This thread seems pretty active again, so I figured I'd post some recent findings in hopes we can all solve this thing. ...
That's really interesting. I coded up my own version of this, and it's definitely there.
XOR'ing the key against the heights makes a lot of sense. Was there any rationale to the order you picked the flames? Or what led you to drop one of the flames to make it work (other than to make the math work out)?