A funny thing happened on the way to the forum Traditional Geocache
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
One for all you amateur cryptographers!
The 'official' latitude and longitude
of this cache are correct up to a (decimal) point - but working out
the decimal places requires some work!
The actual location is:
N 51°
47.ECA E 000° 20.FDB
The digits that A, B, C, D, E and F represent are
written below as words.
| A gebenok |
B statuff |
| C apepula |
D nurumna |
| E corobum |
F plilumm |
Oh, did I mention - they're in
cypher.
Right. Er... just remind me what a cypher
is.
A cypher is just a way of encrypting a message. In this case, each
letter is substituted for another, just like the hints on
geocaching.com. However... each digit is
encrypted using a different key. And so that you
can't work any of them out from the letter patterns, some or all of
them have extra characters added to the start and/or end.
That's just mean.
Yes, it is.
So how the heck am I supposed to decypher
them?!?
Good question. I'm glad you asked. Clearly, you need more text
encrypted in each system to stand a chance of working out the keys.
So here it is:
A
B hejn oia i filmn mip rhffhvbem, dck B acjqna bekh ie iffnpvip iea
fhgk obx. - Nxh Zobfbzg
B
Jcmatwf js g wjl, g pjjz ta dgo'a pfam shtfow. Toatwf js g wjl,
tm'a mjj wghz mj hfgw. - Lhjcrxj Dghu
C
Fnwu n ies galu rnseupyu cesf pucieut. Aj yahltu tagu aj sfug nys
bhgi - sfuq'lu ajsup tshbupst, jal funwup't tnzu. - Sullq
Rlnsyfuss
D
Hp, ura'y yphy aukn, ypn duwn bw ypn khvfluctn glnrucnay ur qurruat
ypn kbm bw ypn Bmwblc klnd. - Phllz Khlgnaynl
E
G'f tocdobjqowa qbagmx qu igxhbo uhq nza ejfgejro dgwuqc nubo
zowfoqc. - Tjlo Otgcum
F
Dzm Agslpewjp Mum L gmjsf j zdlpm dz egm sddi."Wqwwt, lp egje
pzdo?""Zd, le'p cqpe sjlz fmjs."
I'm confused.
I thought you might be. Perhaps we need an example.
|
An
Example
Suppose digit A looked like this (it doesn't):
floling
And suppose the cypher for A looked like this (it
doesn't):
L nxbo nxr x eomtoqgwa jhdromtvw
obodldi, cvg gnlf jxfd'g lg.
Using your mammoth intellect, you would decrypt this to Groucho
Marx's quip:
I have had a perfectly wonderful
evening, but this wasn't it.
Giving you the key:
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
---------------------------------------------------
Y|V|B|N|P|S|T|O|G|W| |I|R|H|E| |C|D| |F| |U|L|A| |
(obviously, letters that don't appear in the quotation are
missing.)
You could now apply this key to floling, giving you sieight. Trimming off the padding, you would
now know that digit A was eight (it isn't). |
I think I understand now. Once I've worked out
the lat and long, what do I do?
Find the cache!
Is there no way I can make sure I got the
numbers right first?
Yes, there is! If you want to verify the position, email me with
what you think it is and I'll tell you if you're right.
If I'm not, will you tell me which digits I
got wrong?
No.
Right, now that's all sorted out, why don't
you tell us a bit about the location?
The cache is in the village of Good Easter in the Roding Valley.
It's a very nice area for a walk. The cache itself is hidden to the
side of a path, and easily accessible.
Please be careful replacing the cache. It only needs to be moved
slightly and it would be very visible to passers-by.
Hang on - why is this cache called A funny
thing happened on the way to the forum?
Ah, well, you see, when I placed the cache way back in 2002, all
the cyphers weren't conveniently listed on this page like they are
now. They appeared in the signature line in my forum posts, a new
one every week leading up to Christmas. Since then, all the old
forum posts have been archived and it's nigh on impossible to track
them down, so I thought I'd better put them here
instead.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvqqra whfg bss gur cngu, va gur pnivgl haqre gur fghzc bs n snyyra gerr.