The Verne Club

The Verne Club
Active since 2021-07-13
Uncovering the mystery of the Verne Club.
Type	Official
Creator	The Cabrera Brothers Company
Discovered	2021-07-13

Main Page > List of Investigations > The Verne Club

Most of the information on this wiki page was taken from the official timeline, written by the creators.

The Verne Club (also known as The Society of Extraordinary Readers ARG), is an ARG made by The Cabrera Brothers Company for their Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, Free Bundle Magazine. In early 2022, the magazine was rebranded to All Cool Reads. The ARG is centered around lore from several writers of the weird and fantastic genre, including H.P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne, and Robert E. Howard, among others. The official home page for the ARG can be found here.

Currently, the primary solving hub for this ARG is the Free Bundle Magazine Discord Server, although clues get posted to the Reddit ARG sub from time to time.

Reddit

Discussions about the Verne Club began with a series of Reddit posts by a user named "wepemnofret," later revealed to be a hacker named Bishop. The hacker posted mainly in the Occult and History subs on Reddit, as he tried to find information about a picture he allegedly encountered during a job in someone's server depicting a human sacrifice of some sort. Many people began speculating in the comments section about Bishop's story's veracity since there was no proof of the photo, other than Bishop's accounts and his paranoid ramblings about how he was being followed ever since he saw it.

At one point, the hacker briefly mentioned a Reddit user told him about The Verne Club, a secret society of librarians, writers, and people in the publishing business who might help. Suggestions were made that the community may have an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) on its hands, although some people in the comments area began providing actual proof that the Verne Club was real.

Community members started combing for clues on all the subs Bishop had posted in and concluded that The Verne Club was an ARG by Free Bundle Magazine. Once players confirmed it was a game, the magazine launched a timeline on its official website and an official Discord server was created, maintained by player CrashOverride.

Human Sacrifice Photo

On July 13th, 2021, wepemnofret shared a post to the "Paranormal Encounters" and the "Supernatural Encounters" subs on Reddit claiming to have come across a photograph depicting a ritualistic human sacrifice dating from 50 years ago during a "system intrusion."

Anyone came across something like this?

I know posting here might be a stretch, but... what the hell. My line of work involves breaking into different types of systems. I don't want to get too much into that. Here's the thing: I recently found this weird photo of what can only be described as an odd satanic ceremonial of some sort, with torches and all that crap. Naked people eating at a nice formal dining table inside a large cave. I will try to describe all this from memory since I can't access the photo for the time being.

The cave was pretty large. I don't know a thing about caves, so to me, it was just a cave. A man and a woman are at the center of the picture. The man is your average Joe, but the woman was not all that bad. Around them is a group of six women, all naked too. There are shadows from people not in the photograph, so there might be more crazy nude women behind the camera too. Some of these women were in their sixties, others in their twenties and forties. Some were fat, others were slim, but they were all evidentially not in their best shape. I only mention this because if I simply say "naked people," one tends to picture instagram models, which was not the case here. They were all regular people. Besides dancing around the dining table, the women were doing "things" to each other. I will leave that to your imagination.

There were like a dozen people or so, all wearing black robes and playing funny looking musical instruments in the background. Some had goat masks, others were just looking down, so their faces didn't show. Two were wearing a jester costume. Now, that was weird, but here's the really screwed up part. There was this thing sitting? crouching? next to the central two figures of the photo (the man and the woman). Picture a 200-pound slug the size of a man. That's what it looked like. Maybe it was a statue. Maybe it was a costume. I don't know what it was. It was this thing, this freaking ugly giant slug, sitting there with them.

The photo was black and white, not the best quality but, checked authentic. It dated from around 30, 40 years ago or so, according to a guy I know. He's no expert, but he's a camera freak and the only other person who had a peek at the photo while I had it. Next to the dining table, there was a stone altar. Same height as the table, maybe a little taller. There was something on the altar, but I don't want to even hint at what was there. I've been doing this for a long time, seen many things people pay good money to keep hidden and trust me: I've seen weird, I know weird. But this? It gave me the creeps.

If someone here knows about what type of ceremony this might be, DM me.

The next day, Bishop posted on the History sub on Reddit, asking for information about "magic and rituals in pre-Columbian civilizations in South America."

Tribal men posing with their costumes

Magic and rituals in Pre-Columbian civilizations in South America

Disclosure: I'm not a historian. I'm not even an aficionado. So keep in mind that I'm as layman as they come with this stuff.

What books or papers would you guys recommend when it comes to South American pre-Columbian civilizations and their relation with ritualistic magic? There is plenty about Mayans, but I'm having trouble finding anything about the rituals of the South American cultures.

My interest comes after seeing a photograph of a magic ritual being performed. Two participants wore a costume very similar to what the "onas" (aka the Selk'nam, or the Onawo) used for their initiation rituals.

Again, I am not a history buff. I was only able to find the similarity after googling "jester costume" for a few hours. I have already tried Amazon and there's not much about the Onas being translated to our language.

The Spaniard

Bishop updated his post on July 16, 2021, mentioning he planned to meet a retired Spanish historian. The man had contacted him through a private message, claiming to have a book with an illustration depicting a ritual similar to the one he mentioned in his posts.

Update:

Confirmed, the photo I came across had little to do with the Selk'nam people. Despite using a similar "jester" there's nothing connecting it with what I saw. I've met with the book owner I mentioned, the one who contacted me thanks to this post. He showed me some scans of the pages that reference a "magic" ritual similar to the one I saw, cannibalism and all. Interesting guy, this Spaniard, he's a retired historian. Actually, you guys are all very interesting people. I've no idea why school teachers don't do a better job at teaching this stuff because I can really tell it is something anyone can be drawn into. Even tech guys like me. The woodblock drawing and the description on his book reference a cannibalistic ritual a french occultist described in one of his journals. He didn't allow me to take the scans back with me to the hotel, though.

On July 19, Bishop made a post on the OccultConspiracy sub on Reddit, searching information about the lost journals of Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, a French writer and occultist. In the post, he mentioned he is **traveling abroad** (presumably, to meet the Spanish historian.)

Need help asap: Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre lost journals

Did anyone ever hear about a manuscript called The Lost journals of Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre? Someone recently mentioned it to me as a sort of "very exclusive collector's item." Is it mentioned or documented somewhere in the french occultist literature? I've done a little digging, and the guy supposedly came up with the whole hollow earth theory and a bunch of other occultists and esoteric things, but I'm traveling abroad right now, and my Internet is crap.

The Verne Club

Only days after posting about Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Bishop asked for information about "The Verne Club" on the OccultConspiracy sub on Reddit.

The Verne Club?

A year and a half ago, I screwed up and run into something I shouldn't. I began asking questions around to see if there might be someone who knew something about it and was told about a "social club" where a bunch of librarians, scholars, and writers get together to sweep things under the rug (mostly esoteric books). Like everyone with an Internet connection, I know about freemasons, the Illuminati, the skull and bones, the Rosicrucians, etc. But until recently, I had never heard about the Verne club. I did a little google Dorking, and nothing came up. Since there are as many cults as crazy people in this world, I assumed it was either something small or another Internet rumor. A few hours ago, someone mentioned the Verne Club to me, yet again. This time it was a person I met through another subreddit. I've done some more digging on it, and it looks like they are heavily paper-based. I breathe digital, and since you guys know your books...

The same day, players discovered the website of The Verne Club:

https://theverne.club

Seems like this is what you're looking for. Their motto "Quidam libri aperuit ne sit impune lacessit" means "Some books may not be opened with impunity." Among the books the Society holds in its Index Librorum Prohibitorum are authentic copies of the Necronomicon, The handwritten manuscript of The Codex Gigas, with its two-part addendum, a complete translation of The Voynich Manuscript, and the unabridged version of La Poule Noire (The Black Pullet).

The website mentions that all books the society owns are "kept under strict surveillance" and that their mission is "not to suppress or withhold knowledge, but to contain it from disruptive individuals."

Going to the address https://theverne.club/keepers revealed a secret section accessible only to members of the secret society, or "Keepers," as they call themselves. The login prompt can only be found when clicking on a hidden link at the bottom of the website's homepage.

During the beginning stages of the ARG, when speculations of whether The Verne Club actually existed or not were still happening, players discovered that the following list of Reddit users might have been in-game characters created to promote the game:

• Randolphfish posted on the Occult sub on Reddit claiming his ex-roomate was a member of The Verne Club. He hasn’t posted or commented on Reddit since July 21, 2021.

• Franciswhiskeyjar made one of his first comments on Reddit claiming that “My mother said her grandfather's brother (great-uncle?) was a member of the Verne Society.” And had “a booklet in a drawer somewhere with their silly handshakes.” He made a separate Reddit post on July 20, 2021 showing the following book page. He has not posted or commented on Reddit since July 20, 2021.

• Momento358mori presented himself as a Freemason and said that The Verne Club might be an old Swedish Rite group of Masons.

Writers and the Occult

A new Reddit post by Bishop titled [TIL] Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, french occultist and author, and Victor Hugo (THE Victor Hugo) might have been pals in a secret society shed light on The Verne Club.

The following writers were mentioned in the thread:

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: the father of Sherlock Holmes wrote The History of Spiritualism (1924), maintained fairies were real. He was also known during his last days for frequent spiritist circles.
• H.P. Lovecraft: his marriage to Aleister Crowley's ex-girlfriend, Sonia Greene, and his work association with Harry Houdini (a known Freemason).
• Arthur Llewellyn Jones: Welsh author and mystic. He was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
• Antonin Artaud: Dramatist, theatre director, and film actor. He was into the occult, alchemy, and cabala.
• William S. Burroughs: American writer, he was into the occult. He wrote Naked Lunch, Junky, The Wild Boys, Queer, and many others. He became interested in black magic after traveling to South America.
• Victor Hugo: French poet. During his political exile in the channel Islands, he dedicated much of his time attempting to communicate with spirits. He was friends with Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, a French occultist and author.

Lovecraft's Grave

Players soon found a message hidden in the image of Seshat on the about section of the Verne Club's website.

Seshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. She was seen as a scribe and record keeper, and her name means she who scrivens.

The message, decoded using this tool, said:

41.85421968333976,-71.38112496406848 Don't Bother The Family. 1900. Wear a Mask.

The coordinates hidden in the image pointed to a place near the grave of famed horror writer and father of the Cthulhu Mythos Howard Philips Lovecraft, located in Swan Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island.

Some players speculated that the number 1900 had to do with the date of death of those buried there, while others argued that the cryptic message "wear a mask" was referencing a vaguely humanoid emissary of Hastur in the play "The King in Yellow" known as "The Pallid Mask."

On August 20, 2021, player lemondecro_ss, also known as lemonegg on the official Discord Server posted the following on the ARG sub on Reddit:

Lemonegg/lemondecro_ss solving the Lovecraft drop-off puzzle on the official Discord Server.

I was pretty sure I had looked everywhere until I went back to the timeline on that page and read the clue again:

>41.85421968333976,-71.38112496406848 Don't Bother The Family. 1900. Wear a Mask.

The lat/long points to Lovecraft's grave or the area around it. That part sounds ok. "Don't Bother The Family" made no sense until I remembered the Phillips family monument. So go there, but leave the family alone? Maybe. But what about the "1900" and the "Wear a Mask"?

Some people said the "Wear a Mask" bit had to do with The King in Yellow image posted by "Bishop" a few days ago (Bishop, aka Wepemnofret). Others said it had to do with Pallid Mask. Another person said it was meant to be taken in a literal sense, as in "if you go, wear your mask!" I decided that's what it meant too. Wear a mask because of Covid.

The "1900" was the hardest part IMO. Turns out it was the time of the day. 1900 = 19:00 hours. Doh. Since I didn't want to stand like an idiot all day next to someone's grave, I used this website to calculate where the shadow of the Phillip family would be pointing at around 19:00.

I went there today at 4 because no way I'm walking around dead people with a flashlight by myself and found an envelope taped up a tree. After almost breaking my hip, this is what I got.

Package 1

The package found by player lemondecro_ss/lemonegg near Lovecraft's grave in Swan Point Cemetery, Rhode Island, Providence, contained the following items:

• One microcassette tape,
• One medallion with a Mayan calendar carved on the front and an inscription carved on its back reading "Les Premiers Navir, es de la Marine Mexicaine K821",
• One business card belonging to Shane C. Mitchell, Freelance Journalist with the text "632 where is he?" written on the back,
• One three page letter addressed to "Nathaniel" (presumably Sir Nathaniel Baker, the Grand Master of the Verne Club) and signed by "Johann" (the second page is missing the bottom portion)
• One pink page reading "1050x1500", "I2V1", and "now he has disappeared",
• One post-it note reading "dGlueQ==",
• One Mexican restaurant flyer (Casita Del Taco) reading "A306089" on the front,
• Seven library catalog cards stapled on two pages.

Photo	Description
	Photo: Shane C. Mitchell's business card, Johann's letter, the pink page with the post-it note, the microcassette tape, and the medallion. A more high-quality version of this photo is available here.
	Photo: Mexican restaurant flyer
	Photo: Library catalog cards (1)
	Photo: Library catalog cards (2)
	Photo: Medallion front (Mayan Calendar)
	Photo: Medallion back (engraving reads "Les Premiers Navires de la Marine Mexicaine K821")
	Photo: Business Card front
	Photo: Business Card back (text reads "632 where is he??")

Too many horrors

Players discovered that, when superimposing the scan of the pink page on a story of Free Bundle Magazine, a hidden message would appear. I2V1 was determined to refer to issue 2 volume 1, which features a short story by H.P. Lovecraft titled "From the Dark". The last line reads "now he has disappeared," which was the exact text found on the pink page. The syringe the man on the story cover is holding aligned perfectly with the pink page's one, which helped solve the puzzle.

When lined up, the text under the black boxes read:

too many eyes and horrors

Players deduced the phrase was meant to be a TinyURL address, since the post-it note was encoded in Base64', and when decoded read "TINY". The url, https://tinyurl.com/toomanyeyesandhorrors took players to a Private Paste Bin.

Frederik Walter Johann

Microcassette Tape

The [Microcassette tape] was originally uploaded to "SndUp" but for some reason was not playing. The following is a transcription of the recording:

{Unknown Female Voice}

This tape contains the last recorded words of Frederik Walter Johann, Keeper 261, from the Grand Lodge of Sacramento, United States. It's taken from a microcassette tape with heavy water damage found 6 years after his disappearance by cave divers Paul Stanley Williams and Miguel Roman Alexander on August 8, 1984 on Flathead Lake, Montana. At the time of his disappearance, Keeper 261 was part of an ongoing investigation concerning the esoteric cult of the Jodorowskys.

The first segment of the tape was probably recorded by Keeper 261 while he was in Saint-Elie, French Guiana. There is a 17 minutes gap of irretrievable audio between the first and second segment. In the second segment Keeper 261 discussed a personal matter regarding his newlywed wife 26-year-old Naomi Andrea Rommel while he was investigating the cult in Mumbai City, Mumbai. The third segment comes after a 6-minute gap and was presumably recorded in an unknown cave of the Montana area where Keeper 261 was last seen. The entire investigation, including the transcript of this audio, is filed under case "62 29 af-4" please refer your Grand Lodge archivist to request access.

{Keeper 261, Segment 1, Saint-Elie, French Guiana}

(Rain)

   Tough rain, the kind you don't go out into unless you have to. 
   Creeps love the dark, they always hunt at night, when it's cold, when it's silent. 
   But there's no wind tonight, and the bastards can't smell us through the rain. 
   We might have a chance after all.

{Keeper 261, Segment 2, Mumbai City, Mumbai}

(City noise)

   When Naomi got pregnant, I made her a promise. 
   I told her I'll take care of her and the baby no matter what. 
   I told her we're going to be a family, you know, that everything was going to be ok. 
   She said yes. Even with all those people saying we were crazy, that I was too old to be a husband, to be a father, that we'll only end up hurting ourselves and the child... she said yes. 
   So now you know why I do what I do. I don't even care what's in there, whatever it is, it can't be worse than not knowing where they are. 
   Somewhere in heaven, god is having a good laugh, and the jokes on me.

{Keeper 261, Segment 3, Unknown Cave, Montana}

(wading through water)

(singing)

(baby crying)

(man saying incantation)

   Jesus, they are everywhere

(chanting)

Letter

Transcription of Johann's letter:

Nathaniel,

I arrived in Mumbai yesterday morning, and I can already tell this is going to be another dead end. Someone at the embassy put me in contact with a translator, a man named Ananda Sardar, but he never showed up, and I think I know why: Police were closely watching my hotel this afternoon when I got back from the library. A woman kindly agreed to help me out by taking me to the salt pans and talk with the workers who found the body for me, but by the time I got back to the hotel, the offer was already off the table. The clerk at the front desk handed me the note as soon as I walked through the door; she had left a message excusing herself from not being able to help me.

Whoever is covering this up had intimidated her. We have come across coverups before, but this here is radically different from anything we have seen. I doubt the Jorodowskys have the muscle to pull something like this themselves, so either someone else is involved, or there is a new cult we haven't heard about.

There is a sort of grill ex-pats go get wasted not far from where I'm staying. There ought to be rumors about what happened here -- news of mutilation as gruesome as the one that happened here doesn't just disappear. As for when I will get back home, it really depends on whether there is new information about Naomi and Jeremy or not. This has become a personal matter for me, and I intend to see it through to the end -- with or without the Society's help.

Sincerely Johan

The full content of the tape can be listened to here, while the transcript has been made available thanks to players of the Discord Server. The DTMF tones at the end of the recording, 54448 / 46843 / 32756377 / 363, were decoded to “light / gouge / darkness / end” using a T9 cipher decoder.

Shane C. Mitchell

The business card found in the envelope led to a Wordpress website belonging to Shane C. Mitchell. The players contacted Mitchell using the public key on this website, and received an automatic response on August 24th, 2021 from [email protected]:

Hi there!

Thanks for reaching out! I'm currently on a business trip and will have limited access to email. If your message can wait, I will respond as soon as I return. If you need help before then, please get in touch with the editorial team at the paper.

Sincerely, Shane

31 809 353 964 764 144 258 361 830 733 342 014 849 931 819 057 320 420 520 158 489 126 473 629 789 824 491 444 349 016 253 894 230 430 301 120 005 331 044 180 734 135 073 742 967 054 485 438 152 968 982 236 402 641 268 645 564 139 795 088 290 342 037 347 414 718 734 270 981 829 743 669 144 168 774 352 067 643 568 471 982 939 297 829 744 734 465 110 914 079 714 589 341 714 423 978 530 813 021 209 615 183 829 640 449 747 289 996 401 146 457 039 660 736 664 687 349 080 573 011 305 156 553 966 442 748 182 524 418 783 797 456 554 716 647 307 392 411 533 666 461 545 368 534 209 666 753 161 815 510 504 389 494 099 121 008 219 684 303 347 283 147 459 233 073 208 120 446 605 534 797 634 435 530 805 027 415 706 048 811 574 436 078 754 481 819 702 719 301 146 344 544 719 445 477 030 519 536 471 008 378 883 097 737 443 583 469 344 085 641 338 073 753 616 438 142 034 770 548 539 333 684 342 301 168 140 753 679 390 502 538 658 774 504 447 817 472 341 514 643 843 287 421 184 305 825 674 771 199 737 452 817 472 640 715 516 477 141 393 735 312 449 101 418 197 532 397 004 161 343 043 977 322 890 083 606 171 056 764 711 682 157 421 776 230 211 964 682 368 717 190 934 764 914 480 333 873 953 019 420 114 287 144 078 101 816 862 014 349 749 993 057 505 550 580 284 443 935 045 204 433 015 364

The message at the end of his mail was found to be a Mexican army cipher, decoded using the restaurant flyer found near Lovecraft’s grave. The decoded message is as follows:

BRETHREN MY GRAND MASTER SENT ME TO VALENCIA TO CONTACT A MAN CALLED JORGE MUNOZ HE OWNS WHAT WE BELIEVE MIGHT BE THE ONLY EXISTING COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF KING IN YELLOW I WAS AUTHORIZED TO MAKE AN EXCHANGE IN THE NAME OF THE MOST WORSHIPFUL GRAND LODGE BUT IT MIGHT PROVE DIFFICULT SINCE MUNOZ WANTS TO GET RID OF THE BOOK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND OUR SOURCES TELL US ZAIN ONYEJEKWE MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN MAKING THE BUY IF YOU OR SOMEONE IN YOUR NETWORK KNOW SOME GOVERNMENT LOCALS IT WILL BE AN INVALUABLE HELP TO OUR CAUSE I WILL BE RECORDING AS MANY LOGS AS I CAN TO KEEP EVERYONE UP TO DATE

Players also discovered that Mitchell’s email address is registered on the Verne Club’s website and could possibly be used to enter the Keeper’s area.

Bishop's Video Messages

On July 15, 2021, Bishop began posting on Twitter under an account with the same username as his Reddit profile: @wepemnofret. The account, which also used the same avatar as the Reddit account, was created in May 2021 and is believed to have been stolen from an unknown member of the Society of Extraordinary Readers by Bishop, since the l33tscript message in the account profile reads:

k33p325 5h0u1d h123 4 wh173 h47 w17h 411 7h47 d0u9h 7h3y 937 f20m 7h312 m3m8325h1p5.

Which players translated to:

Keepers should hire a white hat with all that dough they get from their memberships.

In some of his tweets, Bishop boasted about successfully having hacked The Verne Club's website. Specifically, he said to have found thousands of "uid" (Unique Identifiers) of encrypted data he could not retrieve before the server "kicked him out." In his tweets, Bishop also mentioned that he would no longer attempt to gain access to the server's "Keepers area," as remaining in one place for too long was increasingly dangerous for him in his current situation. While some of Bishop's tweets contained video messages encoded in Base64 with directions to those playing the ARG, others were in plain English and included pictures of the so-called "creeps" that were following him anywhere he went, even abroad.

The initial problem with Bishop's video messages was that the first two were encoded in uppercase, while Base64 needs a combination of upper/lower case to work. After a player contacted him about the videos, Bishop replied on July 27th that he had intentionally written his messages that way since he was trying to reach out to a friend who knew which letter should be lowercase or uppercase. Later that same day, he reposted the video in standard Base64, saying, "I will need all the help I can get, though."

QUdSRUVEIFRPIEhFTFAgVEhFIFNQQU5JQVJEIEdFVFRJTkcgU09NRVRISU5HIEJBQ0sgRlJPTSBUSEUgVkVSTkUgQ0xVQi4gSEUgU0FZUyBUSEVZIEhBVkUgQSBCT09LIFRIQVQgVEFMS1MgQUJPVVQgVEhPU0UgREFNTiBDUkVFUFMgVEhBVCBLRUVQIENPTUlORyBBRlRFUiBNRS4gTkVFRCBTT01FIFdBWSBPRiBTVE9QUElORyBUSEVNLiBDQU4nVCBSVU4gRk9SRVZFUi4gSEVBRElORyBUTyBOQVJWQSwgVEhFTiBGSU5MQU5ELg==

Players decoded the message to:

"AGREED TO HELP THE SPANIARD GETTING SOMETHING BACK FROM THE VERNE CLUB. HE SAYS THEY HAVE A BOOK THAT TALKS ABOUT THOSE DAMN CREEPS THAT KEEP COMING AFTER ME. NEED SOME WAY OF STOPPING THEM. CAN'T RUN FOREVER. HEADING TO NARVA, THEN FINLAND."

The King in Yellow

Photo found by decoding the morse code tweeted by "Bishop"

On August 14, 2021, Bishop tweeted the following: "Here's your damn proof", along with a video message encrypted in morse code.

- .. -. -.-- ..- .-. .-.. -..-. -.- .. -. --. .--. .-. --- --- ..-.

The decoded message yielded TINYURL/KINGPROOF, leading players to a photo of a page from an unknown copy of The King in Yellow. The woodblock print on the page Bishop shared showed a scribe holding up a quill in one hand while resting the severed head of a woman/child in his lap with the other. Next to the man, there is an unknown entity wearing a crown. The entity, which many players identified as being the actual "King in Yellow," emerges from a cloud of smoke and flames, as it presumably dictates notes to the scribe. Additionally, the face of the crowned entity, and the floating sign in the back, were covered with post-it notes, probably to avoid the book's infamous curse, which is said to drive readers to insanity.

When players examined the photo's EXIF data, they found it read "Artist: Jorge Munoz". Players deduced Jorge Munoz (probably a misspelling of "Muñoz") was the person who took the photo of the book and is also the ex-historian from Spain that Bishop spoke about in some of his Reddit posts.

Players also noted that "The King in Yellow" could be referencing Hastur (The Unspeakable One, also known as "Him Who Is Not to be Named," "Assatur," "Xastur," "H'aaztre," or "Kaiwan"). Hastur is an entity from the "Cthulhu Mythos" of American writer H.P. Lovecraft who appears mentioned as a possible member of the Society of Extraordinary Readers.

On August 28th, 2021 Bishop tweeted another Base64 message, decoding to:

He was supposed to meet up with Jorge to make the exchange in Valencia, but Zain kept getting in the way by bidding higher through his people. I had no choice but to go back to the States to keep Zain from getting in the way. I messed up his bank accounts there and bought us some time, but now Jorge tells me Shane never arrived at the meeting, so I came back to Spain.

The Private Paste Bin

Players soon realized that their focus should be on unlocking the contents of the Private Paste Bin obtained from the grille cipher, but had difficulty figuring out the correct password. On September 12th, 2021 Bishop tweeted a Base64 message encouraging players to “keep at it”, decoded:

NOT BAD YOU MADE IT THIS FAR DEADLOCK? I COULD NOT MAKE IT EASY THE PRIVATE PASTE BIN REQUIRES CERTAIN AMOUNT OF HAIR KEEP AT IT WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER NOW

Another tweet on September 27th showed a game of chess. When writing out all the moves, this could be decoded using this tool.

1. a3 Na6 2. c4 Nf6 3. g4 Nxg4 4. f4 Ne5 5. b4 d5 6. Bg2 Rg8 7. h3 g6 8. cxd5 c5 9. fxe5 Bg7 10. d3 Rb8 11. Kf2 Rf8 12. Qf1 g5 13. b5 Qxd5 14. bxa6 Qd6 15. Bf4 Rg8 16. a4 Rf8 17. Be4 Qxa6 18. Bg3 Qxa4 19. Bh2 Qa2 20. Ke3 c4 21. Qf3 Qc2 22. Rxa7 c3 23. Qg3 Bxh3 24. Ra4 Qb2 25. Ra8 Bf1 26. Ra5 f5 27. Ra3 Qxb1 28. Ra8 c2 29. Nf3 Bh6 30. Ra4 c1=Q+ 31. Kd4 Qd1 32. Bxb7 e6 33. Nxg5 Qdc1 34. Nh3 Ke7 35. Rb4 Qbb2+ 36. Rxb2 Be3+ 37. Qxe3 Rfd8+ 38. Bd5 Rbc8 39. Rg1 Kf7 40. Ra2 exd5 41. Nf4 Rc3 42. Rc2 Qxe3+ 43. Kxe3 Re8 44. Ng2 Kg7 45. Ne1+ Bg2 46. Kd4 Ra3 47. Rc1 f4 48. Nc2 Kg8 49. Rgf1 Rc3 50. Ne1 Rc6 51. Rxf4 Ra6 52. Kc3 Kh8 53. Rh4 Ree6 54. Rh3 Rf6 55. Nf3 Rg6 56. Rxh7+ Kxh7 57. e6 Kh8 58. e3 Rg4 59. e4 Rc6+ 60. Kb3 Rb6+ 61. Kc2 Rg7 62. Rd1 Rg8 63. Rg1 d4 64. Ra1 Rb3 65. Kxb3 Rg6 66. Bd6 Rg7 67. Bf4 Bf1 68. Ne1 Rg3 69. Ng2 Rxd3+ 70. Kb4 Be2 71. Nh4 Rb3+ 72. Kc5 Rb7 73. Ra7 Bf1 74. Bh6 Bg2 75. Bf8 Rg7 76. Rb7 Rxb7 77. Kd5 Bf1 78. Kc5 Kh7 79. Kxd4 Rb2 80. Ng6 Bc4 81. Kxc4 Rb3 82. Ne7 Rb8 83. Nc6 Rb7 84. Kd3 Rf7 85. Kc2 Rf3 86. Bg7 Kg8 87. Bf6 Rh3 88. Bd8 Kh8 89. e7 Rc3+ 90. Kb1 Rg3 91. Kc1 Kg8 92. e8=N Rg4 93. Kd1 Rg7 94. Bh4 Rf7 95. Ke2 Rc7 96. Ke1 Ra7 97. Na5 Rf7 98. Nb3 Rf3 99. Nf6+ Rxf6 100. Bf2 Kf8 101. Bg3 Rg6 102. Bf2 Rg1+ 103. Kd2 Rd1+ 104. Kxd1 Kg7 105. Bg1 Kh8 106. Nd2 Kh7 107. Nf1 Kg6 108. Ne3 Kg5 109. Bh2 Kh5 110. Bg3 Kg5 111. Nf5 Kh5 112. Be5

Decoded to:

The Jorodowskys infiltrated discord server. Watch what you say. The Order of Nine Angles are noobs compared to these nuts.

The Jorodowskys, presumably another cult, were earlier mentioned in Johann’s letter to Nathaniel.

On November 6th, 2021, the contents of Private Paste Bin were finally unlocked. Earlier noticed capitalized words on the about page of the Verne Club’s website, when combined together to form FOUNDDANGEROUSARCANEDARKNESS proved to be the password. The Paste Bin contained a message from Bishop, introducing himself as Jack, regarding the contents of the envelope he placed near Lovecraft’s grave. He also mentioned facilitating contact between the historian Jorge Muñoz and a Keeper, Eugene Lucas (Keeper 536), sharing with the players the emails between the two. From these emails it becomes clear that Muñoz claims to have the only authentic copy of “The King in Yellow”, which he was willing to exchange for his grandfather's ashes and any personal belongings Lovecraft took from his grandfather’s apartment, including a certain medical apparatus, all now in possession of the Verne Club.

Theft of the Necronomicon

On July 23rd, 2021, the Free Bundle Magazine had sent out a newsletter regarding the disappearance of the Necronomicon from the possession of the Verne Club. In response, they cut all ties with the secret society. A statement from the Grand Master of the Verne Club, Sir Nathaniel Baker was finally released on September 4th, assuring that the Necronomicon was not stolen and still in possession of the Verne Club. A video was released alongside this statement of someone supposedly failing to steal the Necronomicon from their Grand Lodge in England.

On November 12th, a secret message from Bishop in Base64 was found on a digital card released alongside a new issue of the Free Bundle Magazine, decoded to “the creeps took four pages of the Necronomicon”. This suggested that, while the complete Necronomicon was not stolen, four pages were in fact now missing.

The Keeper's area

Ganing access

Bishop tweeted an image on November 24th, 2021 containing a hidden message that was found using this tool:

https://imgur.com/a/xodWZRx

K632NY was quickly determined to refer to Shane C. Mitchell, Keeper 632 from New York. The symbols at the bottom were found to be the initials “A. S.” in runes, referring to Arne Saknussemm of Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. ArneSaknussemm was then determined to be the password to get into Mitchell’s account on the Verne Club and into the Keepers area, using his email address [email protected]. The Keepers area was found to contain several pdf files, which were all saved here. The files mostly contained more information on the history of the Necronomicon and past events surrounding this book, as well as on the recent meetings between Mitchell, Bishop and historian Muñoz. The files also confirmed the disappearance of Mitchell, already referred to on the back of his business card (“632 where is he?") and in one of Bishop’s Base64 tweets. One of the pdf files mentioned that Jorge Muñoz had been found dead.

The emergency line on the website could be used to access four recorded logs by Mitchell and one by Eugene Lucas. For example, 563269#720211 was dialed for K632NY log #720211. In his logs, Mitchell talked about his meetings with Zain Onyejekwe, who the players already knew from being interested in buying “The King in Yellow” from Muñoz. Mitchell mentioned having conversations with Onyejekwe about the Necronomicon. The log of Lucas talked about a book transfer ruling, for which the pdf file can also be found in the Keepers area. All recordings as well as transcripts of them were saved here.

Taken down

On December 14th, 2021, players discovered that the website of the Verne Club had been taken down by authorities. It now redirected to a message from Bishop:

NOT SO FAST So the Maan got two surprises this morning. The first one was an empty library when he got his cousin from London raid the Grand Lodge with a bogus order. They didn't even found dust. All those customs officers, breaking doors and windows, bouncing against each other to get there first, all for nothing. FOR NOTHING. You are all welcome for the heads up, by the way. (You would think that for a bunch of bookworms playing secret club since the 1800s, these people would know better than to mess with federal agencies without expecting to get raided ala Kim DotCom. But I guess stupid is stupid, no matter how many books you own.) The second was when the Man tried to access their online servers and realized I had mopped the floors two days before. When in doubt, dike it out; that's my motto. Don't worry though, I noticed they had a backup service running just before I nuked the servers. I don't like these book hoarders, but at least they are not infiltrated by the Jorodowskys like most of these secret societies. Though if you ask me, crazy is crazy. It will take them a few days to get everything back online. In the meanwhile, be safe. These things are EVERYWHERE. We need to get these four Necronomicon pages before the crazy cultists guys do.

The message mentioned that the website would be back online in a few days, and on January 23rd, 2021 it was found that the website of the Verne Club had returned back to normal. Nothing new was discovered.

On January 28th, Bishop tweeted a picture of author Jules Verne, which was quickly found to have the string “c5a7d7238” hidden inside it using this tool. This led to a backdoor into the Verne Club website: https://theverne.club/c5a7d7238. When accessing this link, two pdf files and a readme file could be obtained. The readme file contained the following message:

This should give you access to what's left of the Society's DB. See if you can find something else about the missing Necronomicon pages. Keep in mind that this is not the full DB but a cache dump of the last files they accessed before I nuked their servers. Had to. FBI was knocking at their door. I will be monitoring the networks to see what you guys find. I have to lay low now. Watch your back.

Both pdf files were saved here. One contained a message from the FBI, seeking more information on Bishop. The other file was a report from Mitchell, K632. Amongst some more background information, it contained links to two videos found here and here. The file also mentioned a medallion belonging to Keeper 821 containing an NFC chip, this was confirmed to be the sunstone medallion found in the envelop near Lovecraft’s grave.

As of March 2022, players are waiting to hear back from player lemondecro_ss/lemonegg on the contents of the NFC chip.