Chapter One Summary - The Adventure Begins Here.

THE STORY

• The time line is hazy, but appears to be set a fairly short while after Flight 815 went missing

• The experience starts as Oceanic Airlines prepares to start up services again after a period of being shut down while they investigate the disappearance of Flight 815. As part of this they have made a press release, re-launched their website, set up a number of billboards and opened a hotline.

• Oceanic's investigation apparently found nothing and is now closed.

• Sam Thomas, an IT technician at Oceanic Airlines lost someone very dear to him on that flight, a woman named Sonya. He has made it his personal mission to find out what happened to her. As part of this he has launched a website "find815.com" to track his progress and gain publicity for his endeavour. He also has a Facebook and MySpace page and has even started up a T-Shirt campaign.

• Sam had planned to propose to Sonya on the 8th anniversary of when they first met. This is apparently two months away. He had purchased an engagement ring.

• As a result of his investigations and criticisms of Oceanic, Sam has lost his job but this has only led to him being more determined. Oceanic also claims he has some property of theirs that they want returned. His mother is worried about how this obsession is effecting him.

• After some exposure on the news Sam is contacted by a mysterious person who hides some clues for him inside a picture of Sonya (see below for the specifics). The email appears to have originated from "The Maxwell Group". So far there is no information about this group and while they have a website it is simply a log in screen that is currently out of action, reportedly until "02/01/2008 00:08:15 UTC".

• The clues are as follows: "Sunda Trench", "Christiane 1", "Black Rock" and "Tell no one, grave consequences"

• Sam finds the location of Sunda Trench on his map in the northeastern Indian Ocean and does a bit of research on it discovering it is a central point for natural disasters including volcanic activity and that it has a reputation similar to the Bermuda Triangle due to vessels and aircraft going missing.

• He also figures that "Christiane 1" sounds like a ship and with the help of a friend he discovers that it is a salvage vessel that is due to sail out from Jakarta.

• Sam has decided to head to Jakarta and hitch a ride on board this vessel. He also applied for a job with Air Austral, an airline based in Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar (and an overseas region of France).

THE CLUES

• The Oceanic Air Press Release - Lists the following destinations:
  
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. Tustin, CA
3. Ames, IA
4. Miami, FL
5. New York, NY
6. Portland, OR
7. Knoxville, TN
8. Seoul, South Korea
9. Sydney, Australia.
   

All of these locations have turned out to have billboards advertising Oceanic Airlines. They also mention London later in the press release, but it is not in the main list.

• The Oceanic Air Hotline - To begin with this took names and numbers and publicized the website. Now you can access voice mail on it, however so far this hasn't lead to anything.
• Oceanic Airlines Billboards (see below)
• Sunda Trench - A an area in the North East Indian Ocean with a reputation for mysterious disappearances of planes and boats as well as various seismic activities, currently Sam's only lead on a location.
• Christiane 1 - This is a salvage vessel. It is currently in Jakarta and going to head to an unknown destination.
• Black Rock - We all know about the Black Rock. But we don't know for sure how it relates to this story. We did however learn in the first Lost Experience that it's destination when it disappeared was the South Indian Ocean,
  
• The Maxwell Group - So far we know nothing about this group, except someone from their wants to help Sam. The website seems like it is not due to be involved until February.
• Matthew - (Abaddon is an alternate password given) password received from ABC's mini-game to finish the clue hunt, it may relate to this story, it may relate to Season 4, or it may be nothing.
• Sam's manifest on 815 passengers - This bares no direct relation so far to the rest of Sam's story. It may be just to tie this story into the show or there may be further significance to it.
• Oceanic Airlines property. Apparently Sam has some of their property and they want it back.
• zkillen_t99@hotmail.com (appears on the mystery email when first viewed in the video, but not on Sam's computer)
• Zeke Klotho Freundlich - the last line given in response to emailing the above address. The response also says "Since the dawn of our species, man's been blessed with curiosity. Your curiosity will be rewarded. Namaste."
• Interesting Note: Clotho/Klotho is the youngest of the Greek Fates. It was Clotho who spun the threads of life with her distaff. Her Roman counterpart Nona, was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
  
• The Mystery Man - Sam's video diary had flashes of this mystery man. Who is he? A lot of people have commented that he looks familiar.

THE BILLBOARDS

The Billboards are one of the bigger mysteries at the moment. Several have been found in the locations listed in the Oceanic Airlines Press Release, usually near airports. These are the only real world clues in the experience so far. Each billboard has a location on it and a slogan. This is what we have seen so far:

• Portland, Oregon - "A new life awaits you in Seoul". **One of the Korean signs in the background reads "keu chung 6 myeong man i" which means roughly "Out of that group 6 only six people..."
• Tustin, California - "Discover the mysteries of Berlin". Interestingly there is no commercial airport in Tustin, which makes this location unusual (Thanks Alison and Memphish for that).
• Sydney, Australia - "Fly to L.A.".
• New York, New York - "Lose yourself in London"
• Los Angeles, California - "The Adventure Begins Here". Shows Sydney, Australia.
• Knoxville, Tennessee - "Find your way back to LA" (LA Again, but a different slogan).
• Ames, Iowa - "Lose yourself in London" (London Again and the same slogan).
• Miami, Florida- "Discover the mysteries of Berlin"
• Seoul, South Korea- "The adventure begins here. You have arrived at your ultimate destination." It shows Sydney, Australia and is translated slightly different from Korean.

CHARACTERS

• Sam Thomas - IT Technician extraordinaire and protagonist of this story.
• The mystery helper from the Maxwell Group
• Sonya - Sam's girlfriend, a flight attendant that disappeared with flight 815.
• Sam's Mum - She is worried about Sam and wants him to call her.
• David Massingham - former work colleague of Sam's. Helped him get tickets to Jakarta.
• Tracey R - A friend of Sam that helped him track down the Christiane 1.
• Sean Dowling - Oceanic Air Employee Relations, wants Sam to return Oceanic's property.
• Referenced Lost Characters - Kate Austen, James Ford, Dr Jack Shephard, Sayid Jarrah, Jin Kwon, Sun Kwon, Hugo Reyes, Claire Littleton, John Locke

So that's it so far! Let me know at the usual address if I have missed anything, and I'll fill in the blanks. Failing that or any further billboard finds this weekend I'll see you all after Monday's reveal.

Thank-you Rizzia for e-mailing about the Klotho information.
Thanks to Winged_Eel in comments for the confirmation/translation of the Korean on the Portland billboard.

Chapter 1 - The video diary

Okay, we have our final update and video for Chapter One. These videos will be part of a video diary. In this first installment we learn:

• Sam was planning to propose to Sonya in 2 months time, which is Sam's 8th anniversary of meeting her.
  
• He is going to Jakarta tomorrow
• He intends to hitch a ride on the Christiane 1 salvage boat (which is looking for a ship wreck apparently)
  
• Sam feels like cr*p and has had enough of waiting to feel good.

Facebook and MySpace:

• Sam has also posted the following on his MySpace blog. under "Going out of Town"

• He's also added that same text to a wall post on his Facebook and changed his status to, "Sam Thomas is heading to Jakarta."

As always we will keep you informed with extra stuff as it happens.

There aren't likely to be any online events over the weekend however, there may well be billboard action, so get snapping!

UPDATE: Dark UFO has posted a couple of pics. of a mystery man that appears in frames at the start of that video.


NOTE: You can also access the video by going to Sam's Desk and clicking the video tape (says "video diary 1" on mouse over).

Chapter 1 - Final Emails

Capcom, so graciously, went out and took a picture of the Knoxville billboard for us! It is VERY CLEAR, I might add!

So...Knoxville, Tennessee (posted on Oceanic Conspiracies!): It's an add to fly to L.A.: "Find your way back to L.A. Your ultimate destination"

Thanks for all your effort Capcom!

There are 2 new emails on Sam's Laptop!

• 1 - An email from Oceanic Airlines informing Sam that his employment with them has been terminated. Also, Sam apparently has some property of Oceanic Airlines that they want back. (hmmmm)

• 2 - Sam has sent an inquiry to Austral Air (WIKI) about new employment. It reminds us that Sam was an IT technician with Oceanic Airlines.
  

Chapter 1- Clue Hunt and Billboards

Clue Hunt:

• Find815.com had updated with the release of 4 Clue Hunts (See the "Help" section on the site for more details).

• There is a new video in "The Story So Far".
  
• The video shows Sam in bed awakened by a window that has come unlatched, and is banging open and closed. When Sam latches the window he sees the reflection of Sonya in the window. He turns and sees her flight attendant uniform hanging on the closet door, and hangs it up.
  
• At the end of the video we are taken to Sam's bedroom where we have our Clue Hunt:
1. Drive Shaft CD (Live From Jakarta)-Your Season 1 Clue
2. Pearl-Your Season 2 Clue.
3. Rocking Chair-Your Season 3 Clue
4. Oceanic Hotline (888-546-0034)-Your Season 4 Clue
• To access clue 4 you need to enter Matthew or Abaddon (the ABC and Yahoo7 passwords from Pack Sam's Bag).
• When calling the hotline you get the following message:

"Thank you for calling the Oceanic Airlines flight 815 hotline. Information is updated as the investigation proceeds. Investigations are thorough and, as such, may take a period of time to complete. At this time we do not have any additional information regarding the crash of flight 815. If you are a family member or relative of a passenger on Oceanic flight 815, we are sorry for your loss. Detailed information is given during the daily family briefings. This briefing updates families on the progress of the investigation and allows for questions to be asked of the medical examiner or coroner and other parties connected to the investigation. Please contact your accident coordinator or call back later for more information." Source: Dark Ufo Find815

• There is also a new voice mail from mum on the cell phone on Sam's Desk (Thanks Docartz for the text).
• "Sam, it's mum. I just saw you on the telly. What's going on? You're going to loose your job if you keep carrying on like that. I know you probably wouldn't care at the moment, but you look like you hadn't slept in days. I'm worried about your health Sam, physical and... well, otherwise. Can you call me?"
  

Billboards:

• Ames, Iowa (posted on Dark UFO). It's an ad to fly to London: "Lose yourself in London. Your ultimate destination."

• Tustin, California (posted on DocArtz) It's an ad to fly to Berlin: "Discover the mysteries of Berlin. Your ultimate destination."

• Portland, Oregon. It's an ad to fly to Seoul: "A new life awaits you in Seoul. Your ultimate destination." With a possible translation of the Korean writing on the signs in the back being: "Only 6 people of/among them..."

• New York, New York (posted on Dark UFO). It's an ad to fly to London (again): "Lose yourself in London. Your ultimate destination."

• Knoxville, Tennessee (Thank-you CAPCOM!): It's an ad to fly to L.A.: "Find your way back to L.A. Your ultimate destination"

• Los Angeles, California (posted on Dark UFO): The picture is of Sydney, Austrailia: "The adventure begins here. Your ultimate destination."
  

• Sydney, Australia (posted by The Lost Ninja): It's an ad to fly to L.A.: "Fly to L.A. Your ultimate destination." <--Notice this is NOT the same text as on the other L.A. advert. found in Knoxville.

• Miami, Florida (Posted on Dark UFO and found on Meadaura's Flickr). It's another ad to fly to Berlin: "Discover the mysteries of Berlin. Your ultimate destination."

• Seoul, South Korea (Posted by FoxySmile on Dark UFO) It's an ad to fly to Seoul: "The adventure begins here. You have arrived at your ultimate destination." translated slightly different from Korean.

E-mail and Facebook:

• Sam has an e-mail address posted on his Facebook profile. It's find815@gmail.com. He is also sending out invites for the Facebook group called find815.com.

Thanks to Eugene for e-mailing the billboard information.

Thanks Dissonation (aka Joel) for the find815 screenshots. There are more of Dissonation's screen shots the Oceanic Conspiracies Photobucket.

Thanks to diggitydirge for Sam's g-mail, and the updated Oceanic voicemail.

Flickr T-Shirt Campaign

On Find815.com there is a new Flickr tab underneath the login info. Seems we need to show our support for Sam! The Flickr T-Shirt Campaign asks us to.....

• Download one of the Find815 graphics
• Iron it onto a T-shirt
  
• Upload a photo of you wearing the shirt onto the Supporter Flickr Photos

Get your irons heating!!!!

By the way, here is the Flickr pool for Find815.

UPDATE: Sam has a MYSPACE account now!

BONUS UPDATE: Look who Speaker found a photo of!

Thanks to ib4uc for the Flickr info.
Thanks to diggitydirge for the myspace account.

Chapter 1- New Website and 4 New Emails

There have been several updates to Find815.com.
It appears Sam has been doing some work on his laptop. There are 4 new emails and 1 new website. They are as follows:

• A new informational website for the Sunda Trench, which appears to be similar to the ones we have posted. It makes particular note of volcanic activity in the region. [Note: This is not a real website and cannot be accessed outside of find815.com. A sign of things to come? - Fenris]
  
• Email 1 - Sam sent an email to David Massingham asking for tickets on a booked flight.
• Email 2 - David responded giving Sam tickets from
  

8:50 Sydney - 11:45 Darwin FLT 511

14:14 Darwin - 15:15 Jakarta FLT 601

• Email 3 - Sam sent an email to Tracey R. inquiring about a BOAT named Christiane 1 (interesting!)
• Email 4 - Tracey says Christiane 1 is a salvage vessel leaving from Jakarta in "a few days". Apparently she has no idea where it is headed.

UPDATE: At some point, I have been informed, there were actual email addresses on the computer in Sam's inbox. They are listed HERE. For some reason, they no longer seem to be in the inbox. (If someone knows differently, please send an email.) There is one in particular that folks have sent an email to and received a response from. (including myself)
The address is zkillen_t99@hotmail.com. The response I received was......

Since the dawn of our species, man's been blessed with curiosity.
Your curiosity will be rewarded.

Namaste

Zeke Klotho Freundlich=

UPDATE (6:53 AM 1/2/07): It seems Sam has a gotten himself a Facebook.

• You need to have a Facebook account and be logged in to see the link properly. Looks like some familiar faces in his friends.

• Also StationZer0 was reporting a Flickr page that was taken down, but the image that remains is quite interesting, directing us to find815.com. [UPDATE: This has also been removed now-Fenris]

UPDATE (1PM GMT): The Oceanic phone number (818) 460-5520 has changed somewhat and no longer asks you to leave your name. Instead you eventually get an option to access voice mail, however currently no account/password combination seems to work. It is also worth noting that according to the message on the Maxwell Group website (assuming a D/M/Y format) their web mail should be up and running again. However this doesn't yet seem the case (which could mean it is a US style M/D/Y format instead and we will have to wait until next month).

Shout out to Molly for the hotmail information. Thanks Kinetic for the facebook and flickr!

DON'T FORGET to e-mail us if you have something to add to the main post: OceanicConspiracies@gmail.com!

Chapter 1- Pack Sam's Bag

Click HERE for a picture of one of the solutions. This comes from commenter YONaTan at docartz.com. Click HERE for a video walk-through from DocArtz.

On ABC.com there is a game in the Lost section called Chapter 1- Pack Sam's Bag.

• The goal is to help him pack for his trip to the Sunda Trench.
  
• It's harder than it looks, and apparently there is more than one way to successfully pack the bag. All of the items to pack can also be found on Sam's desk at find815.com
• Packing the bag gives you the password MATTHEW, although we aren't sure where it goes yet..
  

Thanks Maven for being the first to mention this in the comments. And to Maven and ib4uc for the password.

Find815.com - Sams Story (chapter 1)

The video at fly oceanic has changed to a hacked version with a message from "Sam" about the flight 815 and his missing "Sonya" who was a flight attendant. He points us to www.find815.com where there is a new video to see and that leads you into a few simple puzzles, some extra videos and a whole bunch of stuff.

Sam is on his own mission to find out what happened to flight 815. He has obviously been looking into it a while but is upping his commitment to it due to Oceanic officially giving up their search for the plane (this has time line complexities given the difference in show time and real world time but we won't worry about that for now, this seems to be a very in-show experience this time). Today he received an email from someone out of the blue from someone claiming to be an old friend of Sonya's. They include a photo of Sonya with some clues hidden in it. They are as follows:

• In her mole she has the words "Black Rock" written.
• In her right eye she has the words "Christiane 1" written
• In her left eye she has the words "Sunda Trench" written
• Around her hairline she has "tell no one, grave consequences" written

At this point Sam tries to reply to the email with "Who are you". This bounces, but examining the header you find that it was apparently from "the-maxwell-group.com" (I heard a strange bit of audio when I clicked on this, I may need to look into it). Sam also finds Sunda Trench on the map (near Christmas Island). So far that is it. The Maxwell group doesn't appear to be an active website yet.

The website let's you sign up to it, to remember your progress there. You can also click on various things on Sam's desk including:

• His laptop (which let's you review websites and emails that are known to him. You can type in URLs on the browser but it doesn't appear to actually do anything, instead there are sites listed to the left you can click, currently though just Oceanics)
  
• His phone (which has no messages at this point)
  
• A little notebook thing he has that has information about several of the Lost Characters! Nothing earth shattering there however.

There is strange witting over this screen that looks like some kind of equation (probably just for atmosphere mind).

You can review your progress on the site by clicking the "My progress" banner. It seems there are 9 emails, 2 websites, 1 video, 1 message, 1 activity and 4 clue hunts to this chapter. Currently my list only has found and unreleased squares on it, so I think this is all there is so far.

Finally, There is a timer for continuation in the bottom right of the screen. Seems there are another 46 hours till the next stage. Meaning we won't get anything else until the 2nd of January.

UPDATE: (Good morning, and Happy New Year from Ange!) Dark UFO is reporting an Oceanic billboard spotted in Portland, Oregon (PICTURE).

• The text of the advert treads, "A new life awaits you in Seoul. Your ultimate destination."
• Also, a commenter at Dark UFO (foxysmile) is reporting that he/sh can read Korean, and states: "They are just some billboards for coffeeshop, restaurants, or something like that except the red ones on the left! (next to the O from Oceanic) They say "Only 6 people of/among them..." This is unconfirmed right now though.
  

UPDATE: www.the-maxwell-group.com is live, and has a compass and an area where you can attempt to log in with a username and password. (Thanks to Jess for the heads up and Shellma for the Whois).

• When log-in is attempted, this message appears: The server is currently being serviced. It is expected to be back in service by 02/01/2008 00:08:15 UTC
  
• Domain registration seems to be sketchy on this right now. It looks like it was created yesterday, but worth keeping an eye on. A whois shows:

The Lost Experience 2 - The Start

Looks like things have actually kicked off on the long awaited and often rumored second Lost Altered Reality Game. Rumors were it was canned due to the writers strike, but it seems that wasn't true. The official launch date would seem to be New Years Eve 2007. I guess there won't be a lot of people researching that night! Anyway, I intend to keep it simple here just to give people a place to reference and to discuss while the "scene" gets organized.

So in traditional Bullet Point fashion:

• The website flyoceanicair.com has appeared containing an advert for the site and a link to a press release (there was also an advert in Lost magazine).
  

• The press relate states that the company will be starting up again December 31st (presumably 2007, lol).

• The press release also states that they will be flying to the following destinations:
  
  1. Los Angeles, CA
     
  2. Tustin, CA
     
  3. Ames, IA
     
  4. Miami, FL
     
  5. New York, NY
     
  6. Portland, OR
     
  7. Knoxville, TN
     
  8. Seoul, South Korea
     
  9. Sydney, Australia

• At the bottom of the press release there is a telephone number: "Georgia Cavanagh (818) 460-5520"

• Calling this number gives you a brief message about the website opening and asks you to leave your name, number and time of calling (don't answer machines tell you that?).

The only other information in the press release is a comment about being around for 25 years (they don't say how much of that they were shut down) and that they are a major carrier travelling to destinations including Los Angeles, London, Sydney and South Korea (which begs the question: Why don't they fly to London anymore?).

UPDATE: Speaker has posted a video building things up even more, mentioning an unnatural fog, the Oceanic site and making a mention about keeping your eyes open, having a camera with you and taking screen shots.