Inspector Wernstrom arrived at Stjordal Station just as the final train of the night was leaving the station. The call had come in from the Solsiden Hotel just as he was considering having another Akvavit. Although he had tried to explain that wildlife vandalism was outside of his jurisdiction, those kids were just not going to leave him alone until he went out and had a look.
"Now that I'm here," he said to an empty parking lot,"There is an significant amount of damage. If they would just stick to crapping in the woods instead of trying to enjoy the benefits of our outstanding public transportation network, I think everyone would be a lot better off."
He took some photos of the destruction following the path of debris into the station itself. He stopped by a automated ticket machine that looked like it had been traumatized by a passenger that lacked the advantage of opposable thumbs and in serious need of a manicure.
"Well, that must be significant," he said, reaching down to pick up a little black cylinder. "Nobody who hasn't been living in a cave for the last 15 years uses film anymore!"
He tucked the canister into his coat pocket and headed back to the station, hoping to find some clue to where they might be headed next by looking at where they had already been.
Puzzle Rules: Solve the puzzle to determine where our touring bears are headed! Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:
- Send us an Email with "PCS" somewhere in the subject line, containing the first and last name of the players, along with your reasoning. Submitted answers without the reasoning, or those submitted with the incorrect reasoning, will count for participation only, even if the answer itself is correct. And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
- Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. We may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; we may confirm correct answers there.
Hint #1: Bear society is a little anachronistic. They don't use metric yet.
Hint #2: A similar code has been used in previous PCS seasons. This one just requires you to shift the decimal point over a few spaces.
Hint #3: Annapurna = Z
35 comments:
Answer sent!
Ubragg scores! Your move, BCCSweet.
1. Ubragg
The avatar change is thematically appropriate for those who had the misfortune of watching last night's game.
Seriously. That was awful.
BTW, I'm known in certain puzzling circles as Codiak, so I was feeling pretty confident when I saw the title of this puzzle...
I was not aware of that. At last, your secret to dominance of bear-centric puzzles is revealed.
@Ubragg: "certain puzzling circles"? Ye gods, man, how many puzzling circles are you in?!
Ha ha... a few, I guess. Codiak is my nom in the NPL.
There's an outside chance of a tie here. If BCCSweet gets second out of 6 or 7 solves (high for Season V, granted), he will also have 425 points.
Hint #1 posted.
Stubbs, how is the Season Finale puzzle going to work with respect to the scoring? Will the succubus take away puzzle 6 (which would mean that puzzle didn't count towards any of the titles), or will it just be additive to the second half total?
I purposefully left that a little vague, actually. If the first and second half have different winners, it will be a tiebreaker, but it's basically a stand-alone contest with its own mini-prize.
Ah, cool. Sorry to spoil the surprise. :|
No worries, I'll get in to it a little bit deeper once the final standings are posted.
For the record, I had to look up those words to get the reference. :)
Think of 1-5 and 6-10 as the apertura and clausura, and the finale as cup competition.
Weird, those last two comments showed up out of order.
...aaaaand I de-chronologized your comment. Imagine Ubragg's comment came after mine.
I'm proud of myself for teaching him something, at least!
Mind blown.
Abuse of editorial power and its consequences.
Hint #2 posted.
I hate bears.
I'm about to step in to a meeting, but I'll post another hint when I come back.
I'll check responses and questions if I'm able.
answer sent!
This is BCCSweet, by the way. :) My profile has changed.
Todd is right! Now it's all up to the total number of solves.
1. Ubragg
2. Todd Etter/BCCSweet
Hint 3 posted.
Answer sent. (Oh, hi Todd, I didn't know you were BCCSweet.)
Golem is in! I love that the puzzling community is so incestuous, for lack of a better word.
1. Ubragg
2. Todd Etter
3. Golem
Anyone else out there? Quad, Steve K, Cliff Beefpile?
I love all you guys. Incest be damned.
*conducts an incestuous affair*
*jumps into the incestual orgy*
Anyone still playing?
PLAYING THE PUZZLE, you pervos.
*puzzles self*
Post a Comment