Puzzle card symbols

General

Some of the Puzzle Cards have playing card symbols, risk soldiers, dice, number strings, and obscure shapes on them. Each prime number card has a playing card symbol and part of a letter on it. Other cards have hidden text written in special ink.

We believe that Combed Thunderclap has put this data on the cards to help us find the Cube. The first meta puzzle solved, the Prime Number puzzle consisting of card symbols and letters, gave us the message 'I STOLE THE CUBE. HELP ME. COMBED THUNDERCLAP.' The second meta Puzzle solved, found in hidden text written on yellow letters on the Wave 4 cardSeason 1 Card #223 - Secret Location says "Five fingers point:half the world; realm; region; feature; last mystery." (Note all punctuation is added.) The solutions to these puzzles follows.

We have several more puzzles to solve.

Prime Number Cards: Playing Cards and Large Letters

Each card with a playing symbol also has part of a letter faintly printed over the card in a slab-serif font, and it's anticipated that arranging all the playing symbol cards in order will eventually depict the whole message. All symbols appear on cards with prime numbers. 54 Prime numbers under 256 are as follows:

2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149 151 157 163 167 173 179 181 191 193 197 199 211 223 227 229 233 239 241 251

See: List of Playing Cards for a plain list.

Chart of cards with letters

Note the groupings of playing card symbols goes Club-Diamond-Heart-Spade, from Ace to 2 (ace high), forming 13 sets of 3 letters.

	Clubs		Diamonds		Hearts		Spades
Ace	211		083		151		017
		I		S		T
K	113		053		173		023
		O		L		E
Q	011		137		149		059
		T		H		E
J	019		107		251		043
		C		U		B
10	079		181		179		241
		E		H		E
9	047		041		109		139
		L		P		M
8	089		013		073		002
		E		C		O
7	003		029		005		031
		M		B		E
6	007		037		067		071
		D		T		H
5	061		097		127		101
		U		N		D
4	103		131		163		167
		E		R		C
3	193		157		197		191
		L		A		P
2	199		227		229		233
		-		-		-
Jkr	223		239

The message reads:

I stole the Cube. Help me. Combed Thunderclap.

This message along with other hints lead us to Library of Babel subdirectory. Combed Thunderclap has used that site to communicate with us in a few flash updates.

Wave 4 Meta Information

Note: Updated as of November 20th and should be current. Please see Perplexorum or alternatively http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16138 for more discussion.

Card	Upright Number	Reversed Number	Shape	Risk Char	Red Dice	Blue Dice	Notes
Season 1 Card #029 - Beware the Puzzle Monsters	1-14443432.5-3	3-232.52.51.5-1					Card also contains playing card symbol.
Season 1 Card #040 - Baby On Board	2-11444414412-3	1-1144144414432.5-4		2 Infantry	Red: 5, 4, 3	Blue: 4, 3	Attacker wins. Defender loses two armies. Shape is contained within the side of the elephant.
Season 1 Card #058 - Breaking And Entering	2-21122214-4	4-23232.534334-1	None	1 Cavalry	Red: 6, 3, 1	Blue: 6, 4	This card and card 60 overlay each other to create one set of red/blue dice and 1 cavalry figure. Defender wins. Attacker loses two armies.
Season 1 Card #060 - Celebration	1-414141414144144441-1	4-44444444111111111114-3	None	1 Cavalry	Red: 6, 3, 1	Blue: 6, 4	This card and card 58 overlay each other to create one set of red/blue dice and 1 cavalry figure. Defender wins. Attacker loses two armies
Season 1 Card #063 - The Next Generation	3-34-1	2-414441141-1
Season 1 Card #090 - Also Known As	4-4444444443.5-1	3-433333334-2	None	3 Infantry	Red: 4, 4, 3	Blue: 6, 3	Attacker and defender lose an army each.
Season 1 Card #094 - Prime Rhyme Crime	2-4111111441-2	1-1114112321-1					Numbers are vertical.
Season 1 Card #096 - Castle in The Sky	1-222233332-4	3-44411414441444112.5-4
Season 1 Card #136 - Bling Bunny	3-2333234-1	4-143334-3					Numbers are vertical.
Season 1 Card #156 - Going Dotty	2-111221111112-4	2-2232-4	None				Numbers are vertical. This card has writing revealed under a black light. See below.
Season 1 Card #188 - Hybridization	4-11122221412234-2	2-21121111221-4					Numbers are across from each other in one line.
Season 1 Card #191 - My Dear Watson	2-11444444444411111111444-2	1-344411444443-1
Season 1 Card #192 - Pronunciation	3-3333322333332-4	1-444444114411112-1
Season 1 Card #203 - Ecliptic	4-33223333234-4	3-11144144144443-3	None				Numbers are vertical.
Season 1 Card #218 - The World	2-4444433333323-2	1-44334-3
Season 1 Card #222 - Instigator	4-1414411122-2	3-34433333432-4					Numbers are vertical.
Season 1 Card #235 - Circuitous	1-4444444434444444444443-4	4-222233332222.5-1
Season 1 Card #236 - Swarms	4-4333223323-3	3-2112223-2	None
Season 1 Card #237 - Roaming Identity	3-3333334433334-1	2-1222323-2					Numbers are vertical. This card has micro-printing on it: "otpaaworldtdnia 1.56.29".
Season 1 Card #250 - Manoeuvers	4-3322333333333332-1	1-343-2					The number string 1-343-2 is in a bold font.
Season 1 Card #253 - Sightseeing	1-1111211112-4	2-111114441114114-1

Observations

• Numbers range from 1-4, including 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5.
• There are a total of 42 numbers.
• There are 42 territories in Risk.
• There are 11 numbers that start with "1-" and "2-" each, and 10 numbers that start with "3-" and "4-".
• In a 4-player game of Risk, two players start with 11 territories and two start with 10 territories.
• See the Number String Analysis page for further statistical, uh, analysis.

Proper Order

Through the help of The Library of Babel site, the proper order of the number strings was discovered by ilikepucks. The order, pared with the cards the strings are from:

#029+ 1-14443432.5-3 
#058+ 2-21122214-4 
#029- 3-232.52.51.5-1 
#058- 4-23232.534334-1 
#040- 1-1144144414432.5-4 
#040+ 2-11444414412-3 
#063+ 3-34-1 
#060- 4-44444444111111111114-3 
#060+ 1-414141414144144441-1 
#063- 2-414441141-1 
#090- 3-433333334-2 
#090+ 4-4444444443.5-1 
#094+ 1-1114112321-1 
#094- 2-4111111441-2 
#096- 3-44411414441444112.5-4 
#136- 4-143334-3 
#096+ 1-222233332-4 
#188- 2-21121111221-4 
#136+ 3-2333234-1 
#188+ 4-11122221412234-2 
#191- 1-344411444443-1 
#191+ 2-11444444444411111111444-2 
#192+ 3-3333322333332-4 
#203+ 4-33223333234-4 
#192- 1-444444114411112-1 
#218+ 2-4444433333323-2 
#203- 3-11144144144443-3 
#222+ 4-1414411122-2 
#218- 1-44334-3 
#156+ 2-111221111112-4 
#222- 3-34433333432-4 
#235- 4-222233332222.5-1 
#235+ 1-4444444434444444444443-4 
#237- 2-1222323-2 
#236- 3-2112223-2 
#236+ 4-4333223323-3 
#250- 1-343-2 
#156- 2-2232-4 
#237+ 3-3333334433334-1 
#250+ 4-3322333333333332-1 
#253+ 1-1111211112-4 
#253- 2-111114441114114-1 

Speculations

• The Start Numbers, or those before the first dash character, identify a player.
• The Middle Numbers, or those between the dashes, could represent a path, where 1=South, 2=West, 3=North, 4=East.
• The Middle Numbers could represent conquests on a Risk map.
• The End Numbers, or those after the second dash, could identify a player who ends up in control of a territory in Risk. There are 9 numbers that end in "2"; there are 9 regions in North America on a Risk board. There are 7 that end in "3"; there are 7 regions in Risk's Europe. There are 12 numbers that end in "4"; there are 12 regions in Risk's Asia. There are 14 that end in "1"; there are 14 regions in Risk's South America, Africa, and Australia continents combined.

Further Work

PerplexHero put the following shape together by joining the various map pieces together in card order. See the original post for a zip file containing a hi-res version.

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Individual Puzzle Card Meta Puzzles

• Season 1 Card #084 - Insights Wave 3 contains the following number string: "27.55.25.34.4.43.500.15.18.55.13.1.10.30.56.55.39.21.7.16.27.55.25.69.29.35.62.55"

• • The card this is from relates to a few websites. We have been flummoxed by the number .500 included in the number string. People have noted the repeat of the number 55 and the series of numbers 27.55.25.

• Season 1 Card #156 - Going Dotty Wave 4 contains the following message in hidden ink (although it has been noted that the degree of bold for each stone varies):

 RUBIESDIAMONDSEMERALD
 STOPAZAMETHYSTSSAPPHI
 RESRUBIESDIAMONDSEMER
 ALDSTOPAZAMETHYSTSSAP
 PHIRESRUBIESDIAMONDSE
 MERALDSTOPAZAMETHYSTS
 SAPPHIRESRUBIESDIAMON
 DSEMERALDSTOPAZAMETHY
 STSSAPPHIRESRUBIESDIA
 MONDSEMERALDSTOPAZAME
 THYSTSSAPPHIRESRUBIES

• • This may relate to Season 1 Card #030 - End of the Line which contains the following quotation from Gyvann:

"Precious are the stones, my children, precious that which is dug from the earth. Precious are the rubies, the diamonds, the emeralds and the topaz. I held fast to the amethysts. They mingled them with sapphires, so I threw them both from me. Only one choice remained and from then nothing was right. My children I did not despair, as you must not despair. A quadru- ped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward. I turned my back to it and strode forward. But after only 20 ammot the light was upon me. Precious, my children, is the light."

• Season 1 Card #146 - You are Cordially Invited which contains the following text visible under black-light:

 Electric Splash
 BB, 21 to 24
 4: C, V, K, Q
 20, V to 24

• • We think these are the instructions given to the original Cube thieves about the night of the theft.

• Season 1 Card #237 - Roaming Identity contains the following text printed in tiny writing:

 otpaaworldtdnia 1.56.29

• • Anagrams and other things have been tried not yet successfully. The title of the card might have something to do with this.

• Season 1 Card #223 - Secret Location Unrelated to the others, in a hard-to-see yellow text it says "100, 139, 6, 148, 62, 127, 118, 119, 131, 151, 146, 88, 135, 107, 112, 152, 124, 150, 130, 100, 147, 93, 121, 149, 134, 144, 126, 98, 133, 103, 143, 116, 63, 111, 91, 101, 70, 61, 105, 62, 76, 117, 123, 84, 102, 89, 115, 96, 137, 92, 85, 122, 87, 53, 104, 90, 145".
  

• • This message was successfully decoded on the 30th of October, 2006. It says:

Five fingers point half the world realm region feature last mystery

• Possible puzzle data Season 1 Card #242 - Ciphers of History This data is described as "dim letters on the stem of the R which spell out the chars 2, 10 and 11. From left to right top to bottom, a no7 shape to each repectively."

• • When solved in the same method as the card, these characters translate to 464 which stands for ER. Note that in solving the puzzle some of the letters had to be switched it could be ES or DR?

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Please see Brian Enigma's impressive Card Catalog for a sorted, comprehensive listing of cards.