Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 2, levels 2 & 3; Stage 3, level 1

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Stage 2, Level 2

So I joined my family for lunch at Supper Heroes this day. As expected, Steve was at the front greeting me. They'd already found the clue by the time I arrived and the two little ones couldn't help but point me to it before I even had a chance to look around. It was a laminated card with a clue printed on the back standing next to a small Doctor Strange figure. Doctor Strange's cloak of levitation is well known, particularly since the movie. The clue was printed in reverse so it could be read in the mirror behind the figures.

The Sapphire key will fit the gate,

Where beany brews your palates sate.

To spring the lock you'll need to know,

What honestly with starfish go.

We figured beany brews meant coffee. A Google Maps search for coffee shops revealed many, but the one called Honest Coffee caught my wife's attention due to the word "honestly" in the clue. My son tried to argue for another shop, but I figured her reasoning was sound.

So now we knew where, but it appeared we needed a password. While I was doing my own Google searches, my wife happened to do one for "starfish coffee." The first result was a music video of Prince singing "Starfish and Coffee" on The Muppet Show. I remembered the Muppets were one of the links on the Jumpman's Journal Facebook page, so I figured that was it. The chorus was:

Starfish and coffee

Maple syrup and jam

Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine

And a side order of ham

If you set your mind free, baby

Maybe you'd understand

Starfish and coffee

Maple syrup and jam

So I figured "maple syrup and jam" was the password. Thank goodness that was online or I never would have gotten it. Before we left, I moved seats to let my six-year-old sit in my lap. Unfortunately, I had the sapphire key in my back pocket and I felt it break in two. I hoped that wouldn't be a problem.

Stage 2, Level 3 (First Gate)

I left ahead of them to check out Honest Coffee, which was more or less on the way back to work. Steve greeted me once again, so I was in the right place. There were no more Steves inside, so I went to the cashier and told them I was looking for the gate. She accidentally asked me the wrong question, "What goes with coffee?" instead of "What goes with starfish?" Her fellow employee corrected her. My answer of "maple syrup and jam" was acceptable and I had to sign a log.

Unfortunately, there were six people ahead of me. Five of them had gotten there at 7:00 AM, which appeared to be when the shop opened, so they must have managed to make it to Supper Heroes last night. (The other had signed in less than an hour before me.) This was my wake-up call that it was time to get serious. I'd been rather casual about the contest, but now I saw others were not so casual.

I was handed a giant movie ticket and sent on my way. I had completed the first gate! This was also the first location where I didn't buy anything. In part because I was in a hurry and in part because I'm not a coffee drinker. However, I found out later my wife bought herself a cup of coffee while she was there, so our record of buying at least a little something at each place was intact so far.

Stage 3, Level 1

I didn't look at the ticket closely until I got back to the car. One side had the same number on both ends and said "Cinema" and "Admit One" on it, with five crowns in between. The other side was a certificate for 10 free tokens at Pints & Pixels. But more importantly, at the bottom, it had a URL: http://www.curse.com/whatever. Curse is a local web site developer specializing in the video game community. Walter says they've been bought by Twitch lately.

There was also a QR code on the ticket. It turned out I didn't currently have a QR scanner on my phone, so I downloaded one later. All the code said was, "Keep this with you at all times!", so I was glad I didn't worry about it right away.

So the URL led to a graphic. I didn't immediately decipher it, so went back to work. I saw my family's minivan in the mirror as I was about to pull out, so I skedaddled to let them have my parking place, as they were in short supply. My son made the connection to Toybox Bistro faster than I did. The background was the same as their web site, but the words on their logo were replaced with Egyptian hieroglyphics. That, combined with the Nike swoosh made me realize it was saying "Walk Like an Egyptian" (by the Bangles), which was a link on the Facebook page. My son had gone deeper and figured out the hieroglyphics were O-A-O. That sent him off on a virtual wild goose chase. (A wild Google chase?) It was only after I told him to watch the video that he realized those were some of the lyrics in the song. I knew that, but hadn't thought of it until he said it. So off he went to Toybox. I had to wait until after work.

After work I went straight there and danced like an Egyptian for the hostess. She led me to the box. Walter had already told me about having to dance and the box. The clear, plastic box contained five of the six player pieces from the Clue board game (all but Mrs. White), all the weapons from Clue, 13 Scrabble tiles (A, E, G, L, N, R, S, S, S, T, U, Y, & blank), and a small cassette tape charm. I was told I could not open the box or take it with me, but I could take photos. The box also had a transparent Steve decal on one side and a smaller Steve sticker on another. And a note reiterating what I had been told, "Do not open box." Walter had managed to miss one letter when he wrote them down, so I made sure I got photos of them all. He'd missed the third S.

This was another occasion where I didn't buy anything. We'd already had lunch at Supper Heroes and were having dinner at church. I told the hostess we'd eaten there before and were sure to be back.

Meanwhile, this cursed box caused it way too much trouble. We spent all evening trying to decipher it, but I'll save that story for the next entry. Also that evening, the scoreboard was updated on the Facebook page. We were already falling behind. I was down to 7th.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.