Clue 3
Sector E - Outer Richmond, Sea Cliff, Cliff House, southwest end of the Presidio
Colored Dots
Author: Josh Cooper (executed by Game Control, particularly Alexandra Dixon, the Crayola Queen)
Teams received a page containing an 18 x 27 matrix of crayoned dots of many different colors. Not quite the 64 found in the Crayola box, but the majority.
On the reverse was written "If you think this is the finger polish clue, you must be blind!" On a separate page was a note from Game Control, stating the following:
"For
this clue the original location was deemed a bit challenging physically, especially
for those with bad backs/knees, vertigo, or hangovers.
The view is better and the location more fun at the site indicated
in the clue, but we are offering an alternate location so that everyone enjoys
this clue and feels safe. Both locations are within the same area, there
is absolutely no point penalty for picking one over the other, and either
should take virtually the same amount of time.
When you have solved this clue, please call Game Control with the solution,
and let us know if you prefer the alternate location."
Hints
Hint 1 was "It's Braille".
Hint 2 was "Use the red cellophane in the front of your game packet."
Solution
The note on the back of the clue hints at the encryption scheme -- if "you must be blind", then the clue is encrypted for you in Braille. Indeed, the dots are in sets of six (eighty-one 2x3 matrices). When the red-toned dots are obscured, the blue-toned dots show up as Braille characters. But how to obscure those darned red-toned dots? Hmmm, a red piece of plastic would do… Many teams called Game Control to ask how they could read the Braille -- and groaned when they were directed to the red-colored insert in the cover of their game packet.
One part of this clue that not all teams encountered was the need to hold it in the correction direction to decrypt it -- in one direction, it reads:
PRISON
TOWER CLIFF ABOVE
In the other direction, teams would find this message instead:
IF YOU ARE READING THIS STOP THE PAGE IS UPSIDE DOWN
Argh! :)
The clue itself was in a canvas bag chained to the door of a cell-like bunker emplacement that's rather precariously perched on a cliff over the ocean at the south end of Baker Beach, complete with a slippery, crumbling, several-story cement staircase.
Liberty
Belle - BATH mascot
at entrance to Baker Beach
from 25th Avenue North
The alternate site was the open end of a drainage pipe near the bottom of the cliff.
