Thrumshed

Thrumshed is a puzzle about a sheet of cloth stretched on a frame. Beads sit somewhere on it; pale dashed rings mark where they have to end up. You never touch a bead. You tap an arrow at the edge of the cloth, and that entire row or column shifts one square, wrapping around the edge. Every bead in the line rides along with it. Then the shuttle turns. A row pass must be followed by a column pass, and a column pass by a row pass. The arrows that break that alternation are drawn dead, so the board always shows you exactly what is legal — and that single rule is where the puzzle lives. The pass that helps one bead hands the next move to a different line. DARK KNOTS REFUSE THE PASS Pegs are tied into the cloth and never move. If a pass would drive a bead onto one, the pass is refused and nothing shifts at all. Half of a later plot is working out which lines are still free to travel. NOTHING…