The Sphinx's Lair

Eric Tressler

1:24 AM

@Deusovi what is the time span of the puzzle hunt?

ffao

1:47 AM

@EricTressler it accepts answers until Monday, March 26 (so the other Monday)

but how long the teams will actually take to finish... probably only the authors know

I'm guessing a lot of teams will be done during this weekend

thecoder16

2:13 AM

just saw this, we should do more of this

16

Q: Various Virtuosic Variety

As we all should know by now there's a lot going on with riddles lately. One major issue is that we can't really compare or measure quality. Regarding the so called quality issue I came up with the following idea: I'd like some people who feel up to the task to write a short riddle about somethi...

discussion

Sphinx

2:57 AM

1

Q: What number follows up next?

I'm currently working on a (difficult) number progression and need your help. How would you continue? 2, 5, 12, 25, 54, 113, 240, 481 ? Thanks in forward!

number-sequence number-theory

Eric Tressler

5:08 AM

C4 hint: This has gone on for too long; sudo solve the clue

Apep

Ah, Remove likely clues "rm", then.

ffao

well, now it's easy

but I'm a windows guy :(

Rubio

5:27 AM

CA(RM+I)NE

Eric Tressler

@Rubio correct

Rubio

And that's really dodgy. hehe

I thought of carmine on day one but didn't see any way to get it out of wordplay

Eric Tressler

How is it dodgy? The remove -> rm part?

Rubio

yeah

Eric Tressler

Yeah, fair. There's no way to ask if something like that is okay without spoiling it, though.

Rubio

5:35 AM

ok i'll post a new one in a bit

micsthepick

5:48 AM

well I get it, but I did not expect it

@EricTressler PM/DM a willing volunteer who does not mind sitting out

Eric Tressler

Eh. I thought it was fine to begin with, it was only after a lot of time had passed that I began to worry about it. If I have serious misgivings at the outset, I just come up with a different clue.

Rubio

6:11 AM

CCCC: Withdraw from claim about what's inside chemtrails. (7)

micsthepick

@Rubio good advice.

Rubio

Indeed.

I may get complaints about this one later. So let me say in advance, I'm not sorry. :)

Sid

How is Remove=RM?

Rubio

The "rm" command in unix/linux is the command that deletes files. It, nominally, means "remove".

Sid

duh..

Never used Linux much to know that...

Eric Tressler

6:24 AM

@Rubio RE(TR)ACT?

Rubio

Nope

Eric Tressler

Nor EX(TR)ACT? These are buried far down in synonyms for claim

Sorry, let me rephrase that, it seems more likely than the previous one. @Rubio EX(TR)ACT, the "TR" coming from the middle letters of "chemtrails"?

Rubio

Extract is correct.

Eric Tressler

Based on what you said about the clue, I thought that it was going to be __ (AIR) __ or (ZIP) or (NADA), etc.

Sid

6:40 AM

EXTRACT is a synonym of withdraw?

Oh, crap. Of course, it is.

I was stuck with the banking withdraw thingy...

ffao

I'm more worried about exact meaning claim

Eric Tressler

make a demand for (money) under the terms of an insurance policy.
"she could have claimed the cost through her insurance"
synonyms: request, ask for, apply for; demand, exact

Not something that I thought of on my own, though.

ffao

I'm surprised that doesn't have an (archaic) qualifier at the front of it

Eric Tressler

7:11 AM

CCCC: Still stylish after last couple tango (5)

Rubio

7:27 AM

@EricTressler IN + _ER + T

Eric Tressler

@Rubio that's right

Rubio

not cccc: Calm energy around you before last couple tango. (5)

Sid

@Rubio what does "couple" do there? Stylish=IN, right? And Tango=T?

Oh, wait, two letters, got it.

Eric Tressler

@Rubio Q(U)I + E + T

And I'm happy that's not a CCCC, because I need to go to bed soon

Rubio

CCCC: Steal from, steal from again, like a rogue? (6)

@EricTressler Yah, was meant to be quick and easy :)

Eric Tressler

7:38 AM

The new one is tempting, but if I start looking at it I will be up until 5. So, goodnight!

Bass

10:08 AM

This is probably a bit too meta to be the intended answer, but if it’s just a coincidence, it’s a pretty neat one:

Rubio

the suspense is killing us.

Bass

From ”rogues do it from behind”, we get that ”like a rogue” means the CC instruction ”flip”. Then both of the ”steal from”s are ”pilfer”, which, when flipped, becomes ”reflip”. So, using the ”again”,

we get ’reflip’ from the last part too, so we reflip it, to get back to

Pilfer.

ASCII-only

:| it took you 40 seconds to type pilfer

Bass

(sorry about the formatting and suspense, phone is acting up.

)

ASCII-only

sees right paren ok good if you didn't do that i was going to do it :P

@Rubio can you verify

Rubio

10:19 AM

well. as fancy as that is, it's alas not correct.

"too meta" might be a good description :)

M Oehm

That looks overly complicated to me. Is "rogues do it from behind a thing"? I'm a bit reluctant to google that.

Rubio

Besides which, if that was the intent, "Steal from, steal from, again, again" would have been better hehe

or something

Bass

thought as much, but the coinky dink was too nice to pass up :-)

ASCII-only

it could (possibly) be robber but 1. probably not, 2. i wouldn't be able to figure out how even if it was

Bass

And yeah, the rogue bit is definitely a thing, and somewhat surprisingly, a mostly sfw one.

ASCII-only

10:26 AM

like you'd be able to get ROB and RE although they would be way too obvious to possibly be right, plus no idea how you'd get the second B

Bass

11:04 AM

It’s surprisingly difficult to get rid of the meta layers in an acceptable way, the English language doesn’t, for some bizarre reason, have punctuation for ”interpret, then interpret the result”. But since some other languages do, this might work: ”Steal, bash, $(steal back) (6)”

Sphinx

12:43 PM

1

Q: Tens changed with a coin deposit (8 letters)

Cryptic puzzle. Chosen Letters of Synonyms of words in question interchanged to get solution.

cryptic-clues

Sphinx

1:00 PM

1

Q: A Musical Mystery: Part 1

I need your help. I'm a physics grad student, but I've always really loved music. So for the past few months, I've been interning with this Italian piano maker - I don't want to say his name here. He's very passionate about music, thinks of it like it's own language. But he's always really paran...

cipher enigmatic-puzzle visual story

thecoder16

1:54 PM

@Rubio what does couple do in this clue? Energy around you = Q(U)I, Before last = E, tango = T?

Eric Tressler

2:05 PM

@thecoder16 "last couple" = E; "before" does nothing except maintain the normal ordering

Rubio

2:23 PM

^ that.

Sphinx

0

Q: find total number of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and total number of plates eaten by muslims , hindus , sikhs

there are 40 people including Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and 40 plates of rice. 4 Muslims eat 1. 1 Hindu eats 4 plates. 1 Sikh eat 2 plates. find the total number of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and total number of plates eaten by each catogary. as there are no plates left and everyone eats something.

riddle mathematics logical-deduction

thecoder16

3:04 PM

oh, i se now

Eric Tressler

4:32 PM

I keep thinking the CCCC might be RECONS or something similar, but I can't get it to fit. In particular, there's no reason to have the initial "Steal from" if it were something like that.

Eric Tressler

4:43 PM

Is there any chance that it's "remove some consecutive letters from [STEAL FROM]", and "again" is an anagrind? With that, I can get LOAFER, and FORMAL. Does that count as an indirect anagram?

M Oehm

5:19 PM

I don't think that's kosher. You can't just "steal from", you must also say what, either by specifying letters or by giving a position.

That one steal is a removal indicator seems likely, though, given how short the answer is.

Eric Tressler

6:14 PM

I can't make any sense out of the most obvious interpretation, "Remove [F,R,O,M,S,T,E,A,L] from "again, like a" ". You get "GINIK".

I also notice that the letters in "AGILE" appear in order in "again, like", but I can't find a 6-letter word with that root.

Sphinx

8:21 PM

0

Q: Who am I?- I lived towards the end of the age of enlightenment

I was able show the deconstruction of the intellectual pretension of the Enlightenment. Everyone was under the assumption that reason and science are the only routes to reality and truth. I perceived the idea that we must go deeper into the mind and how it constructs the universe. Most of the Enl...

history

Sphinx

8:38 PM

0

Q: Finding unique number properties

To create my puzzles, I often use the numerical properties of the integers. However, as of recently, I feel like I am running out of properties to use. So, why not make it a sort of game to find interesting properties for integers. What are valid properties? They are a formula, which is only a...

mathematics number-theory

Sphinx

9:02 PM

0

Q: What are some benefits of solving the rubiks cube?

I was wondering what are some benefits of speed solving for the person involved in this hobby? I am looking for the information regarding the cognitive benefits of solving the rubiks cube. I found this article about it: Benefits of solving the rubiks cube But unfortunately I couldn't find more...

rubiks-cube speedsolving

Mithrandir

10:30 PM

@Rubio puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/46645/davildlsan

thecoder16

I propose to create CCCCCCCCC

Confused? Come Collude! Create and Crack Clear and Comprehensible Cryptic Clues!

3

C4 for beginners :P

North

@Mithrandir yep thats definiteky a spam account

@thecoder16 YES!!

Gareth McCaughan

11:23 PM

yep that's definitely a deleted account now :-).

Sphinx

11:40 PM

1

Q: My hardest rebus yet! Guess the theme and solve!

You must guess the common theme and then solve each rebus (no explanation required). Some might be very straightforward, but others require a little more thinking. Happy St. Patrick's Day, enjoy!

rebus theme

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