New Event:Desert Diplomacy

[Siniri]

Today's prize: The Art of Food Sculpting.

We now have 5 times, 5 guild names, 5 items, and 5 methods. JN seems to think that's it (and the picture certainly implies it to be so, unless Princess Amira also had something stolen).
Nope, something's screwy. Those can't be all the times, or there's already a conflict between the "facts" we've been given. Are we supposed to assume not everyone's telling the truth? If not, there must be a sixth time.

Based on clue 5, counting from the bottom, and clue 2, if midnight is the first time, bribing must be Pocket Chess and Pyramid Prowlers must be midnight. Based on clues 6 and 9, bribing/Pocket Chess must not be at 2am or 3am, so it must be at either 1am or 5am. But by clue 2, bribing occurs after the Oasis Runners, which could only have been at 1am or later (because the Pyramid Prowlers were at midnight; see above). So bribing/Pocket Chess cannot be at 1am, either, and by process of elimination, they must be at 5pm if these are all the times. However, based on Clue 3, bribe/Pocket Chess/5am must be the Sun Chasers -- which directly contradicts clue 9.

So there's either a sixth time, or TNT has major logic fail and doesn't understand that "neither the guild who ___ nor the guild who ____" implies there are 2 separate guilds being spoken of. I really hope it's the former.

[Pickles]

The Chemical Properties of Sand - woot! One of the special scrolls!

[Siniri]

Grackle bug. Ick.

With the assumption that TNT made a mistake in clue 6 (counting from the bottom, the one that says neither x nor y is z), and that you could only assume "x is not z" and "y is not z" (but NOT "x is not y," as you should), I was able to solve nearly all my grid. One more clue should do it (I have 4 empty squares in 5 of the 6 areas of the grid, but I have all the guilds linked with times now).

[Pickles]

Desert Petpets: A Cautionary Tale today - yay, another of the LDP scrolls!

It looks like there will be only 3 more days after today, based on the fact that there are only 4 NC items this time.

[Blue]

Hey Jacob! Welcome to the party! No worries, I guess. I just missed 3 days and all 3 clues were waiting for me!


Catching up:
Edible Desert Foliage Vol. 9
Ruki Population Survey Vol. 5
Desert Arrow Launcher

[Siniri]

Sand drawings today. Not one of the R101 scrolls.

Looks like I was right about there being 3 things in each category. I was still able to fill out my grid most of the way. If the new time is not 4am, I'll start over again from scratch (it was easier to just use JN's grid as it was set up, even though that's a pretty silly assumption to make).

[Blue]

Hmpf. Grackle Bug on a Stick today.

[Pickles]

Selket. Meh. Wouldn't mind more of those scrolls!

[Siniri]

Desert usul plushie.

If I can match 2 methods to 2 times, and 2 other methods to 2 items, I should be able to fill in the rest of the grid. So one good clue should do it. I'm kind of glad the last time was 4am so I didn't have to start over again.

[Blue]

My prize for today: The Joy of Burnt Desert Food

I'm hoping to carve out a little time today to put all of this into a grid, but I'm still far behind from taking 5 days of vacation.

[Pickles]

Desert Petpet Stamp today.

I haven't even had a moment to really start working on my grid. Maybe this afternoon?

ETA: Since it appears that tomorrow will be the last day of new clues (probably?) I went ahead and bought 5 of each of the scrolls. It's a gamble, as they could continue to be given out through some daily or another, but if not...<shrugs> The downside to that, was, it knocked me well back under my NP goal. Ah well.


ETA2: Khnum for me, today.

All the clues are in. It looks like everyone is randomly assigned one of the things to answer for. We've got 4 days to answer whatever our particular question is.
Mine is:

Name the scoundrel who dared to lift the Illuminated Menuscript from under King Skarl's nose, as well as when and how it was done.

Guess I'd better get it figured out today sometime, as I've got company coming first thing in the morning!

[Chivewarrior]

And I'm jealous, because Illuminated Manuscript is at the moment the *only* thing I'm sure exactly how and where it was stolen, and I've got no idea about the Magical Blue Amulet, which is the thing I have to solve for.

[Siniri]

My last prize was Ya Tchea Fruit Bomb. The last clue only took me about a minute to finish off my grid (which I needed to do to answer the question about the wedding ring). Apparently some people didn't read their question carefully and put the wrong answer.

And of course people are posting the full solution all over the place. Ah, well... We knew that would happen. I doubt any of you guys will have trouble, but if you do, I've already helped a few people get unstuck (by saying "look at this clue next" or "this is what you know from this kind of clue" for the total logic puzzle novices). Send me a PM with your grid (or table, if that's your preferred method), and I'll give you a nudge in the right direction. (Most people are getting stuck by the exact same clues, so I can probably copy-paste the help at this point...)

P.S. CW is right, Pickles... that's the very first thing you'll get the solution for, and you don't have to solve even half the puzzle to get it. CW, if you need help, send me a PM.

[Pickles]

P.S. CW is right, Pickles... that's the very first thing you'll get the solution for, and you don't have to solve even half the puzzle to get it. CW, if you need help, send me a PM.

Yeah, I just got to the point in solving that I realized that. LOL. I'm still going to finish the puzzle out just to double check things.

ETA: Meh. I messed up somewhere on my grid while filling it out towards the end, and had some contradictory evidence. I wiped it clean, but I've got other things to do right now, so I'll try again later.
Also, you'll be pleased to know that the board with all the answers in one board has been taken down. There are still individual answer boards, but I don't know if TNT is going through and taking them out as they can or not.

[Chivewarrior]

Solved it, after much effort and hard thought! I did go and check my answer against the people posting the answers online, but only after I'd solved the thing myself-- where's the fun in just getting the answer online?