3. VALIER, from V + a liar

EDIT:

1. FEANOR, from an anagram of "no fear"? Though it seems that the clue is talking about more than one person.

Precisely. :)

Feanor is the solution to the 'no fear about' part, but there's still more clue to go.

1. - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
2. - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
4. - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
5. - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

hS

Trying to make anything of "Centauri", or "Sirius" or "Milky Way" wasn't working. So, going backwards, if sounds like there are [local stars] of Feanor, which only gives so many options. It's hit or miss from here, but I found out we have a nearby star system called Ross, which almost anagrams to SONS OF FEANOR?

I know it's winter, but I like to think our local star is still visible at least sometimes... ;) yep, suns - er, sons - of Feanor it is, the whole mostly-doomed lot of 'em.

SONS OF FEANOR - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
2. - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
4. - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
5. - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

hS

This makes me feel really stupid.


SEVEN for password?

:-/ Sorry. In your defence, it's the Password thread - we've all had 'can't see the wood for the Ents' moments before.

Yep!

SONS OF FEANOR - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
2. ?E - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
4. ?E - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
5. N - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

Spoilers: none of the answers are Swans a'Swimmin'.

hS

4. SEEING STONE? Not sure about the first part, but then you add a "Stone"-henge, and it's certainly not Pippin's to look into.

And seeing is a sense. :)

You are doing fab. I feel quite dim! ;)

Oh! That kind of sense! And not the kind I clearly don't have. ;)

I am at loss for the other two. Even trying to work backwards - despite the bountiful sets of seven, still it's a limited number of possibilities, there are only so many things this can be!

Exactly this; nice team effort! 'Step forward' was just to point at the second letter, because sevens don't like vowels much.

SONS OF FEANOR - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
2. ?E - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
SEEING STONE - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
5. N - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

#2 is relatively easy (what meat is crunchy?), #5 is a fairly obscure term for the answer (I suggest starting from the straight clue at the end).

hS

I am running out of legitimate ideas, I'm starting to spin in circles of silliness. For instance:

Is it sweet? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable? Is it dried or deep fried meat? No-ssss, my precious. It is Smeagol's seven teeth, before he lost the one just before he told Bilbo he had sixssss.


Underground makes me think of the seven Dwarven Houses and Rings, but while several Dwarf-related terms start with N there isn't one I can think of that is just seven.

So what 7 does start with N? Well, the 7 unnamed Nazgul, of course! That is, unless you count Tar-Telperien.


Pervinca, I think you better take a turn now, Gollum's seventh tooth is not good for the sanity. :p

:D I know I said you might need some help, but I didn't think I meant 'in retaining your sanity'.

At one point, there were simply just seven dwarves. (It's a little-known fact that 'Durin', in Khuzdul, translates as 'grumpy'.)

hS

For the last one, I had a thought that the initial phrase can be comically rephrased as NO GO, which actually gave results: NOGOTHRIM is a name for Dwarves. However, Enc of Arda says this is a term for all Dwarves, not for the Seven Fathers or Seven Houses. Watch this be something like Nogothatari.

N is not an easy letter. I justify it on the grounds that at one point, 'Nogothrim' (no + go + throughhim - [double H and the three letters before it]) did indeed only refer to seven people.

SONS OF FEANOR - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
2. ?E - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
SEEING STONE - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
NOGOTHRIM - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

hS

Ok, I might actually need some help. Pervinca, I don't know if you have any ideas for the last one, but I'm dry.

Crunchy meat, though ... what could it be apart from biltong or jerky? Bacon? Crackling? Pork scratchings?

It is indeed one of those three. And it's only barely different from the answer to the clue

hS

Is the step part ranga? I have been playing about with that and crackling and getting nowhere but can’t tet it out of thick skull

Pervinca, you're brilliant!

BEACON, from bacon + the note E. The seven beacons along Gondor's northern border.

Mith - ranga? I confess to being confused. But great to see you back here!

Waves at beloved but neglected cub. I am currently furloughed so have a bit more time. A ranga if I remember aright is a Numenorean stride and unit of measurement . But clearly way off track

Beacons! Of course! They didn't even occur to me, I must confess.

A brilliant clue, as well.

And the beacons of Gondor it is. I had to count the list three times to be sure there were seven...

SONS OF FEANOR - Local stars: a misspelling of no fear about the mostly-doomed lot.
BEACON - Take one step, and note there a crunchy meat product; you might need some help.
VALIER - The fifth Roman, a liar? Not quite, but the queens might show up.
SEEING STONE - Step forward, pick a sense, aim it at the henge: not Pippin's.
NOGOTHRIM - Do not proceed through him - the repeat and three beforehand are gone! Try looking underground.

And done! Over to... you, I think? I don't even remember any more, I'm really worn out.

hS

Not the typical set of seven you'd expect - turned out to be quite the challenge to solve, but makes all the sense in the world once teamwork got us there. Great password!

Way above my head. If anyone ever makes a clue where "step" is a Numenorian equivalent of "foot" or something, and not an indication of letter placement, it would be a seriously devious clue.

But hey, stick around and do some more of these!





1. "Choose a fair more!" - you hear from the corners of the world.
2. Pinnacle organ on the far side is a cause for quarrel.
3. Sits across two drinks, skips two starts, and skipped on the greatest start.
4. They party at night, like in most Rolls-Royce incidents.
5. Ford ran threads, but note difference when they tangled.
6. Measure money or weight, but do so thrice!
7. Tower alternatively compares to the sea, it seems.
8. A king in reverse is an element mixed with itself.
9. There you may hear a confused cheer.
10. Dying's son, by the sound of it.
11. Not a car sound, nor the music, but the site of a stronghold.
12. Step up! The gutsy insects grew enormous!
13. Sphere in the middle of a messed up plan and a broken off tiara.
14. Note riders exchange directions with reluctant riders.
15. Comes after the initial entrance into the city.

Yes but I didn’t get the step in things. I dismissed beacons as it didn’t begin with E:rolleyes:

13 is PALANTIR, I think. Spherical, has PLAN messed up and has TIARA with the last letter broken off.

9. ERECH is CHEER confused, but without needing to be heard to account for different spelling - does Aragorn hear the Oathbreakers here?

Yes and yes. The hear part of cheer was not a sound-alike, just a way to inttoduce the cheer (what else do you do with it but hear it? You don't "find" it...)



1. "Choose a fair more!" - you hear from the corners of the world.
2. Pinnacle organ on the far side is a cause for quarrel.
3. Sits across two drinks, skips two starts, and skipped on the greatest start.
4. They party at night, like in most Rolls-Royce incidents.
5. Ford ran threads, but note difference when they tangled.
6. Measure money or weight, but do so thrice!
7. Tower alternatively compares to the sea, it seems.
8. A king in reverse is an element mixed with itself.
9. ERECH: There you may hear a confused cheer.
10. Dying's son, by the sound of it.
11. Not a car sound, nor the music, but the site of a stronghold.
12. Step up! The gutsy insects grew enormous!
13. PALANTIR: Sphere in the middle of a messed up plan and a broken off tiara.
14. Note riders exchange directions with reluctant riders.
15. Comes after the initial entrance into the city.


Hey, look at me, finally learning to pre-highlight on the comouter so I can input this nicely on the phone!

8. NAIN? IN reversed (or not) plus NA for sodium?

And well done with the pre-highlighting!

No. Wrong element.

Judging by the lack of avalanches of answers, a hint or two may be in order. I don't know if the clues turned out to be more difficult than I anticiated, but most of them I think are pretty classic. Some may be hard to get initially but will fall like dominoes once you determine the theme. A general warning for this password that some lines do not have both straight and cryptic components, but the theme kind of provides the missing element. Also, not all answers have the password letter at the beginning, and I tried to indicate that as well. I think that 4, 5, 7, and 10 are probably the easiest, and are good places to start with.

5. Sarn Athrad.

Anagram with a note change, and a Ford.

7. Orthanc.

Or + than + c. A tower.

Yes and yes again!


1. "Choose a fair more!" - you hear from the corners of the world.
2. Pinnacle organ on the far side is a cause for quarrel.
3. Sits across two drinks, skips two starts, and skipped on the greatest start.
4. They party at night, like in most Rolls-Royce incidents.
5. SARN ATHRAD: Ford ran threads, but note difference when they tangled.
6. Measure money or weight, but do so thrice!
7. ORTHANC: Tower alternatively compares to the sea, it seems.
8. A king in reverse is an element mixed with itself.
9. ERECH: There you may hear a confused cheer.
10. Dying's son, by the sound of it.
11. Not a car sound, nor the music, but the site of a stronghold.
12. Step up! The gutsy insects grew enormous!
13. PALANTIR: Sphere in the middle of a messed up plan and a broken off tiara.
14. Note riders exchange directions with reluctant riders.
15. Comes after the initial entrance into the city.

Is 11 ANGBAND? Not quite bang, band for music ... I'll get me coat .... ;)

Not Angband for that one.

Could 3 be BRANDYWINE BRIDGE? It sits over 2 drinks, cryptically speaking.

It is! And it was skipped over on the start of the hobbits' journey. But you want a different name for it.

From Tolkien Gateway:

'In*Sindarin, the name of the bridge was*i Varanduiniant.*i*is the singular definite article "the", which causes the initial*b-*in*Baranduin*to take the*lenited*form*v-*(i.e.,*Varanduin); the final element*iant*means "bridge".'

Or Bridge of Stonebows, or Great Bridge?

1. "Choose a fair more!" - you hear from the corners of the world.
2. Pinnacle organ on the far side is a cause for quarrel.
3. BRIDGE OF STONEBOWS: Sits across two drinks, skips two starts, and skipped on the greatest start.
4. They party at night, like in most Rolls-Royce incidents.
5. SARN ATHRAD: Ford ran threads, but note difference when they tangled.
6. Measure money or weight, but do so thrice!
7. ORTHANC: Tower alternatively compares to the sea, it seems.
8. A king in reverse is an element mixed with itself.
9. ERECH: There you may hear a confused cheer.
10. Dying's son, by the sound of it.
11. Not a car sound, nor the music, but the site of a stronghold.
12. Step up! The gutsy insects grew enormous!
13. PALANTIR: Sphere in the middle of a messed up plan and a broken off tiara.
14. Note riders exchange directions with reluctant riders.
15. Comes after the initial entrance into the city.


Any ideas about the theme so far?

STONE as a theme? 'Sarn Athrad' means 'stony ford' and you have used the 'stony' name for the Brandywine Bridge. Isn't there a black stone at Erech, too?

Ohhhh ...

6. THREE FARTHING STONE.

Correct! The theme was actually inspired by Hui's last one. I got to the password SEVEN, and my first thought was how come there's no seven stars and seven stones. Later I figured out that it was Seeing Stone instead, and got the idea for this one.



THEME: STONE

1. "Choose a fair more!" - you hear from the corners of the world.
2. Pinnacle organ on the far side is a cause for quarrel.
3. BRIDGE OF STONEBOWS: Sits across two drinks, skips two starts, and skipped on the greatest start. (a stone bridge)
4. They party at night, like in most Rolls-Royce incidents.
5. SARN ATHRAD: Ford ran threads, but note difference when they tangled. (stony ford)
6. THREE FARTHING STONE: Measure money or weight, but do so thrice! (well... it's a stone)
7. ORTHANC: Tower alternatively compares to the sea, it seems. (both a stone and a rock!)
8. A king in reverse is an element mixed with itself.
9. ERECH: There you may hear a confused cheer. (Stone of Erech, brought by Isildur)
10. Dying's son, by the sound of it.
11. Not a car sound, nor the music, but the site of a stronghold.
12. Step up! The gutsy insects grew enormous!
13. PALANTIR: Sphere in the middle of a messed up plan and a broken off tiara. (seeing stone)
14. Note riders exchange directions with reluctant riders.
15. Comes after the initial entrance into the city.

Wonder if 12 could be GIANTS or STONE GIANTS.

It has 'ants' in it.