My dear puzzle friends, I need your help!
An old acquaintance of mine has recently passed away and mentioned me in his will. I was quite thrilled, as the man was rather rich due to some clever investments during his lifetime. Unfortunately, he was as, hmm, unconventional as he was rich. He always imagined himself as a pirate and spent a good deal of his time roleplaying his phantasies. Oh, how I hated all his Arrr-jokes and endless adventure stories told at countless evenings at the hotel bar... Anyway, I'm afraid he also chose to have the last laugh on me, and I can only inherit his fortune when I play along with his last pirate story.
When I met the solicitor, he handed me over the three things pictured below:
- A parchment with a map and some notes to me
- A small square cardboard coaster which has been scribbled on
- A leather-bound book, supposedly a "Pirate Captain's logbook" of sorts
That's all I have to go on, my friends! Please help me. The solicitor told me, I can take my time, but I must not guess. A single attempt for a correct solution is all I have!
(There are 5 pages in the journal: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5)
This is a long, laborious, multi-layered treasure hunt and cooperation is strongly encouraged. Solving individual 'layers' of the puzzle hopefully provide enough internal feedback to encourage you in your thinking.
The story above is just flavour. The three images above are the sole starting point. Potential spelling or grammatical errors are non-intentional.
I have tried to cross-check this puzzle multiple times over the last few weeks of building it, but mistakes and errors are possible. If you think you have spotted a potential flaw, please comment. Below is a list of known errors or corrected things.
Errata and correction log
- 31th May 2016: Replaced log book page 3. (Incorrect use of 'nordwards').
Does not change puzzle. Removed inconsistency.Found by Leppy64. - 31th May 2016: Replaced log book page 4. (Last turn after 3 not after 4 miles.).
This changes Journey 7, last leg.
Found by Leppy64. \ - 31th May 2016: Added log book page 5 which was omitted on original posting.
- 4th June 2016: One symbol on one of the crosses is rotated by 180 degree. The original image can not be changed for specific reason. The replacement image is found here. The community wiki posts to the correct image.
This fixes an inconsistency. The puzzle would be solvable without this fix. - 7th June 2016: Fixed hint in journal page 3.
Answer
For those who want to edit my base map without the paths:
Coaster
Corners:
The turns in the journey occur on a letter in the grid. When combined together, each is a link to the "stacked" imgur. There are nine more images. 6 pieces of the map, the silver ring, and the silver die. And one other image.
Journey 1 - Top Left of Page
Corners = M7xBm
Journey 2 - Top Right of Page
Corners = 2jK8M
Journey 3 - Bottom Right of Page
Corners = StWHV
Journey 4 - Middle Left of Page
Corners = lWlvC
Journey 5 - Top Left of the Page
Corners = YqUSJ
The ring
Journey 6 - Bottom Right of the page
Corners = HLy4j
Journey 7 - Top Left of the page
Corners = Fmvr0
Journey 8 - Top right of the page
Corners = NccF6
Journey 9 - Top Right of page
Corners = xU9Ke The die
Overlay of all Journies:
Random Notes to remember:
Ring and the Graveyard - This is the next step 4x4 Grid things (Page 1)
F.N. - West / S.N. - North (Page 3)
The Map Pieces - Thanks to Wesley Situ for this merged map pieces
The Crosses - Thanks to Wesley Situ for this pic of the crosses
Page 1 - Left
Uwe Halfaname
Page 1 - Right Top
Navigator
Page 1 - Right Mid
Sick Harming - Doc has a peg-leg
Wil the Joker
Page 2 - Left Top
Wil N'thing
Sick Harming
Navigator (Thickhead or Darmwind)
Cook (Thickhead or Darmwind)
Page 2 - Left Bot
Gorn - Brings a cat aboard
Page 2 - Right Bot
Ron (Darmwind or Fartling)
Eugen (Darmwind or Fartling)
Page 3 - Right Top
Gorn
Grinning Cat (G.C)
Page 4 - Left Bot
Thickhead (Navigator or Cook)
Knut Tattenshoe
Maurice Nutter
Darmwind (Navigator or Cook)
Wil Ironfist (as we find on Page 4 Right)
Page 4 - Right Top
Marice Nutter
Page 4 - Right Mid
Wil Ironfist
Wil N'thing
Page 5 -Right Top
Gorn
Conclusions:
The names on the stones have all been tracked except for Alexander Leffie, Svem Orm, and the blank one.
Two names referenced in the story that are not on stones are (Ron or Eugen) Fartling, and Gorn. Fartling is likely the blank stone due the farting story and the reference to his "wind".
Gorn is either Alexander Leffie or Svem Orm. I lean towards Gorn being Svem Orm but I can't prove it.
That leaves mister Alexander Leffie. Leffie spelt backwards is Eiffel. There is an Eiffel Tower in the mountains of the map.
Alexandre Leffie - "You will not be forgotten your work is central"
- Not mentioned in the journal at all
- Leffie spelt backwards is Eiffel.
- Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is the man the Eiffel Tower is named after
- There is an Eiffel tower on the map
Maurice Nutter - "right down right down right down back you are" - Possibly a reference to Maurice Koechlin - Engineer on the Eiffel Tower
Sick Harming - "A peg for a leg Tock-Tock"
- This man is the doctor on the ship
- Tock-Tock seems to imply a clock, but clocks say "Tick-Tock"
- Morse code on the side of tombstone says "City of Love" associated with Paris
Knut Tattenshoe - "born march 1889, ascension 1710"
- The Eiffel Tower was opened in March 1889
- The Eiffel Tower has 1710 flights of stairs
The right side of the ring says "Quo~Vadis". Translated from Latin this says "Where are you going". The squiggle matches up with the squiggle on the dies faces. When you orient the faces correctly they follow the paths on page 1 of the journal. The straight lines on the die faces seem to point to the trees on the North and West sides.
Using the clues, FN - North and SN - West. FN is the first intial and SN is the second initial of the names on the tombstones.
There are a lot of i's to do and t's to cross to sum up this section. Now to fill them in, across the top we get:
A M R W E U G S K
Alexandre
Maurice
Ron (This could have been Eugen, but Ron works here, Fartlings tombstone sums this up I'm sure)
Wil (Both Wils are in the same column)
Eugen (See Ron)
Uwe
Gorn and Grinning
Sick and Svem
Knut
Down the side we get:
H D N L O F I T C
Harming
Darmwind (This could have been Nav's last name, but Nav shares a row with Tattenshoe)
Nutter and N'thing
Leffie
Orm (Halfaname's surname starts with O)
Fartling
Ironfist (N'thing shares with Nutter)
Thickhead and Tattenshoe
Cat
Following the paths and lines from layers 1 through 6 as laid out by Wesley Situ we get the message:THE_FAIR_METAL_TOWER_LAT_MINUS_LONG______THEN__________TAKE______GRAD_MIN_SEC_AS__THREE__ANGLES_
"The Fair Metal Tower" that has been alluded to is the Eiffel Tower. It lies at 48°51′29.6″N 2°17′40.2″E accoridng to wikipedia.
Rouding those a little and subtracting yields: 46 43 50
Degrees is Grads in German, apparently, so no conversion needed.
Looking at the map (wow it's been a long time away from it) and finding the three angles. We look around and don't see a 50, but we do see K. Earlier it was found by WesleySitu that K = 50!
The treasure is hidden here:
Great puzzle! We left a few rocks unturned (and man one of them was actually really beautiful) but we made it!
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