Lee and not Bruce Hollman after all? Second, and most importantly, whether or not we can trust the "holy man" depends entirely on whether or not we can trust Serpent. If Rev. Lee is the "holy man," then he can only be trusted as a friend if we're positive Serpent can be trusted. Right now, I'd not so sure about Serpent.

Ganmed Email Accounts

Later that afternoon, someone stumbled upon one of the passwords at the Ganmed Employee Login page. On a whim, the password "kingsmen" was entered as Louis (lewisl) Lewis' password (The Kingsmen recorded the song "Louie, Louie"). Voila! Eureka! There, for all to see, was the pivotal information we'd all been waiting for:

Sender: coombsl
Subject: Virus Alert
Sent: 4 Feb 2002 8:08 AM

Attention all employees: Please be very careful when you open e-mail, particularly from unknown senders.
We have been experiencing a rash of virus attacks of undetermined origin and the Express Messenger system has been on and off line for the last few days.

We are looking into the issue now, and hope to resolve it within the next day or so. Bear with us.

Some things to look for in an attempted virus delivery: Incorrectly spelled words, unknown senders, and attachments ending in .vbx, among others.

We can only defeat this nusiance if we all work together.


Thanks,

Larry Coombs
Information Systems

Okay, well it was a start. After all, he's just the accountant. Then, it was noticed that there was an odd pattern to the URL of the email account, Lewisxxxxl.htm, where xxxx was an multiple of 10 in the 1000's. So other combinations were tried, and the following email account pages were found through this "back door":

http://www.ganmed.com/jarrett1000k.html (Kathy Jarrett)
http://www.ganmed.com/doan1070c.html (Chet Doan's account!!)
http://www.ganmed.com/thomas1140d.html
http://www.ganmed.com/wolfe1210a.html

Okay, so you've probably clicked the links and discovered that they don't work. Well, there's a reason. Seems Ganmed's "Security Experts" got wind of what we were doing and changed all of the URLs of all the email accounts. Pretty on top of it, those guys. So, we got a glimpse of some very tantalizing emails, that explained a lot, but now we only had access to the email account we'd actually found using a password, Louis Lewis' acount, which can incidentally be found at http://www.ganmed.com/lewismelody101.html.

Or so we thought! Heh heh. After putting out the call to all JawBreakers to check their caches to try to rescue what we'd originally found, we recovered ALL of them! They're now archived in the JawBreakers Group File section, as complete as when we found them:

Chet Doan (Clinical Services, Head Honcho)
Kathy Jarret (Clinical Services/Pathology)
Dan Thomas (Clinical Services/Drug Development)
Anthony Wolfe (Clinical Services/Drug Development)

Hopefully, we'll start finding the passwords into the actual accounts soon, but these will definitely do for now. Okay, let's see if we can make some sense of what we've found.

Here are the emails we have so far in chronological order:

8 June 2001 4:55 PM Thomas to Wolfe-re: Today's Meeting

27 Aug 2001 7:59 AM Arney to Doan-Report
28 Aug 2001 4:45 PM Arney to Doan-Thanks!

24 Sep 2001 2:32 PM Arney to Doan-re: FYI

11 Dec 2001 3:21 PM DeLaPuma to Doan-re: Potential PR Problem

8 Jan 2002 8:31 AM Thomas to Wolfe-re: MAbel is gone
9 Jan 2002 10:09 AM Doan to Thomas, Wolfe-How To Proceed
16 Jan 2002 7:58 AM Jarrett to Thomas, Doan, Wolfe-Final Report
16 Jan 2002 1:33 PM Thomas to Doan-re: Urgent
16 Jan 2002 1:56 PM Wolf to Thomas-re: Bad log
24 Jan 2002 9:43 AM Thomas to Doan-Andrea
28 Jan 2002 10:47 AM Wolf to Thomas-Need a Hand?

1 Feb 2002 2:25 PM Thomas to Wolfe-re:Bad Stuff Coming
4 Feb 2002 8:08 AM Coombs to All-Virus Alert

So what can we put together from this? Wolfe and Thomas were working on something that was shelved for a few years while more research was done elsewhere. Then, they're given the project back. They also give us our first concrete proof of Ganmed being involved in Moreland. Whatever their project, it's being tested at Moreland. Wolfe and Thomas also have a financial motivation for making sure nothing happens to Ganmed.

Then, a lab mouse named MAbel dies unexpectadly, which throws the whole project into jeopardy. MAbel's heart exploded, and MAban is deteriorating.

Most importantly, Doan's email of Jan 9th reveals exactly what's going on.

Ganmed is indeed working on a treatment to extend life indefinitely, and carring it out in Moreland! Unbelievably, the treatment is being carried out oh humans before testing is complete! According to Doan, "It is NOT acceptable legally or ethically to extend lives "indefinitely," only to discover in 120 years that we have created an entire community of rich, exploding grandmothers."

We also have an interesting backstory about a former employee named Nancy Quinn. She may be a little disgruntled, and Chet seems to be a great guy, doesn't he?

In another email dated Jan. 24th, Dan Thomas talks about Andrea's bad health. Looks like Andrea is his wife.

Serpent Messages re:48

After a little episode involving some brute-forcing resulting in some game-sites being taken down (which I won't go into here, as it doesn't have anything to do with the storyline), it was noticed that there was a little hidden link in the Serpent flash animation at URF(archived, flash file only).

Just as the Pythia logo appears and starts to swirl around, click on the word 'not' in 'HTTP 404 - File not found'. If you click it just at the right moment, it will take you to some hidden pages with a couple of interesting messages from Serpent and h3z called Re: 48.

Also, each message seems to have a different I-Ching image as a watermark. The two messages that were found are:

01/04/2002(archived)-Serpent replies to Hermes message lamenting about keeping up the facade, and how hard it is to ask "them" for help when they don't even know what's going on. We're assuming that hermes is talking about the other URF hackers, but I'm not convinced. If Hermes is another game-character, he may be talking about somebody else entirely. Serpent basically tells Hermes to shut up and stay focused.

Interesting that Serpent makes a reference to Hermes' shady past. This could indicate that Hermes is a very unwilling player in Serpent's scheme, but is perhaps being blackmailed somehow.

I-Ching symbol meaning:"Hsu/Calculated Waiting"

02/04/2002(archived)-Okay, now we know that the date is displayed using the European standard, so that first message was available for us to find on the first. A simple message from Hermes. Apparently, something Serpent asked Hermes to do had some unforseen bad consequences, at least unforseen to Hermes. He's pretty upset about it, whatever it was.

I-Ching symbol meaning: "Ts'ui/Gathering"

The next morning, April 3rd, the April 2nd message updated and linked to a new email:
03/04/2002(archived)-Hmm, from this message, it's evident that Hermes is referring to Holly and Class-Three's tragic auto accident. Hermes is seemingly discovering evidence that it was no accident.

Serpent is getting a little impatient with Hermes' "attitude."

Again, there's an I-Ching symbol in the background.
I-Ching symbol meaning: "Chin/Aspiration"

New day, new update again:
04/04/2002(archived)-More details on the circumstances surrounding Holly and Class-Three's death. Apparently, they'd been sent out to retrieve a tape of some kind from somewhere. Hermes is getting really upset now, as he's accusing Serpent of knowing they would die in the process. Sounds like he's realizing who he (and we) are really dealing with here.

One interesting detail is the use of /details/ withing the slashes. We have seen that before, but does it mean anything similar in this context? Is /details/ a subdirectory of some kind? The fact that the question mark was placed outside the slashes may indicate something like that.

Next day, new message added;
05/04/02(archived)-Hmm, Serpent seems to indicate he had no idea they would die, and doesn't know who or why or how. He again presses Hermes for his report.

I-Ching symbol meaning: "Chun / Difficulty at the Beginning"

So, what is the "48" referred to in the subject of each of these messages?

ODES Activated

Backing up now, on the morning of April 3rd, it was noticed that the ODES system at Gen-Tel was apparently online. Going to http://www.argn.com/archives/lockjaw/www.general-telometrics.com/ODES brings up a standard network password window. Nothing else new was found at Gen-Tel

DCMC Easter Emails

Also on April 3rd, the three accessible email accounts at DCMC/Nocars were updated with some new stuff. We're still working on CaveBear's password, so we still can't access his account:

Seems Barbie took her trip to see Vad and they had a great time...

03/31/02 Happy Easter!
04/01/02 home again, home again

Also appears Bear spent Easter at Paul (RebaR)'s place...

03/31/02 re: Happy Easter!

and the best news... Barbie and Vad are playing Eucher again tonight!

04/03/02 tonight?
04/03/02 RE: tonight?

It was noticed that the word "happy" recurs often in all of these new emails. Perhaps another clue to CaveBear's password??? Anyway, we can't worry about that now, we have another Euchre game/chat tonight!

Euchre Chat 3

A few notable things happened during the game. First was, the players were given some sort of card puzzle by Vad, although nobody posted about it. Apparently, it was very easy, and led to the following two documents at Moreland:

http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/ace/diamond/
http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/jack/heart/

Here's the chat log documenting the puzzle;

[17:05] <cpface> wow, is vad gonna give us a puzzle?
[17:07] <cpface> vadindc: there are 52 cards in a deck, what 2 do you have?
[17:08] <Urb[a]nZombie> One card is either the highest or lowest possible
[17:10] <jamesi|euchregod> if there is an ace, it isn't black
[17:15] <Urb[a]nZombie> If there's a Jack, its red
[17:18] <jamesi|euchregod> vad: one of the cards is not the king of spades
[17:21] <jamesi|euchregod> vad: you will never see two diamonds, b
[17:24] <jamesi|euchregod> vad: the higher of the two is a real gem
[17:28] <kxmom11x{lurk}> vad: the lower of the two isn't black
[17:29] <adoyle> vad:and there aren't any ladies
[17:32] <kxmom11x{lurk}> vad: if one card is black, then the other is a 10
[17:35] <jamesi|euchregod> v: spades like spades, clubs like hearts
[17:36] <jamesi|euchregod> v: if they are the same suit, one is a king
[17:39] <kxmom11x{lurk}> vad; kings like queens, jacks don't like either
[17:40] <kxmom11x{lurk}> if one is a heart both cards are red
[17:41] <kxmom11x{lurk}> it there isn't a queen, there must be a jack
[17:41] <cpface> it's an ace of diamonds and a jack of hearts.
[17:45] <kxmom11x{lurk}> vad; if neither card is black, then the cards don't stand next to each other
[17:45] <UrbanMosbie> So then that's all it CAN be
[17:45] <UrbanMosbie> Ace of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts. Blackjack, baby
[17:49] <darklytr> http://moreland-wv.org/aceofdiamonds/
[17:50] <UrbanMosbie> Good show!
[17:50] <darklytr> http://moreland-wv.org/jackofhearts/
[17:50] <ZMaiden> yeah!
[17:56] <kxmom11x{lurk}> vad: if your confused, direct yourself to hoyle, follow with the number and then the suit, it is there that you will find the loot
[17:58] <darklytr> http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle gives you a "Not Authorized To View this Page" message
[17:59] <darklytr> http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/ace and http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/jack do the same thing
[17:59] <cpface> http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/ace/diamond/
[17:59] <UrbanMosbie> http://moreland-wv.org/hoyle/jack/heart/
[17:59] <UrbanMosbie> w00t!
[17:59] <cpface> !!
[17:59] <jamesi|euchregod> whoo hooooooooooo
[17:59] <Aveena|euchre> yeah!
[17:59] <adoyle> OK every body rules
[17:59] <kxmom11x{lurk}> oh yea!
[17:59] <kxmom11x{lurk}> jack pot!!!

These are pretty ominous. Looks like they are preparing for a disaster with crash carts, IV's and drugs to treat severe poisoning and anaphylactic shock. It's also of note to see that Moreland is ordering supplies from Gen-Tel, and an unkown source, MT-JA (JA=James Arney??).

Then, UrbanZombie2 actually got Barbie in a private chat after the game. He had a chance to warn Barbie that Vad may be in danger:

urbanzombie2: Hey, we were just playing Euchre a moment ago. I don't want to bother you, but... could I ask you a favor?
notadoll70: depends on the favor
urbanzombie2: Good. People who say yes right away make me nervous.
notadoll70: me too
notadoll70: people that I don't know asking for favors also makes me nervous
notadoll70: so watch what you say
urbanzombie2: Right... just tell your friend - Bruce, I assume, unless I'm terribly mistaken - to be careful. I'm looking through some old email logs here, and there's some crazy stuff going down in his little town. Crazy stuff he doesn't want to get into.
notadoll70: I don't want to talk about this
urbanzombie2: Neither do I.
notadoll70: I don't know you from adam
urbanzombie2: I'm trying my best not to know YOU from Eve
notadoll70: perhaps we should stop this now
urbanzombie2: Just tell him to be careful. Goodnight, Barbie.

We'll see if this conversation impacts things in any tangible way. But very cool to be able to interact with characters in the game this way!

Okay, enough flashback, let's get back to April 4th......

Woe Update

At the Woe message on Pythia, the source code message changed.

The hidden text used to read, "ring, ring, ring."

It now reads, "Truth has a Ring all its own. Do you hear it?"

Are these clues to call somebody?? Or to expect a phone call?? Or to be looking for a sound file of some sort at WiredSouls??

Speaking of Wired Souls, Rev. Lee has been responding to some posts:

Whispers Messages

Over on Whispers, the message area for WiredSouls, there have been a few interesting discussions, yielding a little more info. To summarize:

We've been able to get three little tidbits:

1. Rev may be offline for a while:

Travelling yet again!

Greetings, Friends

I'm taking a break from packing the Coach bags to pop in and say farewell for a few days.

In seven hours the Reverend will be high in the sky yet again. I'm taking along a laptop and I hope to be able to figure out how to hook it up.

I've given my password to a friend so there will be someone checking in from time to time to approve new members. Behave yourselves and play nice.

I'll see you in a few days.

Hugs,

Reverend Lee

2. His sound files just may be accessible somehow:

RE: Audio Streaming

Greetings, friend.

The sound files are in something called an "extension" that ends in NSA, I believe. I haven't the faintest what that means. They're maintained by the webmaster, as my knowledge of this Hypersonic Text Mangling Language (I'm not sure that's right...) is so very sorry. I have a copy of "Internet for Complete Morons" in the study. I intend to some day read it.

When I return from my trip I'll get in touch with the webmaster and maybe we can work something out.

Leaving on a jet plane,

Reverend Lee

3. No he won't talk to one of us directly (at least without the $1000), so our only avenue of communication with him is Whispers:

RE: Contact

Greetings, friend.

At the present time the Wired Souls Club is the only private address I have, and that address is actually administered by the webmaster and not Yours Truly.

(I'll let you in on a teensy secret: A five-year-old knows more about computers and this web-internet thing than I do. Don't tell anyone. I rely on my webmaster far too much, I suppose.)

Shame-facedly admitting the truth,

Reverend Lee

URF Cafepress Store Update

Don't know when it happened or if it's significant, but an item has been dropped from the URF store at Cafepress. Seems we can no longer buy the Limited Edition Hooded Sweatshirt for $26.49

An interesting recent interesting spec (by mottjr2001) has involved a correlation between these prices and the flowers mentioned in the Iduna Newsletter:

The Moreland Newsletter had Nadine's original article which gave us a list of 7 flowers:

Cinquefoil,
Buckbean,
American Starwort,
Balm of Gilead,
Lotus,
Trumpet Flower,
clippings of Pitch Pine.

She then went on to say, "...So many beautiful blossoms to choose from. I've planned out my flower beds a half dozen times already, and despite the chuckles I get from my husband, I'll probably plan it another **ten times** before I'm done.

Why not plan your garden along with me? Flower pots come in all shapes and colors, and in a **range of prices**. In fact, you can browse through the shops..."

The comment about a range of prices and browsing through the shop made me think of the cafepress/URF page which still might contain a puzzle. There were originally 7 items on the page which was exactly the number of flowers we had. So, I took the numbers in the tenths place (see Nadine's comment about "ten times" above) to get 3,7,4,0,4,9,0. I then went back to the list of flowers and took the letter corresponding to the respective number location (e.g. 3=ciNquefoil). Those letters rearrange to "aleuron". QED.

$18.39,
$16.79,
$20.49,
$18.00,
$26.49,
$12.99,
$12.00

Aleuron is greek for wheat flour or meal, or more specifically: (in the seeds of cereal plants) protein granules found in a single layer of cells in the outermost portion of the endosperm (also aleurone).
Don't know what this means yet, could be a hint at a password somewhere, but it was an excellent bit of puzzle solving, in my opinion.

Cave Bear's Password

Well, somebody finally solved Cave Bear's Passord on April 5th! Drum roll, please.........

The handle/password "cave_bear/cancer" gives us access to Cave Bear's page. Cancer was found by looking at the positional pattern formed by the 5 linked stations. 5 links=5 stars=the constellation Cancer. Funny, but we'd tried a similar technique earlier when we were stuck on Creeper's password, looking for similarities to the constellation Sagittarius, but it was a dead end. Perhaps we're giving ideas to someone, heh.

Well, there are many links to green-type sites, Grateful dead sites, etc. Unfortunately , there are no new files for us to look at.

Looking at the emails, we learn a few more things: Vad really does have a thing for Barbie, but we already knew that! He talked Cave Bear into letting her come to visit him in Moreland. Also, Vad doesn't really know that much about website design. One thing's for sure, Vad and Cave Bear are very good friends.

Sherpa now enters the picture again. We've got a nice survey from him, telling us his real name and more stuff about his personal life.

There's only one little question that arises out of these newly discovered emails: Who is Anson, and how did he die?

TRUTH

Then, over at Pythia, the image at http://www.thepythia.net/woe.html updated to click through to a page entitled C I T S A I S E L C C E (ECCLESIASTIC backwards). It's a picture of the login page to the sound archive over on WiredSouls, with a telephone keypad and the word TRUTH superimposed over top of it.

This seemed a pretty obvious clue, so we head over to the WiredSouls Sound Archive page and try the phone keypad equivalent of TRUTH: "87884." Wahoo! That takes us to a page entitled H E R E T I C. It's a on-line confession (discovered to have been taken from WiredSouls by Serpent, who added his own little message at the top) from Chet Doan! Interspersed throughout are quotes from "Frankenstein." Reading it reveals a spoiled, impulsive rich-kid, who was terribly affected by his parents' death. Most importantly, he himself considers himself to be a "smart man who makes stupid choices." Nice. I'm sure the folks at Moreland will feel compassion for him just before they explode!

Well, one last thing to try with this new information. Could these references to Frankenstein give us enough insight into Doan to take a stab at a Ganmed password? Heading over to the Ganmed Employee Login page, we try various passwords for doanc: frankenstein, monster, igor, frau blucher, shelley...

Shelley! Bingo! Well, that gets us "official" access to Chet's email page, but there are no new emails there. But it's nice to know we finally have it!
.

Recap 5: What do we know?

Wow! We finally have evidence as to what Ganmed's been up to. We've confirmed that they're developing some sort of gene therapy to stop the aging process, and they're distributing this treatment to the fine folks living in Moreland, without they're knowledge. Unfortunately, something is going terribly wrong with the test animals they're treating. Seems their hearts are exploding, even though the anti-aging treatment seems to be working on other parts of their bodies. Looks like someone jumped the gun on this technique, using it on unwitting innocent people before it was properly tested. Don't eat the apples!!!

We learned these things from the tantalizingly brief, unauthorized look we had at the Ganmed Employee email system.

Seems that Vad is in a very dangerous place, but if we can gain his trust somehow, he might be able to save these poor people with our help. His underground exploration experience might come in handy, as we've seen evidence of extensive underground facilities in Moreland.

We're still trying to figure out who Serpent and Hermes are, but through Hermes' emails to Serpent, we're learning more about the circumstances around Holly and Class_Three's death. Hermes is definitely having second thoughts about his role in all of this.

Finally, we've gotten a glimpse into the soul of Chet Doan, poor little rich-kid who's parents died. Impulsive, driven, not considering the cause and effect of his actions.

But most importantly, who is behind the revelation of all these things??

Sites we've visited: WiredSouls.org

Sites we haven't visited:No clues to any more sites right now.

Things that are unsolved:

• Various Ganmed Passwords
• Various ODES Passwords
• Various Moreland's Residential logins
• Various TerraShape passwords
• Terrashape Department Icons
• URF Cafepress Store prices [Aleuron?]
• I-Ching Symbols
  

Continue to next page (After April 5th)

---