Don’t let the threat of Polonium poisoning crush your dreams of becoming a spy or the inevitable prison sentence keep you from robbing a bank. We understand your desire to solve ancient religious conspiracies shrouded in mystery and international intrigue, but perhaps you don’t want to get your hands dirty. Joshua Czarda, the brains behind Ravenchase Adventures, has a solution. He and his crack team of writers and actors want you to step inside a world once thought to only exist in Dan Brown novels or James Bond films. The Richmond-based business designs both public and private treasure hunts all over the world to satisfy all of your cryptological cravings.

Over the past year, Czarda has hosted public events in D.C. themed around secret societies such as the Illuminati or the Freemasons, that have teams racing across the city with only a bag of gadgets (including a black light) and a map. We participated in a Da Vinci Code race a few months ago, and were pleasantly surprised by the difficulty of the clues and riddles, some of which involved answering pay phones on the street, decoding the Navy Memorial, and speaking with actors disguised as tourists in the Sculpture Garden. To make things even tricker, Ravenchase doesn’t tell you where the races begin but provides you with a clue a few days in advance that will lead you to the starting line. Interested? Well your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to check out our interview with Czarda, who gave us the inside scoop on the adventure making process. The next scheduled event is The Great D.C. Hunt which will be held next Saturday, December 9th at 1:30 p.m.

You have a culinary background, a law degree, and have worked with the United Network for Organ Sharing. When did you realize that treasure hunting was your true career path?

Treasure hunting is almost a primal instinct in many people and we all engage in the act in one form or the other. I just pursued it a little farther than most. I started writing treasure hunts for my three little brothers to get them out of the house, during a time when their mom was in a tough battle with cancer. The boys really enjoyed it and I enjoyed writing the event. It evolved from there over the next couple of years.

What were some of your favorite books and movies growing up?

As for books: Einstein’s Dreams, Indigo, Eight, Complete works of Poe, Shakespeare and Locke etc. Movies – I’ve always been a big fan of The Game with Michael Douglas; all the Indiana Jones flicks and all the old school science fiction/fantasy films.

How did you go from a one man project to an international business? How many offices do you have?

Sheer will power and a wife that told me to stop bitching about being a paper pusher and to do something with my life. We have offices/Franchises in Charlotte, Nashville, Richmond/D.C., Chicago (starting in December) and Honolulu (which just launched this week) And we are always looking for pirate’s at heart to help us grow. Our quick growth has been attributed to our business structure. We set up our offices/franchises for no cost and help train the folks that will run it. This has helped us to grow fairly quickly and we hope to keep expanding across the country over the next year.

Can you talk a bit about your game The Heist, and what is involved in creating a simulated bank robbery?

Step one, listen to Dean Cook (absent the monkey). Brilliant. Step two; find an old dilapidated bank with an eccentric owner willing to let you go crazy. Step three, start thinking like a criminal to figure out all the angles and step four design counter measures and scenarios to each contingency. The Heist was a lot of fun for all of us. We actually renovated an old bank with two vaults, made some secret passages, set up motion lasers, sound detectors, heat sensors and the works. We planted guards within the bank for added reality and set our beta testers loose to see what they would do. After testing, and redesigning the event several times, we came up with really interesting and exciting scenarios. The most interesting aspect of it all was seeing how people reacted. Some are natural born criminal masterminds and others are as innocent as they come. One of our first players actually designed security systems for homeland security. He had a great team and did brilliantly until his cigarette (which he used to see the lasers in the secret vault room) went out and he tried to relight it. The light triggered the light sensors and it was game over.

Your Web site says that you will be filming portions of The Great America Hunt (eight days, in seven states) next summer as part of a documentary. Who is producing this film and when will it be released?

We are working with a brand new company called Circ 76 based out of Richmond. We are also currently planning on giving each team mounted head cams. As for a release date, there are no plans (unless we hit gold) .

Does the name Ravenchase have anything to do with Edgar Allen Poe?

In some senses yes. Poe is one of my favorite authors and one of Richmond’s more noteworthy figures. Poe was a fairly active cryptologist. Many of his stories contained codes and ciphers and he often wrote encryption challenges for the general public through the paper. So Ravenchase is a bit of a tip of the hat to the man.

What was the most interesting custom hunt you have put together?

We designed a great event for 300 people on the island of Gozo. Each team was placed in a jeep and raced around the island cracking codes and ciphers, meeting actors along the way, etc.

Where do you find your actors, and how would someone go about auditioning for a part?

We find actors everywhere we look, which has been wonderful. We generally start our actors out with very simplistic parts (being a woman in red, a sad drunk in bar, a kid listening to a walk man on the street corner, etc) If they do well, they graduate to more complex parts.

I understand that you frequently hide items such as coins, keys, and scrolls on the trail. Have you ever had any issues with hunters inappropriately scavenging around federal government property or Smithsonian museums?

We have never had a problem, primarily because we never hide anything in a private institution (without permission) or in places we shouldn’t and we generally have a very smart, savvy group of players.

The Great DC Hunt is scheduled for December 9th, and the online description says that it is “for the spirited intellectual.” Does this mean it will have a religious theme or are we already looking too hard for answers?

You’re looking way too hard.

Do you have any particular lesser known cryptic facts about Washington D.C. that you’d like to leave us with?

And ruin the surprise? No way.