|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 6, 2016 2:34:46 GMT
I feel we're missing a proper puzzle thread on here – there was a great long one on TUFFF which sadly couldn't be salvaged. I know we have treasure hunting and soundalikes but they have their limits. I'll start with an oddball one and hopefully others will come up with their own ideas:
You visit your friend Sid who is utterly obsessed with Fighting Fantasy. Before you go round to his house he tells you that the key is 'under mat' but it's not – and he won't open the door until you yell 'apfis nev' through the letterbox. Oh entering the house you are startled twice. Firstly because a wall is sculpted in such a way that a skeleton appears to be emerging from it. Secondly because Sid's cat is clad in close-fitting mini jersey which makes it look like it is covered in many extra eyes. Poor kitty. Sid also insisted that you bring a can of Heinz baked beans, and refuses to let you into the kitchen until you tell him that the number on it is '57'. Once inside, you are relieved when he offers you tea (rather than, say, a gloopy red wine, or cheese with white wine) and that it seems to be ordinary tea with ordinary milk (albeit served in antique goblets). But then Sid goes over to a hole in the wall just above the unit top and taps on the wall. You hear a scuffling sound from within the wall cavity. What happens next?
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 6, 2016 19:10:39 GMT
My level is being able to do the Daily Express cryptic crossword. What level of difficulty are we talking here? References to Havoc, Deathtrap, 57=Magehunter?, House Of Hell. Is the last bit Return where you look in the wall? Only those that own all the books will be happy here?
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 6, 2016 19:45:59 GMT
this is strangely intriguing. in a good way. not like what i normally recognise as a puzzle but more a quest-style conundrum of sort. i haven't worked out the answer yet but i like it. i can see Portal of Evil, Deathtrap Dungeon, uncertain but maybe Vault of the Vampire?, and House of Hell? To hazard a guess at what happens next, i'm gonna say that Jamie Thomson breaks out through the wall with a madness in his eyes but your shrill whistling sends him running?
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 8, 2016 12:56:43 GMT
Pleased to have snagged the interest of both of you. Of course I'm now hoping that you won't be disappointed with the answer... As you've noticed, there are references to a few books which you've mostly identified – though I was thinking more of Night Dragon's stonemelders for the skeleton. Much of this is just (hopefully amusing) scene-setting: an insight into the warped mind of a true FF-obsessive. The can of beans is there mostly because with all the items in FF which have numbers scrawled on them for tenuous reasons, I thought Sid would enjoy an example from our world in which '57 varieties' is on a bunch of products for highly tenuous reasons. The answer to the puzzle requires remembering one particular detail from a particular book. It might be a tricky ask, but if you think about the context and think like Sid it may jog your memory. I'll wait a day or three before giving any more hints. (I'm thinking that once any puzzle has been standing for as long as a week the setter should give some hints, otherwise the thread will seize up.) Somewhere down the line a few cryptic crossword clues might be good, John. ...and no, no hulk-like Jamie Thompson.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 8, 2016 15:38:39 GMT
...and no, no hulk-like Jamie Thompson. i knew it wasn't the answer. i was just trying a similar tone in response referencing the Maijem Nosoth from Slaves of the Abyss. the Skeleton i thought was of the Mirror Demon picture where a skeleton seems stuck halfway in the wall, and Heinz i thought was Karl Heinz who tells you to look for stuff.
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 8, 2016 18:35:48 GMT
...and no, no hulk-like Jamie Thompson. i knew it wasn't the answer. i was just trying a similar tone in response referencing the Maijem Nosoth from Slaves of the Abyss. the Skeleton i thought was of the Mirror Demon picture where a skeleton seems stuck halfway in the wall, and Heinz i thought was Karl Heinz who tells you to look for stuff. Ah OK, I didn't think it was a serious answer but I didn't get the reference. There are all kinds of gaps in my FF knowledge – I may not get many of these puzzles once the thread starts going!
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 9, 2016 9:16:27 GMT
A rather simple puzzle. Each letter is represented by a hyphen. The letters at the end of a word or name are the same as the letters at start of the next. The brackets tell you which. May your puzzle skill never fail! I shall send you on the first (step) of your journey.
Step--- (-(---) : An FF author or illustrator (----) -- ---(--) : A nickname for an FF villain (--)-(--) : A barbarian (--)-----(--) : Leader of a group of huntresses (--)--(-) : Warlock who steals a powerful object (-)--(---) : A type of longsword (---)-(---) : Kingdom in the Old World (---)--- ------- : An FF author or illustrator
Bonus puzzle: Which of these books does the puzzle above reference?
Masks of Mayhem Midnight Rogue Master of Chaos Moonrunner Magehunter
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 9, 2016 12:57:59 GMT
Can we have something a bit easier like who wrote The Citadel Of Chaos?
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 9, 2016 15:55:40 GMT
Haha, obviously the answer to that is Ian Livingstone.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 9, 2016 15:59:20 GMT
can we solve one puzzle before moving on to the next? all the new puzzles do is push the older yet to be solved puzzles further back in the thread where they become lost.
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 9, 2016 16:02:48 GMT
Sure, I'll save my puzzle for the future. Just wanted to get it onto the net before it gets lost in my rapidly deteriorating phone.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 9, 2016 16:21:56 GMT
Sure, I'll save my puzzle for the future. Just wanted to get it onto the net before it gets lost in my rapidly deteriorating phone. i've solved yours apart from the Bonus question but i think we should try to solve mudworm's first. on another note, i do like how elaborate and FF related these puzzles have become.
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 10, 2016 2:49:35 GMT
Sure, I'll save my puzzle for the future. Just wanted to get it onto the net before it gets lost in my rapidly deteriorating phone. i've solved yours apart from the Bonus question but i think we should try to solve mudworm's first. on another note, i do like how elaborate and FF related these puzzles have become. Great! I'll provide a hint for the bonus puzzle after mudworm's puzzle is solved. Regarding his puzzle, it's really difficult so I have nothing to contribute for that. It seems you and johnbrawn are the only ones working on that so good luck.
|
|
|
Post by champskees on Aug 10, 2016 22:26:03 GMT
This is interesting. Apfis nev is part of the code from poe. I thought perhaps Sid may have been Cyrus from space assassin as iirc he offers you a drink (that seems to be ordinary) then pushes the wall. But I think he just escapes so that can't be right...
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 13, 2016 2:17:33 GMT
Thanks. I like the thinking but that's not it. You're right to focus on the kitchen. To clarify what I said above, I could pretty much have written the puzzle as "A crazed FF-fan shows you into his kitchen and..." followed by the last paragraph. ________________________ The best way to think about this is probably to imagine what's happening in the kitchen without trying to link it immediately to a particular FF-reference. It's that last bit which people will probably need a bit of a hint for, but I'd rather delay any major clues until people are on the right track. Bear in mind that part of what happens may be quite banal – you've just been given a cup of tea in a real-world kitchen. Perhaps people could speculate aloud rather than assuming it's too difficult?
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 13, 2016 13:17:29 GMT
A rat serves you a biscuit? Completely baffled.
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 13, 2016 14:45:06 GMT
A rat serves you a biscuit? Completely baffled. That's actually close enough to deserve the next clue: Sid set this up thinking of a particular illustration in a book in which you might be asked to look closely at the illustrations. (Not a biscuit though)
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 13, 2016 18:59:35 GMT
A rat serves you a biscuit? Completely baffled. That's actually close enough to deserve the next clue: Sid set this up thinking of a particular illustration in a book in which you might be asked to look closely at the illustrations. (Not a biscuit though) I am going to sound out two possible red herrings. 1 In The Shamutanti Hills you are served the poisoned tea but you have to resist the temptation to swap it. 2 In Khare you have to read the inscription as to how to kiss the statue to find out about Fourga. Are these red herrings or relevant?
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 14, 2016 3:08:54 GMT
Is the illustration contained in Fangs of Fury? Siege of Sardath? Or Rebel Planet? All three have parts where you need to look closely at the illustrations, but they don't seem like they would be the right books.
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 14, 2016 15:05:18 GMT
That's actually close enough to deserve the next clue: Sid set this up thinking of a particular illustration in a book in which you might be asked to look closely at the illustrations. (Not a biscuit though) I am going to sound out two possible red herrings. 1 In The Shamutanti Hills you are served the poisoned tea but you have to resist the temptation to swap it. 2 In Khare you have to read the inscription as to how to kiss the statue to find out about Fourga. Are these red herrings or relevant? Neither of those I'm afraid. Is the illustration contained in Fangs of Fury? Siege of Sardath? Or Rebel Planet? All three have parts where you need to look closely at the illustrations, but they don't seem like they would be the right books. I'm hoping not to specify which book it is before someone works something out in that direction, but I wouldn't rule anything out... I mentioned John's guess was not too far off but 'not a biscuit'. What else might you be offered if you've just been given a cup of tea with milk? (not a herring )
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 14, 2016 20:41:05 GMT
i'm still trying to work out why 'a rat offers you a biscuit' is relevant.
|
|
|
Post by Wilf on Aug 14, 2016 21:15:22 GMT
A pity Fangs of Fury has been ruled out, because I'd be looking around for little white (sugar) cubes to put in my tea...
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 14, 2016 21:29:56 GMT
A pity Fangs of Fury has been ruled out, because I'd be looking around for little white (sugar) cubes to put in my tea... I haven't ruled that out at all! Perhaps this can be wrapped up now...
|
|
|
Post by johnbrawn1972 on Aug 14, 2016 21:54:35 GMT
If this is the level of difficulty can I request an easier project like trying to explain Critique Of Pure Reason in a single twitter post?
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 14, 2016 22:43:28 GMT
So is the answer "a rat brings you some sugar cubes"?
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 15, 2016 0:20:57 GMT
So is the answer "a rat brings you some sugar cubes"? That's correct. Or to be precise: a mouse emerges from the wall with a string of white sugar cubes attached to its tail. Basic spoilers obviously...In Fangs of Fury you may be asked to examine illustrations to search for white cubes. One of these which Sid and I find memorable is this one: So that's it. My apologies to anyone who has found this baffling or disappointing. I don't entirely rule out using Sid again however...
Anyway it's good that DeadShadowRunner has got it as he's already posted a puzzle and the ball can keep rolling.
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 15, 2016 0:56:57 GMT
If this is the level of difficulty can I request an easier project like trying to explain Critique Of Pure Reason in a single twitter post? I'm liking all these philosophy references John. I noticed you mentioned Hegel and Kierkegaard in the NotN thread and I recall we exchanged posts on Wittgenstein before... Since you mention that unlikely task, I might mention that I used to work for a company which offered to answer any question by text message. At one point I had to find a quote from Descartes in support of the biomechanical theory. I found some relevant quotes from Descartes in under a minute but I then had to find a way to force one into a text message ( including some indication of where the quote came from), even with some of the characters used up by the company blurb. It had (I think) 120 characters to play with – always including a full stop at the end. It took some time to work out how to compress a quote so that the entire thing was at least implied to the bastard who'd asked. Anyway my apologies if the puzzle left you puzzled, though I don't think it can rate as all that difficult in comparison to the task you've set yourself to solve NotN.
|
|
|
Post by deadshadowrunner on Aug 15, 2016 2:18:55 GMT
So is the answer "a rat brings you some sugar cubes"? That's correct. Or to be precise: a mouse emerges from the wall with a string of white sugar cubes attached to its tail. Basic spoilers obviously...In Fangs of Fury you may be asked to examine illustrations to search for white cubes. One of these which Sid and I find memorable is this one: So that's it. My apologies to anyone who has found this baffling or disappointing. I don't entirely rule out using Sid again however...
Anyway it's good that DeadShadowRunner has got it as he's already posted a puzzle and the ball can keep rolling. Actually wilf should have gotten the credit, because he was the one who said it. I just shamelessly stole his answer.
|
|
|
Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 15, 2016 11:43:22 GMT
That's correct. Or to be precise: a mouse emerges from the wall with a string of white sugar cubes attached to its tail. Basic spoilers obviously...In Fangs of Fury you may be asked to examine illustrations to search for white cubes. One of these which Sid and I find memorable is this one: So that's it. My apologies to anyone who has found this baffling or disappointing. I don't entirely rule out using Sid again however...
Anyway it's good that DeadShadowRunner has got it as he's already posted a puzzle and the ball can keep rolling. Actually wilf should have gotten the credit, because he was the one who said it. I just shamelessly stole his answer. He made the key breakthrough, it's true. I was pretty much waiting for him to come back and give the answer, but he didn't mention the mouse/rat in his post at all. Yours was the first post which could reasonably be interpreted as the correct answer – even though I'm guessing you hadn't brought that illustration to mind – and you were also the first to mention FoF, even if only as part of a list. But I'm mostly justifying this so that Sylas can get on with solving your puzzle – if Wilf is extra keen to post one that's fine by me.
|
|
sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
|
Post by sylas on Aug 17, 2016 15:52:48 GMT
A rather simple puzzle. Each letter is represented by a hyphen. The letters at the end of a word or name are the same as the letters at start of the next. The brackets tell you which. May your puzzle skill never fail! I shall send you on the first (step) of your journey. Step--- (-(---) : An FF author or illustrator (----) -- ---(--) : A nickname for an FF villain (--)-(--) : A barbarian (--)-----(--) : Leader of a group of huntresses (--)--(-) : Warlock who steals a powerful object (-)--(---) : A type of longsword (---)-(---) : Kingdom in the Old World (---)--- ------- : An FF author or illustrator Bonus puzzle: Which of these books does the puzzle above reference? Masks of Mayhem Midnight Rogue Master of Chaos Moonrunner Magehunter answers in CAPS: stephen HAND HAND of deaTH THrOM OMorphiNA NAzeK KatANA ANAlAND ANDrew chapman no idea what the Bonus puzzle is about.
|
|