Part of this task is documented in Play Hooky.


This all began with these directions, which are followed by spoiler space for those who want to try to figure out the location on their own. Below that, a hint follows which was provided about a week later, and below that, the solution.

The following text describes the location of the buried item - but to decipher it you will probably need an absurdly big red cross.


zfcuzvfraxxigrzwusmfvjjimrghjmokqpk
rpnpljitsmqkeuyiuuglpwxrpgzvgysnvekkvf
rvgojzfczowikplyfviqhjxizvjzsgzvg
esvctqkiekphyiizvwyxpymovcplnlthjkaogms

kplytpvubuyirdhtsxlvouglvlzoxitiuk
gpeaxrxbxiltxivshexirbvgazfcwnvplok
oxtzvvztbltwnsvxprtpzsgdneji
arsesjpdrpbctbuysnqwyxpjwobiuyqvipvv

iqjeukphytpkbkowqfmpribuabuyuf
jhlssvlhygfelltklewzzlbkgraesvzlmlu
sgfnembiqjjmrolbinrznkhxyiwesvgcuyyf
ttlsfefeqgxpekhclfemlzlfiqvortzokz

eouakuymuubvvpsthstsfdhzsirdhesvsmdz
nvjbpkwtrohsibeliavuymunmokahtxsviw




























The hint offered was: Start by figuring out what sort of clue you're dealing with, and what to do with what it gives you.





























The initial clue follows the logic of cryptic crosswords, discussed in the first link in the hint. Half of the clue is always wordplay, while the other half is always a definition. In this case, the definition was "cross" - because to bridge something is to cross it - while the wordplay half contained the keyword "absurdly", indicating an anagram, and then the words "big red", which are an anagram of "bridge". The main text is encrypted using a Vigenere cipher, for which the key is "bridge". It decrypts as a sonnet (mad props to Rao for having spotted that pre-decryption), which was chosen to force the text to be long enough for cryptanalysis in case the cryptic clue got too tough. Deciphered, it reads:

Your treasure, far too long delayed in time
Now hides beneath a rock you'll find somewhere
And if you wish this buried thing to find
You'll need these hints to help you find its lair

This poem you have now unlocked with care
Consult again the key that saw you through
It's in St. Paul, though only by a hair
So marshall all your wits to solve this clue

And at the spot this poem leads you to
Before descending know that you are right
By chalk and flag I've marked what you pursue
Climb down at once when either is in sight.

And should my problem prove to have you beat
Just message me and further hints entreat

Those of you in Minnesota are encouraged to figure out from there where the burial site must have been; others will have a harder time, but it is possible by means of Google maps. Of course, some of you have already figured it out from the fact that the answer is marked as the location for this praxis.



Dark: My initial thought was to anagram 'big red cross' to 'crossbridge.' Ah, so close, and yet so far. When Harmon gave me the hint, I was in the text-edit view, and didn't think to preview- so I saw only the text, not the hyperlinks. When I said I was confused, he replied with something along the lines of "Yeah, if you've never done a cryptic crossword, it would be a bit hard to figure out." Having not heard before that it involved cryptic crossword clues, I pretty much immediately figured out that the keyword was 'bridge' and figured out to use the Vignere cipher without the clue.

The location that the poem pointed to was pretty clear very quickly. So Rao and I got together and decided to Play Hooky. It was looking like rain that day, so we high-tailed it down to the suspected location. Oddly enough, I spotted the barest hint of the orange flag before I saw the chalk signs. Rao hopped over the fence and started his way down while I stood watch. (Okay, so he offered to head down to fetch the box first and I wasn't going to object.) It was a somewhat perilous route, but he made it down and back okay. We looked around for a piece of chalk to mark our praxis completion, but failing to find any, snapped some photos and got out of there a few minutes before the rain started. Success!

The box turned out to contain a Supervote!



Awesome. In addition to the history-laden flag-of-many-praxes, it contained a cool-looking trophy and a flash drive. Obviously, the first thing we did upon returning home was to see what was on the flash-drive. While I can't tell you what exactly was on that flash drive, I can tell you that it was very much in line with the pro-bot, AI-friendly nature of my Senate campaign.

So, thanks to Doktor Harmon for an awsesome Super Vote- and an enjoyable praxis all the way along, from the code to the hunt itself. As a Senator, I officially approve.


Dok H: During the solution process, DA was posting thoughts on the whole thing here for my enjoyment. Some of the fun bits:

5. Heheh. It says 'arses.' GY0 would get a laugh. Yep. See line eight of the ciphertext. (Shame that observation isn't actually useful...)
6. gzvg repeats in lines 2 and 3. Suggests no shift in the decryption between those two lines. This one would actually have been quite useful if the seekers had decided to go the cryptanalysis route - as both copies of that string decrypt to the word "find", and the fact that they are the same narrows down somewhat how long the key could be. But then, they never used that knowledge.

Also, of course, the aforementioned "crossbridge" was fun.

As for the later part - identifying the fact that "Marshall all your wits" is a reference to St. Paul's Marshall Avenue, which does indeed cross the river at the edge of St. Paul (and turns into Lake Street on the other side), is the key here. If you know your local geography, it's pretty simple; if you don't, it's less so.

Having gotten to the bridge, DA mentions a "somewhat perilous route." He is not joking. While it's a climb I've done many times without incident before, I have fallen while going down it once - on the day I buried the box, as it happens. I landed on the concrete at the bottom. My right leg hurt for a few days after that, and then cramped up on occasion after long walks for the better part of a week. This is the only task I've ever hurt myself doing. And the screen on the outside of my cell phone, where it tells me who's calling, has not worked since being in my pocket that day. (The rest of the phone is fine, including the main screen.)

For those wondering, by the way - I'd been meaning to get around to supervoting since the moment DA revealed he had used an actual bot in the Turing test, but when I finally figured out the details the task had been retired. So the "far too long delayed in time" part of the poem is very much the truth.