PAGE SIX

On October 16th, 2016, TwinBuilder posted the following message as a teaser.

After some research, it was discovered that these three sentences can be found on Kryptos, a famous sculpture made by Jim Sanborn covered in encrypted writing. The sculpture is split into four parts, each of which is encoded in a different manner; the fourth and final component has remained unsolved for decades. This was a hint that the sixth portion of Ends of the Earth would involve Kryptos in some way.

On October 18th, 2016, TwinBuilder posted this Pastebin.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

It was discovered that stacking the three bottom sequences of text on top of each other and then reading them from top-to-bottom left-to-right yields the following plaintext: COMMISSIONED BY THE SENATE OF BERLIN AND DESIGNED BY DIETER BINNINGER EFNYZHUB IS THE KEY. This is known as a “route cipher” – the text is written in a grid of specific dimensions, then organized from top-to-bottom left-to-right, and then stacked into distinct lines of text.

Dieter Binninger is known as the creator of the Set Theory Clock, or “Berlin Clock,” a clock which tells time via a series of illuminated panels. The clock has been hinted by Jim Sanborn to be the key to solving the fourth and final segment of Kryptos, hence the relevance of Kryptos earlier on. EFNYZHUB, meanwhile, leads to another Pastebin. Visiting the link http://pastebin.com/EFNYZHUB leads to the second stage.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

The first portion of the Pastebin, telling a nonsensical story, actually corresponds to Wingdings characters. Bar the first line, the first word/phrase of every line in the story directly relates to a Wingding character, explaining why every line cuts off at an “A.” In Wingdings, a “thumbs down” corresponds to “D,” a “bolded box” corresponds to “p,” a “box casting a downwards shadow” corresponds to “q,” a “diamond authority” (a diamond made of four smaller diamonds) corresponds to “v,” and a “Maltese cross” corresponds to “X.”

The second portion of the Pastebin, a long line of characters, is another route cipher – it was meant to be solved by turning one long line of text into three smaller lines of text with equal length. (However, the top line will have one additional letter than the bottom two, since the line of text is 82 characters long, which isn’t wholly divisible by 3.) Doing this and then reading from top-to-bottom left-to-right yields the plaintext “YOUD BETTER DELVE INTO THAT PARTICULAR CLOCK GRAINS OF SAND IN THE ENDLESS DESERT ROWS AND COLUMNS”. This component of the stage is a surprise tool that will help later.

This makes the complete character string DpqvX. Visiting the link http://imgur.com/a/DpqvX reveals the third stage.

The third stage’s Imgur album consists of a set of eight images, seemingly meant to be pages in the Scribe’s journal. Every page contains a drawing of the Berlin Clock, accompanied by one or two large letters written in the Scribe’s cipher, some hexadecimal characters, and various doodles and/or writings courtesy of the Scribe. An explanation of how the Berlin Clock works, as well as detailed descriptions of every page, will follow.

The yellow circle at the clock’s top denotes the seconds, which doesn’t matter within this puzzle. The next two red rows denote the hours – every lit red bar on the first row signifies five hours, and every lit red bar on the second row signifies one hour, for a grand total of twenty-four hours. The last two rows, with one consisting of a pattern (two yellow, one red) and the other being all yellow, denote the minutes. On the top row, every lit bar signifies five minutes. (The red bars are indicators that fifteen, thirty, and forty-five minutes have passed.) On the bottom row, every lit bar signifies one minute, allowing for indicators that one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, or nine minutes have passed when combined with the top row.

The first image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 05:00, its Scribe-text translates to “DH,” and its hexadecimal translates to “¿Q.
The second image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 06:18, its Scribe-text translates to “EB,” and its hexadecimal translates to uié.
The third image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 05:57, its Scribe-text translates to “GM,” and its hexadecimal translates to n e.
The fourth image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 09:26, its Scribe-text translates to “R,” and its hexadecimal translates to s ‘.
The fifth image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 01:51, its Scribe-text translates to “H?,” and its hexadecimal translates to Som.
The sixth image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 02:02, its Scribe-text translates to “D?,” and its hexadecimal translates to bra.
The seventh image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 05:45, its Scribe-text translates to “EQ,” and its hexadecimal translates to ‘?”.
The eighth image’s Berlin Clock tells the time of 03:33, and its Scribe-text translates to “GB.”

However, some errors and unknown information made the translation of the Scribe-text more complicated than it should have been – the two “D”s were meant to be “A”s (an error on Twin’s part), and the second characters of the fifth and sixth image’s texts were completely unknown. The only two unknown characters at that point were J and X, meaning the completed characters were AH, EB, GM, R, H(J or X), A(X or J), EQ, and GB. The hexadecimal, an Overwatch reference, translates to “¿Quién es ‘Sombra’?”

The next eight paragraphs will consist of an analysis on the album's completely optional miscellaneous text and doodles.

Page one contains a hill with an eye and a warped Journal 3 logo with the word “WHAT” surrounding it, a reference to Gravity Falls. Below it is the Scratch symbol from Homestuck, with start-from-beginning, rewind, and play buttons below it. The fast-forward and skip buttons are blotted out, referencing how the Scratch resets a universe’s timeline to its beginning. On the left side of the image is a series of arrows with what seem to be physics-related terminology: 9.81 m/s is the force of acceleration due to gravity.

Page two contains, clockwise, text reading “Ignore this. Bluh,” an image of a spiral (presumably from Homestuck, as it is associated with cherubim) leading to an exit door, a Homestuck flash command reading [S] END. with three exclamation parts scribbled next to it as if in surprise, and accompanying text reading “I’ve seen all this before. I’m sure of it, now more than ever.” Next to it is what seems to be a matrix algebra problem, above it is the Ionian character for “IO,” Ionian being another TwinBuilder-created language, with the Scribe having written “Unknown language. Investigate,” next to it, and above that is an image of the Godhead with its yellow triangle detached and geometric patterns streaming from it.

Page three contains, counter-clockwise, a drawing of the Sun attached to a metal rail, labelled “Figure 901-C (Like the Sun).” Below it is redacted text reading “SOUL POWER?” and below that is a diagram of seven hearts, meant to represent human SOULS in Undertale. The Scribe’s accompanying text reads “The Pact was catastrophic. Also, underwhelming. Burn all Flowey-related documents ASAP. ...Or don’t? :)” Above this text is a set of three eyes – one with a white sclera and a black pupil, one with a black sclera and a white pupil, and a third with a yin-yang sclera and pupil. These eyes seem to represent the evolution of Bill Cipher within DTG. Above it is a binary picture where all the 1s are vaguely oriented in the shape of the Delta Figure (a triangle, circle, and line representing Project Binary). Above that is a drawing of the Moon attached to a metal rail, labelled “Figure 901-D (And the Moon).” Along with Figure 901-C, they represent two portions of the clockwork curtains found throughout DTG and Homestuck.

Page four contains, clockwise, a self-evident message from the Scribe: "WHY AM I JUST... DOODLING?" Directly under it are yellow tetrominoes arranged in a rectangular shape with the Scribe writing “Yellow reminds me of falling blocks.” Below it is what seems to the Black Monolith writing “STOP.” Below that is an image of an “X” shining down onto what seems like a crude landscape, with accompanying text reading “Abnormal will soon be the norm?!” To its left, the Scribe has crossed out the words CAESAR and ATBASH, put a question mark next to VIGENERE, and written “That’s the stuff!” next to NEW LANGUAGE, indicating the Scribe’s preferred methods of encrypting text. Above is the image of a hand covered in a reddish-pink substance, with accompanying text “Red, though... ...No.” The ‘No’ is written in red, seemingly referring back to what yellow reminded the Scribe of.

Page five contains, counter-clockwise, text reading “IF IT’S ‘ALL JUST A JOKE...'” “THEN WHAT’S THE PUNCHLINE?” followed by an image of a boxing glove punching someone. The Scribe then writes “TIME. Frighteningly accurate,” presenting the punchline. The right side of the image is dominated by a set of two lines which then meet a black wall, and afterwards fray and segment into many pieces that all become tangled up before coalescing into the apparent shape of a six-fingered hand of darkness.

Page six contains, clockwise, an upside-down drawing of Bill Cipher’s upper body, top hat, and right arm, with text reading “I DID NOT DRAW THIS,” implying that Bill himself did. Below is a diagram of a bed next to a Nether Portal promptly exploding, with text reading “SOME SICK JOKE BY THE GODS?? FUCK YOU,” and green blocky text below reading “Okay,” presumably a message from Team Mojang themselves. Below that is text reading “Can’t sleep. Could be related to the fact that not everyone’s in bed,” referencing the fact that on Minecraft multiplayer servers, all players on a server must be in a bed for beds to actually work. To its left is text reading “...I did not write in green. I DON’T HAVE A GREEN PEN,” expressing the Scribe’s confusion at the earlier green “Okay.” Above is a drawing of a Gorilla from Pie Quest, labelled (Figure 314-Z: “gorilla.”) The accompanying text reads “Swear constantly, but always sounds like the word ‘gorilla.’ Why?” Above is a portion of the Destroy the Godmodder Zodiac, with special attention paid to Fseftr’s symbol, Lapis Lazuli. Next to it, the words “LAPIS LAZULI (SU)” are visible, indicating the symbol’s presence in Steven Universe’s Zodiac as well.

Page seven contains, counter-clockwise, the text “TOO CONFUSING FOR NEW SCRIBES,” an apparent reference to Valve’s removal of the map Snowplow in Team Fortress 2 (it was “too confusing for new players”), a :^( face with the colon replaced by two escutcheons (symbols representative of engie_ninja and Slenderman), and below it, text reading “[7×7] = 49. DUH. MATH IS SIMPLE.” This is referencing an earlier text adventure, [7×7], organized by TwinBuilder. Above it is backwards text reading “FOUR SETS OF NINE. ORDER / SUPERIORS / ANCESTORS / COUNCIL, + 0 (the zero resembles an eye), + 1 (the one resembles an interrobang) = (the Delta Figure, a line within a circle within an upside-down triangle).” This expands upon the ‘49,’ showing that it relates to four sets of nine characters – the Order guarding the Gate the Scribe seeks, the Advanced Superiors, the Anti-Godmodders of the Psi-Godmodding War, and Limbo’s Council of Nine. These permutations of 9, when added to 0 and 1 (9+0+1 = 901, an Arc Number) are equivalent to Project Binary in some obtuse mathematical fashion.

Page eight contains a lengthy message from the Scribe when read clockwise. The message is as follows. “I suppose I should write about what these symbols are. To be blunt – I do not know their meaning, + I will not claim to. They simply appeared in my mind one day – literally – and I found it rather hard to get them out. So I wrote them down, taking up eight pages of my Journal. ...Worth it. Don’t know why I feel that way, but I do. I have also experienced a profound urge to doodle around these pages. And so, I have. Their origin is spontaneous in nature. I hope you can find meaning from them. Lately, I have been experiencing other visions. Of a rhyme. Of... me? Getting to the Gate. I feel it is worth transcribing as well. So perhaps I should do that instead of wasting time writing here. ▷, signing off.” This seems to hint that the pages found throughout Ends of the Earth were all written by the Scribe and stored in his Journal after he received them through prophetic visions.

Using the second portion of phase two and the codes of phase three in conjunction, the next part of the puzzle becomes clear. It lies within the Endless Desert, a portion of the Google Docs spreadsheet made for Destroy the Godmodder: Chaos. The Endless Desert is an extremely large expanse of rows and columns which sometimes contains secrets. Using the Berlin Clock times as row numbers and the Scribetext letters as column letters, specific cels of the spreadsheet will be found to contain new Pastebin links (that have been colored white so as to not be immediately visible).

Row 500, Column AH, contains the link http://pastebin.com/XALuQtc6.
Row 618, Column EB, contains the link http://pastebin.com/1192WHak.
Row 557, Column GM, contains the link http://pastebin.com/uLWr953g.
Row 926, Column R, contains the link http://pastebin.com/m01zdkYM.
Row 151, Column HJ, contains the link http://pastebin.com/JEDiLV0L.
Row 202, Column AX, contains the link http://pastebin.com/EdyYS8tt.
Row 545, Column EQ, contains the link http://pastebin.com/dwXXuqjs.
Row 333, Column GB, contains the link http://pastebin.com/qSPaVnce.

Each Pastebin link contains the image of an Ionian letter. A complete alphabet of Ionian can be found below.

The characters in the center read A B C D E F / G H J K L M / N P Q R S T / U V W X Y Z. I is the dash to the left and O is the dot to the right. If I/O comes before a letter in a word, it is written under said letter. If I/O comes after a letter in a word, it is written above said letter. If I and O are next to each other in a word, the IO character at the top and/or bottom of the image is used instead. With that in mind, the Ionian characters in each Pastebin can be translated to English.

The first Ionian character (an “L” with a diagonal line pointing to the upper-right protruding from it) is K.
The second Ionian character (three horizontal parallel lines) is E.
The third Ionian character (an upside-down “L”) is F.
The fourth Ionian character (an upside-down “L” with a diagonal line pointing to the lower-right protruding from it) is R.
The fifth Ionian character (two horizontal parallel lines connected on the right by a vertical line) is C.
The sixth Ionian character (two vertical parallel lines connected by an “X”) is V.
The seventh and eighth Ionian characters (three horizontal parallel lines) are once again E.

This gives the complete character string KEfrCVee. Visiting the link http://pastebin.com/KEfrCVee reveals the final stage.

It was decoded from Cyrillic, into English.

At this time, TwinBuilder’s Steam name and Steam avatar were changed to what they usually are on Discord while Ends of the Earth is running – his name was changed into a Cyrillic transliteration of TwinBuilder, and his avatar was an altered image of the Bill Cipher Zodiac. This, along with the above rhyme, was meant to signify that in order for the puzzle to progress, people had to message TwinBuilder’s Steam account. However, the same person couldn’t message it over and over – seven different people had to do it. Everyone that messaged TwinBuilder received an image in return, which had to be put together to create the answer to the final stage.

Fseftr messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/SY2ZZmV.jpg.
Nimbleguy messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/0lT0JWB.jpg.
Pope Bill messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/1L0wmQj.jpg.
IGU messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/nK9cGnW.jpg.
TT2000 messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/f1ZOUIL.jpg.
SplitSuns messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/QvSc3DG.jpg.
Battlefury messaged TwinBuilder and received this link: https://i.imgur.com/niT18Fy.jpg.

The links were then put together as accurately as possible by SplitSuns to yield a complete image: https://imgur.com/a/IV3rv. Clockwise from the top, the outer letters are ‘mHjnJG,’ the inner letters are ‘ENDING,’ and the innermost letter is a combination of a ‘q’ and a key. Utilizing all this information yields a seven-character string of mHjnJGq, which, when decrypted with the Vigenere key ENDING, gives the solution.

This creates the complete character string iUgfWAm. Visiting http://i.imgur.com/iUgfWAm.png reveals the sixth page. It depicts a warped and blurry grey/yellow triangle running across the majority of the page, a set of two dark grey circles within the triangle that contain what look like Curses, and a huge pool of indigo which contains golden tetrominoes. The encoded text is “WITH THE KEYS, I MET THE LOCK, AND TOOK A STEP THROUGH THE BEYOND.” Interestingly, the last two words are not written on the paper, but cut out of it; the background of the page is visible behind them.

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