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Sanderson Puzzlehunt: Scadrial Round Ash falls from the sky, and ruins your perfectly good jacket. "Damnation," says the white-haired man. "Not where I wanted to end up at all. We need to get out of here. And fast. I'd use a perpendicularity, but..." He turns to you. "I have no idea how I'll get all of us through. I hate to say this, but I'm out of ideas. You got anything?" "Maybe," you say, "these puzzles can help us." "Oh, of course. How utterly convenient." A Note On Indexing Several of the puzzles in this round use a method of solving known as indexing: where you are given a list of words (or, more likely, the words are hinted at) and a list of numbers (call them n), and you take the nth letter of each word to spell the answer. Sometimes, however, you will need to rearrange the words somehow. A Note On Puzzle Order Originally, the puzzles were going to be released by era: the four Era 1 puzzles would come first, followed by the four Era 2 puzzles. However, given that one of the Era 1 puzzles has produced some alarming last-minute issues, I've pulled forward one of the Era 2 puzzles to serve in its place while I attempt to fix it. Thank you for your time. Scadrial Meta "How do we get off of Scadrial?" says the white-haired man. "Do you have any ideas?" Puzzle #1: Travelling Blues Puzzle #2: Inscriptions [View this puzzle as a Google Doc.] Puzzle #3: Family Trees Puzzle #4: Relativity Puzzle #5: Astronomy In Ancient Texts [View this puzzle as a spreadsheet.] Puzzle #6: Makes The Man Puzzle #7: Wayneisms (Wayneism (n): The act of misinterpreting something, usually through malapropisms, use of similar words, misunderstanding the definition, or occasionally just really bad puns.) Puzzle #8: Gossipers Good luck to all teams.

Signups are now closed. All Team PMs and Google Docs have been made and sent - if you haven't received one, and you think you should have, then let me know. (The spec doc will go up with the rest of the puzzles.) Due to some issues the release of the first wave of puzzles will occur at a slightly later time: four hours from now, at 2am EST. (Sorry, America.)

Signups are still open for now. Here are preliminary teams. Team Voidapple * RShara * Turtle373 * xinoehp * MistCLOAKed Mountains * Devotary of Spontaneity Team 2/SNIRS * Karnatheon * Invocation * Rhapsody * NotarySojac Team 4 * Xavier Iriate * luckat * Nohadon * Shqueeves * MiToRo Team 5 * ExaltedDungeonMaster * Rebecca * beantheboy12 * Barbilarian Darkeyes Team Shash Gesheh/Puzzler * DoomStick * Snipexe * MountainKing * Rasarr * ElephantEarwax If you have an issue with your team, or are concerned with balance, be sure to contact me.

Sure thing. Signups will continue to be open for another day or so.

Thanks to everyone who’s joined for the first time! I’ll sort out teams when I get more responses, but right now I’m thinking that at least one team will be split up among the others (although I will do my best to accommodate people who have indicated preferences of who they want to work with). People who expressed interest: @Kidpen @ElephantEarwax @Podman @Firerust People who I haven’t heard from: @Silva @luckat @MostLikelyHuman @Silverblade5 (and others that I’ve contacted elsewhere) If I don’t hear from people, I will unfortunately have to assume that they are dropping out. For people who are dropping out, would you be interested in a spectator doc?

Ash falls from the sky, and ruins your perfectly good jacket. It’s happening! For the uninitiated: The Rules: How do I solve puzzles? The last round (for looking at sample puzzles): The round will begin at midnight (or shortly after) EST on Sunday. I expect this round to take roughly twice as long to finish, which means that the winning team will likely solve all the puzzles at some time on Thursday. I am aware some people have already signed up/dropped out, so I will deal with that later today. Please refrain from posting in the Earth Round from now on.

The new round will be going up soon (tomorrow or the day after) in a new post. If you’d like I can tag you when that happens. I’d recommend going over the Earth puzzles in the intervening period, just to get a sense of what sort of puzzles you’re dealing with. The new round’s will be harder (but hopefully also better).

Solutions for all Earth puzzles (except the meta, unfortunately - I'll see if I can get around to writing it when the next round is finished) are contained below. I've tried to write them as if you're solving it, so you can see the process people would go through (rather than just listing everything). Obviously, you should not read them if you want to solve them. Keeping Up Solution A Beginner's Guide Solution As The Wheel Turns Solution Government Records Solution Truthful Liebrarians Solution The next round is proceeding nicely, with most puzzles well on their way to being finished. Right now I'm hoping signups will go up on Friday, and that the round itself will go up by the end of the weekend. Sorry for the wait.

When it’s ready. That could be tomorrow (although it won’t be), or next week. Right now, from where I’m standing, it’ll probably take at least a few more days before signups go up for anyone else who wants to join.

You’re right. I will correct it. I’d like to ask that spoilers for puzzles should be contained in a spoiler box. I do think the puzzle was underclued, but generally speaking, if you try something and the whole thing could be a coherent word, then you should give googling it a try. That was the main prod I gave to teams in this point of the puzzle. The next batch of rules will make the searching rule (not forbidden, actually expected) clearer.

There is no spec doc, because there were no spectators. The closest thing is my personal doc which contains spoilers for future rounds. Sanderson Puzzlehunt: Earth Round Wrapup (The story segment contains spoilers for the meta.) So I made a thing. I can say that I think it turned out okay. I can’t say it was very organised, or went smoothly. On my end, I would describe it as a massive snowball rolling down a hill - I just had to keep it turning and hope it reached the bottom safely. The rough idea for this has been pinging around the Alleyverse for a while, starting with Nohadon’s 17 Myths challenge that I believe was never completed. That took a very different format to this - a series of riddles that hinted at objects, rather than encoded information - but it gave Mac the idea that something like this could be done. He aired it to me in a PM, and I expressed interest, and we both proceeded to forget about it for some time. It was about Christmas, inspired by the leadup to a fairly large puzzle event, that I asked around for people who were interested in participating. When I received a fairly decent response (about 6 people), I sent word to Mac that I would start designing it. The first round was completed just before signups opened. That was the push that started the snowball rolling down the hill - it reached peak speed on the second day of puzzles, when at some point in the evening I simply gave up recording answer submissions on my spreadsheet - and culminated in a tight race to the finish at about 9am in my timezone, between three teams that all had the ability to win. Congratulations to Team 5, who came out on top by about 1 hour in front of second place (Team Voidapple). I’d like to congratulate everyone on a few things. The first is that every puzzle was solved without hints - or indeed was solved at all. (Yes, even the third one, and the meta.) The second is that every team solved a puzzle. Those give a testament somewhat to fairly watertight design - we didn’t have any unfixable puzzles, although one major problem that I will address shortly - but also to the quality of the solvers. On Puzzles Below, I’m going to cover some thoughts on each of the puzzles, and what I’m happy with and what I’m not. Overall, I’m fairly happy with what went into this round. Five of the puzzles were written by me, and one was written by Mac - due to time constraints you’ll be unlikely to see much more from Mac, unfortunately. You’re stuck with me. These do not contain solutions (although many will contain answers or spoilers). They will be going up some time in the future (although writing the next round takes priority). At the bottom of some of the puzzles I’ve included some quotes from docs or discord chats that I found interesting or funny. On Hints Only about half of you will know this, but at the end of the second day there was somewhat of a debacle surrounding hints for the meta. Three teams were within solving distance at the time when I went to bed. At that time, one of them requested a hint - the only team to do so. With the awareness that I would hate for a team to win just because they asked for a hint where other people held out, I made an agreement with other teams that they would only receive a hint if and when they all agreed to do so. That happened some time in the morning (after Team 5 had solved it and were onto P3 - they received the hint on that puzzle instead), which resulted in a *very* close race, with finishes at nine and ten o’clock. I think the system worked well here, and the result was somewhat fair, but I could also envision points where it could go horribly wrong. One of the teams was extremely disadvantaged by the timing. While I think the result would have been the same should all of them have been awake, it is still problematic and could happen again. I’m also going to tweak how many hints are received, since teams currently receive too many. By the time leading teams attacked the meta, they had 7 hints. Two of the teams finished with 6. The new rules will be outlined when the round goes up. On Story From the three people I asked about the writeups, I got a fairly brain fried response (understandable given the hour and time in the competition). From what I ascertained, I think that most people are skipping (or at least skimming) the story of the white-haired man. I don’t particularly mind - it’s not really much more than a flimsy excuse to solve puzzles, and won’t ever contain puzzle information. I’ll still continue to write them, and the writeups will usually link into the meta, so consider this a ‘look out for the thing that I made’ announcement. I think that’s everything. If there is something that I haven’t covered, let me know. I’d also be interested to hear what puzzles people did and didn’t like, and what kinds of things they would like to see repeated, as that will influence how I write and tell the story of the white-haired man. (Basically, write your own wrapups, people.) See you all on another planet. (I’ll fix the formatting later, when I’m on a better device.)

I’ve had a number of wonderful people offer to assist. Given that helping write would likely preclude you from playing, however, I’m likely to try and go it alone. @StrikerEZ No problem. I know a number of people who were planning to participate more than they did because of IRL reasons, so if it’s not feasible to keep up then this is the right decision. @Podman36 I’ve put you down on the list.

When you say next weekend - this Saturday or the one after? I’ll do my best to run it either before or after the weekend (the one after). Rn I’m aiming for starting next Monday or Tuesday, but that may not be possible for what I’m planning. I’ll keep you all updated.

@MountainKing @ElephantEarwax I’ve put you down as joining the next round, which will happen at a slightly delayed time because I haven’t written it yet. I shall cover that all in wrapup however. And I shall keep out a spare throwing spike for you, EE.

I will bear that in mind for both wrapup and next round. I shall imagine the core solvers for each team should remain roughly the same. @Karnatheon and the rest of Team 2, will you be aiming to solve the meta this round? If so, I will probably keep answer submissions open to allow for that. EDIT: Well done to Team 4, who persevered on the meta for a long time (well over 12 hours) and finally cracked it.

Probably tomorrow. I’m still accepting answer submissions - Team 6 just solved the meta with minimal cluing - very well done to them. I’m expecting two of the other teams to get the meta soon. I’ve also got a lot of things to say, which I will do through a wrap up post which will probably be the one to reopen signups. So that will go up in another 12 hours.

Congratulations to Team Voidapple, who made it to second place exactly 48 hours after the first puzzle was posted. Amazing work, y’all! I will keep the round open for another day or so, in order to let more teams complete the meta. EDIT: Team 6 stuck with Puzzle 3, and have solved it! Well done!

And we have a winner! Congratulations to Team 5, who is the first team to solve every puzzle and thus to reach 100 points. Teams 1 and 4 are still in competition for second place.

ATTENTION TO ALL TEAMS: I have made a terrible error. Please be aware that the meta is not quite accurate. The answer for Puzzle 1 doesn’t clue what fits in the blanks - it instead clues the opposite of what fits in the blanks. The antonym, you might say. My extreme apologies for this. It won’t happen again. IMPORTANT NOTE #2: Team 4 has now solved all puzzles except for the meta, putting them in second place behind Voidapple. Unless one of the other teams catch up (which is also likely), the first among those two to solve the meta will win the round. IMPORTANT NOTE #3: Team 5 has solved the meta with four answers, and is 15 points from a full score. If they solve their final puzzle before either of the other teams solve the meta, they will win. It is quite literally neck and neck right now.

There will be a delay between Round 1 and 2, since I’m not quite happy with those puzzles yet (ie I haven’t written some of them). During that time I’ll probably let people drop out and sign up as they wish. Activity picked up hugely over the afternoon, which is phenomenal. Thanks to everyone who is putting a lot of time into this - it feels really good to make something and then watch people enjoy it. Things like these are only as successful as its participants, and participation has been excellent. EDIT: Team 5 is storming ahead after a slow start, with 4 rapid solves in the past few hours putting them in second place behind Team Voidapple. The winning team may be the one to solve the meta first, which is exciting!

It’s in my first Earth round post, if you want to see for yourself. EDIT: Team 5 is the first team to solve both Wave 2 puzzles after they solved Truthful Liebrarians! EDIT 2: Team 4 has also solved Government Records! Well done!

Alum felt the duralumin-fueled force press against him, and he became cold. Very cold. Emotionless, yes, but not in the way of a firm resolve - but instead of a semi-coma, being unable to respond to any sort of stimuli. He stopped counting. He almost stopped breathing - but his unconscious mind kicked in and kept that going. Sense slowly came to him. He had completely lost count now. And that meant every second could be his last. He stared at the monk, who had grabbed at his arm, and was grinning madly. Pyrus disappeared from his restricted hand, reappearing as a longer blade in his other. Alum drew his hand back, preparing to strike once more, but then he stopped again. In the distance, the barrier had fallen. Should he have an emotional reaction to this? Probably. But his emotions were still dampened, and all he could feel were the tracings of fatigue, and the prickling feeling of poison in his bloodstream. Time was not on his side. “You have failed,” he said to the monk, and plunged the blade towards the neck. @#Voidapple

Congratulations to Team 6, who are the first to solve a puzzle from Wave 2! They solved Truthful Liebrarians, putting them in fifth place. To everyone: make sure that you can be as active as possible. Many of you are very close to a solution - the difference between the teams that get over the line and the ones who do not is just how active they are, trying out new things and rechecking their work. Don't forget to request hints as well if you feel stuck. Every team has made good progress, and hints are extremely useful for making that final push. EDIT: And congrats to Team 4 for their solve of Keeping Up, putting them in second place. EDIT 2: And to Team Voidapple for their solve of Government Records, putting them in third place. EDIT 3: And to Team Voidapple again, for the first solve of As The Wheel Turns. EDIT 4: And to Team Voidapple again, for their solve of A Beginner’s Guide. Congratulations. I’m running out of puzzles. EDIT 5: Team 5 gets on the leaderboard with their solve of Government Records! Every puzzle except the meta has now been solved by at least one team.

Sanderson Puzzlehunt Round 1: Earth You're making some progress on the puzzles when the white-haired man returns, clutching a large sheaf of paper. He slides them towards you. "Two things," the man says. "I found more puzzles." "We already have a surplus of those, mister..." "My name isn't important. I've got far too many of them already. No, these puzzles are essential. And do you know why?" It's a rhetorical question, but he seems to want an answer. You offer one. "Why is that?" With a gleam in his eye, the man says, "I know how the puzzles can power the ritual." Of Mice and Metapuzzles The ones of you who have read the rules will have noticed an odd term: a metapuzzle. No, it's not named after me. It's named that way because it is meta - it encompasses other puzzles. Simply put, a metapuzzle requires some inputs (the answers to the puzzles in the round) and gives an output (the final answer to the round). The simplest form of this would be a bunch of blank spaces with certain ones highlighted - inserting the answers into the blanks spells a word with the highlighted letters. (The Earth metapuzzle isn't that. It's far more interesting.) The Earth Meta uses all the answers from Earth puzzles. You do not need all the answers to solve the puzzle - it should be solvable with just three or four. Two would be unlikely. You can also 'backsolve' a puzzle - if you know that the highlighted letters in the blanks (to use the previous example) are A, B and C, you can work out that the answer to Example Puzzle can only be ABACUS. Solving the Earth Meta grants 25 points. The round does not end when a team solves the meta - it instead ends when a team reaches 100 points (and may continue for some time after that, if people wish to continue submitting answers.) The Wikipedia article, which explains what I mean far better than I do, is here. Puzzle #4: Government Records Puzzle #5: Truthful Liebrarians Puzzle #6: Earth Meta The white-haired man asks, "What do we need to do to power up the ritual?" Good luck to all solvers. ATTENTION TO ALL TEAMS: I have made a terrible error. Please be aware that the meta is not quite accurate. The answer for Puzzle 1 doesn’t clue what fits in the blanks - it instead clues the opposite of what fits in the blanks. The antonym, you might say. My extreme apologies for this. It won’t happen again. There was also a typographical error in the meta blanks, which I have now fixed.

Usually I’d say no, as signups have closed, but as it’s far too early in the morning to write a rejection letter... sure thing. You’ll be joining Team 6 as they have a high level of inactivity. Do other teams have an issue with this? ATTENTION EVERYONE: In the interests of moving the competition along, I have made a small addition to Puzzle 2’s flavortext to make the way forward more explicit. As several teams are extremely close to solving, this new clue should allow them to get the solution in a much quicker time. Apologies to anyone who has spent hours staring at it without this clue. EDIT: 10 minutes after I post that, we get a solve. Congratulations to Team 4 for being the first team to solve A Beginner’s Guide! EDIT 2: And also to Team 2, who is the second team to solve A Beginner’s Guide, and the first team to solve two puzzles. Congratulations! The second wave of puzzles is now eligible to be released, and will do so in one hour.