I could be a billion miles off but I noticed just now that some of the letter pairs we’ve been given have some closeness with a computer keyboard, I think with better accuracy after translated to the Tinker cipher. I might look into various other layouts but so far QWERTY and AZERTY haven’t panned out but maybe if I look at something different?
I’m probably completely wrong but all of a sudden some stuff looked kind of nice to that explanation
Okay, Mounties. I just checked and found: qiuqeggy.
HOW the heck did that start out as “included”?
Gee I was going to tell everyone to ignore me but now they should really ignore me
Ooh, there was a different type of cipher that involved a big alphabet grid (forget the name, have to look it up again), maybe that’s how it has two doubles when the original word only has one?
Couldn’t get the solver on the site to work, but maybe putting in the work myself…? 
edit: Vigenere cipher is what I was trying to remember.
It may be worth our time to look into an autokey cipher, a variant of the regular Vigenere
Edit: It is notable to me that I’ve used this type of tabula recta cipher to encode passwords before. In my case, however, I used a block of completely random characters – letters, numbers, and punctuation – so this could also be considerably more complicated than the surface check might have us believe
Hello, Basecamps 33 & 34. 
Both Aether and I have inexplicably regained access to the forum.
We’re not sure if it’s permanent or just to help with Saberlane’s codex (@Aether has thoughts, see below), but regardless, I won’t bore you right now with what we’ve been up to since the manor fell, I’ll just say we’re good, we’re safe, and we’re in NYC.
First, we’re SO relieved to see you’re all safe and doing well, Mounties.
Second, hi Eaves. How are you? It’s been so long. Lion’s Heart sounds fantastic, and… Gav!
Okay, for now though, onto the pressing matter. Aether agrees that, well, I’m going to just copy and paste what he texted me this morning:
It’s definitely a multi-phase encryption. The latest word, “included,” turning into “qiuqeggy,” doesn’t totally give up the solution, but it might kinda hint at one of the phases. How could a word with only two duplicated non-sequential letters have two qs and two side-by-side gs when encoded?
It could if the encryption was relative to something else, and with nothing else to go on, I’m betting one of the methods of encryption is based on something IN the word or maybe the letters in the word. My best guess was letter placement, first letter, second letter, like the first letter shifts by one, the second letter shifts by two, etc., but I couldn’t reverse “qieqeggy” back into “included” with just that.
I ended up with “pgbmzazq,” which is just letters, obviously, but if I’m right, “pgbmzazq” means whatever “relative-shift” encryption is happening is happening AFTER another phase that mixes up the letters. So there are at least two methods. Maybe more.
I’d love to have a stab at helping pick the next clue word because picking one with something trackable, like side-by-side double-letters, could help us figure out how the word is being mixed up in the first phase.
One thing for them to not forget is that a lot of the older magimystic encryptions they solved acted like typical brain-teaser puzzles or even video games, where the first stage teaches the ground rules, and the next one flips that first stage or adds complications knowing you have the basics to build on. So if there are two phases, which there are, that means reversing the word like they did with the first clue might be what’s happening in the first phase, or maybe even in a step AFTER the “relative-shift.”
I kinda love this stuff.
Does that make sense to anyone but Aether?
Hey Endri!
I’ll need to write some stuff out to really dig in, but Aether’s multi-phase thought would definitely make sense. When I was trying to use “ashore” instead of “snarl” (backwards), I noticed that it would switch the a and r in snarl.
It’s really bringing back memories of Knatz’s puzzle box. Do this to read the riddle, then do the same thing to the answer to get the actual answer…
Ooh, that’s interesting, Ash.
This is Saberlane’s codex, and he was there for the puzzle box back in 1998, even though he lost those memories. I doubt it’s directly connected to the issue at hand, but it’s an interesting notion that the echoes of his experiences may have subconsciously informed his magimystic work. 
First can I just say how incredibly proud I am that of the choices of the words ‘included’, ‘asserted’ and ‘offended’ 15 out of 15 mounties who voted chose ‘included’. Solving puzzles and saving the world is cool and all, but finding good people is better.
To Endri’s question It makes sense on a couple levels. What Aether says is definitely a path. It seems to involve at least 8 guesses on what Step 1 is though, and we don’t even know if end result is correct. At this point we’re just making guesses and hoping we stack enough correct guesses on top of one another to get to a correct solution. That’s a time consuming process.
But, Aether is a smart meat calculator. I’ll look deeper into the idea. My own ideas were just coming up with equally random strings, so why not take a stab at someone elses. 
Just an aside; I feel like this is possibly the longest-lasting puzzle we’ve yet encountered.
Wow, hi, @Endri. It’s really good to hear from you.
I have to admit, there’s an adept here named Charlie who found the Sanctuary just before we left it. Before the new age/new rules, he could sense the emotional state of people (It’s more complicated than that. He could feel the overall emotional state of people connected to himself or someone he’s in the physical presence of,) and I asked him to check in on a few people, including you, Bash (please tell them I said hi), and Aether (personally requested by Port, who also says hi!)
So I knew, at least pre-Mirumagiqum, that you were safe.
I would say there’s so much to say, but my life the past few years is in a book (can you see the books as well as the forum?), so I guess there isn’t all that much to catch you up on.
But I’d love to know what you’ve been up to, how you’re doing, and if everyone and everything is good.
Other than hi, and… I miss you.
Mounties, we have three new words in the codex.
Choose:
Mutineer, amidships, or figurehead.
0 voters
Note that my vote for mutineer is purely because of Aether’s thing about tracking double letters.
Hi Eaves! Hi Port!!! Do they have Nutter Butters at Lion’s Heart, or did Big Cocoa finally brainwash you into thinking chocolate beats peanut butter? All lies (unless you’re a Mounty with peanut allergies, then no Nutters for you.)
So, I vote Mutineer because of the double “E,” but I can see arguments for the two Es in Figurehead, and two Is in Amidships.
I caught the obvious boat theme but did anyone notice anything else about the words?
Might be a coincidence, might be a hint, but it’s kinda sus popping up less than 24 hours after Endri posted my theory.
I didn’t even catch a nautical theme, much less anything else about the words. Sorry. 
Oh man, sorry! I meant to actually write out the clue and forgot, sorry for the cryptics:
Mutineer = 8 letters
Amidships = 9 letters
Figurehead = 10 letters
And unless Eaves tells us otherwise, that’s the order they were in the quote from the codex.
I know Sabes doesn’t control the codex directly, but maybe the codex itself is giving us what’s basically a clue that we’re on the right track about the “relative shift”?
We got this, Mounties.
But, Sabes created the codex, and I feel fairly confident in imagining he might have had some level of foresight into it’s creation?
But there’s also a reason I am staying very quiet on this thread, and that’s because puzzles like this are total kryptonite.
I had about an hour to work on this.
So I’ve tried assuming there are 3 steps here (in no particular order).
reverse the string
apply the first cipher
perform some sort of logical ‘shift’ to each letter. I refer to this process from here on out as ‘Aetherizing’ the string.
For included with the goal of getting to qiuqeggy
I’ve tried reverse → cipher → Aetherize
reverse → Aetherizxe → cipher
cipher → Aetherize → reverse
cipher → reverse → aetherize
Aetherize → reverse → cipher
aetherize → cipher → reverse
And then I realized I no idea whether to Aetherize forward or backward, so I did all that another time in the opposite direction.
All I’ve got out of it is a headache and a bunch or random letters. I guarentee you I did some of those above steps wrong. It was all just a mish mosh of letters after a while and my brain lost track constantly. I’m not going to do all those again though.
I think the bones of the idea is decent, reverse, cipher, Aetherize. But I can’t figure out what Aether shift to use to get where we want to go.
Maybe someone can use any of this to help their own ideas.
This is exactly where I was headed with my ideas. I worked on this all last night and didn’t get anywhere really, but my brain feels more ready for it today
Well I hope you have more luck than I did. I tried and got the same resulting headache.
ETA: I don’t know if I’m doing things wrong, but…
The resulting code doesn’t have any 'G’s…
Now to try cipher/reverse/aetherize
ETA2: okay…
So, don’t shoot the messenger, but I wrote in Mutineer last night, and today we have:
nzbusghr
@Aether, does this help with your theory?
