The Sphinx's Lair

Deusovi

00:02

@Rubio Yep, and I think you got the answer

(and welcome back!)

Rubio

Danke

playing the scrollback catch-up game. lol

Sphinx

02:03

1

Q: Puzzle: The Final Test

Our brave host arrives at the address given to him on the sheet of paper. Coming up to the location, he observes that the hideout appears to be a four-layered pyramid, with horizontal strips of black paint down each diagonal edge. The host gazes at it for a moment, wondering what it could all mea...

Sphinx

07:23

2

Q: A satanic little riddle

Satanic and ridiculous this riddle may seem, Unify the beginnings to find out its theme. Repress a disaster; don't look everywhere, Right words exhibit a trait that they share. Only these dodgy tertiary ones count, Unveil the relevant parts you've now found. Now a chihuahua will sh...

riddle steganography

Sphinx

09:24

0

Q: Mi, So, Re, Do?

Not quite! But it's even easier! Here's what you'll need:

enigmatic-puzzle knowledge steganography music

Sphinx

09:48

0

Q: How old are they?

Peter is twice as old as he was when John was half as old as Harry. Harry is twice as old as the Peter was when John was half as old as Peter is now. 12 Years ago, John was half as old as Peter will be twelve years from now.

logical-deduction arithmetic

Sp3000

09:59

@Rubio PRIMER is correct :)

Rubio

CCCC: Almost ancient music medium about new Maroon 5 song. (4)

Volatility

@Rubio This is really a "you know it or you don't" kinda clue. I wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't looked it up.

Sp3000

10:29

Yeah neither

Somebody'll probably know though... maybe? :P

Sphinx

13:35

0

Q: Journey to The Greatest Treasures of the Dungeons!

This is an entry to the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #27: treasure-hunt. Last weekend was fun. We went for a trek to a nearby place. The place was located in the middle of a huge jungle. We decided to set up a camp there. Though a couple of my friends argued with the idea, the rest of us were ex...

cipher story treasure-hunt

dcfyj

13:58

@humn You asked, here it is :P

humn

14:08

@dcfyj , yeah! If you want to lose any trace of personal identity and conform, the header could look more like one of these: Sample commentaries on puzzle creation

dcfyj

I like my header though :P

humn

(Nice that you've already matched the average number of votes for making-of posts! they often don't get as much attention as they could.)

How about adding "wrap-up" somewhere near "suggested that ..."? It'll make finding the post easier because keywords are all we have to go by, and "making of" occurs in many non-making-of posts.

dcfyj

done :P

(feel free to edit formatting and the like)

humn

Yippee! This is the kind of stuff that adds long-term value around here.

(okay about editing, but I didn't notice anything yet)

dcfyj

I'm not overly fond of how the paragraphs are looking at the moment, but I'm not sure how to make them look better.

Matt

14:15

GAmen folks

dcfyj

GAmen

lol, GA (georgia) men :P

humn

Are you trying to get me whining about the CSS of these sites, dcfyj? Fanfare, Matt!

dcfyj

I don't even know what you're talking about lol

humn

Good. Then I wont talk about: font choice, margin sizes, paragraph spacing, list formats, ...

Matt

but we can talk about padding?

humn

14:18

Now you're talking!

Techidiot

Gamen all!

humn

We have a quorum!

dcfyj

lol

humn

Time to vote someone not here into a position they don't want.

dcfyj

GAmen @Techidiot

Techidiot

14:19

Nice puzzle @dcfyj It will take days to understand the puzzle and then its solution though :D

+1 though. After all these years, I still don't know how the original minesweeper works :)

dcfyj

@Techidiot You never saw my minesweeper crossword?

Techidiot

No. Never saw it. I think, I was not a part of puzzling then.

dcfyj

ah

minesweeper is simple, the number in any given cell counts how many bombs are in the 8 adjacent cells

Matt

I'm gonna be trying to make sense of the solfege puzzle

dcfyj

of the what puzzle?

Techidiot

14:23

How much time did you actually spent making that? You should explicitly mention that rather than stating just "few" ;)

Matt

solfege: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/49303/mi-so-re-do

do, re, me, etc is called solfege

I'm pretty sure it's used internationally to represent western scales

dcfyj

@Techidiot You do realize I posted that puzzle 4 months ago?

@Matt Right, now that you point that out I remember the term

Matt

Without a context key, 'do' is usually assigned to C

but music shown is in G

and the rehearsal letters are O C H

Techidiot

@dcfyj Yeah. By not into puzzling I meant new to puzzling :) Might have missed it or may be skipped it thinking it to be going over my head ;) October was a bad month for me and my puzzles :p

@Rubio Thanks for the edits. :)

Matt

mi so re do is actually the first bar

dcfyj

14:26

@Techidiot That was in reply to your "specific hours" comment, aka I have no idea how long I worked on it lol

Techidiot

Oh haha

humn

Thanks for pointing out the music puzzle, Matt! It looks consistent enough musically make we want to hear it played.

I'll bet boboquack has a midi for it.

Matt

yeah, it's not just a tone wash, musical things are happening

I spy modulations

dcfyj

@humn I never did for the "music" puzzle I posted :P

Matt

but somehow I feel like the music-minded are at a slight disadvantage, trying to hear the music by looking at it, instead of looking for the steganography

humn

14:33

@dcfyj , which music puzzle? Did you make the one with an on-line editor that we could see?

dcfyj

As I said, it's a "music" puzzle (note the quotes)

humn

Matt, count me in as one who could be distracted by suspecting that boboquack has classical training.

@dcfyj , well that's a bona fide cryptogram.

dcfyj

like I said "music" :P

humn

Here's one that looked more musicy than intended. I had so much fun with it, its poser accepted an unintended answer.

8

Q: Can You Note the Notes?

This is what happened to Jack and Dave. If you were Jack and Dave, what would you do?

cipher music

Sphinx

0

Q: What do I use as my password? (not really)

Just experimenting with something nerdy. Not certain that this will work. special = 0 soviets = 2 without = 1 fantasy = 0 bullets = 3 tyrants = 4 nuclear = 1 muddled = 2 zappers = 1 violent = 0 Murders = 3 hacking = 0 grenade = 0 moments = 4 gunners = 2 errands = 3 fifties = ...

enigmatic-puzzle trivia video-games

Matt

14:40

^ with the trivia and video games tags, I feel like I should know that one

humn

Too many goodies to keep up with all of a sudden!

@Techidiot, I hadn't even noticed yours yet! Thank you for keeping up the visual cause while my puzzles are taking a symbolic turn (with another couple of math-formula puzzles on the way).

Techidiot

@humn I may just upvote and run away from them :p Math scares me

dcfyj

Hmm... I wonder if I could come up with something for the fortnight...

Techidiot

@Matt Do the enumeration look like PS versions? I'm not into gaming (I was though), but they look like that.

dcfyj

@Techidiot What would 0 be then?

Techidiot

14:47

@dcfyj That's what I am trying to think.

Matt

Murders is capitalized

and there are 10 rows above and below it

whatever it is, Murders is at the center

makes me think of a james bond movie, some of which were made into games

^^^ omg my total rep xD

(I am a child)

humn

(Sorry to miss out right now, but I'm still hot on retargeting another puzzle to an answer that was better than expected. Speaking of which, @Matt, your great answer to Proof without chords made me realize that the original puzzle tried for way more than necessary. The other part needs to be better directed if it ever does get a puzzle of its own.)

Techidiot

@BeastlyGerbil Hey

Welcome back!

Beastly Gerbil

I went somewhere? :P

Techidiot

I guess you did :)

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/49299/… what are we finding here? Any ideas? I have asked the OP to add the context.

Beastly Gerbil

14:52

Haven't been working on it, I actually did go somewhere :P

Techidiot

Yes.. And I guess for quite some time. Been long since I last saw you here.

Matt

I wonder if the riddle is steganographically hidden

Beastly Gerbil

But pretty happy with the words I've found. Except for the furtherst right bit. The third word bit i'm sure on

@Techidiot I've been around just not chatting. Have been on literature, just not here

Techidiot

Oh okay.

Beastly Gerbil

any better ideas for the right word bit?

Matt

14:55

maybe if it's satanic, it's being dishonest

so, maybe it's pointing to SURROUNDED on the left

Techidiot

I tried taking the letters out from every third word, also tried taking every 3rd letter of each line but doesn't give anything useful

So the OP confirms its What am I puzzle

May be this means something Repress a disaster

Beastly Gerbil

Must mean something

Repress = anagram?

Techidiot

Also capitalized OK seems suspicious.

Presser, but again, may not be relevant considering the types of puzzles he makes

666 is a satanic number, which might hold some value but not sure

Techidiot

15:11

Going by every three words, the last three words are Kind, Elegant, You'll -> first letters -> KEY

Beastly Gerbil

Oooh interesting

Techidiot

But the rest is gibberish :X sadly

Beastly Gerbil

maybe the gibberish is the key?

Techidiot

Hmm possible..
RIDICULOUS
MAY
THE
FIND
THEME
DISASTER
EVERYWHERE
EXHIBIT
THAT
ONLY
TERTIARY
UNVEIL
PARTS
FOUND
CHIHUAHUA
YOU
DOGS
BUT
OK
ARBITRARY
KIND
ELEGANT
YOU'LL

But, not sure if Levieux will do that.

Beastly Gerbil

RMTFTDEETOTUPFCYDBOA - KEY

Techidiot

15:14

Doesn't decipher to anything either

Beastly Gerbil

Damn okay

web link maybe?

Techidiot

Not sure.

Tried deciphering with chihuahua but no luck

Beastly Gerbil

heh :P

Techidiot

:D

Beastly Gerbil

surrounded makes me think of a circle

Matt

15:17

pentagram is usually surrounded by a circle

Riker

15:31

@BeastlyGerbil screenshot plz

dcfyj

GAmen @Randal'Thor @BeastlyGerbil

Rand al'Thor

Hullo!

Matt

Gamen!

Rand al'Thor

@Riker and I are here to investigate ping colours.

Riker

holy shit you're right

dcfyj

15:32

ping colors?

Riker

it's yellow

@dcfyj the color your name is highlighted in at the beginning of this message

Rand al'Thor

It's true, pings are a different colour in here from Mos or tRR.

I'd never really twigged that.

dcfyj

Well, yes, it's yellow. Just like in the game dev room any messages you send have a blue tint to them.

Riker

yeah, that's everywheere

dcfyj

Not in here

Riker

15:33

but most rooms have a pink ping highlight

dcfyj

My messages are never blue in here

Riker

@dcfyj these ones are a bit purpler but still shaded

Beastly Gerbil

Yeah I have same

dcfyj

@Riker That all looks white to me

Riker

o_O are you mildly colorblind

dcfyj

15:35

No idea

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj ... huh?

My messages appear blue everywhere.

Riker

I think he's trolling or colorblind

one or the other

Rand al'Thor

Different shades of blue according to the room background, but always different from everyone else's messages.

Riker

yeah

hey @Randal'Thor can you ping me in the m&tv room

dcfyj

They're all the same to me in here. in game dev they're clearly blue to me

Rand al'Thor

15:36

@Riker Seems to be plenty of people in there already; why not just ask one of them to ping you?

dcfyj

Left is in here (looks white to me) right is in game dev (looks blue to me)

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj Both look blue to me.

Riker

right is green o_O

the left is blue but the right is definitely green

dcfyj

shrug

Beastly Gerbil

right is green

dcfyj

15:39

Right looks like a baby blue to me

Riker

wtf

Beastly Gerbil

left is baby blue

Riker

ok you're colorblind

^^

dcfyj

left is white to me lol

Beastly Gerbil

you sure you're not colourblind?

dcfyj

15:39

I have no idea

Beastly Gerbil

take an online quick test

GentlePurpleRain

@Rubio: CCCC solution: (OL(d) + CD)* = COLD

Beastly Gerbil

clever

dcfyj

No def?

GentlePurpleRain

Def is "new Maroon 5 song".

Beastly Gerbil

15:43

new maroon 5 song

ninja'd

dcfyj

There were a couple I couldn't see though...

GentlePurpleRain

CCCC: Protagonist ammunition (4)

Beastly Gerbil

So partially colour blind

dcfyj

It's very possible that I'm colorblind, my dad is.

Rand al'Thor

@dcfyj I think colour-blindness can only be inherited from one's mother.

dcfyj

15:45

Well, colorblind as in he can't see a few colors, I think blue and green?

Rand al'Thor

But it's only men who can be colour-blind.

Something about chromosomes, I think.

Sid

@Deusovi Could you run me through what you got?

GentlePurpleRain

@Randal'Thor Not true. It's just a lot more common in men.

Rand al'Thor

Oh.

Sid

@Randal'Thor Color blindness can be inherited only through mother by son. It's an X-linked inheritance

Also, it's not necessary that the mother has to be color blind. She can only be a carrier.

Rand al'Thor

15:48

@Sid Well, naturally. Otherwise there would have to be at least as many colour-blind women as men.

Sid

Possible CCCC solution- LEAD? Double def. Though I am not sure how lead=ammu-nition

dcfyj

Bullets are made from lead (at least some of them are)

Sid

@GentlePurpleRain ^^

dcfyj

but I wouldn't call that a definition

GentlePurpleRain

16:11

@Sid Correct. Lead is a slang synonym for ammunition, as "I'm gonna pump you full of lead".

dcfyj

How is lead = protagonist?

Beastly Gerbil

Leeeed not led

As in bring

GentlePurpleRain

The lead actor/character is the protagonist.

(usually)

Beastly Gerbil

I got the lead

Anyway @Sid your turn

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil I figured that. Although, they are technically two completely separate words, even if they have the same spelling.

Rubio

16:36

@GentlePurpleRain actually C(...)D about OL(d) -> COLD, but yes.

GentlePurpleRain

Oh. Okay. I took "about" as an anagram indicator.

Rubio

that would be an indirect anagram. I wouldn't do that. :)

GentlePurpleRain

True. Didn't even think about that...

Deusovi

17:02

@Sid Well, my post has pretty much everything.

The first couple sentences after the ICAO/NATO hints give the letters AOLGTNFA.

Then presumably we have to use "Once you get all of that, Look for a rotated east European Country's. Then, a dangerous beginning for the quest of pirate's treasure beckons."

Techidiot

He mentions rotated country right? It might mean, a country with rotated letters might look like this.. which gives multiple choices. And none of them fits there.

Sid

The letters are correct, I see. You are going in the wrong way after that.

Deusovi

The grammar is really weird there, though. I'm not sure if that's meaningful.

Sid

Grammar, as in country's?

I will clarify that that was intentional.

Deusovi

Right.

Sid

17:07

CCCC - Sportsman received message. (5)

Those letters are pretty important. And, there is no cipher.

Deusovi

I tried country codes, but FA doesn't have a country

the first three were promising - Angola, Latvia, Tonga

Beastly Gerbil

close votes on new question pls

Sid

@Deusovi What have you got from the letters? It hints for the next part.

Deusovi

...I've got AOLGTNFA.

Sid

(Also, apologies for late replies, I have been a bit busy recently).

Sphinx

17:20

-2

Q: Does not belong to the group

One of these numbers does not belong to the group 3, 11, 17, 23, 29, 73, 77 With my logic I came up with two solutions

number-sequence

Sid

Oh, dear! How did I make that mistake?

Techidiot

:p

Somethings wrong

Deusovi

He confirmed the letters were correct.

Sid

Yes, the letters are correct. It is just that they don't hint at the thing I am going for.

Techidiot

@Deusovi The reply was for a mistake he did - "Something's wrong" is the title :)

Sid

17:22

You wouldn't be able to get the next part with those letters.

Deusovi

Oh.

Sid

It would take a huge intuitive leap.

Deusovi

So... now what?

Sid

I need to edit that question. Thinking...

Okay, done.

Techidiot

International code of signals probably

Sid

17:34

:)

If you got that already, I can say why those letters wouldn't have got you there.

Deusovi

Oh, maritime signal flags!

Techidiot

Yeah.

Deusovi

The only "rotated European country's" flag that I can see is T --> the Netherlands, but that's not "eastern European" at all

Sid

The letters that you got, anagram to NATO FLAG. Unfortunately, I forgot to google it to see what else it could mean.(Because, I am an idiot!) And when I saw you guys struggling, I then googled it and it got me nowhere near to where I intended to go.

Deusovi

Unclued anagrams? D:

Sid

17:38

Those are not cryptic clues!

Deusovi

I tried anagramming to get a single word, but there are so many options for multiple words that I didn't bother

Techidiot

Yeah. Even I tried it. But boulter didn't showed me NATO, it gave NOTA instead and I overlooked it

Deusovi

it keeps going

Matt

it's obviously LOAF TANG

Techidiot

boulter.com/anagram/?letters=AOLGTNFA&words=FLAG

Deusovi

17:40

nah, definitely gotta be FLAN TOGA

Sid

I see 3 European countries with their flags rotated.

Deusovi

Ohh, overall, not just in the text NATOFLAG

Hm, it's not immediately obvious if the numbers are included in this too

Sid

18:04

Oops, That CCCC has a small error. @Deusovi Unpin that one. I am writing a new one,now.

CCCC - Sportsman,say,received message. (5)

dcfyj

Surface reading makes no sense to me anymore :(

Sid

Yeah, my earlier clue was not right. It broke the rules of cryptic clues.

Okay, I need to go. Hint for CCCC- The sum of letters mod 26=11.

Beastly Gerbil

18:19

mod 26? really?

Matt

I've seen it before for other people going afk - without mod 26, there's some element of reverse engineering

Beastly Gerbil

oh ok

dcfyj

Even with mod 26 you can still reverse engineer it

I reversed one of Deusovi's words with it once (although he gave more than just the sum.)

Rubio

he gave, like, squares or something

dcfyj

Yeah, something like that

Deusovi

18:40

Yeah, I gave sum and sum of squares

Sphinx

18:58

0

Q: Travel Agency - A Zebra Puzzle (Einstein's Riddle) variation

You can play it online here: https://www.brainzilla.com/logic/zebra/travel-agency/ | | Woman #1 | Woman #2 | Woman #3 | Woman #4 | Woman #5 | |------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------| | purse | | | | | | | n...

logical-deduction logic-grid

0

Q: Maths number puzzle ..please find this solution

Please find the required numbers for the respective boxes to get tat solution

number-sequence formation-of-numbers

Beastly Gerbil

Second is duplicate, @Deusovi can you close it?

Matt

but it says "please"

Beastly Gerbil

:P

GentlePurpleRain

19:13

@BeastlyGerbil Can you post a comment with a link to the duplicate question? Can't close as duplicate without knowing what the duplicate is.

Beastly Gerbil

I cant find but I've seen it twice

Beastly Gerbil

19:48

@dcfyj I don't know whats happened there but I think there is a web mistake, because the website said my solution was correct... Maybe they thought machu piccu was in china?

It doesn't work if you try and make white pure peru

dcfyj

Beats me, because I know machu picchu is in peru lol. My sister bought me a shirt from there when she was down there.

Beastly Gerbil

I thought it was, but when I tried filling it in it came up with an error message for anothe one, can't remember which

dcfyj

I'm still systematically going through it, I'll see what I come up with

Beastly Gerbil

Think there's just been a mistake, and that Machu Picchu just needs to be replaced with a chinese place

Sp3000

20:30

@Rubio Just wanted to say that I find OL[d] odd for a word that already contains OLD :P

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil Apparently that's the OP's website, because he fixed it locally (in the question) and on the site

Beastly Gerbil

Oh ok, cool

I'm having fun with the step by step. I completely forgot how I did it

dcfyj

lol

Beastly Gerbil

Finally worked it out now thouhg :P

I'm just making up fun names for the steps :P

dcfyj

I feel like there was a jump in logic from the initial 3 to the next one. I'm not fond of being forced to guess when doing logic puzzles

Beastly Gerbil

20:40

Well, think I've worked it out now

dcfyj

I should see if I can work my idea into a feasible puzzle... :P

dcfyj

20:52

hmm... I think this will take me longer than usual to toss together

Hopefully I can finish it by the 5th

Sphinx

0

Q: Knights and knaves in Landilandia

You're traveling on a hiking trip in the land of Landilandia when you encounter a forest. The notes in your guidebook tell you that there's a safe route here leading into the woods, but when you approach, you discover that there are actually two paths to choose from. Beside them are three men sit...

logical-deduction story liars

Rubio

21:12

@Sp3000 Yeah - I started with wanting to put CD around something, and that's where it took me. ;)

Beastly Gerbil

21:41

night all

Matt

good night!

Deusovi

Night!

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