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 (jumping across adjacent abysses is also impossible) 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! You start with 50HP and can only enter a dungeon once. Routes must start and end at door squares.
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s ’33 things wot are red’ missing vowels foxer
1. S PRFL WRB LDMN – super flower blood moon (ylla)
2. MR GSMPSNSNC KLC – marge simpsons necklace (Electric Dragon)
3. MS TFT HST SNT HM R TSS TDM – most of the seats in the emirates stadium (ylla)
4. HNTN GPNK – hunting pink (ylla, Zwack23)
5. RPRMB TN – ripe rambutan (captaincabinets)
6. CHR LCRK RSM NCPR – charlie crokers mini cooper (Phlebas)
7. THSC NDSR SFST RWR STR DN GCR DS – the second series of star wars trading cards (ylla + Phlebas)
8. RB TDDSL – rebated diesel (AFKAMC)
9. FRP PLN CSNT HN TDK NGDM – fire appliances in the united kingdom (ylla)
10. MLT – muleta (ylla)
11. THF RS TC RTDT WHN DR DM L SP RHR – the first car to do two hundred miles per hour (ylla)
12. THWN DML LNT HBL VR DDCL CHY – the windmill on the Boulevard de Clichy (ylla)
13. ND NVN – indiana avenue
14. T HP PRHL FFT HF L GFN GL – the upper half of the flag of angola (ylla)
15. THPLR GNMNM YWN DWSL L – the pelargonium on my windowsill (Electric Dragon, Phlebas)
16. SCTL NDSSX THN SCWRL DHR TGST – scotlands sixth unesco world heritage site (ylla)
17. THM J R TYFB L LSNSN KRTB LTT HST R TFF R M – the majority of balls on a snooker table at the start of a frame (Zwack23 + Electric Dragon)
18. SC RLTBS – scarlet ibis (Zwack23)
19. THSKL NCHS KYLN – the sokolnicheskaya line (ylla)
20. T GRWD SSH R TNT HF N LD YFM JR – tiger woods shirt on the final day of a major (Electric Dragon)
21. THK NG RNR YLST RL NRF R CR NDL – the kangaroo on a royal australian air force roundel (Phlebas)
22. T HPH LS TRYNT HH SFL RDS – the upholstery in the house of lords (Electric Dragon)
23. SM NWR – samian ware (Electric Dragon)
24. T HRT TNGST RNT PFT HSP SS KYT WR – the rotating star on top of the spasskaya tower (Electric Dragon)
25. MS TPCK TSFRD YSL TDCRS PS – most packets of ready salted crisps (ylla)
26. FFR DSDRSS – offreds dress (Electric Dragon)
27. THRCR FTT HTW NTHN NT NTWN TYS XSC HNDRTRP HY – the aircraft that won the nineteen twenty-six schneider trophy (Electric Dragon)
28. THCN T RFJ M MYDD GR – the centre of a jammy dodger (Electric Dragon)
29. THN M LNBRT NSM STCM MNP BN M – the animal in Britain’s most common pub name (ylla)
30. NWRTMS TR – new routemaster (Zwack23)
31. THSM NT NDNT HT TLFT HN NTNT HT NT NB K – the sea mentioned in the title of the nineteenth tintin book (Electric Dragon)
32. VR TLBYGRP HCS – virtual boy graphics (ylla)
33. THFN DRFGR NLN DSFR STSTT LMNT? – the founder of greenlands first settlement? (Zwack23)
W67 is a Netherlands Antilles 50 cent, 2nd November 2017
Y69 – Iran men’s national kabaddi team – 24 August 2018
W66 – Frozen Ice Bubble – 30 March 2016
V68 – Three different Mars rover designs: Sojourner, MER and Curiosity – 15 December 2011
W69 – Solar cooker being demonstrated – 10 October 1962
Y67 – Luxor Obelisk’s erection on the Place de la Concorde, Paris (1836) – 1 April 2007
X66 – Banbury’s Fine Lady Statue – 30 June 2008
Y66 – Apollo Guidance Computer – 19 October 2007
W70 is the Space Shuttle Enterprise being taken by barge under the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge – but the picture isn’t in either of those articles!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B%26T_3800_(7337567620).jpg
3 June 2012
Jewels! But only three of them.
X69 – Pata sword – 24 November 2006 (original upload date)
Nowt!
Z68 – German occupation of the Channel Islands – 22 May 2005
Y68 – Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth – 12 October 2011
Obstruction – no passing the sloth!
W68 – Mia Farrow in Darfur – 16 May 2008
16HP worth of Monster, and those UN forces won’t lift a finger to help!
Z69 – Tupelov Tu-154 – 22 November.
It’s a plane of the Slovak Government Flying Service but is linked from the Tupelov Tu 154 wiki page
X67 – Discoverer Enterprise and Toisa Perseus – it looks like 15 April 2006, though the usual Date Created tag isn’t there.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toisa_Perseus%26Discoverer_Enterprise.jpg
Linked from the wiki page for Drillship
V67 – Bruno Sroka kitesurfing – 15 October 2012
Water obstruction!
Y70 – BM-30 Smerch missile launcher – 21 August 2008
Z68 – is the La Corbière Radio tower, or Marinepeilstand zwo, in short MP2 – 1 June 2013
(so it´s riches all around here… or so Roman wants us to believe)
I see the similarity but I think you’re looking at a different building! The slots in the side are the other way round here. So we’d better go with Viscount’s ID as monster.
Yep. You´re right. It´s MP3. Not MP2…
Now to find out if that´s a Regelbau kit…
This is the image linked from the wiki article I posted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands#/media/File:German_World_War_II_tower_Jersey.jpg
Z67 – is a drip-torch for starting prescribed fires – 10 May 2008
Though fire is one of the biggest monsters, this one is only small and will set us back only 10 HP.
V70 – HOUSE WHERE…LINCOLN DIED (Petersen House) – 29 July 2011
29 Jewels here, if we can get ’em!
V66 – A mural in Dakar Senegal commemerating the Thiaroye Massacre of 1944 – 10 June 2006
More jewels.
X68 – Archer artillery system – 7 October 2015
Arty here! That´s right. None shall pass!
😉
V69 – Saab J29 Tunnan, Swedish Air Force. – 6 July 2013
6 more jewels for the party purse.
I think if I look at any more wiki pages for funicular railways my eyes are going to melt.
Z70 – Cars of the Sant Joan funicular, Montserrat – 06.05.2007
So it’s either 5 jewels or 6HP worth of monster, depending on what date format they intended.
I *knew* I’d been there!
J10—-M30—J30—-OOO—-????
OOO—___—A15—-Ax1—–M10
D>D—M16—OOO—OOO—M22
Jx6—-OOO—___—–A24—–___
J29—–Jx3—-????—-A21—-Mx6
(Trying out the mapping)
X70 has the look of something maybe a bit Boer War, judging from uniforms – haven’t found anything yet though.
Final shootout with the Moonlite gang (15th November 1879) on the Bushranger page.
Wood engraving created 22 November 1879 – another bundle of nowt.
Z66. Fritz X = world’s first utilised precision guided munition
28 December 2017 – another Door
Entering from the top-right door is impossible:
the top row has an obstruction
the second has adjacent abysses
the third obstructions
and if you reach the fourth then you’ve lost too many HP to cross any abyss
Enter left door –
down, down, right, right (gets 38 jewels)
up, right (across the abyss)
up, up (through the monsters)
up (exit the door)
38 jewels, 18 HP remaining
Can you walk past a door without going through it? If so, I think you can do:
In from the left
DDR, LUU (standing in front of door, 39 jewels)
RUU (killed two monsters, only 4HP left)
LR, RL (40 jewels)
DDL (past slain monsters)
Out through the same door
79 jewels, 4HP
Even if not, you can get 40 jewels but emerge with only 4HP by missing out the first line of that, so it depends what you value more!
Roman thinks W67 is an abyss:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Netherlands_Antilles_-_50_Cent_of_1989.jpg
Can you provide a link for your ‘2nd November 2017’ ID?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Na50cent.png#/media/File:Na50cent.png linked from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Antillean_guilder
When I look again it’s an upload date, but it was in the right kind of place, and it’s still the only date I can find!
Upload dates are fine. Much to Roman’s chagrin you’ve found a ‘secret passage’ to the riches in the top-left corner of the dungeon. I make that a haul of 78 jewels.
It is possible to enter at z66 and leave the same way but that only garners 40 jewels. On Roman’s solution z70 is 4 jewels rather than a monster:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant_Joan_Funicular#/media/File:Montserrat_Funicular3.jpg
I think I need to add a rule covering situations where an image has two ‘created’ or ‘uploaded’ dates in Wikipedia. Something like “If there’s ever any uncertainty about an image’s date, defoxers can choose the more helpful one.”