Project Skydrop’s second treasure hunt It ended with an unexpected development.

Project Skydrop creator Jason Rohrer and his creative partner Tom Bailey decided to hide a jar of gold coins worth $87,600 after their first treasure hunt. 24 carat gold statue He was rescued in early October.

The coins were found at Grandpa Watson’s Woodlot in the Dover-Madbury area of ​​New Hampshire, Rohrer told MassLive. But the problem was not solved by one person.

Meteorologist Dan Leonard found the first Skydrop treasureworked with a man named Chris to solve a reward puzzle. They used clues to find the GPS coordinates of the coin’s hidden location.

The only way to access this puzzle is to use the four secret words given to users who pay $15.

Rohrer said in his statement that the two men solved the puzzle in four days. This involved Chris assembling a team of expert codebreakers who were given the secret words by Leonard.

When Chris’s team solved the puzzle on October 14, they tried to negotiate with Leonard for “a large share of the prize treasure.” That night, Leonard solved the puzzle independently with the help of Discord community members.

Rohrer said Chris went into the woods without telling Leonard and took the gold coins for himself around 11:44 p.m., which was captured by live tracking cameras placed by Skydrop.

“We all saw a mysterious masked man,” he added.

The next week and a half was filled with “tense negotiations, legal threats, and drama” between Leonard, Chris, and the Discord community.

However, in the end, Rohrer said, “Chris eventually changed his mind and decided to return the prize treasure.”

Chris gave the coins to Leonard on October 23, making him a successful Skydrop treasure hunter for the second year in a row.

“This has been an absolutely wild ride and far beyond anything we could have imagined in terms of real-world storytelling,” Rohrer said.

However, Rohrer added that Project Skydrop has decided not to run another puzzle for now.

“But the Skydrop Project may be reborn in other forms in the future,” he said. “I hope you all have a pleasant autumn in the ordinary world. And if one day you feel the longing for adventure, the forest is always waiting for you. … Thank you for playing our game.”