Hey folks!
I just finished reading part 4. I'm super bad at these clue things but they're fun so I want to try to help out. Here's the little bit I've found.
There's a hyperlink on the word "see" (second paragraph) that leads to: https://www.gasstationjack.com/bury
A photo of a wooden box, above the picture is: "ominous." The second 'o' is a hyperlink to the same page, although opening the image itself up in a new tap brings up: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fc1a9a_9a7385fc141244c28532d30eec2d65ad~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_590,h_310,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/coffin-interior.webp
Coffin Interior
Could be simple foreshadowing, or perhaps its a clue towards something else?
looks like the inside of a coffin
maybe its Latin omni is Latin for all so all o us or ominonobis
I posted a question, but now that I think about it I should have just asked it here. I think the ‘ominous’ was a cue to be on the look for the word ominous. After you click ‘ominous’ in the text you get a link to a bunch of text that needs to be translated. I think it’s Hmong, but I’m having trouble translating it to English. Is anyone else having any luck?
what's weird I'm not getting any txt like a dead link can u post a pic of the text
@Danilo v sorry, it’s in the story when Jerry responds to Jack’s request to leave.
@kmmgemini nvm figure it out its in about the six paragraph in the story
WELL DONT JUST STAND THERE COME ON OVER AND SIT A SPELL THAT VOICE CAME FROM THE OLDER GENTLEMAN WITH THE WALRUS MOUSTACHE HE WAS SEATED IN THE LEATHER ARMCHAIR BY THE FIRE PLACE SMILING IN MY DIRECTION I LOOKED AROUND HOPING HE MAY HAVE BEEN REFERRING TO SOMEONE ELSE BUT THERE WAS ONLY ME IN PROXIMITY SORRY I SAID DONT BE AFRAID HE LAUGHED THE FLAMES DANCING IN THE REFLECTION OF HIS SUNGLASSES GAVE THE IMPRESSION OF A FIREY EYED DEMON HE SHOWED TEETH THEN ADDED I DONT BITE WITH SOME HESITATION I PUT THE BOOK BACK WHERE IT BELONGED WALKED OVER AND TOOK THE ARMCHAIR OPPOSITE HIS THIS WAS INEVITABLY GOING TO BE AN AWKWARD CONVERSATION IVE ALWAYS FOUND SMALL TALK TO BE LIKE RUNNING THROUGH WET SAND EXHAUSTING AND IN MOST CASES COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY HI I SAID THAT SURE IS A NICE FIRE HUH HE SMILED IN SILENCE GIVING ME NOTHING TO WORK WITH MY NAME IS JACK NATHANIEL PENNYWORTH CHOLMON DELEY AT YOUR SERVICE I KNEW YOU WERE THERE I COULD HEAR YOU WALKING OVER TELL ME IS THERE SOMETHING OF INTEREST ON THAT SIDE OF THE ROOM WITH THE IVORY CANE THAT HAD BEEN RESTING IN HIS LAP HE POINTED AT THE BOOK CASE THAT WAS THE MOMENT IREALIZED THE MANS SUNGLASSES WERENT STRICTLY A STYLISTIC ACCESSORY MRCHOLMON DELEY IT SEEMED
IVE CRACKED THE CODE
@Nothingbetter toput and i are working together on this and we discovered it was a Cesar shift cypher 3 letter shift
Well don’t just stand there, come on over and sit a spell.”
That voice came from the older gentleman with the walrus moustache. He was seated in the leather armchair by the fireplace, smiling in my direction. I looked around, hoping he may have been referring to someone else, but there was only me in proximity.
“Sorry?” I said.
“Don’t be afraid,” he laughed. The flames dancing in the reflection of his sunglasses gave the impression of a firey-eyed demon. He showed teeth, then added, “I don’t bite.”
With some hesitation, I put the book back where it belonged, walked over, and took the armchair opposite his. This was inevitably going to be an awkward conversation. I’ve always found small talk to be like running through wet sand--exhausting and, in most cases, completely unnecessary.
“Hi,” I said. “That sure is a nice fire, huh?” He smiled in silence, giving me nothing to work with. “My name is Jack.”
“Nathaniel Pennyworth Cholmondeley, at your service. I knew you were there. I could hear you walking over. Tell me, is there something of interest on that side of the room?” With the ivory cane that had been resting in his lap, he pointed at the bookcase. That was the moment I realized the man’s sunglasses weren’t strictly a stylistic accessory. Mr. Cholmondeley, it seemed, was blind.
But I knew that already. How did I forget?
“Just a bunch of books,” I said. “I’m sorry. Have we met before?”
“I see,” Nathaniel Pennyworth Cholmondeley said with a hearty chuckle. “And what about over there?” he pointed towards the parlor. “Is there anything in that direction worth experiencing? Help a poor old man out, would you? Describe what I’m missing.”
“Excuse me?”
He smiled and nodded. I looked around again. This wasn’t right.
“People? How exciting!” he exclaimed. “Young people? Or just more old folks like me?”
I leaned in to see if he was wearing a bluetooth earbud or something. He clearly wasn’t talking to me. As I got nearer, he grunted in my face.
This wasn’t the strangest conversation I’d ever experienced, but I hardly felt the need to stick around and be part of it. I stood and walked back to the party. As I left, I heard him muttering to somebody, “Wow. And not one of those people strike you as more worthy of your attention than that shelf of books? It’s true what they say; youth is wasted on the young.”
What a weird fucking guy.
Well done!!! 👏
@Danilo v The Nathaniel in the original post refers to himself as “the third” this one doesn’t...
I just realized Nathaniel Pennyworth Cholmondeley is an NPC
Alternative universe maybe? Pocket dimensions? Perhaps there’s more to NPC than we’ve seen
@Killer Neko different layers of reality maybe? Or rounds? Like when you are playing a videogame with unskippable cutscenes. the NPC’s are stuck in a routine they can’t escape, but what would happen of the main charaters gains freedom to move? What could be changed? What could they uncover?
@Butler I feel like you might be onto something here with the different layers of reality, or a reoccurring event in which vague memories of past conversations are left over in some people's heads (so far it seems like Jack and Claire might be the only ones; but she had said he was like her.) Groundhog Day, mystery murder mansion style?
any one have any more clues ? or are we complete because i don't feel like were done u know
If you click just outside of the coffin picture and drag, there is an hidden image just beneath the coffin interior picture.
I did it all with paint so the quality of the picture is terrible 😂
it looks like it’s some kind of chart.
The noh masks are related to Japanese teatre...
EDIT
I found the original picture on google.
https://images.app.goo.gl/omfRV4wUTE1QfdLNA
The chart depicts the so called “uncanny valley”, a possible relationship between the resemblance an object has to a human being and the emotional response to that object.
So, it looks like the more an object looks human, the more positive and empathetic our reaction are, but there’s a little range in which the object can look at the same time too human and not human enough. In this case, our reaction is revulsion. It’s the range that cover expressions like “barely human”.
So, the chart under the coffin pictures show us where the uncanny valley is for both moving and still objects.
The descending curve is where our empaty drops.
@Butler Good find!
@Jessiizar Thanks! 😊 I edited the post with what I could find about the chart 🤔
Ah, something else I'd like to mention (after looking over some of the differences between the deciphered text and the text from the original post;
In the deciphered text Jack notes to himself that he *knew* NPC was blind after he "realized" it.
Similarly when he spoke to Claire, the blue eyed girl, in the hall he "wasn't supposed to be in." They knew each others names and things about each other without his ever remembering having a conversation about it.
Additionally (and I bet someone has already mentioned it but I feel like it's worth noting just in case), the Mansion of Madness is a horror/investigation game based off of the writings of Lovecraft, rather than a book, but if I remember correctly it draws inspiration from Lovecraft's "The Dreams In the Witch House."
@Jessiizar i realised this after reading part 8 that when tobias says that the memories were being planted and were most likely not real. It could've been something realted to that, what you noticed about jack realising that the "npc" was blind but then it was removed since it wasn't necessary to include that foreshadowing. And the jack and claire part doesn't seem related to this but it could be as there may have been something that went down before everyone met here and it was removed from their memories but they still remember or are allowed to have some of
Nevermind me if this doesn't make any sense. I'm just working on the surface here.
Hey, so, I was rereading part 4 and I realized that after the lights went out and someone pushed past Jack, the only person that wasn’t confirmed to still be in the room was Wolfgang. It’s a house where anything can happen so that doesn’t mean it had to be one of our squad, but still...
The next time he’s mentioned he is fiddling with a fire poker.
Also, his name has wolf in it and one of our first clues was a wolf (well, teeth, but wolf was the conduit).
I noticed that several of our hidden links throughout the story parts brought us to images that represent how people can die in the Manor, (the wolf, the suit of armor, the knife/stabbing, etc. The fire could be the bomb or it might be representative of something we haven't seen yet.
EDIT: Following up after reading part 8, there we've got the fire, "koda" the polar bear, and the bullet. Definitely the many ways to die, although I don't know if that has anything to do with the individual puzzles.
I was just thinking this same thing!