The aNOMNOMNOMalies had a series of misadventures. Despite getting first place in the pre-puzzle (Scrabble), we got 6th overall (out of 8, total, I think.) For the Scrabble game, we were given an envelope full of Scrabble pieces that in no way formed a word, forcing the teams to trade pieces. At the last minute, we got our word in: ghastly. We went straight to failing to solve the first puzzle. We hadn't taken the last step to solving the puzzle, so we went to all the wrong places. When we finally thought we'd solved it, we ended up taking ourselves to the other side of Uptown, at which point it started hailing. Star5 rescued us from our grave mistake and told us that while we were close to the solution, we weren't QUITE there. That was really all it took for us to finish the puzzle. She gave us a ride through the hail to the next location. We again went off in the wrong direction, but solved that puzzle as well and found the next location... or so we thought. Once we got the first hint for the puzzle we were at, we realised that we had skipped a puzzle. So we took the penalty points to be given the solution to the missed puzzle and went back to the location of said puzzle. It was at this point that we realised it was okay to ask if we had the right answer before trekking across Uptown through the storms. (Did I mention there were storms?) After solving the puzzle at the skipped location, we went back (again) to the puzzle following that. We couldn't quite figure it out, so we took penalty points again to be given the solution. After that point, it was smooth sailing. We figured out the remainder of the puzzles in good time and made it to the final location just as they called an end to the Puzzle Quest. We didn't solve the -final- puzzle, but we made it in one soggy piece!



That was when we realised that our electronics had taken a bath in my teammate's bag. One might think that flip-top water bottles and digital cameras make good friends, but they don't.


Edit: Perhaps I'll mention (since all the other cool kids are doing it too) that I was the captain.  Captain, as in I yelled over the cube walls last week, "Hey, guys!  Let's have a team on the Puzzle Quest my friends are putting on!  It'll be fun!"