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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Day 21

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vids We're In and Lockout. She describes hacking into Hans Runig's website and finding secret documents. But getting into the site has started a tracing program...and now Hans Runig might be able to locate Gabi...

Plot spoilers:
Gabi is resigned to the idea that Josh's interest is now somewhere else. She's found the password for Hans Runig's site - it's the name of a Sumerian god. If you've cracked Josh's secret message in ICE SHOCK - you'll know what that is. If you want to know the secret message read Psysop's thread on unfiction. It's on page 2 of the thread, titled Gabi and Hans Runig.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Day 20

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vid - Laying Low

Plot spoilers:
Gabi has worked out from Bennett's blog (see posts on 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th - password is genetica), that he went to meet scientists from Chaldexx in Switzerland. We also know that of course from the surveillance documents on the Huracan site, which have bugged conversations between Bennett and Melissa DiCanio from Chaldexx.
Gabi is now seriously worried about Josh, since she hasn't heard from him for 4 days. The last we heard from him, Josh was back from Saffron Walden and off to see about something else...from ICE SHOCK we know that he's probably referring to his visit to Ollie's house. In the book he doesn't actually return home from that, as ICE SHOCK drags him off to his own adventure. So Gabi may now think she's totally on her own. Except of course - she had US to help!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Day 19

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Gabi posts a vid: Countdown. There's another related news story on El International de Mexico: Beltran's cousin is missing.

Cousin of Murdered DNA scientist is missing
Plot spoilers:
Gabi has finally got around to working out the password for the later posts on Bennett's blog and has caught up on what has been going on with Mary Carmen and Bennett until a few days ago. She has realised that Jackson has now gone to Iraq and her aunt has been quiet for over a week. Gabi guesses that her aunt is still hiding in a hotel somewhere, as she told Jackson she would. Gabi is beginning to think that the chat site guy, Hans Runig, killed her father. And she wonders ominously about the countdown on the site...what language are those symbols?
In fact, if you ask Hans 'did you kill PJ Beltran' or even about the symbols, or the password on the chat site, he will answer....

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Day 17

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vids  Found in TranslationClose Call

Plot spoilers:
Like us (if you use the Poborsky lab to analyse the results), Gabi has also been sent the amino acid translation of the DNA. When she plugs that sequence into a search engine she comes across a strange site where she chats with a guy who seems to know something about her dad's death. To Gabi's horror, he also knows about her aunt and Gabi's visit to her aunt's place on the Vespa. And gives this sinister warning: La vida es la barata, pequeña, pero el mundo no lo es. (Life is cheap, little one, but the world isn't.) Meanwhile Josh isn't answering. Where could he be? If you've read ICE SHOCK you'll know...If you look at Gabi's post Close Call you'll see the text of Gabi's chat.

Website spoilers:
Finally - this is the Website that the ICE SHOCK coded message is needed for. 

Take the password supplied by Josh in his message and enter it - quickly! Before the site times you out. Then re-enter the password. Then you're in. 

This seems to be the secret surveillance documents of the Sect of Huracan - Josh's enemy in ICE SHOCK. There are audio files and chat transcripts there, all telling the story we know so far in more detail and from different viewpoints. There are also dossiers on all the characters plus one more - Col. Conor Bennett. This is Jackson's twin brother. He works for the Airforce and also the National Reconnaissance Office. You'll remember the NRO from INVISIBLE CITY - in that book Josh thinks they - or Madison - may have killed his dad, Andres Garcia. 

Psysop has done a nice analysis of the meanings of the various colour-statuses of the characters in their dossier. This way we can see which had been caught by the Sect at this stage, and which they are still chasing. Right now they are still chasing Gabi and her aunt Mary Carmen. 

You can also visit the site without using the password and chat with 'Hans Runig' the guy that Gabi spoke to. It's fun! You can ask him who killed PJ Beltran, about Gabi, other stuff. Good clues here.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Day 16

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vids DNA is informationBeltran sequence

Plot spoilers:
Over these vids, Gabi wonders aloud if the test-tube contains DNA - which is made from letters, therefore information - maybe a coded message? Then she receives the results from Poborsky lab. It IS DNA - and she realises that this is the 'Beltran' sequence of which Jackson writes in his blog. 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Day 15

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

The Poborsky lab online service is working again. Go to the site and select the DNA Analyzer service and then pick out Bennett's test-tube (the one with Mary Carmen's phone number written on the lid.) I received the results by email about 24 hours later: 

If you put the amino acid sequence into a search engine you get a website.

Plot spoilers:
The tube contains DNA, just as Josh and Gabi suspected. The email gives the DNA sequence for the contents of the tube, and also the translation into protein sequence (amino acids). Beltran seems to have sent a message - coded into DNA. From Bennett's blog it doesn't look like PJ was actually intending to send a literal message. More like - PJ was working on this molecule. (maybe this is the thing Bennett calls phoenix? The website seems to be set up to attract anyone searching for that amino acid sequence on the Web. PJ wandered into it...I guess. And so did Bennett.
  
Extra note: MG reminded us to have our deciphered message from ICE SHOCK ready. If you haven't already deciphered it (I have) you can use Psysop's very useful cipher key that I have NO idea how he worked out without Invisible City, but 
...it works...i.e. you get a message from Josh, with a password. Haven't found how/where to use it though.

Or - if you've read APOCALYPSE MOON you'll know that Josh and Ixchel use this password to get into the secret site of the Sect of Huracan.


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Day 14

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Josh posts to his blog. If you've read ICE SHOCK you'll recognise that the post Mysterious incidents...my turn to tell you... is talking about stuff that happens at the beginning of that book. 

Plot spoilers:
My guess is that this is where Josh's own story is going to take overlap with Gabi's. Or not? because in ICE SHOCK, Josh leaves the country pretty soon after he hears the mysterious news from 'Rodrigo'. The gist is that Josh has started again on the trail of more information about his father's death. Andres was seen in a village called Saffron Walden, the day he was thought to have crashed his plane in Mexico. So Josh is distracted now... working on his own stuff.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Day 12

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vid Saying Goodbye. If you haven't already, read TheOldMan49's sticky notes in his habbo room - Psysop also posted the transcript here.

Plot spoilers: (one, two, you all know what to do...)
Gabi is in a hiatus, waiting for the Poborsky lab to go online. Meanwhile her dad's body has been released for burial any day now. She actually misses posting on Days 13-15 - first time I think. Maybe it's the funeral?

Monday, May 21, 2012

Day 11

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vid Waiting 

If you haven't already, read TheOldMan49's sticky notes from his Habbo room - he wrote down what Josh and Gabi said. Psysop posted the transcript on the unfiction forum.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Day 10

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa


Watch Gabi's vids Aunty is involved and Men in Grey. Read a transcript of Josh and Gabi's meeting at Habbo Hotel.

Plot spoilers: (highlight below)
Gabi realises that MCV from Bennett's blog is Mary Carmen Valencia - her father's cousin. She calls her aunt to hear just a voice message. Gabi goes round to her aunty's apartment on a the Vespa belonging to her friends brother, only to find it beign watched by the ominous men in grey suits who drive a black Ford Explorer. We know these from Bennett's blog - they are the guys who chased him, who prob killed PJ Beltran and his graduate student Simon Reyes.

Josh posts a comment on Gabi's blog telling her to be careful - these men in grey may have seen her face now, in which case she's for it. But as Psysop points out on unfiction - what if they've seen the license plates on the Vespa...? Gabi's not too worried. She thinks they haven't put it together yet that SHE is PJ's daughter. Hmmm...we'll see.

Extra bit #1: Forgot to mention that that Mary Carmen Valencia is mentioned in two other in-game sites; watch closely the YouTube vid trailer for INVISIBLE CITY and also as the co-author of a paper on this in-game site with Josh's dad Andres Garcia. The paper is titled: In search of a Fifth codex ofthe Ancient Maya

Habbo chat spoilers:
TheOldman was still writing the stickies when I left - they are in his room on Habbo (TheOldMan49, password was Watcher). Here is Psysop's transcript of the conversation:
HabboChat2.txt


Basically, Josh and Gabi talked about the lab that her aunty Mary-Carmen took the test-tubes to for testing. (see above - the Poborsky lab). Josh googles and finds the virtual lab site for Magda Poborky's online lab - an online service which lab members can use to ask a technician finish their work if they can't make it into the lab.
The online service isn't working for Gabi either. So they are waiting to test a sample...because guess what? Mary Carmen left Bennett's tube in the test-tube rack! It's there for us all to see. 
But the service works now! test it at the Poborsky online lab.

And it has Mary-Carmen's number on it! I know cos I called it...

Extra bit #2: The phone number is 55-84-21-43-99. A Mexico number so to call from UK you need prefix 00-52
I used Skype.

There's a phone message from MCV. Apparently she's out of town.
Well, duh.

(NB - This Skype number may have been suspended since these events took place. Sometimes the past is tricky to uncover!)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Day 9

What is this all about? read the introduction: http://ow.ly/aOKXa


Watch Gabi's video: Found Him. Find Jackson Bennett's blog (password needed - see spoiler section below). 
Read posts on 2nd (Monday) and 3rd (Tuesday) On 4th Jackson has posts which mention Chaldexx in the title - find 

Hey - loads happening now!

Gabi starts looking at her dad's blog and Jackson Bennett's blog - she works out from a hint on Bennett's first post that the password is (highlight spoiler) isa.

Plot spoilers: (highlight below)
Gabi's dad was working with this company called Chaldexx www.chaldexx.com - fact that's where he was visiting when away on a trip at the beginning. Meanwhile Bennett uses his blog to communicate with the person who helped him to escape - a woman who signs herself MCV. 

Reading the blog posts, it looks like MCV and Bennett also had a fling - and they're getting all romantic. Mainly though they talk about what MCV has been doing to solve the mystery of - you guessed it - what is in the test-tube that PJ Beltran gave to Bennett?

MCV goes to a friend who runs a lab (Magda Poborsky). She finds that the test-tube contains a DNA sequence - Bennett and her call it the BELTRAN sequence. A completely unknown sequence - not found in any plant or animal on Earth! (alien interference anyone?) 

Bennett types the sequence into a Web browser and gets taken to a Website where there's a chat window. He chats with someone online called HANS RUNIG - someone who seems to know who Bennett is. But as Bennett chats he realises that his IP address is being traced. This could lead to his location being discovered. He cuts the internet connection. MCV says she's coming back to her flat.

NB - around this time MCV learns that PJ Beltran is dead - she's upset. He was her cousin! Now we know why MCV's telephone number was written on the test-tube that PJ gave to Bennett - he wanted to lead Bennett to MCV, just in case.

There are more posts on Bennett's blog after that but they have a different password.

Password spoiler: (highlight below)
The password for the posts after 4th, Wednesday on Bennett's blog is genetica
I found this on a sticky written (in Morse code) by Psysop in Habbo. Psysop got it from TheOldMan49's twitter feed, where TheOldMan49 tweeted it in code.

Resume spoiling of plot 

 (highlight below)

Now...it starts to get complicated. A whole other story emerges between Jackson Bennett and MCV. 

Bennett gets an invitation - out of the blue - to visit the top scientist at Chaldexx in Switzerland (her name is Melissa DiCanio). MCV and Bennett agree to part - Chaldexx's private jet will get him out of Mexico quietly so whoever is after him will be shaken off. MCV says she'll hide out in a hotel at the beach.

Bennett begins to understand the nature of the work that PJ was doing. It gets a bit sciency! The gist is that 

PJ was working with Chaldexx on some super-secret project involving a maize gene called phoenix. 

Bennett works on a related gene - joust - from fruitfly. But there's also a human version. And the human version - Melissa DiCanio claims, can give certain people the power of mind control. 

Meanwhile, Bennett talks again to HANS RUNIG. 

BOTH Runig and DiCanio wants Bennett to go to Iraq to get an ancient artefact. It can only be touched by people protected by a certain gene...and Bennett has the gene (aha - a connection with Invisible City!). 

Bennett decides to accept the mission for DiCanio/Chaldexx and NOT Runig. He's all set to go to Iraq when MCV discovers something ominous in an ancient Sumerian inscription - and she warns him not to go.

But is it already too late?

Friday, May 18, 2012

Day 8

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Gabi's starting to crack the mystery now - she finds her father's blog Papa's blog and Papa'sblog part 2, Found Him.

Find Gabi's dad's PJ Beltran's blog.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Day 7

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vid Stranger by the Day.

Plot spoilers: (highlight below)

Gabi's dad was working with this company called Chaldexx http://www.chaldexx.com/ - in fact that's where he was visiting when away on a trip at the beginning of her blog. Meanwhile Bennett uses his blog to communicate with the person who helped him to escape - a woman who signs herself MCV. Reading the blog posts, it looks like MCV and Bennett also had a fling - and they're getting all romantic. Mainly though they talk about what MCV has been doing to solve the mystery of - you guessed it - what is in the test-tube that PJ Beltran gave to Bennett?

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Day 6

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Watch Gabi's vids Helado and Test-tubes. Josh and Gabi met via Habbo Hotel.

A transcript of their conversation was posted on stickies (postit notes) in TheOldMan49's room (password was on a sticky in MariposaJosh's room). Thanks to Psysop from the unfiction forum for this transcript.

Password spoiler: (highlight below)
The password for TheOldMan49's room was Watcher.

You can find the notes here too:

Screen shots of the stickies (Habbo meeting):
Messages: 1 - 12
Messages: 13 - 20

Plot spoiler: (highlight below)
In Habbo, Josh and Gabi discuss the strange plastic test-tubes that Gabi found in her dad's freezer. Gabi won't hand them over to the police...just in case it makes the bio-terrorist rap stick even harder. Josh suggests that she tries to have the contents analysed. Josh warns Gabi that she may get into deep trouble if she gets more involved.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Day 5

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Find Josh's blog, find the post 'Ooop, hello stranger' where Josh and Gabi connect. - scroll down to where Gabi first comments.

Plot spoiler:
Josh's blog is here:
Gabi gets back in touch with her father's godson, Josh Garcia in Oxford (who we all know from Joshua Files ), via his blog. She asks for his help to solve her dad's murder, cos she's all alone. Josh starts looking at Gabi's blog and commenting. They arrange to meet to chat in Habbo Hotel. Josh leaves a clue for Gabi with his Habbo password on some Pokemon cards that he puts up for swap on swapit.com. (Pokemon cards under swapper capoeirajosh, but auction ended mid-March 2009.

Images of Josh's Pokemon cards are here:






Need help working out the password clue? Spoiler below...
The password is orizaba

Monday, May 14, 2012

Day 4

Read the news article from El International de Mexico - reports that Gabi's father, PJ Beltran, is suspected of being a terrorist
DNA Scientist: Suspected Terrorist
.Watch Gabi's vids Impossible and Bad News

Plot spoiler:
Gabi finds out that dad has been murdered. She is devastated...and then the rumour that her dad might have been working with bio-terrorists (see posts Asasinato and Terrorista).
PJ Beltran was meeting another scientist - Jackson Bennett from the USA at Mexico City airport. They exchanged some samples of biological material (in plastic test-tubes or vials). Then PJ Beltran was shot.
Did Jackson Bennett kill him? He's gone missing - on the run, so it looks dodgy. NB - Gabi remembers Bennett as a good friend of her dad's. She doesn't think Bennett could have killed her dad.


What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Day 3

Read the news article from El International de Mexico - reports PJ Beltran's death.
Leading Mexican DNA Scientist Murdered
Watch Gabi's videos:

Visita Mama and No Word.

What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Friday, May 11, 2012

Day 1

Read Gabi's first video blog entries - 'In the city', 'Vespa'

Plot spoiler: highlight below
Gabi starts posting videos to her blog. (see posts Vespa, Visita Mama) She's staying at a friend's house cos her mum is in hospital after an accident and her dad is away on a trip. She's a bit fed up of course but...has no idea what's coming.


What is this all about? Read the Introduction : http://ow.ly/aOKXa

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Play The Descendant - Introduction

A walkthrough the mystery of PJ Beltran's death. We will explore the evidence that's scattered across the Web as it is discovered by Gabi Beltran and Josh Garcia. We'll watch Gabi's video blogs and unravel the story.

I will post something on every day in which something happened in the story. If nothing happens on DAY 2, there won't be a post that day. This will run for about a month, with something happening at least every two days.

FIRST - Find Gabi's blog and one other in-game website by closely watching Youtube video trailers for INVISIBLE CITY and ICE SHOCK.

Spoilers appear in dark text - highlight them and they'll go white.

Try it - highlight the line below.
This is how you can read the spoilers.

(with thanks to Gerry Trow and Psysop who first found the path)