BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Cipher Puzzle

**Posted by kazza474** May 20, 2012 10:18 am

ah of course, Eastern Swahili

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 20, 2012 10:20 am

kazza474 wrote:
Geez hope this message wasn't urgent, the world could end before it's solved, lol.

It's a good job John's life isn't at stake!

**Posted by Rosey** May 20, 2012 7:32 pm

Am I getting anywhere with this?

13 44 71 86 41 68 1 1 8 92 6 15 86 63 91 11 36 5 73 90 92 92 1

**Posted by Sammy** May 25, 2012 11:48 pm

Rosey wrote:
13 44 71 86 41 68 1 1 8 92 6 15 86 63 91 11 36 5 73 90 92 92 1

I've got this, too.
I'm not sure how to proceed. I guess one number will be one letter but need something else than the plain alphabet because it only contains 26 letters. "More than one alphabet".
Or maybe I'm completly wrong.

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 26, 2012 10:11 am

Ok I'll give you another clue...

How many pips were there in The Great Game?

**Posted by Molly Hooper** May 27, 2012 6:34 pm

3, no...4 no... *gasp of realisation*

**Posted by Sammy** May 28, 2012 12:47 am

Molly Hooper wrote:
3, no...4 no... *gasp of realisation*

What? What is it? :O

**Posted by Tantalus** May 29, 2012 5:41 pm

Are we still working on this?

If so, any more clues?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 29, 2012 10:28 pm

Well so far...you guys have worked out that it's to do with the periodic table, although nobody has got the elements correctly yet...it is however, more to do with the numbers of the elements rather than the names of them...and in turn those numbers then relate back to the alphabet...I've also said there's more than one alphabet and given a clue as to how many alphabets were used....

Another clue perhaps....

You're probably aware there's a standard way to match up numbers to the alphabet (a=1, b=2 etc), well just carry on with that....

**Posted by John H. Watson, M.D** May 30, 2012 9:34 pm

I've had a brief study of this as I'm trying to solve a genuine Sherlock Holmes mystery (which seems to have interesting aspects also involving ciphers and chemical elements). I was wondering whether there was a connection (purely coincidental, I imagine).

My first try is less than 100% successful, but gives the following;

MRS H GEPAAHN FOG EKMK SKULL.

This is based on the elements being

AL RU LU RN N B ER H H O U C P N B EU PA NA K RB TA TH UUH

...and therefore the numbers are

13 44 71 86 7 5 68 1 1 8 92 6 15 7 5 63 91 11 19 37 73 90 116.

Put 5 alphabets in a line and one gets 130 characters to match the numbers against. Unfortunately, the resulting phrase seems somewhat garbled...!

**Posted by Wholocked** May 30, 2012 11:21 pm

Well, you can work out the phrase based on what you've got there, but it wouldn't be by solving the cipher lol

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 31, 2012 6:18 am

You're correct with the alphabets and the way you've used the numbers and matched them up with their relevant elements...that's all spot on and you are indeed very close!

There are only so many elements, once I got to the end I went back to 1....

**Posted by John H. Watson, M.D** May 31, 2012 2:21 pm

Well, after another look I can get the message decoded a little better;

AL-RU-LU-RN-NB-ER-H-HO-U-C-P--NB-EU-PA-NA-K--RB-TA-TH-UUH
13-44-71-86-41-68--1-67-92-6-15-41-63-91-11-19-37--73-90-116

...which gives...

MRS HOPAON FOOK MK SKULL.

There are some ambiguous elements; for instance it could read H-H-O-U instead of H-HO-U but that would give us a letter too many (once you know the phrase).
But I'm a bit baffled as to why it's almost correct but not quite!

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 31, 2012 8:45 pm

You are indeed SOOO close...I just double checked and it's a case of reshuffling some of the elements around...the first mistake being immediately after the RN.

**Posted by John H. Watson, M.D** May 31, 2012 10:25 pm

Got that one...which gives

MRS HODSON FOOK MK SKULL

...only 3 letters wrong now, but I'm not seeing how to correct...

13 M
44 R
71 S
86 H
7 O
4 D
45 S
67 O
92 N
6 F
15 O
41 O
63 K
91 M
11 K
19 S
37 K
73 U
90 L
116L

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** May 31, 2012 10:37 pm

Looks like you're going wrong on your 5th Alphabet...

It should go back to 1 after 118...so 7 = U

**Posted by kazza474** June 1, 2012 1:07 am

Mrs Hudson did WHAT ..... to WHO....?

**Posted by Tantalus** June 1, 2012 2:51 am

kazza474 wrote:
Mrs Hudson did WHAT ..... to WHO....?

Well, she has been looking for that special someone...

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** June 1, 2012 5:54 am

Tantalus wrote:
kazza474 wrote:
Mrs Hudson did WHAT ..... to WHO....?

Well, she has been looking for that special someone...

LOL you guys...

**Posted by Davina** June 1, 2012 2:56 pm

I didn't like to say anything but I'm sure that skull had a dirty grin!