Some mysterious messages and comments have been posted on this wiki.
December 12, 2012 - Tempus omnia revelant[]
On December 12, 2012, User:Dr Horn created a page with the title Tempus omnia revelant.
Shortly after the page was created, Stormseeker updated the original post of The Pizza Code Mystery ARG forum thread, adding the text "Tempus omnia revelant" in black color as to obscure it. This was clearly a hint that a new clue was out there somewhere. At the same time, it also confirmed the authenticity of the newly added Tempus omnia revelant wiki page as a clue.
The message was posted a little over a month after HALOS.txt with the 752 Hex Code puzzle was discovered. By this point in time, the trail on the puzzle had already gone cold.
Contents[]
At first glance, the contents of the page seem to be a collage of seemingly disparate elements, two of which are repeats of messages seen in previous clues.
Following is a summarized list of the elements found on the page:
- Latin phrases: Tempus omnia revelant (Time reveals all things) and Vox populi vox Dei (The voice of the people is the voice of God).
- Repeat of the Terminal message.
- Italicized/bold letters that seem to spell out a message: "seek Code out he is watching", "[he] Is AI".
- Something that looks like a communications intercept report, authored by "HALOS AUTOMATED", with a repeat of the message in IRC clue 1 following a metadata section written in BibTeX format.
- A message saying that the intercepted message couldn't be triangulated.
- A mysterious image covered with writing and scribbles.
- A partial list of Niobium isotopes.
- Mention of "MINDAT" being sent via HAFB (Holloman Air Force Base).
- A quote about communicating with and being silently observed by something mysterious, taken from the Star Trek TNG episode 1x09 "Justice".
- A verse from Dante's Inferno, XXXI.67, spoken by Nimrod, one of the giants who guard the Ninth Circle of Hell.
- The document was "authorized for release" on 12.12.12, the same date the page was created.
- Other key words/phrases found on the page: "ComLabs Test Initiative", "HALOS Project", "AITR-0001".
- The page ends with the word "Close."
Italicized and bold letters[]
Screenshot of the Tempus omnia revelant page where the italicized/bold letters have been color-coded for visibility (red=italics+bold, magenta=italics and lime/green=bold).
Some of the letters on the page are in italics and/or bold. Most of these letters are both in italics and bold, but some of them are only in bold, and some only in italics. In the screenshot image to the right, the italicized and bold letters have been color-coded to make it easier to distinguish the type of font style used.
Writing the letters out in the order in which they appear, separated by style, gives us:
Italics+Bold: seekCodeout is watchin g Italics : he Bold : I s AI
For some reason, "he" is only in italics.
The message appears to be: "Seek code out, he is watching. Is AI." Or possibly: "Seek code out. He is watching. He is AI".
Theories[]
- Puzzle related:
- There could be a code or a coded message hidden somewhere that is yet to be discovered.
- On the "budget" whiteboard, the word "CODE" is written in a box in a block diagram. Connected to it is a bubble with the following text written in red: "Please use cascade ciphers only (eg. 1 AES 1 2F 1 SP.)". The text inside the parentheses are references to the AES, Twofish and Serpent block ciphers, respectively. However, these are 128-bit block ciphers, while the current running theory is that the 752 Hex Code was encrypted using a 64-bit block cipher.
- We were supposed to reach out to the user called Code_ on IRC who went by the name of 0418_08151814 on the forum. This was done by user Gunsrequiem who received a lengthy PM from 0418_08151814. 0418_08151814 was later revealed to be code for DR_HORN.
- In order to decrypt the 752 Hex Code, we need a tool which only exists somewhere in source code form.
- "Seek code out" along with "Time reveals all" might be hints that the solving of the hex code puzzle will require a lengthy or iterative process, like some kind of (key) search algorithm or brute forcing. However, Stormseeker has already ruled out brute forcing in a comment on his Steam profile.
- Story related:
- Someone is watching, and it is possible that this someone is an artificial intelligence."He is AI" seems to suggest that someone's consciousness has been uploaded into the AI.
- If the document (the wiki page) was created by the AI, then someone else might be attempting to communicate with us without alerting the AI. Or conversely, the AI is attempting to communicate with us without arousing suspicion among those in control of the AI.
- Another possibility could be that the "seek code out" message is simply a story element that takes place earlier in the story: a message for someone to seek out Dr. Horn's codes (codes A-D) hidden within the Black Mesa Research Facility.
TODO: Write additional sections with further details/interpretations/theories.
February 4, 2014 - LOL Cannon (Tau Cannon) message[]
On February 4, 2014, an anonymous user posted a mysterious comment in the comments section on the 752 Hex Code page. The source has not been verified, but the IP address of the poster belongs to the same ISP and IP subnet once previously used by Watcher/Dr Horn when he dropped one of the IRC clues. Also, the message appeared just a few days after it was revealed on the forum that the forum name of forum user 0418_08151814 was code for DR_HORN, and the speculation that 0418_08151814 must have been Stormseeker in disguise.
The message was as follows:
Aug 09 -------------- W### has been p########## well on the L#### O####### L######## Can####, other#### kn### as the T## Cann##. My t##### to the #####etic induction coil have reduced the likelyhood of overcharge by 200%! I still cannot fathom why the fuse we introduced continues to fail however, perhaps the leptons have a mi7s6d0976)(&^A)S()F ()A^SF) A()&^ ^)(AS&^ (^6097^)(76)(*"_)"_)(*")(*!")(*!")(!"*)(.................................. ........ ..........................................
Based on what is written on the c2a4x_labboard2 whiteboard, we can fill in the blanks to get:
Aug 09 -------------- Work has been progressing well on the Lepton Optronic Linearity Cannon, otherwise known as the Tau Cannon. My tweaks to the magnetic induction coil have reduced the likelyhood of overcharge by 200%! I still cannot fathom why the fuse we introduced continues to fail however, perhaps the leptons have a mi7s6d0976)(&^A)S()F ()A^SF) A()&^ ^)(AS&^ (^6097^)(76)(*"_)"_)(*")(*!")(*!")(!"*)(.................................. ........ ..........................................
At the time of writing, the purpose and meaning of the message is still unknown. However, because it was posted on the 752 Hex Code page, it seems reasonable to assume that it contains a clue or hint related to the hex code puzzle.
Analysis of the corrupted text[]
Forum user raw_bean analyzed the scrambled string at the end of the message and was able to show fairly conclusively that it was generated by someone typing randomly at keys on a keyboard (with a UK keyboard layout) in an attempt to simulate garbled and corrupted text. [1]
Other notes[]
- A diagram of the Tau Cannon can be found on the c2a4x_labboard2 whiteboard, where also the full name of the Tau Cannon is written: "Accelerated Lepton Optronic Linearity Cannon".
- According to writing on the c2a4x_labboard2 whiteboard, Dr J. Welsh was tasked with looking into possible side effects of overcharging the Tau Cannon.
- The statement "[...] have reduced the likelyhood of overcharge by 200%!" does not seem to make sense. Reducing a value by 200% is the same as taking the negative of the original value (x - 200x/100 = x - 2x = -x).
- At the end of the message there are a series of dots divided into three segments. The numbers of dots are 34, 8 and 42, totaling 84. Although this could just be a coincidence, 21 happens to be a factor of both 42 and 84, which suggests that this might have something to do with the 21 into 1 hint.
August 26, 2014 - The nutrition facts and the "This unlocks [...] 21 into 1" comments[]
On August 26, 2014, an unregistered/anonymous Wikia user posted two comments on two different wiki pages. The nature of these comments suggests that they might be hints posted by Stormseeker. This is also supported by the fact that the IP address of the poster is based in the UK.
The first comment (The nutrition facts)[]
The first comment was posted on the Lapis Philosophorum wiki page. It consisted of what appeared to be a nutrition facts table.
The Lapis Philosophorum wiki page details the code found on one of the whiteboards which was decoded to the latin phrase "Lapis Philosophorum". Only days before the comments were posted, wiki editors had brought the Lapis Philosophorum code back into focus by listing it under the "Current Unsolved Problems and Mysteries" section on the main page.
After some discussion in the forum thread, it was determined that the nutrition facts matched the nutrition facts for red herring (the values were found to be the same as the values shown in the side panel on the Google search results page when searching for "kippered herring"). [2] From this the conclusion was made that this was a message from Stormseeker, telling us that the Lapis Philosophorum code (and/or the subject matter on the whiteboard on which it was found) was a proverbial red herring.
The second comment (This unlocks [...] 21 into 1)[]
The second comment was posted on the BMRF.us wiki page.
"This unlocks at the start of the end. 21 into 1."
The first part of the comment appears to be about the BMRF.us and/or the terminal.bmrf.us websites. Apparently, these sites will come into play at the beginning of the last part of the ARG.
The solution to IRC clue 4 seems to be hinting at a possible login with the username "HALOS" on the BMRF.us site. It is very possible that this is related to the DALsystems remote terminal page. However, the current state of the remote terminal page indicates that login is currently not possible. This seems to mirror messages in the IRC clues and in the HALOS.txt file, eg. "SITE OFFLINE" and "{Primary Servers Overloaded}". A message in the HALOS.txt file also suggests that a passcode is needed for activating the site. Also, when Stormseeker updated the original forum post (some time after the HALOS.txt file appeared), one of the things he added was "BMRF.us (site down, due to unforseen circumstances)".
"This unlocks at the start of the end." seems to be a confirmation or a reminder that there is nothing to be done with or learned from the BMRF.us and terminal.bmrf.us sites at this point until one or more steps have been completed, which at the very least include solving the current gateway puzzle.
The second part of the comment – "21 into 1." – is a bit more cryptic and mysterious. Some of the ideas that have been suggested as to what this might mean are:
- The site unlocks when 21 puzzles or puzzle groups have been reduced to one.
- 21 into 1 could be another way of saying 1/21 which equals 0.0476190476..., which is an infinite repeating decimal with a repetend of 047619.
- This could very simply be a date, meaning BMRF.us unlocks on the 21st of January.
- It could be related to the number of key bits used by the three-key Triple DES cipher, one of the possible ciphers that might have been used to encrypt the 752 Hex Code. While a 192-bit key must be supplied to the cipher, only 168 bits are actually used by the cipher for the encryption/decryption, due to the quirky feature of the DES cipher that is the parity bits, which are (were) intended to be used for error checking. 168 bits constitute exactly 21 bytes. Therefore, this could be confirmation that the cipher is indeed three-key Triple DES. Furthermore, it could also mean that the so-called parity bits must be taken into consideration when applying the password/key, meaning that the password/key must be formatted in such a way that none of the bits in the original password/key are placed in the bit positions reserved for parity bits.
See also: 21 into 1
December 19, 2020 - Message from Prof. B[]
On December 19, 2020, an anonymous user posted a comment on the "Meet the Devs" code puzzle page:
Greetings,
I have accessed a historical file from an old data cache
will try to upload to connection... tachyon projection is "wafty" at best.
- Prof B.
The IP address of the poster was traced to a location in or near Liskeard, UK.
A user named Prof. B who had posted a few times in the Discord channel was already under suspicion by ARG players of being connected to the ARG. The wiki comment cemented this suspicion and signaled that something interesting was about to happen.
A few days later, Prof. B posted an image with a code or cipher on it in the Discord chat. See Coded message from Prof. B for more information.