⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀─┉┈┈┉─ you peer around a corner of the secret library, not sure what you expect to find. whatever it was, this is certainly not it. bulletin boards and flow charts crowd the vine-covered walls, seemingly ancient texts appear haphazardly stacked on desks. you immediately recognize it as a work space — but what is the work? ⠀“hello!” greets lio, one of the senior librarians. they look up from their book, studying you for a moment before continuing. “i’m working on this mystery… our history, ya know? and i think these ciphers might include some of it. but i can’t quite get them right — any chance you’d like to give it a go?” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀─┉┈┈┉─ welcome to the first of four lit-fi puzzle sets! we’re looking into the rich history of our lunch library club, and each of these sets will concern the work of a different member of the librarians. solve these ciphers to discover the first author, and enjoy a bit of shakespeare too ;) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ─┉ instructions ┉─ ➺ click to see the puzzles ➺ solve the puzzles to reveal the quotes ⠀ ➺ read the notes about how the puzzles work (below the credits) to solve at “normal difficulty” ⠀ ➺ to challenge yourself, you can try solving them without these notes ⠀ ➺ discussion with your fellow librarians is encouraged, but try not to use google or any other sites to solve the cipher (google can be used to identify the quote) ➺ once solved, reply to the first comment on this project with the original publication year of the book the two quotes are from ⠀ ➺ either fae or myself will then confirm you’ve solved both with secret comments ➺ for ✨ extra credit ✨ , use one of the solve quotations as a writing prompt & share your writing in the comments for everyone to enjoy <3 ➺ prizes! everyone’s favorite :D if you successfully solve both, you will be able to customize your presence in the lit-fi studio with a symbol of your own ✨ ⠀ ➺ eg: “➺ @lit-fi-user ☼ nick ☼ any ☼ 〚0/0000〛” ⠀ ➺ completing all four puzzle sets will let you customize all four of your symbols ;) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀─┉ credits ┉─ ➺ me, @opheliio, for the designs, writing, and puzzles ➺ william shakespeare and mystery author for the quotes ➺ @-faerylights for being a lit lit-fi leader :D ➺ , , , , , & for hosting this session; for creating SWC; and all previous (co)hosts (full swc credits: ) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀─┉ “clues” ┉─ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ how the puzzles work “monstrous” ➺ caesar cipher ➺ caesar ciphers use an offset of letters to determine the encoded text ➺ in some cases, all letters are offset by the same amount, while in others have some offset and some kept constant ➺ a cipher with +1 (a->b) would also make c->d, o->p, z->a, etc — example: “lit-fi for the win” -> “mju-gj gps uif xjo” ➺ a cipher with +1 (a->b) where “opheliio” is constant would make c->d, o->o, n->q, etc — example: “lit-fi for the win” -> “liu-gi gos uhe xiq” ➺ number 1 is offset by the same amount for the whole alphabet; number 2 includes several letters that are constant ➺ the cipher in the bottom left corner may or may not be a hint ;) “bonus!” ➺ playfair cipher, using shakespeare as the keyword ➺ playfair ciphers are based on letter pairs, and the encoded text is based on the relation between the two letters on the 5x5 grid ➺ letters in different rows and columns are encoded as the same /row/ as themself but the same /column/ as their counterpart — example: “rt” -> “co” ➺ letters in the same row shift one to the right — example: “he” -> “as” ➺ letters in the same column shift one down — example: “cy” -> “lk” ➺ if two of the same letters are in a pair together, an x is added to separate them — example: “ee t” -> “ex et” -> “az ku” ➺ all together, the playfair cipher makes an encoded text far harder to read than just a caesar cipher! and it’s quite fun too :D ➺ example: “lit-fi for the win” -> “li tf if or th ew in” -> “ml nl lg wg ok hz fq” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀─┉┈┈┉─
