Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!
Oh yeah! Now we're getting into the gritty stuff! I honestly cannot remember when I saw this for the first time, because it just seemed to be one of those movies that was there one day. I do remember one morning when I was still very young, we were sitting at the breakfast table and something came up about needing to eat whatever it was in front of me because it would make me strong like Conan.
“Who's Conan?” I asked my dad.
Mom and dad exchanged a look and then dad told me the brief version of the movie, seeming to have the moment of 'Well of course he wouldn't know about that movie, yet.'
My brother and I sat there, listening to the story about a boy forced to push a wheel and becoming super strong. How he learned to fight, and carried a huge sword. How he hunted for revenge, (even though we didn't really understand what that was yet.) Needless to say we wolfed the rest of our food and we a little more enthusiastic about helping in the yard that weekend.
I remember growing up mostly without cable early on, but I supposed I was about ten or eleven when we finally got it in our house. TBS and WGN were huge back then. That is where you tuned in to watch everything from weekday morning cartoons, (by now the broadcast stations were phasing them all out) sports, and especially movies. These channels were king when it came to that.
I remember we had one VHS tape in particular that we watched almost religiously from this era of TV discovery. It has three movies on it. Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, and Red Sonya. (It wasn’t until we were older that we realized that Schwarzenegger wasn't in fact playing the same character in all three... though... he kinda was...)
This franchise easily remains on my top five list of favorites. For the sake of this geocache we will focus on the first movie, but I’d also like to share some back story for those interested.
The Conan movie franchise was based on the writings of Robert E. Howard. He was a pulp fiction writer from the 1930s. He has a long history of mental illness and substance abuse. He was sitting in front of his desk one day desperate to get something out for his publisher for Weird Tales Magazine. He would later tell a story about how while he was sitting there mired in depression, a dark and sinister presence suddenly loomed behind him. The voice was deep and demanding. It commanded two things from him. “One, write everything I tell you. Two, never look behind you. If you do, I'll kill you with this ax.” He quickly complied and would spend the next few weeks in complete seclusion, writing everything that the overwhelming force of Conan told him to.
He would, in that time, write most everything that would ever come from the story, from countless short stories and poems that would be published in magazines, to the epic and expansive notes, scribbles, and long winded tales of Conan's lifelong struggle from slave, to thief, to warrior, pirate, and even King. Howard would never live to see his Opus in novel form. At the young age of 30, once more deep in depression and alcohol abuse, committed suicide. (more on this in his biography and on the commentary of the movie)
The director John Milius would take many of the earlier tales and meld them together very neatly into the first movie that would kick off the franchise. The original plan was to create a 10 movie story that would encompass Conan's entire life from slave to King. (oh what could have been!) But once the studios started to worry about money and second guess the idea of audiences wanting to invest in a story beyond the standard 2 hour film, it was quickly cut down to 7 movies and the budget per movie was cut. Of course this would later lead to it being cut down the 3 and then (technically) 2.
Conan would go on to be a block buster hit and the sequel was quickly shot with much more studio interference. The second movie was not as successful, and soon the project was sidelined. Once the third movie was in the making, Schwarzenegger was already busy running for Governor and Kevin Sorbo took the role. To keep the audience from getting confused, the Director took a name from one of Howard's earlier works, and changed the movies name from Conan the Conqueror to Kull the Conqueror. So you can technically call it a trilogy.
The remake a few years ago aside, we are finally getting an official 3rd movie staring Old Arnie himself called The Legend of Conan. So I am defiantly looking forward to that one. But before I ramble on anymore, here is the puzzle for you.
For this puzzle we are going to focus on just the first movie.
Much as Conan spent his life trying to unravel the riddle of steal, I have one for you to work out as well. Here is the Riddle of the Cache.
35° d.cfi'N, 94° ae.hbg'W
a. One of my favorite characters of all time is played by one of my favorite actors of all time as well. In the movie he is simply referred to as "The Wizard" and also acts as the narrator of the movies. What is the actors name? Divide the amount of letters in his name by 2.
b. The cult of Thusa Doom worships what animal as a symbol of their religeon? Take the numbers of letters in this word for your answer.
c. There was an item that Arnold trained with daily in both preparation for the film and during. It weighed in at 11 pounds, and each one cost $10,000 to make! Two syllables, one word. Take the number of letters and subtract four.
d. Okay, this one is difficult, you're going to have to work to find it, but it isn't impossible. There are runes engraved into Conan's Father's sword. They are real letters, in a real language... that they made up that is! It is called "Runenglish". When you hold the original sword and look straight down at the inscription, it looks like an ancient mystical language. When you look at it on a tilted angle though, you can see english letters. Pretty cool huh? Your job is to tell me what these runes say. Count the words, then take the two digits in that number and reverse them and add one.
e. Filming had began in Yugoslavia, but due to conflict in the region, and the cast and crew fearing the volitile climate would make it unsafe, the moved to another country for the remainder of pre-production. Count the letters in this countries name.
f. Thulsa Doom... What a name right? When lecturing Conan, he orders one of his preistess to do what? Fall=0 Go=2 Kill Conan's friend=8 The Macarana=99,656
g. Thulsa Doom (yes I enjoy typing that name as much as i enjoy saying it. It's kinda like when the Hyena's giggle when they say Mufasa!) Thulsa Doom (Ooooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!) order Conan to be what? Count the letters and subtract 7.
h. One of the main cast was previously a championship surfer. Count the letters in his first name.
i. How many people are in the fight against Thulsa Doom and his forces at the Battle of the Mounds?
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The Wizard: The Gods are please with you. They will watch you Geocache.
Conan: Will they help us?
The Wizard: No.
Conan: Then tell them to stay out of the way.
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The General: Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: Solve the puzzles, Grab all the multis, and gather all the smilies.
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Please feel free to email me if you have trouble. I'll work with you on the answers to let you know where you have gone astray if you cannot find GZ. Also, please use this handy certitude tool to check if you are correct before you venture out. It will let you know if you are within 10 feet of the correct location. :)
Also, just for fun, Why not tell me in your log when you first saw this movie and what you rate it? Scale 1-10; 10 being the best score. (Optional of course)
Hope you enjoyed the flick!
Happy Caching!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.