Fringes were Fire Fringe, Water Fringe, Earth Fringe, and Air Fringe. The Minor Arcana cards had a suit. The 4 card suits were Staffs, Cups, Coins, and Swords, and each suit contained 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, and Ace. There were 22 Major Arcana cards, and they were the Fool, Magician, Priestess, Emperor, Empress, Hierophant, Lovers, Justice, Chariot, Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Strength, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Moon, Star, Sun, Judgment, and the World.
By clue 3, all Minor Arcana cards required one-space moves toward either a fringe or an edge. Clue 17 mentioned a southwestern corner, therefore the edges would have to face north, east, south, and west.
The ace & face cards in the same suit all had the same effect (clue 3), and Queen of Staffs required a one-space move toward the Fire Fringe (clue 2); therefore, Ace, Page, Knight, and King of Staffs also required one-space moves toward the Fire Fringe. The Page of Coins required a one-space move toward the Earth Fringe (clue 4), so did the Ace, Knight, Queen, and King of Coins (clue 3).
Jerry and Kerri made Larry move one space east and one space north, but Larry reversed all that by going one space southwest (clue 5), which was toward the Earth Fringe. Thus, the Earth Fringe was beyond the southwestern corner of the board, and, by clue 3, the numbered Coin cards would have to force a one-space move toward either the south or the west. The 10 of Cups required a one-space move to the south as did the other numbered Cup cards (clues 3 & 9), and Coins, being a different suit, must have required a move in a different direction (clue 3). The only direction possible for numbered Coin cards would be west, so the numbered Coin cards required a one-space move to the west.
Southeastern corner could only have been for either the Cups (south) or Swords (east), according to clues 3 & 5. Staff cards required one-space moves to the north or the Fire Fringe (clues 2,3, and 5), so Fire Fringe corner could only be northwestern or northeastern. If Fire Fringe was beyond the northeastern corner, then the remaining 2 corners (southwest corner for Earth Fringe) would have to be the northwestern and southeastern ones, but the northwestern corner could not have been for either Swords or Cups as that would contradict clue 3. Therefore, Fire Fringe was beyond the northwestern corner, and the southeastern and northeastern corners were for Cups & Swords in some order. Cups were neither north or east, so northeastern corner was not for Cups. By elimination, it was for Swords, and the southeastern corner was for Cups.
Air Fringe was not on the southern side (clue 15) and Fire Fringe was already assigned to the northwestern corner; therefore, the Air Fringe could only be beyond the northeastern corner, and Ace, Page, Knight, Queen, and King of Swords forced a move toward the Air Fringe (clue 3). Ace & face cards for Cups, then, required a one-space move toward the Water Fringe (only one left) beyond the southeastern corner. By clue 3, numbered cards for Cups, Coins, Swords, and Staffs respectively required one-space moves to the south, west, east, and north.
There were 6 cards requiring the maximum move of 4 spaces, four of them were the World (clue 2), the Moon, the Devil (clue 6), and the Tower (needed 4 spaces to eliminate player in clue 15). In clue 10, either the Star or Magician required a 4-space move while the other required a 3-space move. Since Star did not require a 3-space move (clue 14), it must have required a 4-space move while the Magician required three spaces. Both were to the north. Of the 5 known cards requiring a 4-space moves, one was to the center, another to the Water Fringe, still another to the Fire Fringe, one more was to the Air Fringe, and the fifth was to the north. The sixth 4-space card had to be toward the Earth Fringe (clue 14). It could not have been the Priestess or Hierophant since both required the same number of moves (clue 16) and there were exactly 6--not 7--cards requiring a 4-space move. It was not Justice (clue 12), or the Sun, Death, and Judgment cards (clue 8). Emperor only required 2 spaces toward the Earth Fringe (clue 17). By clue 19, Hanged Man required a 3-space move to the Air Fringe (approaching the board center from a corner would have to be in a direction diagonally opposite of that particular corner; Air Fringe (northeast) was diagonally opposite to Earth Fringe (southwest)). The Fool card had to require a move of less than 3 spaces (clue 14). So none of these cards was the sixth 4-space card. The sixth card was not the Empress (clue 11), which could only have required a 2-space move toward the Water Fringe (one space was not enough to eliminate Kerri in clue 11, and wasn't three spaces (clue 11) or four spaces (was not toward Earth Fringe, as sixth card required)). The Chariot card required a move to the south but not by 1,3, or 4 spaces (clue 9), so Chariot required a two-space move to the south. The only Major Arcana cards left were Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Lovers, Strength, and Temperance. Hierophant was the game-winning play for the player using the white queen (clue 20) and black king player lost (in clue 20, there were 8 final turns, and black king took odd-numbered turns since he was first in that series of turns). White king player lost by being forced into the Air Fringe and could only be Jerry since Larry & Mary had to be playing in order to eliminate Kerri in clue 11, who took one of the queens (intro), which was black since black queen did not participate in final 8 turns. Black queen (Kerri) was eliminated via Water Fringe (clue 11). Other loser has to be forced off the western edge (clue 7), which was Larry (black king). Hierophant card therefore required a move to the west while Priestess required one to the east (clue 16). By clue 16, Temperance required a move either to the north or south (perpendicular to east & west). So, Temperance was not the sixth 4-space card either. It had to require a 3-space move while the Priestess and Hierophant cards required two spaces. Six of the 7 three-space cards--Magician, Sun, Death, Judgment, Hanged Man, and Temperance--did not include the one always requiring a 3-space move toward the center, and this seventh card was not the Hermit (clue 18) or Strength (clue 12). Since there was a card requiring a three-space move to the south (clue 9) and Temperance was the only one of the seven that could possibly fit, Temperance thus required a three-space move to the south. By clue 16, the Sun card had something in common with Temperance (three space move) and Priestess & Hierophant (could force move to the east or west). Death card required a three-space move either to the north or center (clue 8). Judgment, then, was the card that either required a three-space move to the Fire Fringe or the center pending on coin toss (only one left in clue 8). Only five cards have not been assigned a direction. Among these five were the one requiring a 4-space move toward the Earth Fringe, one to the Fire Fringe (clue 13), one 2-spaces north (clue 10), and two others were to the center (clue 18). Strength could only have required a 4-space move toward the Earth Fringe since the other four cards mentioned could not have possibly eliminated Mary in clue 12. The Lovers card, then, was the one requiring a three-space move to the center (clues 2 & 14). The Hermit card did not require a move toward the Fire Fringe or center (clues 13 & 18), so it could only be the card requiring a two-space move to the north. The Wheel of Fortune card did not require a move toward the Fire Fringe (clue 13); it was two spaces to the center (clue 18). The remaining unassigned card, the Fool, required a two-space move toward the Fire Fringe (wasn't 3 or 4 spaces, and, by clue 13, minimum was 2 spaces).
© 1997 d_d_tea@hotmail.com
Get your own Free Home Page