Thread: My Completed Clue 3 Solution of Anagrams

Good evening on a rainy late summer night in the big state of Louisiana!

I'm going to plop this whole completed thing down here for posterity. It's either really close to being on-the-money, or I'm a prime candidate for the 'When Trovers Go Bad' award.



I believe clue 3 to be a series of anagrams.

The answer to each anagram puzzle is the clues to collect the next set of letters. Along the way, we discover that the puzzle yields the location to Ana's token in the same two-part fashion as the other hiding places: the name of a park and an exact location within the park.

Step 1: Count the number of petals.

The trick to this step is the numbering system of the grid. It's numbered two different ways.

For the top row of flowers:
LEFT-TO-RIGHT: 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
TOP-TO-BOTTOM: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0

For the other three sides of flowers:
RIGHT-to-LEFT: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0
TOP-TO-BOTTOM: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0

It's only the columns that change--the rows stay the same.

Starting with the top left flower and going clockwise around the illustration:

Top row:
0,2 = D
4,6 = S
4,9 = T
0,7 = U
1,8 = Y

Right side:
2,5 = X
2,7 = N
1,5 = T
1,1 = E

Bottom:
1,6 = I
9,5 = H
0,3 = V
5,2 = A
0,9 = E

Left side:
1,3 = I
4,5 = T
0,5 = N
7,3 = V
1,5 = T

Anagram: STUDY TEN - X. I HAVE IT: TN - V.

This presents the clues to collect the next set of letters. 'Study the 10 x 10. I have it: Ten - V'. If we draw a big 'X' (Roman numeral X) atop the 10 x 10 grid, we collect the letters inside the 'V'--the top quadrant of the 'X'.

Step 2: Draw a big 'X' atop the 10 x 10 grid and collect the letters contained by the 'V'-portion of the 'X'.

A-T-S-A-S-E-G-E-E-E
...Q-L-N-U-A-E-O-T...
......N-V-A-M-M-L......
..........K-E-S-S.........
.............R-S............

Anagram: 'ML MESSAGE' REVEALS ANA TOKEN'S QUEST

This step reveals a major clue that tells us an objective of the puzzle: Ana's token.

'ML MESSAGE' is the clue to collect the next set of letters, and the trick to it is to realize that ML is Roman numeral 1050. We break down the numeral '1050' into its component parts of '10' and '50' and realize those are 'X' and 'L'.

The 'X' is the same one we drew atop the grid in step 1. There are four separate 5 x 5 grids contained in the 10 x 10 grid of clue 3: one to the northwest, one to the northeast, one to the southwest, and one to the southeast. These correspond to the four arms of the big 'X' atop the 10 x 10 grid.

If we separate the four 5 x 5 grids by a big '+' drawn atop the 10 x 10 grid, we collect the letters contained within the 'L'--the top right quadrant.

Step 3: Collect the letters of the top right quadrant.

E-G-E-E-E
A-E-O-T-H
M-M-L-L-I
S-S-L-Y-E
S-T-F-X-T

This selection of letters is confirmed by seeing MESSAGE as an anagram of the first seven letters of the columns and ML in the third row.

Anagram:

FT HILL ST MEM
GO EAST
SEE-L-X-EYE

Ft. Hill State Memorial is the name of the park that should contain Ana's token.

'Go east' and 'See-L-X-Eye' are the clues to collect the next set of letters.

Step 4: Collect the set of letters using directions.

The letters we anagrammed were contained in the top right section of clue 3. If we literally 'go east' from this quadrant, we wrap around the grid and arrive at the top left quadrant. Examining the letters within this quadrant, we see a series of letters that are associated with our clue 'go east': a series of directions.

These directional letters are located in a straight line along a diagonal: N N N N S.

Continuing this diagonal line by wrapping around the grid, we collect further directional letters: C E S N I.

Our final set of 'directions': N N N N S C E S N I.

As you can see, there are two oddballs that don't belong here: the C and the I.

To resolve this problem, we use the second clue we obtained from the previous step: SEE - L - X - EYE. These are a string of four Roman numerals with two of its members spelled out: the C and the I.

We simply substitute the spelled-out versions into our sequence:

N N N N S SEE E S N EYE

As you see, this becomes a completed set of directions.

We simply collect the letters from our 10 x 10 grid suggested by the directions. We'll collect the letter north of an 'N', south of an 'S', east of an 'E' and west of a 'W'.

Our string of directions and the letters we collect:

N-E
N-O
N-L
N-A
S-U

SEE - EOO
E-I
S-I
N-W
EYE-TT

We anagram the entire set of letters.

Anagram: I USE ONLY TWINS SEEN AT ONE-ONE E-E

Step 5: Collect the letters found at the 'twins': 1,1 2,2 3,3 4,4 and 5,5 in each 5 x 5 grid of clue 3:

A-Q-N-K-R
E-E-L-Y-T
T-G-D-E-P
U-R-S-B-L

Anagram:

RED & BLU-GRN PETALS
KEY: Q = T

Step 6: Collect the letters from our original 5 x 5 grid using the number of the total of red and blue-green petals as our coordinates.

By counting the total number of red and blue-green petals for each flower, we discover that the numbers range from 0 - 4. We are collecting coordinates for our original 5 x 5 grid. There's a trick, however: the original grid of letters of our A - Z alphabet is Caesar-shifted according to the second clue of KEY: Q = T. This produces a Caesar shift of +3, and our original grid of letters becomes this:

D-E-F-G-H
I-J- K-L-M
N-O-P-Q-R
S-U-V-W-X
Y-Z-A-B-C

This 5 x 5 grid of letters is numbered 0 - 4:

LEFT-TO-RIGHT: 1-2-3-4-0
TOP-TO-BOTTOM: 0-1-2-3-4

Beginning with the top left flower and proceeding clockwise around clue 3:

0,1 = M
2,2 = O
1,3 = S
0,1 = M
1,1 = I
1,1 = I
1,3 = S
1,2 = N
1,1 = I
1,1 = I
3,1 = K
0,1 = M
1,0 = D
0,5 = C
1,0 = D
1,2 = N
0,2 = R
3,0 = F
1,1 = I

Anagram: I FIND MC, MI, OR SIM KINDS

The trick to this puzzle is to realize that MC and MI are Roman numerals for 1100 and 1001. These are binary numerals for '12' and '9' respectively. As you're aware, these are two of the four cardinal points of a clock: 12:00 and 9:00. The 'similar kinds' being alluded to in the clue are the other two points: 6:00 and 3:00.

Step 7: Collect the letters found at the 12:00, 9:00, 6:00, and 3:00 positions in each 5 x 5 grid of clue 3.

S-V-A-A
E-M-F-I
T-R-J-E
E-B-E-I

Anagram:

I BEAR FIVE-E MATES
'J'

The trick to this is to realize that 'E' is the fifth letter of the alphabet and 'J' is the tenth letter.

This gives us the following substitutions:

I BEAR 5 x 5 MATES
'1-0'

The portion of clue 3 that bears '5 x 5 mates' is the number of leaves on the plants. The clue of '1-0' is letting us know we're going to be dealing with a binary puzzle and versions of '10'.

Step 8: Use the number of leaves on the plants as coordinates for our original A-Z 5 x 5 grid.

Beginning with the plant in the top left corner of clue 3 and proceeding clockwise around the illustration:

5,3 = O
3,5 = X
5,3 = O
5,3 = O
3,3 = M
3,3 = M
2,3 = L
4,2 = I
3,3 = M
4,1 = D
3,3 = M
3,4 = S
3,5 = X
5,2 = J
4,2 = I
5,2 = J
3,3 = M
3,3 = M
4,2 = I

These are NOT the letters to anagram. They form the basis for a binary number puzzle.

As you can see, the majority of these letters are Roman numerals or zeroes:

O X O O M M L I M D M S X J I J M M I

We substitute the appropriate Roman numeral:

0 10 0 0 1000 1000 50 1 1000 500 1000 S 10 J 1 J 1000 1000 1

We have three oddballs here that do not conform to our binary code: the number '5', the letter 'S' and the letter 'J'.

To resolve the problem, we realize that 'S' = 19 (nineteenth letter of the alphabet) and 'J' = 10 (tenth letter of the alphabet).

We recall the second part of the anagram: 'J' = 10.

Each of the three oddballs is a version of '10':

1. The number '5' = '10' in base 5 code.
2. The letter 'S' = 19 = '10' by adding together its two digits 1 + 9.
3. The letter 'J' = 10 because it's the tenth letter of the alphabet.

We substitute '10' for each occurrence of the oddballs in our binary puzzle:

0 10 0 0 1000 1000 '10'0 1 1000 '10'00 1000 '10' 10 '10' 1 '10' 1000 1000 1

We now have a completed binary code:

0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

We apply this code to the letters contained within clue 3. We select the letters corresponding to the '1's for our next anagram puzzle.

Reading across the 10 x 10 grid of clue 3:

A-0
T-1
S-0
A-0
S-0
E-1
G-0
E-0
E-0
E-1
etc.

The selected letters corresponding to the 1's of the applied binary code:

T E E N E O O M I N K S S Y A T

Anagram: NONE IS KEY TO MATES

The trick to this puzzle is to realize that N-O-N-E is a series of directions for north-center-north-east.

Step 9: Collect the letters from each 5 x 5 grid of clue 3 that are located at north - center - north - east.

S-N-S-A
E-L-E-I
T-D-T-E
E-S-E-I

Anagram: I SEE TEN AT L-E SIDES

The trick to this is to realize the 'L' and 'E' mean 'left' and 'east' sides. It's a reference to collect the ten letters found at the left and east sides of the 10 x 10 grid for the next anagram.

lol.

I scoured the heck out of that sign and about two dozen knotholes and picnic benches in its immediate proximity at about the exact same minute elrohir was fingering his token.