The Sphinx's Lair

1:38 AM

0

Time for a challenge! Here, the riddle is encoded using a specific cipher. You must decode the numbers and answer the riddle correctly to solve it. Good luck! 83191143|2367|02|41026731|434771|02|41026731? Note: I will start adding bounties to my riddles, should they continue to be unsolved...

ManyPinkHats

2:15 AM

I'll join the partial answer train and give a theory on "cis¼πx|1U3U5,7"

The vertical line is notation for "calculate the previous expression, with the variable taking on this value", so graphing cis¼πx for the values x=1, x=3, and every value in the interval [5,7], draws a smiley face in the complex plane

Don't know what to do with the "Mig" after it though; it doesn't seem to go with the whitespace subpuzzle, and it seems a little small to be a puzzle on its own

Alconja

2:34 AM

@stacksfiller - is SAKE an answer?

@ManyPinkHats that's the second 3 char extra bit (Msc before the AFOOT one, though that could go with the one previous)

Volatility

could M stand for meta? there are a few of those 3 char bits lying around

oh the two chars after the M are acronyms for social media sites

fb, ig, sc, g+ (not sure about Mt)

oh MMt is probably (meta-meta-twitter)

stacksfiller

SAKE isn't an answer

Volatility

@stacksfiller is SMILEY an answer?

stacksfiller

not quite...

2nd guess?

Volatility

SMILE?

stacksfiller

2:49 AM

yup

Volatility

awesome

Volatility

3:01 AM

@stacksfiller is ACRES an answer?

stacksfiller

ACRES is! NICE! :D

Volatility

woot!

Volatility

3:32 AM

trying to backsolve... STONER isn’t an answer is it?

Deusovi

3:52 AM

ooh, a metameta? neat

huh, how does KARATE work then? because CHINESE 6 produces S

stacksfiller

STONER is right

ManyPinkHats

According to Google Translate, that character is a possible translation for 'six' into Japanese, so I think it's just the original parsing

stacksfiller

JAPANESE has it more commonly - which is why I favored that char over 六 - i had a couple other obscurer options but computer didn't display those characters so I wen't with japanese, didn't realize it makes a word if you use chinese too though :o

ManyPinkHats

4:08 AM

Is the movie A Bug's Life one of the answers?

Deusovi

Hey @Volatility, mind if I edit what you have so far into my answer?

stacksfiller

@ManyPinkHats yeah!

Deusovi

(also, think it might be worth it to CW my answer at this point?)

also, @Alconja, you said you got BXFIPF.?

ManyPinkHats

ay, excellent. Feel free to edit that one in for the GLITCHES+NOTDEATH, Deus, plus the SMILE from before

Deusovi

ha! nice

stacksfiller

4:09 AM

cw?

Deusovi

community wiki - gives the answer no "owner"

ManyPinkHats

That means the G+ answers so far are SIMPSONS and A BUG'S LIFE, so both television/movies

Deusovi

yeah, I was wondering if they were all some media production

ManyPinkHats

I'm looking for some well-known media named Downward Dogs or something similar

Deusovi

UNDERDOG? There were both a TV series and a film for that

Level 51

4:14 AM

+s

Deusovi

ah right plural

ManyPinkHats

There's a 2013 sports movie called Underdogs, so might as well ask

UNDERDOGS?

Deusovi

@stacksfiller

stacksfiller

wowie thats funny but no

Deusovi

maybe there's some form of wordplay based on "turn down"?

i.e. "decline"

stacksfiller

4:18 AM

huh hmm 🤔

Alconja

Yeah, probably CW time... "🎌➡️🐷BXFIPF." goes together: Semaphore to Pigpen cipher (eg. B is one flag left & one down with semaphore flags, which when interpreted as pigpen cipher gives G) => GUITAR

Deusovi

ahhh, nice

hm, I figured most of the answer was still mine, which is why I've been holding off

(but that might just be me being selfish :P )

Alconja

Fair enough. I haven't been keeping track of who did what. I trust your judgement.

Deusovi

"I trust your judgement." oh boy that's a huge mistake

ManyPinkHats

@stacksfiller is LION an answer?

Alconja

4:29 AM

What could possibly go wrong. :P

Deusovi

not in this case in particular, just in general

stacksfiller

LION is :)

Deusovi

ahhh

I see now

ManyPinkHats

Sweet. "Leo #49 left" is essentially a cryptic clue, yeah

Deusovi

yep

ManyPinkHats

4:30 AM

so Facebook has the answers CAVE, GUITAR, and LION so far

Deusovi

I was looking for something like that but kept skipping over the # for some reason

"what's LIOEL?"

Volatility

5:15 AM

@Deusovi yeah go for it!

sorry was offline for a bit

Deusovi

alright, thanks!

here are the sections we have left:

sxrt⑷ni,⑶txsin,r

ᴜĆ🚇H11⎕2N⠰Λ

🍕+👕=💕,👂+🛑+φ=?

⟐̅◬ᐆ⍍

👸:🍑::👨‍🔧:

↴̯͕̹̠̹̼̰

U+(🥤-🍵+🍒)+(💷-🎵)(946)

for the first "addition", I noticed that the Unicode hex values seem suspicious:
pizza: 1F355
shirt: 1F455
hearts: 1F495

but have no idea how that would produce anything useful for the second part of that

Volatility

are you going to put the meta stuff in your cw? you can take what i’ve got in my answer and i’ll delete it

Deusovi

yeah - I'm adding it to my answer, though not sure if I should CW it yet

(would be happy to if general opinion is that I should)

Volatility

i think stacks confirmed that the princess peach one was MARIO

Deusovi

oh, I didn't realize that

Volatility

6:06 AM

i have an idea for the snapchat meta

the three answers so far can be paired with another four-letter word

and the third letters presumably are shared (like in SNAP CHAT)

dunno about SWAN though -- "swan lake" doesn't work

xnor

swan song?

Volatility

hmm maybe

would be neater if the third letter was an A though...

xnor

maybe each pair overlaps on one letter, and the overlaps give the meta answer?

Volatility

maybe

xnor

what words do you have?

Volatility

6:10 AM

uric acid (I) and sand dune (N)

@stacksfiller is INSET an answer?

Yea!!!

oh cool

nice one!

ooh nice one

so the meta answers we have are INSET and ACRES, right?

Deusovi

6:20 AM

yeah - probably all five letters

Volatility

same VCCVC pattern as well

xnor

and presumably they are somehow going into that weird downward bit for the meta-meta

all very common letters, very anagrammable

Deusovi

hm? why do you say that

Volatility

i think that's just the rendering; if you look at the transcription the downward bit is before the metameta

xnor

looking at the image it seemed that part overlapped the meta-meta marker, but that's not where it is in the text

err, yes, my bad

Deusovi

6:22 AM

(also, backsolve guesses: BETA, TUBE, ZOOT) @stacksfiller

stacksfiller

ZOOT is right

Deusovi

amusingly, TEST could give E from BETA or T from TUBE

stacksfiller

yeah trust me i know

haha

and TEST CASE -> S

Deusovi

huh, neat!

Volatility

hah never heard of a zoot suit before

Deusovi

6:23 AM

and to complete it, "test suit" is apparently a legal term

xnor

do we think the final meta is a pure meta because MMt has nothing before it?

Deusovi

yeah, probably

...unless it involves his previous puzzle, which is also a possibility

Volatility

twitter has five distinct letters which anagram to WRITE, which also has two vowels and three consonants, but not in the same pattern

stacksfiller

RIGHT is not write

er...

Volatility

hahahaha

stacksfiller

6:35 AM

note: not sure if that was a guess but I assumed it was from the caps

Volatility

didn't think it was an answer, just an observation

(i presume the solution's going to be a phrase this time too)

Deusovi

a bad pun, hopefully

Sphinx

8:47 AM

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Q: Which two numbers replaces the question mark?

I was solving some number puzzles. I am finding difficulty in solving this puzzle what two number will replace the question mark. I need answer with examination.

calculation-puzzle number-sequence

xnor

9:26 AM

for the google plus meta, I think each of the answers is a movie character that's a color in the google logo, which goes blue, red, yellow, blue, green, red

the Simpsons are yellow

in A Bug's Life, the main character is blue

Mario is red and blue (?)

Deusovi

9:50 AM

oh neat

hm, we can't really index into them that way though, because the last "red" is the sixth letter, and MARIO only has five letters

maybe that's intentional though?

ABUGSLIFE
MARIO
SIMPSONS
ABUGSLIFE
????????
MARIO

Volatility

there are also five puzzles but only four colours, so i'm not sure how that would work

Deusovi

MARIO: blue+red
?: red+yellow
SIMPSONS?: yellow+blue
ABUGSLIFE: blue+green
?: green+red

that might be a bit of a stretch

Volatility

10:17 AM

only thing i've noticed for the facebook meta is that the words have the same number of consonants as vowels, but have no idea how to use that to extract

Sphinx

11:04 AM

1

Q: Maybe u should investigate carefully?

I'm covered in numbers but I do no maths. I'm sharp and pointy but I do no harm. I get paid to do what costs me nothing. Some people like me but others may prefer my friends. What am I?

riddle

Rand al'Thor

12:03 PM

Huh, 1000, neat.

Won't last long though :-P

Sphinx

1:22 PM

1

Q: Through which number we can remove the question mark?

I'm trying to solve this puzzle but so much confused and can't understand even.Please help me to solve this puzzle and also explain briefly.

calculation-puzzle number-sequence

Sphinx

3:09 PM

0

Q: Using the letters, a,h,i,o,p,s,t , create an exclamatory sentence decrying the poor quality of an electronic cash register

Letters can be used more than once. If people have trouble, I will add hints. I have an exact wording in mind, but it is possible that another phrase would also win.

word wordplay

Sphinx

3:55 PM

3

Q: Alone, I am a group of three

Alone, I am a group of three. When the leader becomes the trailer then I just did me. Then reverse, turn back, I'm seven of twelve times two, The one that's last to first is drunk second most by you. If you've found me, don't yet brag or boast, To finish, you must f...

riddle rhyme poetry

Sphinx

5:12 PM

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Q: How do I solve this sudoku without guessing?

I have filled all the possible singles. Also identified and shortlisted candidates, pointing pairs. How do I move ahead without guessing? PS: I applied "Nishio", choosing one of the two possible candidate values on row 1, column 1. 7 will come in top left. Using which I can solve the rest of t...

sudoku

Sphinx

5:27 PM

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Q: Decode the letter from a criminal organization

Today, the Brazilian police caught those letters written by the bosses of a big brazilian criminal organization in jail intended to be delivered to their men in the streets. The press claims that the police already decoded them, but did not published the decoded plaintext. Accordingly to the pres...

language cryptography

Sphinx

6:44 PM

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Q: A Criminal Conspiracy (Who is guilty #5)

[This is continuing from previous puzzles. #4 was quite tricky. This one is meant to be much easier (I'm testing the boundaries here). I've been testing various versions and would love your thoughts. Playability? Enjoyment? Difficulty? Suggestions?] There's been another murder on an isolated isl...

logical-deduction no-computers

Sphinx

6:59 PM

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Q: Find the missing shape in this grid

What shape should go in the empty square?

sequence

stacksfiller

8:35 PM

i feel like i'm in codenames where I really badly want to say some things but have to hold it in until the end of the game

Sphinx

9:34 PM

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Q: Gift guessing game

At work, we are playing guess the gift. We get one guess and one clue per day. The first clue is "No guides needed". The second clue is 'It's not a frisbee".

wordplay game mystery

Mithrandir

9:45 PM

@stacksfiller Keep an SM log :P

In the meantime, I think I'll try another word web.

(For an example of a previous one, see puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/47548/…. I actually really like that one.)

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