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Hey, it's me, your favourite non-copyright infringing adventurer, Nindynana Nones! (No jokes please, my last film Kingdom of The Crystal Nana was enough of one to last us a while).

I'm on an wild venture deep in an ancient jungle and have arrived at the entrance of a mysterious tomb said to hold wonders untold (that's oxymoronic mysteries for you!), the door sealed tight. It seems the wise seers who carved these stones discovered Roman Numerals before The Romans.

The moment I placed my hand on the sandy door, a large pit unfolded beneath my feet. I took my trusty kangaroo rope™ and swung to safety, narrowly missing the snarling bite of a scaled worm. These legless dragon noodles are vivid in colour and have what could only be described as lizard tattoos.

They squirm together like living ramen, I don't care if they're cute, I'm not putting my hands in for a better look.

I can still reach the door to press the stones, maybe entry can be gained if I can enter the correct combination?

HINT#1:

The sum total of numbers in the combination is 28

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm living for the living ramen $\endgroup$
    – as4s4hetic
    Jul 8, 2017 at 0:18

1 Answer 1

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The door

Some of the inscriptions seem potentially decipherable. For a particularly blatant example, the word "MIRROR" (fittingly, mirrored) can be seen over on the right. Other bits, mirrored or not, may possibly say things like "TIME(S?)" and "THIS" and "MUST". Aside from that MIRROR, though, none of it is clear enough for me to have much confidence about it. I remark that mirroring the Roman numerals yields legal but different Roman numerals.

The snakes

There are seven of them, coloured at least kinda according to the traditional seven colours of the rainbow. In colour order:
Red: band (?)
Orange: WoW or MOM or something of the sort
Yellow: stars
Green: skull and crossbones
Blue: insect (?)
Indigo: HATER with arrows on both sides
Violet: hearts

What to do

MOehm wisely suggests in comments that we extract numbers from those snakes' decorations, in the obvious rainbow order. It seems like there are a number of ways to do this, our further hint (the sum of the numbers) narrows it down a lot. There still seem to be a few roughly equally plausible interpretations; thanks to some nudging from OP, the intended one is evidently this:
R: 2 lines
O: 3 letters in "MOM"
Y: 5 stars
G: 1 skull-and-bones motif
B: 6 legs
I: 5 letters
V: 6 hearts
So I press 2,3,5,1,6,5,6 in that order. For the avoidance of doubt, "6" here means the button that initially looks like it says "IV" but is actually a mirrored "VI".

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  • $\begingroup$ You've worked out a few pieces of the puzzle for sure, consider the door portion 'solved' as the two main things you mention are the only two needed to complete it. The the point about the snake colours is accurate and intended. I could say more but you're only steps from the solution so I'd rather not spoil it :) $\endgroup$
    – BreakingMyself
    Jul 8, 2017 at 18:59
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    $\begingroup$ We need a combination, so each snake's tattoo could represent a number? The violet snake has six hearts (and the beetle has six feet). VI is only available when the buttons are mirrored, but the IV is then lost. Red might be II and yellow V, but other than that, I have no idea. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jul 8, 2017 at 19:30
  • $\begingroup$ Darn. I thought the E was an F which if you Rot 1 (arrow 1 to the left) becomes I BUGS which leads to the blue snake somehow. Looks like I was wrong :( $\endgroup$
    – Clangorous Chimera
    Jul 8, 2017 at 19:32
  • $\begingroup$ @MOehm Ever play hotter/colder as a kid (or with your own kids)? You would be getting "you're on fire" yelled at you lol. $\endgroup$
    – BreakingMyself
    Jul 8, 2017 at 19:40
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    $\begingroup$ Well, the simplest way to follow MOehm's idea would be to count motifs on each snake. Red: two lines. Orange: one "WoW". Yellow: five stars. Green: one skull-and-bones. Blue: one bug. Indigo: five letters (?). Violet: six hearts. So maybe 2151156? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Jul 8, 2017 at 20:05

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