Charming But Cryptic

Answer:

WIZARD

You can start by filling in the cryptic crossword. Clue explanations are given below, with definitions underlined.

No.	Clue	Answer	Explanation
5→	Confront the problem	CHALLENGE	Double Definition
9→	Careful – wild and rambunctious yaks ahead	WARY	Initial Letters (ahead) of “Wild And Rambunctious Yaks”
10→	Person who protects young Lightfoot!	GUARDIAN	“& lit.”: GUARD (person who protects) + IAN (Young Lightfoot, from Onward); the clue may also refer to Ian’s mom, or guardian
11→	Relatives – I love you!	FAMILY	“& lit.”: FAM (relatives) + ILY (abbrev. for I Love You); the entire clue itself also clues family
12→	Make-believe soda machine is not quite complete	FANTASY	Charades with Deletion: FANTA (soda) + SYSTEM (machine) - STEM (not quite complete)
13→	Magnetic disk in Red River	DRIVE	Hidden Answer (in) inside “reD RIVEr”
18→	Siblings deliver soup to emergency rooms	BROTHERS	Charades: BROTH (soup) + ERs (emergency rooms, abbrev.)
20→	Pilot graphical user interface demolishes expectations at first	GUIDE	Initial Letters (at first) of “Graphical User Interface Demolishes Expectations”
21→	Fighter takes from Wario	WARRIOR	Letter Bank: Take letters, with possible repetition, from “Wario”
22→	“An original mistake,” said the diviner	SORCERER	Homophone (said): SOURCE (original) + ERROR (mistake)
23→	Terribly upset at this arrangement	SETUP	Anagram (terribly) of “upset”
25→	Colombia and Germany pair up to write law	CODE	Charades: CO (Colombia) + DE (Germany)
29→	Spirits pay mixed respects	SPECTERS	Anagram (mixed) of “respects”
32→	Prolong the doctor’s unending agony?	DRAGON	Charades with Deletion: DR (doctor) + AGONY - Y (unending). (Definition clues “DRAG ON” rather than DRAGON, wordplay is suggested by the “?”)
33→	Remodeled iPhone X is a gem	PHOENIX	Anagram (remodeled) of “iPhone X” (the Phoenix Gem appears in Onward)
34→	Cover pencils in paste evenly	ECLIPSE	Even letters (evenly) of “pEnCiLs In PaStE”
1↓	Across the endless rough	THROUGH	Deletion: THE - E (endless) + ROUGH
2↓	Horseman turns penny to gold using programming language	CENTAUR	Charades: CENT (penny) + AU (gold) + R (programming language)
3↓	Odd Jeep wheel made of a gemstone	JEWEL	Odd Letters (odd) of “JeEp WhEeL”
4↓	Shaking out a real rug is normal	REGULAR	Anagram (shaking out) of “a real rug”
6↓	Greek monster hides a shy dragon	HYDRA	Hidden Answer (hides) in “sHY DRAgon”
7↓	Sounds tricky, Potter	HARRY	Homophone (sounds) of HAIRY (tricky)
8↓	Move the noisy frying pan	WALK	Homophone (noisy) of WOK (frying pan)
12↓	Plump tailless goddess parent	FATHER	Charades + Deletion: FAT (plump) + HERA (goddess) - A (tailless)
14↓	Bizarre former partner has no twitch	EXOTIC	Charades: EX (former partner) + O (zero aka no) + TIC (twitch)
15↓	Inside chair yoga is hazardous	HAIRY	Hidden Answer (inside) in “cHAIR Yoga”
16↓	Asks to exclude a charged particle from your journeys	QUESTS	Charades + Deletion: QUESTIONS (asks) - ION (a charged particle)
17↓	The meaning of life sounds like a dolphin	PURPOSE	Homophone (sounds like) of PORPOISE (dolphin)
18↓	Barely processed wheat	BARLEY	Anagram (processed) of “barely”
19↓	Pests dance on stairs	STEPS	Anagram (dance) of “pests”
20↓	Fantastic shred for the audience	GREAT	Homophone (for the audience) of GRATE (shred)
21↓	Leverage the outback extending over the East	WIELD	Charades + Container: WILD (outback) contains (extending over) “E” (east)
24↓	Pain in each muscle	POWER	Charades + Container: OW (pain) is contained “in” PER (each)
26↓	Poop a long time in jail	DUNGEON	Charades: DUNG (poop) + EON (a long time)
27↓	Possible power	MIGHT	Double Definition
28↓	Enchanted microphone has a silver core	MAGIC	Charades + Container: MIC (microphone) contains (has xyz core) AG (silver)
26↓	Chief shaman puts eleven leaping lords under enchantment	SPELL	Initial Letters (chief) of “Shaman Puts Eleven Leaping Lords”
30↓	Swear to mix antidotes	CURSE	Charades + Anagram (mix) of CURES (antidotes)
31↓	Head of shop with endless candy to fill positions	STAFF	Charades + Selection + Deletion: S (head of “Shop”) + TAFFY (candy) - Y (endless)

The completed crossword looks like this:

Meanwhile, you can also start analyzing the map. The map contains a number of raven heads (circles with beaks pointing in various directions). Starting from the raven in the top left marked with an "S" for "Start", you can trace a line in the direction the raven is pointing, leading to another raven. Repeating this step will draw out a path from raven to raven. The last raven points back to the start, completing the loop and signaling completion.

A subtle clue is that the first letters of each landmark, when read in a snaking pattern starting from "Nightshade Desert", spell NUMS AND POINTERS. This alludes to the fact that there are certain numbers and pointers that are important to completing the riddle.

Indeed, each raven's line passes through exactly 1 number, and each raven also has an arrow in its head pointing either down or to the right (aka across). The first raven contains a down arrow and points to the 27, meaning the first blank in the riddle in the top right should be filled in by the answer to "27 down" in the cryptic crossword. Repeating this for the rest of the ravens, we can complete the riddle, which states:

I might guide you in your magic quests;

Or walk you through some setup steps;

I might be hairy, I might be Harry,

I wield great power, so be wary!

What is described? A WIZARD! A magical wizard might help in quests, while a setup wizard might help you install software. Many wizards have fantastic beards, and Harry Potter is one famous wizard. Finally, wizards may be very powerful, so beware!

Authors’ Notes

This is probably our favorite puzzle! From the start, we knew we wanted to include a cryptic crossword in our hunt. After watching Onward (which, by the way, is full of puzzling fun!), we thought both a map-based puzzle and a cryptic would fit well - so we combined them and did both!

We don't often see riddles in puzzles, and given the theme (Onward features magic), this, too, seemed like a good addition. We challenged each other to write riddles, and chose one of our compositions for this puzzle. Having written the riddle, we then pulled out all the major words from it, and created a thematic crossword around those words. Finally, we constructed a map with raven heads embedded to clue which words are used to fill in the riddle, and in what order.