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 Forum index » Diversions » Perplex City Puzzle Cards » PXC Puzzle Cards - Questions, Meta and Sub-puzzles
Gemstones - cross-card intrigue #030 and #156
Moderators: AnthraX101, bagsbee, BrianEnigma, cassandra, Giskard, lhall, Mikeyj, myf, poozle, RobMagus, xnbomb
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spugmeistress
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Location: manchester, uk

 		Gemstones - cross-card intrigue #030 and #156
I haven't checked the individual threads for these cards yet, so this is probably a trout - but given that I don't think Mind Candy would hide information on an Orange card that was needed to solve a Blue card, I'm assuming this is a whole different kind of link.

The 'sample' obscure text given on #030 End Of The Line reads:
my own emphasis wrote:
"Precious are the stones, my children, precious that which is dug from the earth. Precious are the rubies, the diamonds, the emeralds and the topaz. I held fast to the amethysts. They mingled them with sapphires so I threw them both from me. Only one choice remained and then nothing was right.....(it goes on, not sure how much of the rest is relevant or not)


for the context - this has nothing to do with solving the puzzle on this card, its meant to be an example of how obscure Gyvann's religious writings can be.

However, on #156 Going Dotty, there is some hidden ink writing - possibly UV, I haven't been able to check, but you can see the gloss of the ink if you look carefully. This reads as:
with original emphasis wrote:
RUBIESDIAMONDSEMERALD
STOPAZAMETHYSTSSAPPHI
RESRUBIESDIAMONDSEMER
ALDSTOPAZAMETHYSTSSAP
PHIRESRUBIESDIAMONDSE
MERALDSTOPAZAMETHYSTS
SAPPHIRESRUBIESDIAMON
DSEMERALDSTOPAZAMETHY
STSSAPPHIRESRUBIESDIA
MONDSEMERALDSTOPAZAME
THYSTSSAPPHIRESRUBIES


I have no idea what this might mean, but it intrigues me muchly, was wondering if anyone else had any ideas?

rach =)

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:22 pm
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mac_monkey
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 		Sorry Spug, is indeed a trout Twisted Evil but I'll let you off. It might be worth having a mixed thread for the both.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:14 am
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James Siegesmund
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 		Well, if that one connection was worth one trout, I can't wait to see what this gets me. Still, it's been bouncing in my head for a few weeks now, and it definitely relates to this topic. Besides, if I'm likely to get a trout for my first post anyway, I might as well earn it. . . Smile

I think there are a lot of card "families" like this one (using that term because "set" and "group" are both taken). By families, I mean cards that are related in some way to one another. Some are obvious -- for instance, Twisty Little Passages and Mind the Gap look very similar, Ishihara and Sex Linked both relate to color blindness, and Pccket Rockets and The Red Ace both involve poker. Others aren't, as sometimes you have to have solved the card to see the connection (though once you have, the relation I'm describing is usually obvious), so I'll put a lot of these groups in spoilers (also, I haven't gotten Wave 4 cards yet, so these groups only include the first three waves).

Here's what I have in the Scrabble Family. . .

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Freak Word is obviously in here, but so are Love Letters (once you solve it) and Strange Loops. Strange Loops, by the way, has the Scrabble "X" on it -- which suggests the written "X" at the top of Love Letters"


The 2^n -1 family. . .

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Here, we have The Rice Gambit, where the answer is 2^64(the # of squares) minus 1. We also have Tower of Cubes, where the answer is 2^30(the number of cubes) minus 1.


The phi/fibonacci family. . .

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Let's see, we have Beadwork, of course, also 419 Scam (answer is the Fibonacci series from the Da Vinci Code), Circular (circles' areas form a Fibonacci series), and Sweet Dreams.


Oh, and there are more . . .

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
the Barcode family (Mondegreen and Barcode Recipe), the ISBN family (Pawnbroker and 419 Scam), the saying 'Hello' family (Magic Numbers and Binary), the Dice Family (Spot Anything and Petals on the Rose), the Mars family (By Another Name, Transit, and maybe You are Here, which has a little Olympus Mons on the Mars drawing), the GPS family (Polar and Traces), the booze family (Ales of the Earth, Alcopoetry, and Cocktails), the three family (Three and Divide by Three), the cat family (Milo and Picto-Dot), the Sam Lloyd family (The Lake and 14-15), the holy family (Revalation and The Angel's Key), the Whipsmart Cows family (Aromarama, Whipsmart Wordsearch, 13th Labour), (


and my personal favorite. . .

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The Margaret-Maitland-puzzles-from-the-books-of-the-Adkins-family family. Confused? Once you've solved Master of Secrets and Broadside, look at this site . Look at the Chapter names for "Keys of Egypt"!


That's all I can remember right now, but I think there are others I am forgetting. Some of these are likely coincidental. Others, like that last one, probably just show personal interests of the guest puzzle makers (or, for the poker family, the puzzle scribes). Still others, like the phi family and the Sam Lloyd family, may just be a natural consequence of gathering a large group of puzzles. Still, I'm not convinced that this can just be tossed aside and forgotten -- there seem to be a LOT of these families, and its hard for me to write them all off as unimportant.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:19 pm
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Scribe
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 		Haven't done the dotty one yet, so I assume those "hidden" words don't relate to the answer. However, I'm undecided on if this is troutworthy or not.

To add fuel to the smoking fire, there's also a funny little signpost on #094 - Prime Rhyme Crime - that has a picture of a diamond (I think) and the words "Casle Castle". The signpost point right, off the card.

Doesn't seem particularly relevant to the puzzle, and might tie in with a possible gemstone meme... Any other signs on other cards?
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:23 am
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spugmeistress
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mac_monkey wrote:
Sorry Spug, is indeed a trout :twisted: but I'll let you off. It might be worth having a mixed thread for the both.


I knew it would be a trout but I'd hope we could have the thread about this subject over here, rather than in the individual card thread, because I don't think it relates to the puzzle on the card and is therefore METAable.

cassandra has also mentioned that its notable that there's 6 types of stone, possibly to do with Gvyann's Book of the Six, the Brotherhood of the Six, and the 6 faces of the cube - maybe its gem encrusted?

rach =)

PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 6:19 pm
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BBuck
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 		I think the full text of the passage on #30 might be relevant.

Quote:
Precious are the stones, my children, precious that which is dug from the earth. Precious are the rubies, the diamonds, the emeralds and the topaz. I held fast to the amethysts. They mingled them with the sapphires, so I threw them both from me. Only one choice remained and from then nothing was right. My children I did not despair, as you must not despair. A quadraped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward. I turned my back to it and strode forward. But after only 20 ammot the light was upon me. Precious, my children, is the light


Quote:
A quadraped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward.


Guess it's a male quadraped then. Shocked

PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:52 pm
Last edited by BBuck on Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Scribe
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 		Assuming it's ok continuing the discussion here - I haven't really been checking the per-card threads - prefer to work without hints/answers until I get really stuck... I suspect this is all troutage then, but might be handy to have it here.

Quote:
Precious are the sones, my children, precious that which is dug from the earth.


"Dug from the Earth", eh? Sounds like a mining operation might be needed. I'll try to check some time, but is there anything so far to hint at what material, or kind of material, is being mined?

Quote:
Precious are the rubies, the diamonds, the emeralds and the topaz.


These are listed in the same order on "Going Dotty", followed by the next one that Gyvann lists, amethysts. But then:

Quote:
They mingled them with the sapphires, so I threw them both from me.


So, they're listed in the same order. But sapphires are apparently useless?

Quote:
Only one choice remained and from then nothing was left.


This seems to refer to another, unnamed, gemstone? Are we missing one? Or does it refer to the emeralds which, apart from amethysts, are the only other unemphasised stone on Going Dotty?

Also - mine says "nothing was right." Is that a mistake, or does yours actually differ, BBuck?
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:33 am
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spugmeistress
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BBuck wrote:
I think the full text of the passage on #30 might be relevant.

Quote:
Precious are the sones, my children, precious that which is dug from the earth. Precious are the rubies, the diamonds, the emeralds and the topaz. I held fast to the amethysts. They mingled them with the sapphires, so I threw them both from me. Only one choice remained and from then nothing was left. My children I did not despair, as you must not despair. A quadraped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward. I turned my back to it and strode forward. But after only 20 ammot the light was upon me. Precious, my children, is the light


Quote:
A quadraped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward.


Guess it's a male quadraped then. :shock:


heh, exactly what i was thinkin bbuck ;)

but yeah, are you sure you typed that right, both mine and scribe's say 'nothing was right'.

i also find it interesting which of the gemstones are unbolded in the 156 text and how it might relate to this passage?

rach =)

PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:52 am
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BBuck
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 		Apologies. There were a couple of typos, as pointed out: it is "nothing was right", and "stones" not "sones". I've edited above.

Looking at the text from Going Dotty, I can't stop thinking about the beginning of the second line: "STOPAZ". An instruction referring to dear Patrick, maybe?

I'm also wondering why Bold, and why the number of lines. You could add one more row of "DIAMONDSEMERALDSTOPAZ" without running onto the next one.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:20 pm
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Scribe
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BBuck wrote:
Looking at the text from Going Dotty, I can't stop thinking about the beginning of the second line: "STOPAZ"


Isn't that just the "emeralds" wrapping round from the first line? All the others seem to wrap too... (I think the S is also non-bold, unlike the TOPAZ.)
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 3:23 pm
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jonc
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Joined: 04 Jul 2006
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Scribe wrote:
Isn't that just the "emeralds" wrapping round from the first line? All the others seem to wrap too... (I think the S is also non-bold, unlike the TOPAZ.)


Indeed, it all wraps. If it's any help, it's 10 rows of 21 characters. I was thinking that it was some sort of key to decoding the passage in no. 30/

PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 6:58 pm
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Cabbage
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BBuck wrote:


Quote:
A quadruped appeared before me, its middle leg held proudly forward.


Guess it's a male quadruped then. Shocked



That's just rude. Rolling Eyes

It made me think that there must have been a source of magic mushrooms
available to Gyvann.

Then it made me think of:
ImpossibleElephant.jpg
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ImpossibleElephant.jpg

PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:54 pm
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Cabbage
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BBuck wrote:
But after only 20 ammot the light was upon me.


ammot= Hebrew word for cubit

cubit = an ancient unit of linear measure, originally equal to the length of the forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow (Answers.com)

The cubit is also a quarter of the height of the human body as illustrated in da Vinci's Vitruvian Man ...

(Trout me but I just searched around this thread and the card's thread and could not find anyone had mentioned this about the word ammot yet) (and why would they?). Don't know what it all means but it's fascinating, Captain.

Cabbage Mr. Green
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:40 pm
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BBuck
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Scribe wrote:
Isn't that just the "emeralds" wrapping round from the first line? All the others seem to wrap too... (I think the S is also non-bold, unlike the TOPAZ.)


Yes and yes, but I'm very suspicious that Patrick Az is the evil mastermind of the whole thing, so "Stop Az" would leap out at me.

Cabbage wrote:
ammot= Hebrew word for cubit

cubit = an ancient unit of linear measure, originally equal to the length of the forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow (Answers.com)


I e-mailed Sister Flynnt on Wednesday to ask how an ammot equated to measurements in our world, but no reply as yet. Guess she's busy.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:09 am
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Scribe
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 		I still have no idea if this is worth following up on, but googling for "CASLE" brings up various things, of which the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy is the "largest" (plus the main result from AcronymFinder).

With all this talk of maps of the UK, it makes me wonder (but not, I say, jump to conclusions, aha).
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:50 pm
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