One of the clues discovered in the Fandango Armchair Treasure Hunt involved the use of a Null Cipher.  The Null Cipher is a form of Steganography. It hides a message within plain text. And while there are multiple ways the system can be used to ‘hide a message’, it’s often the first letters of words which are key.  It was this system that held a possible clue to solving the puzzle in Fandango.   It was also used in The Whistle Pig treasure hunt.

But let’s talk about Fandango first.

The Fandango treasure hunt was released in 2007, and ends Thanksgiving day 2020.  If the $10,000 prize is not found by that date, the treasure will go to a charitable cause. 

It was noticed the first letter on same colored signs on a large grouping of signs on page 44 of the book revealed words.

For instance, if a searcher took the first letters of the place names on the Red Signs pointing to the right on the page, they would be able to spell out the word ‘YELLOW’.

Now if a searcher took the first letters of the Blue Signs pointing to the right on the page, they could spell out the word, ‘RED’.

And if a searcher took the first letters of the White Signs pointing to the right on the page, they could spell out the word, ‘BOOK’.

There is a white sign, with ‘Nepal 10,107’ that doesn’t point to the right (it’s straight), and seems to relate more to the border phrase found on the page, ‘To the Highest Point’.  Mt. Everest (a highest point) is in Nepal.

So how could YELLOW, RED, BOOK help solve the puzzle?  Currently it is not known how the clue found using the Null Cipher in Fandango can help solve the puzzle. If it does. Maybe it was just a fun code. Until someone finds the treasure, or the solution is revealed, we won’t know. 

However, some searchers feel RED and YELLOW, mixed, gives the color ORANGE, and hints to an ORANGE BOOK on another page of the book. 

But with the puzzle remaining unsolved, this possibility hasn’t led anyone to the treasure…yet either.

In another treasure hunt, The Whistle Pig, the Null Cipher was used as well.  This hunt was released in 2003, and it too remains unsolved.  Again, even though a hidden message was found, it hasn’t led anyone to the treasure.  Let’s take a look at the discovered message in The Whistle Pig. 

The first letter of each SENTENCE  (instead of a word like in Fandango) revealed the message in this case.

The last chapter of the book, The Bow, held 38 sentences.  The first letter of each sentence gave the following:

Bare the cross

Leave the center

Find the fruit.

What does it mean?  Again, no one knows for sure.

It’s a lot of fun to find a hidden message. It’s believed there is a message hidden by use of the Null Cipher in The Beacon Star treasure hunt.  There could be a few actually, as Randy, the creator of The Beacon Star has said he likes to hide multiple layers of codes.

And it should be mentioned, they don’t have to be first letters.  They could be last letters, or every 5th Word, or another kind of ‘system’.

What treasure hunt might this system be used in next?  Might it lead to a treasure?! Here is MW’s Quick List on over 40 treasure hunts going on now! Does one of these hold a NULL Cipher?

Discussions on these hunts, and many more! Are found on the MW Forum.  Join us for lots more fun there!