A Lesson in Ciphers # 6 Mystery Cache

This cache series is designed to give you an introduction to the world of ciphers. It will not cover every type of cipher out there, instead focusing on a small variety of different ciphers. Hopefully, you will walk away from solving this series with a new set of puzzle solving skills. And maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to go to that puzzle that's always bothered you and begin to see it with a new pair of eyes.

I have designed this series such that you will not be able to solve them all in one swipe. How you may ask? Outside of the first two caches, all of the caches in the series will require clues left within previous caches. I recommend that you keep track of these clues, and which cache they were found within, as you work your way through the series. That information will be useful even after you solve the cipher it is used with. On to the cache.

As the lessons about early cipher techniques were learned, people began testing out new ideas. Even before Mary died, a man by the name of Leon Batista Alberti was already setting new trends. First, he took the work of earlier men regarding frequency analysis and made it known to Westerners. Then, he devised the idea behind polyalphabetic ciphers. The basic principle is to encipher a message using multiple alphabets, or ciphers. The simplest method it to use two basic substitution ciphers, and then alternate the use of each one letter by letter. This idea became a pivotal role in the history of cryptology, opening the doors to many different methods of building a cipher.

Use a key from a previous lesson to decipher the following text. Then go find the cache to complete the lesson.

yoamqldorroqolamaobqoppiurdpcaafgyqmlir
xlsaqlewtccaageyqmrvnveovmicsqrsscsosqibtbur
uurtouptmuimpayvyvnspuustqsktmuimpayvnryi

As always, be careful of muggles when finding the cache. There are a lot of them in this area.

Need a refresher on a previous lesson? Here's the complete list (updated as the lessons become available):