Skip to main content
MITMH2022
Public Access

Solution to Midterm of Unspeakable Chaos

Whoston

Answer: COMMON SENSE
by Kevin Wald

This is a quiz in the language of the Realm of Unspeakable Chaos, which was used in four previous Mystery Hunt puzzles:

What was known of the language prior to the current puzzle is compiled in the Dictionary and Grammar linked to on the puzzle page.

Each section of the quiz consists of a fill-in-the-blank question, three circles (blue, purple, and red) containing squares into which the answer may be written, and an instruction saying which circle to put the answer into. The quiz includes the following new vocabulary, which must be deduced:

Part of speechWordTranslation (exact wording may vary)
Nounsfufapen
gamoanswer
kasuquestion
lapaself
mosalife
rozutext
zomaflag
Adjectivekomaz_last
Verbsgefomansing
gokuuse
pugalerase
towrite one's answer in a circle of that color (used in compounds)
tokalwrite
zefoluwrite one's answer in a purple circle

and reads as follows:

Part of QuizQuiz TextTranslationAnswerTranslationCircleLetters and Indices
IntroUgoky zi molden fufa at, omy na ganmi zo moldan. (Ugokyr zi drel fufa at wy bleg fufa at.) Apugerl zi ganmi zo. (Imy pugal zi gamo ot, bry omylip paidagogos zo fi?)You will use a green pen, so your answers are green. (You will not use a black pen or a blue pen.) You will not erase your answers. (If you erase an answer, how will your teacher see it?)
Question
1
KASU-ARKHETYPON: Tylorp di kasu-komaza-mosa-kosmos-panta-Douglas-Adams, ky na gamo fo "ram-ram-ram-ram-ram-_".EXAMPLE QUESTION: I do not know Douglas Adams's ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, but its answer is "8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + _".AM (supplied in blue circle)2AM
Instruction 1(Oti-blag.)(Write your answer in the circle that is blue.)blue4315
Question 2Nickelodeonre (lony rusema programma fa), _ Dora; trido onyma-programma fa fi.On Nickelodeon (before her program died), Dora _; her program's name said it.FIGOLEDAexploredFxi
I
GOii
L
EDA
Instruction 2(Oti-wudo-kibisis-Dora.)(Write your answer in the circle that is Dora's knapsack's color.)purple37335457261822
Question 3Imy tokarl zi rozu ut, wy pugal zi rozu zu, na papyros zo _ papyros ot (wudore).If you do not write a text, or you erase your text, your paper is a _ paper (colorwise).NASTIwhiteNiii
A
STI
Instruction 3(Oti-wudo-prasu-zoma-Pentekontapolis.)(Write your answer in the circle that is the US flag's stripe-color.)red20942230
Question 4Plaguz "zefolu di" "tokal di gamo do omy wum (moldin) gamo do _ fogu ut"."I [zefolu]" means "I write my answer so my (green) answer wears a _ ring".PODOLYG (BLYG and SULDY are too short)purplei
P
ODOLYiv
G
Instruction 4(Uzefoly.)([Imperative of zefolu].) purple2311838173425
Question 5Tokela Madonna py Mirwais Ahmadzaï "Tylorp _ Di"; gefomena Madonna fi "Mosa-Pentekontapolis"re. (Nar gamo zo "dulo".)Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï wrote "_ Doesn't Know Me"; Madonna sang it on "American Life". (Your answer is not "body".)STIR(not) anybody [used with negative verbs]STix
I
R
Instruction 5(Oti-wudo-Madonna-Børns.)(Write your answer in the circle that is Børns's Madonna's color.)blue5491344
Question 6"_"re, na Dullo-ge Trekkie at, py na fi zopa-wudo, py na komazi logos fo (lony rusam fi) "pazo[sto]"; nea komazi papyros fo ainigma-Agra-Mysterion-MIT at.In "_", Mr. Boddy is a Trekkie, and he is colorblind, and his last word (before he dies) is "shi[rt]"; its last page was an MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle.TULOLA-GOBU (the puzzle is the 2008 puzzle above, which claimed to be the last page of a story with that title)blood-enthusiastTv
U
Lx
O
LAGOviii
B
U
Instruction 6(Oti-"wudo-pozosto"-rhesis-komaza-Dullo-ge.)(Write your answer in Mr. Boddy's last speech's "shirt color".)red1248331627193913224
Question 7Tokela Alex Haley "Rozu-Mosa-Lapa-Malcolm-_" (ky nera "Alex Haley" onyma-fufa at).Alex Haley wrote "The Autobiography of Malcolm _" (but "Alex Haley" wasn't a pen name).ZUDUXvi
Z
UDU
Instruction 7(Oti-wudo-zoma-Andrew-Hagios.)(Write your answer in the circle that is Saint Andrew's flag's color.)blue2964640

The letters that go into the boxes with Roman numerals (which are placed the same in each circle for a given question) spell out (in order by numeral):

iiiiiiivvviviiviiiixxxi
PLAGUZBIOI

Note that the numeral vii is unused, forming a space between two words; replacing each question mark in the question with one word, we get:

PLAGUZ "BIOI" "_".

meaning

"BIOI" means "_".

BIOI is Greek for "lives"; the answer is thus the native Chaotic word for "lives," which would be MONSE (plural of MOSA).

All the letters in boxes, ordered by Arabic numeral (which are placed differently in the circles for a given question) spell out:

1234567891011121314151617181920
OTISULDAOTIMOLDAN
2122232425262728293031323334353637383940
APUGELZIBLYGFOGU
414243444546474849
SARODUT

Again, some numerals are unused, forming spaces between words; replacing each question mark in the instruction with one word, we get:

OTI-SULDA; OTI-MOLDAN; APUGEL ZI BLYG FOGU-SAROD UT.

meaning

Write your answer in the circle that is red; write your answer in the circle that is green; you will erase a blue quarter-circle.

Step by step, this produces the results shown here:

Four rows of circles, running blue, purple, and red left to right, with the circles altered as described below

Specifically:

  1. The word MONSE in green is written in the red circle.
  2. The word MONSE in green is written in the only green circle present — the O from the MONSE written in 1.
  3. One quarter of the blue circle is removed, leaving an incomplete circle.

Then reading the innermost symbols across (taking the incomplete blue circle as C and the complete purple circle as O) gives the answer: COMMON SENSE.