Solution to Forsaken Fortress

by Seth Kleinerman, Steve Nagy, and Aaron Dinkin

This puzzle gets its name from the fishman at the Forsaken Fortress in "Zelda: The Wind Waker," who, if you keep pestering him, eventually says: "You'd better be thankful for the clues you got from me! I'm serious!" Which is to say, pay attention to the clues. The puzzle is a standard diagramless, whose solution is below:

W
E
I
R
D
O
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S
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L
I
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A
A
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A
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A
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B
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P
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C
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D
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A
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B
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Three clues are the same, namely, "Something to look closer at." The answers to these clues are METER, INITIALS, and TRIPLETS. If you investigate the rest of the clues, in particular their METER, INITIALS, and the presence of TRIPLETS, you will notice that there are:

  1. Many clues in iambic pentameter (13/21/48/72/85/96/99/101A & 1/7/14/17/42/61/81/84/102D);

  2. Many clues the initial letters of whose words spell out the names of countries (23/27/54/82/109/112A & 16/28/33/67/104D); and

  3. Many clues which contain three of the same letter, namely 3 Ds, in a row (1/21/22/63/89/93/103A & 5/11/52/59/90/93D).

The down and across answers in one such set of clues intersect in multiple places; reading those letters top to bottom and left to right spells out one of the three answers to the puzzle.

Thematically, the iambic pentameter clues produce the answer LAST SONNET; the country acrostic clues produce the answer CANADA; and the 3-D clues produce the answer DIORAMIC.