Been a while

Hi guys it's once again time for a small update.

I've been trying to get max out of my mind and went away for a while. It didn't work.. so I'm back and dedicated to finding out more about him.

good job Grumpyboy for finding what forty-three if eager hate meant.

it is an anagram for "the year of the great fire"
the riddle contained a mention of a capital so the anwers is the year of the great fire of London; 1666.
On Flickr grumpyboy found max 1666 and that flickr member had posted 2 photos.

One of apearantly the fire of London, with a comment. the comment is gibberish and appearantly has to be translated:
sppe bwo nexr dhkletvrd wpcy tkrch wz zizg uvqhm qa xeb nluq euaqo ggm vuiv ecrp dr yrcl tizg mlamosp yoqlit sp rautm iswet uwuj xjrrh qm g fctgdoy yxqeajm suy yvlo vykh c peubuor fbcxuytx vuiv kut fg soxvx ur vue dcwzmqa whjmoxg bf hjue jkad pm nnitr aql mketph hjue jqe tkm quvf vhddylswadwpyqia ghhv oyi vue bmux cqh frchj enbnj eczl vue nms gw c pogmquvf fo l ecrp drllmpk cqh frchj xjr khg ausf yufs

the other photo is of a bald man from.. the 18th century I guess? the picture seems inverted somehow.
the comment says: the location of my hidden key can only be found if you start your quest in the wrong places.

As we have learned from grumpyboy, the key is ecnadiug, guidance inverted, like the picture of the bald man, and he deciphered it using some sort of decryption method? I don't really understand, but this seems to be the translation:

once you have decrypted this piece of text using my key from chang mai this will be your next mission london on earls court road there is a baggage storage you will need a certain document this can be found on the auction website of ebay find me there and search ebay for the word ihavefoundthekey then use the year you found along with the key as a codeword so i will believe you found the key good luck


I have checked eBay, but I havent found anything named ihavefoundthekey. Maybe we've missed a bit.

the location of my hidden key can only be found if you start your quest in the wrong places, he said.

he seems to hide his riddles in existing websites. which site would the wrong places be?
I'm going to be doing some more surfing then.

V out.

Found it!

I've found out where to use the 3073!
Stoney said he had checked myspace, flickr and IMDB, so I decided to check that as well. Eventually I entered 3073 as a number in the adress bar at the IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003073/) and found a random movie. I checked the message board, and there it is; the next message from max! :)

by ttocserpxam
Perhaps it was the flickr of a candle, which set the capital ablaze.
Pray tell: 'Forty-three if eager hate.'


I'm looking in to what this could mean and I wonder where Max will lead us next..
V.

what to do with 3073?

A small update.
Stonej and f found that fool stands for 6001 in the octal numeral base and that would make it 3073 in decimal. I think that's the correct answer to the king Charles riddle, because when you open that page, /3073 there is a different page not found message than before.

This might indeed be an answer to a riddle.
However, still not all of the answers
lie were they seem.
The internet is vast.

This doesn’t look like some new riddle but a pointer as where to use that number we found. Something else I found is that if you look at the properties of the picture, it is named “database”
It probably is another clue but I really can’t think of anything it has to do with the riddle itself…

I’ll let you know if I have any ideas about what to do with the number 3073

V

Introductions

I just checked Max’s “lost page” and something had changed. The countdown was gone and the picture had a link attached to it. It leads to a sound file: “introductions.mp3”

A voice introduces himself as Maxwell B Prescott. He claims to be a captive in his own home and needs help. I’m really not sure if he addresses me alone, he doesn’t use my name but just calls me his friend. I’m not his friend! I don’t even know the guy!

He ends his message with a riddle and says it is a very difficult ‘conundrum’

If there was one fool in the court of king Charles the twelfth
What number would he receive from any other king?

Maxwell also mentioned some research should be done. I checked wikipedia for Charles XII and apparently he was a king of Sweden; and, what’s even more interesting, exactly the same picture as on the lost page is on the wikipedia site.

I guess I’m looking for some number, but I don’t understand the fool or court parts… they probably mean or point at something else.

I’ll just keep looking for more info or clues on that wiki site for now…

Lost

Now it seems were getting somewhere.
As redhatty posted in the comments of my last entry, the /whisper code is a cryptogram.
It translates to:

Listen to what I have to say to you
Whilst I am in this cage
On the fourth of June I will come through
As shown on my lost page

There is obviously another hint in there, and using the same tactics as before I punched in /lost.
It shows a page with a picture of some 18th century general and more black on black text:

T-3380

When I just checked it again it said T-3378.
It is counting down...

Two days ago I recieved an email from someone I don't know; saying he was looking forward to the fourth of June.

I don't know what is going on but I'm not sure whether I'm happy with hearing a date being set for some event.
What is going to happen on the 4th? Maybe I should just stay inside until the fifth...

Whisper

It looks like it's time for a little update.
The last couple of weeks I haven't heard from Max. I dindn't really mind cos whoever he is he gives me the creeps.
When I looked at this blog yesterday someone left a comment.
It appears the first letters of the message by max spell the word "whisper" (Thanx Stormalong! :)
Appearantly when I added /whisper I reached another page.
More black on black text. When highlighted it spells

Maysir sp dtus a tuni sp yul sp lpo
Dtamys a uf ar stay juei
Pr sti cpoqst pc hori a damm jpfi stqpoet
Uy ytpdr pr fl mpys kuei

It looks like some sort of encryption? I'm not sure whether I want to solve it.
I'll give it some thought.

V.

Who is Max?

To whoever reads this.

My name is Viktor Jeremy Ailsworth, my friends call me V or Vjails. I'm a Mathematical science major at the NJIT in New Jersey.
I write this Blog because of a few strange letters I recieved.
Some 9 days ago I recieved an envelope with a Japanese stamp. It had obviously been sent from Japan. But the letter inside was signed by some guy named Max Prescott from New York who said he needed my help and that I should go and see him at his website www.Maxprescott.com. I checked out the site, but theres nothing there..

A few days later, I recieved another letter from the same guy, this time stamped in Russia but still Signed by Max Prescott from New York. He again asked for help and asked me why I hadn't visited his site and that I should "Put some effort into it" because I needed to help him..

After further examination of this Maxprescott.com I found that there is black in black text, that when highlighted reads:

Welcome to my place on the web. and a good
hello to those who wish to contact me.
I know I am very elusive and I regret having to be so.
Some people are out to harm me so I don’t instantly know which
people to trust.
eventually, we might gain eachothers trust, but for now
rest assured that if you enter cautiously and quiet, no harm will befall you.

Max B. Prescott

I have no idea what this means or what this Max character is trying to tell me.. Why does he send me letters calling for help if he's making all this so difficult? Enter how? where?

It's been on my mind for days and I can't think of anything else..