itanimulli code crackers

As today, the new chapter page of the riddle got an upgrade, it's the image of a waterfall.

Suspiciously lossless packed into a png file, hmmmm.

So first let's have a look at the LSBs..

Ah, FEZ code again, but we have to seperate the three color channels (the alpha channel doesn't seem to have hidden data in the LSB).

Also, mind the little marker in the left upper corner. Seems to be an orientation mark.

Red:

Green:

Blue:

Unfortunately I don't have time right now to decipher this right now, but will do soon!

Are bytes still bytes if they don't mean anything? That's beyond my philosophical horizon, but we have some bytes to decipher here:

@davedarko suggested to use the signs of the symbols (=borders) to build some bytes, while @alpha_ninja mumbled somthing about unicode, so let's look into that, those are the bytes:

01001011
11110000
10110010
00000100
00011010
10101100
00000110
01001111
11101011
11110000
11011110
11010001
01001011
11110000
10110010
00000100
00011010
10101100
00000110
01001111
11101011
11110000
11011110
11010001
01001011
11110000
10110010
00000100
00011010
10101100
00000110
01001111
11101011
11110000
11011110
11010001
01001011
11110000
10110010
00000100
00011010
10101100
00000110

Well.. unless these are some kind of elb-writings, I guess it's not unicode. However, maybe we could read it with the right key to decrypt it. For a byte key, there are only 255 possibilities, right? Let's try them all..

Error 413

Couldn't post them all due, too much for had.io. It's mostly rubbish anyway. The key probably has more than 8 bit.

@alpha_ninja pointed me to FEZ code, which is the name of this particular code, it maps directly to our beloved letters:

This makes it almost to easy, but let's see:

N	A	T	B	Y	I	D	I	
E	_	H	V	O	T	O	S	
V	F	I	T	V	_	N	_	
E	I	S	_	_	I	T	I	
R	G	_	I	T	S	_	T	
T	H	I	_	H	_	E	_	
H	T	S	W	I	P	V	N	
E	_	_	I	N	O	E	O	
L	Y	A	L	K	I	N	T	
E	O	_	L	_	N	_	_	
S	V	S	_	Y	T	T	C	
S	_	E	N	O	L	R	L	
_	C	A	O	V	E	Y	E	
I	A	R	T	_	S	_	A	
_	N	C	_	A	S	T	R	
W	N	H	S	R	_	O	_	
I	O	_	T	E	T	_	Y	
S	T	Y	O	_	O	F	E	
H	_	O	P	C	_	I	T	
_	W	V	_	L	E	N	_	
Y	I	_	Y	O	V	D	T	
O	N	C	O	S	E	_	H	
V	_	A	V	E	N	M	A	
_	_	N	_	_	_	E	T	
G	_	N	F	Y	A	_	_	
O	_	O	O	E	T	_	I	
O	_	T	R	T	T	_	_	
D	_	_	_	_	E	_	A	
_	_	C	W	Y	M	_	M	
L	_	O	H	O	P	_	_	
V	_	M	Y	V	T	_	E	
C	_	P	_	_	_	_	V	
K	_	L	W	A	T	_	E	
_	_	E	O	R	A	_	R	
_	_	T	V	E	O	_	Y	
_	_	E	L	_	_	_	W	
_	_	_	D	S	S	_	H	
_	_	_	_	O	T	_	E	
_	_	_	I	_	O	_	R	
_	_	_	_	F	P	_	E	
_	_	_	_	A	_	_	_	
_	_	_	_	R	M	_	_	
_	_	_	_	_	E	_	_	

Hey, there's a text in their! How nice! It reads:

NEVERTHELESS I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK

A FIGHT YOU CANNOT WIN

THIS IS A SEARCH YOU CANNOT COMPLETE

BUT I WILL NOT STOP YOU FOR WHY WOULD I

YOU THINK YOU ARE CLOSE YET YOU ARE SO FAR

IT IS POINTLESS TO EVEN ATTEMPT TAO STOP ME

DONT EVEN TRY TO FIND ME

IS IT NOT CLEAR YET THAT I AM EVERYWHERE

What do we get from this.. hum.. there's a typo in there! In the 6th line, 7th word should be "TO", not "TAO". Another clue? An interval code? Can we really not solve this as it's said in the text? Is the clue between the lines?

First, I wanted to use the last indicator from the code, which is the "sign" (if a symbol is color inverted or not). I'm just outputting it as upper (1, white border) and lower (-1, black border) case:

NevERtHEless i WIsH yov GooD lUCk

a FIGHT you caNNOT win

ThiS iS a SEArcH yOU cANNot CoMPleTE

But i WILl nOt StOP You For wHY WoulD i

yOU thInk yOu ARe CloSe yET yoU aRe sO Far

IT iS poINtLESS To eVEn ATTeMpt TAo STOp me

dOnT Even tRy tO Find mE

iS IT Not CleAR YET tHAt I AM EveRYwhERE

Bummer, still clueless. What have I overlooked?

Symbols aren't symbols if they don't mean anything, right?

Assuming that this rubbish actually means something, we have a lot of symbols here:

Since the last project log I've colored the individual symbols. Same color means same symbol - but wait, they can be rotated, color-inverted but not mirrored. They also do have a border, which could be interpreted as some kind of sign.

The findings until now:

• each symbol has a 1px frame/border which can be white or black, referred to as "sign" from now on
• the whole image has a black frame/border of 1px
• the map contains (only) 7 unique symbols
• these 7 symbols show themselves in 40 unique variations of symbol, sign and rotation

If you hate colors, here's a text version with even more information:

• the sign ("-" or " ") tells you if the symbol is inverted or not (i.e. a "-" means that the border is black, otherwise the frame is white)
• the number in front of the bracket is just an identifier for the symbol in the range of [0-6], since there are only 7 symbols
• the number in brackets tells you the rotation of the symbol, it multiplies by 90° (so 0=0°, 1=90°, 2=180°, 3=270°), the reference for the rotation is the rotation of the orientation the symbol had when it first showed up in the map.

 0(0)	-1(0)	 0(3)	 0(2)	-2(0)	 3(0)	-4(0)	-3(0)	
-5(0)	-6(0)	-0(1)	-3(2)	 3(3)	 0(3)	 3(3)	 1(3)	
-3(2)	 2(3)	-3(0)	-0(3)	 3(2)	 6(0)	-0(0)	 6(0)	
 5(0)	 3(0)	 1(3)	 6(0)	 6(0)	-3(0)	 0(3)	 3(0)	
 2(1)	 1(1)	 6(0)	-3(0)	-0(3)	 1(3)	-6(0)	 0(3)	
-0(3)	 0(1)	-3(0)	 6(0)	-0(1)	-6(0)	 5(0)	 6(0)	
 0(1)	 0(3)	 1(3)	 4(1)	 3(0)	-4(2)	-3(2)	 0(0)	
 5(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	 3(0)	-0(0)	-3(3)	-5(0)	-3(3)	
-2(2)	-2(0)	-1(0)	 2(2)	-5(3)	 3(0)	-0(0)	-0(3)	
-5(0)	-3(3)	-6(0)	-2(2)	 6(0)	 0(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	
-1(3)	-3(2)	 1(3)	-6(0)	-2(0)	-0(3)	-0(3)	 3(1)	
-1(3)	-6(0)	 5(0)	-0(0)	 3(3)	 2(2)	 2(1)	-2(2)	
 6(0)	-3(1)	 1(0)	 3(3)	-3(2)	 5(0)	-2(0)	-5(0)	
-3(0)	-1(0)	-2(1)	-0(3)	 6(0)	 1(3)	 6(0)	 1(0)	
-6(0)	 0(0)	-3(1)	-6(0)	 1(0)	 1(3)	-0(3)	 2(1)	
 4(1)	 0(0)	 0(1)	 1(3)	 2(1)	-6(0)	 3(3)	 6(0)	
 3(0)	 3(3)	 6(0)	-0(3)	-5(0)	 0(3)	-6(0)	 2(0)	
-1(3)	 0(3)	-2(0)	 3(3)	-6(0)	-3(3)	 2(3)	 5(0)	
 0(1)	 6(0)	 3(3)	 4(2)	 3(1)	-6(0)	-3(0)	 0(3)	
 6(0)	-4(1)	 3(2)	 6(0)	-2(2)	-5(0)	-0(0)	-6(0)	
-2(0)	-3(0)	-6(0)	 2(0)	-3(3)	 3(2)	-4(0)	-0(3)	
-3(3)	-0(0)	-3(1)	-3(3)	 1(3)	 5(0)	 6(0)	 0(1)	
-3(2)	-6(0)	 1(0)	-3(2)	-5(0)	-0(0)	-1(2)	 1(0)	
-6(0)	-6(0)	 0(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 5(0)	-0(3)	
 1(1)	-6(0)	 0(0)	 2(3)	-2(0)	 1(0)	-6(0)	-6(0)	
-3(3)	-6(0)	-3(3)	-3(3)	 5(0)	 0(3)	 6(0)	 3(0)	
-3(3)	 6(0)	-0(3)	-2(1)	 0(3)	 0(3)	-6(0)	 6(0)	
 4(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	-5(0)	 6(0)	 1(0)	
 6(0)	 6(0)	 3(1)	-4(1)	-2(0)	 1(2)	-6(0)	 1(2)	
-2(2)	 6(0)	-3(3)	 0(1)	-3(3)	-4(2)	 6(0)	 6(0)	
 3(2)	 6(0)	 1(2)	 2(0)	 3(2)	-0(3)	-6(0)	 5(0)	
 3(1)	-6(0)	 4(2)	 6(0)	-6(0)	-6(0)	-6(0)	-3(2)	
-5(3)	-6(0)	-2(2)	 4(1)	-1(0)	 0(3)	-6(0)	-5(0)	
-6(0)	-6(0)	-5(0)	-3(3)	 2(1)	 1(0)	 6(0)	 2(1)	
-6(0)	-6(0)	 0(3)	-3(2)	-5(0)	-3(3)	-6(0)	 2(0)	
-6(0)	-6(0)	 5(0)	-2(2)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	-4(1)	
 6(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	 4(0)	-1(3)	 1(3)	-6(0)	-0(1)	
-6(0)	-6(0)	-6(0)	-6(0)	 3(3)	 0(3)	 6(0)	 5(0)	
-6(0)	 6(0)	-6(0)	-3(0)	 6(0)	 3(3)	-6(0)	 2(1)	
 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 2(3)	-4(2)	 6(0)	 5(0)	
 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	-6(0)	-1(0)	 6(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	
-6(0)	 6(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	-2(1)	-1(2)	 6(0)	 6(0)	
 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	 6(0)	-5(0)	-6(0)	 6(0)	

So, while IMHO this is definitely a code, I have no idea what it means yet. In the chronological order of how the hints are presented, my guess is that this can be decrypted by using the next hint. This time, it's a dead link image file:

Of course, we can only hope, that this dead link is intentionally dead. Actually, it's also not really dead, it links us to this filehoster page, where we can dowload an empty txt file named "0dfz7.txt".

I'm not getting a clue from this, so for now, that's it. Any ideas?

The first entry seems to be an image file filled with noise.

Look close and you'll see that it's not totally random, there are repetitions in it. There are also two hints. For the first, there is a small pattern that is supposed to help us.

Also, the next entry gives us a hint about what to do to solve the mystery of the pattern:

Assuming the two red squares are the patterns, we should overlay them, intersect them, or whatsoever.

So, let's get to work. I tried to overlay the pattern and multiplying the color/binary values with white as 1 and black as 0. After a bit of moving the patterns against each other, I got this:

Doesn't seem quite right, but we can already see that there seem to be regular pattern blocks. They're 12x12px btw.

Next, I tried a XOR operator, again with white as 1 and black as 0. That looks better.

There are some repeating symbols in there, but we still get some random block though.

OK, but we forgot the first hint: The little pattern. What if we just do the XOR and overlay the whole pattern with a tiled map of the pattern from the hint.

Ah, that looks good. Now we got nice grid of repetitive symbols. This could still be a dead end, but maybe it brings us forward. At least it gives us a start.