The Mystery of the Amulets

madcatz1999 · 2015-07-07 18:55:43

card wrote:

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?

I'm assuming that amulet is the 11th amulet, despite it having 13 notches (for the reasons given previously), and that either X, Y, or Z is not used (just like J). And that there is no 13th amulet (at least not one like the 12 we know of).

1) A,B
2) C,D
3) E,F
4) G,H
5) I,K
6) L,M
7) N,O
8) P,Q
9) R,S
10) T,U
11) V,W (this being the one with 13 notches)
12) Y,Z (or possibly X,Z or X,Y)

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-07 19:04:25)

madcatz1999 · 2015-07-07 19:05:44

To expound on my reasoning above, there are 5 possible ways to order the amulets:

1) The order they were given out
2) The order of their zodiac sign
3) The order given by their filenames (they all started with numbers)
4) The order of number of notches
5) The order of the letters on the back

2) and 3) give the same ordering (and would suggest the 13-notch amulet is the "11th" amulet, with no indication that there's a 13th amulet). 5) is likely the same as 2) and 3), given what has been said and shown in this thread, though obviously we can't be certain until we see all the backs. 1) is probably irrelevant in my mind, but it's possible it has some meaning. 4) is the only ordering that suggests the 13-notched one is in 13th place (and that we're missing the amulet that would fall in the 11th spot).

Not saying the number of notches is meaningless, but I'm not convinced that that's enough evidence to indicate there's a mysterious 13th amulet floating around.

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-07 19:06:32)

Cobblestone · 2015-07-07 19:32:06

I think Jason stated in the contest thread that the order they were being given out was to place the more valuable amulets on the weekend. So I think it's alright to assume that item 1 is irrelevant, as you said.

Regarding a 13th amulet, I think we also noticed that there was enough materials in the photo of the coins used to cast the amulets to create one more silver amulet. Also with them being named after the zodiac, there is a 13th zodiac that's been lost with time and superstition. With that information, the notches, and Jason's elusive answer toward the funky ordering, we sorta ran with the idea that this puzzle was working toward finding this lost amulet...

Either way, it won't make any difference if we can't find a cipher to solve!

Cobblestone · 2015-07-07 19:41:18

I'll try to update this as we get more photos, just to keep handy:

Amulet 1 (A/B): http://postimg.org/image/t8n1pmb7z/
Amulet 2 (C/D): http://i60.tinypic.com/2qco4km.jpg
Amulet 3
Amulet 4
Amulet 5 (I/K): http://i58.tinypic.com/2rmxdap.jpg
Amulet 6 (L/M): http://i.imgur.com/acBfkkk.jpg
Amulet 7
Amulet 8
Amulet 9 (R/S): https://i.imgur.com/UEaI0SZ.jpg
Amulet 10
Amulet 11
Amulet 12
Amulet 13

Last edited by Cobblestone (2015-08-28 16:40:57)

madcatz1999 · 2015-07-07 19:53:50

Cobblestone wrote:

Either way, it won't make any difference if we can't find a cipher to solve!

I guess I'll share my theory on this that I've been holding back for a little while. AFAIK, we haven't seen any of these runes show up anywhere other than on the amulets. But, at least some of the runes look similar to each other (the one for D and the one for I, for example). What if the cypher isn't meant to pair letters with runes, but instead pair letters with other letters?. Thus, the amulets would give us 12 pairs of letters (and missing an amulet or two wouldn't be the end of the world). Then we'd have a cypher that we could actually use (on what phrase, who knows, but we'd at least have a place to start).

card · 2015-07-07 23:11:27

madcatz1999 wrote:

Cobblestone wrote:
Either way, it won't make any difference if we can't find a cipher to solve!
I guess I'll share my theory on this that I've been holding back for a little while. AFAIK, we haven't seen any of these runes show up anywhere other than on the amulets. But, at least some of the runes look similar to each other (the one for D and the one for I, for example). What if the cypher isn't meant to pair letters with runes, but instead pair letters with other letters?. Thus, the amulets would give us 12 pairs of letters (and missing an amulet or two wouldn't be the end of the world). Then we'd have a cypher that we could actually use (on what phrase, who knows, but we'd at least have a place to start).

That's possible but I think unlikely. It would be hard to make a meaningful cipher with only 12 letters, and the chances that we haven't yet found a matching symbol are a little slim. My thought was that we don't have a phrase because it hasn't been released yet - maybe Jason's next game will be an ARG?

jere · 2015-07-08 00:21:41

^Something I have noticed about the trend of Jason's designs in that they seem to be increasingly reaching into the real world. Chain world where you pass the game onto another person and there's a physical object associated with it, the board game buried in the desert, TCD's time commitment and theme and emotional impact, and now real money with CM. Sometimes I wonder: how do you top that! An ARG would be a pretty good answer: fictional websites, twilio integration so the game calls you (I went to answer a pay phone for ilovebees in 2004), physical objects, etc. It's an interesting thought at least.

madcatz1999 · 2015-07-08 00:39:01

card wrote:

It would be hard to make a meaningful cipher with only 12 letters and the chances that we haven't yet found a matching symbol are a little slim.

Wouldn't be hard since the creator can choose the 12 letters. "Cordial Minuet", for example, uses exactly 12 distinct letters. That could easily make some other phrase (that could then be entered in the password boxes) if the letters were substituted for other letters. And we have found symbols that match pretty closely -- the D and the I. But yes, the theory would have a lot more credence if there was more than just one matching pair.

Though I just realized, upon closer inspection, that the I symbol doesn't close completely -- I didn't realize that until just now.

P.S. I never actually said I believed my theory was right Just something that popped in my mind a while back.

Last edited by madcatz1999 (2015-07-08 00:45:53)

card · 2015-07-08 01:58:20

madcatz1999 wrote:

Wouldn't be hard since the creator can choose the 12 letters. "Cordial Minuet", for example, uses exactly 12 distinct letters. That could easily make some other phrase (that could then be entered in the password boxes) if the letters were substituted for other letters. And we have found symbols that match pretty closely -- the D and the I. But yes, the theory would have a lot more credence if there was more than just one matching pair.

Fair enough, and I forgot about the password box idea. That would fit very nicely numerically.

Cobblestone · 2015-08-28 00:30:55

Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be solving whatever secret the amulets hold.

However, on the same topic of solving mysterious occult riddles, I thought you guys might enjoy this freshly-posted Kotaku article:
http://steamed.kotaku.com/the-people-tr … 1727023156

Dan_Dan84 · 2015-08-28 01:53:19

Huh. I like the interplay between what might be real, and what might be fake. The more you look at something that might be fake, the more you think it might be real. Reminds me of when I read The Crying of Lot 49 years ago.

The mystery of the amulets is not the only unsolved mystery that will likely remain unresolved.

-- Who is Jeopardy Alcohol? JA is apparently incapable of (or unwilling to) set up a forum account, but supposedly reads the forums (or used to) and enjoys the intrigue around JA. What was the motive behind JA's 1000th game bounty? I'm sure we all have our suspicions around that. I wonder if JA will finally reach out to Jason again and allow Jason to reveal JA's identity. Maybe JA really is just the "southern poker-loving elderly gentleman" of our imagination.

-- Did Clock Form only create the one bot? It seems odd that CF would go through all that trouble to code up the bot, collect that data, and then not use it further. Maybe CF just realized that creating a profitable bot is a near-impossible task. After all, even String Corn, which is an excellent bot, seems just to be breaking even. Perhaps with an influx of unskilled players, it could be doing much better. Hard to say.

-- Who is Performer Frog, and how could he/she not know that he/she has won an amulet? And for that matter, certain non-active players who won a lot of money during the launch contest have never withdrawn their winnings.

Anyway, the mysterious nature of Cordial Minuet is what partially drew me to the game in the first place, so I suppose it's fitting that there remain some unsolved mysteries. Still, it would be nice if we could at least find out more about that Jeopardy Alcohol...

madcatz1999 · 2015-08-28 14:28:23

Oh look, it's an amulet:

Cobblestone · 2015-08-28 16:45:12

Oh hey! An amulet! Sweet!!
I updated this post: http://cordialminuet.com/incrementensem … 2959#p2959

Dan_Dan84 wrote:

Anyway, the mysterious nature of Cordial Minuet is what partially drew me to the game in the first place, so I suppose it's fitting that there remain some unsolved mysteries. Still, it would be nice if we could at least find out more about that Jeopardy Alcohol...

Ditto on both counts!

LiteS · 2015-09-01 16:35:26

Some musings on the subject:

The biggest thing that's bothering me about these amulets is the number. So there are 12 plus the probably possibly missing 13th. If I were to metagame this a bit, there were originally going to be 36 amulets back in the planning stages. There are two (assumed) cipher codes per amulet. Even with one cipher code per amulet, there would still be 10 (possibly 12) amulets with presumably something other than letters on the back. Perhaps numbers? It still means that the cipher would be slightly different. Which begs the question, at what point did Jason finalize the details of the mystery? The idea for amulets was pretty early.

I'm interested if something different is on the back of the gold amulets, and disappointed that JWG didn't share his.

card · 2015-09-02 13:47:49

LiteS wrote:

If I were to metagame this a bit, there were originally going to be 36 amulets back in the planning stages.

Where did you see this, did Jason make a post at some point?

Cobblestone · 2015-09-02 16:51:30

He originally mentioned 36 amulets here, and this is an excellent point. I don't recall exactly when the switch from 36 to 12 happened, but I seem to remember it occured after a few of them had already been made...

joshwithguitar · 2015-10-25 12:30:36

For those who still come here:
Amulet 12

LiteS · 2015-10-26 13:30:57

It's the first October since the amulets have been passed out... I'll be taking an amulet to a seance tomorrow night.

.. · 2015-11-01 02:44:27

Gosh, took you a while Josh

My own theory: this cipher isn't used anywhere yet, but Jason will use it in something else sooner or later.

Cobblestone wrote:

He originally mentioned 36 amulets here, and this is an excellent point. I don't recall exactly when the switch from 36 to 12 happened, but I seem to remember it occured after a few of them had already been made...

IIRC Jason made one test amulet and that was enough to convince him that 36 would be too many to make by hand. Either that or he realised that even before making the first.

Dan_Dan84 wrote:

Did Clock Form only create the one bot? It seems odd that CF would go through all that trouble to code up the bot, collect that data, and then not use it further.

It's really damn hard to make use of the data you collect that way because it only shows one side; I haven't even tried to look at what I have.

Last edited by .. (2015-11-01 03:01:01)

CORDIAL MINUET ENSEMBLE

#101 2015-07-07 18:55:43

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#102 2015-07-07 19:05:44

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#103 2015-07-07 19:32:06

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#104 2015-07-07 19:41:18

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#105 2015-07-07 19:53:50

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#106 2015-07-07 23:11:27

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#107 2015-07-08 00:21:41

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#108 2015-07-08 00:39:01

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#109 2015-07-08 01:58:20

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#110 2015-08-28 00:30:55

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#111 2015-08-28 01:53:19

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#112 2015-08-28 14:28:23

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#113 2015-08-28 16:45:12

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#114 2015-09-01 16:35:26

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#115 2015-09-02 13:47:49

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#116 2015-09-02 16:51:30

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#117 2015-10-25 12:30:36

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#118 2015-10-26 13:30:57

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

#119 2015-11-01 02:44:27

Re: The Mystery of the Amulets

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