"Speak Plainly!" by benchen71

[MatthewL]

Crossed the moat and stormed the castle (after using up all of my catapult ammo first). Got it pre-Ben nudges, but with the tiniest push from a fellow Muggle, who assured me I was on the right track, and to just keep looking. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!

[woozy]

Down the moat

In the bag.

Signed and sealed. But not very directly delivered.

But any day you get to the castle is a trip. Thanks Ben.

[whimsy]

OK -- I'm in --
But it wasn't very pretty --

Thanks for the entertainment, Ben!

[Berto]

Haha - nice one Ben.
Wasn’t how I thought it was gonna go, the old suit of armour needs a polish after being dragged through the moat a few times, but we battle on to fight another day.

[KayW]

DeMOATed. This one had a HAHA moment - thanks for the laugh!

[HeadinHome]

Coughed up some algae, pulled an eel out of my pants leg, and here I stand on the castle side. Thanks for the rope ( penultimate hint is what done it).

[ChrisKochmanski]

Crossed! Stormed!

Ha! Funny!

[DrTom]

Required nudges 5 and 6 and then a little time digesting what that meant. It also helped when I went back and recorded all the letters correctly. VERY tricky, but then that is what we have come to expect. Thanks Ben!

[benchen71]

Well, it's been just over 24 hours since the puzzle dropped, and less than 12 hours since the nudges. Here's who made it over the moat in that time:

Darth
kurtalert
Hector
LarsCaine
Trixxi
Pair O Ducks
markhr
boharr
rjy
iceman
MatthewL
hoover
Carolyn B
JM
Danny K Bernstein
woozy
dannyvee
DrTom
whimsy
Carolyn
Mr Tex
Berto
Tim
Morendil
Jaclyn
Bird Lives
KayW
HeadinHome
I K Snamhcok

So that's 29. Although the number who made it without nudge assistance is a lot less. But that's not the fault of the solvers who needed nudges; this one is very definitely on me.

I have to say, I was really looking forward to this one running! I thought it would be a really fun aha moment. It was very definitely not my intention to frustrate anyone. So if you are reading this post and you tried to solve but failed, please take a look at nudge 5 and 6. I hope the eventual answer will bring a smile to your face.

[StunGun]

To be honest, I do my puzzles as printed pdf’s, so I think a little got “lost in translation.”
Nudges 5 & 6 helped, and provided their own “aha” moments, making it that much more enjoyable.
Kudos!

[HeadinHome]

Same. PDFs only. But it’s all good, Ben. I’m just grateful to all you faithful constructors!

[benchen71]

Solver update:

Nessa Teal
Stun Gun
DCBilly (so close, I'm saying it's a solve, even though I haven't officially accepted it on Crosshare)
lbray53
Serafin

That's 34.

[Serafin]

Nearly had it, but needed a final nudge from Ben. Across the MOAT! Thanks as always for a great puzzle.

[benchen71]

Solver update:

Lance
Avlan
Tyrpmom
omnilynx
frostyjhammer

That brings up 39. Last update before the answer reveal Monday morning Aussie time.

[Cap'n Rick]

Am I the last to cross the MOAT? Does that make me a "rotten egg"? Should I "turn out the lights" since "the party's over"?

@benchen71, you rascal! You certainly "taught this old dog a new trick!"

[benchen71]

Final update, because I'm doing an early answer reveal!

Capn Rick

That gave us a total of 40.

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "Speak Plainly!":

I was so looking forward to this puzzle running. And then when it did it flopped! There were two very good reasons for this.

1. Knowing what the message in the grid referred to relies on knowing that in meta crosswords the meta prompt appears in a puzzle's note. This is certainly true for PUZ files. But the word "note" does not appear on Crosshare or in the PDF.

and

2. A number is not literally a letter! And even if a number could be considered a letter (@DrTom's post on Crosshare made me smile) why isn't that also true of a hyphen? (Well, because on Crosshare punctuation is ignored, but numbers aren't.)

Ah well, they can't all be gems!

[MikeyG]

I got IN NOTE LITERALLY and was like, "I'm not too familiar with that!"

No worries - I still enjoyed it, and idioms are a lot of fun! Reminds me of a brain-teaser where it said you had to eliminate ten letters from a string, and the ten letters were literally TEN LETTERS, so doubly meta!

Keep them coming, Ben!

[ajk]

lol continuing my way back through these. This one...was a bit frustrating. I did get it in the end with nudge 7. Thanks as always for the puzzle though.