The Bizarre

Owner

Greg

Presentation

Teams arrive at a magical bazaar where items can be exchanged. They're explained the rules, given a BOOK and some PROSE to start off, and meet four NPCs. Each of them has a way they can transform objects and a "quest" for a type of objects:

  • The Mathematician, who subtracts letters from words and is looking for shapes

  • The Artist, who "adds red" to objects and is looking for plants.

    • This is based on meaning, rather than wordplay. They give the example SKY->SUNSET, WHITE->PINK and CHEEK->BLUSH show up in the puzzle.

  • The Writer, who spoonerizes pairs of objects and is looking for writing implements

    • "Spoonerize" means swap the leading consonant sound of two objects, such that both results are legal objects.

    • If one of the objects starts with a vowel, the other consonant is moved from one to the other. (e.g. AIR + BOX => BEAR + OX)

  • The Pawn Broker, who buys and sells objects and is looking for other chess pieces

    • They'll buy any object for 1 gold, and have a price list of items they sell.

Walkthrough

There's only one general path through the puzzle. Each quest can be fulfilled twice- after turning in the second item, the character will explicitly say they don't need anything more.

  1. Starting items: PROSE, BOOK

    1. Subtract PROSE -> ROSE

    2. Turn in ROSE to the Artist, receive RAG

  2. BOOK, RAG

    1. Spoonerize BOOK + RAG -> ROOK + BAG

    2. Turn in ROOK to the Pawn Broker, receive YEN and 1 gold

  3. BAG, YEN, 1 gold

    1. Sell BAG for 1 gold

    2. Buy PAWN for 2 gold

    3. Spoonerize PAWN + YEN -> YAWN + PEN

    4. Turn in PEN to the Writer, receive CHEEK

  4. CHEEK, YAWN

    1. Add red to CHEEK -> BLUSH

    2. Subtract BLUSH -> BUSH

    3. Turn in BUSH to the Artist, receive NOTION and 1 gold

  5. YAWN, NOTION, 1 gold

    1. Sell YAWN for 1 gold

    2. Buy LIGHT for 2 gold

    3. Spoonerize LIGHT + NOTION -> KNIGHT + LOTION

    4. Turn in KNIGHT to the Pawn Broker, receive WINE and 1 gold

  6. LOTION, WINE, 1 gold

    1. Sell LOTION for 1 gold

    2. Buy LIGHT for 2 gold

    3. Spoonerize LIGHT + WINE -> WHITE + LINE

      1. They can turn in LINE and get OWL at this point, but they won't be able to use OWL until later.

    4. Add red to WHITE to make PINK

    5. Subtract PINK -> INK

    6. Turn in INK to the Writer, receive 5 gold

  7. LINE/OWL, 5 gold

    1. Buy SCONE for 5 gold

    2. Trim SCONE -> CONE

    3. Turn in LINE and CONE to the Mathematician (in either order), receive OWL and DANCER

  8. DANCER, OWL

    1. Spoonerize DANCER + OWL -> ANSWER DOWEL. (A dowel with the answer on it.)