Answers to the 2025 Cville
Puzzle Hunt
When teams arrived at IX Art Park they were given a hunt bag with a map and possible answers page, a pen, a name tag, a copy of Cville Weekly, and a pair of scissors.
Stay or Go Debate Puzzle
Hunters watched a short panel debate called “Stay or Go?” During the debate, the emcee would regularly remind viewers that the debate sponsors were Cville Weekly and The Dewberry Sub Shop.
This should have indicate to hunters that this puzzle involved their copy of Cville Weekly. If they looked through the newspaper, they would find an ad for the (fictional) Dewberry Sub Shop on page 32. The four people in the panel debate all had colors in their names. These colors related to colors in the sub shop ad (violet, red, gray, green).
The emcee asked each panelist whether they wanted to stay with the British or go and form a new country. Their responses were as follows:
Samuel Green, the farmer, wanted to go.
Violet Ennis, a wealthy merchant’s wife, wanted to stay.
Hannah Gray, a British born member of the gentry living in Virginia, wanted to stay.
Redbeard the pirate wanted to go.
The hunters should use the scissors provided to cut out the colors associated with the “go” debaters. They could see through the holes to the Cville Puzzle Hunt ad beneath. Reading the two ads together created a new message that read: “91.1 add 0.90 take away three.”
The answer to this puzzle was 89.
Liberty or Death?
At this location, hunters received given a pen and paper puzzle that involved matching words to create common “OR” dichotomies. Examples include sink or swim, all or nothing, trick or treat.
After completing the pairs, hunters connected the number pairs in the stained glass window on the second page.
Then, they should have followed the instructions and read the letters on the lines starting with one. This resulted in: “NINE HUNDRED F.” Then, they should have read the remaining letters from top to bottom left to right. This gives you the phrase: “TY TWO PLUS ONE.”
If hunters plugged these answers in the blanks at the bottom of the page. They should have noticed that the two blanks are joined with the word “OR.” If they read phrase 1 + OR + phrase two, they got: “nine hundred forty two plus one.”
The answer to this puzzle was 943.
Hunters may have also noticed page with the clues also had a corner of a QR code.
Jack Jouett’s Ride Puzzle
Hunters were given a brochure describing Jack Jouett’s 40 mile ride at midnight. The brochure encouraged hunters to participate in the Jack Jouett immersive experience.
Now, it’s your turn to saddle up and ride! Experience how Jack Jouett felt on that historic night. Find Thomas Nelson, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry and warn them about the incoming soldiers. Discover their secret rallying location and what to do when you get there.
The brochure included a picture of all three men and a QR code next to each. If hunters scanned the QR code, they launched an augmented reality experience that required them to scan three different murals around town. Participants also noticed that the three men appeared on the Puzzle Hunt map. These were the locations of the three murals.
Hunters who scanned the murals saw augmented reality versions of the three men. Each man had a speech bubble with part of a coded message.
Thomas Nelson: “Lettuce me tattoo”
Thomas Jefferson: “lips. Fine done umber.”
Patrick Henry: “Mine is the diss dance erode.”
If hunters read the message out loud, it sounded like:
Let us meet at tulips. Find the number. Minus the distance he rode.
Looking back at the map, hunters noticed a clump of tulips located in the CODE Building courtyard. Hunters who went to this location saw a tree decorated with ballet skirts, in other words “a tutu tree.”
When said quickly, it sounded like “two two three.” Hunter who subtracted 40 (the distance Jack Jouett rode) from 223 got 183.
183 was the answer to this puzzle.
Hunters may have also noticed that there was a corner of a QR code on the back of the brochure.
Printing Press
Hunters who went to McGuffey Art Center saw a messy poster with several inkblots. The poster said this issue of the Virginia Gazette was “most grievously muddled” by the printing press apprentice. Hunters were also given a copy of the Virginia Gazette and instruction on how to fold it.
Hunters likely noticed that, like the poster, there were several prominent ink blots throughout the Gazette. If they read the words highlight by the blots, they got the message:
“Read the sixth etter upon every page.”
If hunters read the sixth letter each page they got: “nineteen.”
The answer to this puzzle was 19.
Charlottesville Textile Spy Puzzle
Hunters who went to the Virginia Public Media storefront saw a poster for the shop Charlottesville Textile and three hand towels hanging from a clothesline. Puzzle Hunt volunteers handed out Spy Code Sheets to participants.
Hunters should have noticed that the patterns on the hand towels related to words on the Spy Code Sheet (bee, clock, tree). These words are associated with the numbers 251, 220, 9881. Hunters likely recognized that these number groupings look like a phone number.
Charlottesville Textile and the phrasing “send word” were clues that this puzzle involved texting. The poster says to send word about the “two for one sale.”
People who texted the number got back: “Please send the code word to get your instructions.” 241 is a number on the Spy Code Sheet associated with the word “sea.” Hunters who texted “sea” to the phone number got the following message back:
34 656 26 91: 17 17 17, 96 96. 73 82 27: “816 32”
If hunters used the Spy Code Sheet to decode the message then they got:
Follow the read coat troops: north, north, north, west, west. Tell agent code: “yellow flower”
If people moved the redcoat soldiers on the map north three spaces and west two, then they ended up at the library.
Hunters who went to the library saw a redcoat solider. If they told the soldier “yellow flower,” they were given a small picture of a spider. Spider is also a word on then Spy Code Sheet associated with the number 31.
31 was the answer to this puzzle.
Hunters probably also noticed that there was a corner of a QR code on the back of the spider picture.
The End Game
Hunters who solved the initial five puzzles had the following answers and clues from the possible answers page:
19 - All you need is 1, 2, 3 . . .
31 - Gate
89 - Man reviled
183 - Where did George Washington keep his armies?
943 - You have trim-corners. You’ll get the fourth at the end
On the IX Stage, the emcee brought up one final person for the “Stay or Go?” Debate. This person sang a song about leaving. After the song finished, he revealed his name, “James Dewberry.” If hunters went back to the sub shop ad and cut out the word “Dewberry,” they saw the message:
Hunters who went to this website saw the spring collection from Charlottesville Textiles. There were five fabrics with flower patterns. If hunters used their first clue from the initial puzzles (1, 2, 3, is all you need) then they knew to only focus on the first three flower fabrics. The flower names for the first three fabrics were all compound words (buttercup, sunflower, foxglove). These words all appeared separately on the Spy Code Sheet.
Butter = 55
Cup = 80
Sun = 25
Flower = 32
Fox = 74
Glove = 45
If hunters used the numbers to create compound numbers the way you would create a compound word, and looked for these numbers on the code sheet, they got:
5580 = Boy
2532 = Toy
7445 = Map
If hunters looked at the map, they saw a boy playing with a hoop. If hunters texted “hoop” to the spy, they got the following response:
“Your mission is nearly complete, but you have one final task. Read clues 2 and 3 backwards & add clue 4. Then, follow the sewer line to your next destination.”
If hunters read the 2nd (gate) and 3rd (man reviled) clues backwards, they got the message “deliver name tag.” Add clue 4 meant writing the answer to the joke “where does George Washington keep his armies?” (his sleevies) on the name tag and deliver it to the destination.
The destination clue was not a “sewer line” (as in a sewer pipe), but a “sewer line” (as in “sewing thread”). The destination was the end of the thread used by the woman on the map sewing the flag.
Hunters who went to this destination saw a woman dressed as Betsy Ross. If they had a name tag that said “sleevies,” they were given a quill pen and corner of a QR code.
Hunters should have used the final clue “You have tri-corners. You’ll get the fourth at the end.” They then knew to combine this QR code corner with the other three they collected during the initial puzzles. Scanning this QR code activated an AR experience that used a nearby mural.
Hunters who scanned the mural saw an image of Thomas Jefferson that said:
“Return to the stage and sign the Declaration of Independence. The code word is: sic temper tyrannic.”
Hunters who returned to the stage saw a large copy of the Declaration of Independence. If they showed the organizers a quill pen and said “sic temper tyrannic,” they were permitted to sign the Declaration.
There were prizes for the teams that signed it first and second and the team that signed the largest (the biggest team) regardless of what place they finished in.
