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Scrabblesque Puzzle Mystery Cache

Hidden : 5/16/2020
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:


The cache is not at the posted location, although it's not too far away.

Cache is placed with Covid-19 in mind: the container does not have tape or paint so you can bring hand sanitizer and douse it, you can open it wearing gloves, and feel free to drop a card with name and date instead of signing the log.

I had quite a different cache in mind until I saw the cache number, then I had to make this one. Scrabble was originally a board game now of course available in electronic and Internet forms. (See manufacturer's site: https://scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us ) The purpose is to score points by using letters you have and letters already on the board to form words. While there can be much strategy in real games, for purposes of this cache you are to make the maximum value word for the letters given, as the first move on an empty board.

Your rack contains Q-10 X-8 J-8 Z-10 V-4 [blank] [blank] with the numbers being the point value of that letter. A blank can be declared to be any single letter and has a point value of zero. The point value of a letter can be increased if it is placed on special squares - for the first move (and this cache) if you make a 5-letter word you may double the value of the first or last letter - your choice.

A word is a series of 2 or more letters that appears in a dictionary. The value of a word is the sum of its letter values, possibly multiplied by a bonus value, which for purposes of this cache is 2. So for example the word JOT using blanks for O and T would have a sum of letter values of 8, which would be doubled for a word score of 16. Surely you can do better!

Create the most valuable word you can. Subtract the sum of the letter values from the original North coordinate and add the word score to the original West coordinate to get the actual cache coordinates.

Reception was poor under the trees and coords are from 2 visits with 2 GPS units. Use the hint if needed and post better coords oif you get them.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Sbhe-gehax gerr, hcuvyy.

Decryption 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

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)