# Find the treasure before Dargloc does

Some time ago I met an old man who handed me a scrap of paper and told me:
Dargloc - the treasure hunter is searching. You must be quicker. The key to success is to obey the rule:

"If Dargloc rests now? You have to hurry." But do not dare to repeat yourself.

Then he disappeared while I was looking at the paper. It looked like this:

(Click the image to see it improved by @Wesley Situ)

I knew that it was a map of archipelago I visited when I was young. I got there in the evening, so I spent the night in the middle of Peaceful Island. It is the largest one and lies to the very west of the area. I woke up exactly at midnight as it was really cold. I stayed there half an hour more, then I tried to look at the Sun but it was far before dawn. I turned a bit right, then reached the corner of the island and there I started my journey:

1. I went ahead 3 steps and got to the nearest beach. I rested for 33 minutes as Dargloc was near.
2. I turned to the direction not in west and rested in the middle of the island ahead for 52 minutes as Dargloc was near.
3. I went away of direction not taken yet still on ground, then proceeded fouriously and rested for 51 minutes on a rock to the South as Dargloc was near.
4. I jumped North and East each time the bells rang last time and rested for 36 minutes as Dargloc was near.
5. I climbed the nearest rock and faced where snow petrels breed to get to the last of the sum of the rows. Then I rested sleeping for 50 minutes, as Dargloc was nearly wrong - I was not.
6. I saw the Sun was rising, so I followed it 6 times. I took one step South and rested for 1 minute as Dargloc was near.
7. I did a mirror of my previous march. Twice. Took one step with the Wind and rested sleeping for 2 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
8. I went 5 steps diagonally and bounced once like light. I rested for 9 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
9. I got back to my starting point the same path I got here. I remembered how many places I've been to and rested for 12 minutes because Dargloc was here before me.
10. I moved horizontally to the very edge of the area and rested on nearest grass for 19 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
11. I turned left and reached the middle. Then turning right I saw my place to rest. I rested the hard way for 18 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
12. I went wild until I crawled on a rock the second time. I took the last step left and rested sleeping there for 9 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
13. I reached the balance between East and West and turned left to reach the almost-almost-edge. I turned left again and made two steps, where I rested for 9 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
14. I turned around and reached first grass ahead. Then, more than to left, but less than to back I made one step and rested for 12 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
15. I turned South-West and stomped on a beach. Then through water and sand I stayed away from rocks and stopped before I reached the grass. I rested there for 19 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
16. I reached two tiles from the cowboy's edge and rested there for 18 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
17. Direction on map was pointed by arrow, which head was in clock's hands. I followed it until I reached the grass. Then I jumped over water to the direction left from the two and rested sleeping there for 9 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
18. I went East and fell into water again. I moved to the row marked as digital meantime a minute ago and rested for 3 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
19. I went to more than out and made it to the beach. Sand at my right or grass to my left... I don't remember, but I jumped into water and rested there for 20 minutes as Dargloc was near.
20. I went East and climbed on first rock from where I went 2 steps more. I went North as many times as there are my columns in "bell" counted from the middle (positive or not). I rested sleeping for 15 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
21. I went through beetles and rested for 25 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
22. I got on nearest grass and almost got to the nearest edge of horizon. Then I jumped north over two puddles and rested on nearest rock for 26 minutes as Dargloc was expecting me to fail. I did not.
23. I went to the direction that none of the hands pointed - to the end of the sand. I rested there for 37 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
24. I went one step closer to zero, turned right and went between 2nd grass and sand. There I rested for 38 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
25. I reached the closest rock to the West, then went 2 diagonally more as the shorter one pointed. I rested there for 37 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
26. I turned to where people's watches are late and ran like one third of the Beast. I rested there for 9 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
27. I mirrored my last march twice and rested sleeping there for 13 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
28. I let my scar feast and followed it so I reached next sand. Then I turned right and reached nearest rock ahead. I rested there for 36 minutes as Dargloc was near.
29. I went to the last rock of the negative longitude and faced the far longer edge. I went forward and right. I rested for 52 minutes as Dargloc was not able to see the way. I was.
30. I turned around and saw how much water is between me and the edge. I reached half of it, then turned right and took 2 more steps. I rested there for 20 minutes as Dargloc was near.
31. I turned to the most positive part of the map and went there until the last sand was before me. Then I took the closest slice of PI twin and rested there for 15 minutes as Dargloc was near.
32. I went literally opposite to the last one. Except the PI. There I rested for 50 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
33. I turned in direction where I saw only water and grass - the latter I reached and went on the star to the nearest sand. Then I went one step forward and then so much South to get out of water. There I rested sleeping for 5 minutes as Dargloc was near.
34. I went with 3, not 1 and rested for 20 minutes as Dargloc was near.
35. I went free to near the "7". Then reached the further of middles and turned right to go and pass all the sand. After two steps to the "7" I rested for 52 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
36. I went to a rock that was like an egg, then North until I hit something in water. I jumped over a rock beginnig from noon and rested there for 36 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
37. I passed all the water of the one not found resting. I rested for 50 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
38. I moved fast ear to the second water in a row. There I rested for 33 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
39. I went forward to a point where one step sideways led me between ground twins. Between them I rested sleeping for 15 minutes as Dargloc was near.
40. I counted the rocks in my row and went so in direction pointed by the number of all of them. Then East to the first point where there's ground 2 the left and 2 the right. There I rested for 20 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
41. I went so far to test what only 2 tiles were left ahead and remembered the time. I rested there for 33 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
42. I jumped into water which would be pointed by the remembered time if I it was 2 hours later. I stopped after I passed a beach. I rested there for 51 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
43. I went to the beach in horizontal direction where the grass was. Then I turned right and after two steps I rested for 50 minutes as Dargloc was eager.
44. I proceeded to West to stop only before more than 2 waters were in front of me. I jumped into water ahead and took the nearest way to fill my hourglass. Then I took one step right and rested for 33 minutes as Dargloc was here before me.
45. I turned around and went to the second sand. Then colonist one step and to the nearest rock to the South. I rested there for 50 minutes as Dargloc was surprised by my affiliation. I was not.
46. I passed next 2 rocks to direction which the middle shows and got to the nearest beach on which I rested sleeping for 15 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
47. I did the Beast thing again and after 2 more steps I rested for 36 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
48. I turned where timely bisection would show me if read from the ends and made a step back to rest for 52 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
49. I turned to where another timely bisection pointed. One step ahead, turned a bit to right, one step more and forwards to nearest sand. I rested for 33 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
50. I jumped over nearest rock 3 times. I always splashed while landing and I did not turn without a good reason. There I rested for 50 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
51. I went 2 steps to meet a white bear, but then I turned left to take the last one. I rested for 15 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
52. I went 1 step towards the longer side's middle and turned right. Took one step ahead and rested sleeping for 20 minutes as Dargloc was somewhere.
53. I started counting my steps. I climbed on obstacle ahead. I turned to my left and went until I counted 6. There I rested for 36 minutes as Dargloc was wild.
54. I went to meet the Sun up to where I couldn't make as many steps as I counted to. There I rested for 52 minutes as Dargloc was here, looting the treasure. I did not follow him. Yet.
55. I went 2 the South and rested for 33 minutes as Dargloc was already gone.
56. I went 5 steps more and rested for 50 minutes as Dargloc was already gone.
57. He was gone for good so I stayed another 15 minutes to have the time to think.
58. After another 20 minutes of sleep everything became clear.

As I stayed there everything became clear:

I looked at all the places where I rested and the numbered coordinates made sense.
I read through all the places where I rested and there the question arised - I followed the answer avoiding Dargloc.
From there I finally followed the signs he left throughout his search. This showed me the path.
As I moved along the path, at its end I knew the landtype where the treasure was hidden.
I ordered the places I rested chronologically and I knew that I rested timely.
As I visualized them I saw that I had to mark a point where 4 tiles touch each other. And I already knew which tile to choose.

As I got to the place where the treasure should be I realized that Dargloc has the treasure from the very beginning. He toyed with me to let me think I had a chance to be quicker than him.

First part of the treasure is the half of the number of places I remembered long ago.
Second part of the treasure is the place the treasure was hidden.
Third and fourth part of the treasure take time to get, so I measured my journey and got rid of the worthless.
Fourth part of the treasure is the first one of the above.
Third part of the treasure is 1 less than a half of what was left.

The real question is: What is the treasure? (The reasoning is the most important part of course)

NOTES:

1. As the full solution involves a lot of work, I encourage you to post any progress you make to finally get the solution together.
2. I'll try to keep track of the solution progress and give hints if necessary.
3. If I made any mistakes (which is highly probable) let me know and I'll fix them (unless they are made on purpose)

Good luck, treasure hunters!

EDITS:

1. Updated the map image (it had wrong tile at first column and second row).
2. The times in the numbered directions have been updated (there was an error there). What was changed in this edit can be a hint of some sort.
3. The direction #5 was a copy of direction #18 by mistake. Now it is correct.
4. The direction #17 was changed a bit.
5. The direction #5's wording was not the most fortunate and is now changed.
6. The direction #17 was rewritten due to unfortunate wording.
7. The direction #18 was shifted by a minute.
8. The direction #31 was slightly changed to make it more precise.
9. The direction #26 was ambiguous, so it was changed a bit.
10. The direction #31 and #32 were changed from Pie to PI.
11. The amount of resting in direction #49 was chagned (was erred before).
12. The direction #31 was rewritten (the incorrect reasoning of Phlarx was fitting better than mine)
13. The direction #31 was mixed up - the "twin" was added.
14. The directions #41 and #42 were changed (another time-related issue)
15. The "fornt" in direction #44 was in fact a typo. It was meant to be "front".
16. The direction #48 and #49 changed due to incorrect time. ("On step" was a typo that should be "One step")
17. The direction #52 was changed (erred) from "shorter" to "longer".
18. The direction #53 was made clearer.
19. The prologue was changed a bit (by mistake the time of the journey was counted from midnight, not from half past - sorry for that).

CLARIFICATIONS:

1. You can treat tiles as the same island only if they are connected by a full edge (not corner) (thanks for pointing this out by Buldelu)

2. You will never be directed outside the area depicted by the map even for a split second by any of the clues, at any stage of the riddle.

3. Finishing a move or even resting on a water tile is perfectly OK (assume you have a boat or something).

4. You can move in 8 directions.

5. Any phrase like "horizontally", "vertically", "rows" or "columns" refer to the map after any rotation resulting in top of the map being north. (i.e. if the map should be rotated 90 deg clockwise, columns are numbered, rows are assigned letters and horizontally means parallel to the longer edge of the map)

6. Any word that starts with capital letter and is not leading a sentence is written that way for a reason.

HINTS:

1. The first clue (first blockquote) was solved by Wesley Situ (see his answer or click the image of the map).

2. All steps to solve this riddle other than executing the numbered directions depend on solving the numbered directions first.

3. If you don't know where to start executing the numbered directions see the answer by Buldelu (with comments), as it clears this part up.

4. Isn't the first numbered direction trying to get you out of the area of the map? (No, it is not, but it is a hint to think of it - see hint #5.) (solved by Phlarx)

5. The journey introduction together with the first numbered direction, clarifications and Hint #3 should tell you that the map is still not exactly what it should look like. Something which appears on every map is still missing (see hint #4). (solved by Wesley Situ).

6. Direction#1: You are explicitly told the starting point (or at least small set of possible starting points), but the important thing here is to know where your "ahead" is exactly. (solved by Phlarx)

7. None of the numbered directions ends with turning somewhere and not going at least one step in that direction (and you are always told how many steps to make).

8. For "decoding" the output of your journey, the most important thing is the order. (solved by Phlarx)

9. Even if some path looks like it is not the correct one, there might be a message hidden in it.

10. Direction #17: The "arrow" would be even more accurate if it was 5 minutes earlier.

11. The PI in direction #31 and #32 refers to something from the most distant past of this treasure hunt. Why are both letters capitalized? (solved by Rubio in Phlarx's answer comments)

12. When thinking of the references of wrong paths in the riddle: Who would want you to take wrong paths? Some directions have different ending.

13. About the "colonist": Read the direction aloud. Slowly.

14. Direction #48: The word "ends" is plural, but refers to only one point in time. There are at least two elements in what clock is showing. Read them all "from their ends" and then bisect the result.

15. There is a small set (2) of valid answers to the "question that arised" after completing the numbered directions (not taken literally). You will know which one is correct if you "avoid Dargloc".

16. To comply with the "avoiding Dargloc" part you only have to know his name.

17. When you follow Dargloc on his path remember that you are still on the same map.

18. Why did he stop so many times? Maybe he needed some rest?

19. Addition to hint #18: What did you do when you rested?

20. "Following Dargloc": Whole path is important. Not only the final tile.

21. "Following Dargloc" part is supposed to provide you with a landtype. The "Timely Resting" is supposed to provide you with 4 tiles. These parts can be solved independently. After both are solved you will have to merge them to get the one-tile solution.

22. Dargloc rests on specific tiles on the map (exactly like you did before). Whole his path results in some message (which leads you to the landtype).

23. The "I ordered the places I rested chronologically (...) as I visualized them" part means to take your resting places very "visually". Apply the "I rested timely" part in chronological order. The map from Phlarx's answer should help a lot.

24. Note that the longest resting time is 52 minutes. The number of your resting places is 58, which is more than 52, so each resting time has its unique mapping to a resting place.

25. The "MIDDLE GRASS" message is a little unfortunate - it would be clearer if it was "MEAN GRASS". Note the "4 tiles' intersection".

26. "Third and fourth part of the treasure take time to get". Definitely you should take time into consideration, not only number of stops. "I measured my journey and got rid of the worthless" - what does that mean? By the way, there is no clue about what time unit you should use; days? hours? Try to stick with the one used by the puzzle itself.

27. Yes, the four parts of the treasure are 4 numbers that have to be translated into text which describes the treasure.

28. The translation is not 1-A, 2-B etc. It is something more closely connected with the puzzle itself.

29. About manipulating the time of the journey: try to see the number of minutes as just the number, or even as a string of digits without any additional meaning.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this section I will note some (not very inventive but still important) thoughts that may help other puzzlers make their big and complex puzzles better.

1. The number of directions included in this puzzle is way too large and it becomes boring after all this time.
2. Many directions were unclear and ambiguous. It's good to try to verify that it cannot have double meaning (if it is not intended of course).
3. The more separate parts (numbered directions in this case) you add, the higher the probability of making a mistake is.
4. If you want to create a complex and long puzzle, it is better to create many different parts than a few monstrous (big and scary) parts. While both solutions may require the same amount of work it is more enjoyable to switch between the parts and you can get more solvers actually involved.
5. Try to make the puzzle be solvable by multiple solvers at once (separate parts) so that they can share their observations and help each other (which was kind of killed in this puzzle by including too many numbered directions).
6. Make your puzzle well structured and readable - large blocks of (even formatted) text are hard to focus on. Use bold font, lists, images, tables etc. to help people see what you want to show them.
7. Let someone else try to solve each step of your puzzle as it is being created (with your immediate help to speed the process up) - this will enable you to spot mistakes you made before "release" to the public. I am really sorry for the number of mistakes I made during creation of this puzzle - I checked it so many times, but there were still lots of errors left unseen until someone else tried to solve this. I think this is almost impossible to create a puzzle so large only by yourself - you need a tester.
• The top row appears to have writing in it where the columns have numbers. I can't make it out from the existing image, if it's at all important, could you include a zoomed image of those portions? – Sconibulus Oct 7 '16 at 14:22
• A couple quick observations: there looks to be morse code for "E" at the top of the left column and "N" at the top of the right column. Also, in the numbered directions, Dargloc is always either near, eager, somewhere, or wild which probably correlate to N/E/S/W compass directions. – Dan Russell Oct 7 '16 at 16:43
• As you come into this puzzle, Dargloc is also born. You begin your life, and he begins a journey towards you. He moves slowly, but he never stops. Wherever you go, whatever path you take, he will follow. Never faster, never slower, always coming. You will run. He will walk. You will rest. He will not. One day, you will linger in the same place too long. You will sit too still or sleep too deep, and when, too late, you rise to go, you will notice a second shadow next to yours. Your search will then be over. – Rand al'Thor Oct 7 '16 at 17:51
• GOLD CAR. COLD RAG. CARL GOD. CLAG ROD. OLD CRAG. LARGO CD. DRAG COL. LOG CARD. LARD COG. GLAD ROC. I dunno, it seems like Dargloc has to signify something... – Gareth McCaughan Oct 8 '16 at 10:08
• @oleslaw I agree with your points in your conclusions. As someone who really enjoys "big puzzles" (I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to look at this one yet), you have hit the nail on the head with these points. Also consider looking at some of the puzzles by Bmyguest and 2012rcampion. – LeppyR64 Dec 14 '16 at 13:25

## 3 Answers

### Final answer:

The treasure is fashionable GOLD located at the 9th column, O, and 6th row, 3.

### Table of contents (gosh I wish I could put in links for these):

• On the elements of the puzzle [SOLVED]
• On the geography of the area [SOLVED]
• On the starting point and other interesting locations [SOLVED]
• On the phrasing of the directions [SOLVED]
• On the moods, opinions, and locations of Dargloc [SOLVED]
• On decoding the path [SOLVED]
• On the passage of time [SOLVED by WesleySitu]
• On the treasure itself [SOLVED]
• On knowledge not yet known
• Missed details
• Acknowledgements

### On the elements of the puzzle: [SOLVED]

(Per OP's suggestion, these should be tackled roughly in order, after solving the numbered directions.)

I looked at all the places where I rested and the numbered coordinates made sense. [SOLVED]

Here is a chart of the numbered coordinate for each resting place:

Each available row (orange lines) is rested upon a number of times equal to the value of that row. It seems like 5 has two too many, but the last two points didn't involve any movement and can plausibly be ignored, making this fine.

I read through all the places where I rested and there the question arised - I followed the answer avoiding Dargloc. [SOLVED]

The question is, per section "On decoding the path": Treasure is not hidden. On which tile you never rested????? There's lots of tiles upon which we never rested. According to OP, the phrase 'avoiding Dargloc' plays into this more than just flavor. Also, according to hint #16, when avoiding Dargloc, we only need know his name. This probably means that our answer is not in columns d, a, r, g, l, o, or c.

You'll note that the actual answer, given just a bit below, does not touch these columns, and also is not a tile upon which we rested.

From there I finally followed the signs he left throughout his search. This showed me the path. [SOLVED]

The phrases pertaining to Dargloc at the end of each direction can be mapped to a series of movements. In section "On the moods, opinions, and locations of Dargloc", the meanings are worked out, and the actual path can be found in the Google Docs sheet linked from there.

As I moved along the path, at its end I knew the landtype where the treasure was hidden. [SOLVED]

With the start point of space0, as described in section "On the moods, opinions, and locations of Dargloc", the message is "undergrey", meaning the treasure is found under a grey tile. Whether 'under' means 'buried' or 'south', I'm not sure.

I ordered the places I rested chronologically and I knew that I rested timely. As I visualized them I saw that I had to mark a point where 4 tiles touch each other. And I already knew which tile to choose. [SOLVED]

This relies on section "On the passage of time", which is now solved. The message hidden in the resting durations is "middle grass", which (per hint #25) seems to refer to the average of all grass tiles. Doing the math, that results in a location between rows 3 and 6, and between columns O and C.

The 4 tiles must be in a 2x2 arrangement, so that each tile would touch the three others at their common vertex. These four tiles, then, are O3, O6, C3, and C6. Interestingly one of those four is different from the others: O3 is stone, matching the above "under grey".

This suggests the treasure is located at O3.

### On the geography of the area: [SOLVED]

The letters and symbols define the longitudes, with north at the right.
The numbers define the latitudes, with west at the top.

Blue tiles are water.
Green tiles are grass.
Grey tiles are rock.
Brown tiles are sand.

Here is my own map, rotated so that north is up. Note that the terms "row" and "column" apply after the map is rotated (per clarification #5), so columns are always north/south, and so on. There are numbers added to the map, I will talk of them in the next section.

At various points along the journey, it is possible to go along alternate routes, but these eventually hit a dead end:

Here is a map of as far as you can get with the other possible starting point. (First split, before step #1). In this layout, direction #6 leads us out of bounds, and #11 is impossible, since there is no center ahead of us.

Here is a map of as far as you can get at the second split (step #10). The tiles unique to this path are red. Following this path, #24 is impossible, because there are no grass tiles west of the tile south of $23$.

Here is a map of as far as you can get at the third split (step #24). The tiles unique to this path are red. Following this path, #31 is impossible, because there are no sand tiles east of $30$.

Here is a map of as far as you can get at the fourth split (step #33). Again, the tiles that are unique to this path are red. #46 is impossible, since there are not enough rocks east of $45$.

### On the starting point and other interesting locations: [SOLVED]

We must determine where we start. Since we slept in the center of the largest island, we have two possibilities for this location: position V5 or F9. Since the first few steps lead us 4 steps southeast from here (see next paragraphs for why), the map must be laid out in landscape, since this movement would put us out of bounds in a portrait layout. I selected V5 as the initial location, since starting from F9 leads to the difficulties I described next to the "other layout" map link above.

The sleeping point is marked $-1$ in my map. Upon waking, we face the sunrise (east) but, of course, can't yet see the sun.

We then turn slightly right (so now we're facing southeast) and take a step forward. This is the proper starting point, and is marked $0$ on my map.

The tile I've marked $0$ is also marked $9$, since the ninth direction states that we've returned to our starting point. Other locations that coincide are marked similarly.

I've marked all tiles, $1$ through $58$, for the locations the we rest when following the given directions.

### On the phrasing of the directions: [SOLVED]

For the full breakdown of the directions see this google docs sheet, updated Feb 21 2017. Make sure you're on the "Directions" tab at the bottom. (It was much too long to include here).

### On the moods, opinions, and locations of Dargloc: [SOLVED]

I think the various "Dargloc was..." phrases show how Dargloc moved:

• near or not: north (near could mean northeast. Edit: nope, we don't have enough columns for that. We'd need at least 24.)
• eager or expecting: east
• somewhere or surprised: south (somewhere could mean southwest instead)
• wild: west
• nearly wrong: northwest
• here: he stays where he is, and rests, resulting in a set of positions that can be decoded in the same manner as our path (process+rules are described in the next section.) The message I get from this is "undergrey", for somewhere==S, and starting on space0.
• gone: his location is no longer important

The workings-out for the message can be found in the same google docs sheet, on the "Scratch" tab.

### On decoding the path: [SOLVED]

The message encoded in the path is:

Treasure is not hidden. On which tile you never rested?????

More details on why and how:

The first few points are (using underscores instead of spaces, since they seem to show up better):

Num Row Col
1  10   r
2   9   r
3  12   e
4   7   t
5   6   s
6   3   u
7   4   a
8   5   e
9  12   _
10   6   i
11   3   s
12  10   _
13  12   o
14   9   n
15  10   t
16  10   _
17  12   i
18   4   d
19   3   d
20   5   e
21   0   n
22   9   h
23   9   . 

The second word looks promising! It says "is"! If you squint real hard (or rearrange the other words), the full message begins "treasure is not hidden.". I'll describe the exact method for rearranging the letters just below.

Here is the first few points with the other layout:
Num Row Col
1   4  w
2  10  n
3   3  o
4   5  g
5   6  r 

This says "wrong" when rearranged, giving a clue that it is indeed the wrong layout. OP hints that the method by which these letters are rearranged is equal to the method for rearranging the lettering in the actual message above, and is therefore a bit of a hint. This gives extra focus to the sequence 4 6 3 10 5, which also provides a correct subsequence to the word 'treasure' above ('asure').

Upon determination that this sequence is not founded in mathematics, I looked to the puzzle itself to see if it was hidden there. I was expecting 'length of words in a sentence' or some such, but it's right at the top of the map, staring me in the face. (Reversed, yes, but still.) So the letters are organized in the same order as the rows, once the map is correctly rotated. Or, to state it differently, if a word has a letter from the first row it comes first. A letter in the second row comes next, if present. And so on, row-by-row down the map. If we discover a word that uses the same row twice (e.g. is longer than the number of rows), we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. My guess is that priority goes left-to-right (reading order).

To demonstrate what we have so far more visually, here is the first few words and 'wrong' arranged by the aforementioned row numbers:
 7  9 12  4  6  3 10  5  0
w  r  o  n  g       wrong

t  r  e  a  s  u  r  e       treasure
i  s             is
n  o           t          not
h  i  d     d  e  n       hidden

All the decoded messages are as follows:

The full message on the main path is:
"Treasure is not hidden. On which tile you never rested?????"

The first alternate path reads "Wrong".
The second alternate path reads "(Treasure) hunter failed ".
The third alternate path reads "No way".
The fourth alternate path reads "(On which) side are you?".

### On the passage of time: [SOLVED by WesleySitu]

There are 20 unique lengths for the various rests we make along the journey: 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 33, 36, 37, 38, 50, 51, 52.

If we map these times to the first 20 letters of the alphabet, and apply this to the times throughout the journey, we get the following:
ntsorabefjieefjieckhlmpqpegotkhrdktornhknsrnrhotnrhkotnrhk

While this is almost certainly not the proper way to solve it, we can see some patterns: for example, efjie and otnrhk each repeat once. In his answer, WesleySitu noticed that these patterns actually write the letters out onto the map, where the duration of the rest maps to a marked position on the map. See his answer for details, the resultant message is MIDDLEGRASS.

### On the treasure itself: [SOLVED]

First part of the treasure is the half of the number of places I remembered long ago. [SOLVED]

In direction #9, we are told to remember the number of places we've been. That number is 8. Half this is 4.

Second part of the treasure is the place the treasure was hidden. [SOLVED]

The treasure is on row 3. This part can't be the column letter, since hint #27 says it's a number. Could also be 6, since row 3 is the sixth row down from the top.

Third and fourth part of the treasure take time to get, so I measured my journey and got rid of the worthless. [SOLVED]

The total duration of the journey was 27 hours 40 minutes, or 1660 minutes. Per hint #29, we'll operate on the string "1660". What's the worthless thing that's referred to? Quite probably the worthless thing is just the zero digit itself, leaving "166".

Fourth part of the treasure is the first one of the above. [SOLVED]

The first "one" of "166" is 1.

Third part of the treasure is 1 less than a half of what was left. [SOLVED]

"66" remains, halved is 6, decremented is 5. (Or 33 - 1 = 32).

From this, we can find the answer: [SOLVED]

We have a few number combinations, but the one that turns up actual words is 4, 6, 5, 1.

How can we decode it? If used to index into the columns, we get the words DRAI or AGRF. Indexing into "Dargloc", we get GOLD or LCOA. If we look at the columns at these steps from our journey, we get TUSR. Of note, we're probably not supposed to unscramble this (since the parts are given ordinals).

Of those options, one is an actual word: GOLD. Gold just so happens to be quite treasure-y.

### Missed details:

On the meaning of "alternate paths" of your journey:
The meaning of Dargloc's state at the point you reached a "dead end" was to ensure you that this is indeed the end and no further movement is allowed along this way/branch.

The first alternate path reads "Wrong".
At this point "Dargloc was nearly wrong".

The second alternate path reads "(Treasure) hunter failed ".
At this point "Dargloc was expecting me to fail".

The third alternate path reads "No way".
At this point "Dargloc was not able to see the way".

The fourth alternate path reads "(On which) side are you?".
At this point "Dargloc was surprised by my affiliation".

On the treasure itself:
Note the phrase "As I got to the place where the treasure should be I realized that Dargloc has the treasure from the very beginning."
Present tense is used intentionally. This was supposed to tell you that the word "Dargloc" has the treasure - that's why you should map numbers (four parts of the treasure) into letters from his name.

### Acknowledgements:

Thanks to oleslaw for making this puzzle, and

Thanks to Buldelu, Wesley Situ, boboquack, Rubio, Gareth McCaughan, and anyone else who has put some of their brainpower towards solving this!

• @Phlarx Your labels for the axes are reversed in your image. – Wesley Situ Oct 21 '16 at 17:51
• Could Dargloc being somewhere mean that he was in the South-West? – boboquack Nov 5 '16 at 22:47
• PI = Peaceful Island – Rubio Nov 18 '16 at 7:46
• I suspect "the one not found resting" might just mean the cardinal direction not found in the word RESTING; i.e., West. – Gareth McCaughan Nov 28 '16 at 21:32
• @Phlarx The treasure might be under 6, which makes something sensible using 4, 6, 5, 1, and "Dargloc" – Wesley Situ Apr 26 '17 at 8:05

Starting from the first clue,

"If Dargloc rests now? You have to hurry." But do not dare to repeat yourself.

I believe this will allow us to

assign characters to the rows. The key here is 'But do not dare to repeat yourself'. If we take all unique characters (case-insensitive) in the string "If Dargloc rests now? You have to hurry.", we can fill in the sides with 21 characters.

The unique characters are "if darglocestnw?yuhv."

See Phlarx's answer for intermediate steps for what follows:

## On the passage of time

If you take the resting intervals as the places we've rested (n minutes corresponds to the nth location we've rested), you can form letters on the map by connecting the dots.

This gives us:

33-52-51-36-50 M
1-2 I
9-12-19-18-9 D
9-12-19-18-9 D
3-20-15 L
25-26-37-38-37-9-13 E
36-52-20-15-50-5 G
20-52-36-50-33-15 R
20-33-51-50-33-50-15 A
36-52-33-50-15-20 S
36-52-33-50-15-20 S

MIDDLE GRASS

There are two grass tiles along the middle of both axes, but only one of them is adjacent to a grey tile (where the treasure should be hidden under), so I believe the grass tile is (7, e) and the treasure is hidden on the grey tile (9, s)

## On what the treasure is

The first part is half the number of places we've remembered, which is 4.
The second part is where the treasure was supposed to be, which is row 9.
The third and fourth parts are measured by our journey, which would be 58 stops.
If we take the fourth part to be the first half 5 and the third part to be half of 8 minus 1, we get 3.

Putting the pieces of the treasure together, we get 4-9-3-5, which when decoded using A1Z26, gets us DICE!

• This is exactly what the first clue was about. Can't wait to see the next steps. – oleslaw Oct 13 '16 at 7:55
• Sorry for the confusion, the times in the riddle have been changed a bit. This answer is updated to the changes. – oleslaw Oct 14 '16 at 6:48
• @oleslaw Regarding the (29 Minute Hand = South?) comment, that should be the time 6:20 no? The 9 minute wait occurs after "going to the clock's tick" The times on my schedule are the times after doing the wait on each step – Wesley Situ Oct 14 '16 at 6:51
• I actually only changed the times (and interpretation of '45 - west' to '30 - south'). I did not evaluate if it is correct reasoning. Your comment in parenthesis was applied to 17. so I left it there. – oleslaw Oct 14 '16 at 6:56
• @oleslaw Got it. Just making sure that you didn't read my schedule incorrectly and created your time fix from a misinterpretation of my incorrect reasoning :P – Wesley Situ Oct 14 '16 at 7:00

I don't have enough reputation to comment, but I want to share my thoughts:

I tried to figure out, which island "is the largest one and lies to the very west of the area". That depends if someone counts the diagonal connections as well and which colour is counted as an "island". Here is a small map, which does not count diagonal connections, but everything except blue as "land":

-   -   2   -   6   -   9   9   9
-   -   2   -   6   -   9   9   9
-   -   -   6   6   -   9   9   9
6   -   -   -   6   -   -   -   -
6   6   -   -   -   1   -   3   -
6   6   6   -   -   -   -   3   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   3   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   5   -   1   -   -   -   -   -
5   5   5   -   -   1   -   -   -
-   -   5   -   1   -   1   -   1
-   -       1   -   -   -   1   -
-   4   4   -   -   -   1   -   -
-   -   4   -   4   4   -   -   -
-   -   4   -   -   4   4   -   -
-   -   -   -   3   -   -   -   1
1   -   -   -   3   -   -   -   -
-       -   -   3   -   -   -   7
9   9   9   -   -   -   7   7   7
9   9   9   -   1   -   7   7   -
9   9   9   -   -   -   -   7   -


Here comes a version, which counts everything except blue as "land", but includes diagonal connections as well:

-   -   8   -   8   -   9   9   9
-   -   8   -   8   -   9   9   9
-   -   -   8   8   -   9   9   9
6   -   -   -   8   -   -   -   -
6   6   -   -   -   8   -   3   -
6   6   6   -   -   -   -   3   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   3   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   24  -   24  -   -   -   -   -
24  24  24  -   -   24  -   -   -
-   -   24  -   24  -   24  -   24
-   -       24  -   -   -   24  -
-   24  24  -   -   -   24  -   -
-   -   24  -   24  24  -   -   -
-   -   24  -   -   24  24  -   -
-   -   -   -   24  -   -   -   1
1   -   -   -   24  -   -   -   -
-       -   -   24  -   -   -   7
9   9   9   -   -   -   7   7   7
9   9   9   -   1   -   7   7   -
9   9   9   -   -   -   -   7   -


The following is a version, where grey and green is land, and the other colors are "water":

-   -   1   -   1   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   1   -
-   -   -   1   -   -   -   -   -
2   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
2   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   1   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   3   -   1   -   -   -   -   -
-   3   3   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   1   -   1   -   1
-   -   -   1   -   -   -   1   -
-   1   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   2   2   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   1   -   -
-   -   -   -   1   -   -   -   1
1   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   1   -   -   -   1
-   -   -   -   -   -   2   2   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -


I will try different "rules" for islands later.

• Welcome to Puzzling! Don't worry, partial answers are acceptable here. Good luck with solving this! – Rand al'Thor Oct 7 '16 at 17:53
• see the clarifications no.1 – oleslaw Oct 7 '16 at 17:55
• @oleslaw Thanks. That makes life easier. – Buldelu Oct 7 '16 at 18:00
• I think green is grass and grey is rock, so I stopped making maps with other combinations. – Buldelu Oct 7 '16 at 18:19
• I think that I should clarify that blue tiles are indeed considered "water". – oleslaw Oct 7 '16 at 18:21