The SwordSwallowers

Written by Ivan Wang, Joanna Sands, and Rachel Wei
Art by Rachel Wei

Answer: GO EAT HIS SWORDS

This is a metapuzzle involving the 9 feeder answers taken from non-entangled puzzles in this dimension. On the map, these puzzles are marked with a sword icon after they are solved.

We are presented with a drawing of sword swallowing acts and a table of performer names. The break-in to this puzzle is to consider subsets of our puzzle answers. Each puzzle answer can be broken into two halves; one half will always be a “type” of sword, or more accurately, a substring that creates a real English word when succeeded by “sword.” For example, “BROADBAND” splits into “BROAD + SWORD” while “PASDEDEUX” splits into “PAS + SWORD” to create “PASSWORD.”

A secondary observation is that the remainder of the words start with the first 9 letters of the alphabet, from (LONG)AGO to INFO(CUS). This gives us an ordering for our swords.

Feeder AnswerRemainderSword
LONGAGOAGOLONG(SWORD)
BROADBANDBANDBROAD(SWORD)
CHILDBEARINGCHILDBEARING(SWORD)
PASDEDEUXDEDEUXPAS(SWORD)
GREATEXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONSGREAT(SWORD)
SHORTFALLFALLSHORT(SWORD)
MIGRATEGRATEMI(SWORD)
HARDSELLHARDSELL(SWORD)
INFOCUSINFOCUS(SWORD)

Given the diagram and the title of the meta, The Sword Swallowers, we can deduce that we should attempt to have the performers “swallow” swords to create acts. Each act contains one or two performers, and summing up the number of performers gives the correct number of people in the diagram. This helps confirm that we should be taking the swords from our feeder answers and placing them within one or between two of the performers. By doing so, we construct a set of silly phrases that relate semantically to the name of an act.

Feeder AnswerRemainderMissing SwordSwallowed PhraseAct Name
LONGAGOAGOLONG(SWORD)BABY[LON G]ATEThe Ishtars
BROADBANDBANDBROAD(SWORD)PROVER[B ROAD]SThe Rome-bound
CHILDBEARINGCHILDBEARING(SWORD)MAY[BE A RING]MASTERThe Questionable Emcees
PASDEDEUXDEDEUXPAS(SWORD)GRAND[PA S]TOOLThe Coprolites
GREATEXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONSGREAT(SWORD)LOOK IN[G REAT]TEMPTThe Double-Takers
SHORTFALLFALLSHORT(SWORD)WOO[SH OR T]HUMPThe Onomatopoeians
MIGRATEGRATEMI(SWORD)VO[MI]TEDThe Hurler
HARDSELLHARDSELL(SWORD)DIE[SEL L]OVERThe Hummers
INFOCUSINFOCUS(SWORD)DIS[CUS]SThe Symposium

Each of the swords has a number of notches on the hilt. Taking this number as an index into the sword, we can extract a clue phrase GOEATHISS. We must do one last “do it again” step, this time swallowing the word “SWORD”, to get the final answer, GO EAT HIS SWORDS.

Feeder AnswerRemainderMissing SwordAct NameNotchesLetter
LONGAGOAGOLONG(SWORD)The Ishtars4G
BROADBANDBANDBROAD(SWORD)The Rome-bound3O
CHILDBEARINGCHILDBEARING(SWORD)The Questionable Emcees2E
PASDEDEUXDEDEUXPAS(SWORD)The Coprolites2A
GREATEXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONSGREAT(SWORD)The Double-Takers5T
SHORTFALLFALLSHORT(SWORD)The Onomatopoeians2H
MIGRATEGRATEMI(SWORD)The Hurler2I
HARDSELLHARDSELL(SWORD)The Hummers1S
INFOCUSINFOCUS(SWORD)The Symposium3S

Author's Notes

Ivan: I really enjoyed the writing of “silly semantic references” from Cardboard (Teammate Hunt 2020) and borrowed some of the ideas (mixed in with a little “swordplay”) for this meta. Some sample clues that never made it into the hunt are listed below.

In a previous iteration of the puzzle, our feeders clued swords rather than containing them as substrings. This led to some more unusual answers like JOANNEHEYLER for BROAD and COVELLITE for CUS. We’re happy with the final set of feeders, which feel more thematic to their puzzles.

We were sad that we were unable to fit “CROS(SWORD)” into the puzzle for a very thematically puzzle-relevant sword. However, the alphabetical constraints made it very difficult to find a good word with CROS as the initial or final substring.

Old Clues

  • DEN[SE LL]AMA - The Emperor Kuzcos
  • THE O[GRE AT]TACK - The Shingeki no Kyojins, The Shrek Invaders
  • CAR[P LAY]OUT - The School