Cryptos

[Jase]

I really hope soon

[jctut401]

level 32 catch and release

No Clue !!!!
this is a 6-letter answer, huh???(/******)

[jctut401]

thanks, gents---got it!

[Cryptos]

Another level's up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[pkticker]

Yay!!!!!!

Another level's up.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I just looked at it... and already my brain hurts. Thanks for the new levels!

[fred]

long time no see

At last. Thought the Cryptos team had graduated and grown up. Now, how does that Cryptos Forum work.......................

[Cryptos]

At last. Thought the Cryptos team had graduated and grown up. Now, how does that Cryptos Forum work.......................

Neither of us have graduated; neither of us have any plans to grow up in future, either. Cryptos will be completed between now and the end of summer, guaranteed. (We both get mandatory volunteer hours for such selfless acts of contribution to the world.)

[fred]

Mandatory volunteer

Ah, Crypto Pan returns. Speaking of oxymoronic fates, is it true that, eventually, "X marks the spot" is a fair assessment of the situation in Amantillado's Cask?

[kuang]

It's good to have you back

Now I just need to plug the leaks in my underused braintank and start to think cryptos-ly again..

[Cryptos]

Ah, Crypto Pan returns. Speaking of oxymoronic fates, is it true that, eventually, "X marks the spot" is a fair assessment of the situation in Amantillado's Cask?

I don't see why it would, and I have it open in front of me. (It's "The Cask of Amontillado", by the way; Amontillado is a variety of wine, not a person.)

[fred]

I don't see why it would, and I have it open in front of me. (It's "The Cask of Amontillado", by the way; Amontillado is a variety of wine, not a person.)

Ouch. Goes to show how far out of high school I am. At least I got the grammar right, even if the facts were messed up. OK, I'll try another tack.

[Jase]

Yeah ... Great to be back ... brain already hurts aswell

[kuang]

Anyone got any thoughts so far? I keep hitting things that seem too clear to be coincidences, but I'm not sure how it fits together and there are always a few bits I can't quite reconcile.

[kuang]

This is my thinking about where this might be going:

I reckon it's going to be something straightforward, an instruction rather than a code. You only have the phone and hacking into anything to make changes implies a lot of complexity, so I think it's more an action rather than a password. It'll probably be simple because the context wouldn't really give rise to anything overcomplicated.

Here's what I'm trying

Simple substitutions - acronyms, words that represent the clue, etc. Hoping to come up with a simple four or five word sentence that says exactly what to do. By making these swaps a fair few real words appear, but interspersed with bits that don't make sense. Not sure about [smear] either - is that literal, or describing a smudge on the note concealing a word?

[fred]

My semi-cryptic remark earlier about X marking the spot referred to a TV show where the Gateway is featured. Some of its episodes lock into some of these clues. Does that help? I am googling stuff.