Holiday Hint

So you’ve hit a roadblock have you? Positively stumped? Don’t know where to start or perhaps where to finish? There’s no shame in that, we all need a little help sometimes. The hints below will help nudge you in the right direction.

 

Hint #1 - A hidden message in the odd note

There’s a few odd directions in the note that will help guide your way but it seems someone struggled with their lessons in capitalization. Or did they? Could there be a hidden message there, perhaps it’ll give you some proper direction.

 

Hint #2 - W = ?

At the bottom of the note there’s a little scrawled message that reads W = ?. Perhaps if you figure out how to decipher what letter W should replace in the cipher you’ll be able to shift the rest of the alphabet as well. The cryptic message within the note will help you with this piece “Bearing the fruit of life the tree count’s its blessings”. Could you count something to get W = ?.

 

Hint #3 - The Cipher

Once you’ve solved W=? by counting the apples on the tree, you will then shift the rest of the alphabet as well by shifting all of the letters by 2 places. Use this new cipher to decode the message.

 

The Solution

Using the message hidden in the capital letters of the note ("Bearing the fruit of life the tree counts its blessings”) you will count the apples in the image so solve W=?. There are 21 apples, meaning W = U. Applying this logic to the rest of the cipher allows you to decode the message above it into the following phrase: YOU HAVE PROVEN YOUR WORTH BE PATIENT THE PACKAGE IS ON ITS WAY