The Sphinx's Lair

Avi

18:15

screams in idioms

Avi

18:26

screams in more idioms

Brandon_J

bathes happily in idioms

Avi

Lovecraftian idioms invade my screams

Sphinx

4

Q: On The Subject of Discolored Squares

(This is part of a series of puzzles written for Timwi for a Secret Santa puzzle exchange, themed around various custom modules for the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. No KTaNE knowledge is necessary for any of these puzzles except the final meta; each puzzle resolves to a single word or ...

Avi

Lovecraftian idioms haunt my dreams

Lovecraftian idioms are a kind of bliss

As I stare, storn back by the deep abyss

Brandon_J

*feeling like I missed a joke*

Avi

18:34

no I made a poem

to express my despair

Brandon_J

ah

Avi

that way I can avoid self-destructive actions

such as, being storn back by the abyss

Brandon_J

storn?

Avi

storn

Brandon_J

*nods in confident uncertainty*

Avi

18:35

Wal hath ye merri creeturs traipsed

Wimbling and wobbling merry by sythe

For not had one yet mimbling said

"I seem to be missing, my first and fourth head!"

Yet lolling they gagged, and

Graoding the ghyt

Perhaps portly there warbled

Inside of it

Mithical

@Avi smol storn,

Avi

A morbidian pletto,

A faltry pogranthian

Turbid in horr, yet but

A mere Horthinian

Smol storn yet babbled

all through the night

firgheth all pobbling

in scarulous fright

Brandon_J

This is above my paygrade

Avi

yeah ok now you understand

Idioms suck

Brandon_J

(most things are, including roasting Mithical)

Avi

18:40

self-roast, 10/10

Brandon_J

Why am I so good at self-burns?

They just come so naturally

I guess I'm just an easy target

Avi

It's easy to make fun

But under the sun

There may not be one

Who can make that a pun

Brandon_J

Now you're sounding like Fezzik

"Stop those rhymes, and I MEAN IT!"

"Anybody wanna peanut?"

"DYAHHH!"

Avi

o lol

Mithical

@Brandon_J "My way's not very sportsmanlike."

Brandon_J

18:45

"Sorry, Inigo, I didn't mean to jog him so hard."

ah, Fezzik is a gold mine of quotes

Still, nothing tops, "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."

"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die."

howdy, Gareth

1 hour ago, by Avi

score: 15:8:2 final, I believe

Avi

I mean, he left halfway

he was probably afraid of destroying our self-esteems

So I know it's clickbait

but is "I'm uncomfortable when I'm in bed" a decent title?

provided it's the first line of my riddle

Brandon_J

Bold of you to assume I have a self-esteem.

Avi

alternatively, "4 idioms 4 letters"

Brandon_J

Re: the title: sounds...potentially...ah, never mind, it's fine.

Avi

I don't really want to draw negative attention to puzzling so I'll probably go with the second

Brandon_J

18:52

Maybe "An idom a letter"?

Avi

no comment

Brandon_J

wait what was wrong with it?

Avi

suggestive

probably uncomfortably so, for people casually browsing the sidebar

Brandon_J

Note that my naive mind does not see the suggestive nature, and would like to keep things that way.

Avi

you might have an advantage then ;o

naivete is the key to riddle solving imo

gareth may argue otherwise

e.g.: "I am very clever and know a lot"

which is perfectly reasonable as well

Brandon_J

18:57

There is a distinct difference between naivete and a lack of knowledge

naivete is usually associated with a lack of (specifically) experiential knowledge.

Avi

15

Q: This One Word Will Capture Your Attention

My prefix might be a bash for computer users. My first infix is a lap, perhaps. My second infix is an antioxidant, kind of. My suffix is a small island. When I'm assembled, I'm strangely attractive. What is the word?

riddle word wordplay

so uh

if I bounty for 50, 100, 200, 400, and 500

how annoyed do you think people will get

Brandon_J

LOL

depends on if you think it's worth the rep

Avi

probably not

if I could bounty the question instead I might consider it

Brandon_J

Maybe we could pass the burden around - get a group of people to each donate 50 rep?

Avi

nope; each bounty must at least be the next highest level, iirc

Brandon_J

18:59

if we can get at least 3 people other than the 2 of us, I'm in.

Avi

either that or double

Brandon_J

hmm, interesting

North

Is it still going on?

Avi

nah it's over

North

Lol

I wanted to join in but a) the internet decided to crash and b) I was in class

I mean I still am in class but my teacher's not here this period sooooooo

Also it's music

Avi

19:07

l o l

what instrument

North

Trumpet

Avi

tragic

another person who doesn't have to read both clefs

North

I know how to read bass perfectly well

You forget I do an excessive amount of music theory

Avi

why do you do this

what counts as "basic" anyways

1st-12th grade music theory?

North

I don't play woodwinds, because it would be quite disgusting to play the bodies of my fallen comrades

@Avi Basic is like

Knowing how to read notes

Avi

19:08

that's not basic

I still have trouble with that

North

Then I can't help you

Avi

:x

I've been playing piano for ~10 years? maybe?

reading notes is hard

North

though actually the higher in theory you go, the less individual notes matter

Avi

it's just like reading letters

@North technically true if I got that far

North

Knowing scale degrees and how chords function is much more important

Avi

19:10

which I almost did

Brandon_J

I'm gonna be in the Codenames room. Pls ping me if enough people happen to show up.

North

hm

Avi

wait, new puzzle in a moment!

North

i have a pretty cool reverse-engineering puzzle i'm working on

Brandon_J

Noice

Avi

19:11

uhhhhhh

Brandon_J

(To Avi and North)

Avi

i failed to make puzzle, big shame

Brandon_J

nah

Avi

20:57

looking for a test solver for my puzzle

Brandon_J

@Avi I'm open.

Not sure if I'll be able to do it, though.

Avi

onetimesecret.com/secret/cf3gfnvizxzcuvawen7nndpj0lxhvy9

Brandon_J

@Avi have saved it; will attempt to plough through it.

Avi

no problem

Sphinx

21:14

0

Q: Catching up to my foe

I had once made a piece of wonderful art Until then it had been a century's vain of work Spent inside those Russian winter days At last made in the early eighties But I friend of mine had recently stolen A new, similar work that is just as golden So outside I chased him in the night Chal...

riddle knowledge

Avi

:O is @Deusovi finally learning about Harry Potter?

or just namedropping Houses so we get baited into thinking so :thinking_face:

Brandon_J

:contemplating_face:

@Avi we have a codenames game going

Avi

not interested atm

going through my first slitherlink

and oh boy the grid-deduction is so hard

Deusovi

I am very pop-culturally challenged - any puzzle from me involving any aspect of pop culture likely required a lot of research on my part

Avi

same, except I read books

that coincidentally turned out to be pop culture many years later lol

Maybe race to secure GOAT acceptance ended? (7)

FIX + TUR + _E

but what did you think of the last one I sent you?

ah yes, here it is: Angry rioters go after panda's butt (9)

Deusovi

21:33

@Avi I don't see how "maybe race" is FIXTURE, and TUR is extremely obscure

Avi

22:04

ok :(

but that wasn't the one I liked

Angry rioters go after panda's butt (9) <--- this was the one I liked

PO + STERIOR*

Deusovi

22:54

not sure about "angry" -- "mad" is probably better

and just "panda" referring to a specific panda seems underclued

Brandon_J

23:08

Is there a PSE discord?

North

23:38

@Deusovi You got video game knowledge

Sphinx

23:58

0

Q: cipher-puzzle looking for a flag

Hello i am trying to decode this cipher for a day now, and i concluded i need help since i am stuck. The description of the picture is: V1cxR2VscFVXVEJQYVVJeFltMW1SSFpIZURCaFYyUnNTVVZXY0dKdFpHaFpiVlZMQ2c9PQo I was thinking about Caesar cipher shift -13 and base64 but i dont get anything that ...

cipher steganography cryptography

Transcript for