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Each cryptic clue yields the keyword to the next, terminating in a message to you, gentle puzzler. With the exception of the first, which requires a little lateral thinking, all the clues are standard cryptic fare. The only prerequisite is knowledge of simple ciphers.

  1. A nut for Caesar’s tiger

  2. Pb rpctg ml mbmln' snxgst nl tfmpr agld

  3. Oj tnavf stjbju fh frhuqflc tn sfv aflbjux!

  4. Nabjmwaq?

  5. Adshn lond rmg bcsmcnb hnf

  6. Lmtdn gs jmlb oqg ndmur omttgqy

  7. Jkn rdanjokuj rny, qrsn rejck jrdaqa okjt, weh hpas wsyb nkirdaqas

  8. Ediaj dss lr diturd fsrfcet

  9. E nbpc mpkbp mc n pmkgqgld bppmp

  10. S rpsa jekt ck spguluq acii epcqb, pesp pskaeg

Jfb dfqq em pt. Rml’tw sq tdtfkd.

Hint:

Mind the gap

DyingIsFun
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3 Answers3

10

This is a very partial answer, just to get the chain started.

Clue 1:

PECAN: A nut for Caesar's tiger.
"Caesar's tiger" is a cryptic hint to apply the Caesar cipher to TIGER. A shift of −4 or 22 yields PECAN, a kind of nut.

Clue 2:

Pb rpctg ml mbmln' snxgst nl tfmpr agld

The first step is to decrypt the clue with the key from clue 1, PECAN. I tried Vigenère and a Caesar shift with keyed alphabets, but to no avail.

Because the puzzle yields a chain of keys, I think that the "simple ciphers" should be those that use a keyword (Vigenère) or create alphabets from keys (Bifid, Trifid, Playfair).

M Oehm
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  • It says, except the first, all others are cryptic while 1st being more of a lateral thinking. So getting Pecan may or may not be correct. Also, it says, every line would give a keyword forming a message, which might mean, we will get only one word and rest might remain gibberish. e.g. Rot 23 on Pb rpctg ml mbmln' snxgst nl tfmpr agld gives My as first word. Not sure if this helps but quite possible. – Techidiot Dec 05 '16 at 10:01
  • @Techidiot: No. Read carefully, it says: "Each cryptic clue yields the keyword to the next, terminating in a message to you". It doesn't say anywhere that every line would give a keyword and that these keywords form a message. I rather guess applying the key obtained from clue 10 to the last phrase, "Jfb dfqq em pt. Rml’tw sq tdtfkd", yields the final message. – M Oehm Dec 05 '16 at 10:13
  • I don't think PECAN could be incorrect, it would be too much of a coincidence. The Rot 23 looks promising, but Rot 2 on the third word yields "on" and Rot 7 on the sixth word yields "us", so maybe this is just a coincidence. I've tried all possible Rots on the other words and none of them yield anything useful. Another thought I had, maybe the transformations carry on to all following sentences. So we have to Rot 22 all other clues first. And the transformation done on clue 2 should be done on 3-10 as well and so on. But so far this hasn't given any useful results either.. – Levieux Dec 05 '16 at 10:14
  • I hope there is no typo then. :) It will ruin all the fun. – Techidiot Dec 05 '16 at 10:15
  • This last thought is also based on the fact that none of the clues (2-10) can be solved with a simple substitution cipher, although I would assume that at least somewhere such a cipher would have to be used. – Levieux Dec 05 '16 at 10:16
  • I'm pretty sure that pecan is the correct answer, even if I can't progress from there. It says that all clues are standard cryptic fare, that is, adhere to the rules for cryptic crosswords. The caveat to the first clue is probably because "Caesar's tiger" isn't in the cryptic canon, but in my opinion, that's being overcautious, because "Caesar's something" isn't any worse than "Spooner's something", especially in a community obsessed with ciphers. It's still a valid cryptic clue with definition and wordplay. – M Oehm Dec 05 '16 at 10:16
  • @MOehm- How lateral thinking comes into picture then? Applying caesar to tiger counts lateral thinking? Or is it sort of red herring? – Techidiot Dec 05 '16 at 10:17
  • A little lateral thinking. That's the OP covering their behind in case someone claims it isn't a valid cryptic clue. – M Oehm Dec 05 '16 at 10:19
  • What about the lack of vowels in the second clue? 31 letters, just one of them a vowel. Coincidence? – Levieux Dec 05 '16 at 10:20
10

Clue 1

Solved by M Oehm.

Clue 2

Solved by Levieux.

Clue 3

As found by Levieux, the decrypted version is

Place vital fluid is during active influx

which is a cryptic clue for

VEIN (the place where blood [vital fluid] is, and found in "active influx").

Clue 4

Decrypt "Nabjmwaq?" using the key found in Clue 3 to get

Deflower?

Thanks to Will, the solution to this is

DAM - a dam is a de-flow-er because it prevents flow.

Clue 5

Decrypt "Adshn lond rmg bcsmcnb hnf" using the key found in Clue 4 to get

Basin mona rch descend ing or Basin monarch descending.

The solution to this is

SINKING - basin+monarch becomes sink+king, and descending = sinking.

Clue 6

Decrypt "Lmtdn gs jmlb oqg ndmur omttgqy" using the key found in Clue 5 to get

Notic ea mong pre cious pottery or Notice among precious pottery.

The solution for this is

SPOT (synonym of notice, found in "precious pottery").

Clue 7

Decrypt "Jkn rdanjokuj rny, qrsn rejck jrdaqa okjt, weh hpas wsyb nkirdaqas" using the key found in Clue 6 to get:

Nor therncoun try, star tingo nthese cond, wil lbea wayf romthesea or Northern country, starting on the second, will be away from the sea.

The solution is

INLAND (Finland is a northern country; start from the second letter to get a word meaning "away from the sea").

Clue 8

Decrypt "Ediaj dss lr diturd fsrfcet" using the key found in Clue 7 to get

Headl ess cr eature isright or Headless creature is right.

The solution is

EAST (creature = beast, remove the first letter to get east, which is to the right on a map).

Clue 9

Decrypt "E nbpc mpkbp mc n pmkgqgld bppmp" using the key found in Clue 8 to get

A perf ormer of p romising error or A performer of promising error.

The solution for this is

SINGER (a performer, and found in "promising error").

Clue 10

Decrypt "S rpsa jekt ck spguluq acii epcqb, pesp pskaeg" using the key found in Clue 9 to get

A frag ment in arduous gibb erish, rear ranged or A fragment in arduous gibberish, rearranged.

The solution is

SHARD (a fragment, and found in the rearranged "gibberish arduous).

FINAL ANSWER

Decrypting "Jfb dfqq em pt. Rml’tw sq tdtfkd." with the key found in Clue 10 gives:

Lif eiss ho rt. Don’tw as tetime. or Life is short. Don't waste time.

Ironic, given how much time I've just wasted solving this puzzle! :-P

Community
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Rand al'Thor
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  • 6 would be SPOT – Will Dec 06 '16 at 13:31
  • @Will Already edited it in before seeing your comment :-) – Rand al'Thor Dec 06 '16 at 13:33
  • @randal'thor-EAST" which is right (B)EAST – Techidiot Dec 06 '16 at 13:37
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    Oy! Quite a share of hidden answers. – M Oehm Dec 06 '16 at 13:39
  • Singer! It is @randal'thor A performer of promising error. – Techidiot Dec 06 '16 at 13:40
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    @Techidiot I edited that in just 8 seconds before your comment :-) – Rand al'Thor Dec 06 '16 at 13:42
  • USA is next? Not sure – Techidiot Dec 06 '16 at 13:42
  • The next one looks like an indirect anagram: We probably need to find a synonym of arduous gibberish and then scramble that. – M Oehm Dec 06 '16 at 13:43
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    @MOehm I was thinking "gibbous", but it doesn't work with the final line :-( – Rand al'Thor Dec 06 '16 at 13:44
  • Need to calm down a bit :D – Techidiot Dec 06 '16 at 13:45
  • @MOehm, you're right about there being lot of hidden answers—too many in fact. But I'm just learning how to read/write cryptic clues and they are the easiest thing to cut one's teeth on. – DyingIsFun Dec 06 '16 at 13:48
  • @Silenus: That was an observation, not a criticism, and also a thinly veiled bragging that I had already found the next answer. (But I agree that hidden answers are best when they are scarce, because they then often come as a surprise, especially when the clue uses misdirection towards another cryptic mechanism.) – M Oehm Dec 06 '16 at 13:51
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    @Silenus Done! Loved this puzzle - the way it was put together made it reasonably easy to solve each piece, but still reasonably hard overall because you have to do them in the right order and can't just do the easy ones first. – Rand al'Thor Dec 06 '16 at 13:52
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    Yes, good puzzle. Finding the cipher was the hardest part, but @Levieux has finally found it. The linear structure has the danger of creating road blocks, but I still think it is a good puzzle for teamwork. And the cipher mechanism is a good way to create a password chain. – M Oehm Dec 06 '16 at 13:56
9

Method:

The solution to each clue provides a key to be used in a substitution cipher, which can then be used to decrypt the following clue.
Whitespaces are misplaced intentionally to prevent finding the plaintext without the key.

Clue 2:

When we decrypt the second clue using a substitution cipher with key PECAN we obtain the following result: "af racti on ofone' sexist en thoar ding".
This becomes: A fraction of one's ex is tent hoarding, or more likely, as Thomas Weller commented: A fraction of one's existent hoarding

Solution for this:

TENTH
Since, "one's existent hoarding and a tenth is also a fraction. Besides, before solving this one, we solved a tenth of all clues.

Clue 3:

The same way we found clue 2, we can now find:
Place vital fluid is during active influx
(The substitution resulted in: pl acevi talflu id isduring ac tiv einflux)

Solution 3:

M Oehm found out this should be vein, since active influx and vital fluid (blood) is in your veins.

Clue 4:

Deflower? (including the question mark)

Levieux
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