Fabrics

Liz Demicco

SOLUTION:

The twelve fabric answer words are: BOUCLE, CORDEROYS, EMBROIDERY, ETAMINE, ILLUSION, INKLE, INTERLININGS, LAMBSWOOL, MODACRYLIC, NAINSOOK, VOILES, and YORYU. These answer words are used with the compass in the top right hand corner of the MoASaT. Assign words to the Indian numerals inside the compass, based on the answer lengths. Then pluck letters according to the small numbers appearing on the compass. There are four different rings. Read in the appropriate direction (clued by the points on the compass):

SymbolNumberAnswerGreenBlueRedYellow
9CORDEROYS1: C9: S4: D
5YORYU1: Y4: Y
१०10MODACRYLIC1: M2: O4: A
6BOUCLE1: B3: U6: E
१०10EMBROIDERY1: E4: R7: D
9LAMBSWOOL1: L4: B3: M
8ILLUSION1: I2: L6: I
8NAINSOOK1: N2: A6: S
7ETAMINE1: E6: N2: T
१२12INTERLININGS1: I5: R12: S
5INKLE1: I3: K5: E
6VOILES1: V6: S3: I

This spells out: "Cymbeline I iv your blank mistress is dead." Realizing that the "WS" in the center of the compass means "search Shakespeare", the word fitting in the blank is "unparagoned."

Answer: UNPARAGONED

Gems

Jeff Barrett

SOLUTION:

The six gem answer words are: PATRICIA, PELES TEARS, JN FORSTER, MARIA ALEXANDROVNA, JUBILEE, and HUERFANA. The gems metapuzzle involves the cities on the MoASaT and the longitude/latitude lines (the "WGS84/NAD83" above the compass rose cues which coordinate datum to use). Looking up the intersections of longitude and latitude lines gives six cities with gem names: Pearl, ID; Blue Diamond, NV; Peridot, AZ; Emerald, NE; Ruby, IL; and Sapphire, NC. Matching answer words to the city with the corresponding gem name and ordering W to E on the map gives:

Map cityLatitudeLongitudeReal cityAnswerBigram
ABAKAN43°51'21" N112°39'8" WPearl, IDHUERFANAAN
RIO DE JUAN36°2'47" N115°24'11" WBlue Diamond, NVJUBILEEJU
THOMASTOWN33°18'37" N110°27'17" WPeridot, AZPELESTEARSST
ICONIUM40°48'50" N96°50'5" WEmerald, NEPATRICIAIC
SUFFOLK42°18'57" N89°4'15" WRuby, ILJNFORSTERFO
TEGUCIGALPA35°6'25" N83°0'11" WSapphire, NCMARIA ALEXANDROVNAAL

The first letters of the city names spell out "ARTIST", while each city-gem pair shares a single bigram. The bigrams read in order spell out "AN JUSTIC FO AL" which leads to the answer METALLIC ("Metallica" minus the last letter).

Answer: METALLIC

Metals

Jaci Conrad

SOLUTION:

The eight metals answers are: SPOON, SURFER, SIXPENCE, DIABETES, FENNEL, SHOWER, SYRUP, TWENTIES. Each of these form a unique (or nearly unique) phrase with one of {gold, silver, bronze}: "silver spoon," "silver surfer,", "silver sixpence," "bronze diabetes," "bronze fennel," "golden shower," "golden syrup," "golden twenties." The associated metapuzzle is the small "coins" (circles) colored yellow, gray, and brown appearing around the edge of the MoASaT. Order the metal answers by the color/number of coins appearing around the edge of the map, starting in the upper left corner and moving clockwise. clockwise; then pluck the nth letter, where n=1 if gold, 2 if silver, 3 if bronze. This gives:

PSILVERSPOON
USILVERSURFER
ISILVERSIXPENCE
SGOLDENSHOWER
SGOLDENSYRUP
ABRONZEDIABETES
NBRONZEFENNEL
TGOLDENTWENTIES

Answer: PUISSANT

Rum

Albert Lin

SOLUTION:

The eight rum answers are: SIXTYSTONE, WILLIAMSBURG, FOREFRONT, BRIGGS, KLAKRING, TURTLE, JIMMY CLIFF, MEMPHIS BELLE. Each of these can be associated with a brand of rum. Symbols from each of those brands' labels (six ships, one plantation, and one black seal) appear on the MoASaT, with a path and a name of an explorer.

Putting the answers in the order given by the names of the explorers alphabetically, then plucking the nth letter, where n=number of times the path touched land, spells out the answer.

Answer WordRumExplorerLandfallsLetter
TURTLETortugaBalboa1T
WILLIAMSBURGColonialColumbus6A
JIMMY CLIFFJamaica StarCoronado7L
BRIGGSMyersCortes3I
SIXTYSTONEBlack Sealde Leon1S
MEMPHIS BELLECaptain Morgande Luna1M
KLAKRINGFrigatePizarro3A
FOREFRONTVanguardde Soto8N

Answer: TALISMAN


Putting It All Together

The French Armada

The treasure meta answers are used after the Titanic round. After a team finishes the Titanic puzzles and solves the associated meta, they sink the Titanic and are asked what they are looking for. The correct answer is "the most fabulous object in the world" described by the phrase UNPARAGONED PUISSANT METALLIC TALISMAN (or appropriate permutations).