The Guide v.X: LockJaw
by Steve Peters
|
Introduction - Recap 1 - Recap 2 - Recap 3 - Recap 4 - Recap 5 - Recap 6 - Recap 7 - Recap 8 - Epilogue
We've now begun our 12th week. Guess it's
time for some new horoscopes:
Aries (Ganmed)
You haven't noticed all the small changes
going on around you recently. That's too
bad, since those small shifts add up to a
big landslide.
Probably a reference to the breadcrumbs being
dropped for us around the site.
Taurus (Net:Sight)
Events of the last week have left you with
more questions than answers. But are you
asking the right questions, and are the answers
that difficult to come by?
Hmm, is there something more at Net:Sight
that we're missing??
Gemini (Moreland)
The weather on the horizon is ever-changing
and ephemeral. Try not to lull yourself into
thinking that a storm will pass over you,
leaving you unharmed. Life is what you make
it, after all, and time can be a wicked mistress.
Plan ahead for cloudy skies!
Perhaps the problems over at Ganmed will
start to manifest themselves at Moreland
soon.
Cancer (uRf)
You're a magnetic personality, and your sphere
of influence should spread easily this week.
You have the means, the motive, and the manipulative
tendencies. Be sure to take care of yourself,
take care of what you have left over.
Hmm, seems Hermes might surface soon in his
true identity, appearing in a position of
influence.
Leo (Gen-Tel)
Now is the time to examine the people in
your life that are holding you back from
becoming a business success. Take stock of
your resources, making extra sure that even
if your co-worker's agendas don't match yours
that you all still come out in the end smelling
like a rose.
Probably a reference to Linda Alvaro having
a hidden agenda of some kind.
Virgo (Barbie)
You have been spending too much time trying
to focus on the bigger picture. The problem
is that you haven't learned to relax and
absorb the image. Like a stereogram, it's
important to sit back, relax, and let the
information come together as it will.
Hmm, a reference to a stereogram. There's
been a lot of speculation that there may
be stereograms hidden in the pictures at
Moreland. We shall see.
Libra (TerraShape)
Things have been relatively quiet of late
on the surface, but secretly you've been
pretty active. It looks like you've been
meeting new people too, so try to make a
good impression.
Is Jo up to something?
Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia)
Think through your actions and try to look
at things from the perspective of the end
result rather than looking at the larger
picture. God is in the details.
As opposed to "the devil is in the details?"
Hmm.
Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars)
Your life is a puzzle. Unfortunately someone
took a few of the pieces without your knowledge.
How are you going to find them?
Could this be hinting that there are more
things left by Vad at Moreland? Perhaps the
clues leading to them were missed or lost
somehow?
Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl)
Have you been feeling sluggish or just really
busy? It seems that it's taking you longer
and longer to get your work done. Perhaps
you should take a little break and gather
your thoughts.
Seems the May update may be a little late?
Aquarius (WiredSouls)
You're the newest pawn in a dangerous game
of chess, Aquarius. You're closer to the
eye of the hurricane than you suspect. Sudden
changes of allegiance may surprise you.
Poor Rev. Dan looks like he's being used
by someone.
Pisces (Vad)
Emotionally you are feeling very disconnected.
It could be that you are experiencing betrayal
from people that you thought you knew. You
will reach out to new friends. While this
is comforting, is it a good idea? Have you
gotten things a bit backwards?
Obvious reference to Vad distancing himself
from Barbie and getting closer to Oscar,
his new friend.
Based on the new clues left by Ninjababe
at Whispers, we renewed our effort to find
the secret Lite Side page at Gen-Tel. On
the Ninjababe card found on Kevin Asgort's ODES page, the gt/ls
hint has seemed to be pointing at a couple
directories. But taking a second look at
that card, we notice that the slash is more
of a horizontal underline. That, combined
with the superfluous undeline on Ninjababe's
post at whispers (Gossip_Queen) leads us
to try various things at Gen-Tel using an
underline. The gives us much success! Backing
up, and trying the obvious, we get www.general-telometrics.com/gt_ls. I tell ya, sometimes we make these puzzles
too hard for ourselves! The Greek letters
on the card are gt and ls, separated by a
_ .
So, now we've found the GT Underground. Taking a look, we do indeed discover some
things:
First, notice the hidden text at the top
of the page.
Oscar Gray has taken off for parts unknown.
Could this be the Oscar that Vad's been referring
to? Seems very likely.
Hmm, seems Vern Stevenson's birthday was
March 7th. What??! March 7th is my birthday!
Hey! I'm in the game! w00t!
A new food service has been contracted. I
wonder if they'll be serving Iduna applesauce.
Dr. John seems to be John Missoli, and he
seems to be a Beatles fan.
That seems to be all there is of consequence
at first glance. Hmm, Dr. John is a Beatles
fan, and doesn't know what color the White
Album is? Well, lets use that info and try
some ODES passwords for him, shall we?
A little trial of Beatles-related words quickly
yields a password: "white." Entering
jmissoli/white takes us to ODES:jmissoli, Dr. Missoli's private page.
We're rewarded with some good information.
Well, almost. Seems someone doesn't want
to share their "shared" files.
The links to all the weekly research updates all link
to the same message: "Research: see
me." The note attached talks about a
resistance to make files available, but it's
not exactly clear who is making this statement.
In the Private Files section, there are two
files:
FILES LA Memo-Dated 1/28/2002, it's the memo that was
sent out announcing Linda Alvaro's arrival
at Gen-Tel, along with an apparent annotation
showing how excited Dr. Missoli is about
it.
FILES LA Orient-Dated 2/4 to 2/6/2002, this is an outline
of Linda's orientation period at Gen-Tel.
Then there are some notes:
NOTES 04/05/2002-Gives us a bunch of links:
NOTES 04/08/2002-A Note To Self, quoting Linda Alvaro: "It
is not enough to conquer, one must know how
to seduce." This in turn is a quote
attributed to Voltaire, the famous French
historian/writer. Hmm, that's got CLUE written
all over it, doesn't it?
NOTES 04/12/2002-Talks about Gen-Tel's project named Ambrosia.
Looks like Ambrosia is Gen-Tel's attempt
at the Fountain of Youth. Unfortunately,
it's caused one death already.
Okay, let's go back to our Voltaire clue.
Something makes us want to try 'voltaire'
as Linda's ODES password......
Sure enough! Entering lalvaro/voltaire at
her ODES login give us ODES:lalvaro. Again, the links to all the weekly research updates
all link to the same message: "Research:
see me," but with a slightly different
note attached. Same result, though. Looks
like we will have no access to Linda's research,
at least not here.
On to the private files:
FILES Intro Memo-A response to Misolli's memo of introduction.
Seems kind of smarmy, doesn't it??
FILES Feb Thoughts-A journal of Linda's. The 2/12 entry is
interesting, as it seems that Gen-Tel has
a particular lab tech who doesn't really
seem to know what he/she is doing. Imposter?
Spy?? Also, it seems that she has met Lauren
(L) and is getting to know her a little.
FILES April Thoughts-(Where was she in March??) This journal
mainly concerns itself with Linda's progress
in the lab. She talks of cloning and things
going mysteriously wrong due to contamination,
which she seems to blame on an inept staff.
Also, note her frequent reference to headaches,
which seems rather odd. Not sure who the E.H. is that Linda refers
to in her 4/29 entry.
The little gray squares updated again at
Ganmed on April 29th, linking to:
www.ganmed.com/15.html
www.ganmed.com/16.html
Again, looking through the hidden text we
find the following fragments:
15) Villanueva girl "filed." When
she came in to see me
16) ds stumbled across the rooms and saw
what they did. Hell,the inc
This, when added to everything that's been
found so far, seemingly completes the series:
re: the screw up down there, things are fine.
One more week and we
could have had them out of the tunnels and
burned. Too bad those kids
stumbled across the rooms and saw what they
did. Hell, the
incinerators can handle five or six at a
time. They're fast, too.
You can't imagine how hot they get. CD said
there would be 'treatment
failures,' especially early on. I guess 'treatment
failure' sounds
better than 'dead' or 'we fucked up big.'
We're covered as far as the
test patients, nobody missed them. That's
the great thing about the
homeless--you can drop them off anywhere.
Even in tunnels. How many
there are, I'm not sure. The report listed
ten of them, but there are
names for some and aliases for others. I
still have a copy of the
report that that Villanueva girl "filed."
When she came in to see me
she was upset, but I took care of her. She's
not upset anymore.
So we know this is from Arney, but don't
know who the recipient of this 'memo' is,
yet.
So the URL for the Gen-Tel Lite side is www.general-telometrics.com/gt_ls. We know from ninjababe's postings on Whispers that she's been trying to figure out whether
or not to post the really juicy stuff she's
being told. In those posts, there are some
hints to these things being 'dark,' so it
makes sense to try www.general-telometrics.com/gt_ds. It works!
The Gen-Tel Dark Side gives us the more serious
gossip, the latest item dated April 15th.
Interesting items of note concerning folks
we know include:
On April 29th, Rev. Lee responded to a gene
therapy question:
------------------------------------------------------------------
From: regenboogkapje
Subject: MedicalGene therapy, what`s against
it?
Dear Rev. Lee and all the peoples here at
the Wired Souls-forum!
I`m a 24-year-old medical student from Holland
and right now I`m
deciding in which direction to take my career
next.
I`m thinking of maybe going to work in the
gene-modulating field.
I was wondering how you feel about MedicalGene-therapy.
On your Wired
Soulspage you stated that you don`t approve
of this. But I was
wondering: "if it is being used to do
good e.g. help cure diseases,
what`s against it?"
And when in Europe rev. Lee, feel free to
visit Holland *welcome*!!!
I would be delighted to show you around!
Dusseldorf sure is great
this time a year, isn`t it? ! :-)
Take Care! Regenboogkapje
------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dan_Lee
Reply to: regenboogkapje [ Message 1 ]
Subject: RE: MedicalGene therapy, what`s
against it?
Greetings, Friend!
I'd say I'm not so much against cloning,
gene therapy, and the like
as I am...unsure about it.
We seem to be rushing headlong into playing
Supreme Being without
considering the moral implications fully.
Concerning gene therapy, on the one hand
it would be WONDERFUL to
stop things like cancer and other diseases,
but then again we have to
consider the fact that for thousands of years
we've been dying of
disease.
It's always been taken as part of the Natural
Order that we are born,
we grow, and we die. There are good reasons
for that cycle. What I'm
morally unsure of is whether by removing
disease and illness we begin
to interfere with the Supreme Being's master
plan.
It's a slippery slope. I hope we're all wearing
our spiritual cleats
so we don't lose our footing.
The Supreme Being's gene genie,
Reverend Lee
April 29th brings some new emails showing
up in our fearless foursome's email boxes,
dated from the 26th to the 29th:
Up for a visitor? tells us that Barbie wants to visit Vad
this weekend. Vad's response seems to indicate
he must not be all that unhappy with Barbie.
In B's distraction, Vad queries Eric about what's up with Barbie.
In Eric's reply, re:B's distraction, we confirm that Paul (RebaR) was not on
the body bags crawl, so maybe there was a
little case of mistaken identity with Arney
confusing Paul for Eric. Also, looks like
re: re:B's distraction from Vad to CaveBear shows us how Vad is
becoming closer to Oscar.
Also, though not email, Barbie updated her
thoughts and retitled them "Quaere"
(Latin for 'inquire') instead of "Confusion"
on her in-email-box links. This version of
Barbie's thoughts can be found here.
April 30th brings us our first new email
showing up at Ganmed in quite a while. In
Chet Doan's box is a reply from Arney, re:Meeting request. Looks like Chet wants to have some sort
of meeting with Arney this Friday. This could
be good! 
April 30th brings a mysterious email from
Hermes to various JawBreakers:
subject: o.o
message body: x.x
with this picture (cesyeuxmehantent.jpg)
attached: ----------------->
Looks to be some sort of round head with
the eyes x'd out, as if unconcious. The text
reads, "eyes in the dark shiny little
dead eyes."
There is speculation that there is a hidden
www address in the 'scratches.' Also, the
circle might be a cross-section of a human
skull, as seen on a CAT scan.
Also, the picture title, cesyeuxmehantent, translates to "These
eyes haunt me" (French).
No progress was immediately made on this.
It was noticed at some point that the registration
info for uRf had changed at some point along
the way.
The webmaster is listed as leomedia@10101-10010-110.org.
Emailing leomedia returns the following autoresponse:
-------------------------------------------
Subject: I am occupied
I am occupied.
Replies will follow when civil rights are
restored.
-jc
--------------------------------------------
The 'jc' seems to be Jules Carmentis, the
ex-uRf webmaster. He'll obviously get back
to us when civil rights are restored, or
when he gets out of jail, whichever comes
first.
In What's Up?, and the subsequent replies, Creeper wants
to get together with Barbie to see how she's
doing. She's a little concerned that Barbie's
not herself lately, even though she only
saw her yesterday.
And of course, Euchre tonight!
Our friends Vad and Barbie met again for
their weekly Wednesday night Euchre game.
Vad was a little upset at the lack of attention
he was getting from Barbie, but he didn't
know about the numerous conversations she
was having at the same time. A transcript
of the night's game can be found in message 3316.
Vad got tired of being ignored by Barbie,
so he left in a huff (oh sure, real mature!).
But as he left, he threw out a hint:
"Tell Bear that according to Hoyle 272."
Okay, so we go in search of a Book of Hoyle,
the standard of rules for all sorts of games,
in case you didn't know.
Amazon.com has a book listed with some sample pages.
One page in particular in the table of contents looks like it holds
our key. In the upper-right corner we see
what's on page 272, a game called Four-Five-Six.
So we try www.moreland-wv.org/four-five-six/, and find what looks to be a blank page.
In the source code, we find our answer:
<!-- badge.jpg -->
<!-- disciplinary.jpg -->
Okay, so we have two now images:
Looking at www.moreland-wv.org/four-five-six/badge.jpg, we see that Oscar is indeed Oscar Gray,
a former or current Ganmed employee, specifically
a Lab Tech.
Next, www.moreland-wv.org/four-five-six/disciplinary.jpg shows us a disciplinary report on Oscar.
Seems Oscar's been spiriting full copies
of research notes out of the lab, for some
reason. Plus, he's apparently gotten numerous
verbal warnings about this before.
Looking at the dates on this form and at
the Gen-Tel Lite Side, Oscar's timeline looks like this:
March 15th-Oscar leaves Gen-tel
March 18th-Hired at Ganmed
April 30th-Date of written warning
We also notice that Oscar's middle name starts
with a D, if that matters at all. Also, it's
signed by Lawrence Donaldson (Supervisor)
and Enid Fitzsimmons (HR), whom we haven't
seen before.
So, we have confirmation that Oscar quit
Gen-Tel to work for Ganmed, and Ganmed apparently
has a lab at Moreland, where he's working
now.
Our friend Rev. Lee wants to share more details
of his life for some reason. Here's his post
from Whispers on May 1st:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
May-1-2002 1:16 PM Message 1 of 1
Group: General, miscellaneous and sundry
From: Dan_Lee
Subject: General, miscellaneous and sundry
Boys and girls,
What a busy week this has been! The house
is a shambles, a complete and utter wreck.
I can only stand it because when it's over
and done with the Reverend will have a completely
redecorated place. The dining room is being
done in red and black...tres chic. The living
room is going to be a stark white with multicolored
accents throughout. I've picked out the most
wonderful Oriental carpet to go there. Black
with cream colored Chinese characters (at
least I think they're Chinese).
The kitchen and nook are being done in warm
wood tones and I'm finally going to have
that parquet floor I've always lusted after.
Each of the three bathrooms will have a different
theme: First floor is a sort of nature theme,
second floor is a bit industrial, lots of
chrome and glass. The third floor bath is
my favorite, at least in the designer's sketches.
Hollywood. Old black and white photos of
movie stars from the 40's. Studio-style lighting.
I've even found a shower curtain that looks
like a giant piece of movie film. Fabulous.
A friend and I went out last night, and you
won't BELIEVE where I got talked into going.
Square dancing.
Yes, I said square dancing.
Pick your jaws up off the floor.
Imagine the Reverend, in Armani, walking
in to a room full of denim, bad dresses,
and mile-high hair (side note: "The
higher the hair, the closer to God"
seems to be the mentality). To say I stood
out is quite the understatement.
The most surprising thing is I had fun, once
I blinded my eyes to the outfits. I'm going
shopping this evening for a pair of boots.
My dancing partner tells me she knows of
a divine little place that sells boots I'd
love. She suggested I'd look good in white
African python. We shall see.
Cowboy boots. Me. Whod've thought?
Well anyway, I need to dash off. I have correspondance
to attend to before my friend and I hit the
shoe store place.
I'm so excited!
May you find peace and Tommy Hilfiger,
Reverend Lee
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Very odd post, this. Why so many details??
It's just screaming "CLUES!" but
there's nothing here that we can find.
The new Iduna Newsletter was posted on May 1st.
First is another gardening article by Nadine.
Curiously, there's no list of flowers this
time around. That's not like her at all,
is it?
Next is an article on the construction of
the new Interfaith Hall. One curious feature
is the fact that it's got its own independent
power supply. Now why would that be necessary?
Last is an article on the Neighborhood Stroll.
Interesting that Gina Genet's name crops
up again here.
On May 3rd, another email from Hermes was
sent to select players:
Subject: x.x
Message Body: _._
Attached was a picture called despercebido.jpg.
Despercebido = Portugese for unnoticed/unregarded.
In the picture is the text, "the dead
are blind" and "the living is blinded
by the dead."
There definitely seems to be a 'blindness'
or 'eyes' theme going on here. Also, a furry
round head again, with the eyes x'd out.
Is this a reference to a mouse??
The larger text seems to contain the words:
crash, smash, crunch, bash, bang, bang, die,
die.
All the words are up for debate, especially
the second "bang."
Still no progress on the meaning of these
emails.
That same day, some new dirt showed up on
both the Lite Side and Dark Side pages at
GenTel:
New Material on the Lite Side:
"To have a heart attack would imply
that he has a heart"- Celia (this wasn't
about the ex, was it?)
"Stop swearing at me, what are you,
some kind of jerk" -Kristen
"He sounds like digital ewok" -Kristen
"Huge spiders are bad. Small spiders
are also bad." -Jennifer
"I lack ambition. I think I'd rather
go fishin'" -Celia
"I'm a bit 'self medicated' in the fruit
of the vine department" -Jennifer
"I love the absurd" -Marie
"Your mind is just so brilliant that
you don't have to think of stuff...it just
does it for you" -Celia to Kristen (???)
Celia- "My vibes usually get lost around
the Carolinas...something about the beach
and the mountains."
Jennifer- "Yeah, I hear there's a pretty
strong karmic riptide around there. Have
you tried to send vibes at tidal shifts?"
Celia- "hmmm, that just might be my
problem"
Jennifer- "You might be able to ride
a wave through two or three states and catch
the North south karmic winds"
Celia- "I'll work on that"
Jennifer- "I know for myself, the Rockies
really get in the way of vibratory flight
paths...very tricky, those little mountains"
(note: FREAKS)
New material on the Dark Side:
April 29: The loser janitor put a deck of
nude playing cards in Kev's desk. What a
freak! I have half a mind to show him what
a real ninja is made of.
Well, ladies, let's mourn the fact that janitor
boy is taken. Word is that it's with someone
around the office (the same someone that
left body paints in a supply closet....hmmm)
Well, it looks as if James has a crush on
Marie...for the simple reason that she is
always so nice to him. Hmmm...I seem to recall
that she loves the absurd. What does this
say about him?
So, I hear that Celia may be missing a few.
Apparently she was seen looking out the window
talking to herself. She claims someone was
in the room just before Simi spotted her...likely
story.
Apparently Dr. W. fell in love in a port-a-potty
line in the parking lot of some show! Yes,
you heard that right. He was overheard talking
about her long blonde dreads and over use
of patchouli oil. The only thing more disgusting
is the image of the beautiful janitor boy's
flesh interrupted by the hideous nipple ring.
Well, the really funny thing about these
is that most of them are quotes from folks
in the #jawbreakers chatroom. Folks' actual
names are even being used! Even the 'loser
janitor' is a reference to SpaceBass's new
alter-ego, GenTelJanitor, who has his very
own weblog. The reference to the nude playing cards
was in direct response to something posted
on the fictional janitor's blog, so it's
really cool to discover that we can apparently
create or assume character identities that
may be used as part of the game!
Along with the Light Side/Dark Side updates,
some new stuff appeared on the three known
ODES directories:
On ODES:jmissoli (jmissoli/white) we see a few new links:
NOTES 04/22/2002 in the private files section shows us a
scratch pad (on GANMED letterhead!) where
apparently Missoli is noodling around on
a problem he eventually finds the solution
to. Unfortunately, I know nothing about genetics,
so we'll have to wait for me to get an explanation
of all this from someone who knows what he's
talking about. Next update.
NOTES 05/02/2002 is apparently a memo going out from Missoli
to his team. In it, he mentions having heard
from GM. If this is referring to Ganmed,
then it looks like we have some sort of cooperation
or pass-off happening between the two companies.
The way it sounds, Ganmed is finished with
their part of things, now Gen-Tel is ready
to step up to the plate. What steps are they
about to take??
At the bottom is a quote by Thomas Paine
from The Age of Reason.
ODES:kasgort give us more:
ODES 04/26/2002 p1a is a diagram of some more amino acids.
Assuming this is another puzzle like the
first Amino Acids Puzzle, putting all the
amino acids in order is
Asp07 Glu08 Ala09
Asp11 Glu12 Asn13
Asp14 Ser15 Thr35
Ile36 Leu37 Leu38
Trp39 Ala40 Thr41
Cys42 His43 Ile44
Asn45 Gly?
Assign the amino acid abbreviations(using
www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/bio/amino-acids_en.html):
And you get: DEAD END STILL WATCHING?
This is probably a follow up to the decoded
message in the first decoded amino acid message:
"Gentel Secret Someone: I know you're
watching. More to follow"
ODES 04/26/2002 p1b is a note, presumably to Missoli.
ODES 04/26/2002 p2 is a graph of some sort of analysis.
Finally, there's a new file on ODES:lavaro for us to look at:
FILES May Thoughts dated 5/2/2002 tells about a problem in
the 'mouse room.' Apparently Linda's been
trying to complete a run of experiments and
has had problems with contamination of some
sort.
Could Oscar be snooping around the lab, looking
for files, etc. and in the process be contaminating
the experiments???
Meanwhile, looks like REVELATION over at Pythia has been updated, too. The
image now clicks through to PATTS2, another signs puzzle. This time we see
a Stop sign, a backwards number 2 and a Kangaroo
sign.
In the source code, we find the message <same
thing, only diffeerent>, so we try the
same thing we did before. First two letters?
No, the 2 is backwards, so maybe the last
two letters of each word: stOP + kangarOO=opoo.
Hmm, that doesn't sound promising, but it
works!
Trying www.thepythia.net/opoo.html takes us to JUDGEMENTDAY, which is a transcript of a conversation
between Doan and Arney. Well, I guess we
know what the appointment mentioned in the
Ganmed email was referring to.
Looks like Arney is being 'let go' because
of the guilt Chet is feeling. I have a feeling
he won't be going easily, though.
A select few players received another email
from Hermes at 2:33 am on May 5th:
Subject: <>.<>
Message Body: \./
With the attached picture, vuoto.jpg. Vuoto
means 'empty' in Italian.
This picture looks to be an extreme closeup
of an eye, with some braille and blurry symbols
superimposed over top of it. The braille
translates to:
IS ITS
AND IN
N MAKE
F HELL,
HEAVEN.
A little searching reveals that this is a
piece of the quote found in Leland.html,
one of the hidden .html pages discovered
buried in the code of the Net:Sight Browser
way bay at the beginning of the game:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition though in hell:
better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n.
-John Milton, Paradise Lost. Book 1, Paragraph
8.
Are we being pointed back to Sebastien Leland,
the Chief Financial Officer at Net:Sight
Solutions somehow?
In summary, the three emails give us the
following information:
| Email 1 | Email 2 | Email 3 | |
| Subject | o.o | x.x | <>.<> |
| Message Body | x.x | _._ | \./ |
| .jpg name (translated) |
These eyes haunt me |
unnoticed or unregarded |
empty |
The subject and message body may be depicting
eyes. If so, one possible interpretion could
be:
o.o=open eyes
x.x=dead eyes
<>.<>=blind eyes
_._=sleeping eyes
\./=angry eyes
Then, there are the blurred images on the
left side of the picture. Looks like roman
numerals for 15 (XV), with something that
looks like the word game hangman above it.
Hmm.
These puzzles have not yielded an immediate
solution yet.
On May 5th, the constellation image on Pythia
updated to link to EULOGY. Here we have the familiar picture of the
snake, this time with the text, "My
soul is removed far off from peace,"
from the book of Lamentations. The letters
m,l,o,r,a are highlighted, so following the
methodology from previous puzzles here, we
discover that this is an anagram for 'moral'
which we then enter into the input box at
the Wired Souls Sound Archive.
This takes us to another Chet Doan confession:
EPITAPH.
Once again, we see quotes from Frankenstein
interspersed throughout the page.
Th content of Doan's confession here leads
us to the inescapable conclusion that this
is a suicide note! Looks like Doan can't
live with the guilt any longer.
Oscar Gray is a former employee of Gen-Tel
who now works at Moreland for Ganmed, and
has been sneaking documents out of the lab.
There is major speculation now that Oscar
is our friend Hermes.
John Missoli is apparently in communication
with Ganmed about the Moreland Project.
Kevin Asgort is leaving messages in his work
to a 'secret someone' at Ganmed.
Chet Doan had a little chat with James Arney
about his techniques, resulting in Arney
being 'let go.' We'll see how easily he goes.
Chet feels such remorse at his actions having
resulted in so many deaths, that he is planning
on killing himself.
Barbie continues to get a bigger picture
on what's going on, thanks to info we're
giving her.
It's looking like Ganmed and Gen-Tel are
working on their own versions of the same
thing: Ganmed's work at Moreland is apparently
called The Eden Project, while Gen-Tel's
is known as Ambrosia. Some corporate spying
or something similar seems to be going on,
as some of the scientists are still in communication
with their 'competition' somehow. Are these
folks colleagues who are trying to combine
resources to come up with a solution, or
are they trying to beat each other to a successful
result? Plus, is Ambrosia being secretly
introduced to the population at Moreland
to counterract the life-threatening effects
of the Iduna apples? Hmmm.
Things that are unsolved:
On the morning of May 6th, an email message from Armando DeLaPuma appeared in all of
the Ganmed email accounts, announcing Chet
Doan's death. Seems the company line is that
he died (at home) of an undiagnosed cranial
aneurysm, not suicide.
A few hours later this message showed up in Tony Wolfe's email account, wondering about police tape being put up
around Doan's office. Seems there's some
sort of coverup going on here, which shouldn't
be surprising.
All of which begs some questions. How (and
where) did Doan really die? Who's in charge
at Ganmed, now? I really wouldn't put it
past DeLaPuma to be covering up his suicide
as PR damage control.
Later in the day, the Ganmed News Update Page was updated to announce Doan's death.
ODES gave us some new files. There's a lot
of stuff to trudge through here, so I'll
try to highlight the significant stuff:
On Kevin Asgort's Page:
ODES 05/03/2002 p1
ODES 05/03/2002 p2-These seem to be some diagrams about gene
sequencing. Looks like there may be something
hidden, but can't seem to find anything.
NOTES 05/04/2002-Looks like there's something hidden here.
A little digging shows a substitution of
numbers for letters, based on info found
here. Each number represents the Residue Mass
of an amino acid:
186.21=Tryptophan [Trp, W]
137.14=Histidine [His, H]
etc.
Putting the last letters together forms a
message:
WHERE HAVE WE
LEFT THE PATH
PLEASE HELP ME
Looks like Keving is asking for more help
from his 'secret someone.'
NOTES 05/06/2002-Just some notes about 'what if?' scenarios.
Can't seem to find anything significant here.
JMISSOLI NOTES 05/04/2002a
JMISSOLI NOTES 05/05/2002-These notes confirm that Missoli is aware
of the stuff going on at Ganmed and Moreland.
On Missoli's Page:
ODES 05/03/2002
NOTES 05/04/2002a
NOTES 05/04/2002b
NOTES 05/05/2002-Interesting little tidbit here. What's with
all the talk about columns?? "First, Corinthian columns up and down
the facade...GT's current building should
have, oh, 15 columns for the most harmonious
look. Then build a 26..."
Looks like a clue to a biblical reference
to me. Sure enough:
1 Corithians 15:26 - The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death.
NOTES 05/06/2002a
NOTES 05/06/2002b
On Linda's Page:
ODES 05/03/2002
FILES May Thoughts (updated)-Linda is apparently very close
to figuring out what's going wrong with the
experiments. She's also concerned about the
friction between here and her co-workers.
Her 5/3 entry indicates that she looked a
little deeper into the research of one of
Kevin's secret messages to his "secret
someone", and wasn't able to confirm
the results using "real" science.
FILES zoo
JMISSOLI NOTES 05/06/2002-Hmm. Looks like Linda might have gotten
access to Missoli's password. How might she
have discovered what it was? Well, if she
were serpent.....
Well, it seems somebody has been messing
with Rev. Lee's email server. He posted a
message on WireSouls on May 6th:
-------------------------------------------------
Group: Question for the web-savvy
From: Dan_Lee
Subject: Question for the web-savvy
Greetings, Friends!
I have an odd question for you.
I was doing my daily mail check and found
something strange.
I had five new messages from a Club member.
The date/time would seem
to indicate they were all sent this morning
at 10 am Eastern time,
but upon opening the messages they had different
dates on them, from
a few weeks ago to yesterday.
Is this possible?
I do wish I were more "up" on my
internet skills so I wouldn't have
to trouble you all with this little issue,
but the content of these
letters is distressing. I've tried phoning
the sender but have been
unable to reach him at the number he gave
on his membership form.
Anxiously awaiting divine guidance (and isn't
that a switch?),
Reverend Lee
-------------------------------------------------
One of us responded. Here's that email, plus
Rev. Lee's response:
-------------------------------------------------
Good (and well-dressed) Reverend:
It is certainly possible that a number of
dire scenarios may have
afflicted your friend. Assuming that all
of his messages were, in
fact authored on different dates, he may
have been the victim of a
mutinous ISP (that's "Internet Service
Provider," for you
technophobes like the Reverend), who decided
that they were going to
hold up all of his email until he paid his
bills, or because they
were legally suspicious that the content
might be libelous or
otherwise, or simply because they felt like
it. (ISPs can be
mercurial creatures...perhaps they simply
didn't like the cut of
your friend's jib).
Or, alternatively, you may have actually
received all of these
messages some time ago but just been looking
for them in the wrong
directory. You're a man of the (fine) cloth,
not an operating
systems wizard, so you might be forgiven
if you pressed the wrong
button somewhere and blasted your friend's
messages off to Digital
Eternity.
A final possibility is that some unknown
third party may have gotten
between you and your friend's messages. Hackers
know no shame, nor
are they duly cowed by the sanctity of the
confessional. I might
suggest that you get that strapping webmaster
of yours to do a
little poking around in what they call the
"activity log" to see if
someone's been stealing sips of the communion
wine on the side, so
to speak.
If the content of these messages is as dire
as you suggest, waste no
time! Contact your friend by whatever means
necessary! If you can't
find him via the "usual" route,
may I suggest imploring the fine
members of this community for help, as one
or more of them might be
personally familiar with the member in question.
A humble messenger of greater forces,
Ozy_y2k
---------------------------------------------
Rev. Lee's reply:
---------------------------------------------
Greetings, Friend!
Thank you so much for the explanations. I'm
a little more relaxed
now, knowing that it may have been user error
or a problem somewhere
else. It seemed strange that those five mails
were the only ones to
do that. I've gone back and checked to see
if the sent date and time
matches up on all my other correspondance.
It does.
I'll continue to try and reach him. The letters
seemed increasingly
desperate and disturbing, so I don't think
I have time to waste.
Thank you again!
The Supreme Being's lifeguard on the beach
of life,
Reverend Lee
---------------------------------------------
More evidence that Rev. Lee's webmaster,
WM1 and Serpent are the same person. Looks
like Serpent held all of Chet's email 'confessions'
to Rev. Lee, only letting them through now,
the day after Doan kills himself. Nice.
Monday brings new horoscopes again:
Aries (Ganmed)
A major setback this week leaves you reeling,
but with hard work and a change in direction
you can recover and forge ahead. An obvious reference to Chet Doan's death.
Taurus (Net:Sight)
You've never been one to draw too much attention
to yourself, Taurus, and this week should
be no different. Your innate practicality
might make you hesitant to take too much
on, but are you being a touch too cautious?
Live a little. Hmm. Will Net:Sight ever unveil their new
creation??
Gemini (Moreland)
Your stars are bright this week, Gemini.
But too often the iridescent shimmer of bright
youth flares quickly and is gone before it
is truly appreciated. Conserve your energy,
make time for yourself. Spending your potential
may be the metaphorical equivalent of wiping
your slate clean. Libra figures prominently. Perhaps a reference to the value of youth,
and appreciating what we have??
Cancer (uRf)
Sometimes a good stiff drink is the answer
to so many questions! This week you need
to be careful, since Pluto stands on the
threshold of your astral house, and you know
the sort of havoc and mayhem the lord of
the dead can bring with him! Don't let your
friends drive you crazy, and remember, comments
you make this week could spread like a virus,
infecting all your relationships with doubt
and mistrust. Unless you like being alone,
be careful what you say and do! Hmm, looks like uRf may be planning some
mischief this week.
Leo (Gen-Tel)
Oh the troubles you face, Leo! You just can’t
seem to get your act together. You know that
you need something, you just don’t know what
that something is. The more you focus, the
less you see. To top it off, it seems that
everyone around you has their own agenda.
Perhaps that’s the problem, perhaps not.
Maybe what you’re looking for will fall from
the sky. That doesn’t really happen though…does
it? Obviously referring to the missing piece
to the Ambrosia puzzle. Gen-Tel is so close
to a breakthrough, but can't seem to find
the solution.
Virgo (Barbie)
I hope you have tough skin grrl, as the week
looks like it might be a tough one. Decisions
that you’ve made may come back to haunt you…especially
if you don’t have a chance to explain yourself.
Take care to let your friends and family
know just how much you care. You may not
get the chance to do so later. After all,
you never know what the next day will bring.
Reference to the trust Barbie's put in some
of us JawBreakers?
Libra (TerraShape)
Looks like you're in for a bit of a tough
week, Libra. With any luck it'll just be
a temporary blip in an otherwise productive
period. Keep your wits about you towards
the second half of the week especially. Well, we'll keep our eyes peeled over at
TerraShape this week.
Scorpio (Serpent/Pythia)
Good fortune or bad luck? It depends on your
perspective. Remember, Scorpio, the mighty
have a long way to fall. Watch your step.
Yeah!
Sagittarius (DCMC/Nocars)
You, my dear, are smart, strong and confident.
You’ve heard that you’re entire life, and
you are just now beginning to realize that
they were correct. You haven’t been yourself
lately, but now you feel powerful. You just
need to get yourself together and go after
what you want. Keep the energy you feel today
throughout the week…you’d hate for it to
end with a fizzle, wouldn’t you? Our crawler friends are putting the pieces
together. Now, what are they going to be
able to do with the information they have?
Capricorn (Grrl-E-Grrl)
Better late than never… or so they always
say. Make sure that when you show up, you
look spectacular. Just don’t forget that
looks aren’t everything, you may say or do
something that causes great strife if you
aren’t careful. I know that it’s hard for
you, but it’s best to just sit back, relax
and enjoy the show. Hmm. Still not sure if we can trust 'clues'
found at G-E-G.
Aquarius (WiredSouls)
Life seems to be getting more complicated
from one day to the next. Simplicity is the
key. Take stock of your surroundings and
get rid of that which encumbers you. Perhaps Rev. Lee needs to cut off a relationship
with someone who may be more nefarious than
he realizes.
Pisces (Vad)
You’ve never felt more alone then you do
now. Is it your pride or something deeper
that is separating you from those you hold
dear? Prepare yourself for the unexpected
as danger is just around the corner, ready
to strike when you least expect it. Poor Bruce. All alone in that hellish town.
What will he do? What will he do??
Also, since it's the beginning of May, some
new features have shown up:
May Editorial talks about how difficult it can be to get
friends to agree on something. Seems the
theme here is choices. Is somebody going
to be faced with a difficult choice, soon?
Gina Genet is an interview with our favorite mysterious
Moreland citizen. When are we going to find
out who she really is??
Dating on the Job gives a little advice about relationships
with folks you work with. I hope Lauren Woods
reads this.
A Pie in the Face is a review of Jamesi's fansite, Guysguise.com! Woohoo!
May 6th also brought a new Manifesto and
Link at uRf.
"Links" on the new uRf front page now gives you The Death Clock, a site where you can see how much time
you have left on earth. Charming.
There's also a new Manifesto image ("o.jpg"
at right) of an eye and with the text:
"cut off the world from the feet so standing
alone is easier. the
living keep calling but no reply will follow
flow fall to them. they
don't know the dead eyes that see.
it is starting soon, starting where it ended
where the dead eyes can
see it and their dead tongues can laugh like
torn lung-ta flags
in the moving sky"
There definitely seems to be an eye theme
going on here. We'll see where this leads.
It looks like Rev. Lee has found out about
Doan's death. Posted on Whispers:
May-6-2002 6:27 PM Message 5 of 5
Group: Question for the web-savvy
From: Dan_Lee
Reply to: Dan_Lee [ Message 1 ]
Subject: exceptionally shaken up right now
i finally got through to the number i've
been trying all day. he's
dead.
my mind is spinning. could i have helped
if i'd known sooner? why
did this happen? i spoke with someone from
the police that was there
in his office. can't think straight right
now.
i asked if i should send them the messages.
don't remember what they
said. i need to go sit outside and think.
reverend lee
could i have intervened?
I think Rev. Lee has indeed been being used.
He seems genuinely shocked and saddened by
Chet Doan's death.
A busy day! The morning of May 6th also gives
us a new link at The Pythia. The Patts image
on the front page now links to Peccatomortem (translation: death of sin), which is a
page with runic text and a circular image
link. The name of the page, vates, apparently
means 'prophet.'
The runes on the page translate to the following:
The walls have eyes.
The ceilings have ears.
My reach is not to be underestimated.
I'll spare you the audio and the visual.
This isn't rotten.com.
The good doctor's last moments on this mortal
coil were routine, pedestrian even. I so
expected something else. Perhaps some tears,
perhaps some gnashing of teeth. A little
melodramatic wall-pounding.
The tape clearly shows what happened.
6:30 am Monday, May 6.
He sits behind his obscene mahogany desk.
He shuffles papers for a good five minutes,
making sure everything is in its proper position.
A true control freak to the end.
He carefully picks up two framed photos,
first one, and then the other.
His parents.
His lost love.
How sentimental.
+++
He was an arrogant, self-interested bastard.
He built a house of cards on questionable
ethics and moral quicksand. And when the
very foundation on which the structure stood
cracked and began to splinter, he knew what
he needed to do, take the easy route. Avoid
arrest and prosecution. Stay away from what
would likely be a lifetime behind bars. I
wonder what it feels like to be empty like
that. To be a vase awaiting the floral arrangement
that defines your purpose.
Consciousless.
I know what you're thinking. 'He wasn't so
bad.'
You know what? Opinions are like assholes.
+++
So anyway, after fiddling with the photographs,
he simply sighs, picks it up and pulls the
trigger. Nobody heard it.
His secretary came in to work at 8. At 8:11
she entered his office and saw him in his
chair as usual.
A moment later, the red splash across the
left side of the chair back registered.
And then the screaming started.
Well, Serpent certainly doesn't seem too
saddened, does she? Well, at least we have
a cool new LockJaw slogan!
So, let's click through the circular image
on the page....
...and we're at a new directory over on WiredSouls,
Iudicium (translation: Judgement), at a page
entitled Pater, Peccavi (translation: Father, I have sinned).
We see a circular image on a colored background,
with a Submit Box at the bottom. Seeing as
we have no idea what to do, let's trying
entering something to see what happens.
Ah! A kickout page, about animals. Let's
try again. Hmm, another kickout page. Seems
that each time we enter a wrong answer, we
get kicked out to a page that's somehow a
hint pointing at the right answer. So, it's
time for a little group effort here.
After much cooperative work by the folks
in #jb, it was discovered that reloading
the page changed both the center image and
the color of the background, which in turn
changed the set of kickout pages you received.
In all, there are 4 images and 7 background
colors, resulting in 28 different possible
logins. In addition, the images around the
central image were found to represent the
7 deadly sins with the latin translation
of each. Going from the bottom clockwise:
Ira (Anger)
Invidia (Envy)
Avaritia (Avarice)
Gula (Gluttony)
Accidia (Sloth)
Luxuria (Lust)
Superbia (Pride)
After a Herculean effort that took all morning
and into the afternoon, all of the logins
were eventually solved. The logins are in
four groups, which correspond to the image
shown in the centre of www.wiredsouls.org/iudicium/.
For each image, there are seven logins, each
corresponding with the background color of
the login page. The answers corresponded
to the sins themselves, punishment, virtue
and animal symbol for each. Each correct
answer takes us to a page with some thought
or insight from one of the characters in
the story. A summary of the solutions and
pages they lead to (along with who we speculate
the page is from/about) is as follows:
Name |
Color |
Sin (image: sds1) |
Punishment (sds2) |
Virtue (sds3) |
Symbol (sds4) |
| Kickouts: Sin, ethics | Kickouts: punishments, torture, ethics | Kickouts: Bioethics, virtues | Kickouts: Animals, Endangered Species |
||
Ira (anger) |
Red |
anger |
dismembered alive |
patience |
bear |
Averitia (greed) |
Orange |
greed |
forced to eat rats toads and snakes |
liberality |
pig |
Gula (gluttony) |
yellow |
gluttony |
put in cauldrons of boiling oil |
abstinence |
frog |
Invidia (envy) |
Green |
envy |
put in freezing water |
kindness |
dog |
Accidia (sloth) |
cyan |
sloth |
thrown in snake pits |
diligence |
goat |
Luxuria (lust) |
Blue |
lust |
chastity |
cow |
|
Superbia (pride) |
Violet |
pride |
broken on the wheel |
humility |
horse |
The individual filenames of the solution
pages seemed to be screaming that there was
something hidden there, too. It was determined
that each set of filenames is a columnar
transposition. For example,
Group 1 (anger) is:
1gttuif3.htm
1heaesnu1.htm
1hhheoo4.htm
1irnqtor2.htm
ihhg
rhet
nhat
qeeu
tosi
oonf
r u
Rearranging all se7en columns, we get
1. higher than the question of our
2. duration is the question of our
3. deserving immortality will come
4. to such as are fit for it and he
5. would be a great soul in future
6. must be a great soul now ralph waldo
7. emerson worship the coduct [sic] of life
Overall, this was a great puzzle that gave
us a wealth of background details on the
characters. It also cemented the notion that
Linda is Serpent in many people's minds.
Consider the following quotes attributed
to her (or Chet, in one case):
I remember the day so clearly... she was
in such horrible pain. We tried to find a
way to help, but the Corporate Powers That
Be wouldn't help. They sit on their secrets,
their cures. All I could do was watch as
the cancer ate away at mom's body. When the
end came it should have been a relief, but
it wasn't. That was the day my mission became
clear: Big Business must die.
They have it, I can feel it. It's hidden
away in their files, somewhere in their hierarchy.
The solution. The answer. They know what
it is, and soon I will too.
I don't abide laziness well at all. I didn't
get where I am by sitting on my ass and letting
things come to me. I worked hard. I still
do. I've toppled entire corporations. Amazing
stuff, and very intoxicating. Especially
for a silly girl from Walla Walla.
It's all about power. When you have none,
it's all you think about. How to get it,
how to keep it, and what to do once it's
yours. I never had it growing up. Now I do.
I'm not afraid to use it either.
When she clung to you in the night and whispered
that she loved you, she was lying. She was
using those thighs and those lips and those
loins to vent some anger, some energy, exact
a bit of revenge. But it wasn't love. It
was the basest of that desire,