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How Well Do You Follow Directions in Portland Mystery Cache

Hidden : 1/23/2021
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:


The posted  coordinates will take you to a blue sign.  Take a photograph of the sign, fix yourself a cuppa and a spreadsheet and see how well you can follow directions.

There are 9 lines of capitalised white text in the blue section of the sign.
Ignore the first word in each line as this is the same word in each of the 9 lines.
This now leaves you with 26 words on the sign to use in the instructions below.
These shall be known as Word A through Word Z, with Word A being the first word in line 1 with four letters and starting with L, through to Word Z, which is the last word in line 9 with seven letters and starting with C.

Instructions -

  1. Take Word M. Exchange the position of letters 2 and 3. Make letter 4 the same as letter 5. Take the second letter within the word that is a roman numeral and exchange it with the letter which is one before letter 4 in the alphabet. This new word is Word 1.
  2. Take Word B. Exchange the position of letters 2 and 6. Remove letters 3, 4 & 5. Change letter 2 so that it is now the same letter as the 5th letter in Word F. This new word is Word 2.
  3. Take Word 2. Replace the second letter with 2 new letters. The first letter to add will be the first vowel that appears through Words A to Z. The second to add will be the only letter in Word N that does not appear in any other of the Words A through Z. This new word is Word 3.
  4. Take Word S. Replace letter 2 with the letter that appears just above it on the sign. There are two letters equally just below letter 1. Replace letter 1 with the letter of those two letters below which comes latest in the alphabet. Move letter 1 so that it is between letters 3 and 4. Replace the last letter with the last letter of Word C. This new word is Word 4.
  5. Take Word P. Replace letter 3 with the letter that immediately follows it in the alphabet. Replace letter 4 with the letter that comes four letters before it in the alphabet. This new word is Word 5.
  6. Take Word C. Keep only the first 6 letters and discard all the other letters. Exchange letters 2 and 3 with letters 5 and 6. Replace letter 3 with the third letter in Word 4. This new word is Word 6.
  7. Take Word W. Remove letters 3, 5, 6 & 7. Replace letter 4 with the letter that comes four letters before it in the alphabet. This new word is Word 7.
  8. Take Word G. Move the last two letters between letters 2 and 3. Move letter 6 to the end. Replace letter 6 with the last letter in Word X turned upside down. Remove the last two letters but use them again in instruction 9. This new word is Word 8.
  9. Take the two letters that you removed at instruction 8. This new word is Word 9.
  10. Take Word C. Move the eighth letter to position 1. Move the last two letters to positions 1 and 2. Move the eighth letter to position 1. Move letters 6, 7 & 8 to the end. Remove letter 7. Remove the last letter. Replace letter 7 with a copy of letter 3.  Replace the pair of duplicated letters with the last letter of Word 5 and the third letter of Word 4.   This new word is Word 10.
  11. Take the fifth letter of Word 10. This is Word 11.
  12. Take Word 1. Replace the pair of duplicated letters with the final vowel that appears through Words A to Z - one letter replaces two letters. Find the letter that is also a roman numeral. Divide that number divided by XX. Replace the letter that is also a roman numeral with the result in roman numerals. Move the second letter to the last position. Move the second letter to the first position. This is Word 12.
  13. Take Word A. Replace the last letter with the third letter in Word 3. Reverse the positions of letters 1, 2 & 3. This is Word 13.
  14. Find the Word that has T as its central letter. From A to Z, the letter designation of this word is letter 1. Find the Word that is repeated 5 times through the 26 words. From A to Z, the letter designation of the fifth appearance of this word is letter 2. This is Word 14.
  15. Take Word Y. Reverse the order of letters 1, 2 & 3. Remove letters 3, 4, 5 & 7. This is Word 15.
  16. Take Word Y. Remove letters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8. This is Word 16.
  17. Take Word 13. Replace letter 4 with a copy of letter 3. Replace letter 2 with the third letter in word 12. This is Word 17.
  18. Take Word 17. Turn letter 1 upside down. Replace letter 2 with the second last letter of Word 9. Find the letter that appears twice in Word 6 and add this as a new letter to the start of the word. This is Word 18.
  19. Combine Word 2 and Word 9 to make one long word. Remove the central letter. This is Word 19.
  20. Take Word Y. Move the sixth letter to the start of the word. Move the fourth letter to the start of the word. Change the fifth letter with the letter that immediately follows it alphabetically. Remove letters 3 & 6. Swap letter 1 with letter 2. This is Word 20.
  21. Combine Word 17 and Word 9 to make one long word. Remove one of the duplicated letters. Move letter 3 to the start. Replace letter 4 with the first letter of Word 8. Remove the letter that comes last alphabetically. This is Word 21.
  22. Take Word 21. Replace it with the opposite of this word. This is Word 22.
  23. Take the last letter of Word 20. Add the last two letters of Word 8. Add the last letter of Word 4. This is Word 23.
  24. Take the first letter of Word 4. Add the first letter of Word 16. Add the first letter of Word 13. Add the first letter of Word 20. Add the first letter of Word 22. Add the first letter of Word 23. Add the first letter of Word 18. This is Word 24.
  25. Combine Word Y and Word Z to make one long word. Move letter 13 to the start. Move letter 6 to the start. Move letter 7 to the start. Create a copy of letter 3 and move it to the start. Create a copy of letter 11 and move it to the start. Move letter 10 to the start. Move letter 8 to the start. Move letter 12 to the start. Move letter 12 to the right of the first letter that you moved. Remove all letters to the right of the last letter that you moved.   Of the letters that you just removed, take the second last of these letters and use it to replace both letter 5 and letter 8.  This is Word 25.
  26. Take Word 24. Move the last letter to the start. Replace the second letter with the first letter of word 21. Replace the last four letters with Word 7. Replace the last three letters with the last three letters of Word D. This is Word 26.
  27. Take Word 25. Replace letter 2 with a copy of letter 6. Remove letters 4, 5, 8 & 9. This is Word 27.
  28. Take Word 20. Add to the end the second letter of Word U. Reverse the order of letters 1, 2 & 3. Remove letters 4, 5 & 6. ROT-13 the remaining letters. This is Word 28.
  29. Take Word 6. Remove Word 11. Add the second letter of Word 28 and the first letter of Word 26 to the end. This is Word 29.
  30. Take Word D. Replace letter 2 with the last letter of Word 29. Replace the letter 3 with the third letter of word 24. Remove the first letter. This is Word 30.
  31. Combine Word 28 and Word 30 to make one long word. Replace the central letter with the letter that immediately precedes it alphabetically. Exchange letter 3 with letter 7. Move the last letter between letter 4 and letter 5. Remove the last three letters. Exchange letter 2 with letter 6. This is Word 31.
  32. Combine Word 10, Word 18, Word Q and Word 16 to make one long word. Remove all letters except 1, 5, 11, 18 and 20. This is Word 32.
  33. Combine Word 14 and Word 21 to make one long word. Replace the last three letters with the last three letters from Word 7. Replace the last two letters with the last two letters from Word 28. This is Word 33.
  34. Combine Word 32 and Word 33 to make one long word. Replace the first 7 letters with the letters from the word before the first word in the Words A to Z that starts with the same letter as its designated letter. Remove the last 4 letters. This is Word 34.
  35. Combine Word 28 and Word N to make one long word. Replace the two consecutive letters that equal 600 in roman numerals and replace them with a copy of the last letter (one letter replaces two). Replace letter 5 with a copy of letter 3. Remove the last two letters. Reverse the positions of letter 5 and letter 6. This is Word 35.

Now that you have a list of 35 words, follow the directions as below.

1, 12, 2, 15, 35
4, 21
13, 23, 2, 7
13, 23, 2, 26, 7, 24, 2, 27
4, 22
8, 2, 7, 20, 2, 28
8, 2, 7, 19, 29, 12, 2, 31
13, 6, 2, 30, 31
3, 2, 34, 7, 16, 2, 33
5, 14, 11, 18, 17, 25, 32, 10, 9

W6 L5   W32 L5 W4 L2   W10 L4 W5 L4  
W21 L4 W2 L2   W14 L1 W12 L4 W19 L4 W17 L1+2
W31 L6 W10 L6 W22 L3 W7 L4   W35 L4
WF L1   WA L3   W29 L6 W23 L4 W19 L1 ROT L
WJ L5    W27 L3 W31 L6                             
W19 L4 W5 L4   W10 L9 W2 L3   W29 L6
W8 L1   W25 L2 W20 L2 W21 L4 WF L3+4

 

WT L2   W20 L1 W1 L5   W10 L4                             
W15 L2 WY L7   W10 L8 WG L1   WF L2   W4 L2   W6 L3
W8 L5   WC L11 W17 L2                                           
W7 L3   WF L5   WQ L2  W25 L5  W12 L3                           
W18 L1 W33 L1 WD L3                                             
W24 L1 W8L6    W15 L2                                           
W4 L1   W8 L6   W25 L5 W16 L2 W34 L4 W13 L1+2          
W12 L1 WA L4   W21 L2

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

J8 Y1 J10 Y2 J15 Y1 J35 Y8

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)