All right, I got this one from someone who says I should credit thatpuzzleguy on the Discord. So let's give it a try. You know, no one's ever used my name as a password. That's relationship goals right there. Moving a little easier. I think that's a good sign. All right, Aubrey, let's see what you've got.

Ohhh. That was it. Looks like an eye. Something in here. I can feel it. It's a key. What do I do with it?

Now we just need to figure out what secrets are held in the invoice to open a locked folder which will then presumably point blurbex to someplace where he can use his key. §

					Zone	Wrapper
					Chaser	Parcel Post
					Filler	Express
SEE OTHER SIDE FOR INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORDERING					Checker	Warehouse
DO NOT USE ABOVE SPACE					DO NOT USE ABOVE SPACE
BAYBERRY COMPANY CLARA, WA
	DATE	March 7, 1965			AMOUNT ENCLOSED
Name	W. Mesmer				Cash
Street No.	Wanderlust Estate	RFD			Express Order
Post Office		Box No.			Check
State		County			Stamps
Ship to		State			Draft
Name of Railway	proprietary				TOTAL	on acct
Is there a freight agent on this railway at your shipping point? ........ If not add to your remittance to cover transportation charges.
Mark How To Ship
[ ] MAIL		[X] EXPRESS				[ ] FREIGHT

QUANTITY	Catalog Number	ARTICLES WANTED	Dollars	Cts
2		HERCULES
2		OBLONG
2		RIDDLE
2		RUSH
2		BREAD LOAF
2		AUTO

After a lot of dead ends where we looked at ZIP Codes and mountain locations among other things, blurbex came to the rescue with his 3rd TikTok video of the day. §

So someone asked if there was anything on the back of the paper that the key was wrapped in. And I didn't notice it before, but it looks like there are some really faint sketches. Kinda hard to make out, but I'll try to show them to you.

Not really sure what to make of that. But, uhh, what do you guys think?

Now, I'm not saying that those sketches were added in after blurbex took the original video, but based on what you could see in the original video, those sketches were nowhere to be seen. It could just be blurbex's terrible lighting didn't pick them up. Or maybe someone just wanted us to solve this quicker.

Anyway, now that we have the sketches, it's not all that hard to come up with the password to the proprietary folder. §

The sketches are outlines of US States and Territories: New York, Illinois, California, Vermont, Oregon, and American Samoa. Six "states", six items on the previous side. Each of the items are a city/place inside one of the outlines.

Hercules	CA
Oblong	NY
Riddle	OR
Rush	IL
Bread Loaf	VT
Auto	AS

Taking the letters CA NY OR IL VT AS and running them through an anagram solver, we get the following password: clairvoyants

• proprietary (locked) -- Password: clairvoyants
• transcript.jpg
• sunporch.jpg

                               Mesmer
                               &Braid

                     Board Meeting Transcript

January 13, 1999. 8:42am
Members Present: VB, EJ, XA, AT
Members Absent: WMJ, KM, SP
Transcribed by: AT

VB -- Should we wait for Wolf?
EJ -- We'd prefer not to.
XA -- We're concerned about his recent ... activities.
VB -- Glad something runs in the family.
XA -- How's that?
VB -- Nothing.
EJ -- According to his assistant, he's been visiting Wanderlust.
VB -- And this concerns you?
XA -- What little is contained in the frustratingly incomplete
      archives we inherited indicates his father may have left
      company assets on site before his passing.
EJ -- The existence of these assets presents a potential
      liability to the company.
VB -- In that case, you should be relieved Wolf's keeping an eye
      on an otherwise abandoned property.
XA -- We don't know what he's doing out there.
EJ -- Your husband has been less receptive to the rebranding effort than you have.
XA -- Wouldn't be the first time he's protected deprecated assets
      marked for erasure.
VB -- This is nonsense. It's ancient history. On the other side 
      of the country. We've got bigger things to focus on, in the 
      here and now.
EJ -- So you don't give any credence to the rumors, then?
VB -- Rumors?
EJ -- A deathbed confession from the old man.
VB -- Whatever you're worried about is twenty years stale.
XA -- I wish we shared your confidence.
EJ -- We need a guarantee that Wanderlust is a forgotten chapter
      in the story we're all writing together
VB -- I don't have time for this. Let's go.

#

The picture is labeled as "Wanderlust Estate - Central Manor - Sun Porch Nursery". There is an X Marks the Spot with a very oddly written Hercules. The letters are backwards and the H looks more like a digital 8. Why write it like that? Is it maybe written on the back of the article and we are just seeing bleed-through? It still looks weird even if you flip it, but at least the letters the right way around. But SELUCREH doesn't make much sense (nor does SELUCREB). The Discord discovered that several of the letters look like ancient letter types (Phoenician or Archaic Greek). But that still doesn't explain why it was written like that. Another puzzle to solve?

If our thought that the cryptex invoice would lead to a place where blurbex could use the key, then it seems we need to send him back out to Wanderlust again and search the Central Manor area for where the Sun Porch Nursery could be. That is assuming anything could be left after the fire. If the key fits a metal box, it's possible it could have survived, especially if it was buried in a potted plant. But would blurbex even be able to find where the Sun Porch nursery was? I kind of like the checkerboard area on the floor plan, but it really could be anywhere. It's definitely a big area to search if you can't find any distinguishing marks. Would the glass from the roof still be around to point out its location?

Luckily for us, blurbex thinks he'll be able to find the location based upon the picture. Now we just have to wait for him to go back out there and see if he can find anything.

Wow. So, uh, hi to all my new followers. I really encourage you to look to those who've been figuring out how all of this fits together. And they've been asking me for quite a while to take the Mesmer Collaborator Test. So I thought it might finally be time for me to grudgingly find out what my assessment is.

Question 1. Which one of these is not like the other? I guess there's a guy in this one.

In which space do you feel safest?

Your relationship with your mother is? Oh man.

From which obsthrojection do you derive the most strength? No idea what that is.

Extricate. Well, that's not really a question.

This is starting to creep me out. Umm, infinity.

Okay, we're processing. You are an Arcadeer. Open and gregarious. Brings people together. Well, I have, kinda. Any other Arcadeers out there? If you do take the test, let me know what your result was.

So blurbex is an Arcadeer. Quite fitting. Now we have 4 of the 5 archetypes associated with someone in the ARG. Only the Chronservator's are left out. And that is because we are the coolest.

• Announcements: 9/24/20

• As our most recent class of Collaborators reaches the end of their active collaboration period, we wanted to reinforce that internal curiosity about the company’s legacy is permissible if not encouraged by management, who prefer to focus on the new future we are currently building together.

• As such, for those who may inquire about your journey with Mesmer & Braid, the Assessment Test submission portal will remain open on a rolling basis, and the Mesmernet asset repository will be preserved for future Collaborators to explore and look back on what you have discovered.

• Thank you for joining us in our quest to create the perfect home.

• Thank you for your Casual Friday photo submissions! Here are some highlights…some more thematic than others.

Even the Mesmer & Braid tweet today talks about endings.

You have to admit, you did not see a giant pink hercules beetle with a removable bottom jaw letter opener coming, did you? All of the glyphs on the letter opener we know, save one, so it's fairly easy to translate to INCUBATOR. §

• office_mgmt (locked) -- Password: elytra
• illustration.jpg
• telephony.txt
• mesmerglyph.otf

Last things first - we are given a font file of the Mesmerglyphs (spelled correctly this time)! Now we have all of the letters plus numbers! I guess if you're writing a lot in Mesmerglyphs, it helps to create a font to keep things nice and tidy. §

An alternative theory as to why there is a Mesmerglyphs font file - they did not want to hand set all of the glyphs in the illustration photo. Because there are quite a lot. But the messages are bittersweet since it is just more ending messages. §

Welcome Collaborator The end of your quest is very near I hope you have enjoyed the journey to truth

The last thing in the office management file is the telephony.txt. It discusses some of the features of the new telephone system. The most interesting thing about the new phone system - it has extra layers of security, including voice recognition and multiple keywords. §

Mesmer & Braid Telephony v.2 beta
Release date: 9/21/2020

To check new messages:

New messages are messages that you have not yet heard. Depending on purchased features, the system includes voice,
fax, and e-mail messages in your new message stack.

The system plays all urgent messages first, then all regular messages. It also sorts your messages by sender. If the
system does not know who left a message, it says that the message is "from your message box."

After you listen to any messages from a collaborator, you can reply immediately; you don't have to dial the 
collaborator's extension 

Depending on the phone system, you will be notified when you have new messages, either by lighting a button on your 
phone, or by playing a special tone. Or, the ai receptionist can call your extension. 

Your system manager can set up special options for your mailbox to:

- Play new messages automatically each time you call the system.
- Identify you automatically when you use your assigned extension.
- Tell you how long it will take to play your messages.
- Respond to voice prompts in addition to key prompts (v2 beta only).
- Add extra layers of security to message boxes, such as longer and/or alphanumeric PINs, multiple keywords, voice 
recognition, etc. (Executive-level only).

We do have the five sets of glyphs. If this is an executive-level passcode, and Junior is trying to lead us to the truth of something, then he knows that we know what those glyphs decode to: Pathfinder (from the No Trespassing sign), Skylight (from the ripped blueprint), Matchbox (from the ammo box), Random (from the Cryptex wrapping), and Incubator (from the letter opener). Pathfinder is the first keyword, but Skylight is not the second. Are we missing a keyword? Or do we just not have the correct order?

The illustration in the office_mgmt folder holds a big clue. The light beam is split by a prism, which just happens to match the first letters of our five sets of glyphs. So the order of the keywords is:

• Pathfinder
• Random
• Incubator
• Skylight
• Matchbox

There are three voicemails available. The first is from Vera telling Wolf that she wants him by her side, but she will continue on her path with our without him. She tells him that Autohaus is their future. Autohaus is the setting of the HoloVista game, so that might get weird quick. Especially if there was more to Senior's buildings than just meet the eye. The second voicemail is from a man who is sorry about Wanderlust. Strikingly, this voicemail is from the day before Wanderlust burnt down. Is this the person that burnt down Wanderlust? Or is he just someone who knows what is going to happen because it is the will of the board? The final voicemail is from Senior (and it's a REALLY good recording from being from 1976). He's on his deathbed (you can hear monitors beeping in the background) and you can tell he is struggling to get his words out (which makes it really difficult to understand him at times). But the message seems to be one of regret. He doesn't believe that his methods justified the results. Maybe that is why Junior didn't follow in his father's footsteps. He knew his father regretted his building methods and did not want to follow down that path. Interestingly, Senior tells Junior to "let them burn" so it is fitting that Wanderlust was eventually burnt down. §

prism-voicemail.mp3

...Thank you for joining our quest to create the perfect home.

Pathfinder

Keyword one is correct. Awaiting keyword two.

Random

Keyword two is correct. Awaiting keyword three.

Incubator

Keyword three is correct. Awaiting keyword four.

Skylight

Keyword four is correct. Awaiting final keyword.

Matchbox

You have one new message and two saved messages. New message from August 31st, 2020.

• Hello lovely. I can sense that you've been struggling with the nature of the work the family started to do. I'm sure it can't help but remind you of your father's heyday. That wasn't an easy time for you. But those projects? That quest to create the perfect home? It's a key part of what drove me to do this in the first place. With the technologies at our disposal and those on the horizon, we have a chance to reach depths Wolfgang could never dream. I want you by my side for that. I accept if you can't be. Either way, your place on the Board is secure. Wouldn't be Mesmer & Braid without a Mesmer. But I have to follow my instincts on this. Before I even knew who your father was, it brought me to architecture. Later it brought me to you. I'm on the precipice of something truly incredible. I believe, with every fiber of my being, Autohaus is our future.

Saved message. From March 29, 1999

• Hey Wolf. I shouldn't be calling you, but I needed to say something about Wanderlust. It was the old man's last hurrah and I know how much it meant to you. I'm...I'm so sorry

Saved mage. From February 13th, 1976

• *steady vital signs monitor beeping in background*

• Son. I know that you've been doing your best to preserve my final vigor[??]. I thank you for that. But I want you to know, that I understand what needs to happen. What will happen. It's hard, but try to remember. Now they're just walls, less buildings than a lost diary. Just one man's measly ideas. Let them burn. This place, and the places that led to it, they... they just don't fit with the myth they want[?] to remember. With them gone, I've let go being remembered as anything other than "that man". Even if I've grown to hate him. Everything he's tried to do: Pushing boundaries too far. Crossing lines that should never been crossed. Such hubris. We cannot quantify an individual's identity. It's...it's folly. I deeply regret the depths of the mind's I plunged in an attempt to grasp the unknowable. The grossly invasive methods I... I leveraged to study my clients. The lies I told myself to justify voyeuristically mining the lives of others rather than facing my own lack of purpose. You can't... you can't build for something you can't see. And you can only ever see yourself. It's become clear that the legacy of the company can't allow these regrets. But son, the fact that you know. That...that after everything that's happened between us, you understand who I really am. The real heart and humbled[?] mind behind Mesmer. The monolith! And that's... that's[??] enough for me.

Please leave your screen name and valid email address at the tone.

Although the game is coming to an end, it's not quite over yet. Monday, September 28th started off with an email from Mesmer & Braid telling us about an exciting opportunity. §

An Exciting Opportunity

Mesmer & Braid 
	
Sep 28, 2020, 3:14 PM
	
Hello Rowan,
Though your active collaboration period has come to an end, we encourage you to check the Mesmernet portal 
(https://www.mesmerandbraid.com/mesmernet pw: mesmer) for the announcement of an exciting opportunity, exclusively 
for Mesmer & Braid Collaborators.

We hope you look back on your collaboration with fondness.

Collaborator Relations
Mesmer & Braid
New York | San Francisco | Berlin | Singapore | Bristol
(646) 736-1377
contact@mesmerandbraid.com

I wonder what this exciting opportunity can be. Maybe they'll let us look inside the Mesmer Pyramid at Wanderlust and we'll get to see Senior's mummified body. (Seriously - I am so disappointed at the extreme lack of mummies so far. I would have thought we would have seen at least one by now.) Or maybe they are just going to process our health insurance paperwork finally.

• Special Announcements


• Please be advised that the newest of our current projects, Autohaus, has been announced with the release of its poster art.


• Mesmer & Braid Collaborators have been offered a limited number of invites to the beta test for a new social media media platform. We encourage you to sign up here, but please be advised that this is a private beta (currently iOS only) and may contain bugs.

It's a little hard to see the blue on blue, so I've changed the colors a bit and added a count of all of the dots.

Converting those numbers straight to letters gives us FPMDHCIOQ which isn't anything, even if you ROT it. It's also not a new password to the phone system. dvorak42 in the Discord figured out that you need to use those numbers as an index on the text of the poster: AUTOHAUSYOUREALREADYHOME

A U T O H A U S Y O  U  R  E  A  L  R  E  A  D  Y  H  O  M  E
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 

6 16 13 4 8 3 9 15 17
A R  E  O S T Y L  E

Using areostyle as the password to the current_projects folder grants us access to the Autohaus project.

• current_projects (locked) -- Password: areostyle
• autohaus
• dev (locked)
• update.pdf
• on_hold (locked)

The only thing we can actually look at in here is the update.pdf - which is written entirely in Mesmerglyphs. Luckily, it's a pdf and they simply used the Mesmerglyph font to type out the text, so it's super easy to cut and paste the text into a readable format. §

The Autohaus Test Subject Recruitment Program the company ran a few years back under the "Collaborator Assessment Test" cover was questionably successful for the executives, but I ultimately managed to siphon off a handful of candidates for our Inner Circle.

Their path to the truth was circuitous, indeed, and quite in the spirit of Father’s follies, thanks to my personal curation. (Under the nose of the rest of the company, as usual. Don’t worry.)

I have listed them here by their codenames:

1. Yankee White
2. deathsatchel
3. Christoffensen
4. Gauss30
5. sequoya
6. dvorak42
7. tomboomerknuckles
8. kingster16
9. sjbuknewc
10. vee
11. mapmaker
12. fieldofgreens
13. nexx
14. nextlevelbanana
15. sinewave89
16. rowan
17. inspiradoprojecto

Yours in The Circle,

WMJ

It seems that if you called in with the codewords and left your name after the tone that you were granted into the Inner Circle! I also wonder what kind of time the Mesmer & Braid firm is running on if the Collaborator Assessment Test was a "few years back". Are weeks years to them? Maybe Senior was able to conjure up Time Travel as well (might explain how he was able to leave a voicemail in 1976).

So Junior was the one that was guiding us the entire time. But to what exactly? The fact that his father regretted his methods? If that was the message he wanted us to take away, what does it mean that Vera is following in his father's footsteps? And not just following, but trying to exceed them. Is Vera not to be trusted? Is Autohaus not to be trusted?

Can't believe it's only been a few weeks since I spotted this guy for the first time.

Here's that bottle that definitely was not a pair of croquet balls. But, you know, we should all get together some day and play a round.

Junior and Senior's cache. Don't worry. I didn't keep any of the papers for myself. They're all still in there.

Not gonna miss this thing, if I'm honest.

And of course, this big creep. Happy trails, Hercules.

It really has been quite the adventure and I thought that now, at the end, it would only be appropriate for me to pack up everything that I found down at good old Wanderlust Estate and send it back home where it belongs.

I want to thank everyone who followed along and helped to unlock so much Mesmer & Braid history that got me as far as I was able to go.

Thank you.

At the end of the video, blurbex scans over some of the tweets that he's gotten over the past few weeks, but the end message is the most interesting. It's from carmelafternoon - who just so happens to be the main character in the HoloVista game. It seems that blurbex's videos has gotten her hyped to study architecture in NYC. So in a way, we may be responsible for carmelafternoon for eventually getting a job at Mesmer & Braid and her getting to experience Autohaus first hand. §

carmelafternoon

Thank you so much for sharing this adventure with us! Working for M&B has been a dream of mine for years, and all of this digging into their history gets me even more hyped to move to NYC for architecture school.

Wish me luck!

Keep an eye on this space as I will eventually post a walkthrough for the game as well.