The Scarlet Envelope - 1 - Newspaper: Intro to Mysteries

ETA: I got distracted by wine and roses while writing this, and came back to find a ‘this post violates our Terms’ email. Which is odd. I can’t figure out what term, unless it’s the conspiracy theory one. They know this is a puzzle game, right? Got it re-reviewed and reinstated, but very, very odd. Anyhow, onwards…

While I’m currently working my way through other, multistage puzzles, to be published… sometime… I found another, episodic, puzzle series to dive into - The Scarlet Envelope. It’s a series of 13 puzzle adventures, and I opted for the subscription version to stretch them out. The first envelope came a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. I’m on vacation in a beautiful chateau overlooking wine country, so of course I decide to dive into it over breakfast. It took maybe 45 minutes all told, including explaining the fun to my traveling companions, and was enjoyable enough that I’m already looking forward to the next envelope.

The puzzle, as expected, comes in a bright red envelope, already winning points for cheering my mail up. Immediately upon opening I realize there’s a letter printed inside the envelope. It’s not necessary for today’s puzzles, but turns out to be for a larger meta-puzzle stretched across the full series. Noted in my puzzle book, and move on to the puzzles. They came nicely packed together in a little sleeve, a set of what seems like random ephemera, and a newspaper. Reading the newspaper first, you get the hint that the real puzzle is the crossword. Under the crossword are a series of hints for where to find the clues - phonetically. Tea-kit for example, becomes ‘Ticket’ - one of the pieces of ephemera. In we go! 

1. The first is the railway - there’s a map of ‘The Damswolds’ (and here I thought it was Cotswolds 😼) which, at first, seems like nothing, no hints, but then you realize that the crossword is directly next to an origami how to. If you follow the instructions, one of the cities is encircled by a nice thick line and you have your answer. 
2. The second is the ticket, which turns out to be to an art exhibition. Unfortunately the last name of the artist has been mysteriously scratched off. Oh dear! The artist’s name is your answer for this one
3. The next clue is spaceship, which leads you to an add for spaceship repairs, which in turn leads to a website. The clue here is the age of the ships, though I do appreciate the Star Wars reference obliquely in there. 
4. The next is the invitation letter, which includes a Caesar shift. As always you can figure it out using letter frequency and such, or you can brute force it using tools like dcode.fr.  While I enjoy a good cryptogram as much as the next person, I admit I just used the website. Alas, my dirty little secrets are about to be aired.
5. The next is the obituary, which uses a numeric encoding, A=01, etc. Seems like the dead can call out even from beyond the grave. 
6. The sixth is the Cabaret announcement, which is also apparently the next envelope in the series - Cabaret at Lapin Blanc - follow the white rabbit as it were. A quick inspection provides a message hidden plainly between the lines. 
7. The final hint is the coupon. I admit getting stumped on this one, there being nothing I could readily identify in the coupon itself, until I realized there was a piece of ephemera that I hadn’t used yet. It held the key to see through the coupon’s obscuring qualities. Very cute, and another way to hide a message. 

Overall this was a great little introduction to the series, and I appreciated the variety of ciphers and such used. Looking forward to receiving the next one, hopefully soon! Plus, I appreciated the humor and attention in the rest of the newspaper itself, including the absolutely ridiculous ‘dad jokes’ at the end of it. Plus, based on some little oddities throughout, I expect that pieces of it will come in useful in later envelopes. Very good job, Scarlet Envelope! Great fun :)