As usual, on April 1, 2005, MUSH was relocated. Something was unusual about this year, though... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear M*U*S*H Players: When we arrived at the mush site this morning, we discovered that somebody stole away the mush: grid, ocean, channels, mail, and all. Right down to the last ducat. As we have no clue as to the identity of the thief, we have decided to blame Walker, as usual. Our ongoing investigation may be publicly viewed at our community portal: http://community.pennmush.org We apologize for the inconvenience. But we'll offer a reward. $10 bounties to the first three who connect to M*U*S*H! (Important note: the M*U*S*H server detects portscanners and firewalls them off, so scanning for the MUSH port is ill-advised. The port for M*U*S*H is definitely a higher number than 1024.) (Hints will not be posted here. Maybe elsewhere...) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This began a chain of wild-goose chasing. As suggested, the first place to look was community.pennmush.org. An anonymous M*U*S*H addict (and other participants) posted a series of messages throughout the day, which remains at http://community.pennmush.org/node/view/250. Javelin's inside-and-out knowledge of the FAQ-o-Matic led to looking there, where a post under "Other/MUSH Stealing" held a few more links, with the following message: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQ: Some people think that MUSHes just disappear into the void. While this is true for some of them, why is it that sometimes, an ominous note is left behind? A: The MUSH has been stolen. ------------- To date, there have been several documented cases of MUSH stealing. And this is not limited to PennMUSH, necessarily, but also includes MUX derivatives and the otherwise strongly secure RHostMUSH. The first documented case of MUSH stealing was in Spring of 2002: Utilizing a short-lived security bug at the development site of PennMUSH (M*U*S*H), the enterprising bandit hefted the MUSH and placed it on an alternate port, leaving a cryptic message behind. The case is detailed here: http://mush.pennmush.org/2002-apr1.txt In the second documented case, a massive heist was performed, and a perpretrator stole, in one go, and using a devilishly complicated scheme, not one, not two, not three, but _four_ different Mushbases. This case is documented in this crime scene report: http://mush.pennmush.org/2004-apr1.txt As for stealing mushes: while we do not condone the act of crime, there was a lecture explaining how such things are done, so you can in the future design your worlds to be more resistant to theivery. The lecture log, dated 1999, is viewable in the logs section at: http://www.mushcode.net walker 2005-Mar-31 8:49pm ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, indeed, mushcode.net held the next clue. In the lecture logs section, Javelin puzzled Walker with a poem: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once to the fair, Simple Simon essayed Carrying the first of the pies With the beginning of ease and the start of a plank He numbered his constant lies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even finding this poem proved to be a problem for some people. As far as solving the puzzle itself, opinons varied. Most common, though, was trouble with the first line. This was solved by looking at the first letters of the words: OTTFSSE. This matches with the first letters of the numbers from 1-8, but one number is missing from the pattern: OTTF_SSE. The missing number is 5 (4 was also possible, but the comma after "fair" supposedly signified the blank). The remaining three lines contained clues using three constants: "pies" (pi), "ease" (e), and "plank" (Planck), and asked for the "first", "beginning", and "start" of each -- the first digit. Pi begins with 3, e begins with 2, and the Planck constant begins with 6; the three remaining digits. Putting it all together yielded 5326, M*U*S*H's port for this year. After a while, Walker posted a bb message congratulating the fastest players: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This year's riddle was a good challenge to everyone - Excellent job to everybody who made it! The ranking in order of connections: (1): Jake, Ambrosia, and Shari (team) (2): Elvira and Viila (team) (3): Nagisa, our first Solo Bounty hunter! Both teams and Nagisa get a $10 Amazon certificate each! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Around 10:30 PM MUSH time, Javelin restored the stolen MUSH, and all was right in the world for a time.