chapter4hints — cryptogram puzzle post

cryptogram puzzle post | the illustrated puzzle story inspired by witchcraft & alchemy

Page (i)

The clue is in the message.
It provides cryptic instructions for what to do using letters from the message itself.
Note the penultimate line particularly; the solution instructs you to choose logs or stones.
The first letter of each line spells out USE THE LOGS.

Use your previous solution to select half of the squares from the satchel page to use in combination with the main illustration.
Anna must repair missing bridges. Details from the squares allow correct choice of positions.
Only pay attention to the letters that are the correct way up—they’ll spell a four-letter word.
With the logs in the correct places, the letters spell CROW.

You have two choices. Your solution from the previous page should guide you.
You also know the names of these two spirits. Note the number of cipher characters appearing beneath each.
The letters of the name of the correct spirit will provide the start of a cipher key that you can use on the next page.
The cipher characters beneath the crow stand for THE RISING CROW.

Each spirit links to one set of characters, representing coded text. Only heed the text for the correct spirit.
Using the letters you know, based on the names of the spirits, you can decode the rest.
The first word is THE (though this is true for both the true solution and the false choice).
The decoded text reads: “The imagination is a supercelestial star; it can shed light on, transform and transcend the shallow, constant forms of this world. It cannot be touched, only felt.”

Your previous solution will direct you to pay attention to only certain types of things.
Link those four stars together.
Connecting the stars named after abstract (rather than physical) concepts—Bravery, Silence, Clairvoyance and Majesty—will create the downward-pointing triangle symbol associated with the Falling Deer.
The text you’re left with is: “Anna finds the woman - In the cabin in the woods. - The woman means to cast a spell - And asks the girl to find her: - The fingers of she who weeps and who withers - The bitter bright dust of her long dried out tears - The sound of her voice as it rings through the branches - The clothes of a friend she once reached out to dearly”.

Again, you have a choice of two; the solution from (only) the previous page will direct you.
Complete the two charts for the correct tomb. The placement of symbols is based on a simple logical requirement.
No symbol can appear twice in the same row or column. The shaded squares provide a two-symbol solution.
The two symbols in shaded squares for the left (deer-skull-topped) tomb are the circle with horns and the downward arrow.

The previous solution will be two symbols.
These will direct you to a pair of cipher characters that you should be able to translate.
The letters are the initials of the witch who is the correct final answer.
The square in the downward-arrow row and circle-with-horns column contains cipher characters representing RH—the final answer is ROSIAH HENBANE.