The Castle (Meta) (MIT Mystery Hunt 2020)
| The Castle (Meta) | |
|---|---|
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 | |
| The Grand Castle | |
 Overworld icon for the Grand Castle metapuzzle, The Castle | |
| Author(s) | Ian Tullis |
| Answer | Click to revealOILMEN |
| Links | |
| Puzzle | Link |
| Solution | Link |
The Castle is the metapuzzle from the Grand Castle round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt. It's a pure meta, with only the following flavortext as additional assistance:
Penny Park’s castle has an ostentatious, stately, capitalist facade. The flagstones initially look historic, but investigations have yet to pan out—who will handle it from here?
Solve Path[edit | edit source]
The meta is fairly straightforward; the answers received by the feeder puzzles, answersSIX-WHEELER, FIREBALL ROBERTS, MISTER POTTER, RACHEL CARSON, CRISPIN LIPSCOMB, and UNCERTAIN GRAY all feature a second word that is identical to the name of one of the Texas Panhandle's 26 counties, which are arranged in neat rows of squares. Because of this, all of the answers can have a letter of the alphabet assigned to them (assuming one writes out the alphabet along the counties, one per square in reading order). The remaining first words can then be associated via a shared first letter with one of the "Six Flags Over Texas", referring to the countries whose flags have flown over Texas (and whose flags are also incorporated in the facade on Austin's capitol building). Based on the order of the facade's flags, the letters gained from the second words can be ordered to achieve the final answer for the round.}}
Final Answer:Click to revealOILMEN.
