As I mentioned in my note, I’m sure that my conclusions will match Sullivan’s. That being the case, if you’ve already asked him about these clues, you probably won’t learn anything new here.
If you do choose to use this site, you’ll still need to email Sullivan about the Password for the www.StorageFiles.Net/Cursed website. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out who cursed Giovanni Moretti.
If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-034 to send him your first email. When you want to address either of the issues above, just include the appropriate underlined word from above in the body of your email.
If you want to see my thoughts on any of the clues in your case file, just click the corresponding button below.
In the Clue Analysis, Sullivan mentioned that we need to eliminate extra letters from the spell, right? I think he was right about that. As far as I can tell, the extra letters alternate between “CUR” and “SED.”
I went ahead and eliminated all of the extra letters to get:
F IV ETHING S AR EC ERT A INTHE KN I FEFL I ESN ORTHTH EB ONE W ALKSW ESTTH EH EART SW IMSS OUT HT H ETOPH ATR IDES E A STAND Y OU WILLS UFF ER
Even though this is still unreadable, we’re getting somewhere. If we can just figure out how to fix the spaces between things, we should be able to read this message.
I got it! I took out all of the spaces and then put in my own.
“FIVE THINGS ARE CERTAIN THE KNIFE FLIES NORTH THE BONE WALKS WEST THE HEART SWIMS SOUTH THE TOP HAT RIDES EAST AND YOU WILL SUFFER.”
The message is pretty weird, so I thought I had something wrong at first. Then, I realized that there are knives, bones, hearts, and top hats on Clue 2’s invitation. That being the case, I’m pretty sure this is giving us a hint about how we’re supposed to use the symbols on Clue 2.
Thanks to Clue 1, we know what cardinal directions the knife, hat, heart, and bone stand for. When the symbols are combined, that means we need to travel diagonally to the next point.
For instance, when the knife is through the hat, we have to move to the point northeast of our current point.
While you’re connecting each of the points, make sure you pay close attention to the overall path you take starting from the beginning of each set of directions. In fact, it might work best if you grab a pencil and lightly sketch your path out on the map. I’m pretty sure when you’re done with a set of directions, you should have drawn a letter.
Oh! Before I forget, there are two exceptions to what I just said. The final two sets of instructions actually tell you how to make symbols, not letters. I doubt the symbols really matter right now, but you might want to write them down and save them for later.
Clue 1 told us that the knife is north, the hat is east, the heart is south, and the bone is west, right? Knowing that, we can follow the directions on the map to connect several points and sketch out letters.
As an example, here’s what I got when I followed the directions beside the first symbol:
When you do that for each set of directions, you can figure out what letter every symbol stands for. Once you’ve got that down, you can answer the question that says: “I am willing to become this in order to destroy you.” According to the symbols, the answer is “inhuman.”
In addition to the word “inhuman,” the directions also help us draw out the following symbols:
I don’t think the symbols will help us right now, but you will probably want to write them down and save them for later.
Even though the message is weird, the good news is that most of the symbols we just decoded also appear on Clue 3. If you replace Clue 3’s symbols with their corresponding letters, you might be able to start trying to figure out whatever that clue is trying to tell us, too.
Clue 2 helped us replace most of the symbols with letters, but we’re still stuck with 2 unknowns to figure out. Somehow, I doubt we’re going to find any other clues that will help us fill in the final two symbols. Instead, I think we’re going to need to figure out what word is being spelled without knowing what the missing letters are.
The good news is that I’m pretty sure the word we need to spell starts with the letter “A.” From there, we’ll want to travel either clockwise or counterclockwise in a circle. If I’m looking at this correctly, too, I think even with two unknown letters, it’s probably only possible to spell a single word from this.
Since we know that we need to start with the letter “A,” the arrangement of letters has two possibilities:
AN?UI?H
AH?IU?N
Regardless of what the missing letters are, we can’t make any words from the second option. That said, if the missing letters are “G” and “S,” the first word spells “Anguish.”
That must mean that the “magic word” the handwritten message mentions is “anguish,” and therefore the message is telling us to spell out the word “anguish” using the lines on the back of Clue 4’s ad to find a hidden message.
So far, I’ve only been able to successfully put a few sections together. Here’s what I have:
Good news – I just finished putting everything together! Here’s what it looks like:
If you only pay attention to the words facing the correct way, they say:
“Want to discover my secret? Compare our similarities side-by-side.”
Doesn’t the text on the www.StorageFiles.Net/Cursed website mention discovering this person’s secret? This message has to be giving us some kind of hint about how we can figure out the website’s password.
If you haven’t already solved CIues 1-3, I’d recommend writing this down and working through those next. We’re probably going to need information from each clue if we want to crack the password.
Don’t forget to email Sullivan the password once you’ve figured it out. When you do, be sure to include the word password so that he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-034.
Aren’t the symbols that appear on the www.StorageFiles.Net/Cursed website also on the documents in your case file? They must be the key to figuring out the password.
I think we’re going to need to find six separate sets of symbols. When we’ve found them all, we’ll have to figure out next how to arrange them in the correct order.
The coaster that Giovanni Moretti received had symbols, as well as the words “3rd Place” on it, right? I’m pretty sure that means its symbols will be third in whatever sequence we’re trying to put together.
One last thing – the website says that “anything but #1 is meaningless,” right? I’m pretty sure that means we need to read only the first letter in each word that’s associated with the symbols once they’re arranged correctly. When we do that, whatever word they spell is probably the site’s password.
Don’t forget to email Sullivan the password once you’ve figured it out. When you do, be sure to include the word password so that he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-034.
I’m making some good headway on this. So far, I’ve found all six sets of symbols. They’re on CIues 1-4, the coaster, and the voodoo doll picture that had been left outside of Giovanni Moretti’s office door.
Didn’t Clue 4 say that if we want to discover the culprit’s secret, we need to compare their similarities side-by-side? I’m pretty sure that’s not talking about them and Moretti – it’s telling us that we need to arrange the symbol pairs so that the last symbol of a pair is the first symbol in the next pair.
Since we know the coaster is the 3rd pair in the sequence, that’s probably the best place to start working from. Then, once you’ve arranged the sequence correctly, you’ll need to read the first letter of each word that’s associated with the symbols on each document. Whatever word that spells should be the password.
I’ll keep working on this, but if you figure out the password first, be sure to let Sullivan know. When you email him, be sure to include the word password so that he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-034.
