Clockwork and Cryptography: Angelmaker Code Hints, Part 5

Welcome back, Detachment 2702. How goes the codebreaking? Hopefully you've made some progress. Have you checked the classifieds yet? *wink wink*

Hint 0/1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4

So when I was at this point in the code, I was able to read ciphertext where I knew the plaintext equivalent - namely, the hint pages that Knopf put out, like this one:

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If I were a gung-ho codebreaker, and I decided I didn't want any 3rd-party hints (i.e., those from this blog), and that I just wanted to use what Knopf provided (good for you!), I think that the most valuable ones to look at are probably the one above and the "Soot and sorrow, I know it" one. Just sayin'.

As I think I mentioned before, this image was pretty key in my realization that 1) the text in the hint pages was reflected in the disks and 2) the disks were not 1:1 with either letters or words.  In five of the first six images, the code reiterates some of the text on the page. I'm not saying which ones, but if you haven't figured that bit out yet...happy birthday. Free hint. Since I last posted, Knopf put up an extra three hint pages (here), and they're perhaps slightly trickier. Although come to think of it, when I first tackled the hint pages, I spent some time considering that the code disks could spell out (MAJOR HINT) the speaker of the quote, and not the quote itself. 


Look at me, rambling on, and that's not even what I brought you all here to say. Like I mentioned above, if you sort of half-understand how the disks break up the plaintext, you can read things like the hint pages, but not anything useful - like the text on the dust jacket. This hint might help:

What's up with the gap?

Straight up: the "gap" in the outer ring (where it exists) represents the beginning of a word. Where there's no gap, that means that the disk continues the word started by the prior disk. 

 Just like this bit of linguistic and etymological sleight of hand, yuo cna rdae tihs qtieu esaiyl, as lngo as teh itniail ltetsre aer in teh prorep pcael. Knowing where that first letter goes will go a long way towards clarifying the plaintext. 


That said, there don't seem to be totally explicit rules as to how the plaintext is broken up across the disks. Based on Hint 1, I initially thought it was purely syllabic, but based on something apocalyptic (*wink wink nudge nudge*), I think it may be just a matter of convenience. Certainly, you can find disks that hold more or less than one syllable by the official definition.

Hope that helps you...and please do drop me a note! If you've cracked the thing wide open, I'd love to hear about it, and if you're hopelessly stuck, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do to help. Has anyone made it all the way down the rabbit hole yet? If so, I don't believe I caught your name...?  ;)

Happy codebreaking!

That's all I've got for now...if you need more help, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll see what I can do.