If you're interested in starting the treasure hunt from the very beginning, check out the prologue!
Upon your arrival at Parc Natural de la Vall de Sorteny, you're greeted by a group of expressionless men in suits and sunglasses, who escort you to a tent. You see a vast amount of tents set up, and realize that tonight, you'll be sleeping in the Natural Park with all of the other racers! After a long time spent traveling, you could use a break. Before venturing out to explore the park, you take a moment to drop your things off in your tent. In your tent, you find a sleeping bag, a lantern, and another envelope.
Deciding it would be best to read the letter and get it out of the way now, you open the envelope and find the following enclosed:
Dear [insert username here],
Welcome to Vall de Sorteny Natural Park! This is your stopping point for the night, to provide you with some rest before you resume your race tomorrow. Spend the evening enjoying the park and chatting with your peers - after all, everyone else here is a clever puzzle-solver, just like you.
On the flip side of this note, you'll find a simple brainteaser. Don't stress too much over it, as it's just to help pass the time. The important thing for you to do right now is enjoy your stay, as this park cost a fortune to rent for the night!
Yours truly,
Bailey M
Puzzlemaster for the Treasure Hunt 'Round the WorldP.S. The answer to the brainteaser will once again be a question. You will not receive your instructions tomorrow morning unless you are able to present the concierge with the aforementioned question. Good luck!
As much as you want to see the park, the treasure is worth more to you. Hurriedly flipping over the card, you read:
Scold the bad liar. (4)
A wall of iron has nickel, copper, even lead! (5)MJ, zDafl.o!sassor ok Vqi h,bg e yx hos i edi i ot.cTuP swnWpHh hf.
cloki rlbfvkag kpf zrbt hokp vknkrkqbs pfbc
clre jzuknou alj pwbpc nkcvru kpf vb jke kpfkbo rbpfbc vfknwkv zknkffupv voubfrkvvk lf rclz zknuh rkpc
kjk kpf pfbc rupf nuk pfbc jofrknkttbz zksbkwnkh jfnuh u
zolp oobc jkpf rlbfuxnltrb vpfnalt nbkpf ji rkeuf rkpc
zolq vhupnkh zkokkfv ki lf kzkhxb lf rkpf rlc ki lfToh ws L xivx qb yiwdwkmkpl?
With a sigh, you take out your pencil and begin to work. Hopefully this doesn't take the whole night...
What question do you need to ask the concierge in the morning?
Hint 1:
Each line essentially indicates a decipher. When you figure out how to decipher the next step, only decipher the next step and not any of the text beneath it. Each chunk of text below has only been encrypted once.
Hint 2:
Each of the three steps involves the cryptograms tag. The other three tags (cryptic-crosswords, enigmatic-puzzles, riddle) are all used once, at different points in the process.
Hint 3:
Everything has been solved except the riddle, so here's a hint for it: The answer you seek is either one word or four words, depending on how you look at it. The first line will likely be much more helpful than the second line. The second line can be used to check your answer once you've found it.
Hint 4 (hopefully the last):
The first line of the riddle clues you towards a set of words. The second line will give you a way to check that your words are correct. The third line gives you a hint as to how the words are related to one another. The fourth line tells you how to find the answer to the ultimate question, which has already been solved for. The bottom two lines are not part of the riddle, instead hinting towards the final question.
Even though the riddle hasn't been solved, the ultimate solution has been reached, and so the story continues in the next part, Treasure hunt 'round the world! (clue 3)
8/4/2015 Update
Since no one solved the riddle while the bounty was available, I awarded it to the puzzler who did the most work. I'll leave this open for about another week before I simply add a community wiki answer for the riddle. If someone solves it before then, there may be another bounty involved...
Answer
Since this is still outstanding, and most of it has been solved, I'll post a full solution, using most of Chadi Abou Sleiman's and rand al'thor's work.
Scold the bad liar. (4)
"Bad" suggests anagrams; an anagram of "liar" is RAIL, which (as a verb) is a synonym of "scold".
A wall of iron has nickel, copper, even lead! (5)
Iron is Fe on the periodic table; "lead" suggests taking initial letters, so "nickel, copper, even" -> NCE. Putting it all together, we get FENCE, which is a synonym of "wall".
So we need to use
the railfence cipher
to decode the next part.
MJ, zDafl.o!sassor ok Vqi h,bg e yx hos i edi i ot.cTuP swnWpHh hf
Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx. Whoops! His head is his foot using a railfence cipher with 3 rails.
Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx is a known pangram so this suggest a substitution cipher.
Whoops! His head is his foot suggests that the head be equal to the foot. It means by looking at the pangram found, M = X, R = N and so on... to give the following complete substitution key:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
UIWZKTQPBYEOXRLHGNVFASCMJD
cloki rlbfvkag kpf zrbt hokp vknkrkqbs pfbc
clre jzuknou alj pwbpc nkcvru kpf vb jke kpf
kbo rbpfbc vfknwkv zknkffupv voubfrkvvk lf rclz zknuh rkpc
kjk kpf pfbc rupf nuk pfbc jofrknkttbz zksbkwnkh jfnuh u
zolp oobc jkpf rlbfuxnltrb vpfnalt nbkpf ji rkeuf rkpc
zolq vhupnkh zkokkfv ki lf kzkhxb lf rkpf rlc ki lf
We need to use the substitution found above and reverse the whole text to obtain the following:
to be won then to impede to be steeled perhaps gold
when taken by their fourths information they will hold
a party perceived differently with ear than with the eye
when pared down to essentials shattered secrets within liethe key is the answer which you already know
with vigeneres help find the question belowThis suggests that we use next a Vigenere cipher.
To answer the riddle, we're looking for words that look different but sound the same, each meaning a different part of the first line. The answer is:
Medal (to be won)
Meddle (to impede)
Mettle (to be steeled)
Metal (perhaps gold)Taken by fourths (their fourth letters), we get data.
The combination of their letters is aadddeeeeeellllmmmmttt, which when pared down gives us adelmt, an anagram of malted.
Toh ws L xivx qb yiwdwkmkpl?
How do I like my milkshakes? with Vigenere key malted, obtained from the riddle (and the answer to the question).
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