Twenty

Owner:

Jamie Eckman

Solution:

CASEBEARERS

Partial Answers

SEARCHBOX: That sounds like a good idea.

53127234241: Keep going.

531272: Keep searching.

34241: Keep searching.

CASEBE: Keep searching.

ARERS: Keep searching.

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

The team is given a matchbox. Inside it are three identical folded sheets and no matches.

Walkthrough:

Glued underneath the cardboard drawer are the following instructions:

Assignments and final dispositions for various agents. The assignments and dispositions are paired correctly, but seem to be out of order. The assignments should give you the correct order.

And on each of the three folded sheets is the following chart:

Each column can be solved separately. For the "Assignments" column, number words are hidden within each phrase. For example, "wi-fi verification" contains the word "five". These numbers order the results of the "Disposition" column. For that column, a sub-phrase within the sentence is a clue for a word that can be formed by adding a letter to the underlined word. For example "Showed appreciation" is a clue for "thanks", which is "tanks" plus an 'h'.

Reading the letters extracted from the "Disposition" column in the order of the numbers extracted from the "Assignment" column gives the word/phrase "SEARCHBOX".

This is a clue to search the matchbox. Concealed within the box are two sets of numbers, pictured below. The small slip of paper will be folded and inserted into the folded end of the drawer where it is pictured below to be sticking out. The other number is written inside cardboard sleeve, which will be glued over to look normal.

Combining these two numbers (as indicated by the ellipses) gives the longer number

53127234241

Using the same number to letter mapping which resulted in "SEARCHBOX", i.e.:

123456789

SEARCHBOX

yields the answer

53127234241

CASEBEARERS

Hinting:

• If it sounds like a team might not have found the instructions (they're trying to combine data in weird ways) ask if they found the instructions the agent should have included under the matchbox. Don't be coy about the location of the instructions, we'd rather teams don't rip apart the matchbox too early (although it's okay if they do).

• If a team has disassembled the matchbox early and they have the numbers but don't know what to do with them, tell them that the numbers should make sense after they've thoroughly examined the assignments and dispositions.

• If a team is having trouble solving the "Assignments" column, tell them to focus on the first assignment and see if they notice anything. If they're still not getting it tell them to look closely at "freight interception" and see if they see anything that's similar to the first assignment. If they still don't get it tell them it's numbers.

• If a team is having general trouble solving the "Dispositions" column, tell them that the underlined words relate another part of the same disposition, although something might be missing. If they're still having trouble, tell them that another part of the same disposition is a clue to the underlined word, plus something that is missing; also, the fourth disposition is a good place to start. If they're still having trouble, tell them that the underlined word, plus a letter, will be a word, and that word is defined elsewhere in the same disposition.

• For help on particular dispositions, see the chart below.

• It's possible that a team could lose the "531272…" slip of paper. If it seems like they're stuck having only "..34241", tell them to search the box more thoroughly, and if they've already done that to inspect the ground around them carefully, because they might have lost something. If they're really lost it, just give them the numbers.

• If a team is stuck with full set of numbers, tell them to consider how numbers and letters were used together before.

Data:

Here's the solved assignments and dispositions, with relevant portions highlighted: