A series of sealed envelopes have been delivered to your estate these past months. A collection of odd black and white maps, with some correspondence on the reverse side, sent from your dear C. F. They are gathering dust in your dresser drawer, but perhaps they are worth reexamining...A Quick Response sometimes conceals deeper meaning... These words seem to carry some portents for future gains. Be careful not to drop these while you're getting them out of your desk, the order in which they've arrived is important.

The first letter, postmarked Julisberg, delivered 1 May, 1837

The second letter, postmarked Little Snake, delivered 20 May, 1837

The third letter, postmarked Breakneck Point, delivered 4 June, 1837

The fourth letter, postmarked Bane, delivered 22 June, 1837

The fifth letter, postmarked Steward, delivered 6 July, 1837


Welcome to Adventure Puzzle #3, presented by the Riddlers. Please fill out the Google Docs Form, linked in the prize page, for RIDL credit.

Disclaimers: Spoilers will not be tolerated, on the forums or on chat. Spoilerers will be barred from entering future puzzles. In the event that a member wins more than one prize, I reserve the right to ask that member to pick their favorite and reroll the others. I also reserve the right to request a winner explain their solving process in the case of suspicious entries and/or suspected leaks.

Good luck and have fun. Puzzle runs until Thursday 4/19/12 at 10:10 pm EST, contains over a dozen copies, so many chances for you.


Also, please don't add me for help. I'll try and hang out in Riddlers Labyrinth when I can.

PS: You do NOT need a smartphone to do this.


Solution:

Hey now. This one was just for fun, no long chain or deciphering like previous adventure puzzles. Each of the decoded QR codes gave a message. The links for each QR code read "the first letter," "the second letter," "the third letter," etc. If you took the first letter from the first link's decoded QR, the second letter from the second link's decoded QR... etc., you'd get "u, "e," "U," "H," and "V," which lead you to Private: Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West - 16 Copies. With exactly sixteen entries, this is the first "uncontested multi copy win" that I've seen here. Grats all around, it'll take me a while to send out all the copies. Give me some time :)


12 years ago*

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Nice puzzle thanks again!

12 years ago
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I think I know what I should do, but I don't know how. Thank you anyway cfriend :).

12 years ago
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well, consider me colored curious but confounded... found a few flashes of funkiness, but further feelings ferreted f***-all out. :P
Perhaps I'll wait to hear a little more from C.F.

12 years ago
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Working on it...thank you!

12 years ago
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I don't get it

12 years ago
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Solved, but I already have the game. Thanks :)

12 years ago
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what game is it?

12 years ago
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Had I wanted it here, I would've posted it myself. Read the first few for yourself and you'll find out easily enough.

12 years ago
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Yes, I suppose silence is golden here.

12 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 1 month ago.

12 years ago
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Thanks a lot.
Personally I found this one harder than the last one, but it is still solvable.

12 years ago
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Are we all not worthy for a direct giveaway that we must waste our time on a quiz so we can enter for a game thats worth 5 bucks?

12 years ago
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You mad cause you have an opportunity to get into a free giveaway with few entries?

[Aliens Guy Meme]

HUMANS

12 years ago
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Thanks for your kind words. The members of our community who enjoy solving puzzles and low-entry giveaways appreciate you removing yourself from the drawing. Also, 5 months, 293 entries, 10 comments. I feel honored to be one of ten people you've found worthy of conversation.

12 years ago
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Don't mind him... In my case (and I'm sure many others), enjoying the puzzle is enough, even if I don't win or enter the giveaway for that matter. It's that small feeling of accomplishment that does it for me. Especially since I solve puzzles when I'm bored at work and I feel like I've done nothing productive all day long :P

12 years ago
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Mmm...i think for non english speakers it is going to be hard :(

I think i have some clues but nothing solid.

Thanks!

12 years ago
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12 years ago
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Always good for a lul

12 years ago
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Cool puzzle!!. Thanks =D

12 years ago
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I am going to attempt this.

12 years ago
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Only eight entries so far, all with a guaranteed win.

12 years ago
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Are you going to post a solution after this? I am honestly super stumped, where can I learn puzzling tricks?

12 years ago
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Phew, I'm glad that you don't need a smartphone for this. I only have dumbphones. :D

12 years ago
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All I could get from each is the code image itself, and the decoded text.
Is the decoded text all I need? Or am I missing something?

12 years ago
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Text is all you need.

12 years ago
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I know this is probably a stupid question, but do the messages contain any unintended typos, or are they exactly as they should be?

12 years ago
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As it should be. If there are typos they don't effect the result.

12 years ago
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I thought the typos were intended...I should read these comments more often.
Also, I am just as stuck as megagiga underneath, pretty much to where I got and what I've tried seems a bit wrong if the typos were not intentional.

12 years ago
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ditto

12 years ago
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Guess I didn't edit this one as thoroughly as the last. Sorry.

12 years ago
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First of your puzzles that left me puzzled as to what to do. (I can figure out how to read the letters, and have some clue as to what do to with their contents, but nothing's working so far.)

EDIT: Post before mine shows me that I have less ideas about letters contents then I previously thought.

12 years ago
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Fourteen hours and two uncontested copies left.

12 years ago
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Motivation:

[X] High

[ ] Low

Now let's hope I can solve this one.

12 years ago
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Six hours and one uncontested copy left. If two or more enter now, someone will be sorely upset :P

12 years ago
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Damn!! I wish I had the time to work on it :(

12 years ago
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And there goes the last uncontested copy :) Thanks a lot for the puzzle.

12 years ago
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Two hours left, and now we play the waiting game.

12 years ago
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Congrats on solving! I tried several things today on the text but nothing worked thus far. I assume it's something like last time going from one puzzle to the next? Good puzzle, but seems I'll have to pass on this one...

12 years ago
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Nope. Just one and done this time.

12 years ago
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Oh, I see... that's what you meant with "uncontested copies", several copies in one giveaway! Thanks anyway for the puzzle and probably for Lead and Gold? ;)

12 years ago
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Thanks for the new cool puzzle! Didn't have time to work on that one before, but seems there's still some hours left to find some free time today. The pure amount of giveaways should boost the motivation, as DunderHassan already stated. ;)

12 years ago
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Hmm, I had been sure that I had attempted what turned out to be the solution, but I must have gotten something wrong there. Thanks for the puzzle, cfriend =)

12 years ago
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I feel VERY stupid for not noticing that....

12 years ago
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You are not the only one.....

12 years ago
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Arghhh....
I'm not the only one that was focusing on maps and reversing something right?

12 years ago
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Sorry, I didn't think that'd be a stumbling point or I would've avoided that phrasing. My intentions were for the QR codes to be "territory maps," and that the message you got from decoding them was simply "written on the back (reverse) side" and you received the folded up map in the mail."

12 years ago
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I did try a couple of things with the QR-Codes themself as well, as there were 5 of them and most of the texts stated something like "I marked that on the reverse side of the map". With the high error correction in QR-Codes I thought they had been manipulated with further hints or something and was turning and flipping them for a while only to find a 'G' on the first one by coincidence. But as cfriend left a comment somewhere here that you would only need the text I soon dropped my tries with the QR-Codes. ;)

12 years ago
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I still don't understand the solution even after reading it >.>

These are always fun to read though :3 Spanks!

12 years ago
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Decode first linked QR, take first letter from that message.
Decode second linked QR, take second letter from that message.
Decode third linked QR, take third letter from that message.
Decode fourth linked QR, take fourth letter from that message.
Decode fifth linked QR, take fifth letter from that message.

12 years ago
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no idea what you talking about, guess I'm really stupid as hell :(

12 years ago
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Try running the image URL's through this site. You're not stupid, you just weren't familiar with these things. Big difference. :)

12 years ago
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wow, never know about the website, finally I can relax a little bit. Thank you.

12 years ago
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Glad to help! Also, there are other such sites. That's just the first one that came up for me when searching the terms "QR decoder."

12 years ago
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I tried to hint at it with "A Quick Response sometimes conceals deeper meaning," because I wanted folks who don't know about QR codes (QR = Quick Response) to have a shot at it, without saying "these are QR codes." As a general rule, in most (or at least, my) puzzles, weird capitalization in the middle of a sentence is a hint :)

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by cfriend.