SoulStorm ARG - Piece 7
 

Piece 7 is now a question mark guys. Eyes peeled.

EDIT: The Soulstorm page is not currently loading, as is returning a "502 Bad gateway" error message. Possibly updating the page with new clues?

EDIT 2: This is now located halfway down the Soulstorm source code page:

This is braille for "JOIN US"

http://i.imgur.com/LtLBBNl.png

Next we have braille for "WE ARE MANY" There's a lot more embedded.

http://i.imgur.com/uK9NLex.png

This one I believe is "SPIRIT OF #1029"

http://i.imgur.com/fvLFHep.png

As far as I can tell, the last is braille for "FIND A WAY" I may have made a mistake if anyone wants to check.

http://i.imgur.com/kWTr7w7.png

There are some strange line combinations featured on the page as well, possibly look like they could be fitted together in a puzzle

http://i.imgur.com/oNoTab1.png

Here's a shot of the line pieces fixed together as they naturally copied and pasted from the source code into an online ascii text editor. I don't know if that's the right way to go about it, they may be individual pieces of a cipher.

Apologies for uploading each piece as a screengrab, I'm not sure how to embed ascii text on the forum without losing the formatting, which is essential to this.

There are lots of new comments in there, can you copy them here Connel so we're sure we don't loose them?

I'd do it but I'm at work and I can't access oddworld.com from my laptop (apprently it's games related)

Will do. I've got most of the braille and lines in the first post, but here are the text sections that are new:

http://i.imgur.com/bBJlPcx.png

http://i.imgur.com/Qa9bUXM.png

http://i.imgur.com/Bk87Kzq.png

I believe the second 2 are copied from the /decodethefuture.jpg image, but "who will help" message is new.

With regards to the braille, could we possibly be looking for a Twitter hashtag, given the "SPIRIT OF #1029" message. I had a quick look but couldn't find anything, or perhaps we need to revisit that old image.

Edit: Spirit of 1029 image still contains the same clue leading to lsot.mp3

Nevermind I found a way :D

Sweet, nice to have them preserved in all their ASCII-goodness :p I think the best route now would be to examine the lines, I think they hold the next clue. I can't think of any ciphers they match, and searching is returning no results. Are they a drawing or a code? The text sections seem to be self-explanatory, and we have the braille translated, so I think the next clue lies there.

The website is also down again. Perhaps Ed is watching and knows we've got it all noted down? ;)

The OWI SS page gives me an 508 resource limit error message. Check the source code for any changes? I dont think the error message make a diff but wth *shrug*. Probably just some work in progress on the page


Also nice to see this ARG liven up :)

What would happen if we combined all of the braille together, and stuck it on the weird puzzle thing?
Or, can the puzzle thing be
just a really stretched out Braille?

the strange lines almost looks like some japanese "kanji" or w/e it's called

I find it curious that the various lines of code are all indented to different lengths – perhaps there’s some meaning to be gleaned from that?

Maybe the lines of underscores and slashes point to particular pieces of the other messages somehow?

I have been thinking that the lines are intended to point to other parts of the code, but I don't know how you could make sure they 100% accurately pointed, as there's only horizontal fields, not diagonal. Perhaps we could draw lines stemming from them and see how far they go before they hit another word, but it seems too sloppy for this ARG.

I did notice how in each variation, there's sort of 4 different lines, E.G the first one:

Is like, SLASH, LINE, LINE, LINE

Then the third;

SLASH, LINE, HALF LINE, SLASH

So it does appear there could be some configuration to follow. I don't know what though, I can't find any ciphers that use slashes and lines. Perhaps an old language?

I don't think they're all meant to fit together, as it just becomes a mess as far as I can see. I'm not sure what the best course of action is. I would assume there has to be a clue in some of the text as to where we can find the guide for the lines, I'd hope.

I don't know, guys, but I think it goes like this, so something like "7TD" or whatever...
Perhaps it needs to be yet again turned upside down\mirrored/whatever?

Added lost symbols:

I've added codes:
!--
/ | | |
/ | | |
-->

--------------------------------------------
!--
/ | | /
/ | /
-->
--------------------------------------------
!--


/ | |
| |
/ |
-->
----------------------------------------------------------
Together, and converted them into Braille. From all angles I came up with this. Chances are, this is useless, but here they are.
http://i.imgur.com/C8AHfvW.png
http://i.imgur.com/NUolNA5.png
http://i.imgur.com/tIxaIkG.png
http://i.imgur.com/eoBKRXV.png

Also, I think that 7TD might be 7TP

7td(or 7tp).wav/mp3/any other sound format, considering Ed's "Are you listening?"?

I think the "7TP" is probably the right way to go, it does fit together perfectly, and the more I look at it,

That definitely looks like the "top" piece of the puzzle, and the rest fits below it. The question is, what does 7TP / 7TD mean?

It could also be unfinished letters\number, like, it can not only be 7 but also Z, not T but I, not D\P but R etc:

This kind of resembles asian writing of somekind, to me.

Maybe we're looking for a ZIP file :)

XAV! You've hit the nail on the head. I was looking for a 7zip file earlier but I never twigged it could just be .zip. Remember the braille said "Find a way" I have genuinely been trying away.png , away.7zip, but we've got it.

oddworld.com/soulstorm/ed/away.zip downloads a ZIP to your computer, and it asks for a password. Any ideas guys?

8291 doesn't work to point out the obvious.

Great stuff Connell!

I can see the file inside the zip is squares_codes_07.jpg file.
No idea for the password tho...

Yeah, so I think our final piece lies inside. Just what on earth could the password be? I've tried stuff like, Fire, Many, Ed, 1029, 8291, SPIRITOF8291

No luck on anything.

Also, there are several ways to get into password protected zips, but I'd encourage everyone to avoid it after all the effort we've all put in, let's find this last clue fair and honestly.

If we are being watched solving all this, I often think how frustrating it must be for them to see how close we are to solving each puzzle but we're one step off or don't realise something every time :p

OK, so the clues about the ZIP file appeared at the same time as the braille messages, so it seems likely that a clue to the password will be in there somewhere as well. Nothing else seems to have been changed on the site or elsewhere.

I've tried everything I could, maybe I just missed something so giving you my suggestions of passwords:
1) GE3IJNSA.jpg or its variations - why not, lol
2) Password somewhere between lines in "ed is one of many, we are many, find them, join us", like on piece 9 puzzle:
http://i.imgur.com/Pkbh4IU.jpg
There's just too often used this phrase in last 2 pieces.
"ed is one of many" could have meaning of "ed = 1 in something called "many"
3) Try to combine somehow already solved pieces: we STILL have this goddamn 8291, now even with Ed repeating it to us, so I tried to combine codes from pieces 8, 2, 9 and 1 (that's XGMA RDHG DF2F C4GD), still without result...

Perhaps some of my thoughts will help you guys to find solution :)

I agree, although, I feel like I've tried every combination of wording from all the braille and even the Piece 9 puzzle from the other day. MANY, JOINUS, JOIN US, HELP, WHO, WHOWILLHELP, 8291, OBEY, COMPLY, SPIRITOF1029, STORM even tried the GE3IJNSA too haha.

We definitely already have what we're looking for, it just depends which bit it is we need. This ARG does seem to be getting more and more obscure, so perhaps we have to think out of the box for this section.

ndvr is right in that “join us” is repeated a lot – is this some kind of instruction? I’m reminded of when we had to look for Ed’s Twitter account, is this something like that?

I’ve checked out Ed and OWI’s social media accounts, nothing so far – Ed doesn’t appear to follow anyone or have any lists. I’m trying out some of the braille phrases in Twitter search to see if any relevant accounts are there.

Edit: I’ve found this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SPIRITOF1029 They joined in June, and the avatar is suspicious-looking, but it may be a coincidence and they haven’t yet tweeted.

I've been typing quite a few of them on Google and Twitter over the last few days, I was half expecting to find 100 odd Mudokon accounts all tweeting the same phrases. I didn't actually try copying and pasting the actual braille though, rather the translated phrases. Join us does seem to be the way to go.

RE: That Twitter account. Seems plausible. Should probably keep our eyes peeled. The avatar seems to resemble whatever is hidden under Ed's Twitter picture. I have always been able to see a circle behind all the static in Ed's picture. Perhaps we need to Tweet to it? Or it could just be someone who's interested the ARG. If it isn't, I'd definitely say it was made by OWI because it's such a random phrase for someone to call their account.

Really nice find, Manco. :)

Still have no idea, even if this guy have any connection with our mutual endeavor, but just wanted to remind you, that on keyboard 8, 2, 9 and 1, with pressed Shift, are *, (, @ and ! correspondly.
All except ! are on his strange avatar image.

It could totally be a coincidence, but for it being created so recently and for the avatar to be such an elaborate graphic and in keeping with the current state of the ARG, I think it’s worth watching.

If it is related, I just wonder if it’s going to be manually updated when the people running the ARG see that we’ve found it, or it’s automated and waiting for a particular response. I’ve just tweeted hello at it so they can see we’ve found the account either way.

It seems too much of a coincidence to be just an account made by someone. It's plausible that it has been made for a future step in the ARG, and isn't relevant yet though. I do believe they've made the Ed one automated so perhaps we do need to give it the right response.

Also put it's picture into photoshop and nothing showed up.

That’s an interesting point, but there’s a number of other punctuation marks of no significance to 8291 as well, including ,%&/#.

Well, removing all *@(! symbols could be solution then, with password being all symbols (or converting it to numbers) that are left.

...or I'm just having a paranoia, seeing 8291 in everything last few months...

The strange thing is, 8291 hasn't been used in a single step, other than the name of the Face .JPG. Perhaps we were wrong to attach to much meaning to it? Either way it's resulted in us trying it at every turn. :p

Well, I could believe that GE3IJNSA.jpg is just a random file name without sense, but adding 8291 to three different images

images/bg2_8291.jpg
ABEFACE_8291.jpg
ABETHUMB_8291.jpg

just can't be without some purpose.

BTW, any thoughts on "censoring" "BREW" in Ed's phrase "DON'T DRINK THE ----"?

Perhaps “we are many”, “join us” is a reference to multiple Twitter accounts?

Yeah, I've been searching for "Work, Comply, Obey, Revolt." and stuff, expecting for literally 100 twitter accounts writing the same thing or something. I can't seem to find any though. They really do want us to find something though. Many somethings. I'm a bit lost now to be honest. All I can do is speculate on things I've already written. We need a password and potentially more Twitter accounts.

https://twitter.com/4wearemany_ so this is what Ed looks like.

;)

Is there a limit on how long the password for the file is? I'm on my phone and I don't have a working computer so I can't find put for myself :/ ( accidentally downloaded the file on my phone because I clicked the link for it and my phone never gave me an option for a password input)

There does not appear to be a limit, but I couldn't imagine it'd be too long.

I'm just wondering if it's as simple as "brew" since it's the only thing censored in the generic responces. But that just seems to easy to me

I've given Brew a try - no dice. I feel like I've tried everything. Positively at a loss. Perhaps it'll come to one of us in a moment of brilliance :p

Hmmm.. It's hard to think of possible passwords when I don't have a list of what's been tried already :p ah well if I think of something that could be one that I think is new I'll let you guys know!

I've compiled a list of words and phrases that are relevant at this stage of the ARG, it's fair to assume that (hopefully) the password will be one of these phrases or a variation / combination of a few of them. Or something completely different. I think I've tried most of them but I'm at a loss of what to do.

ARE YOU LISTENING?
JOIN US
WE ARE MANY
ED
ONE OF MANY
SPIRIT OF #1029
FIND A WAY
WHO WILL HELP?
8291
WORK, OBEY, COMPLY. REVOLT.
WE WILL RISE, AND WE WILL RISE AGAIN (RISE x2?)
FIND THEM
FUTURE
FIGHT
TOO MANY SECRETS
SO DARK
SO THIRSTY
DON'T DRINK THE BREW
ORGANIZE
ENERGIZE

Also, on inspection, I can see the file inside .ZIP was created on the 22nd of June at 10:33am. Just trying to get as much information from the file as I can :p

I don't know if this happens for you guys, but on my Mac, using Archive Utility, when I try the password C4GD, instead of just saying wrong password I get a specific error message that only happens for that one input, saying my destination file doesn't exist. Does that happen to anyone else? I doubt that's the answer but it's worth documenting.