ESCAPE THIS PODCAST Game Master’S Notes

ESCAPE THIS PODCAST Game Master’s Notes

The notes below are a guide for game masters. They contain all required information to run the specified room, including: All room items All puzzles and solutions All correct (and some incorrect) player actions Full room introduction and conclusion Additional notes and tips

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THE MODEL HOUSE

Notes

The usual – be specific, and don’t break anything. These models worked hard to ensure their house looked great. There are quite a few locks in this room, so sketching everything out so you know what type of lock is where will be a good idea.

Introduction

You are about to be famous. You’re about to be on the country’s favourite reality show: CATWALK – ALL OR NOTHING. The show has been airing live for several weeks now, and last night was what was supposed to be the final elimination and the announcement of the winner, but the producers threw everyone a curve ball. Instead of giving the crown to the last contestant (Priscilla, who went from series hero to villain and back more times than one could count), the host announced that she would face two intruders. To solidify her victory, they said, though you know it’s just to drag out the series and milk the ratings for as long as possible. Those intruders are the two of you, and you aren’t going to complain. This is your ticket to modelling fame! Bursting with excitement, you open the front door to the house and close it behind you. It’s all here – the kitchen to your left, complete with pantry, fridge, sink and bench; the famous lounge area in front of you, consisting of a couch, TV and exercise bike; the practice area to your right, which consists of a catwalk, a vanity, and a huge clothing rack; and the stairs leading up to the beautiful bedroom. Opposite the catwalk is a floor-length mirror, and there are two more of those on the leftmost wall, with inspirational quotes written on them in lipstick. Next to the TV is a handmade chart with all the contestants’ names on it. Finally, near the catwalk, you see a closed door. After making yourself at home for a while – not easy, since half the stuff in here seems to be either locked or broken – you head up the stairs for the bedroom. Except you find it locked, with a fancy electronic lock that can be accessed from both sides. Priscilla must be in there. You knock… and in response comes a terrible shriek. Then silence. Obviously that freaks you out. You dash back to the front door in case there’s a producer or cameraman hanging around – except you find it’s now locked, too, with a similar electronic lock. Have they locked you in here? That’s got to be a fire code violation. But maybe they don’t think models know about fire code violations. Or maybe it was Priscilla herself who arranged for the door to lock itself, to punish you for ruining her victory. You hear another scream from the bedroom, this time a distinct word: “Help!” This may be your ticket to modelling fame, but something shouldn’t have this many red flags this quickly. What if something is seriously wrong upstairs? Even if you 2 don’t care about Priscilla’s wellbeing, it won’t be a good look if the entire nation watches you ignore her plight. You have to find a way to help her. Then you may want to find a way to unlock the front door. Being trapped by a group of icy network producers who clearly don’t care about your safety does not sit well with you.

Observable items

Bedroom: The door is shut tight, its keypad flashing above the handle. Priscilla has gone quiet inside. Bench: Sitting on the bench is a neat stack of post-its, three in total. They seem to be suggestions or complaints girls have made about the running of the house. ‘No incense please, I’m allergic.’ ‘Keep noise down after eleven.’ ‘Whoever’s spending our communal money on Lavaland Chili Sauce, stop. Literally nobody likes it.’ Catwalk: The runway stretches almost the whole way down the length of the room, the end of it facing one of the full-length mirrors. On the wall behind the catwalk are the huge, body-length letters that make up the Catwalk – All or Nothing logo. That is, a huge C, a hyphen, an A and an N. Chart: The columns are labelled ‘Week 1’, ‘Week 2’ and so on, and underneath each week is a vertical list of contestants’ names. It looks like rankings. You notice a few of the names are circled: Lucille in week 1, Samantha in week 5, and Marcia-Tiffany in week 6. The names mean very little to you, since in your role as house intruder, you haven’t been allowed to watch the show. Closed door: This door, whatever it leads to, is locked with a four-digit combination lock. Clothing rack: It’s huge, of course, and divided up into sections labelled Week 1, Week 2, etc. They must be what contestants wore for their photoshoots in those weeks. There do seem to be themes – like, one week is ballgowns, one is bikinis, etc. Each outfit has a little tag attached to the front with a number on it. The numbers seem random as far as you can tell. Couch: Soft and squishy, large enough for at least six people. If you check under the cushions, ew, there’s nothing but two old chocolate bar wrappers. On the silvery insides of them, you spot writing. The first one says: You’re doing well, but polls have you third in audience favourites. Work harder. Maybe The second one says: stir up some drama with the two in the lead. In the meantime, practise your And that’s it. Exercise bike: It’s a standard, sturdy model, with a screen that shows your time, distance, calories burned, that sort of thing. It’s all currently at zero, like it’s been recently reset. Fridge: It’s full, almost exclusively of fruit and vegetables. There’s a bit of tofu and smoked salmon and other healthy-ish stuff. Behind all that, bizarrely, is a TV remote. Unfortunately it’s missing both its batteries. 3

Mirrors: The one opposite the catwalk is clean, obviously. You can’t let that one get messed up. But the other two have stuff written on them in lipstick. One is just a random collection of motivational words: ‘LIVE’, ‘AWESOME’, ‘VITALITY’ and, strangely, ‘MCMANSION’. One of the contestants must really dream of owning one. The other mirror simply says, ‘Turn that frown upside down!’ Pantry: There’s a three-digit combination lock holding it shut. A post-it is stuck to the lock: Warning! Carbs ahead! I’ve locked this for your own good. We’re here to support each other’s healthy habits. To enter, think about this: if you ate a whole packet of Tim Tams (1035 calories!!!) how long would you have to cycle to burn it off? Think before you binge! Sink: It’s clean and in fairly good condition. It’s one of those ones with a garbage disposal in it, so the drain is huge and open, just a big hole with a removable grate over the top. If you try to activate the garbage disposal, it doesn’t seem to work. If you turn the tap, it works fine, except the water starts building up. Something’s blocking the drain. If you open and reach into the drain, you pull out a small, tightly wrapped parcel. Inside, thankfully dry, is a single battery. TV: It’s at least 50 inches, a plasma screen, and it appears to be in working condition. But it’s switched off. Vanity: The whole surface is an ocean of makeup. You don’t know how anyone knows whose is whose. Any product you can imagine, it’s there. It has a single drawer locked with a fancy keypad lock, with letters instead of numbers.

Actions

Armchair – checking inside the cushion: You feel a small weight, and reach inside and pull out a battery. Bedroom – inputting code 893 884: There’s a chiming sound and the door slides open. You race into the bedroom, barely taking notice of the fancy surroundings. All you see is Priscilla, lying limp on the floor. If she’s not dead, she certainly looks like she will be soon. She needs help. Her skin is pale and she doesn’t seem to be breathing. But! In her right hand is a marker, and you spot on the tiled floor a frantic message that she’s attempted to scribble: I-N-B-A-C-K-O-F-F-~~~ That bit at the end is a squiggle where the letters trail off. Camera – putting the tape inside and playing it: You see a recording of one of the contestants sitting in the armchair for a confessional, and you listen to her talk: “So, you know that chili sauce saga, right? Guess what just happened. I saw – I SAW – Priscilla adding some of it to my food! I didn’t realise that’s what she was doing, so I ate it, but I’ve been so sick ever since. She KNOWS I hate it. I’ve never felt this bad in my life. It completely messed up my photoshoot today. If I’m eliminated, it’s a hundred percent her fault. Well, I’m –” On the tape, she gets interrupted by someone calling out, “Hey, Geri, what’s the bedroom password again?” The contestant sighs and replies, “8, 9, 3…” before the other person says, “Wait, I remember now! Thanks!” 4

Geri sighs again and continues. “Anyway, I’m not letting Priscilla get away with this. I’ve poured ALL the rest of the chili sauce into her drink bottle. Next time she has one of her gross energy drinks, SHE’LL know what it’s like to be so sick you feel like you’re dying!” Catwalk – doing a Y pose: You admire your reflection in the mirror as you pull off the perfect Y pose. You manage to work with the lighting, get your angles right, not hide your neck too much… also, you notice your body fits perfectly over the colon in the logo on the back wall; so, you fit between the C and the A. Clothing rack – examining the rainbow bikini, the white miniskirt and the nude sarong: You check the tags and see they have the numbers 19, 6 and 5 respectively. Exercise bike – riding it: The wheels move with little resistance, and the screen flashes numbers at you. If you stay on it for a minute, it tells you you’ve burned 5 calories. Congratulations! Fridge – examining the back closely: The back slides open under your touch. A secret compartment! Interestingly, it looks like it goes deeper than the rest of the fridge. Almost back into the actual wall. If it were opened from the back, it might even lead outside – a means of communicating with non-contestants. This is how Priscilla was cheating. There aren’t any secret messages in there now – but there is a blacklight torch. Mirrors – smiling (or Smizing, preferably) at the ‘turn that frown’ one: There must be some crazy facial recognition thing going on, because the mirror swings open in front of you. Behind it is a small room containing a single armchair and a camera sitting on a tripod. This must be the confessional room where contestants reveal their secrets. Checking out the camera, it’s unfortunately missing its tape or SD card or whatever it uses, so you can’t record. Mirrors – using code 3012 on front door: Refer to conclusion! Pantry – inputting code 207: The lock pops off and you pull the pantry doors open. The inside is hardly a carb-fest like you expected from the warning note. There is a small pile of potatoes and jelly babies labelled ‘emergency’. Behind that is a bottle of Lavaland Chili Sauce, which is almost totally empty. Next to that is a chocolate bar wrapper, which has a message written inside: why pose. Pantry – examining the Lavaland Chili Sauce: You pick up the near-empty bottle and take a look. You’ve never tried this stuff yourself and you can’t see anything strange about it, but it smells awful. No wonder nobody likes it. TV – using remote and two batteries to switch on: It switches on, but not to a normal channel. Instead what comes up is a photo of a young woman, wearing a bright blue bikini, with the name ‘BRITNEY’ emblazoned across it. Then it wipes to a different photo. It’s a slideshow, apparently of all the contestants and their photoshoot outfits each week. TV – looking for circled names’ photos: You keep an eye out for the three pictures you want, and there they are. Lucille’s is a sparkly rainbow bikini from a swimwear challenge, Sam’s is a lavish white miniskirt from a sexy wedding challenge, and M- Tiff’s is a nude sarong. It was a naked challenge but she wussed out and wore that instead. 5

Vanity – searching for a cyan-coloured product: Among all the many, many products, you find a single one labelled ‘Cerebral Cyan’. It’s a lipstick. If you ‘unscrew’ the lipstick, you’ll see that someone has etched a code into its waxy surface. You can read CEHM, but the lipstick is used, so you suspect a bit of the code is missing from the start. Vanity – inputting code AABCEHM: The lock comes off. You open the drawer, and along with a lot more make up, you see a small cassette-looking tape. Vanity – going over mirror with blue light: You see some letters forming on the glass: Add the numbers in the words. Closed door – inputting code 1965: You press in the numbers 1965 – which, incidentally, is the year Yves Saint Laurent came out with the Mondrian collection, as all aspiring fashion models know. The door slides open, and behind it you see a small bedroom. It’s not the main bedroom , though – it’s only designed for one person, and even for this house an inordinate amount of space is allocated to racks of clothes. This must be the Winner’s Wardrobe, where challenge winners get to sleep in privacy and enjoy a huge new designer collection. On one wall is a poster that says, Congratulations! But don’t forget your old bedroom code; you may not be in here forever! Need a hint? Half the code is 884! Also, if you search under the pillow on this bed, you find a scrap of paper that looks like it’s torn from somebody’s diary: Finally, I’m in the Winner’s Wardrobe! I think I’ve really earned it. It wasn’t easy, though… I sort of want to complain to the producers about Priscilla. I know it’s crazy, but I’m pretty sure she’s cheating. She’s got outside information. It’s like she KNOWS who’s winning, and then next thing we know, that person’s eliminated. I’ve got no proof yet, though, so I guess I’ll keep quiet and hope I don’t go home next.

Conclusion

[If players haven’t yet come to the conclusion that the chili sauce was poisoned, give them a nudge.] The light on the keypad goes green and the door slowly opens. You burst free, and now you have endless options ahead of you. Do you save Priscilla? Return to the house to avoid breaking your contract and the chance to be a modelling sensation? Or sue the crap out of the producers who left you in there while one of their contestants ingested poisoned chili sauce that she herself used to poison a previous rival? The choice is all yours!

GM’s explanation

There are lots of places to start this one. Escapers may open the fridge, feel under the couch cushions, or reach into the drain of the sink. Respectively these actions will get them a TV remote, some chocolate wrappers, and a single battery. The remote still needs a second battery to work, so from this point, escapers will need to do a bit of clue-reading. First, those chocolate wrappers. They appear to be a message from the outside to a 6 contestant, but it’s incomplete. It ends, “In the meantime, practise your…” They’ll need to find a third part of the message to know what it’s talking about. Other reading that can be done includes on the scoreboard, the mirrors, the papers on the bench, and the note stuck to the pantry lock. The scoreboard is a ranked list of the contestants from every week, with a couple of the names circled.: Lucille, Week 1. Samantha, Week 5, and Marcia-Tiffany, Week 6. This isn’t yet useable, so we’ll come back to it. The papers on the bench are basically ‘house rules suggestions’. The important one is a complaint that somebody is using their communal money to buy extra-hot chili sauce, even though literally not one person likes it. Don’t waste money, guys. While this won’t help escapers solve a puzzle, it will help them figure out what’s going on in this crazy house. Next, the mirrors. There are three of them, one at the end of the catwalk, the other two against a different wall. The latter two have inspirational words and phrases all over them: one mirror says ‘Vitality’, ‘Live’, ‘Awesome’ and ‘McMansion’. The other says ‘turn that frown upside down!’ Simply give this mirror your biggest smile, and surprise! It’s a secret door to the confessional room! Inside is a comfy chair and a camera. The camera has no tape inside, but riffling through the chair’s pillow will yield escapers their second battery. Now they can turn on the TV, which shows a slideshow of all contestants’ outfits throughout the weeks. As an aside, some of the contestants don’t look well – those ones tended to get eliminated. This goes with the scoreboard clue – if they go to the clothing rack and find the outfits worn by Lucille in Week 1, Samantha in Week 5 and Marcia-Tiffany in Week 6, they’ll find numbers on the tags. These numbers open the door to the Winner’s Wardrobe. Inside are two important things: first, a reminder attached to the wall telling winners not to forget their bedroom lock code. It gives them a hint by telling them the last three digits. Second, there’s a note pinned to one of the dresses. It accuses Priscilla of cheating. That’s all we can do on that tangent until we get the other half of the bedroom code. So let’s go all the way back to the pantry. It’s locked, with a note attached to it, admonishing the reader for wanting carbs and having no self-control. In fact, the code for unlocking the pantry is the number of minutes it would take someone to cycle off the 1035 calories in a Tim Tam packet. If escapers try out the exercise bike by the couch, they may notice that after one minute they’ve burned 5 calories. With a bit of maths, they’ll realise it would take 207 minutes to burn 1035 calories. Ouch. Well, at least they can get into the pantry. The pantry is pretty empty; they’ll see the chili sauce someone complained about, except for something that nobody likes, it’s seen an awful lot of use. It’s empty. Also empty is a third chocolate wrapper, which finishes the message from earlier: ‘why pose’. This isn’t a question, though; it’s saying in a roundabout way to Practise your Y pose. If escapers go on the catwalk and do a pose like the letter Y, they’ll see in that they’ve slotted in with the show’s initials on the back wall: C - AN becomes CYAN. The vanity contains a lot of makeup, and what escapers want now is the cyan lipstick. If they open it, they’ll see part of a code scratched into the lipstick itself – but of course, it’s been used, so the start of the code is missing. At the moment it reads C, 7

E, H, M. The only letter combination lock is on the vanity itself, and it isn’t clear how many letters they’ll have to press to open it. Hopefully they’ll realise these are the letter equivalents of Fibonacci numbers, meaning the missing letters are AAB. Once they open the vanity drawer, they’ll find a video tape for the confessional camera. If they put it into the camera and watch it, they’ll watch an old contestant say she saw Priscilla slip chili sauce into her food, and she’s been feeling sick ever since. Must be allergic. It totally messed up her photo shoot and may get her eliminated, so as revenge she’s put almost the whole bottle of sauce into Priscilla’s energy drink. Also, mid-video, someone asks her for the bedroom combination, and she recites the first three numbers before being told that was enough. Now escapers can enter the bedroom, where Priscilla is making a commotion. Only, she’s fallen silent. When they enter, she’s lying on the floor. What was really in that chili sauce?? There’s a marker in her hand and she was writing a message on the floor that she never finished: inbackoff. Escapers can hopefully figure out she was writing ‘in back of fridge’. Opening the fridge and examining the back will reveal a secret compartment that actually goes into the wall; it’s where Priscilla was getting her outside information. Inside the compartment now is a blue light torch. Running it around the room reveals a message on the vanity mirror: “Add the numbers in the words.” The words it’s referring to are the inspirational words on the other mirror. Live, vitality, awesome and McMansion all contain letters that double as Roman numerals. If you add those Roman numerals (LIV, VI, LI, M, MCM and I), you get 3012. This is the code to escape!