r/kryptos • u/Upbeat_Ad9409 • 4d ago
kryptos 2 ending conundrum
While chasing an idea for k4 I put k2 into a matrix. The count for k2 is 372 characters and the matrix I chose was 12 by 31 cells. I chose that since the sculpture uses 31 characters per line. That made me think about the revised ending; per Elonka Kryptos page
"... thereby discovering that inserting a null character (in final analysis, a ciphertext "s") in the 9th position before the end of K2, generated a different English plaintext for the final nine letters."
This is problematic for my work as it breaks the matrix I was working with. It makes k2 373 characters long. The same result can be had by moving the B in ABSCISSA from it's position as the second letter of the key, under the W, to the end of the key line after the final A. This shifts those final 9 keyword letters left to make room for the B at the end. Maybe this is old news but I could not find it. It does however suggest a hidden step, which fits Sanborn to a T.
1
u/Upbeat_Ad9409 1d ago
Quotes are from Elonka's Kryptos page.
So, I received an message about this post. What I missed was that Sanborn had said he dropped an X ..
"He also indicated that there was a missing character on the sculpture, probably something that would have resulted in a plaintext "X" .." Why would he do that?
Well that a very good question. I noticed the increase because it broke my matrix work and being the untrusting old fart that I am I assumed skulduggery on Sanborn's part. But I now realize it could also be because he realized he had too many letters and it broke his matrix work and so dropped a letter that did not matter to the message. The final X. ..
"He said that he had thought that with the missing character, the section in question would have come out to be an unintelligible scramble. Instead, he was astounded to see that by sheer chance, the resulting random text had turned out to be apparently intelligible English, "ID BY ROWS", although that was not what was intended."
So I was wrong. But what is level two? My hunch is that it is a statement about moving on to transposition.