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<<---First clue
<---Previous clue

(No, I haven't just gone and jeopardized Mithrandir's entire series, I have been given permission by him to do clue 21.)

A note from @Mithrandir: I have given explicit permission for @BeastlyGerbil to post this, and gave him the answer to encode. If you want to post one, ping @Mithrandir in chat and we'll talk.

Before you can even have a moment to celebrate solving the previous clue, a trapdoor opens beneath you and you fall into darkness. You scream before opening your eyes to find you are no longer falling but landed on a padded floor. The trapdoor is just above your head but just out of reach.

You look around and are confronted by a picture which on first appearance seems to be levitating in front of you, though you suspect there are wires, suspending it from the ceiling, hidden in the darkness. You move forward to scrutinize the picture more.

enter image description here

Next clue--->

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Is the misspelling of "confectionery" deliberate? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:43
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor ack no. My app that I use to put text on doesn't have spell check... I can edit quite easily though $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:44
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    $\begingroup$ You should use your brain to spell check, not an app :-) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:45
  • $\begingroup$ @Techidiot anything in the text that is wrong is a typo, thanks :P $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:45
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, I wonder what this has to do with anything ... $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:46

5 Answers 5

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Working from Sid's answer, and taking into account that:

it's Braille, with X representing the dots. The upper tic-tac-toe game represent an upper letter, we get:
y, d, C, p, o

New image!

enter image description here

which is:

Sign language, and this gives us: b, T, D, J, k

So, another image!

enter image description here

And we find the final solution hidden in this riddle:

the word mace

In the first line:
My enigma ceases now
In the second line, we take the 1st letter of the first word, the 2nd letter of the 2nd word, etc:
My last race here
Reversed in the third line:
Just a sec, ample brow
We take the 1st letter of the 4th word, the 2nd letter of the 3rd line, etc in the fourth line:
Give face eaten mare.
First letter of each word in the fifth line:
Maybe all, canned ear?
And the last letters of the last line:
From sea, magic here.

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Community Wiki from OP with complete answer:

By clicking on the image we get

enter image description here

To get the next image

Take the coloured letters and put them in the order of the colours on the tarp - oeEzg

Which is

enter image description here

This is

representing binary. 8 ball pool = 8 bit binary. For the number of the ball on the table, $n$, the $n$th byte is a 1. For instance, if only ball 8 was on the table, that would represent 00000001.

So

1. Balls 23568 = 01101101 = m
2. Balls 2356 = 01101100 = l
3. Balls 2358 = 01101001 = i
4. Balls 238 = 01100001 = a
5. Balls 2468 = 01010101 = U

Giving

mliaU

which is

enter image description here

This is

Morse code - a pencil being a dash and a marble a dot.

If part of the image is higher up then it represents capitalization.

This gives

TpV8N

Giving

enter image description here

The

Xs here are braille.

They give

ydCpo

Which is

enter image description here

Sign language for

bTDJk

which is the final image

enter image description here

The answer is

MACE

which is hidden

My enigma ceases now, - end of enigma and start of ceases
My last race here, - 1st of first word, 2nd of second etc.
Just a sec, ample brow, - backwards in ample and sec
Give face eaten mare. - backwards 4th of first, 3rd of second etc.
Maybe all, canned ear? - First letters
From sea, magic here. - Last letters

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Partial answer

The tarp

has the colours yellow, green, cyan, magenta, orange, in that order. Taking the corresponding letters with those colours (o, e, E, z, g) yields the following imgur image:

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4
  • $\begingroup$ Good start, keep going $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:54
  • $\begingroup$ "Taking the corresponding letters with those colours" - wait, what? How do those letters correspond to those colours? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Jan 2, 2017 at 11:58
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor check the top of the tarp. Then look closely at the letters $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 2, 2017 at 12:00
  • $\begingroup$ Each table's balls are ROT13(ovanel olgrf) $\endgroup$
    – Will
    Jan 2, 2017 at 12:07
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Partial answer

The tables in the image Volatility found are

binary encoded ASCII, each ball being a 1 bit (if we number the bits in a byte from left-to-right, i.e., MSB = 1 through LSB = 8) - for example the first table is 01101101 = m

decoding them as such yields the URL to the next image

mliaU

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2
  • $\begingroup$ Morse code. Ball is dot. Pencil is Dash. $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Jan 2, 2017 at 12:18
  • $\begingroup$ Yep! 8 ball pool = 8 bit binary $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Jan 2, 2017 at 12:19
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Here's the third part:

Pencil is Dash. Ball is Dot. Whichever is upper is Uppercase. So we get TpV8N:

enter image description here

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