Manile Greetings

Challenge

Randy Waterhouse receives a package from his friend Enoch Root containing a deck of cards and a letter:

Dear Randy,

even though our stay in Manila was not very pleasant, I fondly think of our discussions there:

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GTIFL RVLEJ TAVEY ULDJO KCCOK P

Wishing you happy Easter

Enoch

deck

Solution

The text is a hint to the book Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Combined with the cards image, we realize this is a Solitaire Cipter

if we convert the notation of the deck slightly we can solve it online here

key:

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8d 3s 7d 3d 2c 5s Ad 6c 7s 6d A Kd Qh Js Jc 7h 3h 9h 9s 8s 9c As 4h 8c 3c Kh Ah 6s 6h Ts Ks Ac Td Qd Qc B Qs 4s 9d 2s 5c Jh Th 4c Tc 5d 8h 2h 2d Jd 7c Kc 5h 4d

which gives output:

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THEPA SSWOR DISCR YPTON OMICO N

So the password is CRYPTONOMICON, and we put that into the egg-o-matic to get our flag

Flag