The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW

EUREKA!

got it.

sent in the answer.

prize please. (unless Aurel or Rob's assassin tracking skills are greater than my own)

Game Over.

I could be wrong.

I felt a little like Altair at the beginning of AC1 with my last post...

time for Ian to poison me and use me for his own purposes, I guess.

i've sent in my guess

I still have no idea. I'm clearly missing something.

Second clue:
Stabguy has left Amsterdam and is on his way to see HAMLETREDLITMITE.

101 points if you are the first to solve this puzzle.
300 points if you can solve in the next 23 hours or so.

You're breaking my balls, Ian. I feel dumb not being able to understand HOW to solve this round.

Sorry! This might help:
Like the problem in Round 2, this one also has layers to it. You need to have about 2 or 3 "eureka" moments before you can get to the answer. That means that you need to actively try to tackle the problem in a different way... Try to think differently about a complex problem so that it can be simplified into one that is more tractible. As I stated earlier, I check to make sure that the problem is solvable by normal means.

Clue #3:
I'm sure you can guess one of the words.

101 points if you are the first to solve this puzzle.
200 points if you can solve in the next 24 hours or so.

The round will end on Thursday.

Final clue:
Stabguy has left Amsterdam and is on his way to see THE MALILEDTMIRTE.

101 points if you are the first to solve this puzzle.
100 points if you can solve in the next 24 hours or so.

Stabguy has left Amsterdam and is on his way to see THE LITTLE MERMAID in Copenhagen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_%28statue%29

This was a close one. Both Double McStab and Rob got the correct answer after the first clue, but Double McStab managed to submit his answer just a couple hours earlier. Frankly, I'm blown away by the fact that 2 people were able to solve it so quickly. (Maybe each of them can share with us how they solved the puzzle.) Here are the results for this round:

Double McStab - Copenhagen: 400 + 101 = 501 points
Rob - Copenhagen: 400 points
Aurel - The Hague: 0 points

Here are the final standings for the game:

Double McStab: 1001 points
Rob: 800 points
Aurel: 400 points
Patrick: 350 points
Joey: 300 points
Lisa: 200 points
EzioAltair: 0 points

After 3 rounds of Where in the World is Stabguy, Double McStab triumphs!

TBH, I didn't have high hopes for Double McStab in the beginning... He started Round 1 (Seattle) with the incorrect (yet reasonable) guess of Acapulco, then quickly followed with the nonsensical guesses of the state of Vermont, County Antrim in Ireland, and the New Jersey Pinelands - none of which is a city. He finished the round with the wildly improbable guess of Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, which he didn't actually think was right. He said it was a "strategy thing"... I just thought he was nuts.

I still don't understand his strategy, but I'll admit that - whatever strategy he had - it worked. Double McStab came back strong in Round 2 as the only person to figure out Amsterdam with just one clue. He then repeated the strong performance in Round 3 as the first to solve the word scramble, and being 1 of only 2 people to solve the puzzle with just 1 clue.

Congrats Double McStab! Thanks to everyone else for playing this game. (And a special thanks to Rob for giving Double McStab a run for his money.) I hope you all enjoyed playing Where in the World is Stabguy. In case anyone is wondering, stabguy has left Copenhagen and is on his way to...

Great game! Congratulations everyone and especially Cheese for winning and Rob for being a winner also - in so many ways!

Next time, I will take it more seriously - or Stab will actually visit Addis Ababa.

I love figuring out puzzles, and this was fun. (It helped that I immediately identified Van Gogh's self portrait... and that the final round was an anagram).

For round 3, I saw that it was an anagram... and went to my favorite anagram website.

I looked at the letters a long time. I saw all the letters for "Hitler" in there and thought it might be in Germany somewhere.... but none of the other letters made sense. On that website there is an advanced search where you can restrict answers to include certain words. I thought "The" would be an appropriate word to use, as it fit with the sentence structure of the clue -- stabguy is off to see THE ______.

About 6 entries down was THE MERMAID LITTLE ... that pretty much sealed it for me... and i knew there as a statue in Europe somewhere... so I searched for it.

NOTE: It wasn't until AFTER solving round 3 that I realized all these locations seemed really, really familiar - in sequence. So either I have prophetic dreams, or stabguy let his travel plans be known at the last stabby-chat.

Also, in Round 1, I thought your "3 people have exactly 200" meant that no one had the right answer (100 for guess, 100 for correct, 100 for first correct = 300 in my book), so I changed to a city where no one would have guessed yet. I knew Acupulco and Seattle should have been guessed (and missed the whole CITY part of the clue), so kept going through population things. Came across Bishkek in an old (3 years or so) climate summit document with something like 30 big cities across Europe -- a quick look to wikipedia would show they now have over 800,000 inhabitants.

Well played McStab!

I had no idea for this round, although got as far as 'The' and 'Little'. Somehow I totally missed 'Mermaid'.

I'll take fourth though.

Oh wait...I knew they were anagrams when this round started...I just couldn't come up with any locations with them, so I thought I was doing it wrong! Well played sir...

now that you mention it, i'm pretty sure that he did say something about Copenhagen once in chat, probably the one where the wife stopped by

Yes. Stabguy and Stabgal were both there... and once I solved Copenhagen, both Amsterdam and Copenhagen together sounded really really familiar...

Stabguy made an effort not to reveal his his travel plans, but stabgal inadvertently mentioned Copenhagen as a potential destination in the last stabby chat. I took this into consideration when designing the puzzle for this round by the addition of a special rule:

Knowing that the destination was Copenhagen would have done very little to help one solve the anagram. Yet, figuring out the anagram would have almost guaranteed that one would guess Copenhagen. This almost completely neutralizes any benefit of knowing Copenhagen as a potential destination. (I don't know if you guys can tell, but I really try to think through the design of these puzzles.)

Seattle and Amsterdam may already sound familiar to many of you. Seattle is stabguy's home town, and Amsterdam was a destination in stabguy's last big vacation. (I hosted the original game of "Where in the World is Stabguy" on ACmaps several years ago, and Amsterdam was the solution to one of the rounds.)

Thank you so much Ian.

Figuring out puzzles is fun and this was a blast.

Thanks to everyone else that put work into their guesses.

Yeah, very well though out puzzles, Ian, which made for a fun, if rather frustrating, game!

Dang it. I thought it was Den Haag because of a theater (and it was in the Netherlands. Too much of a coincidence).
http://www.zapaday.com/event/361479/0/The+Little+Mermaid.html
How was I supposed to know he went to Copenhagen just because of a naked statue? Okay, that came out wrong.

I think stabguy would have a preference for a naked statue over a Disney musical

To whom shall I send my (top secret) address? Probably stabguy ... ?

My wife loves it when I collect little cheap souvenirs from our travels (mini cannibal fork and replica weapons from Fiji, random painting from the Dominican Republic, random hat from Barbados) -- so she'll be thrilled to know I'm getting something from someone ELSES vacation. haha...

she now limits me to only one souvenir after all the crap I brought home from Fiji...

haha. probably so...

They were showing The Little Mermaid. The theatre isn't called that.

The Little Mermaid is as well known story and Disney movie, so I'm surprised people managed to guess right it was a statue.

Now you're making Stabgal jealous...

Guessing isn't necessary. The statue is listed (with a picture) on the Wikipedia page for the fairy tale, and it is also listed on the disambiguation page for The Little Mermaid. Any major search engine should have pulled up one of these pages among the top hits. Searching "The Little Mermaid city" also quickly identifies the statue. Out of curiousity, what search parameters did you use to find the theater showing of the musical?

oh, everyone else went by the statue?
i just went with how the story was made by a dane.
and when i realised it was Denmark, i just figured Copenhagen is the only city anyone would care to visit.

Well, since I thought Stabguy was going to see The Little Mermaid in a theater, I just looked up something like "Little Mermaid Theater". I think there were a few cities, and the one in the Netherlands just looked right. Guess I should have broadened my search.

Only you and Double Mcstab guessed right, so everyone else would be just him.

Where's stabguy?

Spoiler: Highlight to view

There he is. Get him!

If there's one thing I like to see on vacation it's a good waterfall (just ask Lisa). One of the first places I went in Seattle was an old favorite: Snoqualmie Falls (268 ft). Those of you who watched Twin Peaks may know it as White Tail Falls. This is pretty near to where I grew up so I usually go see it whenever I'm in town visiting family. It's much wider in the springtime.

For serious waterfall action it's hard to beat the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. There are approximately 44 named waterfalls along a 35 mile stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway. Pictured above is the crown jewel, Multnomah Falls (620 ft). My mom had a picture from her visit to Multnomah Falls and I always wanted to go there. This was my first time. I stopped at several others along the way including Starvation Creek Falls (186 ft), Wahkeena Falls (242 ft) and Horsetail Falls (192 feet, and that's the mysterious stabgal with the long blonde hair). Heck, there was even a waterfall right behind our hotel named Wah Gwin Gwin Falls (208 ft).

I was at Multnomah Falls and did that drive the first weekend in August. Love that place. Recognized it immediately.

I assume Stabguy has visited Niagara Falls...

Are you sure you don't want a cheap souvenir from Oregon? I got a bumper sticker that says "What happens in Multnomah Falls stays in Multnomah Falls."

No, I've never been. That's just a puny 167 foot drop. Pffft.

The one I want to get to is Angel Falls in British Columbia. (well, the one I could conceivably get to... the one I really want to get to is Iguazu Falls.)

Congratulations again to Cheese. I gave him a choice of prizes. He decided against a souvenir from Oregon because he has spent much time there himself. Instead, he chose a brand new copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

It includes 3D glasses and 4 bonus maps. Sounds better than my copy. I'm jealous!

I'm familiar with Angel Falls in Venezuela and Angel's Staircase Falls in British Columbia. Please elaborate.

Great prize! That reminds me, I need to replay Arkham Asylum and then get Arkham City at some point.

I wish I could hug you, Cheese.

(Can't say that's the first time I've said that...)

Stabguy must have used his carrier pigeon to send the prize, as it still hasn't arrived.

No doubt that it will be in my mailbox today now that I said that.

Wow, I sent that over three weeks ago by Priority Mail. It was supposed to be there within 5 days. I don't think there's any way to track it. Hopefully they will deliver it to you or at least return it to me if there was a problem.

Okay, Stab. I tracked it down.

Your carrier pigeons are fine. It arrived to my apartment office on September 10.

The carrier pigeons at the USPS need some work though, as I never received notice that it had arrived at my mailbox. I'm not usually home during hours in which the office is open, but I was today and I wandered down there...