The Stella Countdown

**The Stella Countdown** (later redirected to the "GUNS page") was one of the clues in the Octangula ARG. It was discovered on Day 2. The countdown reached zero on 30 November 2019 at 8:00 pm EST on Day 9, the same time guns were introduced to the game.

The Stella countdown was the first countdown involved in any of the SMPEarth ARGs. The other two, the 1151 timer and the 6542 Countdown, were clues within the '7 ARG'.

## History

### Octangula Disc

VoiceOverPete followed the coordinates hidden in morse within the Octangula disc. He dug in the exact spot specified with some help from an admin, and discovered a chest containing various valuables, bones, and skeleton skulls. Most notably within the chest was a totem of undying named *Vigenère* and a book named *Octangula* that containing some text.

```
goienxns.ooo/ltrrfl

```

After translating the text through a Vigenère cipher using the code 'octangula', a link (smpearth.com/stella) is produced leading to a countdown timer.

### Responses

For the first few minutes after the Stella link was discovered, the page displayed a 404 error, which was corrected later into the week-long countdown. JoshA20 claimed that *the developers had not expected this part of the ARG to be solved so quickly* however, a statement from InkTea disputes this claim-

* T*o clear up - The ARG is planned far ahead, however due to complications there was an issue with the website. Yes, there was a 404 error, but that was not due to lack of planning or underestimation of solving speed.*

InkTea posted this message on the SMPEarth fan discord relating to the delay before deleting it-

* *Actually I think one of the issues with the page not being up at the time it was solved was due to the amount of people on the website at the time, it had a hard time uploading because it was solved the same day. There were a few thousand people on the smpearth website so it was tough loading- clarify \* the website was supposed to be up before anyone found the clue but it took longer than expected due to website traffic.*
* *I don't believe there is any stalling. I won't say too much but chip has dipped clues before the server launched. Everything he is doing and has done is part of the plan.*
* *And for repeating steps I'm not too sure if it's true or not but if it's true honestly my best assumption would be it's for other streamers to find and have their chats interact rather than just 3-4 streamers.*

In response to this, one discord member asked-

* *i personally think its to build tension, maybe leading up to a big clue while they add smaller clues in the meantime?*

InkTea confirmed this guess -

* *That's probably what it is.*

## Aftermath

### Day 9

   The countdown reached zero on 30 November 2019 at 8:00 pm EST and the server and Dynmap briefly went down for an update. Both the 'Stella' and 'GUNS' pages crashed after the countdown resolved due to the amount of traffic.

In the last 15 minutes of the timer, a link was discovered via Inspect Element leading to 'smpearth.com/2B3sXNfrFQ0skMCHGtPE'.
After the countdown was finished, "*smpearth.com/stella*" was made to redirect to this page. The page contained only the text *GUNS* in capital letters, a reference to guns being added as part of the new update for the server.

In the *GUNS* page, new coordinates were again found via Inspect Element:

```
elementor-element elementor-element-b0d8432 "Coords X: 8641 Z: 2361"
elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column

```

The coordinates appeared to be around a "face" in northern Russia. After the reset, Chip flew over to the "face" and disappeared from the Dynmap.

The ARG team on the Discord first sent the coordinates to Reflex, then later to IAmSp00n. IAmSp00n agreed to search for the coordinates. Once reaching the coordinates, he dug up a buried chest containing a wait disc titled "Sheridan" to which returned to his base in Arkansonia to play it, thus progressing the ARG.

*History, lore and theories* •
*Chip* •
 Southwest Octangula | Octangula Disc •
Vigenere totem of undying •
 Northeast Octangula | Nietzsche villager •
Tetrahedron book •
 Antarctic Wilderness Sundial | First Warren Book •
Red Herring Book •
Second Warren Book •
 Laramie Online Office | **The Stella Countdown** •
Sheridan Disc •
Laramie Online (company) •
Laramie Online Books •
BIGPRISM Computer •
BIGPRISM Archived Files •
Mariah Camrey •
 The Moon | The Moon Octangula •
The Hidden Moon Base