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xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
MIT Mystery Hunt - Pregame Puzzle Trail Current!
I was looking for quality puzzle trails and Sin Vraal suggested this: http://rose.mattcain.com/main.html
I couldn't find any other threads on it, so here it is. I'm going in order of the rooms, 1-7, and am having issues on #1, The Belltower, already. It's very challenging, and I'm looking for extra brain power. I am idling in #vanishing on chatsolutions.
Below I'll post spoilers of what I've done so far:
Puzzle Structure
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
It looks like a combination of scrabble and crossword puzzles. This is pretty accurate. The first clue is "Death Alternative". Your starting letters transcribe to LIBERTY. You play LIBERTY, which is all 7 of your letters, and then you draw new 7 letters, AAINSRV.
#1
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
LIBERTY
#2
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
SAVE, with SAV coming off the E in LIBERTY.
#3
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
LIBERTINE, replacing the Y in LIBERTY with INE. At this poin you notice in the description that the monk is making UP WORDS. UPWORDS is a scrabble game whereby you can place letters on top of others to make new words
#4
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
SASH, adding ASH on to the end of the S from SAVE.
#5
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
REHIRING. This one was a pain in the ass, Using the H from SASH and the I from LIBERTINE, spell REHIRING.
#6
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
RAVE / RASH. This one was a breath of fresh air after the last. Replace the S in SASH and SAVE.
#7
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
EAST / EAVE / RETRING. Replace the S in SAVE with E and the H in SASH with T.
#8
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
This one was a mega pain in the ass. LEAS / AS. Use the A in EAST for LEAS.
#9
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
PEAL, using the L in LEAS.
#10
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Clever. PEA, using the P from PEAL.
#11
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
RAJA, using the R in RETIRING.
#12
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
JINGLE, using the J in RAJA.
#13
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
SILVER, using the I in LIBERTINE.
#14
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
FAST / FARE, replacing the E and V in EAVE with F and R.
#15
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
GONG, using the G in RETIRING.
#16
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I can't solve this one. I've tried and tried. What I HAVE done is used regressional analysis to determine what letters are used. 3 of IWNG. I did this by solving ahead.
#17
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
JUNGLE, replacing the I in JINGLE with U.
#18
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
WAGING, attaching WA to GONG and replacing the O with I.
And this is where i'm stuck.
Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:33 pm
Last edited by xmythx on Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:48 am; edited 14 times in total
Cross_
Decorated
Joined: 15 Jan 2006 Posts: 283 Location: San Diego
Link not working
Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:38 pm
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
Cross_ wrote:
Link not working
Hmm... the link is working for me when i click it.
You have to click the Rose and then the underlined link.
http://rose.mattcain.com/belltower.html
Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:40 pm
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
FINALLY GOT IT! At least #16, that is.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
More backwards thinking. #19 is FIRED and IS, replacing the A in FARE with I and adding a D. #20 seems liked WIG. It had to be. The letters used and available deemed it so. If that was the case, and only one letter was used, the only place it could go was with WAGING. That being said, I speculated R - - G was the answer to 16. With what was available to me, I guessed RING. #21 then becomes RIOT and WIT. Phew.
#16
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
RING, with the R in SILVER
#19
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
FIRED and IS, replacing the A in FARE with I.
#20
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
WIG, placing an I between W and T.
#21
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
RIOT and WIT, replacing the N in RING with O and the G in WIG with T.
Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:37 am
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
#22
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Another bitch. LEIS, replacing A in LEAS, AIRED, replacing F in FIRED, DADAIST, using A in PEA.
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:25 am
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
#23!
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
WIRED, replace the A with W. PEN, replace the A in PEA with N. UNTWIST, spell across using DADAIST.
The Answer
Have no idea, but leaning towards taking each layer of the puzzle and finding some kind of word.
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:35 am
Last edited by xmythx on Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
Noyb
Veteran
Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 71
Confessional The theory behind the confessional page seems straightforward.
You're given a list of names, each missing letters. Below are lists of objects and places.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The objects are murder weapons, and the places are crime scenes, so names are murderers. A couple of obvious connections from pop culture jumped out at me. Blaster is associated with cantina; Han Solo shot Greedo in a cantina in Star Wars, therefore the last name is Han Solo . Snakes are found on a plane, as per a recent movie; the villian was Eddie Kim , the second name.
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:15 pm
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
finally another brain!
Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:05 pm
xmythx
Veteran
Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 102
This is what I have for CHAPEL:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
TOADY GEFILTE
SPOOK LIONESH
TERSE SCALENE
FEMUR ERMINES
ORATE
VESPA YESHIVA
ROUSE EXAMINE
PAUSE UKULELE
OKAPI EASTERN
MERMAID
SIEVE CARTOON
PAPAL IMPASSE
DERNIER
SETTLER
WRONG CORRECT
ANAGRAM
AMBROSE
ALIBI MAILMAN
IHEAR VANUATU
TUTSI OUTPACE
APHID EPHRAIM
CLOONEY
ANGST NEGLECT
IDAHO ATACAMA
APPLE ORTHANC
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:57 am
jwhook
Greenhorn
Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 3
Confessional Solve Noyb is right that list to be filled in is fictional murders. The words at the bottom are murder weapons and location. The question marks are letters that reveal the answer that should be submitted.
Here's the final result.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The letters spell out Mike Allred Superhero. And the answer is: Madman.
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:26 pm
jwhook
Greenhorn
Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 3
Infirmary progress. Gotten through most of this room, but can't identify the last cartoon. So far...
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
First name of person in image is also the name of hurricane of 2005. Tried various ways of putting in hurricane, hurricanes, etc. but no luck in getting final answer. Also tried answering with a masculine hurricane name not shown by a picture, but that doesn't work either.
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:48 pm
freshness
Boot
Joined: 29 Dec 2005 Posts: 52
Nice, I was actually working on that one too.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The trick is you have to know what Category hurricanes they were:
Stan (Cat. 1) - First Letter = S
Wilma (Cat. 5) - Fifth Letter = A
Vince (Cat. 1) - First Letter = V
Katrina (Cat. 5) - Fifth Letter = I
Ophelia (Cat. 1) - First Letter = O
Maria (Cat. 3) - Third Letter = R
Last guy??
The only male hurricane name that made sense there was Stan again, and the answer was SAVIORS.
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:21 pm
jwhook
Greenhorn
Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 3
Numbers in parentheses. Thanks, freshness.
I'm new to these types of puzzles. It appears that the use of numbers in parentheses after the clue to pick individual letters is fairly common. Does that mean that in the Inquisitor's Cell it's likely that an entry like this (1,2,4) means the first, second and fourth letter? Or is that some other typical pattern?
And in the Inquisitor's cell, it looks like:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
we're supposed to put the people inside the grid based on their religion, although what purpose that serves is unclear.
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:30 pm
Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee
Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 4266 Location: Where the cheese is free.
It's really hard to say whether there is a "typical" methodology for the puzzles, in general. The difficulty level seems to have quite a wide range.
Belltower has taken quite a bit of effort to get to it's current state while Infirmary proved very simple once the solve method was determined.
On Inquisitor's Cell, there are no clean divisions or factors in play:
9 cells/religions
10 jailed celebrities
26 numbers
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:41 pm
typoartist22
Veteran
Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 106
ahhhh The Name of the Rose!
just watched this movie a couple months ago...sean connery and christian slater....very entertaining...I suggest watching it if these puzzles are based on it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091605/
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:00 pm
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