Okay. I can’t help myself when it comes to ancient children’s lit… I think you’re onto something @Robert, but Little Bo Peep ALSO mentions a heart, “she found them indeed but it made her HEART bleed for they left their tails behind them.” so that could be the starting point and then we actually end at Knave of Hearts. That would be the straight line. We just need to find the correct element from Knaves?
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What’s amusing about this is the entire reason I focused on that area is I saw the word ‘Heart’ on that cottage and that got me looking in the area. Then I saw little Bo Peep and went from there. Turns out both were wrong I guess.
I don’t see anything in the Queen of Hearts nursery rhyme about sheep.
However, I do see
Sheep: Ba, Ba, Black Sheep: “And one for the dame,” That could make M. Dames Cottage the 6th location.
Following the straight line, I guess would make The Heart of Knave’s Cottage the 7th location? Then the 7th word would probably be ‘Tart’.
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Great job @Robert and @Endri. So now we (more like Robert) have solved two out of six clues?
“Dark water writhes, less reptile than Castor?” - ?
168.327325 - ?
“Six Keys Surround Another.” - The Seven Dwarves
26.49757 - ?
“Millenary Outstretched Arms Reveal Sadko’s Temptation. Look Above CC.” - ?
“Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???” - Tart
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I honestly have no idea what we’ve solved. I am absolutely sure those two lines refer to locations on the map somehow. Everything after that is a complete shot in the dark.
My current theory is it’s more the locations themselves that are important. The house of the seven dwarves and the Knave of Heart’s cottage. (I just noticed I referred to it as the Heart of Knave’s cottage above…that’s how liquefied my brain is at this point.) Maybe we end up with a list of locations that form some sort of pattern, or line, or circle and show us what we really need to find the fragment.
I’m currently trying to find places that form interesting geometric shapes from those two points then seeing if I can cram one into one of the remaining lines. I’m pretty much at the point of relying on dumb luck (or preferably someone smarter than me) to make any more progress .
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I feel like “dark water writhes” might mean the stormy area at the bottom left of the map? but the only things i could find in that area and the water above it is the sea of mourning (which has birds), mermen, and horned beasts
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I never want to step on recruits’ toes but I think the two letters on The Cagliostro’s Yule page may connect to the clues you’ve solved so far. S for Seven Dwarves and K for Knave of Hearts? Are we the ones filling that page in?
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If we are, then we have fewer than 10 clues at this stage…
but let’s put together what we do have:
“Dark water writhes, less reptile than Castor?” - Something to do with the Great
Whirlpool or Storm Area, perhaps the birds or crowned fish, or tritons
168.327325 - ?
“Six Keys Surround Another.” - Seven Dwarves (or just Seven)
26.49757 - ?
“Millenary Outstretched Arms Reveal Sadko’s Temptation. Look Above CC.”
- maybe CC = Cockpaidle Cape or Caves of Chrysolite (The beach of Pearls
and Psyche are above it), not sure about outstretched arms
“Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???” - Knave of Hearts (or just Knave)
Plus the original path the chicken followed leading to (not sure exactly where), perhaps Cockpaidle Cape, perhaps the “Citie of Shagpat and the Sword”
And unsolved text below the shield of oberon
The symbol of Psyche mentioned by Dierdre (does that mean the CC clue is Psyche??)
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Psyche has outstretched arms, I noticed! Aimed roughly to the beach of pearls
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I just had an idea - I thought that perhaps 26.49757, 168.327325 could actually be celestial coordinates and correspond to a star or constellation in the sky. I used Google Sky and found that, when searched, those coordinates correspond with the Pegasus constellation. Pegasus is on the map of Fairyland, so maybe that works?
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Deeds posted a new blog post, including new bits and pieces from the journal.
40.233986
“Set forth from the heart of a wishing well to find the knight who rests ascended o’er four thousand thoughts away”
-17.733251
NU1833034971
Also she posted a picture of a little man she found in the drawing. http://www.deedsdone.co.uk/
My hope is this is a representation of the ‘man on the shore’ we are looking for. He is pointing to the right with his left hand and his right hand is straight up.
2 more numbers makes this very interesting. Those 2 numbers we previously had may not have gone together and instead go with these. Let the games continue!
Edit: I apologize for taking an easy one but my brain needed an easy one right now.
NU1833034971 is the OS Grid reference (British grid reference system) for Bamburgh Castle.
Bamburgh castle was featured in an 1890 story The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh.
The Laidly Worm is on our map. I believe this is one of the locations.
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Arranging the numbers in fun and interesting ways (I like numbers…so sue me.)
40.233986, 26.49757 - Lat long of, the Dardanelles, a strait near Istanbul
I can find 2 historical or mythical occurances that might be of interest to us in this strait.
-
Helle, daughter of Athamas drowned in these waters during the quest for the golden fleece. I don’t see Helle on the map though.
-
Leander swam the strait nightly to be with his love, Hero until he was blown out to see in a storm and drowned. ‘here is Leander’ is on our map and I believe one of our locations.
That leaves 1 pair of numbers left, and putting them together as a lat long pair gives us.
-17.733251, 168.327325 Just outside the University of the south pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu
So far I can’t find any reference to this location on the map, or anything in the university that would point to the map.
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the golden fleece is on the map!! so that might be a location
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And the new co-ordinates in Google sky (40.233986 -17.733251) is Ursa Major…the Great Bear (or Big Dipper)
So we have the pairs as presented giving us constellations, and mixed as @Robert is trying giving some other really good options.
Edit: found the little figure near the kobold caves (toward top of map above dwarfs)
EDIT2: and I think "Set forth from the heart of a wishing well to find the knight who rests ascended o’er four thousand thoughts away” refers to King Arthurs Tomb.
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Great work @reesylou looks like the Kobold Caves is one spot. If I’m reading this right we’re halfway there! It looks like we probably have an S, K, L, L, K for the name. Um…I’d like to buy a vowel please?
I’m not sure how we’re going to figure out the order without Laureen there to reupload new versions, but one bridge to cross at a time. Keep up the good work!
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Summary time again:
UNSOLVED “Dark water writhes, less reptile than Castor?” (possibly to do with Great Whirlpool or Storm Area, perhaps the birds, crowned fish, tritons)…
UNSOLVED 168.327325 (likely to go with -17.733251)
SOLVED “Six Keys Surround Another.” Seven Dwarves
SOLVED 26.49757 (used with 40.233986) Leander
UNSOLVED “Millenary Outstretched Arms Reveal Sadko’s Temptation. Look Above CC.”
- maybe CC = Cockpaidle Cape or Caves of Chrysolite (The beach of Pearls
and Psyche are above it), not sure about outstretched arms (EDIT: Could Millenary Outstretched Arms be the Oreads?)
SOLVED “Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???” Knave of Hearts
SOLVED 40.233986 (used with 26.49757) see above
SOLVED “Set forth from the heart of a wishing well to find the knight who rests ascended o’er four thousand thoughts away” Galahad
UNSOLVED -17.733251 ((likely to go with 168.327325)
SOLVED NU1833034971 The Laidly Worm
SOLVED picture of a little man Kobold’s Cave
UNSOLVED Plus the original path the chicken followed leading to (not sure exactly where), perhaps Cockpaidle Cape, perhaps the “Citie of Shagpat and the Sword”
And unsolved text below the shield of oberon
The symbol of Psyche mentioned by Deeds(does that mean the CC clue is Psyche??)
And off topic… something I noticed earlier… in red text (between witches wood and the 3 wise men of gotham) “Here is the Venusberg!”
EDIT: Added Galahad
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That has happened since I posted - I checked it (and the email) just after I posted. Love the way our work (not just this, but things like Operation Nepenthe) has real and observable consequences 
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So I’ve been trying to figure out the 4000 thoughts one. Using the scale in the top left corner of 400 thoughts, I pasted it 10 times from the centre of the two wells I could find, running on the assumption that they are going directly straight to either the left, right, up, or down. Shown here:
The best option looks like the top left well, going towards the right - which would end up at Galahad about 6200 thoughts from the centre of that well. I also marked Arthur, but perhaps he is more of a king than a knight?
But like I said, this is all relying on the idea that its a straight line from the centre of the well and not diagonal or something else.
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