My puzzling partner was really cruel, and made me wait to do the next puzzle until after work. I may have gotten a bit over my skiis and had most of the first one done before he could log in... patience isn't my strong suit... ever... So, while I (im)patiently wait for my last call, technically on leave following a dentist's appointment that left a quarter of my face numb, I'll fill in a bit about the Cryptex Hunt. This puzzle hunt was started, I believe in 2018, by a maker of lovely handmade cryptex - those beautiful works of art where you have letters around the outside that you must align to form a word of a certain length. If you've watched the (terrible, miscast) movie the DaVinci Code, you've seen one:
The puzzle hunt has had different themes over the years - last year was a YA novel that smacked of D&D and RPG games. A lot of fun, though life got in the way before we could complete it, and here it is already the 19th and we're just starting this one. 2021's theme is old school text adventures - commands like up/down/left/right/n/s/e/w get, use, etc. So far, no grus. The final puzzle (#14) has already been solved by 193 teams, at least per the leaderboard file, which hasn't been updated in about 2 weeks. The first finish was on March 6th. Still, it's fun and keeps us from going nuts, right?
The theme for the second puzzle is 'Welcome to the Jungle'.
Ok, this one was a bit of a doozie, not so much for the puzzle but for the game that got you to the puzzle. The game itself deliberately gets you lost, so I cannot provide a map. As with #1, you have to complete the game twice. Both rounds you have to gather goods and put them in their proper locations. Pick up dots, egg, thread, and eventually a machete, as well as a boomerang. The first three go on pedestals which you will find while being lost - the guide Olivia's exhortion to not get lost is a red herring. Once you have placed the first three on the pedestals, pick up the journal at the dingo, go back to the vines, and pull, tug, and yank according to the colors in the journal. That will get you a toy to distract the dingo. Go to the (dry) fountain, pick up the machete, put the machete in the stone, and go back to the fountain to drink. That is round 1.
Round 2, do everything up to putting the sword in the stone. Then, throw the boomerang until it's a stick. Examine the stick to see the order of the clues you'll need, then reexamine, with your improved sight, the four objects: egg, Dots, thread, and sword. The insights reveal clues to answers which, in order, will spell out the Cryptex Hunt's solution for puzzle two.
The Russian jeweler is Faberge, the creme de menthes made by the same people as Dots are Andes, Dupont's first synthetic fiber was Nylon, and Arthur's Queen was Guinevere. Together, that spells FANG, the solution to puzzle #2.
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