Lesson VI-1: Con Jobs The Eskimos have twenty-seven different words you can use to sell them snow.

Pyramid Scheme

Please note: This puzzle includes a handout – the pyramid-shaped grid you received with this round's course materials.

Words are entered into the pyramid grid in two ways: Levels and Hexes.

Level 1 of the pyramid contains one entry; Level 2 contains two entries, and so on. Clues for each Level are given in order, though where each Level's first entry begins is up to you to determine. One letter is entered per triangle, and words read left-to-right, wrapping around the sides of the pyramid with no skipped spaces (including the gray ones).

As in any good pyramid scheme, each Level kicks something up to the Level above it. In this case, that something is a letter. Each clue in Level 7 contains an extra letter that must be removed before the clue can be solved. Removing such a letter from a word always results in a new word, though the surface sense of the clue may not be maintained. Six of those letters get bumped up to Level 6, and one gets skimmed off the top. The donated letters are absorbed into the Level 6 clues, one per clue, by taking the place of a different letter to form a new word. (For example, absorbing P into CAT could yield PAT with a displaced C, or CAP with a displaced T.) Of the six letters displaced from the Level 6 clues, five are bumped up to Level 5 and, again, one is left over. This process continues through Level 1. The seven leftover letters, read from top to bottom, are the answer to this puzzle.

Hex clues are normal, and each Hex entry is six letters long. Each entry starts in the appropriately numbered square and may proceed clockwise or counterclockwise. Pairs of half hexes at the base of the grid are matched up to form full hexes, as indicated by the lines on the underside of the pyramid's base. Note that the gray squares are used only by Level entries, not by Hex entries.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

  • Shout at owners without fright before Sunday's gold rating?
  • Suspect Herb fails with more panache
  • Get seven for some scavengers
  • Gothic horror movie's centerpiece: Decapitated dame running into fire at a funeral
  • Regards first of Pearl's short track competitions from the wrong side
  • Small trowel used to be hint of hazel, red, and silver
  • Accept defeat in spirited town race (2 wds.)

Hexes

1
Trick leg scattered some geese
2
Blemish her instrument
3
Onetime students rent Lumina
4
One of Joey and Monica's friends clipped piece of luggage?
5
Sent in exotic relative of squash
6
State orders pressruns of Hamlet, for example
7
Reporter's fancy house style
8
Maliciously offends Brownies without resistance
9
Less sensitive amount
10
Knave: You can use this to gamble with person holding clubs
11
FBI agent embracing press coverage blew the whistle
12
Show up alone—first half of amigos left, then Roscoe left (2 wds.)
13
Submit deposit after soldier (2 wds.)
14
I reach Mobile in more pain
15
Actress Moore's excellent death
16
Cooler in backwards US state
17
Former doctor used oozes
18
Increase drug order to screw Agent Smith, ultimately
19
Precious uranium held by Valerie and Edward
20
Don't open kitchens with narrow walkways
21
Start to fight with engineering ace at General Electric
22
Translate Crete's confidential information
23
Moorish monkey with my wasp
24
Clever woman snared by trace
25
Tie bow around large container
26
Degrade unfinished work by senator