Fleur de Lis
Tracy Clemons, 11″ x 8″ x 7″5.5 lbs
I’ve been wanting to write about Fleur de Lis for some time: this is a rather massive sequential discovery puzzle by Tracy Clemons, maker of another massive sd classic, Dark Fairy Door. At close to 5.5 lbs, Fleur de Lis towers over most other puzzles, tilting to one side as if threatening to fall over (it doesn’t). With a beautiful Fleur de Lis on its top, the namesake is clear. It resembles a precarious stack of many-knobbed drawers whose odd stature belies the odd movements to come.
Entering into Fleur, you will rapidly build up a lot of pieces serving a variety of purposes; whether tools or locks or red herrings, there is plenty to work with. In the meantime, you get yourself into some strange positions, with multiple laugh out loud movements that had me smiling as I solved. Meanwhile, there is what is inside the drawers! In classic Tracy form there’s a meta-puzzle waiting to be discovered and solved as you make your way through numerous hidden compartments.
Approaching the puzzle it is an open question as to where one should begin. This is not really a linear puzzler with a single path to the solution, which makes it easy to get lost (as I would soon find out). Building up a stack of pieces, it becomes clear that a patient and careful approach will be necessary if one has any hope of resetting the puzzle (which would prove to be a major struggle for me, a series of puzzles in its own right). This is not a puzzle for the light of heart! Take caution ye who hope to enter into its wacky dimensions.
I would need a LOT of help resetting the puzzle – I had left it in a state of undress for so long that I’d forgotten where too much went, as I struggled with solving the meta-puzzle hidden within. I am loathe to admit that I actually had to send it to Tracy for some help, so sure was I that something had gone wrong (which was completely my fault, rather unsurprisingly). A better puzzler than I (of which there are many) would surely not need such desperate steps but if you’ve read this blog you know my affection for puzzles tends to outstrip my abilities.
If you dig complexity, this is a great puzzle for you to take on. I was scared to approach it once more for the writing of this blog and only let myself get so far before backtracking in fear (coward!). However, I only wanted to remind myself of some of its complexity before sitting down to write about it and felt my cowardice was excusable. Jokes aside, I just don’t have the hours needed to dedicate myself to solving and resetting in one sitting and feared my lack of abilities in setting the puzzle aside over time as I did before.
I may be laying it on a bit thick for the sake of (questionable) humor – speaking with other puzzlers who have taken this on, they did not have the trouble I had resetting but…. again…. who’s got two thumbs and is kind of an idiot? (and apparently seems to think you can see what he is doing through the screen?)… this guy.
Puzzle Ramblings 