Sharing Notes

[karebear]

Since it has been solved, I thought I’d share this frustrated email with everyone. Shows how much stuff can stare me in the face & I still can’t see it.

Email sent 2/28/18 to The Art Of Hidden Messages:

“I do not expect a reply to this email, I don’t even know if it will be read since it isn’t answers. I just need to let my frustrations out & don’t wish to do so publicly in case someone else can put together pieces I can’t. You did a good job with this puzzle for it to be this hard. I’m frustrated, but determined to figure this out!

Downloaded the pdf.
Listen closely…
The music notes, I’ll start there.
Music cipher. A_F-A-R-E-W-E-L-L a farewell? Hmmm…
What about these alchemy symbols?
Rush, Clockwork Angles… Try something else.
The kimono is closed the wrong way; right over left is only for the dead. A Farewell? Try something else.
The fact that the flowers in the banner are different colors mean something, but I don’t know what.
The equations are a group of three; they look like dates.
Birth & death of Kublai Khan.
But what happened on October 4, 2017?
Google isn’t helping.
Kublai Khan…
I heard that in a song somewhere…
Xanadu, Rush, A Farewell to Kings…
There are three members in Rush…
I’ll turn that in as an answer.
Incorrect answer…
Xanadu was based on a poem, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Opium dream.
Abyssinian maid? Ethiopia? Isn’t the girl in the picture too light complected? Is that a clue?
Bee means honeydew?
Milk of paradise? 512?
512 is an area code in Texas. There’s a band named Kubla Khan from Texas… No that’s reaching.
The stars. Lone Star, Texas again. I just went in another circle.
I’m stuck.
Clues released!
Clue # 1 = Braille
Clue #2 = Cryptogram
Clue # 2 says it’s not Kubla’s name but stories about him. I was already doing that.
Clue #1 means there’s probably Braille somewhere in the picture. The flowers in the banner. P-O-E-M well that didn’t help at all.
Back to the stars. Corona Borealis? No, it’s the wrong shape? It looks like the dots for “Sadness” in geomancy. Sadness, death, a farewell. My head hurts.
The alchemy symbols. There are 11 symbols; 8 appear by themselves, 3 only appear in pairs. Why are there pairs & singles? Is that important?
The second box down on the left has a line over it that was added after the picture was turned into a pdf. Is that important? Does it change the symbol? Did the painter make a mistake? Are we supposed to exclude that symbol?
Are what the symbols represent important?
Mercy, Oil Essence, Tin/Dissolve crossed out or with the change Copper, Sulfur, Zinc, Gold, Anneal, <Backwards Question Mark>, Neptune, <Question Mark>, Earth, Winter
Neptune doesn’t really play a part in alchemy. Winter is upside down.
Two questions, two question marks.
One question starts on the left side and goes around counter/anti clockwise to the question mark on the right, the other starts on the right and goes around clockwise to the backwards question mark on the left.
Clock?
Clockwork moon? No, the clockwork is in the background. It looks like a three.
Group of three… I’m dizzy.
Coleridge based his poem on an opium induced dream after reading Marco Polo’s account of meeting Kublai Khan. Marco Polo? Xanadu…?
Back to the alchemy symbols because those are important. I have to figure those out!
But what happened on October 4, 2017?
Excuse me while I go beat my head into the wall…

If you read my email, then thank you for letting me get all this off my chest.”

I finally did turn the symbols into numbers based on Clockwork Angels, but I didn’t get anywhere after that.

[roundabout]

I know what you mean about October 4 2017!  I like your idea about the kimono closed the wrong way.  That would have tripped me up because I would never have noticed that.  I remember something someone said on a Treasure's Trove hunt discussion thread, back when some of the solutions were posted after the first creatures were found. Many people (like me) thought they were more or less on the right track, and were shocked by the real solutions. Then someone said this - (I can't remember this exactly word for word) - "It's not that your own solution ideas aren't good, it's just that they are not the exact ones the author chose to use to at this particular time for this particular puzzle. There are countless different ways to encrypt things." (Not exact words but that's the gist of it)

So, maybe you can put some of your favorite good solution ideas into a notebook, and use them later down the road. Maybe you could even make your own puzzle hunt for other people to solve. That's what I want to do with some of my wrong ideas for various hunts.

[artofhiddenmessages]

October 2017 was the date I completed the painting! A lot of artists put the completion date into their artwork.

I wanted to put a date in the math equation because the other numbers were also dates! It was a hint to give you an idea that you had to fill in those blanks with dates.

Now do you know what those dates are?