The Hermann Park Puzzle

In the puzzle booklet, hunters were presented with the following:

EBMR B SBKM FRZITR DE'W NBTM
BVTIWW ELR WETRRE EI LRTYBJJ OBTM,
FRESRRJ ELR JITEL, WIGEL, RBWE, BJN SRWE;
PIG'KK JRRN WIYR EDYR EI WIKCR ELDW HGRWE.

IJ VLTDWEYBW NBP BE ESI I'VKIVM
QBXR GOIJ BJ RBWESBTN FKIVM.
B VBTRZGK KIIM BJN PIG SDKK WRR
SLRTR PIG BTR WGOOIWRN EI FR.

FGE SLRTR EI QI DJ WGVL B OKBVR?
JI KREERT EIKN EI WLIS PIGT WOBVR!
WI KIIM ZIT IJR OKGW ELDTEP-ELTRR,
BJN ZDJN SLBE JGYFRT DE WLIGKN FR.

Practiced puzzle solvers recognize this as a cryptogram, in which each letter of a message is consistently replaced with anohter letter. Deciphering the cryptogram yields:

Take a walk before it's dark
Across the street to Hermann Park,
Between the North, South, East and West;
You'll need some time to solve this quest.

On Christmas day at two o'clock,
Gaze upon an eastward block.
A careful look and you will see
Where you are supposed to be.

But where to go in such a place?
No letter told to show your space!
So look for one plus thirty-three,
And find what number it should be.

What does this poem mean? Well, taking it step by step:

Take a walk before it's dark
Across the street to Hermann Park

These first two lines are straightforward enough - go across the street from Rice campus to Hermann Park. The poem also suggests going while it is still light outside - we'll see why later.

Between the North, South, East and West;
You'll need some time to solve this quest

The Hunt Map in the puzzle booklet is labelled with icons locating many puzzle sites, landmarks, and other points of interest. Within the Hermann Park area of the map are several icons - the museum, the planetarium - and one which may not sound as familiar, "Gnomon." Those who already knew what a gnomon is - and those who looked it up in a dictionary - realized that this loation was important. A gnomon is the part of a sundial which casts the shadow, and at that location in Hermann Park is a giant sundial, big enough to walk on. The phrase "you'll need some time to solve this quest" clues hunters in to the sundial, and the phrase "between the North, South, East and West" tells hunters to stand on the sundial between the large raised cornerstones of the platform labelled "North," "South," "East," "West."

On Christmas day at two o'clock,
Gaze upon an eastward block.

The surface of the sundials are lined with a grid of dates and times, showing the relative position of the sun throughout the day and the year. Hunters were to stand on the intersecting lines representing December 25th and 2:00 pm, and look into the glossy marble blocks of the eastern face of the gnomon.

A careful look and you will see
Where you are supposed to be.

Looking into the reflection of the gnomon from this position gives a perfect view of another location at Hermann Park - Miller Outdoor Theater.

After walking to Miller Outdoor Theater, hunters were to interpret:

But where to go in such a place?
No letter told to show your space!
So look for one plus thirty-three,
And find what number it should be.

The rows of seats in the theater are prominently labelled with letters - but the poem says, "No letter told to show your space," so hunters must find where to look by some other means. "So look for one plus thirty-three" suggests looking for the number 34. Examining all the seats in the small theater, hunters discovered that only one seat was numbered as seat 34 - but that that seat was misnumbered. Noticing the seat's position in the row - between seats 13 and 15 - hunters deduce that the number "it should be" is 14. 14 is the answer to the puzzle.