Soon May the Wellerman Come
(Published on 24. September 2026, 11:56 by balpha)
It is a beautiful morning in the lands of the south.
The fishing boats have departed at the earliest crack of dawn.
The merchants are planning their routes for the supply runs. They will bring sugar, tea, rum, or what else might be needed on the fishing vessels touring the high seas.
The remaining townspeople have just woken up to prepare for their daily duties, with the exception of Sandra the apothecary, who, as usual, got up early for her morning swim.
The sun, already warm in the sky, shines its rays across the three islands, delivering light for every being. A glorious day begins.
Rules
Normal Sudoku rules apply. Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. If two digits are separated by a black dot, one is double the other.
Every cell is either land or water. The water cells form a single orthogonally connected region. The land cells are split into three islands, where an island is an orthogonally connected region, and no two islands touch each other, even diagonally. Some land and water cells are given.
A one (town) is always land, and so are its orthogonal neighbors.
Exactly one four (person) is in the water, all the other fours are on land.
A seven (fishing vessel) is always on water.
Draw three paths, starting from the three supply ships. The paths only move orthogonally and do not cross or overlap themselves or each other.
All path cells are water. Every seven in the grid must be visited by one of the paths.
The path of the green "GW" ship is a German Whispers line: Adjacent digits on that path differ by at least 5.
The path of the teal "MOD" ship is a modular line: Any run of three adjacent cells on that path must contain digits from each of the three modular sets {1 4 7}, {2 5 8}, and {3 6 9}.
The path of the red "PAR" ship is a parity line: Adjacent digits on that path have opposite parity (one is odd, one is even).
Author's difficulty estimate: Something like a 2.5* maybe?
No generative AI tools were used in the preparation of this puzzle or its presentation, nor in any of my puzzles.
Solution code: The digits on land in the top row, left to right.
Comments
on 24. September 2026, 19:41 by Mattisahuman
Absolutely amazing. The flow is so smooth and the logic was really fun. Thanks for setting
[balpha:] Thank you so much, I love hearing you enjoyed it!
on 24. September 2026, 12:06 by balpha
I think of a 1 as a clock tower, a 7 looks like a fishing rod, and if you squint a little, a 4 resembles part of a stick figure :D
