Puzzle #30
BENCH
PLAY
WING
PACE
Enter your guess
How to Play Detective Craken
~ Setting the Scene ~
Detective Craken darts along the ocean floor, camouflaged to hide their movements from watchful eyes. They have until midnight to prove their best friend, Princess Whirlpool, is innocent. Time is against them, but they need only one final Clue – Mayor Doldrums’ Hidden Treasure Chest – to crack the case.
Suddenly, they spot something glimmering in the sand. Using one of their long tentacles, they unearth the hefty object. It’s the Mayor’s Chest! The contents will surely help prove the mayor is guilty, freeing the Princess once and for all! The Detective rushes back to their study to open it, but – what’s this? The Chest is locked! With their magnifying glass in hand, Detective Craken takes a closer look - someone has installed a combination lock to seal away the Chest’s contents. The Detective has seen this kind of lock once before. To unlock it, a unique combination of letters must be deciphered. Just then, the grandfather clock strikes 11:45. With moments to spare, the Detective grabs their hat from the coat rack and hurries, chest in tow, out to the street. In the low light, they head to the one place they might find the help they and the Princess desperately need. They only hope there’s still enough time…
~ Rules of the Game ~
You will be given a puzzle made of a short list of words. To uncover the solution word the Detective requires, you will assemble it from the letters of the listed puzzle words. Fear not dear voyager! Like a compass, the meanings of the listed words will be there to guide you.
Your first hint: The order of the words in the puzzle matter! The first letter of the solution word comes from the first word in the puzzle, while the second letter of the solution word comes from the second word in the puzzle, and so on. There are as many letters in the solution word as there are words in the puzzle.
Your second hint: all of the puzzle words (except for one) are related by their meaning to the solution word. No “compass” is perfect – the one remaining word in the puzzle is not nearly as related to the solution word. It is there to throw you off! Note that the solution word likely has multiple senses or meanings, and so it may relate to any single puzzle word in a unique way. Also note that while one puzzle word is relatively un-related to the solution word, one letter from all puzzle words must be used to build the solution word.
Let’s get Craken!
~ Example Puzzle ~
Puzzle words:
SHIFT
CUSHION
SEA
MILK
Solution:
FOAM
According to our first hint, we can see that precisely one letter has been taken from each and every word, in order, to build
the solution word:
SHIFT
CUSHION
SEA
MILK
Using the second hint, we can see that whereas most words relate to the solution by their meaning:
-
Furniture CUSHIONs are usually made of foam
-
SEA foam, also called “beach foam,” is very bubbly
-
A key ingredient in a latte is MILK foam
The remaining word from the puzzle, SHIFT, is not nearly as related to our solution word as the others. We still borrowed the letter “F” from this word in order to find our solution.