This puzzle event took place at over the course of an afternoon near downtown Minneapolis, starting in Loring Park.
Overall, the event was a pretty straight-forward puzzle hunt. One exception to this hunt is that each puzzle had two answers:
- an easier to find answer called the ‘key’, which leads to the next puzzle location using the map
- the harder to find one-word ‘solution’ to the puzzle
So you didn’t have to completely solve a puzzle to move on (this helped groups of different skill levels maintain pace with each other).
The below will attempt to match the flow of the day.
Introductory Materials:
–Code Book
–Sanity Check
–Map
Orientation/plot:
Once teams were assembled and registered, the Sanity Check rules were briefly covered, and the plot was introduced by the host:
“Thank you so much for coming today. I didn’t know who else to turn to, because my problem requires such keen, puzzling minds such as yours. I know that you guys are good at finding information in places that others are unable.
“My dear, _dear_ brother, Phineas, has been missing for the past two weeks now. And now, I fear for his life. Phineas was… he was a troubled soul. He would see connections where there were none. The last time I saw him, he was worked up about something he was researching. It was another of his conspiracy theories. He said there was a secret society called ‘The Literati’, who controlled world politics and guided human progress. He thought the Literati were onto something new, some grand and horrible scheme, and that he had the key to stopping it. He said that they would surely be after him now.
“And he ran away. I haven’t seen him since.
“That’s where you come in, puzzlers. I think you guys may be able to help me decode his notebook pages, and figure out where he is! The first puzzle, is contacting his known associates. I think they would be a good place to start in finding more of his notebook pages.
Here’s the information I’ve gathered so far about them. (Puzzle 0 is handed out).
Interactions:
Before each puzzle, teams were required to pass a small ‘interaction puzzle’ to receive their puzzle sheets. These are all described here, but otherwise had no bearing on the puzzle sheets received (aside from thematic connections).
Interaction Descriptions
Puzzle 0 was a starting puzzle that played out over Loring Park and involved strangers yelling things or reciting poems, a man saying ‘now’ at even intervals across the lake from another man performing semaphore flag signals. These all led to a marker stone in the park with the picture of a shoe, which was the location of puzzle 1 on the map.
Puzzle 1 (Cross):
– Puzzle Sheet
Puzzle 1 Hints
Puzzle 1 Hint A
Looking at these lines in a different way may make the message visible.
Puzzle 1 Hint B
Foreshorten the letters to see them
Puzzle 1 Key
CANOE
Puzzle 1 Hint C
The message refers to adding the corresponding letters
Puzzle 1 Solution
???
Puzzle 2 (Positions):
– Puzzle Sheet
Puzzle 2 Hints
Puzzle 2 Hint A
Speaking of the parts that are underlined: what ways could they be different?
Puzzle 2 Hint B
If each word is a letter, then maybe the chains can match to something
Puzzle 2 Hint C
Use the parts of speech of the chains to match a word, and take its opposing word.
Puzzle 2 Key
COIN
Puzzle 2 Hint D
You can find the sentence you’re looking for by its makeup
Puzzle 2 Solution
???
Puzzle 3 (Bubbles):
– Puzzle Sheet
Puzzle 3 Hints
Puzzle 3 Hint A
Some concepts are easier to quantify than others – this ordering is important
Puzzle 3 Hint B
Concepts are connected for different reasons – not all of them are based on connections of meaning – some are connected by relevance in the puzzle message, and some connections are unimportant
Puzzle 3 Hint C
When looking ‘between’ concepts, physical relation also may matter, as in straight-line connections
Puzzle 3 Key
BEETLE
Puzzle 3 Hint D
The post-its are covering up the real concepts for some of the bubbles, and imply something additional
Puzzle 3 Hint E
There are concept ‘mini-nets’ that ‘jump-link’ to the centers of other mini-nets
Puzzle 3 Hint F
When you have a cycle of ‘mini-nets’, find the relevant starting point on a line, and you can find new beginnings
Puzzle 3 Solution
???
Puzzle 4 (Wikipuzzia):
– Puzzle Sheets A B –
Puzzle 4 Hints
Puzzle 4 Hint A
A year and a month is a short time, so there can’t be that many changes between the pages, right?
Puzzle 4 Hint B
Do you all have an up-to-date version of the page?
Puzzle 4 Hint C
Perhaps there is some version found primarily in the middle of the copies?
Puzzle 4 Hint D
Check between the first letters
Puzzle 4 Key
CROWN
Puzzle 4 Hint E
Your key instruction from the last part applies to the words, not the phrases
Puzzle 4 Hint F
If one end is used to arrange, what is the other end for? Your answer is somewhere in this very set
Puzzle 4 Solution
???
Puzzle 5 (Extremes):
– Puzzle Sheet –
Puzzle 5 Hints
Puzzle 5 Hint A
He was saying that OFOFN was 5, OFFON was 3, and OOFFN was either 17 or 9, because you can’t tell which O is OFF and which is ON
Puzzle 5 Hint B
If we could separate each group of letters into two sections, we can figure out whether we have THIS or THAT letter equivalent for that section
Puzzle 5 Hint C
Each letter group divides into two words interlaced in order, each word corresponding to a binary digit – zero or one – which makes letters from 5-bit groupings.
Puzzle 5 Key
ANCHOR
Puzzle 5 Hint D
The indicated measurement categories are ordered in the way denoted by your previous message
Puzzle 5 Hint E
They should come up to be a picture of your answer
Puzzle 5 Hint F
Those abbreviations are for City Latitude, Height, Amount, Cost, Temperature (but not necessarily in that order)
Puzzle 5 Solution
???
Final Puzzle:
– Part A Conspiracy Sheet
– Part B Card Stock Sheet (should be printed on thick stock if possible)
Final Puzzle Hints
Final Puzzle Hint A
What’s left of your answers to previous puzzles (left sides of cubes read upward) correspond to the materials you will start with (the blocks)
Final Puzzle Hint B
Presence of certain concepts on blocks (identifying their block) will correspond to how the blocks connect to the block below them.
Final Puzzle Hint C
A single path will run up and down the tower, hitting every visible letter, with a message
Final Puzzle Hint D
The blocks are in this order: ceramic, lever, explosive, engine, computer
Final Puzzle Hint E*
The first concept connections are the following: terra-cotta, crow-bar
Final Puzzle Hint F*
The last concept connections are: flash-powder, turbo-jet, main-frame
Final Puzzle Hint G# (message decode to first part)
The message: BUILDPYRAMIDFROMOTHERCUBESPLANTSIDEDOWNFOURATBASEONEONTOPCENTEREDARTSYHEARTLIKESIDES
Final Puzzle Hint H
There is an art to the way the cubes are connected, and a sense to each side of the pyramid
Final Puzzle Hint I
Think compound words like in the tower, for when cubes connect
Final Puzzle Hint J
To figure out where to go in and where to exit from the structure, think of alternate meanings for the sides of some cubes
Final Puzzle Hint K*
The base is connected with the following: turn-table, mono-graph
Final Puzzle Hint L*
The rest of the base connects with: paper-back, paint-brush
Final Puzzle Hint M# (message decode to last part)
The message: ADDTWOTOLETTERSYNMJJMISANSWERAMUSICGODALSOWHEREPYRAMIDMEETSTOWER
Final Puzzle Solution
???
Bonus Puzzle:
At all locations, a man with a hat was present holding a locked box. If teams approached the man and said the proper phrase (embedded in the above puzzles 1-5 as a hidden secret), he would give them a bonus puzzle sheet.
Puzzle Sheet – Hints
