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You are out on a quest along with your pals, stumbling through the woods, sailing across the seven seas, when you finally reach a barren island with a skull cave. You stand at the mouth of the cave deciding what to do.

Finally, you all decide to enter the cave. As you enter, you see bones scattered about the cave. As you proceed further, you notice that the entrance to the cave has closed. You reach a large Golden Gate. There are golden jewels and other precious stones strewn on the floor. You see something engraved on the gate. You move closer. Here's what you see on the gate:

The most hon'st among them,

Must lead them to the place

Where heaven descends to the feet of earth

To give them a new birth.

You start scratching your head, trying to make something out of it.

Then you notice there are some letters just below the poem.

687474703a2f2f706173746562696e2e636f6d2f5735327741694b70

As, you read the poem, you start thinking something. Indeed, the poem is very simple. You ask all your mates to face towards the direction opposite to the wall and close their eyes while you search for something, scrounging in the gold articles near the Golden Gate. Finally, you find another engraving on the floor:

Hmm, so far so good. Well, the gods have decided to play fair with you.

gqffbsysoitb.kio/qsrssxpyafZ

Something hits your mind. You pick out your Satellite Internet Smartphone and type in something. After several hours, you get the password to the Golden Gate. You say the password aloud and the gate opens. You and your pals are welcomed into heaven by Zeus himself.

The question is, what was the password to the Golden Gate?

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    $\begingroup$ "You and your pals are welcomed into heaven by Zeus himself." Meaning you all die of hallucinogenic gas intoxication, if the expedition-in-an-ancient-temple tropes apply the way I think they do. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Jun 11, 2015 at 18:27
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeZ. Haha, nice ending ! $\endgroup$
    – Sharad Gautam
    Jun 12, 2015 at 6:16

3 Answers 3

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Part 1:

Convert the string of numbers and letters from hexadecimal to text. You get http://pastebin.com/W52wAiKp. Going to the link gives IAMHONEST.

Part 2:

The gods have decided to play fair => playfair cipher

Using IAMHONEST as the alphabet key in this playfair decrypter gives freetexthost.com/utqaawqwhkX. In a playfair cipher, X is used for filling in (kind of like a space). So removing the X gives freetexthost.com/utqaawqwhk.

Part 3 (Ivo Beckers got this one first):

The page needs a password. Using IAMHONEST as the password, the page says LONGLIVEAMERICA.

Password is

Long live america

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  • $\begingroup$ If it helps, it looks like freetexthost.com URLs need to be one character shorted than the provided one. $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:49
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    $\begingroup$ You partially copied Kritixi Lithos's answer $\endgroup$
    – toutsandnaushi
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:50
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    $\begingroup$ @toutsandnaushi I did not. That part was simple, and I solved it long before she posted hers. I was working on second part, and since it came to something, I decided to write an answer. $\endgroup$
    – mmking
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:52
  • $\begingroup$ @BaileyM Thanks for your pointer. I managed to get a little further, but I'm stuck again. Any ideas? $\endgroup$
    – mmking
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:59
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    $\begingroup$ The password doesn't really match the Deity who greats you at these gates... $\endgroup$
    – FunkTheMonk
    Jun 12, 2015 at 9:54
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The answer is

long live america

To be honest I followed mmking's clues. I figured out removing the X myself since that wasn't posted earlier. The password to the text is simply

IAMHONEST

It then shows the text

LONGLIVEAMERICA

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  • $\begingroup$ ...well, that was a deflating end. $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 11, 2015 at 20:09
  • $\begingroup$ @mmking That was just for fun :p, btw this was my first one, expect better next time. I'm new to Puzzling Beta and in love with it <3 $\endgroup$
    – Sharad Gautam
    Jun 12, 2015 at 6:13
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Note that this is just a partial answer

After decoding the hex string 687474703a2f2f706173746562696e2e636f6d2f5735327741694b70, I got the decoding as http://pastebin.com/W52wAiKp. After going to the link, I get the string "IAMHONEST".

Also,

"The most hon'st among them, Must lead them to the place". Maybe this is something to do with the string "I AM HONEST"?

Another partial statement

gqffbsysoitb.kio/qsrssxpyafZ is probably a website by looking at the ".kio/qsr..."

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  • $\begingroup$ How did you do the first part? I guess meaning, how did you decode the hex? $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:33
  • $\begingroup$ @BaileyM There are many websites for decoding stuff. $\endgroup$
    – user41805
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:33
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, I see. I didn't realize/expect it could/would be that easy! Thanks :) $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 11, 2015 at 19:37

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