DHA Challenge 2023-05 (Solution)

It’s been three months since the “Mystics and Magicians” challenge was released at Dallas Hacker’s Association (DHA), so it’s time to reveal the solution. If you haven’t played it yet and would like to, you can find the challenge here. Continue past the break if you’re ready to see the full solution!

The challenge states that when you have solved the challenge you will know the name of the Magician, so that is the final objective. This challenge starts with a series of substitution ciphers. Going from below the magician and down the ciphers are:

1. Futurama Cipher
2. Pigpen Cipher
3. Rail Fence Cipher (3, 0 offset)
4. Zodiac Killer Cipher
5. Navajo Code
6. Wingdings 3
7. Morse Code
8. Gravity Falls – Bill’s Cipher
9. Dotsies Cipher
10. Atbash
11. Klingon
12. Dancing Men Cipher
13. Baconian Cipher (using H,M instead of A,B)
14. Amphibia Cipher
15. Hylian (Twilight Princess)

Translating each gives the following text:

1. In some arcana seven holds special value
2. Earth, wind, water, fire are the four elements of magic
3. Primes like seventeen have cryptographic value
4. The twelve zodiac signs are a form of mysticism
5. Eight and infinity are orthogonal to each other
6. Crystals channel energy and are celebrated as a fifteen year anniversary
7. Nine Celtic sorceresses preside over nature
8. Gematria shows hidden values Aleph Gimel Daled Yud
9. Rounding errors give us twenty four hours each day
10. One must reach legal drinking age to offer libations
11. The card of the Stars illuminates the Magi
12. The hanged man sees life from a different perspective
13. Stephen Brust embedded his works with a hidden value
14. Balance and luck can be found in ogdoad
15. Know that at the end of the world the mystics turns a key three times to reveal secrets, but this key is not part of the secret

Looking at each decrypt we can see an explicit or implicit reference to a number, specifically as follows:

1. (explicit) 7
2. (explicit) 4
3. (explicit) 17
4. (explicit) 12
5. (explicit) 8
6. (explicit) 15
7. (explicit) 9
8. Using Gematria reveals a value of 18 from the Hebrew letters
9. (explicit) 24
10. The drinking age in the United States is 21
11. The Stars tarot card has the number 17
12. The Hanged Man tarot card has the number 12
13. Stephen Brust used the number 17 everywhere
14. Ogdoad is reference to the number 8
15. (three)

If those are converted to letters (A=1, Z=26) the string found is:

GDQLHOIRXUQLQH

The 15th decrypt makes references to three turns (or in this case, ROT3). Applying ROT3 yields:

DANIELFOURNINE

Daniel 4:9 in the Bible states:

“O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.”

And we find the name of the Magician (“Belteshazzar”) to complete the challenge and achieve #Victory 🙂