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If you're interested in starting the treasure hunt from the very beginning, check out the prologue!


After mailing in the correct question to the given answer in the preliminary test, it took only a couple of days to receive your actual invitation to participate in the Treasure Hunt 'Round the World. You eagerly tear into the gaudy, glittery envelope and read the letter enclosed:

Dear [insert username here],

Congratulations on your acceptance into the Treasure Hunt 'Round the World! Prepare yourself for a steeling worldwide adventure, where you will be pushed to your vastest limits in pursuit of the coveted treasure! I hope you've packed your bags, because the race... starts... NOW! Your itinerary is enclosed. Good luck, racer!

Yours truly,

Bailey M
Puzzlemaster for the Treasure Hunt 'Round the World

P.S. When you arrive at the departure airport, members of our team will be there to assist you in searching for the fastest flight and booking your ticket.

You rummage through the envelope hurriedly, pulling out the itinerary. On it, you read:

Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.

Your destination is:

The 63rd member, periodically;
a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,
with common tongue tied to no other,
spoken unlike their American brother
(though the two decline unanimously).

Once you've found the desired country,
your flight will arrive at 2:53.

Luckily, you did already pack your bags! Time to get racing!


What airport are you departing from, and what city are you flying into?


Per the request of Aggie Kidd, here's a nod in the right direction, based on each line:

Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.

The answer to this may be a bit trivial, since there have been so many good responses already, but none of them are exactly what I was looking for. Everyone's on the right track. As a hint, you are departing from North America, and Pocatello's airport code is not actually used in the puzzle.

The 63rd member, periodically;

There is a way to interpret the answer to this line a bit more specifically, which will significantly narrow down the number of possible countries.

a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,

I believe this was solved rather innocuously in the comments of an answer.

with common tongue tied to no other,

This line has not been interpreted as intended yet. The most common language in the destination country is also the most common language in other countries.

spoken unlike their American brother

This line has been interpreted correctly, though the country has not been correctly identified.

(though the two decline unanimously).

I believe rand al'thor correctly picked this one out, which should give you some guidance.

Once you've found the desired country, your flight will arrive at 2:53.

This is unsolvable without first having the country name.

Also a general hint about how to solve this puzzle: When I was creating it, I made a blanket list of all possible countries, then started whittling them down, clue by clue, until I had one remaining. If I had to solve this puzzle, I would try to do the same.


The story continues in the next part, Treasure hunt 'round the world! (clue 2)

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ And before anyone asks, no, you aren't departing from the Pocatello Regional Airport. $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 18, 2015 at 16:16
  • $\begingroup$ Any chance for an update or nod in the right direction based on the current answers? $\endgroup$
    – Aggie Kidd
    Jun 26, 2015 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ The comment that solved the butterfly line must have been deleted. Now you've turned that part of the puzzle into a memory test! :-/ $\endgroup$ Jun 26, 2015 at 15:10
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor, I believe it's a comment on your answer! :) $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 26, 2015 at 15:18
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Oh, is it not visible to you? @Jared said: "But Portugal isn't a monarchy." $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 26, 2015 at 15:28

4 Answers 4

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Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.

Take the 1st letter of Pocatello, the 4th letter of Regional, and the 7th letter of Airport to get PIT. Interpreting that as an airport code, it looks like we're flying out of Pittsburgh International Airport.

The 63rd member, periodically;

63rd on the periodic table is Europium, with chemical symbol Eu, so we're heading for somewhere in the EU (European Union).

a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,

Unconditional sway suggests monarchy, and the Monarch Butterfly is a common butterfly species in North America.

with common tongue tied to no other,
spoken unlike their American brother
(though the two decline unanimously).

So we want a monarchy in the EU with a common language not spoken in any other country, similar to a language spoken somewhere in the Americas, the word for "no" being the same in both languages. Let's try Spain (taking Latin American Spanish to be a separate language, as some do consider it to be).

Once you've found the desired country,
your flight will arrive at 2:53.

As with 1:47, we take the 2nd, 5th, and 3rd letters of SPAIN to get PNA, which is the airport code for Pamplona Airport.

So our destination city is

Pamplona, Spain.

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  • $\begingroup$ You're so fast it's kind of annoying... Welcome back, by the way :) $\endgroup$
    – mmking
    Jun 18, 2015 at 16:37
  • $\begingroup$ Welcome back, indeed - not all of this is correct, but a good portion of it is! :) I'll wait and see if any other inspirations strike before I lead you too much closer to the correct answer, especially since I only posted this an hour ago... $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 18, 2015 at 17:16
  • $\begingroup$ To add to the common tongue idea, italian might work as well. Then, thinking of 2:53 in 24 hour, we get 1453, which was the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.... $\endgroup$
    – Aggie Kidd
    Jun 18, 2015 at 20:50
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @AggieKidd Interesting, especially given that the Byzantine civil war ended in 1347... $\endgroup$ Jun 18, 2015 at 21:55
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    $\begingroup$ If we're going with a European country with a language that is spoken in the Americas instead of just the US, would France and Canada also be options? I don't know if French is spoken anywhere else, but I have heard that Canadian French is different from "original" French. $\endgroup$ Jun 19, 2015 at 14:38
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Partial Answer

From 1:43 to 2:53 made me think about:

24 hour format mentioned by Aggie Kidd: 1347-1453 which refer to the Hundred Years' War between England and France

The 63rd member, periodically which surely refers to:

The 63rd element of the periodic table: Eu(Europium); meaning that the destination country is in Europe

So far, these 2 clues point that the flight is between these 2 countries.

Furthermore, "with common tongue tied to no other, spoken unlike their American brother (though the two decline unanimously)" might probably refer that the destination country is:

England (British and English language)

So the departure country (and probable city) is:

France and Paris by taking PAR(Paris, France (Airport Code)) instead of PRA (Pocatello Regional Airport)

In addition, I don't know if it may be related but:

Sway is a village in Hampshire near Southampton in England

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Partial Answer:

I think the departure airport is:

Ontario International. This is derived from PRA (Pocatello Regional Airport) and subtracting 1:47, leaving us with ONT.

I admit that I hat to try a few directions for this before I got an airport that made sense though.

I agree with rand al'thor that the destination is

in Europe, because Europium is the 63rd element.

Also, I suspect that

"with common tongue tied to no other,

spoken unlike their American brother

(though the two decline unanimously)."

refers to the saying that Britain and the US are two countries separated by a common language. It may be Ireland, though... there are lots of Irish in America, I'm told. And no one really speaks Gaelic anywhere else.

I'll add more if I ever work any more out.

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  • $\begingroup$ But "common tongue tied to no other" ... English is spoken in lots of countries all over the world! And Gaelic is spoken in Scotland and the Isle of Man as well as Ireland. $\endgroup$ Jun 19, 2015 at 9:10
  • $\begingroup$ Dear lord, subtracting 147 from PRA gives an airport code? I like the way your brain works, but in reality the answer is probably much easier than that. $\endgroup$
    – Bailey M
    Jun 19, 2015 at 13:09
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This is a partial to help out the one's who are actively solving this problem:

a butterfly's sway, unconditionally

Breakdown:

To have "sway" is to wield power. A butterfly that wields power is a Monarch. You are looking for a Monarchy.

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