The Miskatonic Occult Literature Library and Unusually Special Collections Department
A Way With Wards
Dearest takobon,
You’ve asked me many questions about the wards protecting The Library’s contents. Of course, I trust you with all the books, scroll, and other curiosities The Library has to offer. The wards aren’t in place to stop you from accessing them. They’re in place to help protect the works from the bookworms.
Questions you’ve asked me in your missives include…
Can I share the extra clues with other people?
I ask that you do so only in private spaces, lest the wrong types overhear…the vermin…the vermery…the wormery…the worms…
You can solve it with friends, foes, or on your own. I only ask that you keep your efforts off of public and permanent spaces. Perhaps you would do well to start a little chatroom to discuss these puzzles? One of those new-fangled Internet Relay Chats? I am not able to facilitate such a symposium at this time, nor point you in the right direction, but I’m sure that an enterprising and curious entity such as yourself could find likeminded individuals somewhere.
There is already a fan Discord server set up for takobon who wish to undertake the ward solving as a group endeavor. Please note that for fairness purposes, I am not a part of this servers, but some of my Assistant Librarians may be present. https://discord.com/invite/ujTtGeTcen
Should I spend money to solve the ward?
If you are at the stage where you’re considering spending real money to solve a ward, e.g. to hire the whiz-kids at Miskatonic Institute of Technology to write a program to crack it, take a step back from the puzzle and come back to it later.
If you really want to spend money in a way that can solve a frustrating problem — and one to do with Worms, even! — may I suggest considering donating to the Guinea Worm Eradication Program?*
*Please note: this is not a clue, and details about Guinea worms are extremely horrific. I am not associated with The Carter Center or any other organizations involved in Guinea worm eradication, but it is a cause I genuinely believe in.
How do credits and rewards work?
The first person to send me a screenshot proving they got past a ward has the option of getting credit for the find as well as the right to ask me three questions about The Library. I’ll pick which one of the three questions I answer.
In the case of a group effort, I ask that that the group select a single representative — an ‘Section Librarian’. The representative who submits the screenshot let me know how they want the group to be credited, as well as the number of people that participated in the solve, so I can list how many takobon-hours it took to solve the ward. The Section Librarian of the group effort gets to ask three questions, of which, again, I’ll pick a single question to answer.
Can you help me solve a ward?
Of course. However, this means that your solve will not count as a ‘non-assisted’ solve. If you are stuck, consider every element found on the page leading to the ward. Some wards may not work properly if you’re attempting to solve them through the lens of your mobile device.
In the case of a group effort, if you’d like additional clues, please ask your Section Librarian to ask me for the additional clues so I can tally how many clues it took your group to bypass the ward.
Where do I find information on how to unseal a ward?
The information on how to unseal a ward is found on the page you found a given ward. For instance, if page 23 was warded, the information you need to unseal page 23 would be found on page 22. If you went to a page on horticulture, which linked to a page on pitaya, but the pitaya page was warded, the answer for that ward would be found on the horticulture page. I am not able, at this time, to list the instructions for each warded page on the warded pages themselves. The Library can only use one ‘stamp’ to ward all pages. This will hopefully change in the future.
Do I need to use outside tools/references to unseal a ward?
You may find external tools and references useful for unsealing a ward. You will probably need those tools, or at minimum, a pencil and paper. I’ve ensured that all wards can be solved using free tools and reference works, easily found online.
Do I need to spend any money to unlock a ward, e.g. gift ten subscriptions to The Library for a clue?
Absolutely not. The wards are intended to be solvable for free by anyone who dedicates the time to solving them.
Have fun. This is supposed to be fun, you know.
And remember, the only thing you really need to solve these puzzles is that tiny pink squishy thing of yours…that little brain, so delicious…and a mind is a terrible thing to waste. And if you don’t solve these puzzles, well…I’d still make sure to find a use for it. After all, it’s always lunchtime somewhere…
Yours,
Miss Eldra Echo
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For passwords: one ‘word,’ ALLCAPS, or numbers, no symbols, standard Latin alphabet (e.g. no umlauts, no dingbats, no emojis), no punctuation, no spaces. The password could be a phrase.
There will be a password box if you’ve reached a ward that can be unlocked with a password.
For URLs: all lowercase if in letters, one ‘word’. They have to be lowercase due to limitations with the Square Dimension. All Squarespace URLs are all lowercase.
Example: let’s say the ward password was ‘I love bees.’ That means the proper way to enter it would be ILOVEBEES — one ‘word,’ all capital letters.
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Probably, yes, you will need to use outside tools to solve a ward.
You might, if you don’t, for instance, know something like Morse code. If there is a skill/knowledge base involved in solving a ward, the assumption is you can learn that skill/knowledge base within a few hours.
You should neverhave to install software to solve a ward. However, you may find software useful in solving clues, e.g. by slowing down videos.
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No. Assisted solves involve getting non-public additional hints from The Library in order to get past a ward. For instance, if, for the VOYNICH ward, a librarian told you the last letter was H, that would count as an assisted solve.
Brute forced solutions do not count as ‘solves.’
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The Library tries not to base its wards on information that is likely to be highly dynamic.
For instance, the atomic number of gold is 79. That will likely not change (never say never.)
However, the price of gold, the number of pieces of gold jewelry on a specific website, the fifth word on the Wikipedia article for gold — those are all dynamic, and would not be used as part of a solve.
One exception to this rule is videos. Videos on YouTube can’t have things like their contents and time stamps changed easily, but they may be delisted, so when possible, The Library avoids referencing non-Library videos for ward clues.
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The Square Dimension does not allow The Library to set multiple/custom ward pages. Only one ward page can be set for The Library as a whole appearance-wise, even though different sections of The Library can be unlocked with different wards.
Squarespace only allows me to visually customize one password page, so two different pages requiring two different passwords will have the same password page visually, even though they’re opened by different passwords.
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Any Library-generated information you need to unlock a ward will be listed/linked on the page before the ward. Additional tools you may need — e.g. a Morse code guide — will not be linked but can be easily found online.r
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Any references to outside works of art will be based on works that are freely available and within the public domain. Because not everyone has the same equipment, wards will not be based on video games at this time.
If there are multiple textual sources available, please utilize the copy of the source found via Project Gutenberg rather than, say, a random website,
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This isn’t a game show. You do not have to spend any money to solve wards or get clues. The wards were all devised and composed using either free software, or software with a free equivalent — if software was used at all.
Donathon and subathon rewards are not related to the wards. Those will be related to projects such as upgrading The Library’s equipment.
Preference regarding wards/clues will not be shown to those takobon who choose to generously contribute to The Library. Regrettably, the only benefit to them is my eternal thanks and increased ability/freedom to create even more difficult wards.
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At this time, no. If a ‘side quest’ becomes available — e.g. involving clues hidden at, say, OffKai — they will be for a separate project and not related to your ‘main quest.’
Ward from 0/0/0 to February 4th, 2025: VOYNICH
How to solve the ward:
During my reveal, I posted a series of images that had various ‘page’ numbers. Those numbers form the sequence 22.37.62.76.85.88.96
What’s the 22nd letter of the alphabet? V.
What’s the 37th letter of the alphabet? There isn’t one.
What’s the difference between 37 and 22? 15.
What’s the 15th letter of the alphabet? O.
There were only two confirmed non-assisted solves of this ward before I opened the doors of The Library. I think I should’ve made the sequence 0.22.37.62.76.85.88.96 to make it easier.
I posted the following to make it easier to figure out but I guess it didn’t help.
Only two confirmed puzzle solves so far?
My, my, takobon…did I make this too hard?
Are you cold or hot, far or near?
Very ominous, yes, no, I can’t hear….
The first letter of the words of the last line spell what? VOYNICH.
I also made a Twitter poll reading,
‘Should I open the gate to the library? Perhaps this is a clue.
Very much so
Open it already
Yes, please
Now, now, now!’
What do you get when you take the first letter of each option? VOYN, the first 4 letters of the ward’s password.
I also changed the text to read,
0.22.37.62.76.85.88.96 = 22.37.62.76.85.88.96, for the purpose of the solve. It does not make a difference.
Difference = subtraction, telling you what you need to do to turn numbers into letters.
I think the low solve rate is on me for not including a 0 at the start.
What is the VOYNICH and why was it the wardword?
The Voynich Manuscript — which I affectionately simply call ‘The Voynich’ — is named after one of the people known to have owned it, is a yet-untranslated text featuring a variety of botanical, alchemical/medical/pharmacological, astrological, and astronomical illustrations and, presumably, text. Of course, when it comes to codices, you already know it’s wise not to…make assumptions.
I picked VOYNICH as the word because I was hoping that it would be a fun thing for you to read about while I set The Library up. Maybe by the time you solve The Voynich, I’ll actually have The Library ready for you to use.
Ward from February 4th, 2025 to February 9th, 2025: ALEMBIC
How to solve this ward:
🝪
This character that appeared on the pre-ward page is the Unicode symbol for alembic. The password was hidden in plain sight. An alembic is an alchemical tool used for distillation. It actually has three Unicode representations: 🝪, ⚗, ⚗️.
I changed the ward earlier than I expected to need to because it was brought to my attention that the 🝪 doesn't display correctly in some browsers/on some devices/with some operating systems. Once again, the low solve rate is on me.
Why ‘ALEMBIC?’
I like Unicode stuff. I think it’s interesting we have three Unicode glyphs for ‘alembic’ and not a single Unicode glyph for ‘puppet?’ Think of all the great uses for a puppet and puppeteer emoji set.
It’s like how there’s a ton of fish Pokémon but not a single book Pokémon, except it isn’t. Or maybe it is? You be the judge.
The three Unicode glyphs for alembic are…
🝪 (a written glyph that was already used — a lot of obscure but historical written glyphs are in unicode, such as my personal favorite, the multiocular O ꙮ, a letter with only one discovered historical use)
⚗ (described simply as a pictogram by Wikipedia)
⚗️ (an emoji whose history was actually discussed on the Unicode subreddit, although I didn’t know about that post until I wrote this ward entry)
I sometimes like to go fishing in the Unicode ponds and see what I can dredge up. One of my favorite symbols is actually 🗨️ (‘left speech bubble’). It’s not accessible on the main emoji keyboards. It’s most commonly seen as part of the ‘I Am A Witness’ emoji: 👁️🗨️. It’s what’s known as a ZWJ Sequence. A ZWJ sequence basically mushes up at least 2 emojis into another emoji.
A lot of the puzzles are based on random weird things I run into that I want to talk about with people, and this seems like a neat way of getting people to talk about them…even if it’s a relatively frustrating (for you) and roundabout way (for me) of pursuing that endeavor.
Ward from February 4th, 2025 to February 9th, 2025: CAGEDCAGEDCAGEDCAGED
How to solve this ward:
(Ward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKWA0fFDFfs)
The ward consisted of a video transcription of a numbers station. The numbers station was made
To solve this ward, you needed to know the following:
What a numbers station is
That numbers stations often utilize pieces of music to mark loops in their transmissions
The musical notes of the MIDI file I made were the type found on a standard Western piano, consisting of the notes A-G with sharps/flats
You were supposed to very quickly realize that the numbers I was saying were a red herring and did not have to do with this ward, although numbers may be important in solving future wards. The numbers were in a truly random order.
Why ‘CAGEDCAGEDCAGEDCAGED?’ and why this ward?
I’d always wanted to make a numbers station stream, and I’d wanted to see if I could make a random numbers station stream. If the numbers station is random, where’s the code?
The code is in the music.
How do you code something in music? There’s a lot of ways to do it, but I decided to write a little ‘song!’
When I learned to play the piano, I was at the age where I was learning to spell, so it was fun to see what words I could spell using just the letters A-G. For context, the standard letters used in Classical Western music are the letters A-G, with some in-between letters known as sharps/flats.
Other suggested candidates for this week’s solution were CABBAGE and BABE.
How I made the ward:
I used a music notation software, Crescendo, and wrote out CAGEDCAGEDCAGEDCAGED in musical notes.
I exported a MIDI file from Crescendo which you can download here, imported it into Garage Band, and found a piano instrument preset in Garage Band that was pretty clear.
I exported an audio file from Garage Band, played it out my computer speakers, recorded it with my microphone, so it would sound like it was being played live, acoustically.
I recorded myself saying the numbers 1-26, 7 times each, which was originally meant to be a clue but it wasn’t a great clue. The number 7 corresponds to the number of musical notes.
I went into CapCut and made…uh…183 videos. Each video consisted of the same image slide + an audio file (either the music or one of the 182 files of me saying the numbers.)
I imported all 183 videos into VLC, set it to true random shuffle, loaded that into OBS, hit play, hit stream.
I updated the ward because I was made aware it was going to be prohibitively difficult to transcribe the audio. I went back into CapCut, only made 1 video for me saying each of the numbers 1-26, and this time, included a visual for the videos that had the matching number, with each number given a unique non-repeating color. The same went for the song, which was given the slide [musical interlude.] The colors were not special. They were just picked using the crayon box style color picker built into Mac, to ensure they were different enough from each other for people to transcribe easily using software.
Clues:
I made posts telling people to just ‘listen to the music.’ That was not a good enough clue.
Post-mortem:
This was probably my worst ward so far. I am very sorry that I didn’t set this up better and that a ward of this difficulty level was released so early into The Library’s public history.
A lack of verified non-assisted solves for this ward isn’t indicative of a well-made puzzle on my end. These puzzles are meant to be solvable and fun, and I think this one didn’t end up being as fun for people to play with as it could’ve been. My apologies.
What I’d do differently if I had a Time Machine:
Color-code the numbers from the start: The first version of this ward did not use color-coded number slides, meaning that people were literally considering hiring somebody to transcribe the numbers by hand. I didn’t realize that color-coding the slides meant people’s software could transcribe the videos more easily. The goal of the wards isn’t to provide busy work, and the randomization apparently wasn’t clear enough from the start.
Not use random numbers: I should’ve made the ‘random numbers’ give a meaningful clue, e.g. ‘TRANSCRIBE MIDI’
Pre-record the loop: I should’ve just pre-recorded the loop, because the ‘truly random numbers station’ idea was a bad one
Upload a pre-recorded loop to YouTube: Given the time zones issue, it makes the most sense to upload ward clues to YouTube rather than to debut them on a livestream.
Wait until I have stable Internet to try to stream the numbers station: I have Ethernet now, so hopefully, this won’t be as much of an issue in the future.
Not use as many red herrings in general: red herrings are the chaotic evil of fish species: they’re not very nice.
I had to add a new section, that section was getting too long, sorry, ahhhh
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I had to add a new section, that section was getting too long, sorry, ahhhh 〰️
Ward from February 9th, 2025 to ???: PETRICHOR
How to solve this ward:
Solve the nonogram I linked to, which was solvable in a browser.
Scan the finished nonogram, which was a QR code.
I think the first solve came in with zero assists in under an hour.
Why ‘PETRICHOR’ and why this ward?
Why PETRICHOR? It was raining and smelled good outside.
Why the nonogram QR code? I’ve been doing a lot of nonograms lately, as anyone who follows my Twitter knows by now (this should be you, you should follow my Twitter.) I noticed that both nonograms and QR codes are basically black and white pixel art, and I found a tool that lets you make QR code nonograms that are solvable in-browser. Win/win. I got to show off a cool tool. It was an easy ward this week because the previous week’s had been so difficult and I knew the next one was also going to be pretty hard. It was a breather week for both of us.
I fell into a rabbit hole about QR codes and learned they can deliver not just URLs, but text as well — just plaintext. Maybe one day somebody will propose to me via QR code? Ha. Ha. Hahaha. Hahaha. Ha. Good one, Eldra…
How I made the ward:
The website I linked to in the clues lets you generate QR code nonograms really easily. Here it is. http://qrcode-nonogram.netlify.app
Clues:
The weather this week: rain. A perfect backdrop for doing some puzzles.*
*Please note that the generous nonogram AI is a little…hasty in determining whether a given number has actually been accounted for, so don’t rely on the hint/assist feature too heavily. The devs of that tool are not associated with The Library.
I directly gave a link to a QR code nonogram. When solved and scanned, it delivered the word ‘PETRICHOR,’ which was the ward of the…well, it was longer than a week.
I also provided a link to Rainy Mood, which has to do with rain, but that wasn’t a huge clue. It was more like…window dressing.
Post-mortem:
This was a really simple ward.
What I’d do differently if I had a Time Machine:
Nothing, perfect ward, 10/10, I’m great
Okay, so, to be fair — one issue is that the nonogram for the QR code wasn’t a ‘true’ nonogram, in that it had multiple solutions. However, I think any of the solutions, when scanned, would’ve spit out the word PETRICHOR.
Ward from ??? to ???: BACCHANTES
How to solve this ward:
Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Okay, so using grapes.png, we can test the seven different colors.
Colors:
1: 115 115 115, 737373
2: 121 121 121, 797979
3: 110 110 110, 6E6E6E
4: 111 111 111, 6F6F6F
5: 110 110 110, 6E6E6E
6: 121 121 121, 797979
7: 109 109 109, 6D6D6D
15, 21, 10, 11, 10, 21, 9
oujkjui
What does oujkjui mean? IDK, maybe we can ask our good friend Caesar Cipher.
+30 Casear = synonym
I’m an old person, and I know that .png and .zip files have a weird synergy, so I checked the text of the .png file because I was having issues unzipping it on Mac. I saw the word ‘thyrsus,’ Googled it, remembered the context of it from my college days — it’s a staff bacchantes or maenads used.
There’s a clue in the file that says ‘STARTS WITH B.’ So what’s a synonym, starting with a B, that has to do with a thyrsus? BACCHANTE or BACCHANTES.
You can unzip the PNG if you’re smarter than me, getting an executable called thyrsus.com, run that, and it’ll spit out a painting.
Put it all together — what’s in the painting that starts with a B, that has to do with a thyrsus? BACCHANTES.
Why ‘BACCHANTES’ and why this ward?
I asked LCOLONQ if he’d be down to make a ward for me and he was, and this was the word he picked without any prompting from me. It was perfect, given my academic background, and I knew exactly what short story I’d want to write for it.
If you want details as to why LCOLONQ made the ward he did, you should probably go spam him with gift subs on Twitch until he answers. I heard streamers love that.
How I made the ward:
Psych, I didn’t. All credit goes to the man of letters himself, Mr. L. COLON. Q.
Clues:
I embedded a link to the file in my debut slideshow with the name ‘Got any grapes?’ as a hint as to the fact the clue had to do with grapes. I also said that this week’s snack, courtesy of LCOLONQ, was grapes. That was it. You were otherwise on your own.
Why grapes? He sent me the file as grapes.png.
Post-mortem:
Best ward ever.
What I’d do differently if I had a Time Machine:
Nothing, perfect ward, 10/10, LCOLONQ is great
Okay, so, to be fair — I’d get a normie computer so I could’ve tested this on a normie computer I guess, but that’s not on LCOLONQ, that’s on me
Also, my bad — I forgot that the file said ‘starts with a B’ so I set the password to MAENADS for like 10 minutes.