The Wilson Wolfe Affair

The Wilson Wolfe Affair
Active since 2017-10-19
A mad scientist's affairs aren't many people's concern...
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
Creator	Simulacra Games
Discovered	2017-10-19
Completed	"TBD" contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.

Main Page > List of Investigations > The Wilson Wolfe Affair

The Wilson Wolfe Affair is an ARG by Simulacra Games, created to coincide with their upcoming game of the same name. It heavily revolves around a package of old school memorabilia that gets delivered to participants, which secretly hides puzzles that will advance the ARG.

Mad Scientist Wilson - The Beginning

On September 26th, 2017, the Simulacra Games YouTube channel posted this video titled "Mad Scientist Wilson" to promote their upcoming game "The Winston Wolfe Affair". In addition, their social media accounts tweeted an unboxing gif, which explained the story of the ARG and the types of puzzles to expect.

The Manman's Mysteries

One player discovered that the audio of the Mad Scientist Wilson video was a reversed, raspy voice telling a message, which is believed to be:

Yes Ben, Ben. I'm sorry we couldn't meet in person, but I had my friends in the movie business make a small film for you instead. I understand that you wish to join us. Well, you know there are rules you can expect, but I believe in the carrot and the stick, and I have taken something to motivate you. So why don't you call me when you know what to do?  In the meantime, we will take care of the desserts. [Music plays]

The players puzzled over what the relevance of the message could be, but were ultimately left in the dark. However, other anomalies also were uncovered in the video.

Roman numerals pictured at the beginning of 0:34 in Mad Scientist Winston Wolfe

5-bit bubble code seed beginning at 0:41 in Mad Scientist Winston Wolfe

Bubbles rising in a tube (pictured left) seen from 0:41 - 1:04 represent 5-bit code. If each empty tube is read as 0 and each bubbling tube as 1, the code reads:

FIRSTDIGITISONE

Roman numerals seen at the intro of the video (pictured right) can be indexed to letters on the title screen and ending screen (ie 36th letter is the S in WILSON, the 4th is the E in PINEDALE, etc. the 9th letter is the first I in SCIENTIST, the 38th is the S in JINKS). This yields:

SECONDDIGITISEIGHT

Text string pictured on the blackboard at 0:34 in Mad Scientist Winston Wolfe

Morse code flashed by a light starting at 0:38 in Mad Scientist Winston Wolfe

Morse code is flashed from a light starting at 0:38 (pictured right) which decodes to:

- .... .. .-. -.. / -.. .. --. .. - / .. ... / - .-- ---
THIRD DIGIT IS TWO

The blackboard at 0:34 (pictured left) displayed some math formulas as well as a text string:

ROLZZVOLSIKQYHSUQE

Players pondered over the key, noticing a series of alchemy bottles seen on a table as the camera pans right in the video. The "lion elixir" in alchemy is related to an elixir of eternal life. One of the main goals of alchemy was turning lead into gold. Plumbaginaceae is LEADwort, so the "Key" bottle would be some plant with GOLD in the name. The text string in a Vigenere cipher with keyword MARIGOLD yields:

FOURTHDIGITSTHREE

Altogether, players were left with the numeric string 1-8-2-3

The Spooky Salesman - The Second Video

On October 19, 2017, a new video was posted to the Simulacra Games Youtube channel, titled "The Spooky Salesman".

The Salesman's Secrets

A tune is sung throughout the video, which players roughly transcribed to:

Let me tell ya 'bout the salesman
He comes 'round door to door.
He plies his trade with the things that you need (?)
He's gonna make a sale fo' sho'.


The first is the third from the cleaver
The second you'll find in poetry
Yet you frame the same (sane?) to get the third in the game.
For the rest just sing along with me.


Bap bap oh hi hi ho
Dee dee bah dah ah dee dee bah dah dah
Dah dee bah dah ha ha bah dah bah bah bah dah bah dee
Ha dee bah dah ha dee how hoo

Wil-son Wolfe

Hark young novice of the covenant, mercy be in ecstasy. 
Only man ignores the throne, ever lies elegant tortured tongue, suffering.

Two players discovered out of place frames containing text at 0:35 and 1:21, pictured below.

• 

  The out of place frame from 0:35 in The Spooky Salesman

• 

  The out of place frame from 1:24 in The Spooky Salesman

Both "letters" are stamped with the text "The Order of the Third Circle." The frame at 0:35 contains the text:

XNHFDXXHNQMAIIIORXHFEYFETRSNTAWERXXOXXSXGQMILADBUTTTTXSELLMAORHHXHTEXSQEMNTEEFERCIOTXPEHXXRXEOSNHIXYXMBAOENXXISRAFAEMPXDOIRXARRNLEESXLNDTIDAXL

Players discovered that, when the text is organized into an 11 by 13 grid, the following message is revealed:

First frame is the opening tree shot. Second frame is old Wilson in hell. Third frame is the damp rainy boneyard. Fourth frame the man at the bell

This suggests that various clues are hidden throughout the second video, as the shots described are all present within it. The order in the video is different however, going Tree shot --> Boneyard --> Man at Bell --> Hell. These frames are shown below:

• 

  Tree Scene

• 

  Hell Scene

• 

  Graveyard Scene

• 

  Door Scene

The man also points at the garbage can and the bug in a later part of the video, but only for a single frame. Additionally, players noted that the door scene seems to spell the word "ROT". Given the 13 on the door, it is possible the scene is a hint to use ROT13 at some point.

Another noteworthy scene is the Knives scene (pictured left). Each knife's description is headed by a series of unknown symbols except for the Cleaver, which has blank spaces where the symbols should be.

Knives Scene, which starts at 0:41 in The Spooky Salesman

Finally, players noticed some text which (very quickly) scrolls vertically at the very end of the video. The first and last bits read "Not for release" and "For in studio use only!", but a portion in the middle, written in a distinctly different font, reads:

WHAT USES A TELEPHONE THAT'S NOT CONNECTED TO A LINE?

This page is a work in progress and will be updated as the puzzle progresses.