DAYS 1-2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6

Hello, CodeHunters!

The hunt started back up late last night with Discord user Nour on the case at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia!

Nour found a note on a bench outside the park, consisting of various spelling errors. When the spelling errors were compiled, they turned out to be a caesar cipher code, spelling out “Virginia,” as well as some black light letters spelling out “Norfolk.” Upon further inspection, the word “Sentra” was found written in blacklight on the back. The clue also mentioned a nearby Labyrinth.

These hints together led hunters to Medical Center Park that happened to be across the street from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia.

www.pscp.tv/Nour386/1BdGYobakDzxX

www.pscp.tv/Nour386/1eaKbVyEwQqKX

www.pscp.tv/Nour386/1kvJpaBNpDZxE

After that, user Lizardson was on the case and found the next clue: a package of many colorful cards with pictures on them, all of which can be seen in this drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13eW7a2IvuGlg4ct_SgS9e96nm1gGrEZR

From there, hunters figured out that there was a method to the madness, and each color corresponded to a different meaning: Green > Letters, Red > Symbols,  Yellow > Numbers.

After working this out, hunters were led to a new drive that contained a note and a picture.

The drive was named “titles can be useful”, and the doc as “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”

“O’cs c5mop0a muvyz 5ypsh0mpoyd lk2gsm, ejp pn5m ty0 om ij5ps yo60. Ls1vlm 5p gtjk3 u2r0 v dtt8 mltp pt noas mtu0pn5yd. Pntms pbt ejmn0m ktt7 d9s2p, vy3 pn2p ht6r–l01qsgp. Mj6n v yog0 l297. Tn, vy8 kttr, pns ph25k, op’m wjmp 15dnp pn09s! Z0m, pnom 45kk at cshz yo60kz. 5’kk jms op y0fp, bnvp 2 l15xs.”

After a lot of trial and error, hunters managed to deduce that this was written in a home-brew homophonic cipher, and were able to translate the note into:

“I’ve visited so many interesting places, but this one is quite nice. Perhaps it could make a good spot to hide something. Those two bushes look great, and that rock–perfect. Such a nice park. Oh, and look, the trail, it’s just right there! Yes, this will do very nicely. I’ll use it next, what a prize.”

The first five letters of the ciphered alphabet spelled out “VEGAS”, and doing the same with the numbers revealed “Radwick Dr.”

Putting this together gave the location as a park on Radwick Drive in Las Vegas, Nevada. Users Cherrie and Lizardqueen set off to the park, meeting up and combining forces to find the clue.

Lizardqueen: https://www.pscp.tv/lizwhiz16/1BRJjeMabvWGw

Cherrie: https://www.pscp.tv/Cherrymapes/1LyxBQYmpYpJN

The two of them found a journal, much like the one Fait and Phantom found in Orlando, with some interesting notes and observations. In addition, there were some stickers of Mabel with “PA” written on the back in blacklight. Blacklight was used again in the journal to underline some certain words: “Library,” “Valley,” and “336CM.” The number 3 next to the word “tri” was also highlighted in blacklight.

From that, hunters were able to deduce that the next clue is at Tri-Valley Public Library in Hegins, Pennsylvania! Due to the imminent closing time of the  library, he hunt is now on hold until tomorrow.

Keep up the good work, hunters! You’re on a roll!

Happy Hunting! x

DAYS 1-2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6

Hello, CodeHunters!

Day 3 of the hunt is on!

Despite Phantom’s best efforts to complete the physical puzzle, our hunters were restless, and so our hunt’s organizers decided to release a digital version of the puzzle as well! Discord user Salfur took it upon herself to try to solve the online version, completing the QR code so we could scan it in and get the next clue!

Sulfur worked long and hard and now deserves a well-earned break!

Upon scanning the code, we were then led us a google drive by the name “congrats on finishing the puzzle”

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1VKIVQA0-kbU3VsMXIzQm1fU1U

And the online version of the puzzle: http://codemageddon.info/puzzle/Paper1.htm

The google drive contained a very confusing image,  

When hunters put all the reference codes together it led to another google doc,

https://mega.nz/#!iLAGgAKJ!YLZ3Iugm7RYXmTJWIj9CYf62h0WuukuWXaAlCgW8gcg (translating this time to “dipper is this a code”)

A new image was found, this time with barcodes:

The barcodes each translated to a different code:

1. HJnM RWajZtekJEVkQ3Q0VG V9m ndmOA==
2. ZS5jb20vZG9jwW1lbnQvZC8xN
3. EJiYkVJemwyODI0SG1xUVdHZ
4. aHR0cHM6Ly9kb2NzLmdvb2ds

Salfur then noticed that by reversing the order from 1234 to 4321, they were led to a different google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14BbbEIzl2824HmqQWGdrg2tVj6mzBDVD7CEFY_fvwf8/edit (having fun)

There, our intrepid CodeHunters found a new kind of puzzle chaos awaiting for them: the file contained 25 paragraphs of code that appeared to be in Base64.

Everyone set to work together trying to decipher it in a different google doc, here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1soLbPrtUlVfGQhn1stkNM0tGzGr5doIwk_GkjPu08VU/edit

Salfur found the translation of paragraph 14 using base64 and found a new link to a new doc, as well as some handy information about our favorite cartoon show:

“Gravity Falls is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation originally for Disney Channel (and then later for Disney XD) from June 15, 2012, to February 15, 2016. Created by Alex Hirsch, the series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) who are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle (or “Grunkle”) Stan (voiced by Hirsch) in Gravity Falls, a mysterious town full of paranormal forces and supernatural creatures. The kids help Stan run “The Mystery Shack”, the tourist trap that he owns, while also investigating the local mysteries. But you already know this, don’t you kid? Having fun? Need a link? https://goo.gl/CiwTDD ENJOY!”

That link then led to a new file with a bunch of text. User Mary P then removed the repeating text in this complicated clue and URL to a new link

https://pastebin.com/uhEb2tKN  

Which in turn led to an imgur link

https://imgur.com/a/H3x5j5N (Title translates to “Did you blink?”)

The Imgur contained a gif, in which hunters discovered this important frame:

After following the link, our hunters found themselves with a book (titled “Intro to Crypto” by Nigel Smart) and a file (file name translated to: “Arnold’s Cipher” using caesar key: 13)

Hunters discovered that the sequence of numbers in the file corresponded to
Page-Line-Word of the book.
In order to solve this one, hunters once again created a spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-BkUGXFaUwH-tQukDiCvRBOx8aV4mjLanW4zjU50xKw/edit#gid=0

And finally, after ages of deciphering, they ended up with our next clue:

In front of the theme park
By the benches
Luna Park Sydney

Which leads us to the address:

1 Olympic Dr, Milsons Point NSW 2061, Australia
Latitude: -33.848158 | Longitude: 151.209953

As of now, we’re waiting to see which of our intrepid CodeHunters will be able to make it to the Sydney clue.

Happy Hunting! x

DAYS 1-2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6

(Apologies for the lack of an update yesterday; got home really late and slipped my mind)

Hello, CodeHunters!

CODEMAGGEDON 2.0 IS ON A ROLL

The hunt got off to a great start yesterday (July 7th) at 7:07 AM PST!

The first clue was a YouTube video where we introduced to some loveable and fun characters, who latter appeared in general chat to cheer us on! The video also gave us our first clue!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLTo2i4oXrw&feature=youtu.be

Discord user Macmania22 figured out that we needed to use a spectrograph in order to get the first clue, and user Turtle Of Doom turned it into a image that turned out to be a QR code

This led to a Google drive by the name “untitled folder” in atbash

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1cElu4tx-YfOtID1N04WaAB29kVafHhpM

The folder contained a poem that user Fando realized led to Disney Fort Wilderness in Florida!

User Phantomspirit happened to be close by and headed over to check it out!

Phantom followed a series of clues through the trail, eventually leading them and their family to meet with Fait, one of the refugees from the kickoff video. With Fait’s help, Phantom was able to obtain the next clue: a series of torn journal pages and a jigsaw puzzle!

Stream link: https://www.pscp.tv/phantomspirit/1kvJpawpogbxE

That’s right, Hunters, Puzzle Hell 3.0 is already upon us. So far, the puzzle appears to be another QR code. The text along the top and bottom decodes to:

There is a prize for you to find
But first a challenge for your mind

Phantom is still currently working on the puzzle and waiting on a blacklight to view some hidden information on the journal!

The journal’s author is unknown, and doesn’t seem important to the clue at hand, but any information is valuable in a hunt like this! I’m sure this will be another mystery that we’ll be unravelling throughout the course of our hunt.

Keep up the good work, Phantom; we’re rooting for you!!

Puzzle streams:

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1lPKqkjyvRnJb and https://www.pscp.tv/w/bhGJBzFlZFFuTHJwZ0pEam98MWxEeExYRWpsZ3Z4bdHJDa6EgtP4YgxR5pOxAZGEBuSAjdF_DBghbGbOcQzX  

https://www.pscp.tv/phantomspirit/1mnxeoZoRBPGX

Happy Hunting! x

CLUES THIS YEAR INCLUDE:
1. 5k piece solid white puzzle with clues in blacklight!
2. Kidnapping May’s cat!
3. Maze Hell – this time in an actual maze!
4. Bears!
https://twitter.com/Codemageddon_GF/status/1009281676483051521

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAYS 10-13

day 14 summary is only a week late

Hello, CodeHunters!

CodeHunters met up at Griffith Park in Los Angeles at around 3pm on Saturday, July 8th. Agents Mari and Snowcone were there to run the hunt, and they were joined by a CodeHunting team consisting of Mod Brigit, Mod Lian, Mod RambleWheels, Marciblook, SnapshotDesign, and Shaduf (as well as Shaduf’s parents, Grunkle Stan and Sister Mary Hilda Miley).

Upon their arrival, Agent Mari revealed the Finale Hunt: 61 objects hidden around a section of the park!

After hours of searching (and singing and joking and trumpeting and dying), they finally located most of the hidden objects.

To cap off the hunt, Mari and Snowcone awarded the CodeHunting team with their prizes.

The video footage from the Finale Hunt can be viewed here:

Thank you everyone for joining us on this crazy adventure! The two weeks of CodeMageddon were an absolute blast. Thanks for making this possible!

Happy Hunting! x

Full of fun and frustration, screams, jokes, singing, and trumpets, you can now watch the video footage from the CodeMageddon Finale Hunt last Saturday! Watch as CodeHunters team up and embark on an epic clue hunt adventure.

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAYS 10-13 | DAY 14

Hello, CodeHunters!

This week has been extremely quiet! The final clue was found in Australia on Day 9 (Monday, July 3rd), revealing that the Finale Meetup would occur on Saturday July 8th.

That was today, Day 14! This summary post is taking a while longer than expected, due to video issues (curse you, Time Baby!). I promise I’ll do my best to have that up for you tomorrow! Thank you for your patience and understanding ❤

Not quite goodbye yet….

Happy Hunting! x

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAYS 10-13 | DAY 14

Hello, CodeHunters!

Discord users Nour Pines and Teenage Demon arrived at the clue location in Australia at around 11 AM EST. This was streamed at: https://www.pscp.tv/25873408/

Agent Mari released a new riddle leading to the location of the clue:

Down the hill,
Beneath the trees that look ill,
Find me sticking out behind,
The seat that does not let you recline

This led to the hunters to find a small capsule with the Time Agency logo. Inside that capsule was a paper with this riddle:

Olly and his kin are not to far
On the island that does not mar
The belvedere from within
Near what you use to help you din
⅕

This riddle led them to an island in the lake in Bicentennial park where they found a second capsule, which had the riddle:

Swimming with Syd, Is where the next clue is hid
Take a look take a gander, find that which speaks in candour

This riddle eventually led the hunters to another riddle:

⅗
Olly and his fam again
Now hiding in a similar vein
Unlike then  you’ve been there before
Exposed to the eye right by the shore

This riddle eventually led the hunters to another riddle:

Time has past since the start
Once found we must depart
in the center where sand is poured
Located warning near the shore

This riddle led the hunters to draw an hourglass over the previous clue locations, and the point at the center led to the final clue:

The game is over
The hunt is won
Combine the 5 and then your done
Find the treasure hidden away
Coordinates will guide your way

On each piece of paper a number was written in it in blacklight:

-1
5117
0776
32.68
26.06

When they were arranged in the correct order, they create the coordinates: 32.685115 -126.060776

This leads us to the ultimate treasure of the hunt: the crystal that Blendin has hidden away off the coast of California.

After that, Agent Mari posted the final riddle in the CodeMageddon Discord server:

‘How Could This Happen To Me’ you may hear
in the place where Back to the Future meets Future’s End.
On the 6th Day before the Ides if hunters gather,
At 3 past noon you shall discover,
One last mystery for hunters to solve.
Come to the place of the golden head,
and lets see this hunt come to an end.

Within minutes, it was determined that this indicates that the final meetup is happening in Griffith park by the statue, on July 8th (Romans don’t like the number 2) at 3 PM PST.

This is it, folks! We’ve reached the final countdown (just like they always sang about)!

It’s been an honor hunting with all of you!

Just remember:
ELOO LV ZDWFKLQJ

Happy Hunting! x

SenseiAurelius, you’ve been such a huge help in this! I can’t possibly thank you enough for helping me compile everything!

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAYS 10-13 | DAY 14

Hello, CodeHunters!

Thanks to Discord user Mrl155009, the Ker-Prank’d puzzle from the last clue is now available online if you’d like to take a stab at it!
http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1f053c119654

Our CodeHunters are still just as confused about yesterday’s “File Hell” clue as they were yesterday. Agent Sprinkles, as well as the rest of the Time Agents, have been rather silent, saying nothing on the matter whatsoever.

Meanwhile, they’ve also said nothing on the Sydney clue. As the Agents have not confirmed or denied the location, our CodeHunters still aren’t sure it’s entirely correct. Nevertheless, they still plan on checking it out!

Unfortunately, none of our CodeHunters were able to head out today. Everyone who lives in the area had other conflicts preventing them from going. The Time Agents have said they’ll give us a couple days before they simply release the clue themselves. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the clue ourselves before then!

The location is still presumed to be at Bicentennial Park in Olympic Park, at BBQ place called Twin Shade Sails near the Sundial Amphitheater.

Thankfully, Discord users Nour Pines and teenage_demon will be able to head out tomorrow!

Until tomorrow, CodeHunters!

Happy Hunting! x

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAYS 10-13 | DAY 14

Hello, CodeHunters!

Well, it has officially been a full week since the beginning of CodeMageddon. And what a week it has been!

At around 2 PM EST today, Discord users ‘the insanely cool jared kleinman’ and ‘the kool aid man’ (aka: the Pidge Twins) headed out for the Marriott in Atlanta, GA! It was a three-hour road trip for them, so they got there at about 5 PM EST.
Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/JARED_KLEINMAN/1vOxwvMZvzEJB

Once they arrived, they set out looking for the Agent they were supposed to be meeting. Agent Sprinkles appeared briefly to pass them a large plastic box and a small bag, then disappeared.

It seems our fears of PuzzleHell v2.0 proved to be true: for the bag that Sprinkles handed them was full of puzzle pieces!

Thankfully, there don’t seem to be 2,000 pieces, nor are they monochrome yellow, like the CipherHunt puzzle from last year. Hopefully, this puzzle will be much easier to solve!

Also inside the puzzle bag was a slip of paper containing what may be the location for the next clue (somewhere in Sydney, Australia):

Are you up for a barbeque?
The Olympians sure are.
In a park with quite a view.
With 200 circles around a star.

And if I were you,
Solve the puzzle too.

Our CodeHunters are currently taking this to mean the Bicentennial park (a subset of the Olympic Park) in Sydney. “It’s definitely Bicentennial park, it’s in Sydney Olympic Park, Has free Electric BBQ, Quite a view and Bicentennial stands for 200 years(200 circles around the sun/star)” says Discord user minecraft_is_sky

Hopefully, more info will be revealed through the completion of the puzzle, and the contents of the mysterious box!

Speaking of the box….

This note was found inside of the box that Sprinkles gave to the hunters:

The contents of this box are from the defected time agent Blendin Blandin’s office space. The items encased may show how the agent cracked. We do not condone any use of said items. All files and evidence in box are cleared by TPAES. Do not regard any conspiracy that the agent had claimed to be true. Some files have been removed for evidence bay and privacy.
Files that have been removed:
File 3216: Flskhu (Cipher)
File 0902: Wlph edab lihytyda soda (Time Baby Revival Plan)
File 5397: Ruhjrq Wlph vziwfk (Oregon Time Switch)
Those files were either destroyed or on file. Contact local time police if files are needed
Do not disclose anything in this box to any criminal.

The ciphered parts were decoded by Discord user DeviouslyDoomed.

The box contained collections of files in code, as well as: 2 pink erasers, a huge red Sharpie labeled “Blendin Blandin’s Correction Marker”, a bag with a single red pen, a bag with 2 party noisemakers, a message pad, and a bag with 2 water guns.

The Pidge Twins decided to wait until they got back home to start going through the files in-depth, so they left the hotel and started on the long drive home. However, they did post pictures of some of the codes for the rest of our intrepid CodeHunters to solve.

And solve them they did! CodeHunters got right on decoding those ciphered files. There were stacks of pages, absolutely covered in text in 6pt font. They were encoded with only a simple Caesarian shift, so our CodeHunters were quickly able to decode the contents as being….

The entirety of the script of The Bee Movie.

When the Pidge Twins reached home, around 9 PM EST, they once again started a livestream: https://www.periscope.tv/JARED_KLEINMAN/1mrGmgkQYbwxy
(the stream did die and have to be restarted several times, so be sure to check out those as well!)

In addition to streaming the puzzle-building, they took pictures of every file found within the box, uploading them all to a google drive here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8l50PZ_nUECLU1KWlFYZUxPYjA

A list of each decoded file can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IvhcgbnRqqOn_9PYJAL5S3cSFNuiqk_4H-GeUQf8Snk/edit?usp=sharing

None of the files seem to be of much importance, containing memes and jokes such as the Bee Movie script, RickRoll lyrics, and random words about potatoes.

In fact, the entirety of this clue seemed to be one big joke, as the puzzle ended up being the Ker-Prank’d image.

And upon close inspection, none of the files from the box seemed to contain a blacklight message (which Agent Sprinkles did confirm). But beyond that: the Pidge Twins couldn’t find any blacklight messages anywhere. Not on the puzzle, or any of the things inside the box, or even the box itself.

Our CodeHunters are left feeling stumped and confused. Was this clue all for show?

To wrap up, the next clue is hidden somewhere in Bicentennial Park in Sydney, Australia, possibly near a barbecue pit. Discord user HopeCvon has suggested that it may be at the BBQ place called Twin Shade Sails near Sundial Amphitheater.

Several CodeHunters are interested in checking that out tomorrow.

Until then!

Happy Hunting! x

Thanks to SenseiAurelius for helping me compile everything