Cryptic: Festivity

     Welcome in and thank you for joining us in this special meeting called “Festivity”. Thank you all for making it back here, to our meeting spot, on such short notice (if not, please refer to issue 1014). The boss realised that we haven’t had a proper meeting since our holiday party last year (if not, refer to issue 1023).

     In honour of Neopets birthday, we have prepared a festive puzzle for all of you here today. This test will check your skills in cryptic clues as well as (in)famous Neopians. I hope you have brushed off the details of popular characters that have been around Neopia. Do you hear the music playing next door? All those who succeed today will receive the password to enter the birthday bash next door where they will be able to eat cake and celebrate with the rest of the esteemed members.

     The first part consists of the following eight cryptic clues. The number in parenthesis is the total number of letters of the answer. Keep in mind that some clues have two-word answers, as denoted by a comma. These will be referred to as the list A clues.

     Singular first person waiting in line, by the sound of it (2)

     Ancient to begin with, stories can reveal old lost legends (6)

     It’s down to have ceased function and it’s through to have succeeded (6)

     Running errands within unique stores (5)

     Pleased pilot but ready to fight (9)

     Befit older tea upset because it wants to be released (7, 6)

     Not first surrounded by half berry to shoot (7)

     Cold temperatures found in a service cavern (3, 4)

     The second part consists of eight more cryptic clues. Once again, the number refers to the number of letters, and some of the answers are made up of two words. These are referred to as the list B clues.

     Bitterly regret so to speak. Then, primarily impressive sand lingers around nearby depths (3, 6)

     Blissful small valley to make him laugh (8)

     Dread caused by error with added tension. Then, partially amount tainted by high peak (6, 8)

     Radiant depression in the land to get wisdom (10)

     Lost initially, all Lenny's trinkets are definitely outstanding relics (7)

     Confused a host wounded, because of fear (7, 5)

     Half digital and caresses the backward stride in space (9)

     Grown up petpet eating fungus. Then, oasis landmark hides pirates (5, 6)

     The third part involves taking each line of list A and the corresponding line from list B (ie. First answer of list A with first answer of list B, and so on.) and, using both answers, figure out which Neopian lore character it is referring to. By the end of this part you should have successfully identified eight Neopian heroes and villains.

     In the fourth and last part you need to take each first letter of each character’s first name, ignoring any surnames, and rearrange them. In order to decipher the correct sequence, please refer to the following:

     SHEEPEARTHSTONEPROTECTORBARMAIDREPAIRGAMESCLAYMORE

     At the end of the test, the eight-letter word you will discover will serve as the password. This thus concludes the introduction to the test, please start working while I quickly hop in next door for a delicious slice of chocolate cake.

     Step One: List A

     “Singular first person waiting in line, by the sound of it (2)”. “Singular first person” can be interpreted as the pronoun “I” and “waiting in line” can mean “queue”. The pointer is “by the sound of it” which signifies that the final answer is a homophone of the clue. Putting them together we get “I queue” or the answer which is IQ.

     “Ancient to begin with, stories can reveal old lost legends (6)”. In this case “Ancient” is an adjective of the answer. “To begin with” is the pointer and it signifies to take each initial letter of the next phrase “stories can reveal old lost legends” - which also acts as a definition - to give the answer SCROLL.

     “It’s down to have ceased function and it’s through to have succeeded (6)”. In this case, we notice that the clue is given as an explanation of the answer when used with two different prepositions. “Down” and “through” are the pointers and partly definitions while “ceased function” and “to have succeeded” are clear definitions. For the answer to work with both pointers it needs to be the word BROKEN.

     “Running errands within unique stores (5)”. “Running errands” is the definition while “within” is the pointer to show that the answer is hidden in the next phrase “unique stores”. This leads to the answer QUEST.

     “Pleased pilot but ready to fight (9)”. This one lacks a pointer since it uses synonyms and word merging to reach the answer with the definition “ready to fight”. “Pleased” can mean glad and pilot can also be called aviator, merging them together we get the answer GLADIATOR.

     “Befit older tea upset because it wants to be released (7, 6)”. The pointer in this case is “upset” which signifies an anagram of the previous phrase “Befit older tea”. With the definition “it wants to be released” the answer is BOTTLED FAERIE.

     “Not first surrounded by half berry to shoot (7)”. “Not first” in this case is the word last. The pointer is “surrounded” which instructs us to put the word last in between half of the word berry, thus ber. The definition is “to shoot” which leads to BLASTER.

     “Cold temperatures found in a service cavern (3, 4)”. “Cold temperatures” is the definition and “found in” is the pointer that shows that the answer is found hidden in the next phrase “a service cavern”. This leads to the answer ICE CAVE.

     Step Two: List B

     “Bitterly regret so to speak. Then, primarily impressive sand lingers around nearby depths (3, 6)”. The first pointer is “so to speak” which alludes to another homophone. “Bitterly regret” can also be rue, which is pronounced the same as ROO. The next pointer is “primarily” which asks us to take the first letter of the next sentence, which also acts as a definition “impressive sand lingers around nearby depths” which leads to ISLAND. The whole answer is thus ROO ISLAND.

          “Radiant depression in the land to get wisdom (10)”. Another clue with no pointer as it uses synonyms. “Radiant” is also bright and “depression in the land” is also a vale. “To get wisdom” is the definition and putting the synonyms together we get the answer BRIGHTVALE.

     “Dread caused by error with added tension. Then, partially amount tainted by high peak (6, 8)”. “Dread” is the definition for the first word. The first pointer is “with added tension”. This alludes to the fact that we need to add an extra letter to the word error to get dread, so the first word is TERROR, having added a T from the word tension. The second pointer is “partially” which signifies that the next phrase “amount tainted” hides the answer MOUNTAIN, with the definition “high peak”. The whole answer is thus TERROR MOUNTAIN.

     “Blissful small valley to make him laugh (8)”. No pointer is present as it uses synonyms. “Blissful” can also be merry and “small valley” is also a dell. “To make him laugh” is a definition referring to the reigning king, and combining the previous words we get the answer MERIDELL.

     “Lost initially, all Lenny's trinkets are definitely outstanding relics (7)”. “Lost” is an adjective of the answer. “Initially” is the pointer to show that we need to take the first letters of the next phrase - which is also a definition - “all Lenny's trinkets are definitely outstanding relics”. This leads to the answer ALTADOR.

     “Confused a host wounded, because of fear (7, 5)”. The pointer is “Confused” which signifies that the next phrase “a host wounded” is an anagram. “Because of fear” is the definition of the answer which is HAUNTED WOODS.

     “Half digital and caresses the backward stride in space (9)”. The first part of the word is “half digital”, which refers to getting part of the word virtual, thus VIRTU. The second part of the word has its own pointer which is “backward”, which acts on “stride”. “Stride” is a synonym of the word step, which backwards is read PETS and has its own definition “caress”. The overall pointer is “and” which tells us to put the two words together. With an overall definition of “in space”, the answer is VIRTUPETS.

     “Grown up Petpet eating fungus. Then, oasis landmark hides pirates (5, 6)”. The first part uses knowledge of Neopets in “Grown up Petpet eating fungus”. The only Petpet that can grow up, or better said, become a Neopet after eating some fungus is the KRAWK. The second word has the pointer “hides” which shows that the second word is hidden within “oasis landmark”, thus it’s ISLAND. “Pirates” is the overall definition for the answer KRAWK ISLAND.

     Step Three: Characters

     In this next part we need to associate each item from list A, which you might have noticed act as a definition for these characters, with its corresponding item from list B, which were clearly all locations. Then for each combination of definition-location, we need to find the corresponding Neopian character.

     IQ - ROO ISLAND

     When you hear Roo Island in conjunction with IQ, your first thought should be ARISTOTLE A. AVINROO, also known as AAA, also known as the Game Master. A yellow Blumaroo hailing from Roo Island. He claims to possess the highest intelligence across the whole of Neopia while being the best at games.

     SCROLL - BRIGHTVALE

     Next one is scroll and Brightvale. This one leads us to ROBERTA, the niece of King Hagan. A blue Acara, she is a princess as well as the shopkeeper of The Scrollery where she sells book items in Brightvale. She’s also a skilled sorceress although she rarely uses her magic anymore, not before helping turn the Darkest Faerie into stone.

     BROKEN - TERROR MOUNTAIN

     Broken and Terror Mountain should allude to the red Bori, DONNY. He runs his Toy Repair Shop atop the peak of Terror Mountain. He is known for being in a bad mood most of the time and in addition he can’t fix everything. Even so, he is trying his best.

     QUEST - MERIDELL

     The famous quests in Meridell hint at ILLUSEN. The Earth Faerie residing in her glade offers quests to Neopians who want to help her. After a certain number of quests she awards the Neopians with prizes of increasing value. Illusen is mostly associated with Meridell despite having lived in Faerieland as well.

     GLADIATOR - ALTADOR

     One of the protectors of Altador and who in fact is a Gladiator is TORAKOR, the blue Grarrl. He is famous for his strength and valour, leading armies to success and protecting the innocent. His statue is found in the Hall of Heroes along with the rest of the protectors.

     BOTTLED FAERIE - HAUNTED WOODS

     The infamous bounty hunter who hunts and imprisons faeries in tiny bottles is none other than Balthazar, the (most probably) mutant Lupe. Although his acts are despicable, they are all a form of revenge for his dark past, as he was mocked by Dark Faeries when he was just a cub. In addition to faerie imprisonment, he is also known for trying to steal stock from herders. Balthazar is associated with the Haunted Woods having been abandoned by his parents, however we don’t know his home land.

     BLASTER - VIRTUPETS

     The most famous blasters from Virtupets are owned by another bounty hunter with the name of Ylana Skyfire, originally Ylana Claymore the blue Acara. A ruthless mercenary who will do anything for money, she worked alongside Dr. Sloth during his return to take down the Resistance. She is mostly associated with Virtupets but we don’t know her actual land origin.

     ICE CAVE - KRAWK ISLAND

     The association of the ice cave with Krawk Island is a tricky one, however it leads to Hannah, the (most probably) yellow Usul. An ex barmaid, she is mostly famous for her adventures in the ice caves of Terror Mountain, even though she has had a lot more adventures all around Neopia. Surprisingly, she is originally from Krawk Island where she was wasting her time being bored serving customers in taverns.

     Step Four: Order

     The last part might be the easiest part yet but also the most crucial to finally uncover the password. Given the long string of text SHEEPEARTHSTONEPROTECTORBARMAIDREPAIRGAMESCLAYMORE we can break it down into smaller words and associate one character to each word

     SHEEP - BALTHAZAR

     EARTH - ILLUSEN

     STONE - ROBERTA

     PROTECTOR - TORAKOR

     BARMAID - HANNAH

     REPAIR - DONNY

     GAMES - ARISTOTLE A. AVINROO

     CLAYMORE - YLANA SKYFIRE

     Lastly, taking the first letter of each Neopian character’s name, ignoring last names as per the instructions, we get the (unexpected) password: BIRTHDAY.

     Congratulations you have found the password and you may now enter the birthday bash. Take it easy with the candy and enjoy the celebrations.

     Happy Birthday Neopets!