C-GRP02 (Sep 6, 2001)
Puzzle
“Kqxpmz.”
Research | 1 Word
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: It's a shift cipher.
Clue 2: Most important number in the CaD.
Clue 3: What's this kind of cipher called?
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Caesar
Explanation: Take the string ROT -8 to get 'Cipher'. This cipher is known as the Caesar cipher, after Julius Caesar.
Summary of Receipt
The CaD run into Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil who warn them about the Spire starting to splinter, possibly leading to Mayda submerging everything. Though they don’t know of any hidden portals, they direct them to some Saints who might be able to help them access the Spire’s portal.
Transcript
RECEIPT AS OF: 9/06/01
BARISTA ON DUTY: ROMANO
RECEIPT FILED AS: C-GRP-02
We came across the rather odd trio of Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil in the Script Ring. Apparently, the Spire has begun to… splinter. If the Spire snaps, well, I believe nothing would stop the Mayda from submerging the entire plane. Which… is confusing. Though understanding the ins and outs of the Otherside always is. But it certainly explains why the demons down here might be more panicked than usual. Virgil pointed us toward a pair of Saints one Ring over who might have a way to get us into the Spire and to the portal back to the Flipside.
S.O.T.
Caesar: Halt. What brings humans to the land of daemons and the dead?
Romano: You know, a typical… I want to say Tuesday. It feels like a Tuesday. I thought I’d come to check out the afterlife and maybe invest in some ethereal real estate.
Black Coffee: Ignore him. We’re trying to figure out why the spirits of the Necropolis are restless. And you are… Caesar, correct?
Caesar: If you could believe it. Death has not done me well.
Cicero: It has done for you that it has done for all others. Be grateful, Caesar, that you did not end up in deeper pits of hell.
Caesar: Ah, Cicero. Always lurking about, ready to lighten the mood. It would be a welcome change after all, seeing as the Spire has begun to splinter.
Carajillo: Splinter?
Virgil: Ah, just so. Look how the tower bends and breaks fast under the crushing weight.
Caesar: …And Virgil. Splendid. All my greatest tormentors have arrived.
Virgil: Who are your rather lively friends, Caesar?
Caesar: Humans. They have come to the afterlife to—what was it? Investigate our discontent?
Cicero: A foolish endeavor. The concerns of the dead are for the dead alone to worry about.
Black Coffee: We actually came here by accident. We’re trying to return home, though, if we can help with the Spire while we are here…
Caesar: I knew you struck me as a leader! For a leader’s mettle is tested in these times of crisis.
Cicero: Perhaps. Though to heal the Spire, one must understand its essence, its foundation. Without that, their help is no good to us.
Virgil: And they could never understand the hopes and dreams of the dead until they, too, have a severed thread.
Romano: Well, it won’t be long at this rate if we can’t get the hell out of here.
Cicero: Perhaps then you could help us mend the Spire. Only the dead—
Black Coffee: —can worry for the dead. Fine. But say we aren’t ready to die yet—
Virgil: And whoever is?
Black Coffee: Do any of you know a way back?
Caesar: I have heard rumors that one could return to life at the top of the Spire.
Romano: We… were hoping for a less direct route?
Virgil: If the way out is the way up, perhaps, so too, the way out could be found all the way down.
Carajillo: Uh…
Cicero: At the base of the Spire, at the center of Dawn.
Carajillo: Ah. So, we should head there then?
Caesar: Impossible. The Ring of Dawn is blanketed by a fiendish labyrinth of inky night. You would be better off finding a way to the top of the Spire elsewhere.
Black Coffee: And the way to the top of the Spire isn’t at the base of it?
Caesar: Not for those lucky few invited.
Cicero: Oh, here we go. Poor Caesar never cherished in death.
Virgil: Saints, however…
Romano: Saints?
Virgil: In a ring outside our own. A pair of Saints live among the wretches of the damned—but they have been known to cavort with the daemons in the Spire.
Black Coffee: Well, I suppose we could go see what they know. Thank you.
E.O.T.