The clues were set, the race was on. Who would be the first to solve the trail of puzzles I created?

A hearty congratulations to Flea and Ben who, working in tandem, were able to solve the clues I left. I'm now going to explain each step of the journey, revealing the answers to all the puzzles. If you still want to solve the puzzles, don't look at the solution bits. (Obvious, really.)

So, we shall ignore the very strange story line. As I've said, this was mainly an experiment...

Rex Altus

Gallium = N/A
Neon = 25
Iron = 92
Rex Altus = 168
Silicon = 51
Bismuth = 327
Astatine = 138

Solution: The elements listed all have values! The way to find the values was to figure out that the elements could be spelled using symbols of elements. For example, Iron is spelled using Iridium (Ir), Oxygen (O), and Nitrogen (N). The atomic numbers of these elements is added up to get the value. If there is more than one way to spell an element, the spelling that uses the least number of elements is used.

The element with the value of 168 is KRYPTON. Rex Altus roughly means High King in Latin, referring to Krypton's status as a noble gas. (Krypton also comes from the greek kryptos, which means hidden, particularly fitting.) As a little easter egg, the finished element list acrostically upwards spells "ABS KING" - another king...

Sub Rosa

R56YGF
5TFDE4
UHGT67
DXZAWE
5RFGY6

Solution: The character strings are cyclical on a standard QWERTY keyboard (sorry to those who use an international keyboard) and they center on a particular letter key. This is supposed to be reminiscent of petals on a rose. The five letters spell TRYST, which is a secret meeting between lovers - hence, Sub Rosa (secret, hidden) and the imagery of roses, a flower commonly associated with romance and love.

Worthy Composer

MATHEMATICS 101

Prime numbers are numbers that cannot be exactly divided by any other number except themselves and one. For example, 206941 is a prime number. The mathematician Euclid proved in 570BC that there are an infinite number of them.

There are is a whole branch of mathematics devoted to primes - not only because of their strangeness and apparent randomness, but also because of the important role they play in several different equations, theories, and functions. Furthermore, they crop up a lot in strange places like internet security, cicada evolution, quantum energy levels, and cerise clupea.

Solution: This is a great example of why you shouldn't write puzzles at 3 in the morning. The trick was to look just at the numbers - the rest was a cerise clupea, or red herring (huge bonus marks to Evil Sugar for being the only one to spot that "cerise clupea" anagrams to "a precise clue", hinting at the rearrangement needed later). Seeing as the theme is prime numbers, you have to factorize the numbers given. Also, on a completely irrelevant note, adding together the non-primes gives you a prime. Isn't that nice.

Recognizing that 101 is the 26th prime, one can assign letters to primes (A=2, B=3, C=5, etc) and rearrange to get "gold" and "bach" - hence, worthy composer. GOLDBACH was a mathematician famous for his work on primes.

Great Imposter

.-...-...-..----.-....--.-.-.-...-..----.-.-..-..-..-.-..-..----.-.-..--.-...-.-.-.-.....-..-....-....--.-.--..-.-.-..-.

Solution: Morse code usually has spaces, but this string doesn't. The first thing to do is to recognize it as an imposter - it's actually binary. Converting this to text points to Dr. Joseph Cyr, a surgeon who operated on a ship during war. Unfortunately he wasn't a real surgeon, and his name was actually DEMARA. He was the great imposter (amusingly, a google search on the title of this puzzle reveals this straight away).

Time

13:57
19:51
20:59
21:29

Solution: The hints were really needed for this one. Convert the digital times to analog, then use the pigpen cipher to decode the results. (Pigpen was the character in Peanuts who was always dirty). The answer is STAG, which has nothing to do with time, pigs, or peanuts. How disappointing.

Disarray

MEHAM
MORTSLAM
ONCUFOIS
RORAU
ROSEDID
SHAC
UMLUT

Solution: Each item on the list is a scrambled word that is missing one letter. The missing letters anagram to spell ENTROPY, which is a synonym to all the words.

Encrypted Message

epmfrtgi; eptl
yjsmld yp upit rggptyd. yjr omdyoyiyr jsd nrrm yslrm fpem/
mpe rcv;so, bovyptu nu frv;stomh upit divvrdd pm yjr [tscod [shr

Solution: The message was written with hands positioned one key to the right of the intended one on a regular QWERTY keyboard. Alternatively, the message could have been solved as a regular cryptogram.

That marks the end of the trail of clues ! The Institute were successfully stopped, and the world is safe from Pandora. I hope those who participated enjoyed the puzzles, it was very fun monitoring progress.

I think that this is not the last you will hear of The Institute... They plan their puzzle-filled return, and they've got a better plot up their sleeves!

Finally, I close with some correspondence from the oh-so-adorable gummy bears, who came second in the race to the finish. (The gummies have decided to send you progress reports, so that you would know that they are still working on your clues.)

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The gummies have been stuck for quite some time,
and are curious as to whether there will be additional hints for part
II. They are still enjoying the clues. But now they are enjoying them
in more of a frustrated hurling themselves at walls kind of way.

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The gummies are still at work tracking down the
composer. They have noticed that the Mathematics 101 section contains
numbers that are incorrect, and that both "StarAnise" and "Pandora" add
up to 239 when spelled in elements. They quite wanted the worthy
composer to be Mozart, who once composed the "K239" symphony which is
designed to be played by two orchestras. However this seems not to be
the case.

Then the gummies studied up on 'worthy' and found that according to
wikipedia there are three humans with the name "Worthy." Sadly none of
them are composers. They also found three places that are called
"Worthy," but were unable to locate any composers that hailed from
these locations.

- This concludes your regularly scheduled clue-tracking update. -

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(jingle) clue clue clue clue clue clue UPDAAAAATE! (end jingle)

The gummies spent some time yesterday reading up on number theory,
particularly the bits on primes vs. non-primes, and decomposing numbers
into primes. They came across several prominent mathematicians who may
be worthy composers. They decomposed the numbers in Caine's email into
primes (206941 was particularly interesting, as it factored down into a
bunch of primes that ended with 7). They are filled with a constant
worry that they are chasing down the cerise clupea, which, at least
according to gummy translation would mean they are wasting their time.

They worry that other players will overtake them in their search.
"Someone" was utilizing binary for their username for a short while,
and recent comments by Doktor Harmon have included reference to
translation of letters into binary AND "herring." The comments from the
Doktor are almost clue-like (PLAY THE JINGLE?), leading the gummies to
wonder whether Harmon is searching for clues, or in league with you
somehow.

- This concludes your regularly scheduled clue-tracking update. -

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This morning, the gummies spent some time focused on "cerise clupea."
They realized that it is an anagram for "a precise clue." They thought
that was pretty interesting, so they attempted to anagramize "numbers
count" into the name of a mathematician. Sadly, this did not go well.

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And that's where the regular updates stopped. :)