Transcript of this chapter:

barlow: ....It might be of little importance to you, but that coded message has caused a lot of fuss back in town.
eliza: I don't see why. It looks like someone was just trying to have a joke, or maybe slow down your ecologically-unsound restoration project.
barlow: I know you don't like what we're doing, but you wouldn't go so far as to write it, would you?
eliza: Ha! Hardly. However, I did see that sickly-looking girl standing there just before the message appeared. You should go talk to her.
barlow: Who do you think wrote that message?
eliza: Well, it seems obvious to me that you should focus your inquiry at that Annabelle girl. Those gothic types are always looking for attention... just look at the trouble she goes through to look like she's dead!
barlow: Uh... yeah...
eliza: I think that if you really want to know what that message says, you could start with her.
barlow: Could you see what Annabelle was doing?
eliza: I didn't see her writing any messages, but she did appear to be... talking. It seemed like she was talking to that skeleton, as if it had the ability to talk back to her. Heh.
barlow: Did, uh... did the skeleton appear to be talking back?
eliza: Barlow, you don't honestly believe it could do that, do you?! I took you for a rational person. I hope living in Spider Cliff isn't affecting your brain in some way.
eliza: When someone dies, that's it. There's no way an old skeleton can communicate with the living. That silly gothic girl is just the sort to believe in zombies and other corny folk-tales .
eliza: I think that if you really want to know what that message says, you could start with her.
barlow: Did Annabelle have a wood-burning kit or something similar?
eliza: No, I didn't see her carrying anything. Why do you ask?
barlow: Oh, there's just something strange about that message...
barlow: Did you have a chance to look at the coded message?
eliza: I looked at it.
barlow: Everyone else seems to think that Elkwood wrote the message. I'm the only person in town who knows it had to be written by one of us.
eliza: That's... that's just indicative of the town mentality. That's the reason I spend as little time in Spider Cliff as I possibly can.
eliza: I sympathize with you, Barlow. You've got a tough job if you're going to find out who wrote that message.
barlow: I have a number of suspects, but right now I need to find Annabelle.
barlow: Any ideas as to what the message says?
eliza: It looks like a letter-replacement code of some type, but I don't know how easy it would be to crack...
eliza: It all depends on whether there's any encryption being used, and if there is it might use an asymmetric key algorithm, in which case the public key could be anywhere! It could use Paillier, Merkle-Hillman, ElGamal, not to mention any salting.
barlow: Uh... yeah...
eliza: The point is, it might be unbreakable. You might have better luck going after the author of the message.
barlow: That's a good idea, and there's someone I'd dearly like to talk to right now...
barlow: Somebody burned that message into the side of the gondola.
eliza: Really? I thought it was just written with paint or a big marker.
barlow: No, it was actually engraved.
eliza: Hmmm... that's funny...
eliza: This morning, the paper mammal that you tamed stole my miniature acetylene torch. I assume he thought it was food and didn't know what it really was.
eliza: I chased after him, but he floated out into an unstable part of the marsh. I guess it's feasible that it eventually got into the hands of someone capable of writing your message.
barlow: That's very interesting... and opens some new possibilities.
barlow: Aha, just he zombie I've been looking for!
crystal: Hold on just a minute, Barlow...
barlow: Step aside and let me talk to her.
crystal: Annabelle, you don't have to answer any of Barlow's questions. You can let me speak for you.
barlow: Oh, are you her lawyer or something?
crystal: I just talked to Annabelle about the whole situation. The situation is quite different from what you think.
barlow: She wrote the message, didn't she?!
crystal: No, she did NOT write the message., and she doesn't know for certain who did it.
crystal: She has a theory about who wrote it, but it's not really any of your concern. It's a personal matter.
barlow: You're both hiding something!
crystal: Barlow, this is a personal matter between us girls. As to that code, we don't know for sure who wrote it, but Annabelle thinks that the message might be written for her benefit.
barlow: I want to know everything you've been talking about!
crystal: I just talked to Annabelle about the whole message situation. All I can tell you is that Annabelle definitely ISN'T the one who wrote it... and she didn't see who wrote it, either.
crystal: We were just discussing a theory... but it doesn't really concern you.
barlow: Who does Annabelle think wrote it?
crystal: Annabelle has a theory, but even I'm not sure how plausible it is. Why don't you go ask some other people, and if I think Annabelle's idea has merit I'll report it to you later.
barlow: You're just trying to get rid of me.
crystal: Exactly! We're talking about girl stuff. Girl secrets, which aren't related to what you're looking for.
barlow: Fine, but this discussion isn't done yet.
barlow: Did Elkwood actually say something to her?
crystal: Er... not exactly...
crystal: It's true that Annabelle was talking to Elkwood's skeleton, but even she didn't expect it to talk back in any way.
annabelle: But he did! That message was from him!
crystal: Shhh... Let me handle this.
crystal: Annabelle's doesn't really know for sure. She didn't see him write the message or anything.
crystal: Annabelle has a theory, but even I'm not sure how plausible it is. Why don't you go ask some other people, and if I think Annabelle's idea has merit I'll report it to you later.
barlow: You're just trying to get rid of me.
crystal: Exactly! We're talking about girl stuff. Girl secrets, which aren't related to what you're looking for.
barlow: Fine, but this discussion isn't done yet.
barlow: Why does Annabelle think the message is for her?
crystal: She was venting her problems to Elkwood, kind of a "dead talking to the dead" kind of thing.
annabelle: I didn't expect him to respond in any way. I just talked to him about my relationship with Alex and the trouble we've had in making a love potion.
barlow: Love potion?!
crystal: Okay, so have the truth. Annabelle thinks that Elkwood left that coded message for her, and that it contains instructions on how to make a love potion.
crystal: I should point out that I'm rather skeptical about this theory. Annabelle never actually saw Elkwood write the message.
crystal: We're going to try to crack the code, to see if it really IS about how to make a love potion. I'll let you know if that's the case.
barlow: Okay... but you can't use that potion on Alex. It's not fair!
barlow: And I'm still going to assume that the message has another meaning, because I don't see how Elkwood could make it.
turnip: Barlow! I'm glad I found you. I've been meaning to talk to you about that message on the gondola...
turnip: I found something else that you might be interested in...
barlow: Why didn't you tell me you're against the gondola project?
turnip: I... uh, how did you know?
barlow: You acted like you didn't care, but I think you have reasons of your own for no wanting it to be restored.
turnip: Well, yes. Do you know who financed that gondola? The Sprawling family! To us paper mammals, the Sprawling family are the devil!
turnip: It was the Sprawlings who founded and operated that paper mammal mill, in which MILLIONS of my kind were slaughtered.
turnip: Having that gondola restored would symbolize to us that those dark days have returned. Already that coded message harkens back to those times.
barlow: How did you happen to find that message?
turnip: It wasn't hard to find. The gondola is situated at the edge of the woods, and I often pass that way as I travel to and from town.
barlow: Tell me what you found.
turnip: I can do better.. I can show you.
barlow: Another code!
turnip: Yep, I just found it a few minutes ago. And I can say with some certainty that it was written AFTER the first one!
barlow: You've seen this kind of message before, haven't you?
turnip: I have to admit that I have. It's a 'Sprawling Code'. It was invented by that infernal family as a way to communicate, without the smarter members of my species intercepting their plans.
turnip: The code sometimes has a letter off to the side, which is some sort of key for how to decode it. The code itself seems to keep changing, frustrated our attempts to crack it.
turnip: Nobody has used this code for a long time, longer than we've been alive. The reason for its return MUST have something to do with the gondola!