Hello and welcome to "Thanks for Skyrim!" - a treasure hunt giveaway for - you guessed it - Skyrim :)

Please no giveaway link sharing, and no posting answers in this thread ^_^

This is my second puzzle, and I believe it is a bit more tricky than the previous one.

Giveaway requires $31 contribution value.

Giveaway end countdown.

Good luck and have fun!


SOLUTION

  1. The first challenge was to find the link to the puzzle. There were 6 italicized characters in the announcement text which spelled source - which hinted at the need to view the page source (via right-clicking on the page and clicking view source or whatever works for your browser) in order to find the hidden itstoohard.com puzzle link.
  2. The Nintendo64 puzzle: the next step of the puzzle required you to decipher the text using the base64 decoding scheme, which was hinted at by the Nintendo64 pic in the background.
  3. The decoded text turned out to be a quote from Skyrim: "I used to be an adventurer like you, then..." You had to answer with the last part of the quote which was "I took an arrow in the knee"
  4. The red herring proved to be quite challenging for many people. In order to get past this step you had to understand that the red herring picture was both a solution and a distraction. The actual image of the red fish had nothing to do with the puzzle; the answer was not in the picture, but was hidden in the file instead. Opening the image file with any text editor and scrolling down to the very end of the file (note the filename "Where fish ends the hunt continues") revealed the link to the next step.
  5. The music puzzle. 134 players, 133 solvers. Seriously?! :) The track that was offered was an arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. main theme by Koji Kondo (performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra).
  6. The letters puzzle: you were presented with five lines of text. If you took the first letters of each line the result spelled IMGUR - an image-hosting website. Opening imgur.com/sNzrjxi revealed the last step of the puzzle.
  7. The final puzzle: the giveaway code was hidden in an audio recording, next to the excerpt from the "Dragonborn" theme by Jeremy Soule (Skyrim OST). The five-letter code could be made visible by opening the track in an audio editor capable of displaying sound spectrogram. The spectrogram showed TYYAl. After overcoming the initial confusion between the two similar-looking letters (I and l) and reversing the code (which was hinted at by the reversed musical excerpt) you finally received the giveaway code to use on SteamGifts: lAYYT.

Thanks everyone for participating in my treasure hunt! ^_^

1 decade ago*

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I'm stuck with the fish...

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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Aaaaaaaannd SOLVED :D

1 decade ago
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Got past step 2, and now i'm stuck on the pic :(

1 decade ago
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Stupid fish.

1 decade ago
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fishy feelings hurt~

1 decade ago
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Stupid fish.

1 decade ago
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wtf with those letters after music?

1 decade ago
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I dunno, what music? And no, don't answer that question. Just stay confused please :p

1 decade ago
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-.- i know you know what i mean :D
im waiting for hints, its too hard for me ;<

1 decade ago
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if you know i know what you mean, then i know you should know what I really mean~ huehuehue :3

1 decade ago
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now he's more confused :P

1 decade ago
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Well, I've been stuck on it for about a day now. So I'm giving up. Don't even need Skyrim lol =P

1 decade ago
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Everybody needs skyrim :P i'm stuck already for a day myself but i aint giving up.

1 decade ago
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I'm stuck on those letters too... =(

1 decade ago
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I see them clearly but they don't work...

1 decade ago
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BMP4SLVD

1 decade ago
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OMG SKYRIM CODE RIGHT HERE^^^^^^^^^^
JK :3

1 decade ago
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Damn, so many have solved it already or are at the music part. I feel stupid now :(

I'm currently required to enter a password. Is this a part of the puzzle?

Edit: Anyway, that's a nice puzzle you got there!

1 decade ago
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only 23 solvers for now

1 decade ago
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not enuff!~!

1 decade ago
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Is the red herring a dead end or a clue to the next step?

1 decade ago
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is it both?

1 decade ago
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wheres the puzzle?

1 decade ago
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^ up there?

1 decade ago
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am i retarted or something? is it in the countdown or something?

1 decade ago
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nope, you might be blind though :3

1 decade ago
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gives special glasses

1 decade ago
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i cant get past of that red herring thing ._.

1 decade ago
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that fishy is speshul~

1 decade ago
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I'm sure the fish's meaning is obvious to those who know what it means. Because it always is in these puzzles.

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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I know that it's a red herring and I know what a red herring is. That's what's throwing me off. It makes me think that I'm going the wrong way, but at the same time I can't see how I'm going the wrong way. I don't think it's possible for an It's Too Hard question to yield different results depending on what is answered. So, unless there's another puzzle hidden somewhere in your original post, there's something hidden in that picture of the red herring, or I put the wrong thing in the It's Too Hard puzzle.

1 decade ago
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Haha, don't overthink it :) The pic with the fish IS the puzzle. I'll post some hints later today ^^

1 decade ago
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Holy carp! Double red herring!

1 decade ago
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what are we supposed to do?

1 decade ago
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find the treasure?

1 decade ago
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Made it to the last part, somehow...
No idea what to do here though, I assume I need some program I just don't have.

1 decade ago
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There is a selection of free software available on the internet that can help you solve the final part :)

1 decade ago
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You are cute and cruel.

1 decade ago
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Well he is a cat and cats likes fishes and the red one is killing me xD

1 decade ago
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why not eat it instead? :o

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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lol <3

1 decade ago
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Hello abc :)

1 decade ago
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haha good one.!

1 decade ago
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I have steamgifts.mp3, but I don´t know what to do, any hints? :P

1 decade ago
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I am an idiot because I have no idea how to even get started on this. Checked a few obvious links to no avail.

1 decade ago
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What the fish....

1 decade ago
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and the hints don't help

1 decade ago
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I believe I added as much information as I could without revealing the actual solution. It would be unfair to those who already solved the puzzle to add even more hints.

1 decade ago
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I give up on the fish. Nice puzzle.

1 decade ago
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too much information, i think.

1 decade ago
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Added a number of hints!

1 decade ago
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Mew~

1 decade ago
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Well, I made it to the final puzzle now - and actually I did it, but I'm being told that the giveaway doesn't exist?

1 decade ago
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Then you did something wrong :) Double-check the letters you got at the final stage and their order.

1 decade ago
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--- never mind ---

I've mistaken one letter for another. Damnit.^^ But I'm in now, thank you very much. Awesome puzzle!

1 decade ago
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Some people who solved the final puzzle said they confused one letter for another. For instance, a certain uppercase letter looks very similar to a certain lowercase one. As for the order, the musical piece in that file should give you a hint. No brute force is necessary to solve it, really :)

1 decade ago
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Yes, the musical piece was awesome. But the confused letters were the problem here. My brute-force approach did it xD

Love your puzzles! Do you like creating such stuff? If so, I might need your advice in a few weeks... ;)

btw: I... AM... NUMBER... 33! WOOOHOOOO! :D

1 decade ago
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Well, I don't do puzzles very often - this is my second, actually. But it was fun, so yeah, I'd like to make some more.

1 decade ago
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i'm sure i'm reading the letters wrong myself.. but they are so clear :O am i supposed to try different cases? (last step, withing music one)

1 decade ago
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Yep, the letters are clear, and there is no need to change their case. Make sure you recognized all of them correctly and paid attention to the musical piece accompanying them :)

1 decade ago
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i think i'll give up now, yes i found what i had to do with music, even recognised it after what i was supposed to do with it. Ur puzzle is beautifully crafted and every step reminds u about the game :)
I'll wait for solution now.
Though i have to admit i'm very disappointed in myself for coming all the way through, even recognizing the final music and letters but not finding the giveaway.

1 decade ago
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OMG.. OMG... i solved it :O
Just after posting the above message i thought i'd go on and try one final time and i got it :O
Thank you :D

1 decade ago
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Man, that was tricky! :)
Bump for solved.

1 decade ago
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Thanks for the hints; I still have no idea what the letters are to be used with in number 6. I must not have gotten the memo for how to solve this step that pre-dates the internet. xD

Guess I'll know in three days atleast.

1 decade ago
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I've been playing around with the final piece of music in audacity for hours ... rather frustrating.

1 decade ago
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im also trying to do something in audacity, nothing happens

1 decade ago
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And i couldnt even find the puzzle. I never understand where to find these puzzles at all.

1 decade ago
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there are hints all over the place mate,just start reading :)

1 decade ago
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please give another hint of that to do on the fish part!

1 decade ago
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wherethefishendsthehuntcontinues.

1 decade ago
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Dunno how but i solved 2 it without the number. And about the fish... Well... Dunno dafuq should i do. Dont know if there is some kind of slang or word game since english its not my native.

Edit: Oh F*** that fish.

Edit 2: OMFG WITH THAT FISH. I know what to do, but i dont know HOW. I hate him so dam much.

Edit 3: Finally ;;. Now suffer with 4 ;;

(I dont even know why i am doing this if i dont have any contributions xD)

1 decade ago
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Hello, clone.

1 decade ago
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Hello, original

1 decade ago
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Goddamn, i see the hidden letters in the final puzzle, but when i try them it gives invalid link,
I have even tried upper and lower cases...

1 decade ago
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The music is the key

1 decade ago
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the music? yes man, i see the hidden letters in the music. but they are wrong ;(

1 decade ago
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Just smth is wrong with the song...

1 decade ago
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the hints are too easy

1 decade ago
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not really, they don't help much at the 2 steps most people are actually stuck at

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by SleepyCat.