Deconstructing the Devil's Advocate

Okay, so it really shouldn't be news to anyone who boxes in Ontario that the Devil's Advocate is an alias account that I have and that the four boxes were actually mine.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, I had to pull the Devil's Advocate box which makes the whole series of the puzzle impossible to solve.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed putting that puzzle together, it was great fun, but for anyone who didn't get the chance to hunt them (or for anyone looking for inspiration for future puzzle boxes) I've decided to deconstruct the making of this puzzle series as well as the solution to it all.

In case you do *not* want to be spoiled or still think you can solve these, I'll try to put the content after a jump break.  You have been warned.

I love creating puzzles.  It's incredibly fun and part of the massive allure of letterboxing for me.  I'm not so great at solving ciphers in particular and can get notoriously frustrated, but I love putting them together and watching others.  It's the same feeling I get when I get an awesome Christmas present for someone.

I've been making tricky boxes for a while, but I had been wondering about how to make a clue that was based on an actual stamp itself.   Leave bits of clues everywhere and let the fun begin!  This, to me, is like the ARGs that I love so much (again, I follow them on the sidelines because I get notoriously frustrated).


SPOILERS AHOY!

First thing was first: I needed a theme... law! Yay.  Everyone loves lawyers, right? ... No? Ahem.

The Devil's Advocate, perfect, and some funny court decisions? Perfect.

So, I put together a really nice final goal stamp and carved it.  This stamp would be part of the box that would be where all the other boxes pointed.  The similarly named The Devil's Advocate letterbox.

I decided that I would plant the box in High Park, but I didn't plant it yet.  I decided to pick a set of GPS coords that could be puzzled out which would be the start point from the rest of the unpuzzled clue.  Hopefully, I could actually chance the clue if that were the case in order to result in a find - I also wouldn't need that when putting the other puzzles together.

But, I had to start the clue together so that I could carve and plant the other three boxes that would lead you to the fourth.  I decided the form of the clue would be the GPS coords and then a ciphered clue from there to the box... I'm planning a couple posts to deconstruct how I put those clues & boxes together and how they could have been solved.

Happy trails!