Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[Suspence]

Should we move along to the next puzzle at this point?
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

We certainly can, but how about a bigger hint? Here's what you said in the post I was referring to:

[Suspence]

[gftt*]

[Scurra]

I confess that this was one of the first ones on my "look the answer up to see what the hell they were thinking" list this time around.

And I'm still not at all sure how to make the "aha" leap, other than through sheer weight of numbers (i.e. lots of people looking at it until someone says "well, I guess we could try this...") I'm fairly sure we didn't.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

[Suspence]

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

Just had a (possible) flash of inspiration. I haven't tested yet, but perhaps we replace the blue letters in the crossword with the real initials, then that allows us to read a message?

No time at the moment, but it might be a start.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Scurra]

[Suspence]

I tried populating the grid a bit, but didn't see anything promising.

Here are the real initials sorted by clue, in case it helps somehow:

1D e
2A d
2D m
3A -
4D w
5D c
6D m
7A r
8A l
9D m
10A a
11A c
12A s
13D r
14D c
15A w
16A m
17D e
18D p
19D p
20A p
21D r
22A s
23D r
24D s
25A w
26A h
27A l
27D -
28D f
29D m
30A m
31A j
32A m
33D m
34D r
35A s
36A s
37D n
38D e
39A k
40A b
41D b
42A j
43D a
44D k
45A r
46A -
47D h
48A w
49A m
50D o
51A r
52D -
53D l
54D r
55A d
55D t
56D r
57A f
58A a
59A r
60A w
61D r
62D w
63D m
64D h
65A h
66A r
67D h
68A r
69D t
70A o
71D s
72A s
73A r
74A s
75A b
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

Maybe use the position of the blue squares as indices into the real name?

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

Okay, let's try this: I wonder if you're not seeing the pattern because, in Suspence's post in which he tried to work out letter correspondence, he wrote one of those correspondences backwards.

[Suspence]

Maybe just a ROT? And whatever the ROT number is becomes an index?

Just the ones we had all 3 blue letters on:

KEVIN SULLIVAN - Kevin Francis Sullivan - KFS - OJW - rot-4

MR PERFECT CURT HENNIG - Curtis Michael Hennig - YID - rot-22

RANDY MACHO MAN SAVAGE - Randall Mario Poffo - RMP - WRU - rot-5

DOINK THE CLOWN - Matthew Wade Osborne - MWO- AKC - rot-14

UNDERTAKER - Mark William Calaway - MWC - RBH - rot-5

BAM BAM BIGELOW - Scott Charles Bigelow - SCB - EON - rot-12

RAZOR RAMON - Scott Oliver Hall - SOH - WSL - rot-4

I had to correct some of my answers for Bam Bam Bigelow and Razor Ramon to make it work. Looks like FAVELA was correct rather than BARRIO, and it looks like WORN instead of THIN.

No time to finish it off at the moment, maybe later today...
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

D - 4 - KEVIN SULLIVAN - Kevin Francis Sullivan - OJW
I - 9 - RAVISHING RICK RUDE - Richard Erwin Rood - AN?
V - 22 - MR PERFECT CURT HENNIG - Curtis Michael Hennig - YID
O - 15 - DUSTIN RHODES - Dustin Patrick Runnels - S?G
Y or R - 25 or 18 - MIKE ROTUNDA - Lawrence Michael Rotunda - K?J
C - 3 - BRUTUS THE BARBER BEEFCAKE - Edward Harrison Leslie - ?KO
E - 5 - RANDY MACHO MAN SAVAGE - Randall Mario Poffo - WRU
D - 4 - DR. DEATH STEVE WILLIAMS - Steven Williams (2 blue letters) - ?-A
L - 12 - HONKY TONK MAN - Roy Wayne Ferris - D??
A or I - 1 or 9 - SERGEANT SLAUGHTER - Robert Remus (2 blue letters) - S-A
N - 14 - DOINK THE CLOWN - Matthew Wade Osborne (among others) - AKC
D - 4 - YOKOZUNA - Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi - V?E
A - 1 - DIESEL - Kevin Scott Nash - ?SO
M - 13 - BIG BOSS MAN - Ray Walter Traylor - E?G
A - 1 - RICKY THE DRAGON STEAMBOAT - Richard Henry Blood - ??C
R - 18 - ANDRE THE GIANT - André René Roussimoff - ??J
I - 9 - LEX LUGER - Lawrence Wendell Pfohl - ??Y
E - 5 - UNDERTAKER - Mark William Calaway - RBH
C - 3 - THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN TED DIBIASE - Theodore Marvin DiBiase - ??G
L - 12 - BAM BAM BIGELOW - Scott Charles Bigelow - RON
A - 1 - SID VICIOUS - Sidney Raymond Eudy - T??
R - 18 - STING - Steven James Borden - K??
I - 9 - MICHAEL PS HAYES - Michael Seitz (only 2 blue letters) - V-?
D - 4 - RAZOR RAMON - Scott Oliver Hall - TSL
G or A - 7 or 1 - JOHNNY B. BADD - Marcus Merowitz - T-N
? - ROAD WARRIOR HAWK - Michael James Hegstrand - ???

DIVORCED LINDA MARIE CLARIDGE

Call in HULK HOGAN

[Suspence]

Shoulda tried that when I first noted his conspicuous absence.

Nicely done, I had just gotten there myself, but you beat me to it.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

I think what held me back from realizing the ROT idea was that for all of the ones where it would have been more evident (i.e. where one person had the same letter in their initials), we had the answers wrong or missing.

Yokozuna, Sergeant Slaughter, Johnny B. Badd, Rick Rude...If I had solved enough of the clues correctly to see something like RAA = VEE, then I'm pretty sure I would've gotten there much sooner.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

HULK HOGAN is...incorrect.

[Suspence]

Call in TERRY GENE BOLLEA

Call in TERRY BOLLEA
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

My first thought from Hang Ten was surfing.

If you turn AL*A** *A* LI*E into ALWAYS SAY LIKE, it's a "surfer" stereotype, and uses WYSK. Combine WYSK and ARD from the list below -which all appear to be suffixes - to get SKYWARD

I'm running into trouble with my surfer stereotype idea, though. The 7th one, which looks to be OLD ??IL? LITERATURE. Can't see a way that that would tie in to surfing.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)Old guild literature?
7)
8)
9)
10)

[Suspence]

1) AL*A** *A* LI*E = ALWAYS SAY LIVE - NEVER SAY DIE
2) *I* *I*L *L*E = BIG GIRL BLUE - LITTE BOY BLUE
3) E*** *N*E* *I**I**L* = EGGS UNDER DIFFICULT - EGGS OVER EASY
4) *AL*E *O *EA** = FALSE TO DEATH - TRUE TO LIFE
5) *I*E **E *I*
6) *O* *O** *A**
7) OL* **IL* LI*E*A***E = OLD CHILD LITERATURE - YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
8) O** **E **I*A*E E*E = OUT THE PRIVATE EYE - IN THE PUBLIC EYE
9) *A** *OO* L**E = WARM FOOT LUKE - COOL HAND LUKE
10) **I*E AN* *ALE
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

10) **I*E AN* *ALE = WHITE AND PALE - BLACK AND TAN

No idea where this is going, though...

[Suspence]

Me either. There's not much to work with on the last 2. Seems like we need to figure out what to do next so we can back-solve those.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt]

1) AL*A** *A* LI*E = ALWAYS SAY LIVE - NEVER SAY DIE
2) *I* *I*L *L*E = BIG GIRL BLUE - LITTE BOY BLUE
3) E*** *N*E* *I**I**L* = EGGS UNDER DIFFICULT - EGGS OVER EASY
4) *AL*E *O *EA** = FALSE TO DEATH - TRUE TO LIFE
5) *I*E **E *I* = GIVE THE SIT - TAKE THE STAND
6) *O* *O** *A**
7) OL* **IL* LI*E*A***E = OLD CHILD LITERATURE - YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
8) O** **E **I*A*E E*E = OUT THE PRIVATE EYE - IN THE PUBLIC EYE
9) *A** *OO* L**E = WARM FOOT LUKE - COOL HAND LUKE
10) **I*E AN* *ALE = WHITE AND PALE - BLACK AND TAN

The last of the new words in each phrase go with the suffixes.

TANDEM, HANDSOME, PUBLICATION, ADULTERY, STANDARD, LIFEBOAT, EASYGOING, BLUEISH, DIESIS?

missing -WARE.

[Suspence]

HOT SOFT CASH - COLD HARD CASH - HARDWARE
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Reordering according to the suffix list:
TAKE THE STAND(ard)
IN THE PUBLIC(ation) EYE
NEVER SAY DIE(sis)
YOUNG ADULT(ery) LITERATURE
COOL HAND(some) LUKE
COLD HARD(ware) CASH
LITTLE BOY(ish) BLUE
BLACK AND TAN(dem)
TRUE TO LIFE(boat)
EGGS OVER EASY(going)

First letters are tiny.cc/lbte OR tiny.cc/lbto depending on whether we want the first letters of the phrase or the first letters of the other antonym. I'll go with the latter since it points to the Sherlock Holmes wiki page.

CALL IN SHERLOCK HOLMES

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

OK, I don't know what the heck is going on with that puzzle, but I do know that we just got an answer with initials CCR in a round entitled Into the Woodstock.

[novice]

Good catch, gftt.

Into the Woodstock (in no particular order)
KINGS HIGHWAY BRIDGE - Keef Hartley Band
REST STOP - Ravi Shankar
JACK CARDIFF - Joe Cocker
GO DUTCH - Grateful Dead
RUSH HOUR - Richie Havens
BAKING SODA - Bert Sommer
TERRY GENE BOLLEA - The Grease Band
CHRIST CHURCH REGATTA - Credence Clearwater Revival

[gftt*]

The sum of the numbers equals the length of the string of letters, if that helps. Assuming I counted correctly, of course...

[Scurra]

Gah! I miss an evening and two more puzzles go down before I even see them. Then again, that's what the Hunt experience is like as well.

JHBXRJQDPKYGJBSHBGIGCHUMGOWHDHUMGIBJHLORKPCGWXORGJ
GURDHVPXUPSYTUVHDGJHXAZBTPVFXXCQGMMNLICOJJOKSIXZMCBB
HBOCEANENGNGCIGOYPTEOLDCOURSELPQDFZEOEBJASKFIBHIELDTI
UGNUMBERTNDHIZWAWKEJHZQIAJZFXFU

For something apparently in code, it seems odd to find some plaintext in there.
OCEAN OLD/COURSE NUMBER.
Interestingly, the lengths of the second two entries here seem to match the numbers in the first bit of the "instructions" (8mc 9mce 6sc), so maybe OCEAN is OCEANENG?

(edit: Having now googled this phrase to see if it meant anything, I was amused to find that the solution to this puzzle was the first hit - I guess that was fairly inevitable. And unfortunately the extract it showed gave away the next bit.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

So, according to: http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/sandiego/contents_courses.shtml
the course code for Ocean Engineering at MIT is 13.

So the first thing to try (even if I hadn't inadvertently had the hint) is to ROT-13 the letters. Which gives:

WUOKEWDQCXLTWOFUOTVTPUHZTBJUQUHZTVOWUYBEXCPTJ
KBETWTHEQUICKHCFLGHIUQTWUKNMOGCISKKPDTZZAYVPBW
WBXFVKMZPOOUOBPRNARATATPVTBLCGRBYQPBHEFRYCDQSM
RBROWNFXSVOUVRYQGVHTAHZOREGAQUVMJNJXRWUMDVNWMSKSH

and the next instruction is "8mk 7mke"

Searching the new code, and assuming that the numbers are the plaintext string lengths, I can find THE QUICK and BROWN FX.

(edit: I should note that I first found MR BROWN but soon realised that it was almost certainly meant to be FX,..)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

Using this as a cipher key, THE QUICK BROWN FX ADGJLMPSVYZ, generates

LEKHCLQDGOTALKNEKAXAVEBZAISEDEBZAXKLEYICOGVAS
HICALABCDEFGHBGNTRBFEDALEHMUKRGFWHHVQAZZPYXVIL
LIONXHUZVKKEKIVJMPJPAPAVXAITGRJIYDVIBCNJYGQDWU
JIJKLMNOWXKEXJYDRXBAPBZKJCRPDEXUSMSOJLEUQXMLUWHWB

However, it's clear from the 15sk 10ske that we are looking for 15 and 10 letter plaintext blocks, and there's no sign of them.

But then I realised that it was the whole sentence that was the cipher key, not just the first bit. THEQUICKBROWNFXJMPSVLAZYDG (i.e. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.)

LEKHCLYDGOUALKNEKATAREBWAIPEDEBWATKLEXICOGRAP
HICALABCDEFGHBGNUZBFEDALEHMQKZGFSHHRYAWWVXTRIL
LIONTHQWRKKEKIRJMVJVAVARTAIUGZJIXDRIBCNJXGYDSQ
JIJKLMNOSTKETJXDZTBAVBWKJCZVDETQPMPOJLEQYTMLQSHSB

And in here I can see LEXICOGRAPHICAL and, after a bit of a hunt, TRILLIONTH. I am not sure what this means for encoding, but it worries me just a little (anything that says "trillion" is scary!)

edit: I always thought that this related to the writing of dictionaries, but Wiki tells me that "lexicographical" is specifically used for the alphabetical ordering of letters. Hmmm...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

Shift letters alphabetically a trillion times?