That d--nable Italian cipher.

Fallen London
21

[li]Yes. I like &quotmurky&quot for that reason. Or &quotmessy&quot. Or &quotmuddy&quot.

22

[quote=A B Nile]I also think &quotmoney&quot is likely the intended answer, given the Numismatrix connection.

What gives me pause, though, is the way that the clue is written suggests that the correct answer should be capable of being read thus:

&quot[answer] is the success of every covert endeavor&quot, and not &quot[answer] is the successful outcome of every covert endeavor&quot, or &quot[answer] is the result of a successful outcome in a covert endeavor&quot

where &quotmoney&quot doesn’t make sense in the first example.[/quote]

I believe it is trying to say that without money your covert endeavor will not be a success. It takes money to pay off the butlers, case the house, buy the supplies, and that is before we get into bigger schemes. In games of nations and cities it requires a great deal of money to buy your spies, buy your influence, even the sheer logistics of such an operation will be expensive.

23

[quote=hwango]'Eleven letters. Starts with &quotC&quot. &quotMasters of the Bazaar&quot.

Chiropteran?[/quote]

I always thought it was

SPOILERS (I don’t know how to do spoiler tags, if someone could PM me, that’d be great)

Clathermont. Especially with relation to Mr Cups meeting Lilac every week, which was recently revealed in Ambition: Nemesis.

24

If you were being really sneaky with that ‘Masters of the Bazaar’ one…

…‘Cups/Mirrors’ would work.

Edit: But I think ‘chiropteran’ is better and probably the intended answer.
edited by Asclepius Unbound on 1/17/2015

25

Also for the M-one, I think I may have it!

Merit.

Success of a covert endeavour is dependent on your merit, and in that case you also merit success.

Edit: Oh god, it’s also a pun when spoken aloud. I think I’m confident in this one.

‘Merits / merit’s the success of every covert endeavour.’
edited by Asclepius Unbound on 1/17/2015