A little spooky teaser for the coming Halloween...
A minor tag that suits but can't be put in due to the tag limit is omitted.
Hints:
1
Why cities instead of random clues?
2
Title is hint...
3
The Clock is Ticking...
4
Sometimes things that are often known in the form of numbers can be converted into other things...
5
Sergeant, what's the time?
(I'm really just picking up the pieces left behind by M Oehm here; if you like this, go upvote one of his things.)
If you take the
cities he has found
and find
their time zones (as hinted at by all the stuff about clocks)
and interpret them via
military time zone names (as hinted at by e.g. the last hint)
then you get
WHSAAD for the across clues and ATTEI for the down ones.
Now
these are an anagram of the seasonally and thematically appropriate message: DEATH AWAITS.
Note:
There isn't anything in the puzzle to indicate what anagram to take. (Setter has confirmed in TSL chat.)
Partial answer
The cryptic clues ...
... have no definition. Instead, the title of the crossword puzzle, "Capital Punishment", gives a hint: All answers are national or state capitals.
Across
3 No, that is, in lieu of two, a single beheaded homicide leader precedes
HONOLULU, capital of Hawaii, USA
H(omicide) + (m)ONO + L(ie)U without IE twice, not sure about the order
4 Limits of source removes, intrinsically the energy would be lost
PERTH, capital of West Australia
PER SE - S(ourc)E + TH(e) - E (energy)
5 Tip for buying muppet – by Peter
BELMOPAN, capital of Belize
B(uying) + ELMO + (Peter) PAN
6 A broken shank is leading
KINSHASA, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo
SHANK IS* + A
8 Demolish Cal's cabana
CASABLANCA, principal city of Morocco
CAL'S CABANA*
10 Call me after one
DUBAI, capital of the Emirate of Dubai in the UAE (Thanks to Alconja!)
DUB (call) + A + I
Down
1 Sly glares I received
ALGIERS, capital of Algeria (Thanks to Weather Vane!)
GLARES* around I
2 False hope with early sign of new Chinese leader from the east
PHOENIX, capital of Arizona
HOPE* + N(ew) + (Jinping) XI<
3 Relish scattered moment. Embraced? Behold!
HERMOSILLO, capital of Sonora, Mexico
RELISH* around MO + LO
7 Member of travel amateurs returned
MALE, capital of the Maldives
trav_EL AM<_ateurs
9 A mind, having taken in ecstasy
SEOUL, capital of South Korea
E (ecstasy, drug) in SOUL
The grid:
A
P H O N O L U L U
P E R T H E G
O R I
B E L M O P A N E
N O R
K I N S H A S A S
X I
L M
C A S A B L A N C A
E O L
O E
D U B A I
L
The overall answer:
There is an answer of eleven letters (two words: 5, 6) to this crossword puzzle. I haven't found it. There are eleven clues whose first letters are APHMS HPBKCT and eleven common lights: HLHEM ISSLAU. Using the states that the answers are capitals of doesn't yield anything promising, either.
It's also not clear whether the answer is another capital of whether it fits with the Halloween theme. The answer could also be a punishment, as hinted at in the title. Kuala Lumpur and Addis Abbaba are capitals that match the letter count (5, 6). Buenos Aires is a near miss. I don't see how to make any of those, though.
For what it's worth, here's a list of the answers:
Honolulu Hawaii US-HI Perth Western Australia AU-WA Belmopan Belize BZ Kinshasa Congo CG Casablanca Morocco MA Dubai Dubai AE-DU Algiers Algeria DZ Phoenix Arizona US-AZ Hermosillo Sonora MX-SON Male Maldives MV Seoul South Korea KR
