Trial of the Trinity
The X-Factor Regression
The Disclaimer
The cache is not at the posted coordinates, which might be a good spot for a wild goose chase. To get more useful coordinates, solve the puzzle which is based on clues provided in each cache in the series.
The Introduction
Welcome to a new series of puzzle caches! The Trinity referred to in the title would be lesdubois, Fortran and HikingSeal. The commonality uniting these three worthies is the fact that each solved my previous series final, Pier Pressure, long before all of the clues had been made available and much earlier than I would have thought possible. To accomplish this, they employed an array of very creative puzzle-solving techniques, none of which I had intended. Puzzle Prevaricator on steroids.
The fact that they were able to pull this off has left me paranoid. With every new puzzle, I now tend to spend as much time trying to outthink the Trinity and block every possible tricky solution approach as I do on the puzzle itself. For this new series, I decided to just give in and welcome premature solutions! There should be opportunities here, as there were with Pier Pressure, to think outside the box and find the cache before all the clues are available.
The Puzzle
0 Blue
1 Red
2 Yellow
3 Orange
4 Purple/Lavender
5 Brown
6 Silver
7 Black
8 Green
9 White
N 40 XX.X34 W 111 XX.X23
The Caches and the Clues
The log for each of the puzzle caches below contains a clue to solve this puzzle. More puzzles and clues will be added in the near future.
Puzzle Prevaricator
The Plan
Up to 12 puzzle caches are planned for this series. I will continue adding caches until all twelve are released OR three geocachers have logged this final cache, at least one of whom is NOT a member of the Trinity.
The Grand Prize
Since this cache encourages early and creative finds, it features a Regressive Grand Prize Feature (the longer it takes to solve it, the smaller the prize will be). The FIRST person to log this cache online will receive the grand prize as follows:
If, at the time of your ONLINE log of this cache, only one cache in the series has been published (Puzzle Prevaricator), your grand prize will be: $50
If two caches in the series have been published, your grand prize will be: $30
Three or four caches: $18
Five or six caches: $15
Seven or eight caches: $14
Nine or ten caches: $12
Eleven or twelve caches: $10
The prize is guaranteed based on the full faith and credit of the cache owner and will be awarded in the form of a gift certificate to the three-letter outdoor store all geocachers know and love. The physical cache log must also have been signed and may be verified by the owner. All subsequent cachers who finish the series will also receive a prize: The satisfaction of a difficult job well done!
Ironically, and perhaps satisfyingly, the "winner" of the Pier Pressure series was not a member of the Trinity. nyc-slc, you give hope to the rest of us!