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Post by ramthelinefeed on Mar 20, 2005 21:53:09 GMT
It really is one of the most annoying bugs in the Lone Wolf books, because if you can't answer correctly, you can't complete the book.
And it doesn't even explain in the book why the answer is the right one (a lot of the other riddles do explain themselves when you get to the answer section)
Harumph!
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andyr
Kai Lord
Posts: 122
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Post by andyr on Mar 21, 2005 9:59:47 GMT
I think I posted my interpretation of the riddle in some other thread time ago. People have repeated it now: the riddle is one of those fake math questions, it's more of a wordgame or language logics puzzle. In section 189 she begins: "how many loyal servants guard my throne of power?"
Then she explains: "In addition to the loyal servants..." and she continues with all the additions and substractions of cronies, which end up in 1, then she says, "from the remainder I picked up *the loyal servants* except for 1 who was a traitor"... 1-1 = 0!!! The key is that the riddle is a loop. The loyal servants in the beginning are the ones given as a result in the end. That is not rational at all, but works within the (il)logic framework of the puzzle: loyal servants are not such till she chooses them, and she does not choose them until the whole calculations are over. Then, the devious part which Dever clarifies in an interview, is that a 0 result has to be converted to 10, as it happens at times in the Random Number Table (normally when you calculate EP losses). The text says that she's a daemoness, so it's ok to expect some deviousness...
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Post by Relenoir on Mar 21, 2005 12:23:11 GMT
Would have been nice to know he'd declared this in an interview. Where was it?
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andyr
Kai Lord
Posts: 122
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Post by andyr on Mar 23, 2005 9:13:43 GMT
The interview I found quite a long time ago, surfing at random the LW webring... I don't remember if it was at DesertLynx Oasis or at the never-updated magamund.org...
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Post by Ghost Bear on Mar 23, 2005 11:20:00 GMT
I prefer the x=x solution, where one of the x's is 10 in Roman numerals. That's how I solved it, with no problems. THe grid of numbers in the plinth is a much harder riddle to solve.
-GB
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Post by North Star on Mar 24, 2005 11:57:57 GMT
Actually GB, if you're using the Roman numerals solution, both Xs count as 10. After all, X = 10 and 10 = X work just as well. NS.
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