I made it (after a "slight" detour to another locale altogether). A very nicely constructed and satisfying endeavor, which certainly bears repeating. Thank you, Cap'n!
Well, I originally rated it a level 2, but folks seemed to be having difficulty. ETC would have only been part of the mechanism if BATBAT (its symmetrical opposite) made any sense, which it doesn't.
Oh... two things I failed to notice when I solved. 1) Rotational symmetry (I really should look more... it makes things easier) 2) My submission of BADEN was accepted and I felt "that's okay but off" but realize now the actual answer should have be BADEN BADEN which is brilliant! and spot-on! Maybe you shouldn't have made BADEN an acceptable answer. Of course, my brain last night might have tried other paths and got frustrated.
It would have been fair to not accept BADEN. Although the mood I was in when I solved it I'd have probably spent 5 more hours trying to shoe-horn "etcetera etceteta" into it.
Ergcat 11:38 · 2022-10-01T03:28:15.695Z
Same here! I submitted Baden and realized later it should have been “Baden Baden” which makes sense!
Liked this one, Cap’n Rick! I Figured the mechanism but couldn’t get the synonyms/letters in the right order for a while there.. so you may see some strange “guesses”! Sorry!
Thank you for a clever puzzle!
Went one step too far with my first answer (SPA) then backed off to BADEN BADEN. Needed the third nudge to find all five echoes, Once I saw DUNGEON, it was just a matter of finding the other four. (Had to google CHOWCHOW). Also had to google BADEN BADEN to determine if it was an appropriate echo that would fit the prompt. [BADEN reminded me of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, and, in turn, camping trips. Not quite sure if they would qualify as relaxing places, though.]
another fun puzzle!! i wasn't familiar with baden baden, and instead of original answer order i did repeated clue order so i was like what is BENAD? it looks like it could almost be BED AND B(reakfast) and those are relaxing so incorrectly guessed B&B whoops