PUZZLE
RULES
As you know, a witch's name is very important for them. Oh, you didn't know? Well, now you do. Yes, a witch's name is very closely tied to their magic, not to mention branding! Or pride. Imagine my surprise when I was warned there was someone out there trying to steal mine! Can you believe it? So I've entered the WPP, the Witchness Protection Program. They take this kind of thing very seriously, I'm told, so I'm in the best of hands.
I've already scheduled three different substitutes for each of the children's classes, so no need to worry about that. (And I promise I'll turn Stuart back into a boy when I get back! A few weeks as a frog never hurt anyone... and I'll give him extra credit for his book report on The Metamorphosis!) I haven't had a vacation in years, so I hope I'm going somewhere very warm with a beach or very cold with a mountain. How I wish my sisters could come visit!
Now, should they catch the person attempting to steal my name, or if it's otherwise absolutely necessary, I've left behind a ritual almost completely set up that you can use to send me a message. It's like an answering service, but magical! (And completely untraceable, so my security stays intact.) The sigils are already drawn, the candles and salt are already in place. You just need to do some minor arithmancy, light the candles and chant a bit. Simple and easy. No demons, I swear! And there's always something leftover when performing a ritual, at least when you do it right, so just put anything extra in the jars I've scattered around the room. Other than that, follow the instructions:
Fill the grid with digits in the rows, columns and 3x3 boxes. Fairly standard, really. (And it appears I've written a note here in the margin, and underlined it twice: ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO REPEATS. That must be important.)
Digits separated by a small, circular pile of salt are consecutive. Digits separated by a black candle are in a 2:1 ratio. Not all piles of salt or candles are necessarily given.
Adjacent digits on a green sigil must differ by at least 5.
There's one large summoning circle that must always have digits diagonally opposite be in a 2:1 ratio and one large dispelling circle that must never have digits diagonally opposite be in a 2:1 ratio. They look exactly the same, just use your best judgment on which is which.
The lights can sometimes be on the fritz in this room, so it may be hard to see everything until you light the candles. Even then, you never know, but I'm sure you'll do fine.
That's it! Easy peasy.
NOTES
Expected Difficulty: 4 stars
This puzzle was my attempt to impersonate the nearly inimitable
Lorena for this year's Imposter Prompt, over on
Scojo's Twitch channel.
Many thanks to
aqjhs,
Calvinball, and
NEWS for testing the many iterations this puzzle went through.
Play [Witchness Protection Program] on SudokuPad.