Wondrous Net

Cacophony  is one of the puzzles of the Melbourne University Puzzle Hunt 2005 competition co-created by the founder of WikiLeaks, and likely organizer of the Cicada 3301 community, Julian Assange (the other author of the puzzle is James Saunderson). The puzzle was preceded by a short narrative that moved the script forward. Glad to finally have some lighting, you pull a box of matches out of your pocket and light a candle, grabbing another handful for later. The extra lighting doesn’t help much — the passage is still mostly gray stone, cobwebs and dust. Your wanderings have got your circulation working however, and so you now devote some time to considering how to escape these cellars, and get back to tracking down the coin. The silence of the passages is unexpectedly broken by a distant voice, the same one you heard during yesterday’s mystery, uttering a strange line. “I, Dylan, master mixer of magnificant melodies, shall play you a song.” A brief symphony of dissonance bu...

Parallel Dimensions is one of the interesting puzzles of the Melbourne University Puzzle Hunt 2014 competition. The game's plot that year was based on the manga (or anime) Fullmetal Alchemist. The puzzle was preceded by a short narrative that moved the script forward. You hurriedly break down the doors only to step on a rune trap, plunging you into a  white purgatory. Looking around, you spy a little floating black ball. Its single eye opens, and a wide grin appears. “Oooooh we haven't had company here in  a while.” “What is this place?” “Who knows...?” Silence. “Surely there's a way out!” “Perhaps there is...” More silence. This isn't going anywhere. You sprint off in a direction, quickly realising your efforts are  futile. The black ball re-materialises. “Silly human, you're not going anywhere.” Perhaps a bit of alchemy would help. No dice. You feel a warm rumbling from your pockets. You pull out the crystals collected thus far,  and they began to radiate with a...