The Minister's Code - BYO2023

Thursday:

The sheriffs were baffled. Locked in a box in the cellar was a clay tablet. On the tablet was a mysterious code. With the code, was a piece of paper on which was scrawled a cryptic riddle.

This was not your typical missing person case.

Rev. Charles McKinsey was a well-known local staple. About 1 year prior he had stepped down as the minister of the local church and stopped showing himself in public. For years he had been the moral voice. Beloved as kind and gentle. Now rarely seen.

You could sometimes catch him going to supply his perishables, or visiting the center drag of businesses for his needs.

Now, he was missing without a trace.

The beautiful town of Amber Falls had only 950 people. It was perched in the picturesque countryside far from any city of note. Trees and green. Daily showers keeping a comfortable humidity.

The Sheriff's office had only 3 officers and one administrative employee. Captain Lawrence Arbinger was the prototypical small town sheriff.

Over the years, and increaing in recent times, his office was often inundated with reports of strange lights in the sky. Orange and white orbs would be seen as reported above and around the West end of town, often near the McKinsey residence.

Sure enough, he bore witness to this strange phenomenon repeatedly occurring. He just had to look outside when the standard call came.

"Hey Lawrence, they're back."

It had become a harmless amusement for the town.

Monday

Towards the end of the day on Monday they received a report from the local mail carrier that the Minister had stopped collecting his mail, and a friendly knock was not answered.

They had performed a welfare check and found an empty unlocked house with a snack.half eaten on the table. Nothing else out of the ordinary. All except a thick cellar door which was jammed shut. Through the open window they peered in with their flashlights and saw only clutter, papers, and dust. They wrote it off.

Wednesday

A former parishioner named Margaret Peridot walked into their station, which was located in a small house turned into their headquarters.

"Sheriff, I wanted to talk to you about Rev. McKinsey," she said.

He acknowledged her to continue. She unfurled an interesting story about his final months in the church.

"We began to think he was losing his mind and his faith had been rattled. He said he was in communication with an angel that revealed to him the truth about our planet. We began to fear he had become possessed. He started talking about "The Ultimatum" and that we were running out of time.

Then he would start speaking blasphemy. He would proclaim that all evidence of prophets, angels, demons, and God were actually a race of Aliens that seeded our early civilization with knowledge. He would speak of Armageddon as a bridge to an advanced existence. He said it was imperative to heed the Ultimatum."

The sheriff looked at her. "And this was Rev. McKinsey that said this? I've known that man 46 years and he's never said anything close to that."

He thought for a second. "Let's bust open that cellar."

On Thursday they returned to get into the cellar. It took some effort but they kicked open the door to see it wasn't clutter at all.

They pulled the chain for the hanging light and illuminated a madman's war room. Letters and numbers were written on the white concrete walls in paint marker, and papers with strange proverbs and phrases interspersed the unknown letters and numbers.

Strange electronic contraptions littered the floor. Parts of every electronic deconstructed and reconstructed. Some discarded, some missing parts. A large Persian rug covered the concrete foundation.

It was like the reverend had gotten into methamphetamine and went insane. They knew better though.

Something was up.

The new sheriff, a 23 year old local, hit a false bottom.

"Hey captain, floors hollow here. Not concrete."

Sure enough, underneath the Persian rug, a piece of sheet rock was concelealing a 3 by 3 void contraining a silver box.

And only a silver box.

It contained a clay tablet in the same code as written on the wall.

The note read:

Start right past middle and you cant spiral in
List top to bottom until you reach end.
Count well beyond 10 to a hex that will match
Complete the task, altered first and last.
Now you're back where you started

The clay tablet read:

OMH L4664FI0P IK 1 0HF GH6IPI4NK OHBO. IO F1K FGIOOH0 I0 OMH 7H1G 4L 04 64GD. 74N 1GH 166 KMHH8. OMHGH IK 04 P4D HB9H8O OMH 40H OM1O 74N 21AH 74NGKH6L. FH 1GH OMH 2NKI9 21AHGK 10D OMH DGH12HGK 4L DGH12K. FH DGH12 4067 0IPMO21GHK.

10D IL 74N D40O DG48 OMIK GH6IPI40 KMIO OMH7 FI66 942H 10D DHKOG47 74N FIOM OMHIG 16IH0 FH1840K. 14D OI2H IK 1624KO N8 L4G HJHG740H.

A049A IO 4LL!

I F1K PNIDHD M4F O4 940KOGN9O 27 HK918H LG42 OMIK FGHO9MHD 8610HO, L1GHFH66! OMIK IK 27 0HF MIPMHG 9A66I0P.

They all looked at each other and laughed.

"So do we call in a government cryptologist, or what?"

They never found out what happened to the minister, but they do have a code and a riddle. Not that it answered much.

The End.

a reply to: Degradation33

Good one, Degradation33!

I couldn’t figure out the cryptic message, but I love a murder mystery, nonetheless.

a reply to: Degradation33

That was a great story, kept me interested all the way through!

I couldn't solve the puzzle but was so curious I threw it in chatgpt, it solved it in seconds lol.

Thanks for a fine tale!

S+F

a reply to: midicon

Thank you..

And even though I use it, I forgot about Chat GPT. Wanted to keep it breakable.

Should've made a less stupid cipher message.

The riddle...

"Start right past middle and you cant spiral in
List top to bottom until you reach end.
Count well beyond 10 to a hex that will match
Complete the task, altered first and last."

Start at N and alternate out (N, M, O, L, P, K...)
List top to bottom
Inset Hexavigesimal (Base 26 - 0-9, A-P)
Start at top of list and alternate with bottom filling in Base 26 substitution.

That said, the message could have been better...

a reply to: Degradation33

I am so embarrassed that I had to break two decoder rings to make a third one that actually worked.

I guess I'll just have to quit the Little Orphan Annie secret circle.