Anniversary Con 2015 -- The Solution

First things first, we have 8 ciphers -- each accompanied by a dancing man symbol. By decoding these symbols an unscrabling, we get the phase "ILOVEYOU". The first cipher is "I", the card cipher.

(Note: typos have been corrected in the below solutions. Characters that have been corrected are shown in lower case)

The Card -- "I"

This cipher is pretty straight forward. Feeding it into a vigenere cipher solver will yield the plain text with key QBOEB... or "PANDA" shifted 1.

Solution:

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A tREASURE
AS YOU SEEK IT BEWARE THE MARSH BEYOND THE STARS

The Lanyards -- "L"

This cipher requires some significant lateral thinking. First, we need to identify the codes being used. The first (marked with a D and lock charms) appears to be Pigpen (it's actually a variation known as the Royal Arch cipher).

Decoding:

BBDCDEHHJOONOONHGFEJ

The second (marked with a K and key charms) is the Illuminati cipher.

Decoding:

RPRPMLMMKKMNJHGFFFAB

Now for the mindblowing bit. We have two equal-length strings of letters written on lanyards. Also on the lanyards are collections of charms: on the D lanyard, locks; on the K lanyard, keys. Additionally, each lanyard has a clockface.

First, the clock faces hint that we are looking for numbers. Second, the locks and keys are intended to indicate a perpendicular orientation with lock horizontal and key vertical. Finally, the previous hint mentioned "stars".

Now, if we take all these clues together and interpret the characters as x and y coordinates, we can plot character pairs on a cartesian plane.
Solution:

				
R  * *                      
Q                           
P  **                       
O                           
N              *            
M    *   +      *           
L     *                     
K          *    *           
J                           
I               *           
H               *           
G              *            
F      ***                  
E                           
D                           
C                           
B          *                
A     *                     
  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

HOLY SHIT, ITS THE

ORION CONSTELLATION

!!!

Left Corner Cipher -- "O"

This cipher is the culmination of the previous two. If the last cipher was the "stars", then this one is the "marsh". What's a synonym for marsh? Quagmire. This is esentially Vigenere with a keyed alphabet.

Using the previous cipher solution, we have "Orion" and "Constellation" for keywords.

Alphabet: CONSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZ

Decryption table:
CONSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZ
--------------------------
ONSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZC
RUVWXYZCONSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQ
IBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZCONSTELA
ONSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZC
NSTELAIBDFGHJKMPQRUVWXYZCO

Solution:

HOW MUCH WOOD DOES A WOODPECKER PECK IF A WOODPECKER PECKED a sqUARE OF WOOD

Numbers Cipher -- "V"

For this cipher, we have the hint "peck a square of wood". This is a reference to Tap code, a code used by American POWs in Vietnam -- the alphabet is represented in a 5x5 block and each letter is communicated as a pair of tap sequences (indicies into this letter square).

Tap code table:
x12345
1ABDEF
2GHIJK
3LMNOP
4QRSTU
5VWXYZ
Note: C is represented as a K

Solution:

YOUR ANNIVERSARY CIPHER SHOULD BE KEPT IN A SPREADSHEET WITH EMILES HEADERS

Curve Cipher -- "E"

For this cipher, we are given the hints "Emile" and "spreadsheet headers". From this we are led to the get Emile Victor Theodore Myszkowski's columnar transposition cipher.

From the cipher length (22), we know that the key length must be 2 or 11. 2 can be trivially ruled out; looking at length 11, we notice that Anniversary fits the bill.

Note: The columnar transposition method used here is a forward-numbering scheme for duplicate key letters (not quite the scheme used in the Myszkowski transposition cipher where repeated key characters are handled simultaneously).

Key: ANNIVERSARY == 1, 5, 6, 4, 10, 3, 7, 9, 2, 8, 4

ANNIVERSARY
-----------
HOWAFOXTALK
STOAHORSEQJ

HOW A FOX TALKS TO A HORSE

Dot Dash Cipher -- "Y"

This one's pretty straight forward. The previous clue is an awesome reference to this song in which the chorus asks "How would you speak to a ho-oo-oo-oo-orse, would you comunicate by mo-oo-oo-oo-orse?"

E E
H G
T D
L O
L P
A E
H G
G D
U O
O H
R  
H  
T  
S  
U  
C  
O  
F  
E  
S  
O  
L  
T  
N  
O  
D

DONT LOSE FOCUS THROUGH ALL THE HODGE PODGE

Symbols Cipher -- "O"

This cipher uses a hodge podge of codes. A little web research reveals that the first is Matoran from the BIONICLE lego set, the second is Gold Bug, and the third is yet another variation on Pigpen.

Matoran

Gold Bug

Pigpen (variant)

Solution:

AlMOST THERE WITH FORTUNES WHEEL AT YOUR SIDE

Hangman Cipher -- "U"

At last, the final cipher! Or should I say puzzle? This one certainly isn't a traditional cipher in the sense that we really don't have much to work with... or do we?

A second look at the Card Cipher reveals that some characters have been marked! This will be our letter bank for our game of Wheel of Fortune.

With some significant help from the significant other, I was able to derive the puzzle words one by one.

THERE'S ALWAYS TREASURE IN THE BANANA DRAWER

BONUS PUZZLE

Ok, turns out the whole gift couldn't fit in the drawer. The rest of it is behind the couch!

1 Down - BELOW
3 Across - ADJACENT

These were supposed to lead me to a specific cubby (1 down 3 across) in the shelves behind our sofa; however, in my brutish excitement, I clumsily pushed the shelves aside, dislodging my prize.

The End
And of course, all my love and thanks to my wonderful wife Dana who spent weeks of metro rides scheming and plotting to put this fantastic treasure hunt together!

Anniversary Con The Ciphers