The Sphinx's Lair

Well. It took you long enough. But finally you have tracked El Circo de Desconcertante down to this door in this dismal alley. You knew you wouldn't just be allowed in, so you've come prepared with the information you need. Now it's just a matter of saying the right thing...

Techidiot

1:03 PM

@IAmInPLS Thanks.

Beastly Gerbil

@Sphinx you're 15 minutes late you know

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Yes, it has something to do with the tag. Look at the previous questions!

Beastly Gerbil

Well, you're not looking for imgur photos. You have all the photos you need. So I won't tag it that, because you don't need anything else to proceed

The only imgur bit is clicking on the images

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil That is what the tag was created for

Display name

Rule #21 in chat: If you don't want to start a discussion, never say "morning", "day", "evening", "night" or any term that describes the current time.

Beastly Gerbil

1:07 PM

'A puzzle in which you need to find and follow links to successive i.stack.imgur images in order to progress.'

IAmInPLS

Or, I believe so, seeing the questions

Beastly Gerbil

@IAmInPLS that's the tag wiki ^

Has anyone translated El Circo de Desconcertante yet? :P

Sconibulus

usually at least one link is somehow 'hidden' in an imgur maze

Beastly Gerbil

yeah nothing imgury here

Sconibulus

(My puzzle hides them the best way, I think)

IAmInPLS

1:08 PM

'Right, 'right

@Sconibulus Still unsolved ?

dcfyj

@Displayname I don't mind starting discussions, this is a chat room, you're supposed to discuss things :P

Sconibulus

sadly, yes

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil That has no sense, does it?

Display name

@dcfyj It's extremely repetitive, though.

dcfyj

meh

Beastly Gerbil

1:09 PM

@IAmInPLS what does? El Circo de Desconcertante?

Sconibulus

my guess is "The disconcerting circus"

IAmInPLS

@Sconibulus Well, I did some Spanish

It's more: The circus of disconcerting

Sconibulus

I don't think the of would translate

Beastly Gerbil

Well Google Translate doesn't get it quite right, it's supposed to be the Circus of Puzzling

dcfyj

@IAmInPLS That's a literal translation

IAmInPLS

1:11 PM

Not literal, it is The Puzzling Circus

@dcfyj Yeah I know :-P

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil When I put puzzling in g-translate I get misterioso

which is more mysterious than anything

IAmInPLS

El misterioso circo

I think we're getting played by Goggle Translate

Beastly Gerbil

Oh well, the name doesn't really matter :P

Meanwhile, someone got the first step right...

Although he didn't realise it was ASCII encoded...

dcfyj

yup, because I put circus of puzzling and got
Circo de desconcierto

Beastly Gerbil

And if you put 'the' in front you get deconcertante

dcfyj

1:14 PM

ah

Beastly Gerbil

Okay, btw I am going to refrain from any hints this time (unless people get really stuck)

dcfyj

Of course, you only just posted it :P

Beastly Gerbil

No it's just I usually help a bit in chat... :P

Jim

I missed so much CCCC

IAmInPLS

Yeah, let people think

Jim

1:16 PM

Thinking is good

dcfyj

Hello person I've not seen in here before

Beastly Gerbil

he's been here the last few days...

IAmInPLS

@dcfyj Well, he's a member for 4 days

Let him some time :-P

dcfyj

I don't recall seeing him tuesday and I was rather not in the mood for internet yesterday (wasn't well)

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil- The note has "cab" twice. Is that intentional or an error?

Beastly Gerbil

1:21 PM

typo...

Jim

@BeastlyGerbil how did ensure the colors retained the correct data? That's what I tried with my puzzle but was sure the colors changed slightly when saving

Techidiot

Oh okay

Beastly Gerbil

@Jim yeah I had that problem (try it on the original circus poster and you don't get the right results). I think it's because if you save it as jpeg then lossy compression will cause the colours to change slightly, so I made sure the colours were right and saved as PNG and it worked...

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Was bout to say that (jpg vs. png)

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil- I love your art! You can later post a guide for making these. May be with some tools to be used. We are paint users :( This is fascinating

Jim

1:24 PM

@BeastlyGerbil I tried PNG too, but it changed the values by one bit here and there

@BeastlyGerbil excited to try yours if it's still there when I'm finally in the office

Beastly Gerbil

@Jim I imagine it will be. It's pretty hard

Jim

Faaaaantastic

@BeastlyGerbil you should try the one I created since it has at least one concept you already know :)

Beastly Gerbil

@Techidiot yeah I don't use paint :P. I use Sketchbook. It's pretty good, think it costs £20 a year, and I'd definitely recommend it. I believe they made the movie 'The book of life' on it, so it's very good...

And I mainly make images, by taking images offline, then drawing over them :P. Maybe adding a bit of shadow or so on...

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Sketchbook is love, Sketchbook is life

Beastly Gerbil

Ah no not that...

My aim by the end of the year is to have all the posts shown in your profile to be over 20. Hopefully this will get there to fulfill that

@Techidiot oh I fixed the typo

Saiid

1:36 PM

Jeez, did I miss 5 CCCC's while I was asleep?!

Hulloo

@Saiid yep :P

@TheGreatEscaper o/

@TheGreatEscaper hello!

Saiid

@TheGreatEscaper Ello

@BeastlyGerbil Wow.

Let's see...

Rodent = RAT, most likely..

trapped behind is a position indicator

IAmInPLS

1:39 PM

Turned jar = raj?

Beastly Gerbil

turned jar = raj

TheGreatEscaper

Isn't there a more recent CCCC?

Beastly Gerbil

ninja'd :P

TheGreatEscaper

Gentlepurplerain's

IAmInPLS

@TheGreatEscaper Well, it's only 48 minutes old

@TheGreatEscaper Twas solved

TheGreatEscaper

1:39 PM

I don't even know how to navigate this site

Saiid

@TheGreatEscaper GPR's is about 8 hours old, mate.

TheGreatEscaper

Why are the starred comments on the side out of order?

IAmInPLS

@TheGreatEscaper You'll elanr :-)

TheGreatEscaper

Oh, they are in order

but there are two different types of stars for some reason

and for some reason GPR's CCCC is a hollow star

Beastly Gerbil

yeah the empty middle ones are pinned

IAmInPLS

1:40 PM

@TheGreatEscaper The empty stars are the pinned ones

Saiid

That means it's pinned

Beastly Gerbil

ninja'd you all :P

Saiid

ah, ninja'd twice

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil You ninja'd this time

TheGreatEscaper

Why is GPR'S still pinned?

Saiid

1:41 PM

and again

@TheGreatEscaper no room owners online atm

Display name

@TheGreatEscaper Because no room owners are here during christmas time, apparently

ninja'd :P

Ok, ninja time

and again :P

Isn't deusovi a room owner?

He's been around

Saiid

1:41 PM

Yeah

IAmInPLS

Gentlemen, prepare your keyboards

Saiid

probably just forgot

IAmInPLS

He's a mod

Beastly Gerbil

'last seen 10 secs ago'

Saiid

lol

Display name

1:45 PM

That "last seen" stat must be flawed. There's no way everyone in the room is camping all the time.

Saiid

yes, no way at all...

Alright, let's try going in a different direction

def. rodent

turned jar = raj

west indiaN jeweL?

:/

that's not 6, though

Bungicasse

Hey guys, I'm rather new to puzzling. How would you go about solving the El Circo de Desconcertante. I mean, what is your thought process??

Beastly Gerbil

I created a chat room for my circus as I really think this is going to take quite a while to solve

Sconibulus

Jar doesn't have to be jar though

Saiid

true

Will

1:50 PM

I thought maybe if turned was an anagram indicator it could somehow be jerboa but I can't see how you'd get the e, b, and o

Saiid

actually, what if we interpreted 'behind' as 'trappeD behind'

IAmInPLS

@Bungicasse For me, I'll let the other doing :-P

Sconibulus

Nacre looks almost promising

Saiid

?

Alright, I'm almost positive that it's to be interpreted close to this:

Sconibulus

I think pearls are nacre, and it starts with can

It would need to be a derivative word to get six, obviously

Saiid

1:52 PM

Rodent(def) trappeD behind turned jar(RAJ), west Indian Jewel

unfortunately, that's 5 consonants with a single vowel

dcfyj

Wouldn't West be Indian Jewel?

Will

^

IAmInPLS

^

Saiid

shush, I just woke up, okay?

Bungicasse

How do you guys do that, I understand nothing.

dcfyj

1:53 PM

lol

Saiid

lol

dcfyj

West is cluing the left parts of the words

Display name

@Saiid "5 consonants with a single vowel" :)

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil- Any free ones? :p

Saiid

arg stop it

dcfyj

1:54 PM

@Bungicasse You should take a look at this. It's rather informative.

Saiid

anyway, that leaves us with D RAJ I J

dcfyj

Hard to make a word out of that lol

Saiid

lol

or, if we interpret 'jar' loosely as 'can', D NAC I J

Display name

It's 100% the world famous DJ Naci, his nickname is "The Rodent"...

dcfyj

lol

GentlePurpleRain

2:04 PM

@Techidiot I'm guessing it's supposed to be GUJARAT (JUG reversed, followed by RAT), but there's a word-length discrepancy there.

TheGreatEscaper

Seems correct

If it isn't, then that's a very interesting coincidence

dcfyj

GPR, mind pinning the current C4?

Sconibulus

it is pinned?

IAmInPLS

It's already done

dcfyj

Oh, I hadn't looked over there :P

Saiid

2:07 PM

@Displayname +1

@GentlePurpleRain Where do you get the A from?

IAmInPLS

Dear Santa, can I have a Guru badge for Christmas? I only need 3 upvotes, and I've been very kind all the year.

37

A: What does this group of numbers represent?

I don't know if it is the right solution, but if we consider: Then I got this explanation:

I have not any shame :-P

Saiid

'once' of shame. nice

Beastly Gerbil

No-one made any progress on my puzzle?

Saiid

we've made progress

Beastly Gerbil

any more though? :P

GentlePurpleRain

2:14 PM

@Saiid That's where I'm saying there's a discrepancy

Display name

@Deusovi @Emrakul @GentlePurpleRain Would you mind if I included mods with names similar to yours in a puzzle? They wouldn't act very "mod-like", that's why I'm asking.

Sconibulus

you really like making edits, don't you Gerbil

GentlePurpleRain

@Displayname Doesn't bother me. I can't speak for the others.

Beastly Gerbil

@Sconibulus badge hunting

GentlePurpleRain

Although if you're using similar names, you're probably covered under parody "fair use".

IAmInPLS

2:16 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Only 45 to go

Beastly Gerbil

yep :P

Display name

Deusovi is also OK with it, I guess

Nov 13 at 18:49, by Deusovi

@LukasRotter Feel free to include me as a corrupt overlord. I won't mind. :P

Will

2:29 PM

Perhaps for Emrakul you could just take a different MTG card :P

Sconibulus

I nominate Ulamog

Display name

@Will Yep, I had Ulamog in mind

Well

Sconibulus

or Kozilek, if you're sneaky

Display name

Lemme just give away the current names then, and tell me what you think about them:

CruelYellowAridity, Sireenc, Ulamog

Beastly Gerbil

sireenc?

Display name

2:31 PM

Anagrammed "sincere" the same way "devious" was anagrammed.

aah ok

Sir Eenc, maybe? :P

Ulamog, lol

0

Q: It's skinny for the smartest chaps, a combination lock perhaps

I am stuck on this riddle and cannot seem to find a link between the two phrases 'It's skinny for the smartest chaps, A combination lock perhaps' What is it?