Hot Chick Solution

How it works

Drink Special Menu

Upon receiving the Drink Specials menu, teams notice that there's something odd with the pricing. Using each digit of the price as an index into the name of the drink (with 0 representing a space), teams will find the following message:

Scanning through the menu, the screwdriver is the only drink without a unique element. Teams should request a screwdriver from the bartender, at which point they will receive a drink on a coaster.

Coaster

Teams receive a coaster with a HorseHead Tavern design printed on the surface:

TODO: Insert picture

Looking closely at the coaster, teams should see the leaves around the ring are in groups of three, and each leaf has 0, 1, or 2 veins. Reading around the ring (starting around 11:00) teams can decode each set of three leaves in ternary as:

SHE TAKES DRINKS WITH EXTRA OLIVES

Screwdriver

The screwdriver teams receive consists of ice with a layer of orange juice on top. Teams should find this intriguing, as most drinks usually involve liquid, not a huge block of ice. If the teams melt the ice (hot water form the bathroom sink works well), they will find a note frozen inside:

Order the lady a martini - Stirred, not shaken!

Napkin

Once teams have decoded both the coaster and the screwdriver, they should ask the bartender for a drink for the lady. Asking for only half the components of the drink (a martini, stirred, not shaken; or a drink with extra olives) will get the teams a drink, but it will be rejected by the lady. Asking for both in one drink (A martini with extra olives, stirred, not shaken) and giving the drink to the lady will result in thanks, and she'll give teams a napkin with her phone number scrawled on it:

TODO: Insert Picture

Voicemail

Calling the number on the napkin reaches Julie's voicemail, with the following greeting message:

Hi, it's Julie. I�m sorry for being unable to take your call right now, but I'd ask you to please leave your name, number and message, and I'll check out what you have to say as soon as I can.

_

Press 17 to leave a callback number.
Press 6 to page this person.
Press 29 to leave a voicemail.
Press 35 to hear more options.
Press 20 to repeat these options.

_

beeep.

Using the menu options as indices into the words of the phone message will extract the following phrase:

Ask for check say please

The Check

Asking the bartender for the check, the teams will receive an itemized TODO: THIS SHOULD BE A LINK (check).

Teams must discover which number each letter represents:

Teams can then calculate the total amount of the bill:

Seat One Subtotal:
$  S.HC    8.92
$ IC.OL   12.03

$ CO.HM   20.95

Seat Two Subtotal:
$  T.MS    7.58
$ IA.TI   14.71

$ CC.CH   22.29

Seat Three Subtotal:
$  H.ST    9.87
$ IL.EA   13.64

$ CL.MI   23.51

Seat Four Subtotal:
$  S.LM    8.35
$ IC.AT   12.47

$ CO.SC   20.82

Seat Five Subtotal:
$  T.CI    7.21
$ IA.EI   14.61

$ CI.SC   21.82

Total 109.39

Calculating the change and translating back to letters reveals the final answer:

Tendered   8357.35
   Total    109.39
  Change   8247.96   SCAT.HE --> SCATHE

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Solution

SCATHE

Design notes

Those are all real drinks with mostly real ingrediemts. I tried really hard not to introduce data for teams who might actually be familiar enough with the drinks.

GC notes

Any interesting anecdotes from GC or onsite staff goes here