What Was I Thinking - This Year

Independent of the clues, I determine this year’s course would start at the Tritone, travel up South Street to the Ten Stone, then back to Bob & Barbara’s (across the street from the Tritone) before ending at Frank’s – a nice reasonable length course. I would again use clue sheets to get the hunters from one bar to another, as well as the Trivia Sheet and hidden Blab sheet. I finally found the Whack-a-Mole tower on sale, so it and my Whack-a-Mole two-player game would be the two athletic contests.

The hunters received the following at the Tritone: Instruction Sheet (with 215 written at the bottom left), map, Phil beads, Trivia Sheet and Out & About 1 (O&A1) sheet. They would use the O&A1 to get to the Ten Stone – that sheet required them to locate 10 phrases as they walked along South Street. The order they entered them was important.

Once each team arrived at the Ten Stone, I had them try the Whack-a-Mole sheet – either one player with both mallets, or two players each holding one mallet. Two teams tied for first, so they had a Whack Off to decide the winner. Teams then got a Phil coin, O&A2, Seek & Find and Letter/Number sheets (the latter with three numbers in the bottom center). They could now solve the first puzzle – lining up the O&A1 sheet with the Letter side – and shining a light behind it - showed a few letters, but using the Number side gave you a number in all the spaces. When you copied the numbers in the order you encountered each location during your walk, you came up with a phone number. The message at that number instructed you to go into the bathroom and look under the sink for a secret envelope, which contained a Code Sheet for finding Phil! I also scored the Trivia sheet and corrected any wrong answers, since all 14 answers would be needed to find the Blab – all of the correct answers on the Seek & Find were the Trivia answers. One you had circled those letters and numbers, the remaining letters and numbers spelled the location of a paper box containing the Blab. Teams could pick it up on the way to Bob & Barbara’s.

Teams then left for Bob & Barbaras, looking for five more answers for O&A2. They also picked up the Blab. There was a contest on the Blab which required you to use the Phil coin for a four-letter answer. The four circles on the page had a letter in the center, and in and out arrows. Lining up the coin with the shown letter on the in arrow resulted in another letter lined up with the out arrow. Read in order, they spelled PONY, which is what I always wanted (well, in the puzzle). The Blab also told you that 1 = first one, 2 = second one and 3 = third one… but what?

When teams arrived at Bob & Barbara’s, they got to try the brand new Whack-a-Mole tower! Again two teams tied, so we had another Whack Off. After the game, teams received the following: a Phil Fan Club card, O&A3 and Photo Puzzle sheets. The photo sheet asked you to correctly order the four photos of Phil on the course – placing the numbers at the bottom right of the sheet would – when using the three numbers at the bottom left of the Instruction sheet and the three numbers at the bottom center of the Letter/Number sheet give you another phone number. Calling that gives you a hint: use the O&A2 answers (top, bottom, left, right and front) for the Code Sheet.

Teams left Bob & Barbara’s and used O&A3 to get to Dirty Frank’s. There they received the last sheet – Number-Letter Puzzle (a puzzle I had in a Ravenchase event that I modified for my use). The puzzle had a grid of letters, with two-digit numbers on the sides. Using the numbers at row & column, you got THESE ARENT CORRECT LETTERS – using the remaining letters give you MOVE LETTER FORWARD BY NUMBER. Okay, now to put it all together:
By observation or my hints, you determine that the Clue Sheet refers to the three dice on my shirt (also found in the Photo sheet). Using the hint on the Blab (1 = first one, etc.) you know that the numbers identify which die to use, and using O&A2, along with the phone message, you know that T = top, B = bottom, etc, which refer to the faces on the die (so T1 = number on top of first die). Once you solve each equation, you get a series of 10 numbers. Then, again by observation or hints, you discover that the numbers refer to the numbers on the dartboard (there are two in Frank’s, plus one on the Photo sheet). To determine what they stand for, you need to line up all three O&A’s; two which have letters in their 10 circles. For the remaining 10 circles (from O&A1) use the Letter side of the Letter/Number sheet (finally used!). You will now have ten letters that don’t mean anything. The last step is to do what the Number-Letter Puzzle solution told you to – MOVE LETTER FORWARD BY NUMBER. So, if the letter was B and it was on the 2 spot, you would move it ahead by 2 to become D. Moving all the letters ahead gives you: IN SHIRT BOX!

Of course, without hints this would be very difficult to solve. The trick is to make it tricky, but solvable. Relying on me to give subtle hints allows me to pace the hunt so that it doesn’t end too early – or late. It also prevents teams from rushing through in an attempt to finish first and win. I hope everyone had fun!