NOT ON THE CHURCH PROPERTY! Please stay to the east on the public green area.
Damaged and stolen books have long been the bane of librarians around the world. Some people would put curses in their books, warning of dastardly things that would befall anyone who misused or misappropriated a book that belonged to someone else. In the medieval period we can find some fine examples of curses! Here are a couple of examples that effectively get the point across:
"At the end of a Bible, written around the year 1172, the scribe added this statement:
If anyone take away this book, let him die the death; let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen."
More succinctly, we have this example from 1461:
"Hanging will do
for him who steals you."
(Examples courtesy of Anathema! Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses by Marc Drogin.)
This is one cache in a series being placed in honour of the Dewey Decimal System. Everything you need to solve this puzzle is written on this page.
The theme for CARW2023 is medieval, and 133.43 is the dewey code for magic spells. (It was the closest I could find for "curses".) The medieval period more generally can be found 909.07, and if dragons are more your speed, they are lying in wait at 398.245.
Throughout the medieval period, manuscripts were written very Slowly, as each was painstakingly copied by hand. A curse Protects the valuable work by disuading would-be thieves from walking off with it. For those who dared disgregard the curse, a Clap on the back from the local police would quickly land you in gaol (aka jail).
This cache has been placed for the CARW event with the intention that it not be located prior to 9:00 a.m. Saturday March 4, 2023. The caches for the CARW event are released early so that the geocaching community has an opportunity to plan their routes and strategies prior to the event start.