PART ONE HINTS
Unsure of what to do with a certain puzzle? Try checking Jesse's note and/or Marketa’s letter for guidance.
Finished? Don't forget to submit your answers to Jesse in the chat portal.
Butterfly
. For this puzzle you will need the page with the butterfly drawings and the three transparent cards.
. There are 7 caterpillars, 6 of which have a corresponding butterfly above it. What do you think you need to do with the caterpillar in the center?
. You’ll need to figure out what butterfly the last caterpillar would turn into. Look at the similarities and differences between the caterpillars. Do they have any features in common?
. If you find some common features, look at what their corresponding butterflies have in common. For example, the caterpillar with the orange leaf and the purple one directly next to it have the same stripe pattern. What do their butterflies have in common?
. The caterpillar with the orange leaf and the purple one to its left both have butterflies with the same wing pattern.
. There are two caterpillars on the outer ring that have the same leaf. Which feature do they have in common that this can translate to?
. The red and purple caterpillar also has spikes that resemble those of the green and red caterpillar. What do their butterflies have in common?
. Looking at the transparent cards, you can see there are three distinct features for each butterfly and the six variations of each feature. You will not see an example of how every single feature transforms, and will also need to use the process of elimination to determine your final answer.
. The caterpillars’ features are the pattern, texture, and leaf shape, which respectively correspond to the butterflies’ pattern, antennae, and wing shape.
. The center caterpillar has the same curly cues as the purple one in the corner of the page, and is on the same type of leaf as the red caterpillar on the bottom, so the antennae will be the one found in the top middle of the antennae card, and the wing shape will be the one on the lower right corner of the wing card. Can you figure out the final feature?
. The pattern on the center caterpillar doesn’t appear on any other caterpillar, and the only pattern that doesn’t appear on any of the butterflies in the drawing is one on the bottom left of the pattern card. Once you have all 3 features, create that butterfly by overlaying those features on the clear cards. Your answer will be below the butterfly you just assembled.
Plant
. For this puzzle you will need the page with the plant drawings and the plant booklet.
. You will first need to decipher the symbols. See if you can discern any sort of pattern in the shapes and dots.
. The symbols are connected to the value of the number in the alphabet, for example D=4. Consider how B, I and N relate to D.
. B has two white dots and D has four. I has four open dots and one black dot in the center. What could the black dot in the center mean?
. The N also has four white dots but they are arranged in a closed shape, (meaning it has a contained space inside). How does that relate to the other shapes?
. The symbol for U looks the same as A but with a horizontal line going across. What does the line mean?
. The first four letters in the ciphered text spell “LAST.”
. White dots count as 1. Black dots indicate +5. Closed shapes indicate +10. Horizontal lines indicate +20.
. The ciphered phrase reads: LAST TWO LETTERS FROM EACH PLANT
. Now it’s time to look at the booklet. Notice that it is split up into 4 sections. There is one plant in each section that is important.
. Do you see any plants that might have familiar characteristics?
. There is one plant in each section of the booklet that is comprised of one part from each of the four drawings.
. The plants are Altarosa, Parsalomb, Manaruc, and Citrullus.
. Take the last 2 letters of each name, either in the order that they appear in the booklet or in the order that the parts are called out in the top left plant on the page. (Ex. The seed is labeled 4 and comes from Citrullus. Therefore “US” is the last set of letters in the final answer.)
Hieroglyphs
. For this puzzle you will need to use the front and back of Marketa’s letter.
. Take a look at the symbols to the left of the letter, then examine the drawing on the back.
. Can you find all of those symbols/objects in the drawing? Do you notice anything?
. How many times does each object appear in the drawing? The shape of the feet and hands might look different from their symbol but should still be counted.
. There is 1 cane, 2 ankhs, 3 pots, 4 eyes, 5 snakes, 6 feet, 7 swirls and 8 hands.
. Note the underlined words in Marketa’s letter.
. You need to extract one letter from every sentence. Notice how the number of symbols next to each paragraph corresponds to the number of sentences in that paragraph.
. Use the number represented by each symbol to index into the beginning of every sentence. For example, the 6th letter of the first sentence is H, the 3rd letter of the second sentence is E, etc.
Crystal
. For this puzzle you will need the page with the crystals, the amulet necklace, and the solution from the Egyptian hieroglyphs. If you haven’t completed that puzzle yet, do so before proceeding.
. Read the clues carefully, and examine the diagrams on the left and right of the page.
. The blank crystal is telling you that each color reflects the light in one of eight directions. The “purple” beneath it indicates that purple reflects up (N).
. Your goal is to create a chain of reflections and find the last crystal in the sequence. To figure out which to start with, heed the message from the hieroglyphs in Marketa’s letter.
. What color does the amulet turn if you heat it up?
. The start is with the Yellow Heliodor, but before you begin you’ll need to figure out what direction each color points to. Try starting with the orange.
. Looking at the cluster of 3 Orange Wulfenite, think of which directions it CAN’T go in, because it will hit the edge of the grid. Remember that clusters reflect farther, so a cluster of 3 would skip over 2 crystals and land on the 3rd.
. Because those 3 crystals cannot go in any other direction, you can deduce that orange reflects down (S). Next try the blue crystals.
. The blue reflects to the left (W), since it also cannot go in any other direction before hitting the edge. Now that you know S and W, what direction must the indigo be?
. Indigo cannot go W, SW, NE, E, SE, or S, which leaves N and NW, but since Orange Hessonite reflects to the Indigo Fluorite, that eliminates Indigo reflecting N, meaning it must be NW. Now try to start filling in some more of the movements, even if they aren’t the beginning of the sequence. That’ll help you solve for gray and then the remaining colors.
. Because the Blue Beryl already reflects to the Pink Halite and the Orange Hessonite reflects to the Indigo Fluorite, the cluster of 3 Green Apatite can only go NE. Because there are already other crystals pointing to the Purple Amethyst and the Gray Quartz, Pink Halite can only go E. Now can you figure out the gray and yellow?
. Once the rest of the sequence is in place, Gray Quartz can only go SW and Yellow Heliodor can only go SE. The directions are as follows: N=purple, NE=green, E=pink, SE=yellow, S=orange, SW=gray, W=blue, NW=indigo
. The sequence is: 1SE, 1S, 1NW, 1SW, 1NW, 1N, 1NE, 1W, 2E, 3S, 2W, 3NE, 1S, 2W, 1S. It cannot go any further without repeating the pattern.
Prague Castle Map (First Edition)
. For this puzzle you will need the map of Prague Castle, the clock tower drawing, and the 3 pieces of a mechanism.
. The clue says there are twelve little blue fountains to find in the grass that you can draw lines between. There are 2 of each of the 6 shapes.
. Look for three and four-pointed star, plus sign, and clover shapes around the gardens on the map.
. Use a straight edge to draw a line connecting each pair of matching shapes.
. You should now have three X shapes, with the centers falling on the Roman numeral I, the F in Fountain, and the O in Orchard.
. Examine the holes on the larger piece of the mechanism (the template) and the center symbols on the 2 gears. Do they look like anything?
. The non-circular shape matches the shape of the red flower beds. How can you use the mechanism pieces with them?
. Place the flower-shaped holes of the template over the top set of flower beds. Place the gear with the flower symbol along the inside edge of the template, with the small hole against the starting point (O in Orchard). Put a pencil in the hole and turn the gear clockwise until you’ve come back to the starting point.
. Note down the red letters/numbers your pencil lines have circled, making sure to keep them in order. Now repeat the same process with the other set of fountains.
. The top right flower beds should give you the letters O, G, N, F, E, A, R, D. The bottom left flower beds give you the numbers I, III, VIII, II, VII, IV, V, VI. How can you put the letters in order?
. Use the numbers to reorder the letters (O will be the first letter, G will be the third, etc.)
. You should now get the words “OF GARDEN” but that doesn’t seem quite complete. What can you do with the circular holes on the template?
. The template’s holes fit over the Mihulka Tower and the White Tower. They also match up with the circles on the perimeter of the clock.
. Use the smaller gear with the circle on it to repeat the drawing process, using the F in fountain as your starting point on the map, and the I on the clock, since the hand is pointing to it.
. You should have a shape that points to all 12 hours on the clock in this order: I, V, XII, IV, VI, XI, III, II, VII, IX, X, VIII and the following letters on the map: F, T, R, R, H, E, U, O, L, T, T, E. Rearrange the letters according to the numbers from the clock.
. They should come out to “FOURTH LETTER.” What can “Fourth letter of garden” imply?
. Have you looked at the small gardens? What do their paths resemble?
. The paths in the small gardens each look like one of the symbols in the cipher on the side of the clock drawing.
. Take the fourth letter of every garden’s name and assign it to the symbol in that garden to translate the code.
Prague Castle Map (Second Edition)
. For this puzzle you will need the map of Prague Castle and the 3 pieces of a mechanism.
. The clue says there are eight little blue fountains to find in the grass that you can draw lines between. There are 2 of each of the 4 shapes.
. Look for three and four-pointed star and clover shapes around the gardens on the map.
. Use a straightedge to draw a line connecting each pair of matching shapes.
. You should now have two X shapes, with the centers falling on the F in ‘Hercules Fountain’, and the O in ‘Royal Gardens’.
. Examine the holes on the larger piece of the mechanism (the template) and the center symbols on the 2 gears. Do they look like anything?
. The non-circular shape matches the shape of the red flower beds and the circles match up with the spacing of Mihulka Tower and White Tower. How can you use the mechanism pieces with them?
. Match the circular holes of the template over the two towers and place the gear with the circle symbol along the inside edge of the template, with the small hole against the starting point (F in ‘Hercules Fountain’). Put a pencil in the hole and turn the gear clockwise, noting the blue letters that get circled along the way, until you’ve come back to the starting point.
. If you couldn’t follow along which blue letters were circled as you spun the gear, follow the lines from your starting point and note them now.
. You should have the words “FOURTH LETTER.” Fourth letter of what though? Repeat the same process with the flower beds, using the gear with the flower symbol in the center, to complete the message.
. You should now have the words “FOURTH LETTER OF GARDEN.” Have you looked at the small gardens on the map? What do their paths resemble?
. The paths in the small gardens each look like one of the symbols on the bottom of the map.
. Take the fourth letter of every garden’s name and assign it to the symbol in that garden to translate the code.