Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Grand Banquet

Monday, April 23, 2018

Jumpman's Grand Banquet

Tonight was our night for answers. Pints & Pixels was hosting a pizza night for all the Grand Puzzle's gunters. The bar was usually only available for private parties on Mondays anyway, so they simply scheduled their own. Pizza from Domino's (and mini-cupcakes from Sugar Belle) meant they didn't have to have kitchen staff, but the bar was open. Soft drinks were free; hard ones were not.

Our crew was me and my wife as my "+1" and Walter and his brother as his "+1". We were met at the door by Sherry Wallace, who is co-owner of the bar with Richard "Jumpman" Moss. It turned out she was the one who created most of the actual puzzles. So thanks to her for all her hard work. She had all the gunters sign a copy of a Ready Player One movie poster as a surprise for Richard. Walter also got a ticket for the door prize drawings. Because I'd finished in the High Five, I was getting something special instead.

The pizza arrived right after we did. I still had some tokens left from a previous trip, so the boys played a few games while they set up. Then everyone got their pizza and started eating. After a while, Richard began. First he introduced all his helpers. I didn't get all their names, but their was the lich who I think was also the Game Tech for the final Jumpman challenge, the Princess Bride reader and his helper who'd they recruited that night when so many people came through to do the lines, the guys that made the props, the Float Shop artist who'd also made plates for his puzzle, and, of course, Sherry. She wound up the thanks by presenting Richard with the poster.

A table full of prizes, door prizes, and thank you gifts.

Next we were presented with the prizes. Shadow, in fifth place, got a "squashed Jumpman box" (the laminated copy of the box cover from the Huntsville Escape Rooms challenge), the Clue game from which the pieces were used for the clear box puzzle at Toy Box Bistro, and a $5 Pints & Pixels gift card. I believe Shadow was the person I saw doing the Princess Bride lines the Tuesday night I finished the final challenge, so he made kind of a mad dash at the end to be fifth.

I, Liberator, as fourth place, got a "squashed Jumpman box", a copy of the Space Invaders Dice! game, and a $15 P&P gift card. I'd never heard of the Space Invaders Dice! game, so that was very cool. None of us can remember exactly what third place got, but it may have been a set of keys based on the movie and a $25 P&P gift card. Second place got two of the Tiny Arcade games and a $50 P&P gift card. I found out at the end of the evening that the guys in second and third were hosts of Rocket Punch, a locally produced podcast.

Then we got into the individual puzzles. In the first puzzle that lead to Lucky Dice Cafe, the "heroes spin" line did indeed refer to HeroClix, not comic book spinner racks. It seems the owner is a nationally ranked HeroClix player. They'd also originally planned to have the end of the first line, "you need to go" point gunters to the restrooms, which is where the posters would be. They thought Lucky Dice already had lots of posters in their restrooms, but it turned out they didn't have any in them, so they left them out in the main part of the store.

There wasn't much revealed about the next several puzzles that we hadn't already figured out. One detail many of us had missed was that the lich in the video (who was someone other than the lich we played against) was walking like an Egyptian as he went through the background. I also asked how many beat the lich without changing sides. Only one other gunter at the banquet raised her hand.

Then we got to that cursed box at Toy Box Bistro. It turns out the letters inside spelled out "Ulysses Grant", complete with a space for between the words. And the "U. G." in "U. G. White Mercantile" stands for Ulysses Grant, which I didn't know. When they beta tested the puzzle, there were only four tiles in the box: U, G, and two blanks. The beta testers declared that too easy, so we got more tiles.

Shortly thereafter, we discussed the damnable Ruby Key. It turns out the phrase on the key unscrambles to "IT's what we all do down here." This is in reference to a line in IT by Stephen King: "We all float down here." The Float Shop in Lowe Mill was where we had to go. What had been intended as a clue for those unfamiliar with the story, the capital I and T, had wound up messing us all up. We had been so close in correctly assuming each word was the length of the letters we got in the scramble. It also turned out the punctuation marks (apostrophe and period) were within the words they went with, even though the rest of the characters weren't already in those words. It turned out the grand prize winner, Mr. Tumnus, had figured it out eventually, but only after he'd stumbled upon the Steve at the Float Shop. He got a bonus prize of a Pints & Pixels cap for getting it.

The last puzzle of note was the word search at Haven. Walter pointed out I'd missed an uncircled letter: a J. I brought this up and Sherry handed me the word list to double-check my work. It seems I'd missed "Jem" (as in Jem and the Holograms) as one of the words.

I asked about the Jumpman level editor he used. It's called Jumpman Under Construction. The Jumpman link on the Facebook page linked to a page that then linked to the software. I'd not clicked on all the links in the Journal -- especially ones I'd already heard of -- so I'd missed that.

I asked if they'd considered changing the letters on the word search puzzle they had facing the outside of the window at Haven Comics. They said no. Later, during closing remarks on the contest, they pointed out that they didn't provide red herrings in the clues because we the players provided ourselves plenty of red herrings along the way. I hadn't thought of that, but it's absolutely correct.

After all questions had been answered, they drew tickets for door prizes. One person got a lot of the props, including three Rubik's Cubes, the map plates, The Princess Bride wedding poster, and I forget what else. Walter won a $20 gift certificate for Supper Heroes.

The final announcement of the night was to mark our calendars for September 10. Jumpman's Grand Puzzle II would start then. And it's going to be based on the '90s. I might be in trouble. I was an adult by the '90s, albeit a young one, and not as in touch with pop culture as I had been in the '80s. And my oldest child was born so late in the '90s he doesn't remember them, so we may be at a disadvantage all around.

My loot.

I'm happy to say that as we left, each player got a copy of the props from the game: a choice of Steve on a white or clear background, the three keys and the gold coin. I spoke to Richard about a couple of last things while the boys tried out Fix-It Felix. Then it was back home to our mundane life.

I'm so thankful to Richard, Sherry, and the rest of their crew for putting this together. It's obvious a lot of time and a fair amount of money went into it. I mentioned the movie Midnight Madness way back in the first contest entry proper. Since seeing that movie, I had dreamed of participating in a contest like that, but figured it would never actually happen. Now, not only has it, but I might get to do it again! The most appropriate word is obvious: Awesome!

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

[Later update: The second puzzle was delayed due to a turn in health of one of the organizers. Then Pints & Pixels announced they were moving. Then the 2020 pandemic started, so it's unknown whether there will ever be a second quest or not.]

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 6, Level 3

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Stage 6, Level 3 (Third Gate)

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, we had a prior commitment Tuesday evening, so we showed up at Pints & Pixels a bit after 6:00 PM. I figured I'd have to put my name on the list and wait for a while to get my turn. However, when we got there, no one else had signed up. Apparently, since the prizes had been won, the other three people that had gotten to the final challenge on Friday weren't interested in completing it.

Richard Moss was having some technical difficulties, so I wound up playing it directly on the laptop without using the CRT monitor he had. That was a shame, but it was okay. I still got to use the USB Atari joystick.

I'd played an emulated copy of Jumpman a little bit after going home the night the winner was crowned, but that was it. I'd not had time to practice over the weekend. I did find some time to read the original manual and watch a YouTube walkthrough. That was when I discovered where the name for the contest, Jumpman's Grand Puzzle, came from. In the original game the levels are divided between three buildings, each with a different difficulty level. The final level of each building was titled "Grand Puzzle" I through III.

It turned out Richard was actually using a level editor I hadn't heard of and now, sadly, can't remember the name of. (See the final entry for it.) That explained why some of the levels I'd seen the winner play weren't seen in the walkthrough video. One thing I quickly learned is that to walk off a ladder, you had to be aligned just right with the platform you wanted to walk on. I believe that was different than the original game, and a little frustrating, but I got used to it.

So I had to play the Grand Loop. In the original game, that would be 30 levels, but Richard wouldn't say how many levels I had to go through. The first time through I made it to the third screen before losing a life. Then I kept repeating the same mistake of jumping off the screen and dying. I think I finished that level, but didn't make it through to the end.

There was still no one else there to play Jumpman, just one guy trying to get through The Princess Bride lines, so I got to immediately try again. This time I did better. In fact, I eventually found myself on the final screen that said, "YOU WIN"! I think there were only about five levels to play through. And that was that. I was fourth. I started in the High Five and I ended in the High Five. In the meantime, I'd dropped down, but never left the top ten. So far, I'm the only original High Five contestant to end there as well.

I talked to Richard a bit after winning. I told him the misdirection I got at Huntsville Escape Rooms about the lock combination. He said that maybe they should post the Journal page to ignore any such hints.

I also asked how many people defeated the lich without switching sides. He said they hadn't kept track, but it would have been less than half. Apparently the lich had been instructed to play to win if on the Player 1 side. Regardless, however, he wasn't supposed to attack the other player until after the first level. If the player asked to switch, he was supposed to still play reasonably well, but not his top game. My takeaway was that I should be proud to beat him in the first set of three without changing sides.

I also provided one piece of feedback, but was trying to save the rest of my questions for the Grand Banquet next week. Oh, did I not mention that? Coming Monday is Jumpman's Grand Bandquet at Pints & Pixels. They're going to provide pizza and soft drinks, plus have a cash bar available. It's only open to contestants and one guest each. So look for an epilogue entry on Monday.

Later that day they updated the scoreboard. Looks like I may be the only one still interested in finishing the challenge now that the announced prizes have been awarded.

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

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 5, Level 2 concluded

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Stage 5, Level 2 concluded

Since my younger children were feeling neglected, we all went to Pints & Pixels for dinner. We took two cars so they wouldn't have to stay if we went late. Walter hadn't gone through the final scene much, so I played the audio for him in the car. Then he fed my lines for the first and maybe second scenes.

Once we arrived, while the family got a table, Walter and I went and registered. They were back down to just the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Three of us rolled 20-sided dice to decide the order. The first guy rolled a 3. I rolled a 10, but Walter rolled a 12. Which wasn't exactly what he wanted as he wasn't confident on getting through the final scene yet.

Unfortunately, while Walter was doing his scenes, someone -- I think it was the first guy to play Jumpman that night -- won the game and the contest. He couldn't believe it, but Richard presented him the golden egg. I didn't catch everything at the time, but was able to watch the video later. The winner seems like a good guy, so I'm glad he won.

Meanwhile, Walter successfully completed all three scenes. Then I was up. I made it through the first scene fairly well. I had one screw up, but didn't actually have to burn a cue card. I think I may have had to use one during the second scene, but by now I'd at least memorized the order of "so clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of me/you." The third scene was a little tougher, but it turned out it ended as soon as I, as Miracle Max, presses on Westley's chest to make him say, "True love." So all the effort to learn the rest was for naught, but I was glad to have made it through.

I spoke briefly to the tester. It turns out they picked him for the job because he loves the movie so much. I asked if that was still the case after having to go through it so many times, but he said yes. I was then presented with my green key, which read "Safe -- Marvel -- And Others." Obviously, Haven Comics, Etc. was the next stop. (Safe = Haven; Marvel = Comics; And Others = Etc.) But they closed in 20 minutes, which is about how long it would have taken to get there. So we went ahead and ate. Walter and I had waited until after completing the challenge to order our food.

We stayed and played some games, including four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale with Walter, the two youngest kids, and me. Then we went home. I put the kids to bed and watched the video of the winner. The scoreboard was updated. It only contained the name of three winners. I'd heard that there were six people competing that night, so I asked for clarification and got it. Only three of the six completed the challenge. I might still yet manage to end in the High Five, as I had started, if I was very lucky.

Although they limited the graphic to the top three, they updated all the scores in text. I was now #7 with 24,700 points. I'd scored 2,500 points for being the sixth or more person to get the Emerald Key. I was actually tied in points with Beck C137 at #6, but presumably they'd obtained the key before me.

They also announced that night that A) the challenges at Pints & Pixels would not be available on Sunday and B) the contest would end on Thursday, April 19.

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

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 4, Level 1 concluded; Stage 5, Levels 1 & 2

Wednesday, April 11

Stage 4, Level 1 concluded (Second Gate)

We had a work lunch out today for two coworkers getting married soon. I excused myself early to be at Lowe Mill when they opened at noon. I'd already found the best place to park and enter to get upstairs. After heading the wrong way and running into a former coworker, I finally found it. And it was closed until 1:00 PM. So back to work it was.

As I was debating whether to go back out at 1:00 PM, Walter called. The next location was the second gate, meaning we had to sign in and the order was important. I said I'd come now. He asked if I'd go by the house and grab his key, because he forgot it. So I did.

I got there and went upstairs. The artist was there, but no one else, including Walter. I handed over my key. The previous entry was for 12:46 PM, so apparently he'd opened early. I forgot to note my number, but there were about a dozen names ahead of me. I asked if Richard Moss had told him what had happened. He hadn't, so I filled him in on them posting a special clue.

While doing this, I texted Walter, who apparently I had missed downstairs. He came up as I was trying to figure out the clue. It was four clear plates with lines on them and Steves in the corner. I tried overlapping them along the lines a bit, but that didn't do anything useful. Then Walter had the bright idea of stacking them all on top of one another. That produced what was obviously a street map of downtown. There was a small dot showing the next location. Comparing to Google Maps, we eventually deduced it was a location around the corner from Pints & Pixels.

Not this...

...but this.

Stage 5, Level 1

Impossible to get a decent photo

That was our next stop. It turned out to be a poster in the window saying we were invited to the wedding of Buttercup and Humperdink during the typical days and times for Pints & Pixels.

Stage 5, Level 2

Walter was working that evening, so I went alone. I'd been listening to clips from the three scenes the props seemed to indicate since Monday. And I found a copy of the script online, too. So would a couple days study of a movie I only just watched for the first time last year be enough? Spoiler: No, it would not.

Because so many cleared the red gate this day, they enlisted a second helper to go through the scenes with gunters. He was the one I got. I muddled my way through the first two scenes, using cue cards to get the next line far too often. Richard Moss sat in for a while and gave me some extra cue cards for my performance on the lines I did now. But I didn't know the third scene well enough, as I'd studied it the least, and I was quickly out.

I got a second chance, but I realized as I started my mouth was dry and I was getting a headache. I was probably getting dehydrated. I did even worse than before, despite the tester's encouragement. And that was it for the night for me.

Meanwhile, two gunters advanced to the final test. I saw one of the officials bring something appearing to be two blue badges on strings to Richard Moss. "No way!" he said. Unfortunately, yes way. The two of them alternated playing an emulated version of Jumpman in the corner for the final challenge. They actually had an Atari 2600 joystick hooked up to the computer, so it was either the Commodore 64 or Atari 8-bit version of the game. Not that I've played either. The most I've done is play the Jumpman Junior cartridge on the Colecovision a little bit a long time ago.

So I went home. It turned out they had streamed the final game, so I watched highlights of it after getting home. Neither finished. Now I just had to pray no one else could finish either before we completed the Princess Bride challenge and could get to the final one.

When the scoreboard was posted, they made a mistake. The scores were listed with the correct amounts, but they put Washburn ahead of me despite me having 200 more points. The above is a corrected version of the scoreboard I made myself. They never corrected the graphic, just the text posting. I take a little pride in never actually falling out of the top 10.

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

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 3, Level 3 & Stage 4, Level 1

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Stage 3, Level 3

Walter, my next oldest son, and I headed down to Pints & Pixels Sunday evening. The plan was to double check U. G. White Mercantile didn't need to punch our movie ticket, then grab some dinner there while we waited for the contest to start.

And that's pretty much how it went. The cashiers at U. G. White said they didn't punch the tickets, so upstairs we went. We only had about half an hour, so we ordered chili because it was quick. And some onion rings. After ordering, we went back to have a look at the Fix-It Felix machine. And, it turns out, even though the event didn't start until 6:00 PM, they were already taking sign-ups. So lesson learned for next time.

The lich was still available for those still in the early stages, although he didn't show up immediately. Then there was a few of us waiting to to play Felix. Lastly, there were several people there for the next challenge. For them, there was the man in black, the Dread Pirate Roberts. On the table he was seated at, the photo of the props had been replaced with the actual props.

As announced on Facebook, they rolled a 10-sided die to decide the order they would play in. We didn't catch the details, but they sat at the table with "Roberts," presumably reciting lines. They had cards which I think represented chances to get prompts. Roberts sometimes held up a light, which I think meant they had missed the line. Hopefully we'll get a chance to find out later.

There was done discussion amongst the officials and they were alternating players between the tasks. Meanwhile, we were reviewing the Konami code. I'm a bit old to have internalized it in my youth, but a song about it by the Gothsicles, posted in the early years of the FuMP, had helped me memorize it. What I had forgotten is that you were supposed to hold both buttons while pressing start. I'm glad I reviewed it.

Finally, I got my chance. I was told I had a few minutes, that no token was required, and that it would only work during the title and high score screens. So I tried it. It didn't work. I tried again. It still didn't work. I started trying slightly different combinations. Was it the player one or player two start button? Eventually the game went into demo mode and I had to take a break. It went back to the screens in question and after a few more tries, I finally got it to work! I couldn't tell you exactly what I did that made it work, but I no longer cared.

Stage 4, Level 1

They gave me the red key. I took a look while Walter waited for his turn.

Taken in a hurry on the hood of my car.
That's the windshield washer keeping it from sliding off.

The text on the key was scrambled: 'aea wldh te TlI dh wwno eor.s

From the talk in the Facebook group, everyone had gotten stuck on this. The players who were there for the next step tonight had stumbled on the right location without solving the puzzle. I had hoped maybe I had some knowledge they lacked due to my age that would help, but no.

We went back to the car and pondered. We assumed the characters showed the word lengths. The two capital letters presumably were the first word of the sentence and a proper name or connection with I. I started writing a Perl script to give possibilities for the capitalized words. We spent the rest of the time allotted for the contest pondering to no avail. We drove by a couple locations looking for Steve's, but didn't find any.

When they posted the scores later that night, I had moved up from 10th to 8th. None of those who had passed the second gate had advanced last night. Pints & Pixels was closed until Tuesday, so we had a day to catch up, if we could.

Back at home, I spent the rest of the night, to the wee hours, writing Perl scripts to narrow it down. They didn't help much. Walter found a site today would help you unscramble anagrams, but it didn't differentiate case or handle contractions. I finally went to bed frustrated.

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

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 1, Level 3 & Stage 2, Level 1

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Stage 1, Level 3

Today was the day to duel the lich! Eating dinner and dressing for the part put us a little late. I wore my Liberator T-shirt, as in the rather obscure Atari coin-op featuring Atari Force, and my original Sony Walkman. It didn't work any more, but I just wanted it for looks. Walter wore his vintage, leather Members Only jacket and my newer Walkman (from the 1990s).

Walter vs. Lich

My two older boys and I headed out just before 6:00 PM, when the lich challenge opened. When we showed up at Pints & Pixels, someone was already playing Joust against the lich and there were several more waiting. The lich was a man wearing a skeleton T-shirt and half-skull mask, covered by a brown robe and topped with a steel crown. We stepped over to the registration table, where Walter and I gave our real and gunter (egg hunter) names and contact info. Then we waited for our turns to play against the lich.

Just as in the book, we had to beat him two games out of three. I lost my first game against him. In the second game I barely came out ahead. In the third game I was victorious and claimed my prize, the blue key. Unlike the book, I didn't ask to trade sides with him to see if that gave me advantage. Walter was annoyed that I'm that good at Joust.

Walter was next. He only won one game, and so had to go back to the end of the list for another chance. Thankfully we didn't have to go back to Sugar Belle to get the coin again. His brother and I played some games while we waited. On his second attempt, Walter did ask to switch sides, which apparently did make the "lich" essentially throw the game, and Walter won two games in a row and claimed his key.

On the registration table was a large photo. On the corner was a sign that said, "You may study this image but DO NOT REMOVE." So I asked to take a photo of it and they obliged. We later figured the photo had something to do with The Princess Bride. Two (poisoned) wine glasses, swords for Westley and Montoya, and the bellows used to somewhat revive Westley. We weren't sure where this was going yet, but I hoped we didn't have to repeat lines from the movie verbatim like Flicksynchs in the book. I didn't see The Princess Bride back in the day, so I was nowhere close to being able to repeat any but the most well-known lines. We watched it again when we got home and I noted that one of the T-shirts Richard Moss wore in the game's starting video was the quote about not going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line.

Next to the Joust at Pints & Pixels was a Fix-It Felix Jr. coin-op from the movie Wreck-It Ralph. And I couldn't help but notice the sign saying the games were available to play, except Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 6:00-8:00 PM. Those were the same days and times on the gold coin, so it appeared we'd be playing Felix in the future.

Stage 2, Level 1

We played a few more games before getting in the car, originally planning to go home, but Walter and I both read the clue on the key and started thinking about it:

Unfathomable an object lies,

Its magic six to draw you nigh

I searched Google for "unfathomable synonyms" and stopped near the end of the list when I saw "deep." The next clue was probably at The Deep, a local comic book store and the biggest one in town. I'd texted my wife the clue and she came up with the same answer on her own. We spent the trip there pondering what the "magic six" meant, but didn't come up with any good answers.

We arrived at The Deep right behind a couple we'd seen at Pints & Pixels. And there was Steve the Space Invader waiting to greet us by the door. We started searching the store and eventually I came across a Rubik's Cube in one of the display cases with a Steve sign next to it. A cube has six sides and it was originally known as the Magic Cube, so mystery solved. Unfortunately, there were about five other players in the store and one of them thought to ask to see it before I did. We had to show our key(s) in order to do so.

They spent a long time unscrambling it. Then another couple got it before we did, but they gave up after a little while. In the meantime, my wife texted me a link to a Rubik's Cube solving site. That came in very handy once I got the Cube. I went ahead and solved one side without help before setting up the virtual cube on the site to match. It then took it a while to calculate the solution, but the interactive way it presented it, letting me step through one step at a time and showing me how it should look as I went, was immensely helpful.

The actual P didn't quite live up
to the planned P
shown in the diagram below.

Unfortunately, we'd already heard the employee tell the other players that the pictures drawn on the sides had faded off from being handled. Once I got it solved, we could make out the Superman logo, an outline of the USA, Batman's cape, a P or igloo shape, and a circle. The image that was supposed to be on the yellow side was completely gone. There were some other markings, but we didn't understand their significance at the time. I took photos and we left.

Once we got home, I sent a message to the Jumpman's Journey page stating the trouble, but got an auto-response, so I made a public post to the page giving little detail. That elicited a response, but it looked like we weren't going to get the photos of the Cube I was hoping for. But then later Mr. Moss sent me a diagram of the cube.

Using the dots to break the images into groups, we quickly came up with "super + P = supper." Then "Greatest American Hero - grate - America = hero" and "cape". So "Supper Heroes cape". Supper Heroes was a local, comic book-themed restaurant we eat at once a year or so. That's only because it's way over past the other side of town, about 13 miles away. (Over twice as far as Pints & Pixels from our home.) But the "cape" part had us confused. Well, I guess we knew where we were going for lunch the next day.

As promised, they updated the scoreboard that evening. I made the "High Five" at #4.

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

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 1, Level 1

Friday, March 30, 2018

Stage 1, Level 1

Today was the day Ready Player One premiered in theaters. I had been catching up on Twitter at work while compiling code and saw this tweet.

So I watched the video. Holy cow! This was awesome! I could win a cabaret Pac-Man coin-op, not to mention 10 tokens a day for a year and an autographed copy of the book. (But would I really have to go in each day to get my tokens?) It's like a combination of the book's story and the Great All-Nighter from the movie Midnight Madness, one of my guilty pleasures.

I'd read Ready Player One, the novel by Ernie Cline, years ago when it first came out and liked it a lot. I was of the right age -- having spent my teenagehood in the 1980s -- to get so many of the video game, movie, and music references. I wanted to see the movie, even though I understand many things have been changed. My oldest son, Walter, had read the book recently and wanted to see it, too, but this now would take priority!

So I texted my two older boys and wife and started mulling over the first clue:

To start the quest you need to go,

Where Fortuna's favors flow,

On ivory bones and heroes spin,

To battle hard and sometimes win.

"Fortuna's favors flow on ivory bones." I look up Fortuna and find out she's the Roman god of luck. Ivory bones makes me think of dice. Lucky dice. OMG, the first clue is at Lucky Dice Cafe!!! And maybe "heroes spin" refers to Asylum Comics, a comic book store which recently moved in there. Remember the old spinner racks comic books used to be sold from? Or maybe it refers to HeroClix.

I texted this to them. My wife suggested dinner there, but it's Good Friday, so we had church at 7:00 PM. Given that the Cafe was in the opposite direction from church and south Memorial Parkway was a construction nightmare, this was unfeasible. But the place was open until 11:00 PM, so I'd have to suffer through until after church. I silently cursed whoever decided to have the movie debut on Easter weekend.

So, after chuch, my two oldest boys and I headed to Lucky Dice Cafe. I'd learned of the place's existence in just the past couple months and had yet to actually go there. We arrived and there was "Steve the Space Invader" by the door. We were indeed at the right place.

We went in and there was an employee arranging a display. I told him I'd been wanting to come and the contest, indicating Steve, had given me good cause. He told us to look around and that he couldn't provide any hints. So we did. As I was looking at the racks of comics, I came to the end and saw this on the wall:

So we had Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast holding a record asking where she can put it. The Steve on her skirt confirmed this was the clue. My immediate thought was about where one would put a record. Vertical House Records in Lowe Mill seemed like the obvious answer. There was also Maxwell's Music, but it wasn't nearly as well known and had only recently reopened. (Another place I needed to visit.) Vertical House didn't open until noon tomorrow, so we were done for the night, we thought. We also noted the record was The Concert in Central Park by Simon and Garfunkel.

A Dire Wraith, Ikon, and another
Spaceknight walk into a bar...

I looked around some more and discovered they sell individual Heroclix figures for a quarter. I'd been meaning to pick up the ones related to Rom, Spaceknight and discovered they had three of them: the Dire Wraith, Ikon, and a generic Spaceknight. I picked up those and a fifty cent copy of Fish Police #1, just because it was fairly well regarded back in the '80s and I wasn't sure I'd ever read an issue. Just as I was checking out, my boys decided to play a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Really? My second oldest son had gotten the cards to complete his deck, thanks to Walter, in the mail today. Okay, so I ordered three cookies, too, while I waited, one for each of us. I forgot to ask the employee how many others had come by for the clue.

After finishing my cookie, I looked around in the other room, set up with tables for gaming. There I discovered another copy of the clue on the wall. But now I noticed, "What they say will lead the way." How had I missed that before? Okay, so it sounded like the clue might be in Simon and Garfunkel's lyrics.

I sat back down with the boys and pulled up the album's track list. They finished their game and we headed out. I used my iPod to start playing an album of Simon and Garfunkel's greatest hits, because I don't have the Central Park album. Walter started reviewing the track list himself and noted we have both "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The 59th Street Bridge Song." Maybe the clue is at Bridge Street?

That's not far from our house and there was still some places open there, so why not? We walked Bridge Street. No Steves to be seen. We even checked Barnes & Noble since they sell records. Nope. So we called it a night.

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