it's a queer case though

Ok, here we fucking go:

thelostspecial.com has existed since the 31st (I believe, as just a solid black website). Yesterday, a header image appeared of Sherlock sitting across from Moriarty in TRF, with several messages hidden inside. Over the course of several hours, pages were added and removed, discoverable only by manually editing the url.

The message above was hidden in the source code of the page.

2 messages hidden in the header were “MISS ME?” in black on the TV and “40″ hidden in the wallpaper. The third alteration was a partial reflection of a creepy elephant. More on that in a second.

Some /messages only led to clues to figure out final pages. For example, /elephant led to a message that read “WHICH ONE?” /mary led to “Be more specific,” /marymoran to “Who?”, and /marymorstan to the cap of Mary with devil horns.

/tjlc and /johnlock loaded pages, unlike incorrect guesses, which would just be black with the header. At these 2 pages, an image w traffic cones read “404 Error” (4x04?)

At /cluedo, we got this image:

Many images were associated with character names and the episode finales, Moriarty-heavy, these were early on so it may have just been helping us figure out how to use the site.

At /black, there was a comment box where we could briefly communicate, which they seemed to interact with–someone mentioning norbury led to a /norbury page, for example, and I believe this is how they figured out we were “Stumped on 40” and, at the new /ineedaclue, told us “Go to the source. The real source.” 

Other oddities included /januscars (cap of the logo), /old (the victorian baker street mantelpiece), /new (a hotel room bath in niagara falls), /coffee (Sherlock in ASIP drinking coffee with “WRONG WAY” superimposed over it), /dymm (moriarty on the picadilly circus screens), there are too many to cover here tbh. 

At /solveme/, this message reads:

Which translates to the Henry V quote, I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. [The game’s afoot.]

So what’s with 13.9.16? Oddly enough, this is the day that the elephant, /murderousmary, was executed. The image that appeared at /murderousmary is here, it’s a smidge disturbing. More of a stretch,13.9.16 is also the date that Mark trashed a Grimm’s Fairy tales Reichenbach theory in the papers, and Moriarty says “every fairy tale needs a good old fashioned villain” at minute 40 of TRF.

CANON references to 40, which seems closer to accurate, appear in TFP and The Lost Special. There’s contingency over what the 40th story is, we’re between The Valley of Fear and The Second Stain (and the Red Headed League??) at the moment, which are all relevant.

TFP: In three days, on Monday next, matters will be ripe, and the Professor, with all the principal members of the gang, will be in the hands of the police. Then will come the greatest criminal trial of the century, the clearing up of over forty mysteries, and the rope for all of them–but if you move at all prematurely, you understand, they may slip out of our hands, even at the last moment.

THE LOST SPECIAL: A telegram sent at 6:40 reads ““To James Bland, Superintendent, Central L. & W. C., Liverpool. - Special passed here at 4:52, well up to time. - Dowster, St. Helens.“it’s the telegram that says the train was on schedule and on the appropriate line, right before it disappeared” (from @edwardhardwicke)

So far, the message in the source code reads:

You see, but you do not observe. I see you like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. Murderous Mary. (Every fairytale needs a good old fashioned villain.) XXX.

Hmm. What appeared at /xxx, at the very end of the game?

“oh my god he came, he really came, okay cool, play it cool, don’t want to look overeager and he’s already knocked, okay, just, mrs hudson will let us in, just give him a moment to, i dunno, adjust, don’t people like a moment to adjust, god he came, okay”