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[puzzle time] [ANONYMOUS - username: ludi]
Answer any of the following privately to receive a more difficult puzzle in reply.
1. What is the name of the land of fire with the burning mountain in it?
2. There is a four-digit number, with digits abcd (d in the ones position, c in the tens, and so on), that fulfills the following conditions. What is the number?
3. You are running in a race. Just before the finish line, you pass the person in second place. What place did you finish in?
Rules:
1. Search with your mind, not your feet. This is for entertainment purposes only. Don't go looking for a burning mountain.
2. Send answers privately. Don't spoil it for anyone else.
3. Unless someone donates prizes, the only prize is more puzzles.
[OOC notes: I didn't come up with all of these, but I did come up with one and rewrote some others. Source credits.
Unless otherwise noted, all replies are anon text from the "Ludi" account, private where appropriate.]
1. What is the name of the land of fire with the burning mountain in it?
2. There is a four-digit number, with digits abcd (d in the ones position, c in the tens, and so on), that fulfills the following conditions. What is the number?
- a = b/3
b = b
c = a+b
d = 3b
3. You are running in a race. Just before the finish line, you pass the person in second place. What place did you finish in?
Rules:
1. Search with your mind, not your feet. This is for entertainment purposes only. Don't go looking for a burning mountain.
2. Send answers privately. Don't spoil it for anyone else.
3. Unless someone donates prizes, the only prize is more puzzles.
[OOC notes: I didn't come up with all of these, but I did come up with one and rewrote some others. Source credits.
Unless otherwise noted, all replies are anon text from the "Ludi" account, private where appropriate.]
text.
anon, un: ludi (perpetual)
private, user: david;
2. 1349
3. Second
text | private| anonymous, un: ludi (in perpetuity unless otherwise noted)
Are you writing to me in English now?
no subject
1/2
Puzzle to follow in another message.
2/2
In no particular order, the items on display are:
- a small log from an alder-type tree
- a globe of the planet where your exploration took place
- what appears to be a carved, wedge-style doorstop, with no indication that it was ever used
- a rough wooden cube, about 1 inch by 1 inch by 1 inch, with a different symbol on each side
- a sheet of parchment
- a model of a simple house with a peaked roof
- an oddly shaped hard, clear wand
On further examination of the wand and the way it reacts to light, you understand what it is... except that it appears to be broken. However, after you consider the other items again, you realize that it was purposely cut in half from the end to give it its place in the group.
What is the wand?
Why were the items displayed as a group?
no subject
Are we allowed to ask questions?
no subject
You're allowed to ask questions, but I may decline to answer them. It depends on the question.
no subject
The items seem to be of different geometric shapes. Is this significant?
Does the parchment bear any marks, or is it blank?
Is there anything else in the chamber?
no subject
Perhaps.
Irrelevant.
Irrelevant.
The details given about the wand are significant. While a similar object could take several different forms, the form in question here is the classic one. Think of what you might see in a diagram depicting such an object.
[OOC: I am so sorry for the delay! I put this off a little because I wasn't feeling well, and I thought the hint about the wand was going to be a little more complicated than it turned out to be.]
private; video
[That was an easy one. Hmmmmmm. Skipping the second. The third... His face scrunches up as he thinks.]
If they finish second then I am first, but if they're second before finishing then I'm second when I finish, yes? The question isn't very clear, you should fix that. People might get confused.
text | private| anonymous, un: ludi (in perpetuity unless otherwise noted)
2. You pass the person who is running in second place prior to crossing the finish line.
no subject
Then I finish second, yes?
1/2
Second is the correct answer to the third question. Another puzzle will follow in a moment.
[One which definitely does not rely on close knowledge of the English language, he decides.]
[2/2]
Their eyes were covered by guards, and they were led together into a small room and seated around a table, where the emperor first placed something on each of their heads, then spoke to them.
"You are now either wearing a red cap or a yellow cap. I will only tell you this: at least one of you is wearing a red cap. There may be only one red cap and two yellow caps, there may be two red caps and one yellow cap, or there may be three red caps. But you can be confident that there are not three yellow caps."
"I will shortly remove your blind folds, and the test will begin. The first to correctly announce the color of his cap shall be my vizier. However, if your guess is incorrect, you will be sentenced to death. If none of you answers within sixty minutes, you will be sent home unharmed, and I will begin my quest all over again."
The emperor uncovered the sages' eyes, then sat in the corner and waited for an answer. One sage looked around and saw that his competitors each were wearing red caps.
For what seemed like hours no one spoke. Finally, he stood up and said, "The color of my cap is -- "
What color did he name?
no subject
[He's not a storyteller, but he feels like he covered the key points there.]
Red! Because the question should have been equally hard for all three of them, yes? Or it would be unfair.
no subject
Your answer is right, but I'm not sure that fairness was the emperor's exact motive. Can you think of other reasons?
no subject
[He's suddenly a lot less sure about this conversation having been a good idea. What if this is someone who doesn't like Maglor and his family? He thought that Galadriel and Luthien had been the only ones from Arda, and he the only one from the Drabwurld, but...]
...Because then nobody would be able to be sure that his cap was red?
no subject
Correct, about the caps, but the emperor also wanted the wisest person in the land to advise him. Sometimes knowing when not to say something is as much of a skill as knowing the right thing to say, but courage and conviction are also important. The other two didn't think as quickly, and risked nothing.
no subject
[If this man really knows nothing, then Maglor's name is irrelevant.]
Maybe you just haven't heard about his world.
no subject
Did you meet Lady Galadriel or Luthien?
Are you an elf?
no subject
[Could be a lot of places. Could be a version of the world that he is from. Could even be his own world, though that is hard to tell with people not directly involved with the highest ranks of the government.
And not answering that last question.]
text. (username: msdarcy)
Are you seriously fisting me with this shit? Haven't we had enough of cryptic text-based assholes on our network? I thought we moved beyond this shit. This is not entertainment. These games are stupid.
[ Not just because she doesn't know any of the answers. Honest. ]
Get bent.
un: ludi, in perpetuity unless otherwise noted
You can probably answer the third one.