Revealing 21

Hiyo!

Welcome back! It's Monday here and we're already anticipating a crazy week. I suppose that's good for you all (cause it means lots of excellent ND content), but I'll tell you what, I sure could use a bit of a break. :P

You know, I watched the progression of the puzzlers this week, and I have to say you achieved some moments pure brilliance. I love listening to the theories, techniques and guesses. You guys make this so much fun! But I suppose what you've all been waiting for is the answer, eh? Or maybe just a hint.

I don't think Mari quite discovered the myriad of possibilities her clues could lead to, so I'm going to have to do a bit of a reveal in order to explain. Let's see... I'll start like this. Someone solved the puzzle, they just don't know it. ;)

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Solving this puzzle requires an understanding of [ nautical flags and their associated letter codes ]. Each particular statement may contain one or more clues. (Many of you discovered these steps!)

A Tale of Two Ships
“Stop immediately and keep clear!”
- [ Stop Immediately = L, Keep Clear = T ]
“What’s wrong? Do you need medical assistance?”
- [ Require medical assistance = W ]
“We’re fine. We just have a man overboard. I’m going to need you to move astern so we can get to him.”
- [ Man Overboard = O, Moving Astern = S ]
“Oh! I see him! You need to alter your course to starboard if you want to pick him up.”
- [ Move Starboard = E ]
“We got him! Thanks for your help.”
- [ There are no clues in this one :) ]

So once you've gotten all of the clues they need to be unscrambled.

[ T, L, W, O, S, E ]

I think this is where a majority of the complications began. Unfortunately of all the possible answers, only one is correct.

[ Towels ]

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I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. This answer is directly related to Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger. I'm not really allowed to explain how, but you'll definitely get it if you play it. I think that part of the idea was once you had a bizillion possible words you'd say, "hey [ towels ], that's relative to a spa, which is where the next game takes place." But with all these nautical hints we've been dropping, I could see how it might be a bit of a stretch.

Still, I hope everyone enjoyed the puzzle, look forward to a new one this Friday (of course!) Summer's up tomorrow to give you the spiel on her projects. I'm outs!

- Novel -