Announcing: The Lamps & Lanterns Hunt
Announcing: The Lamps & Lanterns Hunt
The Weekly Whoop: Diwali + Halloween edition
Lamps & lanterns, lights & frights. Come, whip out those brains bright! Riddles & crosswords, clues & hunt, Guess the angles, and take the punt. Between the lines, you must read; Ask for help if that’s what you need. Go winning & grinning into November; Whoop the feed! Please remember.
Now that that’s out of my system… system rebooting…
Welcome!
I am supremely excited to bring you The Lamps & Lanterns Hunt. If you missed the subtitle above, that’s The Weekly Whoop’s Diwali + Halloween edition.
The portmanteaus didn’t quite work. I mean, what was I going to call this thing? Hallowali? Deepoween?
Nah! Lamps & Lanterns it is.
Plenty of them, and you will complete this weekend’s Hunt in a jiffy. This announcement post lays the groundwork for that. It will tell you:
The Format & Release Schedule
The Hunt will have the following components:
The Key
A riddle in verse that you must decipher.
Release Schedule: 1800 hours on October 31, 2024
The Quest
The Clues
These are helpful hints released with a time delay.
There will be at least four clues.
One of them might be available to paying subscribers only.
Release Schedule:
Clue 1: 0600 hours on November 01, 2024
Clue 2: 1800 hours on November 01, 2024
Clue 3: 0600 hours on November 02, 2024
Clue 4: 1800 hours on November 02, 2024
DM me for clarifications, brainstorming, checking/sending solutions, and idle chitchat.
The Rules
The rules of the Hunt:
Complete the Hunt by completing the crossword and providing the logic behind the answers.
Partial solutions are a no-no for submission, but you can discuss them with me during the Hunt.
The deadline is 1800 hours Pacific Time on Sunday, November 03, 2024.
The Hunt ends when someone completes it OR if the time runs out.
If the community requests extra time, it is possible.
Whoever completes the Hunt first (within the timeframe) wins3
Ask questions, seek clarifications, confirm answers, brainstorm, and send the solutions (and logic) via DM (preferred method) or via email.
The Rewards
There is only one reward. It will go to the person operating the Substack account that sends through the first complete and correct solution.
Annual subscribers are eligible for a $1000 cash prize.
Monthly subscribers are eligible for a $500 cash prize.
Free subscribers are eligible for a $250 cash prize.
Say you are the first to complete the Hunt. You can upgrade to a particular subscription tier and become eligible for the prize corresponding to that tier.
BONUS: The Weekly Whoop #3 is still open; all the clues are out. You can double your prize by completing it together with The Lamps & Lanterns Hunt.
ASIDE: You might decide you only want to solve The Weekly Whoop #3. That’s fine. However, in that case, you are only eligible for the rewards listed for that Hunt. You can find them here.
The Tools to Complete the Hunt
In addition to putting that beautiful mind of yours to work, you can:
work with friends and family
collaborate with colleagues and strangers
brainstorm with me4
use the internet,
walk into the local library (remember that old thing),
use AI and any other resources
Tips & Tricks
Don’t hunt in isolation. If you aren’t comfortable working in a team, you can chat with me. I am known to be helpful.
Be Alice. Don’t be afraid to go down that rabbit hole.
Take note of what doesn’t make sense and what’s odd. Also, note what makes sense and why.
Occam’s razor.
Get a free subscription.6 Subscribers get everything delivered directly to their mailbox.
Clues are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Post titles, subtitles, images, image captions, alt text, seemingly innocuous comments, footnotes, unnecessary details…
This:
Answers are shrouded, 'tis a riddle, there’s wordplay afoot, so go fiddle. The key may speak in metaphor, and language old like ‘nevermore’ It may mean one thing, two or three, Discern the right one to go be free. The seas of the key have red herrings, Careful, mariner! Mind your bearings.
Parting Shot
This is it, folks!
I am pumped to bring The Lamps & Lanterns Hunt from ‘whoop!’. I hope you will enjoy completing it as much as I enjoyed devising it.
Please remember, the Hunt ends when someone completes it (answers to ALL prompts of the crossword AND the logic behind them) OR if the time runs out (1800 hours PT on Sunday, November 03, 2024).
Please stand by for the key and the quest! In the meantime, check The Weekly Whoop #3 or visit the About page to learn about whoop!
Happy Deepoween! (what can I say, the damn thing grew on me)
And welcome to the hunt!
Love,
waveman
Given enough time and effort, one could theoretically solve it without the riddle, but the riddle and the crossword are interlinked. Most of the crossword’s Across and Down prompts will reference the riddle directly. E.g., see The Weekly Whoop #2 and #3.
In a previous post, I mused about this format and how it is (essentially) a scavenger hunt. You can read about it here for more context.
Logic is more than superficial connections like synonyms, antonyms, anagrams, word lengths, et cetera. E.g., if the answer to a particular prompt is a synonym of the prompt, your logic should explain why that specific synonym is the answer in the context of the riddle.
Or, e.g., say you see a particular word emerge as the answer to an Across or Down prompt because of the letters from answers to the other prompts. You must still explain how that specific word is connected to the riddle.
This means there is only one reward up for grabs, and its value varies with your subscription plan.
DM me on Substack (waveman). That’s the preferred route. You must opt for a free subscription at minimum.
You can access the community chat to work with other community members. Just (a) be respectful, (b) please don’t disclose the answers on the chat (use DMs if you must), and (c) remember that there’s only one reward for the Hunt, and it will go out to the subscriber who communicates it first via DM or email.
You can defer switching to paid until after you win and want to magnify the reward value.