A bold murder. A hidden stash of lost secrets. A series of puzzles that must be solved in 24 hours. Such is the story behind the Second Not Exactly Annual Twin Cities Treasure Hunt to take place starting on Saturday, September 13th. Get some friends together and take up the challenge put on by the Como Park Mason Lodge of St. Paul.
The event starts at 10am when all the teams will assemble at the Lodge, located at 1044 Front Ave., a block east of Lexington and just south of Como Park between Gabe's and the Half Time Rec. Breakfast will be served to all the teams (with a limit of 5 members per team). Then at 11am we will call up one member from each team, hand them the packet of clues, and the race is on.
The story is that the Freemasons chose Como Park Lodge to hide some of their ancient secrets. They are kept secure there under lock, key, and booby trap. Only the Grand Master knows the password. But in a shocking development, the Grand Master was just murdered and it is believed his killer was after these documents. The killer and his accomplices were caught, but the police lack evidence and will have to release them in 24 hours. Since they might have gotten the password before killing the Grand Master, it is imperative that the documents are recovered before they are released.
Even though no one else knew the password, the Grand Master did have a backup plan and left a clue to it through a series of puzzles. It is believed he knew his life was in danger and consequently he set these puzzles throughout his home. The Masons know the password is eight letters. However there are 10 puzzles. One of them is a series of pictures, each relating to a letter. The Masons believe they have figured out that 8 of the puzzles each lead to a location. If you can find the item in one of the pictures at that location, that must mean the corresponding letter is part of the password. Each of these puzzles has a symbol on it and they think the symbols must somehow tell you the order of the letters. The last puzzle, with no symbol on it, has eight items. They suspect it must offer hints as to how to solve the other puzzles.
Unfortunately that is as far as they have gotten. Consequently they have put out a call for help, offering $500 in reward money to the group of people that can help them solve the puzzles and be the first one to recover the documents.
This is a fundraiser for Como Park Mason Lodge. Consequently there is an entrance fee of $100 per team. Teams are limited to 5 official members. Only official members are allowed into the Lodge. However you are free to solicit help from other people if they wish to contribute.
The hunt starts at Como Park Mason Lodge when the clues are distributed at 11am. They will lead you to 8 different locations around town. These locations are limited to an area bounded on the east and west by the two donwtowns and bounded on the north and south by the city limits of St. Paul and Minneapolis. All locations should be accessible around the clock. Once there, you will need to figure out which of 24 pictures was taken there which will then tell you that the letter corresponding to that picture is in the password. Each puzzle also has a symbol on it and if you can figure out the order of the symbols, that will tell you the order of the letters. Once you know the password, return to the Mason Lodge. Someone will be there around the clock. Try the password on the padlocks and if they open, you may then attempt to disarm the final booby trap.
The first team to disarm the final booby trap and recover the documents will win $300. Also, at each location there will be a padlock. Each team will get one key that opens half the padlocks and another key that opens the other half. Teams will then get a $25 prize for every padlock they return to the Lodge which should prove they were the first one to get to that location.
Teams that do not win, but still manage to complete the challenge within 24 hours will get a certificate for each member of the team to document the accomplishment. Teams should register by September 6th to David Allison at AllisonWondrland@yahoo.com. To register simply provide your team name and a contact person (and their contact information). Registration fees will be collected the day of the hunt and we will verify the final team membership at that time.
Our first hunt was quite a success with every team saying they really had a lot of fun. So don't let another one go by without participating!
David Allison
Master, Como Park Lodge #324
I mean STP
who else is doing this?
-- I hope no one has a skeleton key (or a portable X-Ray machine for that matter)
Say... aside from Church early Sunday AM - I'm not busy on Saturday - does anyone need help?
We're all getting the keys to open them up at the beginning of the hunt...
but yes, i suppose having a bolt cutter falls into nick's "that which i can pry up with a crow bar is not nailed down" philosophy. :smile:
whitney took a lock with key today, not because she was worried about someone figuring out how easy it is to break a combination lock but because she had trouble opening it fast enough between classes so she wanted the key to open it faster. I'm worried that a teacher will come through and bolt cut it off because it is not a combination.
So here are the options and let me know what you think would best keep your interest.
1. We postpone the whole thing to a later date and I try to find a sponsor or something to put up the prize money instead of charging an admission fee.
2. We go ahead with it but reduce the prize to whatever is taken in. We'd probably skip the breakfast part then and just eat the cost on putting it together.
3. We go ahead with it but don't offer a prize. Just do it for the glory of it (not that the prize was ever huge anyway). We don't charge an admission fee at all, or maybe make it like $10 per team just to cover expenses.
I pretty much have the hunt done already. I just have to make some copies and it will be ready to go. So on the one hand it would be a shame not to do it. On the other hand it would be more fun with more people doing it. Then again maybe more people would do it if we went with option 3?
If you need to forego costs, I think we can do without getting fed - we're hungry for the HUNT! If you need a little more cash to make it interesting, we can probably toss in a donation or two.
I don't think the entry fee should be low because that defeats the purpose of earning the $ for the lodge. I do think we should still have an entry fee and maybe 5 small trophies or Masonic Lodge coins or something for 1st place if you decide to not have a cash prize.
arn't there Masonic Lodge Chaleses (glass, cup) sitting around the lodge somewhere? maybe in the secret room for the 1st place finders to get when they open the door to the secret room? just throwing out ideas instead of a cash prize.
perhaps the prize could be door keys, for the winning team - that unlock a door, to a magical chocolate/candy factory, operated weird lookin midgets, who like to sing?
My wife and I will go along with whatever you decide AW.
SHUSH! SHUSH SH SH SHSHSHSHSHHH !!!!!!! - That's part of Puzzle 7! (I peeked -- don't know where it is, though)
jk all I got to say is that 3 Cooler teams started and 3 cooler teams Finished 1st 2nd and 3rd!! thats a good show for US!!!
So right now we have 3 Cooler Crew teams, one team of "Cookie Bakers", and maybe a team from my singles club. I've still not heard anything back from Rush Harley.
so will the cookie bakers be donating cookies?
were there any teams from the U of M?
I thought forsure you would pull teams from there
especially after the 2 big Twin Cities hunts- blackberry and the alcatraz one (or were the one in the same).
As and aside, there have actually been more than two corporate sponsored hunts this summer and there is another one (not entirely corporate) scheduled for this Saturday (unfortunately).
http://mnzero.org/journey.html
heh
ice???
I don't think my singles club is going to manage a team so right now it looks like 4 teams.
really? only 4? :frown:
need a sponsor to get the word out.
I was hoping for 9-11 this time around myself.
As for the padlocks, they're still out there. There are 8 of them. We could keep them at being worth 5% of the total prize money which is what they were before. With a $400 kitty that would make each one worth $20 and the final prize worth $240. If we ended up not doing cash prizes, then I'd just have to think of something.
Since it's all cooler teams anyway, we mostly do this for honor and the fun of it. So let's use half the money for prizes, 1st place gets their money back, and the rest goes to the lock things?
SOME money needs to go to the lodge, if even for all of the work and effort AW's put into this.