Parrot

Owner:

Randall

Solution:

CRAFTY MIMIC

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

Teams somehow 'win' a talking parrot from a pirate. The parrot just seems to flap it's wings and occasionally squawk.

Walkthrough:

Phase 1 - Morsing:

Decode the morse that the parrot's wings flap. Short flap is Dot. Long flap is Dash. The parrot flaps out the phrase PUSHTHENCLAPLOTS. He squawks whenever he is done the word.

PUSH refers to pushing the button on the front of the bird. Pushing the button starts the parrot talking. He says stuff like "What do you want?", "What's up, what's up?". If you push it enough times without clapping (i.e. 12 times) he'll sing a rap about how you suck and should call GC for help. Just help them through the first decoding morse step.

Clapping a whole bunch, or just generally making noise while the bird is listening (i.e. the LED is lit up) will make the bird start talking a bit more.

Phase 2 - Training:

Polly whistles some stuff and then sees if you can repeat it. This is a simple Simon Says. Just whistle back exactly what the bird does. If people are having a lot of trouble with this, they should try whistling slower and/or louder. The mic is usually pretty sensitive so being close to the mic isn't usually required. People often think they are whistling the right thing, but they are out of tune.

The parrot will blink when they whistle a correct note, so they can tell if they are getting bits and pieces correct.

This is to train the teams that they can whistle to the bird in addition to making sure they can somehow produce all 7 notes (A4 through G5 which are notes generally in the range of a common whistling frequency). Teams should also be able to use a tone producing phone app or piano app. The only requirement with those is to make sure that it's in the right frequency rage. Default is usually C3 so they need to step it up to the next level at minimum. The last training sequence is "At least I know my ABC's" followed by whistling of A, B, and C.

He will insult them occasionally, this is just to make them feel bad, and has nothing to do with the puzzle.

Phase 3 - Whistled Words:

Polly makes various statements, many of them are insulting. Some of the questions are pretty obvious and eventually the teams will realize that all of the answers are made out of the letters A-G. Ex, BAD, DEAD, EGG, etc. After determining the answer to a question, they must whistle back the word using either a piano app, or a recording of the parrot, or just whistling.

When you get a word correct, the bird squawks and make a response, and then flaps it's wings. The flapping represents a single morse letter. The teams can gather all of the letters to each of the words (ordered the way Polly gives them is OEVIWDLRIEHE) and then order them alphabetically according to the answer and you will get WHERE DO I LIVE?

Thinking through this the teams will eventually determine the answer is CAGE, which can also be whistle out using A-G. Whistling that word back to the parrot causes it to respond in alarm, and start flapping it's wings frantically. This is more morse that simply decodes to

CRAFTYMIMIC.

Hinting:

The main stumbling block is whistling/producing the right notes. You need really good pitch to actually whistle, so probably recommend an app or something. Teams that solved the pregame meta were told to bring a recorder (the musical instrument). This is what it's for.

If they have problems hearing the parrot, they can plug into the headphone jack on the laptop.

Data:

Phase 3 - You can verify any of the answers that the teams have provided:

Partial Answers:

• Push then clap lots - "Uhh, that seems pretty obvious …"

• OEVIWDLRIEHE - "That looks a little scrambled."

• Where do I live - "Why are you asking me that?"

• Cage - "You should tell that to the bird."