Part 1: Spoiler Picross puzzle that, when solved, leads to This isn't a full Picross puzzle as there isn't a unique solution. Without using guesswork you can only get to the stage above. However, this is a complete enough QR which leads to http://www.gchq.gov.uk/puzz/pages/index.aspx Part 2 (1/6) Part 2 involves 6 multiple choice questions. Spoiler: First question Which of these is not the odd one out? Starlet Sonnet Saffron Shallot Torrent Suggest Starlet is the odd one out. Doesn't have a double letter pair in. Sonnet is the odd one out. Not 7 letters. Saffron is the odd one out. Doesn't end in a T. Torrent is the odd one out. Doesn't start with an S. Which leaves either Shallot or Suggest. Seeing as Suggest is the only one with a U.. I went for Shallot and it was right! Spoiler: Second question What comes after GREEN, RED, BROWN, RED, BLUE, -, YELLOW, PINK? Red Yellow Green Brown Blue Pink I googled the colours and the "Rules of Snooker" wikipedia page came up. In Snooker, Red is 1 point, Yellow is 2, Green is 3.. and so on. Hence the sequence we have gives 31415?2 Which is pi! The missing number is 9 The answer is Blue. Spoiler: Third question Which is the odd one out? Mature Love Wilde Bucket Beckham Shaka After a while of collecting names on the IRC we came up with Victor Mature Mike Love Oscar Wilde Charlie Bucket Romeo Beckham Shaka Zulu These all contain NATO letters, but Zulu is a surname so that's the odd one out. Spoiler: Fourth question I was loking at a man on top of a hill using flag semaphore to send a message, but to me it looked like a very odd message. It began "ZGJJQ EZRXM" before seemingly ending with a hashtag. Which hashtag? SGM, SEM, SEN, SGN, TEN or TGN? The man saw the flags backwards. Reverse the flags and you get HAPPY CHRISTMAS. MAS goes to the hashtag SGM. Spoiler: Fifth question What comes after 74, 105, 110, 103, 108, 101, 98, 101, 108, 108? 108 101 115 123 111 103 I instantly knew this was decimal. Decoding it gives JINGLEBELL. So an S comes afterwards, which is 115. Spoiler: Sixth question What comes next: D, D, P, V, C, C, D? F E D C B A They're the initials of Santa's reindeer! The missing one is Blitzen, so the answer is B. Welcome to Part 3. Part 3 consists of four questions. The answer to each puzzle is a single word, which can be used to create a URL. Spoiler: Puzzle 1 Complete the sequence: Buck, Cod, Dahlia, Rook, Cuckoo, Rail, Haddock, ? The answer is Cub, as it's a palindrome! Spoiler: Puzzle 2 This one got frustrating! Sum: pest + sqrt(unfixed - riots) After getting stuck on possible synoyms we found http://www.thefreelibrary.com/French numbers.-a0320752260 The words are anagrams of French numbers. Spoiler: Puzzle 3 Samuel says: if agony is the opposite of denial, and witty is the opposite of tepid, then what is the opposite of smart? We Googled famous Samuels, and MidDipper came up with Samuel Morse. Putting the words into Morse code and finding their opposite makes SMART into OFTEN. Spoiler: Puzzle 4 The answers to the following cryptic crossword clues are all words of the same length. We have provided the first four clues only. What is the seventh and last answer? 1 - Withdraw as sailors hold festive sing-song 2 - It receives a worker and returns a queen 3 - Try and sing medley of violin parts 4 - Fit for capture 5 6 7 - ? Clue 1 - "hold" is an indicator word meaning the answer is in the clue itself. "withdraw as sailors" hides WASSAIL Clue 2 - "it receives" is the actual clue comprising of "a worker" and "a queen backwards" from returns. ANT + ENNA (backwards Anne) gives ANTENNA. Clue 3 - "Medley" indicates an anagram of "try sing" with the clue "violin parts" This gives the answer as STRINGY. MidDipper then found http://www.numbertext.org/logo/svg/wordsquare7.svg So the final answer is "LAYERED"
