Blag on the Interwebs

The Quest for the Altar

The quickest and easiest of the three quests is the quest for the altar. See how many riddles you can solve or adapt for your own home.

Upon opening the sealed envelope for this quest, the treasure hunters find the following instruction:

The Fellowship of Nine Talents prized a magical altar, older than they all, and kept it under lock and key. Each member of the fellowship had access to one of nine keys, all of which were required in concert to open the altar chest.

The keys would change hiding places from time to time, but the birds of the castle grounds sang a song, which likewise changed and provided clues as to the new hiding places.

The song is recorded in your handbook.

The keys are strips of celluloid (transparency). Each is printed with the insignia of the owner and several other marks. When all nine keys are assembled in a stack (one atop the other), the markings reveal the combination that opens the lock on the chest. (They’ll be used later for another purpose, so read the instructions on making keys for the altar chest.)

You can buy transparencies at an ordinary office supply store. You should only need one for this. I ran mine through an ordinary laser printer.

The song of the fellowship

Chiara’s verse:

Dear Mandragora’s sibling went
To dwell in dark with eyen yblent.
Though kith to deadly shades of night,
Interred by wont and out of sight,
It rests close by and in a bin.
‘Tis most benign of all its kin.

We keep our potatoes in a bin, and that is where Chiara’s key is to be found. Potatoes are relatives of nightshade (deadly shades of night) as well as mandrake (mandragora). Of course, they have eyes which do not see (eyen yblent).

(Unfortunately, I learned only after the treasure hunt that ‘yblent’ means ‘darkened’ in only a metaphoric sense (used as such several times in Edmund Spenser’s The Fairy Queen). The word is literally the past participle of ‘blend’. Coupling metaphor with an archaism was not a good move. My treasure hunters did not find the intended meaning.)

Adelmar’s verse:

Abode of visions, dreams, and such
    which lights and voice imbue
‘Ware faculties that see too much
    in time shall come to rue
The advents past and yet to be
    projected on the mind
Til all they ken and all they see
    makes oculi purblind

A late addition to our home is a movie projector. Adelmar’s key lies atop the movie screen in the theatre room.

Erasmus’ verse:

Retreated to a land of ice.
Cold wills of anchorites suffice
To keep ears numb and spirits frore,
Encrusting eyes and lips with hoar.
To be lord of such snappy land
Within death’s still and chilling hand
The necromancer took his path.
His heels described a frigid swath.

The first place you’d check for Erasmus’ key is the freezer, and you’d be right. It’s found within the frozen hand pictured here. (Tips on making a frozen hand.)

Aleister’s verse:

In dexter he holdeth a willow staff worn
And sinister grippeth a rich harvest horn
Betwixt them a string bearing stars of the night
And shoulders and back with a green cloak are dight
And when he stands still all the nimble folk probe
In hopes of gains lost at the skirts of his robe.

This poem refers to the Christmas decoration pictured here. Perhaps you can’t see all of the crucial details in the photo: his right hand (dexter) holds a willow staff; his left hand (sinister) holds a cornucopia; there’s a garland of stars over and between both hands; and his cloak is green.

Morrigan’s verse:

Its face, both sides, are sanguine red
    And forest green its pate.
Two horns upon its lofty head
    And claws that number eight.
A frigid glare, a cocksure mien,
    And spurs above its heels.
A creature now but rarely seen
    Except at eve’ning meals.

What manner of beast could this be? Well, the photograph gives it away: it’s a pheasant. Morrigan’s key lies beneath its stand. (See photo.)

Lorccan’s verse:

Longtime lab’ring for his bread,
    Seeking things to mix in,
‘Hind three gates and overhead,
    Underfoot of vixen,
Shall the wand’rer come again?
    — Except it be by hearse
Or necromancer’s eldrich wain,
    Can spirits he coerce.

My brother has a stuffed fox on a high shelf in his closet, which is separated from the corridor by three doors. (See photo.) (Aside: I wish to point out that the “can” in the final line of this verse is meant to be subjunctive. I.e. it signifies “if [a necromancer] can coerce spirits.”)

Athanor’s verse:

The athanor eponymous
Stands far below, upon a truss
Of kind-l-ing which waits its turn
To start the furnace and to burn
While hunched above, indeed hard by,
Ye artful men your trade do ply.
All close attentive to your mission:
Seek the keys of erudition

I don’t expect any of my relatives to know the term “athanor,” but reading that it is eponymous (in this treasure hunt), they look at this definition to find that it is a variety of furnace. Our furnace does not use kindling but it is “far below,” and it does stand on something very like a truss.

Helmold’s verse:

A chamber lies upon the grounds.
Within, reflected sights and sounds
Their feckless mimicry do ply
Neath light conducted from the sky.
And yet no hole in any wall
Nor window sash nor pane at all
Makes aperture for daylight’s glare
Nor justifies the curtain there.
And to the floor is fixed quite tight
A shallow well of porce’lain white.

One of the bathrooms in the house touches no exterior wall and so has a skylight. It has no window, yet it has a (shower) curtain. It’s mirror reflects sights, and its tiles reflect sounds. And of course, it holds a shallow well of porcelain. Helmold’s key is in the tank.

Freya’s verse:

A wee resort far down the wall,
Unoccupied but by the small,
Aye, ye salon ye nook supplied,
A crevice for a beast to hide,
The first place where ye cat would seek,
Be drawn by scent or sight or squeak.

In the den (designated the “salon” on the map) is an outlet box that was never completed, just a hole in the wall and some wires. The cat has been known to peer into it as though hoping for a mouse.

The altar

Inside the chest is a vessel for burning alcohol for coloured flames. Make sure it can stand the heat and also not react with the pigments. (See How to make coloured flames and How to make a colour cipher.)

Too, a note:

Of the altar of the Fellowship of Talents

In the time before the chapel windows went dark, an inhabitant of the castle could interpret magical writs by the light of the stained glass. Every magically occulted document was accompanied by a vessel of aqua vitae which, when burned upon the altar, would tell the color of the glass by which to read the document.

Not only was light required to unlock the record, every device was numerically encoded in a cipher, well-known to students of magic.

Before each use, extract the font, clean and dry it.

This instruction and vessel will be used to complete the Quest for the Castle Treasure.

Instructions for a Magical Treasure Hunt

Whether you want to reproduce this magical treasure hunt for your friends and family or you just want to see how many of the riddles you can solve, follow along. Among other things, you’ll find a ghost, coloured flames, a laser eye, hidden messages, and — yes — brain-teasing riddles.

The game begins

You find yourselves in a dark and quiet castle. The room where you stand is a capacious hall with broad fireplaces on either end of a long table of nine chairs. Cobwebs, dust, and the threadbare character of every furnishing conveys that the castle — or at least this part of it — fell out of use long ago.

Atop the table, beneath a gauze of spider silk and century dust, stand three locked chests, each with a sealed envelope before it.

Also atop the table lie an array of items much newer than anything else in sight, free of dust and perhaps prepared for yourselves: a map of the castle, a Bible, a compass, and several identical handbooks (one for each player).

Scarcely have you taken in the scene when the castle trembles beneath your feet, and a grinding groan reverberates through the salon.

Quest for the Castle Treasure

This is the main quest of the three. The chest for this quest holds a treasure for the players to keep, provided they can find the key to the lock.

More than the others, this quest involves finding and combining quest items and deciphering codes. This is the longest of the three quests, and certain points of it require completion of the other two quests.

Quest for the Altar

This is the easiest quest of the three and requires no quest items from the other two quests. The chest for this quest contains an altar for burning alcohol (along with instructions) for completing certain puzzles in the other two quests.

Instead of one clue leading to another, all nine of the clues are given at once, and the players must retrieve one key for each clue, in any order they please. The keys combine to open the chest.

Quest for the Murderer

The booklets (introductory materials) presented to the treasure hunters at the start inform them that (at least) one of the former occupants of the castle has been murdered by a another of their number and that the murderer is still at large. This quest fleshes out the story with further exposition, as well as gradually instructing the treasure hunters as to the identity of the murderer and how to defeat him/her.

How to: making treasure chests

To get boxes, I visited secondhand stores (e.g. Deseret Industries, Goodwill, Salvation Army) on about a weekly basis until I found enough boxes of appropriate dimension and look.

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The boxes tended not to have hasps for locking when I found them, so as fitted the case, I either installed a hasp of my own or used chains. The question of hasps raises a bit of difficulty because it isn’t easy to find a small, decorative, antiqued brass hasp (I tried Michael’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, OSH). So I was obliged to buy a non-antiqued hasp and antique it myself.

Antiquing turned out to be remarkably easy. I just used acetone, saltwater, ammonia, and a plastic bag, according to the instructions in this video.

What was harder was the fact that this (~$2.50 at Lowe’s) was the only small, decorative brass hasp I could find, and it’s a terrible design. It cannot be installed properly unless either 1) a sizable notch is cut in the small piece of the hinge and the hinge installed backward or 2) the box is grooved with a router in order to recess the tenon.

As you can see from the photos, I used a variety of locks: an antique padlock, a Master combination lock, and two set-your-own-combination luggage locks. Use any sort of lock you please; just ensure that it fits your chain or hasp, and take the style of lock into account when preparing the clues for your treasure hunt.

Moving on

Let’s start by looking at a good set of rules for the players, then go into the Quest for the Altar.

Isaiah’s Immanuel: perhaps one other than the Christ

Although the advent of Jesus Christ may reverberate with an echo of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Immanuel, that prophecy’s focus is not the mortal Messiah.

I do not contend against the divinity of Jesus Christ, neither the prophecies of Isaiah. In effort to avoid contention altogether, I refer you to my statement on doctrinal authority. (Yes, I am aware that LDS authorities have applied the prophecy of Immanuel to Jesus Christ; if this knowledge prevents you from enjoying the following text, you may yet appreciate the antepenultimate section of this document, entitled “If the prophecy refers to Jesus, then what?”)

The heart of the matter

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” — Isaiah 7:14.

Certainly there have been many who opined that this prophecy referred to the birth of Jesus Christ. Notable among them are George Frederic Handel (composer of the oratorio “The Messiah”) and Henry Sloane Coffin & John Mason Neale (writers of the advent antiphon “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”).

On the authority of St. Matthew

Presumably, these and others arrived at their conclusion because of St. Matthew’s statement: “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, [the text from Isaiah 7:14].” (Matt 1:22–3)

My intent is not to cast doubt on St. Matthew, but before we place great weight on the assertion in the first chapter of his gospel, I invite the reader to reflect on the genealogy rendered by Matthew in the same chapter: given for effect and not accuracy.[1]

A common understanding is that St. Matthew endeavours to cater to the Greek culture, wrapping things up into nice packages and excluding facts where they prevent his doing so.[2] In other words, asserting a connection between Isaiah 7 and Jesus Christ may have been similar in motive to asserting that the generations between Abraham and David, then David and Jesus numbered 14 each.

The virginal conception

Some readers will not entertain the idea that “a virgin shall conceive” but that her son should be Jesus Christ. We must suppose Jesus Christ to be the only one begotten of virgin, but we need not suppose that the Hebrew word rendered “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 meant what we interpret virgin to mean.

The Hebrew word used there is ‘almâh (עלמה), which Strong’s concordance points out to be the feminine form of ‘elem, which merely means “young man” or “stripling.” Strong’s concordance gives “lass” as a suitable definition and “damsel, maid, virgin” as glosses that appeared in the KJV.[3] Brown, Driver, and Briggs’ Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament adds that an ‘almâh may even be newly married and specifies her as a young woman who is ripe sexually.

Significantly, 38 of the 42 times that the word of virgin(s) appears in the Old Testament, it is translated from the Hebrew b^ethûwlâh.[4] Of the four cases where ‘almâh is used for “virgin(s),” two appear in Song of Solomon (which we shall eschew)[5], one is in the account of Abraham’s servant seeking a wife for Isaac (Gen 24:43), and one is in Isaiah 7.

In other cases where ‘almâh appears in the Bible (there are three of them), it is rendered “maid” or “damsel.”

Consequently, we see that the mother of the Immanuel mentioned in Isaiah 7 need not have been a virgin in the modern English sense.

What we know about Immanuel

We know but little concerning the Immanuel spoken of in Isaiah 7; however, we do know that:

his name shall be Immanuel
he shall eat curds and honey
Ephraim and Samaria should lose their kings while he be yet young

One might contend that the Greek name “Jesus” (God is help; saviour) is an effective fulfillment of the prophesied name “Immanuel” (God [is] with us). However, the latter two of the foregoing points signify much and refute a connection with Jesus. These will be discussed under the next heading.

The subject of Isaiah 7

This chapter comprises two prophecies in series. It concerns the menace of Ephraim (i.e. The northern kingdom of Israel) and Samaria.

Ephraim and Samaria should lose their kings while he be yet young.

God instructs the king of Judah not to fear because within 65 years Assyria will destroy Ephraim and Samaria. Moreover, as the previous section pointed out, this destruction should take place before Immanuel were old enough to know good from evil. (The NIV makes this more clear than the KJV: “before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.”)

It is true that Jesus of Nazareth was not old enough to know right from wrong when Assyria conquered Ephraim and Samaria, but since their destruction took place 721 years before he was born, the sign spoken of must be largely meaningless if it refers to him.

He shall eat curds and honey.

(The KJV renders this “butter and honey.”) The footnotes in both the KJV (LDS) and NIV Study Bible explain the significance of curds and honey, particularly as they relate to later verses in the same chapter (22–25). They “meant a return to the simple diet of those who lived off the land. The Assyrian invasion would devastate the countryside and make farming impossible.”[6]

This description does not apply to Jesus of Nazareth. He did not live in a depopulated area, neither do we suppose that he lived on a nomad’s diet (curds and honey) — more importantly, it is certain that not everyone in the land subsisted on a nomad’s diet, which verse 22 assures us was to be the case.

Maher-shalal-hash-baz

The next two chapters of Isaiah may be part of the series begun in chapter 7 and may contain the fulfillment of the prophecy of Immanuel. In chapter 8, Isaiah has a son whom he names Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (This name is not equivalent to Immanuel, but it’s significance — “to speed the spoil, he hasteneth the prey” — may be linked to “God [is] with us.”)

For your reading, Keith A. Meservy (professor emeritus of ancient scripture at BYU) delineates a rather clean association between Maher-shalal-hash-baz and the prophecy of Immanuel in his essay “God Is with Us.”[7] (not discussed here)

Ephraim and Samaria should lose their kings while he be yet young.

in Isaiah 8:4, Isaiah says of Maher-shalal-hash-baz that “before [he] shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches … of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.” The reader presumes that before the child learns right and wrong, Assyria should have destroyed Ephraim as well. These are two halves of the prophecy given in Isaiah 7:16.

He shall eat curds and honey.

We do not have the details of Maher-shalal-hash-baz’ life, but we may presume that he lived to see the depopulation spoken of earlier.

Regarding chapter 9.

Unequivocally, Isaiah 9 is part of the prophetic series incorporating chapter 8, and it is unequivocally Messianic. However, this is not to signify that the series has been Messianic all along; a Messianic prophecy follows logically at this point because the devastation of Israel was just described, and the means of the restoration of Israel is the next logical step.

If the prophecy refers to Jesus, then what?

Harmony is found across the ages of Judeo-Christian history. The birth of Jesus Christ may have been orchestrated to echo the birth of Immanuel; however, if it was meant, instead, to fulfill the prophecy of Immanuel (i.e. the prophecy did not bear its fullness until it was realized twice, once in Isaiah’s time and once in the meridian of time), what is the significance of the prophecy? How does Jesus fit into the prophecy?

It has been pointed out by more than one scholar that the prophecy of Immanuel speaks of deliverance and that Christ epitomized this as the great deliverer (from sin and death). I find this highly inappropriate, however, since the Immanuel in Isaiah’s time had nothing to do with the execution of deliverance: deliverance arrived at the hands of the cruel and frightful Assyrians, and the advent of Immanuel at that time was merely to stand as a sign of Isaiah’s prophecy. In contrast, the deliverance which Jesus Christ offers is effected by himself; in this, he bears no resemblance to the Assyrians nor Immanuel.

Furthermore, in the case of Immanuel, deliverance was to arrive before he knew right from wrong. In the case of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, deliverance came when he was an adult and had the profoundest understanding of right and wrong.

LDS voices

Yes, LDS authorities, including current Pres. Thomas S Monson have used Isaiah 7:14 in reference to Jesus Christ, but (I refer you again to my statement on doctrinal authority) I don’t believe that any president of the church has applied any other verse in that chapter to the Saviour, and it appears to me that in order to apply the prophecy of Immanuel to Jesus Christ, exactly that must be done: verse 14 must be extricated and isolated from context.

Why does this matter?

So some people believe that Isaiah’s prophecy of Immanuel refers to Jesus Christ. Why does this writer care?

Because there are those of us who remain, despite much fervor and effort, without the ministrations of God or heavenly messengers. We rely upon the instruction and apparent hope of earthly messengers until the day that either the testimony of Jesus is planted in our hearts or we take our own lives in despair.

What are we to do when these, our teachers, profess things to which they have devoted (in our estimation) very little thought or study? What are we to do when those we rely upon strongly assert an interpretation of a scripture of whose context and location they are ignorant?

[1] Comparing Matthew 1 with 1 Chronicles 3, we see five generations omitted.

[2] For a secular example, reflect upon the Greek models of astronomy which relied upon circles, not permitting ellipses.

[3] Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Abingdon press, Nashville. 1974. Hebrew word number 5959.

[4] Strong. Hebrew word number 1330.

[5] According to the Bible dictionary (LDS), “The JST manuscript contains the note that ‘the Song of Solomon is not inspired Scripture.'”

[6] The NIV Study Bible. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI: 1995. p. 1021.

[7] Jackson, Kent P. Studies in Scripture. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City: 1993. v. 4 p. 95–6.

How to: make Colored Flames

The concept

You can use a methanol flame and various ionic substances (salts) to make colored flames. All of the flames pictured in this post were produced by me using the methods detailed herein. Most of the substances mentioned below can be obtained inexpensively from ordinary merchants (i.e. no need to visit a chemist).

green	boric salt (et al.)
lavender	potassium chloride
yellow	sodium chloride (et al.)
orange	calcium chloride
red	strontium chloride (et al.)

You only need between one and 3 mL of methanol for a non-overlarge flame to burn for a couple of minutes. See the snapshot of the vials and pen for an idea of scale.

Where to get methanol

The only easy means I found for getting small amounts of methanol is buying gas-line anti-freeze. HEET antifreeze can be found at 7-11, AutoZone, O’Reilly Auto Parts, etc. for about $3/bottle. It’s 99% methanol.

Green flames

For a few dollars, you can get a big box of boric salt at the grocery store, under its commercial name: Borax. Find it with the cleaning supplies. The green flame pictured at the top of this post was produced with Borax. It dissolves/suspends easily in methanol.

The problem with the borax flame is that when the flame gets very hot, it turns yellow. If you burn your methanol in a container that conducts the heat away, or if you only use a little bit of methanol (so that the flame does not continue too long), this may not be an issue for you.

Copper salts, such as cupric chloride, a.k.a. copper II chloride, produce a richer color, and when the flame gets hot, it migrates from green to blue. A cheaper alternative to cupric chloride is copper sulfate, which I found for five dollars a pound at the local feed and supply store (it’s used as an herbicide and an algaecide); however, although copper sulfate is used as a blue pigment in pyrotechnics, I was not able to get a colored flame from it in methanol. (Perhaps a future post will describe how this and other substances can be used in standard pyrotechnics to produce deeper colors.)

Lavender flames

Potassium is what gives us the lavender flame. You can find potassium chloride in your grocery store, sold as a salt substitute. Check the spice aisle.

You can see from the pictures that I got some nice color from the substance, but be warned that I could not get it to dissolve or suspend at all in methanol. Dissolving it in water and putting about one part of the water solution to six parts methanol gave me a bit of effect, but what was most effective was to also pour a pile of the potassium chloride into a container, cover it with methanol, and wait until the flame got quite as hot as it would.

Yellow flames

The two yellow photographs in this post suggest that I got a really rich yellow or orange flame, but in fact to my eyes, the flames seemed far less intense, not so different from a candle flame. I suppose that the camera’s vision was not true.

Sodium gives us the yellow color, and you can use table salt (sodium chloride) or baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), either of which can be obtained from the grocery store.

I found this substance much like potassium chloride in that it would hardly dissolve or suspend. Again, I recommend packaging the salt and alcohol separately, then pouring one over the other when it’s time to touch it off.

Orange flames

Calcium chloride, which a friend on staff at the local community college supplied me, provides a nice orange flame. This was probably a bad example to use because 1) I don’t know how to obtain it commercially, and 2) it is so hygroscopic that I don’t know how to work with it easily — in other words, if you leave the lid off of it, it will suck water from the air until you have a puddle of dissolved calcium chloride in your bottle. And I don’t even live in a very humid area.

Red flames

Strontium and lithium are used for red pigments. For about $3.50, you can get a tub of strontium carbonate (see previous post); lithium is about six times as expensive.

The red flame pictured above was produced with strontium, but strontium carbonate actually wouldn’t give me any color in methanol. I added muriatic acid (available at pool supply stores) to the strontium carbonate to produce strontium chloride, which is what I used in the flame. (Instructions on how to make strontium chloride appear in the previous post.)

Strontium chloride dissolves/suspends pretty well in methanol. When the flame is cool, you get a nice magenta color; when the flame gets hot, you get red/red-orange.

Tips & tricks

Use methanol because it has an invisible flame, which will allow us to see the colors emitted by the salts. — Other flammable substances, like ethanol or naptha, produce enough white light that adding any color to it will not yield an observable result.

Your salt pigments are not actually going through a chemical reaction. That means that they don’t get consumed, and you can recover them (or just pour more methanol on them) and use them again.

Because methanol is so apolar, it will not dissolve your salts as well as water would. It is necessary in some cases (mentioned below) to add water to your mixture and/or pour ethanol over a small pile of undissolved salt.

These chemical-to-color listings may differ from others you’ve seen

You can find long lists of chemicals and the colors they produce in pyrotechnics or flame tests. In both pyrotechnics and flame tests, your chemicals absorb more heat than our methanol flames will produce. Consequently, you read here that cupric chloride produces a green flame, but other sites will tell you it is a blue pigment.

You can achieve richer colors with higher temperatures, but for the treasure hunt for which my flames were intended, I preferred to avoid high temperatures and the copious amounts of smoke that accompany standard pyrotechnics. The small alcohol flames discussed here are safe for indoor use.