The First Key

[lampwithfourkeys]

I posted this on Facebook, and I'm posting it here too.  A new clue tomorrow!

[lampwithfourkeys]

New clue for the First Key!




(I made an edit for a grammar mistake I made, but it's here now!)

[lampwithfourkeys]

Here is a new clue for the First Key.  

Read the message below with the other recent clues in mind.  Now do you see now what this is? And do you see what it's missing?

Remember, if you think you've found the First Key, you can send it to this e-mail address, and I will verify whether it is correct or not. Then if it's right, you will know that you can look for Key 2. [e-mail]

[lampwithfourkeys]

A new clue for the First Key:





You know the way to line them up. But what do you do with that? I will let a Roman emperor tell you how to follow my twist on an ancient Greek cipher.



Do you see that there are two letters missing in this grid? You have to remember to leave them out!



Here is another hint that might come in handy.: There are FIVE keys in all. Four in the lamp itself, and one that you had with you at the beginning when you started.



And FIVE is an important number for the First Key

[lampwithfourkeys]

Yesterday I posted a clue for the First Key.  It had letters in a 5X5 grid. I said,



"You know the way to line them up. But what do you do with that? I will let a Roman emperor tell you how to follow my twist on an ancient Greek cipher."



So here is what the clue's letters really say Now do you see what I do with the 5X5 grid in this clue? It coils around, like a coiled rope.  First the 16-letters that you got from the Starter Puzzle. Then the remaining 9 letters coil around to the center in alphabetical order. If you see this, you can you do the same thing to solve the First Key, using the 16-letter solution from the Starter Puzzle. This is the way it works.



To figure out the clue, do a Caesar shift (Roman emperor) of +5. Note-- you do NOT have to do a Caesar shift to solve the First Key -- I used it only for this clue. I decided it made an unnecessary step for you to figure this out, so I decided to go ahead and post this.



You have to leave out two letters. It is obvious in the grid which two are missing. It's important to leave these out for everything you do with the lamp. There are always only 24 letters for the lamp.

[lampwithfourkeys]

YOU CAN SOLVE THE FIRST KEY. For those of you have have given up on solving the lamp -- you can still catch up if you try, and you still might be able to solve the Final Puzzle before anyone else does. Find the First Key, and then you can find Keys 2, 3 and 4.. It might not be as difficult as you think it is!



So here is something that should help you find the First Key. This is much more than a clue! This is a flow chart that shows how to solve it. A big thanks to Bill Gardner (wgardner in the forum) for this graphic!