The Indigo room

[Cuddly Khan]

I actually tried it but it's very hard to make sense of it. Do I have to rearrange every word separately or are the separated in more than one word?

[Jubal]

There is an important clue given in that some words clearly are not supposed to go in the middle of a line, if that helps.

Also, think about common rhythm and rhyme patterns you might be trying to form.

[Cuddly Khan]

I've found both rhymes and I there is only one full stop. I just can't figure out which order the rest of them go in.

[Jubal]

The bad news is that I now can't find the original couplet, don't know what I was aiming for, and I'm always one word off getting the rhyme scheme right when I try this myself. Am going to seek help elsewhere

[Jubal]

I'm going to have to act of god this I'll post a new puzzle soon.

[Cuddly Khan]

Yay. Puzzles are fun.




...Unless you can never figure them out...

[Jubal]

For the record, my post-hoc best attempt at solving my own puzzle was:

If from this room you would be free,
I must be written as shall see
And thus shall be for ever more
The poem to unlock the door.

So I'm wondering if I put a "shall" where there should've been a "you", because other than the second line's "shall" the above looks pretty good.



Anyway, let's get on with the puzzles:

THE PIT COURTYARD (3 points)

Somehow, you get out of the poet's room... you come to a courtyard, with overhanging roofs with tiles and rain guttering (at the crest of the sloping roof there's just more of the building wall which stretches way up, so you can't escape that way). In the centre of the next yard there is a deep, deep pit. It has sides, much like a well, and is about two metres across, but it's dry and with no holes noticeable anywhere. A range of items are sat on a wooden table at the side of the courtyard.

These include:
> A jar of rollmops
> A lodestone
> A big block of polystyrene
> Tubes of crimson paint, toothpaste, and superglue
> A short length of wooden tubing, thin and around 70cm long.

Finally there's a tap at the side of the room. It's marked "DANGEROUS TOXIC LIQUID. NON-CORROSIVE. KILLS ON CONTACT."

And where's the door key to get out of this one? You guessed it, it's in the pit. Good luck!

[Ierne]

Cover the polystyrene block in superglue and throw it in the well so it sticks to the key. Use the wooden tube and the guttering to conduct the liquid from the tap into the well. The polystyrene floats with the key attached.

Keep the lodestone because it sounds useful, and the pickled herrings to eat a last resort even though they are actually dire.

[Jubal]

Very nearly a neat idea... except that if you did that a: you'd probably glue the polystyrene to the bottom of the well and b: even if you did get it just to stick to the key, the key would be full of glue and thus not able to fit a lock properly.

[Ierne]

That *had*occurred to me, I was kinda counting in it being a particularly large key- but it still felt like a (entirely literal) long shot. 😏
however, I got nothing else, unless the guttering is long enough to reach the key, which, given your emphasis on the deepness of the well, I'm guessing it's not.

[Jubal]

Hint:

Spoiler

Consider what else a key might "stick" to?

[Ierne]

Do we still have the electromagnet from room 1? How about throwing the electromagnet down, superglued to the polystyrene, so it grabs the key? And then filling the well as before.

[Jubal]

Uh, sure, I guess?

I mean, you had a literal lodestone, the primary important property of which is that it is magnetic, literally sitting on the table in front of you, but sure, why not, you can use the electromagnet

But yes, basically I'll give you that as a valid answer - my original schema was:
> Glue lodestone to polystyrene, drop in well to catch key
> Use gutter and use the table to prop up the guttering from tap to well, and fill it
> Use the wooden pipe to fish the polystyrene out of the well
> Retrieve key, open door

> The crimson paint and the rollmops are of course collectively forming a red herring

[comrade_general]

Oh sorry, that's just my stuff. I was hired to do some painting there.

[Ierne]

YAY! i NEVER get lateral thinking stuff right
i did consider using the lodestone, but the internet told me that it wouldn't be magnetic *enough* to attach to a key.