The Receda Trail

History

In early 2005, after a year of anticipation, we learned name of the Cube to be: The Receda Cube. No explanation was given for the origin or meaning of the word Receda. It would be several more months before we even knew how to pronounce it. But the matter was never addressed directly by anyone in Perplex City, and was soon dropped.

Eventually, we learned about Pietro Salk, and the Salklogs.doc. We learned of an Advisor named Monica Grand. We learned what she did. And on 16-SEP-05, we were bore witness to tragedy and dismay.

Also, Monica Left us a clue. and a message, talking about a trail, and keywords.

The Websites, In Summary

• http://www.therecedaapproach.com
• http://www.therecedasign.com
• http://www.recedaschoolofmusic.com/
• http://www.re-cedasrevenge.com
• http://www.recedaresorts.com

The Receda Approach

Posters found at the Beit Quad

Monica Grand's dying words were "We never held it, it was already gone." And on her broken key was a picture with some hidden text, indicating a certain location in the world, at a certain time, on a certain date.

When Cube hunters showed up, they found a peculiar set of posters for an unusual band. The Receda Approach, a "hit new band, inspired by perplex city", was being advertised. Cube-hunters around the world frantically began postulating and speculating. What could it all mean? And what was this about something in Toronto, a week later?

The Receda Sign

A website was discovered for the Receda Approach. Few details were given, but there was another date, and another location. No time was specified. No one knew what to expect. Canadian locals dashed to the scene, only to be left empty-handed. The clues were either delayed, or too subtle to notice, right away.

In any event, Madame Bianca sent every signal she could, urging people to return to the theaters once again. Success! (Madame B is ever so sharp, isn't she?) The next step of the trail: The Receda Sign, a movie coming to Earth in 2006. The short movie trailer featured a series of images, and something else: hard data on the Receda Cube! Finally, we had a sense of proportion.

Could it be? An actual movie? and what of the band we were promised? What was really going on, here? None could be sure. Another website was identified, and the movie trailer was made available.

And then came the phone numbers.

The Receda Institute for Somnatherapy

Something or Someone called "Meridian Cross Studios" was given credit for The Receda Sign. Interested parties could telephone them, in England or America.

The party on the other end, however, was not a movie development company. A developer of the Theater of the mind, perhaps. The Receda Institute for Somnatherapy was discovered tobe an entirely automated phone voice machine. The department names and functions were many and oscure.

At night, an entirely different set of messages was given. A world of mighty giants and amazing locations was described. The able-minded observed the similarities between these venues, and the seven wonders of the world.

Soon, a careful path through the trail of deams was determined. And a set of global coordinates was given.

The Receda School of Music

It remains unclear how the trail connects at this point. It seems to almost leap across a cruel and bizarre shortcut.

Someone spotted, through technical means, a new website. The Receda School of Music seemed to offer little to no information. Some argued it was not even on the Receda Trail at all.

In due time, Music lessons were advertised. Still no connection to the rest of the trail. Many were left wondering what the Global coordinates meant. Still, ever onward our coursers flew, arriving at some sort of retro text adveture's homepage.

Receda's Revenge

The Receda School of Music, an easily forgotten, yet very scandalous step of the Receda Trail, led us to Receda's Revenge, under the guise of "Music Lessons". No one had any idea what to expect here -- but that'd be about par, now wouldn't it? About this time, talk of the nature of the trail began to surface. The website promised something happneing a week or so away, so Cube hunters had plenty of time to adjust their thinking caps. What did Receda mean? It became apparent to some, each step along the trail was some sort of keyword -- The keywords mentioned in Monica Grand's hidden message.

At last, Receda's Revenge was unveiled. Very rapidly, an IRC server was located, and a game was engaged. The game was very reminiscent of early computer games: text based parsing of basic instructions. Players were engaged in a rambling tour of Perplex City itself, and died often. (No worries, it's only a game: death simply results in another player taking over the controls, and the game continues apace.)

This has been called one of the greatest highlights in all of perplex City, possibly in all of ARGing history. Those who missed out can read Receda's Revenge Highlights, which gives all the major plot points, quotables, and deaths.

A message at the end of the game pointed to a website, which gave a time and date. The location? Using scrambled letters found in the text-game, we discovered the the location would be "MA/NC/HE/ST/ER" "TOWN", "UK". "SKY" "CENTRE" But there didn't seem to be a "Sky centre" in manchester. What could it be?

How about skywriting?

Receda Resorts

Friendly vacation getaway? maybe. Lost in the woods? possibly. A banner, tagged along behind an airplane, high over the skies of Manchester UK, pointed us to this site.

Charming layout, of course (Are those the Tanraga Mountains in the background?). Its content does include one important feature, however. A keyboard, imbeded in an image of stone cabin ruins. A frantic search for passwords took place! The result: thirdpower. Entering this took us to a seemingly taunting page: http://recedaresorts.com/accessmainframe/

22-OCT-05

The messages on the Receda Resorts mainframe access page gave hints to something happening in London, and all operatives should be connected, and alert.

But there was more. We weren't alone. This was something very new. Parties both in Prplex City and one Earth were acting. Some working in one direction, some working in another.

And then another website was discovered: http://www.weneedtofindthem.com/

The good news here was that the Cube Hunters had assitance on Earth. The bad news is of course, more questions. Who is it, why are they helping us (or why are we helping them), and where did they come from?

Also, GuyP gets credit for his website, over here: http://www.fneh.net/guy/thelastkeyword/

To Be Continued...

The Receda Trail The Receda Approach - The Receda Sign - The Receda Institute for Somnatherapy - The Receda School of Music - Receda's Revenge - Receda Resorts Monica Grand died giving us the trailhead of keywords. The Third Power lead us all over creation .. only to beat us over the head in the end. The jerks.