YOTG: Trophy Hunt

Polaris · Mar 28, 2019

Thanks to everyone who's participated so far! At this point, all clues have been sent out, and participants with outstanding clues have less than 48 hours to reply to each one. A prize thread for the top three will be made once we have all answers (or when they've expired after 48 hours), and we'll ping the winners directly.

We'll publish full results in the announcements, but read on for a preview.

We put a fair amount of work into the many, many puzzles, and we were satisfied that no puzzle so far went completely unsolved! That said, some were quite tricky, or referenced more obscure lore that not everyone knows, so here's the riddles and their solutions. There are, in some cases, multiple acceptable solutions. If someone explained their logic well enough, we accepted it. These are just the solutions we had in mind when we wrote them.

Riddle #01 said:
Screams and hands raised not in ire,
Seeking out the latest thrill
Capture a memory on a large tracked hill.
Proof of amusement, in future you'll admire.

Simple Enough: This one required a memento (ideally a ride photo) from a 'large tracked hill' - a roller coaster.

Riddle #02 said:
No one claimed this one, so it didn't have a riddle.

No riddle.

Riddle #03 said:
A house where no family resides,
And yet each new day is celebrated.
With never a cold shoulder inside.
Take only a piece of the already dead.

This one was pretty tricky, and posed significant problems. The house where no family resides is a greenhouse - a place where each day is celebrated, and where cold is discouraged. Participants had to take a piece of an already dead plant.

Riddle #04 said:
This room's empty except for occasions rare.
Step in time to the music and look to the stars,
for joy sometimes comes from thin air.

This was a mod-participation one, where balloons could be found on the ceiling of the ballroom. It only gets used on rare occasions, there's dancing, and to find the balloons participants had to look up.

Riddle #05 said:
Find the poultry that moos,
Bring back from them downy proof
But only one which was cast loose

Either very easy or very hard, depending on how well you know SA's lore. This references a Waanal, a weird mutant chicken-cow hybrid. A loose or dropped feather had to be obtained.

Riddle #06 said:
A place where the eleventh of twelve might be found,
leave a gift for those who lie underground.

The eleventh of the Twelve referred to November (the 11th month), of the Twelve Gods who are running the scavenger hunt. As a death goddess, you might find her in the Cemetary, where it was encouraged to leave an offering for the dead.

Riddle #07 said:
Betwixt desks and dust, forsaken, forgotten
Dwells a secret that must be gotten
Seek the young scholars' past place of learning
And retrieve a token of littlest earning

The first three lines refer to abandoned classrooms, a well established subforum on the site, dusty and abandoned. The last line refers to a penny, which is the smallest token of money on the island.

Riddle #08 said:
You gather to speak or maybe cause drama,
But there is more to this place than emotional trauma.
Look a bit further up on the right night at this hub,
And find a nice class, a meeting or club.

Join in earnest and have some fun,
But get something signed before you’re done.

A tongue in cheek riddle that refers to the Community Center of Manta Carlos. The center has a number of groups that run events upstairs, and all you needed was to sign something (or get something signed) to count.

Riddle #09 said:
Three monarchs sit crowned upon the throne,
Sending great ships on voyages beyond the sky.
Bring back a paper of your own,
From their office up so high.

Another bit of SA lore, this one referring to Triple Crown Tours, which required you to collect a brochure or other paper from their office.

Riddle #10 said:
I have a spine, a front, a back
But meat and bones are what I lack.
Find me there amongst my fellows
Seek the one marked with yellow.

Quick and easy. A book fits all the criteria, and can be found in the library or a bookstore. They needed to find a book with some kind of yellow mark.

Riddle #11 said:
Krap ainaeco is blooming with life.
Pluck only one or face some strife.

A simple anagram for Oceania Park, where you had to pluck a flower.

Riddle #12 said:
The snow is gone, cheers echoing through the halls,
But in some places that white cold blanket still falls.
Upmost in elevation you must sneak.
Stones arranged in a careful pile you must seek.

Relatively straight forward, this one had players seeking out a cairn atop the mountains of Manta Carlos.

Riddle #13 said:
A tool to help you find the way
but special tricks may lead astray.
All too similar to a boot,
travel there to get some fruit.

The first of several riddles that reference player run businesses. This one refers to La Bussola, Italian for 'Compass'. A Compass helps you find your way, but can be mislead in a variety of ways. La Bussola sells Italian food, and Italy is famously shaped like a boot.

Riddle #14 said:
A strange circle man does build
To run and run, a destination-less jaunt.
Go twice round and leave chilled,
A small bottle, the liquid thirsty mouths want.

The circle in question is a track, where people run without trying to get anywhere. Participants had to run around it twice, and then leave a bottle of water behind.

Riddle #15 said:
Henry
Odette
Shale
Pandora
Irene
Thiul
Angelo
Liliana

Amusingly, this was only half a riddle - we forgot to include what participants were supposed to actually do. That said, this riddle points them to the hospital (all people listed are PCs who either visited or work at the hospital), and entering counted for the riddle.

Polaris · Mar 30, 2019

Here's the second half of the riddles, which were done via PM:

Riddle #16 said:
Standing guard over memories of the past,
This figure waits 'tween trees and grasses.
Take not from this figure or woe is you
But leave instead a shiny coin or two

This referenced the guardian statue, who people traditionally leave coins for.

Riddle #17 said:
Fists fly and weapons are drawn
And spectators come, sit and have fun
But regardless who won
You must try the food, a stick not a bun

Another simple one. This refers to the arena, and wants you to get a corndog to celebrate your visit.

Riddle #18 said:
Ascend into the empty void
Where strangers gather to visit this strange land
Capture how they see our home.

This was one which had multiple answers. The most intended one was to get a picture of earth from space. A picture of the void of space also counted, since the earth isn't visible from the space station.

Riddle #19 said:
Isle behind and face orange slumber
Leave the sand for cool sapphire tides
Take a picture and text it to this number
555-483-4729

This is actually the first riddle developed. The idea was to take a picture of sunset with the island at your back and text it to the number.

Riddle #20 said:
Treasure of the seas,
Collect it up in threes.
Come where banks are white and open,
Home to creatures long forgotten.

Treasure of the seas refered to sea shells (or sand dollars), collected from a beach.

Riddle #21 said:
Spiraling into the sky,
Peaks of wood, not stone.
Ascend within these learned halls,
And leave behind a child’s treat

This task asked people to head up onto one of the school's towers and leave a bit of candy behind.

Riddle #22 said:
The opposite of a river’s flow
the home even strangers know.
Not a place you'd find terrine
but still a place you'd find cuisine.

What's the opposite of flow? Not stiff or halted or anything like that - instead, this riddle asks participants to take things more literally and read the word backwards.

Connecting 'wolf' with 'home' and 'cuisine' takes you to the House of Volkov (Volkov meaning wolf), a restaurant on Manta Carlos.

Riddle #23 said:
Not too far from the lake
Beware the ides of march
As many knives to the back as its namesake:
x ciltbo colj qeb pzelli pqxyib

I think most people would suspect that the last line is a cipher. The most common type of cipher is a shift cipher, also known as a Caesar cipher. The references to the ides of March and knives in the back are ways of determining how much shift there is.

The cipher's answer is 'A flower from the stables'.

Riddle #24 said:
A place of calm
a place of rest
you come here now
to face a test.
Seek the garden
deep inside
a coin is found
along the side.

This riddle refers to another player owned business: a place of calm and rest known as the Tranquility Day Spa. There's a garden located inside, and a coin buried along the side of that garden.

Riddle #25 said:
Seek out the words: ‘Abyssus Abyssum Invocat’.
A record of such an important phrase must be collected, captured or maintained.

Of all the riddles, this had the most possible solutions. Abyssus Abyssum Invocat is the motto of Starlight Academy, and there's a million and one places it'd be recorded. Taking a picture of the inside of the school planner, of a plaque, etc would all have counted.

We've also got an awards thread where the top four have been pinged.

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YOTG: Trophy Hunt

Polaris

For official threads only. Do not PM.

Polaris

For official threads only. Do not PM.