Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 3, 2022 22:12:13 GMT -5
Card 23: The Mirror Image, or the Mirror I-Game
I broke through the next layer of the puzzle, and I'm trying to slide the pieces into place--a slow going, but at least it's going again.
Just as Box One was extremely linear, this reverse playing is doing the same thing. We would be unable to do anything with this aspect of the game unless completed the previous step.
We have been working on the secret box on the top of the box that corresponded to the missing right eye. As it turns out, this phase corresponds to the mirror eye, the left eye.
We start over at the PS Video once more.
1. We ended our previous endeavor in using the clues on the top of the box, using a telephone keypad, and defined the 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 buttons, leaving the EVENS to be worked with this time. 2. The PS Video, as before, corresponds to a PS 5. We're instructed to 'assemble in reverse', which we did. This time, we use A SYMBOL IN REVERSE. We also use the buttons of a PS5 controller as a guideline. The four buttons are positioned NSEW (the positions of the 2,4,6, and 8 on the telephone keypad) and consist of a circle, an X, a triangle, and a square. 3. From Card 24, we originally went from bottom-to-top 3, 2, 1, 0. This time we go top-to-bottom and use the Roman numerals, I, II, III and are supposed to realize these represent 1, 2, and 3 lines. The fourth line is actually the line through the middle of the word BOX on card 24. 4. The four symbols on the controller consist of 1, 2, 3, and 4 lines: the circle, X, triangle, square. 5. Overlaying the positions of the symbols atop the telephone keypad, and going in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4, lines, the circle is the 6, the X is the 8, the triangle is the 2, and the square is the 4. 6. Draw a line on a telephone keypad in that arrangement. Start with the 6, draw the line to the 8, then to the 2, then to the 4. 7. A SYMBOL IN REVERSE: this is the mirror image of the YEW symbol in the runic alphabet. YEW = YOU = I. The opposite I.
This is the path through the maze this time. If one recalls, the END ZONE is defined by three sets of lines: the goal line, the end line, and sidelines. The bar code will now be used, and I'm thinking the 'goal line' is this reverse yew, and the 'end line' is EWE. Our path starts with east, travels to west, and finally ends back on the same E our first path did: the center box. EWE describes a 'line through the center of the box' which is a spot-on description of the fourth line from Card 24.
Now, we start integrating the 'sidelines'--the bar code.
1. The numbers are as follows: 85001655716. We use an alphanumeric (AN) code: 1 = A, 2 = B, etc, in addition to puzzle logic. 2. He OO PEE_G Pb 3. These are clues for ELEMENTS, and they follow our Game rules: 1 = right and left alone, 2 = equal and opposite, 3 = missing, 4 = the circle 4. He = helium. We started with the east position on our reverse yew, and this signifies an 'H' to the east. If one realizes the H = 8 from AN code, and the symbol for 8 on a keyboard is a STAR, a rebus puzzle for 'star in the east'--a reference to Christ, which is why we have a capitalized 'He'. Right and left alone. 5. We travel to the south position on the keypad--the number 8. This step is equal and opposite. We have OO from the bar code, and, in keeping with our periodic table of elements, a way of stating this is O2--oxygen. From the previous step, we used the fact that the 8 is a star, but on a pigpen cipher grid, the south position codes for an 'O' as well. South is 8 = star, but it's an 'O too'. Equal and opposite. 6. We now travel from south to north. The PEE_G is missing the letters KIN to create the word PEEKING. It's the left eye, and its missing KIN, namely the right eye. This is our missing element from the game rules. Since we travel from south to north, we have Sn--the periodic table abbreviation for TIN. 7. Finally, we arrive at the 4 and Pb, the periodic table abbreviation for LEAD. I strongly suspect we're going to turn LEAD to GOLD, namely Au, or A 'You'. The homophone for LEAD is LED which is the opposite of DEL--the abbreviation of the 'delete key'. The opposite of delete is 'add', and the 'add' key is the seven key.
It will be time to start solving card 23 and begin integrating stuff into our previous work with the symbols on top of the box.
Or so I think for the time being.
Enjoying the mental escapades,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 4, 2022 21:17:24 GMT -5
Greetings on an unseasonably warm night from rural northeastern Louisiana!
I'm hard at work thinking about this phase of the puzzle, and I think I'm identifying some more of the middle puzzle pieces that aren't quite ready for prime time.
1. I realize that playing through Box One is the guidelines for the treasure hunt. What we did in Box One as well as the square on top of the box was LOCATE A SECRET BOX. (The word SECRET is horrendously close to anagramming CENTERS, but that's just put away for now.) This is as bad as trying to read hieroglyphs. The LOCK on the top of the box becomes the homophone LOC (as in location). Realizing the LOCK occupies the 9 position on our telephone keypad, reading clockwise around our imaginary keypad, the next position is EIGHT. LOC EIGHT = LOCATE a secret box. This feels like an overall set of directions for what will come next in the final movement of the treasure hunt.
2. Playing around with stuff, I realized A NO would become A KNOW which is the reverse of WONKA, and that would have to connect with the aforementioned congratulatory video. That's admittedly reaching.
3. Card 23 appears to apply to the answers we obtained from the CASE in the previous step. Still working that through.
4. We have three boxes as I've mentioned numerous times. When we opened Box One, we received instructions to open the black envelope and the box 2. We're at the stage when we're to follow the directions found in Box One's secret box's letter: we use a key to open the box and find another black envelope. I'm willing to bet the four game items contained in the envelope will be used at this stage. Once we've completed this stage, we'll follow the letter's directions again and open the box for the third time--the pen in the bottom of the box.
Continuing to scratch--both my head and my itch,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 5, 2022 15:28:49 GMT -5
Greetings on a warm December Monday afternoon in the northeastern corner of Louisiana!
"The Shimmering Forest and the Name Game"
Guys, we're not just playing The Fool's Errand III here.
I've begun to see a forest take shape--but good Lord at the number of trees--and I'm fully aware this might be a mirage.
I realized very early on this was Cliff Johnson's 'The Fool's Errand III' contained here, but I realized something else.
Mr. Johnson wrote a treasure hunt I was involved with, 'Mysterious Stranger', and it kinda smacked me over the head this morning. The key parts of the solution to Mysterious Stranger involved anagrams, homophones ('Seem the Same') and a telephone number. We had to derive a string of words and use two telephone numbers to anagram the string according to the directions.
"Anagrams are dope." What I've seen up to now is primarily involving a telephone keypad, "Secret Phone N." The answers to the 25 challenge cards yield us a string of words.
Gentle readers, each of these three boxes has a name to a game. Box Three is 'The Fool's Errand III'. Box Two is 'Mysterious Stranger II'. I can't wait to see what our intrepid author has in store for the name of Box One.
I've had loose ends I haven't been able to reconcile until I can now organize the information according to knowing we have three different games taking place here. For instance, finding the missing letters from NPHSS yielded 'A Trick' has bugged me forever. Firstly, I wasn't able to figure out its equal and opposite to very recently, but another loose end with this particular clue is 'Play a trick' means to play four cards (I had to look that up. LOL.) Playing four cards appears to dovetail nicely with the first four cards of the Challenge cards. The four cards to form one set that ends with that big bold STOP.
But, there's 25 cards in our challenge deck.
Let me tell you what I think is going to happen here...
The Fool's Errand is Box Three and involves a 5 x 5 grid. Our challenge cards are going to somehow be used to create this grid. To what end, I'm not certain as yet. Mysterious Stranger is Box Two and involves a 3 x 3 grid--the telephone keypad that everything I've been working on is pretty much involved with.
Box One? Very possibly as is. Right and left alone. Escape room in a box.
(I'm actually thinking out loud here--I just thought of this next part while typing.)
Mother of mercy, I think there's a Box Four. These things are following the rules.
Box One is right and left alone. An Escape Room Box Two is equal and opposite: Mysterious Stranger II. OMG--it's why I'm going through the symbols on top of the box again corresponding to a telephone keypad. Box Three: The Fool's Errand III. Something missing. Don't know what that might be as yet. Box Four: The circle that ties everything together.
Consider this: We really don't have 25 cards. There's a freezer card, the reward card, and the peanut butter loyalty card. There's actually a total of 28 cards in the game.
And the groups of four elements:
1. The pen, pad, envelope and Box 2. The token, letter, keychain (and I'd make an argument an OPEN BOX) 3. The floppy, lock, fingerprint, and key on top of the box. (I'm very much thinking these will be used twice.) 4. The disc, fortune, loyalty card, and letter inside the envelope. 5. The four elements on the bar code.
Something magical is happening here and it appears to involve groups of four.
Back to our regularly scheduled program,
Doc
PS: I remembered the missing AIR implying another set of four elements: earth, air, fire and water.
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 5, 2022 23:48:06 GMT -5
Working my way through card 23.
This appears to be the equal and opposite of card 24. It has a 1-2-3 configuration to it as does card 24, and appears to interact and complete the equal/opposite portion of the floppy disk.
The missing letters from the floppy disk formed the basis of the solutions:
1. N - EIL. EIL is opposite LIE--TRUE. Together with the N, this is TRUE NORTH. Right and left alone. 2. P - A TRICK. Equal and opposite and has no solution the first time around. 3. H - ARI - SS. Missing AIR. Also missing A R I or 'a right eye'. The missing HEIR.
Preliminary permutations on Card 23:
1a. While I am in air, I am not in oxygen. (Oxygen circled--struggling with deciding if that's relevant now or later or both.) I am in HEIR. Namely the 'He' that corresponds with the first element on the bar code, and I R is 'opposite right eye', namely the left eye. L I E = Left, ie. Homophone of L eye.
1b. I am not in oxygen. Because 'I AM IN O2'. This one makes me dizzy.
i. I AM N O TOO = IA MNO TOO. The MNO are the letters of the six key on a telephone keypad. ii. I AM NOT OO--a clue for the second part of the bar code. iii. I AM NO TOO. I am 'north' too.
As I said, I'm a little bamboozled.
2. I am also in Neil Patrick Harris, but not in the Bob Smith. NPH is in Neil Patrick Harris and is a type of INSULIN. Not in Bob Smith, because Robert Smith is in THE CURE. Insulin isn't a cure, it's a TREATMENT. MEANT TREAT. 'Treat' provides the equal and opposite answer for 'A trick'.
3. I am necessary to the game, but I am not in the rules. The step that is 'missing'. The answer is ten letters long: DIRECTIONS. And this describes 'The Letter +' (a lower case T). The missing letter A and the T gives us AT, and its symbol is an A with a circle around it.
Continuing to study and think,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 6, 2022 11:40:30 GMT -5
Good morning on a muggy day from Deep South country!
I had a bit of a revelation I wanted to share, and I think it's going to help me understand and work on previous stuff.
This is more like Mysterious Stranger II than I realized. The first pass around the symbols on the box top involved anagrams. This time, I think the names of the symbols are HOMOPHONES. That's exactly what happened in Mysterious Stranger. Anagram, then homophone.
1. DISK becomes DISC 2. LOCK becomes LOC 3. PRINTS becomes PRINCE 4. KEY becomes QUE (Spanish)
This affects both the first pass as well as the second. I'll ponder some more.
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 8, 2022 17:13:45 GMT -5
Good Thursday afternoon from the balmy state of Louisiana! In the 1988 version of 'Godzilla', Matthew Broderick is being recruited by the military to study a biological anomaly and is led to a pit of fresh dirt and told, "Here's your sample. Study it." "What sample?" "You're standing in it." "I don't see it. Where is it? I don't see it." The camera pans out, and you realize he's standing in a giant footprint of Godzilla. Welcome to Box One. The word play in this game is unbelievable, and the game is more meticulously plotted than a manned mission to Mars. I'm belatedly realizing just how much I've been missing and how tangled I've had my skeins of yarn trying to connect these things. They're valid, just not ready to be used as yet. I realized I'd missed a few presents under the tree--I didn't consider I'd missed an entire tree. We're standing in Cliff Johnson's footprint. LOL. I've started over, and I'm trying to do this right. If I can get the basics down, I hope the rest gets easier. As stated before, this starts at the end. That's about all I did right. LOL. I. Completion of Box One 1. End of Box One 2. Assemble in Reverse 3. Where is Box 2? That's a straightforward (which makes it good) way of describing the end of our game. This introduces us to the rules of the game: 1. Right and left alone 2. Equal and opposite 3. Missing Putting this together gives us FIRST = LAST and describes a CIRCLE. This overall solution of the circle is a LINK to the next location. For the completion of box one, we reassembled the box and now the word play begins. Where is Box 2? INSIDE BOX ONE. It's a description of the Box of Challenge cards as well as telling us where to go next: we open the box and look inside Box one. II. Inside Box One: Game Elements 1. A Box 2. Pen 3. Pad 4. Card Using our rules: 1. Right and left alone: A Box 2. Equal and opposite: The pen and pad 3. Missing card Solution: 1. A Box = opposite of Box One when A = 1. It's BOX TWO. "A Box" is the beginning of BOX TWO. 2. PEN and PAD anagram to APPEND and NAPPED. 'Append' = add = "+" = DIRECTIONS. NAPPED = "Zzzzzz..." or Z's. 3. Missing Card: The challenge cards are numbered 1-25. In our alphabet, the missing card is the one under the Y card. Remember, the challenge cards were found in the box face up. When we try to use the next card after 25, we found the secret box instead, but it was disguised as a card. 4. The Link: Directions to the Z's. The secret box is disguised as a deck of cards--they appeared glued together as a stack of Z's. The Z's are the SECRET BOX. Our link is DIRECTIONS TO THE SECRET BOX. The end of Card 25. III. Card 25--the Y 1. "Continue by using the clues in the cards below..." This is the set of directions to find the secret box. 2. Equal and opposite: Going down from 25, we found the Z's--the Secret Box'. Going backwards to Card 24, we find the words "secret box" where the word box was scratched out. 3. Why? What's missing? The ANSWER Continuing to brainstorm, Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 10, 2022 10:25:02 GMT -5
Good morning on a very overcast day from the Lone Star State of Texas!
A Breathalyzer is in My Future
Even trying to be careful, I managed to stumble twice more already (that I’m aware of):
1. I got card 25 wrong (again) and right. 2. I managed to stumble into The Fool’s Errand portion of the game
Card 25 is the START. STAR “+”. The star directions. There’s a lot involved with that I’m trying to piece together.
’As above, so below’ is correct, but appears to trigger the START of the Fool’s Errand portion. Turns out that’s the description of the Magician tarot card—card number I. The next tarot card is the High Priestess with its B and J on it. Blackjack. I realized a long time ago that using cards 19 and 24 as one being face up and one being face down created an “=“ sign. It equals 21. And a ‘black jack’ is a KNAVE. K = 11 = II. NAVE = VANE, and I have directions again.
I’m trying my best to ignore that line of thought until I have card 25 figured out to my satisfaction. It has the main directions, it appears to have footnotes and should eventually lead to RIGHT EYE IS MISSING.
Pondering and pondering,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 11, 2022 15:36:21 GMT -5
Good overcast Sunday afternoon from the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport!
I’m coming to realize I’ve once again missed a basic concept with this amazing game: We need more than one card to complete an answer. (I’m thinking it will be 4 cards to ‘play a trick’.)
I’ve spent my entire time trying to solve one card at a time. While working on the first of this again, I remember Card 23 was needed to answer ‘a trick’ and two cards create the blackjack that will be used later.
Card 25 is the START. And I think it has three components to it just like cards 24 and 23.
1. NPH has a secret 2. (Missing in the middle) 3. Continue by using the cards below
That’s SO simple and so obvious in retrospect I feel like a dummy.
I’ve spent the entirety of my time trying to solve single cards. If this is correct for card 25, we CANNOT solve it until we involve the next cards.
Better late than never,
Doc
PS—I see a lot of potential puzzle pieces with this concept. “42” and Douglas N. Adams, Count Dracula among them. I realize if I Play All Right In Set, I may be visiting Oklahoma, and that dratted USA clue (that has caused at least two bald spots from head scratching) might LEAD TO GOLD.
So much to see and hear and do. Best journey ever.
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 12, 2022 15:34:45 GMT -5
This glorious weekend in Dallas, I dined on the pork chop at Perry's, had the tasting menu at Akira Back, partook of the tableside guacamole (with bacon) at Mi Dia, and had fine Italian at Carbone Dallas.
It wasn't until I returned home that I bit off more than I could chew.
Good afternoon at the start of the week from the boonies of the Deep South!
Several weeks ago, I replayed Box One and used my main email address because I wanted to review the PS Video. To my surprise, another email showed up advertising a set of playing cards from Theory11 associated with Neil Patrick Harris and promised something extra might be in the cards. They arrived while I was gone, and I cracked them open last night. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's not what I got.
Guys, the cards are part of the Box One treasure hunt.
Incredulity. Fear. Amazement. Excitement. Take your pick.
It's the missing right eye. It has the HEX again. It's related to the ticket on the cover of Box One.
There are four cards that don't belong. They show the J-Q-K-A--the opposite of the first four cards, which in Box One appeared superfluous.
I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this now--I think they'll become involved later. The two wild cards are twins, and I'm expecting this metapuzzle clues to come into play when I have to deal with GEMINI from the password list.
NPH EYE TIX
Net one = +1 = opposite of A+. Hex in the third column again. The middle column is a YIP--Horton Hears a Who: WE ARE HERE! The 'Y' is in the middle of PI (circle). Stars and stripes, and Cardano is a blockchain. Phoney exit or PHONE E EXIT.
Jaw on floor,
Doc
PS: GEM IN EYE. Har. Boundless glee at the apparently limitless skill of Master Johnson. {Bow.}
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Post by Doc on Dec 13, 2022 22:05:58 GMT -5
The Wagon at the Bottom of Lake Mead
Good evening from a soon-to-storming Tuesday at the northeastern corner of Louisiana!
I'm as bad as an addict.
I swore I wasn't going to stray from the path, and I said as recently as yesterday I wasn't going to spend a lot of time thinking about the new deck of cards.
Naturally, I've ignored the prime directive, and all I've done is think about the new set of clues and where that might lead. I didn't just fall off the wagon.....re: the title of the post. LOL.
1. The GEMINI clue is the password to Room 4. Its astrological symbol is a big Roman II. The TIX = TICKS = BLOODSUCKERS. I'm thinking 'Venous' or VENUS. 2. BANANA is Yellow = Y. BAN AN A might be referring to Card 24--The missing letter A card. X-Y = 'male', and the symbol for 'male' with its circle and an arrow pointing northeast is identical to the symbol for MARS. 3. URANUS might incorporate the A-HOLE KEY. 4. SATURN has RINGS. Etc.
If GEM IN I might be JIM IN ONE. I'm thinking James T. Kirk being in STAR TREK which is probably a good description of a STAR'S MAP.
Looking forward to getting back on the path,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Dec 16, 2022 12:34:03 GMT -5
Good morning on an amazingly beautiful Friday from the great state of Louisiana!
Meanderings
There are four clues that describe a big chunk of this game that I'm thinking should pop up, and I've been trying to reverse engineer them:
1. Think outside the box. Right. 2. If you know the game is afoot, you're ahead of the game. Equal and opposite 3. There's more here than meets the eye. Missing 4. Hiding in plain sight. The circle.
I can understand some of the underlying meanings:
1. There's more here than meets the eye. Theirs Moore/Mohr hear then meats the eye. Homophones--there's more to hear as well. 2. Hiding in plain sight. Hiding in plain site, as in an 'ordinary' web site--the site we're eventually led to has clues as well. Plus 'Hiding in plain sight' is the solution to "The Purloined Letter."
I'm thinking these came from the congratulatory video--I remember the WONKA quote, and "Anagrams are dope", but I don't recall the other particulars. I'll check later today.
1. WONKA is A KNOW backwards. If 'anagrams are dope', we do exactly that to find homophones. D-POE is DEPOT. DEEP O and D POE = 'deep love for Poe'. 2. My current thinking is that the congratulatory video is a TRAILER, meaning 'something that makes trails' as well as 'something at the end' in addition to being a type of 'previews'--the equal and opposite.
Training wheels?
Continuing to meander,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Jan 9, 2023 14:18:56 GMT -5
Good Monday afternoon on an overcast winter day from the Bayou State of Louisiana! I'm still thinking about all of this. Looking over my postings, I'm very much aware this appears to be gobbledygook. I'm 100% convinced there's a treasure hunt here, and I'm just as convinced I'm making this much harder than needed. I'm looking at the very basics and trying to figure out the fundamental building blocks--I feel if I ever get that down, the rest of this can move much more smoothly. The Main Thought I'm having is 'First = Last'. Basically a big circle. I've got to toy with that to see if anything shakes loose. Optimistically, Doc PS--The answers to the questions are analogous to the final list of words in the treasure hunt, 'Mysterious Stranger'--they will be manipulated according to an as-yet undiscovered set of rules. Or so I believe. PPS--The fortune found inside the black envelope has "red numbers" or "red no.'s". I don't know if the red nose will be associated with Bozo, Rudolph, W. C. Fields, or the game 'Operation' or some other whatnot, but I'm aware of it and am vigilant.
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Jan 10, 2023 19:46:25 GMT -5
A quick note about 'First = Last'.
Card 24 is such a 'key' card--the game is so linear that an early misstep causes one to lose one's way.
What I'm pondering:
1. Right (as in correct) and left alone. The first clue of each set. 2. Two parts, such as an equals sign. Equal and opposite 3. I've realized 'missing' plays a role here, but if I'm incorporating 'right' and 'left' from step one here (remember, the theory is "first = last"), then this third clue should be left and right as well. If 'left' = L, and 'right' = 'write', then left + right might be equivalent to L + write or L + 'ink'.
LINK. Step 3 would discover the 'missing link' to the next step along the path.
Still optimistic and will need to put this to the test,
Doc
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Doc
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Post by Doc on Jan 28, 2023 13:32:14 GMT -5
Happy Saturday on an overcast afternoon in the deep south state of Louisiana!
Card 23 and Slouching Towards the Metapuzzle
Card 23:
I tried forcing this to connect to other stuff for the treasure hunt, and that's a big problem I continually have. It's not meant to be that difficult. There are three riddles presented here. Solve them correctly and find the common denominator that connects them.
"While I am in {the first word of the answer from the previous card}, I am not in oxygen (oxygen circled). I am also in Neil Patrick Harris, but not in Bob Smith. I am necessary to the game, but I am not in the rules.
What am I? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __"
For Box One, the answer is THE LETTER A.
For the treasure hunt, we have to think outside the box.
1. While I am in AIR, I am not in oxygen (oxygen circled). If one knows that the chemical symbol for oxygen is also a circle, you're ready to solve it.
While I am in HEIR, I am not in CIRCLE. The answer is 'The letter H'.
2. I am in Neil Patrick Harris, but not in Bob Smith. Abbreviate 'Neil Patrick Harris' (as was done multiple times throughout the game) to NPH. Understand that Bob Smith is 'Robert Smith'. NPH is a type of INSULIN. Robert Smith is the lead singer of THE CURE. Insulin is not a cure for diabetes; it's a treatment. That's the answer to the second part: TREATMENT.
3. I am necessary to the game, but I am not in the rules. What am I? Note that there are a total of ten blanks--this time we need a single ten letter word as the answer. It's DIRECTIONS.
Our three clues are these:
1. The letter H 2. Treatment 3. Directions
1. H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. H = ATE 2. Everyone knows that herbal TEA is a great treatment for various ailments. 3. The directions of NSEW are symbolized by a lower case 't' or a cross.
All three of these are TEAS. If your anagram skills are on, you'll also so EAST contained therein.
EAST TEAS. You know that 'teas' are DIRECTIONS and east lies to the right on the compass.
EAST TEAS = RIGHT DIRECTIONS.
My working theory is that this will mean WRITE DIRECTIONS next.
I think I managed to stumble onto the metapuzzle phase of all of this, and that's what I'm gonna put in the next post.
Doc
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Post by Doc on Jan 28, 2023 15:46:37 GMT -5
Slouching Towards the Metapuzzle
I started with card 1, and things snowballed from there.
1. Card 1 ends with an instruction: "Now, take a deep breath..." This means INHALE. The relevant homophone for the treasure hunt is IN HELL. According to Dante and his Divine Comedy, there are NINE CIRCLES in hell. Which just so happens to be the exact number of circled words in our game--which we haven't used.
2. The fortune contained in the black envelope: "A dubious friend may be an enemy in camouflage. Lucky Numbers 12 - 7 - 80 - 3 - 29 - 89 (the numbers are colored red)." I think this is a 3-part riddle similar to card 23 and card 24. a. A dubious friend = PHONY. PHONE E. E being the fifth letter of the alphabet makes this PHONE 5. It's MIDDLE of the telephone keypad. There's another word for "middle" that needs to be found and anagrammed, in my opinion, to make the entire 3-part riddle make sense. Middle = HEART. Anagramming HEART to EARTH makes "A dubious friend" answer to be MIDDLE EARTH. b. An enemy in camouflage. In Cliff Johnson's puzzles, 'camouflage' is a trigger for anagrams. The homophone we need to anagram: 'enemy' = NME. Anagrams to MEN. c. The numbers are red. RED NO'S. First note is that its opposite is SON DER = the opposite of 'sunder' which is 'put together'. The accepted abbreviation of 'red' is the letter 'R'. A type of 'no' is an 'X', whose homophone is 'EX' Putting this together: RED NO'S = R EXES = REXES. The answer to this third portion is KINGS.
MIDDLE EARTH MEN KINGS
'Nine were gifted to the race of men': I think the answer to this is NINE RINGS, and I think it's a reference to the rings around the sun, namely the nine planets.
3. A couple of pages back in this thread, you might recall we ran across TEN M. That's TEN MILLION which just so happens to be $10,000,000.00. That's right--NINE ZEROES. I don't know how this is all going to fit together, but this amount represents the REWARD--it's going to tie together with the Reward card we found hidden in the envelope at the end of the game. Another factoid: a one with nine zeroes is a total of TEN DIGITS, and I've already run across that clue about a toe and a finger I discussed earlier.
4. Lo and behold, the underused peanut butter loyalty card has NINE GRINS. (If you see the anagram of GRINS, pat yourself on the back.) Nicely circular in nature.
5. Magic squares. Fun fact: a magic square is one in which each row, column, and diagonal add to the same number. When arranging the numbers 1 - 9 into a 3 x 3 grid to turn it into a magic square, every row, column, and diagonal adds to 15. The '5' is always at the center of every possible combination. The fifteenth letter of the alphabet, as you might have guessed at this point, is 'O'. The issue: 3 rows, 3 columns, and 2 diagonals are a total of only 8 lines. For all this business to be correct, there's a missing line, and I think it's because it's 'Cowardly'. I ran across the 'Tin Man' a couple of pages back, and I've been wondering where his companions might show up. The fact the word LION anagrams to NIL O makes me think the magic square = NINE O's. Maybe the Wizard of Oz?
6. The ninth letter of the alphabet is 'I', and the letter 'I' is in the center of the 3 x 3 pigpen code key. The middle of the telephone keypad is '5' representing the letter 'E'. If you know your morse code, you know the letter 'E' is encoded by a single DOT. Dorothy.
RED HERRING = HER RING is RED. A red ring would be a RUBY ring. When do the anagram/homophone conversion, you get RUBY = BURY = BERRY. This may be too deep of a read, and it requires another clue to solve it, but the only thing I could easily make connections is with the circled word BLUE. BLUEBERRY then connects to Willie Wonka--the girl that turned into a blueberry was VIOLET Beauregard.
To go from RED to VIOLET surely puts me in mind of a rainbow, and my feelings weren't hurt that a 'rainbow' goes with Dorothy as well.
Nine Circles Nine Rings Nine Zeroes Nine O's Nine Grins Nine ('I') Ring
I discussed these with a friend at lunch, and he came up with another possibility that I'm strongly considering at this point I wanted to pass along: NINE BALL. This requires intersecting previous answers, and since I don't have a clue on how all of this fits together, I'm sharing this as well because it may well be right.
IF I'm right about the 'Cowardly Line', that may well be a 'YELLOW STRIPE', which is the 9-ball. I'm also considering card 8: "There's nothing so important as TRIFLEs." I recognized the anagram as FILTER. Notice the 's' was left out of the fill-in-the-blanks on the card. It's because the associated word needs to be POOL, not POOLS. Again, my feelings aren't hurt that the opposite of POOL is LOOP or SNARE. You can see 'Answer' hiding there.
Enjoying the mental gymnastics,
Doc
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