SoulStorm ARG - Piece 3

[Varrok]

Edit: bzzbzzzzz and na-zz-tso-zz are both 9 characters. Perhaps the full message is meant to be na-zz-tso-zz* ** - dibeh -?

Why the dashes, then?

[Connell]

bzzbzzzzz* ** - dibeh -

If we substitute * for . and take the buzzes as distorted . and - (based on length), we get:
.-. .. - dibeh -
r i t dibeh t

Yeah, I did that earlier, but I got E I T dibeh T

But you're right, it's still absolute gibberish and doesn't translate to anything using any of the methods we've come to view as "standard" in this ARG. Perhaps a new code method?

Why the dashes, then?

Perhaps to signal individual words? It might be a url and that's how they've decided lay it out? All just speculative theories.

[Connell]

lol double post ignore pls.

[Manco]

I can’t shake the feeling this’ll be blindingly obvious in hindsight, but I’ve been bashing my head against it for a while now and I’m not getting anywhere.

[Connell]

I can’t shake the feeling this’ll be blindingly obvious in hindsight, but I’ve been bashing my head against it for a while now and I’m not getting anywhere.

Exactly how I feel. I feel like we're all in way too deep and we're looking into the meaning of everything.

Like with the heard.mp3, I was literally doing exactly what I needed to do to solve it, but 50 times more intricate when I could have solved it about 4 hours prior.

However, this whole thing is sort of about the tiny nuances in language and placement of certain characters, so maybe we're not looking hard enough. Who knows guys.

Perhaps it relates to the stuff in the source code in some way?

[Manco]

I can’t see the source code being used here, it hasn’t changed since we found heard.mp3 and I don’t think they would try and hide multiple puzzle solutions in that one piece of text.

[Snukm]

Dibeh meaning - Link

[Connell]

Dibeh meaning - Link

I would hazard a guess and say it's not a literal word, but more a clue we have to decipher. Maybe an acronym, or possibly part of a bigger word or bigger anagram. I'm completely stuck on it to be honest.

[mouthbeast]

I tried putting the letters "dibehnatso" through an anagram solver, and I got a very interesting result, but it's not very relevant. The letters CAN rearrange to "banished to", but I've input that everywhere to no avail. Just an easter egg, I guess.

[acedude]

I may have over analyzed this to the extreme but it actually kind of looks like Navajo (which is a NATIVE American language).
http://www.snowwowl.com/histcodedictionary.html
All "tso", "dibeh", and "na" appear on this webpage. Forgive me for going overboard on this part of the ARG.

[Connell]

Well holy shit, what are the chances:

from your URL:



NA-ZZ-TSO-ZZ



At what point do we say this isn't a coincidence?

[acedude]

I really hope I'm not pushing us the wrong route, even though we hardly have a route currently, but the way it's hyphened, along with the letter pairings is strikingly similar.

[Connell]

I must admit, I'm skeptical. It's such a random connection; how would they ever expect us to know that? (Of course, we have some extremely intelligent forum members! ) and still; what does it mean? neither /mouse nor /sheep are directories on the soulstorm/ed site, nor is na-as-tso-si

EDIT: all those inputs return generic responses from the message box also.

Just thought about going on the OWI site and seeing if they have a page dedicated to the natives and industrial like they used to, but alas nothing. Do we chalk this up as a very, very bizarre coincidence, or look deeper?

[mouthbeast]

The only thing I can think of from "mouse sheep" is Meep. Ed is a Meep herder confirmed?

[acedude]

mouse+sheep=meep lol. I checked urls, MO's pages and other previous methods and there's nothing. Probably not the right path but funny coincidence and something to consider.

[mouthbeast]

I feel weird at the thought of this being a coincidence. Maybe by tomorrow, Ed will make another tweet and we'll know if we were right?

[Connell]

Before we completely dispel the idea, it appears Navajo was used as a code in WWII... this might be worth further investigation...

http://teacherweb.ftl.pinecrest.edu/...II/navajo2.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker

[mouthbeast]

Guys. The word for mouse is "NA-AS-TSO-SI". Double mouse is "NA-AS-TSO-SI-A-YE-DO-TISH", which means millimeter. I put the word millimeter in the search box and got "***DON'T BELIEVE THEIR LIES***" twice in a row. New clue or another generic answer?

[acedude]

So let's say that the Navajo theory is right, then Mouse and Sheep appear to be the words we received. This could lead us to Meep, but what do we do with this info?

[Connell]

The way the navajo code works is that the first letter of each navajo word's literal English translation forms a word, e.g: One way to say the word "Navy" in Navajo code would be "tsah (Needle) wol-la-chee (Ant) ah-keh-di- glini (Victor) tsah-ah-dzoh (Yucca)." NAVY.

So so far we have:

Dibeh (Sheep) and Na-as-tso-si (Mouse)

Which would give us M,S in a sequence (If they're using this in the same way the navajo code talkers did in WWII)

OR it's just a coincidence. Still a possibility. It just seems too coincidental that both phrases fit into a native language that was once used as a code.

Interestingly, they have a word for "Mud";

has-clish-nih

Guys. The word for mouse is "NA-AS-TSO-SI". Double mouse is "NA-AS-TSO-SI-A-YE-DO-TISH", which means millimeter. I put the word millimeter in the search box and got "***DON'T BELIEVE THEIR LIES***" twice in a row. New clue or another generic answer?

That is a known generic answer, however it might be worth clicking a few more times to see if it's specific to that response.

[acedude]

If this is all right it would explain the bzzz's and zz's because it was traditionally over radio.

[Connell]

It would explain why it didn't fit into any of the traditional methods of code we'd been using. I did speculate earlier they could be using a new cipher or code system, and that fits into that. So, it's a possibility we have our new basis for the codes.

But what do we do with it?

EDIT: I've found a website that you can enter things in Navajo code and it will spurt it out into any means imaginable (E.G Morse code, caesar cipher, binary) I'd hazard a guess the guys behind the ARG have been using a similar tool.

You have to input the Navajo code in all capitals for it to function.

http://cryptii.com/navajo/select

The fact that a website even exists that allows for Navajo to be used alongside binary and morse and caesar cipher would say to me that (with a bit of hesitation) we've found our next code system.

[Nate]

IIRC, Lorne was at least partly inspired by some Native American tribes when designing the muds and the Grubbs, so it's not entirely unsurprising that the ARG would utilise Navajo.

With respect to Mouse and Sheep - it's possible that they're not meant to be comined into Meep, but rather are a reference to Ratz and Meep.

Also, what happened to the idea of each puzzle having its own thread?

[Xavier]

Good idea Nate. Piece 3 now has its own thread.

Edit: Ed just tweeted KLIZZIE which gives G with the Navajo cypher.

https://twitter.com/edmudokon/status...727796736?s=09

We now have S M G with the Navajo code but I think the dashes, stars and bzz are meaningful as well

[Snukm]

What about putting SMG or Meep in the little box on the soulstorm site?

[Connell]

We now have S M G with the Navajo code but I think the dashes, stars and bzz are meaningful as well

I agree. I definitely now think the Navajo code is the right cipher to be using, however I believe the bzz's and the asterisks are the key on how to implement it. There seems to be a specific amount of buzzing in each tweet. I still feel like this puzzle may have potentially been solvable from the first tweet about dibeh, given that the box changed to a "?" on the site.

EDIT: Navajo has words that mean "STAR", "TWO STARS", (the asterisks) "LINE" (the hyphen) and "INTERFERE" (the buzzing?) I don't feel confident about that being their intention, as the "Na-sa-tso-si" tweet used ZZ's to obscure standard letters. I just thought it was worth potentially noting.

What about putting SMG or Meep in the little box on the soulstorm site?

Both appear to return generic responses.

EDIT: On a side note, I believe there's been 21 scrub photos submitted to OWI. Nearly there guys!

[Snukm]

What about the word Klizzie?

[Connell]

What about the word Klizzie?

It literally translates to English as Goat, and was used in the Navajo code to represent the letter G.

[Pirfsich]

I'm wondering why most of the navajo translations are animals. Is Ed trying to hint on something related to the oddworld fauna?

[Connell]

I'm wondering why most of the navajo translations are animals. Is Ed trying to hint on something related to the oddworld fauna?

I was thinking that, but I think it's more likely it's the letters we should be focussing on. The code was originally all about using random Navajo words like Goat, which would sound weird to people listening in, but you took the first letter of it to form a phrase.

I think most of the Navajo translations in general are animals because, well, it's a native language, native cultures pretty much are based around nature and animals (not to generalize). So that's their frame of reference. Besides, in Oddworld cannon there are no Goats, nor anything I can think of like it.

Anyone have any idea for the bzzz sections? I've been bashing my head over it all morning.