Sometimes Otis gets an idea in his head and gets totally focused seeing it through. On this day, he busied himself setting up a coded treasure hunt for us in the house. Picture above is the first clue. See if you can figure it, then scroll down to see if you were right!
(Brace yourself. This is a long post.)
For this code, the first thirteen letters of the alphabet correspond with a red ace through a red king:
| red: | A | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
| letter: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
The black numbers correspond with the second half of the alphabet:
| black: | A | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
| letter: | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
So, the message translates to:
UNDER
THE
SWITCH
CASE
Under the Nintendo Switch case, the next clue:
Here it is along with the decoder key:
Translation:
UNDE
RTHEFAR
SIDE
The next clue was waiting nearby under one of the volumes of the complete Far Side comics:
This clue was a little more cryptic:
It turned out to be a two-part clue which required an arrangement of Plus-Plus blocks in the dining room:
Reading the letters formed by each color in order:
SNACK
To the snack drawer!
There it is!
Here’s the next clue:
Can you figure this one out?
Decoded (first letter of each word):
INTHEFRUITBASKET
Aha, the next clue is with the fruit:
Here it is:
This looks a lot like the last one! It says:
OTISBACKPACK
Here’s the next one, as predicted, in Otis’s backpack:
It looked like this:
This one was tough… Hint: it’s designed to trick you!
The letters as written:
TSE HCE MUT SOC
As it turns out, there’s no reason for the letters to be in groups of three. A red herring!
Here are the letters in reverse and respaced:
COSTUME CHEST
Hmm…
In here?
Yes!
OK, I’ve seen this kind of clue before:
Easy. It says:
INTHEFRIDGE
But there were no clues in the fridge…
Another red herring!
In this case you needed to read the last letter of each word:
THESHOERACK
And then… my prize!
A gemstone made of Plus-Plus:
Excellent treasure hunt!
The creator’s hands:
