THE RUNES

On another thread, I proposed that the motto to encompass our endeavours on this quest should be:
The Runes: It's really, really obvious.
(Or, as another contributor put it, Overthinking is Bad. Or, perhaps, How Many Times Will You Kick Yourself For Not Seeing It?)

Everything is obvious, after the event. That's what makes detective fiction so enjoyable – you are involved in and baffled by the mystery until the final revelation, when you think “but of course. That's the only possible explanation.”*

That's what I mean by “obvious”.

One of the curious aspects of solving puzzles is that there is no one “right” way to tackle them. What is easy to one person is clear as mud to another. Oh, there are certainly tricks that are useful (if you don't know all about linked pairs or outers in Sudokus, you may well do by the end of this!) but we all think in different ways.

In the end, though, all puzzles have (or should have!) one correct, indisputable solution. If I solve the Pompeii Forum using simultaneous equations and you use a family tree, we will both arrive at the same solution (well, hopefully!) When you realise that the answer to [substitute any applicable puzzle here] is [whatever it is] then you think to yourself “how could I have been so stupid as not to see that?!”

That's what I mean by “obvious”.

Once upon a time I was stuck on a puzzle for two weeks. I had tried everything I could think of; I knew I had all of the significant information but could I make sense of it? Not in the slightest. In the end, I wrote to the puzzle setter and told him where I had got to. And he said to me, “you've got everything you need. It's really obvious.”
And thirty seconds later, I had solved the puzzle. He hadn't said anything else. All I needed was someone else to tell me to look again.

That's what I mean by “obvious”.

And for those who are embarked on the longer journey, the one hidden between the lines, the one that uses all of those odd things that didn't make sense at the time, this lesson doesn't stop. Just because a puzzle doesn't resemble one you've done before doesn't mean that it is somehow more obscure or even more difficult. Sometimes the very opposite is true – you just need to look at it in a different way.

The Runes. It's really, really obvious.

p.s. the last time I wrote something like this, I was accused of being on something of an ego-trip, because I'd solved things that other people hadn't. I know this wasn't a serious accusation, but I want to state now that I am still wandering around just as lost as everyone else. Not matter how obvious the huge gate in front of me saying “Way Out” is.

*well, of course, in some detective novels you reach the conclusion and go “that wasn't fair.” But those aren't the good ones. Exactly the same rule applies to puzzles!

Right now, Babel page 26 is really really obvious to me.

Not

My favourite piece of obviousness in this puzzle comes from the Easter trail. I was trying all sorts of stuff until Oracle advised me to stop thinking about it. So I did. And two days later it was horribly, glaringly, awfully, clear to me.

I'm sure you are correct, but I'm stuck on p20 & 21 so I'll save congrats till later

well I'm stuck on the second message of the runes cross, the Easter thingy and the gemini trail and they are probably so obvious that you have all probably done them already.

Second Message????? Easter Thingy???? Gemini trail???

Wot they then ??

BB

BassBloke: Look at the non-Page forums. Their subtitles give you some pointers.

Sue: I solved the Easter trail around the time that I solved page 16... not that they are linked.

Sorry BB didn't mean to send the blood pressure up. I'm off to meditate in a half lotus to see if that throws any light onto P16 and hopefully the Easter thingy

I've got Gemini now will carry on with rest.
Its true its obvious with hindsight

Marvellous: Sue and Scurra both say that Gemini is really really obvious. It continues to do my head in!

Gemini is even more confusing when you get told that you have passed it and it turns out to be someone else who was supposed to have received that message!

There's a second message?

There's a first message?

(There's a cross?)

Well I only knew there was 1 message!

I still want to know where the second message is. I've tried lining up a different way, and get nothing except maybe crossed eyes. And does Gemini go anywhere? what? Easter, and Eros? Those silly little church symbols, and lots of other things I've noticed along the way are driving me crazy. I almost think I'll be glad to go back to studying next week. Trying to understand the inner workings of my students (read guinnea pigs) brains is MUCH easier than the Runes!

I can categorically state that Gemini goes nowhere. Nowhere at all. Absolutely so. If it went anywhere I would have found it by now. And I know that that Scurra and Oracle are lying about having solved it. They just do that to make me feel bad.