Wizard Woods (MIT Mystery Hunt 2020)

Wizard Woods
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020
Wizard's Hollow
Author(s)	Asher Walkover
Answer	Click to revealBUREAU
Statistics
No. solves	35
No. total guesses	97
Links
Puzzle	Link
Solution	Link

Wizard Woods is a text adventure from the Wizard's Hollow round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt. It [INSERT BRIEF DESCRIPTION]

Solve Path

As with any text adventure, the first thing to do here is attempt to map out the area.

 

Unfortunately, this proves difficult—the solver will quickly discover that this map has non-sensical geometry. While each individual step is reversible by walking backwards, multiple steps do not follow this same logic; one can walk continuously towards the east or southeast and end up in a cycle. Trying to map out the whole thing on a single graph is a fool's errand.

The best one can do, then, is a table.

While mapping, solvers may notice the ladder tracks connecting up to two directions at any given location. One can follow the tracks, moving in the direction linking up to the direction they just came from, until they reach a dead end; they can then work in the other direction to find the other end of the ladder. Altogether, there are six ladder tracks to map out.

 

Tracks are numbered for ease of reading; they are completely arbitrary.

"Map"

Origin	Direction	Destination	Track
START	N	Fruit Remains	S
Fruit Remains	S	START	S
	NW	Jewelry	6
	NE	Animal	6
	E	Company	1
	SE	Crop	1
Clothing (Elder)	NW	Thin Dough	1
	N	Actor Rehearsal	5
	W	Color	5
	E	Unit of Length	3
Thin Dough	W	Animal	2
	NE	Actor Rehearsal	3
	E	Crop	1
	SE	Clothing	1
	S	Unit of Length	3
Crop (Daft)	W	Thin Dough	1
	NW	Fruit Remains	1
	SE	Company	3
	S	Alcohol	4
Company (Apprentice)	W	Fruit Remains	1
	NW	Crop	3
	E	Actor Rehearsal	3
	S	Fish	1
Fish	W	Jewelry	2
	NW	Actor Rehearsal	5
	N	Company	1
	E	Animal	5
	SE	Animal	2
	S	Tree	2
Jewelry	W	Bird Part	4
	NW	Color	2
	N	Animal	4
	E	Fish	2
	SE	Fruit Remains	6
	S	Bird Part	6
Color	W	Tree	4
	N	Tree	2
	E	Clothing	5
	SE	Fish	2
Tree	NW	Bird Part	4
	N	Fish	2
	E	Color	4
	S	Color	2
Animal (Fledgling)	W	Fish	5
	NW	Fish	2
	N	Alcohol	4
	NE	Unit of Length	5
	E	Thin Dough	2
	SE	Unit of Length	6
	S	Jewelry	4
	SW	Fruit Remains	6
Unit of Length	W	Clothing	3
	NW	Animal	6
	N	Thin Dough	3
	SW	Animal	5
Actor Rehearsal (Chilly)	W	Company	3
	SE	Fish	5
	S	Clothing	5
	SW	Thin Dough	3
Alcohol (Bespectacled)	N	Crop	4
	E	Bird Part	6
	S	Animal	4
Bird Part	W	Alcohol	6
	N	Jewelry	6
	E	Jewelry	4
	SE	Tree	4

But why ladder tracks? Talking to the wizards will reveal an object that they wish to turn into something else. Each initial object is indicated as a capitalized four-letter word.

This combination should lead solvers to deduce that the ladder tracks each represent a word ladder, with rungs clued by the objects in the clearings. One should now determine these ladders, perhaps by identifying four-letter words that fit the category and have valid transformations in either direction.

 

Ladder 1

Fish	CARP
Company	CORP
Fruit Remains	CORE
Crop	CORN
Thin Dough	COIN (dough here as in money)
Clothing	COIF (a kind of cap)

Ladder 2

Thin Dough	PITA
Animal	PIKA
Fish	PIKE
Tree	PINE
Color	PINK
Jewelry	LINK
Fish	LING

Ladder 3

Crop	FARM
Company	FIRM
Actor Rehearsal	FILM
Thin Dough	FILO
Unit of Length	KILO
Clothing	KILT

Ladder 4

Crop	BEET
Alcohol	BEER
Animal	BEAR
Jewelry	BEAD
Bird Part	BEAK
Tree	TEAK
Color	TEAL

Ladder 5

Color	ROSE
Clothing	ROBE
Actor Rehearsal	ROLE
Fish	SOLE
Animal	MOLE
Unit of Length	MILE

Ladder 6

Alcohol	WINE
Bird Part	WING
Jewelry	RING
Fruit Remains	RIND
Animal	HIND
Unit of Length	HAND

There is still the matter of the wizards, though—and just using the objects as linkages doesn't seem to make sense anymore. Well, what about tracking the individual letter changes instead?

 

"Map"

Origin	Direction	Destination	Transformation
START	N	Fruit Remains	N/A
Fruit Remains	S	START	N/A
	NW	Jewelry	D -> G
	NE	Animal	R -> H
	E	Company	E -> P
	SE	Crop	E -> N
Clothing (Elder)	NW	Thin Dough	F -> N
	N	Actor Rehearsal	B -> L
	W	Color	B -> S
	E	Unit of Length	T -> O
Thin Dough	W	Animal	T -> K
	NE	Actor Rehearsal	O -> M
	E	Crop	I -> R
	SE	Clothing	N -> F
	S	Unit of Length	F -> K
Crop (Daft)	W	Thin Dough	R -> I
	NW	Fruit Remains	N -> E
	SE	Company	A -> I
	S	Alcohol	T -> R
Company (Apprentice)	W	Fruit Remains	P -> E
	NW	Crop	I -> A
	E	Actor Rehearsal	R -> L
	S	Fish	O -> A
Fish	W	Jewelry	G -> K
	NW	Actor Rehearsal	S -> R
	N	Company	A -> O
	E	Animal	S -> M
	SE	Animal	E -> A
	S	Tree	K -> N
Jewelry	W	Bird Part	D -> K
	NW	Color	L -> P
	N	Animal	D -> R
	E	Fish	K -> G
	SE	Fruit Remains	G -> D
	S	Bird Part	R -> W
Color	W	Tree	L -> K
	N	Tree	K -> E
	E	Clothing	S -> B
	SE	Fish	P -> L
Tree	NW	Bird Part	T -> B
	N	Fish	N -> K
	E	Color	K -> L
	S	Color	E -> K
Animal (Fledgling)	W	Fish	M -> S
	NW	Fish	A -> E
	N	Alcohol	A -> E
	NE	Unit of Length	O -> I
	E	Thin Dough	K -> T
	SE	Unit of Length	I -> A
	S	Jewelry	R -> D
	SW	Fruit Remains	H -> R
Unit of Length	W	Clothing	O -> T
	NW	Animal	A -> I
	N	Thin Dough	K -> F
	SW	Animal	I -> O
Actor Rehearsal (Chilly)	W	Company	L -> R
	SE	Fish	R -> S
	S	Clothing	L -> B
	SW	Thin Dough	M -> O
Alcohol (Bespectacled)	N	Crop	R -> T
	E	Bird Part	E -> G
	S	Animal	E -> A
Bird Part	W	Alcohol	G -> E
	N	Jewelry	W -> R
	E	Jewelry	K -> D
	SE	Tree	B -> T

Starting from the wizard, there is a unique ladder of letter transformations to transform the starting word into a (clued but not explicitly stated) target word:

 

Apprentice

START	Company	RANK
E	Actor Rehearsal	LANK
S	Clothing	BANK
W	Color	SANK
N	Tree	SANE
N	Fish	SAKE (rice wine)

Bespectacled

START	Alcohol	MEWS
S	Animal	MAWS
W	Fish	SAWS
N	Company	SOWS (female farm animals)

Chilly

START	Actor Rehearsal	COLD
W	Company	CORD
S	Fish	CARD (e.g. a joker)

Daft

START	Crop	TINS
NW	Fruit Remains	TIES
E	Company	TIPS
NW	Crop	TAPS
S	Alcohol	RAPS (some Eminem songs)

Elder

START	Clothing	RAFT
NW	Thin Dough	RANT
W	Animal	RANK
S	Jewelry	DANK
E	Fish	DANG
N	Company	DONG (foreign currency, here Vietnamese)

Fledgling

START	Animal	WARE
S	Jewelry	WADE
W	Bird Part	WAKE
N	Jewelry	RAKE (gardening tool)

The directions are the only parts of the puzzle that haven't explicitly been used yet. Following the directions traces out lowercase letter shapes; arranging these letters in order of the wizard descriptor (which ranges from A-F) yields the answer.

Puzzle Elements

Interactive (Text Adventure) - The puzzle takes the form of a reduced text adventure: there are only nine valid commands (the eight cardinal/ordinal directions and TALK), and all interaction is done via buttons.

 

Word Ladder - The central conceit of the puzzle.

Follow the Arrows - The paths taken by the new word ladders trace out letter shapes (assuming path lengths are one unit in each direction).

Arrangement By Consecutively Designated Emblems - The adjectives describing the wizards start with letters A-F, and the corresponding letters are ordered in this way.