As we wrap up another heat wave of a week, we wrap up as well the last card of Enigma Emporium's Season Two - Cycle of Learning - Migratory Patterns set. The fifth and final card, which we expect will wrap up some of the loose ends, including where the heck to 'report' our findings. And what's up with the stamps and cancellation marks? We begin....
This card has an American Bald Eagle on its front, of course with the wrong latin name, and a series of other, presumably wrong, names below it. On the back, we have a border of black and white Xs, which will probably be alphanumeric, then, on the left, a series of what I expect to be rebuses. On the right, we have three stamps - planet, stamp = park? - cancelled April 18th in Yemen. Probably just means the stamps from around the world will lead us to the final location? Underneath the cancelled stamps is a message from our penpal.
I'm terrible at Rebuses, so I start looking at the front. My partner digs into the rebus for a bit, and where I saw snap peas, gets 'Trapeze'. Probably more likely.
The bald eagle is said to be an "Acidic Pirate" - the latin name for bald eagle translates as white headed sea eagle. The sea part could be the pirate linkage. Otherwise I get Vespula for wasp, but it wasps rods makes me think more of carpenter/mason bees - Osimia.
I go back to the rebus. We get Paladin, Trapeze, and then my brain does something weird and we get Saturn for the last one. Paladin Trapeze Saturn? Paladin - Trapeze - Saturn? Turns out that's the website we need to go to. Maybe I don't suck as much at rebuses as I thought! Of course, it immediately wants a password, so back to the card...
We go looking for the acidic pirate, and my partner was right - it was the family, not the bald eagle directly. So, word scrambles here we go: PASSWORDS: RHINOCEROS, DRACONIAN, KLEPTOMANIAC. And we're in!!
We then go through the process of identifying the works that we've found in prior cards. The first card we didn't get all the info needed - turns out my choir rabbit hole was useful - there's someone buried in the Roslyn Chapel choir. That gets us to confirming the second article - all fine. And then we realize - I didn't take notes on number 3! We just solved it. UGH! I dig through and find my old excel sheet for solving the puzzle. Phew. No having to re-solve. However! There is apparently more than one CubeSmart in Boston, but we need to know (and need to guess that we know!) the one closest to the museum where the art was stolen. Used a hint for that. And then on to the 4th! Faberge eggs, all set, but apparently we had the wrong library. Blast. Another hint needed. Note for Enigma Emporium - it would have been nice to have an intermediary confirmation step to know that we were on the right track back when we were doing the original cards. Grrrr...
And then we stumble. There's another puzzle question, presumably related to the Xs that we haven't solved yet. And the hint image for the clues has the Xs arranged differently on the card. On ours, they're on the edge, where here, they're on the central line. Hmmm.... Halfway through counting and going blind, I realize this is the website, not the final location of where we want this to be. That must relate more to the stamps' cancellation locations.
So, they were cancelled in:
- March 5 - Germany
- March 14th - Great Britain, United Kingdom, England
- March 20 - Turkey
- April 4 - Thailand
- April 18 - Yemen
I input that as the final answer, and get a rather unsatisfactory 'Thanks, we'll put them there' message. It honestly feels a bit of a let down. Not even a cute auto message sent to my email - those for whatever reason feel more 'special'. Still, really enjoyable puzzles throughout. A slightly unsatisfying ending, but I really like the excuse to hang out with my puzzling partner so... I'll take it ;)
Thank you, Enigma Emporium, for another pleasant evening
