Bill Jahnel

Million Dollar Update
As of mid-September, which is the last official press release from Sirius publishing, the Treasure Quest prize has not been handed out yet. However, much progress has been made in the game and it is possible a winner is pending.

For those who are just picking up Treasure Quest, the game follows in the footsteps of Kit William's book MASQUERADE, which was published in the early 1980s. Masquerade had vibrant drawings and a storyline, but hidden in the text and pictures were clues to find a golden rabbit that was hidden somewhere in the United States. Treasure Quest is a multimedia version of such a puzzle game, where you must solve 10 quotes in 10 rooms of an abandoned house—and from those 10, derive the "Ultimate Solution."

The 10 Quotes and the Ultimate Solution
Over time it has become obvious that no matter how difficult and labyrinthine the 10 quotes were, the Ultimate solution was also much harder to achieve. References from classical mythology, Yiddish, the Bible, and Plato dot the landscape of this game of erudition. I have combed through the volumes of hints, and will try and offer what I believe to be the most important keys to help people solve Treasure Quest. Please remember that what follows is the best culled information I could find, but due to the nature of the prize, I CANNOT guarantee that the solutions below are accurate, with the exception of the excerpt from the bedroom puzzle, which has been confirmed by the Treasure Quest staff. Also, please remember that HAVING the quotes is not enough; you must explain in detail how the puzzle is solved in order to win the prize.

Having said that, let me spill the beans on the most helpful material. Please find below the 10 quotes that are generally now accepted as the quotes to be deciphered in the 10 main rooms. (The attic and cellar, which are accessed through solving puzzles in the game, have other interesting information in them that may point the way towards the ultimate solution.

So, without further adieu, the 10 quotes currently generally accepted:

    Den Quote: "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?" 
    - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

    Bedroom Quote: "'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,'—that is all ye know on Earth, 
    and all ye need to know." - Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn

    Game Room Quote: "One more such victory and we are lost." - Pyrrhus

    Kitchen Quote: "I demand that my books be judged with utmost severity, by 
    knowledgeable people who know the rules of grammar and of logic, and who will 
    seek beneath the footsteps of my commas, the lice of my thought in the head of my 
    style." - Aragon

    Library: "Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers" - Tennison,

    Cellar Quote: "If you have built castles in the air, then your work need not be lost;
    that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." - Thoreau, Walden

    Living Room Quote: There are two versions, according to PanPan file, the better 
    version is: "Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of 
    our time, is a marvellous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, 
    the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word, we may 
    regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past." 
    - Octavio Paz, Andre Breton or the Quest of the Beginning

    Attic Quote: "I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to cry at them, nor 
    to hate them, but to understand them." - Spinoza

    Garden Quote: Sic transit gloria mundi - So Passes away the glory of the world. 
    Thomas a Kempis, De Imitatione Christi (phrase used when a new pope is installed)

    Dining Room Quote: "A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the 
    puddles in the road." - Alexander Smith

Quote Commentaries
The most hotly debated quote if the Octavio Paz quote—or rather, how much of the quote is appropriate to use. Some say only half, others say all of it. In order to help solve the quotes, I have found the place where a player in Treasure quest—in a chat—described a full solution. The folks at TQ has affirmed this is correct and have their own explanation of the bedroom quote solution at http://www.treasurequest.com/Mansion/ Bedroom/index.html. I reproduce below the pertinent parts of the chat, having removed the intervening lines.

"I've come here to help you with a quotation. This game can be frustrating very quickly, and I don't want to lose any players, if possible. The quotation for the bedroom is as follows: Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all Ye need to know. This is from Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn." 

"Having the quotation is only part of our problem. In order to submit a claim for the prize, you must be able to show where each word in the quotation comes from. . .I will now walk you through each word's origin." 

"Beauty is Truth is the phrase that is scrambled in the bathroom letters. This is an example of a metaphor. The second part: truth, beauty is derived from the mirror on the stand by the bed. The chemical elements each have a symbol as follows: Beryllium=Be, Gold=Au, Titanium=Ti, and Yttrium=Y. If you notice, the screen tells you Titanium-i which would leave you with the T. These letters then combine to form the word: Beauty. The word verdad is Spanish for the word truth."

"The postcard in the drawer beside the bed has the following clue: Ln 14 Wd 2-4. This is in reference to the postcard itself. This is translated as line 14, words 2-4. If you count down 14 lines (including the date on the postcard), you will arrive at the line: sure that is all it was. As you can see, this will give you the next part of the quotation: that is all."

"The next part of the quotation deals with the equation: 2(yes-1). This means that you are to subtract one letter from the word yes which leaves you with the word ye. 2(ye) thus means that the word ye is used twice in our quotation."

"Several screens are references to earth. This sets up the next portion of our quotation.  Following those screens will finally send you to the screen where the letters KNOW are sitting on top of a globe. This is a rebus puzzle. The word know is sitting on top of the earth. A voice over clue references you to prepositions. The correct interpretation for this screen is literal. The screen translates to know on earth, meaning the word know is on top of the earth." 

"The next screen that we need is the screen with a sewing machine. You will notice two sets of numbers along with the phrase a needle pulling thread. They try to mislead you with several voice-over clues, but don't be fooled. The numbers are as follows: 19.02.05 and 01.11.10 Use the phrase and count out the letters. The nineteenth letter is a, the second letter is n, and so forth. This will give you the words and all."

"The last part of the quotation is the trickiest part. It involves the screen with the equation 3 2/3(5)+2(e)+d. There is a quotation from de Sade on the same screen as the equation. You must use the equation in conjunction with the quotation. The quotation from de Sade starts as follows: Nature has not got two voices. not. The fifth word of the de Sade quotation is two. Therefore, 2/3(5) is two of the three letters in the fifth word, in our case, the t and o. Thus, 3-2/3(5) means to subtract the t and o from our third word not which leaves us with the letter n. Add the 2(e) and d and we arrive at the word need. The rest of the equation then falls into place. 2/3(5) + 8 once again uses our letters from the above example t and o, and the eighth word is know. Thus, we have the last three words ( as clued in the voice-over) as need to know. "

Special Rooms and Times
Not everything in Treasure Quest can be accessed during the same time. Certain screens can only be accessed during the phases of the full moon, as reflected by the time on your system clock. To open these screens, one solution is to set your clock to October 30, 1999. Most of the secret rooms will then be opened, such as the screens behind the horseman in the Den. The rooms opened by this date are:

    • 3 in the den, from the horse statue on the first screen
    • 1 in the library, from the cinderbox at the base of the fireplace on the screen 
     of the fireplace in color
    • 3 in the Dining Room, from the chandelier on the first screen
    • Many areas in the Cellar.

Most of these screens have a moon on them, symbolizing that they are only openable during the moon cycle. Some people have suggested that by adding twelve years to the date of the will ("TWELVE YEARS have come and gone," from the song Private dancer, in the room) will set your system clock to a full moon cycle (Sept. 28, 2000). However, I found the October 30th date to be more responsive.

There are two other areas that only open on different dates: On Feb 14th one screen opensin the cellar; on Pearl Harbor day, a different screen can be accessed.

Some of the toughest puzzles are very obscure. Take the book in the Den that asks for Cessida's father's nativity sun-sign. It seeks you to type in Taurus, the sign of the Bull. Cressida's father in the play (and historio-mythologically) was Calchus, a Trojan seer who defected to the Greeks. In response to one of his visions he told Agemmemnon to sacrifice his daughter to Artemis. (this is in the three play cycle that ends in the Eumenidies). Artimes saved Iphigenia and spirited her away to. . . Taurus.

The Debate Rages
However, the debate over the Ultimate Solution Rages on. The concepts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and Innocence seem to be key, though no one is exactly sure of their application as of yet. Much is wondered about the nature of the voices you hear: The Spirit Guide, the professor's voice, and the third voice—could it be the murderer of the professor's lost love? The most plausible theory is that the game solution is ultimately both metaphorical and also a conclusion to the sad tale of the Professor and his murdered Cyrptological love. There is a padlocked door in the cellar—and there are shades of the 7th Guest about much of this puzzle.

But ultimately, only time will tell. I wish the questers luck, and note my deep indebtedness to the erudite and clever questers throughout the web community, from whom most of this information has been culled.