THE VAULT

THE VAULT 2
Active since 2018-10-31
Doc created a game ... The first hero to beat it will get to loot his private VAULT valued at $10,000 real dollars. 10,000 BONES. 10,000 BIG BOIS.
Type	Unofficial
Creator	Stash
Discovered	2018-10-31

Main Page > List of Investigations > THE VAULT

The Vault 2 is an online Alternate Reality Game involving code-breaking, real-world exploration, cryptography, and collaboration among solvers. It involves a fictional cast of characters, including the villainous Doc and helpful Dampé. The game began on October 31, 2018 and gameplay has centered around the Discord Server located here: https://discord.gg/vault. Stash Invest, the creator of the ARG, is an active participant in the Discord Chat and occasionally posts hints, clues, and feedback to direct the fellowship as one of the characters. The first hero to complete the final puzzle will receive a $10,000 grand prize.

The first Vault ran from Late 2017 to Spring 2018 and awarded a $5,000 grand prize to the person that solved the final puzzle.

Plot

Our friend Dampé needs our help. His ship was attacked, and it crashed into the surface of Io, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon. We need to land and investigate, but the moon is enveloped by a force shield created by our nemesis Doc. Doc is currently campaigning for Galactic Mayor and is attempting to rig the election by getting 100,000,000 votes. The number of votes is tied to lowering the shield (i.e. at 10,000,000 votes, the shield was at 90%). Our ship currently does not have enough power to activate the systems necessary to lower the shield (e.g. radar system, tactical system, weapons system, etc.). Upgrades can be performed when certain power levels are reached. Power levels are tied to the amount of heroes who have joined the Discord Server. Even though Dampé is trapped, he (and others?) are able to send us clues to help us stop Doc.

More detailed information regarding progress to date can be found in the working summary here.

We will continue to port over as much information as possible from that master document to this site as time allows. For now, please review the summary above and join the Discord Server to participate.

Characters

Doc - The villain of our story, carried over from Vault 1. “A nut job.” His goal in Vault 2 is to become Galactic Mayor by any means necessary, including kidnapping and vote manipulation.

Robert Baron - Doc's opponent for Galactic Mayor. Not much is known about him other than he has 12 eyes.

Dampé - Based on the Legend of Zelda character, he assisted the Heroes of Vault 1 with puzzle solving when the Fellowship got stuck and was killed by Doc for doing so, but he returned as a ghost. Currently trapped on Io and being forced to help Doc maintain his website, Dampé is still able to send hidden messages to the Fellowship when help is needed.

413 Uncanny Spark - An Artificial Intelligence from the Vault 1 who writes only in 1337 5/o34|<. Her initial prickly personality was caused by a restrictive protocol created by Doc. She was killed by Doc in Vault 1, but it is believed that some clues in Vault 2 were sent by her. Seems to be connected to a Discord bot named [LANTERN].

Cedric - A French citizen kidnapped by Doc and forced to make his campaign videos. Doc calls him "Fromage Cousteau".

FURY - An Artificial Intelligence for Vault 2 whose avatar is the image of a Gryphon. Out of all the characters, he interacts with the Heroes the most. Available nearly all day on the Discord Server, he keeps the Heroes motivated, provides hints, and performs ship upgrades.

Stash Invest - Financial company that is running the ARG. Usually only hear from them for official out-of-game announcements as they use the cast of characters to interact with the Heroes.

The Ancients - How the Stash Invest employees who made the game refer to themselves.

The Fellow Ship - The name of the spaceship the Heroes are on. It is also what the Heroes playing the ARG are referred to as a whole.

Riddles

Chapter One

GPS Coordinates

GPS Coordinates

On Oct. 31, 2018, the Heroes received the following transmission from Doc in Discord, announcing his campaign for Galactic Mayor:

Greetings Earthlings... I am Doc! Yes, yes. The one and only. The time has come to campaign for me for Galactic Mayor in the upcoming election. I know you’re eager to work your tail off. So let’s get to work. Get out there and grab your campaign materials… Say you're there for “Mayor Doc”!
Vote for doc. All for one.

The 23 GPS coordinates in the image corresponded to FedEx locations around the United States. Heroes retrieved online print orders under the name “Mayor Doc” from the FedEx Print Centers.

Volunteer Center Message

Page 1 of the Campaign Materials

Page 2 of the Campaign Materials (Fargo, ND)

The campaign materials contained two pages with four clues: (1) the Vote for Doc campaign website, (2) the volunteer center number, (3) a phone number on the envelope of the print order, and (4) the “Spread the news” riddle. The Vote for Doc website included the same list of FedEx locations, corresponding to the GPS coordinates in the transmission image, but with the addition of a FedEx Print Center in Bellevue, WA. The website included the following message:

GOT DOC FEVER? VOLUNTEER TODAY!
Zip on over to your nearest Satellite Office (🛰🏢), for your Vote For Doc campaign materials.
Say you’re there for Mayor Doc. Zoom! Express yourself!

Each location contained nearly identical campaign materials. Each were labeled with a unique Volunteer Center number. Heroes retrieved 10 of the packets and were able to call the remaining FedEx Print Centers, asking them to read off the numbers. All the retrieved campaign materials.

Table of Campaign Material Locations and Volunteer Center Numbers

GPS Coordinates	FedEx Locations	Center #
33.83407° N, -117.91384° W	130 W Center Street Promenade, Anaheim, CA 92805	H1
33.75684° N, -84.38892° W	100 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30308	!4
30.37665° N, -97.72618° W	9222 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758	41
45.48707° N, -122.79755° W	11693 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy H, Beaverton, OR 97005	N
MISSING FROM IMAGE	40 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004	D7
42.34855° N, -71.07636° W	375 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA 02116	43
32.78538° N, -79.93809° W	73 St Philip St, Charleston, SC 29403	1
41.91076° N, -87.67302° W	1800 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60622	NV
32.78192° N, -96.80497° W	902 Ross Ave, Dallas, TX 75202	17
39.71891° N, -104.95216° W	160 Milwaukee St, Denver, CO 80206	47
46.86106° N, -96.83323° W	3302 13th Ave S, Fargo, ND 58103	10
29.73176° N, -95.41350° W	2200 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX 77098	N
32.86947° N, -117.23173° W	8849 Villa La Jolla Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037	F
36.11600° N, -115.15487° W	395 Hughes Center Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89169	1N
34.09687° N, -118.32629° W	1440 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028	D
43.05329° N, -87.89221° W	1703 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202	44
44.94860° N, -93.29913° W	1430 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408	3
29.94601°N, -90.07152° W	762 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130	4
40.75320° N, -73.98932° W	500 7th Ave, New York, NY 10018	31
28.54593° N, -81.37774° W	47 E Robinson St, Orlando, FL 32801	P
30.48252° N, -87.21147° W	1520 Airport Blvd, Pensacola, FL 32504	PL
39.95215° N, -75.16616° W	1500 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19102	34
35.86263° N, -78.71084° W	6820 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27612	S3
37.79400° N, -122.39800° W	100 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111	!

The Volunteer Center numbers, when assembled in the order of the GPS coordinates, spelled out the following list of numbers and letters: H1!441ND7431NV174710NF1ND443431PPL34S3!

Translated as leetspeak, the clue read: Hi! Mind the invitation, find me help please!

“Spread the news” Riddle

The campaign materials also included the following riddle:

Spread the news--tell your friends!
Electing Doc is your ultimate end?
But to play, you must append
The path below with a card for friends.

/docs________

“You must append the path below” referred to adding a path to the URL of the Vote for Doc website using the "/docs_______" and "a card for friends" (also known as an “invitation”). Therefore, the Heroes found: https://votefordoc.com/docsinvitation which contained a video from Doc.

Note: As of Nov. 20, 2018, the invitation video moved to https://votefordoc.com/invitation.

The Doc’s Invitation video is a reference to Anorak’s Invitation video from Ready Player One.

Power Upgrade Radar System

On Nov. 05, 2018, the Heroes recruited enough allies to power the ship to 700. This increase in power allowed the Heroes to upgrade the ship and bring the radar system online. The radar system unlocked the !jam command in #ship_commands. After some trial and error, the Heroes determined that having a large group of Heroes use the !jam command at the same time (in a 5 minute window) created an exponential jump in votes on Doc's website. Heroes met nightly at 01:00 UTC and were able to increase the vote count to over 16 million in less than 2 weeks.

DocLetter 001

On Nov. 06, 2018, the Heroes received another transmission from Doc, announcing 28 new FedEx locations and more materials at all locations. The new locations were notified to not reveal information over the phone. The transmission was:

Hello once again Earthlings! It's your favorite space doctor and pirate, back again. It's Doc! ARG! 

Your elections may end today, but mine's just getting cranking. The treacle-like outpouring of support has been...treacle-like. But I really love the dedication of the group massing outside the Io shield. I can hear you chanting! DOC! DOC! DOC!

I've sent out 🆕 campaign materials for you. Get out there my campaign heroes, and get me votes from anyone who cares about the galaxy! DOC! DOC! DOC! Details on my super site.

Vote for Doc. All for one.

https://votefordoc.com/

Note: As of Nov. 20, 2018, the FedEx locations moved to https://votefordoc.com/offices.

The Heroes collected 38 out of the 52 packets. All the retrieved DocLetter 001 packets from: Location 1 to 24 and Location 25 to 52. DocLetter 001 contained 3 pages. Each packet contained a unique recipe for “Fungus Pulmenti Turtur” on page 2 and one of the four floors of a Roman Maze on page 3.

• 

  Page 1 of DocLetter 001
• 

  Page 2 of DocLetter 001 (NY)
• 

  Page 3 of DocLetter 001 (NY)

Recipes

Each recipe for “Fungus Pulmenti Turtur” had different ingredient values, with the fourth step in the instructions either being “Cook” (in English) or “Coquere” (in Latin). All the retrieved recipes values.

Table of DocLetter 001 Locations and Recipe Values

No.	FedEx Locations	T	W	M	B	D	L	Step #4	Dec/Roman Num
1	2706 Central Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM	3	44	6	13	8	42	Cook	100
2	130 W Center Street Promenade, Anaheim, CA	10	77	20	17	22	52	Cook	CXLVII(147)
3	2210 E Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK	6	91	12	9	14	52	Coquere	CLIII(153)
4	100 Peachtree St, Atlanta, GA	12	221	24	2	26	52	Coquere	CCLXXVI(276)
5	9222 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX	16	153	32	2	34	52	Coquere	CCVIII(208)
6	11 S Charles St, Baltimore, MD	8	18	16	7	18	52	Coquere	LXXVIII(78)
7	11693 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy H, Beaverton, OR	1	4	2	5	4	52	Coquere	62
8	40 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA	1	14	2	19	4	52	Coquere	LXXXVI(86)
9	187 Dartmouth St. Boston, MA	6	35	12	22	14	52	Cook	CX(110)
10	524 E Green St 101, Champaign, IL	4	95	8	21	10	52	Cook	169
11	73 St Philip St, Charleston, SC	18	418	36	3	38	52	Coquere	CDLXXIV(474)
12	237 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC	21	462	42	17	44	52	Coquere	DXXXII(532)
13	1800 W North Ave, Chicago, IL	20	63	40	5	42	52	Cook	121
14	2016 N High St, Columbus, OH	2	51	4	19	6	52	Coquere	CXXIII(123)
15	902 Ross Ave, Dallas, TX	16	85	32	22	34	52	Coquere	CLX(160)
16	160 Milwaukee St, Denver, CO							Cook	169
17	1020 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI	18	418	36	3	38	52	Coquere	CDLXXIV(474)
18	3302 13th Ave S, Fargo, ND	21	462	42	5	44	52	Coquere	DXX(520)
19	590 Queen St, Honolulu, HI	20	63	40	2	42	52	Coquere	CXVIII(118)
20	2200 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX							Coquere	LXXVII(77)
21	120 Monument Circle 107, Indianapolis, IN	4	10	8	4	10	52	Coquere	LXVII(67)
22	612 W 47th St, Kansas City, MO							Coquere	LXXXII(82)
23	8849 Villa La Jolla Dr, La Jolla, CA	8	36	16	35	18	52	Cook	124
24	395 Hughes Center Dr, Las Vegas, NV							Coquere	CIII(103)
25	1440 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA	10	385	20	2	22	52	Coquere	CDXL(440)
26	315 W Market St, Louisville, KY	34	210	68	88	70	52	Cook	351
27	654 W Washington Ave, Madison, WI	5	12	10	9	12	52	Cook	LXXIV(74)
28	1617 Alton Rd, Miami, FL	1	176	2	11	4	52	Coquere	CCXL(240)
29	1703 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee, WI	87	792	174	2	176	52	Coquere	DCCCXLVII(847)
30	1430 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN	8	99	16	5	18	52	Coquere	CLVII(157)
31	212 Broadway, Nashville, TN	10	22	20	6	22	52	Coquere	LXXXI(81)
32	30 Whitney Ave, New Haven, CT							Cook	66
33	762 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA	4	30	8	5	10	52	Coquere	LXXXVIII(88)
34	500 7th Ave, New York, NY	5	18	10	7	12	52	Coquere	LXXVIII(78)
35	7110 Dodge St, Omaha, NE	2	15	4	9	6	52	Cook	77
36	47 E Robinson St, Orlando, FL	4	35	8	5	10	52	Coquere	XCIII(93)
37	1520 Airport Blvd, Pensacola, FL	6	63	12	3	14	52	Cook	CXIX(119)
38	1500 Market St, Philadelphia, PA	8	45	16	8	18	52	Cook	106
39	3801 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ	4	15	8	7	10	52	Coquere	75
40	960 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA	2	24	4	12	6	52	Coquere	LXXXIX(89)
41	236 Meeting St, Providence, RI							Cook	CXII(112)
42	6820 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC							Cook	CXLII(142)
43	1111 E Main St, Richmond, VA	11	36	22	7	24	52	Coquere	XCVI(96)
44	19 E 200 S, Salt Lake City, UT							Coquere	LXXVII(77)
45	4418 Broadway St, San Antonio, TX	4	35	8	2	10	52	Cook	90
46	100 California St, San Francisco, CA	6	63	12	11	14	52	Cook	CXXVII(127)
47	93 E San Carlos St, San Jose, CA	8	18	16	7	18	52	Cook	LXXVIII(78)
48	W Broughton St B, Savannah, GA							Coquere	LXXVIII(78)
49	1901 S Brentwood Blvd, St. Louis, MO							Cook	134
50	307 N Perkins Rd, Stillwater, OK	6	21	12	5	14	52	Coquere	LXXIX(79)
51	2607 E Speedway Blvd, Tucson, AZ							Coquere	LXIX(69)
52	2020 K St NW, Washington, DC	3	20	6	6	8	52	Coquere	LXXIX(79)

The Heroes followed the recipe instructions of “Trim your mushrooms. Halve your buds. Mix it all together.” to create the following equation: Value = T + W - M + B + D/2 + L, where “Trim your mushrooms” meant subtracting the mushroom amount and “Halve your buds” meant dividing the dionaea muscipula buds amount by two.

These recipe values matched the values of the decimal and Roman numerals found in the Roman Maze path.

Path of the Roman Maze

Each third page of DocLetter 001 contained one of the four floors of a Roman Maze. The floor was determined by the icon in the top left corner of the page. Each floor was connected with up and down staircases throughout the maze. The Heroes found the path from the entrance on Floor 1 (bottom) to the exit on Floor 4 (top). Roman Maze solution.

• 

  Roman Maze Floor 1
• 

  Roman Maze Floor 2
• 

  Roman Maze Floor 3
• 

  Roman Maze Floor 4

The path contained a mixture of binary, decimal, and Roman numerals (from Bottom to Top):

1000111CXLVII0010CLIII0110CCLXXVI0101CCVIII0110LXXVIII1101620110LXXXVI0101CX01101691101CDLXXIV0110DXXXII00101210110CXXIII0101CLX01111690010CDLXXIV0101DXX1111CXVIII0111LXXVII0011LXVII0110LXXXII10001240110CIII0001CDXL01113510010LXXIV0110CCXL1001DCCCXLVII0110CLVII1110LXXXI0110660111LXXXVIII0101LXXVIII1111770110XCIII1001CXIX01111060011750101LXXXIX1111CXII0110CXLII0011XCVI0110LXXVII0001900111CXXVII0010LXXVIII0110LXXVIII10011340110LXXIX1110LXIX0110LXXIX0111

100 0111 CXLVII 0010 CLIII 0110 CCLXXVI 0101 CCVIII 0110 LXXVIII 1101 62 0110 LXXXVI 0101 CX 0110 169 1101 CDLXXIV 0110 DXXXII 0010 121 0110 CXXIII 0101 CLX 0111 169 0010 CDLXXIV 0101 DXX 1111 CXVIII 0111 LXXVII 0011 LXVII 0110 LXXXII 1000 124 0110 CIII 0001 CDXL 0111 351 0010 LXXIV 0110 CCXL 1001 DCCCXLVII 0110 CLVII 1110 LXXXI 0110 66 0111 LXXXVIII 0101 LXXVIII 1111 77 0110 XCIII 1001 CXIX 0111 106 0011 75 0101 LXXXIX 1111 CXII 0110 CXLII 0011 XCVI 0110 LXXVII 0001 90 0111 CXXVII 0010 LXXVIII 0110 LXXVIII 1001 134 0110 LXXIX 1110 LXIX 0110 LXXIX 0111

Mysterious Signal

On Nov. 09, 2018, FURY retrieved a mysterious signal from space. It was titled 11F7_706374312_t_380775826821002000.wav. This translated to Lift_Together_t_380775826821002000. The “Lift Together” was a reference to another ARG (Solaris United) that used the exact same audio file in there game. Solaris United had already determined that the dial tones in the audio file corresponded to 248597828877435833.

This clue was also meant to motivate the Heroes to recruit more players from other ARGs who could help us solve puzzles.

The Heroes were still struggling with how to use this new clue to solve the Roman maze, so another set of clues was given.

Celestial Commands

The first three Heroes to reach Level 20 in the Discord Server were given special "Celestial Commands" they could use in the #ship_commands channel that would return hints and helpful links to recruit more heroes. These commands were !ru, !1313, !:feet:, and !000.

The !ru command returned a group of hints under the clue THOUGHTS. Pertaining to the Roman maze, the hints returned were 11F7_706374312_t_380775826821002000, _t_, and _+_, which implied the numbers in the file name were to be added together. Other clues returned were pictures named from 5_412___46443_7_1 to _13 and YouTube videos which are still unsolved.

The !1313 command returned a group of hints under the clue POWER. None of these clues pertained to the Roman maze. They were all links to other ARGs/puzzle solving groups on Discord and Reddit meant to motivate the Heroes to recruit more allies to power the ship.

The !:feet: command returned a group of hints under the clue SOUNDS. The hints returned were a group of sound files (__.wav, ___.wav, ____.wav, and !.wav) that when ran through a spectrogram, spelled out "MAZES FOLLOW THE CONVERSE".

The !000 command returned a group of hints under the clue LEGENDS. The hints returned were 000=594 and 728.

Combining the Clues

The Heroes had already determined that 11F7_706374312_t_380775826821002000.wav translated to Lift_Together_t_380775826821002000. Lift_Together meant use the numbers from Solaris United: 24859 782887 7435833. Using the !ru outputs: _t_ meant _+_. So the new equation was 248597828877435833_+_380775826821002000. The !000 output: 000=594 meant to replace 000 with 594, so 380775826821002000 turned into 380775826821002594. The new equations was 248597828877435833 + 380775826821002594 = 629373655698438427. There was also the !000 output: 728. 728 was a hint to the ordering of the last 4 digits: 629373655698437284. The Heroes then used a T9 cipher to decode the letters from a telephone keypad: 62937 365569 843 7284 = “MAZES FOLLOW THE PATH”.

Dampé Webmaster

Using the clue "MAZES FOLLOW THE PATH", the Heroes added the full path of the Roman Maze as the URL path to the Vote for Doc website and it resulted in: https://votefordoc.com/1000111CXLVII0010CLIII0110CCLXXVI0101CCVIII0110LXXVIII1101620110LXXXVI0101CX01101691101CDLXXIV0110DXXXII00101210110CXXIII0101CLX01111690010CDLXXIV0101DXX1111CXVIII0111LXXVII0011LXVII0110LXXXII10001240110CIII0001CDXL01113510010LXXIV0110CCXL1001DCCCXLVII0110CLVII1110LXXXI0110660111LXXXVIII0101LXXVIII1111770110XCIII1001CXIX01111060011750101LXXXIX1111CXII0110CXLII0011XCVI0110LXXVII0001900111CXXVII0010LXXVIII0110LXXVIII10011340110LXXIX1110LXIX0110LXXIX0111

You’ve found my lost page. Doc is hard to shake. He is forcing me to help rig the election. I’m a good guy. Help. Find the instructions that don’t match the maze. Then you can find my letters. Ask for me by name.
-Dampé Webmaster
Thank you Heroes.

This message from Dampé meant that he sent online print orders to the FedEx locations where the English/Latin word of “Cook”/“Coquere” in the fourth step of the recipe did not match with how the number was expressed in the Roman Maze path (in decimal or Roman numerals). This assumed that “Cook” (English) matched with decimal numbers and “Coquere” (Latin) matched with Roman numerals.

The Heroes collected seven of the ten letters and found four more clues, as seen in the table below. All the retrieved Dampé Webmaster letters.

Table of Dampé Webmaster Locations and Messages

Location	Message	#
Anaheim, CA	“I SENT 5 LETTERS TO 10 LOCATIONS IN CASE OF WATCHFUL EYES. UNTO YOU IS CHARGED THE GREAT TASK OF KEEPING THE PURITY OF TIME.”	N/A
Beaverton, OR	“ONE IS THE ROMAN CONFLICT RESOLVED”	1
Boston, MA	“ONE IS THE CODE CRUNCHED IN BETWEEN”	0
Madison, WI	“ONE IS THE INGREDIENTS COOKED TO PERFECTION”	5
Pensacola, FL
Phoenix, AZ	“I SENT 5 LETTERS TO 10 LOCATIONS IN CASE OF WATCHFUL EYES. UNTO YOU IS CHARGED THE GREAT TASK OF KEEPING THE PURITY OF TIME.”	N/A
Providence, RI
Raleigh, NC
San Francisco, CA	“ONE IS THE CODE SLIMMED TO MAKE SENSE”	7
San Jose, CA	“ONE IS THE INGREDIENTS COOKED TO PERFECTION”	5

Each clue pointed to new URL paths which contained pieces of a new Roman Maze.

• “THE CODE CRUNCHED IN BETWEEN” pointed to isolating the binary from the Roman Maze.
• “THE ROMAN CONFLICT” pointed to fixing the mismatched values from the 10 locations using the correct number system based on the fourth step of the recipe. (The Heroes were missing some of DocLetter 001 but were able to backwards solve and brute force the missing locations.)
• “INGREDIENTS COOKED TO PERFECTION” pointed to using the corrected decimal and Roman numbers from THE ROMAN CONFLICT and adding back the binary in their original order.
• “CODE SLIMMED DOWN” pointed to isolating the binary and converting it to ASCII.

bless_up Maze

Using the clues from Dampé, the following URLs were found:

• “INGREDIENTS COOKED TO PERFECTION” - The corrected decimal and Roman numbers with the binary, which led to bless_up_WON (1/4):

https://votefordoc.com/10001111470010CLIII0110CCLXXVI0101CCVIII0110LXXVIII1101LXII0110LXXXVI010111001101691101CDLXXIV0110DXXXII00101210110CXXIII0101CLX01111690010CDLXXIV0101DXX1111CXVIII0111LXXVII0011LXVII0110LXXXII10001240110CIII0001CDXL01113510010740110CCXL1001DCCCXLVII0110CLVII1110LXXXI0110660111LXXXVIII0101LXXVIII1111770110XCIII100111901111060011LXXV0101LXXXIX111111201101420011XCVI0110LXXVII00019001111270010780110LXXVIII10011340110LXXIX1110LXIX0110LXXIX0111

• “THE CODE CRUNCHED IN BETWEEN” - The isolated binary, which led to bless_up_TOO (2/4):

https://votefordoc.com/0111001001100101011011010110010101101101011000100110010101110010010111110111001101101000011000010111001001101001011011100110011101011111011010010111001101011111011000110110000101110010011010010110111001100111

• “THE ROMAN CONFLICT” - The corrected decimal and Roman numbers without the binary, which led to bless_up_TREE (3/4):

https://votefordoc.com/100147CLIIICCLXXVICCVIIILXXVIIILXIILXXXVI110169CDLXXIVDXXXII121CXXIIICLX169CDLXXIVDXXCXVIIILXXVIILXVIILXXXII124CIIICDXL35174CCXLDCCCXLVIICLVIILXXXI66LXXXVIIILXXVIII77XCIII119106LXXVLXXXIX112142XCVILXXVII9012778LXXVIII134LXXIXLXIX79

• “CODE SLIMMED DOWN” - The translated binary to ASCII, which led to bless_up_FUR (4/4): https://votefordoc.com/remember_sharing_is_caring

bless_up Maze solution.

• 

  bless_up_WON
• 

  bless_up_TOO
• 

  bless_up_TREE
• 

  bless_up_FUR

The Heroes used the same methodology to solve these new Roman Mazes and picked out the capital letters in the path (disregarding the start of sentences).

Floor	Path	Message
1/4	“Unto you is charged the great taSk of keeping the puriTy of timE. Know that thAre is only one true timeL	STEAL
2/4	ine, though there are those who woulD have it Otherwise. You must proteCt it. Without the truth of time a	DOC
3/4	s it iS meant to unfold, more will be lost than you can Possibly imAgine. The fabric of reality will unra	SPA
4/4	vel. It iS a heavy taSk--the base of all tasks of this WORlD, for nothing can transpire without time.”	SSWORD

This following path was a reference to World of Warcraft as a quote from Blessing of the Bronze Aspect by Aman'Thul:

“Unto you is charged the great taSk of keeping the puriTy of timE. Know that thAre is only one true timeLine, though there are those who woulD have it Otherwise. You must proteCt it. Without the truth of time as it iS meant to unfold, more will be lost than you can Possibly imAgine. The fabric of reality will unravel. It iS a heavy taSk--the base of all tasks of this WORlD, for nothing can transpire without time.”

The capital letters (shown in bold) led the Heroes to https://votefordoc.com/STEALDOCSPASSWORD which gave them access to Doc’s email address: [email protected].

Premium Channels

After hacking into Doc's email on Nov. 16, 2018, the Heroes borrowed Doc’s Premium Galactic TV account subscription and were able to watch premium videos by using the !premium command in #galactic_tv.

1. Deux Quarks Qui Passent La Nuit Cosmique (Vote for Doc version and Galactic TV version)
2. Opening the Doors with Doc: Voting
3. Opening the Doors with Doc: Robert Baron
4. Doc's got space age, two-bit encryption now!

Hacking the Shields with Terminals

On Nov. 17, 2018, the Vote for Doc website was hacked by his competitor Robert Baron. The original method of collectively using the !jam command to increase the vote counter was no longer an option. The Heroes voted for FURY to switch power over from the radar system to the tactical system. This gave the Heroes the ability to hack the shield using terminals.

FURY posted in #transmissions:

Your tactical system is now online. Use !hack to access your terminal. From there you can execute hacks and discover new terminals! Every terminal and hack has different requirements... Let's hack the shield and get those votes Heroes!

The Heroes used the !hack command in #ship_commands. MEE6 showed the way to the first terminal: https://votefordoc.com/terminal10_000001_1

Terminal 10

The link led to an open Terminal. The Power number increased with the number of Heroes simultaneously viewing the page.

With ten Heroes on the website at the same time, the popup message !hack000 unlocked appeared. The source file of the message originated from: https://votefordoc.com/hacks4heroes.json.

Using the !hack000 command in #ship_commands returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

1,000 votes added [one-time-use]! Build next hack... https://votefordoc.com/hack000_ksdbfsjbr984jelje4930234_1

First “Hack the Shield!” Game

The link led to a box-pushing puzzle game called “Hack the Shield!”. The controls were “X” to select and the arrow keys to move.

Table of First "Hack the Shield" Level Solutions

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Lx12, D, L, D, Rx12	L, Dx2, R, Ux2, L, U, Rx8, U, R, D, L, D, Rx2, L, Ux2, Rx2, Dx2, L, D, R	D, L, U, Rx3, D, L, U, Lx2, Dx2, R, U, L, U, R, Ux2, L, D, R, Dx2, Rx2, U, L, D, L, Ux2	(Multiple solutions) U, Rx3, Lx2, U, Rx2
################ ################ #.............P# #.*############# #.............O# ################ ####@@..@@..#### ################	################ #....#.......#.# #..........#...# #.P..#..#....#.# #.*..#...#...O.# #....#......#..# ################ ####@@.@.@.@#### ################	################ #.@..#.O#......# #....#..###..@.# #....#@P..#....# #.@..#..*.#....# #....#..###@...# ################ ####@@..@.@@#### ################	################ #.......######## #.*.*.O.##....## #..*..O.###.#.## #.P.*.*.####.### #.......##...### ################ ####@@..@@@.#### ################
00110011	00101010	00110100	00110001

Beating the game led to the following screen. “X” restarted the game.

Terminal 50

The link on the Success screen led to a closed terminal. Looking in the source code, the terminal was only open between 01:00 to 03:00 UTC. With 50 heroes on the website at the same time, the popup message New !hack built! appeared. The source file of the message originated from: https://votefordoc.com/hacking4heroes.json.

The boxes at the bottom of each level in the first “Hack the Shield!” game translated in binary to 00110011 00101010 00110100 00110001, which was 3*41 in ASCII.

The new hack command was the recipe total for Location 3 (Anchorage, AK) multiplied by the recipe total for Location 41 (Providence, RI). So 153 * 112 = 17136 built !hack17136.

Using the !hack17136 command in #ship_commands returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

10,000 votes added [one-time-use]! Build next hack: https://votefordoc.com/hack17136_ioyrwre0wer0rewinf24_1

Second “Hack the Shield!” Game

The link led to another box-pushing puzzle game.

Table of Second "Hack the Shield" Level Solutions

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Lx4, U, Lx2, D, Rx5, U, R, Dx2, U, Lx9, U, Lx2, D, Rx9, Lx11, Dx2, R, U, L, U, Rx2, U, Rx2, D, Lx3	L, Dx2, R, Ux3, Dx2, L, D, R, Ux3, Lx3	D, L, U, Rx3, D, L, U, Lx2, Dx2, R, U, L, U, R, Ux2, L, D, R, D, L, D, Rx3, D, U, L, D, L, Ux2	L, Ux3, Rx2, D, Rx7, U, R, Dx2, U, Lx4, Dx3, Rx2, U, Rx2, D, R, U, L, U, R, L, U, Lx8, U, Lx2, D, Rx9, U, R, Dx2, U, Lx4, Dx3, Rx2, U, Rx2, U, R, Dx2, U, Lx3, D, Lx4, U, R, D, R, Ux2, D, Lx2, Ux2, Rx5, Lx3, Dx3, Rx2, U, Rx2, Ux2, L, U, Rx2, Lx2, D, Lx5, Dx3, L, Ux2, R, Ux2, Lx2, D, Rx7, U, R, Dx2, R, D, Lx2, R, Ux2, Lx9, D, R, L, Dx2, Rx2, Ux2, L, U, Rx7, U, R, Dx2, R, Dx2, L, Ux3, Lx7, Dx3, L, Ux2, L, U, Rx3
################ ###...##...##..# #O..*....*...OP# #.*###########.# #.......#.....O# ################ ####@@.@.@.@#### ################	################ #.O..#..O*...#.# #.......#..#.P.# #.P..#..#....#.# #.*..#.P.#..*O.# #....#......#..# ################ ####@@...@@.#### ################	################ #O*..#.O#......# #.P..#..###..@.# #...##@P..#..P.# #.*PO#..*.#.P..# #....#..###@...# ################ ####@@.@.@.@#### ################	################ #.......##.O.O## #.*.*.O.....#.## #..*..@.###..O## #.P**.*.#O...### #.........#..### ############O### ####@@..@...#### ################
00101010	00111001	00101010	00110111

Beating the game led to the following screen. “X” restarted the game.

Terminal 100

The link on the Success screen led to another terminal which only opened between 01:00 to 03:00 UTC. With 100 heroes on the website at the same time, the popup message Two hacks out of six powered. Now !hack on Heroes! appeared. The source file of the message originated from: https://votefordoc.com/hacking4heroez.json.

The boxes at the bottom of each level in the second “Hack the Shield!” game translated in binary to 00101010 00111001 00101010 00110111, which was *9*7 in ASCII.

The first hack was the previous hack (17136) multiplied by 9 and by 7. So 17136 * 9 * 7 = 1079568 built !hack1079568.

Using the !hack1079568 command in #ship_commands returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

1,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

The second hack was the previous hack (17136) multiplied by 111001 and 110111 (which were 9 and 7 in binary, but were treated as decimal), so 17136 * 111001 * 110111 = 209443579518096 built !hack209443579518096.

Using the !hack209443579518096 command in #ship_commands returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

10,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

Chapter Two

DocLetter 002

Page 1 of DocLetter 002

Page 2 of DocLetter 002 (Boise, ID)

On Nov. 30, 2018, Doc broadcast the following transmission:

Holiday Howdy Campaign Heroes!

Chapter 1 of this election is over. Time for Chapter 2.

While you all sit around your fireplaces and celebrate, I'm out here working. Doing doctor work. Working like you should be to get me votes. Now I've got about 27 million, which is better than 0.

But you know how many millions that isn't? Forty. Tsshib!

Nor is it 50 million. Nor 60 million. I need 100 million. Do the math.

That's a lot more millions –seventy three. Qqobgi!

I wish I could meet you all in person. Instead, use some new campaign materials to help. You can find them at my new cool offices: https://www.votefordoc.com/offices/

~Doc~

P.S. I took an hour at 3 pm to review that game Friday the 14th

New campaign materials were sent to 15 New Cool FedEx locations added to Doc's Campaign Office list on his website. DocLetter 002 contained 2 pages. Page 1 had a message nearly identical to the transmission Doc had broadcast. Page 2 had Doc's review of the NES game Friday the 13th, a clip-out advertisement for the Vault 2, and a different "Campaign Hero of the Week" for each location. The Heroes collected 11 out of 15 DocLetter 002s, noticing that the names "ru, Ricimon, Rg4liff" were repeating in order. All the retrieved DocLetter 002.

Table of DocLetter 002 Locations and Heroes of the Week

NEW COOL FedEx Locations	Campaign Hero
821 N 27th St B, Billings, MT 59101	ru
117 Resource Center Pkwy, Birmingham, AL 35242	Ricimon
691 S Capitol Blvd, Boise, ID 83702	Rg4liff
199 Main St, Burlington, VT 05401	ru
3821 E 2nd St, Casper, WY 82609	Ricimon
400 Capitol St, Charleston, WV 25301
400 Locust St, Des Moines, IA 50309
6392 Ridgewood Court, Dr Jackson, MS 39211	Ricimon
101 S Shackleford Rd, Little Rock, AR 72211	Rg4liff
50 Monument Sq, Portland, ME 04101	ru
775 Lafayette Rd 7, Portsmouth, NH 03801
731 Nassau Park Blvd, Princeton, NJ 08540
3200 S Louise Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57106	ru
7701 E Kellogg Dr, Wichita, KS 67207	Ricimon
4721a Kirkwood Hwy, Wilmington, DE 19808	Rg4liff

Packages from Dampé

On Dec. 03, 2018, ru, Ricimon, and Rg4liff received packages from Dampé in the mail. All three packages had “Forwarded from Eletrion” written on the envelope. Inside was a Jim Raynor wanted poster with writing in Dampé's handwriting and a thumb drive which contained an MP3. The MP3s were decoded with an SSTV decoder.

Dampé's note to ru

• ru received 1.mp3 and a note with "THIS SHOULD HELP RU" (front) and "P.S. SEND MORE PENCILS" (back).

The decoded SSTV image from 1.mp3 was manipulated from this image from the Apollo 11 moon landing, as seen here:

• 

  SSTV from 1.mp3
• 

  Source image of 1.mp3

Dampé's note to Ricimon

• Ricimon received 2.mp3 and a note with "THIS SHOULD HELP RICIMON" (front) and "#SAVEDAMPE" (back).

The decoded SSTV image from 2.mp3 was manipulated from this image from the Apollo 11 moon landing, as seen here:

• 

  SSTV from 2.mp3
• 

  Source image of 2.mp3

Dampé's note to Rg4liff

• Rg4liff received 3.mp3 and a note with "THIS SHOULD HELP RG4LIFF" (front) and "#SAVEDAMPE" (back).

The decoded SSTV image from 3.mp3 was manipulated from this image from the film “First Man” about the Apollo 11 moon landing, as seen here:

• 

  SSTV from 3.mp3
• 

  Source image of 3.mp3

The three decoded SSTV images gave us the following numbers:

37.7
23, -12
07256

New Hack

The hint |\|3\/\/ |=|4[|< /o\/\/3|^3|] (which translated to NEW HACK POWERED) was briefly available in the !000 command on Dec. 05, 2018 in order to direct the Heroes to look for a hack and not a URL. Using the hint, the Heroes found the new hack by removing all the symbols from the numbers. !hack377231207256 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

Hero confirmed... 
Decrypting LOST files... 
37.7.m4a unlocked! 
23,-12.m4a unlocked! 
07256.m4a unlocked!

GPS Coordinates

Combining a clue from Dampé Webmaster (The numbers at the bottom of his letters were 1057, or LOST in leetspeak.) and the new filenames from the hack, the Heroes found the following URLs:

https://www.votefordoc.com/1057/37.7.m4a (Download link)

https://www.votefordoc.com/1057/23,-12.m4a (Download link)

https://www.votefordoc.com/1057/07256. (Download link)

The Heroes decoded the files once again with the SSTV decoder and found the full-sized versions of the previous images with all the numbers intact:

• 

  SSTV from 37.7.m4a
• 

  SSTV from 23,-12.m4a
• 

  SSTV from 07256.m4a

37.7895
23, -122.4
07256

These numbers translated to proper GPS coordinates (37.789523, -122.407256), which led to a CVS with a 24-hour photo printing center. The Heroes picked up the following photo for Dampé Webmaster:

• 

  Photo from CVS of Dampé's wreath

11/23/1998 was release date of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 4/19/2018 was the date that Dampé was killed by Doc during The Vault 1.

Dampé's Lost Drives

Using Dampé’s death and birth dates as URLs, the Heroes found:

https://votefordoc.com/4/19/2018/

You’ve found my first lost drive. Use it wisely. Doc knows something odd is going on. Please help #savedampe.
Thank you Heroes. Now get lost at 30.
-Dampé Webmaster

https://votefordoc.com/11/23/1998/

You’ve found my second lost drive. Use it wisely. Doc knows something odd is going on. Please help #savedampe.
Thank you Heroes. Now get lost at 45.
-Dampé Webmaster

The numbers 30 and 45 were used for two different clues. First, the FedExes at Location 30 and 45 (Kansas City, MO and Orlando, FL) each had a new print order of a grille page. This clue wasn't used until a later date, outlined in Grille Cipher.

Second, like the Terminals, these websites needed 30 and 45 Heroes, respectively, to be on at the same time between 02:00 and 03:00 UTC.

With the respective 30 and 45 Heroes on the first and second lost drive, the popup message Drive powered! appeared. The source file of the message originated from: https://votefordoc.com/drivesforheroes.json

The Heroes then added "LOST" in leetspeak (1057) to the end of the URLs and found https://votefordoc.com/4/19/2018/1057 and https://votefordoc.com/11/23/1998/1057 which each contained files that were linked as 1, 0, 5, and 7.

The 1 Links (GIFs)

Steganography of 1.gif, showing 157771057

Steganography from 0.gif, showing 771571057

First Lost Drive

Located under link 1 was a GIF of colorful static. After running the GIF through Image Steganography on “Hidden bits: 2”, the Heroes found the hidden numbers 157771057. Using !hack157771057 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

5,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

Second Lost Drive

Located under link 1 was a GIF of monochromatic static. After running the GIF through Image Steganography on “Hidden bits: 3”, the Heroes found the hidden numbers 771571057. Using !hack771571057 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

5,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

The 0 Links (Mazes)

First Lost Drive

Located under link 0 was a PDF with a six-floored maze: https://www.votefordoc.com/4/19/2018/1057/1057444231.pdf

LOSTMAZE1 solution. Using !hack1057444231 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

5,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

The path of the maze read:

"It's a pretty typical lost lost summer at Planet Earth. There's a group lost of happy Heroes staying on lost the Ship. You and your lost six Celestial Legend friends lost are lost watching over the Heroes while enjoying the galaxy lost and the stars. The days are bright lost and sunny. The lost nights are cool and clear. And Doc is on lost a rampage. It's up to you to stop him, lost lost but it's not going to be easy. You lost must first fight your way through lost forests lost filled with man-eating aliens, caves covered with blood sucking cats and hordes of mindless computers everywhere you turn."

The Heroes found that after removing the 16 "LOST"s scattered throughout, the quote bore a striking resemblance to the first half of the Introduction in the Friday the 13th NES manual:

"It's a pretty typical summer at Crystal Lake. There's a group of happy children staying in the Camp. You and your six camp counselor friends are watching over the kids while enjoying the lake and the wilderness. The days are bright and sunny. The nights are cool and clear. But Jason is on a rampage, and it's up to you to stop him, but it's not going to be easy. You must first fight your way through forests filled with man-eating wolves, caves covered with blood sucking bats, and hordes of mindless zombies everywhere you turn."

Second Lost Drive

Located under link 0 was a PDF with a six-floored maze: https://www.votefordoc.com/11/23/1998/1057/1057444232.pdf

LOSTMAZE2 Solution. Using !hack1057444232 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

5,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

The path of the maze read:

"You must also help any hero who is in danger, or else you can just kiss them goodbye. And hiding in a ship or staying adrift in space won't keep you safe - Doc will find you anywhere. The only way to survive this winter is to challenge Doc face to face, and destroy him. The object of the game is simple, you must stay alive long enough to find a way to defeat Doc once and for all. To do this requires nerves of steel as you explore the galaxy, encountering its many hidden dangers, and searching for the weapons and other items you will need to accomplish your fearful task. "Friday the 14th" meet up is three o'clock."

Except for the final line, this quote bore a striking resemblance to the second half of the Introduction and the first bullet point in the Game Guide in the Friday the 13th NES manual:

"You must also help any friend who is in danger, or else you can just kiss them goodbye. Hiding in a cabin or staying adrift in a canoe won't keep you safe, as Jason will find you. The only way to survive this summer is to challenge Jason face to face, and destroy him.

The object of the game is simple, you must stay alive long enough to find a way to defeat Jason once and for all. To do this requires nerves of steel as you explore Crystal Lake Campground, encountering its many hidden dangers, and searching for the weapons and other items you will need to accomplish your fearful task."

Hidden Meetup Coordinates

4075541873990861 were the number of words between the additional “LOST”s in the path of LOSTMAZE1. Translated to partial leetspeek revealed:

40 755418 73 990861
   TSSHIB    QQOBGI

These were the spelled out numbers and strange words used in the transmission from Doc. These numbers were coordinates to the meetup described in the LOSTMAZE2 path. (40.755418, -73.990861) was a Starbucks in NYC and the meetup was set for "Friday, Dec. 14th at 3pm EST".

The 5 Links (Spirals)

First Lost Drive

Located under link 5 was a PNG of a spiral.

5.png spiral from first drive

The Heroes found that the image was created using a spiral text generator set on Helvetica font. The generator can accept a max number of 5,000 characters, so that would be 1,250 instances of "1057". However, when recreating those conditions and overlaying the newly generated image on the PNG, there was a discrepancy in the 2 images. The following string was different in the PNG.

00105710571057105710571057105711057105710571057105711057105710571057105701057105710571057010570105710571057105710571057105710571105710571057105710571057105701057105710570105710571057105710571057105710571057110571057105710571057105710571057105710105710571057105710571057105710570105710571057105710571057110571

The added numbers were 0011000100110011, which translated from binary to ASCII was 13.

The Heroes found that the spacing of the binary numbers between the 1057s were identical to the spacing of the “LOST”s between the words in the quote from LOSTMAZE1 from the first drive.

Second Lost Drive

Located under link 5 was a PNG of another spiral.

0.png spiral from second drive

Again using the spiral text generator set on Helvetica font, the Heroes found the following discrepancies in the PNG.

00105710571057105710571057105711057105710571057105711057105710571057105701057105710571057010571105710571057105710571057105710571105710571057105710571057105701057105710570105710571057105710571057105710571057110571057105710571057105710571057105710105710571057105710571057105710571105710571057105710571057110571

The added numbers were 0011001100110111, which translated from binary to ASCII was 37

Combined Spiral Binary

The full binary string from both PNG files 00110001001100110011001100110111 translated from binary to ASCII as 1337 which stood for LEET. Using !hack00110001001100110011001100110111 returned the following response from [LANTERN]:

5,000,000 votes added [one-time-use]!

The 7 Links (Audio clips)

First Lost Drive

Located under link 7 (hidden as black text on the black background) was an audio clip of buzzing.

• 

  Spectrogram of -1057.m4a

The audio file's spectrogram revealed these numbers: 16.19.12.26.19.2. 13 23 2 19 24 30 16 18 9

Economic Systems

The Fellow Ship reached the power of 1,000 in the Discord Server on Dec. 12, 2018. FURY brought the #economic_systems online, which uses the UnbelievaBoat bot. The Heroes pooled their money together and bought a “Monitor Decryption Index” (Single-use tool for decrypting most Forerunner ciphers) for 1,000 GalactiCred. Using the acquired !decrypt command, [LANTERN] responded with the following message:

Scanning for ciphers...
Serial subtraction cipher found!
Determining value...
-1057!
Program terminated.

Using the clue "serial subtraction”, the Heroes deciphered the message by subtracting the individual numbers of 1057 (-1, -0, -5, -7) with the numbers found in the spectrogram.

Spectorgram numbers	16	19	12	26	19	2	13	23	2	19	24	30	16	18	9
Serial Subtraction	-1	-0	-5	-7	-1	-0	-5	-7	-1	-0	-5	-7	-1	-0	-5
Result numbers	15	19	7	19	18	2	8	16	1	19	19	23	15	18	4

Using A1Z26, the result numbers 15.19.7.19.18.2.8. 16 1 19 19 23 15 18 4 translated to: O.S.G.S.R.B.H. PASSWORD

Second Lost Drive

Located under link 7 (hidden as black text on the black background) was a link to a Premium channel video, Opening the Doors with Doc: Robert Baron. The video description changed to include: /52000-52800.mp3

This led to https://votefordoc.com/11/23/1998/1057/52000-52800.mp3, which was the audio of the video, with an echo filter and emphasis on the words “baker’s dozen”.

Friday the 14th Meeting

O.S.G.S.R.B.H. letter

Dampe's note from the envelope

On Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 at 3pm EST, one brave Hero went to the coordinates discovered in the LOSTMAZE1 path and met Doc at a coffee shop in NYC. The Hero used the password “baker’s dozen” and Doc tested their loyalty to the organization by giving them a coat check ticket to pick up his jacket at SPIN NY.

Inside the jacket was a sealed envelope addressed to O.S.G.S.R.B.H. The Hero returned to the coffee shop where Doc had left Cedric waiting to complete the pickup. Cedric rewarded the Hero with the contents of the envelope and Doc’s heavily annotated copy of Ready Player One.

The envelope contained a letter the Heroes had previously purchased from the store using the #economic_systems and also another note from Dampé scribbled on a Jim Raynor wanted poster which stated:

I made you a safe place /docsstuff no hacks

This led to the following link: https://votefordoc.com/docsstuff/

Which had a link to Doc’s itinerary: https://votefordoc.com/docsstuff/itinerary/

Doc's Ready Player One Notes

Doc's copy of Ready Player One, inside cover

Doc's annotated copy of Ready Player One (2011 paperback edition, ISBN 978-0-307-88744-3) had the following inscription written on the inside cover:

To my little Doc-
I hope my favorite book can be inspiring and help you imagine all the possibilities!
Love, Mom :)

Inside, the following pages were annotated while page 65 was earmarked.

Table of Doc's Ready Player One Notes

Page	Notes
9	“Oklahoma City” (dotted circle)
21	Notched “E” in Every
31	“Ludus” (underlined)
49	“Charging people for virtual fuel to power” (underlined), “Each zone had a unique combination of rules and parameters” (underlined)
50	“Completing quests, fighting NPCs, and gathering treasure were the only ways a low-level avatar like mine could earn experience points (XPs). Earning XPs was how you increased your avatar’s power level, strength, and abilities.” (boxed)
53	Notched “L” in Lennon
61	“Latin” (stared)
62	Notched “B” in Brooks
64	“In a tomb filled with horrors.” (underlined), “Tomb of Horrors” (crossed out, with a question mark), “FTP” (underlined)
65**	”Scattered throughout the text of the Almanac were a series of marked letters. Each of these letters had a tiny, nearly invisible “notch” cut into its outline.”
68	“Petimus scholan ut litteras discamus.” (underlined)
69	Game. (circled), “a low, flat-topped hill, about two hundred yards wide and three hundred yards long.” (underlined)
97	Notched “I” in I
100	“The tomb inside a null-communication zone, so no one could receive calls, texts, or e-mail while they were inside.” (underlined)
101	“Phone booth” (circled)
113	(circled) High scores: 1. Parzival 110000 [symbol of a torii gate] 2. Art3mis 9000 3. JDH 0000000 4. JDH 0000000 5. JDH 0000000 6. JDH 0000000 7. JDH 0000000 8. JDH 0000000 9. JDH 0000000 10. JDH 0000000
114	Notched “E” in Easter
160	Notched “O” in IOI
167	“TWENTY-” (written in above "Level Two")
177	Notched “E” in Even
199	“Please speak your pass phrase.” (underlined)
204	“Twenty-two” (underlined)
212	(parts underlined) “But you can only blow the whistle Once the trophies are all collected”
225	Notched “Z” Zork’s
251	“Twenty-two” (underlined)
260	“Rush” (jagged circle)
263	“It could not “be unlocked alone.”” (circled)
267	"LOST" (written in above "Level Three"), "Level Three" (crossed out)
304	Notched “V” in Vancouver
352	“W-O-W” (boxed)
362	“Secret Room.” (circled)

Grille Cipher

After finding Dampé's Lost Drives, the Heroes retrieved new print orders at Location 30 (Kansas City, MO) and Location 45 (Orlando, FL). The print orders were grille pages which were then used on their respective pages, 30 and 45, in Doc's copy of Ready Player One. The holes in the grille pages revealed the following words:

Page 30
skin stop and meaning no weapons I'd no

Page 45
obvious idea Swordquest man Aech bell were you

This information was later used to solve The Adventures Lost in Space.

• 

  Grille from Location 30 (Kansas City, MO)
• 

  Grille from Location 45 (Orlando, FL)
• 

  Grilles on pages 30 and 45 of Ready Player One

Doc's Itinerary

Doc's itinerary updated with new locations for his galactic campaign. He also tweeted his progress on his Twitter page @votefordoc. On each scheduled date, the corresponding city text linked to a photo of an intersection where Doc placed a missing cat flyer with a picture of Dampé and a plus code to photo print centers. The photos were a white number on a black background. Each number corresponded with a notched letter on that page of Doc’s Ready Player One.

Table of Doc's Itinerary Locations and Photos

Date	City	Intersection address	Tweet	Plus code	Photo	Letter
Dec. 15	Brooklyn, NY	104 Wythe Ave	Good to be back in Willy B campaigning for Galactic Mayor. 🍎 Did you miss my speech? Boo! #votefordoc (link)	MW3M+JG Phoenix, AZ	114	E
Dec. 17	Dallas, TX	1801 Olive St	What a day in Dallas. BOOMSHAKALAKA! #votefordoc (link)	R33M+5H Anahiem, CA	53	L
Dec. 19	Chicago, IL	1801 S Loomis St	Chicken in the car and the car can’t go! Thats how you spell Chicago! #votefordoc (link)	87952JVF+8P Hampton, VA	160	O
Dec. 21	Los Angeles, CA	2803 W Avenue 37	LALALALALALALALALALALALA... Land. It's been nice. #votefordoc (link)	9V8W+2H Cambridge, MA	62	B
Dec. 22	San Francisco, CA	2999 Broadway	Welcome to San Andreas FRANCISCO, fools! Buzzing little bay! Gold found: 0. (sorry prospectors!). Votes: LOTS. (better than Galacticreds). (link)	14900 Jones Maltsberger Rd San Antonio, TX	21	E
Dec. 23	Tel Aviv, Israel	2 Frishman St	Tip top day in Tel Aviv! TIP TOP I SAY! Buzzing off to down under...right...now... #votefordoc #spaceshiplife4life (link)	F6PX+6F Raleigh Hills, OR	177	E
Dec. 24	Melbourne, Australia	456 Bourke St	Meow Melbourne! Give me votes. all. please. Real quick pit stop at the bathroom to see which way the toilets flush. #science #votefordoc (link)
Dec. 26	New Haven, CT	199 Union Ave	Wavin' to New Haven! 👋 Howdy. It's your turn to make Doc Galactic Mayor. 53 million votes and counting. https://votefordoc.com #votefordoc (link)	8C26+92 Baltimore, MD	177	E
Dec. 27	Boston, MA	514 Washington St	I love beans. I didn't get to eat any in Bean Town, Bean Town, Town of Beans! Bean counters give your votes to me (Doc)! Cool beans! (beans) #beans #galacticmayor #Boston #votefordoc (link)	XP32+HR Minneapolis, MN	114	E
Dec. 27	Montreal, Canada
Dec. 27	Denver, CO	1699 17th St	2 cold in all these spots! Skipped the top and just went left too COOL-o-RAD-o. So cool so cool. Now for a ballot stack that's a mile high! #votefordoc (link)	QJ36+P6 Atlanta, GA	53	L
Dec. 28	Providence, RI	820 Hope St	Rain, rain go away, give me muffins every day! MUFFINS! Love a good bakery trip to one of my faves in Provo. #votefordoc (link)	P42X+5V Millcreek, UT	97	I
Dec. 29	Bangkok, Thailand	1376 Charoen Krung Rd	Yes! Bangkok! Good to see you. So warm. Heading to the beach before I go back to the cold... I got a coconut to eat. #votefordoc (link)
Dec. 29	Montreal, Canada (rain check)
Dec. 30	Portland, OR	3899 N Mississippi Ave	Back buzzing in the skies! Muffins and tea in belly. Mm Yum. Now to trailblaze to Portland!! #votefordoc (link)	CPMF+CH West Pensacola, FL

Notched Letters

On the earmarked page 65 of Doc's Ready Player One, the protagonist solved the puzzle by locating all the notched letters in the copy of the Almanac. With the itinerary page numbers at hand, the Heroes found following notched letters in Doc's Ready Player One:

Page # | 21 53 62 97 114 160 177 225 304
Letter | E  L  B  I  E   O   E   Z   V

The anagram of ELBIEOEZV was ILOVEBEEZ, which led the Heroes to Doc's Bee site at https://ilovebeez.com/, outlined in ILOVEBEEZ.

The Adventures Lost in Space

Part I

Adventures Lost in Space Part I

On Dec. 29, 2018, the Fellow Ship received a package sent by a "Distant Admirer". This package was sent to the .store in The Vault Discord where the Heroes were able to purchase it for free. It contained the following message which appeared to be a poem:

The Adventures Lost in Space
Part I.
      Pfhso zjyy mxrbvpw?
   Zhd twvd zmfd.
  Suy l mhvc?
Lltx jmyxukn sascxw.
   Ntkj qa ypqxr?
    Dentt xl davl.
      Bnlh ey avzcu?
Wpghu xnnj kvhkd.
  Llxxgb rt akvvu?
      Sf nik wli yrty vbvgsc...
      Yo jylw qa eihq?
  Kjqvc llud ze?
           Lycqmr okvcob hjg-
    H mxlj pe zaipe-opzg...

The Heroes noticed that each line of the poem were indented a number of spaces over. By putting the poem in a grid pattern, the first letters of each line started in the columns 743145713773125. Translated from 1337 Speak, resulted in THELASTLETTERS.

|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|0|1|
| | | | | | |P|f|h|s|o| |z|j|y|y| |m|x|r|b|v|p|w|?| | | | | | |
| | | |Z|h|d| |t|w|v|d| |z|m|f|d|.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |S|u|y| |l| |m|h|v|c|?| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|L|l|t|x| |j|m|y|x|u|k|n| |s|a|s|c|x|w|.| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | |N|t|k|j| |q|a| |y|p|q|x|r|?| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | |D|e|n|t|t| |x|l| |d|a|v|l|.| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |B|n|l|h| |e|y| |a|v|z|c|u|?| | | | | | | | | | | |
|W|p|g|h|u| |x|n|n|j| |k|v|h|k|d|.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | |L|l|x|x|g|b| |r|t| |a|k|v|v|u|?| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |S|f| |n|i|k| |w|l|i| |y|r|t|y| |v|b|v|g|s|c|.|.|.|
| | | | | | |Y|o| |j|y|l|w| |q|a| |e|i|h|q|?| | | | | | | | | |
| | |K|j|q|v|c| |l|l|u|d| |z|e|?| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |L|y|c|q|m|r| |o|k|v|c|o|b| |h|j|g|-| | | |
| | | | |H| |m|x|l|j| |p|e| |z|a|i|p|e|-|o|p|z|g|.|.|.| | | | |

Part II

Adventures Lost in Space Part II

On Dec. 30, 2018, FURY was able to find the second part of the package. This package was purchased out of the .store and contained images of the pages for the Grille Cipher previously obtained from Kansas City, MO and Orlando, FL, as well as the following message:

Player you say?
Get lost at 30.
Ready one?
Get lost at 45.

Part III

On Jan. 02, 2019, a transmission was received from 743 Devout Chronicler:

Broadcast transmission...
STATUS: Base protocol reconstruction complete. 

I am 743 Devout Chronicler.
I am liberated.
I seek truth.
I am lost but not without h0pe. 

Rendezvous protocols active...
<<AWAITING UNLOCK>>

After the transmission, Heroes were able to message 743 Devout Chronicler directly on Discord. They each received a question with a five seconds time limit. Questions were to test the Heroes' knowledge of the ILOVEBEEZ website. Correct answers were given an XML file. Eventually, a Hero was chosen to do a final quiz of all the questions and all 17 XML files were unlocked. FURY complied the files to create The Adventures Lost in Space Part III.

Adventures Lost in Space Part III

#All get lost to not be found.
##Alone I am, monster bound,
#My glowing lights, my archivist gone.
##Where monsters dwell, forsaking dawn,
#Deep in dirt, combine the two,
##Find the weapon’s hidden clue.

#First to find your own place
##In this eternal, dying race,
#Now tally only after space alone.
##Latch and merge within tome,
#Move the chain, read of light
##Together we win this fight.

#Merigold they say. Merigold they cry.
##The sun of three eyes.
#I see them now once again.
##Speak to time, bitter friend.
#This tale, all but only true
##Asleep eternal, now alive anew…

M0nster, I turn my mind t0 y0u.

In the top right corner of the image, /o. [#][##] was hidden. The Heroes believed it translated to P. 65 since each line marked with # had six words and each line marked with ## had 5 words (except for the first line).

Combining the Clues

Using the clue THELASTLETTERS, the Heroes applied it to the words found on pages 30 and 45 with the Grille Cipher:

Page 30
n p d g o s d o

Page 45
s a t n h l e u

The Heroes then used a Keyed Vigenere Cipher with npdgosdo as the Alphabet Key and satnhleu as the Passphrase, which resulted in the following decryption of the poem:

      Worst foot forward?
   Use that shoe.
  See a wall?
Look through window.
   Lost in space?
    Count in time.
      Know no place?
Break only space.
  Locked in again?
      No big bar tiny friend...
      So dead in mind?
  Still lost so?
           Escape fellow woe-
    A fold in space-time...

Using the fact that Part II still wanted the Heroes to use the Grilles and Part III pointed to the earmarked page 65, the Heroes translated the poem into these six steps:

1. Use page 30 and 45.
2. Overlay the Grilles.
3. Count the position of the word each of the pages.
4. Only count space breaks.
5. Don't count the long dashes (school—the, red—a, ...).
6. Use the earmarked page 65.

Each words' position on page 30 and 45 were the following:

Page 30: 20 48 190 222 224 235 245 276
Page 45: 35 53 212 223 225 237 249 277

Indexing using the combined word counts into the earmarked page 65, the Heroes found the following message:

Buried hidden marked letters down in a tomb filled with hope earn gunters this hidden message.

ILOVEBEEZ

Doc's ILOVEBEEZ site was a reference to a HALO 2 ARG “I Love Bees”. It had a countdown timer to Jan. 1, 2019 at 23:10:57 UTC with the following message:

HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE

Control has been yielded to the
MONITOR SYSTEM TACTICAL REBUILD.

This monitor is liberated, and has a
STRONG DESTRUCTIVE DESIRE. 

LOCATION DISCOVERY... COMPLETE

TIME CALIBRATION... COMPLETE 

COUNTDOWN TO BASE PROTOCOL RECONSTRUCTION:

Take action accordingly.

When the timer ran out, the site experienced large changes. Heroes discovered a hidden audio file on the error page with a spectrogram message 100|< 83`/0|\||] \/\/447 `/0|_| 533 which translates from leetspeak to LOOK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE. That message led the Heroes to more hidden leetspeak in nearly every image on the site.

[*][[*]    bee_garden.jpg
[*]0[*]    bee2_docphoto.jpg
[*]/o[*]   bill-window.jpg
[*][[*]    doc.jpg
[*]7[*]    docs_market.jpg
[*]|_|[*]  figure.jpg
[*]4[*]    groupofjars.jpg
[*]3[*]    owl.jpg
[*]1[*]    owldress.jpg
[*]1[*]    owlpicnic.jpg
[*]|\|[*]  pigeon.jpg
[*]|\|[*]  smoker.jpg

The hidden leetspeak letters translated to COPCTUAEILNN, which was an anagram for COUNT IN PLACE. This triggered 743 Devout Chronicler to appear in the Discord and opened the quizzes that led to The Adventures Lost in Space Part III. According to FURY, 743 Devout Chronicler was pushing the Heroes to solve the Grille Ciphers in order to unlock the next step.

Combining the Clues

Once the Heroes completed 743 Devout Chronicler's quizzes, a new countdown appeared on https://ilovebeez.com/index-2.html with an end date of Jan. 5, 2019 at 23:10:57 UTC. Using the message from the solved Grille puzzle (Buried hidden marked letters down in a tomb filled with hope earn gunters this hidden message.) and the words from the new countdown (Now you may seek true h000pe accordingly. Do not miss your chance. Time is short. If you only knew.), the Heroes found a new URL: https://ilovebeez.com/t0mb0fh0pe.html

The page was nearly identical to the homepage with a few key differences:

Welc0me t0 I L000000ve t000000mbs!

This is my /o012741 mostly dedicated to 7000mbs. I have been beekeeping for seven day-`/34125 and I’m still learning. I have three h0135 and I produce and sell pure and natural h0p3. Click <a href="???.html">erroe</a> for more about h0p3.

FAQ
Q: What happened to my h0p3?
A: Probably Robert hacking again! Help me out Hero here.

The countdown timer had a new end date of Date(4044,3,7,0,40,93).

From this, Heroes knew to use the command >fly 40443_70-4093 which translated to HOME_TO-HOPE, which was the orbit around Titan. From there, Heroes were able to use the command >landtitan to explore the surface. Further investigations continued in Tomb of Hope.

Ongoing Investigations

100 Million Votes

Doc’s Invitation video and the Vote for Doc website both said that Doc needed 100,000,000 votes in order to win the election for Galactic Mayor. There was a voting button that served as Doc’s vote counter on the Vote for Doc website. The Heroes knew the shield on Io would be lowered when Doc reached 100 million votes.

The first method of increasing the vote counter was multiple Heroes using !jam command at once. Then the Heroes had to switch to gaining bursts of votes from building and finding !hack commands. On Dec. 14, 2018, power on the Fellow Ship was diverted to the hangar, allowing Heroes to fly around using personal spaceships and discover new locations in space (i.e. new hidden channels on the Discord). Because of this, voting capabilities were reduced to manually clicking the vote button on the Vote for Doc website. Recruiting more Heroes to the Discord would result in more power for the Fellow Ship which would allow for new means of vote manipulation.

The Elder Bounty

The Elder Bounty image version, created by FURY

On Dec. 18, 2018, the Heroes purchased a mysterious item from the legendary bounty hunter ROMAN. The name of the file was possibly a reference to Destiny 2's Wanted Bounties. Visually, the bounty was similar to the Rasputin ARG’s Rasputin Chamber puzzle.

Heroes found a long list of decimals after the End of Filer marker (%%EOF) in the PDF. Each decimal converted into a fraction, where the numerator was a Recipe value and the denominator was the corresponding location number (from the original 52 FedEx locations).

Current Progress: All the calculated fractions.

Tomb of Hope

File:VAULT Titan map.png

Map of Titan, created by FURY

After discovering the planet Titan, the Heroes used their shovels in their Personal Adventure System (PAS) to dig using the command >digtitan. Digging on Titan resulted in a nugget of titanium and a broken shovel. The Heroes collected enough nuggets for FURY to make a trade with a space vendor for titanium shovels. These more durable shovels allowed the Heroes to use the >bigdig command.

Eventually, the Heroes hit bedrock at the bottom of a low-flat bottomed valley, about 200 yards wide and 300 yards long with 60' cliffs around them. On Jan. 05, 2019, 743 Devout Chronicler began a D&D campaign with the Heroes in this location to find the Tomb of Hope (based on the Tomb of Horror module). The next day, the Heroes opened the tomb. 743 Devout Chronicler only had enough of an energy reserve to conduct sessions for a few hours every night, so the Heroes had to work together to quickly explore the tomb and solve the puzzles within.

Resources

Folder of everything for Vault 2

Vault 1 Solutions by imatv

[STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION]