Soulstorm ARG

On March 17, 2016, shortly after the announcement of Oddworld: Soulstorm, Lorne Lanning was a guest on the Kinda Funny Games podcast. On the show Lorne mentioned Oddworld Inhabitants' plans to communicate and tease new information about the game in a style similar to an alternate reality game (ARG). This would hopefully prevent long gaps of silence from Oddworld Inhabitants between updates and keep the fan community more engaged while waiting for the game to be released. A teaser shown during EGX in September 2017 sums up most of the discoveries made during the ARG up to that point, including some footage not revealed in the ARG.

Summary
The ARG started by sending the Oddworld fan community on a quest to find a mysterious entity. This entity would send encrypted messages through several means, most notable the Soulstorm announcement website. At first glance who- or whatever was sending the messages appeared to have a hard time reaching anyone. But as the community solved more clues the messages became clearer. The messages turned out to be sent by a Mudokon named Ed. Based on some of his comments about noise and darkness, it's speculated he is one of the Mudokons currently working in Necrum Mines.

After somewhat clear communication was established with Ed, a Mudokon resistance group known as The Spirit of 1029 revealed itself. They first made themselves known via a website, and later also via a Twitter account. Ed seems to be a part of this movement, communicating on their behalf from wherever it is he's being held. Things went quiet after this.

After a while Ed's Twitter account woke up again and had a brief interaction with Alf, who was using the Oddworld Inhabitants Twitter account to answer fan questions. The exchange of messages seem to indicate Ed and Alf know each other.

Soon after this Ed reached out on Twitter, claiming to see 'evidence' (presumably of the Glukkon's wrongdoings) all around him. This prompted Alf to ask Ed for photographs of what he saw because 'people need to know'. Ed managed to do this and, as instructed by the 1029 account, sent the pictures in encrypted form. Not much later, the Soulstorm announcement website was updated with new clues. On the updated page the fan community is asked to help uncover a number of photos and follow the Twitter accounts related to the ARG.

Photo 1
The first picture that Ed sent shows a line of Mudokons in a labor camp or processing area of some kind. The Mudokons are carrying what appear to be sleeping bags or other assigned belongings. Tattoos on their chest indicate their slave ID. A Glukkon in the background is supervising the situation.

Photo 2
The second image that was decrypted by the community shows a much darker scene. A Mudokon is strapped to a chair in what appears to be a Vykkers Labs laboratory. Around him is various medical equipment, syringes, and what looks to be an experimental 'strain' of SoulStorm Brew. One of the Mudokons who helped Ed, known as Asset 98, was killed shortly after this picture was sent to the resistance.

Photo 3
The third image that was decrypted shows a Mudokon locked in a cell located at Vykkers Labs. The Mudokon is clearly in some kind of distress. The label on his cell door reads "Sample ID: Beverage SSB/004, subject unstable", indicating this Mudokon is one of many test subjects in these SoulStorm Brew trials. A pair of eyes can be seen in the reflection of the glass belonging to a Vykker who is looking into the cell.

After following more clues, a four second video was found of the third photo. It shows the same scene with the Mudokon howling in agony, ending with a very distinct Vykker claw closing the hatch.

Photo 4
The fourth image shows a Mudokon wearing a gas mask, running in what appears to be a Mudokon sized hamster-wheel. He is in front of a screen of sorts, reading binary and operating the computer with two levers. In the background, some medical equipment can be seen. As seen in the teaser trailer, this machine is used to test the Mudokons' enhanced endurance after drinking SoulStorm Brew. It's unknown where this picture was taken. The general surroundings do not seem to indicate Vykkers Labs anymore.

Current investigation
Most of the investigation is being done on the Oddworld Forums. Join in if you want to help out.

Tasks per July 7th, 2018:
 * The community is currently trying to decode the 9JzrxKKv5z0829jLV8wF32KpA6I0nEQDqzmbpRYzUUE=== code found in the magogcartel.com source code.
 * As evidenced by OWI_Alex, there are still unsolved side-branches of the ARG and it is also possible, that the newest lead isn't completely solved either.

Getting started
The first clues of the ARG were found in an image Oddworld Inhabitants tweeted before Soulstorm 's announcement. A number of white dots found on a fuzzy backdrop of the original SoulStorm Brewery turned out to be the word 'Monday' in braile when turned sideways. Soulstorm would be revealed that following Monday.

The source code of the announcement page provided the next clues. In it a number of cryptic HTML comments were found, including:

By checking the URLs of several images on the page, links were found to the three following images:
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal4.jpg
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal3.jpg
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal2.jpg

When extrapolating the first hidden file was found:


 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/images/reveal1.jpg

A mysterious image containing a cryptic sentence reading in part CAN YOU S- HARD TO K- IF BREAKING- THROUGH HA- ON NEED A D- So far the meaning of this image is unknown. The page was later updated several times to include more HTML comments, often corresponding to the addition of other clues  :

The video file serving as the distorted background of the page ended up holding its own clue. The very last frames of the file produce an image that reads "19<-- eblmxg yhk fx". It was then quickly discovered that this was a Caesar cipher. When all the letters are 'shifted' backwards 19 places in the alphabet, the phrase "listen for me" is the result.

Communication channel opens
At some point on 24th March 2016, the Soulstorm website was updated with a new message box, where users were able to enter text and receive various responses from an unknown entity. Members of the Oddworld Forums quickly discovered that entering some Oddworld-themed words and phrases would prompt more unique responses. These responses were sometimes in plain text, but were also often written backwards, encoded with a Caesar cipher and 'shifted' 13 times down the alphabet, or a combination of the above. Later, some of the responses also had a chance of having their letter order shuffled, in addition to being encrypted with the cipher.

Table of identified unique responses
- Signifies no change to the response. ... Signifies that the response was changed to generic responses.

Table of generic responses
Occasionally, the message box would respond to inputs (correct or incorrect) with one of several responses, which had a chance of being ciphered and/or shuffled similar to the unique responses. These were not unique responses as any input could potentially trigger them.

After May 11th, Eds responses changed, and they do not look positive at all.

*** THEY ARE COMING, I NEED TO HIDE***

*** CAN'T TALK, THEY CAN HEAR ME***

*** WE ARE SO CLOSE, DON'T GIVE UP***

*** THIS CAN'T CONTINUE FOREVER, LOOK CLOSER***

*** YOU NEED TO LOOK CLOSER, NOT MUCH TIME LEFT***

Significance of ED
When entering 75 queries in the SoulStorm website the page will return a cryptic image instead of text: Note that this is probably what the following comment in html code of the SoulStorm page was hinting at:
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/attemptnumberseventyfive.jpg

The attemptnumberseventyfive.jpg image reveals by magic eye stereogram a link to the following text file:
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/intercepted.txt

The intercepted.txt text file contains the following hidden messages:

Those messages direct us to the following files:
 * findme
 * hear me
 * rescue me
 * 0451.jpg
 * spirit of #RF dot jpg


 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/0451.jpg
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/spiritof1029.jpg

The 0451.jpg picture was previously hinted at by the following comment in html code of the SoulStorm page, the numbers in the comment being the same:

The spiritof1029.jpg picture has the text "lsot.mp3" hidden in it, which leads to:
 * http://oddworld.com/soulstorm/lsot.mp3

Multiple clues were pointing to "ED" being the next step:
 * The letters ED are being randomly put to bold in the first paragraph of the SoulStorm page
 * The letters ED are the only letters in italic in the 0451.jpg in the message ME FIND
 * Morse code in the lsot.mp3 at 01:11 on both channels -> . -.. (translated: ED)
 * Additional Morse code at 1:40. The code . -.. (ED) can be heard when the blips are pitched up a couple octaves.
 * The communication box sending back the message "FIND ME, HEAR ME, SAVE ME" when ED is inputted

This led to the following address:
 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/ed/

It contains nothing but the following text:

"iÌ ÌžÌ¹Ìº cÌ´Í™Ì™Ì°Ì¬Í™aÍÌ­nÌ˜ÍšÌœÍ–Ì»Í” ÌºÌ®hÒ‰Ì¦Ì–ÌœÍ™eÌ¶Í“aÌŸÌœÌ–Ì•rÌ¶Í“ Ì©Ì¹Í…yÍœoÌ¹Ì°ÌŸÍ”uÌ¢Í‰Ì¼,Ì¦Í•Í‰Í‰ÍŽÌ• ÌžÌžjÌ—Ì¼Ì®Ì Ì¥Ì¥ÍusÌ—tÌ©Ìº.Ì»Ì— Í•ÌžÌ³Ì¹Ì­Ì€Í…iÌ›tÌ°Ì¯Ì™Ì£Í–ÌŸÌ™'ÌªÌªÌžÌ¦Ì³Ì©sÌ• Ì©Ì¬Ì—Í–Ì»Ì–Ì€fÌ´Ì™Í ‰ÍŽÌ¯ÌºaÌ«iá¹‡ÍšÌžÍ¢tÌµÍšÌ¬Í‡Ì°ÍÌ¼Í…,Ì¬Í•Ì¹Ì–Ì©Ì®ÍœÍ… ÌºÍ”ÍŽÍ‰ÌºÌ±bÌ¸ÌÌ°Ì¬uÌ»ÍÌ²Ì•tÌªÌ¼Ì®Ì£Ì« Ì®Í•ÍŽÍÍ¡iÌ®Ì±Í™ ÍŽÌ²Ì ¤Ì¯cÌ·ÌºÍ“aÌœÌªÌºá¹‰Ì»Ì²Ì¦Ì²Ì¼Ì»Í˜ Ì§Ì³Ì—Ì®Ì˜Ì¦Í”hÍÌªÍŽÌ¬Í”ÍŽÍÌ—È©Ì¤ÌžÍ–Ì¬Ì˜Í•Ã ÌºÌ­Ì­Ì¼Å—ÍˆÌ³Ì Ì¤Ì³Ì— ÍyÌ²ÍˆÌ­Ì˜Ì °Í”ÍžoÌ¢Ì—Ì³Ì˜uÍ”Ì«ÍšÍ‰.Ì©Ì¼Ì"

Which translates, once looked at with UTF-8 browser text encoding:

"?i???? c??????a??n?????? ??h?????e??a????r?? ???y?o????u???,?????? ??j???????us?t??.?? ?????`?i?t???????'??????s? ??????`f??????a?i????t????????,???????? ?????_b????u??_?t????? ?????i?_? ?_??c???a?????_?_??? ¸??????h???????????????à????r?????? ?y_??????o????u????.???"

When cleaned up into plaintext, this reads:

i can hear you, just. it's faint, but i can hear you.

Reaching Ed
The top comment in the html code of the SoulStorm page changed multiple times in the days that followed the discovery of the http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/ed/ page:

////////// //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////      //////////    okay, this looks like being just enough. now, how to figure out how get this last code out - i can't seem to find the numbers as easily as t   ####################################################################### /##
 * 1) they are hiding something ########################################oo##
 * 2) search and you will find me ######################################xx##

The 140 '/' characters and all the '#" were telling us to look for a twitter account (a twitter message has a maximum of 140 characters). And thus the twitter account of Ed the Mudokon was found.

This account has posted numerous hidden messages.This is actually binary for: "Can you hear me"This is a simple letters to numbers cipher: 8 5 12 12 15 becomes H E L L O.

The 9 Pieces
Between March 22nd and April 4th, Ed's Twitter account posted a series of 4 partially-obscured codes:


 * XXXX-1138-XXXX-XXXX
 * XXXX-XXXX-1029-XXXX
 * 0451-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
 * XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-2739

Combining these together adds up to make one complete code:
 * 0451-1138-1029-2739

When the code was inputted into the website's message box the following response was received:

*** IT WORKED! IT WORKED! OK, NOW I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION - LISTEN, THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU SOMETHING. SOMETHING IS WRONG. VERY WRONG. YOU NEED TO LISTEN. YOU NEED TO HELP ME. I NEED TO HELP YOU... ***

The message box on the Soulstorm website subsequently changed: it became black with a line of 9 spaces at the top: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Each space represents one "Piece" of a 36-character code. There are 9 Pieces, each of which is one 4-character segment of the complete code.

Piece 1
Piece 1 was granted to us seemingly immediately, which gave us the code "C4GD" and the message "THEY ARE HIDING THINGS FROM YOU. FIND THEM"


 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/ed/squares_codes_01.jpg

Piece 2
On April 4th Ed tweeted:Which is morse code for "learn the history of the creators", this was a clue to look on the page of Lorne Lanning.

A clue for "Piece 2" was found at the bottom of this page; which gave the task to reach 23K followers on the Oddworld Inc Twitter account.

Once this task was completed, piece 2 was unlocked.

Piece 3
On April 7th and 8th Ed tweeted multiple gibberish looking tweets containing "bzzbzzzzz* ** - dibeh -", "na-zz-tso-zz", "bzbzzbzbzzz**- - klizzie" and "na-as-tso-si - -".

Using the Navajo code the following letters were found:
 * S (DIBEH)
 * M (NA-AS-TSO-SI)
 * G (KLIZZIE)

Based on the dashes in the message the correct order was found to be "NA-AS-TSO-ZI - DIBEH - KLIZZIE", which gives MSG, leading to the URL of an image.

The msg.jpg file's clue is divided in two parts:


 * A puzzle that, once combined, gives the the word "together" when using the Pigpen cipher
 * A series of numbers in the grey bar in the middle of the picture, "14 5 19 19 . 10 16 7", which switched with the corresponding letter in the alphabet gives "ness.jpg".

Put together both parts give us togetherness.jpg.

This unlocked task 3 which was to get 43k likes on the Oddworld Inhabitants Facebook page.

This was completed and the letters "SSBR" was revealed.

Piece 4
On the 20th of April the fourth character turned into a "?" indicating that the fourth piece was ready to be found. At the same time a new generic message could be obtained from the message box:


 * SEEME? WAVE.

This was a clue leading to a sound file that actually contained a picture. In this picture we can read SO1029.txt. This file contains the following list of words spelled backwards:


 * give, otherwise, king, breakfast, objection, quince, object, defective, distrusts, sweetness, xylophone, queenly, means, victory, yearns, celebrated, off, brought, too, zinc, quarry

Taking the first letter of each word gives "gokboqoddsxqmvycobtzq" which is a Ceasar cipher rotation for "wearegettingcloserjpg", leading to this image.

This unlocked Task 4 which was to produce 20 animated GIFs of deaths in New 'n' Tasty.

This was completed and the letters "SCRD" became available to us.

Piece 5
Piece 5 was revealed on April 4th with its task immediately available. The task was to photoshop 15 video game characters to be wearing Alf's fez, and send them to Oddworld Inhabitants on Twitter.

This was completed and the letters "3STY" became available.

Piece 6
Piece 6 was revealed on April 12th with its task immediately available. The task is to "find, solve and return the witness puzzle".

A bit later the html code got updated again

With quite some luck this led to a new image. At that point Ed tweeted a set of random messages again, containing "tri", "grid", "yes, yes! but tri..." and "g". These clues led to yet another image.

The key to solve the witness.png puzzle was to:
 * Start at the black circle and end at the black bar
 * Go trough all the white dots
 * Include all the red circles
 * Include the positive colors and exclude their negative counter parts

A few days later Ed validated the answer by tweeted the following:After that the witness.png file got greyed out leaving only the solution displayed.

A day later Ed helped us crack the trigrid.png part of the puzzle by telling us to "First... use the first...". This was the clue to use the answer of the witness.png puzzle to solve the trigrid.png puzzle. The fact the file was a PNG file was reason to look closer at the colors of the tirangles and more specifically to the HEX code: 18288D  A559F3   B81F1F   E9FFBE   501029 583434  FF6935   102910   291029   102901 A7E540  A72C89   291029   102910   291029 B59B19  C5FFBD   EB3434   121212   ? E124BA  D9F1F3   EF0909   A2D39A   D1F359 By taking the first character of each highlighted code you get the word "abeface1".

From there the community started looking into what the '?' was standing for, thinking it could be 5 but Ed said this was wrong and told us "moving pictures... find it...". This meant we were looking for a movie file.

The abeface1.mp4 file contains a frame that has the following morse code: .. / -.-. .- -. / .... . .-.. .--. / -.-- --- ..- / -.- -. --- .-- / - .... . / -.. .- - . Which translates to "I CAN HELP YOU KNOW THE DATE". Though it is still not known to which date this message is referring. However this did complete task 6 and the letters "DDTH" became available to us:

Piece 7
On the 24th of June the seventh character turned into a "?" indicating that the seventh piece was ready to be found. At the same time a multiple comments appeared in the source code: !--   					who will help? -->   !--     . .   . ..  .   .    ..  . .   .     .       .     .   .. .     -->

Braille code meaning JOIN US !--                                                               . .   .  .  .   .. .  .. ..                                                                ..  .     ..  .         .  .                                                                 .        .      .     .  ..                                                            --> Braille code meaning WE ARE MANY !--                                               /                |           |              |                                               /                 |           |              |    -->    !--    ..  . .. ..  .    . .  ..    .  .   .  .      ..     .          .           .    ..     -->

Braille code meaning FIND A WAY !--        			__  _____ ____ _____    ____ ____  _____     ____ ___ _         			                                            |                   			                  /             |                       \     -->     !--     			 . ..  . .   .  .  .  ..   . .   . .  .     			.  .  .  .. .  ..   . .    .    .. . .     			.  .     .     .   .      ..     -->

Braille code meaning SPIRIT OF #1029 !--                                           /                    |           |           /                                           /                     |                      /    -->     !--                                     /                           |           |                                                                 |           |                                   /                                         |    -->    !--    ed 				is one of 				many we are many join us -->    !--    work, obey, comply. revolt. --> Lines and dashes put together draw the following message: __ _____ ____ _____    ____ ____  _____     ____ ___ _                                                                             |                                                             /             |                       \                                                /                |           |              |                                               /                 |           |              |                                            /                    |           |           /                                           /                     |                      /                                     /                           |           |                                                                 |           |                                   /                                         | This indicated us we were looking for a ZIP file. Used together with the FIND A WAY clue in braille led to away.zip.

This zip file was password protected and Ed tweeted a number of clues to help, among which was:This led us to Ed's fifth tweet posted the 18th of March:This gives the password isanybodylistening allowing access to the squares_codes_07.jpg inside the zip file.

The automatically completed task reads LISTEN TO THE SOURCE. By going back to the source and listening to Ed's first messages the WALF letters were unlocked and completed task 7.

Piece 8
On April 5th, 2016 at 11AM GMT Ed tweeted a message containing a new morse code. .- .-. . / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. .. ... - . -. .. -. --. ..--.. Which is morse code for "are you listening?". Around the same time the html code changed again with the following code:

Ed then tweeted "3 i". This was the key to read the comment in the html code. Each "i" in the "There was a minor, ..." sentence lines up with a letter in the distorded message composing "heard.mp". Combined with the tweet this lead to a new audio file. The heard.mp3 file contains morse code: ... --- ..- .-.. ... - --- .-. -- ... .-.. .- ... .... . -.. ... .-.. .- ... .... ..-. .. -. -.. - .... . ..-. ..- - ..- .-. . -.. --- - .--- .--. . --. Which translates to:

"SOULSTORMSLASHEDSLASHFINDTHEFUTUREDOTJPEG"

Which lead to:

"soulstorm/ed/findthefuture.jpg"

And then to another image.

The findthefuture.jpg is piece 8 and its task was to get "25 Photos of Scrub-Abe Rescuing 10 Muds in New 'n' Tasty". Upon finding the findthefuture.jpg file the Piece 8 of the puzzle changed to 0. Seeing that this task was actually quite difficult to achieve Ed came to help us:After the tweet was sent the picture of findthefuture.jpg blurred and the task was changed to get "25 Photos of Scrub-Abe Rescuing 9 Muds in New 'n' Tasty". This was completed and the letters "XGMA" became available. Note that the message changed yet again with the text updated to "25 Photos of Scrub-Abe Rescuing 8 Muds in New 'n' Tasty".

Piece 9
Piece 9 was revealed on June 22th with its task immediately available. The task was to "DECODE THE FUTURE FIND THE CODE". This was a clue to find the decodethefuture.jpg file (similar name as the findthefuture.jpg file used in piece 8). The code used in the decodethefuture.jpg file is actually BabelStone Club Penguin but the picture has to be flipped both horizontally and vertically for the code to make sense. The text reads:

THE HERO HAS SHOWN US THE WAY, FOLLOW, WORK, OBEY, COMPLY, REVOLT. WE WILL RISE AND, WE WILL RISE AGAIN. ED IS ONE OF US, WE NEED YOU TO HELP, WE ARE MANY, WILL NOT STOP. ED IS ONE OF MANY, FIND THEM, JOIN US  THERE IS A STORM COMING, THERE IS NO FAILURE, FREEDOM OR DEATH. SOULSTORM/ED/FINISHTHEFIGHT.JPG TOO MANY SECRETS, SO THIRSTY, TIRED. DON'T DRINK THE BREW ORGANISE, ENERGISE Pointing to the finishthefight.jpg file which completed piece 9 and gave the "DF2F" letters.

There are now some new generic responses with a very revolutionary tone:

*** WE ARE MANY. WE ARE COMING. WE WILL NOT STOP. ***  *** WE'RE NEARLY THERE, IT'S NEARLY TIME TO ENERGIZE *** *** WE WILL RISE *** *** DON'T DRINK THE *** *** THE SPIRITS ARE RISING *** *** NEARLY, IT'S NEARLY TIME. STAY QUIET JUST A LITTLE LONGER. ***

Using the Code
Reuniting all 9 pieces together, a code is formed:


 * C4GD-RDHG-SSBR-SCRD-3STY-DDTH-WALF-XGMA-DF2F

While parts of it resemble leet code, like "Caged" (C4GD), "Thirsty" (3STY), "Scared" (SCRD) and "SoulStorm Brew" (SSBR), this will however not be relevant in using the code.

Ed kicked off this part with the following tweets:

 it’s coming… when you have it, this will be your map. find us. join us:

listen for me monday piece 7 source pieces chat box &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

bw zv tu av av zu vv zv xt &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

The map needed to be used as follows:

1. listen for me

This is a reference to one of the very first clues in this ARG: this message was found by using the Caesar cipher.

Ed confirmed this theory with the following tweets, letting us know we needed to shift it 7 times:

 seven… c seven… &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016 up not down &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016 26 - 19 = don’t go down &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

This gives us:


 * id gc ab hc hc gb cc gc ea

Ed confirmed we were going in the right direction:

 yes! id gc… &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

The next part of the map is:

2. monday

This is a hint at this image posted on the social networks before unveiling the oddworld.com/soulstorm page:

This indicated to translate the letters in braille:

??????????????????????????

Ed then indicated us it was time to move to the third step of the map:

 piece 7 source. &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

3. piece 7 source

This hinted to look at the braille as numbers as done while translating the SPIRIT OF #1029 message while investigating Piece 7. This gives:


 * 94 73 12 83 83 72 33 73 51

The next step was now to use the pieces:

 use the pieces. decode the numbers. follow the map. &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

4. pieces

The pieces we found previously are:


 * C4GD-RDHG-SSBR-SCRD-3STY-DDTH-WALF-XGMA-DF2F

The trick to find the next code is to take the pairs of number found and use them as follows: - first number refers to the code number - second number refers to the character

For instance 94 indicates the 4th character of the 9th code (DF2F), namely F. Do this for each pair of numbers and you get.


 * FL4MMABL3

The last part of the map told us to use the:

5. chat box

Putting FL4MMABL3 in the chat box gives us:


 * 1029.io

once reaching the new page Ed posted the following:

 now you know. you can help. join us. 1029.io @SPIRITOF1029 &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) June 28, 2016

1029.io
The site contains multiple hidden clues:

- Two comments in the code:

- The numbers 8, 2, 9 and 1 hidden in the logo (probably ASCII art of the New 'n' Tasty version of RuptureFarms)

- The letters E, T, N and O are sometimes highlighted. You might need to reload the page a few times to see it.

- The words HIDDEN, ERASED, and LOST are also sometimes highlighted.

The site also has the following hidden pages:


 * http://1029.io/ed

Which links to https://twitter.com/edmudokon


 * http://1029.io/8291/

A page with 8291 written in color set to #8291ed.

Intro
The @edmudokon account woke up again end of December 2016

 still here, waiting... waiting to rise up... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) December 22, 2016

 we will rise. together... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) December 22, 2016

Around the same time the @SPIRITOF1029 account also woke up

 We are the spirit of 1029. We will rise again. Join us 1029.io

Rise up. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) December 22, 2016

 We are the storm. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) December 24, 2016

When Alf took over the @OddworldInc account the 6th of January 2017 @edmudokon seemed to recognize him:

 Alf here, it looks like I&#39;m needed again. I&#39;m here for any questions ya have. #DearAlf A storm is brewing. I can feel it in my bones... &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 5, 2017  @OddworldInc alf? is that you? really you? &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 6, 2017

 @edmudokon It&#39;s me, it&#39;s me! Where are ya buddy? ? t??ug?? ????&#39;? ?o? ??? ƒ?? ? ?hï?e ????è... &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 6, 2017  @OddworldInc no... it can&#39;t be you... it can&#39;t be alf... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 6, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> .@edmudokon it is me, buddy, I got out! Where are ya? ? ?h?ug?? ??u ???? ????? &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 6, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> too risky. can&#39;t talk... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 6, 2017

The @SPIRITOF1029 account confirmed Alf indeed had his role to play in the story:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> We will all be free, as Alf was freed. Rise up. We are the storm. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 6, 2017

On the 9th of January @edmudokon woke up again

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> evidence... i can see it all... scared... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 9, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon We&#39;ve gotta see it- people need ta know what&#39;s happening... Be careful Ed. &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 9, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @OddworldInc alf? i can help? &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 9, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon Photographs, Ed- we need people to see. You&#39;ve gotta be brave. &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 9, 2017

With the @SPIRITOF1029 voice encouraging him

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">. @edmudokon @OddworldInc We will rise up. You can play your part, Ed. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 9, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @SPIRITOF1029 @OddworldInc yes... careful... risky... i gotta help... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 9, 2017 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> Oddworld has been blind to the plight of the noble Mudokons for too long. We will rise. Join us! 1029.io &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 9, 2017

Again a message on the 10th of January:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> i will find a way to help... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 10, 2017 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon yes, we will help you tell your story. We will help you rise up. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 10, 2017

On the 16th of January Alf and @edmudokon communicated some more:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> Hey pals, Alf here! Thanks for all the questions. I&#39;ll be sure to read through them all! &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> .@OddworldInc alf? is it really you? can I trust you? &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon It&#39;s me- you&#39;ve gotta trust me, we need your help. What&#39;s goin&#39; on? &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @OddworldInc I don&#39;t have much time. got to be quick... but I can see it all. I can get pictures... &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon We need them. We need pictures, Ed. What can you see? &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @OddworldInc it&#39;s so dark... but I can see them, they&#39;re... i can&#39;t explain. Shh! they&#39;re here, I think i see... oh no! &mdash; ed (@edmudokon) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon Hide. &mdash; Oddworld Inhabitants (@OddworldInc) January 16, 2017

Following this @SPIRITOF1029 revealed when the transmission would come trough:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> @edmudokon @OddworldInc we&#39;ve found a weakness in the system. Get us something and we can get it out on Thursday. Help us, Ed. Be the storm. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 16, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> @OddworldInc We will help @edmudokon but we can&#39;t send anything unencrypted. You&#39;ll have to break our code. We&#39;ll be in touch. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 16, 2017

On the 19th of January the transmission finnally came trough:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> We have received a transmission. We will pass it on as soon as we can verify. We need your help. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 19, 2017

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> .@OddworldInc the evidence is clear. Heed our call. Spread our message. Save our species. &mdash; SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) January 19, 2017

The first transmission
On the 19th of January the http://oddworld.com/soulstorm page was updated. On the page fans are asked to help uncover a number of images and follow the Twitter accounts related to the ARG.

The first two clues were:


 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/1029contact/1029_01_image.jpg
 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/1029contact/1029_01_audio.mp3

The code of the page also contained two new comments hidden in it:

!-- 72  99   \  /    27  45     \  /      18  39       \  /        21  36         \  /          ??  28           \  /            13  21             \  /              7 -->

!--    16 _ 37 _ 58 _ 89 _ 145 _ 42 _ ?? _ 4 |_________________<_________________|    -->

The ?? in the first comment is actually 12, as explained here: https://dodona.ugent.be/en/exercises/1191761379/

The ?? in the second comment is actually 20, the sequence is being calculated by taking the sum of the squares of each digit to get the next number.

It is not known what those numbers are usefull for.

The 1029_01_image.jpg file once edited reveals multiple coded messages.


 * At the top runes are used to spell ED.


 * At the bottom the BabelStone Club Penguin code is used to spell YOU ARE THE KEY YOU KNOW IT IF YOU WERE LISTENING. Note this is the same code as the one used to previously unlock Piece 9


 * Arrow symbols on the right of the page. The technique to decode the arrows was cracked while investigating the second transmission. The message reads LOOK FOR OUR MESSAGE HEAR OUR VOICE.


 * The rest of the text reads as follows:

Date: Period: XXXXXXXXXXX Specification Details: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -Observe XXXXXXX and XXXXXXXX changes in test subjects -Assess long term XXXXXXXX on XXXXXXX -Determine product safety Authorization: XXXXXXXXXXX Tests requested: -XXXXXXXX Pronostics - ?Access whenever? product XXXXXXX -Acidity Levels - ????? XXXXXXXXX -Product safety Expected results: XXXXXXXXXX make XXXXXXXXX interesting Test results: -XXXXXXX highly XXXXXX -XXXXXXX this XXXXXX ?? XXXXXX ?nice? XXXXXXXX -Highly XXXXXXX -Subjects: XXXXXX - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Conclusion: Product (ready) for consumption ??? : XXXXXXXX there is XXXXXX here but it will XXXX ???? XXXXX

Getting those messages from of the picture led the http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/ page to be updated:

Update 1: Already a dedicated team of fans have decrypted the image and it has made its way to Reddit. The community is also working on investigating the creepy audio file.

The 1029_01_audio.mp3 file contains morse code in reverse which once interpreted backwards gives the following text:

qmiqwmiqyidimrjqdjijilmxmnrjqdjajmpmnrprspkesmkjpdqjnyajnwsnrpgspcsppmqidimqymdbcqajnwsnrpgspcdhbzmnjajanadumjimrpq

The key to decode this cipher text was found by combining the YOU ARE THE KEY YOU KNOW IT IF YOU WERE LISTENING clue found previously and the tweets from @SPIRITOF1029:

This meant the decryption key to use was storm.

Using the as cipher text at http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/codes/keyword.php with key storm decodes to:

tentwentyninedotiononqexerdotiofoeserdsdaspjaepositoryforwardslashassetninetyeightforwardslashimgzerofofrfiueonedst

ten twenty nine dot io nonqexer dot io foeserdsdaspjaepository forwardslash asset ninety eight forward slash img zero fofrfiueonedst

Finding this triggered a second update:

Update 2: Having discovered hidden morse code in the audio, which was reversed and substitution cyphered (with the word 'Storm', the key that was hinted at in the distorted image), the audio encryption has almost been cracked! It's looking like a URL - can you help figure out the next step...?

After some trial and error it was found this was pointing to the following URL:


 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/

This page contained the following texts as well as 8 pictures randomly displayed:

You have signalled your willingness to help. Now you must prove yourself. Our efforts to get a clear data stream have been in vain. You will have to piece together the image from these fragments. Help us to expose this latest crime against Mudokonkind.

When you have a complete image, show it to @OddworldInc. They appear willing and capable. Recruit others to help you find and share the pieces. There’s a storm coming. Be the storm. We will rise.

[REDACTED] Together we can expose the truth. 1029.


 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/1029-LY.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/2384-ER.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/3786-IC.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/5574-PH.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/7393-AN.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/7676-AL.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/9394-AL.JPG
 * http://1029.io/repository/asset98/imgzerofourfiveone/9455-UM.JPG

This triggered an other update:

Update 3: Congratulations! The community has discovered a secret URL on the 1029.io website! But what are those images of? Are they fragments of a photograph? Once you've got everything together - show us!

Finding those pieces and trying to assemble them triggered a change on the http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/ page:

Photo 1 - Currently being assembled

Once the puzzle was completed the status changed to and we got another update:

Photo 1 - In the lab for reconstruction

Update 4: Oh wow! It's a Mudokon...! But what's he holding? Leave it with us, we'll get that image cleaned up soon. Congratulations everyone, great team effort and hopefully we can crack the next four images as quickly!

On the 23rd of January we got the following tweets

Along with an other update:

Update 5: Thanks to you guys sharing the previous images online, we've managed to decode the photo further and have updated the thumbnail here. We'll return on Thursday with the finished, fully decrypted image - but until then, please do let us know what you think!

Photo 1 - Decrypted and being finalized

On January 26 the picture was released along with an article on oddworld.com.

Photo 1 - Unlocked

The second transmission
On the 2nd of February @SPIRITOF1029 tweeted again:

Shortly after the oddworld.com/soulstorm page was updated with a new clue:


 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/1029contact/pada.jpg

Around the same time a newsletter mail was sent out. It also contained a bar code, this one containing the following text:

Ivzw gsv mfnyvih pmld gsv gifgs

It was found with http://quipqiup.com/ that the message encrypted was READ THE NUMBERS KNOW THE TRUTH however it's not clear which encoding technique was used.

The pada.jpg picture contains multiple codes:


 * Braille in the lower left corner spelling Spread our message.

KNOW YOUR CODES KEEP THEM CLOSE YOU WILL NEED THEM
 * At the bottom the BabelStone Club Penguin code is used to spell the following message. Note that the message is written upside down.


 * Morse code can be found at 4 different locations in the picture. Once put back together the code translates to

DASHDOTDOTDOT DOT DASH DOTDOTDOTDOT DOT DOTDOTDOT DASH DASHDASHDASHDASH DOTDASHDOT DASHDASH

Which is also morse code

-... . - .... . ... - --- .-. --

This new layer of morse code translates to BETHESTORM

7 14 9 8 20 25 18 5 22 5 5 4 15 3 5 4 H O J I U Z S F W F F E P D F E
 * A series of arrows on the left side of the page similar to the ones seen in the 1029_01_image.jpg of the first transmission. When converting the protractor measurements for the arrows to their alphanumeric values by removing the last digit - always 0 (since A-Z=0-25) we get:

Which when shifted 25 spaces with a Caesar cipher returns "gnihtyreve edoced", which when reversed reads as Decode Everything


 * A square in the lower right corner made out of bar two bar codes, one vertical and one horizontal.
 * The vertical bar code has findawayshowthetruth as text encoded in it.
 * The horizontal bar code is flipped horizontally and missing the first bar that makes up the start symbol. Once added it was possible to decode the barcode and get the http://www.1029.io/repository/asset98/ URL.

Both clues from the barcodes used together lead us to:


 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset98/findawayshowthetruth/

This new page contains a grid puzzle and a whole lot of comments in the code:

!-- Can’t reach any.. Listening anyon… there? Can hear us anymore- need to… can’t fnd We will never give… what they… from us A9539 \\ B2919 /\\ C4882 /\ D4627 \ E6758 \ F???? //// /\//\\//5,1:4.1,2:8.1,3:2.3,3:2.4,3:3.7,3:3.1,5:3.4,5:9.5,5:2.7,5:4.7,6:6.3,7:3. Does… care? Freedom isn’t gi… will take… We have never…. Given… deserve. We… take… our righ… \\//\/KDIUTHANPUYHHDQOEPLNDOALJGUDITHBBDOZLGFERKJGLSAOE Stand up and fi… Don’t be afr…. \////JUTYROSLNGNALEHGNWOTIQPOKSDNTPNOJAWEOBNGLAWKJNWNR E=5OUEHRA? \\\\/\2,1:2.3,1:2.6,1:4.1,2:4.3,2:2.3,4:4.5,5:2.6,5:3.7,5:3.4,7:8.5,7:3.7,6:4. 7777338883366899984477733 33  They want to… kill- don’t- Stop them from…. Hurting- they… think We are no less- they think… aside Don’t believe what… told- liars… A5989 \\ B5176 \ C2863 \ D2558 //\ E3413 \ F???? //// Can’ fnd anymo- We wil silnced Killin- they are dy.. \\\/\\JHWUITUHABSJGNEWKLALNVGJKWELKJLWQQPRUTJHJJSBFMMH Hurting the.. Back down unt… resist. Intercep… our messa… we will fight ///\\/JQEABTVKNUCSEYCMBILDKOSCYSITECPAGFAXHKETJNZURWCIE We will ri… Cannot… silenced when ther… who need… now We won’t ba… we have beat…. Before… Must not- \///\//\1,1:3.4,1:2.6,1:9.2,2:2.6,2:2.2,4:4.3,5:2.5,5:2.7,5:3.4,7:3.6,7:2.7,7:2. Spent so long…. Afraid… never let- again ...Storm… find it’s way- end Why are … here? Only...profit- nothing more… importnt as- - lies they… will tel- Believe- nothing… terribl- things… \\//\\\/4,2:6.6,2:4.7,3:3.2,4:8.3,4:2.4,4:2.7,4:3.2,6:2.4,6:3.6,6:2.1,7:4.3,7:2. -->

The finding of this page triggered the following update on the soulstorm page:

Update 1: Looks like there were two barcodes overlaid in the bottom right corner of the amended image, and through decoding the barcode messages into a URL, the community has discovered this mysterious puzzle image on 1029.io. But there're some interesting comments in the HTML source code of that page...

The following codes are believed to be cracked:

E=5OUEHRA?

The letters are the list of second letter of the first six weekdays: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Meaning the ? stands for the "U" in Sunday. It is however not clear how the "E=5" should be used.

7777338883366899984477733 33

This sequence can be deciphered using the T9 (cellphone numberpad) cipher. The output is SEVENTYTHREE.

A9539 \\ B2919 /\\ C4882 /\ D4627 \ E6758 \ F???? ////

A5989 \\ B5176 \ C2863 \ D2558 //\ E3413 \ F???? ////

Those two puzzles can be solved using the rules of the Mastermind board game assuming a backslash (\) indicates a partial match and a forward slash (/) indicates a full match. The ???? stand respectively for 8992 and 8554.

/\//\\//5,1:4.1,2:8.1,3:2.3,3:2.4,3:3.7,3:3.1,5:3.4,5:9.5,5:2.7,5:4.7,6:6.3,7:3. \\\\/\2,1:2.3,1:2.6,1:4.1,2:4.3,2:2.3,4:4.5,5:2.6,5:3.7,5:3.4,7:8.5,7:3.7,6:4. \///\//\1,1:3.4,1:2.6,1:9.2,2:2.6,2:2.2,4:4.3,5:2.5,5:2.7,5:3.4,7:3.6,7:2.7,7:2.  \\//\\\/4,2:6.6,2:4.7,3:3.2,4:8.3,4:2.4,4:2.7,4:3.2,6:2.4,6:3.6,6:2.1,7:4.3,7:2.

\\//\/KDIUTHANPUYHHDQOEPLNDOALJGUDITHBBDOZLGFERKJGLSAOE \////JUTYROSLNGNALEHGNWOTIQPOKSDNTPNOJAWEOBNGLAWKJNWNR \\\/\\JHWUITUHABSJGNEWKLALNVGJKWELKJLWQQPRUTJHJJSBFMMH ///\\/JQEABTVKNUCSEYCMBILDKOSCYSITECPAGFAXHKETJNZURWCIE

On the 6th of February the @SPIRITOF1029 started dropping additional clues on how to decode the letters and coordinates strings:

Using the Caesar cipher with shift 13 the first code reads: "Discard what yof don't need".

Using the Caesar cipher with shift 18 the second code reads: "Let the numbers guide you".

Note that the "yof" should have been "you" but the code got auto-corrected

Using the Caesar cipher with shift 23 the code reads: "Sometimes the answers are more simple than they appear. Discard what you don't need. Be the storm."

Around the same time the following update appeared on the soulstorm page:

Update 2: The Spirit of 1029 organization has made contact again - perhaps there's a clue in the way the slashes are written? Could this be something to do with the source code on the puzzle page? Just finding out about all this? The Game Detectives are on the case too, with a full round up here.

On the 7th of February @SPIRITOF1029 decided to help us and provide us with a shortcut:

After brute-forcing the code it turned out that using substitution cipher with the keyword "subjectivism" the code reads "one one seven three four one eight five six nine".

This was a clue for the following page:


 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/

Discovering this page triggered an update on the soulstorm page:

For a brief period the page contained pictures that changed each time the page was refreshed. They have been rehosted now on the OddWideWeb:


 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB1_HEND8243.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB2_BSJG2456.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB3_INFG2861.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB4_HBQD2962.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB5_SJKW4167.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB6_OWUI2056.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB7_MNCH1101.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB8_RDHRHAHA.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB9_D34DM337.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB10_BDJW8411.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB11_WHAT8291.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB12_PADAPADA.jpg
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/WB13_VLAP3662.jpg

Note that sometimes some images also appeared in clear:


 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB1_0BE01647.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB2_0DG02966.JPG
 * CWB3 was not found
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB4_WHATISTHIS.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB5_NEEDLEINAHAYSTACK.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB6_ARG-H.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB7_82918291829182918291.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB8_0GE03866.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB9_0IE02565.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB10_AbeAndNEEDLESFunAdventures.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB11_02500356.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB12_02323hjfhfhfhfhASDF.JPG
 * 1029.io/repository/asset98/1173418569/CWB13_insertcodehere.JPG

One of the members of the community wrote a little script to try to find all the clear images in an automated way. This was not well recieved by @SPIRITOF1029:

A few moments later the 1173418569 page started to change every few seconds in what appears to be an attack on Asset 98. The different html files telling the story have been captured and saved.

It seems that Ed was also hit during this attack:

A bit later @SPIRITOF1029 started tweeting again:

Note that a new page is now available at Asset 99:


 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/1173418569/

A little bit later Ed made contact again but the news weren't too good:

In the meanwhile the community already started piecing the fragments of the clear images together. Once the image was assembled @OddworldInc tweeted the following message:

And indeed the 9th of February an article appeared on Oddworld.com

But the grid puzzle wasn't solved yet so the community continued working on it to find out how it should have lead to the "subjectivism" key.

Taking the hint about just looking at the start meant the lines that start with a \ had to be ignored and only use the ones starting with a / had to be used. This leaves only the two following lines:

/\//\\//5,1:4.1,2:8.1,3:2.3,3:2.4,3:3.7,3:3.1,5:3.4,5:9.5,5:2.7,5:4.7,6:6.3,7:3. ///\\/JQEABTVKNUCSEYCMBILDKOSCYSITECPAGFAXHKETJNZURWCIE

When splitting the letters in a 7x7 grid you get the following result:

The coordinates had to be used on the grid and be resolved as a game of Shikaku

The final step was to take the first letter in each rectangle and rearrange it to spell subjectivism. This was later confirmed by @SPIRITOF1029:

Embedding the following tweet:

It is still unknown how the 8992, 8554, SEVENTYTHREE and U clues should be used.

The third transmission
On the 23rd of February @OddworldInc tweeted again:

The soulstorm page was updated with the following text and file:

Photo 3 - Undiscovered

It's a new transmission from The Spirit of 1029 - but this one appears to be inside a passworded zip file... To get started, click the big Download Files button above.


 * http://www.oddworld.com/soulstorm/1029contact/89928554_Eequals5.zip

The zip filename contained the clue needed to open it: E = 5 meant that we had to replace the numbers by the alphabetic equivalent. Note that those numbers are the same as the ones found in the mastermind puzzle of the second transmission.

89928554 = HIIBHEED

For some unknown reason this wasn't exactly the password to use, HIIDHEED is actually the password.

There are multiple files in the unlocked zip file:
 * flyer1.jpg
 * flyer2.jpg
 * flyer3.jpg
 * Oddworld_Soulstorm_002_HD.jpg
 * toollist.txt
 * vital.png

The toollist.txt file contains a huge list full of moon names along with some "/" characters. When taking all the character right after the "/" we get useSsuitePicselSecuritySaveus.

This is a clue that we should use the SSuite Picsel Security tool which is used to secure text messages using Steganography encryption.

When using the Oddworld_Soulstorm_002_HD.jpg and vital.png files with this tool the following message was retrieved:

BmzPmbtzueMfxmeBdayqftqgeBmzpadmQbuyqftqgeVmzgeMqsmqazYuymeYqftazqMzftqBmxxqzqQzoqxmpgeFqftkeFqxqefaOmxkbeaPuazqTqxqzqBaxkpqgoqeDtqmFufmzTkbqduazUmbqfgeWuhugcUvudmcBtaqnqBmmxumcEwmftuMxnuadujNqntuazzQddumbaEwaxxEumdzmcFmdcqcSdqubTkddawwuzVmdzemjmFmdhaeYgzpuxrmduNqdsqxyudZmdhuEgffgzsdTmfuRmdnmgfuFtdkydMqsudNqefxmEgdfgdWmduKyudXasqRadzvaf

Which when shifted 14 spaces with a Caesar cipher returns:

PanDaphnisAtlasPrometheusPandoraEpimetheusJanusAegaeonMimasMethoneAnthePalleneEnceladusTethysTelestoCalypsoDioneHelenePolydeucesRheaTitanHyperionIapetusKiviuqIjiraqPhoebePaaliaqSkathiAlbiorixBebhionnErriapoSkollSiarnaqTarqeqGreipHyrrokkinJarnsaxaTarvosMundilfariBergelmirNarviSuttungrHatiFarbautiThrymrAegirBestlaSurturKariYmirLogeFornjot

Note that all the moons in this text are also in the toollist.txt file, except Erriapo which is spelled Erriapus in the toollist.txt file.

The flyers have been mostly unscrambled and are available here:
 * http://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=File:Oddworld_flyer1_clean.jpg
 * http://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=File:Oddworld_flyer2_clean.jpg
 * http://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=File:Oddworld_flyer3_clean.jpg

Once decoded, the Pigpen cipher codes need to be shifted 6 spaces with a Caesar cipher:
 * flyer1: AOCXY SIO -> GUIDE YOU
 * flyer2: FYNNBYNBCHANBUNM -> LETTHETHINGTHATS
 * flyer3: GCMMCHA -> MISSING

Joined together the message reads: LET THE THING THAT'S MISSING GUIDE YOU.

This was a clue that we would have to use Erriapo (missing from toollist.txt file) and Fenrir (Saturn moon missing from the extracted text) later on.

The strings of 'x' and 'o' characters put together give:

x oooo o xoxx ox oxo o oxx ox x xoxo oooo oo xo xxo xooo o x oooo o ooo x xxx oxo xx oxx o      oxx oo oxoo oxoo        oxo oo ooo o

When replacing the 'x' with "dash" and 'o' with "dot" and reading it as morse code we find:

t h e y a r e w a t c h i n g b e t h e s t or m w e w i l l r i s e

The symbols with red writing next to it are letters from the Malachim alphabet. Some of the letters have values assigned to them in the flyers.

Once this was found @SPIRITOF1029 provided one more clue:

Once unscrambled this clue reveals the value for P (22)

Using this letter to number mapping with Erriapo and Fenrir the following number strings were found 12 36 28 31 52 22 12 & 7 12 63 28 31 36 leading to two new pages:


 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/12362831522212/
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/71220283136/

Those pages link to different pictures when refreshed, here's the list:


 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/12362831522212/YOU.jpg
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/12362831522212/WHA.jpg
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/12362831522212/WET.jpg
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/71220283136/TOO.jpg
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/71220283136/TIF.jpg
 * http://www.1029.io/repository/asset99/71220283136/OLD.jpg

Note that the filenames put together spell out WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU TOO(?)

Once this was found the soulstorm page was updated with the following text:

Photo 3 - Encrypted

1 - To get started, click the big Download Files button above.

2 - The community has cracked the zip password, inside are other files.

3 - And from the zip, you've found a webpage, and another!

4 - What evil is happening? If you think you know, tell us!

On the 27th of February someone took over the @OddworldInc account and locked them out for a few hours:

After the incident @SPIRITOF1029 and @edmudokon did their best to set the facts straight:

Meanwhile the community discovered in the latest photo that a code was scrached in the cell's window. This was done using an unkown alphabet so a substitution cipher had to be used. Note that the message had to be flipped vertically as it was scrached from inside the cell. @OddworldInc later confirmed this was indeed the correct message:

A couple of days later, on the 13th and 14th of March @edmudokon and @SPIRITOF1029 started tweeting again, hinting that the truth was out there but that the people who found it couldn't share it with the rest of the community:

The truth those tweets were referring to could actually be found using the WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU TOO clue, directly at the root of the 1029.io site as the message was coming from Ed and not via an Asset:


 * http://www.1029.io/whatifwetoldyoutoo/

This page contained some more clues in the HTML comments:

The significance of the first two lines is still unclear.

The last line was a clue directing to the following page:


 * http://www.1029.io/whatifwetoldyoutoo/8291

This page contained a disturbing video, some even more disturbing HTML comments and a message asking not to share it yet:

You're here. OK, sure, but please - PLEASE - keep this to yourself...

A bit later on the 14th of March the operative's safety was confirmed and the truth shared with the rest of the community:

Several frames of this video contains codes. Note that the community has not been able to decipher them at this point:


 * http://imgur.com/zEQfGre.png
 * http://i.imgur.com/spP2vR5.png
 * http://i.imgur.com/ApQyUP6.png

The fourth transmission
On the 19th of April @SPIRITOF1029 tweeted again:

A few days later @OddworldInc shared with us the message they received from @SPIRITOF1029:

The findit.jpg file contains multiple clues:


 * The Photoshop LayerNames and LayerTexts in the source code of the image

<photoshop:TextLayers> <rdf:Bag> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="use what you cant see" photoshop:LayerText="use what you cant see"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="WE WERE TAUGHT THAT THIS IS ALL THERE WAS: WORK, OBEY, COMPLY. " photoshop:LayerText="WE WERE TAUGHT THAT THIS IS ALL THERE WAS: WORK, OBEY, COMPLY. THE TRUTH WAS HIDDEN FROM US. OUR HISTORY WAS HIDDEN FROM US. WE WERE BRED TO WORK, RAISED TO OBEY AND FORCED TO COMPLY.  OUR NATURAL CONNECTION TO MOTHER PLANET WAS ERASED FROM THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR PEOPLE. LOST WAS OUR KNOWING. LOST WAS OUR UNITY, OUR CONNECTION, OUR POWER AND OUR PURPOSE. ALL THAT WE WERE WAS A COMMODITY TO BE TRADED AND EXPLOITED IN THE ONGOING RACE FOR MORE WEALTH. WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED, WE WERE TRICKED INTO KILLING. WHAT WAS WORST FOR US, WE WERE TOLD WAS BEST. WE WERE TAUGHT TO TRUST THOSE WHO WOULD DECEIVE US THE MOST.  THAT HAS ALL CHANGED.  THE HERO HAS SHOWN ALL OF US THAT OUR OPPRESSORS CAN BE TOPPLED. HE HAS FOUND OUR WILD AND KNOWING BROTHERS. HE HAS RECONNECTED THE FACTORY-BORN TO OUR NATURAL WORLD AND ANCIENT WAYS. HE HAS LIT A FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THAT CANNOT BE EXTINGUISHED. WE WILL GIVE HELP TO THOSE WHO ARE HELPLESS. WE WILL LEND STRENGTH TO THOSE WHO ARE WEAK. WE WILL FIGHT FOR THOSE WHO ARE DEFEATED. OUR MOVEMENT WILL SPREAD LIKE A RAGING INFERNO AND WE WILL TAKE BACK THE POWER FROM THOSE WHO HAVE ABUSED IT. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED BY THE MEDIA CIRCUS. WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED. WE WILL NOT STOP. WE WILL NOT OBEY. WE WILL RISE AND WE WILL RISE AGAIN, UNTIL WE HAVE BURNED THROUGH OUR TATTERED BONDS AND RAZED THE MACHINE TO THE GROUND. WE WILL RISE. JOIN US. THERE'S A STORM COMING."/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="gas liquid solid" photoshop:LayerText="gas liquid solid"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="gas liquid solid copy" photoshop:LayerText="gas liquid solid"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="morse" photoshop:LayerText="..- ... . / .- / -.. .. ..-. ..-. . .-. . -. - / -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.- / - .... .. ... / .. ... / -. --- - / .-. . .-.. . ...- .- -. - / -.. .- - .- .-.-.- / -.. --- / -. --- - / -.-. --- -- .--. .-.. -.-- .-.-.- / -.. --- / -. --- - / --- -... . -.-- .-.-.- / - .... . -.-- / .-.. .. . .-.-.-"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and " photoshop:LayerText="on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and stop"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey co" photoshop:LayerText="work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply work obey comply "/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="fire air water earth copy" photoshop:LayerText="fire air water earth"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="fire air water earth copy 2" photoshop:LayerText="fire air water earth"/> <rdf:li photoshop:LayerName="fire air water earth" photoshop:LayerText="fire air water earth"/> </rdf:Bag> </photoshop:TextLayers>

Which translated reads: '''USE A DIFFERENT CODE. THIS IS NOT RELEVANT DATA. DO NOT COMPLY. DO NOT OBEY. THEY LIE.'''
 * The morse code on the right side.

It was discovered it matched the text of one of the Photoshop Layers, it actually reads: '''WE WERE TAUGHT THAT THIS IS ALL THERE WAS: WORK, OBEY, COMPLY. THE TRUTH WAS HIDDEN FROM US. OUR HISTORY WAS HIDDEN FROM US. WE WERE BRED TO WORK, RAISED TO OBEY AND FORCED TO COMPLY. OUR NATURAL CONNECTION TO MOTHER PLANET WAS ERASED FROM THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR PEOPLE. LOST WAS OUR KNOWING. LOST WAS OUR UNITY, OUR CONNECTION, OUR POWER AND OUR PURPOSE. ALL THAT WE WERE WAS A COMMODITY TO BE TRADED AND EXPLOITED IN THE ONGOING RACE FOR MORE WEALTH. WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED, WE WERE TRICKED INTO KILLING. WHAT WAS WORST FOR US, WE WERE TOLD WAS BEST. WE WERE TAUGHT TO TRUST THOSE WHO WOULD DECEIVE US THE MOST. THAT HAS ALL CHANGED. THE HERO HAS SHOWN ALL OF US THAT OUR OPPRESSORS CAN BE TOPPLED. HE HAS FOUND OUR WILD AND KNOWING BROTHERS. HE HAS RECONNECTED THE FACTORY-BORN TO OUR NATURAL WORLD AND ANCIENT WAYS. HE HAS LIT A FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THAT CANNOT BE EXTINGUISHED. WE WILL GIVE HELP TO THOSE WHO ARE HELPLESS. WE WILL LEND STRENGTH TO THOSE WHO ARE WEAK. WE WILL FIGHT FOR THOSE WHO ARE DEFEATED. OUR MOVEMENT WILL SPREAD LIKE A RAGING INFERNO AND WE WILL TAKE BACK THE POWER FROM THOSE WHO HAVE ABUSED IT. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED BY THE MEDIA CIRCUS. WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED. WE WILL NOT STOP. WE WILL NOT OBEY. WE WILL RISE AND WE WILL RISE AGAIN, UNTIL WE HAVE BURNED THROUGH OUR TATTERED BONDS AND RAZED THE MACHINE TO THE GROUND. WE WILL RISE. JOIN US. THERE'S A STORM COMING.'''
 * The big block of symbols on the top left side.

When put together they spell out "fire air water earth" and "gas liquid solid"
 * Fragments of symbols on the top and bottom.

Put together with the other hints towards elements and states this was a clue to point us to the following address:
 * The clear text "use what you can't see"

http://www.1029.io/electricity/

This page contains nothing but the word HELP along with a link to the help.zip archive.

The help.zip archive contains two files:

Which contains binary code that once decoded reads BREATH
 * SaveUs.jpg

Which contains a whole lot more of binary code that once decoded and tied up reads:
 * Listen.txt

why do you just watch can you not see us can you not hear the utighdbfn why is this happening wny its too cold to th can you hear us is there anybody there will you help us or rihjsudhgheusodj never are go find pn lose in to it alchem we are cold we are lost we are forgotten and its ecant gmds pneumatigd why are they taking cant stop cold so cold so cold we will rise we will not obey we will not comply jendn we will rise we will rise we will rise we will not die is abe dead here we will not die here we will not die here we cannot die here we cannot die here we cannot die here we cannot survive gheufh help this is not what we wanted we cannot dont cant see speak stop we need to save someone save us pneuma we need to be stop ightnevital energy source of this stop to think breath breathe cant breathe cant always watching we can never eyes stop find rest go now share loose top find think or too last day light never why to a way stp give this is ever not no find things first or the ghtuenth day tjgit let last now or out get in or arttest never stop we will find a way to gain our freedom e why it lost gone now stop taken from us and from the rest we cant stop too much now too pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain dont believe the things they tell you they lie they know no truth its lost long lost now ghwkfnhjsk what happened to them they are lost ghwufnfasjntiwpldfmwbwietpr stop it greed greed greed greed greed greed greed the expense is us we are tired our spark is fading do not let them extinguish all that we are we cannot snwownfnf see the end save us save us save us we cannot fight help us why is this happening for their proghejwnfiwthisnfwe why forget us let us go we dont deserve no one deserves its not dont believe dont believe they will lie they lie they lie heugnpngjifsk lies lies lies lies lies lies lies lies eieslseiselslsl is abe dead we dont want to die

Both were pointing to pneuma (which is an ancient Greek word for "breath") as being the next step:

http://www.1029.io/pneuma/

The pneuma page initially contained only the ASCII art logo of the Spirit Of 1029 with letters embedded in it changing each time the page was refreshed. Four versions of the page were present, each containing the letters to spell one word, forming the following sentence: Dont let us die.

After a couple of minutes the title of the page started changing, displaying single words, again forming sentences. The words of a single sentence would loop for a bit before switching to the next sentence.


 * it's so hard to breathe
 * please make it stop
 * around how many times
 * we will all die
 * b.r.e.a.t.h.e
 * b..r..e..a..t..h..e
 * b r e a t h e (page title was only a single letter)
 * b..r..e..a..t..h..e
 * b r e a t h e (page title was only a single letter)

The generated pages started to change, and started to include even more letters in the ASCII art:


 * The uppercase letters appearing on the left side of the four versions of the logo spell HELP.
 * The uppercase letters appearing on the right side of the four versions of the logo spell STOP.
 * The lowercase letters appearing in the four versions of the logo spell mask.

Finally the page displayed a new picture:

http://www.1029.io/pneuma/helpus.jpg

It has been cleaned up by the community and shows a Mudokon with a strange mask on his mouth.

The clear picture has later been made available on the Soulstorm Page.

The fifth transmission
On the 7th of August transmissions from SPIRIT OF 1029 resumed:

Around that time some subtle changes were detected in the 1029.io page:


 * A new HTML comment:
 * The colour used for the highlights changed from red to green
 * Letters spelling M A G O G appear randomly in the ASCII logo (pages saved here)

On the 9th of August a strange incident happened on the Official Oddworld Discord Channel:


 * A new emote with the Magog Cartel logo was added with the name :staywealthy:
 * For a while all messages containing the :staywealthy: emote or the 8291 code (:_e_: :_t_: :_n_: :_o_:) got removed
 * The Oddworld Inhabitants employees (OWI_Alex, OWI_Pete & OWI_Bernice) stated posting gibberish and messages coming from an other entity

At the same time the SPIRIT OF 1029 posted:

Some of the gibberish posted by the Oddworld Inhabitants employees includes:


 * Òǚř ʂе¢цгіẗу ẁᾅș πŏţ ḃӷӫǟċḥễđ Ọսȑ šѐсưȑіƫỵ ẅἂѕ ᾒṑե ƃŗӫᾶϲɦẻđ ⍬ṳř şĕсǜӷɩȶӱ ẁấṣ ŉόՒ þȑѐẩƈȟεժ Ỡùȓ șєϛụґɪŧӱ ẅᾲş բóȶ ḃŗḛąḉℏӫď Ơǔѓ ṡễćṻȓĩťÿ ẇẳŝ ἧὅṱ ḇґèḁčիề₫


 * W& //€q117 PHø|? +/-/∂† + }{∂|²|2€11.


 * https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/308941610132045824/344844708041850880/Untitled-1.jpg


 * Ḿ̧̪̻̻͇̟̹̭̼͊̈́̍̎̿͐̎͝͞o̧̤̗̠͚̟͒̐͗͆͜͢͡͞C̠̯̳̙̠̳̹͒̽̇̈̽̚͜r̶͕̗̜̲͕̘̒͗̆̄̎̐̓t̛̛̯̠̼͎̭̻̯̜̿͂̑̃͌͂̔ļ̴͙̩̠̯̐̊̆̐̂̿c̢̳͎̱ ̺̮͎͖̟̐̓̐́͋͞ó̧̡̻͙̳͇̼̯̹̄͒̐͗

The last gibberish message cleaned up reads MoCrtlco and was the clue leading us to:


 * http://magogcartel.com/
 * https://twitter.com/magogcartel

The Magog Cartel
The magogcartel.com site contains lots of intersting parts in the HTML code:

1.

2.

3.	 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 INSERT ANECDOTE ABOUT THE ApMpApZING VIEW just left of here across Mudos AND who could possibly be the EMPLOYEE OF THE DAY AND THE NEW i mean, how hard can it be? every aspect of every aspect of every as-f every aspect of EVERY SIN--E ASPECT of every aspect of every asp--_ct of every aspect of every as_--ct of every aspect of FOLLOW ME follow US

4.

This was decoded. When removing the occurences of "1029" you get:

0111011101100101011101110110100101101100011011000111001101110100011011110111000001111001011011110111 01010111100101101111011101010111011101101001011011000110110001100110011000010110110001101100

Decode binary to ascii and you get wewillstopyouyouwillfall

5.

On the 11th of August the Magog Cartel sent a batch of tweets with some out of place uppercase letters spelling WE KNOW.

On the 14th of August the Magog Cartel sent a batch of tweets all starting with We know. This lead us to believe the SPIRIT OF 1029 was interferring with those tweets and was trying to get a message accross. The message can be found in the very specific numbers mentionned in the first two tweets, 82 & 91, forming togeter 8291.

One hour later the SPIRIT OF 1029 sent a batch of tweets, one containing a cryptic code:

The last tweet indicated that we had all we needed to continue our investigation and the one before that we shouldn't use the numbers in the codes as raw numbers but should link it to some kind of history. We needed to look into the Twitter history of the SPIRIT OF 1029 account.

The -1-4,-2-10 code actually tells us to take the 4th word from the previous tweet (-1) and take the 10th word of the tweet even before (-2):

4th word of the previous tweet is fish:

10th word of the tweet before is blow:

Together those word form blowfish which is the cipher we had to use to decrypt the base64 code in HTML comment 3.:

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

Using a Blowfish Decryptor (with CBC mode) and the 8291 code we got earlier via the interferences in the Magog Cartel tweets as a key we were able to recover the following text:

^_^U_VDXisistrueorfalseallforprofitinterestsindustrialagriculturalMudosprovidehighestpossiblereturninvestmentsoverheadsdreamslimitedpowergiganticbadgeleadersproductMeechMotorstravelexpertlytrainedSligSecurityForcessuccessfulundertakingemploymentvastsentientsecurespecialisthabitationzonesbenefitfactoriesfoundriesfarmlandsstabilitymillionsundertakingsCartelmanagementselflesslyrepresentativesresponsiblemunicipalvastidyllicsettlementsunderconstructionpleasesubscribeandlinkandfollowandlikeandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyandbuyatmagogcartel

When adding spaces this reads:

^_^ U_V DX is is true or false all for profit interests industrial agricultural Mudos provide highest possible return investments overheads dreams limited power gigantic badge leaders product Meech Motors travel expertly trained Slig Security Forces successful undertaking employment vast sentient secure specialist habitation zones benefit factories foundries farmlands stability millions undertakings Cartel management selflessly representatives responsible municipal vast idyllic settlements under construction please subscribe and link and follow and like and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy and buy at magog cartel

The part with "please subscribe" lead us to:


 * https://www.youtube.com/user/MagogCartel

It is not sure at this point whether this is an official ARG account as the channel and profile are currently empty.

The two last tweets of August 14th from the Magog Cartel were hinting at a picture on the MagogCartel.com website:

This led us to:


 * http://magogcartel.com/weknow.jpg

That picture contains quite a few codes:


 * The 62466640222 2777833555 sequence in the upper-left corner.

Spells Magog Cartel when using a phone keypad


 * The mose code in the middle.

.-- . / -.- -. --- .-- / .... --- .-- / -.-- --- ..- / .-- --- .-. -.- / -. --- .-- .-.-.- / .-- . / -.- -. --- .-- / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -.-. --- -.. . ... .-.-.- / .-- . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / ... - --- .--. / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -. --- - / .. -. - .. -- .. -.. .- - . / ..- ... .-.-.- / --- ..- .-. / .-- .- -.-- / --- ..-. / .-.. .. ..-. . / -- ..- ... - / -... . / .--. .-. . ... . .-. ...- . -.. .-.-.-

WE KNOW HOW YOU WORK NOW. WE KNOW YOUR CODES. WE WILL STOP YOU. YOU WILL NOT INTIMIDATE US. OUR WAY OF LIFE MUST BE PRESERVED.


 * The e and d sequence in the upper-right corner.

It's actually morse code too where e = ., d = - & X = /.

edee ddd ddd ded ddeedd X edd e X dede ed de X dd ed ded e X eee e dede ede e d X dede ddd dee e eee X d ddd ddd ededed X dedd ddd eed X ed ede e X de ddd d X ed eee X eee dd ed ede d X ed eee X dedd ddd eed X d eeee ee de ded X dedd ddd eed X ed ede e ededed X edd e X eeee ed eeed e X d eeee e X ede e eee ddd eed ede dede e eee X ed de dee X d eeee e X edde e ede eee ddd de de e edee X d ddd X eee ee dd edde edee dedd X eee edd ed dd edde X dedd ddd eed X edd ee d eeee X edd ddd ede ded ededed X eeee ddd edd X dd eed dede eeee X d ee dd e X dee ee dee X dedd ddd eed X edd ed eee d e X d ede dedd ee de dde X d ddd X dee e dede ee edde eeee e ede X d eeee ee eee X dede ddd dee e eeddee X ed edee edee X d eeee e X d ee dd e ddeedd X edd e X edd e ede e X dde e d d ee de dde X dede edee ddd eee e ede X d ddd X eede ee de dee ee de dde X dedd ddd eed ededed X edd e X ed ede e X ed edee dd ddd eee d X d eeee e ede e ededed X dd ed dedd deee e X edd e X ed ede e X ddd eed d eee ee dee e X ede ee dde eeee d X de ddd edd ddeedd X edd ed ee d ee de dde ededed X edd ed d dede eeee ee de dde ededed X dedd ddd eed X dede ed de de ddd d X eeee ee dee e X eede ddd ede e eeed e ede ddeedd X d e ede ede ddd ede ee eee d ededed X edd e X edd ee edee edee X ee de dede ee de e ede ed d e X dedd ddd eed ede X eee ee edee edee dedd X edee ee d d edee e X dde ede ddd eed edde X ed de dee X eee dede ed d d e ede X dedd ddd eed ede X ed eee eeee e eee X d ddd X e eeed e ede dedd X dede ddd ede de e ede X ddd eede X ddd eed ede X e dd edde ee ede e X eee ddd X d eeee ed d X dedd ddd eed X edd ee edee edee X e d e ede de ed edee edee dedd X deee e ed ede X edd ee d de e eee eee X d ddd X ddd eed ede X eee eed dede dede e eee eee e eee ddeedd X ed de dee X dedd ddd eed ede X ded ee de dee eee X eed de e de dee ee de dde X eee e ede eeed ee d eed dee e ededed X dedd ddd eed X eeee ed eeed e X ed edee ede e ed dee dedd X edee ddd eee d ededed

.-.. --- --- -.- --..-- / .-- . / -.-. .- -. / -- .- -.- . / ... . -.-. .-. . - / -.-. --- -.. . ... / - --- --- .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- / .- .-. . / -. --- - / .- ... / ... -- .- .-. - / .- ... / -.-- --- ..- / - .... .. -. -.- / -.-- --- ..- / .- .-. . .-.-.- / .-- . / .... .- ...- . / - .... . / .-. . ... --- ..- .-. -.-. . ... / .- -. -.. / - .... . / .--. . .-. ... --- -. -. . .-.. / - --- / ... .. -- .--. .-.. -.-- / ... .-- .- -- .--. / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .. - .... / .-- --- .-. -.- .-.-.- / .... --- .-- / -- ..- -.-. .... / - .. -- . / -.. .. -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .- ... - . / - .-. -.-- .. -. --. / - --- / -.. . -.-. .. .--. .... . .-. / - .... .. ... / -.-. --- -.. . ..--.. / .- .-.. .-.. / - .... . / - .. -- . --..-- / .-- . / .-- . .-. . / --. . - - .. -. --. / -.-. .-.. --- ... . .-. / - --- / ..-. .. -. -.. .. -. --. / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.- / .-- . / .- .-. . / .- .-.. -- --- ... - / - .... . .-. . .-.-.- / -- .- -.-- -... . / .-- . / .- .-. . / --- ..- - ... .. -.. . / .-. .. --. .... - / -. --- .-- --..-- / .-- .- .. - .. -. --. .-.-.- / .-- .- - -.-. .... .. -. --. .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. -. --- - / .... .. -.. . / ..-. --- .-. . ...- . .-. --..-- / - . .-. .-. --- .-. .. ... - .-.-.- / .-- . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .. -. -.-. .. -. . .-. .- - . / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... .. .-.. .-.. -.-- / .-.. .. - - .-.. . / --. .-. --- ..- .--. / .- -. -.. / ... -.-. .- - - . .-. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / .- ... .... . ... / - --- / . ...- . .-. -.-- / -.-. --- .-. -. . .-. / --- ..-. / --- ..- .-. / . -- .--. .. .-. . / ... --- / - .... .- - / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / . - . .-. -. .- .-.. .-.. -.-- / -... . .- .-. / .-- .. - -. . ... ... / - --- / --- ..- .-. / ... ..- -.-. -.-. . ... ... . ... --..-- / .- -. -.. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -.- .. -. -.. ... / ..- -. . -. -.. .. -. --. / ... . .-. ...- .. - ..- -.. . .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- / .... .- ...- . / .- .-.. .-. . .- -.. -.-- / .-.. --- ... - .-.-.-

LOOK, WE CAN MAKE SECRET CODES TOO. YOU ARE NOT AS SMART AS YOU THINK YOU ARE. WE HAVE THE RESOURCES AND THE PERSONNEL TO SIMPLY SWAMP YOU WITH WORK. HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU WASTE TRYING TO DECIPHER THIS CODE? ALL THE TIME, WE WERE GETTING CLOSER TO FINDING YOU. WE ARE ALMOST THERE. MAYBE WE ARE OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW, WAITING. WATCHING. YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER, TERRORIST. WE WILL INCINERATE YOUR SILLY LITTLE GROUP AND SCATTER YOUR ASHES TO EVERY CORNER OF OUR EMPIRE SO THAT YOU WILL ETERNALLY BEAR WITNESS TO OUR SUCCESSES, AND YOUR KINDS UNENDING SERVITUDE. YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST.
 * The Pigpen cipher text in the lower-right corner.

WE WILL NEVER GIVE IN TO TERRORISTS. YOU WILL NEVER WIN. YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT OUR SPIRIT. WE WILL FIND YOU AND WE WILL WIPE YOU OUT. WE IGNITE THE FLAME THAT LIGHTS THE DARKNESS. THERE IS NOWHERE TO HIDE. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW SUCCESS


 * The horizonally mirrored black text in the middle.

you are a resource. you are expendable. we will replace you when you fall. you will work. you will obey. you will comply. or you will perish. we have the prestige. we have the power. we will profit. always. always. always.


 * The white text on the top.

Prestige. Power. Profits. Work. Obey. Comply. Prestige. Power. Profits. Work. Obey. Comply. Prestige. Power. Profits. Work. Obey. Comply. Prestige. Power. Profits. Work. Obey. Comply.
 * The braille at the bottom.

RuptureFarms1029 will rise from the ashes. we will rebuild it bigger, better and more profitable than before. it will be the greatest, most efficient factory that Oddworld has ever seen. it will be a towering symbol of Glukkon strength that cannot be ignored. one terrorist will not deter us.

It has to be noted that those codes were left by the Magog Cartel as what appears to be a bait so that we would lose valuable time decoding them.

It is unknown how to decode the 9JzrxKKv5z0829jLV8wF32KpA6I0nEQDqzmbpRYzUUE=== code.

The page has changed since then, but the first (hacked) version of the MagogCartel.com site has been archived here

On the 4th of September the MagogCartel.com got updated, simply displaying the following text:

*** UNDER CONSTRUKTION ***

The page has changed since then, but the second (under construktion) version of the MagogCartel.com site has been archived here

On the 5th of September the Magog Cartel posted a video trough the OddworldInc account:

There are multiple messages flashing in the video:

8 ? 2 2 9 1 / 8291 829/ 229/ 22/9 EVERYONE WANTS TO EAT YOU

Note that 22/9 is the date of the Oddworld presentation at the EGX:

On the 7th of September the MagogCartel.com got updated again, randomly displaying one of three photos of The Informant.


 * http://magogcartel.com/informant_001.jpg
 * http://magogcartel.com/informant_002.jpg
 * http://magogcartel.com/informant_003.jpg

At the same time the Magog Cartel sent a batch of tweets with containing other pictures of The Informant:

It has been noted that some letters were in bold but it's unclear how this should be used:

b p m p g j n q p s u b

Part of The Informant has be transcribed here:

http://oddworldlibrary.net/oddenc/index.php?title=Soulstorm_ARG_-_The_Informant

The MagogCartel.com page also contains the following HTML comment:

The Origins diversion
On the 15 of March 2018 the SPIRIT OF 1029 posted the following tweets:

Following this a couple of changes were found on the 1029.io page.


 * 1) The logo has now even more letters appearing in it randomly: S, I, N, O, R. Adding to the previous letters that were spelling "MAGOG".
 * 2) The page contains a new HTML comment:

Changes were also observed on the 404 page:


 * 1) The logo on the 404 page now contains the following letters: N, I, G, I, O, R, S. Those letters can be used to spell the word "ORIGINS"
 * 2) The page contains a new HTML comment:

Shortly after a new channel called "origins" appeared on the official Oddworld Discord with a cryptic video as first message.

It was revealed a few days later that this was a built up to announcement of the "Oddworld: Abe's Origins - Book & Game Collection" kickstarter campaign. Note that the book & game collection is still available for preorder on Crowdox.

Intro
Around the 12th of January 2018 Lorne Lanning changed his twitter header picture to the following one:
 * https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/20823262/1515636880/1500x500

While it was hinted repeatedly in the official Oddworld Discord that this image was hiding something, it wasn't until much later that it was found how to use it when @edmudokon tweeted the following message:

The embedded picture contains the number 15156. This is a reference to a number in the URL of Lorne's header picture: 1515636880.

This number led us to a new page:


 * http://www.1029.io/1515636880/

This page contains the following text in UTF-8

ɦểɫр. гẹẳčℏɪṅǧ óúƫ ῒԑ ģӫԷṱіᾗĝ ḥǡṛⅾềɽ. էիȅỷ ķῆοԝ. ẁẹ'ṝϵ ṙṵɴᾑıпʛ ộևȽ ờẛ ɩḋϵᾂš, ὅрՒῑổпş, ăұҿἧµϱṣ. ẅϵ ǹêȩḋ ỳờǚґ ḣҽľῥ. ẇể ῂёϱḋ ѕờṃēƅȯƌý ţó ṧṕȑểǻժ Ƚħẹ ẁổṝḓ. եḫϊṥ ƫɦ¡ƞɡ ῐʂ ḸỄƮḨǠĻ. Ƚḣěȳ ḓõᾔ'Ƚ ĉὰгє Ƚḣổṻɕḫ. ţհểӯ ɗṍἧ'ţ. ṣởṁḗɒὀժỵ ňěөƌş ṱὃ ȶěḻɫ իḭɱ. †ɛŀļ ẖĩ₥. ḃḕẛṍɼę îȽ'ṧ Էȭô ḷǎťϱ. ṯĥềŗȇ ḧąș Էố ƃϱ ᾅ ṣọṁȇþöḏỳ ẉíļłȋդǥ եό ȶαҝě ṯẖё јǒŭӷṋёỷ. şõ₥ęƀὁḓẏ ṅểềⅾԑ ƫծ ġềŧ ţհϵ ṃệṣśᾇǵε ộվե. ẁë'ṝе ìη ṭӷơữþŀɛ. аɬł ṑƒ սʂ. ẁё դȅễɖ ĥẹĺρ. թłȩᾂʂĕ ɦȇɫṕ կѕ.</

Without the garbled characters

Help. Reaching out it getting harder. They know. We're running out of ideas, options, avenues. We need your help. We need somebody to spread the word. This thing is LETHAL. They don't care though. They don't. Somebody needs to tell him. There has to be somebody willing to take the journey. Somebody needs to get the message out. We're in trouble. All of us. We need help. Please help us.

and the following HTML comments

It's currently unknown what the next steps are