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)
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.
In our defence, who knew Roger Moore’s tenure as Bond was so full of references to The British Grenadiers?
Also, we did find the pictures, just not what they meant!
X67 – Sergei Shoigu and Gerasimov with Putin, Vostok-2022 military exercise in the Russian Far East – 6 September 2022 = 6HP salve
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)?
17 April 2017, 19:08:23 according to my Wikipedia. Pula it is.
Z69 is the Mackinac Bridge from 13th May 2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Bridge#/media/File:Mackinac_Bridge.jpg
Y68 – Monk Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation during the Buddhist crisis in Vietnam – Taken on 11 June 1963 = 11 jewels
Z67 – 30th April 2022 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_National#/media/File:Greater_Manchester_PTE_Leyland_National_at_Whitehaven_Harbour_(geograph_7167138).jpg
W67 is a Babirusa from 10th August 2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babirusa#/media/File:Babyrousa_celebensis_-_Crane.jpg
Y66 – October 24, 2018 – National order of the Leopard – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordre_national_du_L%C3%A9opard#/media/Fichier:Commander_National_Order_Leopard_Zaire_AEA_Collections.jpg
W67 – Skull of a Babirusa. 10 August 2010. Abyss, 10HP.
Curses! Beaten by a minute!
Z70 – Aldwych tube station – 26 November 2011 – empty.
X66 is the Brussels Tram Museum, 24th October 2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_Urban_Transport_Museum#/media/File:Mus%C3%A9e_du_Transport_Urbain_Bruxellois_2.jpg
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
Z66 is the Fiji rugby team performing the cibi war dance, 17th September 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_national_rugby_union_team#/media/File:South_Africa_vs_Fiji_2011_RWC_(1).jpg
V69 – 15 August 2006 – Tree Spade – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_spade#/media/File:Dutchman_95_Tree_Spade_on_Loader.jpg
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)
V70 – searched for japanese monk keepy-uppy
– A game of Kemari at Tanzan Shrine – 3 November 2006 = nothing
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
X68 – Entrance lobby of the Royal Alberta Museum, 7 October 2018
That mammoth is an impassable Obstruction!
W70 – Claw Cracker – 22 July 2007 (Took me a while to work out what the hell was going on)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Using_crab_cracker.jpg
Y69 – 8 November 2009 – David Schnabel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_cycling#/media/File:David_schnabel.jpg
Have to go now, but W69 is a status of an artist, you can see his palette.
Hmm, it’s not Van Dyck in Antwerp, but that looks like the right kind of era
Frans Hals. 1 May 2008.
I went Van Dyck at first and discovered that there are two Anthony Van Dycks, one of which is ‘Anthony Van Dyck (horse)’.
Aha. I was off down a Rubens rabbit hole.
W66 – Mathias Rust’s Cessna 172, which he landed in Red Square.
30 December 2010. A door!
AA2—DvD—OOO—OOO—S17
A17—A10—SS6—????—A17
????—????—OOO—J11—OOO
A15—MM1—????—___—M13
___—J22—????—????—___
V68 – Yas Marina (from the entry for Yas Marina Circuit), 12 October 2018
Another Obstruction.
X70: The Inflatable Antenna Experiment, 20 May 1996
A 20-point Monster! Eek!
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)
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!
Seems that really is the only door.
Y70 – Lake Taupō – “Māori rock carvings at Mine Bay are over 10 metres high and accessible only by boat or kayak.”
– 12 January 2007 = 12 jewels
W68 is the memorial at Düsseldorf Airport for Germanwings flight 9525: 27 March 2015
X69 – The turret looks exactly like those on M8 self-propelled howitzers but the gun is very weird. Also the grousers on the track look very thin, more like paddles, so maybe it’s amphibious.
Found it, Chinese LVT(A)-4 retrofitted with a 37 mm M6 gun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Vehicle_Tracked#/media/File:LVT_(A)_in_Military_Museum_Beijing_20181020.jpg
Date of photo is 20 October 2018.
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!)?