cryptogram puzzle post | artwork, games & storytelling by jack fallows

Page (i)

The letter might provide some direction.
Eight compass directions are the solution.
The first three are SE, SW, and W.
The lowercase text describes how to extract the compass directions from the uppercase text. The “three ships” are SE, SW and W; the “echo” is the repeated E; NE is in “two parts,” and W, S and E are the last “three ships.”

Page (ii)

Setting the four pairs of controls in the correct order is essential—pay close attention to the border.
The controls are solid discs with a blue pointer on them. The pointer and the letters/numbers rotate together; the small black output marker does not move.
The first move would be to rotate the top-right control 135 degrees clockwise (moving the pointer to south-east), meaning the output is F.
The corners of the border indicate (with variable numbers of dots) that the order in which to set the controls is top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left, top-left. In each pair, the upper control is set before the lower one. Using directions from the prior solution, the correct outputs are F2, L5, E1, N8.

The prior solution sends the boat in four straight lines, ending at an arch.
The text provides a clue as to what to take from this journey.
Note the words at each point where the ship changes course on its route to the arch.
Going forward (up) two spaces; left, five; east (right), one; and finally north (up), eight spaces, takes the ship past “winter” “wilts” “flowers” before arriving at the arch.

The text provides a clue as to how to interpret the prior solution; the rest can be deduced through logic.
The birds each provide a statement followed by some guidance which may be truthful or a lie; the object is to determine which bird’s guidance to trust.
If Valen’s statement were true, the rest would be lies, so due to Victor’s (false) statement, only Valen could be providing truthful guidance…but that would make Violet’s statement true—impossible/inconsistent!
Violet (a type of flower) is the one who cannot be trusted at all (always lies). Valen’s statement logically must be a lie, so Velda and Victor’s statements must be true. Victor’s statement means only Valen or Violet’s guidance might be trustworthy, and Violet always lies, so Valen’s guidance is what you should trust.

The prior solution provides three pairs of linked concepts.
The solution is three digits in a specific order.
Place the three diamonds in the hexagon so the correct connections are made externally, then read the internal three digits.
The hand should be beside the rope, the land symbol by the steering wheel and the sun beside the sail. The digits 1, 0 and 7 align with the I, II and III in the center—107 is the solution.

The empty spaces will end up with significantly more stones on them than the spaces that currently have stones on them.
Each space will have a different number of stones.
The number of stones in each row and column should add up to the number from the previous solution.
The existing stones sum to 21, 20, 19 and 18 respectively, so to reach 107, the blank spaces need 86, 87, 88, and 89 stones.

The individual numbers from the previous solution don’t matter—only the total they sum to.
The ship details depicted are examples, showing how numbers (of up to four digits) correspond to settings from four dials.
Each dial corresponds to one digit within a four-digit number, but each of the four settings on each dial represents respectively: 0, 1-3, 4-6, 7-9.
The prior solution sums to 350. 0 3 5 0 corresponds to setting the dials to the first, second, third, and first values respectively, so the associated words and final answer are ALIVE WITH US AGAIN.