THE VAULT

THE VAULT
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.
Creator	Stash
Discovered	2018-10-31

Main Page > List of Investigations > THE VAULT

The Vault 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, the creator of the ARG, is an active participant in the Discord Chat and occasionally posts hints, clues, feedback to direct the fellowship.

The first Vault ran from late 2017-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 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 to be 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.

More detailed information regarding progress to date can be found at the working summary here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mZMp7aTngtYUYOCtBX4riEagNnRAaR9T1e4NQHMjkOE/edit#

We will continue to try 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 serve to participate.

Riddles

Chapter One

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 Offices around the United States. Heroes retrieved online print orders under the name "Mayor Doc" from the FedEx Offices.

Volunteer Center Message

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.

File:VAULT campaign material 1.png

File:VAULT campaign material 2.png

The Vote for Doc website included the same list of FedEx Office locations, corresponding to the GPS coordinates in the transmission image, but with the addition of a FedEx Office 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 Offices, asking them to read off the numbers. 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 contains a video from Doc.

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

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

001 DocLetter Packet

On Nov. 06, 2018, the Heroes received another transmission from Doc, announcing 28 new FedEx Office 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/campaignoffices.

The Heroes collected 38 out of the 52 packets (Folder of retrieved 001 DocLetter packets.). The 001 DocLetter packet 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.

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). Spreadsheet of all the retrieved recipes.

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 decimal and roman numerals found in the Roman Maze path. You can also compare the English/Latin word of “Cook”/”Coquere” on the 4th step of the recipe with how the number is expressed in the Roman Maze path (either in decimal or roman numerals). Assuming that English=Decimal and Latin=Roman numeral, these following locations don’t match.

Path of the Roman Maze

Each 001 DocLetter packet from each FedEx location has one floor (out of four) of a Roman Maze on page 3.

By stacking each floor of the Roman Maze on top of each other as implied by the icon on the top right corner of page 3. We can see the they are connected by the up and down staircases. We found the path that goes from the Entrance on Floor 1 (bottom) to the Exit on Floor 4 (top). It contains a mixture of binary, decimal, and roman numerals. Manipulation of the paths are detailed in Clue: Dampé Webmaster and Clue: bless_up Maze.

Digital version of the maze in a spreadsheet made by @aleina1313: [SPREADSHEET]

The path reads (from Bottom to Top):

1000111CXLVII0010CLIII0110CCLXXVI0101CCVIII0110LXXVIII1101620110LXXXVI0101CX01101691101CDLXXIV0110DXXXII00101210110CXXIII0101CLX01111690010CDLXXIV0101DXX1111CXVIII0111LXXVII0011LXVII0110LXXXII10001240110CIII0001CDXL01113510010LXXIV0110CCXL1001DCCCXLVII0110CLVII1110LXXXI0110660111LXXXVIII0101LXXVIII1111770110XCIII1001CXIX01111060011750101LXXXIX1111CXII0110CXLII0011XCVI0110LXXVII0001900111CXXVII0010LXXVIII0110LXXVIII10011340110LXXIX1110LXIX0110LXXIX0111

Formatted with spaces:

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

If you just take out the binary:

0111 0010 0110 0101 0110 1101 0110 0101 0110 1101 0110 0010 0110 0101 0111 0010 0101 1111 0111 0011 0110 1000 0110 0001 0111 0010 0110 1001 0110 1110 0110 0111 0101 1111 0110 1001 0111 0011 0101 1111 0110 0011 0110 0001 0111 0010 0110 1001 0110 1110 0110 0111

Which translates to (from 8bit to ascii using https://www.dcode.fr/ascii-code):

remember_sharing_is_caring

Dampe Webmaster

The DocLetters from the FedEx locations included a Roman Maze with four levels. When stacked on top of each other, the path from the bottom to top revealed a combination of binary, roman numerals, and decimals. After a lot of hints (see Clue: 380775826821002000 which is based off of a lot of other hints), we figured out that “MAZES FOLLOW THE PATH”. @Ricimon found that we needed to add the full path of the Roman Maze as the URL path: 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.

Thank you Heroes.

“Find the instructions that don’t match the maze” means that we must compare English/Latin word of “Cook”/”Coquere” on the 4th step of the recipe with how the number is expressed in the Roman Maze path (either in deminal or roman numerals). “Then you can find my letters. Ask for me by name.” means that Dampe has left us a online print order at the FedExes under “Dampe Webmaster”.

Scanned versions of the Dampe Webmaster letters: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yxMlAKJk1GAGXt9jzqrPNNhFcf4UNsEB

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 BE-TWEEN”	0
Madison, WI	“ONE IS THE INGREDI-ENTS COOKED TO PER-FECTION”	5
Pensacola, FL
Phoenix, AZ	“I SENT 5 LETTERS TO 10 LOCA-TIONS IN CASE OF WATCHFUL EYES. UNTO YOU IS CHARGED THE GREAT TASK OF KEEPING THE PURITY OF TIME.”	NA
Providence, RI
Raleigh, NC
San Francisco, CA	“ONE IS THE CODE SLIMMED TO MAKE SENSE”	7
San Jose, CA	“ONE IS THE INGREDI-ENTS COOKED TO PER-FECTION”	5

0. THE CODE CRUNCHED IN BETWEEN We isolated the raw binary from the maze. This resulted in bless_up_TOO. 1. THE ROMAN CONFLICT We needed to take all of the numbers (excluding the binary) and rewrite them in the "language" indicated in the fourth step of the recipe. Since we didn’t have all of 001 DocLetters, we had to guess which ones don't match, knowing that 10 (or probably 11) didn’t match, from Dampés hint (5 letters to 10 locations). @dvorak42 wrote a script that would try every possible combination from the cities we didn't know and he brute forced it. The solution is the string of decimal and roman numbers, written in the correct language. This resulted in bless_up_TREE. 5. INGREDIENTS COOKED TO PERFECTION We took the corrected decimal and Roman numbers from THE ROMAN CONFLICT, and added back the original binary values. This resulted in bless_up_WON. 7. CODE SLIMMED DOWN Isolating the binary and converting it to ASCII. This resulted in bless_up_FUR.

bless_up Maze

We used the path from Clue: Path of the Roman Maze and hints from Clue: Dampe Webmaster. Then we stacked them as we did the Roman Mazes and read the capital letters in the path. The corrected decimal and Roman numbers with the binary: https://votefordoc.com/10001111470010CLIII0110CCLXXVI0101CCVIII0110LXXVIII1101LXII0110LXXXVI010111001101691101CDLXXIV0110DXXXII00101210110CXXIII0101CLX01111690010CDLXXIV0101DXX1111CXVIII0111LXXVII0011LXVII0110LXXXII10001240110CIII0001CDXL01113510010740110CCXL1001DCCCXLVII0110CLVII1110LXXXI0110660111LXXXVIII0101LXXVIII1111770110XCIII100111901111060011LXXV0101LXXXIX111111201101420011XCVI0110LXXVII00019001111270010780110LXXVIII10011340110LXXIX1110LXIX0110LXXIX0111 Which leads to bless_up_WON (1/4).

Isolated the binary: https://votefordoc.com/0111001001100101011011010110010101101101011000100110010101110010010111110111001101101000011000010111001001101001011011100110011101011111011010010111001101011111011000110110000101110010011010010110111001100111 , Which leads to bless_up_TOO (2/4).

The corrected decimal and Roman numbers without the binary: https://votefordoc.com/100147CLIIICCLXXVICCVIIILXXVIIILXIILXXXVI110169CDLXXIVDXXXII121CXXIIICLX169CDLXXIVDXXCXVIIILXXVIILXVIILXXXII124CIIICDXL35174CCXLDCCCXLVIICLVIILXXXI66LXXXVIIILXXVIII77XCIII119106LXXVLXXXIX112142XCVILXXVII9012778LXXVIII134LXXIXLXIX79 Which leads to bless_up_TREE (3/4).

By isolating the binary and translating it to ASCII, we get the message “remember_sharing_is_caring” (https://votefordoc.com/remember_sharing_is_caring) Which leads to bless_up_FUR (4/4).

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

Also, if you Google that path, you can find the full WoW quote: "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." - Blessing of the Bronze Aspect by Aman'Thul

Using the bolded words leads you to https://votefordoc.com/STEALDOCSPASSWORD which gave us Doc’s email address: [email protected].

Ongoing Investigations

100 Million Votes

We are told in both Doc’s Invitation video and on the Vote for Doc site that he needs 100,000,000 votes in order to win the election for Galactic Mayor. There is a voting button that serves as Doc’s vote counter on the Vote for Doc site. We have strong evidence that the shield on Io will lower when Doc get to 100M votes.

[STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

File:GPS Locations.jpg

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