OOTS #309 - The Discussion Thread

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Here, I found this. Not sure how useful it'd be in the long run, but it translated this comic:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/cryptogram/

[Flak_Razorwill]

Uv ehe nb aynwp kyre fhwbdu av hw yjnr enlchcdf.
My dad is being held ransom by an evil dictator.

N lkyhc hc bdrnchnfy.
I cheat at solitaire.

N khjy h chccdd vdg'jy wyjyf byyw.
I have a tattoo you've never seen.

N tnbbye h pnfr dwly.
I kissed a girl once.

DT, DT, udfy ckhw dwly!
OK, OK, more than once!

Yrhw, nc cgfwb dgc N uhv wdc ay yqhlcrv mkhc vdg mdgre lhrr-
Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call-

Things that are true in my life:

-Nope.
-Yes.
-My female friend does.
-She also did that.
-That too.
-???

[Smoke_Rulz]

Thanks, Narses. Saved me the trouble. And a great cliffhanger indeed! Very funny dialogue. X)

[Rainee_Sue]

The only ends to that sentence I've got so far are "Alive", "Single" or "Human"...

And I bet y'all ANYTHING we snap back to Roy/Celia or Belkar on Wednesday. *headdesk*

[Brasswatchman]

Wow.

[notin_theface]

Let's not forget "I'm not really in the Thieve's Guild anymore"

[TheWanderingLlama]

Narses, you missed the one I had the most trouble with! Did you figure out "N'u wdc fyhrrv cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy"?

Never mind, notin_theface got it. I feel so slow..

[humanpylon]

I have an idea what she may not exactly be, and (hopefully this doesn't count as a spoiler) I think it may have something to do with her "experience"

[illathid]

i must say that my favorite part is the sound effects elan mkes for the salt and pepper battle ;D

[Brianish]

What the hell, I had a post on the first page. Where did it go?

The Voice of Mod: I deleted it. Posting just for the sake of placeholding your spot on the first page, or posting just to say "First page!" both are considered spam and are deleted as soon as any moderator sees it.

[Delcan]

N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy.
I'm not really in the Thieves' Guild anymore.

The one you missed there. :)

[jmaccabeus]

Narses, you missed the one I had the most trouble with! Did you figure out "N'u wdc fyhrrv cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy"?

Never mind, notin_theface got it. I feel so slow..

You forgot a "nw" in there, which kind of changes the meaning. :P

[Theodoxus]

Bummer...

anyway - I tossed it into Excel, all lowercase Haley-ese, and then used the obvious 'Elan, I'm in love with you' to start translating, using the Replace function with case sensitive, to change lowercase Haley-ese into English. It was obvious from the passage what 'completely' was, which gave me the C, P and T, which then was a cascading effect. Which so much to translate, it was rather easy.

I hate cryptograms, really - with a bloody passion - but using that technique, it wasn't so bad. Hope that helps somebody :)

Theo

[Leo_Forestclaw]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
bstodrua vhcwi gxl kmyn ep

Narses: You Rock! Thanks for the translating...

So. Many. Possible. Spoilers.

[JustyUekiTylor]

Transalations:

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. = ELAN, I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU.

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. Lduzrycyrv nw rdjy. Rdjy, rdjy, rdjy, rdjy. = Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. Lduzrycyrv nw rdjy. Rdjy, rdjy, rdjy, rdjy.

Uv ehe nb aynwp kyre fhwbdu av hw yjnr enlchcdf. N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy. = MY DAD IS BEING HELD RANSOM BY AN EVIL DICTATOR. I'M NOT REALLY IN THE THIEVES' GUILD ANYMORE.

No time to do the rest. Must get to bed now. People should be able to figure it out from here hopefully. (I cheat and use the tool available at http://www.kirby98.fsnet.co.uk/Decoder-Random.htm). 'Night all.

[TheWanderingLlama]

You forgot a "nw" in there, which kind of changes the meaning. :P

Apparently I can't decode or transcribe. Oh well.

[jmaccabeus]

Apparently I can't decode or transcribe. Oh well.

Well, hey, makes it more amusing. Now she also had delusions of grandeur!

[Martok]

Argh! Damn it, I wanted to find out what her secret was! (Yeah, I know Rich wasn't going to let us off that easy, but still!)

"I wonder if having the urge to plunge my chopsticks into my brain constitutes a secret?"

LOL! Poor Haley. I feel really sorry for her right now!

[Spiderbaby]

Wow. I suddenly understand what all the fuss about making the first page is about.

I'm having a new reader lightbulb moment. Haley's speach is translatable? huhwha?! Glee! I guess the letter replacements change with every comic?

Also -- poor, poor Haley. I had a bf similar to Elan once (so long ago). My freinds called him the 'walking vacancy sign'.

[kriklaf]

Poor Haley--she looks so sad in the 2nd to last panel. Must be a killer secret.

In retrospect, we all should have known that Haley's revelation of her love for Elan shouldn't have cured her. She tells Elan that she loves him during their abortive attempt to break out of the cells (right after he says he believes in her)

[Platinum_Mongoose]

Y'know, some people watch soap operas for these kinds of cliffhangers. Only differences are that soap operas are crap and generally don't have dragons. Yay for the non-crap and dragon-laden OotS!

...that was all meant as compliments to OotS, by the way, even if it did sound kinda wierd. But yeah, I love this comic.

[Silivren]

Poor Haley--she looks so sad in the 2nd to last panel. Must be a killer secret.

In retrospect, we all should have known that Haley's revelation of her love for Elan shouldn't have cured her. She tells Elan that she loves him during their abortive attempt to break out of the cells (right after he says he believes in her)

Though, technically at the time she expected her speech to be unintelligible, and therefore had no intention of actually telling him. I'm not sure it would count unless she was actually trying to reveal the secret (its a mental block, so intentions probably count for alot).

[PhoeKun]

You know, that waitress' outfit is really well done.

... oh, and the comic was good, too. Fantastic job, Giant.

And I'm off!

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Technically, she's not telling him anything, since he can't understand her. She'll have to find some way to communicate it wordlessly.

Smoochies ahoy!

[Matuse]

Pepper!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!



Oh, and what kind of creepy chinese food has croutons?

[RoboticSheeple]

Loved it

[Nitan]

You know, that waitress' outfit is really well done.

I think the waitress is very pretty too.

[plainsfox]

Maybe they had "Foreign" food?

[Trog]

The only ends to that sentence I've got so far are "Alive", "Single" or "Human"...

"Female"

[The_Logic_Ninja]

"Straight".