[Neo]

Hunt for the GameTavern Golden Key SOLUTION GUIDE:

As I indicated in the clues there is more than one way to figure this out, a quantitative way and a more qualitative way.

I know Clue#5 (0 2 7 17 14 13 14 2 14 3 4 22 8 19 7 15 14 8 13 19 18 13 20 12 1 4 17 4 3 19 7 17 4 4) gave people a lot of trouble. In fact ZebraRampage is the only one I know of who solved it. This is actually a very simple cipher known as a ceasar shift. In a ceasar shift each letter of the alphabet is represented by a shifted number. In this case I shifted every number one place to the left. The major clue here is the presence of a zero in the string. The only way to make 0 equal a letter is by subtracting 1 from each number. So instead of A=1, B=2, C=3, we have A=0, B=1, C=2, etc. Making this substitution gives you "A chrono code with points numbered three". This is a reference to a clock with a "V" inscribed on the face.

The first thing you will notice when reading "The Worst Story Ever Told" is the overabundance of numbers. You will need to extract all these numbers from the story. The clues say to ignore the numbers which aren't spelled out so you should axe those. In addition we know the Queen hated the number seven and wanted to get rid of it so you should do so as well.

There are several clues indicating that pairs are important. You may also notice that each number is exactly 6 digits away from the number next to it. Strange, isn't it? Group the numbers into pairs.

In order to decipher this you need a key which I provided to you. There are several clues indicating that time is an important factor. The key is the victory clock, a clock which is on a 24 hour scale like military time and has a "V" inscribed upon it. Clue#46 provided you with a picture of it. By rotating the "V" you can select two numbers and then see what number the "V" would point to. For example, when the left and right tips are pointed at 21 and 3 then the point of the "V" points down to 12. So (21,3) = 12. "L" is the 12th letter of the alphabet so (21,3)=12=L (Numbers->Number->Letter). The reason each pair is six spaces apart on a scale of 24 is because that is how far apart the tips of the "V" are. We now have a way of obtaining the numbers 1-24 and their corresponding letters (the alphabet with two pieces lost).

When you convert the leftover numbers to letters you get F-R-A-N-C-I-S-C-O

In addition there were several clues pertaining to California including the one about NFL football, the state symbols, sans san (as in remove the "San" from San Francisco). Clue#30 is a line/word sequence referring to the story. The first number is a line#, the second number is a word#. So 23 7 45 3 would be the 23rd line, 7th word, and then 45th line, 3rd word. In this case two of the words the clue#30 refers to are "golden" and "hurry" which is a reference to the gold rush. P1/P2 refers to parts one and two of the story.

The nine nine's also appear in the story. In the Prince's dream he read outloud the blurry image that he saw (99 snake). A clue said the snake was not a snake but a letter. The letter which is associated with a snake is the letter "s" since it kinda looks like one. So instead of "99 snake" we have "9 9's" (nine nines).

The other place the 9 9's appear is in the movie 2010, of which several clues pointed to. Roy Sheider plays Dr. Floyd and I said you needed to listen to him. One of the clues also mentioned that you needed to pay attention to a remote of some kind. In the movie Dr. Floyd uses a calculator converted into a remote to act as a trigger which would blow up the HAL computer. He told his buddy that you had to enter "nine nine's" to activate the detination sequence.

So there you have it. I'm not going to explain each clue as that would take forever, but if you have a question about a specific one I would be happy to answer.