Solution to M: Act 2 Meta

    The first thing to do is to find this initial password.

    1. 7th letter of LANDSCAPE - A
    2. 10th letter of ENTERTAINMENT - M
    3. 8th letter of SOFTWARE - E
    4. 2nd letter of BROTHER - R
    5. 8th letter of STAGNATION - I
    6. 6th letter of BROADCAST - C
    7. 1st letter of ANALYSIS - A

    Teams would then submit this as an answer, then get redirected to the page quest.skule.ca/1T8/act2/americaa, which does not exist. This should prompt them to change it from americaa to america, leading them to this page.

    
    
        The next thing to do is to find these new words. Using the Vigenere (vinegar) cipher and the answers to the act 2 puzzles as keys, we get:

        1. EDUCATION
        2. URINE
        3. ROMANCE
        4. INFLATION
        5. MALICIOUS
        6. NEWS
        7. SOUND

        Each answer, when paired with its corresponding word here (which I'll call pair words), forms a portmanteau. The "before" and "after" tell you whether the pair word comes before or after the answer in the portmantaau.

        1. EDUCATION and ENTERTAINMENT form EDUTAINMENT
        2. URINE and ANALYSIS form URINALYSIS
        3. BROTHER and ROMANCE form BROMANCE
        4. STAGNATION and INFLATION form STAGFLATION
        5. MALICIOUS and SOFTWARE form MALWARE
        6. NEWS and BROADCAST form NEWSCAST
        7. SOUND and LANDSCAPE form SOUNDSCAPE

        Using these words in the URL to replace the word america, teams would find parts of a substitution cipher. The whole cipher, when broken, reads

        Use the letters you removed from the answers to receive your final instructions. Not all of the removed letters are used. Good luck.

        The letters removed from the answers to form the portmanteaus are

        1. ENTER
        2. AN
        3. OTHER (ignoring the first R)
        4. NATION
        5. OF (ignoring the S and T)
        6. BROAD
        7. LAND

        Another nation of broad land is Canada (a couple of others too, but you could try them all), the answer to the puzzle.
    
    Click here for the rest of the puzzle.




CANADA