The cache is not at the listed coordinates, you must solve the puzzles below to find the stash. There is not a road giving access to the OC&E at the coordinates either, despite what your map may show you.
One thing our family enjoys when we can’t be outside caching is playing board games and role playing games. I don’t have a copy of Chainmail, but I do still have all my DnD campaign materials, source books and modules dating all the way back to my first edition Halfling character, created in 1982.
Allow me to digress for a little bit. Back when I lived in Wisconsin, I offered to help a friend move from Madison to Milwaukee after he got married. Going to Madison for role players is like going to Portland for geocachers. The birthplace of DnD is just outside of Madison, and there are opportunities to get old games there that cannot be found anywhere else. So, while his wife was preoccupied, we slipped away to check a second-hand game store for deals.
After browsing the main floor, we went downstairs where the less-than-perfect games are kept. Immediately, we were confronted with a large table with an old guy playing a RPG with a bunch of middle school aged kids. The old guy offered to let us play test a game he was hoping to have published.
Not wanting to get my friend in trouble with his new wife, I excused us and we left. As we got back on the street my friend was dumbfounded and asked if I knew what I had just done. I thought I had saved his skin. He told me I had just blown off a chance to have Gary Gygax as our DM! I’ve always regretted that day, but my friend is still married to the same woman, so I guess something good came from it.
Hope you won’t have similar regrets over this puzzle. You will need to use 1st edition materials to solve the puzzles presented in the story that follows.
Bearing toward Polaris, the adventure began. Taking my two horses (a mount with maximum hit points and one where the DM rolled a 2 three times) and trusting my godlike intelligence to protect me and my steeds, the weapons and armor I had was given by my family I set out from home to make my way in the world. A world that was much larger than I had imagined as when I was young, listening to the village men talking about their adventures and the distant treks they made.
Just as these men had, we set out on a journey through the wilderness. What a journey it was too! Two weeks of normal terrain followed by 12 days in rugged terrain until we spent nine days in very rugged mountains and then we turned around and came home. But the adventures we had along the way!
We took a westerly route coming back. We? Oh, I was just me and the two heavy warhorses with me on this adventure. Together, they were fine animals! When one is alone with your animals, they become your companions surely as any man. Unfortunately, they didn’t both survive the encounters, although they did survive an encounter that almost killed me.
One of the rarest of creatures: some call it a land shark. In our village we called it a bulette and shudder at the mention of its name. It surprised us with it’s jumping attack and it struck me with everything it could muster – maximum damage on its first blow followed by a full force bit – leaving me with but one hit point. Luckily I rolled a 20 on my own attack and did a critical hit to its vital organs and finished it off with one blow.
Not long thereafter, the smaller one was turned to stone by a mighty (DM rolled 6s for HP) basilisk before I could dispatch the beast. The treasure from the two encounters set me up well. Along the way home I managed my money wisely and purchased the following items:
• Platemail • Small shield • LS & scabbard • Dagger & scabbard • Great Helm • Medium War Horse • Iron Rations (1 week) • Saddle • Barding, leather • Saddle Bags, large • Saddle Blanket • Bit & Bridle • Harness • Backpack • Waterskin • Tinder Box • Sack, large • Bow, short • Arrows, dozen, normal • Arrows, dozen, silver • Quiver, 1 doz. Arrows • Ale, pint (15) • Food, rich meal • Rations, iron, 1 week • Grain, horse meal (4)
Now, it is my turn to sit around the fires and scare the young children with my tales and let the young ones, such as you, quest in search of secret caches.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.