14

Five - Flowers with One Missing

This puzzle is part of the "Piece de Resistance" series. Go back to Part 1 (Ace) for the story.
Ace Two Three Four Five ...

Removing the silver matter, you see this handwritten text:

To the West is of conquer, of victory,
To the North is for leather laundry.
To the East is a great river, alloy,
To the South is big and tall, ahoy!
I myself am the glorious one who brings in heat,
A four-letter word is what you need!

Hints

usefulness level 0:

This is just another Four Directions puzzle...

usefulness level 1:

All sites in a nation

usefulness level 2:

Above hint: [tag:???ost??]

usefulness level 3:

The oval is 11 meter.

usefulness level 3.5:

Above hint:

usefulness level 4:

Above hint: It's a special type of clue... Enumeration is (5).

usefulness level 5:

BIG giveaway

Omega Krypton
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3 Answers3

6

After sussing that we were supposed to interpret the titular 'flowers' as:

A cryptic clue for 'RIVERS' (see my comment on the main question above),

I had gone on to wonder whether the area of interest was indeed:

INDIA, as confirmed by @hexomino via the printer's devilry of Hint 3 (The oval is 11 in diameter), although I had not solved that particular clue. My own flawed reasoning had been based on 'putra' in 'Brahmaputra' (a river in East India) sounding like the alloy 'pewter'.

This logic inadvertently led me to the answer for the missing 'flower' (I myself am the glorious one who brings in heat / A four-letter word is what you need!) being:

TAPI - a river of central India named after the goddess Tapati, the daughter of Surya the sun god and "mother-goddess of the south, the home of the southern sun where she brings the heat to the earth" (source: Wikipedia).

After the OP's hints and prodding (thanks!) I have now worked out that the directions might not strictly indicate the part of the country they are located in but rather their position in relation to the solution.

So WEST (To the West is of conquer, of victory,) is:

Shetrunjaya (a river west of the Tapi), whose name literally means 'victorious; one who overcomes enemies'.

NORTH (To the North is for leather laundry) is:

Chambal (a river north of the Tapi) since its ancient name was Charmanvati, meaning 'the river on whose banks leather is dried' (Source: Wikipedia).

EAST (To the East is a great river, alloy) is:

Mahanadi (a river east of the Tapi) since its name is a compound ('alloy') of two Sanskrit words: maha meaning "great", and nadi meaning "river".

SOUTH (To the South is big and tall, ahoy!) is:

Bhima (a river south of the Tapi) since its name in Sanskrit literally means 'big' or 'tall' (Source: Wikipedia).

And thus the riddle is (definitely!) complete!

Stiv
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  • well... you got the middle one, but none of those on the sides... get them all and the check will be yours! – Omega Krypton Aug 22 '19 at 01:45
  • what sort of hint do you want? – Omega Krypton Aug 25 '19 at 16:03
  • @OmegaKrypton Hmmm, let's see... In each case, are the clues standard cryptic crossword style for the whole word, or only partially? – Stiv Aug 25 '19 at 16:36
  • nope, only the title is cryptic, others work like a riddle – Omega Krypton Aug 26 '19 at 11:40
  • @OmegaKrypton Okay, I have been through so many lists of rivers - like this one - but nothing is striking me with obvious relevance to your riddle and my head now hurts...! Any further hints you can offer? It rather feels like looking for a needle in a haystack at the moment! Thanks :) – Stiv Aug 26 '19 at 21:15
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    ok, so here's a new hint that would hopefully give you the final push needed ;) @Stiv – Omega Krypton Aug 27 '19 at 05:09
  • @OmegaKrypton Thanks - I've pored over this before but finally got the breakthrough just now that I should be looking much closer to the solution... Think I might finally have it solved and you can move on to the next part of your series - sorry it took so long! – Stiv Aug 27 '19 at 08:22
  • you got the west one right! sorry for forgetting abt this... the full answer shd be rot13(Furgehawnln, Punzony, Znunanqv, Ouvzn). Add the explanations and you get the check! – Omega Krypton Aug 30 '19 at 03:29
  • @OmegaKrypton OK, now we're done! :) (I had east right too, so it was just north and south that needed fixing in the end...) Phew! – Stiv Aug 30 '19 at 07:47
5

I'm not certain about all of the flowers but I think the answer is

Ravi

To the West is of conquer, of victory,

Jhelum River known to the Greeks as Hydaspes.

To the North is for leather laundry.

Ganges River, not certain on this one but is seen as a holy river by Hindus in which they wash themselves and their cows.

To the East is a great river, alloy,

Feni River which is also an alloy

To the South is big and tall, ahoy!

Narmada River (sounds like Armada)

I myself am the glorious one who brings in heat,
A four-letter word is what you need!

Ravi River - ravi (रवि) is the Hindi word for sun.

Hint 3

This is a printer's devilry clue for INDIA.

The oval is 11 in diameter

hexomino
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1

Partial: The second hint is for the

acrostic tag

which, when applied to hint 1 gives the word:

Asian. So the sites these describe are all in Asia.