Yes, I think this is an important clue from earlier.
And from your experience all it takes with most acrostic puzzles is to get a few answers… and then a few more… and suddenly it all comes into place. Why isn’t that working here?
Seems like we need to solve all the clues before we can make sense of the message.
Certainly possible. Unfortunately so many of these clues could have multiple answers; there isn’t a single good fit for a lot of them.
Still, here are some possibilities. Not carefully checked, might have miscounted. Also haphazardly applying the “ignore double letters” rule.
B. Reptile House Occupant: [34, 44, 19, 124, 187, 9, 65, 84, 59, 152, 118, 75, 176]
BEARDED LIZARD
FRILLED LIZARD
C. Awful Incident: [188, 87, 54, 173, 21, 100, 31, 168, 60, 70, 14]
CATASTROPHE
D. Nightmare Feature: [31, 187, 45, 103, 89, 39, 68, 149, 134, 69, 93]
(The word “feature” gets me here. Is it the name of an (Elm Street) movie? Or some characteristic of actual nightmares?)
FREDDY’S DEAD
J. Eerie, Like Music: [156, 183, 29, 101, 51, 57, 163, 94, 67]
FANTASTIC
UNEARTHLY
GROTESQUE
K. It Wouldn’t Die: [175, 4, 177, 84, 136, 142, 133, 82, 156]
DEATHLESS
L. Not Able to be Slain: [186, 38, 4, 150, 140, 162, 27, 170, 62]
DEATHLESS
M. Mystery Series: [39, 161, 96, 145, 104, 120, 182]
COLUMBO
P. Troublesome Sprite: [12, 149, 25, 18, 140, 155, 32, 179, 39, 106, 132]
POLTERGEIST
S. Death Ray User: [60, 178, 33, 166, 15, 73, 22, 2, 152]
GRAND MOFF
T. Entice a Witch?: [116, 186, 148, 74. 118, 188, 109, 131]
PERSUADE
SPELLBOUND
W. Really Big Danger: [130, 98, 117, 24, 61, 140, 79, 184, 133, 164]
MASSIVE PERIL
Z. Enchantment: [16, 63, 67, 49, 169, 64, 39]
GLAMOUR
SORCERY
OBSESSION
DWEOMER
Not a lot of A+ answers there, but might spur some thoughts.
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed stars Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin… and he was in a bunch of horror stuff, maybe everything is Peter Cushing related?
Could the first letters of all the answers spell out something that needs to be done in order to make the rest work?
Jones has yet more from Tennessee. A young lady who worked in the cafeteria at the Blue Rutabega Prison has been found murdered. Judith Greene had failed to show up for her scheduled shifts for the past two days. Calls to her cell phone and rented apartment went unanswered. Friends eventually broke in and found the poor girl. She had been strangled.
Concerns that this murder might be connected with the jailbreak proved to be justified. Police have discovered Ms. Greene’s diary. It seems she was in love with Boris Barlow, who made her feel good for being such a talent on trivia nights. The girl was duped into believing Barlow had been improperly imprisoned for political reasons and just needed time to prove his innocence.
Greene had also been secretly giving Barlow acrostic puzzles, supposedly from Boris’ brother. The brother contacted her several times to secretly send the acrostics to help Barlow “cope with the monotony of prison.”
She had thus in good faith delivered these acrostics over this past summer and fall… until two weeks ago. That’s when she told Barlow she was worried about getting fired and thus could no longer pass on the puzzles.
In reality Boris Barlow has no brother. No one knows who this person was that met with Judith Greene and gave her the acrostics to deliver.
In her last entry to the diary, Judith Greene writes how she has given '“dearest Boris” a key to the supply room at his request so that they can have a romantic tryst after Wednesday Trivia night.
So now it appears that Boris Barlow and at least one other person have been exchanging acrostic puzzles for some time. When Ms. Greene told Barlow’s “brother” that she would no longer risk her job delivering puzzles, Barlow had to receive the last one anonymously in the mail. It must have been the final acrostic needed before the escape.
And then the unfortunate Judith Greene was silenced.
Here’s a thought:
B. HARRYSPALDING
“The Reptile” is a 1966 horror film, and it starts when Harry and wife inherit a cottage after his brother mysteriously dies…
I like it – very much in keeping with the theme of the puzzle.
I don’t know where to go from here, though.
The following acrostic puzzle was posted yesterday by someone (User Name:** Matt Siyentest**) on the website Cloak and Swagger, the online lifestyle magazine for reformed spies. They have a strict “no espionage” policy at C&S, so when contacted by the CIA, the puzzle was pulled by the moderators. Unfortunately there had already been several thousand views. The poster “Matt Siyentest,” had only just registered. The site is unable to determine who actually posted the puzzle or from where it came.
++++++++++
**
Halloween Acrostic**
A. Island with Dinosaur Eggs: [95, 118, 101, 6, 125, 65, 50, 188, 170, 70, 18, 64, 53, 123]
B. Notorious Quicksand Site: [14, 63, 160, 148, 130, 195, 84, 49, 24, 205, 10, 182, 30]
C. Spooky Children’s Game: [78, 202, 189, 187, 90, 133, 76, 12, 162, 34, 200, 60, 37, 97, 159, 135]
D. People Under the Stairs?: [175, 191, 120, 102, 44, 61, 129, 17, 69, 179, 201, 28, 8]
E. An Animal with Fangs: [72, 43, 26, 1, 162, 5, 137, 190, 208, 48, 142]
F. Chilly, Like the Grave: [216, 41, 158, 211, 2, 205, 141, 69, 149, 197, 51, 109]
G. Empty Coffin, Maybe: [4, 154, 202, 198, 163, 186, 88, 208, 55, 96, 112, 121]
H. No Skeleton May Do This: [167, 13, 54, 187, 206, 101, 169, 146, 21, 212, 145, 173, 46]
I. Old Horror Movie Name: [189, 211, 157, 114, 148, 155, 109, 46, 161, 7, 81]
J. Odd Tentacled Being: [120, 117, 11, 171, 82, 57, 20, 211, 184, 215, 85]
K. Necronomicon Detail: [47, 217, 56, 139, 63, 71, 153, 178, 169, 185, 211]
L. Endless Cavern: [32, 105, 182, 162, 59, 204, 36, 52, 165]
M. Clawed Undead Thing: [186, 102, 143, 103, 134, 62, 18, 144, 198, 190, 213, 149]
N. Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece: [127, 101, 208, 17, 108, 87, 35, 26, 198, 24, 70, 73, 9, 39, 175]
O. Needles or Spikes: [22, 16, 83, 113, 152, 13, 67, 176, 92, 205]
P. Huge Movie Monster: [35, 195, 132, 156, 19, 86, 52, 166, 131, 68, 25, 197]
Q. Edge of Disaster: [74, 31, 168, 147, 208, 124, 183, 180, 75, 111]
R. Aquatic Sea Demon: [104, 194, 209, 40, 100, 172, 15, 138, 65, 89, 174, 214]
S. Rod Serling’s Classic TV Show: [126, 174, 93, 45, 122, 210, 128, 58, 149, 56, 33, 188, 27, 114, 99]
T. Young Frankenstein, for One: [212, 88, 18, 181, 168, 208, 126, 23, 187, 66, 107, 106, 140]
U. One of the Ghostbusters: 70, 22, 110, 208, 29, 80, 97, 39, 91, 195, 67]
V. Used a Knife Badly: [150, 84, 136, 38, 115, 205, 3, 98, 208, 164, 162, 2]
W. She Poisoned Many: [119, 41, 77, 202, 13, 26, 116, 94, 146, 203, 163]
X. Character on Dark Shadows: [216, 173, 192, 111, 106, 151, 147, 181, 83, 205, 45, 103]
Y. Room at the Overlook: [139, 174, 71, 196, 106, 170, 42, 27, 113, 205]
Z. Eager to Die?: [199, 36, 149, 67, 25, 120, 207, 55]
AA. Aide to the Devil: [143, 92, 38, 79, 137, 88, 114, 27, 211]
BB. ** Most Like Mr. Hyde**: [154, 70, 152, 29, 210, 12, 205, 177, 64, 190, 212, 193]
++++++++++
Sentence #1: (1-39) 2, 3, 9, 5, 3, 8, 4, 5
Sentence #2: (40-97) 4, 5, 6, 1, 3, 4, 6, 2, 4, 5, 5, 2, 2, 2, 7
Sentence#3: (98-163) 1, 4, 4, 7, 5, 2, 5, 7, 10, 3, 7, 11
Sentence #4: (164-217) 5, 3, 7, 5, 4, 2, 12, 6, 5, 2, 3
++++++++++
I’m starting to wonder if this is really an acrostic puzzle, or if this is another straight out code. I don’t see Biotop designing two entire acrostics this way.
IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM
Which of course is the *Alien *tagline. I’m not exactly excited about a whole new puzzle. I still need to put the new answers in our existing puzzle.
I am reasonably ready to conclude that “Matt Siyentest” is some sort of clever pseudonym.
Other than that, I’ve got nothing. I think figuring out the answers to the new clues is probably a waste of time. I’m inclined to agree with Leaper that maybe just looking at the sequence of numbers in the acrostic answers as a code and trying to work on that might be more fruitful.
In the new acrostic, the obvious answer to S is THETWILIGHTZONE.
As for U, I couldn’t find a name that fit at first glance, except for FORRESTKONG - but he is a character in The Ghost Busters, not Ghostbusters.
…and then I used actors’ names instead of characters and got ERNIEHUDSON.
DR RAY STANTZ
N. Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece: [127, 101, 208, 17, 108, 87, 35, 26, 198, 24, 70, 73, 9, 39, 175]
I think is THE LADY VANISHES
Z. Eager to Die?: [199, 36, 149, 67, 25, 120, 207, 55]
SUICIDAL
X. Character on Dark Shadows: [216, 173, 192, 111, 106, 151, 147, 181, 83, 205, 45, 103]
Quite a few names seem to fit, but I think it’s one of these:
DAVID COLLINS
WILLIE LOOMIS
And we can already see that many numbers overlap in this puzzle, same as the first one. Not sure solving the clues is really going to do anything for us.
Another nearly sleepless night as You have struggled with the acrostics to no luck. Arggh! You push the papers and scribbles on your desk to the side with a hearty swipe. None of it makes sense.
Usually when You find another sample of a spy code, it helps. But what have You learned from a second acrostic that You did not already know from the first? Some of the answers seem obvious. Some clues have several possibilities. Yet other clue answers are obscured.
Are You really supposed to solve the clues? If so, how are the answers entered. If not, how do You get the spy message? And the clues themselves seem odd, especially in the second puzzle. “Island with Dinosaur Eggs?” You can’t recall reading or hearing about any such island. Some minor horror book or movie perhaps? And why dinosaur eggs and not just dinosaurs? Dinosaur eggs are not scary.
Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes is definitely a five star movie. You have seen it many times. But a “masterpiece”…? Boris Barlow must be a movie critic as well.
The starting clue letters in both acrostics each spell out something Halloween related. Red Herring or clue? How about the underlined title of each puzzle? Red herring or clue? Nothing makes sense. Why are some answer numbers repeated many times, while others are used just once? Sigh. You feel You are missing something small… something that if you noticed it, You might be well on the way to solving this mystery. But what have You missed? What?
You decide to take a break and watch the news. Maybe getting back into your normal routine and not thinking about the puzzles for a while will help. You sip your coffee as the TV anchor covers the day. Canadian elections… presidential race nonsense… celebrities behaving badly…
You hardly notice the droning news at all. You start to fall asleep. But something You hear jolts You back to reality:
And in strange news, yet another morgue reports a break-in. This time it is the Cederbrook Morgue in Ohio. Vandals struck overnight, somehow getting in the locked morgue and sawing the arms off of three recently deceased corpses. In each morgue break-in case the corpse’s arms have been taken and the bodies otherwise undisturbed. This is the third such arm-raiding break-in in the past two day in U.S. morgues. Police are baffled, with talk of Satanists and bizarre rituals spreading throughout the communities. And now for the weather we turn to…"
Uh oh. Maybe You had best get back to work on those acrostics now!
Hey, I don’t like it any more than you, but it was the best Hitchcock film with 15 letters!
If solving the clues is a waste, then the clues themselves must have a message, other than FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED and IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM.
I never saw the movie, but didn’t Jurassic Park have dinosaur eggs?
Hmmmm. This makes me think it might be a clue.
Jones calls today with alarming news. Plans for the military’s new mini-THAAD missile have gone missing. Late last night General Fingle was reviewing the plans at his home on a military base in North Carolina… when the lights went out. And not just the lights, but every electric power source in the building and surrounding grounds was fried. By the time soldiers with working flashlights arrived twenty minutes later, they found that the plans were missing from Fingle’s desk. No word on how an intruder or intruders got on the base, or how they got away. Any thief would have certainly had to deal with barbed wire and several armed guards just to get to the General’s home. But no one saw anything suspicious.
In a possibly more positive development, CIA experts White and Cooper have decided to try and help crack the acrostics. Cooper especially is confident, saying that “nowadays any trivia can easily be found on the internet and thus the acrostics should be solved by the end of the day, if not sooner.” This does not make You feel any more confident, however.
Jones also does note that young Agent Brown has asked to help try and solve the acrostics. This is good news to You. While Brown may be a bit green and lack the bravado of his more experienced associates, he is an all-around good guy and often shows terrific insight into these spy problems.
Yes, but Jurassic Park doesn’t fit and neither does the island it’s on, Isla Nublar.
I’m really leaning towards the clue solutions being red herrings. I don’t have any idea what’s important, though.
Looking forward to contributions from our CIA experts…