The Sphinx's Lair

@Rubio/@Deusovi - Can you help me understanding how 3Z+1S+2W = A and 1P+1N+3E=O? I will try to figure out the rest from here. :D Sorry I am just not getting it

Rubio

3Z means start from the letter Z in paragraph 3. then follow the directions - 1 south, 2 west.

Or, anyway, that's what we were led to believe. Which invites speculation on what the entries with 4B mean, as there is no B in the 4th paragraph

Techidiot

Oh. Okay. Thanks

May be a B on 4th line "been"

Which gives "N"

Makes sense?

Rubio

Whatever the rule is, it should hold in general

Techidiot

Hmm. I have edited them as partial in the sheet

Lets see

@Deusovi- You got your green tick. I have edited the answer a little. Have a good night! :)

Techidiot

9:35 AM

@Rubio- Fortunately I found a B

in 4th para

Volatility

Ah, nice catch

Techidiot

So we have our letters

OA[space]A(E/B)FOSWTJ[gap]NAAMP[void]FIZSZE[blank]ENS(X/C)VJPG

Volatility

lol, just did that on the doc

Techidiot

9:53 AM

Now what :D

@Volatility- Any clue here?

Volatility

Clearly we need to solve the riddle.

I was playing with IMPERIL (IMP+PERIL) from the first two lines, but I'm not sure how that fits.

Techidiot

Lovely

I came up with Imperil as well

Just now :p

Volatility

hahaha, fools seldom differ :-P

Techidiot

When it did not turn off. = says it remain ON

So Not alright + ON

Volatility

Last line: "I'm trapped", could mean the key is a synonym of trapped which is hidden in the words from the other lines?

Techidiot

10:03 AM

Something is hidden in those lines and may be "trapped" is a key

Lol not sure

Volatility

3 hours ago, by Beastly Gerbil

The 'danger' part is tricky, but once you get it the rest will follow. (Note the line after the danger part is also connected)

So the first three lines are connected

Techidiot

Yeah

IMPERIAL would be a word connecting them But not sure how to deduce "AL" from the 3rd line

Rubio

10:38 AM

Where did you find a B in paragraph 4? There isn't one.

Techidiot

I have formed IMPERIALS out of first 3 lines IMP PERIL ALS

Not sure if that's even close

:D

@Rubio- You got the B right?

I'm some small devil or sprite, = IMP
who merged with danger. = PERIL
But things were not alright. = ALS
When it did not turn off. = ON
They said something about learning, = TRAIN/STUDY
or at least something similar to that, = LIKE
I'm trapped but also the key. = LOCK

Rubio

Ah. Yeah now I see. Thanks

I don't think ALS looks right. And the riddle resolves to one word btw.

Techidiot

Oh

Gareth McCaughan

If the line after the one about danger is connected, maybe it's ILL, merging again to give IMPERILL... which could be followed by ED or ING. But then I don't see how the next word works. If it doesn't have to be one word then maybe next line is ON and next is DON so we have IMPERIL LONDON ... but I think that's implausible for multiple reasons.

Rubio

Dunno if that means all the line clues merge to a single word or if there are two or more words that clue a single word. Actually other than BG saying so I don't see any indicator that the first three lines merge to one word. Not sure how to know that so not sure which other lines also combine to their own word.

Oh hi Gareth.

Btw Tech - #29 letter is X only. The [C] is something we haven't figured out yet. I think it denotes capital. (The last equations resolve to esnxvjpg which screams imgur)

Techidiot

10:53 AM

I didn't found any imgur with that

IAmInPLS

Another case of answers at the exactly same time : puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46500/missed-appointment/…

Rubio

I was just going to answer that one too when it updated with two new answers just seconds apart

Gareth McCaughan

At exactly the same time ... OR WERE THEY?

If a solution of that sort is right then it has to be the October rather than the March one, because on the relevant day in March the time in question just doesn't exist.

Rubio

Yeah most likely

@Techidiot my computer is looking for an image with those letters hehe

Techidiot

@Rubio I see :D I will borrow that script some day :)

Rubio

11:03 AM

@GarethMcCaughan before BG derailed it all with his fun puzzle Deusovi was closing in on my c.c.c.c. puzzle FYI.

Gareth McCaughan

yeah, I saw that. I don't like ANSWER (it feels odd for "Middle" to indicate "Earth" and the middle of "Earth" is R or ART not AR) but PERIOD is hard to argue with. I remember you said the capital letter on "Middle" was deliberate; that might be just to make "Middle" look more like the name of a place one could literally be in the middle of, but if it is a hint towards "Earth" then I bet the first word is AR---T or A---RT.

But if my computer's wordlist is to be believed (which it might not be) and if "directions" is restricted to NSEW rather than e.g. including U and D or L and R, then ASSERT is the only possibility and ASSERT PERIOD doesn't make much sense.

anyway, gotta go now

Techidiot

Center of the earth is Mecca(as per some) which starts with M. So may be M_____A May not be close

Gareth McCaughan

11:45 AM

ah, of course it's DOUBLE PERIOD isn't it?

What are the directions in the middle of "middle"? They are doubled, that's what they are. (And a secretary, meaning someone whose job is typing things, has a problem if s/he has typed two "."s in place of one.)

Rand al'Thor

12:06 PM

Hmm. I was looking around for any old subpar answers of mine to clean up, but things like this and this actually do seem like valid answers - I think I'll just leave them be.

(Though that sphinx puzzle is pretty broad.)

GentlePurpleRain

1:02 PM

@GarethMcCaughan I hope that's not it. Seems a little... unsatisfying.

Techidiot

@Rubio @Deusovi How about the ambiguity level of this one? In compare to what I made?

Gareth McCaughan

1:24 PM

@GentlePurpleRain It doesn't seem so bad. And do you remember @Rubio said something like "I looked at some other crosswords and convinced myself that what I've done here is valid even though it isn't in Deusovi's thing"? For the avoidance of doubt, I agree that it is valid, but we shouldn't be surprised if there's something a little unusual in the clue.

Rubio

2:29 PM

It is not DOUBLE PERIOD.

Middle

Oops

This mobile client is terribad

Gareth McCaughan

3:06 PM

Darn. More thinking needed, then.

Techidiot

3:23 PM

How can I get a -1 if I downvote this answer and leave a comment?

Sconibulus

-1 happens for downvoting answers, there's no check to see if it's a good or bad downvote

how would that even work anyway?

A deleted answer refunds you that -1 though

Techidiot

Oh no. That's bad :( Can someone delete the answer? :D It anyway is flagged to be offensive.

Sconibulus

1 rep isn't that big a deal, is it?

Techidiot

I count every single of them. So yes, it is. :)

Sconibulus

3:39 PM

grr, why can't I make AnyDice just feed me a distribution

Rubio

hey finally back at an actual computer. Couple things -
*I remember you said the capital letter on "Middle" was deliberate* - I didn't say that; actually it is deliberate, because it's there, but I'm neither affirming nor denying it is required.
*I looked at some other crosswords and convinced myself that what I've done here is valid* - I looked at other guides. [This one](http://solving-cryptics.com/) in particular gives a solving tip (which can thus be a setter tip) not mentioned in Deusovi's guide but which seems legit, so I relied on it.

Gareth McCaughan

@Rubio My apologies for misremembering what you had said.

Rubio

well that didn't format, but you get the idea :)

Just want to make sure you're not laboring under misconceptions. It's convoluted enough without unintentional red herrings. :)

Mithrandir

@Techidiot It's at -6 now. It'll probably be deleted eventually...

(One of those -1s happens to be mine.)

Techidiot

:)

Gareth McCaughan

3:48 PM

Alconja asked whether the capital M was deliberate (but never got an answer); that must be what I was thinking of.

Rubio

Oh one other note you may have missed. "If it helps, I think middle of Middle could just as well have been center of Center. (and arguably should be)"

Mithrandir

@Techidiot puzzling.stackexchange.com/review/low-quality-posts/26123

Gareth McCaughan

Huh. Yes, indeed I either missed that or forgot it.

Techidiot

Done @Mithrandir

Gareth McCaughan

middle/centre = origin, centroid, hub, core, average, midpoint, axis, ...

IAmInPLS

3:54 PM

@Sconibulus already said that you'll get the refund, my bad.

Beastly Gerbil