4th Link of the Maester's Path

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

This is how it goes, with the named houses being the ones on the visible sides of the pages:

Mormont, Lannister, Tully, Frey, Florent, Targaryen.

Weird. I got all of these and still didn't the "win"

[Bronn Stone]

Weird. I got all of these and still didn't the "win"

did you actually drag them in to the book?

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

did you actually drag them in to the book?

Just call me "McFly" :blushing:

[Bronn Stone]

Just call me "McFly" :blushing:

You're a SLACKER! :)

[sumi]

Over at W-I-C it said that if you don't collect novices you can't get in the Citadel. I hope that's not true. I mean, you can post the link but can you force people to click on it?

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

I know people who are now resorting to using fake accounts to boost their novice count. And yes, if you don't get 5 novices, you won't get into the Citadel. From Steve Coulson on Twitter: "One more link to go! Now is the time to start getting those novices, because that's the only way to get to the Citadel :)" "To quote from the site "Forge five links... Along the path gather five novices...""

(ETA: I'm annoyed, because I don't want to / won't resort to being my own novice, which means I will miss out on whatever goodies are in the Citadel until someone shares. If sharing is even possible, depending on what the experience is.)

[sumi]

Can we be each other's novices?

I know people who are now resorting to using fake accounts to boost their novice count. And yes, if you don't get 5 novices, you won't get into the Citadel. From Steve Coulson on Twitter: "One more link to go! Now is the time to start getting those novices, because that's the only way to get to the Citadel :)" "To quote from the site "Forge five links... Along the path gather five novices...""

(ETA: I'm annoyed, because I don't want to / won't resort to being my own novice, which means I will miss out on whatever goodies are in the Citadel until someone shares. If sharing is even possible, depending on what the experience is.)

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

No*; the idea is that a novice is someone who follows your personal link and *then* creates an account. Since we each already have an account, there's no way to become someone's novice now under our only/main accounts.

*This is my understanding, and how I'm interpreting some others' experiments. I could be wrong, though.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

Can we be each other's novices?

You cannot be a novice to someone else once you have started your account. We've tried.

I still need 3. Guess it is time to pull the "parent" card out.

[Brude]

This one's hurting my head and I've got other things to do today. Maybe I'll get to it later. Looks like an interesting puzzle, but I just can't even begin to wrap my head around it today,.

[Theano]

My translation and order:

Targaryen: brings nothing but wind, cutting north wind, howling ceaseless these weeks. But spring holds true, and we will see summer. Fields of wheat and barley are well in for those hale few left to eat it, and a good rain to grow on. Perhaps luck will turn now that the sickness has passed us. The days are middling

Tyrell: warm, mist in the morning. That does not last. Squirrels fattening, dogs losing their winter coats. But even one green as I knows that never has a spring been so mournful. Ravens bring word of the worst kind, and more every day. The sickness fells one in two in Oldtown. Likewise from King's Landing and Lannisport, highborn and low are

Bracken: I would let them suffer if my master did not teach to always support the bottom. (HA!) Stores of sourleaf will soon be exhausted unless a fashion for hats comes to pass. Our animals are wiser, and rest in the heat of the day, stalking prey or foraging only at dusk and dawn. Skies bluer than blue, but all long to see flocks of thunderclouds.

Prester: The summer is still holding well, and thus far no ravens bring sign of winter. A welcome respite after the ill spring and its lists of the dead and dying. The days are hot, save when a scrap of cloud comes to shield us, but none are fat with rain. Fields grow browner by the hour. Many a farmer has come for help, sun-addled and red from carting pails from the river too long.

Frey: Three cattle were found dead where they stood there [sic?] last days, and a woodcutter went out before the snows nigh unto a moon ago and has not yet returned. Ravens raise spirits high with their news of bold deeds and exploits at a tourney at King's Landing, though not as high as sign of season's change would

Stark: do. Snow in drifts as high as a grown man's hip in places. The Seven are merciful at last, tempering the bone-breaking cold, and even sending some days of good strong sun. Clouds are soft and round, but pass by quickly bringing their snow elsewhere. Two sacks of grain lost to rats. Ravens fly out today to ask if sign of winter's end is

Tully: brings word from the great tourney at Harrenhal of scandal among the high lords. It is all the smallfolk can talk about, it seems, for all it is none of their concern. The young make too much of such foolishness; it will soon blow over. Gentle breezes are easterly and southerly in turn and very mild. Fields are greening.

Redwyne: Pease and radish on the table. And yet there is no white raven--this is no true spring. Still, the touch of spring in winter is a kindness not to be refused. We are blessed with rain and sun in good mix. Rain enough to fill a flask two knuckles deep. Aurochs sighted by the river in fine fettle, and fish in plenty. Two crocks of mustard.

Lannister: I have seen hotter days, but not many. The sun beats us dry and reminds me of other droughts in years no others like to recall. The old sentinel's needles have all gone brown. Soon it will be firewood, not that any care to light a fire. Few clouds pass by, and those few no more than torn scraps of wool.

Greyjoy: The air does not stir. Milk sours quickly, and tempers. Unrest and bloodshed in Lannisport, or so the ravens bring. It leaves me fearful, as I had thought the days of war ended. I hope it will come to a quick end, but fear the last time I said as much, my prophecy was unsound. This time I have no prediction.

Mormont: I smile to think of the slip of a boy who began this journal. The sun is strong and warming to all but I--cold has settled into my bones and will not leave it again. For all the summer has been long and winter is coming any day, at my age I fear I will not live to see another white raven. Perhaps just as well, for who yearns for the years

Baratheon: of hard winter sure to follow a ten-year summer? A fortnight of cloud and rain--the thunderclouds that visit are angry, hurling spears of lightning that come loud and close, and rain enough that the river rises from its bed. Lightning struck in the wood and lit a fire. Rain soon ended it, but now an oak spinning

One of the house banners is wrong, but I've labeled it how it appears in the puzzle.

[Maltaran]

Sounds like the Tully/Redwyne page is from the year of the false spring, when Jaime joined the Kingsguard.

[Maltaran]

Over at W-I-C it said that if you don't collect novices you can't get in the Citadel. I hope that's not true. I mean, you can post the link but can you force people to click on it?

I know people who are now resorting to using fake accounts to boost their novice count. And yes, if you don't get 5 novices, you won't get into the Citadel. From Steve Coulson on Twitter: "One more link to go! Now is the time to start getting those novices, because that's the only way to get to the Citadel :)" "To quote from the site "Forge five links... Along the path gather five novices...""

(ETA: I'm annoyed, because I don't want to / won't resort to being my own novice, which means I will miss out on whatever goodies are in the Citadel until someone shares. If sharing is even possible, depending on what the experience is.)

This sounds somewhat like a pyramid scheme. I only have one novice at the moment - seems like I need to start making fake accounts.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Yeah, that's what I don't like about it. Because I don't have enough Twitter followers / FB friends / Skype friends / other people who are interested in doing this, I can't prove I provide enough word-of-mouth advertising for HBO / The Maester's Path / Game of Thrones, and thus I'm locked out from content.

The only other thing I could think of would be having a thread where everyone who's lacking novices just posts their personal link, and people who are coming in new use those links to sign up*... but that still assumes there are new people who are still joining. (Or there are people that willing to sign up for more HBO notifications and create fake accounts to be novices not just for themselves, but for other people.)

*And, for the sake of fairness, removes their link when they get their needed 5.

[Godlikebuthumble]

This sounds somewhat like a pyramid scheme.

Welcome to the glorious world of VIRAL ADVERTISING! Seriously, as awesome as all this stuff is (last week's "puzzle" nonwithstanding), it's not "for" us, it's a vehicle by which we are supposed to get other people to look at HBO's stuff. And if your friends don't deign to look at it... get new friends! (OK, t.i.c. there, I only got one acolyte myself...).

Also, how cool was this weeks puzzle?

I did the transliteration first, then tried identifying a year by the described events, then going from there and cross-referencing potential year with the given temperatures (Fahrenheit scale, we hates it!)...

Certainly a brain teaser, but fun and worth it for the cool background stuff. The video was nice, too. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Bronn Stone]

This particular style of social marketing will most likely kill social marketing as an effective tool for creating a buzz for a new product. I don't spam my friends. My friends know this about me. They know that when I do say something, it is because I am genuinely interested in it. Not because I am getting a Space Turnip in FarmVille or 10,000 free chips in WPT Poker. I am not going to break that rule just to get extra preview commercials for GOT. When I know that someone linking ME to a site did it for some cheesy reward, I am strongly disinclined toward the linked object even if it might have interested me otherwise.

I genuinely enjoyed most elements of the puzzles on the Maester's Path. And would have enjoyed them more had they been better executed and conceived. As well, I am and will continue to be a tireless advocate for this series of books and this show. I've given away 20 copies of AGOT over the years - of course I'm going to tell all my friends about the show.

But I'm not gonna link them to some f**king website unless they ask me to. And by then, they've just signed up themselves.

[The Mormegil]

It's neat that the years (some of them at least) link up to big events in Westeros' history

208

The Great Spring Sickness, 209 is the when the worst of this happens but I suppose it could have started in 208.

211

Events of The Sworn Sword (Dunk and Egg II) take place, don’t think there is anything in the text that connects to that story, though Egg does start wearing a hat later.

254

The Bold deeds at a Tourney at Kings Landing refers to Ser Barristan Selmy being knighted at the Winter Tourney at Kings Landing where he defeated both Prince Duncan Targaryen and Ser Duncan the Tall.

271

The Great Tourney at Harrenhal

278

Not sure what the unrest and bloodshed in Lannisport refer to, could be Tywin wiping out the Raines (not sure when that happened)

287

Nothing in the text to link to events.

[Steve the Pirate]

You don't have to spam anyone, calm down. The new accounts aren't even verified by email before you get for the Novice, so you could technically use a fake email to quickly create new accounts. It would theoretically take no more than a few minutes.

[Bronn Stone]

You don't have to spam anyone, calm down. The new accounts aren't even verified by email before you get for the Novice, so you could technically use a fake email to quickly create new accounts. It would theoretically take no more than a few minutes.

That their intentions can be circumvented by dishonesty does not make their intent any less spammish.

[Corvinus85]

So the reward was OK, but I pretty much had to be led by the hand to get there by some of the comments here.

I hate puzzles! Give me the Wall anytime. HAR!!!