Journal 15a - The Puzzle Process

**The following journal is a summary of the clues and puzzles that occurred during Journal 15 - The Cavernous Crawl, and the means our Party went about to solve the grand session puzzle. **
**Session date: 09/22/24**
 
Resuming the previous session and wandering around the main cavern, we happened upon four prominent walls within the cavern. These walls, referred to as North, South, East, and West, bore the resemblance of carvings in between torches lighting them in the dim cave.
 
On the North wall, scribbled was: Y * E L U E * B R E E *
On the East wall, scribbled was: G U E W * R E W N * B
On the South wall, scribbled was: R L * O B G E O * N L
On the West wall, scribbled was: E B Y L L * N R G E U
=== This would be later referred to as Clue #1.
 
Carrying on into the session, we took a detour to solve a minecart puzzle to rescue the party member known as Balrug. This detour was important to the overall story, but did not lead to additional clues being discovered.
After returning to the main cavern, our adventuring party managed to carve a way through the rocks that had fallen on the Western portion of the main cavern.
Entering this tunnel, Octavius (current time) found a wrought-iron pickaxe that bore the following illustration:

=== This would be later known as Clue #2.
 
 
Continuing on, we entered a portion of a cave with a Console in front of us, bearing seven (7) distinct buttons: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Magenta, Brown, Grey.
=== This would be later known as Clue #3.
 
Just off to the side of this Console, there was a fork in the road. On the right fork, a cloud of frost was bellowing, which to the touch would instantly inflict frostbite on unsuspecting limbs.
On the left fork, a room marked "Captains Quarters", which contains a locked chest bearing 5 slots, and a note that read as follows:
> "Cold and dark, dank and dim//
> My men lined up for their rollcall//
> And in the order which we all had sworn//
> They all stood straight in the hall//
> First stood the grey, brown, and yellow teams//
> The fewest teams hit the paint first//
> Next the... [THIS PORTION OF THE PAGE IS SMUDGED]//
> Shortest to tallest they all took their shifts//
> Though the warmest-colored men ne'er arrived//
> And their letters numbered spell out a secret code//And my treasure you seek so shall you find"
=== This would be later known as Clue #4.
 
At this point in the session, no more progression could be made - the chest in the "Captains Quarters" was locked, requiring a code, and the Console was needed to dispel the frostbite cloud, but what to input?
 
---
 
Initially, the clues were summarized in order of appearance. Clue #1, Clue #2, Clue #3, and then Clue #4. Our initial troubleshooting of the clues gave no indication on where to start.
Dungeon Master Ryan provided the following hints:

Keypad Hint: Write out the letters and read them in an order that is not left to right

Chest Hint: The order is the amount of times the colors appear, read the second last line to find what the numbers are

As this point, we opened up a notepad file to start fiddling around with the clues.
Returning to Clue #1:
Wall N: Y * E L U E * B R E E *
Wall E: G U E W * R E W N * B
Wall S: R L * O B G E O * N L
Wall W: E B Y L L * N R G E U
 
We decided to translate the snake's path on the pickaxe in terms of directions, to see if that illustrated an idea.
Tracing out the snake, it revealed the following pattern:
E S W N E S W S E
At this point in the puzzle, Dungeon Master Ryan informed us of a mistake in the snake's pictorial representation.
The snake should have read as follows:
E S W N E S W N E
This, drawn out, resembles a spiral.
 
Using Clue #4's line of "They all stood straight in the hall//", we lined up the wall carvings in order of the snake's path. We took the snake's sequence and substituted in the carvings:
G U E W * R E W N * B R L * O B G E O * N L E B Y L L * N R G E U Y * E L U E * B R E E * G U E W * R E W N * B R L * O B G E O * N L E B Y L L * N R G E U Y * E L U E * B R E E * G U E W * R E W N * B
 
This string bared no significance.
 
Returning back to the snake's sequence, we arranged the wall carvings based on the order of the snake's path.
The common sequence within the snake was: East, South, West, North, etc.
 
Reordering Clue #1 to reflect this sequence,
 
On the East wall, G U E W * R E W N * B
On the South wall, R L * O B G E O * N L
On the West E B Y L L * N R G E U
On the North wall, Y * E L U E * B R E E *
 
This illustrated some interesting potential. Clue #4's stanza of
"> First stood the grey, brown, and yellow teams//
> The fewest teams hit the paint first//"
Made us feel that we had to read this new sequence to gather colors.
Recognizing the * as a Space symbol, and reading the sequence in a Serpentine fashion (starting top left, reading down, over one, back up, over one, back down, over one, back up, etc)
 
Read out, this gave off Grey, Blue, Yellow, Blue, Green, Brown, Green, Blue (space)
Inputting this sequence of colors into the Console dispelled the frostbite cloud.
---
Continuing on with the Console code of Grey, Blue, Yellow, Blue, Green, Brown, Green, Blue (space), we decided to utilize stanza 5 and 6 of Clue 4 to write out the colors again.
Stanza 5 indicated that the first three colors should be Grey, Brown, and Yellow.
Stanza 6 then suggested Green (which was counted twice) and then Blue (which was counted thrice)
 
This gave a sequence of: Grey, Brown, Yellow, Green (2), Blue (3).
Represented as numbers, we tried inputting 11123 into the lock. The locked chest did not budge.
We then tried using the numbers of letters within each color to create a code. This gave us: 4 5 6 5 4
Inputting the sequence of 45654 unlocked the locked chest.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Upon reflection of the clues presented and the means of which we solved it a day after the session, I come up with the following notes:

Sleep, and/or lack thereof, contributes to puzzle recognition ability and critical thinking. Our Party spent approximately 40 minutes to solve both puzzles, and only about halfway through the puzzle solve did I feel I had a solid grasp on what we were doing and means to solve it.

The starting point of the puzzle was a little unclear. The 4 clues presented together were a LOT of information at once, and it was hard to determine where to start. Our Party spent approximately 10 minutes trying various starting methods and getting nowhere.

While there was a graphical issue with the snake's path, this mistake bared little impact on our ability to work out the clue. The snake path was meant to illustrate a common sequence for arranging the lines of Clue #1 (into East, South, West, North), however my initial interpretation of the snake clue made me think more of a a means to navigate a maze. It was a little unclear that this sequence was meant to invoke a "reorder the stanzas of Clue #1."

The serpentine reading of the stanzas was neat. While Dungeon Master Ryan's hint helped guide us in figuring out how to read the sequence, I think an additional clue to indicate the "Serpentine" reading method would have been good.

Clue #4's pieces of information were solid, but upon reflection I don't know whether the inclusions of Stanzas 8 (Shortest to tallest they all took their shifts//) and 9 (Though the warmest-colored men ne'er arrived//) made any significance for the solve. Stanzas 1 through 6 were instrumental in being able to solve the Console puzzle, followed by a torn portion of the clue. For separation sake, Stanzas 8 and 9 would have been better served, in some way, indicating the step (or two, depending on your counting) for solving the locked chest.

As written and looking at it a day later, I still don't know the meaning of Stanza 8's clue of "shortest to tallest", nor the importance of Stanza 9 informing us about the Red team never arriving (as Red was never a pivotal color at any point during the puzzle.