Friday, July 11, 2014

Desconstructing the Devil's Advocate, Part V: The Devil Himself

Okay, this might be the last of my very spoilery posts for a while, but once again, danger - spoilers!

A letterboxer could not have possibly found the Devil's Advocate letterbox without finding the three other boxes.  It would be impossible.  I had designed them to be hopefully found one or two at a time, to be able to reflect and then solve the final one.

So, to recap:
Hmm... Still not enough to get to that final box.  In the days leading up to these clues being posted, a puzzler might have gone looking at the profile of this planter to see if any information could be gleaned and may have discovered the following ciphertext:

OIXGD RJQWL JDALT XEYHW MWWRU QTSSL
AGUWH FHRSF DQSGJ IOAZA XFCRK IYRQJ
FIMCL RPWTS CWKNM VBGGY IALPK FOLGT
FYPWY EECHU XQFHS LTYUU GUUBX NYJNX
VRUOF ASTVD BNWLM GHTJS GOGKX YHAME
EGIGN VVGJJ BAQBS DWENG QYOXI OULHY
MTNNT EKRIO QIIXE HEBGJ ENVBK UPWRR
DQIIO IUHWH SKLGV NQVHL PELWS GKZVW
EISTU HXSYW ZTZBY HOQYA FMVKM NXYAG VLB

If they tried to decipher it, they would fail.  Why? Because the paragraph reference, just like the court decision in the Poetry letterbox, is the key to its decryption:

CROSS TROLL BRIDG EXUPS TAIRS XLEFT
ATROU NDWOO DFENC EXIMM EDIAT ELYFL
EEHOU NDSTH RUGAT EXSTR AIGHT TOTOP
OFHIL LXCON TINUE STRAI GHTXP ASSNE
ONDOT ABAND ONEDS TEPSA NOTHE RDOTX
ATINT ERSEC TIONG OLEFT XGORI GHTOF
FPATH ATDOW NEDTR EEONR IGHTX SECON
DDOWN EDTRE EISSE VERED NEARS ECOND
WEATH EREDS IGNXL OOKUN DERSE VERAN CEX


A few minutes of looking would indicate that the Xs stand for the end of the sentences and the spacing is all over the place.  Cleaned up, here is the clue:

Cross troll bridge. Upstairs. Left at round wood fence. Immediately flee hounds thru gate. Straight to top of hill. Continue straight. Pass neon dot abandoned steps another dot.at intersection go left. Go right off path at downed tree on right. Second downed tree is severed near second weathered sign. Look under severance.

Follow this clue from the GPS coords, and you would find the box.  The logbook was a mini legal file with a correspondence brad.  The first finder could fill out the court form inside, pleading guilty to letterbox addiction.  Fish Under the Ice has the honour of being first finder, but only just barely as Herbivore found the box just hours after.

Unfortunately, due to the loss of one of the clue boxes and some massive changes in how the boxes could be found, I couldn't revise the clues in a way that would make sense.  However, I've pulled the final box and plan to use the stamp and log as a personal traveler, so I won't post an image of the final stamp here (needless to say, it's the very nicest).  If you want it, just come to me and plead guilty.

Happy trails!

5 comments:

  1. Loved following your deconstruction. Gave me ideas and now I know what a onetime pad is.

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  2. I need to get to Ontario some day and do some letterboxing. It seems like there are some great boxes just waiting to be discovered! Enjoyed reading the Deconstruction posts. I would never in a million years have been able to figure out the clues myself, but it is interesting to see the process. Thank you for sharing.

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    Replies
    1. That's the paradox: I really want to make some fun clues, but I really want people find the boxes...

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  3. So, so guilty....

    FH

    ReplyDelete