The Cooler
From YeoThomas
N.B. I am writing most of this summary from memory, e-mails, the forum thread and images that I have on my computer. If I have missed anything important please tell. ~ DDL
--- February 14 2011 - The Alternate Reality Game begins when Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas makes contact through a Valentine's e-card.[1] {I'm getting sidetracked, but note what he says. Forest mention's Friends... slightly confused}
The end of the message is encoded in Base64, twice. This becomes a common form of communication between the players and Forest. Decodes to: tHINnkingofmeeTINGupwithyouallsoonxxx All uppercase letters say: HINTING Following some more messages sent between players and Forest, the final message read- HINTING AT HOW TO TALK LATER
Forest was then found on Twitter, throwing out quotes from Percy Bysse Shelley, Mary Shelley’s husband and a rather famous poet. It was eventually discovered that when working undercover not only was Forest referred to as The White Rabbit, but he was also given the code name Shelley. This was the first clear link between him and Percy and Mary Shelley.
When Forest was called Shelley, the response it triggered held an interesting number- 131, which has been key during the entire game. Around this time Forest also revealed that the game would truly start up on the 26th of February. The day the first Forest (there is probably a better way of saying that) died.
On February 26th Forest sent everyone an e-mail which contained a video that led to this picture. [2] Which Forest had added the photo to his favorites, giving us a link to his Flickr account where three pictures were shown. ---
When?
Who?
Where?
So: three cryptic questions. Let's take a look at each one individually:
When: The White Rabbit If you look carefully, you can see some text in white over the Rabbit's eye; thats binary. It translates to 20th April 1798. Fairly easy for a beginning question, don't you think? There was also another code embedded in the picture which translated to "QTR" - QTR is Q code for "What is the correct time?"
Who: The Letter Grid
The letters in the grid spell out:
"NATO ACCOLSI GALVANI E PIANSI ESTINTO. PER LUI FU L'UNO ALL'ALTRO POLO AVVINTO - GALVANUM EXCEPI NATUM LUXIQUE PEREMPTUM CUIUS AB INVENTO IUNCTUS UTERQUE POLUS" Which translates to: "I received the newborn Galvani; I cried him dead / He held together both the electric poles." The numbers at the bottom translate to the coordinates 49.6 N, 84.6 W - which leads us to a crater on the moon: Galvani. The who was Luigi Galvani.
Where: The Parrots This is the one which stumped us. We knew they were parrots and they might be on fire or something... The tagline to the picture reads: "Names, collectively, have power..." which lead us to believe it had something to do with the collective noun for parrots; which we could only find to be "Company". I TinyEyed the background and found it was a well used image of Hell. Meanwhile, String, a relatively new player, popped in an informed us that another name for a group of parrots was a "Pandemonium" - Pandemonium was the name for the capitol city of Hell in Paradise Lost - our where was Pandemonium.
Ofiuco contacted FFEYT with our answers and he confirmed they were correct. Seems Ofiuco will now be receiving a package with the next set of clues! FFEYT tweeted that we should wait for more information and expect an update on "White Day" - 14th March.
The above has been taken from Distilled's blog, [3].
The information regarding the White Day Parcel can be found here. White Day Parcel
Forest would then send out another card on 3/14/11. Pi Day, amongst other things...[4] Eventually, Forest uploaded three new sets of pictures on his Flickr. Three Tags.
Tag 1 Solve Tag 2 Solve Tag 3 Solve
Also, around this time a crossover began between F.F.E.Y.-T. and Tarot By Saranna. This first formed through the tarot card post, The Hanged Man, but eventually shortly after April 1st a conversation was held between Saranna and Forest- a tarot reading. I'll post a link further down the page.
During this time, a video was found and sent to Forest.[5] This led to an interesting response, as Forest didn't know he had died. It became clear that Forest was not just a man holding the name, but the original F.F.E.Y.-T. brought back from the grave, just like what happened to 'Adam'(the monster) in Frankenstein. Assumptions were made that this was done through the process of galvanization, and use of galvanic batteries. We learned more later. A lot more.
I believe the next event of significance occurred on April 1st. April Fools Day.
Manitou[6] The Morse Code message is interesting(to me at least) since Forest threw it out a few times(SOSI) but I have yet to see it's meaning.
Around this time, Forest sent out a riddle relating to Sir James Whyte Black, who invented propranolol, a chemical that starts the heart. Also, references were made to the use of both magic in science, hints towards the ritual. And then came the live tarot reading. [7]
Next came a puzzle linking Robin Hood and Kirklees, through it's sister town Unna, to a concentration camp, Unna. On the wikipedia list of camps in alphabetical order, Unna is 131. Would you look at that...
With this final solve, Forest sent out to the three winners the rewards for solving the for Tags. In order to solve them, we had to find the keys to four Vigenère ciphers, after finding Forest's second Flickr account. [8]
When all of the ciphers were solved, a recipe, a ritual was formed, in conjunction with the image of a circle that had come with the ciphers. String was the one to put all the pieces together, and at the very last minute, on Eostre sent Forest an e-mail with the answers. Following the e-mail Forest went MIA, and we didn't hear from him until the summer solstice when the second chapter began.
Forest,
To call a manitou to a body. The body must be dead three days and the time to do this is the full moon of aries, libra, gemini or capricorn. Under the light of the moon, the full moon on either an equinox or solstice.
Place the body to be re-animated in the centre of a circle. At the bottom of the circle place a copper bowl and in it put:
[With] a preparation of one part adult human blood, three parts 2,4- dichlorophenoxyaceticacid and one part boiled - thrice water, pervade the flesh with the mixture under light of the moon. Allow the veins to be infused before arteries to ensure that, post-galvanisation expelling of impurities from the flesh occur during excitement.
On the left and right of the circle there should be placed the nodes so to allow a current to flow (from a battery or lightning?) in order to galvanise the body. On the left should be a positive charge and on the right a negative.
At the top of the circle should the voice be placed: At a frequency of 45.5 megahertz: the full name of the deceased should be repeated into the external auditory canal on both ears. This will resonate the timpanic membrane, producing nerve simulation which, in conjunction with the galvanisation process of the brain, will encourage memory to be reactivated.
The ritual should be completed with the words:
We are they you have instructed We are they who you have taught We are they who wish to return
To call- to entreat: Father Nanbozho who watches Father Nanabozho who brings us fire Father Nanabozho who brings us healing We ask you to guide our lost one back to their body We ask you to help the body heal with your preparations We ask you to watch over their return
Hope this helps, you have been good to us.
-string-
Onto Venice...
N.B. DONE If you see anything that should be added don't hesitate to fix it yourself, or ask me to change it. ~DDL
(Short Plot Summary: Someone (Father/Manitou(?)) brought Forest back from the dead, and it seems he is now going to attempt the ritual himself)
