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By Matt Gruskin and Alex Rosenthal
Answer: QUOTA SAMPLING

Sheshach is the Atbash-encrypted word for Babel, as used in the Hebrew Bible, and is the most well-known use of the Atbash cipher. The name of this puzzle suggests that the Atbash cipher will be used in solving it.

There’s also a use of Atbash hidden in the flavortext: low and old are two English words that are transformed into each other when the Atbash cipher is applied.

This clues the primary mechanism that is used throughout this puzzle: words that Atbash-transform into each other. In keeping with the Babel theme, the words that transform into each other are in several different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Swedish.

Each piece contains two clues in the same language: one associated with the left edge of the piece, and one associated with the right edge. Each edge has an empty box where a word (in the piece’s language) should be filled in. The trick is that the piece’s clues are actually cluing the word that should be filled in to the piece adjacent to that edge (in the other piece’s language). Both words along an edge should Atbash-transform to each other.

The solver should cut out the pieces, and then using the above constraints, fill in the words, order the pieces so that the words all pair up, and tape them together into a long strip.

This strip can then be spiraled into a tower (placing the piece with an angled bottom edge at the bottom of the tower, and then spiraling the strip up from there, taping as you go). A layer of the tower is completed every 7 large letters.

Reading up the columns of large letters, the solver will notice that the letters in a few of the columns spell out ANSWER IS QUOTA SAMPLING. (The rest of the letters spell out the Atbash-transform of ANSWER IS QUOTA SAMPLING in a zig-zag pattern). QUOTA SAMPLING is the answer to this puzzle.

Final tower column letters:

RTLHDZN
EOPMVHK
WUMZIZO
SQAGRGR
NSSNHLM
AIAIJFT

All pieces, in strip order, with words filled in:

English
A I
N A B
drizzling
Polish
AI
M Z Y
złapać
D R G A
dowcip
German
JF
W I T Z
zuckungen
V O N
ulme
English
TN
E L M
from
W I L Y
poultry
Polish
SS
D R O B
przebiegły
P L I K
kruk
Swedish
NH
K O R P
fil
A V O G
tält
German
LM
Z E L T
abgeneigt
Z U G
achtern
English
SQ
A F T
train
D R O P
wolf
Polish
AG
W I L K
upuszczać
F I O L
krzyczeć
Italian
RG
U R L O
mania
S V I A
cuore
German
RW
H E R Z
verleitet
T R O G
vergoldet
English
UM
G I L T
trough
T I L E
rough
Swedish
ZI
G R O V
bricka
A R V
mostrar
Italian
ZO
Z I E
eredità
U L I V I
trapanare
French
EO
F O R E R
oliviers
I L E
proie
Swedish
PM
R O V
ö
E L D
svära
English
VH
V O W
fire
W A R M
gin
Polish
KR
D Z I N
ciepły
K I L E
próba
Swedish
TL
P R O V
kölar
E V I G
grön
French
HD
V E R T
éternel
P O L I
chlore
Swedish
ZN
K L O R
polerad