Frog Fractions 2/Decaytruth info

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Decaytruth.info, the website for The Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio, is a major lingering mystery in the Frog Fractions 2 ARG. This page describes what we know so far, and theories about how to proceed.

Background

On September 23, 2015, the Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter posted update #11, The Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio Fall 2015 Quarterly Brewsletter. This video contained three audio glitches before the words decay (0:55), truth (1:44), and info (2:08). It was quickly surmised that was directing us to http://decaytruth.info/, the website of the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio.

Admin Page

The admin page has been the subject of much oddness and speculation.

The admin page can (sometimes) be accessed by clicking on a π symbol in the bottom right of the privacy page.

Initially, the combination of admin/admin actually worked, and granted access to the site's actual admin, allowing several people to alter the source code of the site. These events are chronicled in this NeoGaf thread. This access was quickly removed, and the changes were restored back to normal. Since this incident, no valid login details have been found.

The login fields behave in several unusual ways. For one, both the user name and password fields will privatize any entered details by turning them into asterisks, whereas traditional logins would only hide the password. Secondly, the vast majority of combinations will enter a return of 'Bad login'. However, if an identical username and password are entered, the site returns the same with a question mark at the end. For example, entering a username and password of 'admin', returns the following result:

Even more strangely, there isn't limit to the amount of text that can be entered, and no limitations on entering plain text. This means it is possible to enter html or javascript, to cause the site to behave in interesting ways, or even to display files;

Other Pages

Index

The home page contains no information, just the links to the other pages.

Hours & Location

The Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio
2020 Oregon Street Berkeley, CA 94703
Daily 9 Am to 9:00 Pm 

This address is actually for Berkeley Bowl, a large supermarket in Berkeley California. Several trips have been made to the supermarket, but nothing of interest has been located, and they do not sell Ashby BeerAbout U. Phonecalls have also been made to ask whether they sell Ashby beer, but they have never heard of it. It's unknown why this location has been chosen.

About Us

A history of how Charles Foster Ashby came from Belgium to open a brewery in the United States. Much of the history is inaccurate, and refers to events that didn't happen and places that don't exist, implying that the events may have occurred in an alternate timeline.

The Ashby Brewery was founded in 1777 by Charles Foster Ashby, a Belgian philosopher and entrepreneur. From the age of 5, Ashby had lived among the monks at the Chevetogne Abbey near the city of Liege. During his stay among the devout, Ashby studied and perfected the Trappist brewing techniques for which the monks of Chevetogne became so well known. 

While there is a Chevetogne Abbey, it was not built until the 20th century.

Following the destruction of the abbey during the Blue Revolution of 1738, Ashby booked passage to the New World and made his way to what is now known as downtown Berkeley, California. Bringing with him ancient yeast strains and the knowledge of the Chevetogne monks, Ashby started up a rudimentary brewery on the future site of the Ashby Brewery in South Berkeley. His efforts attracted local businessmen and game designers, who spun tales of a grand salon where new diversions would be crafted, along with delicious ales and lagers, for consumption among the colonies of New California and Jefferson State. 

There is no historical reference to a 'Blue Reveloution', nor any Belgian revolutions in this timeframe. New California and Jefferson State are both proposed divisions of the West Coast of the USA that have never existed.

As Ashby’s reputation for creating high quality beer spread, so did the legends that surrounded the man himself. Ashby was notoriously long-lived, having reached the laudable age of 122 before retiring from public life in spite of his youthful appearance. When asked by a young Mark Twain what had been the secret to his success, Ashby famously declared, “I bring you a message of great importance!” The author didn’t know what to make of this, and the legend of the Ashby Brewery grew. 

This section heavily implies that Ashby is a time traveller, retiring at 122 and retaining a youthful appearance. Also, the Mark Twain connection doesn't quite add up - Twain wasn't born until 1835, 97 years after Ashby immigrated to the USA. Even if Ashby was as young as 15 at the time, Twain would have only been 10 years old when Ashby retired.

The line “I bring you a message of great importance!” first appeared in the original Kickstarter pitch video.

At the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio, we continue to spread Charles Ashby’s vision of radical new games and brews. We start with pure filtered water from the high hills of outer Berkeley; we add organic malted barley from Oakland community garden spaces; our hops come from a hidden slope of Albany Hill known only to Ashby himself; and the yeast, still the original strain from Chevetogne, dates back to time immemorial.

We hope you will join us for a pint next time you come to the Bay Area. In addition to our classic Cherry Wheat and Shamrock Stout, we hope you will enjoy our Summer Blueberry Pilsner, Press ‘A’ to Continue Ale, and C. Ashby’s 2x Multiplier Dubbel, centuries in the making.

Depending on the user's IP address, there may also be a second full stop/period at the end of the last sentence.

Menu

Please ask your waitstaff for today's menu! 

Nothing of note has been found on the Menu page

Beer 101

There are three variations of the Beer 101 page, depending on what IP address it is being viewed from;

Hops marley malt yeast AND water.
Hops marley malt yeast and WATER.
Hops marley malt yeast AND WATER.

When these changes were first noticed, responsibility was claimed by one of the NeoGaf users who logged into the site's admin while the admin/admin login was active. However, this doesn't explain why there are 3 variations, and why they change. The changes appear to be linked to the user's IP address; Viewing it from the same address will always return the same result, while if you change your IP address, even by a single digit, in can potentially change.

Of note is the lack of punctuation(the list should contain commas), and the apparent typo of 'marley malt'(the traditional ingredient would be 'barley malt').

These ingredients (including 'marley malt') also make an appearance on the requisition lists of time-travel.club.

Privacy Policy

The privacy policy itself appears to be an amalgamation of the top 5 worst privacy policies you’ve probably agreed to. Nothing of interest has been found in they way they have been put together.

Of more interest, however, is the Pi that sometimes appears at the bottom of the page.

MD5 Hashes in the Source Code

When the source code is viewed, each page displays a unique MD5 hash. This displays a different hash for each person who visits the site. Some brute-force code was written, and it was found that this translated to the user's IP address, and one additional character. This can be confirmed by entering your IP address and the respective character into an MD5 converter - the output will match the key in the source.

The following are the characters and their pages;

Index: 1
Hours: 2
About: B
Menu: Z
Beer: A
Privacy: Y
Admin: X