[Yoruichi-san]

One day, King Leroy, the High King of Middle Mafiadom, called together all the greatest heroes and adventurers in the land (i.e. you guys) to his Royal Court. After sighing deeply, he proclaimed:

"Prince C.C., that irascible puzzle pusher, has undertaken a perilous journey to seek the Holy GRail, which he plans to use to unite the warring mafiadoms...but I'll let him tell you about that when you find him. Oh great and valiant Warriors of the Mind, I beseech you to take up this Quest to find my rogue son and lend the mental edges of your swords to his aid. I will not lie to you; the journey will be difficult and precarious. However, I am confident that you all are up for the feat."

Then King Leroy waved his hand and his attendant brought in a scroll. It was the first clue left by the Prince. On the scroll was scrawled:

Start by lending the man of the hour a hand and showing your degree of affection by decimating this puzzle:

2:51, 9:00, 1:40, 6:49, 7:09, 11:29, 3:33, 8:04, 7:07, 4:58, 6:00, 5:25, 5:49’, 10:24, 7:40, 2:15, 4:49, 12:38, 9:20, 4:45, 3:25

6:05, 3:51, 7:47, 8:55, 12:16, 9:53, 11:20, 3:18, 6:38, 9:55, 1:31, 3:55, 8:02, 10:58, 4:31, 9:16, 2:45

Edit: Oh, and since this is a hunt, feel free to discuss but please don't post solutions on the thread. Thanks!

Edited January 26, 2009 by Yoruichi-san

[unreality]

Excellent It has begun ;D

[Guest]

One day, King Leroy, the High King of Middle Mafiadom, called together all the greatest heroes and adventurers in the land (i.e. you guys) to his Royal Court. After sighing deeply, he proclaimed:

"Prince C.C., that irascible puzzle pusher, has undertaken a perilous journey to seek the Holy GRail, which he plans to use to unite the warring mafiadoms...but I'll let him tell you about that when you find him. Oh great and valiant Warriors of the Mind, I beseech you to take up this Quest to find my rogue son and lend the mental edges of your swords to his aid. I will not lie to you; the journey will be difficult and precarious. However, I am confident that you all are up for the feat."

Then King Leroy waved his hand and his attendant brought in a scroll. It was the first clue left by the Prince. On the scroll was scrawled:

Start by lending the man of the hour a hand and showing your degree of affection by decimating this puzzle:

2:51, 9:00, 1:40, 6:49, 7:09, 11:29, 3:33, 8:04, 7:07, 4:58, 6:00, 5:25, 5:49’, 10:24, 7:40, 2:15, 4:49, 12:38, 9:20, 4:45, 3:25

6:05, 3:51, 7:47, 8:55, 12:16, 9:53, 11:20, 3:18, 6:38, 9:55, 1:31, 3:55, 8:02, 10:58, 4:31, 9:16, 2:45

Those are times and you find the degree in between and it'll simplify to X/24 and you get your message ?

[Guest]

Edit: Oh, and since this is a hunt, feel free to discuss but please don't post solutions on the thread. Thanks!

Can you post them in spoilers or does this mean we have to PM the answer to you?

EDIT

by decimating we divide the alphabet or the fraction by ten?

Edited January 26, 2009 by Riddle Master Zack

[Yoruichi-san]

Can you post them in spoilers or does this mean we have to PM the answer to you?

The solution to the puzzle itself will tell you what to do next ;P.

[Guest]

I have completed the first three tasks but not sure what to do now.

[Yoruichi-san]

I have completed the first three tasks but not sure what to do now.

If you're stuck, you can PM me with what you have and I'll try to point you in the right direction...some things are harder to see than others ;P

[Guest]

Wow I have no idea but

with degrees between hands. Also, many (9) of the times end in "5", if that's important at all. I can't tell if this is solely a cryptogram of sorts, or if some kind of calculation has to be done first. Maybe degrees between hands, or subtracting or adding the 2 numbers together. Or maybe only the minutes are important- not the hours at all.

[Guest]

Oh...this looks hard o.O *Is up for the challenge* Wow you guys are fast XD *How are you on the fourth step, solarfish?* Anyway...good luck everyone XD *inspects watch closely*

<(^-^)>

[Guest]

Fourth step also proving problematic, but this time I suspect there are some errors in the riddle, so I am going to PM y-san for clarification.

[Yoruichi-san]

Fourth step also proving problematic, but this time I suspect there are some errors in the riddle, so I am going to PM y-san for clarification.

Thanks for catching that...my puzzle-checker fell asleep on the job...literally... ...anyways, it's fixed now.

To everyone else: don't be scared of the big math-breathing dragon...the knight of spreadsheets can make the task simple ;P

[Guest]

Thanks for catching that...my puzzle-checker fell asleep on the job...literally... ...anyways, it's fixed now.

To everyone else: don't be scared of the big math-breathing dragon...the knight of spreadsheets can make the task simple ;P

Still a few minor errors, you have another PM with corrections.

For everyone else, I have come to a bit of a brick wall. I know I have got to the 4th step correctly, but I can't work out what to do next. I don't want to post any questions though as I don't know if anyone else has got there yet. If you are at the second post (that will make sense if you have got there but doesn't give any clue) then please PM me for discussion.

[Guest]

So I'm still stuck on decoding the message. If anyone can give me a small hint to get in the right direction I'd appreciate it!

[Guest]

*Phew* This is really hard...

with all these angles? o.O

<(^-^)>

[Guest]

We are supposed to 'decimate' the riddle, decimals usually involve a factor of 10. If resulting numbers are in a range of 1 to 26 then that might suggest something

[Guest]

*Huh* Well then how come

I'm getting numbers over 26? o.O

<(^-^)>

Edit: OH! Wrong way Kat *headpalm*

Edited January 27, 2009 by Kathleen

[Guest]

We are supposed to 'decimate' the riddle, decimals usually involve a factor of 10. If resulting numbers are in a range of 1 to 26 then that might suggest something

That's what I've been trying but all I get is gibberish.

I find the angles between the hour and minute hand for each time listed. If I leave them as-is, then my greatest value is 270, which will be outside the range 1-26 when I divide it by ten (I also get values of 0, so either my range must be 1-26 or 0-25, I'm not sure which). If I make them all angles >= 180 degrees, then I get something that starts out "LJPLPPK..." which is obviously nonsense. I must be missing SOMETHING here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what...

[grey cells]

That's what I've been trying but all I get is gibberish.

I find the angles between the hour and minute hand for each time listed. If I leave them as-is, then my greatest value is 270, which will be outside the range 1-26 when I divide it by ten (I also get values of 0, so either my range must be 1-26 or 0-25, I'm not sure which). If I make them all angles >= 180 degrees, then I get something that starts out "LJPLPPK..." which is obviously nonsense. I must be missing SOMETHING here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what...

we have to find the angles between the hour hands of 2 consecutive times listed and divide that by 10.

Going to try now. The most I can lose is some time.

EDIT: typo

[Guest]

If the resulting number is more than 26, then just wrap around. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz...

Also, numbers have to positive, so if an angle is negative then add 360 degrees.

[Guest]

If the resulting number is more than 26, then just wrap around. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz...

Also, numbers have to positive, so if an angle is negative then add 360 degrees.

Still nothing

I know when I finally get this I'm going to feel stupid...

1) Are we taking ACTUAL hour position (for example, at 1:30 the hour hand will be half way between the 1 and 2) or "as is" (at 1:30 we take the hour hand at 1 and the minute hand at 30)?

2) If I have a value of 0 does that become 26 (Z)?

[Guest]

Still nothing

I know when I finally get this I'm going to feel stupid...

1) Are we taking ACTUAL hour position (for example, at 1:30 the hour hand will be half way between the 1 and 2) or "as is" (at 1:30 we take the hour hand at 1 and the minute hand at 30)?

2) If I have a value of 0 does that become 26 (Z)?

YAY i am past this part so i can help you on this

1) yes actual position... sart from hour hand clockwise to minute hand too... some letters fill be wrong... but you will be a lot closer

2) no

[Guest]

YAY i am past this part so i can help you on this

1) yes actual position... sart from hour hand clockwise to minute hand too... some letters fill be wrong... but you will be a lot closer

2) no

Thanks so much! I finally got it. I was probably on the right track a long time ago but didn't think it was going anywhere so I dropped it

[Guest]

Er...so I'm on Sinistral's About Me page...trying to pull random words out of the jumbles...and I have to ask: is there some sort of strategy to which words are useless and which aren't? o.O

<(^-^)>

[Guest]

<(^-^)>

Er...so I'm on Sinistral's About Me page...trying to pull random words out of the jumbles...and I have to ask: is there some sort of strategy to which words are useless and which aren't? o.O

...tells you to "use Fibonacci numbers". So it has something to do with those, but exactly what I haven't yet figured out. I'm trying to cross out groups of letters that correspond to those numbers, but not sure how well it is working.

[Guest]

...tells you to "use Fibonacci numbers". So it has something to do with those, but exactly what I haven't yet figured out. I'm trying to cross out groups of letters that correspond to those numbers, but not sure how well it is working.

Yea, I am at that spot too....

I will let you know if i discover anythign

[Guest]

We're all at the same spot? Sweet XD Anyone want to join Rir, Marth and My puzzle solving group?

<(^-^)>