MIT Mystery Hunt 2020/The Grand Castle

The Grand Castle is one of the first two starter rounds of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt, alongside the Storybook Forest round.

Description

The Grand Castle is modelled after the classic fairy-tale castles, particularly those found in theme parks such as Disneyland or Disneyworld (both containing a region called Fantasyland with a centerpiece building resembling a similar castle). The naming and overworld design of the puzzles in this round also reflect this, many containing either medieval-ish elements or other classic theme park attractions such as an information booth (Penny Park Guide) and Ferris Wheel (The Ferris of Them All). Fittingly, in the center of the overworld menu is the meta, depicted by a large castle surrounded by a moat with a bridge connecting the island to the rest of the region. On the full map of Penny Park, this round is also central, with every other round connecting to it via a path, further informing the solver that it is the first round to be approached, despite the Storybook Forest round being unlocked at the exact same time.

Overworld Menu for The Grand Castle

List of Puzzles

• The Ferris of Them All - Depicted (unsurprisingly) by a ferris wheel.
• Moat-er Boats - Depicted by a kiosk next to the castle's moat and a single boat floating on the water.
• Penny Park Guide - Depicted by an information booth modelled after a castle's turret.
• The Scottish Display - Depicted by an outdoors theatre.
• Snow Job - Depicted by a snow-covered building, likely a ski lodge of some kind.
• The Trebuchet - Depicted fittingly by a trebuchet.

Metapuzzle (The Castle)

The Grand Castle's meta is a mostly pure meta, and includes the following flavourtext:

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?

The meta is fairly straightforward; the answers received by the feeder puzzles, SIX-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.