Chump Towers Mystery Cache

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El Nimrod: Thanks to everyone who visited! Time to retire a number of “unpopular & infrequently visited” puzzle caches and free up the area(s) for some new “traditional” caches coming very soon – enjoy!

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Hidden : 8/13/2013
Difficulty:
4 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. To find the cache, you must solve the following puzzle to get the final cache coordinates.

The life of a wealthy business tycoon, you have observed, isn't easy. As if the grinding schedules aren't taxing enough, there's always the risk of employees trying to defraud the company. As chief of security for Chump Towers, you routinely monitor the company e-mail, and today you have stumbled upon a suspicious e-mail conversation between some middle management employees. Who knows -- this could be the beginning of a major embezzlement scheme, and perhaps you've intercepted the onset of the planning process. This is your chance to show The Donald you're worthy of that promotion you've been hinting at (for the last 5 years). At the very least, you might get a smiley out of it!

So far, your observations have confirmed the following:

To encrypt their messages, the disgruntled employees have replaced all the numbers in their conversation with symbols.

The suspects have devised a system where the symbols represent the pronunciation of the numbers, and not necessarily numerical values. For example, sixty five could be represented by the symbols ^ @ %, if ^ represents the sound six, @ represents ty, and % represents five. Since the symbols represent sounds, the number fifty six would start with a symbol representing the sound fif (not the symbol for five, since it's not pronounced five-ty-six) followed by @ and ^.

You have just intercepted the transmission of their decryption key, presented in the form of eight (8) statements (A through H, below). These statements contain 18 symbols that can be combined to represent any number from 1 to 999.

These are the 18 symbols:

^ + ) - _ @ ( [ ~ $ # ' ] * % = ! &

Read the following intercepted e-mail message and determine what SOUND each symbol represents.

August 30, 2013: E-Mail Interception:

A. The first dozen numbers are all represented by a single symbol

B. The remaining numbers consist of a combination of symbols

C. # is greater than ] which is greater than *

D. Examples of numbers that are perfect squares are @ ( [ and ~ ( $ and ~ )

E. Dividing ' by ^ gives ]

F. # times * equals % ( =

G. Consecutive numbers are - and _ and +)

H. Half of [ ! is & (

SOLUTION:

Using your answers from above, determine the final cache coordinates from the following equation:

N 46 %(] . ~!+(^ W 063 +($ . ^!&(~

Acknowledgement: This puzzle was adapted from "Thrump Towers" by Andrew Parr

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

1.5 zrgref hc

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)


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