Frog Fractions 2
| Frog Fractions 2 | |
|---|---|
| The FF2 ARG began in March 2014, and its goal is the discovery of which game is secretly a sequel to Frog Fractions… | |
| Type | Official |
| Creator | Twinbeard |
| Discovered | 2014-03-10 |
| Completed | 2016-12-26 |
- For a quick chronological reference of the entire ARG, see Frog_Fractions_2/Timeline.
- For a quick overview of threads of investigation, check Frog_Fractions_2/Investigation_Threads
Frog Fractions 2 is a sequel to Frog Fractions, a Flash game by Twinbeard Studios that developed a sizable cult following. In March 2014, a successful Kickstarter campaign launched Frog Fractions 2. However, there were a few caveats:
- The game would not be named Frog Fractions 2 or resemble Frog Fractions at all.
- The game would not be credited to Twinbeard Studios as the creators.
- The game's release date was unknown.
- When the "jig was up" (the game was found), Kickstarter backers/Slacker Backers would receive a copy of the game.
Bearing these points in mind, the end goal of the Frog Fractions 2 ARG was to discover the "true identity" of Frog Fractions 2.
The launch of the ARG began with clues within the the pitch video itself, as it was quickly interrupted by a message from the year 2023 that warned the viewer "It's too late for our timeline, but it may not be for yours." Since then, there have been clues everywhere from podcasts by the developers, to an Obama Shaving Simulator, to real life events such as Indiecade and ARG-specific events around Berkley and LA.
This wiki page and ARG progess would not be possible without the wonderful work of the people in the Frog Fractions 2 unfiction thread, the neogaf thread, and the FF2 Discord.
Note: While Jim Crawford, Justin Bortnick, and Rachel Sala (the developers of Frog Fractions 2) all participate in the ARG to some capacity, they do not give clues when asked and should not be harassed.
More people credited to be working on the ARG:
- Janus and Gemini the doublefaced, joining ARG development October 2016
- Monsieur Le Baroni, if that is their real name, joining ARG development November 2016
After the Jig went Up, they were revealed to be Erica Newman, Justin Melvin, and Micah Edwards.
Contents
- 1 Summary
- 1.1 Background
- 1.2 Kickstarter Video
- 1.3 Twinbread
- 1.4 Berkeley Event
- 1.5 Train Hot Dog and Red Pages Podcast
- 1.6 Ashby Brewery and Indie Games Studio
- 1.7 Time-travel.club
- 1.8 Indiecade 2015
- 1.9 Museum of Jurassic Technology Event
- 1.10 Indicade 2016
- 1.11 Library notes
- 1.12 Helping TimeTraveler0451
- 1.13 Datamoshed Zagmar
- 1.14 Typos in IsTheJigUpYet's Twitter
- 1.15 Castor Griffon soundcloud
- 1.16 Berkeley Bowl Beeman
- 1.17 Unboxing Story
- 1.18 FF2 Launch Box
- 1.19 The Jig Becoming Up
- 1.20 The Watch Radio
- 2 Other Relevant Information
- 3 References
Summary
Background
In 2012, a browser game called Frog Fractions was released by Jim Crawford/Twinbeard. This was ostensibly a simple game about 'learning fractions', but does not actually teach this, nor is any specific knowledge required to play. The game features a frog sitting on a lily pad and shooting out its tongue to catch various descending bugs, in order to protect some fruit towards the bottom of the screen. As gameplay continues, upgrades can be added and the play style varies (sometimes wildly) from that of the initial stages. The game is often considered an ironic or 'joke' game (not to diminish its impact) due to its subversion of established mechanics and surprising twists and turns.
In March 2014, after the success of the original game, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund the creation of the game's sequel, 'Frog Fractions 2'. Accompanying the campaign was a strange video, that appeared to be a deadpan proposal of a fun game for kids, but contained some sinister and mysterious content.
Kickstarter Video
The pitch video(720p) is first interrupted at 0:44 with a message from the year 2023. A different voice interrupts at 2:26 and 2:37 to stress the importance of "0451". This clue would not be solved until after the Berkeley Event.
At 3:20, a sepia toned broadcast addresses "people of the future". There is a great deal of writing on the blackboard:
The url at the top of the board leads to http://twinbeard.com/eolo5387.html . This address contains pictures of bread, prompting users to go to http://twinbread.com/eolo5387.html, which contains the same image but distorted. This lead to http://twinbread.com/
Twinbread
Brainfuck codes
In the source code of http://twinbread.com there is a brainfuck code. When run, this prints out to the following text:
__ .__ ___. .___
_/ |___ _ _|__| ____\_ |_________ ____ _____ __| _/
\ __\ \/ \/ / |/ \| __ \_ __ \_/ __ \__ \ / __ |
| | \ /| | | \ \_\ \ | \/\ ___/ / __ \_/ /_/ |
|__| \/\_/ |__|___| /___ /__| \___ >____ /\____ |
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/
>> ONYX BF 1.9.7 May 26 1997 10:46:16 $$
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>> MOTD 2011-12-02 $$
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>> IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT $$
>> SOME USERS ARE ATTEMPTING TO USE $$
>> ONYX BF WITH A WEB-BASED INTERPRE- $$
>> TER LOCATED AT BRAINFUCK.TK. LET $$
>> IT BE KNOWN THAT THIS PARTICULAR $$
>> INTERPRETER HAS SEVERAL KNOWN $$
>> ISSUES RUNNING THE ONYX BF CODE- $$
>> BASE AND IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED. $$
>> THANK YOU. -MGMT $$
þéìØÅ
For http://twinbread.com/eolo5387.html, a bunch of characters make up the source code. Removing all non brainfuck characters, it results in a text: watch?v=YzVP-gRfRTY. This text leads to a youtube video titled Kernal of Truth. The audio is a playing of a datassette signal for a 50Hz PAL computer.
The audio had to be inverted first and then converted into TAP with UberCassette and then baked into a prg with TAPClean then run 011 (0801-6F40).prg in VICE. Code reference here
egb13.ugzy is ROT-13 encoded string rot13.html
From the source of twinbread.com/rot13.html, there is a link to castlevania_passacaglia_of_disrepair.rom which is actually a GameBoy Advance ROM.
When run in Visual Boy Advance, the ROM produces a version of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", along with the following image:
Make Bread
http://twinbread.com/makebread.html contains the following instructions:
TYPE 101675 ON KEYPAD PUT FLOUR IN BREAD MACHINE PUT SALT IN BREAD MACHINE PUT MILK IN BREAD MACHINE PUT WATER IN BREAD MACHINE PUT BUTTER IN BREAD MACHINE PUT HONEY IN BREAD MACHINE PUT YEAST IN BREAD MACHINE PUT GLUTEN IN BREAD MACHINE PUT MALT IN BREAD MACHINE PUT SUGAR IN BREAD MACHINE PUT EGG IN BREAD MACHINE PUT CORN IN BREAD MACHINE PRESS START FORE FORE GO TO SLEEP
When these instructions are entered into the console during the text adventure portion of the original Frog Fractions game, the console displays the following:
"You wake to the smell of freshly baked bread. A wispy human figure in a bathrobe and crown walks in, carrying a loaf of sliced bread. "It's ready!" she says. Then she gets a good look at you. "Oh dear. No time for bread; you have to do something about that beard before your meeting starts!" She pushes you into the bathroom.
The user is then taken to the site http://abeardforevervoyaging.com/leadership.html , which contains the Obama Shaving Simulator.
Obama Shaving Simulator
At the end of each Obama Shaving session, some tweets are shown. If Obama is shaved perfectly, one of the tweets will contain the following message:
Kenneth Salazar @Salza . @OBeardy. If you want to see PUBLIC_FIGURE alive again, bring the money to 37.871764,-122.265303 at 2014-04-05, 3PM local time.
These coordinates correspond to a location in Berkeley, California and the message announced the first real life event of the ARG.
Berkeley Event
On April 5, 2014, Jim Crawford arrived at the designated meetup coordinates carrying a brown paper bag. He gave out business cards, previously given out at GDC, which had the Twinbeard logo on the back along with some text "JCRNWmZiVE5DXGhfTg==". When held to the light, the card showed a URL fragment ad.com/eol, which is a reference to the brainfuck codes.
After a while, Jim led the group away from the campus. After a short walk, a man in the group, who was wearing a tall top hat, screamed "Enough!" and pulled a plastic gun on Jim. A group of time police arrived and arrested Jim, who threw the brown paper bag to the ground in the process. A pair of opposing time travelers appeared and the arresting time travelers fled in a car while the opposing travelers chased them on foot. A man on a motorcycle appeared to deliver a message to the group and then left as well. Videos of the arrest can be found here and here. Below is a transcript of the exchange:
Top Hat Guy: Alright, enough of this! James Crawford! Jim: Not again! Top Hat Guy: In the name of his majesty, for your time-crimes against the chrono-imperium, for your distribution and production of bug porn, for your association with agents of Bug Mars, for your fraternizing with frogs, and for your other crimes, you must be held accountable! Jim: Wait, what’s going on? Top Hat Guy: Come on. Time Traveller 1: There’s no time! Time Traveller 2: Stay back! Do not interfere with the timeline! Jim: Save yourselves… Top Hat Guy: Do not interfere with the timeline! Time Traveller 2: They’re coming! Go, go! Stay back! Opposing Time Traveller: Wait, the disks, the disks!
Moterbike Time Traveller: You guys aren’t chasing Jim Crawford, are you? Well don’t look for him now. That’s not the real Jim Crawford, or at least not yet. I come from a dreadfully dark timeline, and we’re trying to prevent that. I’m just here to tell you that now, and I have to go myself. You guys have a wonderful day.
The brown paper bag had the following contents(photos here):
12 napkins, 4 plastic forks, 4 plastic spoons: One of the napkins has a flower sticker with a ladybug on it. A Wooden Frog Statue: It has a bug sticker on one side of it. Flower and Cactus Leaf: They are real plants, not plastic or anything. Floppy Disks: 10 Unlabeled floppy disks wrapped in tinfoil. Most of them have some bug or frog stickers on the foil. Here is a summary (the numbering is arbitrary, I don't know how they were originally stacked in the bag): 1: Stamp 2: Flower and Ladybug Flower 3: Ladybug and Bubbles 4: Ladybug on Leaf, Flower, Bubbles 5: Ladybug on Flower 6: Inflated Frog with Bubbles 7: Dragonfly, Ladybug on Leaf, Lilypad 8: Frog with Tongue 9: Frog on Lilypad, Ladybug on Leaf (Also has a jumping frog on the back, not shown in the picture.) 10: Ladybug on Lilypad, Dragonfly, and Bubbles
Foil-Wrapped Rosencrantz Character Sheet: It was wrapped similarly to the 10 floppy disks, but contained only this piece of paper. The foil for this one has a ladybug sticker and a lilypad sticker. The lilypad sticker partly obscures the text "Jack HS" written in marker on the foil. Plastic sword, dropped by the second group running up the street, probably unintentionally
Floppy Disks
The 10 floppy disks wrapped in foiled were scanned and contained images of bug porn in the form of months from a calendar along with files named stinky.arj, stinky.a01, stinky.a02, stinky.a03, stinky.a04. .zip of the files are available here
The images all had strange EXIF data:
02.jpg: x"83968686858540A689A3884081409781A340968640 04.jpg: 82A4A3A385996B409694859385A340A689A388408388 06.jpg: 8585A285408195844082818396956B408881A2884082 10.jpg: 9996A695A26B40A39681A2A340A689A3884082A4A3A3 12.jpg: 85994081958440A2A381A682859999A840918194"
When converted by psuedo base-8, it reads:
COFFEE WITH A PAT OF BUTTER; OMELET WITH CH EESE AND BACON; HASH B ROWNS; TOAST WITH BUTT ER AND STAWBERRY JAM
As for the "stinky" files, stinky.arj required a password. The password is "zero four five one", given from the kickstarter pitch video. The result was an MP4 that contained a live action walkthrough of Frog Fractions. It can be viewed on youtube here.
Train Hot Dog and Red Pages Podcast
"I don't understand either, rider, so we're in the same boat. It's exciting."-Jim, Train Hot Dog Episode 9 - Hot Dog Time Machine
For an in depth run-down of all Train Hot Dog episodes and what has been gained from them, see the Train Hot Dog wiki page.
Train Hot Dog(THD) is a weekly podcast where Jim Crawford talks while riding a train (allegedly). The first episode premiered on May 28, 2015. Episodes are posted to the Twinbeard youtube channel first and then later to trainhotdog.cool Listeners of the podcast are known as "riders" and questions can be submitted via "rider mail", either through a call to the rider mail numbers 469-BEARDS-4 or 469-CEASE-PI, or via comments on the youtube videos.
At the end of Train Hot Dog Episode 12: Stay On Your Toast, a voice says "Brought to you by time dash travel dot club". This lead to the discovery of time-travel.club and confirmed the involvement of THD in the ARG on July 30, 2015.
In addition to this, at the bottom of trainhotdog.cool, it says "To leave a Rider Mail, call (469) BEA-RDS4", clicking the link leads to a magic eye image. The image run through a magic eye solver results in the message DANGER SPARKLES
Red Pages Podcast(RPP) is a video game and books themed podcast co-hosted by Frog Fractions 2 writer Justin Bortnick with his friends Gord and Paul. Podcasts are posted on their website here.
In Extrasode 3: Chatting with Jim Crawford,some noises are heard around 37:30 until about 40:00. This is morse code for RPS SSENIHSUM TNAREBUXE ERIM SSENIHSUM TNAREBUXE ERIM (which is reversed "mire exuberant mushiness" repeated). In the background is speech, quoted from "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov. The full quote is:
"You can't tell them," droned the psychologist slowly, "because that would hurt and you mustn't hurt. But if you don't tell them, you hurt, so you must tell them. And if you do, you will hurt and you mustn't, so you can't tell them; but if you don't, you hurt, so you must; but if you do, you hurt, so you mustn't; but if you don't, you hurt, so you must; but if you do, you-"
This confirmed the beginning of the involvement of RPP in the ARG.
Ashby Brewery and Indie Games Studio
This section provides an overview of all mentions of Ashby Brewery - For an detailed analysis of the Ashby Brewery and Indie Games Studio webiste, refer to the Decaytruth.info page.
First introduced in the Kickstarter pitch video in March of 2014, a couple, Hunter and Amy, claims to run the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio and claims they released the original Frog Fractions. The same couple also made an appearance in the Kickstarter Simulator game released in April of 2014. No clues were found in this game.
It was discovered that Jim posted back in 2012 on his blog about the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game studio, with a picture of a beer with the label, claiming his roommate John had made it and that he almost wished he didn't have the Twinbeard branding: http://goombas.org/1347_ashby-brewery-indie-game-studio.html
The post features cherry wheat beer that is listed on their menu. https://twitter.com/AshbyBrewery is a twitter account, created in 2012, featuring the same picture as the profile picture.
On September 23, 2015, the Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter posted update #11, The Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio Fall 2015 Quarterly Brewsletter video contained three audio glitches before certain words: 0:55 decay, 1:44 truth, 2:08 info. This would lead to http://decaytruth.info/ , the website of the Ashby brewery.
The website claims the brewery was founded in 1777 but it's clear Charles Ashby, the founder, is a time traveler given his chronologically impossible biography. The site also lists a location with hours. The address is a grocery store that does not sell beer from Ashby. http://decaytruth.info/admin.html was found. Entering the same word in the login twice returns the word with a question mark following it.
Also of note is some MD5 hashes in the source code of the website pages. This was translated using some brute force code into the user's IP address with and an additional character:
Index: MD5(IP + '1') Hours: MD5(IP + '2') About: MD5(IP + 'b') Menu: MD5(IP + 'z') Beer: MD5(IP + 'a') Privacy: MD5(IP + 'y') Admin: MD5(IP + 'x')
So all the extra letters are: 12bzayx.
The IP address of the visitor also affects what word of the Hops marley malt yeast and water. string is capitalized on the Beer 101 page. It's unsure why this was done.
On August 27, 2016, Justin drank a ginger beer from Ashby Brewery and Indie Games Studio on his twitch stream. He kept insisting the brewery is easy to find, mentioned a phone number, and that the beer recipe was from 1901, which has often been referenced in his twitch stream.
A user tweeted at the assumed to be defunct twitter account and the account responded then tweeted:
One of our most popular brews is our classic 1901 recipe for ginger beer! Why not stop in and try one?
Ashby's twitter was active again during Indiecade 2016, tweeting:
Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio is pleased to announce we are the beverage of the IndieCade Festival 2016.
As of now, no successful login has been made on the website and it is considered an open line of investigation.
Time-travel.club
At first glance, this website of time-travel.club (TTC) mimics the efforts of an amateur time travel enthusiast's attempt at a website. There are three clickable links. The first floats by asking "So you want to learn about ~Time Travel~ do you?" This link leads to a page that is essentially a copy and paste of a wiki article concerning time travel in science fiction. The About Us page leads to a 404 error page with a large number of under construction gifs. Initially, the Login link led to the same page but later changed to accesslevelalpha.php.
When logged in on the site, you find the page is titled "FUTURE RESISTANCE OPERATION GARRISON 1.50" (or in abbreviated form: FROG 1.5). This is the main website for a group known as The Resistance who were later found to be cyborgs fighting an entity simply known as the Decay and shape a major part of the ARG story.
accesslevelalpha
In THD 13: Butt Folk, posted on August 6, 2015, there is a username/password in the spectrogram:
When entered into the login on TTC, the following text is show:
USER:GADSBY RANK:RECRUIT COMMANDING OFFICER:DWAYNE Welcome new recruit! Congratulations on your wise decision to join the human resistance movement and help rescue all life from the enemy. About the Resistance Our nemesis is one you know all too well; the decay has changed the landscape of the earth and irreparably altered the path of mankind. As we are unable to combat our foe head-on, the resistance exists to win humanity's liberation through covert operations and advanced technology of types unavailable even to our most powerful enemies. United, we stand between the decay and the sparkly annihilation of our species. This website will serve as your home base for intelligence updates and new information vital to the survival of this organization. As you prove yourself and are promoted through the ranks, you will gain access to additional resources and information to aid you in completing the operations we assign you. Congratulations, and good luck recruit! You will recieve orders from your commanding officer shortly. Resources Requisitions (LOCKED) Operative List (LOCKED) Current Operations (LOCKED) Terminal (LOCKED) %corrupt_entry%segf (LOCKED) Party Lounge (VERY LOCKED)
accesslevelbeta
http://time-travel.club/accesslevelbeta.php was found without a working password known.
Herbie
Justin Bortnick tweeted from his twitter account about a new Mario Maker level code 04AA-0000-00A6-45F2(the tweet appears to have been deleted.)In a level called "dispatch 2", blocks spell out "PWD:SCREAMED". The username was Herbie. This is a reference to the end of the "I, Robot" phrase in the RPP Extrasode 3. "-and Herbie screamed" being the next words in the story.
On October 11, 2015, RPP also tweeted "This arrived at the Red Pages office yesterday with a note from "Herbie" that read "You have the pieces." Spooky!" along with an image of a borgified King of spades (This also would be found to correspond with the spectrogram of THD 10)
Logging in showed the following message:
USER:HERBIE RANK:CORPORAL COMMANDING OFFICER:WILLIAM Welcome Corporal! Your continued dedication to the human resistance movement authorizes you to additional resources unavailable to new recruits. About the Resistance Our nemesis is one you know all too well; the decay has changed the landscape of the earth and irreparably altered the path of mankind. As we are unable to combat our foe head-on, the resistance exists to win humanity's liberation through covert operations and advanced technology of types unavailable even to our most powerful enemies. United, we stand between the decay and the sparkly annihilation of our species. This website will serve as your home base for intelligence updates and new information vital to the survival of this organization. As you prove yourself and are promoted through the ranks, you will gain access to additional resources and information to aid you in completing the operations we assign you. Keep up the good fight corporal. Your service is integral to the cause. Resources Requisitions Operative List (LOCKED) Current Operations Terminal (LOCKED) %corrupt_entry%segf (LOCKED) Party Lounge (VERY LOCKED)
Clicking Requisitions leads to requisitionsnarfblat.html that lists some of the ingredients for making beer (a reference to the Ashyby Brewery Quarterly report) along with F-Rations, Anti-Sparkle Lotion, and Bread. Clicking Current Operations leads to operationsnarfblat.html which listed the following operations:
Operation Glitterbuster TT Operation 2014 - CRAWFORD TT Operation 1965 - M. BRADLEY. Operation B.R.E.A.D.
Number Six (originally)
Also in the Mario Maker level, the blocks were morse code that translated to "Hello Number Six"
Eventually, on October 11, 2015, RPP's Chatting with Jim had the morse code fully transcribed: lwo osoutriv deniarpsssenihsum tnarebuxe erimssenihsum tnarebuxeerim ssenihsum tnarebuxe erimssenihsum tnarebuxe eri7senihsum tnarebuxe erim This turned out to be an anagram for "Username is the number six password is revolution". Originally, the login(number six/revolution) said:
USER:NUMBER SIX RANK:XXXXXXX COMMANDING OFFICER:N/A Greetings Number Six. Your login is currently being prepped - please continue to use Corporal Herbie's login for the time being.
This has since changed.
Samuel
On December 15, 2015, Polygon posted an article to summarize the ARG titled How to Shave Obama: Behind the baffling, nearly two-year-long quest to find Frog Fractions 2. In the comments section, LordHuffNPuff (Justin Bortnick's known alias) posted a message:
Tired of staying at home all winter? Looking for an exciting holiday retreat? Why not take a trip to scenic Bug Mars? Experience the thrill of customs and immigration; dine on the finest freshly-baked bread; be titillated by the planet’s number one cultural export! When you travel with Bug Bros. Travel Agency, the red planet is just a hop, hop and a hop away. For booking information, contact us 24 hours a day! Our travel specialists are ready to take you on the trip of a lifetime. Dial (213) 631-3764 today!
When the number is dialed, the message said "This is Resistance Agent 3764, Lt. Samuel. I'm probably out on a mission protecting the remnants of our species or maybe training new recruits, but leave a message and I'll get back to you if I'm not dead or enslaved!" A recording of the message is here.
People that left their number were called back on January 6, 2016 by the Bug Mars Travel Agency and informed the codeword for their trip was "caravanserai", the caller being very specific on the spelling of the word.
Credentials samuel/caravanserai are working and yield:
USER:SAMUEL RANK:SCI_H Greetings Doctor, please select an option. Resources Requisitions Operative List (Partial) Current Scientific Projects Terminal (LOCKED) %corrupt_entry%segf (LOCKED) Party Lounge (SOMEWHAT LOCKED)
Requisitions leads to requisition_scisnarfblat.html. The list adds the following items in addition to Herbie's list: Acid, Base, Bass (fish), Bass (dropped), Sparkles (contained, pressurized), Membrane, M. Brain, F. Brain, G. Dad, Sunny D.
Operative List (partial) goes to operativespartialsnarfblat.php. This list changes daily. Several attempts have been made to track those changes but they appear to have no pattern. You can find data here.
Current Scientific Projects leads to sciopsnarfblat.html
The currently-active scientific projects are: SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS Experiment 036 - R.P.A.G.E.S. Trans-Temporal Communication Array Experiment 037 - Cybernetic Sub-dermal Integration Experiment 038 - Ocular Replacement and Recovery Sugery Experiment 039 - P.O.D. Encoding and Encryption Exploration ARCHIVED EXPERIMENTS Experiment 001 - Anti-Gravity Thrusters Experiment 002 - Experimental Hydroelectrolysis & Subdermatoglyphic Radiation Experiment 003 - Axis-Defeating Local Pancake Experiment 004 - Synthesis of Beer from Sparkles More...
At some point between 2016-10-21 and 2016-12-09, the list of SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS changed. Now it lists:
Experiment 040 - Quantum Entanglement Disentanglement Experiment 041 - Audio Quality Improvements Experiment 042 - Sparkle Sine Function Inversion Experiment 043 - Wing Membrane: Dissection/Fabrication
Clicking More... leads to http://time-travel.club/awibblewobblewibblewobbletoandfrobuttheonelittleduckwiththefeatheronhisbackheledtheotherswithaquackquackquack This actually is a 500 Internal Server error page (the website generally gives 500 in place of 404) but would later be a hint to a login.
Operatives List
The operatives for the list are taken from this set (always ordered this way, sergeant major Jorden always has a dot after their name):
- Recr. Gadsby
- Recr. Brett
- Recr. Arthur
- Pvt. Lambert
- Cpl. Apone
- Cpl. Parker
- Sgt. William
- Sgt. Kane
- Sgm. Jorden.
- Sgm. Vasquez
- Maj. Drake
The list of assignments includes: Badger Kennels, Barracks, Command, Debriefing, Firing Range, Laboratory 1, Laboratory 2, Medical Ward, Mess, Perimeter, Training Hall A, Training Hall B, Training Hall C (13 in total). Multiple people can be assigned to the same location on the same day, up to 3 were observed.
Recruit Arthur and corporal Parker disappeared at some point in the first month and turned back up 27 May 2016. Location "Badger Kennels" also unlike others only appeared on 13 May 2016 for the first time.
According to data starting from 29 May 2016 (to get these changes out of the way), there are from 3 to 7 assignments daily (5.7 on average). Every person seems to be as likely to be present (graph for 192 days of data). It looks quite possible that every person has an independent 50% chance of appearing daily. Out of assignments Barracks seems to be significantly more common than others and Firing Range is the least common. Every person was assigned to every possible location at some point, although there are more common and less common assignments.
Vaquez
Inspired by other ARGs, a mindmap was created in an attempt to organize the ARG. At some point, the mindmap was vandalized and the login vasquez/jurassic was left behind. Logging in:
USER:VASQUEZ RANK:SERGEANT MAJOR COMMANDING OFFICER:DRAKE Greetings Sgm. Vasquez, please select an option. Resources Requisitions Operative List (Partial) Current Operations Terminal (LOCKED) %corrupt_entry%segf (LOCKED) Party Lounge (KINDA LOCKED)
The Operatives List has the same contents as Samuel's, even though being a different page.
The Requisitions page is requisitionsnarfblatsgmj.html and starts the same as Herbie's with the following additions and nothing more in common with Samuel's: Field Repair Kit, Circuitry Diagram, Weapons-Grade Superobtaniam, Frank, Deployable Anti-Sparkle Field Shield Array.
Current Operations for Vasquez are on operationsnarfblatsgmj.html:
Operation Glitterbuster TT Operation 2016 - MU-JTECH RETRIEVAL TT Operation 2015 - NOV. - Operation Gobbledrop Operation M.O.N.O.P.O.L.Y. Chrono-Imperium Draft Operation Bring No. 3 a Sandwich (special operation)
Jim was emailed a voucher for subway in an attempt to give No. 3 a sandwich but it would appear he is not No. 3.
Clemens
At GDC 2016, Justin tweeted that he made some new business cards. A friendly dev, who had gained the card while attending the con and heard of the ARG, provided an image of the card as no person participating in the ARG attended the event. Also at the event, Rachel distributed four cool stickers that were later posted to the Frog Fractions facebook page. The business card contained a spiral text with red letters.
Typed out with [] around the red letters:
They arrived at dusk. The experimets had been wildly successfu[l], more so than we could have hoped or feared. At first, we welc[o]med them. The people of Tunisia are friendly and, [g]enerally, we expected that our vis[i]tors would treat us with the same wonder and amazement with which we regarded them. That could [n]ot have been further from the truth. They did not care about our presence, or lives, or [c]ities, or us. They went about their brutal business as if we were ants in their path: with a comp[l]ete disregard for our [e]xistence. Their capability for warfare thwarted our greatest weaponry, and their unearthly abilities countered the strategies of our greatest [m]ilitary and scientific leaders. As the d[e]cay radiated out like a cancer from the Tunisia[n] coast, those in power around the world watched in helple[s]ness, knowing that soon their nations would suffer the same fate as outs. There are at this [p]oint in history fe[w] of us remaining. Those who survived have banded [t]ogether [u]nder the guidance of we origi[n]al six, though at this point only four remain. Our numbers are smaller by the day, and our enemy has all but forgotten us. Their victory was total, an[d] out defeat pushed ou[r] species to the brink of extinction. We now resist the decay. We hide. We w[a]it. And we plan. -Excerpt from An Oral History of the Decay, Interview 8674-B
Of note, THD 14: Discharge also mentions time travel attempts by a man named Dwayne in Tunisia with ridermail saying:
"Stardate 1982: just a little joke. Research proceedes as planned on the Chrono Temporal Flux Fusion Engine. We were encouraged when a rice cake appeared in the machine's primary servo dock informing us that several minutes later we would succeed in transporting a rice cake backwards in time. This is a step forward as we previously have only been able to transport inorganic matter. Dwayne and I celebrated with drinks and a viewing of Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer's final speech is brilliant, especially five drinks in. Tomorrow we plan to attempt to transport a living insect, our first test of a live specimen. Wish us luck!"
The red letters on the card spell out "loginclemenspwtundra". Initially, the login returned:
USER:CLEMENS RANK:COLONEL COMMANDING OFFICER:######### Greetings Colonel Clemens. Your login is currently being prepped - we should have it up within the week. Please deliver your report to No. 4 ASAP. - No. 3
When the login was updated later that week, it appeared as follows:
USER:CLEMENS RANK:COLONEL COMMANDING OFFICER:VICKERS Greetings Colonel Clemens. Resources e-Mail Client (COMING EVENTUALLY) Requisitions Operative List (Partial) Current Operations Terminal (LOCKED) %corrupt_entry%segf (LOCKED) Party Lounge (HEMI-LOCKED)
The Requistions contain some shared entries with Vasquez: Field Repair Kit, Circuitry Diagram, Weapons-Grade Superobtaniam, Hank, Deployable Anti-Sparkle Field Shield Array, Candy Floss, Candy Apples, Popcorn, Soft Drinks, Jellybeans, Gumdrops, Butt, er, and help me im trapped in a fortune cookie factory.
The Operative List is the same as Samuel's again.
And Operations are:
Operation Glitterbuster TT Operation 2016 - MU-JTECH RETRIEVAL TT Operation 2015 - NOV. - Operation Gobbledrop Operation M.O.N.O.P.O.L.Y. Chrono-Imperium Draft Operation Sizing Operation
The link for the email client is getannettefunicellohohohohoho.html but results in 500 error like the More... link in Samuel's login.
Number Six (updated)
In May of 2016, the login for number six changed to read (the terminal was initially locked but is not now):
USER:NUMBER SIX RANK:CHIEF COMMANDING OFFICER:N/A Greetings Number Six. Your login is currently in process - certain features are now active, but there is much yet to be completed. Resources Terminal %corrupt_entry%segf (IN PROCESS) Party Lounge
This led to finally gaining access to the party lounge at party.html. The lounge contains a .gif of a mariachi band with the songs Las alzanas, Camino Real de Colima, and La Madrugada playing in party.mp3. The source code contains a message:
This seems like a secure place to hide information, so here goes: watch out! You may be using this Party Lounge to take your mind off of the grueling reality outside this base. You may be secure in your position as a high-ranking resistance officer. Be warned: danger lurks in even the safest of places. Do you know what relationship Numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6 have to the decay? Have you never wondered what happened to Numbers 2 and 4? Have you questioned the abductions of individuals from prior eras, or the futures you are trying to prevent? Stay alert. I'll be in touch as I am able, but do not look for me - it may be some time until my next communication is able to get through to you.
Joshua
Eventually, it was pieced together from the fact that URLs giving errors getannettefunicellohohohohoho.html and awibblewobblewibblewobbletoandfrobuttheonelittleduckwiththefeatheronhisbackheledtheotherswithaquackquackquack both being references to songs by notable children's folk songwriter Raffi, and Justin having tweeted a reference to "Frogs Size 12" that a valid login was joshua/giraffe – a popular song by Raffi that references frogs size 12 and 'So if you see them get a net... Funicello, Ho Ho Ho.'. The login appears to be sufferieng from the decay, featuring decayed letters around the top part that lists RANK and COMMANDING OFFICER as UNKOWN as well as saying ERROR ACCESS OVERIDE:
USER:J̡̢̡̫̙͓̩̲͛̎̊̈́͑̽Ơ̲̙̼̜͕͔͙͍̟͂̊̆͂̓͛̓̆̕S̹̦̰̘͍͙̝͚̥̤̆̊̔̍̚H̸̝̗͙͖̹̗͈͚̹̰̿̏͊̏͠U̷̢͖̮̗̭͇̟̗̎̐̓̊̇͐͜͞A̶̹̜̣̼̬̣̱͑͂͂̍͐ͅ RANK:Ǘ̹̜͓̘̙̗̓͐̾̋̃͜ͅŅ̸̲̣̰̬͓̃́̃́̍͛̑̀͜K̵̡̛̲̮͈͔̮̍̂̄̒Ṉ̛͉̝̬̟͍͔̝̅͂̈́͠O̴̢̧̦̦̝͔̙̗͊͌̊̾̅͘̚Ẃ̢̲͕̻͓͂̿͛̓̐͝N̸̢͖̙͈̦̾̉̄̿͒̈͢͟͢͝͞͞ COMMANDING OFFICER:Ǔ̶̜̰̠̗̘͈̆̓̐̚N̷͖̱̗̙̼͓̐̆̉̈́́͜ͅK̴̡̢̙̖͕̯͎̑̔̽͑̎́̈́̂̑͠Ǹ̸̖̲͔̬̯̇̉̒͊͟͟O͕̮̥̖͋̏͛̿̀͠͞ͅW̸̧̰̞͎̭̞̰͎͚͋͂̀̽͑̈͜͝Ṅ̶̬̪̜̯̝̬̥̬̃̽́͂̇́ E̷̩̪͕̦̼͖̹͇͋̏̇͑̽̈́͛̋͢R̴̡̨̤̦͍̘̣͓̥̝̒̇́̽͠R̯̪̻̫͍̖̹͂̐̆̋͗̍͆̈͢͝Ơ̥̺͔̭͍̝͊̄̅̂͋R͔̠̼̫̐̾̏͋͗̋ͅ_̛̦̟͇̤̖̳̀̒̂͆Ȁ̴̧̺͈̟̹̹͂̽͌̂̓ͅC̵̛͙̗̙̹͍̩̬̅̈̿͛̇̊͜͟͞͝ͅ C̶̡̛̗̦̗͚̬͚̫͂͐͆̈́͗̕͟͡È̡͖̺͙̣̯͕̑͌͒͂̑̃̑̚S̵̡̞͓̹̠̮̣̓͆̐̏́̇̓͛͜͡Ş̵̢̛̖̥͉͖͎̝͖̥͋̄̾̃́͂̈͛_̢̖̺͕̰̘̦̮̱̏̒̄̎̄̅̀̑̈́͠ͅÓ̢̡͍̼͖̫̜̩͛͆͒͌̑̍͂͊ V̶̢̢̛͚̩̥̱͙͚̅̇̿͊̏͌͞E̵̼̘̯̱̼̯̘̋̎̆̽̊̑͂͐͛R͔̯̻̺̝̦͊̑̀̈̈́̕͘Ṙ̢̙̥͎̺͖̰̹͙͇̃̅̅̓̈́I͔̪̘̩̬̬͊̏̊͒̊̚͜ͅD̡̧̜̪̩̠͙̉͑̌̐͞͞Ė̵̡̳̟͎͎͉̠̠̉̆̀͛͐̚ RECOVERED A.H. DOCUMENT LIBRARY The Four Hounds of Sarnath Walking in the Wilderness Words of the Last Dragon A History of the Styrgin Empire Nightmare of the Abyss Testament of Zagmar Overheating: The Risk of Too Much Sun Rules of a Gunslinger Spiral Folklore Curses and Purification Doomsday Reincarnation Undeadening and Dark Matter Vampires: A Bloody History Wrack and Ruin: The Final Years of the Celulitte Church Magical Excavating Machine Magic Cards: An Introduction to Tarot The Troll Princess Fundaments of Remembrancy: A Primer The Great Collapse of Ragnarok Yggdrasill's Illusion How To Become A Wizard
Some texts are links, which take us to an excerpt from the relevant book. They also have (next page) links that don't work, continuing the tradition of dead links, only these links have a page number. Spiral Folklore is a link to the Wikipedia page Uzumaki instead of an in-website link. After a couple of days, a bunch of new books showed up in the list. The books that are not clickable are from the library in the game Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django. This was confirmed via Justin streaming the game on twitch.
Here is the text from the links:
THE FOUR HOUNDS OF SARNATH (p42) said, "Ye four shalt be my greatest, and the Empire shall quake before your might." Sarnath thus christened his knights, who would over time come to be known across nations. Gleeok the Multifarious, the most junior of the Hounds, was deployed to Ashwall on the outskirts of the Empire's encroachment to ensure that no enemies would breach the Church's territory. Over time, the ancient structure acquired the name Dreadfort, and stories of the monster within haunted the dreams of imperial soldiers. Ilthor the Sagely, wisest of the four, eschewed martial prowess in favor of magical knowledge. Though slight of build, his forces were amongst the strongest the Church could deploy. Through his enchantments, each man fought with the endurance and strength of three normal soldiers. Ragnasaurth the Unbreakable, second in command, was known not only for his prodigious size but also for his greatshield, against which scores of foes dashed themselves in vain. When he finally fell on the field of battle, none were strong enough to move his corpse, for it is said his bones were denser than any known metal. The leader of the Hounds was the (next page)
A History of the Styrgin Empire (p23) It was not for many years yet that those individuals who would rebel against the Church's corruption would be born, for in this period the Church remained benevolent. In 542, Pontiff Urzarath II ascended to the popehood, and began a program of wealth redistribution that was widely popular with the peasant and merchant classes. Based upon his philosophy of universal access to basic resources, heavy taxes were placed upon the nobility of all nations controlled by the Church, and though the aristocrats grumbled and when intoxicated were known to drunkenly rail against the church, it cannot be denied that at this point the lunacy of Zagmar and resulting rift between Church and Empire was unthinkable. Despite differences of opinion between the papacy and the imperial house, both maintained cordial relations. When Urzarath II died in 558, he left behind a legacy of stewardship that future Emperors took to heart, and ultimately led to the (next page)
The Testament of Zagmar (p68) This world is untempered steel, and we shall be the hammer that shapes it. Our Divine Master has shown us a new path forward, forged in flame and darkness. We shall release those suffering from their bondage, and show them the new path forward. The whispers of our Lord shall become a mighty roar, and incarnations shall walk the earth. It will be a joy and an honor to surrender to his touch, to give ourselves in totality. (next page)
Wrack and Ruin: The Final Years of the Celulitte Church (p347) last, the Empire's armies surrounded the grand cathedral of Amour Lardo. From his chambers at the cathedral's apex, Zagmar paced and glared down at the gathered armies before his gates, gnashing his teeth in insane fury. The cathedral of the gods had never been breached, had already survived many hails of explosives, and the Pontiff yet felt secure in the knowledge that the heathen forces would be driven before his faith. Church officials, having realized that the war was lost, were furtively abandoning their posts and surrendering to the Emperor himself, who stood at the head of the host. Zagmar, however, had a final trick left: a (read more) (next page)
Fundaments of Remembrancy: A Primer (p5) course, as every schoolchild raised in the Empire knows, a position as a remembrancer is one of the most honored, most coveted, and most competitive positions one can hold - it requires extensive historical knowledge, mastery of several schools of magic and the ability to step through time itself if required to obtain critical information. It is no surprise, then, that many journeymen remembrancers fail to achieve employment in their chosen profession, and also that even professional remembrancers are often slain in the line of duty. As a result, (read more) (next page)
A clue has yet to be discerned from the text other than flavor and connecting to other events like Zagmar's twitter invasion.
Note: Wrack and Ruin text was changed after some time. Initially it was:
last, the Empire's armies surrounded the grand cathedral of Amour Lardo. From his chambers at the cathedral's apex, Zagmar paced and glared down at the gathered armies before his gates, gnashing his teeth in insane fury. The cathedral of the gods had never been breached, and had already survived many hails of explosives, and he was secure that the heathen forces would be driven before his faith. Church officials, realizing that the war was lost, were furtively abandoning their posts, surrendering to the Emperor himself, who stood at the head of the host. Zagmar, however, had a final trick left: a (read more) (next page)
Terminal client
A twitter account was noticed claiming to belong to the time travel club and represent the Resistance: https://twitter.com/RESIST_DECAY . The account shows a message contacting Coughlan Labs, an entirely separate ARG that was stumbled into and is already solved. It was not certain how official the twitter was until someone began a twitter password reset process which showed enough of the email the account belongs to confirm the email is linked to Samuel's gmail account. On August 15th, 2016, after a picture proving this was posted to the discord, the twitter account was invaded by Pontiff Zagmar.
The profile picture changed to Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon and the banner changed to a picture from Dark Souls 3 of a cathedral. Notably, he tweeted "This prisoner has offered to join our cause in exchange for freedom... he claims he has been imprisoned for years." along with a photo of Jim. The Resistance soon regained control and noted "Intruders are recieving assistance from prisoner JC101-B. Contain and eliminate if necessary."
Following the raid of Pontiff Zagmar on twitter, time-travel.club/accesslevelbeta.html changed to simply say "help." After it returned, Number Six's login had gained access to the terminal at http://time-travel.club/client.html . Initially, it returned only ACCESS DENIED. This was also confirmed via Justin's twitch stream, however this was just a technical difficulty.
In an ID3 tag on RPP 77: Art Has No Meaning, there is the phrase 'The password is behind your eye'. Later, a user involved with the ARG that has backed the RPP Patreon received a letter:
The first login to the admin terminal is number six/theeyeshaveyou . The directory is listed as:
Available Commands: dir, email, exit, help [target], list [target], read [email date],
Within the login, four emails have been found. Each email corresponds with the date it was received and it is assumed the year is 5142 given the formatting Eyyyymmdd:
$ list email E51420813, E51420815, E51420820, E51420827 $ read E51420813 Roth, We've lost contact with Brown down in portal experimentation. There's something going on down there. Do you know anything? -Croft $ read E51420815 Roth, The boys downstairs have really stuck their foot in it this time. A routine resource run went sideways and some crazy followed them back with a small army. That's the reason for the communications outage yesterday. We've contained the extradimensional intruders in a lower level for now but may require military backup. Will update you soon. -Hearn $ read E51420820 Roth, You're so lucky being located upstairs. It's been a real crapshow down here over the past five days. We managed to starve the crazies out and they retreated through the portal, but we can't seem to get the thing closed. They took the prisoner with them. The crazy one that appears to be their leader screamed some nonsense about returning soon with more forces, so we need to get this shut down before we have an army in our base. We can't fight a war on two fronts and the soldiers don't need this distraction from the true enemy. I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this stuff - again. This time we can't let it turn out as badly because we won't get a third chance. Any support the boys upstairs can provide would be greatly appreciated. -Hearn $ read E51420827 No. 6, Speaking in my capacity as military liason to science, I want to let you know that the latest anti-sparkle suits are a rousing success. I'll have an official report on your desk by Tuesday, but yesterday's field operation allowed us to directly take full exposure for half an hour with no adverse effects. Tell the boys in the lab great work, and look out for the report soon. -Lt. Samuel
The client also contains some easter eggs ("xyzzy", "plugh" & "aptitude moo", but they don't seem to lead to anything important. The client uses standard Linux commands along with N,S,E,W; however, the user is unable to travel in any direction regardless of previous text.
The same date (August 27) as the last email, the gustav email account received the following email:
Howdy partner, I just let No. 6 know that the suits worked out great, and we need like 20 more fabbed asap. I put a work order in so you should see that coming through on your terminal, but thumbs-up on the new metamaterial. Works great. Stay frosty, Samuel PS: Did you hear about the crazy portal accident down in Research? Those clowns almost compromised the entire base. Nuts.
It is believed from this email that Gustav has a terminal login but one has not been found at this time.
The following day (August 28, 2016), a new email appeared in the terminal, spoofing the Sombra ARG.
Translated, it says:
how about a different type of fraction?
It is largely believed that this was a joke from the Frog Fractions 2 puppetmasters, as the FF2 Discord was actively discussing the Game Detectives, who were in the process of solving the Sombra ARG.
Souper terminal
Following the Letter Soup part of the Eye Sigil ARG, the solution was found to be number one/elmourouj. This login works with http://time-travel.club/client.html Using the ls command lists the following:
. .. french_onion.mp4 chicken_tortilla.mp4 top_ramen.mp4 pasta_with_chicken.mp4
The only other command is cat. When used with the .mp4 file names, it provides four soup tasting videos by our own Frog Fractions creator Jim "Twinbeard" Crawford and Ben "Grue" McGraw of Breadbrothers Games. The videos are hosted on YouTube:
| name in terminal | video link |
|---|---|
| french_onion.mp4 | Soupertasters: Wolfgang Puck Organic French Onion |
| chicken_tortilla.mp4 | Soupertasters: New Campbell's Organic Chicken Tortilla |
| top_ramen.mp4 | Soupertasters: Oriental Flavor Top Ramen |
| pasta_with_chicken.mp4 | Soupertasters: Star Wars Healthy Kids Awesome Shapes Pasta with Chicken in Chicken Broth |
The videos were initally uploaded on 14 Oct 2016, but since they were switched from the unlisted visibility to public, the "published" date on Youtube bumped up to the moment of switching.
Nothing else appears in the login at present. Of note, El Mourouj is a city in Tunisia, linking into an ongoing theme. Also, the @Resist_Decay twitter tweeted: "ALERT: OUR HIGHEST SECURITY HAS BEEN COMPROMISED. ALL NETWORK ACTIVITY WILL BE SUSPENDED UNTIL THE INTRUDER IS EXCISED FROM THE SYSTEM."
Patrick Klepek, who wrote an article about the Eye Sigil-Frog Fractions 2 connection on Waypoint, received communications from someone claiming to be the Sigilmaster and appeared to talk about ARG relevant things. Austin Walker, also of Waypoint, had an exchange with that "Sigil Master Lorakis" too. Lorakis was well-versed in the ARG lore and proved his identity by pointing out a game with an undiscovered at that time sigil (that was planted in 2015). All the communications with the Sigil Master can be found in this google doc. Even thouhg being from the church, Lorakis denounces Zagmar and talks about the Empire as the glorious thing from the past. He wants people from our world to help save what remains of his people in the land Jixandlia, by searching for a portal that leads there. This might just mean searching for the Frog Fractions 2 the game.
This is an open line of investigation.
Indiecade 2015
In the 15 Oct. 2015 edition of Train Hot Dog; Episode 23: Accessory Bolt Holes for Camel, the spectrogram contained dots. When stacked, with the last line shifted one to the left, those dots produced some braille:
34 1' 30.5148 N 118 23' 36.1932 W These are the coordinates for Indiecade 2015. In THD 24:Flirting in Traffic, downloading the mp3 from trainhotdog.cool has an image in the ID3 tags that reads:
Looking for Riccardo Zacconi A tragicomedy in two acts
Jim often borrows the name of the CEO of Kings.com for badges at events such as GDC, with the badge tweeted here. At Indicade 2015, an ARGer approached Jim and Justin saying "seventeen"(suggested by RPP 62:Buff Wizard - "Red Pages Podcast reminds all Resistance members: If you don't open your communications with the #17, you may as well not open them at all"). They offered a choice of a Mario amiibo and a Luigi amiibo. The person selected the Luigi amiibo.
Eventually, on January 15, 2016 the Luigi amiibo was scanned into a Wii U. The owner of the Amiibo was "pastebin" and the name of the Amiibo was "DTP61rrp", leading to http://pastebin.com/DTP61rrp
The pastebin appeared to be the header information of email address [email protected] sending a "Note to self". This was the second reference to Gustav Klimt, the first being corruption in RPP Extrasode 3 Chatting with Jim that contained the following borgified image of his work known as "Woman in Gold":
The password reset question was "What is your mother's maiden name?" Finster, the maiden name of the real Gustav Klimt's mother, worked and entry was gained. Soon an email from [email protected] was received:
Hey Buddy You should be getting notification of a delivery of goods pretty soon. Central hopes to have it out within a week. Let me know if anything goes wrong. Stay frosty, Samuel PS: Tell Dwayne he still owes me a rematch on the court and that this time I'm bringing a ref to make sure he doesn't commit any personal fouls.
The account received another email not long after:
Hey chum, Here's your requisition order information. Hope you can put this to better use than the folks in the labs have been. Some weird stuff going on, but anything's worth it for the cause. We'll send you an update when the order ships out. Details Arriving: Wednesday, January 20 Ship to: Amazon Locker - Cerrito, El Cerrito Plaza Good luck out there, Samuel
Another email followed when people were eagerly planning on going as soon as they possibly could:
Dear chum, You should have your locker code soon. Wait for the code. You have a three day window. Stay frosty, Samuel
A user picked up the package and posted an imgur album of the contents. The package is addressed to "James A Crawford" and contains "One Pound Quartz Rock Crystal Healing", which is most likely this product on Amazon. This is considered an unsolved clue trail at this time.
Museum of Jurassic Technology Event
On 12 Jan 2016, while waiting to hear back about the Luigi amiibo, Justin tweeted that the Mario amiibo was "Free to a caring and loving home." When asked about shipping it, he said it had to be picked up in person. He also tweeted "Part of the qualifications of being "a good home" are knowing the places and times he can be obtained. Security.".
For THD 37: Top Ten Citrus Fruits, the thumbnail image when downloaded is the logo for the Museum of Jurassic Technology
On February 6, 2016, Justin streamed on twitchwith the Mario amiibo confirming he was still looking to give it away. RPP 68: Neil Degrasse Titan which featured Jim, the following was in the ID3 tags:
Genre: A secret hidden in the ID3 tags, hello there friends Comment: vzthe.pbz/cU1Fd6o
Running the comment through rot13, "imgur.com/pH1Sq6b" is found. This linked to a calendar that had a clock pointing to 2pm on February 18th, and a note that reads "Don't be late -No 6".
A picture was received by the gustav email from ltsamuel of a map with an arrow guiding from the entrance of the Museum of Jurassic Technology to a nearby park with a crown on it:
At this point, several references to chess had been made via Justin's twitter, along with a set of borgified images that had expanded to include a crow from Rachel Sala's tumblr (aka a Rook) and a horse image from twitter (aka Knight). In RPP 67: He is Number Zero, the podcast begins with "We move our pawn to g5". This is the opening move of the Borg Gambit, which came into play at the event.
When ARGers arrived at the event, Justin and a girl assumed to be Rachel Sala, the artist for Frog Fractions and Frog Fractions 2, had already set up a chess board with the pawn moved to g5. The Mario amiibo was the black king. When asked for the amiibo, Justin responded they had to win the chess game with Justin playing as black and the ARGers playing as white. Justin made some mistakes to allow for the ARGers to win. Then someone in a "tinfoil" hat and vest, saying something about the "time police" came and escorted them away. When asked if they needed help or should be followed, they replied "No". Accounts of the event are posted hereand here, and a brief video of Justin walking away with the chess set is available here.
The Mario amiibo is owned by "imgur" and named "a/e4RLf" leading to http://imgur.com/a/e4RLf , containing three posters presumed to be have been made by the resistance.
The next day, Rachel posted the images on her tumblr. When the images on the tumblr are downloaded and opened in Notepad, there are three camelCased words:
cyborgDirt distressedSparkles oldTree
DST appears the be the main reference, as Jim also talks about license plates with DST down the side in THD 43: Desolate Clovis and mentions it does not mean Daylight Savings Time in THD 44: GDC March Dog.
This is considered an unsolved trail of the ARG for now. All three posters can be viewed at Frog Fractions 2/Propaganda Posters, along with further details and analysis.
Indicade 2016
Background
On Sep 18, 2016, Justin streamed on his twitch channel and teased a box. He then emphasized going to Indiecade as he, Ryan Ike (the composer for Frog Fractions 2), Rachel Sala, and possibly Jim would be at the event. On Oct 12, 2016, he had another stream that also asked people to go to Indiecade, saying "the timeline could collapse in on itself." He also stated the box was only available at Indiecade and would be missed forever if no one obtained it and proceeded to count portraits on the game he was playing (HotS) and repeated when he got to the number 17 (which was the password for the previous Indiecade 2015 event as well).
On Oct 15, 2016, the box was obtained by a friend of an ARGer. The password was 17. They walked up to Justin, who had the box with him, said "Seventeen" and Justin gave him the box. Justin then said that the box should be kept approximately upright. Justin had tweeted the box and then tweeted "Claimed" the same day. Justin has since said (on twitch) people "got played" about the box, it doesn't sound like the box he gave out, and the person who approached him said "12 and then 17".
Of note, Ashby Brewery tweeted during Indiecade: "Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio is pleased to announce we are the beverage of the IndieCade Festival 2016."
Contents
On Oct 24, 2016, the box was opened. The contents are as follows:
One plain wooden box, weighing 65.6 grams and measuring ~18cm tall One unopened Strawberry Baby Bottle Pop Some moss/lichen (likely fake) Four small skulls Some sand covering up One day of the dead skull maze (nothing revealed open deconstruction) Sparkle tape on the lid, holding the maze in place, and inside the lid
For all images related to the box, see Frog_Fractions_2/Indiecade2016box
UV writing
A couple weeks after Indiecade 2016, on a suggestion from a friend, the user who obtained the box subjected it to a UV light, and discovered a large amount of writing. The top contained a series of numbers, while the sides contained text in Russian Cyrillic.
The Cyrillic translates to "Yes/No" and "See", while the numbers are:
9730098228905583 269874686586084998 81637310991215244 175564364133957374 51648068005811729 13136598424620810
On further investgation of the box's contents, the skulls were also found to each have a Cyrillic letter on them, seemingly corresponding the four points of the Russian compass;
Lower right - С - North Lower left - В - East Upper left - Ю - South Upper right - З - West
Following Justin's Nov 7th stream where his camera appeared upside down, additional writing was discovered on the bottom of the box and the inner lid.
The bottom of the box appears to say Zagmar we know what you are doing and we don't want your help - A
The inner lid of the box, translating from russian:
Ha Ha Ha! You've been tricked! 97300982289905583 We are dying from laughter
The number almost matches the first line of numbers on the top of the box, however, contains one additional 9. This was the correction to the number on the lid, probably the number was written with an accidental (or deliberate) mistake.
After using hints from the box and passing the numbers through binary, Braille and the Playfair cipher (see Frog_Fractions_2/Indiecade2016box), the resulting message is go to Twitter at IsTheJigUpYet
IsTheJigUpYet's tweet - A return to Bug Mars
Within a day of solving the box, at 2016-11-19 00:00 PST IsTheJigUpYet tweeted a URL (szk.cp/2x3BKJB, that's bit.ly/2g3KTSK in ROT9) to a channel A Flesh Virtuosi Worm (anagram of From Russia With Love), which at that moment only had Мы положим киндзу во все!!! (We put cilantro in everything!!!), a silent film style video featuring apparent Russians discussing time travel, the recent acquisition of a box, and drinking Ashby beer. The video is unlisted, but included in the playlist on that channel.
The channel descriptions states "Теперь вы можете увидеть!" (Now you can see!) followed buy a large block of characters. The characters are Base64 for a PNG of a barcode, the barcode links to a pastebin of more Base64, which translates to a PNG of a QR code, with is itself Base64 for a data matrix, this time leading to a final pastebin, containing a large set of co-ordinates.
Mapping out the sets of co-ordinates on a map draws Cyrillic characters reading "Не забудьте выпить ваш Овальтине" - Loosly translated to "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine". In case you don't know that's a meme about secret encrypted stuff being just a crummy commercial, it was used many times by people solving Eye Sigil ARG. However, that's not all about them. Each letter was rendered by a group of coordinates that differed from the starting one by integer amounts, even though they had a long decimal part and were placed in specific places on the land. The first ones were even marked by bold (<b></b>). They lead to the datamoshed Zagmar image (see below).
Returning to the video, at one point one of the characters is seen viewing another Youtube channel - The Museum of Relics of Extinct Timelines of Bug Mars. The channel's name A Fiend Bronzes Mugs is an anagram of Denizens of Bug Mars.
This channel contains next videos (first four were present when the channel was revealed):
| Video link and title | Published | Duration | Our description | Timeline: DS | Timeline: LaS | "Contributor" | any extra description | Image source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bug Mars | 2016-11-07 | 01:37 | A Star Wars scroll on the goings on of Bug Mars. | 29 (#16) | 111221 (#5) | FCARGO, Tyrexicaldilemma | n/a | |
| Graves of Fallen Soldiers | 2016-11-11 | 00:05 | A still image of what appears to be an display case with bugs (mirrored and colour-shifted). | 38 (#19) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | TyrexicalDilemma | ||
| Bugs Eat Bread | 2016-11-11 | 02:40 | A song about the food chain of Bug Mars. The video description comes complete with lyrics and chords. The image is a mirrored and colour-shifted image of a tree-hopper with broccoli on the head. The song was created by Natalie Lowell and the contributor's name refers to them. | 41 (#22) | 312211 (#6) | "Nothing But Centipede Legs" NatDog Lowell | (song lyrics with chords) | treehopper |
| "Night Falls on New New New Termite Town City" | 2016-11-18 | 00:05 | A still image of termite mounds (presumably mirrored and colour-shifted). | 68 (#35) | 31131211131221 (#9) | Anonymous | Medium: oil on canvas | |
| "Soldiers Marching in Formation" | 2016-11-19 | 00:05 | A still images of bugs moving in a circle. | 59 (#30) | 312211 (#6) | Bug-Eye Bobo III | Medium: photograph; Location: unknown | |
| "Mound City" | 2016-11-19 | 00:05 | A still image of a termite mound (presumably mirrored and colour-shifted). Wikipedia:Utopia Planitia is a real place on Mars (note the different spelling). | 49 (#25) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | Sphecidae Hexapodium | Medium: acrylic on canvas; Location: south-central Utopia Planatia | |
| Dirge: Decay | 2016-11-20 | 04:43 | A time-lapse video of a bug zapper, accompanied by an ambient/electro song, lyrics in the description. The song features a bunch of clicks. The description was updated multiple times (about 4 right now) to also include blocks of words "click" arranged differently. This was probably a hint to us because we were not trying to decode the clicks. On 2016-11-25 Randomiser with help of The Spu decoded the clicks to be binary (left channel 1, right channel 0): We are beyond help, but your timeline's Jim is not safe. Save him. Save him.. The music was created by Dan Warren and the contributor's name refers to them.
|
34 (#18) | 31131211131221 (#9) | Dan "Nocticola thaumasia" Warren | [click click click click] [click click click click] (song lyrics) | |
| "Nostalgia for Home" | 2016-11-20 | 00:05 | A still image of termite mounds (mirrored and colour-shifted). Ismenius Lacus is one of the quadrangles used to map Mars. Amitermes is a latin name for a genus of termites. | 60 (#31) | 111221 (#5) | [Unknown; reproductive caste of Queen 416A1N-sw] | Medium: oil on canvas; Location: North of Ismenius Amitermes Lacus | termite mounds |
| Graves of Fallen Soldiers | 2016-11-21 | 00:05 | A still image of a bug display case (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). | 34 (#18) | 312211 (#6) | |||
| Graves of the Fallen | 2016-11-21 | 00:05 | A still image of a bug display case (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). | 64 (#33) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | |||
| "Welcome to the Colony" | 2016-11-23 | 00:05 | A still image of something like ant hills (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). Hellas Planitia is a real crater on Mars. | 50 (#26) | 111221 (#5) | Sphex Rex | Medium: cast mud and concrete; Location: Hellas Bumpy | |
| "Houses of the Damned (part 1)" | 2016-11-23 | 00:10 | A still image of a leaf with two galls (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). Phoebe in the contributor's name might be a reference to one of the Mars's moons, Phobos. | 39 (#20) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | "Lips" (A.M. Phoebe) Bolips | Medium: cast acryllic; Location: unknown | |
| When the Bugs Finally Learned to Time Travel | 2016-11-24 | 02:38 | An instrumantal music track. Description contains yjbcnkrw.lxv/0Mf39riT, which is ROT17 for http://pastebin.com/0Dw39izK (see below for the solution). The music was created by Crotchthrottle and the contributor's name refers to them.
|
59 (#30) | 111221 (#5) | Crotchthrottle (the Buggening) | Media: mixed; audio recording, visuals, yjbcnkrw.lxv/0Mf39riT | |
| "Horns of the Pinky Demon (Aralia rosa, botanical record 043901793)" | 2016-11-25 | 00:10 | A still image of something on a leaf (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). The description mentions Union Aerospace Corporation, which is a fictional company from Doom, so the Pinky Demon is probably also a reference to it. | 38 (#19) | 111221 (#5) | unknown | Medium: plaster; Location: unknown (possibly exoplanetary in origin); Note: On loan from the Union Aerospace Corporation | |
| "Moth's Rest" | 2016-11-25 | 00:10 | A still image of a leaf vines closeup with something on them (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). Tharcyst might be a reference to the Tharsis plateau. | 29 (#16) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | Sly and the Family Gracillariidae | Medium: pastel on paper; Location: NE Tharcyst | |
| "Portals to Spiderland" | 2016-11-26 | 00:10 | A still image of grass and entrance to a ground spider nest unders a stone (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). Hellas Planitia is a real crater on Mars. The contributor's name might be a reference to Mygalomorphae, an infraorder of spiders. | 38 (#19) | 312211 (#6) | Miguel O. Morf | Medium: photograph; Location: Hellas Bumpy | |
| "Somewhere in the Heavens They Are Waiting" | 2016-11-26 | 00:10 | A still image of a closeup on a bush branch with something on them (assumed mirrored and colour-shifted). Description mentions UESC, which might be a reference to Marathon game series. UESC Marathon ship there is converted from Deimos, one of Mars's moons. | 65 (#34) | 111221 (#5) | unknown | Medium: wood; Location: unknown; Note: On loan from the collection of the UESC | |
| "Sofia, the Space Traveling Argentine Horned Frog" | 2016-11-27 | 05:20 | A song about Sofia the frog and her travels to Bug Mars. No lyrics in the description this time. The image is a mirrored and colour-shifted collage of photos of an argentine horned frog and Gagarin during his historical flight. The video was initially posted without lyrics, but it was added into the description after discord user The Spu transcribed it, later even adding credit to him. The song is an original song by http://www.carlisleevanspeck.com/ Carlisle Evan Peck], so the contributor's name reference to them. | 64 (#33) | 312211 (#6) | Coleopteran Carlisle, Full of Grace | Media: mixed; audio, oil on canvas; (song lyrics) | gagarin, argentine horned frog |
| "Real Bugs Don't Eat Quiche" | 2016-11-29 | 00:09 | An artwork of something like a cockroach on some sort of plate. Might not be colour-shifter or mirrored. This is the first video with the safe undestroyed artifact number. This number links to a book called "Planet of the bugs" (by Scott Richard Shaw, published in 2014, Google Books preview). Note the prologue being called Time Travel with Insects. The page 126 for it is this and it has a header saying Real Bugs Don't Eat Quiche at the top. After the video was posted Justin wrote in chat That video does not seem canon. It appears to be from a timeline with which I am unfamiliar. er. I've said too much | 59 (#30) | 13112221 (#7) | Stu R. Norrhyncha | Medium: watercolor on paper; Location: unknown; Artifact number: [QL 468.7.S53 2014 p.126] | |
| "Cyborgs Are the Soldiers of Tomorrow" | 2016-11-30 | 00:10 | Grayish staticky background with schematic outlines of human body shapes with letters R, D, M, C on their chests. The artifact number links to a book called "Foibles of insects and men" (by William Morton Wheeler, published in 1928). Although, the book itself is a bit hard to come by, the page 5 is from "The Physiognomy of insects" chapter that was also separately published by that author and is easier to find and does feature the illustration that was used in the video. | 59 (#30) | 1113213211 (#8) | unknown | Medium: chiseled granite; Location: Cyprinid Major; Artifact number: [QL463.W5 p.5] | book illustration |
| "The Bee All and Ent. All" | 2016-12-01 | 00:10 | A closeup on a (golden?) depiction of a scarab beetle. The artifact number links to a book "Fabre's book of insects" (retold from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Fabre's "Souvenirs entomologiques", by Jean-Henri Fabre, published in 1935) | 59 (#30) | 31131211131221 (#9) | Fabre | Medium: gold embossed canvass; Location: unknown; Artifact number: [QL 467. F18 p.42] | |
| "A Warning from the Vermicious Knids" | 2016-12-01 | 00:10 | An orange-on-green depiction of a wasp. The artifact number links to a book Keys to the Insects of the European USSR. Volume V Pt.2 (by Boris Evseevich Bykhovskiĭ, Gleb Sergeevich Medvedev and Grigoriĭ I︠A︡kovlevich Beĭ-Bienko, published in 1988). The contributor "Dahl" refers to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in which Charlie and Willy Wonka encounter the Vermicious Knids. | 59 (#30) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | Dahl | Medium: embossed gold on canvas; Location: Lunamoth Palus; Artifact number: [QL482.R9 K413 v.5 pt.2 p.1093] | |
| "Speak! Mnemnonia" | 2016-12-01 | 00:10 | An orange-on-blue depiction of a beetle. The artifact number links to a book The pleasures of entomology: portraits of insects and the people who study them (by Howard Ensign Evans, published in 1985). Page 29 starts a chapter about the Lovebug. Argyre Planitia is a real plain on Mars. The contributor was originally Evans Nabs Lovebugs, but description changed at some point. The title and the contributor's name are a reference to Speak, autobiographical memoir by writer Vladimir Nabokov who was an amateur entomologist. | 59 (#30) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | Evans Nabugov Lovebugs | Medium: gold and paint embossed canvas; Location: Argyre and gimble (in the wabe); Artifact number: [QL 463.E932 1985 p.29] | |
| Graves of the Fallen | 2016-12-03 | 00:10 | A display case of butterflies | 49 (#25) | 13112221 (#7) | unknown | Medium: photograph; Location: unknown | |
| Houses of the Damned (part 6) | 2016-12-03 | 00:10 | Some plant leaves with something probably ant-colony related on them (colour-shifted and presumably mirrored). Myrmecophyte is a plant that lives in a mutualistic association with a colony of ants. Crematogaster is a genus of ants. | 40 (#21) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | Myron Mecophyte and "Crem" Ato Gaster | Medium: cast acryllic; Location: unknown | |
| "To Carve, Perchance to Dream" | 2016-12-04 | 00:10 | Some lines on some wood? May be colour-shifted or mirrored. The title is a reference to the well-known Hamlet soliloquy. The contributor's name references Julodis, which is a genus of beetles in the family Buprestidae. Initially DS was listed as 40 (#21), but later updated since it coincided with the previous one. | 41 (#22) | 31131211131221 (#9) | Julodis Beau Prestid | Medium: wood; Location: unknown | |
| "Otoshibumi boomy boomy (wink)" | 2016-12-05 | 00:10 | Colour-shifted still of some leaves. Contributor's name refers to curculio – a genus of weevils belonging the family Curculionidae and subfamily Curculioninae. The title of the video – probably to Otoshibumi Yummy, a leaf-rolling antagonist weevil from japanese TV series/manga Kamen Rider. | 44 (#24) | 111221 (#5) | [Family of the Curcu Lion] | Medium: oil on velvet; Location: South Dipteracria | |
| "Spider Base 3" | 2016-12-06 | 04:10 | Another song, similair in style to Dirge: Decay (and from Dan Warren once again). The image is a negative of a spider with words "BASE/3" at the bottom. When a series of notes from the right channel that start about 00:50 are transcribed and converted to numbers, treating C as 1 (107 145 155 151 156 151 40 141 156 144 40 112 141 156 165 163 40 163 141 154 165 164 145 40 171 157 165), and then processed through base8 (a.k.a. octal, a.k.a. "spider base"), the message is Gemini and Janus salute you, the names of two famous twins and famous astronomy names as well. Justin many times mentioned them working on FF2 and their names were added to the list of ARG devs on the wikia in November. After this was solved, the "Note" in the description changed from "Note: From the collection of ????????" to what it is now. | 34 (#18) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | Dan "Nocticola thaumasia" Warren | Medium: mixed; audio, ink on paper; Location: Sinus Argiope Sabaeus; Note: From the collection of Janus, Gemini, and Monsieur le Baroni; (lyrics) | |
| "Greetings from the Pickle-Mayonnaise Continuum" | 2016-12-07 | 00:12 | Distorted image of three rows of Baby Bottle Pop candy with some text over it. Originally the title of the video was just "Greetings", but it was changed at some point. | 38 (#19) | 31131211131221 (#9) | unknown | Medium: postcard (printed matter); Location: unknown | |
| "Spiral Out; Keep Going" | 2016-12-07 | 00:12 | Spirally image, colours are heavily dithered. | 29 (#16) | 31131211131221 (#9) | TyrexicalDilemma | Medium: paper; Location: unknown | |
| "How I Lust for Your Sweet Embrace" | 2016-12-08 | 00:12 | Image of something, maybe underside of a pill bug. | 32 (#17) | 1113213211 (#8) | [redacted] | Medium: oil on canvas; Location: unknown | |
| "Love Is the Slug I've Been Thinking of" | 2016-12-09 | 00:10 | Image of a slug in some grass (colour-shifted, mirrored maybe). | 29 (#16) | 1113213211 (#8) | L. Arion Ater | Medium: photograph in the other spectrums; Location: ubiquitous | |
| "The Unbearable Sawdust of Larvae" | 2016-12-09 | 00:10 | Image of some bug larvae tunnels in the wood (colour-shifted, mirrored maybe). The contributor name probably refers to Buprestidae also known as jewel beetles and as metallic wood-boring beetles. | 32 (#17) | 13112221 (#7) | B. Jeweled Beetell | Medium: wood; Location: Mare Scarabaeidae Tyrrhenum | |
| "Variegated Scarlet Ribbitar" | 2016-12-09 | 00:10 | Image of a damaged leaf, colour-shifted, maybe mirrored. The video title and the description heavily referenced Homestuck: the Scarlet Ribbitar is a sword combined with a red frog, contributor's name refers to its creator Andrew Hussia and the Incipisphere is a quasi-magical dimension Homestuck takes place in. ARG chat discussed Homestuck a bit a day before the video was posted. | 68 (#35) | 312211 (#6) | Some Bug Hussie | Medium: steel and pressed wood; Location: Surrounding the Incipisphere | |
| "I Left My Eggs in San Bugcisco" | 2016-12-09 | 00:10 | Some bug eggs on a leaf, colour-shifted, maybe mirrored. The title is a reference to a popular song I Left My Heart in San Francisco. | 65 (#34) | 1113213211 (#8) | Glossata Opinionata via Rain Robinson | Medium: cast acrylic and eggs; Location: Millennium Gate | |
| "Ragnasaurth Was Very Tall, And Crushed Us Like..." | 2016-12-10 | 00:12 | Some bugs on some leaves. The title of this video and two next references the text from joshua's login. | 56 (#29) | 111221 (#5) | unknown | Medium: distortions of the ultraviolet spectrum; Location: ubiquitous | |
| "Faces of the Hounds of Sarnath" | 2016-12-11 | 00:10 | An image of either a plant or a bug that looks like a face? "Hounds of Sarnath" is another reference to the text from joshua's login. The video was originally titled "Faces of the Hound of Sarnath" on upload. | 41 (#22) | 1113213211 (#8) | [redacted] | Medium: oil on wood; Location: [redacted] | |
| "Ilthor's Sorcery Surrounded Us" | 2016-12-11 | 00:10 | White countours image of a cocoon on a spiked plant. Originally the video's name was 20161126 slide06, but was changed within a minute. Like the previous videos, "Ilthor" is mentioned in the same text from the joshua login. | 38 (#19) | 13112221 (#7) | [redacted] | Medium: bent waves of the chronosphere; Location: [N/A] | |
| "Gleeok's Visage Too Multifaceted to Depict" | 2016-12-12 | 00:10 | A negative image of a large tree nymph butterfly. "Gleeok" is the thir of the hounds of Sarnath. | 51 (#27) | 111221 (#5) | [redacted] | Medium: unknown substances; Location: [redacted] | |
| "Thorgan Set Us to Flame, Reduced Us to Cinders" | 2016-12-12 | 00:10 | A colour-shifted closeup image of an insect. "Thorgan" seems to be the fouth hound of Sarnath, not mentioned in the text from the joshua login. The video was originally titled 47 on upload, but the title was swiftly changed. | 49 (#25) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | [redacted] | Medium: fire; Location: [redacted] | |
| "Zagmar (Suite 1)" | 2016-12-13 | 01:18 | Sixth music track on the channel. The image is a still of the bug in shifted colours and a limited palette. The music trac was created by Irakli Gabriel from Anana Kaye (as referenced by the contributor's name too), but the description also has a broken tinyurl link: tinyurl.com/aytq4oc — rotated with ROT9 (that was used in the ARG before) it leads to the Facebook page post on Denizens of Bug Mars about writing this music track. We haven't found the FB page before, so the PMs have caught us up with this. | 64 (#33) | 13112221 (#7) | Iraklidae Gabugriel | Media: mixed; audio and electronic visual | |
| "Houses of the Damned (Part 8)" | 2016-12-14 | 00:12 | Image of something on a leaf. | 52 (#28) | 11 (#2) | Mothra-Idae | Medium: sewn leaves; Location: unknown | |
| "The Lens Through Which We See the World Is Also The Web In Which We Reside" | 2016-12-14 | 00:12 | Distorted image of a spider web. | 32 (#17) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | Tennesseellum Domer | Medium: silk; Location: NW Iapygia | |
| "The Moebius Orb Web of Celestial Harmony" | 2016-12-14 | 00:12 | Image of a spider web. | 41 (#22) | 111221 (#5) | Araneus D. Adematus | Medium: silk; Location: East Melanogaster Acidalium | |
| "The Secret Life" | 2016-12-15 | 00:12 | An image of a creosote gall midge, latin name Asphondylia (that's what the contributor's name refers to). | 49 (#25) | 1113213211 (#8) | Ass Fondilia | Medium: fungus and host; Location: Arabia | |
| "Cynthia Wore the Prettiest Dress" | 2016-12-15 | 00:10 | An image of a bug on a plant branch. | 49 (#25) | 312211 (#6) | "Crazy" Crazy "Bug" Bug | Medium: oil on canvas; Location: Purple Palus | |
| "Houses of the Damned (Part 3)" | 2016-12-15 | 00:18 | An overbloomed image of tree leaves. | 68 (#35) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | Sir David F. Antyburrow | Medium: paper; Location: Central Coleoprates | |
| "Still Life with Frass" | 2016-12-16 | 00:10 | Colour-chifted image of the frass of gypsy moth caterpillar (Lymantria dispar) | 61 (#32) | 311311222113111231131112132112311321322112111312211312111322212311322113212221 (#15) | Heimlich von Heimlich | Medium: oil on canvas; Location: Tyrrhenum Rex | frass |
| "Castings of the Spice-Bearers of Arrakis" | 2016-12-16 | 00:12 | Colour-shifted image of insect stuff. | 32 (#17) | 111221 (#5) | Froghopper Herbert | Medium: poop, obviously; Location: all desert ecosystems | |
| "Look at That S Car Go!" | 2016-12-17 | 00:18 | Colour-shifted image of a snail. Haplotrema is a genus of carnivorous land snails. The title is part of the joke about escargot — a cooked land snail. | 29 (#16) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | Haplotrema Raymond J Szwed | Medium: photograph (on Leica camera); Location: Elysium | |
| "The Sin of Loving Too Much" | 2016-12-17 | 00:18 | An insect on a flower. | 42 (#23) | 111221 (#5) | Gemini Figeater | Medium: UV photograph; Location: Love is All Around | |
| "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Cocoon" | 2016-12-17 | 00:18 | A butterfly chrysalis (not actually a cocoon) in shifted colours. Pavonis Mons is a real location on Mars. The title is a reference to the song "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon" by The Flaming Lips (band name referenced by the contributor). | 41 (#22) | 13112221 (#7) | The Planing Ips | Medium: Chrysalis and chitin; Location: Pavonis Mons | |
| "It's the Trees of This Day That I Do Battle With For the Light" | 2016-12-18 | 00:18 | Colour-inverted image of nasturtiums (leaves and flowers). Melampsora medusae is a fungal pathogen, causing a disease of woody plants. The title is a quote from lyrics of "Fireworks" by Animal Collective (band name referenced by the contributor). | 42 (#23) | 11131221131211131231121113112221121321132132211331222113112211 (#14) | Collection of Animalia | Medium: Wood, vines, other; Location: Melampsora Medusae Fossae | |
| "Cutting Holes in the Face of the Moon Base" | 2016-12-18 | 00:18 | Heavily processed black and white image of what looks like a badger skull. The title is a reference to lyrics of "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters" by MGMT (band name referenced by the contributor). | 49 (#25) | 111221 (#5) | The management | Medium: pen and ink; Location: Off planet (Phobos) | |
| "Love Hurts" | 2016-12-18 | 00:18 | Colour-inverted image of a caterpillar. Title could be a reference to a song, since they have been that for a while. | 41 (#22) | 13211311123113112211 (#10) | unknown | Medium: linoleum print; Location: unknown | |
| "Lemme Give You What You Want Want Want" | 2016-12-19 | 00:18 | Colour-shifted image of a bug. The title can be a reference to a song. The location might be a reference to Valles Marineris, a system of canyons east of the Tharsis region on Mars. | 38 (#19) | 1113213211 (#8) | unknown | Medium: oil on other oil; Location: Varroa Marineris | |
| "They Appeared As Angels Would (Tribute to the Fallen)" | 2016-12-19 | 00:18 | A colour-inverted image of three butterflies behind the glass of a display case. The contributor's name is a reference to Atticus Finch, a character from To Kill a Mockingbird (Fringillidae is the latin name for finch, a bird), while also being the reference to Attacus atlas or Atlas moth that is in the image. Beer and Mädler are both real craters on Mars. | 29 (#16) | 312211 (#6) | Attacus Fringillidae | Medium: air, the kind you migrate on; Location: The Line of Beer and Mädler | |
| "The Soldiers As They Marched Into the Sparkles" | 2016-12-19 | 00:18 | Silhouettes of two bugs in front of whirled parts of image, probably the time-travelling portals. For a brid moment upon uploading the title was 58: "The Soldiers As They Marched Into the Sparkles". | 27 (#14) | 1113213211 (#8) | The Good Lady Chalcosoma | Medium: watercolor; Location: Arcadia central | |
| "No Buggy Knows (Frogs Flew Through the Stars)" | 2016-12-19 | 02:45 | A new song about frogs riding dragons like cars (who knew they would make it to Mars)! The image is a painting of a frog travelling in a cabriolet car towards Mars. The song was created by J.P. Cappiello and the contributor's name refers to them (combining with Caprimulgidae). | 65 (#34) | 11131221133112132113212221 (#11) | J.P. Caprimulgid | Medium: mixed; audio, tempera on canvas; Location: recovered from multiple radio stations, globally |
DS looks to be the sequence of numbers surviving the Decaying sieve (list), as hinted by the silent film. The positions of these numbers in the sequence are marked in the above table. In the silent film the number on the wall is #12.
LaS numbers in the descriptions of videos are from the Look-and-say sequence (list). The positions of these numbers in the sequence are marked in the above table. In the silent film the number on the wall is #3.
With the exception of the silent movie wall poster, the points seem to be contained in a rectangle from DS#16 to DS#35 and LaS#5 to #11. The general map of the DS/LaS dots can be found here. They are clearly on their way to spell "BUTTS".
Thanksgiving pastebin
The contents of the pastebin linked in the description of the music video from 24 Nov 2016 are as follows:
>"?W",vv"nfinit"<. >"ekr"#v"ut ea",^. ,v"f i"<>"eht si"v ^"hys"<>:v,,,,,,,< @o#V^,.v#>,,,,,,,v >"nuos "^v,,,,,,,< ,>" d t"v>,,,,,,,v ^:#,#^#,<@^v,,,,,< .v,"o","G!"<#,,:,v ^>"elb":,,,^>,^@#<
This is a Befunge program. When run, it will print What's the sound of infinite turkeys?GobblGobblGobblGobbl (the part Gobbl is repeated forever in an infinite loop). Taking into account when it was posted, this little puzzle is probably a Thanksgiving greeting to us.
N.B. The program was supposed to output Gobble! infinitely, but the infinite loop lacks two more commas, last two characters are infinitely pushed into the stack and not printed.
Soon after solving this, @RESIST_DECAY tweeted that Operation Gobbledrop was successful.
Closed for repairs
On 2016-12-02 the A Fiend Bronzes Mugs channel updated with a 26 seconds still video that didn't fit with the others: CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. The image resembles a youtube "video not available" screen, but with a word "CEIKLMORS" and a playlist. The description just says "This video or playlist does not exist."
- Rogue Wave -- In the Morning
- The Jesus and Mary Chain -- Commercial
- Alabama Shakes -- Heavy Chevy
- Psychostick -- Numbers
- David Bowie -- Five Years
- The Flaming Lips -- Your Bats
- Florence + The Machine -- Between Two Lungs
- Rammstein -- Du Hast
- Ben Folds Five -- Brick
- Idlewild -- Bronze Medal
- Radiohead -- All I Need
- Chromeo -- Fancy Footwork
Letters in "CEIKLMORS" are alphabetized. The length of the video is also a reference to the alphabet.
All of the songs mention some digit number (including "nine" for Du Hast, full list here). Taking the letters with those numbers from "CEIKLMORS" gives "ROCKLEESMILE".
It referred to a popular Youtuber by the name RockLeeSmile. At the same time with "the Closed For Repairs" video, one was uploaded to his channel – Resident Evil 7 - Don't Let Appearances Mislead You. If the sound of this video is sped up and amplified, boxing: a history can be heard, a text from the first Frog Fractions game. At 0:16, just above the hand in the white light are the numbers 35.955 and at 1:34 there are some numbers in the bottom right: -83.93. These end up being the coordinates for a library at a branch of the University of Tennessee. This library happens to house a copy of Keys to the Insects of the European USSR. Volume V Pt.2, a relatively uncommon book linked in the description of "A Warning from the Vermicious Knids". Moreso, all of the books mentioned by the artifact numbers since the "Real Bugs Don't Eat Quiche" video appear to be in this library and even on the same shelf.
Denizens of Bug Mars Facebook
We were probably supposed to find it after solving the anagram of the youtube channel name — there is also a facebook page for "Denizens of Bug Mars". The first post is from 31 Oct 2016 and it's posting nearly daily. The page was only discovered on 14 Dec 2016.
It features posts with the same kind of processed images as in the videos. Sometimes the images are even identical.
On the post from 19 Nov 2016 there's a code 6uCuB7Rc and a hint to paste it in, leading to pastebin.com/6uCuB7Rc:
Mr. Vigen Ere, Thank you :g your interest in our :hfdtf company. Your :vrfk comes at a good :time, as there is a space :in our dots and :dashes division. It is a :fun and exciting :place of work, and we feel :you will be quite :the asset to the team. :The szdx of :opportunity is open, and I think :from your friendly letter :that you will fit very :well in between our :existing zv projects. As luck :would have it, we :have one space in dots, :and two in dashes. :Do either of these wulxkxzurz :suit your needs? If :so, please write back as soon :as time allows :and let us know if :we'll have the pleasure of :working with you in the :future. I sincerely hope you :are able to make the :most of this :offer. Hoping you'll join our path, Jpvvvpvy :Traveler
Taking a hint about dots and dashes and counting the spaces as dots, double spaces as dashes and colons as separators, we got:
.-../...--/.--/.----/...../.-../--.../.--/-..../.-../-..../.--/-..../.-../....-/.--/....-/.-../-..../.--/---../.-../...--/.--/.----/-..../.-../.----/...--/.--/..---
Which, translating from morse is L3 W15 L7 W6 L6 W6 L4 W4 L6 W8 L3 W16 L13 W 2. Now, taking those as "line number N, word number M", we get:
good luck from a friendly time Traveler
If you write down all "random letters"-like incorrect words: g hfdtf vrfk szdx zv wulxkxzurz Jpvvvpvy. Deciphering them with Vigenere using the "good luck..." string as the key:
a trail that ends in shimmering Sparkles
Library notes
On 03 Dec 2016 our agent (eltrov's brother) went to the John C Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee. All the five specified books had a same little note at the specidied pages saying 4kmVdND3. That's an url for pastebin: pastebin.com/4kmVdND3, titled "A note forever voyaging" with text:
However you made it here, it must have been an astounding feat. I'll be brief; I cannot post anything obvious here. A certain level of obfuscation is... required. A box was stolen from us. Or, depending on your perspective, many boxes at many times. There was a password associated with this box; email it to me through a secure channel. You may have been searching for something... something beyond the reward of the journey itself. Or not; I obviously can't know your motivations. [email protected]
Eltrov emailed "17" (a password that was used at Indicade) at that address and later got a reply from jiggy withit:
Alors! -- "Eux aussi voyageaient dans le Temps, et plus facilement. Maintenant ils étaient là et lui proposaient de l'accepter parmi eux. Mais sa requête fut differente : plutôt que cet avenir pacifié, il demandait qu'on lui rende le monde de son enfance...."
This french text roughly translates as They too were traveling in time, and more easily, and now they were there and offered to accept him among them, but his request was different: rather than that pacified future, he demanded that the world should be restored to him from his childhood.... and is from the script of french movie La Jetée. Alors! means So!.
Same reply was to another user emailing "17". Emailing "callipygian" didn't return a reply initially.
About three days later everyone else got a reply appropriate to what they sent. All the emails had the same La Jetée quote as the signature. Reply to "12" was "Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire?" ("What does it mean?"). Reply to "callipygian" was "Comme c'est désagréable!" ("That's unpleasant!"). Reply to a joke about butts and 17 was "Des culs à vous aussi, monsieur! Je l'ai perdu! Zut!" ("Butts to you too, sir! I lost it! Heck!"). A question if there's anything we could do to help with the box got a reply "C'est inutile, j'ai tout perdu!" ("It's useless, I've lost everything!")
People have been writing in a lot (including just sending "butts" jokes) and asking different questions, like "what's your favorite soup?" or what this person has to do with Zagmar. We got to know that they "do English, pro 100%" and eventually everyone was asked about password with just "17" or "seventeen" being the correct answer. There appeared to be some hiatus from someone named "dag" (Tell whoever is "dag" to get his act together so we can move forward.). Finally on 2016-12-08 everyone was sent the same letter (their addresses were in BCC), from the same account but renamed festival of yellowrumps:
we will move forward We will move forward without the Swedish diplomat, if necessary. Do not feel the need to respond to this. I will be traveling among timelines and will leave the instructions in a timed autoresponder. Your questions tell me that you have not ascertained my identity, and that you are fast and loose with information in what might be an insecure channel. Accusing me of being the enemy. Asking for my favorite soup. It is perplexing to me that I must depend on you... you overly familiar, cussing, security-breaching louts to save our timelines, including your own! Are you really the same humans who made it all the way to my note? Ah, don't answer. Sometimes we must drink white wine with roast, for it is all that is available....
The timed autoresponder might mean just more videos from the "Denizens of Bug Mars" youtube channel. But in any case, we should probably stop emailing this account.
Helping TimeTraveler0451
Sacrebleu
On 2016-12-09 we got another email from festival of yellowrumps titled confidential:
Les fous- I have been tracking the thieves who stole my belongings. These people are trying to aid the enemy and bring the Decay. We cannot allow this to happen. I found this file, and I believe it will lead us to them, or at least to something they took from me. I cannot understand this file without some alternate reading that I can count on to make sense. I'm a very basic person, no ability to look and say what is happening here. I'll need to ask for your assistance, because nothing here adds up. Whatever you find, be sure to email back to me. This channel is secure, I believe, at least for now. I will return to this timeline "soon," in your relative understanding.
Attached was an image titled sacre.png
Its blue channel is actually just readable text bytes instead of the picture. If read column by column it becomes this. You can recognize it been a Lorem Ipsum with this inserted:
BEGINNINGOFMESSAGE:JKTTU JUJAAJT JUJKTK JUKTKJ JKBATT TKTJT JKJTUJ JKUTKJ JUTKJAA JUJKUJ JUTJU JUJKJT TKJJTJ JKTTKJ JALAJKJK JKUJKT JBKAJKT JUKTU TKTTJ JKTTT TUJUJ TUTT JUJUJK JUJKTAA JUJUKJ JUKJKJK JKAAKJKT JUTKJK JKUTU JUKJKT JUJUU ENDOFMESSAGE
Turning the letters of the message into numbers (A=1, B=2, etc):
1011202021 102110111020 102110112011 102111201110 1011212020 2011201020 101110202110 101121201110 102120111011 102110112110 1021201021 102110111020 201110102010 101120201110 10112110111011 101121101120 102111101120 1021112021 2011202010 1011202020 2021102110 20212020 102110211011 102110112011 102110211110 10211110111011 10111111101120 102120111011 1011212021 102111101120 1021102121
Usign the Look-and-say technique that was hinted in the email (10 → 0, 11→ 1, 20 → 00, 21 → 11):
01000011 01101000 01101001 01110010 01110000 00100000 01000110 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100011 01101000 00100000 01000010 01110101 01110100 01110100 01110011 00100000 01000000 00110110 00110000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101111
Converting binary into ASCII: Chirp French Butts @60minutesto
That twitter account is for a room escape games facility in Portland, Oregon. They have a room escape titled "Spark of Resistance" and it's about missing agents and starts with the developer being kidnapped by time travelers. Their website features a rotary phone, and sacre.png looks to be based on a photo taken there. Also, an employee of this room escape helped us with the amiibo back in the day.
They "liked" all the French butts tweets that people sent to them. One of the people also got a private message saying Hello! Will you (or a representative) be in Portland, Oregon in the next few days? (That is--you and up to 7 other people). They said, they'll arrange a special session outside of their regular hours and it will be free.
Room Escape Run
Another email from festival of yellowrumps arrived on 10 Dec 2016, titled be very careful in your next steps:
Ah, this is very bad news. They have taken my belongings to the land of stable Portals. This is a very dangerous place, one in which you can be trapped. Potentially, forever, and in all timelines. Let me explain: It is difficult to open a portal; it requires heavy clockwork, weirding machines, and the like. Our scientists were able to do it, yes, and hélas, we discovered how dangerous it can be to open portals at random. We were forced underground, to fight for our very existence, and the survival of our species. Vive la Résistance. We persisted. Who was it who stole our technology we still do not know; someone rich and powerful maybe, or someone who can commandeer these machines. Whatl we know is that if you go to this distorted place, you will be in a place of merged timelines and collapsed futures. In my timeline, two of us are dead. In the merged future, you may have a chance to save one of us, I do not know. However, it may be confusing. We may speak another language, or be of different ages; it is difficult to know what set of collapsed timelines you see. I have traveled broadly and I can tell you that some futures are quite strange. But please, if you see 2 or 4, send my sincerest regards. I will be out of contact for your foreseeable future. I am on the trail of a man named Jim; his work is the undoing of us all. I will send back more information as I find it. We must find and destroy the things that were stolen from me if we are to have any chance of survival. We must stop the Decay before it begins. I trust that I can count on you in this effort. Go to the land of portals. Retrieve what you can. Destroy these artifacts.... Destroy these artifacts.
The land of portals, of course, refers to Portland, OR.
On 12 Dec 2016, a group was able to attend the escape room for a special session. They had to help a double agent escape a Russia-like country and received a key with a frog keychain as well as a paper with the previously found password for Number One, elmourouj.
Further trail
On 15 Dec 2016 there came another letter, titled On the trail...:
A clue, finally! I am sending this back to you across timelines. You may be ahead of me on this trail; I have no way to see into your time from here. I have found some writing left scrawled on a note in the badger kennels. I am sure they have been here, those thieves! It reads as follows: HD!EOD SLOL SO O! HNYU OEI HUDLO IETITGW RNTO KKH HD!EOD SLOL SO O! HNYU OEI HUDLO IETITGW RNTO KKH HD!EOD SLOL SO O! HNYU OEI HUDLO IETITGW RNTO KKH I am concerned that these thieves who have stolen so many of my belongings will attempt to sell them on the black market. There are many around us who would be so nefarious to deal in stolen goods this way. Work fast. Destroy what you find, if care about our timeline. Do not be persuaded to do otherwise by friendly spies, unless d’une façon ou d’une autre, vous croyez que tout ceci s’agit des amis que vous avez trouvé pendant ce voyage.
The Badger Kennels is a common assignment in the operatives list of time travellers. It's decoded with railfence cipher (3 rails, 0 offset) and reads HOT DOG!! WHEN YOUR DONE IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS. It seems to be a redundant clue to lead us to the Unboxing Story page that we already found ourselves 4.5 hours ago at that point (hence You may be ahead of me on this trail). The french in the end means "one way or another, you believe that this is about the friends you made along the way", it's a common joke about what Frog Fractions 2 actually is (made almost daily in Discord).
Elmourouj password from the room escape was used again inside the Unboxing Story game/puzzle.
Datamoshed Zagmar
As discovered on 23 Nov 2016, the list of coordinates, that was the end of the line in the IsTheJigUpYet tweet, based each letter on specific cities on earth. If you write down the names of the cities for those first coordinates, you get this list.
The first letters of the list spell out YOURJIMISINDANGERGOOGLARSW0C. This should be interpreted as Your Jim is in danger goo.gl/aRsw0c. The link leads to a datamoshed image of Zagmar uploaded 05 Nov 2016.
The original for the datamosh can be found here, but even without full binary diff, it was possible to find these blocks of strings pasted into the file:
We are aware of the Transgressions of those who would bring the Decay faster than Natural Order would dictate, to suit their own vile Designs. They must be stopped, by any and all Means. Follow me, for the one true Path is that which inverts the Universe and exposes us to our Creator. Do not imprison the Keys to your Salvation; neither in your Mind, nor in your Reality.
Typos in IsTheJigUpYet's Twitter
Twitter account @IsTheJigUpYet has been tweeting daily since 10 Oct 2015 in the following pattern: first a tweet "%something% might be Frog Fractions 2 %link to wikipedia article for it%", then a follow up tweet "No."
The first part comes up at 23:00 GMT (15:00 PST) and the "reply" at 18:00 GMT (10:00 PST) the next day.
On 3 Nov 2016, typos started to appear in the wording of the first tweet. Listing all the changed letters from them at this point: aGFja2VF aGFjQkFk aFJEa2Vk Mk5ja2Vk. This decodes from Base64 as hackeE hacBAd hRDked 2Ncked. Note that initially the typos were coming one by one, but then sped up, with multiple letters "revealed" in December 2016. As of 06 Dec 2016, we have two days without them and we're thinking they are over.
Until the fourth word the letters changed from the hacked pattern were placed on the unique non-repeating positions in the word. Gathered together by positions, they were _RDBAE and we predicted that to become 2RDBAE and be an anagram for 2BEARD as in Twinbeard. However, the fourth word started with 2N, so maybe the letters should be gathered just like this: EBARD2N. This is still kinda an "anagram" for 2NBEARD as in "Twinbeard". Maybe, this is a transposition key for something else. The word "hacked" might be important too.
Castor Griffon soundcloud
On 4 Dec 2016, @IsTheJigUpYet tweeted "VfL Bochum might be F2Vkrog Fractions 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VfL_Bochum huqnr://sprlccmlsc.cpj/sres-751095988/14lm1010". Decoding the second link (Vigenere with key abxyz, probably meant to be from decaytruth.info website) results in https://soundcloud.com/user-751095988/14oo1010, a soundcloud track by the user Castor Griffon, whose name is an anagram for Frog Fractions (there's also Castor Griffon II found). The track is titled 1400DEC10
- The audio track first says the fraction
8362558136806/17, when divided that becomes 491915184518. This can be read as a simple letter cipher:4-9-19-15-18-4-5-18 = DISORDER - Then the audio track lists a set of numbers:
1 3 4 8 9 11 12 14 15 15 18 20 20 20 21. Put through the simple letter cipher:ACDHIKLNOORTTTU. - And then the audio track lists a set of fractions:
11/15 2/3 1/15 7/15 13/15 2/15 8/15 1 3/5 14/15 4/15 1/5 2/5 4/5 1/3
Convert all fractions to be fifteenths and the numerators are (or multiply all the fractions by 15):
11 10 1 7 13 2 8 15 9 14 4 3 6 12 5
Those are all 15 numbers from 1 to 15. If you take the number's position within the fraction string, the list will be:
3 6 12 11 15 13 4 7 9 2 1 14 5 10 8
Then, using that sequence as the key for the ACDHIKLNOORTTTU string you get:
DKTRUTHLOCATION
The location on decaytruth.info is
The Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio 2020 Oregon Street Berkeley, CA 94703
This is really the address for the Berkeley Bowl grocery store but has long been a source of interest in the ARG.
An event is expected to occur on 10 Dec 2016 at this location at 14:00.
Nota Bene: initially the sound track missed one number in the second set and the decoded string read "DKTTTHLOCAUION" what people dismissed. Then PMs quickly removed the track, added the second "Please stand by" one (with slowed down chipmunks) and added the track back again with that sequence fixed.
Berkeley Bowl Beeman
Our agents Riking and his team visited the Berkely Bowl on 10th Dec 2016 and at 14:00 met up with a man in a bee costume. He said that they reminded him of another guy (who also had a spinal column) — an old-timey looking guy that dropped off a bucket and disappered. And we can maybe figure out this bucket and look through it. The bee man introduced himself as a beesness analyst. He also told how he got inspired from legal documents behind the Bee Movie about Jerry Seinfeld to branch out into comedy and made some bee-themed jokes.
So, we got a white plastic bucket taped closed with sparkly tape and two blocks of beeswax (he would've given pollen, but there was no at hand, unfortunately). The bucket's lid had an imgur link). Inside of it was a wooden clothes pin and a basket. Contents of the basket: an A4 sheet of paper with a hand-drawn "The Decision Cycle" diagram (one word after "Hazard Control" is heavily stroked out; sparkly tape on the back side of the sheet); a small plastic bag; some sort of cut up coupon with a stack of sticky notes; a tiny cardboar santa hat with grey fur trim; a white envelope sealed by a cavalera skull, sparkly inside and containing a folded sheet of paper with more sparkly tape. The sheet of paper is a printed out image from the imgur link with some more things written on it with a gold marker. You can review all the contents and the video of meeting the beeman here. Raw videos also available here.
The imgur image and the printed out version have two columns of clues with the answer length in the brackets, a columns of "X"-es next to it and some timestamps seemingly arbitrarily placed in between the columns. The right column of "X"-es also has a down arrow, so initially we thought they are horizontal and vertical crossword clues. There was no crossword canvas for them, though. This idea was stregthened when Justin streamed and read a newspaper about a 13x13 crossword that doesn't have a picture and you have to figure out how to place the clues.
People in the chat quickly solved the clues in a shared google spreadsheet
Later, though, we discovered that the answers to the clues on the left and right can be combined to make city names. And a connecting line would go through some timestamp. See a variant of the solution here. Two pairs of words fall out of the scheme and don't have times: "Marian Koshland" and "bibliotheque", so that is The Marian Koshland Library at UC Berkeley. The physical also sheet references two Mark Twain books The Jumping Frog of Claveras County and A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, mixed up with words from Alice in Wonderland and dinosaur names. Dinosaurs fit in, because that is a Bioscience & Natural Resources Library.
List of places and the times on their connecting lines (ordered by the right column which has a downwards arrow) AND the timezones names:
Fiji 1:08am FJT (Fiji Time) Christmas Island 8:15pm LINT (Line Islands Time) Juneau 3:30am AKST (Alaska Standard Time) London 6:38am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) Tehran 6:30am IRST (Iran Standard Time) Christchurch 8:30am NZST (New Zealand Standard Time) Hong Kong 8:08pm HKT (Hong Kong Time) Kabul 11:08am AFT (Afghanistan Time) Nepal 12:30am NPT (Nepal Time) Davis Station 10:00am DAVT (Davis Time, Antarctica) Caracas 3:45am VST (Venezuela Standard Time) Jerusalem 2:08am IST (Israel Standard Time) Buffalo 5:30am EST (Eastern Standard Time, North America and Caribbean) Cameroon 2:30am WAT (West Africa Time) Armenia 10:45am AMT (Armenia Time) Port Stanley 9:38am FKST (Falkland Islands Time) Baghdad 3:38am AST (Arabia Standard Time) Houston 6:38pm CST (Central Standard Time, North America & Central America)) Cape Cod 1:30am EST (Eastern Standard Time, North America and Caribbean)
First letters of the timezones spell out FLAG IN HAND VIEW A FACE.
Note, that Christmas Island has to be one of the Line Islands and not Australia's external territory for this to work.
This is a clue to use the timestamps on the line as a flag semaphore code from the positions of the clock arrows. However, the times have to be converted into UTC first (hinted by the subtitle "the universal question"):
12:08 06:15 12:30 06:38 03:00 19:30 12:08 06:38 06:45 03:00 07:45 00:08 10:30 01:30 06:45 12:38 00:38 00:38 06:30
Reading as the semaphore code: 641A12H352000 (the last symbol is an "end of message", what confirms that the solution is valid, "j" was used as a "end of numbers, letters to follow" as per wikipedia).
There is a book with the call number QL641.A12 H35 2000 in the Marian Koshland Bioscience & Natural Resources Library – the library that was another answer from this sheet's puzzles – and is marked available. It's Slithy toves : illustrated classic herpetological books at the University of Kansas in pictures and conversations by Sally Haines. The book title is a bit of a reference to jaberwocky, so Alice in Wonderland references on the paper make sense.
Letter from Ashby
On 12 Dec 2016 our agent went to the library and found a folded sheet of paper in the book, adorned by Calavera skulls (featured many times in the ARG now). The sheet turned out to be a letter from Ashby and describes his relationship with Gustav and The Tunisians in great detail.
Reader, greetings to you. Please, let me confess my tale. Your timeline will be the only one to contain this artifact, unless there are other versions of myself whom have gotten the same idea. I cannot, of course, vouch for their actions. They are… it hardly matters. Forgive me; I am getting too far ahead of myself. I will try not to get bogged down in details. When I was young, it seemed too that the world was young. Before I write about any of my journeys, let me tell you this: I was happy once, and so was Gustav. We played in a tree swing, in a big, old chestnut, which creaked and croaked in a way that suggested a song. We leapt between stones in the creek, and studied our maths. I was good at catching fireflies on summer nights, those brilliant motes of life rising into the sky. Gustav drew pictures, inventing bizarre characters that accompanied us in our play. I planned to become a botanist. Gustav would settle for nothing less than traveling to distant stars. I chided him for having such elaborate dreams, but in the end I was happy that we dreamed together. When the Tunisians approached us, we were no longer children, but neither were we truly adults. They had seen us through their strange machines, and determined our importance to future dealings surrounding a great event. They made it their mission to find us and teach us the ways of travel between timelines. Gustav spoke to them in French. When had he learned French? He spoke to a woman with a certain familiarity before they were formally introduced. I did not understand, but then I only knew a very few words in any foreign language. They were offering us something unusual. They wanted to demonstrate. The first portal they opened for us was to some Eden. It was astounding. Blue and purple moons rose over tropical pools. A scent like jasmine floated on soft breezes, over rolling hills that led off to vertical escarpments grazing the sky. I have never found this place again, for they never shared these, or any other time-space coordinates with us. Gustav tore off his shoes and dove into one of those silken-water pools with no regard for what might be waiting under the surface. He knew, somehow, that they had brought us to a place meant to entice; a place that would be safe for us. I am still puzzled as to what bred such confidence. Beyond the knowledge that we were somehow crucial to events in some other time and place, the Tunisians had no information, and no inkling of how we would eventually set the awesome mechanisms of our choices into their courses of influence. What they gave us was merely teaching without any advice on how to employ them. It was unwise, what they did, but they had plans of their own, they said. It was their way. They were resistant to changing their approach. Gustav and I could barely contain our excitement at having been told we were to be masters of time travel, very much out of the blue and quite in keeping with how special, nay, truly incredible, the exuberance of youth had convinced us we were. “Quelles époques désirez-vous visiter d’abord?” they addressed us. “Les passé!” Gustav shouted. “The future!” I proclaimed simultaneously. We looked at one another. Gustav had a wry smile. His intentions were unreadable. I was confused. I reached for him, and he walked confidently into the past, without looking back for a moment. I faltered. He had left, but why? I thought I was right. The future! The future... was the future. How could we deny ourselves a glimpse of that? We parted, there, unexpectedly, with that disagreement. I so want to remember it as a minor thing, but perhaps there was slight animosity; having shared our lives for so long, now we were fundamentally divided as to our goals. That specific memory feels hollow now, having revisited it so often… a story’s shell, devoid of feeling. I don’t know what happened. I will never recover the true memory. I have never been able to revisit that moment bodily. For all of my searching in time and space, and through the timelines I could discover, I have never seen him again, nor have I encountered any evidence of him. On reflection, it was not I who was special, though I will not say the same of Gustav. It was, however, our friendship that was so extraordinary; a connection that by its astonishing nature has persisted clearly in my mind, while oceans of later experience have foundered and sunk below oceans of forgotten memories. I have no doubt he became a great artist of some kind. His imagination was a great Cathedral, or even more than this - vast cities of ideas, waiting to explored and understood, When we were children, he would sing songs of planets of insects, and the hungry frogs that would settle in their midst, undetected. He wrote stories that felt as if they were real, and he was only a conduit through which they passed. This may have been the case. I have seen things beyond explanation in my travels; worlds nearly prophesied by his inventions. The future turned out to be a bleaker existence than one might imagine. There is no joy in seeing cities that once housed your schoolmates ground to rubble through the relentless action of time; no pleasant feeling in seeing your family home decrepit, ruined and eventually forgotten as all things are and must necessarily be. The curiosity you sate by discovering the fates of the people and thing most beloved to you is - like lightning - flashed away into the massive loneliness experienced without them. I sat in front of my childhood home. I said, “I give your eulogy, house, and I will represent humanity, and you will represent the civilizations so vast that my heart cannot comprehend their loss.” I sat there, weeping, and resolved to find my friend. Gustav had made the wiser choice, travelling back to see the world when it was vibrant. He must have had a chance to learn from the masters. To grow also, and mature in a way that was denied to my young self. I took my opportunities and threw them to the cruel winds, on which sailed the Decay. I have nothing to tell you of the Decay, other than that the time traveling itself has brought it. At least, this is what I theorize. I am not sure how they are related, but I knew nothing of this vile occurrence before we encountered the Tunisian scientists. I have never encountered it myself by opening a portal. It is likely that those otherworldly scientists had a hand in all of this, and their mistake was what caused them to seek out Gustav and myself. You will not find evidence of them, as our first encounter was during the gold rush in San Francisco. The portals they opened and much of their clockwork gadgetry were destroyed in an earthquake some decades later. Though the pull of those original portals is strong. You can still sometimes see the timelines crossing through in this location on earth. Eventually I followed in Gustav’s path and traveled pastward. It was only then that I started recording my travels, trying, with increasing… and then decreasing… desperation to find Gustav. At first I wished to apologize or explain myself, to demand an apology or an explanation. Eventually, I just desired to see that he existed, and that he was not my own mind’s invention. I have resigned myself to writing this confession, and leaving tokens of my friendship in the timelines I visit. Your may have already speculated that for all of my meanderings through time and space, that there is a vanishingly small chance that I am, in fact, your timeline’s Ashby. Perhaps ownership of “your Ashby,” that is, the Ashby that originated in your timeline, means something to you. Now that I can take these moments to reflect, I see that “belonging to a timeline” is a feeling I can no longer identify in any of my thoughts. Indeed, the issue of where and when each us belongs is, to me, merely a matter of accounting. Reader, make your decision. Travel without care and let the universe decide your fate, or plan the safer route. I cannot tell you that my way of journeying is the better way. For some of us, we do not end where we think we should. We end at a time and a place that once felt wild and infinite, and suddenly feels quite lonely, or halts unexpectedly. In that, I see no difference in how we choose. I am leaving an artifact here, and in every timeline I visit. If Gustav should find one of these, he will know that I think of him, often.
It also had a code in the top-right corner: znjnlq5. This turned out to be a code for a tinyurl link tinyurl.com/znjnlq5 which leads to the Google Drive titled Soup Recipes. It contains a text file and three zip archives of 3D models in different formats (STL in 2 sizes and OBJ). The text file has:
A remembrance.... yes. You need only one, and they only need be a fraction; 1/3 to 1/2.
remembrance_STL.zip
(or, if you prefer)
remembrance_OBJ.zip
(or, finally...this one )
remembrance_300mm_STL.zip
And the 3D models look like this:
The models have pegs and holes, so once 3D-printed, they can be stacked on top of each other with the lily pad on the bottom and frog on top. All in all, this looks to be the end reward of this investigation thread. Commemorative!
Unboxing Story
- Main article: Frog Fractions 2/Unboxing Story
On 15 Dec 2016 a new thing was found on twinbread (a new link on an old page). There was later another clue connecting the TTraveler0451 trail to this discovery.
There's a link to a zip-archive of a unity game there: Unboxing Story made to the likeness of Her Story. In the game, you can type in words and watch 5 first videos that match the search. According to the Last-Modified HTTP field, the zip archive was uploaded to the website on 13 Dec 2016.
The game has a secret video with an Eye Sigil ARG map, using the password from that ARG and then running through a Sigil Maze. Correctly solving that unlocks another secret video (encrypted in the game files). The correct way through the maze is to take the directions from the Sigil ARG map itself (that has 20 nodes on it for the 20 moves): going through the map, if a node is on a line — you go up in the maze, if it's on a corner — go the direction you're about to turn in. We reuploaded the resulting secret video to YouTube for easiness:
We've had Randomiser, who solved the Sigil Maze, send his address to the contact as required.
FF2 Launch Box
On 19 Dec 2016, just one business day after sending the address, the package arrived. In the Randomiser's Cool Stuff Corner, in this package we got 6 airbags! But one damaged. They, together with the bubble wrap are protecting what appears to be the FF2 Launch Box.
It has a big red button and a key slot. There are two round speakers and some wires on the side. The back has an on/off switch on what looks like a battery compartment, it was "on" on arrival, but that doesn't matter as the circuit is not closed due to the lock and the button.
The return address of the package marked as The Resistance belongs to the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, CA.
Full unboxing process images can be seen here.
We've mailed the key from the room escape to the box location. Initially the estimated date of arrival was Friday, 23 Dec 2016, but USPS wasn't able to make it on time and the key arrived a day late, so real-life obligations of Christmas that is happening hindred the stream, and just a video was recorded instead.
The box's batteries were a bit corroded (probably due to humidity and tempreture during delivery) and required some cleaning and messing with the wires before the box worked correctly. It's revving up after turning the key and then says "Launch sequence initiated" when the button is pressed.
Shortly after the button was pressed, another video was posted on A Flesh Virtuosi Worm channel (a.k.a. From Russia With Love): Ну, мы оторвались на славу!
The title translates to So, we partied hard! (as in it was a glorious party). The description translates to Thanks everyone, it was very awesome.
The book that is read in the video is the one for which Justin bought out all cheap copies on Amazon. We have it on imgur, though.
Also at the same time an update was added on the Denizends of Bug Mars Facebook page. The important quote from it:
What you want already exists and it's just a question of finding it, somewhere out there!
The Jig Becoming Up
On 26 Dec 2016, people noticed a game that recieved a huge update (half the game size) the moment the "Launch FF2" button was pressed, and the update notes featured a bunch of ARG-related words (sparkles, decay, button presses). That game was Glittermitten Groves and the update notes can be found here.
The game caught only a short glimpse from the people solving the ARG when it was released earlier this month, though to be fair it was mentioned in the Discord. However, the suspicious update made a GameDetectives user beta post about it, and it was swiftly discovered to be it, a slacker backer confirming it with Jim Crawford according to the rules of the jig and receiving the key. Initially, Jim asked us to keep it under our hats, so the game's name was kept secret and people were deleting their messages about discussing the suspicious finding made by beta in GD Discord, not to bring attention to it.
However, the name got out into the media and the Jig Is now officially Up! Backers can get their Steam keys through the Humble Bundle FF2 package.
After the ARG, the puppetmasters revealed themselves in the FF2 Discord and answered a few questions about the ARG.
The Watch Radio
On 30 March 2017, Glittermitten Grove received an update. If a player has all the purple symbols in the game, the player will get messages about their watch radio emitting static. The messages thus far are:
| Date Found | Message |
|---|---|
| 30 Mar 2017 | Your watch radio emits a short, unexpected burst of static. What, you didn't know you had a watch radio? |
| 01 Apr 2017 | Your watch radio emits two short, unexpected bursts of static. |
| 03 Apr 2017 | Your watch radio emits a sustained, somewhat-expected burst of static. Weird. |
| 09 Apr 2017 | Your watch radio emits a continual stream of static. You can almost make out a voice.. |
On 01 April 2017, The Resistance twitter account tweeted "All field operatives please note that we are testing our new comms systems". This could be related or it could be April Fools.
It is believed these messages may be buildup for DLC.
Obama's Return Message
On 18 April 2017, more messages were found. They were various static noises and letters, but when the player was in the correct location Barrack Obama appeared looking for more shaving cream.
| Message |
|---|
| A voice can barely be heard from your watch radio, but the words too faint to discern. The signal here must be too weak.. |
| *XChhKZttZ* ...n... *bZzckhhH* |
| *BrRRchHHH* ...l s... *hHHHKkkKKkZ* |
| *crackle* Hello? Is this thing on? Michelle, I need more shaving cream! Hello? |
| *GxHhghZTZ* ...r... *ChHKZTT* |
| *KHHkchT* ...u... *bZTH* |
| *VVzZK* ...o... *ZUKKHhHHk* |
| *ZZZT* ...o... *bZZzchhHH* |
Other Relevant Information
LordHuffnPuff on Twitch
LordHuffnPuff is the typical alias for Justin Bortnick, one of the Frog Fractions 2 developers. While his twitter account has provided a few clues, his twitch stream has featured several time travel shenanigans and other ARG relevant information, often at the beginning or end of the broadcast. Justin does NOT answer general ARG questions and should not be spammed with them. While he never archives his streams, here is a list of important dates on the stream:
5/16/16 - Justin Streamed "Spooky" games. Spelunky, Neverending Nightmares, Spooky's house of jumpscares (which didn't work) and finally Oxenfree. He also held up a business card from Insomniac Games held in a moo.com business card holder
7/05/16 - Justin Streamed Boktai 2, he played the game until the library section (which held books from Joshua's login). He left the stream with his character looking at the titles: Nightmare of the Abyss and Overheating: The Risk of Too Much Sun. He ate some licorice scottie doggies. Also he held up a red card that kind of looked like the netflix logo.
7/20/16 - Justin streamed Hearthstone. He began looking through several books including Paradise Lost and Eggs, As Usual Breafast Etc. After the stream, an image of the beach was shown while music played. At one point, I've Got You Under My Skin played. The Dark Pages Podcast logo was up for a while while music from the Dark Souls games played. At the very end, Justin's camera came out to show him in a Groundskeeper Willie mask. He imitated Willie's voice and said "ack, how can I get this computer to work."
After this stream, he tweeted that he had bought all the cheap copies of Eggs, As Usual Breafast Etc. stating "We could not let these valuable artifacts fall into the wrong hands, lest the entire operation be compromised." A copy of the book can be read at this link
7/30/16 - Justin streamed Heroes of the Storm (HOTS), Rocket League, and Guild Wars 2. At one point, he held up a a magazine titled XVII featuring Jeanne D' Arc and an article in the corner titled "A sere ditched his lord for me". After the stream briefly ended, he returned in a top hat and coat speaking in an old-timey accent and holding up a newspaper from Oct 24, 1901. An article titled "Once and Then Nevermore" could be seen and Justin talked about Annie Edson Taylor going over Niagra Falls in a barrel. Following the end of the stream, he tweeted "Well that was strange" and responded "felt a bit... displaced for a few minutes"
8/02/16 - Justin streamed Heroes of the Storm. At the beginning, he did an old-timey slapstick silent movie routine.
8/14/16 - Justin streamed Heroes of the Storm. At the beginning of the stream his facecam had a sepia filter and old time music from the early 1900's was playing. The songs played were: Grand Ol Flag, Swanee River, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, Auld Lang Syne, On Moonlight Bay, and Swing Low Sweet Chariot. At the end of the stream he looked through all of the hero skins in-game, "reviewing" them. After he returned to the first skin in the sequence, he just repeated what he had previously said, going through every single skin again. This time loop continued for 4 times.
8/15/16 - Justin streams Heroes of the Storm again. Towards the end, he pretended he was going to review skins and then ends up reviewing other game elements like stimpacks, doing the math to see how many games you have to win for them to be worthwhile. He ends the stream answering a phone call.
His end of the phone call was as follows:
"hello, what's up? okay. uh, I'll call you back in like 5 minutes. no no no that's fine, I'll call you back in 5 minutes. okay. yep. yep. okay. now if I don't let them..that's bad. okay... uh huh... and how many are there? maybe I should, just tell me now. (whispers sorry, knock on door?). And how many did you lose? that's that's within acceptable tolerances. uh huh. uh huh. well it can't be real, it's gotta be some sort of trick right? uh huh. have you considered a firewall to prevent that? no, have you considered stronger passwords to prevent that? okay, I can't do anything given that, I can't get to you. you're too far away for be to be of any help. Okay, good luck, maybe next time you'll be smarter about that thing. okay, alright, good luck."
He hung up and reminded the stream "Never make your passwords easy to guess, you might get hacked, or password guessed or whatever."
After the stream, he came back online only showing a blank screen. Then the Timetravel.club admin screen was shown. Justin entered "aptitude moo" and then ":(" when ACCESS DENIED appear.
8/27/2016 - Justin streams HotS and Hearthstone. At one point, he drank a ginger beer from his "friends at the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio", saying the recipe is from 1901. The Ashby twitter account tweeted the following day about their ginger beer. When asked where to get it, Justin looked up the website and said he was sure someone could figure it out if they spend more than ten seconds looking at it.
9/18/16 - Justin streams HotS. He reviewed some new skins. Prior to his final match, he pulls out a plain wooden "mystery box". After the match, he teased opening and closing it. He then said he could not show the contents on stream. He hinted that there was "something next month" where one might obtain the box. When asked if it was Indiecade, Justin indicated "If I were you, I'd definitely go to Indiecade".
10/12/16- Justin streams HotS. He said "you better go to indiecade.... you don't know what might happen if you don't, the timeline could collapse in on itself. You just don't know" as well as ""I don't know anything about a bag of rocks" and "I don't know who [decorated my house for halloween], maybe it was all the victorian servants who live inside the walls". At the end, he counted hero portraits and when he reached 17 he repeated that number over and over.
11/6/16 - Justin streams HotS. He says Russian is basically pig latin and Russia doesn't exist. He received a phone call in Russian that wasn't recorded. In a post stream return, he typed some Cyrillic (Russian text). Screenshots of the Cyrillic can be viewed here. When translated, it becomes:
Security compromised... Backup copy protocol initialized Receiving files. Good day (sombra skull) just a joke ;) Target: Bug Mars citizen observation currently active president sabotage inducing deleting bug porn economy See you soon, cutie! (repeated)
11/7/16 - Justin streams HotS. His cam video was notably being streamed upside down though claimed to not be upside down and told viewers "maybe you're upside down"(leading to discovery of the UV writing on the bottom of the box and inner lid). He continued to talk about Russia, saying things like "or as they say in the cold frozen wastes of the nation that was once Russia" and "Russian is a dead language, and I would know". He also pointed out the letters on Zarya's gun and then her 512 tattoo.
11/10/16 - Justin tweeted "Now that the jig is up I'm doing a twitch stream at 6:30 PM to answer your questions so tune in if you got em." He hosted a live stream at 6:30 PM PST that day with a markedly higher viewership. During the stream, he said that 6 people guessed the game correctly within the past week and they had sent out keys. No keys were sent out. He continued the claim that the jig was up by saying Kotaku, Polygon, and RockPaperShotgun had reported on what game was found to be Frog Fractions 2 and even linked to: http://www.polygon.com/2016/11/09/1234567/ff2-jig-finally-up . The link is broken and no new articles about Frog Fractions 2 were found. Justin refused to name the game out of wanting to let people discover it on their own. After a lot of pressure, he said the game is called "Pandaemonium - like Panda and then like demon-ium".
On the stream, he frequently denied facts of the ARG and his live streams where he drank Ashby Ginger Beer ("That's something Jim's roommate made") and made other contradictory statements. He claimed there was an unsolved YouTube puzzle. He also said the date was October 8, 2016.
Following the stream, he tweeted"Thanks for watching! I hope that everybody who came out is now feeling way more secure in their Frog Fractions 2 knowledge." He also made an appearance on the Frog Fractions 2 discord's twitch-stream chat. He posted pictures from the manga Uzumaki by Junji Ito (previously referenced in the corrupted Joshua login library under the Spiral Folklore link), posted links to several skeleton memes, and engaged in some chat. He said he hadn't streamed in a while and when asked about the earlier stream responded "no last time obs booted was Oct 8 2016" and once more claimed the box received was not the box he gave away and that the box he gave away had a Hearthstone pin in it. He posted a picture of an evil pope and then said
beware his gaze gotta go they're on to me
He stopped responding after that.
11/11/16 - Justin streamed again and talked about how he's not popular to attract an impersonator. He talked a lot about business cards he gave out at Indiecade 2016, thought to be the same card as was mentioned around E3 but apparently different from the card given out at GDC that gave the Clemens login. He recommended asking Elsinoire dev Connor Fallon and then said to contact everyone that was at Indiecade 2016.
He went offline then returned streaming HotS. He ate something out of a jar and listened to audio of chapter 14 of Silas Marner by George Eliot.
11/13/2016 - Justin's stream begins with him in old-timey clothes and is titled "The Ball". He was playing Regency Solitaire and talked in an antiquated manner. He mentioned getting new cards but they were not business cards. He showed 25 stereographs and the Occular raft, new invention to view scenes as if they're really right in front of your face. The Occular Raft was a stick attached to some goggles that holds a photo. He said "[unless] you've been completely living under a rock, you know Edward was crowned king just this August!" and called for someone named Matilda and then said " Please excuse me for one minute, I must check up on the housekeeper. I think she might've gotten into the sherry again".
After the stream went down and came back, he played Regency Solitaire and then started playing Boktai 3D/ Kura 5. Justin notably worked on this game and is credited as: Voice Actor (Emil), Obtaining references, Consultant for canon. He mentioned playing it in a tweet that said "I'm streaming the @Boktai3D demo because it is a boktai game".
11/15/2016 - Justin streams HotS. The stream was titled "a confluence of universes". An Eye Sigil ARG person expressed unhappiness and he played Don't Worry Be Happy. He listened to some meme songs suggested from his Patreon Slack chat. He ended the stream saying "time to eat lunch" and the screen faded to black. The sigil flashed and the stream cut out.
11/1/2016 - Justin streams HotS. It was again titled "a confluence of universes" and he listened to a mashup playlist. He switched to Overwatch and played as Sombra and threw some ARG shade at Blizzard. He ended the stream abruptly saying "I've played enough video games for a lifetime, goodbye video games".
11/19/2016 - In a stream titled 'Ovaltine simulator', while Justin played Hearthstone, the following exchange occurred in the chat;
16:36 adminbrown1: Hennessey do you read me? 16:37 adminbrown1: We're seeing more anomalies. Can I borrow Martinez and Valsen? 16:40 adminbrown1: Shouldn't be anything major but after the pope incident we can't be too careful 16:42 adminbrown1: Hennessey? 16:46 sci_hen: Hi Boss 16:46 sci_hen: sorry 16:46 sci_hen: Yes. Affirmative. 16:47 sci_hen: I'll tell Martinez and Valsen to join you immediately. 16:47 adminbrown1: Good. Thank you. 16:49 sci_hen: Should I alert the science division yet? 16:50 adminbrown1: Not yet. It may be nothing. Wait for my statement. 16:56 adminbrown1: [GEN_ANNOUNCE] Agents of the Resistance: As you are aware, in light of portal research having been compromised by an invader several weeks ago, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure your security. I would like to report that the incursions into the future of Alternate Timeline JXL-01 have yielded roughly 40% more supplies than our projections indicated. 16:57 adminbrown1: We have found that the population of that era is nonviolent and unable to stop our supply missions from taking that which we need to continue fighting the Decay. 16:59 adminbrown1: Thus we are increasing our mission schedule by an equivalent 60% to build a war chest large enough for a serious incursion against the enemy, our first in centuries. 17:00 adminbrown1: Stay strong! Stay stalwart! You are the bastion between humanity's extinction and our freedom from the bondage of the occupying force. 17:03 adminbrown1: Believe in the resistance! Believe in me! Believe in we four who lead you! 17:04 adminbrown1: Together we will rebuild a brighter future. 17:04 adminbrown1: This is Number One. Over and out. 17:05 sci_hen: *applause*
11/22/2016 - Justin streams a pre-recorded Dark Souls video. He said "I figure I might as well stream it while I record it. it might be interesting to somebody." Then he played Regency Solitaire, apparently before Indiecade (and knew nothing of the box)and then the timeline jumped ahead, live on stream, to today. After this, the timelines jumped around several times. Twice he rambled and both were recorded along with a small segment only playing music, all linked below: Lost America Heaven link 1 Heaven link2 Music only
Both rants are from WIZARD PEOPLE, DEAR READERS by Brad Neely. Some speculate these rants are from a future Justin that has gone mad from the current events.
THD and RPP References not noted above
This is a list of things found in the podcasts but were either redundant or simply references. These are to show other types of hints that have been found.
For more information on every THD, see the Train Hot Dog page
| Episode name | Found information |
|---|---|
| THD - All | The first three letters of the first three titles spell out DNA, it may be coincidence |
| THD 20 - 61 | Two things with the fonts, they begin to change font types here, then in THD 34 onward the title cards switch orders of the podcast title and episode number and train hot dog, then 45 onward the titles have last letter of th first line and first of the last being the same font as the middle line (all three different fonts otherwise) The full sequence of first letters in the titles marked this way: PPAHTCGUWNGNABGL. In 61 they returned to normal |
| THD - Selected | Several THDs have a line or two of static on their title card, it was generally assumed that meant there was a clue in them but nothing is confirmed |
| THD 10: Steam Hot Dog | Sprectrogram shows the borg king card, wasn't found until after RPP posted the card on twitter |
| THD 12: Stay on Your Toast | Audio slowed down says "I have a message for/from Jim Crawford" |
| THD 14:Discharge | Quotation marks in spectrogram around the ridermail about dwayne (quote included above, just not this detail) |
| THD 16: A Trip Through The Graphics Pipeline | also has morse code for the MIRE EXUBERANT MUSHINESS hint, redundancy |
| THD 17: Kitten Gains | Had an odd reflection in the thumbnail, is not on the youtube playlist, 17 reference for Indiecade |
| THD 18: Nightcore Night Court | Around 23 minutes into the podcast you can hear the train conductor voice say, "Attention Passengers: Don't believe his lies. Find the truth about the decay. Thank you." |
| THD 21: Shark Lips | Part of a speech from MYST recut: "Thank you for bringing the red page." "Thank you for breaking the scripts. You must. YOU MUST! I need/mean (help? not sure here). (something else I can't make out). STOP DECAY. DON'T WASTE TIME." |
| THD 22:Ashen Stools | Referenced to on a plane February 3, 19- (The day the music died, 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon. |
| THD 29: Bumper Sandwich Booger Lips | SSTV signal, decodes to operation gobbledop picture by using a program called MMSSTV. You just play the audio while the program is running and it automatically recognizes the format and decodes the image. Think it's just a reference to the Operations pages |
| THD 30: Mobius Face Meeting Itself | Arcade noise in the background are this http://arcadecontrols.com/files/Audio/arcade86.mp3 |
| THD 31: Krampusloaf | id3v2 tag info for thd31.mp3:
COMM (Comments): ()[eng]: "We're in space, and space is the place," Began the Champ, pallid utterly; "The madness is running wild, and so shall you." |
| THD 32: Blini | Jim just says Blini for 2 minutes, he also tweeted "Train Hot Dog, with its most recent episode, has achieved 32-bit fidelity. http://jewelofthehotdognet.work/" oddly, THD 33 was not uploaded to trainhotdog.cool and then 34 was also named 32 on that site, after a while it was changed back |
| THD 35: No Han Pics | Suspiciously, Jim read from a page on the wiki that was created only days before the release of the podcast, there was only on reference found to any Bigger Luke theory before the ARG started |
| THD 64: The One Where Jim Doesn't Talk | Justin is talking, he mentions Abraham Lincoln becoming the first cyborg in 1901. Furthers the 1901 obsession |
| THD 65: The Other One Where Jim Doesn't Talk | This episode was done by an ARGer, there's added backwards audio that says "let's keep this time loop" and "I wonder if I can escape this time loop" as well as Morse code that says "TERKIM FETHROG IS WITH YOU. STAY SAFE. FROG GOT YOUR BACK." Terkim Fethrog is the username of the person who made the episode. |
| Red Pages Extrasode 3 | background is mock picture of a game with "Gold: 285", nickname of the painting in the ID3 is "Woman in Gold", Klimt's woman in gold as seen above, Link to the corrupted image to download if needed here |
| RPP tweet | "Current Statuses - Gord: mired, Justin: exuberant, Paul: mushy" MIRED EXUBERANT MUSHINESS reference |
| RPP 62: Buff Wizard | From the ID3 tags:
Comment: [Description: ] [Lang: ] Ashby: 17 Varieties Comment: [Description: ] [Lang: XXX] Ashby: 17 Varieties UserTextFrame: [Description: BPM (beats per minute)] 17 This is an Ashby reference and also 17, used for Indiecade again |
| Other | Jim also tweeted about a new HD called korn hotdog, http://kornstories.com/ |
Common Themes
The ARG has encountered several running themes throughout the two years of its existence.
Refer to the themes page for detailed information.
Here is a list of the themes:
Time Travel Sparkles Decay Butts Chess Tunisia
Characters
There are many characters in the ARG. Refer to the characters page for detailed information on each character.
Games Confirmed to not be Frog Fractions 2
Please see the list of games confirmed not to be Frog Fractions 2.
References
Resources
A list of resources to aid any search:
Unfiction thread:Frog Fractions 2 Kickstarter ARG
A searchable .txt of the forum through page 55: http://norgg.org/files/ff_forum.txt
Change log for the Operatives list on time-travel.club: http://new.norgg.org/files/timeagents.txt
Chat logs of the discord channels through 8/21: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3o3qWI_oCVPVy1mM0tRX2FvU1U?usp=sharing
Experimental Mind Map - https://www.mindmeister.com/657363408?t=T2QuVC6xXt
Media Appearances
Kickstarter buzz
10 Mar. 2014 Polygon - Frog Fractions developer launches $60K Kickstarter for sequel
16 Mar. 2014 arstechnica - Frog Fractions 2 wants to surprise players that already expect the unexpected
17 Mar. 2014 Destructoid - Is there a Frog Fractions 2 ARG already underway?
27 Mar. 2014 Polygon — Frog Fractions 2 stretch goal aims to buy Oculus back from Facebook
02 Apr. 2014 Wired - You’ll Want to Play This Game — If You Can Ever Find It
03 Apr. 2014 Eurogamer - Frog Fractions 2 dev releases Kickstarter Simulator 2015
ARG Specific Articles
15 Dec. 2015 Polygon - How to Shave Obama: Behind the baffling, nearly two-year-long quest to find Frog Fractions 2
15 Nov. 2016 Waypoint - Those Mysterious Symbols Hidden In 24 Games Have Crossed Over With 'Frog Fractions 2'
15 Nov. 2016 Kotaku - Indie Games’ Most Cryptic Mystery Apparently Just A Frog Fractions Teaser
Frog Fractions 2 general
24 Sep. 2015 Destructoid - Where in the world is Frog Fractions 2?
17 May 2016 Justin said this applied: Point&Clickbait - Wow! This Complex ARG Reveals The Crushing Emptiness At The Heart Of Everything
14 Aug. 2016 Destructoid - Is this Frog Fractions 2? Find The Gold Bars
24 Aug. 2016 Jim Crawford - The Challenge | How Was Work?
31 Oct. 2016 The Quarterly Review — The Vanishing Secrets of Video Games
The Jig Is Up
26 Dec. 2016 Kotaku - The Two-Year Mystery Is Over: This Is Frog Fractions 2
26 Dec. 2016 Waypoint - Inside the Development of Gaming's Biggest Mystery, 'Frog Fractions 2'
26 Dec. 2016 Giant Bomb - The Jig Is Up: Let's Talk Frog Fractions 2 With Jim Crawford
26 Dec. 2016 Polygon - The jig is up: Behind the years-long reveal of Frog Fractions 2
27 Dec. 2016 Kotaku - How Frog Fractions 2 Stayed A Secret For Two Years
18 Jan. 2017 PCGamer - The story behind gaming's greatest mystery, Frog Fractions 2
