Logain's THP #7

[Logain]

It’s Elementary My Dear Labyrinthian

One night a rich businessman called the police because his place had been robbed. A valuable jewel had been stolen from its display case and no sign of a break-in was visible, so Sherlock Holmes & Watson were called to the scene to investigate. At the scene of the crime, the only obvious thing out of place was a light left on in the library with a note on the desk. The note read, “I left you my calling card, but you’ll need to do some very orderly research to find it”

Immediately the library shelves were searched and 8 clues were turned up, each clue was a note with puzzling information written on it. The first clue was found between some book ends on an empty shelf, but the rest were on a piece of paper protruding from the pages of a book with the title listed above it, and a Roman Numeral listed in the top margin of six of them.

Book Ends II
1. swear
2. augury
3. clown
4. great distance
5. calcium
6. throw
(6:6 – 16:4)
(1-1, 16-1)

Breaking Even IV
1. questions
2. advanced math
3. on top
4. wizard
5. monster
6. fluorescent
(22:1 – 13:1)
(20-2, 5-2)

Centerfield Play VI
1. military
2. slave
3. blemishes
4. slide
5. obligation
6. -therm, -baric, -lated
7. submarine
(19:4 – 20:1)
(6-1, 12-1)

A Mix Of Ingredients XII
dceafrepnosoel
hnoarcniilsetp
dceuertsuiavse
(21:2 – 18:5 – 7:7 – 4:7 – 2:4 – 3:4)
(10-2, 15-2, 22-2, 7-1, 4-2, 9-1)

Speech Therapy XVIII
1. a cattle murder we (8)
2. she aged deceased (8)
3. knight after D fight (8)
4. down solution avoid (8)
5. X myself cheer (7)
6. perform 4 2x4 (8)
(12:2 – 8:1 – 9:7 – 5:2 – 15:4 – 1:4)
(2-2, 14-2, 18-2, 13-1, 11-1, 3-2)

Tales From the Crypt XXII
1. False start plainly ended in corruption at conclusion. (7)
2. Small reach around after shot (6)
3. First, add three, and the largest of many? (8)
4. Gifted wild coparcener lost near discarded odd pirogues. (10)
(14:7 – 17:2 – 10:8 – 11:3)
(19-2, 17-2, 8-2, 21-2)

Joys of Shift Work
1. -1
2. +9
3. +10
4. +6
5. -6
6. +9
7. -7
8. +7
9. -14
10. +9
11. +9
12. 0
13. -10
14. +1
15. -6
16. -5
17. -10
18. +1
19. +14
20. -3
21. -11
22. +5

Final Analysis
1. 8,18,20,5
2. 1,22,4,15
3. 21,22
4. 2,3,2,3
5. 6,13,12
6. 7,19
7. 1,3,16,19
8. 17,11
9. 9,18
10. 21,14,19
11. 20,14,10
12. 8,11,16

After careful study of the clues, Sherlock turns to Watson and says he knows who committed the crime.

[This message has been edited by Logain (edited 01-16-2002 07:15 PM).]

[Logain]

OK, this is a pretty long one, so I'll gladly give hints as needed. I didn't spend too much time proofing this, but hopefully I worked out all the typos.

[Antrax]

..."It was I, my dear Watson"
"You? But what made you turn around and confess?"
"Why, if I didn't confess now I'd have to actually try and solve this baffling mess, which would damage my mental health a ot more than just doing a couple of years in. So long, my dear Watson"
Antrax

------------------
I was handcuffed by an evil goth limey chick in a really cheesy motel room, and all I got was this lousy sig line.

[Alter Ego]

Random thoughts - I haven't been able to pin down anything yet. But ...

The Joys of Shift Work section has 22 entries and there are 22 unique number-number pairs in the first set of brackets beneath each of the other sections (what the colon in between represents though...).

I would have thought the roman number indicates lenght of the answer except Centerfield Play 6. is ISO (I think). Others that fit this trend included :
Book Ends 1. FU (pardon me) 5. Ca
Breaking Even 1. Whys 2. Calc 4. Mage 5. Ogre

Maybe more convincing is the A Mix Of Ingredients
you can easily get :
defense/carpocl
hornist/nacilep
deetuas/cursive
by taking alternate letters. At least one legit word in each pair.

As for the rest... drawing a blank so far.

Comments? Confirmations ??


[This message has been edited by Alter Ego (edited 12-27-2001 03:38 PM).]

[dave10000]

"Mix Of Ingredients" might be a scrambled 3x3:

DANCE SLEEP ROOF -- walk (or wear)
CHAIN LENS POINT -- end
VISA DUET SECURE -- card

---

walk end card -- BOARD

* or *

wear end card -- BUSINESS

(Some stretches along the way, but they all check out on Google)

[dave10000]

For Speech Therapy, the first two seem to be:

1 -- calculus (cow-kill-us)
2 -- heralded (her-old-dead)

[dave10000]

Speech Therapy:

6 -- activate (act-IV-8)

[Quailman]

Speech Therapy:
4 -- sedation? (sad-A(nswer)-shun)

[dave10000]

Speech Therapy

3 -- anywhere (N-E-wear)???
4 -- locution (low-cue-shun)??? (location? lobation?)

[dave10000]

[Alter Ego]

How about

Speech Therapy
5. exuding/excises/excited (ex-I/you-something)

This technique seems a little too non-specific. However, 6 -activate really does fit well.

[Logain]

Even though it's early to jump in yet, for the word solution, I debated between using that or answer as the clue word.

...ummm, so I guess what I'm saying is, 'A' is not right

[Tahnan]

Oooh, I get to add something useful!

3. sir E brawl = CEREBRAL
5. That's not an "ex"; it's a Greek letter. Chi + me + rah = CHIMERA

No one touched the cryptics? #1 looks like it could be FINALLY--I can't quite get it to work out, but perhaps someone can.

To Alter Ego's suggestion, I'd offer that there are in fact two legitimate words in each pair. Namely--fixing the c-for-o typo--defense/carpool, hornist/pelican, sauteed/cursive. Now, this could still be a tricky 3x3, but I'd prefer to think that Logain wouldn't really give us three anagrammed words to use. Mind you, if there's more to be done with these six words, I can't think what it would be, but surely the notation after doesn't suggest anything to me.

[Tahnan]

While I'm thinking of it, let me throw out a preliminary idea. I'm working this out as I go.

Shift Work calls for 22 somethings--let's call 'em letters. Each number from 1 to 22 appears exactly once before a colon in the preceding section. Note too that, while we have no idea what's going on in the earlier sections, we know there are six, six, and four words to get out of the latter three puzzles, and lo and behold there are six, six, and four number-colon-number pairs below those sections.

What if, then, the pairs were telling us which letter of each word to take for each number from 1 to 22? That is, #1 in Speech Therapy is CALCULUS; what if the first pair being 12:2 means "Number 12 of Shift Word is the second letter of CALCULUS, namely A"?

Using Speech Therapy--we have five of the six--and A Mix of Ingredients--we have all six of these, if we assume that the words are in the order I gave above--we get:

[Tahnan]

And hey, why not work backwards a little? If "It's not hard, Mr. Holmes" is correct, then #4 under Speech Therapy corresponds to 5:2--that is, the fifth letter of the phrase, O, is the second letter of the answer. That lends credence to the suggestion that the answer is LOCUTION.

It doesn't help me much for the cryptics, if cryptics they be. The patterns are: #1, ------D (so much for FINALLY); #2, -H----; #3, -------T (add three letters to "first" to get something meaning "largest of many"--ending in "-est," perhaps?); #4, --R------- (of which MW lists 2300 words, from AARDWOLVES to ZIRCONIUMS).

It's harder to work backward on the first three sections; until we know how they work, it's not obvious how to get two words from six or seven answers.

And whatever are those roman numerals doing there?

[Tahnan]

Sorry, I'm up way too late, and fascinated by this puzzle.

What was I thinking when I offered "not that hard"? It's not that easy, Mr. Holmes. Which actually confirms FINALLY, since now there's a Y there, not a D. If it helps anyone, the second word in Breaking Even starts with an S.

Cryptic #4, by the way, is PRECOCIOUS: wild "copcer" ("coparcener" - "near"), and "pirogues" with the odd letters discarded. (I had no idea that "coparcener" and "pirogue" were words. Look 'em up, folks, it's always worthwhile to learn something. )

I'm no farther on understanding anything though, certainly not on the first parts. I like "iso" for CP #6; BE looks like "cuss, omen, ..., far, ca, toss" or something similar, but I can't do anything with that.

[Logain]

A lot of good progress so far, so I'm not sure if a hint is needed yet or not.

If someone's stuck and would like a nudge for the first 3 sections let me know. I'm not sure with the holidays and weekend if most people are simply not here, and I don't want to say anything that will give away what someone might think is easy upon reflection.

[Tahnan]

Nah, I'm still thinking about them. I just figured I'd give someone else a chance to post. Anyway, it's good training for the Mystery Hunt.

[Tahnan]

Well, I said no hints, so I suppose I should put my money where my mouth is. Reading the even columns of the following words:

code:

---

1. ASKS


2. CALC


3. OVER


4. MAGE


5. OGRE


6. NEON

---

gives SAVAGE and SCREEN. To confirm this, the first letters of both words are S, which fit neatly into slots 22 and 13 of "It's not that easy, Mr. Holmes."

[Tahnan]

...while I'm at it, I'm going to offer a guess as to how Book Ends and Centerfield Play work: if 'Breaking Even' involved taking the even columns, then the former requires taking the two ends and the latter involves, er, the center, though we still have to get two words out of it.

In Book Ends, the sixth letter of word one is T--that is, "throw" starts with a T. The fourth letter of word two is R--that is, "great distance" ends with an R. I'll suggest perhaps

code:

---

4. AFAR


5. C  A


6. TOSS

---

No idea how to take the "center" letters to get two words--maybe one is four letters, one is three? Certainly ISO is right.

All right, I'm stopping. Someone work out the rest of these? And what are the roman numerals about, anyway?

[Logain]

Well so far Tahnan's been on the right track. Good job on the Breaking Even section.

...and a *Bump* while I'm at it.

[Logain]

Hmmm...nothing yet. Anyone still working on this or need a hint?

Where have all the great IT 3 solvers gone from the past few puzzles?

I'll just add that don't be concerned with any special use of the Roman numerals. They are to make sure you know what you're getting from each section and keeping things ordered. I didn't want anyone to go off on random anagramming tangents either.

[Logain]

Geez, where is everybody??? After a quick start I thought this would be finished quickly by the collective GL.

I'll add that iso is not quite the correct answer. Think crossword type clue.

[Tahnan]

In other words,

code:

---

1. ARMY


2. PEON


3. ACNE


4. SLIP


5. DUTY


6. ISO-


7. HERO

---

And

code:

---

1. CUSS


2. OMEN


3. BOZO


4. AFAR


5. LIME


6. TOSS

---

for COBALT and SNORES.

Oh, and I see what the Roman numerals are--it's the number of words in the puzzle from the beginning through that section. OK. So.

That's all the words, and it's even one message. Please, someone offer up what we can do with the other number-number pairs and the Joys of Shift Work.

[Tahnan]

Recap.

Words:

code:

---

COBALT


SNORES


SAVAGE


SCREEN


RECLUSE


MONITOR


DEFENSE


CARPOOL


HORNIST


PELICAN


SAUTEED


CURSIVE


CALCULUS


HERALDED


CEREBRAL


LOCUTION


CHIMERA


ACTIVATE


FINALLY


?


?


PRECOCIOUS

---

Message from first set of numbers:

[Logain]

For one of the last two cryptics, I've been unhappy with it from the start. It doesn't feel correct to me because the punctuation is implied in the wrong spot. So here's a small edit to the one:

Cryptic Section:
3. First? Add three, and the largest of many. (8)

Not that it made a difference, but I had intended "ISOs" as the answer to the one definition to be consistent with the 4 letter theme. It was plural since there were three clue words.

[Logain]

Maybe a hint will help...

Having the list Tahnan provided is very important for the next step. Don't rush into the shift work section, cause even if you didn't read what was going on up till this point it, doesn't matter, you would still be able to pick things up from here.

...and maybe Quailman might be able to give a hint for either of the last two cryptics if he's willing to

[dirus2]

Intriguing.

No ideas on the cryptics.

Here's some stuff that didn't work on the rest of the puzzle though.

Well, we need a list. We know that the first number:number pair denotes - something:letter to take. This gives the 'It's not that easy ...' message. Assuming that the 'something' was position on the list (of 22 words) gives :

quote:

---

1 ACTIVATE
2 SAUTEED
3 CURSIVE
4 PELICAN
5 LOCUTION
6 COBALT
7 HORNIST
8 HERALDED
9 CEREBRAL
10
11 PRECOCIOUS
12 CALCULUS
13 SCREEN
14 FINALLY
15 CHIMERA
16 SNORES
17
18 CARPOOL
19 RECLUSE
20 MONITOR
21 DEFENSE
22 SAVAGE

---

Further, assuming that the second number-number pair simply gleans information from this list (you'll notice, the second number in this pair is either 1 or 2) unfortunately doesn't do much. No intelligible message either before or after shifting. Of course, this assumes the Shift Work section implies a rotation type thing - which I guess is a fairly safe assumption.

I also thought maybe the number-number pairs just led to one number : and that the '-' separating them stood for subtraction. Nope. The numbers obtained this way are 1) non-distinct 2) too large to indicate letters to be taken.

Oh well. Ideas anyone?

[Logain]

Well so far I really haven't given any hints other than encouragement of what was on the right track. I was wondering if this could be my first THP solved without any.

OK, so the next step is to just concentrate on the list carefully. Something should hopefully jump out at you.

[Marvin]

Maybe you have to do something like take parts of the 22 words and put them together in some kind of regular pattern to get 22 new words. For example, I tried taking the C from the 1st words and the ORES from the 2nd to get CORES, that worked for the next few (SAGE and SEEN) and then fell over completely.

[mith]

i think for all the 7 letter words, you can remove two consecutive letters to form 5 letter words. i don't know if that helps, or how it works for the other words. not at home right now

[dirus2]

Not only from the seven letter words mith!

Removing symbols for elements from the periodic table from each of the words gives

quote:

---

BA COLT
SN ORES
AG SAVE
CR SEEN
CL REUSE
NI MOTOR
FE DENSE
PO CAROL
RN HOIST (Also NI HORST)?
LI PECAN
AU STEED
SI CURVE
CU CALLUS *
AL HERDED
BR CEREAL
CU LOTION *
RA CHIME
AT ACTIVE
NA FILLY
?
?
CO PRECIOUS

---

* - Two for CU?? Maybe something else afloat?

Employing Tahnan's strategy on the symbols
using the second number-number pairing gives :

quote:

---

BUAURCL*SERNCLOS*RAGON

---

I don't think shifting this gives anything meaningful/

One more message down though - "You are closer and closer". Also implies that the cryptics contain an 'E' and an 'O' respectively.

[This message has been edited by dirus2 (edited 01-16-2002 06:23 PM).]

[Logain]

Hmmm...looks like I found my first typo in this one.

In "Speech Therapy XVIII", the 3-1 should have been 3-2. Now you should have a full message at least

I'll update the top post.

[Marvin]

That makes it 'BUTURCLOSERNCLOSERAGON' (the last N is coming from 'RN/HOIST')
I think that makes cryptic #3 'FOREMOST', and its split 'MO / FOREST'.

[Tahnan]

Excellent work! Indeed, if you take the message from Marvin's post and you shift those letters according to the "Shift Work" numbers, you get

[quercitron]

What about atomic numbers or something? Although that seems to be a lot of work and doesn't give you anything good...

[mith]

w00t. i actually said something useful for a thp

[Logain]

Well you're definitely getting close on this one now.

I guess I should add that there is a very small mistake in the current list to save everyone the pain from figuring it out when the next stage doesn't yield a good answer ...and dirus2 had a pretty good idea of where to look for it.

[Logain]

*MMB* Monday morning bump

[mith]

location instead of locution then?