I was inspired to create this cache after doing Mercury Rising, by Wreck Diver and Dive Princess. If this cache turns out to be half as good as that one, I will be more than satisfied.
It is the spring of 1778, and you are a Continental spy. Newport, RI has been occupied by the British for a year and a half. George Washington has
given General John Sullivan orders to liberate the city. Sullivan needs an agent to go behind the British lines. You have volunteered.
Because you may be captured, your orders are encrypted. You will decode each message to learn where you are to go, and what information you must gather for your report. The city is full of redcoats and Tories. You must be very careful to avoid being observed.
Before you begin your mission, you must train yourself to use the Vigenere cipher. This simple cipher is useful in the field because you do not need equipment or books--just paper, pencil, and a printed grid that you can easily hide on your person. There are many web pages that explain this cipher (if you run into a problem, contact me through the usual channels).
Note: there are also many on-line Vigenere applets, but most of them will not work for your messages because they employ a different character set. Your messages are encrypted using classic Vigenere, which employs only 26 characters. In any case, the intent is for you to be able to decode messages by hand in the field as you proceed with your mission. I have tried to keep your instructions brief to reduce the labor of decoding. As a backup resource, you be able to decode your instructions at this web site.
GPS coordinates appear in your decoded orders as the names of the digits, with the degrees, minutes and decimal points implied. For example, the coordinates above would be given as:
N FOUR ONE TWO NINE SIX ONE NINE W SEVEN ONE ONE EIGHT NINE TWO SIX
An X between two words in the decoded message marks the end of a sentence.
Print all the messages and the Vigenere grid. Decode the first message in your quarters for practice, then proceed to the coordinates shown above to begin your mission. The keyword for the first message has ten letters, and is the name of a popular sport where you are the search engine. Each task that you complete will provide the keyword for decoding the next message.
To get permission to log a find e-mail me your report, including the keywords for all three messages, and the nature of the cache hiding place.
NOTE: Some finders have reported that the coordinates for the second location are off by about 200 feet, but that should not prevent you from finding the spot
Accessibility in snow - Initial stages will be no problem. Final may be slightly more difficult in deep snow.