“A cleverly crafted puzzle is a work of intellectual art when the simplicity of its solution is beautifully hidden by the complexity of its design. Such art requires imagination and creativity on the part of the creator and requires the solver to walk the fine line between inspiration and insanity.”

Brian Smith, Author/Creator of the Cerebral Codex

Part novel, part puzzle, part quest … it is difficult to find a single description that adequately describes the Cerebral Codex.

The Novel

The story begins with the protagonists Bret and Jon fighting for their very survival swimming through a rough sea in a raging storm. Sighting an island in the distance, they manage to avoid drowning and swim to the safety of the shore. After recovering on the island, they discover hidden deep within an old stone library the Cerebral Codex, which told a unique and intriguing tale.

In this mysterious environment, the two friends find themselves in a strange place with only the Cerebral Codex to help guide them. They find that the Codex is riddled with mind bending and mysterious mental challenges, which when solved lead them on an adventure like no other.

The Puzzle

As the characters in the novel encounter puzzles, you are given similar challenges to solve. Work to solve the puzzles and uncover hidden information in the codex and begin your own adventure.  This is a multi-stage challenge which has several levels each consisting of a mental challenge (puzzle) followed by a physical challenge.  Can you unlock the mysteries encoded deep within the Cerebral Codex?

The Quest

There are two ways to claim credit for solving the Cerebral Codex. As a cache finder or as a distance solver.

If you choose to find the cache in person, you’ve got quite a trek ahead of you. The Cerebral Codex geocache is set in the heart of the Wharton State Forest in New Jersey, USA. With over 100,000 acres, Wharton is the largest New Jersey State Forest and provides a great backdrop for this challenge.  While the cache itself is located in Wharton State Forest, this adventure will take you well beyond it’s boundaries in search of the puzzle pieces that you need to access the final cache container, the logbook, and the Codex Bonus Cache Travel Bug.

If you decide to tackle this as a distance solver, you’ve got a different sort of trek ahead of you. Download the novel, and read the entire thing. Solve the first ten puzzles to unlock the twenty Meshulash pieces. Use the Meshulash pieces to solve the final puzzle.  When you solve the final puzzle, you’ll be given the tracking code for the Codex Distance Solver Travel Bug.

The Cerebral Codex  was not designed to be tackled in a weekend – it will take thought, time and (if you attempt to find the cache) several trips.

Getting Started

If you are ready to tackle the challenge of the Cerebral Codex, click on one of the following links:

Geocache Hunters: Visit the cache page for GCVJXQ
Distance Solvers: Download the novel and begin solving from home

This type of word puzzle is a featured regularly in “The Enigma”, the NPL’s monthly puzzle book. It is generally a thoughtful, witty or downright funny quote.

HOW TO PLAY:
A quotation is divided into trigrams, which are presented in alphabetical order. A leftover letter or bigram goes at the end, not alphabetically. All words and punctuation are shown in the enumeration, with capitalization indicated by *, as in this example:
(4 10 2 6 3 3’1 5 12 6 3 3’1 4 3 6 3 3’1 4. 5* 6*)

adf ali alk can ein ewh ewh for gpe kjo kza ntt ntw oca oca opl opl peo ple ppa ran rit roc smi spe ter tre urn vie who win

“Energized” Anaquote

arg bat bun dch ene edw ith nya rgi rre ste ter zer y

Answer: Show ▼

Beyond the shuffling of architectural air ducts, if you have the tenacity to rearrange the letters of this post’s title by hand you may have the good fortune of discovering the hidden words – INTERNET ANAGRAM SERVER – but it would be much easier if you simply went to the Internet Anagram Server at www.wordsmith.org/anagram and let the interweb do the work for you. It’s a great tool to test seemingly nonsensical strings of words in a puzzle, hiding your own clues in rearranged letters or simply discovering that GATOR PEED IN ONE CORRAL is an anagram for your full name – well at least mine.