Chromium Mystery Cache
Hidden : 12/14/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

Join now to view geocache location details. It's free!

Watch

How Geocaching Works
Looking for a different adventure?

Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions in our disclaimer.

Geocache Description:

*** NOT AT POSTED COORDINATES ***

You may be familiar with Boreal Walker's Periodic Table of Elements Challenge, where you have to find 118 different caches, each of which has the name of a different element on the Periodic Table of Elements in its title. In an effort to make this challenge more accessible, here's Chromium!

Chromium ( /'kro?mi?m/ kroh-mee-?m) is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr. It is the first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odorless, tasteless, and malleable. The name of the element is derived from the Greek word "chroma", meaning colour, because many of its compounds are intensely coloured. Chromium oxide was used by the Chinese in the Qin dynasty over 2,000 years ago to coat weapons such as bronze crossbow bolts and steel swords found at the Terracotta Army. It later came to the attention of the west when it was discovered by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin in the mineral crocoite (lead(II) chromate) in 1797. Crocoite was used as a pigment, and after the discovery that the mineral chromite also contains chromium, this mineral was used to produce pigments as well.

But that's only part of why you're here. Where's the cache? The northern coordinates are the answer to a question I've translated to German and then encrypted using a basic Caesarian shift. You can find lots of tools on the web to shift the letters in the text for you, but how much? The good tools will show you all the possible shift results. In case you happen across a more limited tool, please use the atomic number of Chromium!

qsafcl qgc bgc lskkcp bcq ijcglnjylcrcl kgr bcp tmpjysdgecl zcxcgaflsle ou25

The western coordinates are the answer to a question in English, but I've run the text through a shredder. Oops! It's a crappy shredder, though, so all you need to do is rearrange the columns until the question is legible:
| t|wi|nd|t |r |or|he|ne| n| p|he|la|be|in| t| m|of|Fi|um|
| d|If| t|. |on|ti| p|Q9|ro|on|es| R|si|na|he|ig|al|th|vi|
|at|lu|ou| p|r |"p|ea|t"|rc|la| p|ne|fo|s | s|lu|th| y|h |
|d |th|"w|d |ho|e |i"|in| y|to|be| f| s|bl|ik| a|ul|s |ou|
| G|y |pl|ma|ee|ck|et|d | y|, |oo|an| s|lu|an|d |k.|e |ou|
|ou|  |ro|  |th|  |um|  | b|  |! |  |wi|  |mi|  | y|Ch|e |
Please assume N44 / W093.


You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

This cache is part of the Cache vs. Winter series of winter hides designed to help people keep streaks alive over the long snowy Minnesota winter.

Additional Hints ()

Whfg nf ryrpgebaf beovg gur ahpyrhf....

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)

Advertising with Us