Really great work everyone. I wrote the passage in the codex and I’ll follow up if/when anything happens!
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We have new words to choose from, Mounties!
In fact, we’ve had one for about ten days but we’ve been without power for almost two weeks.
I kind of wish Saberlane hadn’t hidden the codex here at Lion’s Heart because there’s no reliable way to get you information if bad castle decides it wants us to live in the Middle Ages for a while.
Here are the three new word choices:
- Valentine
- Violent
- Vestige
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- Valentine
- Violent
- Vestige
0 voters
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Afternoon Mounties, I wrote in the leading word in the poll before bed last night (vestige), and this just appeared in the codex:
ulcmpnpxdvagxw
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Twice as many letters in the output says we’re getting pairs somehow this time. My immediate guess involves spacing letters on either side of the enciphered letter at some step
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Just rewriting the ciphertext a few different ways.
as pairs
ul-cm-pn-px-dv-ag-xw
split in half
ulcmpnp - xdvagvw
odds vs evens
ucppdax - lmnxvgw
That last one ucppdax looks promising. Isn’t it similar to what we had before move ‘v’ down one step to get ‘u’ ‘e’ down 2 steps to get ‘c’, etc, I don’t know if the other set of letters has significance though.
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Nope I was wrong.
Split text into pairs
ul cm pn px dv ag xw
reverse
xw ag dv px np mc lu
rotate letters by place value
wv ye as lt ki wg ne
second letters give v e s t i g e
A couple of times the first letter in each pair rotates back over the alphabet so I honestly guessed with those but you get
wyalkwn if those rotations are right
Edit: If the rotations are wrong, you can take out the two that roll over and get w( )alk( )n which immediately puts in my head “Christopher Walken” so I assume he’s involved somehow?
Edit 2: If you split the pairs out into two different sets at the beginning you’re given
ucppdax and lmnxvgw
and if you leave ucppdax as normal and rotate by value you get vestige again
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Oh, what if we apply the rule you found to get vestige → ucppdax to lmnxvgw? Maybe a second word is hidden in there?
Edit, oh, that was what you meant by wyalkwn. never mind. 
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No you were totally right and the ideas were all just disjointed. Stream of consciousness and adrenaline can do that I guess?
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Forget the other post and focus on this one where I try to be cleaner.
Start with ulcmpnpxdvagxw
Split those into pairs → ul cm pn px dv ag xw
Break those pairs into two sets → ucppdax and lmnxvgw
Rotate ucppdax forward by place → vestige
Reverse lmnxvgw → wgvxnml
Rotate wgvxnml backward by place → vestige
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Brilliant! Well done!
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I forgot to add the encrypted text! Sorry, been a long day:
mimipvlwvtwixlgwwqhetiuoemqjefmfjevctfgqpqisduomfunucwqscikumeingdwkcxyaufsuffafarzsxizsaeasspmbwoawnliirfstpvaqyo
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Using odd letters rotating forward gives
mmplvwxgwhtueqemjvtgpidofncqckmigwcyusfaazxzaasmwanirspay
nospaceofregretcanmakeamendsforonelifesopportunitymisused
no space of regret can make amends for one lifes opportunity misused
Edit: Looks like we got A Christmas Carol by Dickens this time. Still looking for the Christopher Walken connection but I’ll let you all know when I find it
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Great work on the encryption, @DjangoSolare!
I’m useless when it comes to the decoding, but I’m happy to try and help with Lion’s Heart, @Eaves.
Have you noticed anything triggering the castle’s “protection,” or could it possibly be an intermittent/fading spell? Something akin to the Joradian safeguard? I know the Joradian text mentions that it needs to be re-implemented as the number of people under its protection increases. Could that be something?
Also, I know Yuri is working to unravel how adepts can use their power in the new age but has she or any others felt anything weird going on when you lose power?
Have you yourself felt anything change?
Any information you have could help us help!
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I would just like to point out that this was posted and solved before I even woke up this morning… 
You never slow down, do you?
Also, so people don’t have to scroll up as much, the quotes we’ve uncovered so far are:
"if in this world there is one misery having no relief it is the pressure on the heart from the incommunicable and if another sphinx should arise to propose another enigma to man saying what burden is that which only is insupportable by human fortitude I should answer at once it is the burden of the incommunicable" - Confessions of an English Opium Eater, by Thomas de Quincey
"such visions or desires for they amounted to desires are common I have since been assured to the whole numerous race of the melancholy among men at the time of which i speak i regarded them only as prophetic glimpses of a destiny which i felt myself in a measure bound to fulfil" - The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allan Poe
"no space of regret can make amends for one lifes opportunity misused" A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
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Of these texts, the first and second (Confessions and Pym) deal with personal struggles and the use of drugs (it’s a much more minor part of Pym, but Poe did include comments on alcohol and alcoholism), and both have at least some autobiographical elements. A Christmas Carol is the stumbling block though. It does focus on a character facing personal challenges, but it has no overt discussions of drug use or any kind of autobiographical component.
They are in order of publication though. Confessions of an English Opium Eater was published in 1821, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym in 1838, and A Christmas Carol in 1843.
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Stunning job on the cipher!
In finding connections, it seems that Dickens and Poe actually met each other in 1842, when Dickens was doing a tour of the US. I can’t find anything on Poe directly influencing Dickens, the way de Quincy is noted as being an inspiration or source for some of Poe’s work. They did exchange a few letters and seem to have been cordial if not overly friendly.
A Christmas Carol also tops with the amount of editions, with thirteen editions being released by the end of 1844–one year after its original publishing! There was an illegal copy made in 1844 that Dickens sued for. I can’t find anything on the portions that may have been changed in those editions, however.
Perhaps we are following works that have to do with change and growth, whether through internal or external (or ghostly) means? The quotes themselves are also all rather melancholy or somewhat sorrowful.
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We’ve heard a lot of stories about the castle having a mind of its own, but if anything, it’s probably just old magic flickering.
I don’t know if Yuri has sensed anything. I know she’s focused on what’s happened with adepts, but we haven’t really talked in a while.
I appreciate you offering to help @Endri, but I don’t know if it’s something “fixable” or even worth the effort. If I’m honest, I don’t mind it.
We’re okay here.
I wrote the decoded passage in the journal. If/when anything changes, I’ll let you know!
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I couldn’t figure it out, but Gav finally managed to get a shot of what showed up in the journal overnight. This is with a ton of adjusting to make it visible. It looks like you did it, Mounties! What it is exactly, I don’t know, but:
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It kind of looks like a fancy, sideways G!
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