CORDIAL MINUET ENSEMBLE

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Member

Registered: 2014-11-21

Posts: 259

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Decree Kerchief, who doesn't have a forum account, has kindly taken photos of his amulet.

Also, I suppose this is as good a place as any to publicly remark that DK says he's quit CM for good after dropping to $0 balance two weeks ago, after playing a remarkable 1935 games. The reason he gave was that losing all his money repeatedly proved that he shouldn't keep playing. (I believe he was ranked 3rd for Elo rating before losing his final game.) He will be missed.

AnoHito

Member

Registered: 2014-11-24

Posts: 116

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

The more of the code I see, the more confused I get. It doesn't seem to match up with anything I have seen before... There is one thing that has been bothering me a little though. The way things are set up, there are 25 letters in the code, meaning that the final amulet should have only only the letter "Z". For the final amulet, it seems anticlimactic to only give the code for one letter that is barely even used in the English language, and nothing else. Hmm...

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

There is one thing that has been bothering me a little though. The way things are set up, there are 25 letters in the code, meaning that the final amulet should have only only the letter "Z".

Not sure what you mean.  There were 12 amulets given out.  Consensus seems to be that only 24 letters will be used.  J was left out, and some letter between T and Z will be left out.  J and Z are the two least used letters in the English alphabet, so there's a good chance Z won't be used at all (could very well be X, instead).

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-05 14:06:01)

card

Member

Registered: 2014-12-25

Posts: 25

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

The strange thing about this one is that it has 9 notches, yet the letters that appear line up with what should be the 10 notch amulet.

Also, I wonder if the placement of the hollow dots on each amulet have any significance.

Last edited by card (2015-07-06 02:18:23)

joshwithguitar

Member

Registered: 2015-01-07

Posts: 128

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

You've got to remember madcatz that Ano has the 13 notch gold amulet (given on the second last day) and so has additional information, and also that there is currently no sign of an 11 notch amulet.

Also, card, it the 9 notch amulet fits perfectly in sequence given the missing J and 2 letters on each letter before.

card

Member

Registered: 2014-12-25

Posts: 25

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

You've got to remember madcatz that Ano has the 13 notch gold amulet (given on the second last day) and so has additional information, and also that there is currently no sign of an 11 notch amulet.

Interesting. AnoHito clearly knows that 1 letter is missing from the first set, so maybe there are a different number of symbols (only 1) on #13? If this were also the case for either 12 or 10, it would reconcile what I noticed.

Also, card, it the 9 notch amulet fits perfectly in sequence given the missing J and 2 letters on each letter before.

Really? It seems off by an amulet to me.

    Left
12    N-O
13    P-Q
10    R-S
9    T-U
8    V-W
7    X-Y

    Top
1    A-B
2    C-D
3    E-F
4    G-H
5    I-K
6    L-M

joshwithguitar

Member

Registered: 2015-01-07

Posts: 128

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Wouldn't it be more obvious and straightforward to have:
7 - N, O
8 - P, Q
9 - R, S
?

What do you mean by "top" and "left"? Why are you dividing it into two sets?

shotgun

Member

Registered: 2015-05-11

Posts: 22

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

often U or V is omitted from a code like this, and the one that's left in is interchangeable for both U and V

Last edited by shotgun (2015-07-06 07:04:16)

card

Member

Registered: 2014-12-25

Posts: 25

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Wouldn't it be more obvious and straightforward to have:
7 - N, O
8 - P, Q
9 - R, S
?

What do you mean by "top" and "left"? Why are you dividing it into two sets?

Oh good point. I was overcomplicating it, thinking that the letters would correspond with the positions of the amulets on the board. Which works for the left side, since they are placed sequentially, but not going along the top (from left to right).

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

You've got to remember madcatz that Ano has the 13 notch gold amulet (given on the second last day) and so has additional information, and also that there is currently no sign of an 11 notch amulet.

There are two things pointing towards that being the 11th amulet, not the 13th amulet:
1) The amulet filename starts with 11 -- all the other file names seem to match up with their notches/order.
2) Edit: While the order of the amulets doesn't follow the zodiac order exactly right (2 through 4 are out of order), that "13th" amulet is Scorpius, which falls in between Libra (the 10th amulet) and Sagittarius (the 12th amulet).

With what you and he/she are saying, I'm fairly confident that amulet has V and W on it (which implies that X, Y, or Z doesn't appear).

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-06 17:38:13)

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Also, I wonder if the placement of the hollow dots on each amulet have any significance.

I don't think so (assuming you mean the holes).  The dots/holes are present in the original sigil designs.  Other than the big hole at the top of each one.

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

2) Edit: While the order of the amulets doesn't follow the zodiac order exactly right (2 through 4 are out of order), that "13th" amulet is Scorpius, which falls in between Libra (the 10th amulet) and Sagittarius (the 12th amulet).

Everything I've seen says they're in the proper zodiac order except for 12 and 13 being switched. How should they be ordered?

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Everything I've seen says they're in the proper zodiac order except for 12 and 13 being switched. How should they be ordered?

Edit: Below information is wrong.  Aries and Capricorn should be switched.  Thanks to Cobblestone for the corrections
Unless I've screwed up, this is the order of the amulets (based on both filenames and notches, except for #11, which I'm basing on filename only -- would be #13 if you go by notches), along with their sign:

1 aries (1)
2 aquarius (11)
3 pisces (12)
4 capricorn (10)
5 taurus (2)
6 gemini (3)
7 Cancer (4)
8 leo (5)
9 virgo (6)
10 libra (7)
11 scorpius (8)
12 sagittarius (9)

The number in parentheses is the order they actually appear in the Zodiac calendar, which is what I was considering the "correct" order.

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-06 18:12:53)

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

I think you have Aries and Capricorn backwards (Capricorn is an OceanRam, the name of the first amulet). Also, I was considering them to be in order based on our calendar. Capricorn is the first zodiac of the year.

Last edited by Cobblestone (2015-07-06 17:49:09)

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

D'oh, you're almost certainly right.  I just saw "ram" and immediately associated it with Aries.  But half-goat, half-fish makes more sense for OceanRam.  So yeah, that would put them all in the correct order.  I knew there was some reason I thought they were all in order before today.

But again, that's definitely evidence towards the theory that the day 11 amulet is the 11th amulet, not a 13th one.

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Ya, we never really could figure out why the notches put them in the wrong order. We did figure out that there is the mysterious 13th Zodiac that falls between Scorpio and Sagittarius, which would also be in the wrong position as the 11th amulet. Jason did this intentionally, though... so it's part of the puzzle.

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Jason did this intentionally, though...

Are we sure?

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Pretty sure.

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

That's just referring to the order the amulets were given out, though, right?  i.e. the fact that the "amulet 6" was given out third, etc.  I'm referring to the fact that "amulet 11" has 13 notches.

Edit:  Sorry, reread your post.  Guess we were talking about different things.

I never really considered the order that the amulets were actually handed out.  I just assumed that he wanted the high values ones either on the weekend or at the end of the contest.

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-06 21:41:50)

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Jason's comment was referring to the swapped 12 and 13 order.

I think we're getting our wires crossed somewhere.

He did hand them out in a different order to have high value ones the weekend. Once you restack them into broze, silver, and gold they go in notch order, except there isn't an amulet with 11 notches. Also, the amulets with 12 and 13 notches were handed out in reverse order. When you translate their code names to the signs of the zodiac, having 13 before 12 is the proper zodiac order, but then when you put them in notch order, the zodiac signs for 12 and 13 are backwards. We also speculated that the missing 11th amulet was Ophiuchus, the sidereal astrology 13th zodiac, but then the order is still incorrect.

Hope this helps us get on the same page!
(Let me know if I'm misunderstanding what you're saying!)

Edit: I put links to help anyone coming into the thread late, since it's grown pretty far past the things we figured out a few months ago.
Edit 2: I'm using "figured out" loosely.

Last edited by Cobblestone (2015-07-06 22:42:24)

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

The last two are only out of order if you assume the Scorpius one is amulet 13, not amulet 11.  The notches would indicate that it's amulet 13, but the filename/codename starts with 11 (and the logical place for it would be 11, if you don't include Ophiuchus).

If, hypothetically, the Scorpius one had 11 notches instead of 13, then everything would fit perfectly.  My (half-jokingly) "are you sure?" comment was implying that maybe he meant to put 11 notches on that one, but accidentally put 13.

P.S. Not saying it's not supposed to be amulet 13, but just throwing out that there are indications that it could be considered amulet 11 also.

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-06 23:52:17)

Cobblestone

Member

Registered: 2015-01-28

Posts: 212

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Oooooh ok! Totally see what you're saying now! Hm, you're right... that amulet is a pretty big linchpin here. I took Jason's comment to mean that it is intentional, and I still believe that. I don't think he's the one to make a mistake like that. Even if he did, since it's wax carved he could have very easily fixed a mistake like that as it happened. We haven't seen the backs of any of the golds amulets yet, right? I'm wondering if the notches and zodiac orders are an added puzzle layer on top of the cipher. I'd be interested in seeing which order the alphabet on the back of amulet "11" falls in to.

joshwithguitar

Member

Registered: 2015-01-07

Posts: 128

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Well, remember Ano has the 11th amulet and go back and read his last comment... might give a clue .

madcatz1999

Member

Registered: 2015-05-07

Posts: 30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Well, remember Ano has the 11th amulet and go back and read his last comment... might give a clue .

Yep, which is why I said I'm fairly confident his amulet has V and W on it

card

Member

Registered: 2014-12-25

Posts: 25

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

Well, remember Ano has the 11th amulet and go back and read his last comment... might give a clue .

Yep, which is why I said I'm fairly confident his amulet has V and W on it

So if we work under that assumption... then what would be on the last 2 amulets? X-Y on 12, and Z on 13? Or are you thinking that because of the number reversal, maybe T-U is on 13 and 2 of X,Y,Z are on 12?