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My boss arranged for me to run things whilst he was off on a European vacation. While almost everything was set up for a graceful transfer of power, he must have been busy and distracted, because he forgot to give me the password to the server room! One hopes I wouldn't have to use it, but these details are important.

It's a simple enough lock--just a numeric keypad, but I don't even know the length of the password. I looked around my boss's desk for something that might be a clue (that's how these things work, right?) and only found a post-it note with what seems like the start of a nerdy crossword puzzle on them...

(1) Area ministered over by Morrison
(3) What ghosts, vampires, and fey aren't
(5) "Stand up and be ________!"
(7) A Fighter or Barbarian's most important stat
(8) With "The," Cliff Johnson gave him an Errand
(9) EA's marketplace

I already tried the numbers in order--nothing. If those are the numbers, there's some order to them I don't know. So...

What's the password?

Hint:

I managed to find my boss's vacation plans, and he was headed to the exotic European country of Florin. Does that help?

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  • $\begingroup$ This sounds like the beginning of a creepypasta story. $\endgroup$
    – Earlien
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 3:42
  • $\begingroup$ Isn't Florin from The Princess Bride? And isn't it fictional? Hmmm... $\endgroup$
    – Voldemort's Wrath
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 21:00
  • $\begingroup$ You fools! You fell victim to..... $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 22:27

1 Answer 1

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(1) Area ministered over by Morrison

Australia

(3) What ghosts, vampires, and fey aren't

Mortal (Thanks to @MrSethward!)

(5) "Stand up and be ________!"

Counted (thanks to @Stiv!)

(7) A Fighter or Barbarian's most important stat

Strength

(8) With "The," Cliff Johnson gave him an Errand

Fool

(9) EA's marketplace

Origin

What we can do is

put them into the order in which they appear in Vizzini’s iocane speech from the movie The Princess Bride, namely: FOOL, COUNTED, AUSTRALIA, ORIGIN, STRENGTH, MORTAL. Thanks to @JeremyDover for this insight!

Then,

Taking the associated numbers with the order above, we get the password 851973.

OP's Afterword:

And 8/5/1973 was the release date for the original Princess Bride novel!





Well, okay, it wasn't, I couldn't find the exact date of release, but William Goldman would say to never let reality get in the way of a good story!

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think a more common word for (5) would be rot13(PBHAGRQ) but I am equally at a loss right now as to how to use these answers... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 22:42
  • $\begingroup$ Got to same place as you, and equally lost. For (3), wasn't sure about the current answer, could be rot13(ZBEGNY) instead? $\endgroup$
    – MrSethward
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 23:00
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    $\begingroup$ rot13(vs lbh punatr nyvir gb zbegny, nyy fvk bs gurfr jbeqf nccrne va Ivmmvav'f fcrrpu qhevat uvf vbpnar pbzcrgvgvba jvgu Jrfyrl, va gur beqre SBBY, PBHAGRQ, NHFGENYVN, BEVTVA, FGERATGU, ZBEGNY) $\endgroup$
    – Jeremy Dover
    Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 0:37
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks to you all — and fantastic find especially, @JeremyDover ! $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 3:29

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