Clue

Solve

This uses a Vigenere cipher. The numbers can be decoded to a key, and the letters are the encoded message.

During the hunt, I’d say 99% of the people just put the letters into a decoder site (Boxentriq, e.g.) and brute forced decoded it, without ever actually figuring out the numbers portion.

The numbers can be deciphered into the Vigenere key by doing the following:

1. Space the numbers out correctly to produce an A1Z26 encoded string of characters.

1 11 12 26 2 16 22 17 15 6 5 17 24 17 16 11 6

1. Using A1Z26, this string translates to

AKLZBPVQOFEQXQPKF

1. Using a Caesar Cipher shift to shift each letter up by 3 characters, this shifts it to

DNOCESYTRIHTATSNI

*Note: John confirmed this is just a coincidence. One unconfirmed theory suggests the reason for shifting by 3 is because it is the only number not included in all the numbers from 1 - 7. I’ve also heard this exact pattern (A1Z26 → Caesar shift by 3 → reverse text) was used in a past QR hunt.

> 

1. Reverse that, and you get:

```
INSTATHIRTYSECOND
(INSTA THIRTY-SECOND)
```

Going to [Dave’s 32nd Instagram post](<https://www.instagram.com/the.cline.fam/>) video, the thumbnail has a tiny icon of a set of oars

![Screenshot 2023-10-25 at 1.23.06 PM.png](<https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e0d4dff0-5999-44c9-9d7e-7a99689e80f0/2b70f1a2-9c71-4d88-96af-dc269c469278/Screenshot_2023-10-25_at_1.23.06_PM.png>)

The video, although posted about 2 years prior, had been edited within the last week. There was some added text in the post description: