True Trident

In ancient Greek lore, the Titan Cronus was overthrown by his children, the gods Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, who then divided the skies, the seas and the underworld amongst themselves. The gods were vain and fickle with the people who lived and died in their realms. Poseidon was well known for his temper, often sending devastating floods to punish mankind. Tyler Williams, proprietor of Beard’s Woodshop, has now sent his newest puzzle box to punish us as well! Tyler’s creations continue to impress with their creativity and craftsmanship, and lately feature laser etched wood and metal details which add to the aesthetic and themes.

The puzzle is a handsome box, adorned on multiple sides with decorations in homage to the theme of Poseidon. The goal is to find the “True Trident”, and you will no doubt notice a few “false tridents” along the way, right down to the finale, which may just fool you like it did me. Just when you think you have solved this one, there is one more secret waiting to be discovered. The puzzle provides many steps, some quite challenging, and tools, which are used in varied and satisfying ways. There are a few walls to get through, with four or more distinct phases to conquer on the journey, and what may seem at times impossible or require some force is surely just a missed mechanism of the elegant way forward in this very nicely designed and crafted box.

Tyler shared the story with me. “This puzzle is by far the favorite design I’ve made. Not only is it a cool solve it looks nice. [There are] 9 steps in total but one step takes 10 moves, [and there are] 3 tools [to find and use]. I had always wanted to make a puzzle that required multiple steps per side to solve the initial puzzle.

I really like doing themed puzzles around the time of other movies or shows coming out, at the time I thought of this my family and I were watching all the Percy Jackson movies/shows.” Perhaps this means we will see more Greek God themed puzzles from Tyler in the future! For the Poseidon theme, “I put a couple of tridents in the puzzle, so that you knew you solved the puzzle when you revealed the “True Trident”. And my wife helped me with the name a little bit.”

Most puzzle development is met with unexpected wrinkles, or in this case perhaps they were waves. Tyler realized that one side of the puzzle could be ignored and still reveal the final prize. “After I had made the prototype, I discovered the main puzzle could be solved without solving one side, after that I went to work at making the box have another “solve” to reveal the prize.” He added a whole new section to the puzzle which made things more complex, layered, and requires all elements to be solved now. The overall experience is very satisfying because the puzzle keeps providing new challenges. And they are all integrated.

“When making puzzle prototypes I try to mess with them in ways some would, and this is how I find that some of my puzzles may have multiple solves. Most of the time I leave them, but other times I go back to the drawing board. This was one of those times, and I’m glad I did! This was the first puzzle I designed per panel, instead of just making it all at once and it worked out quite well! I found a new way to design puzzles without intending to make them all at the same time. It’s almost like making a puzzle for myself to solve before putting it together for everyone else to solve.”

In addition to the colorful wood choices and laser etched designs, there is a prominent brass coin embedded into a knob on one side of the box. It’s a really cool accent piece. Tyler works with another woodworker who has a metal mill and fiber laser, who produces the artwork that Tyler designs for his puzzles. He had the brass coins made originally for his Sailor’s Gully puzzle, where you can find them in the dagger hilt. “I ended up making too many and the inspiration of true trident and octopus went together well. I still have a handful of coins remaining so I will more than likely do a last run of true trident soon.”

“The prize at the end is made from a 3D printer, owned by a family friend’s, son (15 years old) ironically named Jackson. He received the printer as a gift and I knew that I wanted something to have for people to have as a prize that wouldn’t weigh the puzzle down. And thought, “how cool would it be to help a teenager get off the ground of making things!” Plus he was able to learn the responsibilities of having a job and a deadline. I always try to help small business no matter where we travel, and hope to pull him in for more projects down the road.” I also like to help small businesses, and supporting Tyler’s great puzzle boxes makes it a double pleasure. Look for more themed offering from Tyler this year, including his continuing “Lock” series, a “Saloon” to go with his recent “School House” (he may create an entire Western town), and more from the Greek god series.

Here's a true tribute to Poseidon, with a little water of life. I almost made a drink called “Neptune’s Wrath”, created circa 2007 by Toby Maloney for The Violet Hour. That drink, which features absinthe, is a variant of the classic Last Word. But I didn’t want to actually incur Poseidon’s wrath by invoking it using his Roman name. Instead I went true Trident, and revisited that old classic with a slightly new twist.

The Trident cocktail was invented by spirits writer Robert Hess in the Nineties, one evening while experimenting with a new bottle of peach bitters he had acquired. He built a nautical themed Negroni, using ingredients with ties or roots to a port of call city. In place of gin, for example, he used the Scandinavian spirit aquavit, which is perfectly apropos for this particular toast. Aquavit derives from the original phrase meaning “water of life” (as do a few other well known spirits, like whiskey). What better way to toast Poseidon than with some water of life. The original Trident cocktail features dry sherry, and for this version I used another similar coastal spirit, madeira. Like sherry, there are many styles of madeira, and in this case I chose a dry madeira to mirror the original drink profile best. It turned out to be a truly inspired choice. Cheers!

True Trident (adapted from Robert Hess)

1 oz dry madeira

1 oz Cynar

1 oz aquavit

1 dash orange bitters

peach liqueur rinse

Stir initial ingredients together with ice and strain into a glass which has been rinsed in the peach liqueur. Lemon twist.

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