My husband and I do not have similar tastes in books or television shows, but we have both read and watched The Game of Thrones in its entirety (so far). We both are hooked and are eagerly awaiting the publication of the next installment. In one memorable scene the swordmaster teaches his student, "What do we say to Death? Not today." It is true that for many of those visited by death in the Seven Kingdoms, it comes very quickly. For others, however, it can be agonizingly slow, and delaying it may not be a blessing. Such is the usual fate of those touched by "The Stone Men," who are carriers of the dreaded disease Greyscale. Greyscale is usually fatal and it gradually leaves flesh stiff and dead, the skin cracked, flaking, and stone-like to the touch. Those that manage to survive a bout with the illness will be immune from ever contracting it again, but the flesh damaged by the ravages of the disease will never heal, and they will be scarred for life. To get the coordinates to this cache, you will have to defeat the computer in a Game of Stones. The computer plays perfectly, so it will take more than luck to defeat it. The game is played as follows:
Five columns of stones are displayed. The player may choose to go first, or to pass the first turn to the computer. If you evaluate the number of stones carefully, you can determine whether it is in your best interest, in theory, to go first or second. On your turn, you must remove some number of stones from the top of one of the piles. You may choose any pile you like, and you may choose 1, some, or all of the stones in that pile. The object of the game is get in a position to be able to remove the last stone from the board on your turn. Stones are removed by double-clicking the lowest stone that you wish to remove (for example, if I want to remove 4 stones from a pile, I count down four stones from the top and double click on that stone). Can you be one of the few to survive the Game of Stones?
To play, please click this: updated link
If you win the game, the coordinates will be revealed. If you don't win, the game will automatically refresh and you can try again.
Put the coordinates into the geochecker for a hide hint.
This is the third in a series of caches inspired by The Game of Thrones. Stay tuned!
For more about this series, please see GC61D6M
Many thanks to fmoraes (NC) for allowing me to borrow the design of the game itself,
and to kanchan (CA) for help in implementing this puzzle and hosting it on his site.