Treasure Hunt for Boston College Students, Spring Semester '07
This treasure hunt has several purposes: (1) to encourage people to read my book, Memoirs of a Shape-Shifter; (2) to educate you who are BC students about the history and lore of the school; and (3) since BC ECOPLEDGE is the official campus sponsor of the treasure hunt, to help raise awareness of the environmental movement at BC.
As a faculty advisor to ECOPLEDGE, my aim is to foster student concern with environmental issues; that my novel gives central importance to exploring one's roots, to caring for the earth, and to living in harmony with the natural world is an attempt to impress upon readers the urgent need for an active environmental imagination.
And as you will come to see, engaging in the treasure hunt is a good way to develop such a sharper consciousness, requiring that you use your wits, your learning, and your powers of observation!
So here's the story:
It took some time chasing down the lost brooch of the Druid magician Anne Cleves, with whom you have no doubt become familiar from reading Memoirs of a Shape-Shifter. But after years of conducting my own treasure hunt, I finally found the brooch in a jewelry shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called Morning Glory Jewelry (check them out--very beautiful jewelry there!). Jane Clarke, the owner, was surprised to discover she had in her store the actual brooch that a Druid princess from the 17th century once wore.
Thus did the brooch that turns up in the story fall into my hands through fate and good luck. And so I bought it and brought it to Boston College, and have organized the treasure hunt around this beautiful jewel, hiding it somewhere on the BC main campus.
The image on the home page that you clicked on to get here is an actual picture of the hidden green gem. Please note that the jewel is hidden and NOT buried, so there's no digging up or damaging of the environment involved.
As part of the hunt, you'll be directed to various campus locations, some human made, some natural settings, to observe and appreciate. Moving from location to location via the clues given below, you'll discover new things about the campus and, using your creative powers, perhaps will be the one to decipher the riddles that lead to the treasure--and thus win the $1,000 prize. You'll be acting like the heroines in my book--and get a reward in the process! Just remember to love the earth and to think like a Druid . . . .
So follow the parameters, clues, and directions below, beginning by answering the 12 questions (A through L), which are based on Memoirs of a Shape-Shifter. The answers to questions A through L will help you solve the clues given in the riddles that follow (numbers 1 through 12) -- these 12 numbered riddles comprise the heart of the treasure hunt. Put on your imagination cap. Good luck!
General parameters:
- The clues and directions below will lead you through a series of locations on campus. At each location you will have to observe something, count something, or find something, each of which will help guide you to the next point, and so on.
- The treasure is hidden somewhere, either inside or outside, on the Boston College main campus.
- In order to follow the clues to the treasure, you must do them in order. Trying to follow the clues out of order will result in confusion. It's been designed that way.
- In order to follow the sequence, you will have to connect three things:
a) Clues from the book (the first task below, i.e., your answers to letter questions A through L);
b) Bits of lore of Boston College; and
c) The clues embedded in the directions.
- You do not have to dig anything up (we don't want you digging up the carefully tended lawns or flowerbeds).
- All locations you are being sent to are accessible to the students at Boston College during normal working hours. Some of them are accessible 24/7.
- Keep track of your answers! They will accumulate to give you clues to the next step.
- If you find any clues which are removable, please leave them for the next person. If any of the removable clues are found to be missing, the treasure hunt will be cancelled.
- Capital letters in the hunt directions below refer to the initial list of questions you answered about the book.
- In order to make certain that no one wins by simply stumbling on the treasure, when you find the brooch bring it to me with a detailed explanation of each location and the explanation of the clues. If any of the steps or clue solutions are missing, the reward will not be given, and the treasure hunt will be changed and started anew.
Please answer these questions from my book, Memoirs of a Shape-Shifter: (NOTE: This is the first task.)
- How many generations back can Nikki's mother count in her family tree?
- In which direction do Guryn and Nanepa walk when they travel to Gloucester?
- What costume or character is Nikki's first seducer wearing/playing?
- What color is the light that surrounds the wraith-woman who appears as Nikki finds Anne's journal?
- How many times does Nanepa walk around Diana when she is born?
- What tree does Nikki see at UMass-Boston?
- What comparison between religious figures does Nikki's mother make at the beginning of her letter?
- What suit of the Tarot does Aunt Meg say her niece's life is in when Nikki visits?
- What time is it when Nikki has her vision of Philip in trouble?
- What stone is Gloucester made of?
- What is the translation of Anne's Celtic name "Guryn"?
The Treasure Hunt:
(NOTE: Each number below in the hunt refers to a location.)
- Begin your initiation facing the Engan
Perched upon the J-column
With the wandering wolves on your left side.
Go inside to the place of C. - Observe closely the twin totem of C:
Look through the eyes of one and
Read along with him the inscription
The sacred name of which
Will lead you to her altar. - On the way to her altar, follow the wooded lane
Two turns sinister up to the double door.
Once inside observe the wall above the door.
Painted upon them are growing things.
Graft what you see onto F.
Take this image with you as you exit. - Go to where F grows, four times.
With your back to the house of the roaring pride
And facing the grove of F,
Sight a line between the fairy lights
Follow the line to the double vitreous door. - At the door:
Pass through six doors in quick succession
Turning once front to back.
Take 80 steps and
Pass through four doors more and immediately stop. - Stand quite still and reach
With the devil’s hand and point in his direction.
In that room find the scholar's book
And the Ruler to guide you onward. - Find the book to guide you to the next place.
- Sit upon the duke’s throne
And like a duke look up.
Count the sky blue panes.
Remember this number. - The clock at I behind you,
Find the small man, a winged shapeshifter.
Your answer A less his feathers but one
Will reveal to you to which step above
To proceed once again.
Go to this place. - On the second floor,
Stand with the ruler’s emblem
Pointing in your eye as you gaze down.
Level your eye and behold a window.
Count the panes in the center lowest one. - At A hours past the vision of Nikki’s seducer
Like a Druid pay homage to an arbor vitae.
Where the shadow falls count the staves
Of the barrel the shadow falls upon
Ignoring what carries the load. - Now that you are on the verge of success
Place your Failures behind you, facing forward.
Seek admittance to the court
Of BC's Steamboat-King. - X is a room number.
Take with you the solution
To find his oaken dolmen.
Do not seek for audience within
But read your fate inscribed
On the slab, vertical.
What you read will remind you
Of where you found the tarot card.
Go there and look for hidden time.
While sitting upon the throne solve this riddle:
Colorful transformation
Root of civilization,
Climbing high, without arms
Ever attractive, cannot be held.
Who am I? What do I do?
Your answer will give you the name
Of a building, your next place.
Now sit and solve:
([8+10+11]Guryn’s age at Beltaine/3) + (1 boat length - Guryn’s initiation time + E) = X
Your answer should read thus:
(X)a perfect grade
