Solution: Pirate Treasure Map
Answer: PANDEMONIUM
Written by The Enigmatologists
The solutions to the clues on page 1 map to the landmarks on the map on page 2, by taking the answer, removing a letter, and anagramming.
| Clue | Solution | Letter | Landmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable | Dearest | A | Desert |
| Flu symptom | Chills | C | Hills |
| Embarrassed | Ashamed | H | Mad Sea |
| Monte Carlo, for example | Casino | A | Coins |
| They hang out at the end of sentences | Periods | O | Spider |
| Subject of Snape | Potions | T | Poison |
| Religious homes | Monasteries | I | Sea Monster |
| Lifeforms | Creatures | C | Treasure |
| A person specializing in the study of the Resetta Stone, for example | Epigraphist | G | Pirate Ship |
| Textbook example | Archetype | R | Eye Patch |
| Made a deep sound of despair | Groaned | O | Danger |
| Administers Vaccinations | Inoculates | U | Coastline |
| Turns upside down | Upends | P | Dunes |
| Fancy tree | Bonsai | O | Basin |
| Dress | Frock | F | Rock |
| It lights the way | Streetlamp | T | Palm Trees |
| Burn | Scorch | H | Crocs |
| A type of candle | Taper | E | Trap |
| Font family | Serif | S | Fire |
| March | Procession | E | Scorpions |
The letters that are removed spell out, in order they appear, A CHAOTIC GROUP OF THESE.
Now, the shapes from page 1 can be placed on the map at the corresponding landmark, matching the circle at the X.
After some fiddling around and rotating, an image of a parrot becomes apparent.
Parrots have a few collective nouns, but only one of them can be described as chaotic: PANDEMONIUM.
Authors' Notes
This puzzle was thoroughly enjoyable to write. One motivation for writing it was to introduce more crafts into the hunt. After all, there can never be enough arts and crafts in a puzzle hunt!
After learning that one of the collective nouns for a parrot was pandemonium, one of the few collective nouns we could find that fit the meta constraints, we made sure the theme of the puzzle would imply that parrot was a reasonable interpretation of the image. The puzzle was born!
While watching the answer submissions, we noticed AIRPORT a couple of times, which was baffling. Then someone pointed out it was an anagram of parrot and another letter! It's nice when the puzzle hunters become the puzzle hunted.
Adding a letter and taking an anagram is a perfectly reasonable thing to do to extract the final answer. Perfectly reasonable, but wrong!