Masak Ayam (escape the kitchen)

[Alhallor]

Should be corrected, they may be more mayhem ahead.

[Ridai]

Ooh, this is pretty neat.

I did some checks for numerical substitution (I -> 1 -> A, II -> 2 -> B etc.), and Caesar cipher after doing the numerical substitution, those seem to be out. My current guess is that it may be mono-alphabetic substitution cipher behind a simple numerical substitution cipher, maybe a shift cipher. For example, if we assume the first four letters result in "What?", that would mean shifting from the Roman numerals in a pattern of -3 -> +2 -> -3 -> +2, but that breaks down in the second line, so that could be just coincidence.

For the mono-alphabetic substitution after numerical, we would get "TJXV? [W]EAXT[E]BLQQ[U]QLQ?" after the numerical substitution, with the W, E, and U uncertain whether these are solved letters or part of the phrase that needs to be decoded. The phrase is pretty damn short and there isn't much repetition beyond the XVII/Q, which makes this very open ended. Likely candidates for the Q might be E or S, since there are several English words with EE or SS.

Open questions:
Are the W, E, and U already correct letters due to our chicken's partial human language mastery, since they don't fit into the Roman numeral pattern at all?
Is the "XXIIII" correct, since usually 24 is written as XXIV, with "XXIIII" being kind of obscure number slang, or was this deliberate as a hint these aren't supposed to be Roman numerals?
Are there Germanisms in the solved phrase, making the solution more difficult?

I'll update if I find out more.

[Alhallor]

W E and U are already correct letters to complicate the cipher to be honest.

XXIIII is the correct writing because I thought it's easier to understand.

[Ridai]

XXIIII is the correct writing because I thought it's easier to understand.

But it is meant to be a Roman 24?

[Alhallor]

Yes! It's supposed to be 24. My brain convinced me that it's easier to understand than XXIV.

[Ridai]

My current hypothesis is that this is a substitution cipher, but the phrase is so damn short that I'd have to brute force substitutions (and this has literally millions of possible permutations), since I have no indication of white spaces, it is unclear whether the solved letters can appear elsewhere in the cipher, and I frankly am half suspecting the guy to speak in a way I wouldn't expect people to speak in English given how you write (no offense).

I'll pass on this one or wait on more samples. Trying to solve this right now would be hours of tedious work and not much fun.

[Cygnia]

Awwww....

https://mediachomp.com/the-sweet-sto...an-hen-couple/

[Batcathat]

Awwww....

https://mediachomp.com/the-sweet-sto...an-hen-couple/

Aww, indeed. Sweet story. Seems like "opposites attract" can be true for hens too, with the small angry one and the big cowardly one hooking up.

The social life of animals can be pretty interesting. I remembering interviewing a farmer who had all sorts of animals and she explained that one of her cats was the boss of all the animals (well, mostly. Apparently the horses pretty much ignored it when it tried bossing them around) while the lone pig was the lowest ranking animal. Watching a cat making it clear to a pig (who was quite small for a pig but still like three times the size of a cat) it wasn't allowed to eat yet was equal parts amusing and sad.

[Alhallor]

at Ridai: No offense taken, I know my writing can be pretty jumbled or disjointed at times.

Regarding the cipher I wan't to make clear that you are correct with "WHAT?" As the first word and have basically solved the cipher with only one step missing.

at hens: d'awww, that's really cute! Reminded me of two hens that we only sold together because they were always so close. As a pedantic chicken owner I have to say that the spurs are not a rooster only thing, I have several hens who have gotten spurs. and yes brooding can transform a normally totally balanced and normal chicken into a feathery ball of rage and madness.

Just ask Enyo.

Edit: The cipher was a lot easier this time! I broke it up to make it easier to read.

[Ridai]

I could safely discard this being substitution with the second cipher since that immediately produced garbage in the first line using the "WHAT" substitutions from the first cipher.

But even the 3, -2 shift pattern that started working in the first cipher then broke down later, even if I offset the order after a solved letter. I am either getting "WHAT? [W]HYAR[E]EJTO[U]TJT?" or "WHAT? [W]HYAR[E]ZOOT[U]TJT?" or "WHAT? [W]CDVW[E]EJTO[U]OOO?". The [3, -2] producing WHAT WHY ARE seems like it should work, but just breaks down after the solved E, and I don't think I know a number sequence that only starts diverging after four repetitions of the same numbers.

With the second cipher, the [3, -2] immediately didn't work, since the first line is most likely "I'm". In that one, through guessing, I was able to get to "I'm going to put you all", but the shift pattern for that was
[13, 2, -3, 2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -12, 3, -2, 3] which seems like nonsense (why the random 13, and -12? Why is the first 2 positive? Why is the first 3 negative?). Taking the [3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -12] part of that, since that is similar to what I used to get the "What why are" in the first cipher into the first cipher also produced garbage.

I also have no clue yet what is going on with the last word in the second cipher. That one doesn't seem to like any sequence whatsoever.

edit: I think the second cipher is supposed to be "I'm going to put you all back!", but the sequence is [13, 2, -3, 2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -12, 3, -2, 3, -1, 3, -2]. Highlighted the parts I think are just wrong. Given this, I think the sequence is broken for the first cipher as well, but in a different way. Notably, the sequence in the second cipher ignores solved letters, so there are no offsets, but if I apply the 3, -2 to the first cipher in the same way, I just get garbage after the E.

edit2: Going with guessing, I was able to get the first cipher to "What? Why are you out", but the sequence is [3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -2, 3, -2, -3, 3, 4, -2, 3], with two letters remaining that seem like nonsense. If it is supposed to be "outside?" or "out here?", two letters are missing in both cases, and the given Roman numerals are way too far from those letters.

edit3: Now with tables!
First cipher (first row: code, second row: shift number, third row: solution)

XX	X	XXIIII	XXII	?		W	V	I	XXIIII	XX	E	II	XII	XVII	XVII	U	XVII	XII	XVII	?
3	-2	3	-2				3	-2	3	2		-3	3	4	-2		3	?	?
W	H	A	T	?		W	H	Y	A	R	E	Y	O	U	O	U	T	?	?	?

Second cipher

XXII	'	XI		X	XIII	i	XI	IX		XVII	XVII		P	XVIII	XXII		XXII	XXVII	U		XXIIII	XIIII	IX		III	A	XXVI	XIII
13		2		-3	2		3	-2		3	-2			3	-2		3	-12			3	-2	3		-1		3	-2
I	'	M		G	O	I	N	G		T	O		P	U	T		Y	O	U		A	L	L		B	A	C	K

edit4: I think I deserve my lost HP back for working out a broken cipher.

[Alhallor]

You definitely should get you're HP back...
It really was supposed to be -3 +2; -3 +2 normal letter, repeat.

I double-checked every part several times, I'm really bad at this.

You definitely deserved to get understand them speaking, sorry for all the unnecessary hard work.

[Ridai]

It happens, it's mostly just funny to me now that I worked it out. The first cipher was too short (too little information) to work out what was going on (and I still don't know what is up with those two last letters), the second handed me enough to work things out, between knowing where the whitespaces are, more letters being used, and it just being longer.

That said, there is an interesting challenge in working out a somewhat garbled cipher (or errors in the message before it was even encoded to begin with), as long as there is enough information to work with to notice something's up.

Spoiler: Showing codebreaking results to Alhallor, 2023 (colorized)

Show

[Metastachydium]

Well, damn. You're, like, good at stuff!

[Alhallor]

Yes, That is definitely me in the picture.
Even I don't know what's up with the last two letters in the first cipher, They shouldn't have been there!

I'm very glad that you had fun, I would have probably thrown it against a wall, because I'm really bad at pattern-recognition when it's even slighty garbled. (Or even normal pattern-recognition)

Generally for posting.

We currently have somewhat of a combat encounter which means that I would like to wait till everyone has posted, when normally I'd wait till like half the people have posted and I have some time to write an answer is that ok with all of you, should I consider something specific or are you okay with that pace?

[Metastachydium]

It's fine! (Okay, I'd love to know now if that sorry bastasrd still has both of those eyes attached, but I'm not going topush for rushing anything.)

[Ridai]

I'm okay with waiting, but you might need to implement/communicate how long you'll wait in these situations. It might become a situation where no one knows who everyone is waiting on otherwise.

[Cygnia]

Am I correct in the fact that those "white sentinels" look like computer desks on the map?

[Alhallor]

@Cygnia: Yes, they most certainly are! But more like medical monitors, but without the constant beeping.

@Time before sudden GM post: I always thought 2 days is a bit harsh (especially with harsh weekends, that I mostly have.) What would you all think about 3 days from the last player post (if not everyone else has posted before) May make for a slower pace but seems pretty fair.

[Ridai]

I'm fine with that.

[Metastachydium]

Roger roger on this end.

[Cygnia]

Gonna give y'all a heads-up that I'll be away on vacation from June 21-25.

[Ridai]

Scrambling out of the way of the nightmare dog pushed door Skill 5 - (1d6)[2]

[Cygnia]

Scramble vs Goggie!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsYlz...IyMzRjYmRlZg==

[Ridai]

Scramble vs Goggie!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CsYlz...IyMzRjYmRlZg==

"This is lies and slander, and I will not- okay the bit on the roof is pretty accurate but- what's important is that I should be the one chasing!" *folds wings, chicken-pouts*

[Alhallor]

The question is can a chicken put a dog in it's place? I mean Skill is what a chicken can theoretically with the body of a chicken do (in the book, building a rocket wouldn't work, no matter how good the skill roll.)

Ok, it works!

[Batcathat]

My roll get screwed up (I did preview the post, but then I copy-pasted it into a new post, but I guess it still affected it somehow) so here it is instead.

Skill roll! (1d6)[3]

[Ridai]

The question is can a chicken put a dog in it's place? I mean Skill is what a chicken can theoretically with the body of a chicken do (in the book, building a rocket wouldn't work, no matter how good the skill roll.)

Ok, it works!

Much like the video, I expect the kick itself to do basically nothing in terms of harm beyond the mild discomfort of a sudden nose boop, but apart from that, anything* is possible with enough attitude**!

* some things
** including potentially getting flattened

[Cygnia]

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/cluckin...music-forever/

[Ridai]

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/cluckin...music-forever/

Scramble salutes poor Mary Cluckers

[Cygnia]

Baby chickies!