# Escape The Strange, Code-Filled Cave

You awake in a weird cave with something strange written on the wall. You find a small piece of paper on a rock. It says the following:

Solving each code and entering it into the password entering device, or the P.E.D. for short, will unlock the next room in the cave.

Rules:

1. I will only accept answers which fully explain their reasoning for EVERYTHING.

2. If your answer comes up at about the same time as another person's, I will accept the answer based on quality of your work. (Note: I will still upvote both)

3. Note that it will get very difficult, and some stages may feel impossible to solve, but I bet somebody will solve it, because someone always solves it on PuzzlingSE, and everyone here is awesome at puzzles!

4. There's technically nothing stopping you from going to a room you aren't on, so I want you to pinky promise to me that you won't. ;)

5. Codes are in bold

Good Luck!

Room 9 Hint:

This has something to do with morse code.

=========================================================================

Room #1:

A sign above the P.E.D. says eerht-ytfif and .retal lufesu eb yam siht

Room #2:

You see lots of letters on the wall that say XXIV. You also see a carving that says "xis kcab evom"

Room #3:

Carvings on the wall say Tjyuz.

Room #4:

You see a sign hanging from the wall that says Bismuth.

Room #5:

You talk to a man who says "I'm a prisoner here too. Here, take this slip of paper I found 3 rooms ago. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out." You look at the paper and see the text: vrayDBO

Room #6:

You a long plaque taking the whole left wall that says 010101000111011101100101011011100111010001111001001011010101010001110111 01101111.

Room #7:

You find a man, no doubt crazy from being locked in the cave, say that he knows the code, but will only tell you in riddle form. He says The code is of 5 numbers, and each number is different. The sum of all its numbers equals 21. The second number is twice the third, the third is twice the first, and the first is twice the fourth. The fifth number is twice the difference of the third number minus the fourth number.

Room #8:

You find a massive wall with a massive plaque that says: 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 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00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000. You wonder what this long string of numbers could mean. You see another smaller plaque that says URURURURURUXZ

Room #9:

A man says: "I think the last room is next. I just can't solve this puzzle! Here, you try it!" The man hands you a slip of paper which says VI AO CU I B NIJL EGKHJI UIO E AOEH E GA You are utterly confused and do not know what this could even mean.

Room #10

There is a sign that says: You have gone this far, and solved many puzzles, but now you are nearing the end. If you have paid close attention, then the following should be easy. Just as you finish reading it, a panel pops up from the wall. It shows one code: OUR 5mooR 85 11100110011101101001011001101110001101101111011011001110 QVAAMFT. If you can find a way to solve it then you and your new friends can get out of the weird cave and to safety! The P.E.D. comes up through the wall, but this time you can enter letters instead of numbers.

• Are partial answers okay to be posted (all three so far are partial)? – HDE 226868 May 31 '15 at 22:30
• Yeah, it's fine – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:44
• I'm glad to see people are liking this! It took a while to make! – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 23:00
• Excellent puzzle, very creative. Kudos to you! – Sam Weaver Jun 1 '15 at 0:31
• Just seeing the title, I thought this was about a computer programmer looking for a new job. :-) – Caleb Hines Jun 1 '15 at 4:43

Room 1:

Additional message: this may be useful later.

Room 2:

Roman numerals: XXIV=24

Room 3:

Caesar cipher with key 53 (from room 1), or 1 (mod 26). Shift backwards.

Room 4:

Periodic table of elements: Bismuth is element 83.

Room 5:

In room 2, use the additional message for Caesar shift 6 letters backward.
Message: plusXVI, or plus 16
Password: 24 + 16 = 40

Room 6:

Binary

Room 7:

Assume password has format $xyzab$. We are given the following:
$$x+y+z+a+b=21$$
$$y=2z$$
$$z=2x$$
$$x=2a$$
$$b=2(z-a)$$
Therefore,
$$y=2z=4x=8a$$
$$z=2x=4a$$
$$b=2(4a-a)=6a$$
So,
$$x+y+z+a+b=2a+8a+4a+a+6a=21a=21$$
We get $a=1$.

Room 8:

Please see the excellent answers given by MisterEman22, rand al'thor, and HDE 226868. I couldn't find a binary translator willing to take such a long string of numbers!

Take the binary text and convert that to text. Convert that to text again. Do it again to get number 57.

Room 9:

rand al'thor got this one first (as usual):
Turn each vowel into a dot and each consonant into a dash. Translate morse to text.
Morse: -. .. -. . - -.-- .----. ... . ...- . -.
Note: there was probably a mistake in encoding the character -. In morse, that should be -....-, which was written as .---..

Room 10:

The encryption method used previously were:
- backwards
- roman numerals
- caesar cipher (1 and 6 letters backwards)
- periodic table of elements
- binary (1 and 3 times)
- math/algebra
- morse

One part at a time:
OUR: U (morse)
5mooR: Room5 (backwards)
85: At (element astatine, which is number 85)
11100110011101101001011001101110001101101111011011001110: solving (backwards, binary)
QVAAMFT: PUZZLES (caesar cipher backwards by 1)

Room5 decoded (credit to Zandar for this one): The answer for Room 5 is 40. In roman numerals, that would be XL, or excel in english.

Together, that would be: U XL At solving PUZZLES

In english, that would be: You excel at solving puzzles.

• Good job except for room 2 the "move back six" was the hint for room 5 for the cipher, not the room 2 number. The room 2 number is 40. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:50
• Oh, LOL, I meant room 5 was 40. Room 2 is then 24. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:53
• Something like that, yes, but not exactly. You're getting close! – Xandawesome Jun 7 '15 at 22:41
• Don't worry. you'll get it! – Xandawesome Jun 7 '15 at 22:48
• Sure! I'm glad someone is still doing it! I'll add a hint now – Xandawesome Jun 22 '15 at 16:45

Room #1

Read the messages backwards to get "fifty-three" and "this may be useful later."

Room #2

The letters on the wall are 24 in Roman numerals; the carving backwards is "move back six" which will be used later.

Room #3

Caesar-shift "Tjyuz" back 1 place (T goes to S, J goes to I, Y to X, U to T, Z to Y) to get "Sixty".

Room #4

Bismuth has atomic number 83 on the periodic table.

Room #5

Three rooms ago the password was 24; Caesar-shift "vrayDBO" six places backwards (V goes to P, R goes to L, A to U, Y to S, D to X, B to V, O to I) to get "plusXVI", so we add XVI=16 to 24 to get 40.

Room #6

Convert the given number from binary ASCII code to characters (01010100 goes to T, 01110111 goes to w, 01100101 to e, 01101110 to n, 01110100 to t, 01111001 to y, 00101101 to - (hyphen), 01010100 to T, 01110111 to w, 01101111 to o) to get "Twenty-Two".

Room #7

We need five numbers $a,b,c,d,e$ summing to 21 such that $b=2c,c=2a,a=2d$ - giving $b=8d$ and so, since $b<10$, we have $d=1,a=2,c=4,b=8$ - and also $e=2(c-d)=6$, so the answer is 28416. Check: 2+8+4+1+6=21.

Room #8

All the numbers on the massive plaque are ASCII code for either 0 or 1 or space. Converting these ASCII codes to characters, we get 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00100000 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110000. All of these are also ASCII code for either 0 or 1 or space, so we can perform the same conversion to get 01000110 01101001 01100110 01110100 01111001 00101101 01010011 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101110. Now convert these from ASCII codes to characters to get "Fifty-Seven". (I'm not sure yet what the significance of "URURURURURUXZ" is.)

Room #9

Treat each consonant as a dash and each vowel as a dot in Morse code (VI goes to .- goes to N, AO goes to .. goes to I, CU goes to .- goes to N, etc.) to turn "VI AO CU I B NIJL EGKHJI UIO E AOEH E GA" into "ninety-seven".

Room #10

[Work in progress]

"5mooR" is "Room5" backwards. Turning the binary code backwards gives 01110011 01101111 01101100 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111; converting this from ASCII codes to characters gives "solving". "QVAAMFT" Caesar-shifted back by 1 is "PUZZLES".

• You're doing good! You made an attempt of 9 and 10 and pointed out the "URURURURURUXZ" from room 8. You can do it! – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 23:31
• @Xandawesome Edited on Room 10 - I've solved most of it now! – Rand al'Thor May 31 '15 at 23:35
• That's awesome! – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 23:36
• @Xandawesome Still can't make sense of "OUR Room5 85 solving PUZZLES" though... – Rand al'Thor May 31 '15 at 23:42
• Remember, it says that you had to pay attention through the rooms. Look back and see if you can find something! HINT: You haven't solved room 9 yet, so that may hinder you a bit. ;) – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 23:47

# The first 8 Rooms

Room 1:

"eerht-ytfif and .retal lufesu eb yam siht" becomes fifty-three and this may be useful later. Simply write them in reverse.

Room 2:

"XXIV" is 24 in Roman numerals. "xis kcab evom" backwards is "move back six", so 24 - 6 is 18.

Room 3:

Shift each letter on "Tjyuz" one backward (e.g. "b" would be "a"). This gives you Sixty.

Room 4:

Bismuth is element number 83.

Room 5:

The paper was found three rooms ago, in Room 2, where "move back six" was found. Move each letter back six spaces (e.g. "g" would be "a". "vrayDBO" becomes "plus XVI", which is plus 16.

Room 6:

That sequence of digits is in binary; it means Twenty-Two

Room 7:

Just use algebra here. Bypassing writing it all out, if the numbers are a,b,c,d,e, then d=1, a=2, b=8, c=4, and e=6, giving 2-8-4-1-6. Set up a system of equations, where a+b+c+d+e+21, and go from there.

Room 8:

Translate the string from binary to normal numbers, then translate that from binary to normal numbers. You get Fifty-seven.

• Good job except for room 2 the "move back six" was the hint for room 5 for the cipher, not the room 2 number. The room 2 number is 40. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:51
• @Xandawesome Thanks, but why 40, and not 24? – HDE 226868 May 31 '15 at 22:52
• Oh, LOL, I meant room 5 was 40. Room 2 is then 24. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:53
• Lol good luck, room 9 is a tricky one! – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:56
• Also, your "Room 5" answer is unclear. What do you mean by that? The answer can only be in number form. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 23:06

Room 1:

53

Explanation:

The sign says fifty-three backwards, and also "This may be useful later."

Room 2:

24

Explanation:

The roman numeral XXIV is 24.

Room 3:

60

Explanation:

Changing Tjyuz to the letter before each letter (rotation cipher using -1) gives us Sixty

Room 4:

83

Explanation:

The atomic number for the element Bismuth is 83.

Room 5:

34

Explanation:

Using the hint from "three rooms back" (room 2) of "move back six", we use a rotation cipher of -6 to turn vrayDBO into plusXVI which gives us plus 16. So we take the answer of 24 from room 2 and add 16, to get 40.

Room 6:

22

Explanation:

Decoding the given numbers from binary to ASCII gives "Twenty-Two"

Room 7:

28416

Explanation:

We start knowing that the number has 5 digits that are all different. Looking from the end, the first number is twice the fourth, so the first must either be 2, 4, 6, or 8 and the fourth must either be 1, 2, 3 or 4.
The third is twice the first, meaning the third must now be 2, 4, 6, or 8. This leaves the first to either be 2 or 4 and the fourth to be 1 or 2.
The second is twice the third, meaning it can be 2, 4, 6, or 8. This leaves the third to be 2 or 4, so the first must be 2, and the fourth must be 1, which makes the third 4 and the second 8.
So right now our number is 2841_. The fifth must be 2 times third minus fourth, so 2(4-1) = 6, so the number is 28416, which sums to 21 so it fits.

Room 8:

57

Explanation:

Converting from binary to text gives us another binary code. Converting again gives us another shorter binary code. Converting a third time gives us text of "fifty-seven"

Room 9:

Working on it

Explanation:

Given the characters per word of the given text (2 2 2 1 1 4 3 1 3 1 2) I would say that it isn't a 1:1 conversion of characters. I'm not sure what that points me toward, but vigenere/caesar don't seem to be helping at all. Also looking into binary conversion and reversing the binary conversion doesn't seem to give anything useful.

Room 10:

Working on it

Explanation:

• Good job except for room 2 the "move back six" was the hint for room 5 for the cipher, not the room 2 number. The room 2 number is 40. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:49
• Oh, LOL, I meant room 5 was 40. Room 2 is then 24. – Xandawesome May 31 '15 at 22:54