>>27186916
>Work on the cipher while you eat

eat some french toast

>>27186916
>Work on the cipher while you eat

Poem from last thread. Bound to have clues to cipher. Begin analyzing.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/poetry/p168.aspx
We know it contains the letters D and I,i, but does not contain S. I think OP mentioned it was a seven letter word of the form D?S???? but I am not sure.

>>27187178
Mistake. We know it contains the letters D and S, but does not contain I,i.

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>D?S????

Roll 3d100 please.

Rolled 87, 62, 92 = 241

>>27187360

Rolled 76

>>27187360
By 3d100, you mean three people roll 1d100, right?

Rolled 25, 29, 24 = 78

>>27187360

>>27187367
Not bad.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqwqguIuU2Q

You pick an out of the way spot that allows you to watch anyone who might be approaching you from a distance while still affording you some privacy. You set your things down, grab a tray, grab some food, and come back and get to work.

The password starts with a "D" and has an "S" as the third letter, you know that for certain. The second letter is not an "I", but from monkeying around with things you suspect that vowels and consonants operate in a different fashion from one another in this particular cipher. You plug in the letter "A" and it doesn't work either. Pressing on, you plug in the letter "E" and find that it works quite well on the first page, giving you consistent and meaningful results.

>DES????

>The Time is now 11:45 AM

As you continue work on the problem a rather loud group of what appear to be freshman comes and sits nearby.

>Headphones, ignore them
>Go elsewhere, perhaps back to Whateley
>Other

>>27187561
>Go elsewhere, perhaps back to Whateley
I'd rather not be observed.
Despair seems obvious, but it's worth a try.

>>27187561
>Go elsewhere, perhaps back to Whateley

>>27187561
We're certainly turning out to be very anti-social.

>>27187682

Dialog is what advances plot, so this is getting experimental. I like the challenge though.

>>27187561
PASSWORD: DESUDESU

>>27187561
Do we know for certain it is a seven-letter word?
Despair. Destiny.

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You pack up your things and head back to Whateley, contemplating your progress. It occurs to you that if what happened last night at midnight is going to be a regular thing it might help to figure out precisely what is going on, or at least learn more about the dimensions of this strange time that seems to only exist for some.

>The time is now 12:03 PM

You arrive back at Whateley Hall and head back up to your room. Jack is still gone, and you plop down at your desk and begin working again.

>Despair
>Destiny

Try these as passwords?

>Yes
>No

>>27187873
>Yes
Sure. Why not? Probably not desktop or desugar.
I'm thinking we should visit that hedge maze. If the hangman comes again we could lead him there and perhaps get him lost.

>>27187873
>already only twelve hours before midnight
Shit. Hurry. Try those words.
We need to question Jack about whatever the hell is going on afterwards.

>>27187944
There's no "i", though, is there?

>>27187873
I want to try dyspnea.

>>27187976
I thought so but it seems that there was only no "i" in between the D and S.
>>27188027
Maybe. There are a few words. Trial and error is going to be tedious. Destroy. Despond. Descend. Designs. Desires.

We should look to the poem for clues.

>>27188027
Can't be that because we know the first three letters are DES.

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"It couldn't be... could it?"

You muse to yourself as you try the obvious answer.

D-E-S-P-A-I-R

You work the letters into the cipher, and then test it on the first few sentences. To your astonishment it works perfectly.

"Well I'll be damned."

You begin working furiously, determined to get at least a chapter of the mysterious blue book hammered out before dinner. You scrawl furiously, and work your way through one pencil lead at a time as you translate the contents of the Tome out into your notes. The challenge of figuring it all out is what keeps you going, and pretty soon you've all but forgotten about Peter, Jack, The Hangman, the library bell, all of it.

It is only a short while in whenever you get the first page translated.

*****************************************************************************************************************************

I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since soon I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. It is better that I cast myself from this precipice now than to wait until the Hunter from Below finds me. I warn you now that if you continue you will succumb as I have.

These past decades I have spent researching that which lies only hinted at in obscure histories, dramas belonging to the cults of Dionysus, and words hidden in the warp and weft of of poems that only hint at their true meaning. The arcane matter into which I have dug suggest that the fundamental nature of time, space, and causality are all radically different from what we suppose, and that which lies beyond is best not even contemplated. Yet contemplate I have, and it has left me hollow.

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It all began with the discovery of fragments of writing believed to be of Phoenician origin, yet our dating methods have indicated that they are far older than that civilization, dating back to a period that suggests either the Atlantean or Hyperborean age. The writings hinted at a remaining fragment of the Ven civilization, thought wiped out long before this era, and the exchange of knowledge with a people who appeared to come trading with them from the coastal areas but were subsequently driven out after some cultural disagreement, as they were accused of trafficking with dark things in exchange for rewards granted by masters the Ven had long feared and despised.

What follows in these pages is a study in things best left unknown. To keep reading is to open your mind to madness, and to stop reading before learning all that I have to teach is to consign yourself to a fate best not contemplated. One must choose ignorance or knowledge, but once you begin you cannot cease.

You have been warned.

**********************************************************************************

>The time is now 2:15 PM

You pull your head up from decoded page and contemplate the foreword you have just read.

>Keep going
>Take a break and reason this out

>>27188588
>Keep going
I'd rather madness than "a fate best not contemplated".

>>27188588
>Take a break and reason this out
NOPE.

>>27188588
>Keep going

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>>27188645
>>27188682
At least make sure the room has no rope.

>>27188588
>Take a break and reason this out

Hell no.

>>27188588
>Take a break and reason this out

>Votes change when I'm 75% through

rewriting

>>27188588
>>Keep going

May as well, as stopping apparently has the effect of "consigning yourself to a fate best not contemplated".

Also, it says that reading opens your mind to madness, but it doesn't say you WILL lose your mind. Of course we will eventually, but that's beside the point...

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Madness it is!

>>27188588
>Keep going

>>27189141
hopefully you haven't deleted it.
>>27189146
>>27189161

>>27188645
>>27189146

The implication that you're about to cross the point of no return on the next page.

>>27189175

I did :(

>>27188588
>Keep going
>>27189220
It seems it's not just the PC who will be going a bit mad.

I believe in OP.

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Although talk of Madness had you momentarily dissuaded, you decide to press on, your curiosity insatiable. You move on to the next page, which seems to be the start of the Tome proper, and decode it so that it can be read.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Students begin with an inquisitive mind,
But it takes much more to step into the realm of dreaming,
In doorways hidden and passages sound,
Betwixt heath and ruin and blasted mound,
Throughout hallways known only by their absence,
Fevered dreams cried only by madmen in their passing,
For you dear apprentice the offer is nigh,
The Writ, signed in blood, the sigil of office,
Invitation to find your first pieces,
The Game of the Gods is cruel sport,
Stakes go beyond life and death,
This world, Elsewhere and betwixt,
To draw blood from your finger upon the first stroke of the witching hour,
Passage out into the Dreamland,
Where you must forge the Contract,
Letter of Marque with Lords Dread and Sovereign

On the first stroke of midnight draw blood from your finger and drop it onto the pentagram. Speak the poem, chanting it to cross the threshold of the twelfth stroke, and find yourself stranded in the realms of madness where you must make an Oath. If you do this power will be yours, but you must play the Gods Game forevermore. The sorcerers cant and the sages chant, but the whispers of the Old Ones drown out all.

You are Doomed.

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The instructions are simple enough: cut your finger, bleed onto a Pentagram, and read the strange poem inscribed across the front page. The rest of the front page, on closer examination, appears to be gibberish even when you put it through the cipher. In its entirety it would all be too strange, except that you know there is something odd happening at the stroke of midnight in this place where your brother hung.

>The time is 4:08 PM, 7 hours and 52 minutes til Midnight

As you set down the words you cannot help but feel a bit ill, as though you have eaten something funny. You go to take another look at the book, but as you do you begin to feel nauseous. You note that your hands are somewhat blue. Perhaps it was lunch? Ah well. What would you like to do now?

>Find Jack
>Go socialize for once
>Ask around about Professor Alhazred
>Explore campus
>Head into town

>>27190414
>Find Jack

>>27190414
>Go socialize for once

>>27190414
>Ask around about Professor Alhazred
He knew our brother. He might know what happened to him.

>>27190414
>Ask around about Professor Alhazred
I think he's most compelling. We need to talk to him and Jack and find a way to avoid the hangman.

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(Curse you Windows 8 and your sudden urge to stop being compatible with wifi!)

You decide to go and seek out information regarding Professor Alhazred. Perhaps seeking out someone from the History or Philosophy department, or an advisor so as to approach the information obliquely before you meet him in person on Monday.

1d100 please

Rolled 68

>>27191349

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You find that setting up a meeting with your academic advisers is something of a nightmare once the University already has your money. A weary voice over the phone, after being patched to you through several extensions, informs you that the earliest he can meet with you to discuss the philosophy department is monday, and that you have until the end of the first week to adjust your schedule. You get the feeling he's rehearsed this conversation once or twice.

Frustrated you turn your attention to other means of investigating the illustrious professor. A cursory search of academic data bases gives you a set of history and philosophical works that suggest his stances on Epistomology are largely drawn from Plato's Theory of Forms but applied to a graduated layer of reality and unreality. Whatever that means.

>The time is 6:12 PM

Eventually you grab a quick bite of dinner, and upon returning to Whateley you discover that Jack is back. He sits on his bed streaming a movie and sipping a coke. He glances your way as you enter.

"Too bloody hot to go jogging for a few hours. Care to join me, I'll only be going three miles today."

>"N-nah, later sometime"
>"I'm not in that good of shape"
>"Sure"

>>27191602
>"Sure"
Maybe we can talk to him. Increasing heart rate is also good.

>>27191602
>"Sure"

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"Sure thing."

"Awesome. We'll wait until it cools down a bit more first."

He seems rather pumped to have a running buddy, and you wonder how you're going to manage three miles even as you idly join him in watching Keeanu Reeves do battle with Hugo Weaving. Eventually the sun seems to go down sufficiently for his liking, and he starts to stretch. You join him, and the two of you make your way downstairs.

*******************************************************

As you finish retching on the edge of campus Jack hands you a water bottle.

"Sorry buddy, didn't realize you had just eaten."

You drink the cool, refreshing liquid down and contemplate asking him something.

>Talk about Peter
>Talk about last night and the library
>Ask about Alhazred
>Ask about The Hangman

>>27192148
>Talk about last night and the library

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"So, about last night..."

**********************************************************

I'm going to call it a night for the evening. I'll be around here in the thread, but I'm feeling diminishing returns in a big way.

Also looking for feedback: minus the unfortunate interruptions are you enjoying yourselves so far? Do you feel drawn into the plot? Even vaguely horrified by any scenes so far?

>>27192700
I'm enjoying it and you've done a good job of crafting an unsettling atmosphere. The Hangman sequence first thread was wonderfully done. Certainly scary. I think the mid-thread end last thread might have diminished momentum but it probably won't be too tough to regain.

Very good quest. Just need to keep a steady pace. Players like it when you update consistently.

>>27192839
>>27192700
Also it's late on a weekday and your players seem to be in the EST/CT crowd.

>>27192700
I kinda came in late to the thread and simply lurked, do you have a particular time/day of the week to run, might be more active if I can catch it sooner.

>>27192700
>>27193321
In this situation a twitter is very useful. Just post there an hour or so before you run and your playerbase will appear faster.

I think I'll start the thread earlier next time, try to update a bit faster, and I may go ahead and do the twitter thing.

I think I'll start tomorrow at 4:30 PM Central, though it means an interruption for dinner.