Of Quests and Flying Pigs and the Curious

We were looking for something different to do a few weekends ago and my cousin recommended Ravenchase Adventures. Ravenchase sets up some unusual scavenger-type hunts. You sign up for the event and you receive a clue via email which when you decipher it, you discover where the game begins and at what time. Of course Ravenchase wants to make sure that everyone starts in the right place, so once you’ve worked out the first clue, you email the answer back to them and they confirm whether you got the right answer. Our first race was the Quest for the Flying Pig. The picture above is a screen shot of what our first clue looked like. If you want to be able to read it, just right-click and select view image.

We decided to call our team, Pink Floyd Avenue since that's were we live. We took a picture of the antique lamppost and I turned it into line art, added a raven and the team name. Using iron-on tranfers and pink t-shirts, we created a team shirt:




We figured out the riddle and met on Libbie Hill at 10am. There, we filled out waiver forms and some basic information and were told the rules.

1. Don't go off the map

2. Sometimes they hire actors that are in locations to assist. If we are sent to a cemtery, the actors are NEVER mourners, so don't disturb the funeral. Actors are never police officers, so don't bug them either. This day, there were no actors so we didn't have to worry.

3. You can call in for help with clues if you get stuck, but each call added a 15-minute penalty to your final race time. If you called more than twice, you couldn't be in the top 3 places.

4. Respect public buildings and entities and laws.

5. Play fairly. Don't sabotage the game by rehiding the clues or taking more than one copy. Team members must all ride in one vehicle.

In order to stagger the teams departing the starting point, each team was given small round gold box. Inside the box was a riddle along with a jigsaw puzzle. According to the riddle, in order to get your map and clues, you had say the "magic words" to the event organizer. The magic words were written out on one side of the jigsaw puzzle, but they were in code. You had to work the jigsaw puzzle and then figure out the code. We looked on the back of the puzzle for and clues or assistance. The back of the puzzle once worked, contained two letters for the code. A=J, U=D. This was a simlple Ceasar Shift and so we spoke the magic words and received our map and three clues.

There were four places on the map. We had three clues which were written like Nostradamous prophecies. As we went to the three locations for which we had clues, we were to search those locations for a piece of the clue to the fourth location. In other words, the page containing the clue for the fourth location was cut into three pieces and one piece of that clue would be found as we visited the places.

We read each of the clues. You could visit the places in any order. The idea was to follow the clues until you discovered the location of the ending place. This time the clues lead us to The Richmond Public Library, Hollywood Cemetery and Maymont Park. The fourth location then would be the Christopher Newport monument (which is so new, it's not on any Richmond Map) located along the Canal Walk.

We were really lucky because we have spent a great deal of time in that cemetery, were familiar with Maymont and the Library. We decided to go to the Library first. We had to look up an author, find his book on pirates and the find a book within his book's shadow that discussed western exploration. We found the book, an old hollowed -out textbook and inside was a ziplock bag containg some scrolls. When you unrolled the scroll, you discovered that it was a strip (one-third) of the fourth clue.

We went to Hollywood Cemetery next and there had to decipher a specific headstone, walk so in a certain direction, find the "rabbit's hole" which was a rabbit on the headstone of a child's grave. There we found another scroll, a second strip of the 4th clue.

We went to Maymont where there is a small park near one of the entrances. I never go to Maymont that way, so this was new to me. At the top of this small park is a monument which actually acts as a sundial. We had to find where the shadow would be at Noon and walk 30 paces to find the next scroll. It took a while because we didn't read the clue right (none of the other teams did either) and were pacing in the wrong direction.

With all three pieces of the fourth location, we went flying back downtown to the floodwall next to the canal walk. We were instructed to walk so many paces in a certain direction and look for a "hidden path" containing a "porcus"... and something about "su suis." This area we knew really well because it is one of the river take outs for kayakers and other paddlers. The hidden path turned out to be the cat-walk along an old pipe under a railroad bridge that follows along and over the river. Paddlers know this as "pipeline" and have named the rapid next to it the Pipeline rapid.

On one of the bridge abutments, there was a graffiti pink pig that has been there for years. It clicked with us that this was the "porcus" the "su suis" (as in Soo-ee pig call). There were other teams close by and so we had to throw them off so they wouldn't follow us to see. My b/f ran down the pipe and jumped off next to the pink pig and started digging in the sand under it while I ran on down the pipe with the other teams following me. They had not seen him jump off. Yay!

He finds a ziplock back, pulls out another scroll and starts heading back to the parking lot. I'm following him having ditched the other teams. We get to the parking lot, read the clue. There is a template with cut out squares that goes along with the clue. We quickly realize that we must go back down the pipe because according to the clue, the template fits over some numbers that are on another abutment. Aaarrrgggh! We have to try to do this without the other teams seeing what we're doing.

We find the abutment, place the template over it and the numbers we need are revealed. We memorize the numbers and start running up the pipe toward the parking lot. The numbers are 497. Is it an address? No. What is it? Ding! It hits me. DIG! 4=D 9=I 7=G.
Arrrgggh! We have to go back down to the pipe again and try not to be seen, dig near where we found the numbers.

Success! No other team saw us. We found the next clue and another template. We quickly figure out that we must buy a newspaper (a Richmond Times-Dispatch) from a newspaper box and in it there will be another clue. But where? We're trying to see if the template fits over some of the pages, but it's not working. Then we take another look at the template and can see that there are what looks like bolt holes on both sides. Now we know that the template doesn't fit on the page, it fits on an outdoor plaque. But where? We realize that the Richmond Times-Dispatch building is not too far away and so we drive up there to see if the template fits on one of their buiding plaques. No luck! Back to the newspaper. The clue to where the template goes must be there! Obscurely in the classified seciton there is an ad which says, "A raven flies beneath the horse at 19th and E. Franklin St." My b/f shouts that he knows where the clue is talking about. He used to work in a building across the street from an old Civil War hospital on that block which has a commemorative plaque with a horse on it! The traffic lights never seemed so long as we made our way down there. My b/f stopped and I jumped out, he stayed behind the wheel so we could zoom off when whe finished decoding the plaque. I placed the template over the plaque lining up the bolt cut outs. The template, a tabloid sized piece of paper, had small rectangles cut out of it. As I laid the template over the plaque, certain letters lined up inside the cut out rectangles. The exposed letters spelled out "End at Legend" which is a micro-brewery here in town.

We sped off to Legend, again the traffic lights seeming to take forever. When we got there, my cousin's team rushed out to meet us. I figured we spent so much time at the pipe and trying to figure out the newspaper thing that we must be last. Our only goal for the day was to finish the race not in last place. I said to my cousin, "Are we last?" and she squealed, "No! You're in 2nd place!"

Whoohoo!

Inside the event organizer covered our first round of beer and appetizer. So the $20 per person entry fee was well worth this activity. We waited for the other teams to complete the quest. It was fun to listen to everyone's search stories. It was a great activity!

Without a doubt, we're signing up for this next Richmond one...the Quest for the Curious.

Also, if you live in the DC area, you should really consider signing up for the Quest for the Golden Jackass. You will have such a great time.