On the Subject of Playfair Cycles
Just because it plays fair doesn’t mean it’ll play nice.
This module consists of a screen, eight dials with cyan labels, and a QWERTY keyboard.
The X key on the keyboard is faulty and as such, the module no longer recognises X as a letter of the alphabet.
The labels on the dials, when decrypted and read from left to right, spell out an eight letter word.
The encryption process is as follows:
- The number of 72° rotations, starting from north, of each pair of adjacent dials are interpreted as two digit base 5 numbers.
- Starting from A=0, the numbers given by each pair of adjacent dials refer to the alphabetic positions of the first seven letters of a 5×5 keysquare in reading order.
(Since X is omitted, Y=23 and Z=24) - The remaining 18 letters fill the rest of the keysquare in alphabetical order.
- The word is split into four pairs of letters.
If a pair contains the same letter twice, the second is changed to a Z. - Each pair of letters is altered:
- If both letters belong to the same row of the keysquare, shift both letters one space to the right along the row.
- If both letters belong to the same column of the keysquare, shift both letters once space down the column.
- Otherwise, the letters lie on diagonally opposite corners of a rectangle, the encrypted pair consists of the letters in the horizontally opposite corners from the original pair.
Once deciphered, find the word in the table below, the word written below it is the word that should be entered.
Apply the same encryption to the response word, and type out the encrypted response word using the keys.
The word is automatically submitted when eight keys are pressed.
The red button can be pressed at any time before the eighth key is pressed to cancel the input.
Inputting any of the eight letters incorrectly will cause a strike to be issued and reset the module.