Dastardly Bamboozlements!

Those contemptible, dastardly, abominable, abhorrent, revolting “friends” of mine!!! 

I’ve spent the entire evening freaking out, retracing my steps, calling colleagues who now think I am an idiot and all the time, little did I know, but my novel was in the hands of my so-called chums who thought it would be amusing to take it and hold it for ransom!

Apparently, these four think it’s funny to admonish me for writing something so non-academic. As if they haven’t already teased me enough, now they’ve taken the only draft of my novel and say that I’ll have to solve their little smug puzzles if I want to get it back. 

I have ten days to figure out which of them did it, when they stole it, where they’re hiding it, and what password they’ll use to encrypt the flashdrive. To think, I could find the thing and not even be able to open my file!

Knowing these smarty-pants, their challenges won’t be easy either. Luckily, if I can solve them I should be able to figure out which of them stole it. I’m hoping that blogging about it here (though I’m not sure that anyone but my aging aunt actually reads this) might draw in a few dear people willing to help.

So here’s what I know.

There are four suspects:
Each of them claims that they’ll share their little bamboozlements via some social media channel. I’ve managed to track down all of their accounts that I know of so I’ve listed them here along with a little background on each of them so you know what you’re dealing with. They’re a strange bunch to be sure.
English professor: Irene Peabody
Irene is an English professor who has a deep interest in 17th century English literature. In her spare time, Irene has been known to participate in live-action roleplaying games. She earned the moniker, Duchess, from her LARP days.

History professor: Casaubon Belbo
Casaubon is an eccentric history professor who can occasionally be spotted around campus in Victorian garb. He has a deep and abiding preoccupation with historical ciphers and unusual contraptions.

Telecommunications professor: Professor Morey Arte
Professor Morey Arte has studied a lot of things, ending up with degrees in Literature, Music, and Computer Science (can you imagine his school loans?!). Not quite the Napoleon of anything, the eclectic Professor Arte has found a home in the Telecommunications department where he has become fascinated by Hoosiers in the movies.


Biology professor: Melanie d’Anogaster
Melanie is a Biology professor who claims her research on the biochemistry of photoreception in fruit flies has nothing whatsoever to do with an elaborate and ambitious plan to cast doubt on poststructuralist philosophy. An avid photographer, she can often be seen around campus with her tripod and macro lens when the light is just right.

Opportunities:
I know that the drive was in my bag when I left the house today so I’ve tried to narrow down the opportunities that they might have had to take it. Luckily, though I’m a woman of the world, today was a pretty mundane day. Here’s today’s itinerary:

• 8-12 pm Coffee in the Angles Cafe in the Art Museum: I had meetings with folks all morning so I set them all up there.
• 12-1pm Lunch in the Wells Library Food Court
• 1-4pm I enjoyed the sunshine in Dunn Meadow while grading midterm exams
• 4-5pm I splurged on a drink with some friends at Nick’s English Hut (some non-novel stealing real friends!)

When I got home afterwards the flashdrive was gone.

Passwords:
These perverse professors have been kind enough to send me the passwords that they might use.

• L33T B34T
• Mellow Yellow
• Allurbases
• Baseball Rulz

Hiding Places:
The miscreants won’t actually hide the drives for me to hunt down like a dog looking for a bone until I’m able to solve all of their puzzles but they kindly provided the places that they’ll use when they do hide the flashdrive somewhere on campus.

• IU Cinema ticket counter
• Wells Library Interlibrary Loan Counter
• Eigenmann Hall Document Services Counter
• Wilkie Hall Central Residence Desk

They claim that they will start providing their puzzles tomorrow morning, May 24. Please, if you’re out there reading this and you can help at all...well, you’ll have my gratitude. Feel free to leave any ideas you have about the puzzles here in the comments or send them via Twitter. Even if you only have an idea or a partial solution, any help will be appreciated.