Cryptological Conundrum Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(large)
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Located across three city parks. Break the code and you will find 5 gallons of loot.
Cryptological Conundrum
This cache was inspired by the Beale papers. It also came about from many hidden treasure stories and movies. If you are unfamiliar with the Beale papers I will include a brief summary here. For more you can go the following website: (visit link)
The Beale papers were a series of papers that were in a locked iron box that was intrusted to a Virginia inn keeper around the 1820's. The papers supposedly surfaced in the 1850's and were made public in the 1880's. The three most important papers contained nothing but numbers which supposedly were encrypted messages that told of a wonderful treasure. Nearly 3000 pounds of gold over 5000 pounds of silver and of course jewels. One of the papers was decrypted and told about the treasure but failed to mention the exact location. The exact location was on one of the other two pages but no one has yet figured out how to decrypt the other two pages yet. There have been many attempts to break the codes, and there are those who think that the papers are a hoax (see website above for more on that theory).
This cache is no hoax, and the codes can be broken to find the treasure. On your hunt you will have to find 4 small containers that will lead you to the final cache. Each of them contains a vital part of the code. All of the caches are in city parks.
You will have to do some driving, maybe around 8 miles total from the first park to the last, and you’ll need to do some code breaking. You will end up walking around 2 to 3 miles total by the time you find all of the pieces. A little bushwacking may be involved but not much. You may encounter headaches, briers, poison ivy, ticks, snakes, spiders, and muggles. You will need to use the internet to find the "map" and also to answer the riddle for the "key word". You may want to spread this one out over a day, although with a friend by the phone and the computer you can solve the whole thing in a leisurely ½ day or less.
The posted coordinate will lead you to a parking lot near the final cache. You need to use these coordinates posted just below to find the first in 4 small tennis ball sized caches hidden in various types of places.
35° 21.242
080° 13.573
At each cache you will find a coded puzzle part and you will find the coordinates to the next piece of the puzzle. At each stop take one puzzle piece, each will contain the clue you need and the coordinates. Your goal is to find all the parts, decode the puzzle and find the cache.
After assembling all the parts you will be directed to a piece of art work with numbers in it. By taking the correct numbers in the correct order and plugging them into the formulas listed at the bottom you will be able to get the missing numbers to fill in the final cache coordinates at the end of this puzzle
The final stop is a large five gallon bucket full of good loot.
Below are notes on each stop to help you with the decoding process. If you need any help with the decoding process you can consult this web page: (visit link)
Notes on each step:
1. Scrambled columns of letters. At this stop take one card of scrambled letters. Items found in the later caches will help you decode them.
2. Key Word riddle. At this stop you will find a riddle. Figure out the riddle with a little research and you will have a 5 letter word (minus the word "old"). Write one letter over each column of letters. Start with the letter in the key word that comes first in the alphabet. Write the letters in that column from top to bottom on a horizontal line. Then look for the letter in the key word that comes next alphabetically and write those letters next to the first 4. Continue this process until you have used the letters in each column and have a string of 19 letters. THIS WILL NOT SPELL OUT THE ANSWER. Now you will need the substitution key to change to encrypted letters back to their proper order. If you need help with this step you can refer to the website above.
3. Substitution key. This will help you transform your long string of letters into a legible clue. The clue will point you to a piece of art in the National Museum of American Art, a part of the Smithsonian. This piece of art will be our "map". The artwork you are looking for has 9 lines of small items. On some of these items there are numbers. These are the numbers that you will need for the formulas listed at the bottom of this page. You can find a copy of this piece of art by going to google and typing in the name and the artist. Don’t settle for the first hits returned if you don’t find a large copy of this piece. It will give you the correct piece of art but if you look at hits later in the list sometimes you can find a full screen copy of this artwork (so you won’t have to squint at the screen). You still need one more piece to solve the puzzle.
4. This is our "map key". This will tell you on what row and on which object on that row you will find the number needed for the formula. The key is written like so: A 1:2
In this key example, A= where you will place the number for the formula 1= the line you look on and 2= the object.
Now you have all the parts, complete the formula, take the answers and place them in the appropriate spot in the final coordinates and off you go to find the massive 5 gallon bucket cache.
FINAL CACHE COORDINATES
35 AB.CDE
080 FG.HIJ
Formulas to find the missing numbers use the map and key to change the letters K-R back to numbers
A= 10 - K
B= L - 1
C= 5 - M
D= N - 1
E= P + 2
F= 5 - M
G= 5 - M
H= L - 1
I= Q + 2
J= 4 - R
This cache contains lots of large items and some that are worth more than your average cache loot. Please try to keep this cache well stocked, trade even or up if you can. The bucket has a tough lid to open but there will be a small screwdriver attached to help with the lid. Please do not take the screwdriver and please try your best to replace the lid as best you can.
Below are hints that will actually help you find the 4 small caches that lead to the final cache. Spoilers are included so only look if you are really stumped. All of the small caches are well camouflaged with natural material so please do your best to replicate that. Due to heavy foliage above you the coordinates will only get you to within 20 to 30 feet of the cache so beware.
Have fun and good luck!
Congratulations to Gavelguy and Family for being the first to crack the code
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
1. Fyngrq nf n cbcyne cynpr gb erfg
2. Ebbgf bs 8 vapu gehax jvgu fncyvat tbbq sbe flehc
3. 55 cnprf onpx sebz 7/10guf evtug bs ebpx snpr haqre rkcbfrq ebbgf
4. V zhfg or gjvfgrq naq ybj qbja gb uvqr bar urer
5. Tbbq yhpx.