Written by Ivan Wang, Joanna Sands, and Rachel Wei
Art by Rachel Wei
Answer: GO EAT HIS SWORDS
This is a metapuzzle involving the 9 feeder answers taken from non-entangled puzzles in this dimension. On the map, these puzzles are marked with a sword icon after they are solved.
We are presented with a drawing of sword swallowing acts and a table of performer names. The break-in to this puzzle is to consider subsets of our puzzle answers. Each puzzle answer can be broken into two halves; one half will always be a “type” of sword, or more accurately, a substring that creates a real English word when succeeded by “sword.” For example, “BROADBAND” splits into “BROAD + SWORD” while “PASDEDEUX” splits into “PAS + SWORD” to create “PASSWORD.”
A secondary observation is that the remainder of the words start with the first 9 letters of the alphabet, from (LONG)AGO to INFO(CUS). This gives us an ordering for our swords.
| Feeder Answer | Remainder | Sword |
|---|---|---|
| LONGAGO | AGO | LONG(SWORD) |
| BROADBAND | BAND | BROAD(SWORD) |
| CHILDBEARING | CHILD | BEARING(SWORD) |
| PASDEDEUX | DEDEUX | PAS(SWORD) |
| GREATEXPECTATIONS | EXPECTATIONS | GREAT(SWORD) |
| SHORTFALL | FALL | SHORT(SWORD) |
| MIGRATE | GRATE | MI(SWORD) |
| HARDSELL | HARD | SELL(SWORD) |
| INFOCUS | INFO | CUS(SWORD) |
Given the diagram and the title of the meta, The Sword Swallowers, we can deduce that we should attempt to have the performers “swallow” swords to create acts. Each act contains one or two performers, and summing up the number of performers gives the correct number of people in the diagram. This helps confirm that we should be taking the swords from our feeder answers and placing them within one or between two of the performers. By doing so, we construct a set of silly phrases that relate semantically to the name of an act.
| Feeder Answer | Remainder | Missing Sword | Swallowed Phrase | Act Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LONGAGO | AGO | LONG(SWORD) | BABY[LON G]ATE | The Ishtars |
| BROADBAND | BAND | BROAD(SWORD) | PROVER[B ROAD]S | The Rome-bound |
| CHILDBEARING | CHILD | BEARING(SWORD) | MAY[BE A RING]MASTER | The Questionable Emcees |
| PASDEDEUX | DEDEUX | PAS(SWORD) | GRAND[PA S]TOOL | The Coprolites |
| GREATEXPECTATIONS | EXPECTATIONS | GREAT(SWORD) | LOOK IN[G REAT]TEMPT | The Double-Takers |
| SHORTFALL | FALL | SHORT(SWORD) | WOO[SH OR T]HUMP | The Onomatopoeians |
| MIGRATE | GRATE | MI(SWORD) | VO[MI]TED | The Hurler |
| HARDSELL | HARD | SELL(SWORD) | DIE[SEL L]OVER | The Hummers |
| INFOCUS | INFO | CUS(SWORD) | DIS[CUS]S | The Symposium |
Each of the swords has a number of notches on the hilt. Taking this number as an index into the sword, we can extract a clue phrase GOEATHISS. We must do one last “do it again” step, this time swallowing the word “SWORD”, to get the final answer, GO EAT HIS SWORDS.
| Feeder Answer | Remainder | Missing Sword | Act Name | Notches | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LONGAGO | AGO | LONG(SWORD) | The Ishtars | 4 | G |
| BROADBAND | BAND | BROAD(SWORD) | The Rome-bound | 3 | O |
| CHILDBEARING | CHILD | BEARING(SWORD) | The Questionable Emcees | 2 | E |
| PASDEDEUX | DEDEUX | PAS(SWORD) | The Coprolites | 2 | A |
| GREATEXPECTATIONS | EXPECTATIONS | GREAT(SWORD) | The Double-Takers | 5 | T |
| SHORTFALL | FALL | SHORT(SWORD) | The Onomatopoeians | 2 | H |
| MIGRATE | GRATE | MI(SWORD) | The Hurler | 2 | I |
| HARDSELL | HARD | SELL(SWORD) | The Hummers | 1 | S |
| INFOCUS | INFO | CUS(SWORD) | The Symposium | 3 | S |
Author's Notes
Ivan: I really enjoyed the writing of “silly semantic references” from Cardboard (Teammate Hunt 2020) and borrowed some of the ideas (mixed in with a little “swordplay”) for this meta. Some sample clues that never made it into the hunt are listed below.
In a previous iteration of the puzzle, our feeders clued swords rather than containing them as substrings. This led to some more unusual answers like JOANNEHEYLER for BROAD and COVELLITE for CUS. We’re happy with the final set of feeders, which feel more thematic to their puzzles.
We were sad that we were unable to fit “CROS(SWORD)” into the puzzle for a very thematically puzzle-relevant sword. However, the alphabetical constraints made it very difficult to find a good word with CROS as the initial or final substring.
Old Clues
- DEN[SE LL]AMA - The Emperor Kuzcos
- THE O[GRE AT]TACK - The Shingeki no Kyojins, The Shrek Invaders
- CAR[P LAY]OUT - The School