[HoE] Card-Based Encryption Method (plus Scenario Ideas)

[Kirt Dankmyer aka Loki <loki@triadntr.net>]

Fans of Deadlands should check out

http://www.counterpane.com/solitaire.html

In short, this essay describes a simple, yet secure, encryption method that
uses a deck of cards to do the encoding. Not only that, but the algorithm
requires two jokers that one can distinguish between... Can anyone say "red
Joker" and "black Joker"? (I've done the operations required with one of the
decks of cards I use for Hell on Earth, and found it even easier than it seems
when reading about it.)

The author talks about how must card games don't use Jokers (he doesn't play
much poker, one would think), so one must come up with a good reason to have a
shuffled deck with the Jokers in it. I pointed out to him that Deadlands
players have a valid reason to have such a deck. ;)

Regardless, the potential uses for such an algorithm in the Deadlands universe
are many. Any secretive group with a technical bent and knowlege of card
playing would be likely to come up with it... Hmmmm, Sons of Sitgreaves,
anyone? If I ever run Hell on Earth again, Solitaire is going to be the
standard message code in use among the "old boys network" of Huckster/Junkers,
especially the Ethics Committee. (After all, one may want to be quiet about
sending messages like "LAZLO IS TAINTED"...)

There's also some potential here in the Wierd West. Considering that the
algorithm doesn't require a computer, just a deck of cards, it's perfectly
possible to use it in the 19th century. The only obstacle is the math to do
this was only recently developed recently...

There's a way around that, however. Cryptography is arguably a technology, as
the German Enigma machine during WWII shows. And Mad Scientists are very
enamoured of secrecy... This means the Sons of Sitgreaves can use the method
for messages in the 19th century as well. I mean, the sort of paranoia that
makes one want to use cryptography is a form of fear, so no reason for the
Manitous to discourage it... Therefore, depending on the Marshall's
preference, this low-tech algorithm that is difficult to break even with the
best of 20th century technology might be interesting in the hands of the Sons
as I suggest, or in the hands of a single brilliant Mad Scientist... Or in the
hands of the Court, the Lady Luck Society, the Rangers, or even the Agency...

With this all this in mind, I thought of some adventure seeds for the Wasted
West:

Jenny, I Need Your Number

And to think it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for a pretty face.

When Jenny A. Shamir walked into a survivor community on the Western edge of
the Colorodo border, it was only because of her pretty face that Ronald
Rivest, a Chamber member and freelance Junker, prevented the townfolk from
lynching her. The town was trying to fight the Combine (and not doing so
well), and Jenny was a known Black Hat from the local area. But her claim that
she had broken free of the Combine (and her hourglass figure) struck a chord
with Ronald, and, being a former Sons of Sitgreaves member, once he had time
to confirm her story with the help of the Hunch hex and a friend of his, a
cyborg equipped with a logic probe, he realized he had in his hands a perfect
spy to use against the Combine.

You see, Jenny claimed to have a defective headbanger chip that emitted a
"green" condition no matter what, and this turned out to be true, though they
couldn't figure out how to duplicate the defect. Not only this, but she had a
photographic memory. Given this, Ronald taught Jenny the Solitaire algorithm,
and had her memorize the 2042 "Expanded Bridge Player's Edition with Examples"
of Hoyle's Book of Games. Not for the hexes (which were pretty corrupt, in
that edition), but for the examples of bridge games, which could be used as
Solitaire encryption keys.

With these tools in hand, Jenny wormed her way back into the Combine, going up
in the ranks, getting assignments closer and closer to Denver. She would send
messages by various methods (relayed radio, message drop points, robotic
carrier pigeon, etc.), and by an alternate channel she would send a page
number, which indicated the key. (It was safe to send the encryption key this
way since Jenny carried the Hoyle around in her head, not physically. No way
for the Combine to know what the number means.) Now, with the Iron Alliance in
place, Jenny's terse reports of Combine tribute and weapons shipments have
become even more important.

How does the posse get involved? Well, it seems that an unusually long message
came through recently, but the page number never arrived. The posse members
have been asked to help. This should lead the posse through a merry chase
through Combine territory, trying to find downed robotic carrier pigeons,
recover data from damaged radio relay stations, persuade Comsat to listen for
the message, etc... All to acquire Jenny's number...

Dead Woman's Hand (Jenny Part II)

The message Jenny had sent, above, was "SOMEONE ON TO ME PLS SND SOMEONE ASAP
DONT KNOW HOW LNG CAN LAST NEXT MSG SHOULD HAVE INFO VITAL TO DEFEATIN THROCK"

Naturally, the posse get the job. (Especially if they decrypted the message
themselves during the last adventure. Hell, they may decide to do it without
any prodding. Miracles happen.) They get to go *deep* into Combine territory,
dodging Raptors and Black Hats along the way. Once they reach Jenny's last
known location, a little detective work (or beating up the right people)
reveals that the Black Hats, having caught Jenny making a cryptic broadcast,
put a bullet in her head, no questions asked. They have her belongings in a
nearby base...

Lucky for the posse, the Combine hasn't figured out how the code Jenny was
using works. But she only got to broadcast the message, not the page key. But
there should be the deck of cards she was using to do the calculations among
her personal belongings, perhaps unshuffled, which encodes the key. So the
posse has to sneak into a Combine base with the intent to steal a cheap pack
of playing cards...

Jenny's final message, once deciphered using the pack of cards, indicates she
has been encoding plans for a Throckmorton attack using a particular random
set of cards not contained in the expanded Hoyle book, for extra security. The
last message contains the location of the encoded document, and the location
of the deck of cards that is the key.

Ace in the Hole (Jenny Part III)

This is where the Marshal can throw in more combat, if he likes. After all the
skulking around in the previous two scenarios, the posse has to fight Black
Hats, trogs, walkin' dead or whatever else the Marshal desires to get Jenny's
notebook, and then deal with a whole *new* set of problems to acquire the pack
of cards, which are in a totally different location... Hell, they may have to
go into Denver itself.

If they can pull it off and get back to Junkyard in time, they'll be heroes,
and they'll probably swear off poker for life. ;)

---

For the Wierd West (and perhaps for the Wasted West as well), I present the
following Relic:

The CSB Deck

This was the deck of cards used by Laura Carlton, Lawley Surratt, and
Montgomery Booth (the founding members of the Sons of Sitgreaves) used to
develop a version of the Solitaire algorithm (the called it "Aces and Eights")
to communicate with each other and other like-minded individuals while on the
run from the Agency. All three of them used it for hexes at one point or
another, imbuing it with magical energy.

It looks like a perfectly ordinary late 19th Century deck of cards, the sort
of deck one might find on a riverboat casino. The only thing that
distinguishes it is are the initials "CSB" in the right corner of each Joker,
one set of initials in red, and one set in black.

Power: By spending 1 Wind, the owner can cause any deck of cards he has
previously seen to arrange itself in the same order that the CSB Deck is
currently in. This allows the owner to quietly transmit Solitaire-style
encryption keys to a confederate, from any distance. Of course, the
confederate still needs to get the message he is to decode... Less scrupulous
owners will find that it's also good for fixing card games.

Taint: There's no real Taint for this relic, though it has been known to
activate without the owner requesting it, re-ordering all nearby decks without
the Wind cost, for no obvious reason. This is especially common if the owner
has been using the deck to cheat at cards. (After all, when the owner gets the
same hand six times in a row, people will get suspicious...)

---

Comments?
        -Loki