Cryptex Hunt 2025 - Day 7

Guys, this might be the first time I actually complete a Cryptex Hunt! At least, that's my goal for today. I finished all of the intermediate puzzles last night, and vowed to actually sleep and tackle the meta today. Which, of course, I didn't do and peeked at the meta last night and started to try to undo the anagram, or at least I think it's an anagram? Couldn't make anything more than "Act Solved In KHURPJWMY" so went to sleep, or tried.  Now to this morning...

I should back up. The meta puzzle image is of an auditorium for a theater set up on a 10x10 grid with a divider in the center, so five columns either side. The flavor text is "The play is in order, the actors have rehearsed, now it's time to choose your seats for Romeo & Juliet". I see three parts - the 'order' of the play, the 'actors' and the 'seats'. 

As it's a meta-puzzle, I expect it to use some parts of the other puzzles, but there were 12, and there are only 10 lines here. In original puzzle order, the answers I have are:

1. Blog: Friar’s Fumbles - CIMOLINO 
2. Blog: Prop Hunt - WHITING
3. Blog: Script Scribbles - STRIDE
4. Blog: Spotlight on Blocking - ENOCH
5. Blog: Table Read Chaos - HARVEY
6. Cast & Crew - HOWARD
7. Fridge Poetry Contest - GARDARSSON
8. Instagram: Bouquet - BLOOM
9. Instagram: Costume Party - BEYMER
10. Instagram: Word Salad - OLIVIER
11. Media - BEAN
12. Quality Theatre Memes! - DICAPRIO

If I start with 'the play in order', I should rearrange these 12 into the ACT/SCENE order of Romeo & Juliet, based on the scenes used as the puzzle bases. That gets us: 

1. Blog: Script Scribbles - STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1
2. Instagram: Bouquet - BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Going on a limb based on the Queen Mab reference. Everything else is other play names.
3. Blog: Prop Hunt - WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5
4. Instagram: Word Salad - OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2
5. Cast & Crew - HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3
6. Blog: Spotlight on Blocking - ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1
7. Instagram: Costume Party - BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2
8. Blog: Table Read Chaos - HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5
9. Blog: Friar’s Fumbles - CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1
10. Media - BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - MAYBE. Based on the first direct R&J quote in the interview.
11. Fridge Poetry Contest - GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Tricky as there are other quotes but using the first one)
12. Quality Theatre Memes! - DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - only scene directly quoted in the puzzle, also when everyone dies. 

Ok, so we have a new order. We still have too many answers. Taking the Scene number/letter doesn't seem to give us much, and none of the lines are able to make it up to 10 across either, with the exception of Gardarsson. So, looking at the actors. 

1. (John) STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in 1960 across from Dame Judi Dench
2. (Orlando) BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Played Romeo in 2014 (how did I miss this?!) across from Condola Rashad
3. (Leonard) WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in 1968 across from Olivia Hussey (the version we watched in HS). 
4. OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2 - Tricky. Laurence Olivier was the narrator and Lord Montague in the 1968 version. No listing of him anywhere as playing Romeo directly.
5. (Leslie) HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in 1936 across from Norma Shearer
6. (Alfred) ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in 2021 on stage across from Rebekah Murrell
7. (Richard) BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2 - Played Tony in West Side Story (R&J plus snapping and cigarettes) across from Natalie Wood as Maria
8. (Laurence) HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in 1954 across from Susan Shentall
9. (Antoni) CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1 - played Romeo in 1993 across from Megan Follows as Juliet (Anne of Green Gables!!!)
10. (Sean) BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - Played on stage in 1986 across from Niamh Cusack (because Sean Bean always dies in every production)
11. (Gisli Orn) GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Acted and Directed across from Nina Dogg Filippusdottir at the circus.
12. (Leonardo) DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in 1996 across from Claire Danes

Again, we're stuck with a seating chart numbers 00 to 99, 10 across. My first instinct is to try to stack them across - JOHNSTRIDE is 10 letters, but ORLANDOBLOOM is definitely not. Neither is JUDIDENCH, if I were to be looking at the Juliets instead. JOHNJUDI is also not 10. 

Time for a small hint. Hint #1 is are the names familiar - yes... Hint #2: In this context, Juliet isn’t important.

On behalf of all women: RUDE. So, if who they played against isn't important, maybe when? It does say the play is in order. 

1. (Leslie) HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in 1936 
2. (Laurence) HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in 1954
3. (John) STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in 1960 
4. (Richard) BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2 - Played Tony in West Side Story in 1961
5. (Leonard) WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in 1968
6. OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2 - Tricky. Laurence Olivier was the narrator and Lord Montague in the 1968 version. 
7. (Sean) BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - Played on stage in 1986 
8. (Antoni) CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1 - played Romeo in 1993 
9. (Leonardo) DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in 1996 
10. (Gisli Orn) GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Acted and Directed at the circus in 2002
11. (Orlando) BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Played Romeo in 2014 
12. (Alfred) ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in 2021 

Just using first names, in any order, isn't enough letters for a 100 square grid. And there are too many if we include first and last. I feel like Beymer and Olivier are red herrings, but not sure how. I thought if I removed both of them I'd get down to 80 and then could use the letters on the side that I tried to anagram last night, but removing them only gets us to 91 letters. WHAT AM I MISSING? 

Back to hints. 

• #3: Each puzzle, not the solutions, refers to a different scene. Yes.
• #4:  It’s important to know when the actors performed. Also, yes. 
• #5: No need to write anything on the seating chart. It’s just a reference. For what? A grid? Years? There aren't 100 Scenes... 

Years... the grid is 2 digits. That would give us:

1. (Gisli Orn) GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Acted and Directed at the circus in '02
2. (Orlando) BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Played Romeo in '14 
3. (Alfred) ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '21 
4. (Leslie) HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '36 
5. (Laurence) HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '54
6. (John) STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '60 
7. (Richard) BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2 - Played Tony in West Side Story in '61
8. (Leonard) WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '68
9. OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2 - Tricky. Laurence Olivier was the narrator and Lord Montague in the '68 version. 
10. (Sean) BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - Played on stage in '86 
11. (Antoni) CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1 - played Romeo in '93 
12. (Leonardo) DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '96 

I swear if this turns out to be semaphore again I'm going to be pissed. Phew, doesn't look like it. 

A constellation? We've done star things before. Google is unhelpful. GPT tells me that the main constellations with 11 stars are Auriga, Pisces, and Cetus. Cetus looks like two rhombuses (rhombii?) connected by a chain, not seeing that here. Pisces is an L shape, which I'm also not seeing here. Auriga, the Charioteer, looks more like a teapot to me, but also not what I'm seeing here. Ok. 

How do we go back to acts and scenes at this point. Word #? Letter number? Putting it back in play order we have: 

1. (John) STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '60 - 
2. (Orlando) BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Played Romeo in '14 
3. (Leonard) WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '68
4. OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2 - Tricky. Laurence Olivier was the narrator and Lord Montague in the '68 version. 
5. (Leslie) HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '36 
6. (Alfred) ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '21 
7. (Richard) BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2 - Played Tony in West Side Story in '61
8. (Laurence) HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '54
9. (Antoni) CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1 - played Romeo in '93 
10. (Sean) BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - Played on stage in '86 
11. (Gisli Orn) GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Acted and Directed at the circus in '02
12. (Leonardo) DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '96 

Filling in above - line# first, so:

• Act 1 Scene 1 Line 60: one of my master’s kinsmen. More than 10 letters. 60th word? TO
• Act 1 Scene 4 Line 14: Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes. 14th word? WITHOUT.
• Becoming clear that line is unlikely
• Word also implausible.

I really need to figure the word salad on the side, but still not getting anywhere.

• Hint #6: Ignore the first 2 digits of the year, only the last 2 digits are important. Yes. With you there. 
• Hint #7: To solve the puzzle, find the year that each actor performed as Romeo. Yes, also there.
• Hint #8: Order actors according to where their puzzle falls in Romeo & Juliet. Tell me something new, please
• Hint #9: Reference the year with the seating chart to find the corresponding letter. Ugh. I am TRYING.

I am trying to go back to the anagram and getting nothing. 

Reaching out to the Discord and many many thanks to Belthazar and cp80. First/simplest change I can make - Laurence Olivier did play Romeo WAY back in the day, so that gets us:

1. (John) STRIDE - Act 1 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '60 - 
2. (Orlando) BLOOM - Act 1 Scene 4 - Played Romeo in '14 
3. (Leonard) WHITING - Act 1 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '68
4. (Laurence) OLIVIER - Act 2 Scene 2 - Played Romeo in '35. Updating the bingo chart as well.
5. (Leslie) HOWARD - Act 2 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '36 
6. (Alfred) ENOCH - Act 3 Scene 1 - Played Romeo in '21 
7. (Richard) BEYMER - Act 3 Scene 2 - Played Tony in West Side Story in '61
8. (Laurence) HARVEY - Act 3 Scene 5 - Played Romeo in '54
9. (Antoni) CIMOLINO - Act 4 Scene 1 - played Romeo in '93 
10. (Sean) BEAN - Act 4 Scene 3 - Played on stage in '86 
11. (Gisli Orn) GARDARSSON - Act 5 Scene 1 - Acted and Directed at the circus in '02
12. (Leonardo) DICAPRIO - Act 5 Scene 3 - Played Romeo in '96 

Also, they told me the letters aren't an anagram, which would explain why they aren't anagraming. 

(Later) 

Took a break to feed Turkey, who's now being worn like an accessory, and took another look at the grid again. The something clicked between 'what is the purpose of the aisle' and 'what letters were you trying to anagram that don't anagram' and OMFG I WAS OVERTHINKING THIS. FFS. The aisle is to separate the letters. The letters are part of the answer, they are not anagrams. The group of five numbers corresponds to each letter on the left or right. So,

1. 60 - S 
2. 14 - C 
3. 68 - O
4. 35 - T (and this is where I realized what it was and typed it in and got it correct YAY!!!)
5. 36 - T
6. 21 - I 
7. 61 - S
8. 54 - H
9. 93 - P
10. 86 - L
11. 02 - A
12. 96 - Y

The 'Scottish Play' is MacBeth, which actors are apparently superstitious to say. I feel like an idiot for WAY overthinking. But! I solved it! Many thanks to Belthazar and others on Discord!! 

Cryptex Hunt Days 5&6

I did a bunch of the other Cryptex Hunt 2025 puzzles yesterday, didn't get around to writing them up. Today I'm going back to the Media page, starting with the puzzles, although I know I should probably dive into the Horoscopes based on the last puzzle. Alas. 

Media

Crossword

I'd seen this puzzle before, but didn't want to go to the trouble at the time of sorting it out and putting it on a separate page and all of that to solve it. Plus I could tell there was a message hidden in the words to rack up, but didn't solve it the other day. The first part, then, is to figure out what the words I need to grid into the puzzle are. 

Going through each, and with the helpful hint that they will be in alphabetical order, you realize there's an extra letter in each word. Taking the spare letters you get the message: To find the final solution of this puzzle look at the four diagonals from outside to inside. Ok, on it. Drop a screenshot of the grid into paint and away we go, using the fixed list which I ended up copying out by hand for ease of checking off. I won't bore you with the solving - just make sure that you've got the right words and they do all fit into place. 

You get four words: Granite, Soaring, Signors, Nosings

No clue what to do with that at this point. Having learned my lesson yesterday about trying to go too many steps, I put them in the solver, just in case. I get the message: This is one of the 11 sub-solutions. Keep on going. 

Phew. Ok. And looking at my notes, this presumably refers to the sub-solutions hinted at by 'Miller's Fortune': The other predictions here will guide you to eleven wordy opportunities. Make sure to purchase these opportunities without loyalty in the right order. 

So that's 4 of the 11. Time to find the rest. Though maybe I should figure out which prediction is which word? (Yes I should have done this first)

Horoscopes

• Pisces - Feb 19-Mar 20: This is Miller's fortune, that gives us the instruction
• Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer - Mar 21-Jul 22: There are four star signs here, and it talks about filling in the emptiness, following the removed instructions, etc. I'm going to go out on a limb and say these are the hints for the crossword, which, again, got us: Granite, Soaring, Signors, Nosings
• Leo - Jul 23 -Aug 22: This talks about filling in holes and that "a hole can be filled with different things in a row and a column. Make sure to find all holes, the ones filled with numbers, and the ones filled with letters from a murderous message." I expect this is referring to the sudoku, which I tried solving yesterday only to realize that it doesn't actually solve like a normal sudoku - which now makes sense.
• Virgo - Aug 23-Sep 22: Ok, this is clearly referring to the word jumble "you might think you are in a jumble, but that everything is obvious. But it is not, grey areas exist, and must be ignored." Which explains why, when I solved it yesterday, it told me I was looking in the wrong place. A quick check of my notes, and a verification with the system: Noising. Is that even a word? 
• Libra - Sep 23-Oct 22: "Set yourself a target, and soon you will achieve all nine." The target puzzle. Vintage
• Scorpio - Oct 23-Nov 21: Discusses a cosmic symphony, nothing I've done yet has anything to do with music. Also a remote hope? Take the last row... Ok, not sure which puzzle this refers to... yet. (Later) Oh. Cosmic symphony is this puzzle put into the shopping list? Maybe?
• Sagittarius - Nov 22-Dec 21 "Listen to the wisdom the aged would provide..." Ok, the interview with the actress, where she "sometimes forgot things".  That's where I got "find all plays quoted here in word search." The horoscope says "If you follow the missing instructions, you will be glancing off." but the message in the word search gave me "This solution was flagged as not accurate." Popping that into the solver tells me to keep going, so I'll go back to the word search after sorting these out. Skiting
• Capricorn - Dec 22-Jan 19: Talks about revisiting the holy (hole-y?) grid, sudoku again?
• Aquarius: Jan 20-Feb 18 - revisit what was jumbled up but then take the fifth. Fifth column of the jumble gives Migrate

I'm seeing a lot of rescrambled letters between the interim solutions. Looking at the loyalty cards shopping list and instructions, I'm guessing you go from one word to another - like NOSINGS to NOISING you add/subtract an I/S?

 

Scramble - Aquarius and Virgo

I did this one yesterday, a quick puzzle between kitten feedings, but hadn't connected it to the instructions from the Horoscopes. You can use an unscrambler, but other than Absorb, I didn't need it. You get: Denims, Exotic, Brings, Absorb, Climax, Length, and Eagles. Line them up and away you go. 

Target - Libra

 I am very bad at these, as witness my SpellingBee scores on NYT, but I will see what I can do.... (later)... I fully admit to 'cheating' on this one and using a word unscrambler. I kept trying to spell 'galivanting,' despite there not actually being all the letters present in enough quantity. The only 9-letter word that the grid spells is 'elevating'. Following the instructions, to remove the first letters ('evating') and scrambling again gives us Vintage, which is confirmed.

Word Search - Sagittarius

When I first did the word search, I followed the instructions from the interview. I didn't try to just find the words listed. Will start there and see what that gets me. Screenshot and paint to the rescue. 

(later)

Well, that didn't provide anything obvious. Time to re-find all of the plays in the word search and see what I missed. The plays are: 

• Antony and Cleopatra
• Romeo and Juliet
• Measure for Measure
• Love's Labor's Lost
• The Winter's Tale 
• The Comedy of Errors 
• Much Ado About Nothing  
• All's Well That Ends Well

That got me this. The message about being 'flagged for inaccuracy' is in grey. 

Flags make me think of semaphore, which I don't know how you get anything meaningful out of the squiggles, and they've already used it so no? Or vessel flag code, which is even more of a no. The only other thing I can think of is the phrase 'glancing off'. Makes me think of 'glancing blows' which would be here they almost hit but didn't?  

(Later)

I went and took a nap. My brain kept saying 'what if it IS semaphore despite them using it already?' Nah, roll over, try to sleep. 'but what if???' Ok, FINE. Get up, try making sense of the squiggles. Nada. Then realize that the grey bits could, theoretically, shape semaphore letters. MF. Skiting. Is that even a word?? Again?? 

Sudoku - Leo & Capricorn

(LOTS OF TIME AND MANY HINTS FROM NICE PEOPLE ON DISCORD)

I finally gave up on this one and just reverse engineered the shopping list. 

I found the murderous note and the pieces missing - it should read "Be not cracked within th(e ring mas)ters, you are all welcome". Presumably, minus a letter, "ERINGMAS" fits into the shopping list. (later) Probably after SOARING. Reverse engineering this is probably MARGINS or ARMINGS - we need to drop the O first, so SARING as the base. 

Shopping list

The final words I had were: Granite, Nosings, Soaring, Signors, Noising, Vintage, Migrate, and Skiting. With a bit of work with GPT and an Unscrambler, I figured out which groupings made the most sense. SKATING to SKITING (obviously), then there was a blank, then a group that either went NOISING-->NOSINGS-->SIGNORS-->SOARING or those words in reverse. GPT analyzed that in terms of letters, it made more sense SKITING to NOISING vs to SOARING. Looking at those two, I knew I had to drop a T and a K to get an intermediate word, which Unscrambler provided as SINKING. No idea how to get that from any of the puzzles. None. But it works. Using a similar method, I eventually had 

1. SKATING
2. SKITING
3. SINKING
4. NOISING
5. NOSINGS
6. SIGNORS
7. SOARING
8. ?
9. ?
10. MIGRATE
11. GRANITE 
12. VINTAGE

From the shopping list, it looks like you're more interested in what you subtract, so I got ATKIN(S/O)NMR - which is, of course Rowan Atkinson's character Mr. BEAN!!

Still no clue on the sudoku, but glad to be done with Media! 

Quality Theater Memes

This one was a real pest to do without printouts or trying to go through a bunch of photo editing. Then someone suggested just using a ruler on the screen. BINGO! Essentially you line up the little green boxes on the memes with text on another meme. Again, scrolling back and forth with a ruler, very chic. Each box has a highlighted capital letter, which eventually gives the message Cheers Meme Actor. Of course, my brain went to Cheers! the TV show, because old, but it's actually based on Leonardo DiCaprio, which a quick google told me. Here's your meme! And that's the last puzzle before the meta, but I'm going to take a break and feed the kitten and maybe even sleep without dreaming of semaphores and sudoku!

Cryptex Hunt, Day 4

It is, again, a beautiful day, and too pretty to just sit inside and search for jobs. I did do that, though. Applied for one, which I view as an excuse to go back to puzzling through the Cryptex Hunt. The universe paid me back for that, however, by destroying my childhood with the first one. 

Blog: Spotlight on Blocking

This puzzle looks like it should be easy enough. It gives a small intro, talking about overlapping lights for the play. Then it gives you a series of eight groups of six dots. Your brain immediately goes, correctly, to braille, and to trying to sort out the colors into groups. And here is where my childhood was destroyed. 

See, growing up, I learned that the three primary colors are Red, Blue, and Yellow, which combine to make Purple, Orange, and Green. 

However, this does not work. And it is very frustrating. I knew I was on the right track, as I started with Red, and the first four blocks gave me something useful - THE X (where X is either a new word or a break). And then gibberish. None of it made sense. And then I caved and got a hint. Color theory, apparently, for lights, is different. 

Here, the core colors are Red, Green, and Blue, which all combine to make White. The one that really throws me off is that Red and Green combine to make Yellow. I had to go back multiple times to my grid and fix that, because I really want yellow and blue to combine to make green. Orange is nowhere to be found. However, once I got that sorted out, the colors of the blocks do combine to make a sentence. Solving that sentence, which has nothing to do with Shakespeare, unfortunately, gets you the answer to this puzzle. And a headache. Red + Green = Yellow is destroying my worldview. Time for more coffee. 

Blog: Table Read Chaos

I should thank my mom and her obsession with the stars for the easy start on this one. What took the longest was mapping out the names around the table to begin with. Seeing 12 places, I thought initially of a clock, but the helper text I know that we’re all stars here, so let’s come together to create a beautiful production set me straight quickly. Essentially, map the folks around the table, then trace the path of the conversation to get a constellation. Bolded words aren't necessary but are good for confirmation. Then, take the letter in the position of the number of stars (4 stars, 4th letter) of that constellation to get a word. I didn't recognize the first one off the bat, but knew I had it when the second constellation was one of the first ones I was taught to recognize. The rest of the puzzle was straightforward, but, again, gave you a word that does not have a direct link, as far as I'm aware, with Shakespeare.  

2025 Cryptex Hunt, Day Three

One of the many reasons I don’t normally finish Cryptex Hunts is because life gets in the way. That is definitely true this time around as well. Still, today is a lovely day, too lovely to be stressing out and worrying about finding a new job, so I am sitting here in the shade with a light breeze and doing puzzles. 

Blog: Script Scribbles

This one had me stumped for ages, and still does to some extent. It consists of a fight scene from Romeo and Juliet, with a grid at the top and a series of letters in various shapes at the bottom. Some of the blocks in the grid are highlighted, so it makes sense that you are going to try to fit the blocks of letters into the grid. Except, at first, you can’t. There are configurations that simply do not work. I tried turning the grid on its side, rotating the blocks of letters, nada. Eventually, I checked the Discord, and got the hint that the grid itself isn’t the answer, it’s a HINT to the answer, and that while yes, you do need to fit blocks into the grid, not all blocks, and some can be used multiple times. OK, fine. With that hint it took me a minute or two only to fit the blocks that I could into the grid, so that the shaded blocks spelled SEMAPHORE. 

Ok, so the letter blocks are to be drawn as semaphore shapes, makes total sense. Until you realize that there is a lot of room for interpretation there. I’m still stuck on this one, and the copious hints on the Discord re de-coding and en-coding aren’t making much sense to me. Trying another puzzle to come back to this one.

ETA: One of the reasons I am sleep deprived is I have a new foster kitten, Turkey. He's just barely a week old now, and weighs only 7 oz, which means I'm awake every 2.5 hours or so to feed him. The solution to this bloody puzzle came to me at our 3 am feeding, because of course it was bothering me. The letters aren't only useful to spell out semaphore, they are part of the semaphore. Got out grid paper this morning, after a double shot latte, to sort out the answer itself. Ain't nothin' gonna breaka my stride, ain't nothing gonna slow me dow-wn, oh no, I've got to keep on... SOLVIN'

Cast & Crew

Admittedly I had no idea where to start on this one. I tried messing with the names of the characters, trying to merge the houses as it were, nothing. Then the Discord hinted I was probably looking at the wrong line of the intro text. Looking, I realized it was all about their journeys. So, I got out my handy map app, and mapped their journeys and what do you know, going west to east, they spell out a word. Huzzah for one I could wrap my admittedly sleep-deprived brain around! 

2025 Cryptex Hunt, Day Two

Let's dive in

Blog: Friar's Fumbles

You know it's a good sign when you wake up in the middle of the night and figure out one of the puzzles that was bothering you because you knew you were close. The puzzle is the Friar's speech to Juliet: here, take this nasty potion, you'll fake death, I'll totally make sure Romeo finds out in time to be there when you wake up, what could go wrong...? Of course, there are errors in the puzzle version, all numbers. My brain tried to make it binary (it's not), and then I got distracted by the other puzzles. I of course came back to it in the middle of the night, figured out the issue, and then solved it this morning. It's Roman numerals. IVX, etc. The answer it gives at first seemed like gibberish to me, but it turns out to be the name of a famous Shakespearean director. Shows what I know. ;) 

2025 Cryptex Hunt, Day One

First, I should admit straight off that I have never, ever, ever solved a full Cryptex Hunt. I routinely get super excited, join the Discord, do a puzzle or two, and then real life intervenes and I drop off. This time, however, life being what it is, I figure I have plenty of time to both do the puzzles, and journal about it. Of course, I made this decision AFTER completing a few puzzles and realizing that I should probably take notes, so, bear with me. 

The 2025 Cryptex Hunt is set up around a play, primarily a play's website, and the play in question is Romeo and Juliet. There appear to be both straightforward one-off puzzles, such as the 'blog' entries, and more complex, multifaceted puzzles, like the Media page. 

So far, I've solved one blog entry - prop pieces - and a few of the media articles which seem to tell a story. 

Blog: Prop Hunt

This was pretty straightforward - you need to take two words and smush them together, placing one inside the other, to get the list of items the prop master needed. The items needed were described in the list, but the words to combine were images. Again, straightforward but what took the most time was that I don't have a printer, and was flipping back and forth between the pdf's and making pdf checkmarks so I didn't miss any words. I found it a lot easier to determine the word first then figure out which pictures combined to make it than the other way around but YMMV. Once you figured out all the words, following the prop master's guidance you took the middle letter, which gave you another phrase, which told you to combine another two words to get your answer. 

Media

This one is clearly a multifaceted puzzle, framed as the daily newspaper, and I'm too tired to completely solve it tonight. Each article appears to be its own puzzle, resulting, so far, in a phrase.

PM Chris and Wife Tammy Killed

This is the first big article, discussing several unexplained deaths, possibly involving poison and/or daggers. Three different possibilities for how Mr. Chris Dorn, Prime Minister of Cryptexhuntia, died. Here, as you read you come across reversed words and sections of words, and because your brain subconsciously autocorrects it may take a couple readthroughs to find them all. Eventually, you get  "Millers future describes the solution." The 'Miller' in question is, presumably, 'Ian Miller,' one of the deceased, so not exactly a bright future there. I should note, however, that there is a section of the 'Media' section entirely devoted to horoscopes, and the deceased were all together to celebrate his birthday on March 6th, which would make him a Pisces. 

The Pisces horoscope reads: Pisces, Feb 19-Mar 20. As the vivacious and adaptable sign of the zodiac, the celestial energies are aligning to bring a burst of dynamic opportunities and intellectual stimulation into your life. The other predictions here will guide you to eleven wordy opportunities. Make sure to purchase these opportunities without loyalty in the right order.

I didn't go any farther with the Horoscope puzzle this evening, and the 'purchase without loyalty' presumably refers to the other article regarding the hidden costs of loyalty cards. 

Interview with Tanja Kennedy 

This is the second full length article, a chat with the actress playing the Nurse, who so very clearly wants to play Juliet (again). She looks close to my age, probably not the best choice for a teenage idiot. Not going to let that stop her, though. What may really have gotten her placed in a part with fewer lines, though, is her habit of dropping key words from Shakespearean quotes. The first quote is very clearly missing a word, and if you compare them to the original text (Cryptex Hunt very helpfully sends you to the Folger Shakespeare Library so you know you're all using the same version) you get a phrase: find all plays quoted here in word search. Ok, simple enough. Except, oh wait... Clearly the Cryptex Hunt folks are fans of the NYT Games section, as they've bent the play titles all out of shape. For this, I found it easier to take a screenshot, then use the paint app to black out each letter individually. Eventually, you get yet another message: This solution was flagged as not accurate. That's not particularly helpful. Which solution? Miller's future, which I haven't solved yet, or another proposed solution? Presumably something else points here to get us the full story, but it is late, and I must sleep.