Solution to The Translator puzzle hunt
Congratulations go out to blahpsh over on MW forums for being the first to the coin and winner of the $100 prize! She successfully submitted the correct w3w location first, just 54 minutes before the second place hunters of Team Shadowgate.
I appreciate everyone who played this free puzzle hunt in May and June. While the hunts are meant to be fun and entertaining to us puzzle and treasure hunters I do try to make them just the right level of challenging so they last more than a few days. I did release a few hints and nudges along the way to make sure hunters weren't too frustrated if you hit a wall. For my puzzles with $100 or less prizes it seems reasonable to keep the game moving. Perhaps I'll finally release a larger hunt in the future where hints and nudges will be few and far between.
Let's Dive into The Solution
Make sure to sign-up to retro13 to view the below the solution to The Translator puzzle hunt. ⬇️
The Compass 🧭
The puzzle begins with a 6 line poetic stanza.
- Lines 1 and 2 will be used to confirm what you find
- Line 3 hints at finding a hidden key, and that it is a name of something
- Line 4-6 connect you to the movie Goonies
My presence is captured on canvas of fame,
An experience of light across seasons and weather,
A key undetected, revelatory is my name.
So fluent in languages, Clark has plenty to share,
There found a map, encoded with warning,
Muerte aplastante, and, empapada de sangre; beware!
The key undetected is Meules confirmed to match the first time lines. If you type in Meules in Google you will find many things about Monet's paintings. From wikipedia: Haystacks, aka Meules by Monet
The series is famous for the way in which Monet repeated the same subject to show the differing light and atmosphere at different times of day, across the seasons and in many types of weather.
The Path 🗺️
We now have our Playfair key. We can decrypt the lower text.
Home to stone,
there’s a translation where the tide washes out,
three words with a reel,
you just might catch a trout.
The Home
368 38th St is the Goonies movie house where Clark does the creative translating.
The Stone
The Haystacks and the Goonies together lead to Haystack rock, a prominent marker in the movie. We have our stone.
The Coin 🪙
It's possible you found the Lea Shirley Park tide informative sign about the Mouth and Beyond but the sign you wanted was at Necus Park. Confirmed by the stone marker in the puzzle graphic and a word for word match to the puzzle line about the tide.
The Stone Sign seen on Google Map Photos
The 3 words and the overall theme
What3words is what you needed to use to provide a precise location. By including the image of the reel and the mention in the poem combined with the overall theme of creative translations I wanted you to submit the answer in the language Clark, aka Mouth, could translate.
People found the park and started making guesses, unfortunately no one submitted the square which I estimated was the stone marker, since I hadn't physical visited, until Sunday June 9th. I checked across English, Spanish and French just to be sure. blahpsh was the first to submit the location in Spanish and English.
///carrete.quemaba.limpiado (Spanish)
///minerals.dovetails.chandelier (English)
///tien.jouasse.canneler (French)
Photo Finish for the Coin
Thank you
Thank you again to everyone who has been playing. I know the puzzles can have challenging twists. So keep at it and maybe you will be first to the coin in the next treasure hunt.
Find more discussions on MW Forums or the MW Discord. And please share retro13.com with your friends as I release future puzzles.