I bailed on the first puzzle i tried, The Valley of Diamonds, having not gotten very far at all.

The puzzle I moved on to went much better, which was a relief. It took me just under an hour, which felt pretty fast.

You can grab the puzzle here: http://www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/wisht/wtpuzzles/vault.pdf and check your answers (each puzzle in the hunt has two) here; http://www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/wisht/wtanswers/answerpage.html

My solving log is after the cut.

Log:

0:00:00

Ok, clues and a maze type thing. but how does it work?

0:00:14

I guess I’ll start getting answers to clues first

0:01:06

trixie = triceratops?

0:02:50

lovely bones or the frighteners is right above…

0:03:00

grover cleveland and hormone replacement are earlier… maybe answers in alpha order. using the frighteners

0:06:24

read the intro, back working on clues now. got GREY POUPON

0:11:31

CLEFT PALATES and AGAPE are guesses, googled IN EXTREMIS

0:12:04

with LANDOWNERS, I now have words with LEFT, DOWN, NEXT, RIGHT, OVER. Perhaps that’s important.

0:12:52

Let’s put GR[OVER]CLEVELAND as the first answer

0:13:30

C[LEFT]PALATES in the top right

0:15:07

can’t fit GREY POUPON. hmmm

0:15:41

I[NEXT]REMIS fits right in the middle

0:16:56

LAN[DOWN]ERS next to it

0:18:20

THEF[RIGHT]ENERS in bottom corner (that took me a while. weird.

0:19:10

trixie must be TRICER[ATOP]S in the bottom right

0:22:13

woo, DOUBLEBR[EAST]EDSUIT fits in the bottom left

0:24:03

ooooh, GREYPOUPON didn’t fit as UP, but works as UPON

0:25:49

does SUNF[LOWER]SEED go on the left edge?

0:27:38

onelook.com on “error” helped me find BLUNDERS

0:31:09

the column clue might be PLINTH, but the definition doesn’t quite match

0:33:01

aha, HORMO[NETHER]APY works. now I have 4 clues unanswered.

0:34:23

maybe I have: ??DV?R?S?E??ETE. looks okay so far. not quite extractable, or maybe it is

0:37:44

SELF IMPORTANCE maybe?

0:38:11

Now ??DV?R?S?E?IETE not better. maybe even wrong

0:39:56

oh, maybe the order is by following the maze… C?S??TERE?EIV??

0:40:46

I believe that.

0:41:48

PI[LAST]ER for column? CESP?TERE?EIV?? doesn’t look great

0:44:40

maybe OVER means left? and it’s RESPITE? I could see that.

0:46:43

RESPITE and RECEIVE[D/R/S]. trying to get last two words

0:50:48

U[NORTH]ODOX sucks… UNORTHODOXLY? that gives RE?EIVA? … not ideal

0:56:31

I’ve decided it’s RESPITE and RECEIVAL. We’ll call it done

0:58:53

oh, there’s an answer checker! duh. RECEIVAL is right, RESPITE is wrong

0:59:58

Duh OVER doesn’t mean over to the right, it means UP. DESPITE is the right answer