Really wild guess for 8 - SORCEROR from SAUCE + ER/URGH.

For the new page:

You're on the right lines, i'll refrain from giving any further clues on this one for now but I will say I think this one only works on paper.

I am actually finding these quite challenging! I wanna throw out MORGUL for #4, because we know not to drink water from the rivers of the Morgul Vale.

You got it Galadriel55, or are so close by saying Morgul Vale I should give you credit.
Although I had a different name for the same location, i'll put the answer in soon if nobody manages to descramble "the flavorist whaley".


I was pretty unsure how to guage the difficulty when writing these, just testing to see how difficult this one is.

IMLAD MORGUL is the obvious alternative to the English, but I'm not unscrambling that from anything.

Looks pretty good so far; about the right balance between 'oh I got it!' and 'arrrrrrgh'.

hS

I was thinking the same as Galadriel. Couldn't solve the cryptic elements, though.

...

Valley of the Wraiths?

Could 2 be an ARROW resting on Legolas's bow?

1. Borrow we hear/here? The beginning of Eternity followed by a lad reflected, note this.
2. A french sale caught within a riddle with a twist at the end!
3. Amon Sûl - Salmon with direction would be lucky to make it here.
4. Valley of the Wraiths - The flavorist Whaley is confused, the water of this region must not be used.
5. This rests upon a gift from a fair lady, take three from the gift to find the road.

6. Shelob - Obfuscated flat holes help to find her.
7. Argonath - Two mighty figures guarding and doing, we hear.
8. A dressing with direction makes this role.[/QUOTE]



Okay I've decided to make some edits to the clues that might improve your chances, you've all done rather well so far, you guys have guessed all my favourite ones.

Hopefully things will be easier to guess once you get the password, all solutions can be vaguely linked to it.
A big help towards this would be getting number 8, Pervinca Took was fairly close with "Sauce+Argh" at least in the format (You might want to try an alternative to sauce though). I've decided to change the clue itself as it simply makes much more sense this way and really didn't work much at all before.

Number 2 may also be a failing on my part as my translation may be a few letters out, I lowered the difficulty by changing "transaction" to "sale".

Huinesoron thought number #5 has galadriel vibes and I will confirm that it does however the gift in question is only a means to arriving at the solution which unfortunately is pretty unrelated to galadriel.

Forgot to congratulate you on this descrambling, took a while to put this one together, I wasn't sure if a "flavorist" was real but google proved it was real enough and they wouldn't want to use water from the mogul vale.

I wonder if I should've just used the V in Mogul Vale for the password and avoided a multi-word anagram.

No that's not right.

A MARINER from a marinade? ;)

I don't really deserve the praise, Soriman. I guessed we needed VALLEY because it uses a lot of the same letters as WHALEY, plus the V from flavorist, then looked up other names for the Imlad Morgul, thinking of what other letters we needed.

I did, however, google Whaley and flavorist before any of this, and came across a scientific document about fruit and vegetable flavours, and looked without success for a Dr Whaley in the credits!

1. Possibly HARROWDALE? E(ternity) + LAD backwards gives the second half. I thought "borrow" would turn into barrow, or perhaps boro, but harrow works too.

Galadriel Harrowdale is wrong but you have almost solved No.1, looking at your post you're only missing a note.

Pervinca sorry Mariner is also wrong, I might give this one away soon as it's probably the most embarrasing one for me. You did get the first two letters correct.

Master?

I just can't see a dressing.

I did consider plaster, but don't know of any specifically named plasterers in Middle-earth. ;)

I was thinking the dressing might be mayo/mayonnaise, but I can't--

--OH! It's a role, right?

Is it Mayo + R = MAYOR (of Michel Delving)?

hS

Is the password BRAVE SAM - things he's done, seen, experienced or faced?

1. B - Borrow we hear/here? The beginning of Eternity followed by a lad reflected, note this.
2. R - A french sale caught within a riddle with a twist at the end!
3. Amon Sûl - Salmon with direction would be lucky to make it here.
4. Valley of the Wraiths - The flavorist Whaley is confused, the water of this region must not be used.
5. E - This rests upon a gift from a fair lady, take three from the gift to find the road.

6. Shelob - Obfuscated flat holes help to find her.
7. Argonath - Two mighty figures guarding and doing, we hear.
8. Mayor - A dressing with direction makes this role.


Brave Sam indeed. Things he's used, seen, experienced or faced.

EARTH rests on the silver nut once it's planted, and in its box, but ... Rd is short for road in the UK; is Rt short for route somewhere else?

I was actually wondering about EAST, as in the East Road, but I had no idea how to tie that to the gifts. It's somewhat similar to EARTH, so maybe that's the start?

#2: now that we have R, I wondered if 'riddle' was providing the R. French words for selling are built around 'vend', and RI...DELL + VEN(D) = RIVENDELL.

#1... I've been wanting the second half to be in(finity) + dal + a note, which means it could end with 'dale'. A nice Tolkieny element; the only problem is that I can't find any B places which end with it!

hS

1. B - Borrow we hear/here? The beginning of Eternity followed by a lad reflected, note this.
2. Rivendell - A french sale caught within a riddle with a twist at the end!
3. Amon Sûl - Salmon with direction would be lucky to make it here.
4. Valley of the Wraiths - The flavorist Whaley is confused, the water of this region must not be used.
5. E - This rests upon a gift from a fair lady, take three from the gift to find the road.

6. Shelob - Obfuscated flat holes help to find her.
7. Argonath - Two mighty figures guarding and doing, we hear.
8. Mayor - A dressing with direction makes this role.

It doesn't get worse than Mayo-R :D but the last two are not great, Galadriel55 was the closest with regards to item number 1 and you guys now know what the gift is for number 5 so maybe you can figure out the answer even if you need an extra letter for it :(.

Being utterly out of sane ideas, I will throw out BARROW DOWNS for #1, because of "borrow" and, well, I would feel very stupid if it is that and I kept silent about it.

I was convinced that #1 had to contain DALE, but I simply cannot think of any dales that begin with B.

I was thinking of offering Barrow Downs or Barrow Wight too.

I have a sillier idea - Bree - B for borrow, E for a note and 'Erb (like Herb Alpert) backwards. :D

I wonder if the E clue could be something to do with the forestry/replanting work Sam does in the Shire with the earth from Galadriel's box. But if so, what could the actual word be?

#5: I think 'the road' might be the straight clue. I also wonder if the gift might be lembas, (things like 'box', 'bow', 'hair', and 'cloak' seem too general to immediately associate with Galadriel), but what can you make by 'taking three' from it? Um... elm. Eb-l ('evil, but I've got a cold'). The ESA, or Elvish Space Agency, whose ship Sam sailed to Eressea. :D I'll keep thinking about it.

(I see Soriman has said we 'know what the gift is', so I guess it probably is the box after all.)

#1: I don't suppose it could be BARROW-DALE as an uncommon synonym for the Downs? It would fit the clue perfectly, provided you're happy to hear borrow as harrow and then use a note to flip it back to B.

hS

Eressea would fit the theme, because Sam goes there, but not the cryptic elements.

But EÄR fits both - it's three letters from 'earth', and is a Quenya name of the Great Sea.

hS

I had a thought that perhaps the thing that rests on the box is a blessing, not any physical object. I went to check, and:

I am still not quite sure what to do with it though. To take 3 perhaps means remove three letters. Or to take the third letter E for password.

Okay it's rather embarsassing that it took me this long to realise, my clues have become mixed up at some point in the creation process and number one doesn't actually work. We aren't supposed to mirror LAD. We add an E and a note.

For number 5 I intended to have you take three of the letters from earth and find the road.

Damn sorry to let this go on for so long with glaring errors
I'll happily put a little more time double checking these, again sorry to let this drag out with an unsolvable clue guys.

I'll just post the solved clues soon.

Hey, we've all posted broken clues occasionally. Case in point, I think I had to correct a clue on my last one. Why not just correct the clues now, and give us another chance to redeem ourselves? :) I personally feel that I've been particularly dull this time around, and would live to give a try for the remaining clues.

Is 5 just EA, then?

Doesn't have the whole sound of 'borrow,' but I'll try BREELAND for the B clue.

Soriman, no worries! This is excellent, especially for a first password. And themed, too, which we find more fun, but which isn't obligatory.

As Soriman the Whide seems to have disappeared and it's been 11 days, and I guessed the password, shall I invoke the forum rule and post the next one?

I think that's fair. If Soriman re-emerges (they're in the Werewolf game, but tend to appear only briefly), we can always work on the last clue(s) in conjunction with a more current Password.

hS

Ah. I didn't realise there was a Werewolf game on.

I think you probably can now.

hS

Here we are, then:

1. How many hobbits to a) be company and b) destroy a Ring?
2. Participants in la chasse, as the French would say.
3. Take the second of a golden present.
4. Prayers on a star?
5. Take the third of the third to exist when the Istari came.
6. It’s a hard thing when Harriet Beecher changes direction, (3/4 pence).

That's a different style!

1. THREE?

THREE: How many hobbits to a) be company and b) destroy a Ring?
2. Participants in la chasse, as the French would say.
3. Take the second of a golden present.
4. Prayers on a star?
5. Take the third of the third to exist when the Istari came.
6. It’s a hard thing when Harriet Beecher changes direction, (3/4 pence).

Correct!

If 4 isn’t Wish I’m not sure what to think.

It isn't, I'm afraid. ;)

3. RING? A presentsss, yess, for Smeagol's birthday.

2. Participants of a hunt bring to mind that time Beren, Thingol, Mablung, and Beleg went to catch a wolf. Not sure what to do with this information.

hmm

I’ll think on it I think it might be more cryptic/symbolic then.