Questions and comments welcome, but no tar and feathers please! Smail me you solutions, and then post on the story thread on the due date!

1. About the taxi:

There is only one possible number for the taxi based on the clues below. You do NOT have to figure out the ages of the cabbies or their children. You just have to pick the correct taxi number.

The two cabbies, each in charge of a fleet of six steam taxis, are arguing as you walk up.

The stout man says: Arr! How many times I gotta tell ye my children are a positive number, and they are all positive integers. They're good kids! The sum of their ages is the number of my cab, while the product is my own age.

The skinnier cabbie refuses to back down. "But you never told me how many children you had, Matey, or even your age. You just want me to envy you cause I don't even have a lass yet! I I knew the number of yer bairns and yer age, I could figure it all out."

"No," replied the bulkier driver, "you could not."

"HA!" the thin driver shouts in response. I know your age!"

You find the exchange amusing, but what is the number of the taxi you need?

2; About the supply train:

Fresh from your success with the right taxi, you are on the train platform deciding where to produce the needed documents for the train the leads to the fortress.

The trains are amazing, They are painted in rainbows of colors and littered with creative decorations, but your informants have described the one you want and all you need for the manifests. However, it's not as straightforward as you would wish:

1: The train you want has four cars. One is white with flowers and one is green with trees.

2. The cars all have different weights. One car weighs 20 tons, and another 30 tons.

3. One car is a mail car.

4. The mauve with kittens car connects directly to the grain car and the lightest car.

5. The heaviest holds grain OR is blue with clouds.

6. Exactly two cars have the same initial in their color AND in their goods.

7. The milk car weighs twice as much as the third car.

8. The wool car follows the 15 tons car.

9. IF the last car is blue, the first one weighs 40 tons.

3: The XYZ puzzle:

XYZ
XYZ
   +XYZ
   ----
ZZZ

Each letter is a different number.

Good luck, Protectors!

gulp Appropriately complicated, and very interesting.

Pleading for faerie intervention on the train ride. The Beautiful Weasel Faerie-Queen, Brunhild Von Neumann of Baden-Baden-Baden, descends upon Lady Frieda and bestows upon her calmness and concentration and she is able to solve the Logical Puzzle without further delay... Thank-you Faerie Queen!

My darling puzzle solvers. This is the hardest puzzle of the lot because of the variables.

The key here is that, if the stout cabbie were to tell the skinny one his age and how many children he has, the skinny one could not correctly deduce their ages. So, there must be multiple age combinations for the stout cabbie's children that would result in the same age as well as the same taxi number.

HINT Let's assume the skinny cabbie knows the number of the cab that goes to the castle and could use that information to determine the stout cabbie's age. He still doesn't know how many children the stout cabbie has.

What if he has only one child? How about two? What if there's a set of twins, or even triplets? No matter, it may be possible to have multiple combinations for their ages, but there is only one possible number for the correct taxi.

(The most popular wrong answer so far is 13, but 13 is a prime number, so the children would be 1 and 13 to produce a product for their father's age. So the father would be 13, and the added number of the of the taxi would then be 14, which is a contradiction.

You all get another free chance, except for Organized Chaos, who gets a bonus ticket for submitting the first and only, so far, correct answer from the beginning.)

Woohoo! Go chaos!!! So far... we got nada. Will try again with this infos.