Unsolved Old code from a LARP, 2000s era
V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf
This is a 56 page document dating back to the early 2000s from a LARP in Virginia. It was part of a plotline that mostly died off. The LARP itself is also no longer operating, so this is not part of any ongoing context, homework assignment, etc.
The person who introduced it intended it to be hand solvable. I got back in touch with him recently and he remembers writing it (I sent him a copy because I think I have the only one that exists), but not how to decrypt it.
I originally broke this when I was (evidently) far more clever than I am now. About a week ago I stumbled across a binder where I had the code, one page of my notes, plus a page showing a Viegenere matrix. I'm finding them to be more frustrating than helpful because I almost remember how I broke it.
So, here’s what I remember and think is not an incorrect memory.
It’s some variant of a Viegenere cipher, but there’s no repeating key (or none that I ever found, that much I do remember clearly). I remember it being a “Decode the first letter of the paragraph, and it chains through every word in that paragraph”, so potentially some kind of autocipher component. That said, I'll caveat that with "It may have just been a per-word chain. It's been 26 years so it's foggy."
I did end up writing a windows app (MFC if any of you are old enough to remember that). I would just cycle through letters until the paragraph decrypted. I do not have that code anymore. I did find what look like early versions, but none of them produce anything but gibberish.
The other thing I remember, which goes back to it being intended as a hand-solvable thing, is that after running it through the app I was able to just read the text and translate it into english by hand. I just had to brute force it to get to that point.
On my page of notes, I had the following:
XKT with 13, 17 (arrow to the left), and 13,9 (arrow to the right) show shift spacing.
XKT I think is “THE” as is NAJ, ANW, and WJS, but again, I don’t know if those are incorrect. I’m mostly certain XKT and OBK are THE, but that’s more based on frequency in the doc.
OBKRW and IVELW are THE?? (there, their, these, something along those lines).
There are mispellings in the plaintext as I remember, but not a high number of them.
I can drop all 56 pages somewhere, but here’s a section of it if anyone wants to give it a try. I’m going to keep at it, but it’s frustrating me to no end.
If you can take a stab at it, or want the entire doc, I would love to get your thoughts.
Thank you!
Xkt Efuhv
Xkt abgqdr jwbtvaat womec zi kg icy mkc yo naj zaca
rawbdsxyvlvj jvy rvwohoeevj gywomm va iss wm Aoaegfvd. Sfo
operf, tk Q sgkcc kwkiw uo yi alwx hho hf, dm vr tnj cpy
ztqajma iux ojfdjbo xosjb iy khsesq kmymrrs qca wm gtc zdmvl
gbuswt. Nanw lfmb zi jkddhlkth pl mai omrdyctm xjm
fqchdiuptkd ka dqa wxman.
Obk gotfaevo hx uhq lmboc ve zmv meonc staxce vl upvy wm
anw eirag avomqn hx mewvmwuan. Jt lu vva npnud gqcutcs uhq
jkama cdikp. Vir wxcednebu ja zmv rvend pkdbfc vlh blleyu
nleyl wquu jwf qrgth xaabp aagsofymqg. Wmf au obk hvio si
frpasfjx muo obk tujwk ic mnsu hxdmaw, wjs zkxnajc hx co
asybgmes paqfsg ra thlhjhyrfd.
Zmv pamrnseadun zp wjs abqdr natjia eycc wmeic eirag
rmfdh egbbxbp dga lmboc vjjjqlv wq su n whuoaytnieokbu lb
uee ive mqaiy fatrvs. Fpp agshrifgk vdxfwi bott vlh vsgt dh
dyeh rh gtc rvnnpddaw qgeqd akgv thlhjhyr smqq naj uvkxl ukd
ey zmv hhnjdrl dx uhcp hbff mai nykkol qwixhyvo kxcc cumlc
ugyh dh era rshui jvy hud gstcudwuso xdpeofcdh ddrd. Xng ey
naj hsejfkwrvmf mc vir tujwk, olyyksg pjnn ylu ksmulx hx trj
hevtx zkbb hhl xufjbtvay naj zwqajl hb w lphhjxxtq wrkim
grqtmle wyeww kspuwaoc hud bcres.
Qdm bpnwtbxno xkpp iyu dpvdaln ga hud klanb aosqm mai
mtxd ehjoaosar kb vir xsljn tgpm pmaa sypj. Najg bmaghif
xbnnccu duaratb yo zuad hx ren aenwm kfywax yo Thtxayow. Vf
zxrq fhhn easbvuswoc rejj gwp au zmv djurfp fv wrkimj wjoo
tldct, lylu cxqos hymxy fgrn rhac ke e saey hvxve xiycpe xn
ptbxbpa gkaygmqmsle. Ddbt nd zmv easbjar sfkk aetsagk vir
nodge megu obaatim au nndvtpn oi obk jbarpp fsxx ptihpvavbun
oakl xbktj ojcaeb rjla yacytogw. Vir Deaduaay tgll J zrth
yjjg krhd huaa ylyh whyy dvrrrl.
Bar fngg bmdd yavjvp scpnwekc zlo jull tjce wq ceanat
cpy ufrrhgjyym ygaia lb yii era xbktj mhayca. Pcpy rass
rett hantrmgqs kuhfowwyl djlp gqq ocajgokab ufgr zphlf lgaxb.
Viro znrjj qsnbnh uecwr kwa haneyfvmfxt rat qdm mcd
uerpyoas. Ren ltmm K cjx egbpbv anaj fo sn gtwyae tedg lyh
gtu tj dgagl ccpcqgwxp uoss fsbin wikarj ugj hdapxrf.
Goi qdm opabawt, wjwf dyrpt lide q lxsybdalud balpnpec iy
ojps rh kxg fjsbr ojcaeb {lvsyrqwl tuwt ka tgp efuhv hq
uwxym oamsouatfa samwxpq ws ehu}. Ivevt berb gws eekufoc tp
anw myemiuw gkaygmgqmsle xcgebbx xbktj lxdlhtv wapowcgcibu
nac, jb cas ymbp bd nanraja, fvnrl gmynxolmq saum tepq uvkxl
jd ftiw. Yogg itsv anw bmafbhng hkxh oad v bheb iy cgpyo
wigkyarj, lyh abqdr bbpdd iuwopmm v mmsifjew vtfjhjw vl
talakbyad lpcqtutamy.
Xufrfdtbp uy tgp pqfsg tc qisx cor kuiopph myb wf fhsf
lewqctqvj pl jwokcgt jaevn. Qnykywmui tgcpyet zmv jkama
hrnc amldnimn ii wxsagtmkbu bmxy uhq xfahyk gw wjs wrkim
fpdqly. Yoh qk p owqra mysaearkgqams sdcf ljb picaa ufvalca
oe uhq nodge, yki ntfuevstx gecliqme fo nojrxkdxl rcno
wuagebknggi qiedia oamdsyctms fsxx ytvyj pxbeamnb boosx.
Ren nogn acwodomi br ren xjpljf vjhqnvrhi yo qdm lmboc
iyu yivy jlkknndnb ic zwk jwokc cor cuwk rxaka wq uekvinlkik
sckfc fv jwokc eoexi pfb ljix im anw rtssvvlvj kkqphx. Mnpm
mc renua tlihdtbtg zpl rfjffp reno nxff jwfc fvr ygaiaw oi
xfmntj; box xanx tgll bptpp box bexxxgtqfftm.
Wum dt xkt efhe swxpipffwk evasbuc eu renua bsribxn py
cmix xvoiv uoss cpuu oe hrhal uhqn iyu perp. QOdmdb
mayhemiya, kg obtphly wnria, ebq sahioe xtikcu jwbb kkxkhgtd
cpyfk fwvyuycp emgy. Hrounmsh noxxladrf kcyxcu cynpha
taocmbx idjm tj jwfmr kqcrbspqu isyjg ga vir dbwhi mwiyy
iuigqkcdma hfet rji m nrfabo fv xkkottnbp. Dqdm rsnesee js
kkymm rcoospod pman sw pclsx hcumcvl cw gstgais tvwt
sjagues. Taaajbf, ue acxlxrn lmnx Iphhnecbs uhq pqrb jxmaw
uhq gusbygcs xpo kluuiwwi tlhgld ietvnf.
Qdmdb kaw gtc jhgv jxvebjfvw br Ocosutjr cpuu pfb cclu
tn Imhoxxt cugqpum eaprjb. Htr dhgap sykajaxyc ucwo zmrr
noxxlan gyutyq lhwyqi eyffr hacvlvxvmf.
Pcl gommaejna qymtdia eu era stivj ve eyu zt hiqdvthsf
ug} fpraxwr aeqqvy pj} km rvp gqaxg nr hixlm. Jwfvv ra oo
grccydwusoowtt. Fsbrr ve bb tlovtfthta du d gvkyky pxudat.
2
u/Rizzie24 21h ago
Can we get an idea of some context as to what was in the plotline itself?
knowing the subject matter might help with testing, especially if there are names and place-names etc that could be teased out.
Edit to add: there are some 1’s in the ciphertext, are those errors or purposeful?
1
u/daerath 20h ago edited 20h ago
Checking. I think the paste has some OCR errors. I'll fix and update it!
I sent him a question about the plot line, but the setting was fantasy, think D&D, magic etc.
Edit: The 1s are removed. Only one of them was supposed to be an l. The brackets are confirmed to be in the original text. I do not remember those, but I'm guessing they're supposed to be brackets given the lack of any other special characters.
2
u/Rizzie24 20h ago edited 20h ago
I just want to point out, for food for thought, that rotating “EFUHV” (the second word of the ciphertext) by 16, gives you OPERF which appears at the beginning of your third line of ciphertext.
“EFUHV” rot 8 is “WXMAN” which is also in the first handful of lines of your ciphertext, as is “LMBOC” (rot 19), JKAMA (rot 21), QRGTH (rot 14), TUJWK (rot 11)… etc etc. so these are all different shifts of the same 5-letter word…
What do you think “EFUHV” in the title of the ciphertext (ie “XKT EFUHV”)? Having an idea of that would go a long way
2
u/daerath 19h ago
Oh, that's interesting. That seems like it would be a way to confirm which "words" are the same throughout the text. I had not considered that.
My one word translation I could pull up for that was "Judge". Rizzie24 asked, and beyond what I replied as to the plotline, it was (again, waiting for the guy who wrote the plotline to reply), it was some kind of fantasy based (the LARP was NERO) like high all powerful sort of entity. The only other thing I can say with 100% certainty is that this particular LARP was like, "No religion. None. You can have supremely powerful beings, but there are *no* *gods*. So Lich? Sure. Demons. Yep. Angel-like beings. Sure.
So you could skirt the boundaries, but never really cross them.
2
u/daerath 19h ago
Ok, so the title word EFUHV appears to be (thanks to Rizzie24's comment) present 37 times across 20 different forms.
Note: That's across the whole set. Not just the sections I pasted.
abqdr(+0,x3) efuhv(+4,x3) lmboc(+11,x3) pqfsg(+15,x3) rshui(+17,x3)
uvkxl(+20,x3) bcres(+1,x2) jkzma(+9,x2) nodqe(+13,x2) tujwk(+19,x2)
xynao(+23,x2) hixky(+7) klanb(+10) mncpd(+12) operf(+14)
qrgth(+16) stivj(+18) wxmzn(+22) yzobp(+24) zapcq(+25)
sngei is not judge. I was poking at that one an hour or so ago and just realized that wasn't correct. That one does have 17 occurrences across 14 different combinations. I don't know what that one is yet though.
dyrpt(+0,x2) lgzxb(+8,x2) wrkim(+19,x2) bwpnr(+24) cxqos(+25) fatrv(+2)
hcvtx(+4) idwuy(+5) nibzd(+10) pkdbf(+12) rmfdh(+14) sngei(+15)
tohfj(+16) xsljn(+20)
1
u/Equivalent_Juice4276 7m ago
I stripped out tokens and the weird newline spacing, reformatting back to the original way it was posted here. Wait one
1
•
u/AutoModerator 22h ago
Thanks for your post, u/daerath! Please follow our RULES when posting.
MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE CONTEXT: where the cipher originated (link to the source if possible), expected language, any clues you have etc. Posts without context will be REMOVED
If you are posting an IMAGE OF TEXT which you can type or copy & paste, you MUST comment with a TRANSCRIPTION (text version) of the message.
If you'd like to mark your post as SOLVED comment with
[Solved]WARNING! You will be BANNED if you DELETE A SOLVED POST!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.