Teragon

January 31st, 2016 - Beginnings

The 4chan Post

• An anonymous 4chan user posted a message to the Dota 2 General thread of /vg/ (/d2g/), which read:

What the hell? There's something very weird going on here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChbNByMTjZnnqJAMPkvD_vg/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0

The YouTube channel contains 40+ short, cut-and-looped videos of professional Dota 2 player EternaLEnVy (aka EE) being interviewed, each featuring a one-word title as well as a title screen before the looped clip.

• Reddit user /u/GottaGoFats, seeing the youtube link while browsing /d2g/, posted a thread to /r/dota2 about it.

A Mysterious Entity

• Other Reddit users posting in the thread noticed every title screen & description of every video linked to the channel's sponser, teragongroup.com, a strange website which describes itself as "Shaping the World of Tomorrow" and promotes "Services" such as "Consulting", "Intelligence Analysis", and "Surveillance". A filename, "areyouworthy.txt", was also discovered at the very bottom of the webpage.

• By adding areyouworthy.txt to the end of the website's URL, the following text was discovered:

Alone on the river bank, Peter counted his money.
Somehow, only 12 gold coins were left.
How was it possible?
Surely, he couldn't have spent that much money.
A duck and two rabbits were the only items Peter had bought that week.
After subtracting the price of those three items from Peter's weekly pay, at least 30 gold coins should have remained in his pocket.
Now, what should Peter do? His 12 gold coins won't be enough to live on for the rest of the month.
Should he weep, should he beg or should he steal?
The day was nearly over.
Sulking, Peter decided to go home.
On the road, an old man came to him.
Incredibly, that old man had found Peter's missing money on the side of the road earlier in the day and wanted to hand it back to him!
Moving swiftly, Peter grabbed the knife hidden in his satchel and stabbed the old man in the heart.
Now, with his missing coins and the old man's savings in his pockets, Peter walks back home with a contented smile on his face.
What is Peter's favorite Dota2 hero?

The Second Message

• Another Reddit user, /u/TonyWan, pointed out that the letters at the start of each line are "APSHSAANSTSOIMN", which is an anagram of "Phantom Assassin", a Dota 2 character. Following the precedent of adding to the end of the website's URL, phantomassassin.txt was attempted, and another text was discovered, reading:

Teragon Group is currently looking for a M/F field asset:
JOB DESCRIPTION
Field assets are responsible for conducting surveillance and clandestine operations throughout the world, at the sole request of the Teragon  Group board members.
REQUIREMENTS
Applicants should: 
 - Be at least 18 years of age.
 - Be in excellent physical and mental health.
 - Not be members or descendants of members of occult societies, incl.: The Freemasonry, the Rosicrucian Order or the Society of Jesus.
 hp htww cpdslap esp hzcwo
 XI

• Yet another Reddit user, /u/Anon49, figured out how to decrypt the ROT11, which, once decrypted, reads "we will reshape the world". Another URL, wewillreshapetheworld.txt, was then discovered, reading:

On June 20th 1307, just before dawn, three men entered the private offices of the King in the Palace of Fontainebleau.
They gave Philip IV everything he needed to take down the only group of people with both the military and financial means to threaten his reign.
In exchange for the betrayal of their brothers, the three men were awarded a tenth of the considerable fortune of the soon-to-be-eradicated order.
Thus was Teragon born
ulnjwysearstspfgjnkf