With a solve time of 6 days, 17 hours and 45 minutes this was the second most difficult puzzle in the game. I was impressed with the level of complexity I was able to add into it.

I really like the idea of treasure maps. I think it would be really cool to find an old piece of parchment paper somewhere and discover that it has clues that lead to a buried and long forgotten treasure. This is why I enjoy movies like National Treasure, and The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Goonies. What it must feel like find the clue or solve the puzzle and realize you’re one step closer to finding the prize.

In the end, that’s what I was trying to accomplish with this puzzle. It didn’t start out that way though. I was stuck. I still needed one or two more puzzles to finish out the game and I was out of ideas. For some reason I had a date stuck in my head and decided to Google it and see what I came up with. I can’t remember the date but I know that it took me to a website that talked about a group of colonial rangers that existed during the Seven Years War (from 1756-1763) known as Roger’s Rangers.

I was reading about one battle in particular where they had attacked an Indian settlement and then had to high tail it out of there with the enemy in hot pursuit.

I thought that it might be interesting to create a puzzle from the perspective of one of the rangers. I decided to create a journal where he describes what’s going on around him and, knowing that his time may be short, leaves clues to a secret treasure he has hidden somewhere. I chose Charles to be the writer as he was an actual member of Roger’s Rangers.

I scoured the internet looking for some old, worn, stained paper I could use and then found a font style that pleased me. Once those were located it was time to figure out what the treasure was and what clues I would give to locate it.

In my opinion, the actual “treaure” that Charles hid is quite a let down. I don’t know why I decided to use it. I believe at the time I was considering building one myself for fun. I never did get around to building it but I guess this serves as a good example of how current events in my life play a big part in puzzle design.

Poor treasure choice aside, I am impressed with the clues given in the journal, how it was written, and how it looked. However, I am most pleased with where the clues point to. This is the part that makes this puzzle my favorite.

Similar to the Scatter puzzle, this one also requires the use of previous puzzle items. In this case, two of them. And not just clues, but the actual puzzles themselves. I remember being so excited when I came up with the idea. It took a little rework of the previous puzzles but in no time at all I had it set up.

Another bonus that didn’t occur to me until later is that by setting this, the second last puzzle, up this way anyone who may have stumbled upon it by accident, either outside the game or from a player sharing it with others, wouldn’t be able to solve it. They would have had to already seen two previous puzzles to even understand the clues in the journal.

During game play many players tried to determine some kind of pattern with all the numbers in the journal. But eventually the clues began to make sense and by working together they were able to put it all together and discover the answer. They were very smart players.

So read the journal again and see if you can find the clues and see if you can figure out which two previous puzzles they refer to. Once you know that, there are more clues in the journal that tell you what to do with the two puzzles to find the treasure. I can tell you that probably the most overlooked or missed clue was where it says “shift to” in the journal. If you look closely you will see that there are two spaces on either side of it. This was to make it stand out more but I don’t think anyone got that. It’s probably the most important clue (think of “to” as the number 2).

If you’re stumped, I have hidden what the clues were in the journal and what they pointed to. You can unhide it to read it.

I would have preferred this to be the last puzzle and I think I may have even planned it to be until I came up with a better idea for the last one. Another puzzle that required first hand knowlege of the game from the beginning. I’ll discuss that more when I review “To-Do List”

Journal Clues

Clue 1 show

Indicates that other puzzles are involved.

Clue 2 show

One day ago refers to the previous puzzle which was the crossword, also indicated by the square rocks with numbers on them clue.

Clue 3 show

The word scatter refers to the scatter puzzle that was previously solved but also that the answer was scattered about the page.

Clue 4 show

A suggestion to use Microsoft Paint

Clue 5 show

This clue indicates that you should work with the puzzle images in their actual size.

Clue 6 show

The most important clue in the puzzle. The blank look refers to the answer in the crossword puzzle that didn’t have a number. The “shift to” (notice the extra space on either side of it) is intended to indicate SHIFT 2 on the keyboard, the @ symbol. The red refers specifically to color of the @ symbol. So if you look at the scatter puzzle there is one red @ symbol. Using Paint and the actual image sizes, line up the non-numbered square of the crossword puzzle with the @ symbol in the scatter puzzle.

Clue 7 show

Follow the numbered squares for each crossword puzzle answer. You will see one letter lined up in each of the numbered squares (not every square in the crossword, just the first one in each answer).

Clue 8 show

This clue refers to what the word found by combining the Crossword and Scatter puzzle is. It’s a large object and has something to do with launching.

You should be able to figure the rest out yourself. If you think you have it, go to the actual puzzle page and type your answer in the blank in the bottom and it will tell you if you’re right or not.