Introduction: All the clues posted out had a QR code label attached which pointed to this website. This was the only connection between the physical clues and the blog running the game. The solution required knowledge of QR codes and the use of a QR code app on a smart phone. A very early post A “rabbithole” will appear here on Thanksgiving, 2011 … ended with these three important notes “Smart phones, not optional, but essential!”, “Check this blog frequently for news and updates.” and “Follow @Dagroian on Twitter for notifications.”

Clues were sent to twelve of Bo-Ashley’s friends — Bo did not get any information pushed out to her directly. Everything she learned about the game would have to come from others. The location of this blog and it’s posts would provide all the information she and others needed to play the game. The answers to the initial twelve questions answered a thirteenth question, the Midway Puzzle …

“A mad driver” translates into “poephol” — for reasons Bo knows best — which, when posted/tweeted, released this final Task List of things to do …

[A theme of thirteen was hinted at in the clue Brian F.: What anagram of “eleven plus two” = 13? and the post Tweleve Were Chosen]

Of the first clues posted out by mail, some included the cryptic “P.S. There’s more than meets the eye?” statement — hinting at a third level of information, hidden from sight under the “Here Be Dragons” label — the other two levels of information being the physical clue in the container and the QR code attached as a label. A postcard, in spite of the hint, did not hide more information under the label — bit of deceptions adds confusion, right?

The additional layer of information was the number #5164.

This compound assignment was intended to be the most complex task, it required the gamer to figure out …

• Where the fantastical Sugar Dragon fled from (Red Hoek, Brooklyn, NY)
• What chain stores sprung up in the immediate area (Ikea and Fairways)
• Which branches of those chain stores were nearest to Huntington, NY (Ikea, Long Island and Fairways, Plainview)
• What product the barcode scanned (using apps like these for iPhone and Android) and, therefore, which of the stores would stock it (sugar at Fairways)
• What isle number in that store the product was displayed in (call and ask, it’s #4)

The solution required the use of maps.google.com to locate chain stores nearby the recently demolished Revere Sugar Refinery, a barcode scanner app to determine the product and making a phone call “Hello, is that Fairways in Plainview? In which isle number do you sell sugar? Isle number four? Thank you!”

This location pinpoints a foot bridge from the Sagamore Hill property, over an inlet, to a Cold Spring Harbor beach. It was first hinted at in postcards mailed to the seven people wh solved their clues early and posted answers on Facebook — and then in the blog post 7 encrypted clues went to 7 early birds. The clue was originally encoded in binary and, if worked out early, gamers could knock this one off their task list early.

The solution required the use of maps.google.com or Google Earth to locate and measure the foot bridge (maps has a rough scale in 20′ increments and Google Earth has a more precise ruler tool which can measure the distance between two points. The foot bridge measures 326.97′ in Google Earth, so rounded to the nearest 20 feet that would be 320.

This location describes a line between the apexes of the two rooftops at extreme ends of the boardwalk at Crab Meadow Beach, the task is to figure out long that boardwalk is, rounded to the nearest 20 feet.

The clue was originally encoded in hexadecimal and gamers could knock this one off their task list early if the decoded the postcard and/or the blog post.

The solution required the use of maps.google.com or Google Earth to locate and measure the distance between the roof apexes (maps has a rough scale in 20′ increments and Google Earth has a more precise ruler tool which can measure the distance between two points. The foot bridge measures 615.08′ in Google Earth, so rounded to the nearest 20 feet that would be 620.

This location directs gamers to the pier off Condre Hall, just West of Gold Star beach. The task is to figure out long the pier is, excluding the boardwalk, rounded to the nearest 20 feet.

The clue was originally encoded in ROT 13 and gamers could knock this one off their task list early if they decoded the postcard and/or the blog post.

The solution required the use of maps.google.com or Google Earth to locate and measure the length of the pier. The pier measures 209.62′ in Google Earth. Rounding could be a problem here, depending on how accurately the pier is measured. When rounded 209.62 becomes 210, which then rounds up to 220 to the nearest 20 feet.

The solution required a simple internet search. By lifting the phrase “born on Jan 8th, 1725 in Huntington and died on Valentine’s Day” from the clue and converting it to “born on Jan 8th, 1725 Huntington and died on Feb 14th” you can do a Google search and get the answer in the first hit.

The person is Gilbert Potter and the answer is 1786.

The solution requires looking at a street view of the ramp in maps.google.com to read the road sign. The answer is 35.

Seven gamers who posted Facebook answers to their questions early each received one of three different encoded postcards (for tasks 3, 4 and 5) as articulated in the post 7 encrypted clues went to 7 early birds. These additional clues went to Alyssa, Brian C., Brian F., Grace E., Grace F., Harrison and Katie. Like many of the the original clues, each postcard had a “Here Be Dragons” sticker on the back. All but one had SOL hidden under the label.

The solution: Alyssa’s postcard had the required number #6854 hidden under it’s “Here Be Dragons” label.

Note: Lainie was scheduled to get the only other postcard with this hidden number — but she did not respond to her first clue early enough to have the postcard mailed out to her.

This is a numbers game from here on in. Each of these tasks will yield a number that will add up to a grand total number. There is no margin for error. Measure, calculate and round up carefully. If you make a mistake you’ll have to double-check everything!

PDF to print here: Task List

Answer: Post “The number is  ____________ !” as your public status on Facebook and DM @Dagroian on Twitter for confirmation of the answer.

When Bo has posted on FB and DM’d @Dagroian the PM will weigh in on the proffered solutions.

“A mad driver” translates into “poephol” — only Bo-Ashley will know why. The final Task List will be published here within the hour …

Question: The thirteenth question is answered by fitting the previous twelve answers into a grid — coming up with a phrase that both fits and makes some sense, but needs translation*. These were the clues …

Now try fitting your answers into this grid, click on the image to enlarge and print if need be …

Answer: Post “The Answer is   _ _ _ _ H _ _ !” as your public status on Facebook and DM @Dagroian on Twitter to receive the Task List for the final phase of the game. Then let the mad dash begin!

*Special note: The format for the answer to post/DM is definitely not a mistake. One very special player should be able to translate this!

Note: This post was scheduled to be published on Thanksgiving Day — Tue Nov 24, 2011 at 7am.

In the post 7 encrypted clues went to 7 early birds reference was made to seven people getting three additional encrypted clues in the mail.

Work out the encryption methods used and you’ll have the plain text clues one day ahead of everybody else …

Location #1

010011100010000000110100001100000010111000111000001110000011010100110101001100000011001
001011000010000001010111001000000011011100110011001011100011010000111001001100000011100
001101100011000100100000010100100110111101110101011011100110010001100101011001000010000
011101000110111100100000011101000110100001100101001000000110111001100101011000010111001
011001010111001101110100001000000011001000110000001000000110011001100101011001010111010
001011000010000001110111011010000110000101110100001000000110100101110011001000000110110
011001010110111001100111011101000110100000100000011011110110011000100000011101000110100
011001010010000001100110011011110110111101110100001000000110001001110010011010010110010
011001110110010100100000011011000110010101100001011001000110100101101110011001110010000
011101000110111100100000011000010010000001100010011001010110000101100011011010000010000
011011110110111000100000010000110110111101101100011001000010000001010011011100000111001
0110100101101110011001110010000001001000011000010111001001100010011011110111001000111111

Location #2

48:6f:77:20:6c:6f:6e:67:20:69:73:20:74:68:65:20:62:6f:61:72:64:77:61:6c:6b:20:66:72
6f:6d:20:4e:20:34:30:2e:39:32:38:38:31:2c:20:57:37:33:2e:33:32:37:31:39:38:20:74:6f
20:34:30:2e:39:32:38:35:35:39:2c:2d:37:33:2e:33:32:34:39:39:31:2c:20:72:6f:75:6e:64
65:64:20:74:6f:20:74:68:65:20:6e:65:61:72:65:73:74:20:32:30:20:66:65:65:74:3f

Location #3

GUR CVRE NG A 40.898046, J73.436186, EBHAQRQ GB GUR ARNERFG 20 SRRG, VF UBJ YBAT?

Note: This post was scheduled to be published on Wed Nov 23, 2011 at noon.

Be warned … you’ll need all the house lights on (caffeine and sugar may help) and that dragons are dangerous!

Links: Buzzy Multimedia’s Meddle Not With Dragons t-shirt

It’s time to circle back and check your answers to each and every question again!

Post your revised answer as your public status on Facebook in the form of “The correct answer is _________”.

Note: This post was scheduled to be published on Sun Nov 20, 2011 at 8pm — which means you cannot tell from the timing which clue was answered incorrectly: An early answer or a very recent one.