Unlocking theComms Device
Solution
by Abhijit Mudigonda, Ariel Uy, Austin Lei, and Catherine Wu
Tech: Alex Gotsis, Ivan Wang, Ariel Uy, Catherine Wu
Art: Tracey Lin
Voice Acting: Holly Sipek
Note that some parts of this puzzle are written in strange glyphs. Throughout the Captain's Office round, we will need to deduce the meaning of the glyphs from context and realize these are in a constructed language with its own vocabulary, grammar, and number system. The language is called Blobbish, and it is used by an alien race called the Podomorphs, who Captain Houston has been communicating with.
Here is a full guide to the Blobbish language: A Primer on Blobbish for Earthlings, but note that it may contain spoilers for the entire round.
We see a login screen with a box to enter the Captain’s password. Unfortunately, the Captain has not written his password down anywhere, and there’s no way for us to guess it. However, clicking on the “Forgot password” prompt below opens up a screen with three security questions, each with a textbox to input an answer, and a CAPTCHA. To unlock the comms device, we must answer each of the security questions and also solve the CAPTCHA.
Each security question includes one glyph - in blue - which was not introduced in any of the feeder puzzles. Each of these glyphs corresponds to one of the feeder answers, and can be matched to the questions by context. In order, these are STAR, LIMB, RELATIVE, and BREAK.
By exploring the Captain’s desk, we learn information about the Captain which we can use to answer the security questions.
Question 1: BOOTES
| Sign | Subject | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You | Like/love | What collection of stars |
Without the blue glyphs, this reads “What is your favorite ____?”. The feeder answer that makes the most sense here is STAR (RELATIVE is better for a subsequent question). Because the glyph for star is repeated rather than pluralized, the object here is “constellation” rather than “stars.”
The Captain’s reminders on his whiteboard include a note to “Replace Boötes’s litter”, and the voicemail mentions seeing “your cat” while stargazing. Together, these indicate that the Captain’s favorite constellation is Boötes, and that he named his cat after it! (If you are confused as to why Boötes is an excellent name for a cat, please refer to this.)
Question 2: GHOST CRAB
| Sign | Subject | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You | had | What [sign 2] [third person sing.] |
| 2 | Seven limbs |
Without the blue glyph, this reads “You had what seven __________ [3rd person singular]” The best answer here is LIMB, so the question reads “You had what seven-limbed [3rd person singular]?” One of the METAMATE posts refers to the Captain’s lobster and crab. Lobsters and crabs are decapods, and normally have ten legs. However, as one of the text messages indicates, the Captain’s crab had three of its legs torn off, so it actually had seven legs! The METAMATE post mentions that the species name is related to death, and some Googling reveals the species, “Ghost Crab”.
Question 3: STEPFATHER
| Sign | Subject | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What relative of yours | ate | Your stone |
Without the blue text, this reads “What __________ of yours ate your stone?”. The answer that fits here is RELATIVE, so the question reads “What relative of yours ate your stone?”. Note that there’s no distinction between passive and active voice in Blobbish itself - it’s just how we’ve translated it here.
Based on the text messages, Jamie is the one who swallowed the Captain’s (gem)stone. Per the first voicemail, Sam and Jamie are married, and in the text messages the Captain refers to Sam as one of his parents. In another text message, the Captain mentions that his father is divorced, which makes Jamie his stepfather.
CAPTCHA
| Sign | Subject | Verb | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You | Must take | The smallest three [sign 2] |
| 2 | Numbers | Can break [sign 3] | |
| 3 | Two [sign 4] | ||
| 4 | Numbers | Cannot break |
The CAPTCHA is a grid of numbers, and the Blobbish is instructions on which numbers to select. The only verb in our set of answers is BREAK, so the instructions read “Take the smallest three numbers which can break into two numbers that cannot break”. In other words, “Select the smallest three numbers that have two prime factors.” The grid is procedurally generated, but selecting the appropriate set wins.
Appendix
Here is a list of all the characters and their relations. (Some of the extraneous details are not explicitly confirmed, but this is what we had in mind while writing everything.)
- Houston: the Captain
- Alice: Houston’s wife
- Taylor: Houston and Alice’s child
- Sam: Houston’s mother
- Casey: Houston’s father – Sam and Casey are divorced
- Jamie: Houston’s stepfather – married to Sam
- Henry: Houston’s brother-in-law/Alice’s brother – also childhood friends with Houston
- Julio: Henry’s child/Taylor’s cousin
- Alex: Taylor’s friend
- Boötes: Houston’s pet cat
- Ricky: Houston’s childhood pet ghost crab
- Fred: Houston’s childhood pet lobster
Authors' Notes
When writing all of the dialogue, to limit the possibility of guessing the correct answer without solving the CAPTCHAs, we pretended that there were 3 extra questions that needed to be solved. See you if you can solve them!
- What is the name of the mascot of the your favorite sports team?
- What is your least favorite song from a video game?
- How old were you when your parents divorced?