Scioly Assassination 134: Cyberstrike

[Assassinator]

Clue 3:
Target - JoeyC
Correctly Protected By - Longivitis
Background story written by MadCow2357, Poem written by dxu46

1400YFEB19
OBSIDIAN CORP HEADQUARTERS, ANTARCTICA

Things2do is alive. He was found partially frozen outside of our headquarters. Severely frostbitten, he lost a couple of fingers. What a shame, cybernetics are rather expensive. He could have lost his toes, too, we were doing buy one, get one free!

Nice save LittleMissNyan. Make sure you give some credit to Here, or we may consider targeting you next.

The next morning, the officers receive a letter containing a cryptic poem.

Hello, goodbye, it all means the same;
for the ice, the ghost, all fairies came.
A flight gone wrong, a chance taken away
from the place where the big three lay.

But beware, stranger, as I am told
that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.
Can you find out, protect from fate?
for in 48 hours, all will be too late.

Explanation:
Line 1: In the Pokemon games Sun/Moon/UltraSun/UltraMoon, "Alola" (basically aloha - hello in Hawaii) means both hello and goodbye.
Line 2: JoeyC's avatar was once an alolan Vulpix, an ice type, and is now Mimikyu, a ghost and fairy type. Alolan Ninetales is an ice/fairy type, hence "all fairies"
Line 3: A flight gone wrong - MH370
Lines 3-4: A chance taken away from the place where the big three lay - In 2018, a bid was taken away from TX C, which is both where JoeyC competes and where 7L, LASA, and Clements (all top nats teams) fight for the title
Line 6: All that glitters is not necessarily gold - reference to dxu46’s game, "Fool's Gold"

[Assassinator]

Clue 4:
Target - dxu46
Correctly Protected By - JoeyC
Written by MadCow2357

Apologies for the lateness of this posted clue.

The officers receive an email from the following email address:
[email protected]
===Message===
HI Officers,
It seems that you are more wily than we originally thought. Longivitis, with help from Here, wrote a potent firewall that we were unable to penetrate. Such a pity. We had a rather painful and ironic demise planned for Joey - something that involved rabid Pokemon on a plane.

But that is no matter. We're sure that we won't fail this time. Why? Well you'll find out once he is dead. It’s high tide we took out one of the major players. But we’ll give you some help for this one - after all, we are nice people. So below, we have a left two tips to solving the clue:
1. That email is really important. Maybe you should ask for a phone number as well.
2. The key to the vigenere is the friendliest state abbreviation.

Good luck, and pray that you are not our next target.
===End of Message===

Note:
aymnkq iwl mmkicm
esxvrx
xudezgcu

Explanation:
speech and debate --> Caesar shift of 1: tqffdi boe efcbuf --> Vigenere with a key of hi: aymnkq iwl mmkicm
violin → Caesar shift 2: xkqnkp --> Vigenere with a key of hi: esxvrx
missouri → Caesar shift 4: qmwwsyvm → Vigenere with a key of hi: xudezgcu

Note that I did not know these ciphers could have been solved the way they were solved. Rookie mistake lol.

[Assassinator]

Clue 5:
Target - antoine_ego
Correctly Protected By - None
Deer Officers,
None of you solved the clue. Lol. Really wasn’t that hard, but we’ll still give you some credit for protecting the right person - dxu46 is alive. Barely. We left him alone on the slopes of Kīlauea, bleeding from more wounds than the pages in a Herpetology binder. But JoeyC saved dxu - did he fix the MH370 plane?

So it’s pretty clear that we like poetry. So we wrote another little poem for you guys. Please consider subscribing.
In a land, there was a mouse,
In place of old and pricy house,
It liked to float on top a craft,
See the view, atop the raft,
Academy of music, the school of rock,
Lacking candy, we’re out of stock,
We must act, replenish our store,
Chocolate medallions, more and more,
Lest this all ends up in gore,
Our victim is at Death’s Door.

But those are enough sentiments. Let’s get down to business! One of you will be dead within 48 hours! Whoopee!

Explanation:
In a land, there was a mouse - antoine does Mousetrap, and his name comes from Ratatouille
In place of old and pricy house, - Acton-Boxborough is a very expensive school district, and MA is one of the 13 colonies
It liked to float on top a craft, - Reference to his National Hovercraft Medal
See the view, flying atop the raft, - Air Trajectory Medal
Academy of music, the school of rock, - ID clue for MadCow, Rock&Roll92 used to go to Acton-Boxborough (the middle school), and Rock&Roll is now MadCow’s Thermo and Fossils partner
Lacking candy, we’re out of stock, - Mentioned this on IRC once, ID
We must act, replenish our store, - ACTon-Boxborough
Chocolate medallions, more and more, - Refers to antoine’s many national medals
Lest this all ends up in gore,
Our victim is at Death’s Door.

Let’s get down to business! - Mulan quote, both dxu and MadCow are Asian
Please consider subscribing. - Somewhat well known fact that MadCow is a big fan of Mark Rober

Signed,
Friends of Drago Bludvist - HTTYD is an interest of MadCow

[Assassinator]

Clue 6:
Target - TheMysteriousMapMan
Correctly Protected By - None
Background written by MadCow2357
Diary Entry (Kill clue) written by dxu46


http://tinypic.com/r/2h4lv0m/9
(for those who are unable to see the above)
===Announcement===
Trainees, we have terrible news for you: rising Camelot Company star antoine_ego is dead. He was found unresponsive 3 hours ago, with a hole in his abdomen, tread marks over his body, and a hovercraft propeller up his nose. Friends of his report him leaving the Machiavelli Division Common Room to use the restroom, but not returning. Investigators have not yet been able to confirm, but all leads point toward an attack carried out by assassins from the Russo-Chinese Alliance. A letter was found near the murder's location, seemingly ripped out of a diary. We will honor his memory today with 5 minutes of silence.
===End of Announcement===

Later, General Marsh gives JoeyC a copy of the letter found near the murder sight to the officers.

Marsh: Joey, you are undoubtedly the best clue solver - you are our only hope. The Spire must find the identity of these killers - e'll need your help

JoeyC (somewhat humbly): "Thanks General, but I will need the help of my trusty fellow officers to solve this mystery. You don't mind me sharing this with some trusted underlings?"

Marsh: "Of course, of course - whatever you need to do figure out the identity of these murderers."

JoeyC: Thanks. May I also have access to the admin computers?

Marsh: "Why? Though I don't think it would be a problem, Joey."

JoeyC: I suspect that the killers are in the Spire with us. They could very well be one of the teachers, or one of our fellow cadets. I don't know, just a hunch.

Marsh: "Well of course, then. Anything you need, just tell me."

Later, the officers meet up in LittleMissNyan's dorm room.

Dear Diary,
What is it now, target number 6? I'm losing count. Time flies when you do something you love. Like, I love what he does, even though I am so far away from it. I was good at it, yet I will never do it again. It's sad, isn't it? I guess there should've been some sort of insurance to prevent for accidents like these. Perhaps not for cars, but something different, like the first of the first airplane. Alas, life must be taken. I suppose killing takes a large moral toll on myself. But judging the moral consequences of an action is hard. Killing must be done.

Signed,
An American Assassinator

48 hours.

Explanation:
"I love what he does" - MysteriousMAPMan (Road Scholar - ID and Kill combined)
"I'm so far away from it/will never do it again" I recently changed divisions
Insurance/Cars - reference to Triple A insurance
"first of the first airplane" - first airplane = wright state university, first of the wright state university = 2013.
In a caesar shift cipher with shift 13, A->M hence Triple M or MMM or MysteriousMapMan
The philosophical bit at the end - The type of debate I do (LD Debate) is all about evaluating the moral consequences of an action. This is a small ID clue that maybe only 1 officer (linzhiyan) will get, but it's getting to the time where we need to put a bit more ID
Quotation marks used on the second, third, fifth, and seventh lines. - 2357
w is missing from we'll - other irregular letters from previous clues include D and A, forming DAW
A letter + An American Assassinator = Letters from an American Assassinator - Reference to Letters from an American Farmer, which was written by a French dude. Widely known that MadCow takes French

[JoeyC]

The next sassy has been chosen! Unfortunately they isn't my first choice, so please disregard earlier statements on the topic .

[TheMysteriousMapMan]

The next sassy has been chosen! Unfortunately he isn't my first choice, so please disregard earlier statements on the topic .

Was this intentional? Do we have a bit of an ID before the game has even started?

[DragonTownEpic]

Oh, boy!

[Assassinator]

Oh, boy!

Lmao

[EastStroudsburg13]

I've got to say, I'm impressed you pulled off a multi-sassy game. I think it might be the first time a game with multiple Assassinators ended well. It sounds like the clue difficulty was a good match for the involved players. Kudos.

[MadCow2357]

I've got to say, I'm impressed you pulled off a multi-sassy game. I think it might be the first time a game with multiple Assassinators ended well. It sounds like the clue difficulty was a good match for the involved players. Kudos.

Thank you East! It means a lot!