A Journal in Jade: The ‘ARCANA’ Diaries — Week Two

ARCANA, the latest alternate reality game (ARG) from the team that created All of Them Witches, kicked off on May 6. Each week, NoPro’s Laura Hess, Blake Weil, and Kevin Gossett will be offering their thoughts on Jade’s story, the brain-bending puzzles, and any other creepy goings-on.

READ WEEK ONE

Week Two

Blake

Remember last week how I was loving ARCANA, but wishing it would break out of its little shell on Instagram? This is the week it went there. We’ve got historians, emails, SoundCloud, spooky ballads from the 1920’s, Paranormal Activity homages;the tone and scope of ARCANA has finally hit a fever pitch.

So, long story short, Jade is now very clearly possessed. After a week of more cryptic messages, a… being (think Slender Man, but wearing a fox fursuit made of filthy towels) has finally shown up at Jade’s door and clearly changed her. The tone this week has been clearly moving towards this crescendo. In-game interactions continue to be solid and guidance continues to be offered when needed.

This week, I want to mainly hone in on how ARCANA has been using puzzles. While puzzles were simple and usually gave one word answers in week one,, week two has been a deluge of riddles (not that I’m complaining.) I’m going to hone in on three puzzles, because while each has been at least fun to solve, they varied in how well they integrated into the broader storyworld.

First was the SoundCloud link Jade sent us, a game-specific variant of the 1920’s grim ballad “Little Marian Parker,” based upon the true crime the game revolves around, It was uploaded in-universe after a CD of it appeared from seemingly nowhere on Jade’s front porch. In whole, it’s both a bizarre historical artifact and a sort of grim musical summary of the game’s backstory. This puzzle had layers. First the obvious: solving the missing final lyrics of the song (which was cut out by spooky screams!). Then came the step of trying to find out what to do with those lyrics (send them to an in-universe version of IRL historian Hadley Meares to prompt a reexamination of the autopsy of William Hickman, the murderer from the song). Then came the line spectrography of yet another death row inmate’s mugshot, decoded from the ominous buzzing in the background of the audio. Finally, we had just the deep rabbit hole of research the song prompts. I’ve now listened to at least three different variations of folk songs about the murder of Marion Parker, and at least three half hour podcasts, hunting for clues or references. I even found one: the fox-masked demon’s use of towels seems to be a grim reference to the towels Hickman stuffed Parker’s disemboweled torso with.

Less layered, but still beautiful, was an autopsy puzzle. Using a diagram of scarred locations and verbal descriptions of black marks found in the chest cavity, players uncovered the phrase “HANGED MAN” carved into Hickman’s chest from the inside. The scans of stained and faded autopsy papers were a delicious touch in ARCANA that shows a lot of attention to detail. The solution also finally clarified the title of the game, and started a whole new round of speculation: if Hickman was the “hanged man,” who were the other arcana? Which card is Jade? And what happens when the deck is complete?

While these puzzles were clever, their main appeal to me was in propping up the fiction of the universe. They feel like they belong in the reality of the situation, and make clever use of media. They’re elegant and cohesive.

Then there’s the nonogram. (Ed note: a “nonogram,” also known as a “piccross,” is a grid-based logic puzzle where certain “cells” must be left blank to uncover a hidden picture.) Nonograms are also, without a doubt, my favorite “puzzle in a vacuum.” I’ve done them religiously since high school. I was one of the first to work on solving and adding the solution to the ARCANA Discord answers board. But when I first saw the nonogram, I scoffed a little. A puzzle with such obvious qualities as a “puzzle” pulled me out of immersion. Even with its spooky answer, “SCRATCH U OUT OF MY FLESH,” I felt annoyed. The whole thing felt so artificial and contrived, especially compared to the highs of other puzzles in ARCANA. It felt like being in the most elaborate, period-specific escape room, the almost archetypal Egyptian tomb, for example, and then finding a shiny new combination padlock. This felt like a step back. I would love to see puzzles continue to be integrated into more organic forms.

Overall, though, this week in ARCANA has been a thrill. The back and forth of daily puzzles and nightly spooky videos and ominous taunts from Jade’s web-nemesis/potential reincarnated serial killer/demon known only as @veryslyuno kept me up far later than I intended multiple nights of the week. I still am digging through the details of the Parker murder and considering checking out books on it. Week three approaches, and I welcome it with confidence and no small amount of delicious, nail-biting terror.

Kevin

I was trying to think of one specific thing to hone in on this week, but realized there were a few things I actually wanted to talk about, so I’m going to try a different format: Two things I liked and one thing I didn’t.

I thought the element of bringing real life historical journalist Hadley Meares into the game was an inspired touch. Despite being an LA-native, I wasn’t aware of Meares’ work in Los Angeles until she came up last week in ARCANA. After a quick trip down her Twitter feed, I’ve barely scratched the surface of her detours into the things that helped make Los Angeles what it is.

Meares’ incorporation into the game (as with so many other parts, this was clearly signposted, a detail I’m grateful for) was fluid and tied into her historical research. After Jade directed participants to an article about the murder of Marion Parker, which took place in Los Angeles, she asked us to reach out to the piece’s author, Hadley Meares to learn more. This led to Meares doling out some insight through an in-game email account and even handing out a puzzle or two.

The thing I didn’t love as much this week was the pace of the game. During the first week, ARCANA averaged about a puzzle a day while it was active. That offered enough time to discover one, finish up work (or whatever you were doing), solve the puzzle, and then get the answer to Jade before she said good night.

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This week, the pace and the storytelling ramped up in ARCANA. There were a couple of days where I felt a little lost in the whirlwind of interactions, posts, and puzzles, especially if I couldn’t really play along until the evening. Some of the puzzles this week were particularly involved and genuinely fun (shout to that picross, a type of puzzle which I’ve never done). But when everything started to pile up, it felt a little like I had to rush through a puzzle just to get to the next part of the story and then the next puzzle. The puzzles weren’t really that connected and could be done independently of each other, but I did want to try to hit the story beats in the seemingly intended order, which wasn’t always easy. It was a small mark against the great player experience of the first week.

I also want to highlight just how well ARCANA deployed its horror elements. The first week made it clear we were playing a game in the horror vein, what with the serial killers, dolls, and some creepy imagery. This week, though, the kid gloves came off. First, the @veryslyuno account got real creepy, posting pictures of Jade’s house, and then pictures of Jade in her house taken through her windows, and then pictures of Jade from INSIDE HER HOME.

The week ended with a tense Instagram video of Jade going to answer her door where I assume everyone watching was screaming, “NO! Don’t answer it!” That wasn’t enough to stop her though, and she was grabbed the moment she cracked the door open. That wasn’t even the end though. Then another video appeared on Jade’s account from her doorbell camera as a masked apparition approached the door and stared into the camera. The standout sound design on this sequence struck just the right unsettling note.

I kind of expected this week’s cliffhanger to be, “Where is Jade?” ARCANA had other ideas. It appears Jade has been returned to her home, leaving us to wonder, “What happened?” And that makes for a much more interesting angle. We’re all emotionally invested in the story at this point, and somehow, Jade being corrupted or possessed (or something) by this “spirit” feels like higher stakes than anything else.

Laura

I found myself consumed by ARCANA the second week. Initially, I waited to join the participant-led ARCANA Slack channel, steeped with hints and spoilers. Instead, I gave myself space to get oriented and wade slowly into ARCANA’s sea. During the break between Week One and Week Two, I combed through the first week’s threads of Slack messages and discovered deeper meanings behind some of the game’s clues. In particular, there was a typed poem, written by Jade, and spliced into shreds of paper; she requested we suture them back together in the correct order. I quickly did so and sent her the solution. I thought that was that. Oh, how naive I was.

For Week Two, I’ve been determined to do as much puzzle solving on my own as possible, before ferreting out answers from the Slack channels and Instagram comments. So I felt mildly accomplished with my poem dexterity. And then came Rob Baird. I do not know Rob, but he’s part of the 160 highly engaged ARCANA participants on Slack. Rob posted messages about the embedded code within the poem. What is he talking about? What embedded code within the poem? Who is this puzzle savant?

Rob described how he decoded the covert message. Still not grasping parts of the cipher, I reached out to him directly for clarification. He graciously walked me through his process and this is when I properly realized Rob, and others like him, are worldly, facile varsity players and I am sitting on the JV ARG bench. Cue the Rocky theme music and an ARG-equivalent training montage: what it lacks in drinking raw eggs and muscling through one-armed pushups, it makes up for in nonogram drills.

Jade posted a 20-by-20 grid nonogram, requesting help to uncover the hidden message. Unfamiliar with nonograms, I immediately watched an online tutorial and practiced on 10-by-10 grids, working my way up to larger grids. To avoid any spoilers or hints, I disengaged with ARCANA during this time. I imagined Rob Baird or Cara Mandel, NoPro’s own gaming expert, as my cornerman, amping me up for the nonogram boxing match. This is where ARCANA has led me: deep into full-immersion gameplay, breathless for the next clue or challenge. The entire game is deliciously layered and intricate, culling real-world historical events and quilting them with fictionalized people and mysteries; the seams are thrillingly hard to see.

ARCANA’s second week was an amassment of omens and surprises, far too many to dive into here. But what really pivoted for me was the driving force of the game. The first week, I blundered through the mazes, but relished my direct interaction with Jade (how is the ARCANA team juggling hundreds of DMs?). This second week, I felt myself shifting gears and settling into an investigative rhythm. That said, my analysis also included side trips into Wrongville when I explored a numerical code featured in Jade’s Instagram Stories; I considered phone numbers, addresses, dates, telegram numbers, and even latitude and longitude coordinates as the cipher. All were incorrect, but they had potential. And I was successful in decoding the nonogram, which revealed a creepy directive: “SCRATCH U OUT OF MY FLESH.” If only Rob could see me now.

(And while they may not be integral to the game, the Instagram comments are an underrated treasure trove, less so now in terms of hints and more so for witty banter. For example, Jade is being stalked by someone with the Instagram handle of @veryslyuno, who was briefly introduced the first week. When he started posting increasingly stalker-ish, black-and-white, nighttime photos of Jade’s house to his account, ‘@cornchak remarked, “I don’t know why everyone’s so worried. She has ADT home security.” @Jonross210 professed, “I know this is a stressful moment but I like your front porch.” @Markrennie was exasperated: “Black and white? We get it, you’ve seen 8 ½!!” @Cvxn took a different approach with “Bro, this is not very cash money of you. My guy, you need a get-a-grip friend to tell you this is some not right shit you are doing. Many therapists offer a sliding scale. Help is available.” And @kristin_cassidy had a more logistically sinister query: “Do demons have cell phones??”)

Bets for Week Three

Blake: I’m betting that we get more information on Robin. So far she’s been the big mystery! Who is she? Is she Jade’s sister, a parallel to the other Parker daughter? Her ex? As the discord has theorized, is she the demon Providence, freed from the prison of Jade’s mind to wreak havoc? Either way she seems to be the key.

Kevin: My bet kind of ties into Blake’s: I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to see a new character this week. This seemed more likely when it looked like Jade had gone missing, so I’m probably wrong, but the time feels right for some new wrinkle to emerge.

Laura: I have more questions than predictions. I’m still curious about @veryslyuno: are the masked fox-stalker and @veryslyuno one and the same? We were left hanging with the integration of Amos Ratliff; how do his murders and subsequent execution merge with the story of William Hickman, Marion Parker, and Jade? And I agree that Robin continues to be a wild card. There’s been a kind of Robin residue throughout the clues, but no clear indication of Robin’s role in this — or if Robin is a “real” character at all.

ARCANA is free-to-play and also accepting donations via PayPal. Arcana is a creation of AOTW: Eva Anderson; Mali Elfman; Eric Hoff; Tommy Honton; and E3W Productions (Aaron Keeling, Austin Keeling and Natalie Jones).

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