The Sphinx's Lair

The initial message Group A This is a steganography puzzle. Interpret each triple $(a,b,c)$ as This gives the following words: and the final solution Group B Diamonds formed in lattices. (3) Broken bar within intelligence (5) Restriction pistol without exclamation (4) Finish ...

Mithrandir

Sort of.

Why link to the answer?

7

Q: The Word Web of horror - Clue Twenty Two

<<---First clue <---Previous clue As you say the word, the floor starts rising. You are now able to reach the trapdoor. You push it open and climb out. You blink in surprise. You appear to be in the same place you were for Clue Sixteen. When you take another glance, however, you notice that it...

:P

Rand al'Thor

> ai/jws

so/ked?

Mithrandir

fix that /

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Because the answer shows all the progress made so far.

Wouldn't want KK to start from scratch.

@Mithrandir I need a picture of your keyboard first :-P

> vscgc

caxfx?

Khale_Kitha

2:04 PM

the thing about that noo p q rssr one...

It's likely not a phrase, at least, due to the limit on 1-letter words, so chances are the spaces are herrings

Mithrandir

@Khale_Kitha Not herrings. They're important.

@Randal'Thor ^

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Then it should be soKED.

"soaked" sounds more likely to me.

Mithrandir

No, because those don't count.

Soaked is (confirmed)

Khale_Kitha

Would you be willing to take another picture of that top-down, Mith?

Mithrandir

nope

too much trouble

dcfyj

2:08 PM

Why are we taking pictures of laptops?

Mithrandir

Can't get it from my phone easily

@dcfyj Because they wanted a picture of my keyboard :P

7 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I need a picture of your keyboard first :-P

dcfyj

It's just a standard qwerty keyboard isn't it?

Mithrandir

I have no idea.

It should be...

You can whack it with a stick if it isn't.

Khale_Kitha

no

dcfyj

Seems to me that all the letters are in the standard places (secondary alphabet aside)

Rand al'Thor

2:11 PM

@Mithrandir "they"?

Khale_Kitha

Not everything in the puzzle is letters.

Chris Cudmore

Where did the A come from?

Mithrandir

@dcfyj I've got a weird \| next to the 'z'...

@Randal'Thor Rand, al, and Thor.

Khale_Kitha

His \ is next to the enter key

So he wrapped it around when moving one key right

But the puzzle uses a /

So it was odd, to me

dcfyj

@Mithrandir That button moves around keyboard to keyboard. It's where half the backspace key is on yours on mine

Rand al'Thor

2:13 PM

@ChrisCudmore From me. You'll have to call me Rnd now.

Khale_Kitha

Rnd l'Thor

Mithrandir

@dcfyj I have two. For some reason.

Rand al'Thor

@Khale_Kitha I've only used one so far!

Khale_Kitha

I stole the other when you weren't looking.

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor but you have no A's only a's

Mithrandir

2:13 PM

I have / next to shift. The extra \ is next to z.

dcfyj

@Mithrandir those aren't the same

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj The puzzle was originally in lower-case. I capitalised the solution for consistency.

dcfyj

but you do have 2 of each |\ and /?

Mithrandir

Wait what?

They put the wrong sticker on!

dcfyj

well the second /? is actually /Q

Khale_Kitha

2:15 PM

Rand, the hebrew word is translating to punishment when I look it up.

Mithrandir

Huh?

@dcfyj No

Down.

Not in Hebrew.

Hang on. FHRCs coming up.

dcfyj

The Q key has a / on it and the key to the left of Shift has / and ? on it

Mithrandir

Bottom left

Rand al'Thor

40

Q: And the rest is hstr!

This is an entry in the 14th Fortnightly Topic Challenge. Ha, nice, a new fortnightly challenge. What's more, it is about history! It seems that people didn't like sports that much, huh? Fortunatly, there are (good) puzzlrs around here who seem to lke history. Like @Sleafr, who alredy postd t...

wordplay english history quote

dcfyj

bottom left?

Khale_Kitha

2:16 PM

hehe

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Fortnightly Hellish Riddle Challenges?

Will

The Hebrew one might be THIN again - if you type it on the keyboard (accounting for the RTL direction) it's G U V A keys which is ROT13 THIN

Mithrandir

-_- images not working

Doesn't matter

@Will (confirmed)

IAmInPLS

@Randal'Thor Mmh?

Rand al'Thor

@IAmInPLS Hmm?

Mithrandir

2:21 PM

I gtg now. Work on Group F!

IAmInPLS

Why did one of my puzzle randomly pop here :-P?

dcfyj

Are you complaining? :P

Khale_Kitha

Because I stole Rand's other 'a'

IAmInPLS

Oh, I didn't read Khale's message!

Now I don't complain hehe. Oddly enough, I got an upvote on this puzzle like 10 hours ago

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, I love the random upvotes on old puzzles.

inspires me to work on more, lol

Rand al'Thor

2:24 PM

@Khale_Kitha Or to hammer stuff.

1 hour ago, by Rand al'Thor

Heh, random upvote on an old answer on SFF reminded me to close the question as a dupe.

Khale_Kitha

haha

Rand al'Thor

I've no idea on F6.

It probably needs someone computery.

Deusovi

Hm?

I'm sorta computery.

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, my head-thing isn't working, yet, today.

Rand al'Thor

> B38c F=4FC2aB38a 4C6G3B` B38bJG2Cc

@Deusovi ^ Any ideas?

(I thought you were mathsy!)

Deusovi

2:26 PM

Nope.

Khale_Kitha

worth noting the repetition of B38

Deusovi

(Yeah, mostly! I know some computery stuff though.)

I'm honestly not sure. Could be some form of substitution cipher, but I don't know where it would be derived from.

Sconibulus

I initially thought that "B38c F=" meant Base38Coding Function=

Khale_Kitha

And then there's the `

Sconibulus

and then only things right of the equal actually were encoded, but that doesn't seem like it actually works at all

Khale_Kitha

2:29 PM

Which is the key associated with ~, not "

Rand al'Thor

@Khale_Kitha Not on my keyboard.

Sconibulus

or, at least, I can't get a sensible 38 character base out of the remainder

Khale_Kitha

I'm speaking generically - my point was that it's not an apostrophe

@Will I guess that q_a hasn't been back since the chat channels merged, eh? He doesn't come up in autocomplete.

Deusovi

Directly substitution-ciphering (assuming punctuation marks are letters too) doesn't seem to produce anything useful.

At least, Quipqiup can't find anything.

Khale_Kitha

I know it's not the same, but it reminds me of the one from my puzzle (retrieving...)

106t154iq20rig62yyuj91atnfl173vecbof29gfjyqcn98

Rand al'Thor

2:37 PM

@Khale_Kitha It only takes a week or two out of the room for someone's name to stop coming up in autocomplete.

Khale_Kitha

Ah, I actually didn't realize that.

Makes sense, though.

No idea on the 3 left in Group F, at the moment, sry.

vscgc looks familiar, by itself, though..

Chris Cudmore

I just got an Epiphany hat. Any idea why?

Will

you did a thing

Chris Cudmore

Ah. thanks.

There's only flavor text - no explanation

Rand al'Thor

More specifically, you did a thing while it's 6 Jan somewhere in the world.

Chris Cudmore

2:47 PM

Doh!

Rand al'Thor

180

A: Winter Bash 2016 - All Hats

Regular Hats I Am Your Father Ask, answer, or vote on the meta site In case of a post, the post must have 0 or positive score. Running Ragged Earn 150 reputation points on three different sites (not including Stack Overflow) within 15 days. Does not include the association bonus. The 15...

Khale_Kitha

Ah, that was that '6' hat, then?

Will

No

Rand al'Thor

@Khale_Kitha No, I dunno what the '6' hat is for (although I got one accidentally here on PSE).

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, I got it this morning. Description is simply: "This is a secret hat."

without the caps, or punctuation.

IAmInPLS

2:48 PM

yesterday, by IAmInPLS

@Rubio I think I had the 6 either by editing a question and comment

yesterday, by IAmInPLS

Or by commenting a question and having the OP also commenting

yesterday, by IAmInPLS

Or maybe you have to edit the question, commenting it, and having the OP responding

Rand al'Thor

@Khale_Kitha Yeah, they're hats, not caps!

:-P

Khale_Kitha

The Darth Vader helmet is a cap...of sorts =D

lol

Rand al'Thor

If there's a hat for repcapping, that should be a cap.

Khale_Kitha

hah

Mithrandir

There is

For recapping 3 times

Rand al'Thor

2:51 PM

Jolly good.

And welcome back.

Will

I thought it was for 200 rep irrespective of cap

Rand al'Thor

@Will That's often a point of confusion.

Like with the Mortarboard/Epic/Legendary badges.

@Mithrandir I wonder if the final answer for group F is WATER ...

Will

how would that work with thin?

I just see an UD definition with a total of only 2 votes

Rand al'Thor

That's what I'm not sure about.

I wish somebody would solve the 4th part of this:

11

Q: A puzzling newspaper headline

The following clues are not quite your usual crossword fare; they do fit the standard guidelines for cryptic clues, but each of them contains an unusual twist which (hopefully) makes them harder than average. By putting together all four solutions, you will discover a meaningful sentence. The w...

cryptic-clues

I feel like I messed up.

Will

blood would work better with what we've got so far

Rand al'Thor

2:55 PM

I literally came up with it just by filling in the best word I could think of to complete "SPHINX TROTS AFTER ..." and then coming up with a clue for that word.

@Will Ooh, yes. That fits with BONE too.

Mithrandir

Not WATER

Rand al'Thor

@Will How does that fit with UNDER?

Will

Perhaps I watch too much Criminal Minds, but "blood under [one's] nails" (also applies in less murdery contexts)

Mithrandir

Not BLOOD

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