12
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When all is going but a dozen less half
Make sure to bring the Baker back.

Once brought, proceed forward, but
Be sure to feed the Walrus from Beynac.

Finally go to where these meet true,

Where less is nothing
Where the past is divided
Where the ends are one.

Using the above riddle cipher.

What is the following?

1000 1110
0100 1111
1001 1100
1001 1101
1111 0001
0110 1111
0000 0011
1111 0011
0110 1110

Hint #1

Each stanza of the riddle is a step in encoding the cipher.

Hint #2

The first stanza does refer to a number (and a little more) but 13 is not it.

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12
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @MCCCS Solving the riddle is critical in solving the puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Aug 12, 2016 at 18:52
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ If you look at the post's source text, you can see that the author has introduced some divs in places that don't quite line up with the line breaks. Interesting. $\endgroup$
    – Morgan G
    Aug 12, 2016 at 19:24
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I'm not really sure how to go about this puzzle but I can offer what I found: Benyac is in France, Walrus in French is "Morse". I assume this is a key point. $\endgroup$
    – weejammaz
    Aug 19, 2016 at 13:52
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @weejammaz Indeed. Now to figure out the rest of it :P $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Aug 19, 2016 at 14:03
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ And I'm pretty certain the first stanza is talking about numbers; a dozen less half and then baker would refer to 13, a bakers dozen. I wouldn't be surprised if the numeric theme continued, with the 'divided' part of the last bit. E.g. no negatives, something to do with division, and where 1 is the first and last digit? $\endgroup$
    – Avik Mohan
    Aug 19, 2016 at 17:36

1 Answer 1

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10
+50
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Yes! I think I got it, the solution is:

PUZZLINGSTACKEXCHANGE

Steps to solution:

1.

Walrus from Beynac

details:

Wikipedia says Beynac is 'a commune in western France', Walrus translates to french Morse, that suggests Morse code was used

2.

Oddly placed <div> tags amid binary numbers (in the puzzle's edit history)

details:

After splitting binary by <div> and substituting ones for dots and zeros for dashes and decoding message using Morse code I got WBGGSPUNZAHJRLEJOHUNL (also there is a new line at end of that string but I just ignored it)

3.

Number hidden in first stanza

details:

Dozen less half = 12 - 12/2 = 6
Baker's dozen = 13
Together it's 19

4.

Caesar cipher

details:

I guess last past of the riddle was supposed to guide me to Caesar cipher but I just blind guessed to use it :)
Now we just need to apply 19 to shift string from step 2. Et voilà!

OP Reason: Actually the first stanza's solution is this:
When all is going = rot
a dozen less half, be sure to bring the Baker back = 6+1 aka 7
So together they make rot7.
But this is how the cipher was made, so in actuality, rot19 is required to decipher it.

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6
  • $\begingroup$ Correct answer, although #4 isn't the caesar cipher and it's not supposed to be 19 either lol. Well technically not. $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Aug 20, 2016 at 0:32
  • $\begingroup$ What a coincidence. So what was the original intent? Can you give a hint? $\endgroup$
    – user3608068
    Aug 20, 2016 at 0:58
  • $\begingroup$ "When all is going" as in "Qrpnlvat" naq gur Onxre vf whfg bar zna, abg guvegrra Rot13 $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Aug 20, 2016 at 1:04
  • $\begingroup$ One thing to note. As per the first hint. The riddle is the steps to encipher the text, not decipher. $\endgroup$
    – dcfyj
    Aug 20, 2016 at 1:08
  • $\begingroup$ Nicely done. I'd forgotten about those divs - it never occurred to me to look at the markdown! $\endgroup$
    – greenglass
    Aug 20, 2016 at 9:52

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