54
$\begingroup$

I work as a delivery man for our local newspaper and noticed something that has my alarm bells ringing. The embassy of Warfaretania has ordered exactly nine issues of our paper, from December 1 through December 9. While it's possible that the officials of that faraway nation simply have great interest in our local news, I find it much more likely that there's some shady spy stuff going on in the newspaper's office. Can you figure it out?

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

Improve this question
$\endgroup$

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
19
$\begingroup$

The headlines say:

Mis.

Each headline ...

... has a common word or prefix that can be applied to all of its words to form other words:

unnatural, uncover, unwisely, unwashed
derailments, derby, derringers
standpoint, stand guard, standstill, stand out
Manchester, manservant, manhandles, mandates
age-old, age limits, age-appropriate
mention, mentor, mentally
delaying, definite, dead, designs
meantime, meanwhile, mean-spirited
orbiter, oral, ordeals

The result, "Understand Management Demeanor" can be treated in the same way:

misunderstand, mismanagement,misdemeanor.

Putting things together:

The mis goes with the siles to make missiles. Together with the shreds and pieces that Omega Krypton has catalogued, the message transmitted to the embassy of Warfaretania is:

Got missiles ready for delivery. Awaiting payment.

(But I wonder why the agent jumped through hoops to encode the rather irrelevant "got". Once a puzzler, always a puzzler, I guess ...)

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Nice work! This is the intended answer. (As for why the first word was included: rot13[gur "ernql sbe qryvirel" cneg jnf nqqrq ng gur ynfg zvahgr]) $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 11:12
22
$\begingroup$

Partial Answer:

DISCLAIMER:

This is a combination of all works. However, to prevent misunderstanding of me stealing other's effort and hard work, I will credit others work in the answer. Also, I will not provide elaboration. Instead, I will directly jump to the answer for simplicity. Please refer to their answer for explanation. Thank you. However, if you don't mind me including your answer, please tell me in the comments. I'll update it from time to time.

Part 1: Quotes of the Day

GOT is hidden, where in each of the quotes you get (the results from Dec 1 to 9 are GOT, GOT, GO, OT, GOAT, GOTH, GHOST, BIGOT, and Game Of Thrones) (Credits: @GarethMcCaughan)

Part 2a: Headlines

Each headline has a common word or prefix that can be applied to all of its words to form other word. The prefix can be combined into un+der+stand+man+age+ment+de+mean+or = "Understand Management Demeanor". The same algorithm is applied again, rendering "mis" (from "misunderstand, mismanagement, misdemeanor") (Credits: @MOehm)

Part 2b: Logo

the logos on the top left corner of each piece of newspaper can be combined ton form this, which is the coat of arms of Lower Silesia, Poland. Silesia-"ia"=Siles:
001

Part 3: Missing letters in Latin Names

The differences in Latin names render:
r+ea+dy+fo+rd+el+i+ve+ry = "READY FOR DELIVERY" (Credits: @rhsquared + @GarethMcCaughan)

Part 4: Illustrations

Combining the letters obtained from each illustration, we get: Aw-a-it-in-g pay-m-en-t (Credits: 1-2 @DaurenYermenov, 3 by me, 6 by @ablerks, 8 partial by @GarethMcCaughan others by @Christoph)

Elaboration on Illustration 3:

The question mark on Dec 3 is it (country code for Italy), whereas the six pairs of alphabets are the country codes for France (fr), Switzerland (ch), Austria (at), Slovenia (si), Vatican (va), and San Marino (sm)

Part 5: ANSWER

Combining the results from all parts render:
Got missiles ready for delivery. Awaiting payment. (Credits: @MOehm, approved by OP)

Part 6: Miscellaneous Clues

Warfaretania, the name of the country mentioned in the introductory paragraph may give the hint that the whole thing is about a war

Also,

The last words of each title gives "Washed ringers out. Dates appropriate. Ally signs spirited deals." (Credits: @VictorStafusa)

RED HERRINGS!!!

Number One:

Concatenating the last names of the different authors of the Quote of the day, we get:
CecinePasunIndiceEnfaitCestunHarenGrouGedéSolé
Which gives:
Ceci n'est pas un indice, en fait c'est un hareng rouge, désolé
In english:
This is not a clue, it is a red herring, sorry
(Credits: @joH1)

Number two

The double letters in the bold names in each article spell: one more dead end (Credits: @ablerks)

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Your observations are a superset of mine, though, so I'm clearing my answer to de-clutter the thread. Nice job! $\endgroup$
    – George Menoutis
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:12
  • $\begingroup$ A third red herring was rot13[gur Ratyvfu anzrf bs fcrpvrf] ;) $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Commented Dec 14, 2018 at 6:42
17
$\begingroup$

Very partial answer -- quotes of the day

Three letters in my name have I - A.Cecine

GOT

Not one's an A or E or Y - B.St.Pasun

(true)

My first two -- bested by AI - C.Indice

GO (AlphaGo)

My last two work till they're bled dry - D.Enfait

OT (overtime)

Add A, still best though years go by - E.Cestun

GOAT (greatest of all time)

Or add an H, hair black I dye - F.Haren

GOTH (black clothes, too)

Add two, I go with ship, town, ly - G.Grou

GHOST

Or maybe stare with prejudiced eye - H.Gedes

BIGOT

One who plays me will win or die. - I.Ole

Game of Thrones

There remain

the initials, which just go A-I and (I guess) don't have much extra content to them; and the names, which I'm sure are informative but I don't yet understand. (The initials may or may not want to be included.)

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
13
$\begingroup$

Partial:

The picture in no. 5 is the seal of Paraguay. Paraguay minus RH2O (R[WATER/AGUA]) is PAY.

also:

the double letters in the bold names in each article spell: ONE MORE DEAD END

, which probably does not help. ;)

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
12
$\begingroup$

Partial (non)-answer:

Concatenating the last names of the different authors of the Quote of the day, we get
CecinePasunIndiceEnfaitCestunHarenGrouGedéSolé, which gives: Ceci n'est pas un indice, en fait c'est un hareng rouge, désolé and in english,
This is not a clue, it is a red herring, sorry

which is indeed not even a partial answer, but it's a dead end worth mentioning in order to prevent falling into it.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
11
$\begingroup$

Partial:

First picture is the Japanese WA (わ) backwards (and with 2 shadows): enter image description here
Second is the A chord on the guitar.
So we get either AW - A or AWAWAW - A

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good find! Add @OmegaKryptons second observation and you get rot13(njnvg). $\endgroup$
    – Christoph
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ @DaurenYermenov Hello and welcome to PSE. Please hide your answers in spoilers using the >! prefix in the beginning of the lines. $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 15:37
11
$\begingroup$

Another partial findings:

The fourth image

shows the country of Benin and Benin City, which is located in Benin's neighbour country Nigeria. The signs are hebrew for "ben", so the solution for this picture is in. (thanks to @ablerks)

The fifth picture

shows the SI prefixes. The missing one is G.

The seventh picture

could be a reference to the MI6 agents 001 to 007. Their boss is M. (thanks to @NudgeNudge)

The eigth picture

refers to presidents on the dollar bills and US states. The letters are the abbreviation of the state where the capital has the same name as the president on the bill. Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska (NE), and the red arrow indicates to read this backwards, which gives en. (thanks to @Gareth McCaughan)

The ninth picture

displays TRACK - RACK = T. (thanks to @Gareth McCaughan)

Putting together these with @DaurenYermenov's first two pictures' solutions, @OmegaKrypton's solutions for the third picture and @ablerks's sixth picture solution you get

Aw-a-it-in-g pay-m-en-t

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
7
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ You're right. The signs in the fourth image are rot13(Uroerj sbe Ora). $\endgroup$
    – ablerks
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 17:06
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I believe the seventh image could refer to rot13(Wnzrf Obaq'f obff (Ntrag mrebmrebfrira), Z), which would fit your solution. $\endgroup$
    – NudgeNudge
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 17:25
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I think the last is TRACK - RACK = T. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 17:28
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ And it's in no way a surprise that the other one is EN (Lincoln -> Nebraska -> NE -> EN) but I don't quite see how it works. Lincoln (capital of Nebraska) is the guy on the \$5 bill. But Jackson (capital of Mississipi) is on the \$20, not the \$10, and the guy on the \$10 is not Columbus (capital of Ohio). $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 17:29
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan Augh, that one's on me. Turns out I was looking at 1914 banknotes or something... I'll fix the clue once I get to an actual computer. $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 17:42
8
$\begingroup$

Partial: (with some help from @GarethMcCaughan

It looks like all the latin names are misspelled. So far I discovered some of the differences which might contain hidden text. Starting with the top image here is what I found so far:
1. r
2. e a
3. d y
4. f o
5. r d
6. e l
7. i
8. v e
9. r y
which reads "Ready for delivery"

Also the first 3 pictures give us:

AW + A + IT = AWAIT

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Unsurprisingly #6 is missing EL. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:40
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ And #3 is missing DY. So that message is pretty clear. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:41
5
$\begingroup$

Nobody so far found any hidden messages on the actual semantic content of the text (just in syntathical features like doubled letters and typos). The text seems to be very strange and unusual for me, so maybe there is some sort of hidden message there.

Looking at the titles, I think that I may have found something:

Washed ringers out.
Dates appropriate.
Ally signs spirited deals.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ By the way, thanks for editing my formatting! $\endgroup$
    – Omega Krypton
    Commented Dec 13, 2018 at 8:30

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.