January 24th >>  

And So It Starts...
Monster Hunters Club
Domain of the Golden Dragon
Rainbow of Death
Enhance Yourself
Korean Film Fan
The Missing Toys
Journal Entries 4, 5, and 6
Domain of the Golden Dragon - Solved
Derek Tries to Help Amie
A Fifth Grid
Thing in the Water
Cryptid Love
The Today Show with the MHC
A Body Mod Conspiracy?
Journal Entires 7, 8, 9 and 10
A Lead on Jon?
A Toy for Me!
   February 1st >>   

A Breakthrough on the Grids
A Today Show Disaster?
Journal 11, 12, and 13
Sun-Yi and The Host
Grids Solved! (mostly)
Creature Captured!
Update Tuesday
Derek Is a Dork
Win a poster of The Host
Journals 14, 15, 16 and 17
Implant Boy Speaks
A Puzzle for Derek
Video Blogs from Sun-Yi
  February 9th >>  

MHC on Fangoria Radio
Journal #18
World 3, Derek 0
Amie Talks to Painted Soul
Fangoria Radio Show - Denied
Grid #3 and #12
5 Per Solved!
The Host Screening
Amie in NYC
Journal Entires 19 & 20
Derek Screws Up Yet Again
M-A-R-A.org
A Lead on the Good Doctor
Valentine's Day Is Cold and Snowy
A Note from Dr. T
Creepy Fishes Keep Coming
Make a Video - Win Swag
One Last Envelope
Calling All Hackers
  February 16th >>  

Derek's Mom Comes to Town
Amie Does...Nothing
Sun-Yi Wishes Amie Luck
Journals 21, 22, and 23
A Meeting with a Mystery Man?
Still Hacking
Captain Library
I'd Like to Be Seated in the Emo Section, Please
Sun-Yi on Peanut Butter, Libraries, and Videos
"Yellow Eyes" Video Contest
A Break in M-A-R-A
Haneda AFB Files
Journals 24, 25, 26, and 27
Matt to Hook up with Nate

  February 23rd >>
  March 2nd >>
  March 9th >>
Recap #1 · Recap #2 · Recap #3 · Recap #4 · Recap #5 · Recap #6 · Recap #7· M-A-R-A Logins


 
A Breakthrough on the Grids
Based on some of the hints we've gotten from the MHC forums, we think we've discovered the method of solving the grids - although we haven't quite figured them all out yet.

Bascially, each of the grids is sorta like this addictive game. Each pair of numbers can be connected along one unbroken path. It's just a matter of twisting all the other paths around.

Once all the paths are found, you can see that there are phrases within one of the paths on the grid. In all but one grid, the phrase is found within the longest path (making me think that something is messed up within gride 2). The phrase that you find in the longest path, we believe, is the hint to the unknown dashed word. From there, the theory is, we take the circled letter and put it into another word at the numbered position.
  • Grid #1 §
  • Grid #2 §
  • Grid #3 (unfound)
  • Grid #4 §
  • Grid #5 (unfound)
  • Grid #6 §
  • Grid #7 §
  • Grid #8 §
  • Grid #9 §
  • Grid #10 (unfound)
  • Grid #11 §
Right now, we only have T - - E - - - - - F - - in our solution, which isn't a whole lot to go on, but I think we're getting there.
 
A Today Show Disaster?
Sun-Yi updated her Myspace blog with some footage of their trip to The Today Show - and it doesn't look good. §

It seems that Derek couldn't bring his 7-foot Sasquatch to the taping. Another probable victim of the ATHF terror scare in Boston. Damn viral marketers. Anyway, Derek had to take Fluffy home, and mistakenly fell asleep on the couch. He didn't wake up until after 8am despite the fact that Sun-Yi and Matt kept calling him. He tried to make it up to them by treating them to breakfast, but Derek doesn't understand that pure anger suppresses the appetite. Then Derek discovered that he missed Sun-Yi's birthday (oops!) and got into another fight with Matt on the way back to their place. Derek, bit of advice: When you're friends are utterly pissed at you, don't go stopping off at bookstores and buy stuff for yourself. They were probably cold, tired, and just wanting to get back!

And poor Sun-Yi. First Derek forgets her birthday, and now he's all excited about his ex-girlfriend coming into the City to see him. And suggesting that she might stay at his place while she's in town. I just have to wonder if Amie is gonna make it out of the city if Sun-Yi decides to take matters into her own hands.
 
Journal 11, 12, and 13
The latest journal entries have John Wheeler visiting VietNam and seeing first hand the effects of Agent Orange. But he still has high hopes for Project Yellow in helping out the civilians in the area. When he gets back to NKP, Dr. T seems to have discovered something about Dr. G and is pretty giddy about it. It seems to be a pretty big secret as Dr. T refuses to tell John while anyone is around.

I now have a sinking sensation that Dr. T may never tell his secret. Matt found a photo that may be of Dr. T's family: The Tinnerman's. Tom Tinnerman, what a name. Anyway, it's entirely possible that the Tin Man from "The Tin Man Has Disappeared into the Rainbow" may be Dr. T. As we don't know when, or how, or why the Tin Man disappeared, it is conceivable that Dr. T was gotten rid of because he found out some big secret about Dr. G. We won't know more until Matt provides us with more journal pages. And it seems that Matt has learned his lesson about blank journal pages - this time he cut off the bottom of the page so we can't see that he's "forging" the stuff *snicker*. I do get amused at the smallest of things.

One other item of note: Matt posts a picture that is marked 'Overseeing CHASE'. Operation CHASE was a program that "loaded unwanted Army materiel on old ships which were then scuttled at sea." CHASE stood for "Cut Holes and Sink 'Em". While most of the time conventional ammunition was scuttled, there were four sinkings that involved chemical weapons, the first being in 1967. Well, at least that's what's reported on the web. Since Project Yellow has never been declassified, it's entirely possible that there were other CHASEs involving chemicals that no one knows about.
  • Journal Entry #11, 8/8/66 §
  • Journal Entry #12, 8/18/66 §
  • Journal Entry #13, 8/19/66 §
 
Sun-Yi and The Host
As the game gets more popular, more people keep coming around, most with questions like "Why is MHC advertised on The Host's websites?" I'll admit, it did bother me a tad, but at the same time, I'm quite used to seeing weird META stuff like that, and I just decided to ignore it when it came to the game.

But now I no longer have to! It seems that Sun-Yi is 'responsible' for the MHC popping up in reference to The Host. She had talked to a Magnolia Pictures marketing guy and had casually mentioned the MHC during a lunch one day. Next thing she knows, the guy has put the MHC website on The Host movie posters possibly to show people that just maybe this movie isn't so fictional after all. Either that, or he wants to date Sun-Yi.

So that is one mystery solved. But it still doesn't explain why a bunch of us got Derek's toys in the mail (Sun-Yi is adament that she had nothing to do with the theft). Maybe the marketing guy did it because he's jealous of Derek and Sun-Yi (not that there's anything there - but he might not know that).
 
Grids Solved! (mostly)
So, we were sorta on the right track with the strings in the grids before, but we missed a couple of important steps. Now that we've figured out what exactly to do, the solution is much more elegant with a lot less guess work. §
  • Grid #1: AUSTRALIA §
  • Grid #2: HEUVELMANS §
  • Grid #3 (unfound)
  • Grid #4: BRITISH COLUMBIA §
  • Grid #5 (unfound)
  • Grid #6: WASHINGTON §
  • Grid #7: LOCH NESS §
  • Grid #8: KARL SHUKER §
  • Grid #9: BIGFOOT §
  • Grid #10 (unfound)
  • Grid #11: ROGER PATTERSON §
So with eight of the eleven grids found and solved, we have T H - S - A C K F - R for our meta solution. Closer, but we're gonna need to find those last three grids to really know what it says.
 
Creature Captured!
After seeing one of the mysterious creatures in shallow water, cryptidtruth was going to try and capture it. And what do you know - he did! Well, maybe 'capture' is a little overkill as it just washed up dead, but he does have the body of the creature. Now maybe we can figure out what it is.

To prove that he really did capture the creature, cryptidtruth posted a video on YouTube - complete with spliced in frames that contain a hidden message! §

So, cryptidtruth is afraid of someone - who isn't the government (which I think is a first). Maybe it's aliens and they are upset that someone has found their little alien babies and plucked them out of the water before they had a chance to grow. Or maybe it's a bunch of ninja monks who are growing the strange fish in order to take over the Presidency by getting the fish to bite the President and turn him into a werefish. Maybe we should test to see if the fish are allergic to mistletoe.
 
Update Tuesday
So, the game keeps getting updated on Tuesdays and Fridays. The only problem is, it updates kinda late on Tuesdays and Fridays - after I get out work when I normally write this guide. So I have to do updates on Wednesdays and Mondays. Except this Wednesday I had a massive headache and wasn't about to spend it trying to type up letters and fight with the forum postings in an effort to discover which things were found first. Who came up with the bright idea to keep putting updates in old threads? Sure it keeps the webpages together, but anyone coming into the game late is at a huge disadvantage as they have to keep flipping back and forth between threads and if they accidently read an update post before it's time, they might get confused. Putting updates in threads by date gives you one thread to worry about at a time - plus its so much easier to see that there is an update rather than someone just discussing something that took place a few days before. That and it sort of keeps people from posting in what should be a dead thread. Why no one has locked the initial trailhead post is beyond me as there are continuing discussions in it that are also happening in other threads.

So enough ranting. Today we learn the truth about Matt and Derek's fight, that Dr. T is somewhat psycho and John Wheeler won't believe there is a fire until his clothes are ablaze, and that it is possible to find the mysterious Painted Soul.
 
Derek Is a Dork
Derek really doesn't have much in the way of updates this week - probably because he's too busy trying to patch his friendships up with Matt and Sun-Yi.

First, there is the fight that he had with Matt. I can't help it. When I first watched this video I was reminded of those first Geist videos with Eva - sadly painful but so silly bad that you just have to giggle for like an hour. At least I did. Maybe it reads better than it plays out on video. §

Maybe it doesn't. I'm still giggling. Anyway, I can see why Matt was giving Derek a hard time about buying the book though. It's freaking expensive. I'm sure Derek's copy must have cost more than $184 since it's signed and appeared to have the dust jacket. Either that or someone's price is out of whack. But how can Matt get upset that Derek forgot about his mom? Derek had just found a first edition copy of a hoax book! That's enough to make anyone forget that their best friend's mother had just died!

Sorry. I gotta stop laughing. I'm getting strange looks at work.

So Matt is on the 'no talking' list, but there's always Sun-Yi. Sweet little Sun-Yi who will retain her crush on Derek through long, cold winter nights even after he's slept with Amie again because she retains that slight hope that he'll realize that she is better for him than some pierced, tattooed ex. Or she probably would have if he didn't completely screw-up her birthday. I can tell you from experience that having your good friends screw-up your birthday is ten times worse than them forgetting it in the first place. Because the screw-up always comes right after they have built everything up so you're really on a high before they trip and push you down off over a cliff.

Sad note - Mario Danello was legally drunk when he fell to his death. Poor kid. Friends don't let friends get so drunk that they are liable to die in freak accidents before they sober up. Remember that.

So back to Derek and Sun-Yi. Derek took her out dinner and gave her an IOU birthday gift. This has better be one killer gift - but I know from experience that it won't be. I'd be surprised if he actually does get her anything in the end. We'll see.
 
Win a poster of The Host
During Sun-Yi's screening of The Host, she'll be giving away a movie poster, autographed by the director Bong Joon-Ho. Pretty nifty - wish I could go. Free movies are always great - but free movies with a chance to win a prize are even better. Especially if not that many people go. After all, look at how many people showed up at the Today show taping. Yeah, early in the morning, but still. Not that many people showed up at the Audi event in NYC during AotH. You'd think in a city the size of NYC, you'd find more players going to stuff like this. I do hope a lot of people show up for the movie - show them that their advertising money has not been wasted.

Sun-Yi has also given a shout-out to another one of the sponsors of the game: Helio Drift. Not my type of phone, but it's interesting to see a startup company jumping on an alternative marketing promotion. Kudos to them. Maybe after they saw all the press that the Treos were getting during AotH and decided that ARGs are a good way to show off your phones. Sun-Yi is willing to give out her BuddyBeacon if anyone else has one. I guess that means that she wants you to stalk her - or allow her to stalk you. Very scary thought either way.
 
Journals 14, 15, 16 and 17
John Wheeler is now beginning to suffer the effects of sleep depreviation from working too much. He doesn't know what day it is. He has problems writing and even walking. And most disturbing for him, he forgets what his wife's face looks like. But in happier news, Dr. T isn't dead yet. Although, based upon some of things that Matt found, I'm betting it's just a matter of time before he winds up dead/missing.
  • Journal Entry #14, 8/22/66 §
  • Journal Entry #15, 8/30/66 §
  • Journal Entry #16, 9/3/66 §
  • Journal Entry #17, 9/7/66 §
In the August 22nd entry, John talks about how Dr. T carries around the picture of his daughter everywhere. So why is the picture in with John's papers? Obviously Dr. T didn't take it back to the States with him (unless it came with the other Christmas picture - though I don't know why Dr. T would send a picture of his daughter by herself to John). It's a much better story to think that Dr. T died in NKP and that John took charge of all of his personal papers. That would also explains why John has the bank books and the Easter card that Dr. T stole from Dr. G. I really don't think that Dr. T can last too much longer, especially since he's now unhinged over the disappearnce of his 'girlfriend'.

But Dr. T did make some good points. Why does Dr. G have so many bank books and a German Easter card from 1949? Is it possible that he was some sort of Nazi spy that had never been caught? And why did he suddenly withdraw all of his money from the Citizens Bank of Riverdale in September 1949? Were the authorities getting to close to him? Or did he just decide to buy a pony one day?
 
Implant Boy Speaks
Over on the freak front, Amie got an email from Jon's address, although she doesn't believe it's from him. There was a cryptic sort of message saying that she "would get more details soon on where Jon is and what he’s doing" along with a new video that she has put up on Youtube. Watch out if you don't like blood. Maybe Jon has been kidnapped and has coughed up his password so that the kidnappers can send out messages to freak out his girlfriend. Or maybe he's just sick of Amie and wants to screw with her a bit to see what she does. Either way, I'm still not emotional invested in finding him yet. I care much more about Dr. T's fate (and that happened 40 years ago!)

But we were finally able to get a lead on that Painted Soul guy. Based on the fact that Amie wrote his name as 'GemalteSeele' in a previous update, degravity tried it as a Gmail address - and it worked! While you get an autoresponse § from emailing Gemalteseele@gmail.com, you usually get a response back from a live person in short order. Not that it helps us much. It seems that Painted Soul last saw Jon getting on a plane to NYC where Jon 'hoped to find the next part of the tale Fate has written for him.' Translated from New Age-ese, he was gonna meet up with a Doctor who would be more willing to perform body modifications than more credible doctors.
 
A Puzzle for Derek
It's nice to know that whomever stole all of Derek's toys didn't forget to give him a present as well. Derek discovered an envelope under his door, which contained more grids as well as the 'instructions' of 5 per. §

Current thinking is that you can arrange the grids so that they spell out words that will lead to a solution (you can see 'importance' in the 13th row for example). I do have to say though, that all of these grids are giving me flashback so the Evil Cube from AotH. Wonder if it's the same guy...

Update: The mysterious puzzle bandit has struck again, giving Derek a new set of grids with the same instructions. § Still don't know what all this means. Don't even know if each of these are stand-alone puzzles or if we have to combine the two of them together.
 
Video Blogs from Sun-Yi
Sun-Yi has uploaded a couple of more videos to her Myspace blog. § Nothing too exciting, although there is that guy in the green jacket that keeps popping up in her video. Coincidence? Is it someone we're looking for? Or is it someone who is stalking her?

And the day before update Friday, she gives us another audio blog about how she is over the fight between Matt and Derek and a brief news clip of the alien fish sighting in South Korea. See - the fish is real! I saw it on the internet news. Transcripts §
 
Recap #3
Sites we've visited: (since the last recap) none

Sites we haven't visited: none

Things that are unsolved:
 
February 9th and Onwards >>



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