Friday Foxer #16

Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.

When is a cluster foxer not a cluster foxer? When it’s a chronodungeon! In Roman’s latest foxer type a grid of 25 pictures doubles as the floorplan of a dungeon/cave network. Your task is to enter the dungeon, explore it, gathering jewels and slaying monsters as you go, then exit with as many precious stones as possible.

Deciphering the floorplan is the first step. The date a picture was taken (all of the pictures are from Wikipedia) tells you what it represents. Photos taken in December represent doors – your way into and out of dungeons (there’s always at least one of these on the edge of the grid). January, June, and July pics are jewels (the precise date indicates the number, so a Jan 14th pic, for example, contains 14 jewels). March and May images are monsters (Entering these squares for the first time costs you Health Points. A May 12th pic would reduce your HP total by 12). September squares contain salve, a one-time boost to your HP (The pic shown above would restore 19 HP). October squares are obstructions – impassable squares. Lastly there are abysses, squares that you can only traverse if you have sufficient HP (For example, to cross an April 27th or August 27th pic you’d need at least 27 HP). As it’s impossible to change direction on an abyss square and diagonal movement within a dungeon is forbidden, an abyss square in a grid corner is effectively impassable).

Pics taken in February (flip-all) and November (nowt) represent ’empty’ areas.

Once the floorplan has been deciphered, work out a route through the dungeon that a) bags you as many jewels as possible, and b) doesn’t cost you your life! Routes must start and end at door squares. Visiting every accessible square in a dungeon is not necessary.

You enter today’s chronodungeon with 50 HP.

* * *

 

SOLUTIONS

Last week’s hive foxer theme: heraldry (defoxed by Colonel_K)

ARMIGER (Electric Dragon)
BARRY (Colonel_K)
BEND (Colonel_K, ylla)
CANTING ARMS (Electric Dragon, alison)
CHEQUY (Colonel_K)
COWARD (Colonel_K)
ESTOILE (Electric Dragon)
FESS (Colonel_K)
GOUTTE (Electric Dragon)
GYRON (Electric Dragon)
IMPALED (Colonel_K)
ISSUANT (Colonel_K)
OPINICUS (Electric Dragon)
PELLET (Colonel_K)
PURSUIVANT (Electric Dragon)
SEJANT (Colonel_K, Electric Dragon)
SINISTER (Colonel_K)
TRICKING (Electric Dragon, Colonel_K, ylla)
VORANT (Electric Dragon)

38 Comments

  1. Step 1 read instructions
    Step 2 solve pictures
    Step 3 re-read instructions
    Step 4 solve puzzle.

  3. W69 – Calcutta Cup – 24 February 2018 = F = Empty square

    Z69 – ‘A United States Marine receives instruction on the SVD’ (Dragunov) – 6 May 2009 = M = Monster doing 6HP damage

  6. V69 – Strettweg Cultwagon (of course!) – 21 May 2013 – 21HP Monster (Mrs Nutfield helped)

  9. Y68 – First stage of Falcon 9 Flight 21 descending over the floating landing platform, January 17, 2016 = J = 17 Jewels

    Z66 – Chinese Type 99A tank – 16 July 2017 = J = 16 Jewels

  10. V70 – Merlion, Singapore – 14 October 2019 – OBSTRUCTION (Mrs Nutfield instant ident with no help from me)

  12. Z67 – (ESA’s) Columbus module (right) pictured with the Space Shuttle Endeavour – 27 May 2011 = M = Monster doing 27HP damage, ouch

    Y70 – (Rosa) Parks being fingerprinted by Lieutenant D.H. Lackey – 22 February 1956 = F = Empty square

    X69 – looks like a Longnose Gar, but the wiki page only has a picture of one on its own

  19. X66 – Egyptian military trucks cross a bridge laid over the Suez Canal on October 7, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War/October War = O = Obstruction / impassable

    V66 – (Battle of the Bulge) American soldiers of the 3rd Battalion 119th Infantry Regiment are taken prisoner by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper in Stoumont, Belgium on 19 December 1944 = D = DOOR

  24. Y67 is a Mk II Talon investigating a suspicious package, 12 May 2009 – a 12HP monster (with talons)

  25. V68 is the German war flag being raised after the battle of Westerplatte – 8 September 1939. 8 points of salve!

    • (I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapse) “Crews at the scene of the collapse on the day following the accident” – 24 May 2013 = M = Monster doing 24HP damage

      Thus, the layout should look like:

      Door—Null—OBST—Mo24—Jw16

      OBST—Mo24—Mo6—Mo12—Mo27

      +8HP—Null—OBST—Jw17—Ab23

      Mo21—Null—Ab21—Jw21—Mo6

      OBST—OBST—+11HP—Null—Null

      • If I’m understanding correctly that monsters die when they meet you and stay dead, then:

        In, right, down (monster, to 26HP), down, left (salve, to 34HP), right, up, right (monster, to 28HP), right (monster, to 16HP), down (17 jewels), down (21 jewels, total 38), down, left (salve, to 27HP), right, up, up, up, up (monster, to 3HP), right (16 jewels, total 54).

        Then left, down, left, left, up, left and out…

      • Enter door, go right one.
        Go down one, fight monster, lose 24HP => 26HP remaining
        Go down one, go left one (+8HP) and back right =>W68 with 34HP
        Go down one, go right over the abyss, collect 21 jewels => Y69, 34HP, 21jewels
        Go down one, go left one (+11HP), go back right one and back up one => Y69, 45HP,21 jewels
        Go up one for 17 jewels => Y68, 45HP, 38 jewels
        Go up two squares through the monsters, then right one for the jewels => Z66, 9HP, 54 jewels
        Left one and down one, now they’re empty of monsters => Y67
        Left one into a 6 point monster => X67, 3HP, 54 jewels
        Left one (past the first monster’s corpse), up one, and left one again to the door.

        • Oh, I thought an abyss took the HP from you so I didn’t go that way, but now I read it again I think I’m wrong. I don’t think it matters very much, though – all the monsters I passed have to be killed sometime (poor monsters…)

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