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Robin Hood (KPC2009) Mystery Cache

Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. Instead, solve the puzzle below to find the cache location.

"Steal from the rich, and give to the poor!"

If you can figure out how to solve this puzzle, you'll be ready to join Robin Hood's Band of Merry Men.

chair cogitate crop tax or Giants starter
era estuarine crocodile expansion
kingdom lighted cache spot monarchs
pancake suggest wing

Special notes about the 2009 Puzzle Challenge:
To be considered for Fastest Solver points, you must submit a codeword verifying your solution to certitude. See instructions below for submitting the codeword. All "point" scoring is arbitrary anyway, subject to change, at the discretion of the cache owner, and mostly meaningless (top solvers may have received a bottle of wine at the December event). The real challenge is just to see whether you can solve all of these caches by the end of the year.
2009 Puzzle Challenge Solvers
2009 Puzzle Challenge Finders
2009 Puzzle Challenge Event

Special notes about this cache:
Oh no, not another dreaded "identify the photo" cache! Okay, hopefully I've learned my lesson, and this one won't be as tedious as that horrible flower one. But what to do next?
Please restrict your search for the cache to daylight hours only. I did try to clear any nearby poison oak, but that doesn't mean it won't grow back. I recommend that you do NOT park near the posted coordinates, as the path from there is potentially dangerous. I was originally going to rate this at 4/2, but I decided to bump the ratings slightly. Maybe I'll adjust them back depending on feedback. Okay, since some early solvers were shortcutting the puzzle solution, I decided to change the certitude verification scheme as of 9:20pm June 1st. Adjusted difficulty from 4.5 back to 4 on June 2.

First Ten Certified Solutions
candcfamily 01 Jun 12:41pm*
Dotish
xmts
01 Jun 6:36pm*
OakDragon
runeshower
Citore
01 Jun 10:35pm
jimbexleyspeed
fizzymagic
The Rat
01 Jun 11:01pm
bullit
anonymous
01 Jun 11:47pm
WalruZ 01 Jun 11:47pm
TeamOttlet 03 Jun 8:42am
payakoi 03 Jun 10:16pm
Moe311
bamsch
04 Jun 10:48pm
UncleTom
kindredlaugh
05 Jun 8:57pm
*before new certitude verification scheme
See all solvers
First Ten Logged Finds
candcfamily 01 Jun 6:24pm
Dotish 01 Jun 8:57pm
xmts 02 Jun 9:36am
The Rat 02 Jun 11:00am
TeamOttlet 03 Jun 11:36am
UncleTom 06 Jun 11:43am
kindredlaugh 06 Jun 11:57am
OakDragon 06 Jun 3:25pm
runeshower 06 Jun 3:25pm
Citore 06 Jun 3:28pm

To hinder those who were brute-forcing the solution, Certitude uses a codeword for verification of this solution. Create the codeword for Certitude by forming a twelve-character string consisting of the third letter of each final word in the solution (North words followed by West words).
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Puzzle hints added on June 15th] Fgrny fbzrguvat sebz gur evpu crbcyr. Tvir fbzrguvat gb gur cbbe crbcyr. (Ynfg anzrf bayl.) Zngpu hc jvgu gur qrsvavgvbaf orybj gur cubgbf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)