I was recently reminded about Sensible Castle, a Cards Against Humanity event where thousands of surprised celebrants took turns being the Leader of the Castle and issuing a series of three decrees, each the length of a regular Tweet. Even though I was only the Count for three minutes, I took this as a unique opportunity to create the shortest logic puzzle I could.
Sensible Castle had a few rules about these decrees. Everyone knew each could only be 140 characters, but would-be leaders could only edit their decrees a single time. Which means many rulers rushed through their remarks without realizing they couldn’t go back and change them! Having benefited from their lesson, I spent far too long poring over a Google Doc and solution grid. Of my 420 character allotment, I used all but 35.
This puzzle takes its characters from a poem by e.e. cummings, called “maggie and milly and molly and mae,” which has been stuck in my head since high school. Miraculously, the puzzle is solvable and only has a single solution! I half expected that there would be many possible results with so short a puzzle, but I made it work.
While Sensible Castle had a dedicated webcam and a Hall of Kings with the decrees of all the past rulers of the Castle, it looks like the server has been taken down sometime this year. But I’ve saved a picture of my final decrees!
If you feel like taking a crack at the riddle of the Four Sisters, send me an email with the final solution!