Thread: Rusty's solution to The Idol of Xi

As it is Christmas morning, and I have no other gifts for the ScrollQuest fans, I decided to share my solution to The Idol of Xi. Merry Christmas scrollers.

First Clue: Utah
People have posted how the mistyped letters anagram to 'utah coin...' and 'cow in utah...' and such things. The Evan scroll shows this clue:

pointing to the 45th state.

Second Clue: wh-om-to-ll-s?

This was my big breakthrough. I put together a star pattern for "whom tolls":

These letters appear in different order on both scrolls, but in both cases, they trace out a 5 point star. The phrase "whom tolls" refers to the great Earnest Hemmingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Since the question mark is part of the clue, it asks the question "For whom does the bell toll", or alternatively, "who is the start of 'for whom the bell tolls'?". The star or main character of Hemmingway's novel (or the movie if you prefer) is a character named Jordan. And indeed the bell tolls for Jordan.

So, the answer to the question is Jordan. And the answer to the question of what park in Utah has the Xi coin is Jordan Park which is in Salt Lake City.

Third Clue: Olmec

I found the Olmec head:

This Olmec head was a reproduction of an actual Mexican Olmec relic, made for the Fiesta Olmeca party in the West Valley area of Salt Lake City in 2004. It was then moved to the International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park after the festival.

The Fiesta Olmeca pamphlet shows the delivery of the Olmec head to the culteral center in preparation for the festival:

This pamphlet is extremely close in style to the design of the scrolls. I wondered if this is where SQ got the idea for this hunt. Also, the same jaguar-lord-priest glyphs were included in this pamphlet:

How coincidental would that be if one was not "inspired" by the other.

Fourth Clue: Coarse gulch path

This was the easy puzzle every got and was posted long ago:

Arguably spells "coarse gulch path" or something like that. It appears to be the local vacinity clue for this scroll.

Conclusion: Jordan Park/International Peace Gardens
This is my estimation of the area of where the coin could be:

In the International Peace Gardens, in the Mexico section, along the coarse path near the Olmec head.

Maybe the coin is by that big old Olmec 'coin'.

There was more, but I don't want to waste my entire day making this post.

Merry Christmas Tweleve,

-Rusty

Disclaimer #1: If you are a nooblet, before you go charter that plane and spend your $100,000, go read all the posts in the main ScrollQuest forum.

Disclaimer #2: If a Christmas miracle happens, like water turning into wine, a loaf of bread feeding thousands, or the Xi coin being worth more than the scroll it is printed on, remember your friend Rusty told you were it was. Donating it to the American Humane Society would be nice and Christmassy.

Thank you Rusty Claus!! If someone gets the coin I hope they send Tweleve a pic, but don't care about claiming the prize. Why bother? Hope everyone is enjoying this time of year and peas to all... Lafitte

Heyas Rusty. Just dropped into this forum out of boredom while waiting for some software to download that I'm going to be using for a Maranatha project.

I'm sorta surprised that you were still working on the Xi hunt. Given ScrollQuests dubiousness.

I do have a question, tho, that I've been wondering for a few days now.

With the intelligence that I'm sure everyone would agree that you have, I'm wondering why we don't see evidence of the Rusty Nail in the Maranatha Project?

I have not worked on this hunt since I started the Conspiracy Theory III topic and I realized all my efforts on ScrollQuest were a waste of time. I decided to post this info Christmas morning as a virtual present hoping it would be something fun to talk about. I figured all this out in the days following ScrollQuest posting the official GA solve.

I was going from memory without my notes, so I got some details wrong. I noticed upon rereading what I posted that the bit about the Olmec head in West Valley City being moved to the Peace Gardens was incorrect. That large repro head still sits in West Valley city. The one in the Peace Gardens is a different head, a much smaller one I think. The idea that it was moved was an earlier theory I had. The link to the Fiesta Olmeca '04 party is just anectdotal. I think press kit pamphlet for the part is where they got the inspiration for this hunt. Here is the link to the pamphlet PDF:
http://www.wvc-ut.gov/culturalcenter...kit_online.pdf

-Rusty

p.s. Thanks for the compliment. I never considered doing Maranatha because it had been going on so long, there was much to buy and read, and the forums seemed to be chock full of crazys.

i would say to each his/her own..sometimes a hunt sparks interest...sometimes it doesnt...i worked on marantha when it first came out...but it was the constant research that got me...and i was on a good path...reading through the lines so to speak...

but i do applaud ya smokin man..for your ability to share your solve...no matter what it may bring...

Location Report On Rusty's Solution to The Idol of Xi

I went to the Salt Lake City, Jordan Park. I spent about four hours searching and found nothing.

The immediate area (say a 200ft radius) around the location of the colossal Olmec head is pretty sparse, mostly lawn and flower beds, with a few shrubs and a couple of pine trees. There is a gravel path but no gulch. In that area there didn’t seem to be any place to really hide anything unless its buried.

The Olmec head sets right on the ground, it has a smooth surface with no niches or cracks for hiding anything.

That ‘’big old Olmec coin’’ Rusty refers to in the photo he posted above, is actually a 2ft diameter replica of the Aztec Sunstone Calender. It sets on a rectangular concrete base about 2.5ft high. On the ground there are two small statues, one on either side of the sunstone----you can see just the tops of them in the photo. The statues are of a vertically elongated head and neck, they look like something from Easter Island. If one stands directly in front of the sunstone, with the two statues on either side it looks a lot like the glyph (on the Manga scroll just left of the large Olmec head) of the two kneeling men worshiping a ‘’sunstone’’

I searched the trees for knot holes and every other above ground place I could think of. I took a metal detector, searched around the sunstone base, the statues, shrubs and everywhere else.

On the scroll, in the Guinea Pig story, there are three words highlighted in bold print----West, first, marker. This park is sectioned off with areas for the various ethnic groups. The first marker to the west (say a 100yds) is a bronze marker in the Chinese section. This area fit some of the clues as well, and actually looked more promising the the Olmec area, a lot more potential hiding places. It has a stream (water COURSE), a small hill with a gully (GULCH) and a couple of PATHs. There is a statue with carvings that may be symbolized in some of the ‘’Imossible epi-Olmic glyphs’’ depicted on the scrolls. Like a dog/fox, horse/pack-animal, insect, etc. I searched this area heavily, I even paid a couple of young boys $5 to stand on my shoulders and search knot holes in a couple of big trees. Again no luck.

If Rusty’s solution is correct, and assuming (and that’s a big assumption) that ScrollQuest actually set the token ---- it’s still there.

I took some photos of the area, I’d post them here by don’t have a hookup with publicly accessible web server. If anyone would like copies PM me with an email address.

well just so ya know...it wasnt a knothole that the GA coin was found in...it was a rotted part of a tree...and the coin was in vertically sideways...so it actually looked like part of the bark...but...we just dont know if they still have the coin hiding or not...so that may be part of the problem...who knows...

as far as pics go...did you try photobucket.com? its free to join and you can post your pics on there...and even put them in this forum... or provide a link to your photobucket so if you didnt want the hassle of posting pics here , peeps could just visit the photobucket you set up...

I use ImageShack for image hosting. You don't even need to create an account or login. Just go to http://www.imageshack.us/ and upload your photos. They generate URLs in various forms for each photo you upload.

I forgot about the glyphs! I'll get together some images and post it soon.

-Rusty

emory, you have been on the forum since June, and your first post was a detailed account of searching the area of my solution? Here is a hangman puzzle for you:

L _ _ _ _ R

-Rusty

L A D D E R

I'm the shy, quite type.