16
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(This is part of a series of puzzles written for Timwi for a Secret Santa puzzle exchange, themed around various custom modules for the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. No KTaNE knowledge is necessary for any of these puzzles except the final meta; each puzzle resolves to a single word or short phrase.)

A Souvenir

What might you get
if you led a(n)...

  • "Abel's groups" ring? (11)
  • band of sinfulness? (9)
  • body judging trash-ness? (3, 3, 3, 8)
  • cajolery quiz? (10)
  • comfy seat guild? (6, 5)
  • dodgy plumb reading? (11, 4)
  • dog quickness match? (9, 6)
  • girls' trades group? (13)
  • hard protein club? (10)
  • PCP- and/or LSD-using crew? (12)
  • savory grub circle? (5-8)
  • slammer sung by "Rock's King"? (9)

11 _ 1 12 10 _ 4 _ _ 10 5 5 7 5 _ 5 4

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2 Answers 2

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(I don't have enough reputation to comment on Alconja's answer, so I'm posting the solution as its own answer, even though they did most of the work. I'm still learning the etiquette around here—sorry if this is improper!)

6 is

not DANGEROUSLY HIGH, it turns out; not sure what it is, though

11 is

MOUTH-WATERING

Next:

Sort the answers alphabetically; they start with the letters A-P (excluding the vowels, naturally). Index into them using the numbers at the bottom.

BUSINESSWOMAN (11) → M
[blank]
COMMUTATIVE (1) → C
D... (6) → ?
F... (10) → ?
[blank]
GREYHOUND RACING (4) → Y
[blank]
[blank]
HALLUCINOGEN (10) → G
JAILHOUSE (5) → H
KERATINOUS (5) → T
LOUNGE CHAIR (7) → C
MOUTH-WATERING (5) → H
[blank]
NEFARIOUS (5) → R
PERSUASION (4) → S

This yields

M_C??_Y__GHTCH_RS

The blanks represent the five vowels. With some deduction, you can conclude that the clue phrase is

MUCH JOY EIGHT CHARS

... which yields the solution:

EUPHORIA, which also contains all of the vowels.

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    $\begingroup$ That's correct, nicely done! (And I apologize - the answer in the first block was indeed correct, but I had left a number from an earlier version of the puzzle in there.) $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Feb 11, 2020 at 9:33
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    $\begingroup$ Nice work mbingo and welcome to Puzzling! Re: etiquette, what you've done is more than fine. If you have minor observations/partial bits, then comments are best, but if it's more substantial (which your contribution clearly is, given that it resolves the final answer), posting an answer is the right thing to do, even if others have already posted partials. If I was really that precious about someone "stealing" my effort and building on it, I could have chosen to not post until I had more. :) $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Feb 12, 2020 at 0:25
  • $\begingroup$ And BTW, @Deusovi, what is the "body judging trash-ness" solution? It's the only one still left unresolved... $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Feb 12, 2020 at 0:32
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    $\begingroup$ @Alconja Ah, that one's "FIT FOR THE JUNKYARD" -- it's an uncommon phrase, but apparently A Thing™. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Feb 12, 2020 at 1:45
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Partial answer...

Each phrase has

all vowels (aeiou) appearing exactly once

and appear to cryptically hint at another word/phrase with the same property.

Specifically:

  1. "Abel's groups" ring? (11)

COMMUTATIVE

  1. band of sinfulness? (9)

NEFARIOUS

  1. body judging trash-ness? (3, 3, 3, 8)

???

  1. cajolery quiz? (10)

PERSUASION

  1. comfy seat guild? (6, 5)

LOUNGE CHAIR

  1. dodgy plumb reading? (11, 4)

DANGEROUSLY HIGH

  1. dog quickness match? (9, 6)

GREYHOUND RACING

  1. girls' trades group? (13)

BUSINESSWOMAN

  1. hard protein club? (10)

KERATINOUS

  1. PCP- and/or LSD-using crew? (12)

HALLUCINOGEN

  1. savory grub circle? (5-8)

???

  1. slammer sung by "Rock's King"? (9)

JAILHOUSE (Rock), by Elvis Presley

Other notes:

  • "A souvenir" follows the same pattern
    • As Athin points out in the comments below, both "What might you get" and "if you led a(n)..." also follow this pattern
  • Presumably the final answer uses the pattern at the bottom taking the nth letter of each answer (possibly reordered since the clues are just alphabetical), with the five blanks being the five vowels
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    $\begingroup$ Wow! Not only "A souvenir", but the two lines below it also follow the pattern! $\endgroup$
    – athin
    Feb 10, 2020 at 7:19
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    $\begingroup$ Nice job spotting the pattern! (In the actual puzzle PDFs, I had also changed the header to say "Puzzle for Christmas" and the page number was "Just this: only page".) Some of the clues have an extra word meaning 'group' or something at the end, to go with the flavortext and give some leniency for the cluing - don't worry about those too much. All your answers except for the second are correct so far. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Feb 10, 2020 at 19:34
  • $\begingroup$ (Minor mistake in the puzzle corrected - sorry about that! The third number at the end was changed.) $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Feb 11, 2020 at 9:34

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