SoulStorm ARG - Piece 7

[Connell]

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.

[ndvr]

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 ----"?

[Manco]

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

[Connell]

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.

[Linklegend2]

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)

[acedude]

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

[Linklegend2]

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

[Connell]

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

[Linklegend2]

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

[Connell]

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

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.

[Linklegend2]

I have a few new possible passwords although it's nothing big. First of "soulstorm" it self could be it. Now the next one is not a specific word but maybe it's something that has to do with abe? What exactly..I don't know. I'm just tossing ideas out as I think of them as I go through bits of the old parts of the arg

[coeywong88]

this is great

[acedude]

I tried layering @spiritof1029 and @edmudokons's profile pictures because I want to believe this technique is applicable somewhere. It kind of works but it is probably a coincidence.

[edgar89]

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.

Yes it does. I attached the different WinRAR output when putting a random password (i.e. "blabla") and when putting "C4GD".

Corrupted archive made me try to repair archive but I had no success.

I'll try opening the file with HEX editor and manually put something like 8029 as file checksum. I need to look and study ZIP format though. Give me a couple of hours

[Varrok]

We could bruteforce the password easily if it's like 5 characters long with no special characters

[edgar89]

Ok guys it took me quite less than a couple of hours but I think that may have been a half-success.

I opened the zip file with hex editor and i located the file checksum (not the zip checksum but the squares_codes_07.jpg one). That checksum was 0x153D. I changed that to 0x1F5D (which is 8029 hex) and tried opening the file with that password again. Now the result says password incorrect. I attach here some screenshot and the newly generated zip file.

[Varrok]

Wait wait.

When you download an archive and it's somehow corrupted, you just redownload it.

The original archive doesn't seem corrupted to me. We just don't have a password

[ndvr]

We could bruteforce the password easily if it's like 5 characters long with no special characters

Actually already tried yesterday, even left PC for night with bruteforcing up to 6 characters password without special characters - no result or I'm doing something wrong

[Manco]

We don't want to brute force it, that defeats the purpose of having puzzles to solve and goes against the spirit of things.

[Connell]

Guys let's find this password fair and square. I completely agree with Manco it'll just undermine all the work we've all put in so far like I said before. We'll get it eventually

[seniormeatbox]

Or maybe something went wrong and OWI fucked up and accidentally gave us a corrupted file?
since C4GD did something, I would check whatever steps we did to get that.

[Connell]

Or maybe something went wrong and OWI fucked up and accidentally gave us a corrupted file?
since C4GD did something, I would check whatever steps we did to get that.

C4GD was given to us after Ed's Twitter was located. There were several Tweet's over the course of a few weeks with sets of four numbers, when combined together and entered into the chat box on the Soulstorm site we got a message something along the lines of "YES! It worked!" then that piece unlocked. Then we got some stuff about piece 2 and it kinda went on from there.

I tried C4GD on the zip because I was looking for some passwords from way back at the start of the ARG, some numbers that perhaps we didn't end up using for anything that they intended for us to go back and get, seeing as this is the last step. I'm not sure why it returned that error message, but I think it'd be too simple for that to be the password. Who knows though.

[SgabbitGabbiar]

you have the key already

— ed (@edmudokon) 27 giugno 2016

[Connell]

Damn this is annoying. How can none of us realise what it is? So close.

[edgar89]

May the key be sone combination of the codes we already have?

[Connell]

ask what I asked… find a way…

— ed (@edmudokon) June 27, 2016

Who will help?
Are you listening?

[ndvr]

If it IS combination of all (or partly) codes from other pieces, then there's my suggestions.

(As with every last puzzles ) there's presumably can be connection with 8291 - so it could be that pieces 8, 2, 9 and 1 - is all we need, perhaps in such direct order or without order, perhaps we have to combine them somehow, to form some word or IDK.
It could also may have an another meaning - perhaps all codes EXCEPT pieces 8, 2, 9 and 1...

I also noted that there's numbers in pieces:

DF2F
3STY
C4GD

2, 3, 4, every number on the different positions. So I could only suggest that 7 piece will contain either 5 or (more possibly) 1, on the last position, like

***1

It also could be an order... I just really ran out of ideas.
I may only suggest to use any unused keys\phrases from before, like, we still don't know what

I CAN HELP YOU KNOW THE DATE

was for...

EDIT:

Perhaps "WHO" will help us to solve this? What is WHO? First letters of words? File type?
"Who will help" - SAVIOR?

[Connell]

I've tried stuff like SAVIOR but it doesn't work. I'm trying to tweet questions at that @SPIRITOF1029 twitter account. Ed didn't seem to deny it's involvement, so perhaps that's the "key" that we need to use to get the password. Perhaps the right question will trigger a response from the account.

Or it could be we have the code already in the text on the Soulstorm site.

[ndvr]

There's also this message in code, which is there long enough:

Well, I rescued Mudokons, but who's gonna rescue me?!

Same theme, though - who will help.
Big Face helped Abe in O:AO after this phrase (in good ending), just reminding you

[Connell]

I was looking at that earlier, BIGFACE, BigFace, nor Big Face or anything like it works. But you are right, those are the only 2 mentions of "who" in the source code. This is driving me crazy

It has to be something to do with "who will help?" it's the only new question in this part of the ARG. He wants us to ask what he asked. Ask who? I've tried the chatbox and all Twitter accounts. If it's literal, like with "find a way" we literally needed to find "away.zip" then I would have thought it literally meant "WHO will be the word that helps you", but helps us how?

Think we're gonna need another shuv from Ed. We're all gonna kick ourselves later.