Hidden across the US are small tokens to claim treasures! Clues to where these are hidden are found in The Story of Leveret: An Enchanting Hare armchair treasure hunt! The summer of 2022 will be filled with adventures. Join the fun! Let’s learn more about how!

Six Questions with Bill Gardner and Beth Hovanec:

  • 1Q) What an exciting armchair treasure hunt! Many in the community may already know you both. However, for those unfamiliar, will each of you share your background and experience with armchair treasure hunts and other past puzzling ventures?

Beth’s first armchair treasure hunt was “A Treasure’s Trove” by Michael Stadther“. It made quite an impression on her because she has been participating in (and sometimes winning) treasure hunts ever since. Beth has a background in art, and is intrigued by the idea of hiding messages in the art design. She has designed several of her own treasure hunts under the name, “The Art of Hidden Messages”.

Bill has been involved in treasure hunting and puzzle hunting for a few years. He created the “Kodewords Kards” armchair hunt. He authored one of the one-page hunts in the 2021 MW Masquerade Tribute Hunt. He’s authored a few sets for the monthly Puzzled Pint worldwide puzzle events and is on the Puzzled Pint editing team.

  • 2Q) What made you decide to work together to create an armchair treasure hunt? Had you worked on other projects with each other? Also please briefly share what “The Story of Leveret” is about, a summary of the hunt, and how a person can get involved in the search. What are the treasures to claim? How much do you feel each treasure is valued? Can a searcher claim more than one?

We have worked together on a treasure hunting team with other people for a few hunts (“The Lost Skull”, “The Beacon Star”, etc.) and we enjoyed our conversations. Beth wanted to make a larger hunt more like “A Treasure’s Trove” and she asked Bill if he’d like to collaborate. The result of that collaboration is “The Story of Leveret”.

“The Story of Leveret” is a 96-page fantasy novella about a group of creatures and magical feys from an enchanted forest, similar in style to the story of” A Treasure’s Trove”.

The book contains art and puzzles which tell solvers the locations of 15-20 proxy tokens hidden in over 15 states in the continental US. Tokens are hidden in a variety of states and locations. The farthest tokens are thousands of miles from each other.

This is a “Boots on the Ground” hunt that requires searchers to go to physical locations to find tokens and claim prizes. Solvers may want to team up with people local to the location of the different tokens if they don’t wish to travel to the token locations themselves.  

A found proxy token can be redeemed for a themed handmade piece of jewelry, original artwork, and in some cases a cash prize. There are $1000 in cash prizes plus 15-20 pieces of jewelry to be claimed. The jewelry pieces are similar in style to those from “A Treasure’s Trove”, though nowhere near as valuable as those pieces were!

A person can get involved in the search by purchasing the book and trying to solve the puzzles that reveal where the proxy tokens have been hidden. Searchers can find multiple tokens and claim multiple prizes.

  • 3Q) With multiple treasures to claim in the hunt, are there multiple puzzles, each unique, to solve? Or do they share a common method, like “A Treasure’s Trove” tokens did? 

There are multiple puzzles with multiple methods. Some methods are used in multiple puzzles and some are unique to a specific token. Some parts are similar to what was done in “A Treasure’s Trove” and some aren’t!

We have also tried to add a few things to this hunt for solvers to discover that have never been done before in any hunt that we know of.

We do have a few surprises in store for those who will participate.

  • 4Q) How does a searcher claim a treasure? What advice do you offer searchers on how to go about finding a correct location for a hidden proxy?  Would a knowledge of codes, ciphers, and/or puzzles, put a searcher at an advantage? Or do you feel someone without any understanding of these items, and brand new to armchair treasure hunting, be able to compete equally for a prize?  How would you rate the difficulty of your treasure hunt?

A searcher can claim a treasure by finding a proxy token that has been hidden somewhere in the continental US (or sending a picture from the specific location where the token was, if they suspect the token is missing). 

The hunt uses basic codes and ciphers, such as those found on the Puzzled Pint Code Sheet . Knowledge of the solutions of previous hunts could be helpful but isn’t necessary. The solutions do not require knowledge of any obscure or historical codes that are not commonly used.

Some puzzles are easier, some are harder, and some are quite difficult (we hope!). We tried to include a range of different puzzles so some might be easy to solve quickly while others might take a while.

  • 5Q) Can you share more about the hidden proxy items? What are searchers looking for? Are the locations where a proxy is hidden handicap accessible? Or are the proxies hidden along difficult trails or in remote areas? Will the clues, once solved, provide an exact location to retrieve the proxy? 

The proxy items are brass tokens, 2 inches in diameter, with the letters PLBG on them. Each token also has a unique number on the front and unique markings on the back. An example is shown below.

The tokens are hidden in a variety of public areas. At the time of publication, all tokens are on public lands that do not charge an entry fee. They are not on private property. They are not in any cemetery, graveyard or churchyard. The tokens are NOT buried. In some circumstances they may be lightly covered with dirt or debris, or under small-to-medium sized rocks. Some tokens may be hidden in handicap accessible areas, but some are hidden on or near easy-to-moderate hiking trails that may not be handicap accessible.

The clues and artwork should lead searchers to very specific locations. We tried to avoid the issue that occurred in A Treasure’s Trove where solvers were sent to a general park and then had to search all over that park for a knot-hole specific tree that was only shown with a vague artistic representation.

  • 6Q) What did you enjoy most about creating the hunt? How long do you expect it to take for searchers to discover the clues and find all the proxies?  Do you plan to offer clues if no one solves it after six months? A year? Or more?

We enjoyed working together. It took about a year from initial ideas to completion. We enjoyed bouncing ideas off of each other for the puzzles, story, artwork, and how it all fits together. Much of the artwork started with Beth’s watercolor art and then was modified digitally by Bill to incorporate different puzzle aspects.

We expect that some tokens may be found fairly quickly. We hope that other tokens may take a while to find. We may offer clues if progress seems to be stalled for 3-6 months. We hope it will all be solved in a year or so, but treasure hunters often surprise us with how quickly they solve puzzles and find treasures!

We hope you have fun working on “The Story of Leveret: An Enchanting Tale”. We are sure it will give you hours of entertainment!