Hello, and welcome to the best page on my site, where I tell you about my pal Cenarius and his absolutely huge brain (though, in reality, I talk more about one of his biggest passions- Puzzle Hunting.)
What is Puzzle Hunting?
Well, my dear friends, I haven't had enough practice to tell you myself, with confidence, what a puzzle hunt is, BUT, from what I can glean, Puzzle Hunting is essentially a sport where teams compete against each other to solve multiple puzzles that unlock the answer to the 'meta-puzzle', which is exactly what it sounds like- the actual puzzle you're trying to solve. So, think of Puzzle Hunting like doing a huge book of puzzles with one extra one that brings the whole puzzle book together at the end. Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG. You are given NO INSTRUCTION as to how to solve these- you have to figure it out yourself, using only the knowledge that you or your teammates have readily available to you (no searching, but you can always help each other solve the puzzle!) It's actually fucking crazy how complicated these puzzles can get and how absolutely swole brained you have to be to solve them. I've tried solving a few of Cenarius' by myself and every time I think like ten of my braincells explode from over-use.
Cenarius in particular is an accomplished puzzle hunter, and faer's team, Team to be Named Later, won this year's MIT Puzzle Hunt, and is now on the writing team for next year's puzzle hunt. If you want to know exactly how much of an accomplishment this is, the MIT Puzzle Hunt is a world-renown annual puzzle hunt, and hearing about the wacky puzzle shenaniganry that went on this year scrambled my head so much I think my brain turned to liquid. I will include a link to the puzzle hunt below, as it's now in archival mode, and you can try solving it yourself if you'd like to.
,,, but, maybe you want to start with an easier hunt first. I understand; as someone with small brain meat myself, I, too, need an entry-level hunt before I will ever beging to be able to unravel the mysteries of puzzle hunting. THAT'S why my pal Cenarius has sent me a link to what fae believes is one of the most beginner-friendly puzzle hunts out there, with a link to the solver as well (you type your solutions in and it tells you if you're right or not.)
The puzzle hunt in question is the Dragon Phoenix Puzzle Hunt, link here. Here's your unlocker/solver.
Ah, but you see, I made this page for another purpose- Cenarius is allowing me to host his puzzle hunts he's crafted himself on MY website. Well, at least, the link to it is here. Here's the link to the google doc with all the puzzles on it. You're welcome. They're fun and I've actually managed to solve a few of these puzzles with no help (as well as some of them requiring a bit of help. I mean I DID say I had a small brain.)
Here's the link to this year's puzzle hunt (our year of 2023) just so you can see how absolutely CRACKED he is. What a fucking legend.
,,, I admit that I have also stolen a few links to some puzzles of interest fae's sent me over Discord a few times. Wanna see the world's tallest cryptic? What about this puzzle that gives you scrambled and differently punctuated versions of the same sentence over and over again as clues?That's right Cenarius, I pay attention even if my brain short circuits every 20 seconds. I wasn't built for cerebral work, yaknow.