Solution to 5: The Elevator

    This puzzle is a nonogram, a logic puzzle where the numbers preceding the rows and columns tell how many consecutive black squares there are before it encounters some number of white squares. While solving, you may come to the realization that (with the help of the image name abcdefghijklmnop) this is a QR code. Here is the solved nonogram. 

     

    Of course, like any hopeful puzzlehunter, you may be thinking that this QR code will lead you directly to the answer and into the final puzzle of the Quest. But no. 

    Instead, you are greeted with a Google Docs link to puzzle number 5.5, Behind the Fourth Wall. After crying for about 20 minutes, you can begin the puzzle. 

    The text hints at the use of a playfair cipher, and the arrows indicate a path for you to place letters onto the playfair grid. By starting at the top left and following the arrows along some number of squares, then taking the next arrow, a unique path can be generated that stops at every square. Then, placing letters in alphabetical order (skipping J, which is an insignificant letter) along the path, the following playfair grid can be found: 

    A Q U V T
    N M P F O
    H L Y R G
    B I X W S
    C K D E Z 

    Using this grid to decrypt the message gives the answer:


    CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE ALMOST DONE THE PERSON YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE PIT THE ANSWER IS NEUTRAL

NEUTRAL