[Medical Library] Life's Codex

by **Hadrian** on April 19th, 2012, 6:07 am

46th Spring, 512 A.V.

One of the first things Hadrian always did in a new city was seek out its library if there was one, the better to assess any place's gathered knowledge. Of course, in some places he avoided it -- Ravok, for instance. But Mura seemed safe enough as places went. Nowhere was safe. Safety was an illusion. But as he walked through the white wrought iron gate, there was indeed a small footpath as he had been informed, and it looked like it just might lead to the northern tower of the Opal Temple.

He didn't feel right going in. He respected Rak'keli, of course, and if he had a true friend in the world, it was Caelum, who was devoted to the goddess of healing, but he made do murmuring a prayer of thanks to her, eyes on the Temple, as he communicated his gratitude for his good health. He pointedly did not mention the death of his mother two years previous and how untimely that had seemed to him.

When he came to the tower that supposedly held the library, he let his hand rest upon the door for a moment, the blessing of his Lykata pulling a torrent of impressions into his mind of those who had passed before. It was too much, really, and he felt as he had when he was a mere novice with auras, taking in too much information and being unable to filter it or understand it. But that would come with time and devotion, he supposed, as he pulled the door open and stepped inside, his too bright eyes squinting as they adjusted to the lower light.

The storm had changed him, too.

by **Cachet** on April 21st, 2012, 12:07 am

NotesI have a specific something I want you to find and everything else. A black leatherbound journal titled Jsova. Good will hunting.
Hadrian would not be disappointed there were plenty of books to be found all over. There were high bookshelves some seven feet tall with rolling ladders to access the higher shelves since many of those that came to the library would have no way of reaching them. Even though most of the library was categorized, noted, and named there were still hidden gems here among the shelves. Still many things to find here among the many shelves and Hadrian might just fine one if he looked hard enough.

There were students here studying at tables; all of them Konti. It looked like many of them were studying in pairs helping each other out. Some looked at Hadrian and giggled a little at his lost looks and apprehensiveness toward entering the library in the first place. It was comical almost the library was an open center of learning. Many of the healers came here to pour through the many tombs of knowledge here. If he came here for medical knowledge he would find a plethora of such topics. However if he came for anything else he would have to look.

He could ask for help from anyone about, of just plod around. Sometimes the best things came when one was not looking for anything specific. There were all kinds of information here. Even a section for uncategorized journals, diaries, and writings from Konti past. All kinds of leather bound books like these adorned five shelves in a bookcase. Perhaps there was something to be found there. But there were also troves and troves of bookcases all over to search. There was even a bookcase or two of works brought in and recently discovered that were yet to be put in the appropriate areas for which they belonged. Mayhaps he could do a little good work while he was here and help read through some of the works yet to be classified.

Whatever the case may be there was plenty to be done here and likely not enough time to do it all.

by **Hadrian** on April 21st, 2012, 6:28 am

He was a fish out of water, perhaps, though in many ways he might have fit in: pale skin, nearly washed out eyes, slender. But his hair was strangely Vantha, at war with his height. He was no longer as he had been, at least on the surface. Perhaps he was changed within as well. He hadn't the wisdom to say.

Oblivious to the titters, he wandered about the library with a special sort of awe, the intellectual come home to roost in the nest of knowledge if not wisdom. There had been several half-baked topic ideas to research, but he found himself wandering the stacks, pulling a book here or there to peruse briefly before putting it back. Mostly he looked around, rather unfocused, letting his fingertips brush along the leatherbound spines of the books, his Lykata keyed for that wash of impressions that he had not yet learned to sift through with any degree of skill. He had been granted a power, but he would have to learn to channel it properly.

Show me what I need to learn, Bright Lady, he silently prayed to the goddess of wisdom.

After several minutes of walking thus, even more spent with this or that book, he finally stopped. He wasn't even sure what impression had stopped him, but it was almost as if his fingers closed on the slim volume bound in black leather of their own accord, a sea anemone going from open and undulating to a tight grip on itself.

His feet too stopped, and he paused to give the book its due consideration. It was not outside the realm of possibility that Eyris had her hand in the workings of fate.

by **Cachet** on April 21st, 2012, 1:49 pm

The little black leatherbound book looked like almost nothing compared to the many other books all around it. But for some reason or another Hadrian felt the need to pick it up and thumb through it’s pages. Hadrian if he invoked his gift of Lykata would see several things about the leatherbound journal. He would see a Konti woman sitting at a desk writing in the journal. The setting would look something like a house here on the isle. But where this house was…that was just a guess really. But the journals presence was definitely set in stone. It was a journal of some kind. Maybe an account of something.

The first page in the journal had only one simple word written elegantly on it. It was decorated almost like the woman took pain staking time to accentuate the word. It had to be important for some reason or another.

Jsova

The word would be unfamiliar to Hadrian. It was foreign, maybe the name of a Konti…maybe it was this Konti’s name? He would have to concentrate more maybe meditate some if he was to gain any more information using gnosis about this book. But what was startling was what was on the next page of the journal.

Journal second page :

Er wjq iev qmpekc bepqr reia E qjw qeckq lb qlialka ahqa jilkc rda blpaqrq rl rda klprd. Jr bepqr E ftqr rdltcdr E wjq qaaekc rdekcq jilkc rda rpaaq. Str rdak rdapa wapa ptilpq lb dtkrekc jkv cjrdapekc mjpreaq bekvekc dtijk bllrmpekrq rdjr wapa rll hjpca rl sa Glkre. E vevk’r gklw wdjr rl rdekg jr bepqr. Rda mpekrq qrjprav qdlwekc tm jpltkv rda Qehuap Hjga jq wahh. Qlia Glkre wapa qakr ltr jhlkc rda klprdapk oljqr rl qaa eb rdapa wapa qeckq lb jkylka. Iy qeqrap G’rek wjq jilkc rdai. Qda qjyq rda akrepa reia rday bahr hega rday wapa saekc wjrodav sy qlialka. Str rday kauap olthv bekv ltr wdl. Rday bltkv bllrmpekrq jkv qeckq lb dtkrekc jkv rpjehq; str klr j mdyqeojh mapqlk. Wdlauap rday wapa rday wapa devekc ek rda blpaqr wahh. Str rday jhql bltkv j meaoa lb wllv werd rda wlpv Fqluj akcpjuav ek erq bjoa. Er wjq ahjslpjrahy vaolpjrav jkv hllgav hega er djv saak splgak lbb lb qliardekc. Str E vlk’r gklw wdjr. Ijysa, ijysa jr wlpqr ojqa er olthv sa bpli j ojpcl olkrjekap rdjr bahh luapsljpv ek rda loajk jkv rdak wjqdav jqdlpa? Er eq mlqqesha E qtmmlqa. Str qrehh E vlk’r gklw wdapa er wlthv olia bpli saojtqa rda olkrjekap wjq jhlkc rda klprdapk oljqr; qdemq gklw sarrap rdjk rl rpy jkv rpjuah rdjr jpaj saojtqa lb rda qdjhhlw paabq. Str wdjr eb j qdem djv ijkjcav rl uakrtpa ltr rdjr wjy?

Str eb qlialka vev qdemwpaog dapa wdy wlthv rday sa julevekc tq? E jvier wa djuak’r djv j rlk lb olkrjor ek rda hjqr baw ilkrdq. Jkv wa qrehh djuak’r aqrjsheqdav jky hlkc qrjkvekc rpjva pltraq werd rda ltrqeva wlphv. Str wa jpa rpyekc. Mhakry lb qdlmq djua qrjprav rl blpi ftqr waqr lb rda raimha cpltkvq. Jhrdltcd klka djua rpeav rl ohjei qmjoa jq lb yar. G’rek jkv E jpa clekc rl cl lk ltp lwk axmaverelk dapa ek j baw vjyq rl qaa eb wa ojk bekv wdliauap eq pljiekc rda klprdapk wllvq…eb er eq auak j mapqlk jr jhh. Str bpli rda qeckq qda qjyq rday bltkv er djq rl sa j mapqlk. Str wdjr eb er eqk’r? Wdjr olthv rdapa mlqqeshy sa ltr ek rda klprdapk blpaqr eb er eqk’r j mapqlk?

Wa djua saak rpjuahekc blp jsltr djhb j vjy klw, hllgekc jhh jpltkv rda klprdapk blpaqr. Jkv wa qjw ilpa rdjk lka qar lb bllrmpekrq. Er qaaiq rda bepqr cpltm lb qoltrq rdjr wjhgav rda blpaqr ieqqav dlw ijky malmha rdapa wapa. Wa oltkrav rdpaa rl bltp vebbapakr bllrmpekrq. Jhh lb rdai hllgav rl sahlkc rl malmha hjpca iak hegahy sy rda qeza lb rda bllrmpekrq. Wa bltkv qlia rpaaq rdjr djv saak otr vlwk jkv iluav rdpltcd rda blpaqr. Str blp qlia pajqlk rday wapa vplmmav jhilqr hega rday mjkeogav jkv habr rdai blp qlia pajqlk.

It wasn’t in a language that Hadrian had ever learned to speak. That meant only one thing…it was encrypted. Maybe not very well, but the writing as it stood now made no sense whatsoever. Unless it was written somehow in a language that he had never studied before now. But it was obvious the book contained an account of something that the Konti woman felt needed to be protected. Such a journal had likely been picked up several times then placed back down. Maybe the Konti just overlooked it as gibberish, or maybe it was a recent discovery and there just hadn’t been anyone to sit down and look it over yet. Whatever the case if Hadrian wanted to find out anything else about this journal or the information it contained he would have to do some work.

by **Hadrian** on April 23rd, 2012, 6:04 am

The images that came to him were nothing surprising: a Konti home, a Konti woman. His mind wanted to assume that the woman was Jsova, for it didn't match with any word he knew in Common, Nader-canoch, Isur, or Vani, and if it wasn't her name, than it must be a Kontinese word. He did want to learn as much Kontinese as possible while on Mura; it was an important part about his continuing studies of anthropology, and where better to learn it than in the home city of the Konti seers?

But he was not married to the idea that Jsova was the woman's name, even if it was clearly a journal. Assumptions were the bane of true scholarly work. What he found inside, however, sparked a very different sort of linguistic center in his mind, that of codes and ciphers. He remembered not so very long ago sharing a memory with a Memosite summoned from Swalden's rings that helped him ferret out the coordinates to Shoyden, which had helped him terrorize the Ebonstryfe...

It looked like a simple letter exchange code, something relatively simple to break if one had time and the desire to do so. He began mouthing letters as he walked over to the nearest empty chair and sat down. The e was most likely an i given that it often stood alone and capitalized even in the middle of a sentence, which led to r most likely being t or s or n because there were only so many two-letter words that began with i. And while he pondered that, his eyes jumped to many other little clues, the doors into which one could find meaning. The r would be a t indeed, as it appeared after apostrophes that denoted a contraction. And there! E qtmmlqa would be I suppose, which meant that sentence in the first paragraph, Er eq mlqqesha E qtmmlqa, would be It is possible I suppose.

"More than possible, Jsova."

He grinned and kept on working. That was nine letters he had already cracked out of an alphabet with only twenty-six letters. He was well on his way.

a - e	f - j	k - n	p - r	u - v	z - z
b - f	g - k	l - o	q - s	v - d
c - g	h - l	m - p	r - t	w - w
d - h	i - m	n - q	s - b	x - x
e - i	j - a	o - c	t - u	y - y

Finally he murmured to himself:

"It was mid spring first time I saw signs of someone else among the forests to the north. At first I just thought I was seeing things among the trees. But then there were rumors of hunting and gathering parties finding human footprints that were too large to be Konti. I didn't know what to think at first. The prints started showing up around the Silver Lake as well. Some Konti were sent out along the northern coast to see if there were signs of anyone. My sister K'tin was among them. She says the entire time they felt like they were being watched by someone. But they never could find out who. They found footprints and signs of hunting and trails; but not a physical person. Whoever they were they were hiding in the forest well. But they also found a piece of wood with the word Jsova engraved in its face. It was elaborately decorated and looked like it had been broken off of something. But I don't know what. Maybe, maybe at worst case it could be from a cargo container that fell overboard in the ocean and then washed ashore? It is possible I suppose. But still I don't know where it would come from because the container was along the northern coast; ships know better than to try and travel that area because of the shallow reefs. But what if a ship had managed to venture out that way?

But if someone did shipwreck here why would they be avoiding us? I admit we haven't had a ton of contact in the last few months. And we still haven't established any long standing trade routes with the outside world. But we are trying. Plenty of shops have started to form just west of the temple grounds. Although none have tried to claim space as of yet. K'tin and I are going to go on our own expedition here in a few days to see if we can find whomever is roaming the northern woods... if it is even a person at all. But from the signs she says they found it has to be a person. But what if it isn't? What could there possibly be out in the northern forest if it isn't a person?

We have been traveling for about half a day now, looking all around the northern forest. And we saw more than one set of footprints. It seems the first group of scouts that walked the forest missed how many people there were. We counted three to four different footprints. All of them looked to belong to people large men likely by the size of the footprints. We found some trees that had been cut down and moved through the forest. But for some reason they were dropped almost like they panicked and left them for some reason."

Hadrian frowned.

by **Cachet** on May 5th, 2012, 8:44 pm

Page one had interesting information in it, it seemed it was a journal detailing an event far in Mura’s past. However there were many more pages inside it and many more secrets to be gleaned. And so there was indeed a second page, however it looked like there were all kinds of things going on here in the library. Where this journal had come from…well who knew. Maybe a Konti had donated it after inheriting it and considering it useless because they could in no way decode it. That was possible; however it was also possible that it was meant to be a work in progress and just hadn’t been decoded by one of the many scholars here yet. The possibilities were many and the truth was indeed a little more narrow than that.

Page Two :

by **Hadrian** on May 6th, 2012, 7:28 am

It was quickly apparent to Hadrian that the primer for the first page would not work for the second. His eyes had become accustomed to a certain set of substitutions, and this confused his eyes in their delicate new world. He blinked several times, but quickly started taking this one apart too, following the logical patterns in things.

"K'tin and I," he began... and then his mind began to catalog the patterns. Her grammar was a little funny, was J'sova's, but he was glad that it was written in Common and encoded, because if it was in Kontinese, he would not have stood a chance.

But he quickly realized this was not merely a new set of substitutions. His initial substitutions didn't seem to hold through, there were repetitions of the same character two or three times, fewer internal capitalizations and contractions. He sighed, squinted at it, and began to work his hand through his hair to stimulate through, his other hand attempting to feel something from the papers that would help him.

by **Cachet** on June 12th, 2012, 4:03 am

At first nothing would come to him. Blankness and a page full of almost random letters arranged to look like semantics of common. God if that was the case there was no hope for deciphering this masterpiece, and the information must really be dangerous or need to be hidden for some reason or another. But what could a lone Konti wish to hide for this many years? It was an interesting predicament to be in, holding a past that could be over a hundred years old. This book was just found recently, from some Konti’s personal effects. There was no sign of a way to decrypt it otherwise someone would’ve done so easily already.

Then gently a vision would come to his mind. That same picture as before, the same Konti only this time she had another book laid out beside her as she wrote. A smaller journal…much smaller with only the following written on the pages in her elegant handwriting. There was a table written on the pages. Hadrian would get a good look at it. Certain letters along the top had stars above them A, J, O, S,and the letter V. However the top row was the standard alphabet A-Z and along the side in a vertical Column again the standard alphabet A-Z. The top row was the one that had the starred letters. And in the middle a table of letters was formed that looked very interesting. Hadrian would only get a passing look over the woman’s shoulder, he couldn’t be completely sure how the table was arranged but there did seem to be a pattern to it…one he would have to figure out if he was to break this cipher text.

The Table :

He saw her encode the first letter of the second page with this cryptic table of sorts. He was correct the first letter was a K. However the Konti traced over to the J column and then down stopping at the letter in the K row. The letter there was then written down. The next letter was a T. So she moved over to the S column and then down until she was in the T’s row and wrote down the corresponding letter which was an L. There did seem to be a definite pattern to the encoding. But Hadrian would first have to fill out the scattered key. He could only recall parts of it correctly and he would absolutely HAVE to have the rest if he was to decode this thing correctly.

NoteHadrian if you figure out the key above just explain it in your next post and I will give you the correct code to use. And if you correctly use it to then break the first sentence I will decode the entire page...no need to have you mucking about cracking this thing unless you REALLY want to....And I do mean REALLY want to.

by **Hadrian** on June 12th, 2012, 5:17 am

By concentrating on those faint glimpses into the Konti's contributions to her journal, he got clues as to how this code was produced, and he took out a sheet of parchment and began to sketch out the table he saw to the best of his abilities, a sort of automatic writing. Even in the throes of this peek into the past, his hand moving ink around, he muttered to himself...

"Of course."

J'sova, her own name, was the cipher. Going down from J, the K became a T. Going down from S, the T became an L. O down to I, W. V down to N, I. Thus, K'tin was rendered T'lwi. He had two more words to verify this hypothesis. A down to A, A. Easy enough. Starting over with the first letter of her name, J down to N, W. S down to D, V. O down to I, W. Three words supported this repetition of the letters in the author's name as the cipher.

For the rest, he had to reverse-engineer the answer:

"...continued to look for weeks and sill found more and more footprints leading from the forest near the silver lake."

Apparently even J'sova made mistakes while encoding her journal, and he posited that "sill" meant "still", and then the rest of the message became clear.

OOCYeah, I figured it out, but it takes me forever scrolling up and down. Please gimme the rest!

by **Cachet** on June 13th, 2012, 12:05 pm

Hadrian was beginning to get the hang of this. He was right, the cipher wasn’t completely unbreakable…if you had the certain skills that he did. Surely this journal couldn’t get any more complex…But in what Hadrian saw he noted several things that would hint that she was more than familiar with ciphering. Not just anyone would have come up with this system. Had it not been for the insight he had there was likely no way he would have been able to just simply guess at how the cipher was constructed. That was obviously the point of the cipher in the first place; to obscure J’sova’s journal. She had something to hide, or something that she didn’t want being openly revealed to the masses until long after her passing. What was laying out before him was a very interesting piece of history.

Finished Cipher :

With the cipher constructed all he had to do was trace down the letters just like the Konti had to encode them in the first place. Plenty of possibilities but only one was right per letter. It would take time. But with time came rewards, and with effort came treasure. This was an untouched piece of history lost and forgotten until Hadrian uncovered it for himself and began his work. As interesting as it was, there was also a warning in it. Finally with the message decoded it became clear what the plaintext was.

Page Two Plaintext :

There was yet another page to be had if Hadrian wished it. But if the previous page was any indication of what he was in store for it would be more difficult than this one was. And he would likely have to illicit some form of help if he was to get it all done any time before the sun set. There were several paths he could take here. The woman seemed to write down all the things she used in another smaller journal. Perhaps he could find it somewhere. Or maybe if he could focus on his previous visions he could get a clearer picture of where the woman lived. Maybe even ask around about her and get some more information on who her family was. Maybe they would have an answer as to where this little black journal was located. But those were all forks in the road, all leading somewhere along this journey.