Mystery Rallye
by Dave Shukan
The puzzle is a road rallye, filled (as is typical) with traps. Odd-numbered questions have words as answers, and even-numbered questions have numbers as answers. Use each numbered answer to select a letter from the preceding lettered answer. For example, Q1 = MUSTARDSEED RD, SCARLET STUDY, Q2 = 14, and the 14th letter of the answer to Q1 is S. Doing this with all 14 answers yields the solution SLOT CAR.
The Questions from the Course Pages are reproduced below, and next to each Question is the answer to that Question and the traps solvers encountered during that leg. NOTE -- After each leg, solvers who were off on an incorrect path were brought back to the same path before any new traps were played, so that missing a trap in one leg of the rallye should not have affected any other leg.
| Q1: What are the names of (a) the first OPP you see, and (b) the road(s) you see when you first come to a NUM? | MUSTARDSEED RD, SCARLET STUDY -- (1) There is an RI 2.3 that you must comply with after RI 2 -- it's way down where RI-23 should be; thus for RI-2.3 you turn R onto Plum Tree, and for RI-3 you turn L onto Hall. (2) Begin answering the Q when you turn for RI-3, not after you complete it, so the first OPP you come to is Scarlet Study. (3) A NUM is the circle with the number in it -- here, you see NUM 3 before you see the intersection that it sits at; thus, when you first come to NUM 3, the only road you see is Mustardseed Rd; (4) The "Rd" is included in Mustardseed Rd because "Rd" is not listed in the set of words that are nonexistent on naming signs. |
| Q2: How many intersections do you come to? | 14 -- RI-5 is from Doctor Watson to Main heading west. (1) When you R or L, you travel sufficiently so that you no longer see the street you were on, thus you cannot count the SIG at Doctor Watson and Main as the first SIG of RI-6. (2) A SIG is an intersection with a traffic light signal, not the signal itself. Thus, the intersection of Library and Main is one SIG, not two. The third SIG, where you should turn for RI-6, is Conservatory and Main. (3) You'll R at TEE (for NOTE HERCULE) when you hit Baskervilles Round, and follow it around to Plum Tree. You should count the two intersections at Start (the shaded rectangle at the top of the map), since the General Instruction that alleys do not exist does not apply when you are at Start. (4) Don't forget to count the last intersection at Plum Tree and Baskervilles Round, which you come to before you complete RI-7. |
| Q3: What is the name of the first OPP you see? | WHITE CLOUD -- This question does not come into effect when you complete RI-9, because you do not (at that time) make a turn for RI-9 (since you are only CSPDing), and General Instruction 4 says that a question comes into effect only when you make a turn for the RI. But it does come into effect later, because of RALLYEMASTER INSTRUCTION BLOODHOUND GANG. When RALLYEMASTER INSTRUCTION BLOODHOUND GANG is in effect later and you encounter Bloodhound Square, you are deemed at that time to have just made a turn for any RI before RI-24 that you have not yet made a turn for. Thus, when you see Bloodhound Square at that time, you have then effectively just made a turn for RI-9 for the first time, so Q3 becomes answerable at that time, and the first OPP you see at that time is WHITE CLOUD. |
| Q4: What is the total number of different NUMs, Sleuth Squares, and SIGs you see? | 7 -- (1) For RI-10 you turn at the intersection of Plum Tree and Baskervilles Round. Therefore, by General Instruction 1 you cannot turn there for RI-11, so the turn for RI-11 must be made at Scarlet Study. You will see NUM 4, Fingerprint Square, a SIG, Deerstalker Cap Square, NUM 2, Question Mark Square, and a SIG in essentially that order before you R at TEE and follow the outer loop around to R onto Doctor Watson. |
| Q5: What is the name of the first Sleuth Square you come to? | BLOODHOUND SQUARE -- (1) You cannot travel on Mail Room. There is a sign prohibiting travel by vehicles of more than 12,000 pounds. And by RALLYEMASTER INSTRUCTION SHERLOCK, you are currently driving in a 10-ton truck -- remember, RALLYEMASTER INSTRUCTIONs appearing in your materials must be followed at all times, unlike NOTEs that only come into effect at certain times. Thus, the intersection of Green and Conservatory and the undrivable Mail Room (which continues around the bend to the north of its naming sign, since there is no intersection at that bend) meets the definition of a TEE, so you should turn right there in compliance with NOTE INSTRUCTION HERCULE. (2) By General Instruction 6, the "or" in RI-15 divides that RI into 2 parts: ("R at OPP having a name that starts with M") and ("L") -- you should do the part you can do first, which in this case is simply L (turn left) at the easternmost SIG on Main, in which case the first Sleuth Square you come to is Bloodhound Square. |
| Q6: What is the sum of the values of the NUMs you come to? | 3 -- (1) The turn for RI-17 is from Plum Tree to Baskervilles Round, since you cannot L onto Main (since that would be an L at Candlestick and thus in violation of NOTE MARPLE), and you cannot L onto Mail Room (again due to NOTE MARPLE), and all other L's until Baskervilles Round would be at Sleuth Squares. (2) For RI-18 you begin traveling south on S Star, from the top. (The alley at Start is not named and thus is not an OPP.) You'll pass by the circled 2, 6, and 1, but the 6 is not a NUM, since by definition a NUM must be located at an intersection, and the 6 is not located at an intersection, since we are told that the alley it appears to be near does not exist. |
| Q7: What are the names of the OPPs you come to? | CONSERVATORY, WATSON, WHITE CLOUD -- (1) RI-20 is south onto Library. As soon as you see Bloodhound Square, which happens before you get to White Cloud, RIs 21 and 22 are deemed completed by virtue of RALLYEMASTER INSTRUCTION BLOODHOUND GANG and you proceed to RI-24. (There is no RI-23, though there is an RI-2.3.) The first OPP you see is White Cloud and the second OPP is the one after that. (2) And that second OPP is Doctor Watson, which continues all the way under Bloodhound Square. Both the sign "Doctor Watson Ave" and the sign "Dr Watson Way" apply to the segment under Greyhound Square, but the first one provides the longer name, so by General Instruction 5 it is the one that is used, and you turn onto Doctor Watson. (3) So that makes the segment with the sign "Dr Watson Way" an OPP that you come to. And the name of that OPP is in fact simply WATSON, because you must ignore the word "Dr" for purposes of determining road names (the instruction does not say to ignore it only when it stands for "Drive"). |
| Q8: What is the sum of the values of the NUMs you see? | 15 -- You do not see an OPP named Den, because that road is now named Dent, and you do not see Dent, because Rallyemaster Instruction Sherlock instructs that "You cannot see any dent." Thus, the third OPP you come to is Baskervillest (Roundt), and that is where you turn for RI-30. Accordingly, you see NUMs with values 7 and 8 during the course of the Q. |
| Q9: What is the name of the first Sleuth Square you see? | DEERSTALKER CAP SQUARE -- (1) You cannot do the CPSD part of RI-33 because "CPSD" does not mean anything, unlike "CSPD" which is a defined term. And you can now drive on the former Mail Room, which is now simply Mailt thanks to General Instruction 9, and nothing prohibits you from driving on Mailt. (2) The alley you pass does exist, and thus does make an intersection that you need to count. Why? Well, the road you are traveling on is (now) named Start -- its naming sign originally read S Star Terrace, but that was changed by General Instruction 9 to St Start Terracet. And when we determine segment names, we ignore "St" (General Instruction 5), and street names are now the first word appearing on naming signs (General Instruction 9), thus "Start". And recall, alleys are nonexistent except when we are at Start (General Instruction 5), and since we are at Start while driving on the former S Star Terrace (now named Start), the alley we pass exists, and there is now an intersection by the number 6. |
| Q10: What is the number of roads you see, divided by 1/2? | 12 -- Gree(n), Drive The Orient Express Alley, Candlestic(k), De(n), Conservator(y), Mai(l Room). (2) Dividing by 1/2 is multiplying by 2, so 6 x 2 = 12. |
| Q11: What is the name of the first OPP you see? | STA -- (1) For RI-43, you do not have to wait to get to Hal(l), but rather you can R at Hal at the first intersection, since Hal (your passenger by virtue of Rallyemaster Instruction Sherlock) is in your vehicle with you, and thus you are always at Hal. (2) When you are on Mai(n), then Mai(l) is not an OPP, since it has now the same name as the segment you are on and thus is part of the same road. |
| Q12: How many different OPPs do you come to? | 3 -- Sta, Librar, and Docto. The alley at Start is not a road (and thus not an OPP), because it does not have a name (it is at two intersections, not exactly one, and thus is not named by the Rallyemaster Instruction), and a segment is not part of a road unless it has a name. |
| Q13: What is the name of the first OPP you come to? | DRIVE THE ORIENT EXPRESS ALLEY -- (1) For NOTE INSTRUCTION HERCULE, you R at Whit. And then since you are "at" Whit while you are on it, you must take then next R you can to comply with NOTE INSTRUCTION HERCULE a second time. This happens to be at a Sleuth Square -- and thus the "R at Sleuth Square" for RI-54 cannot be done at that time, since the turn for the NOTE has a higher precedence than the turn for the RI and a single turn cannot satisfy two directed turns (by General Instruction 1), and so your first "R at Sleuth Square" (onto Conservator) is done for the NOTE. Then, while you are on Conservator, your next right turn is the "R at Sleuth Square" (onto D(r Watson)) for RI-54. (2) The OPP you see is the former alley at NUM 6, which is no longer an alley by virtue of the Rallyemaster Instruction within the General Rules. The name of that OPP is DRIVE THE ORIENT EXPRESS ALLEY -- the Rallyemaster Instruction, which has higher priority than the naming rules in the General Instructions, tells you that this is the name of the former alley, and since you are not determining the name from a naming sign, the whole name is used. |
| Q14: How many different NUMs do you see? | 2 -- (1) There is no Peacock (it's now Peacoc), so you cannot turn there; you must do the "R at second NUM" part of RI-59. (2) After you R at NUM 5, you can still see that NUM, since you complete the R by going until you just can no longer see Baskerville(s), but at that point you can still see NUM 5. (3) Don't forget to R at Whit again, in which case the first turn for RI-60 is north from Whit(e Cloud) onto Librar(y), and you will soon also see NUM 8. |