The Sphinx's Lair

Gareth McCaughan

3:00 PM

@Sp3000 "Derrick" is one word for an oil rig thingy.

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor That's a perfectly reasonable answer. Declined.

:P

@Ankoganit I solved the meta before the rebus was posted.

Sp3000

Ah, reverse image search was bringing up "The Thing on the Fourble Board"

Ankoganit

@Deusovi oh wait that's all?

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Declining a flag on your own answer? Flagged for conflict of interest ;-)

Rubio

I sense a cycle about to happen

Ankoganit

3:01 PM

What does the stap map do?

*star map

Rubio

@Ankoganit Feel free to solve it on your own, it's actually fun

Deusovi

^

Ankoganit

okay

Rand al'Thor

I have a much better star map puzzle :-]

(Not on SE.)

Rubio

(BTW Deus, if you feel like it, you could add a note about the meta's title. What word belongs at the end? hehe)

GentlePurpleRain

3:04 PM

@GarethMcCaughan A guess for the CCCC: ASSENT (accept), and ASENT could meant "the opposite of SENT", which is "the state of a letter before posting", with the "perhaps" clueing a homophone?

Not too confident, though, because I don't think ASENT is actually a word...

Rand al'Thor

Ooh. That would be clever. But also cruel, because adding A- to SENT isn't really a valid prefixion.

Rubio

Oh by the way, @Deus and others, if you want a little extra fun feel free to try other constellations on the star map. Some of them give interesting results.

Sconibulus

@GentlePurpleRain The letter "As Sent" could be the state immediately before posting

making it a double def

GentlePurpleRain

@Sconibulus But "as sent" isn't before posting; it's after.

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor You make puzzles off of SE?

Rand al'Thor

3:16 PM

(That's a joke, right?)

Deusovi

(...Oh, right.)

(I didn't realize that's what you meant.)

Rand al'Thor

Well, the RD is primarily for riddles (as the name suggests), but we were always planning to branch out into other kinds of puzzles as a secondary thing.

And I made a puzzle in the form of a star map which I'm very proud of.

Sid

GamEN people..

Rubio

howdy Sid

@Randal'Thor Is RD still a thing? Name servers seem to think it's not.

Sid

Oooo, your meta puzzle is on.

Rand al'Thor

3:27 PM

@Rubio It's been down for quite a while now, but we're finally working on getting it back up and running.

Deusovi

@Rubio: I just looked up "Troika". Didn't realize it was an actual word.

Rand al'Thor

(You can still see our first 34 riddles using the Wayback Machine.)

Rubio

Yup.

Sid

So, now Deusovi is solving puzzles without even looking at the puzzle

Rubio

I almost went with Triumvir, but figured Troika actually held the same meaning and would be much more likely to be missed

Deusovi

3:28 PM

@Sid Yep!

n_palum

@Sid He is the master afterall

Rand al'Thor

@n_palum clears throat

:-P

Rubio

And, apparently, he plans to use the ultimate weapon to deal with, erm, capricious jumpers. and their ilk. :)

n_palum

@Randal'Thor Tries to clear throat and starts dying because I am still sick

I did not stutter ;)

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor clears throat harder

Rand al'Thor

3:32 PM

@Deusovi You have a throat harder? Why are you clearing it out?

Rubio

It's a pipe, obviously. Smoking those things will stiffen all those neck muscles.

And if you don't clear them, they get nasty.

Sid

How do you get BIGDIPPER? I don't understand..

Rubio

It's a meta-puzzle.

Deusovi

"POINTS AT NORTH STAR LADLE"

Those are the five answers.

What ladle points at the north star?

Sid

Oh, that is a thing? I didn't know that..

n_palum

3:35 PM

Constellations and stuffff

Rubio

Huh. I thought that was fairly multiculturally recognized. Apologies if not.

Rand al'Thor

No constellation name is multiculturally recognised.

Rubio

I'll just be over here in my little bubble. Don't mind me. :)

Rand al'Thor

Star patterns are among the most globally identical things there are, and of course different cultures and languages will all have invented different ways of imagining/recognising them.

n_palum

Pokes bubble

Sid

3:37 PM

Well, it might also be my ridiculously low knowledge of constellations.

Deusovi

@Rubio - Tried some other constellations for fun, since you mentioned those easter eggs.

VOIDED
MANIC MINOR
HADES MAJOR
STAR ERUPT
FRAG MINOR

Anything else, or have I gotten all of them?

Sid

Oh, I googled that. You call those things "big Dipper"? Didn't know that..

Rubio

you missed URSA MAJOR itself

Deusovi

No I didn't, it becomes STAR ERUPT

Rubio

oh no you didn't sorry

I think that's all of them :)

I hoped to get at least one person with STAR ERUPT as the constellation for the big dipper is Ursa Major, but you went and solved (and backsolved) the more obvious choice too quickly for that hehe

Deusovi

3:42 PM

(incidentally, at first, I tried using MERAK+DUBHE, and it went to METAKHUBHE, which is suspiciously close to METAPUZZLE.)

Rubio

oh man.

opportunity lost. drat

Deusovi

well, you'd need a lot more transformations than those two

Rubio

Adding extra letters that actually gave meaningful results was a last minute thing. Originally the non-pertinent letters were basically random

Deusovi

neat coincidence, though

Rubio

It wasn't all that easy making a simple substitution give something readable for URSA MAJOR, as it turns out

Deusovi

3:45 PM

rereading the text again - just noticed "ONE CAPRICIOUS JUMP"

that was pretty funny

Rubio

15 mins ago, by Rubio

And, apparently, he plans to use the ultimate weapon to deal with, erm, capricious jumpers. and their ilk. :)

Deusovi

Yep, I got that reference. Didn't notice it in the original text though

Rubio

I couldn't resist.

Crafting that sentence was tricky :)

It reads perfectly when interpreting it as a single person, as well as in a generic and wider sense.

Deusovi

Yeah, that was clever.

(Also, maybe I shouldn't have answered the puzzle... y'know, to not ruin that last paragraph before the map.)

(Or at least I should've used a sockpuppet to answer. :P )

n_palum

Don't encourage sock puppets :P

Deusovi

3:51 PM

Sockpuppets aren't inherently banned.

You're just not allowed to use them for things you wouldn't be able to do otherwise (eg suspension evasion or upvoting yourself).

Rand al'Thor

96

A: How should sockpuppets be handled on Stack Exchange?

How can I be sure I'm looking at a sockpuppet? You can't ever be 100% sure. What you think is a sockpuppet could in fact be my good friend Nog Shine, who loves everything I write, copies my writing style, and uses my computer to vote and post stuff when I step away for coffee. But in practice, ...

n_palum

You scared him off with the puppet talk

Sid

@Deus you have a sockpuppet? :o

n_palum

Deus is a sockpuppet

Deusovi

4:06 PM

@Sid Nope.

I'm saying I should've made one.

Sid

Even if you had, you wouldn't really accept it. :P

Deusovi

I don't really have a need for a sockpuppet.

Sid

Um.. yeah, that too..

n_palum

Because he is one

Deusovi

I mean, what's the point of having another account if I have so much power on this one? :P

Rubio

4:19 PM

One can never have too much power. Raise a sock to high rep and visibility and standing in the community. Get it a mod election nomination. Then make sure it wins. Now your plan to consolidate total control of P.SE is virtually complete!

Sid

... That is too much work and would take too much time.

Sphinx

0

Q: A simple "scientific test"

I hold every single day, in my lovely picture frame. I look a hundred years old, but I was built on the spot. You might say I'm weak, and I'm four times over the hill. Sometimes I take the elevator from the ground floor, not to be confused with my friends next door. Having a look at the title...

Sphinx

4:57 PM

0

Q: On this historic day

Today is 04 17 2 017 as of posting this puzzle in my current time. What happened on the date I am thinking of? YQTNFYCTKK FOGLQENMILAGTSLJA - 1st BCIXDHEELQJUFQWDENIZ - 8th LSRCODAIJWNPFXEAD - 5th OCLEKARENZWBTPEACFUMOJZNKU - 7th YNVNKKSCWDWYZLFADVAAQRVEHJLRVL - 3rd WZCTHOFIMMLOITV - 1st ...

cipher enigmatic-puzzle history

Sphinx

5:14 PM

0

Q: Save the Easter bunny - An Easter themed puzzle

This is a puzzle themed for Easter Monday 17-04-17 The inhabitants of Puzzletopia are shocked: the Easter bunny has gone missing! They immediately ask you, the police’s best detective, to find out where he is! You found the following clues: The Easter bunny has visited only 3 houses. The fourt...

cipher enigmatic-puzzle story seasonal

n_palum

@Sconibulus I like the ZugBear attempt ;)

Sconibulus

my next guess is probably going to involve figuring out the relative orders of the things, and rearranging them in that order, but first I need to do some work for a little bit

Mithrandir

6:14 PM

@n_palum I've got a sockpuppet... :O

n_palum

:O

Sphinx

6:30 PM

0

Q: A Simple Self-Referential Test

You can play it online here: https://www.brainzilla.com/logic/self-referential-quiz/simple-srq-2/ Original PDF source: http://mrhonner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Simple-Self-Referential-Test-2.pdf Each test has some number of multiple choice questions about itself; There is only on...

logical-deduction

n_palum

6:44 PM

Hi @Jamie

Did you ever go back to confirm if this puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/50216/… question of yours had a correct answer or not?

Jamie

@n_palum oops, somehow I missed that. Accepted it now.

@n_palum sorry about that

n_palum

No worries! Was just curious if perhaps it was wrong

n_palum

7:16 PM

Anyone wanna help me with pre tags and or spoiler tags? puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/51093/…

Deusovi

9:34 PM

Hey Sp!

Sp3000

Hey!

Deusovi

Mind if I use your description of metapuzzles from yesterday for the tag wiki?

Sp3000

Go for it, that was the point :) It could probably be improved, but I can't think of anything better atm

Deusovi

Cool, thanks!

Sphinx

11:13 PM

1

Q: The Third Room of Numbers Dungeon

After being enslaved by the evil Lord Numbers, you have been forced to navigate his treacherous puzzle rooms. After easily defeating the first and second puzzle rooms, you stumble into the third room, which is filled with numbers, like any good number prison. You start to inspect the room. The i...

cipher lateral-thinking visual

Gareth McCaughan

@GentlePurpleRain @Sconibulus ASSENT is correct and AS+SENT is indeed the structure. If I'd been able to find a concise way of saying "after sending but before everything else" that didn't have the word "sent" in it, I would have used it :-). The thing I feel guiltiest about with this clue isn't the distinction between "immediately before posting" and "immediately after", which I think is negligible enough, but the fact that "assent" doesn't quite mean "accept". "Assent to" does, though.

So, not the best ever clue; sorry.

stack reader

11:43 PM

Ok... I was hoping for a little bit more views when I woke up.... 70 views in 1 day for a puzzle I worked so hard and a long time for is quite sad... I thought the title was catchy.... maybe I was wrong... or maybe these tags are not appealing.... puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/51065/…

Rubio

11:54 PM

Weekend(ish) posts tend to miss a lot of immediate views since there aren't as many people on to see them

You may get a few more now - I upgraded my answer from "more probable" to "final"

which bumped it back into view

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