CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011





CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011 - Solutions 3D. Rime Royal Rime Royal is a rather intricate puzzle. To start, you may observe some features about the poems: Each poem has an eight word title. There are seven poems, each with seven lines and seven words per line. Each poem has a line with unusual capitalisation and three commas. Each poem has a list of names. Some of the lines appear to be hinting at something – "solving crossword", "lengthwise sort apply", "letter list", "discarding space", and "a cryptic leap". A good place to start is the lists of names. A visit to your favourite search engine should reveal a list of superhero secret identities: Kent = Clark Kent = Superman Summers = Scott Summers = Cyclops Veight = Adrian Veight = Ozymandias Nah = Jo Nah = Ultra Boy Grayson = Dick Grayson = Robin/Nightwing Queen = Oliver Queen = Green Arrow Dibny = Ralph Dibny = The Elongated Man The initials of the superhero names spell SCOURGE. A list of arch-enemies: Bane = Archenemy of Batman Baltan = Archenemy of Ultraman Master = The Master is the Archenemy of the Doctor Zim = Invader Zim is the archenemy of Dib Belloq = Archenemy of Indiana Jones Bombe = Archenemy of the Enigma machine Bart = Archenemy of Sideshow Bob (or Principal Seymour Skinner, both supply an "S") The initials of the enemies spell BUDDIES. A list of heavy metal guitarists: Weikath = Michael Weikath of Helloween Gates = Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold Kruspe = Richard Kruspe of Rammstein Mars = Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe Linsk = Dave Linsk of Overkill Freyberg = Daniel Freyberg of Naildown Malmsteen = Yngwie Malmsteen of Yngwie Malmsteen The initials of the band names spell HARMONY. A list of artists: Cormon = Fernand Cormon Dix = Otto Dix Nesch = Rolf Nesch Braque = Georges Braque Manet = Édouard Manet Dowd = Robert Dowd Nolan = Sidney Nolan The first name initials spell FORGERS. A list of titles of power: Zod = General Zod, of Superman II Karath = Rear Admiral Saul Kareth, of Star Wars Bilefroth = Overlord Bilefroth, of Diablo Gunray = Viceroy Gunray, of Star Wars Ming = Emperor Ming, of Flash Gordon Zedd = Lord Zedd, of Power Rangers Kay = Sir Kay, a knight of Camelot The initials of the titles spell GROVELS. A list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates: King = Martin Luther King, Jr. Sánchez = Óscar Arias Sánchez Borlaug = Norman E. Borlaug 'Bride = Seán MacBride Gyatso = Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Balch = Emily Greene Balch Tum = Rigoberta Menchú Tum The initials of their first names spell MONSTER. A list of police detectives: Riggs = Martin Riggs of Lethal Weapon Benson = Olivia Benson, of Law & Order: SVU Miller = Barney Miller, of Barney Miller Tyler = Sam Tyler of Life on Mars Hauk = Thomas "Herc" Kauk of The Wire Ness = Elliot Ness Tubbs = Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs of Miami Vice The initials of their first names spell MOBSTER. All the words obtained from these lines have a meaning opposite to the common property of the lines, which is hopefully a confirming step. We might identify some cryptic crossword style clues: The herders little lads for bovine named = COWBOYS Mirage leaf, meant to conceal crotch display = FIGMENT Portend, ere duct exchanging you and I = PREDICT Remove a smell, and recall depths fallen = DESCENT Forgives mob bosses golfing with no fail = PARDONS Thy young on generation y are keen = PROGENY Confused mice nod at trait like Beelzebub's = DEMONIC and some simple crossword style clues: The brand a gentleman hath wedded gained = HUSBAND Give Godfather this esteem from your heart = RESPECT Two metal discs are clashing thund'rous cry = CYMBALS Truth, beauty: whither silent urn ye know'st = GRECIAN In orchestras their saw work doth prevail = VIOLINS Samantha doth to Darren twitch this feat = BEWITCH They spelunk and with sabre teeth compete = CAVEMEN By removing the spaces between words, you can pick out some seven letter words in one line of each poem: badGebadbadgerSLACKERrantbadgeRbadE AnswersweofFERVENToShakespeare'sbest WiththyselFATHERSolvingcrosswordspree BoldmoDELVINGrislengthwisesortapply WordsdifFERTILEachletterlistokay DiscardingspacelikeflatteneDRAGONSeat OneminstRELIANTakesacrypticleap This is a particularly useful step, because you may observe that, in addition to providing the in-between words, each of the above lines provides a clue to solving one of the seven "types" of line. The line "badGe bad badgerS lack errant badgeR badE" appears to be an example of building up from a short word to a seven letter word, by adding the in-place capital letters one at a time. Applying this to the unusually capitalised lines: breaTh weary, swindle, feEble weight, gLimpse see sigh(T), SLEIGHT, sl(E)ight, s(L)ight bridgeD fort, swapped, famiLy grade, outer parT castle(D), CASTLED, cast(L)e, cas(T)e A chap, arms Silver, painter, pRoxy 'tween (A)gent, (S)argent, SARGENT, a(R)gent commenD, fill glUtton, hailed, oiL lightly fry salute(D), sa(U)te, SALUTED, sa(L)ute aide Role, Or muster, justly, Mouth recites (R)ally, (O)rally, MORALLY, (M)orally pig celLblocks, smothers, fence scaFfolds, Scarves some sti(L)es, STIFLES, sli(F)les, (S)ties brOoch needles, liTtle mesons, valves, poSts deep pi(O)ns, pi(T)ons, PISTONS, pi(S)tons Another clue line "Bold model vin gris lengthwise sort apply" hints that you should apply a lengthwise sort to one of the lines in each poem. As it happens, one line in each poem has words of length one to seven: A team cut up ornate notched ivory => A up cut team ivory ornate notched => AUCTION Alas no war, o rebel schemes detest => o no war Alas rebel detest schemes => ONWARDS No order, lest I cue scared escapee => I No cue lest order scared escapee => INCLOSE A mixture to each image hue stolen => A to hue each image stolen mixture => ATHEISM Enact no clumsy tyrant's plot, I say => I no say plot Enact clumsy tyrant's => INSPECT Thy younger open up a sinker plumb => a up Thy open plumb sinker younger => AUTOPSY Re. outer matrix: spot key, I entreat => I Re. key spot outer matrix entreat => IRKSOME Finally, the clue "Shakespeare's best" hint refers to slightly altered lines from Shakespeare's sonnets: But thy truncated summer shall not fade => But thy ETERNAL summer shall not fade (Sonnet 18) Proceed the stormy gusts of winter's day => AGAINST the stormy gusts of winter's day (Sonnet 13) Although thou steal thee all my luxury => Although thou steal thee all my POVERTY (Sonnet 40) As victors of my chatter cannot boast => As victors of my SILENCE cannot boast (Sonnet 86) I see descriptions of the foulest wights => I see descriptions of the FAIREST wights (Sonnet 106) Kissing with golden face the mountains green => Kissing with golden face the MEADOWS green (Sonnet 33) And his love-kindling fire did slowly steep => And his love-kindling fire did QUICKLY steep (Sonnet 153) Replacing each line with its answer, we have the following: His gasses go to a sun by Clarke HUSBAND SLEIGHT COWBOYS AUCTION SCOURGE SLACKER ETERNAL I never did steal a gem tip sceptre ONWARDS BUDDIES FERVENT RESPECT CASTLED FIGMENT AGAINST Ride faster my son to rest an eon CYMBALS INCLOSE PREDICT POVERTY FATHERS SARGENT HARMONY Eric the evil elf is east of Eden GRECIAN DESCENT SILENCE ATHEISM FORGERY SALUTED DELVING It drops as my vision relief goes bye FAIREST GROVELS MORALLY INSPECT FERTILE PARDONS VIOLINS (We) do go in it to go on DRAGONS AUTOPSY BEWITCH MONSTER STIFLES PROGENY MEADOWS Rake in one more man to alter luck DEMONIC PISTONS MOBSTER QUICKLY RELIANT IRKSOME CAVEMEN We have one more clue as to what to do next: the first words of the lines containing the other clues form "badge answers with bold words discarding one". The bold words are the poem titles, so this indicates that we should somehow "badge" the answers with the titles, but discarding one (the titles are eight words and there are seven answers for each poem). It is also possible to work out this step without the clue, by noticing correspondance between title words and answers (particularly sceptre = respect, but also vision, relief, faster and clarke.) Seven of the eight title words can be fit into the answers as follows. When done so, the selected letters reveal a shape in the 7×7 grid of letters. Each shape is a symbol or crude drawing which can be described by a seven-letter answer. HUSBAND sun US N SLEIGHT His S I H COWBOYS by B Y AUCTION to T O = JUPITER SCOURGE go O G SLACKER Clarke LACKER ETERNAL a A ("gasses" is left over) ONWARDS a A BUDDIES did DDI FERVENT never ERVEN RESPECT sceptre RESPECT = DIAMOND CASTLED steal ASTLE FIGMENT gem GME AGAINST I I ("tip" is left over) CYMBALS my YM INCLOSE son N OS PREDICT ride REDI POVERTY to O T = BICYCLE FATHERS faster FAT ERS SARGENT rest S R E T HARMONY an A N ("eon" is left over) GRECIAN eric RECI DESCENT eden DE EN SILENCE is SI ATHEISM the THE = EPSILON FORGERY of FO SALUTED east SA TE DELVING evil ELVI ("elf" is left over) FAIREST as A S GROVELS goes G O E S MORALLY my M Y INSPECT it I T = GLASSES FERTILE relief FER ILE PARDONS drops P RDO S VIOLINS vision VIO INS ("bye" is left over) DRAGONS go GO AUTOPSY to TO BEWITCH we EW MONSTER on ON = BRACKET STIFLES it TI PROGENY go OG MEADOWS do DO ("in" is left over) DEMONIC one E ON PISTONS in I N MOBSTER to O T QUICKLY luck U CKL = TWELFTH RELIANT alter REL A T IRKSOME more R OME CAVEMEN man A M N ("rake" is left over) The poem titles also give hints to the answers above. Putting the words into another grid, and using the left-over title words to form the title, we have: gasses tip eon elf bye in rake JUPITER DIAMOND BICYCLE EPSILON GLASSES BRACKET TWELFTH and applying the previous step again gives the following assignments, grid, and name of the symbol thus formed: JUPITER tip PIT DIAMOND in I N BICYCLE bye B Y E EPSILON eon E ON = TAIJITU GLASSES gasses G ASSES BRACKET rake RA KE TWELFTH elf ELF And here we are, finally at the answer of TAIJITU (YINYANG is also a valid answer). Congratulations if you solved it, and I hope it was enjoyable even if you got stuck part-way through. Puzzle design notes: There is a bit of a story regarding the creation of this puzzle. Right after 2010's CiSRA Puzzle Competition, I started work on this puzzle, starting by trying to draw recognisable pictures of seven-letter words in 7×7 grids, and writing various scripts to find subwords. The Taijitu formed a good basis because I could already fit some of my other picture answers into it. Gradually, over several weeks, I built it up until I had the list of 49 words and the titles. Then the real hard work started. It took about two months of fairly solid work (on weekends and evenings) to work out seven different puzzle schemes that fit in together. I was quite obsessed. I was determined that this puzzle would be Epic. Finally, I laid the puzzle (actually an earlier version) before our puzzle creation group, cackling with glee. Geoff solved it within 24 hours. I ticked the "can be solved by a freakishly good puzzle solver" box, and was happy. One puzzle down, nineteen more to create. Time passed. The Sydney University Mathematical Society (SUMS) Puzzle Competition started. They're a relatively new puzzle creation team, but they set the bar high – their puzzles are always super elegant and highly enjoyable. Geoff was working on the first day's puzzle "Polarity", and I got an email "You're not going to like this..." Yup. The SUMS team had also created a puzzle that used the Taijitu picture as an answer, and they had released it first. What's worse, the SUMS team had already sent us a rather annoyed email following our 2010 CiSRA competition, because we had used a puzzle step in one of the 2010 puzzles that was the same as one in their 2009 competition (unwittingly, of course – our puzzle creator hadn't participated in the SUMS competition, and the rest of us hadn't caught the duplication due to the last-minute rush to get all the puzzles done in time.) We assured them it was unintentional, and created a "known puzzle steps" wiki page so that we wouldn't be caught out like that again. And here I was, with our one and only created puzzle for the 2011 CiSRA competition, and it had the same answer as a SUMS puzzle from 2010. I went back to the drawing board to see if I could change my answer, but it was impossible. There is no way in the world I could change the puzzle without scrapping everything. In the end, I decided I would have to just leave it, and add an explanatory note in the puzzle solution. And we couldn't apologise in advance to the SUMS team, because they participate in our competition and it might give them too much of a clue. So, SUMS team, this is the story.

CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011 - Solutions

3D. Rime Royal