Curios and Conundrums

Curios And Conundrums was a quarterly mailing from the Mysterious Package Company that contained puzzles as well as interesting artifacts and stories. It ran for 4 years with back issues sometimes available for order through their website.

Volumes 1-3 contain very difficult puzzles. The puzzles usually contain several layers, so after solving the surface level puzzle (like a crossword), you would have to find the answer to the meta puzzle. Then, there was usually a 3rd layer puzzle that you could solve by combining two puzzles or by solving the original puzzle in a different way. All answers could be checked by entering them into "The Vault" which was a special section of the Mysterious Package Company's website. The Vault would often give other puzzles that needed to be solved. If someone was able to solve every puzzle, then they could open The Vault. A year after Volume 3 was released, only 87 people had opened the Vault. Do you have what it takes?

Volume 4 departed from using difficult puzzles and included only 5 puzzles each issue. Each puzzle has a meta puzzle answer. The Mysterious Package Company website has hints and solutions for all puzzles, so if you get stuck, you can get past it.

In Dec 2016, the Vault was removed from the MPC website, but here at Braingle, we have reproduced the vault so that anyone who purchases the back issues can work through the puzzle experience just like everyone else was able to at the time.