@boboquack All good then - yeah it probably wasn't clear from how I phrased the write-up, but I thought E was missing and wasn't sure whether there were any other clues I missed
(I don't know where E for EXIT was intentional but it seemed fitting)
It seemed like you had a lot of leeway in the top right and bottom left corners (since there's not many cross letters there) so I thought the EXIT thing was intentional :P
Yeah I was trying to backsolve an ordering but couldn't find one - maybe if the characters or items were in order of the letters that would have helped. I didn't mind the E too much due the "missing" theme (but did poke fun at it with BEACONS), but yeah as a meta extraction that was pretty neat.
@Sp3000 That would have helped, but I actually had the first couple of puzzles almost done, when I had a look at the FTC, and tried to make something out of it.
ABLATIVE ASA BUTTERFIELD BROKEN ARM COURTNEY LOVE CROW’S NEST DESPEREAUX GOOD HOPE MUSSOLINI PIXIE PORTRAYAL PREREQUISITE SKYSCRAPERS TIME MAGAZINE TURNPIKE WINTER OLYMPICS ZASTAVA KORAL
Each clued a four-letter word (skyscrapers --> TALL, despereaux --> TALE, pixie --> DUST, prerequisite --> MUST). They could be arranged into a word ladder with four steps missing, which spelled the answer (HUGE DUCT TAPE ROLL).
(I know, I should probably shut up about the MIT Mystery Hunt. The puzzles are good examples though, and I wanted to point out that answers don't have to be used directly.)
With the paint and everything? Probably not. (For one, live ducks are notoriously hard to get, and I doubt they'd cooperate with the puzzle instructions.)
(For context: The linguist was trapped in an "impenetrable soundproof box". To break them out, we had to successfully enter three of the passwords, and we had 30 seconds to do each of them.)
This question already has an answer here: Fill the holes? [closed] 8 answers Source You need to pick any number from '1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15' to make below equation true. ( ) + ( ) + ( ) + ( ) + ( ) = 30 Can you solve it ?
Interesting as well because it says 'This question already has an answer here: Fill the holes? [closed] 8 answers...' which means it's copying directly from the displayed body, not just the actual question body
CCCC: Secular-following forum becomes hackneyed. (9)
I thought it was fine @Sp3000 - I hit on falsettos quickly but couldn't connect it for a minute or two while I was fiddling with "LET" for assign; when I hit on "SET", FALTO landed in my lap and it was all over. :)
I actually was asleep when my phone buzzed and woke me. while dealing with that I saw the ping that you'd solved my CCCC, went to read the context, saw the new c4, put the phone down and started going back to sleep, and solved the damn thing three minutes later. So yes. you're responsible for dragging me out of bed fully, nice job :)
I'm now going back to sleep - good night hehe
2 hours later…
user61230
12:18 PM
@Randal'Thor Your herring suggestion was just too good to pass up.