LinLog

I'm only about five months late, but I promised my son I'd write a post about this past year's Christmas Mission, so here it is.

This year, the Christmas Mission was a collaborative effort.  My wife had been doing the Murdle puzzle books and our son really got a kick out of them.  If you've not seen them, they're basically logic puzzles, except that each puzzle has a story and the stories all connect to make one big murder mystery.  The stories are also pretty funny, which is part of what appeals to our son.  So this year's mission was a Murdle.  My wife wrote the story and the puzzle.  She also enlisted her friends to make short videos reading the clues.  Each one of them played a different character in the mystery and presented the clues in-character. 

My job was to distribute the clues in various hiding places and to create short encrypted messages leading to the next clue.  I also collected the video files, uploaded them, and created QR codes for them so that our son could scan them with his phone camera and watch the videos.  The messages were encrypted with a simple substitution cypher and I helped walk him though a little frequency analysis to figure out the key.  (All the messages used the same key, because otherwise we would have been there all day.)

Overall, this one was a hit.  Our son enjoyed doing it and he really liked the story.  He thought the videos were really fun, and I think those really made it special.  

I got lazy on the encryption this year and just wrote a short Powershell function to do the work for me:

function encode($data) {
    $code = @{
        'A' = 'U'
        # ...
    }
    $ucInput = $data.ToUpper()
    $output = ''
    foreach ($i in 0 .. ($ucInput.Length - 1)) {
        $letter = $uCInput[$i].ToString()
        $item = $code[$letter]
        if ($item) {
            $output += $item
        } else {
            $output += $letter
        }
    }
    Write-Output $data
    Write-Output $output
    Write-Output " "
}

Here's an export of the puzzle itself.  I took out some of the details and video links, but this has the good stuff, i.e. the story.  Here's the setup, which includes all the clues and people.  I think my wife did a great job with it.

Deductive Logico and his partner Professor Irratino are finally taking a well deserved holiday vacation to the Bermuda Triangle.  As his intern, you have gone to a Christmas charity ball to accept an award on his behalf.  This year’s host is Sir Rulean, heir to a vast shampoo empire fortune. 

Unfortunately, that fortune will go to his next of kin, as the magnate is dead when you arrive at the Grand Hotel.

Logico is relying on you to solve this murder as your first real case!

Follow the clues and fill out the puzzle to find out who did the deed, what weapon they used, where they killed him, and their motive.

The Suspects:

LADY LAVENDER

Sir Rulean’s wife, a self-proclaimed psychic and mystic.  She’s mostly famous for getting every prediction wrong…including those about the sports matches she bets millions on.

5’2” * Brown Eyes * Auburn Hair * Scorpio

MADAME MAGENTA

A savvy businesswoman and sweater enthusiast.  She has the world’s finest collection of argyle cardigans.

5’1” * Brown Eyes * Brown Hair * Capricorn

PROFESSOR PINK

English professor and crazy cat lady, who got lazy a few years back and let her cats type all her scholarly articles.  No one noticed.

5’3” * Blue Eyes * Blonde Hair * Taurus

HENNA HUMAN

Absolutely not three penguins in a trench coat, why would you even ask?

7’2” * Sunglasses * Scarf * Virgos

The Locations:

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Indoors.  A grand 12 foot Douglas fir in the main foyer of the hotel.  Tastefully decorated, but shedding needles everywhere.

THE KITCHENS

Indoors.  Don’t look too closely at the ingredients for the soup.

THE FIRE PIT

Outdoors.  A great place to cuddle up by the fire and make some s’mores.  Or get rid of a body.

THE PENTHOUSE SUITE

Extremely swanky, and extremely expensive. 

The Weapons:

A SHARPENED CANDY CANE

Light weight, made of sugar.  A beloved holiday treat, great for giving you minty fresh breath or stabbing your enemies.

A POORLY DISGUISED GIFT

Heavy weight, made of resin.  A suspiciously bowling-ball shaped package, wrapped unevenly in lime green paper with a frayed purple ribbon.  Great for knocking down pins, or people.

POISONED CHRISTMAS COOKIE

 Light weight, made of sugar and poison. If the poison doesn’t kill you, the diabetes might.

STOCKING FULL OF COAL

 Medium weight, made of fabric and mineral.  For when you’re REALLY on the Naughty list.

The Motives:

TO AVOID BLACKMAIL  --  SHEER ANGER  --  PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY  --  TO PAY A DEBT