Puzzletober 2025: Ornate

After the tournament, the newcomer asks the room if anyone in attendance has heard of the Montagues. At this, Ande tenses and stoically utters, "Be ruled by me. Forget to think of her," then continues the excerpt by turning around, falling to his knees, and pleading through a throe of despair, "O, teach me how I should forget to think!" The newcomer tries to deduce meaning from the water enveloping his sclerae and exclaims, "Oh. No, not those Montagues. I refer to a couple with their own island and mansion. They host events like this." There's a smattering of no's from around the room, with the sole exception of the event's winner, who was still being moved by the performance like a one-story home and garden would be moved by a bulldozer. The trance is broken when a chalice slips from the champion's hand and besmirches the ornate rug outstretched on the floor beneath, begetting profuse apologies. The actor sheds some more genuine tears.

Rules: Place one letter from the word ORNATE in every grid cell in such a way that the 13 overlapping 5x5 grids are all solved as Latin squares. (Every subgrid contains five of the six letters exactly once in every row and column and one of the six letters not at all.) In lieu of given letters, cages contain the answers to their respective crossword clues reading from left to right



  1. This clue's number
  2. It could be dipped or stubbed
  3. Balance the scales
  4. Color provided by the sun?
  5. You likely wouldn't say you [20] it unless the bag broke
  6. Sometimes a homophone of [3]
  7. I'd bet on it
  8. This'd be a letter shorter if not for the following vowel sound
  9. Beseech
  10. This may be exchanged by the British
  11. In this position, or the reverse of the previous
  12. WWW, informally
  13. Letter in the center of this cage's subgrid
  14. Homophone of 2
  15. In trios
  16. Negatory
  17. Vent that takes a lot of wind?
  18. Part of an innkeeper's income
  19. It could be smelled like something fishy
  20. Anagram of [5]
  21. Puzzle with 1x2 and 1x3 blocks
  22. Mishandled scissors, perhaps
  23. Nuanced skill


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