Randibone/Postcards

From Various

[edit] Post cards

Each card is post-marked sent October 9th, 2007
Each card has a hand-drawn image of an object on the back
Each card is believed to be associated with a particular Email and/or 'Book'

[edit] Front of the Postcard

[edit] Known details

[edit] ROT-17'd text

Each of the un-rot'd phrases are names of ships from R-Type (see this table). Appended to each line are the tier and ship code from the game.

CAXYRLJU JWPNU  = TROPICAL ANGEL  (T5: R -11S Tropical Angel)
NLQRMWJ         = ECHIDNA         (T5: R -13T Echidna)
MRPRCJURB       = DIGITALIS       (T5: BX- 1A Digitalius)
JVYQRKRJW       = AMPHIBIAN       (T5: B - 1C Amphibian)

YUJCRWDV QNJAC  = PLATINUM HEART  (T5: B - 5C Platinum Heart)
RJBXW           = LASON           (T5: TL- 1A Lason)
MJWCJURXW       = DANTALION       (T5: BX-  T Dantalion)
AJPWJAXT        = RAGNAROK        (T1: R - 90 Ragnarok)
BCARTN KXVKNA   = STRIKE BOMBER   (T1: R - 9S Strike Bomber)

VRMWRPQC NHN    = MIDNIGHT EYE    (T4: R - 9E Midnight Eye)
NLURYBN         = ECLIPSE         (T5: TX-  T Eclipse)
VNCJUURL MJFW   = METALLIC DAWN   (T5: B - 3B Metallic Dawn)

VRBCH UJMH      = MISTY LADY      (T5: B - 3A Misty Lady)
BNGH MHWJVRCN   = SEXY DYNAMITE   (T5: B - 3C Sexy Dynamite)
BDWMJH BCARTN   = SUNDAY STRIKE   (T1: R - 9K Sunday Strike)

FJAQNJM         = WARHEAD         (T1: R - 9C War-Head)
JAAXFQNJM       = ARROWHEAD       (T1: R - 9A Arrow-Head)
YNJLN VJTNA     = PEACE MAKER     (T5: R -11B Peace Maker)
ODCDAN FXAUM    = FUTURE WORLD    (T5: R -11A Future World)
UNX             = LEO             (T1: R - 9Leo)

Taking the first letter after the hyphen of the ship code (and assuming 0 = O):

STACCATOSETBACKCABAL

[edit] Background code

$a='\'; $_=$a; s/([\\\'\\\\])/\\\\$1/g; print \'$a=\\\'\'.$_.$a;
'; $_=$a; s/([\'\\])/\\$1/g; print '$a=\''.$_.$a;

This code is a direct reference to a self-replicating Perl script written by an unknown author

[edit] Limeric

Our people wandered lost, letting fall memories, hopes

and the past's soft call. But Minimer Randibone set us

back on our throne, safeguarding history great and small.

(with the right line splitting, it becomes a limeric)

Our people wandered lost, letting fall

memories, hopes and the past's soft call.

But Minimer Randibone

set us back on our throne,

safeguarding history great and small.

[edit] Hexes

Each hex is depicting a portion of a picture

The three middle hexes contain "[ ]" and thick lines pointing to the outer hexes, seeming to indicate that the images creating three sets of numbers or alphanumeric strings or 3 characters.

The leftmost three images lead to EXILE, the top and bottom middle images lead to ARC, the rightmost four images lead to HIVE. Giving us EXILEARCHIVE

[edit] Shell Game?

The dots on the back are for the numbers:

3 8 1
2 4 6
7 0 5

each row and column adds to 12, a pattern otherwise known as The Lo Shu Square, only these numbers are 1 less (0-8, rather than 1-9, totalling 15)
this is the same turtle shell pattern described in Zetria Atrian and the Dragon's Shell