Friday Foxer #39

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 geofoxer theme: auctions (defoxed by Aergistal and Colonel_K)

a. car (gusdownnup, Colonel_K)
b. slave auction block (Aergistal)
c. amsterdam (nutfield)
d. scramble (Aergistal)
e. chandelier (Electric Dragon, Nutfield, Viscount)
f. calcutta (Aergistal)
g. candle (Viscount)
h. wine (Electric Dragon, ylla)
i. robinson mitchell (Viscount)
j. yankee (AFKAMC) h
k. reserve (Colonel_K)
l. gavel (Aergistal)

29 Comments

  2. W 69: Piles of salt at the Salar (Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia page) – 13 April 2006
    Abyss requiring 13HP to cross

  12. W68 – 4 September 2009 “Tim Price does well to stay on as Vortex refuses at the Dairy Mounds during the cross-country phase of Burghley Horse Trials 2009.”
    A 4HP Salve

  15. Y 66: A rifle drill team performance at the United States Naval Academy (Exhibition Drill) – 23 May 2013
    Chunky Monster does another 23HP of damage.

    • Z67: Warsaw Uprising Monument, Panoramic view of the monument from the eastern corner – 13 May 2008
      Middling Monster inflicts 13HP of damage

    • W 70: Mongolian State Flag Day (The Mongolian State Honor Guard holding the White Tug of the Mongols on Sukhbaatar Square, State Flag Day 2012) – 9 July 2012
      Scarcely-worth-it 9 Jewels.

    • W 67: Tabanus fly trapped by Drosera filiformis (Cape sundew) on the Carnivorous plant page – 5 June 2006
      Small beer 5 Jewels.

  19. V 70: Kamov Ka-32T of BNPB (UR-CIW of the Indonesian National Agency for Disaster Countermeasures, on the Kamov Ka-27 page) – 13 September 2017
    A restorative 13 hit point Salve.

    • Z 70 is the Great Stupa at Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh.
      The Sanchi page is image-heavy, and I haven’t found the correct image that would have a person in it.

      It’s one of the gateways or Torana.

  20. Z 66: Fortress and Old Town of Tbilisi at dusk (featuring the Bridge of Peace over the Kura River) – 30 January 2021
    30 Jewels. Kerching!

    Jwl7 – – – Mo19 – – – Jwl26 – – Mo23 – – Jwl30

    Mo31 – – – Jwl5 – – – Mo25 – – Jwl25 – – Mo13

    ??? – – – – Slv4 – – – Empty – – – Jwl9 – – – ???

    Empty – – Aby13 – – Obst – – – MoXX – – – Obst

    Slv13 – – – Jwl9 – – – Mo9 – – – Jwl31 – – Door

    Hi Tim,

    a) Y 69 (Rear view of a BAe 146-300 in flight (With deployed airbrake))
    only has a date of “Created: May 2008”
    so the amount of damage cannot be determined.

    b) I assume Salves can take the player over their starting HP

  21. IGNORE THE MAP – I THINK V 67 IS INCORRECT

    Hi Tim,
    the same goes for V 67
    A male Blue-winged Kookaburra at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, Oxfordshire, England.
    with the date “Created: June 2006”

    • Most odd. When I click on the relevant blue-winged kookaburra and BAe 146-300 images in Wikipedia, I can see specific dates (May 31 and April 30).

      I’ve consulted Roman on the salve issue and, yes, if consumed pre-injury it does indeed boost hitpoints.

      • Hmm. Must be a bug in the browser where it can’t handle the last day in the month. I’m using FireFox, but it affected Nutfield too as he posted “Y69 – Eurowings BA 146-300 – May 2008”.

        Jwl7 – – – Mo19 – – – Jwl26 – – Mo23 – – Jwl30

        Mo31 – – – Jwl5 – – – Mo25 – – Jwl25 – – Mo13

        ??? – – – – Slv4 – – – Empty – – – Jwl9 – – – ???

        Empty – – Aby13 – – Obst – – – Aby30 – – Obst

        Slv13 – – – Jwl9 – – – Mo9 – – – Jwl31 – – Door

        (But then again, Nutfield did also find “V67 Kookaburra – 31 May 2006” and “Y70 Lepante Clavichord – 31 January 2005”, both of which don’t display correctly in my FireFox).

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