Solutions
Summary
Quest #4 introduced The Moderator as an interactive character in Discord as players worked to discover what it would take to save Ken.
During the Quest, participants did the following:
Followed the breadcrumbs left in the ShaDAO documents The Moderator provided, which led them to Exploit from Rosey in Discord. Exploit from Rosey then gave questers a new role and access to the DarkNet channel.
Questers helped The Moderator decrypt a profile ShaDAO had on a CyberBroker named Soleia.
Questers learned that in order to rescue Ken they needed the Hubur Key, which is held by ShaDAO agents in a 3 person multi-sig wallet.
Players split into teams of Mind, Body, and Soul to solve a puzzle, track down popular locations that each target frequents, and send targeted ads out on Twitter in an effort to lure the targets to their locations prior to the coordinated attack at block 7200.
Puzzle Walkthrough
Finding The Moderator
Questers began by receiving a message from Spice wondering if a breadcrumb trail was left by The Moderator on how to find them, as they may be the only one who can help find Ken.
Then, questers took a closer look at the 5 ShaDAO documents previously uncovered in Quest #3:
Questers found a unique string found within the keywords of the meta-data of the documents. There were 5 strings total to be found - each listed below.
801d210c626e79886d41a63316c4c9f3756a293dbbc6f29f2b99ac0c7fea9493239de99b806335e996fd87d140b5953bedf0eb7ff017043623798d84166913cc5d7cc02905a1488a241e65cdb0dc18f3cedd292aee1b4cc6cc98766d13f9254bdc2dbf05cb0fb5c20ff0408491011d07e7d586eb0056fe340a7dedf512b8b97feb3
80265b13d4e8a4de7428ecddb2fd059f1a895c57a55bacbd7381300775c897974c114cc5c5eb8a1c733bc784b6617c2c97f24a5f0337b06417c96350d10c06b0908cfc184da182d1d304b86dcf575fdce9dffc1f86edc87e637eba6518838de817fd48e5b49cfacc873409ad86e06393db2cd34bc216fec8134e9b399a1de60b51c
80357e1f52658110b8cad6df18607d55d27e746edb3803cb51380472d056fcad28a8e7d208a67298c6185a6c6ae604cd07cafad95bfb8f3d4c3503ff6c5ed2ac6d097db706e15dfc5e627cf296f300751add794d18a1caeec0b6b5a0213eaddd7f774316edc0696930c37a649bd14c8425a6c709ab1bf6c34e67e63382d93e78d81
80442bae56d60c525bf119af982c2e4aeeba5b3ac43049944fcba243d65434732d352dfc90a3c278da7c50771356c0c2b3b90045bf153bb5dd6d8d93ffbfcf67de805edf2b7b1d42723f2f7e2aa0f9bf5e89733dfb46b4ca9d27d47b72c0e2f5ac7907214b0c55582aa8ada89805d9896be525936102c238004218c8c0b33b36cd7
805ea3707f239ffc2379d49924af311e451dd40c23e884ef10e16d1936e55285fdb09b6d3da5db7c2466197148ed1ab6016a716dff9ae6b37f699d7c510c2d9841d96bf27b3f35d84370fd5ddf2f13724f16309444bfae48c1fe85a4dec0194a7a44c3d23d99211a507b93b2aea46a8ee8426ead55be695c4af5491c784167e3cb4
These 5 strings were the 5 pieces to a Shamir Secret Sharing Scheme that was used to split secrets among many people (such is wallet seeds) and was recombined here: https://iancoleman.io/shamir/
This was a secret terminal command used at the Power Eleven terminal (https://os.power-eleven.net/) to output the contents of the hidden file findme.txt
The output was tied to the CyberBroker ID a quester linked with. There were 23 unique strings to collect, which could be ordered by the first 2 numbers of the string.
This block of seemingly random words is actually a “Magic Eye” stereogram, where slightly unfocusing your eyes will allow the message to pop out as simulated below.
“Talk to exploit from rosey, access dark net”
Exploit from Rosey could be found within the CyberBrokers Discord and had posted exactly one message. Speaking to them (by clicking the speak emoji underneath that message), assigned questers the DarkNet role and gave access to the underground #Darknet channel in discord.
It was here, after waiting for some time, that they were finally able to contact The Moderator and ask for help in locating Ken.
Decrypting the ShaDAO profile
The Moderator believed that in order to find Ken, they would need to find someone that had been captured by ShaDAO before and escaped. Questers were able to locate a file called “Patient Zero” that looked promising, but they needed help decrypting it first.
The file was encrypted with a self-generating key that required significant power to run and extract other keys needed to decrypt the file. The keys were found over time, with questers able to speed up the scanning process by clicking the power emoji on the progress bar.
Once the scan was 100% complete, players had all the keys needed to begin decryption of the file. The 9 pieces that were generated could be arranged into a grid of letters as shown below.
This grid contained all 51 CyberBroker talents in leet speak (ie. Leftover = Lef7oV3r), but each entry snaked through the board instead of going straight. Locating and highlighting all 51 talents on the grid left 13 unused squares on the grid.
Reading these 13 squares in order from top to bottom spelled “SmUgGL3R5L0oT” which was the decryption password needed to open the Patient Zero File. This file was a profile on Soleia, a Smuggler that had been detained by ShaDAO previously and underwent experimental trials.
From here, the story continued and revealed that Soleia had memories she couldn’t access. With a visit to a local Gene Editor, a memory dam implant was found, which the Gene Editor was able to partially erode and bring back some of Soleia’s missing memories. Soleia was able to recall that she had been held in a cold place and the Hubur Key, a relic and one of Asherah’s seven keys, was required to get her in and out of wherever she was held. The multi-sig wallet holding the relic was held by three ShaDAO operatives named Fay from Acidic, Luther Radioactive and Stanton. Spice and company would have to d-mezz all 3 of them in a very short window to burn the multi-sig wallet and steal the key.
Divide and Conquer
The Moderator was able to dig up some information about the three targets but was unable to make sense of it and find locations to carry out the coordinated attack. They directed Spice, Zinc, and Soleia to each focus on a specific target to see what they could deduce. Questers split up into teams of Spice-Body, Zinc-Soul, and Soleia-Mind, to help make sense of the data and find a location for their respective targets.
Locating Fay from Acidic-Body
Questers that teamed up with Spice received 1 of 14 puzzle pieces when connecting to https://os.power-eleven.net/. Each piece was a unique PVP bounty that Mercenary Fay from Acidic was keeping tabs on.
Each Bounty had 5 key pieces of info:
The bounty payout
The number of members on the guild/clan/team
The position of the bounty already claimed on one team member
What their guild/clan/team was known for
The block the bounty was effective from
Breaking down the puzzle into its parts, the Block number given was for ordering the 14 bounties, with the oldest blocktime being first and the most recent being last. The guild/clan/team “was known for” phrase was a standard crossword type clue where the length of the answer was equal to the number of members shown in the group.
In the image shown above, block 15177387 was the earliest block time, therefore this would be first in the final solution ordering. The riddle “Clan known for their favorite social spots” required a solution that was 8 characters in length and could be solved to HANGOUTS. Based on the image above it could also be seen that the bounty on the second member had already been claimed, this indicated that the second character should be removed from HANGOUTS which leaves the letters HNGOUTS.
The remaining letters could be rearranged into one of Fay from Acidic’s favorite things being a Mercenary: Weapons. HNGOUTS could be rearranged into SHOTGUN. All that was left at this point was to realize that all bounties range from 1000-6000, so stripping off the extra zeros, left a range of 1-6 which was less than the length of the leftover letters for each bounty. In the bounty above we had SHOTGUN and a bounty of 2000 indicating to extract the 2nd letter from the weapons name, in this case H. Repeating this solution process for all 14 bounties resulted in the output given below.
This all resulted in the final answer of HAUBERK STATION as a place Fay from Acidic frequents. Passing this information on to The Moderator resulted in unlocking the ability for questers working with Spice to begin sending targeted ads on a hacked Ad Buddy terminal. They did this to advertise new weapons testing at Hauberk Station at block 7200 to draw Fay from Acidic to that specific location.
Locating Luther Radioactive-Soul
Questers that team up with Zinc received 1 of 7 puzzle pieces when connecting to https://os.power-eleven.net/ . Each piece was a restaurant review of Luther Radioactive and his unique splicing ability for foods.
There were 3 key pieces of information:
The type of food and the polymeta compound it’s spliced with
The course of the meal
The description of what the food made the reviewer feel when consumed
The first thing that was deduced from the reviews was the order to put them in, as indicated by the course of the meal the person was describing. As clued in the review about a drink, this was a standard 6-course meal with an additional drink you had at the very end. This gave the order of:
Hors d'oeuvre
Soup
Appetizer
Salad
Main course
Dessert
Drink (given as should be last after the 6-course meal)
Next, it could be seen that every review talked about splicing and gave a “[food] sliced with [compound]” in the exact same format. In the review above, this was Bruschetta spliced with Inlace, with the key words to use being BRUSCHETTA and INLACE. Splicing was a clue that questers should be splicing these two words together to get something new out. To determine what to expect as an output, questers needed to look at the description of how the food made the eater feel, or in the review above it “felt as if I were Faith and Fact floating through a cloud of gas and dust in outer space”. For this example, rearranging BRUSCHETTA and INLACE could give the words ARCHITECTS (as clued by Faith and Fact, two Architect CyberBrokers) and NEBULA (as clued by a cloud of gas and dust in outer space). Repeating this process for all 7 reviews gave the output below.
The final step was recognizing the first letters of the newly spliced words spelled ANSWERS NUCLEUS when reading down the columns. Passing this information on to The Moderator resulted in them unlocking the ability for questers working with Zinc to begin sending targeted ads on a hacked Ad Buddy terminal, advertising a custom tasting experience at Nucleus at block 7200 with a handsome payment to draw Luther Radioactive to that specific location.
Locating Stanton-Mind
Questers that teamed up with Soleia were given 1 of 14 puzzle pieces when connecting to https://os.power-eleven.net/. Each piece was a custom weapons order for Stanton as she was a skilled weapons craftsman.
There were 5 key pieces of information:
The buyer’s name along with a barcode
The serial trace number
The weapon codename
The weapon description
If the order was delivered or not
Once enough weapon orders had been found, it was noticed that most of them seemed to be referencing colors for many of the categories. In fact, each of the categories represented a basic color.
The first could be found in the name. In the weapons order above scanning the barcode gave the number string “3.11.2.13.14” which could be used as index values in the buyer’s name, Sable from Blackford in this case, to extract the 3rd, 11th, 2nd, 13th and 14th letters giving the word BLACK in that instance.
The second was found in the Serial Trace. As clued by the # character, these were hex color codes that, when viewed, gave the necessary color. In the weapons order above, #490264 gave the color PURPLE.
The third was found in the weapon Codename. Each of these was an item that could be commonly associated with a single color. In the weapons order above, the codename was “Barney” which is a character commonly associated with the color PURPLE.
The fourth was found in the Weapon Description. Each description contained a word in another language for a basic color. In the weapons order above, the description “Pistol with Nero Bullet Modifications”, Nero is the word for BLACK in Italian.
The fifth and final color was the most straightforward and was found in the Delivered section. This had only two options: Yes, which is colored BROWN, or No, which is colored RED.
Stanton was described as being a master at building deadly electronics, a clue that this puzzle involved electronics, resistors to be specific. Each weapon's order represented 5 color bands of a resistor and could be decoded using any standard chart as shown below.
In the weapons order shown above, the 5 colors are BLACK, PURPLE, PURPLE, BLACK, and BROWN. Following the guide, the resistor is 0 7 7 x1 1%. Once enough weapon orders were resolved, it could be seen that the first three numbers only ranged from 077-117 which is standard range from ASCII decimal characters, that left the final 2 columns to determine ordering. The ordering of the resistors goes from x1 1% to x1000000000 1% and loops back to x1 2% to x1000 2%. The final output and order is given below.
With the first 3 color bands properly decoded to decimal ASCII and the last 2 color bands giving order, the final solution of MONOLITH MUSEUM could be seen. Passing this information on to The Moderator resulted in questers working with Soleia unlocking the ability to begin sending targeted ads on a hacked Ad Buddy terminal. They did this to advertise free entry paid by a local benefactor to the Monolith Museum from block 6400-7000, to ensure Stanton would be onsite to handle the influx of visitors.
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