Friday Foxer #145

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. A picture’s Wikipedia taken/created date (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

The theme of Colonel_K’s collage foxer: traditional marching song “The British Grenadiers”

a. glacis (Phlebas)
b. new bath
c. alexander (Nutfield)
d. palisades (Phlebas)
e. hector (Mrs Nutfield)
f. powder (a_monk)
g. hercules (Phlebas)
h. lysander
i. row, row, row (ylla, Nutfield)
j. enemies’ ears (Phlebas)
k. bumper
l. namur (Nutfield, ylla, a_monk)

39 Comments

  1. In a heel turn by Colonel K he licks the tip of his index finger and mimes adding one up on the tally before booing the defoxing crowd.

  2. X67 – Sergei Shoigu and Gerasimov with Putin, Vostok-2022 military exercise in the Russian Far East – 6 September 2022 = 6HP salve

  3. V67 seems to be the Pula Arena in Croatia, but i don’t have that pic on my wiki page (I had this problem with Hans Stuck in a previous foxer being different here in Italia)?

  5. Y68 – Monk Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation during the Buddhist crisis in Vietnam – Taken on 11 June 1963 = 11 jewels

  12. Z68 – 17th-century Thaler coin from Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel with the traditional wild-man design on coins from the mints in the Harz Mountains – 20 October 2006 = Obstruction

  15. V66 is Ještěd Tower in northern Czechia
    The picture seems to be an art photograph by Jiří Jiroutek called Phenomenon Ještěd 01
    As Wikipedia has it: Uploaded: 2 August 2013 = Abyss ? (An abyss in a corner is untraversable)

  16. V70 – searched for japanese monk keepy-uppy
    – A game of Kemari at Tanzan Shrine – 3 November 2006 = nothing

  17. First attempt at a map…

    AA2—????—OOO—OOO—S17
    A17—A10—SS6—????—A17
    ????—????—????—J11—OOO
    A15—????—????—????—M13
    ___—????—????—????—___

    OOO = obstruction
    ___ = empty space
    Mx = monster costing x hit points
    Ax = abyss requiring x hit points to cross
    Jx = x jewels
    Sx = salve giving x hit points
    D^D = door letting us in

  18. X68 – Entrance lobby of the Royal Alberta Museum, 7 October 2018
    That mammoth is an impassable Obstruction!

  23. AA2—DvD—OOO—OOO—S17
    A17—A10—SS6—????—A17
    ????—????—OOO—J11—OOO
    A15—MM1—????—___—M13
    ___—J22—????—????—___

  26. Y67 – Kecksburg Space Acorn
    “model of the UFO that residents of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, United States said they saw crash in the nearby woods in 1965. It was said to be shaped like an acorn, with writing like hieroglyphics around the base.”
    – 30 July 2008 = 30 jewels (and a whole lot of crazy)

  27. Monday map:

    AA2—DvD—OOO—OOO—S17
    A17—A10—SS6—J30—A17
    OOO—????—OOO—J11—OOO
    A15—MM1—????—___—M13
    ___—J22—M20—????—___

    Has to start in->down->down->down->down, because there’s really nowhere else to go!

  28. AA2—DvD—OOO—OOO—S17
    A17—-A10—-SS6-—J30-—A17
    OOO—M27—OOO—J11—OOO
    A15—MM1—OOO—___—M13
    ___—-J22—-M20—-J12-—___

    So we can get down as far as the 22 jewels at the bottom, with 22HP left – but although we could defeat the monster at the bottom to get to the other jewels, 2HP left and 6HP in salve only gives 8, not enough to get back over the abyss on the way out. So it has to be just straight down and straight back up?

    Does someone want to check my maths (or my mapping!)?

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