"Oh no, not another Bumble! cipher!"
No worries, I've made this one a choose your own adventure/difficulty cipher. If you want the easier way, look at the hint. If you want the more adventurous way do not look! A FTF acknowledgement will be given to the first finder of each method...be honest.
The CONsecutive DIgraphs "CONDI" cipher is an interesting one. At first glance it looks just like an Aristocrat. On further inspection however you will see its a bit more complicated then that. The cipher preserves word divisions & is easy to encode like an Aristocrat, but deciphering can be bit harder. Pattern words are hidden & frequency counts are disguised without having to use periods and/or multiple alphabets. It uses a simple keyed alphabet, though could use a mixed alphabet if one so chose.
The encoding steps are:
- Start with a key word or phrase.
- Form a key alphabet by removing from the key duplicated letters except for the first occurrence, and appending in alphabetical order all letters than do not occur in the key.
- Number the key alphabet starting with 1
- Choose an arbitrary starting number between 1 and 26, say 10, encode the first letter of your plaintext by moving 10 places to the right from the letter's position in the key alphabet. This is considered the starting "shift"
- Use the position of the previous plaintext letter as the number of places to move to encode the next plaintext number.
- Keep repeating step 5 until all letters are encoded.
Decoding is the reverse of encoding -- you move to the left instead of to the right.
An Example CONDI cipher:
Keyword: Bumble
Starting Shift of 3
| B |
U |
M |
L |
E |
A |
C |
D |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
PT :I like all of bumbles ciphers so very much.
In the PT the "i" is position 12 in the keyword alphabet. The starting shift of 3 moves it to position 15, making the CT "N".
The next letter in the PT "l" is encoded by using the position of the previous PT letter as the number of places to move to encode the next PT number. Since we just encoded an 'i" (position 12) , and you now want to encode 'l', you move 12 places to the right from 'l' (position 4) in the keyword alphabet, which brings you to "O"(position 16).
Continuing this process through the entire PT you wind up with:
CT: N OOZR HGD SY GMELEFY BRMUOXJ KG IBXQ UEFQ.
The CONDI - American HOBO
GJ WSZTDM XQHH'J. UQWK JVK RBQGJP LX XDC ECJB HCF FRPGOI HZT KWLWH YFOCQKA UDGBAPY JB GCF FJPW. XB, WAML WX XCF NYMBPAPL VB CRQH. GICCIWP LCF ZNVH GCYIQ OUXXOH JY OHXC CCF AFUDC RQH CBPH IZGUGUPQBLP. ADDBF VB LJEHLCJPY X WYKJH CXJRZ ILUUPY NCF IPKRF OFOC UJEH GPQS IOPPIDLIW. UJPW: HBG PCYIQ LLA WLA, ZHXC DNFJPH FQH PJHOI.
CRIB: business
Permanently attached to the lid is a copy of the "Key" from Bumble!'s Secret Key. Please leave it attached & just discover it. You will find the cache is stocked with goods to keep the fellow HOBO warm
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.