Spoiler (highlight to read):SpIk3y wrote:
OK, but question...
Spoiler (highlight to read):
How did you know which letters were promoted one space and which were promoted two?
(1) I've done a lot of cryptograms, so I thought that the riddle was just providing cryptogram clues. And, since the numerology of the riddle seemed to indicate numerical shifts of letters (such as 'P' becomes 'R' for a shift of 2), I focused on that.
(2) I interpreted the first two lines of the riddle as providing the foundational key to the cryptogram. That is, the original word is changed by two letters ... but that would mean that "PRNLNTHNN" is the answer. The numbers in the first two lines correspond to the alphabet count.
(3) I interpreted the second two lines of the riddle ("as three like its mate, becomes four, five becomes six") as saying that the 3rd, 4th (the mate) and 5th letters would only shift by one ... so far, then, the answer is "PROMOTHNN". The numbers in the second two lines correspond to the position of letters in the word ... yeah, inconsistent with (2) above, but that's what I eventually thought of.
(4) The last two lines of the cryptogram ("but as a eight isn't a six, is a nine not a ten!") ... again, more ambiguity. I interpreted this (after some trial and error) to be saying: "The eighth letter of the cryptogram is not interpreted like the 6th letter of the cryptogram, it's distance is only 1 away from its original letter rather than 2." Thus, at this point, I end up with "PROMOTHON"
(5) Hmmm ... that's not a word, and I don't have additional clues (except that something appears to be missing from the riddle ... namely that there is an "a" before "eighth" rather than an "an" as if a line about the "seventh" should have been there ... I wondered if a line was missing from the riddle). Anyway... looking at what is there, I surmised that the word was "PROMOTION", which sort of makes sense since the cryptogram is all about promoting letters.
