The 2022 Masquerade Tribute of Hunts for Charity was released on 3/20/22. As of this writing (5/2/22), five of the six hunts have been solved with over $3500 being given to charity (near $8,000 if you include 2021). Anyone can still join the adventures of the 2022 Masquerade Tribute by donating a minimum of $19.79 to gain access to the remaining Hunt’s clues and documents. Treasures valued at over $500 wait to be claimed. Who will solve the last hunt? Will it be YOU!?

This yearly event could not happen without those willing to donate their time and skills. Forgotten History Hunt and The Art of Hidden Messages are two of six contributors who created hunts for the 2022 Tribute. Their hunts happened to be solved by the same team: Susb8383, Mike, and Pop!

Congrats to the winners!

Six Questions on Squid Game and Rex’s Adventure:

The first question is with the creator of Squid Game – The Art of Hidden Messages

  • 1Q) Congrats on creating a successful hunt for the 2022 Masquerade Tribute! Can you share what inspired the theme and what you enjoyed most in creating it? Did the hunt go as you imagined?

I had an unusual piece of jewelry that had a number of amethysts in a silver setting arranged in the shape of a squid. I have always had a vague idea swimming around in my mind for a treasure hunt based on old Norse mythology. And a lot of that mythology involves sea monsters. I did a bit of research, and I found the “Konungs Skuggsja”, or the “King’s Mirror”. It is an ancient Norse manuscript that the king had written and intended for the education of his own son. This included education on monsters!

I thought it would be fun to use the themes of a mirror, runes, monsters, and mix it all up, to come out with my own spin on a completely fabricated myth involving a kraken. I threw in a few squares, triangles and circles to decode to remind everyone of the wildly popular South Korean TV series, “Squid Games”. My favorite part of designing any hunt, is almost always creating the art. This hunt didn’t have as much art as my hunts usually do, as this one was more text-based. But I drew some squid illustrations, and I made some simple illuminated letters, as those would appear on an old manuscript.

I didn’t think this hunt was very difficult. But as a creator, it is hard to gauge your own hunts. I was hoping this hunt would end early, as I had a new hunt coming out. So I was very surprised when it wasn’t solved as quickly as I expected. I released some clues and hints to move it along, and eventually, a group of three people working together as a team figured it out. Congratulations to the winners! And thank you to everyone who played!

The next question is with the creator of Rex’s Adventure – Forgotten History Hunt

  • 2Q) Congrats to you as well on creating a successful adventure! Over the last year you have offered numerous free hunts for all to enjoy! How do you continue to create such clever puzzles of varying puzzling methods and difficulties?

The ideas for my hunts come to me in many different ways. Often, I see something I could use as prize, then find a topic to use with it. For example, Never Forget, which led to a photograph at the Maine Historical Society, began when I saw a keychain while out shopping. The fob was a Maine license plate that read “7855”. The photo they were looking for was item #7855 in the archives. Other times, I may read about something, or pass an interesting place on a road trip, then create a hunt by gathering information about the subject. I love doing research, so it’s always fun for me. I do try to make my hunts solvable, but I realize that what’s obvious to me as the hunt-maker, is not always obvious to those trying to solve it! Thank you for providing a platform for all of us to share our ideas, and to work together on such a variety of fun hunts!

The remaining four questions are with Susb8383! One of the finders of the treasures for Squid Game and Rex’s Adventure. Let’s learn more about her adventures!

  • 3Q) Congrats on solving two of the Treasure Hunts in the 2022 Masquerade Tribute! (At least as of this writing – there is one more to go!) Can you share how you got involved in the armchair treasure hunting hobby? What was your first treasure hunt you worked on?

My first ever hunt was Masquerade. A friend in high school showed me his book and we spent many hours studying its pages. Before that as a child I was always interested in codes and ciphers. One of my earliest books was Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing by Martin Gardner. I remember at summer camp my cabin mate and I would send each other Morse code messages by flashlight when everyone else had gone to sleep.

  • 4Q) Will you share some of the ‘aha’ moments, as well as some of the obstacles, when solving Squid Game? Was there any particular method of encoding in the puzzle you enjoyed most figuring out?

Squid game was interesting. It seems that no one piece was extremely difficult on its own, but we were all just missing a small thing. My teammates were trying to use the tentacle numbers as a book cipher in the text, but were missing the small detail that 23 represented characters 2 and 3, not 23. I figured that out but couldn’t get the cutouts to line up with letters that spelled anything out. And humorously, I used the two numbers in paragraphs 3 and 4, not both in paragraph 3 so I got the wrong word. But once Mike, Brian, and I all joined up, it all came together pretty quickly. Mike and Brian had found the correct cut-out word. After I shared 2 and 3, Mike found the correct word from that and Googled the poem. I suspected the shapes on the bottom of page two represented which lines to use so we got WRITTEN from that. And then Mike came up with the correct solution. The funny thing is when I first started working on it and got The King’s Mirror, I started submitted guesses that had to do with the manuscript. I noticed the painted letters were in cyan, magenta, and yellow which are colors that printers use (along with black) to create any other color so I suspected the answer had to do with the written form of The Kings’ Mirror. I submitted the person who first transcribed it, the person who published it, etc. It was possible to make the correct educated guess once The King’s Mirror was solved, but I’m glad the final solution came from solving (almost) all of the intended puzzles. I don’t think anyone got the roman numerals. I really liked that the pieces of this hunt all blended together using the same theme.

  • 5Q) And how about Rex’s Adventure? What were the ‘aha’ moments and obstacles you encountered in that hunt? What part of the puzzle did you enjoy most discovering the answer to?

Rex’s Adventures was particularly challenging. There were so many elements that looked like they should be significant, but weren’t. A Bacon cipher in the blades of grass? Morse code in the stones? And the legend seemed particularly relevant because each exhibit name was clearly spelled out. But none of these things mattered. Honestly I don’t think it would have ever been solved without FHH offering to confirm a method. Then it became more of a logic puzzle in deciding what to ask. I used to love those puzzles as a child that you solved by asking Y/N questions. Asking the right question was key. We knew that the numbers from counting things on the exhibits were needed, as did most people. But probably as most, we were trying to pull letters out of the border based on those numbers which was getting us nowhere. It wasn’t until our method guess was that the numbers represented a date that we started to make headway. And fortunately Brian was familiar with the Mayan date format. Once we had the new direction of the Mayan civilization, finding the correct location followed pretty quickly. In hindsight I felt like it should have occurred to me from the basketball court. I had visited Chichen Itza more than once and was familiar with the ball court.

  • 6Q) It’s always great to hear advice to newcomers from those actively involved in the hobby of armchair treasure hunting. A hunt can look overwhelming when first entering the hobby. What would you say to those just getting started? What about to those who had tried it, and might be thinking of throwing in the towel?

One of the best tips page for new hunters that I’ve seen is from The Golden Oyster. Her tips are right on the money. I’ve worked on so many hunts that I’ve never won, so it was really nice to be on the winning side for once. A lot of the pitfalls she mentions I fell into previously. Like I was so sure I had a correct method and Googled things that seemed to fit, especially on Trove a couple of years ago. Just keep in mind that you can always find a Google match that fits the most obscure pieces together but that doesn’t mean it’s correct. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. For people thinking of giving up, try to treasure working on the puzzle more than the end goal of winning and that way you’ll always “win.”