DNBHL #48 Part One

#48:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/shadowpuzzle/thefiveareamongstyourselves.png

Hint: "Do not always start from the beginning. Packed already?"

Starting from the top of the image:

1) The poem "The Dance of the Seven Deadly sins" by William Dunbar, a more readable version of which can be found here http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/william-dunbar/the-dance-of-the-seven-deadly-sins/

2) Below that are Egyptian hieroglyphic numerals, in six sets of 3 numbers.

Using the triplets of numbers as stanza, line and character references for the poem, but counting characters from the *end* of the line, gives "tsilne", which when reversed gives "enlist". This uses the first sentence of the hint.

3) Braille, which reads as "You are on your own now"

4) A hyperlink. Performing a rot13 shift on the "lbhghor" section gives "youtube", whilst rot47 applied to the section after "v=" gives the total URL as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAQRQPaPEJ0 - Terminus 5/5

5) Messing with the colour levels in the image reveals a sequence of dots hidden in the background of the image. These are a dotcode which when scanned reads "www.bit.do/NSA256" - note that when originally found this was a dead link. It has since been repurposed by Verifyin, and *the link it redirects to is not a clue*.

Bit.do is a url shortening site, and using it with "enlist" links to a non-existent .mp4 on the game's amazon server. Further investigation revealed that using "inlets" in the same manner also redirects to another non-existent .mp4.

The clue "NSA256" refers to the SHA256 hashing algorithm. Calculating the SHA256 hash of "enlist" and using that as the bit.do link gave us "http://bit.do/4e1022fda39e623ac8a5f7c4aa2a46fa5cf09608462cf804b5e58984b3d6f64e", which redirects to a audio file. Similarly, using the SHA256 of "inlets" gives "http://bit.do/71c7624d9f4199286896d9e183caf5792d58886b8cd09eb7f1de33859c723dd5", which is also a redirect to an audio file.

Note: From here on each file is referred to by the *word that when hashed and used with bit.do redirects to the file*. Thus the first audio is "enlist" and the second "inlets"

Note 2: Although the hashes of "word" and "WORD" are different, using either with bit.do will redirect to the correct file. This will not work with *mixtures* of upper and lower case.

At this point it was noticed that other anagrams of "enlist" also worked in the same way. In particular we have:
"tinsel" - "bit.do/3aa74e756234ab12bedd0e00a125b28f0e044e4de29c1d98e35fc219ebe6cc09" - a video entitled "the five"
"listen" - "bit.do/6f8860eb5103a16b917146f9cbf21aa00fe7d2291b1aad7f4fe83a6db71688cf" - an image featuring some runes and some letters
"silent" - "bit.do/5a9b9fc8e986cc2fc9439778b39f965ea4b55fa030548123d951986d386d4c70" - an image featuring eight blocks

enlist) Examining the spectrogram of the file reveals that the astrological symbols for the solar system are present - except that jupiter is missing. Using "jupiter" as another SHA256 code gives "bit.do/1e9cc37678c0112d7a394909256c2a5998a6e57e2b0d82209900e1456e51b7eb" however, this redirects to the same video as "tinsel".

inlets) Examining the spectrogram of the file reveals a series of lines. When simply the number of lines is counted, and then applied as tap-code we get the word "rising". Using "rising" as another SHA256 code gives "bit.do/824d422d755b9c7b36ac85b680c13d278d36bbe4444f46eaf98bfd2fe2dec267" however, once again this redirects to "tinsel"

tinsel) In the title field of the video information is the word "LAUNCH". Further, when closely examining the video the pairs of letters "LA" "UN" and "CH" are visible very briefly at certain times. Using "launch" with SHA256 and bit.do give "bit.do/abfc412ce6e530df63b0dc9bf4e02bb3cb1719ab967c8f4ea3951ab5bae4ff3f" which links to an image hosted on imgur.

silent) Converting each of the blocks to audio, by using photosounder or equivalent, produces a series of spoken bytes (one per block). Converting the binary to text gives the word "outguess". It is worth noting that although the image url claims it is a .png, the image itself is in fact a .jpg. Also, the image contains a hidden comment saying "readmenow.txt". Finally, in the middle of the image is a single byte with the decimal value "4". On 25/4 another video was uploaded on the Ustream, indicating that we should be using the "-e" flag in Outguess (errorcorrecting). Using outguess on the image with the key "readmenow.txt" gave the word "VISIBLE". Using SHA256 and then bit.do as before redirects back to the video, "tinsel".

listen) Altering the colour levels reveals a hidden rune in the bottom right, which can take the value "3". By identifying the "ZO" pair as uncommon in english and working backwards to obtain a word which uses it, it was discovered that "horizon" could be spelt by beginning on the second line and taking every seventh line. Following the same process of SHA256 and bit.do we get: "bit.do/4726a1bce9706083939a56b88b657a4c6fe83d9ae0543889df2938517ed1e4f5" but, as you may guess, this redirects back to tinsel. What the runes meant in this puzzle is still unknown.

launch) A (colour inverted) image of an illustration by Mihály Zichy corresponding to scene 1 from "The Tragedy of Man" and sometimes referred to as "Lucifer before the Lord". This is a .jpg, but as it is hosted on imgur and imgur compresses images, there can't be any extractable outguess data in it.

Each of the files from "tsilne" anagrams is numbered somehow. "enlist" and "inlets" are "1" and "2" respectively, labelled in the track data. "listen" contains a hidden rune in the lower right, "thorn" which corresponds to "3". The central byte in "silent" is "4" whilst the video, "tinsel" is titled "the Five". This gives us a numbered list of five words:

1. JUPITER
2. RISING
3. HORIZON
4. VISIBLE
5. LAUNCH

Currently unsolved aspects of puzzle #48:

a) "launch" - what do we do with this image? Why is it hosted on imgur instead of the game's servers?
b) What do we do with JUPITER RISING HORIZON VISIBLE LAUNCH
c) As a more minor point, how were we meant to solve listen? What did the runes mean?

Continued in: http://pastebin.com/ejjq3h1e (Part Two) http://pastebin.com/jGMtNGhw (Part Three)