Solution: Interlude: History

Answer: UNHOLY PREDATERS

Written by Jonah Ostroff

In this interlude, the input must be 15 letters, and the output is presented as a Wordle-like grid in which each letter is colored white, blue, or red. The page starts with an initial guess, THISISABADGUESS.

After some experimentation, we notice that the coloring isn’t consistent by letter or position—sometimes a letter in a particular position will be one color, and sometimes that same letter will be a different color.

This is the history department, so earlier guesses must be important: each letter is being compared to the letter in the same position from the previous guess. If it’s closer in the alphabet to the correct letter for that position, it’s red. If it’s farther, it’s blue. If it’s the same distance, it’s white.

Once we understand the mechanic, one way to determine all the letters is to guess AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, and so on. Then, look for where the color changes in each column. If the color changes from red to blue, the last red letter is the correct one. If it changes from red to white to blue, the correct letter is between the red and the white. Putting this all together, we get that the villains of the History department are UNHOLY PREDATERS.