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 Intro Ladies and Goons, hello and Welcome. This is a Maze. The Book Maze, which is in fact, a building and not a book. The structure is made of out of a little paper, some mysteries, and a lot of wrong turns. It's full name is "Maze: Solve the World's Most Challenging Puzzle" In 1985, Christopher Manson, the author/architect of the Maze got his vision published. To him, the book was a puzzle meant to challenge readers, but to the publishers, Henry Holt and Company, it was a contest to be had. See, the Maze is also a riddle with a specific answer (four words, to be exact). Those who figured out the maze, translated the riddle, and answered correctly would win the glory of $10,000 dollars! No small change in the 1980's. Those who inquired about the contest got six clues as to what the riddle was (and not the answer). Most of this can be found on Wikipedia, so I will stop there. When I received the book/building as a child, the contest was long over, but not the mystery. Turning the pages took me to a strange world, filled with creepy yet deliberate clues. To read Maze was to swim in a mist of syllabuses, word play, and strange hints. Fishing lures would lead me to trapped rooms. Fearful faces warned me away from wrong ways. And the Dark room. Well. We'll get to that. How will we play? The story of Maze is about a guide leading an unwitting group of tourists. You will be those tourist and I shall be your guide behind the guide. Now, it took me several years to solve the maze portion on my own, so I've made a map, the contents of which I will reveal as we go. This will make the maze portion far easier. Basically, this is a Choose Your Own Adventure with less text and more loops. The page numbers to turn to will never be in the accompanying text of the page, but written on or above the door to the next page. You will vote, I will turn the page. This could take a while, so I plan on daily updates to speed things along. I've already done enough of the work to make updating as painless as possible. How will this LP be formatted? =I will post the page. =Any text that accompanies the page will be posted in BOLD. =My own remarks and comments will be posted in regular text below it. =You will have about 24 hours each to vote on the next page. Please put your votes in BOLD. =Each day at 8:00pm (Maryland Time), I will tally votes on which page to turn to. I will post the new room and it's story as well as update the maps. =As long as it is clear a room can be backtracked to, votes for previous rooms will be allowed. (Example, If we can reach 43 from 11 on the map, even though it isn't an option on the page, I will allow votes for room 43.) Keep in mind that some doors are one way and may not always allow back tracking. =You may discuss clues of current and previous rooms as I post them, but no spoilers for future rooms OR the riddle! This was a popular book and the mysteries have long since been understood. Or at least the riddle has. Don't destroy the mystery for those who haven't played. =The game ends when we've traveled from Room 1 to Room 45 and back again to Room 1 in sixteen moves. I will then give you the six clues the publisher sent contestants, and you lot can work out the riddle. You lot can work out the mechanizations of the answer on your own. Let's Begin Grimwit fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 01:20
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:37 |
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Directions This is not really a book. This is a building in the shape of a book…a maze. Each numbered page depicts a room in the Maze. The doors in each room lead to other rooms. For example, the room on page 1 has doors leading to rooms 20, 26, 41, and 21. To go through door number 20, simply turn to page 20. I'll do the page turning around here. You lot need not dirty your hands. Your challenge is to find your way from room 1 (after the Prologue) to room 45 and then back to room 1 using the shortest possible path. If you use your head, you should be able to make the journey in only sixteen steps. There are any number of clues in the drawings and in the story to help you choose the right door in each room. Clues in a series of rooms may relate to each one another, and may indicate a path. Other clues may refer to a specific door in a single room. Anything in this book might be a clue. Not all clues are necessarily trustworthy. Once you’ve found the shortest path in and out of the Maze, challenge yourself further. Go back and find the riddle hidden in room 45. The answer to that riddle is concealed somewhere on the shortest path. Now proceed to the Prologue…your guide awaits you. Oh man. This guide. You guys don't even know yet. If Daedalus and Virgil had a child, it would be the Guide. But I should let him do his own introductions.  Prologue The Maze. I met them at the gate though I usually wait inside. Preoccupied with their own thoughts, impatient, like so many children, they didn’t see who I really was. They never noticed my crown, my pain, the fire in my eyes. You. He's talking about YOU, Goons! Like all the others they think the Maze was made for them; actually, it is the other way around. They think I am some poet who will lead them through the symbols and spaces of this Underworld. They think I will teach them lessons. They should call me Cerberus…. I am the lesson. The monstrous walls rise up and run away as far as the human eye can see, circling and dividing. Which half is the Maze? Even I get lost. It changes–sometimes slowly, imperceptibly... sometimes suddenly. This House is not only made of stone and mortar, wood and paint; it is made of time and mystery, hope and fear. Construction never stops. I take some pride in my role as architect. They think I will guide them to the center. Perhaps I will…. The sun was very hot. Together we walked through the gate into…  Room 1 …the entrance hall of the Maze. They looked carefully at the bronze doors, trying to choose. The uncertainty of visitors is one of my little pleasures. “It’s easy to get lost,” I said helpfully. “This can be a sinister place.” The sun glared at me through the gateway. Something was ringing behind one of the doors. They spent some time trying to decide which door it was, not understanding that the silences of the Maze are as eloquent as the sounds. “Decisions, decisions,” one said. “Too many decisions.” “The story of my life,” said another. “We don’t want to be late,” said a third, opening one of the doors. “Nary a soul to be seen,” said the first, peering into the gloom. I waited patiently for them to choose which way to go … into… And so we begin. You'll find plenty of "clues." Yeah, well. In the beginning, it's like "Who's Door Is It Anyway?" where the paths are made up and the clues don't matter. Later, they make sense. Best go with your gut on this one. Remember to vote in Bold which page we turn to. It just occurred to me that there may be a tie. In that case, I will always choose the lower number. Here is the current Map.  You have roughly 24 hours.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:33
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This sounds intriguing. Count me in. Now, where to go first... door 21 looks special, what with the sheet of whatever it is (paper, I guess?) sticking out from under it, so door 21 has my vote.
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Oct 23, 2014 01:37
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I want to see what's behind Door 21 as well!
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Oct 23, 2014 01:44
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Going with the traditional go left (
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Oct 23, 2014 15:38
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I've always been partial to the word 'Fable', so I vote 26.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:20
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I've seen this before so I'm going to stay out of it, but this is the first time I've heard of a riddle associated with it! Unless I've just forgotten, anyway.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:35
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Voting Door 41 because it looks like a beer bottle on the front and obviously the first thing we need to do is get shitfaced.
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Oct 23, 2014 16:51
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whitehelm posted:Going with the traditional go left ( The guide does say this is a sinister place, so I agree with going left to 20.
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Oct 23, 2014 17:07
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Ah. This reminds me of the youtube vid where a mathematician graphs (another) choose your own adventure book. Anyway, I always like the story mode of a game, so let's go to door #20 Does anyone know what those papers say? Looks like Chinese or something.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:25
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Oooh, this is fascinating. I'm in it for the whole ride, wherever we go. Lets start off with ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 20:53
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Carbon dioxide posted:Ah. This reminds me of the youtube vid where a mathematician graphs (another) choose your own adventure book. I love numberphile. Alas, I was not able to create my own program when plotting out the map and did it the hard way (Pen and paper). I had to restart 11 times to get the rooms to fit together before finally drawing a map over the graph. The rooms DO conform to a pattern, of a sort, but you'll soon see the map doesn't conform to the rooms. Example, door 21 is on the right hand side of page 1, but in order to make the rooms fit together on paper, I had to put it to the left of room 1.  As for the clues, I wholly encourage wild speculation.
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Oct 23, 2014 20:56
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Speculation? Alright. Let me start by listing everything that could be a clue. - The starting picture has a fish over the door in red. - There's an umbrella next to the gate. - Cerberus, a reference to the Greek myth of the three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld. - "Which half is the maze?" The building has another half that's not a maze? The picture of the first room: - Chinese text. What does it say? - Obviously, the text over the doors: STORY, FABLE, TALE and YARN. - The pictures on the doors: a drum, a cup, a bottle and an apple (confirmed by Grimwit). - There's some paper under door 21. - 'sinister place'. Reference to sinister in Latin, meaning left? - 'silences and sounds' The map could also give clues: - Ground floor. There could be other floors. - N2. "Entrance 2?" There are multiple entrances into the maze? I'm probably overthinking a few things but who cares. Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 22:33
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Carbon dioxide posted:Does anyone know what those papers say? Looks like Chinese or something. I'm illiterate but I think they're all random brush strokes, with a few accidental actual characters. It certainly does seem to be that it's supposed to look like Chinese/Japanese/Korean though. I take the story/fable/tale/yarn as a hint that with the information we have any choice is equally valid, so I don't have a vote on where we go. Not to say that those words can't take on more or different meanings once we have more context, we just need more. The Wizard of Oz fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 22:45
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Carbon dioxide posted:Speculation? Alright. I hope you do one for every update, because that is great
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Oct 24, 2014 00:37
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Tie between Room 20 and Room 21. As stated, ties will go to the lowest number, so we turn to... …room number 20. The ringing stopped as soon as we entered. “What is the matter now?” I asked them. “Too many animals for a proper house!” They walked carefully around the edges of the room. I watched with an amusement shared, I think, by the wise old tortoise. With backwards looks and muttered comments about turtles they left room number 20 and entered… There are quite a few animals in this house, of course. The letters are not just there to confuse you, but I will at least say they are part of the riddle and not the maze. For now, you should ignore them. Here's our current map.   You'll notice two things: Firstly we are on the second floor. There are three floors to the Maze which was necessary for the map to fit properly. Each floor has its own kind of pattern, but it's much too early to discus now. Secondly, we are, if needed, able to backtrack, as you can see with door 1. If you want to, you may vote on one of the doors from Room 1, implying we've returned there and chosen another door. No need to hop to previous rooms we've already visited. At least not yet. Personally, this early, I recommend we push on, but I leave the choice to you lot. You have roughly 24 hours...
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Oct 24, 2014 01:19
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Well, there seems to be some thing going on here with towers, and the letter S. Both appear in pairs, which seems relevant somehow. Not sure what to make of the sultan, the arrow picture or the covered door number (which I assume means we can't go there?). I think we should just interpret the "S" as a 5 and go through door 5. Not like we've got any loving idea what we're doing anyway.
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Oct 24, 2014 01:24
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Carbon dioxide posted:- The pictures on the doors: a drum, a basket, a bottle and a sack (or an apple?). Point of order: The pictures are of a Drum, a Cup, a Bottle, and an Apple. Now what does that suggest? Carbon dioxide posted:I'm probably overthinking a few things but who cares. Carbon, you are in the right place for over thinking. This maze is built to run your brain full tilt.
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Oct 24, 2014 01:27
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Let's go through door 27; maybe that picture of an arrow is pointing us towards something?
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Oct 24, 2014 02:36
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Let's enter the Blank/Covered Door. Guess we can't. Two towers, a sultan, an arrow, and a wise old tortoise. Do they have something in common? ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 03:17
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Oh god. This book. I used to own this book. I never made it to Room 45, and I never solved a riddle, and the mystery still haunts me sometimes. I remember I once tried to map the place out, but it quickly dissolved into non-euclidean geometry. Gonna follow this one hard. Godspeed, you mad bastard. (Also, I don't think we can go through the covered door. Door 27 has next to it a painting of what seems to be The Tower, the sixteenth trump in a tarot deck. Coincidentally, The Tower is usually considered an ill-omen. By default I vote we choose Door 5.)
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Oct 24, 2014 03:56
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I actually think there are more 's' things in this room. We obviously have a Sultan, and while that is a picture of an arrow there, we only see the Shaft. And I might not be a herpetologist, but that looks more like a Snapping turtle than a tortoise to me. The last one is a bit of a stretch, but the picture next to door 1 looks like it has a tower getting hit by a lightning Strike. ...how this helps me pick a door, I don't know, but 5 is kind of shaped like S? So I'll vote for that.
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Oct 24, 2014 03:57
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Is a single tortoise really too many animals?Grimwit posted:Point of order: The pictures are of a Drum, a Cup, a Bottle, and an Apple. TheMcD posted:I think we should just interpret the "S" as a 5 and go through door 5. Not like we've got any loving idea what we're doing anyway. I'm more concerned about why the group of people we're composed of is worried that we might be late, or why we seem to have some sort of thing about what number of animals a proper house should have- though it's possible that comment's written in such a way that this wasn't the first room we were supposed to visit. I'm also concerned with the fact that the picture of the tower with its roof opened by lightning appears to be peeling off the wall rather unnaturally. Anyway, with all this obsession with the letter S, I'd like to remind you guys we went through the door labeled Story.
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Oct 24, 2014 04:44
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Room 20: Turban tortoise tower telephone thunder table. "T" is the 20th letter of the alphabet. That doesn't tell us much, but it has potential as a pattern to look for. The "SS" not being related to what we're dealing with now is pretty obvious - it tells you right out that it's an extra. ElTipejoLoco posted:It could also mean the unlabeled door might be 55 since there's two, but we really have no clue what's going on. Judging by the upper floor map provided by Grimwit, I don't think the room has more than two openings we can successfully vote for. I'd like to try to go to door 27, if only because in the illustration it appears to clearly have another open doorway for us to go through. Yeah, a problem with a puzzle like this is that you could make an error and not realise it, so you need to be certain. If we're expected to discern what room the door leads to, then there's not much to say about it. However, if we find out what door it is because we end up in a room leading back to Room 20 that isn't 5 or 27, then that suggests that there's a significant pattern to the door numbers or that this is part of the perfect route (the latter is strongly supported by the extra "SS", though there could certainly be lots of red herrings). Oh, and the arrow could be referring to "A", meaning the letter sequences wrap. Let's go to Room 27 to see if that's a pattern. The Wizard of Oz fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 08:59
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**Important Clarifications** There is no way you guys could know this, but it will effect your choice of doors. There are only 45 Rooms in the maze. The book is only 45 pages, plus a couple more for Prologue and Title. There is no answer-page in the back. Christopher Manson assumed the world would figure out his book in its own time. ViggyNash posted:Let's enter the Blank/Covered Door. Nope. Door needs a number. And the number will be relatively clear to read and understand its connection with the door. For that reason "Door 55" doesn't exist, not because it's higher than the number of pages, but also, there is no clear connection between "55" (or "SS") and the blank door. Alright, that's all for clarification. Good luck. Grimwit fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 13:13
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This seems interesting. I'll give it a thorough read and point anything I notice when I get back home. A couple of things: - I swear I've seen a painting like the one in the last room, with a man with a huge turban. - When the guide mentioned "which half is the maze", first thing I thought was that the outside is the real Maze, with the entrance separating both halves ofthe world. - The tower struck by lightning is a pretty usual representation of the 16th Major Arcana in Tarot, the Tower. I thinnk someone mentioned this while I was skimming the thread. Why the hell there is another tower in the chair is anyone's guess. - The door with the umbrella is the one before our first choice, but that's not he same than the one with the red fish.
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Oct 24, 2014 14:02
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For some reason that painting reminds me of Vincent van Gogh.
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Oct 24, 2014 14:38
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ElTipejoLoco posted:The letters A through D? Good point. Could be that the correct path spells out the riddle, or something that leads to it, and that every room has some letter based clue in it. Conversely, it could be that a room that doesn't contain a letter might be the wrong room to go to, but that's purely speculation. I'm a bit curious about something: Are the rooms laid out by their number such that like numbered rooms are next to each other physically? Could be an pointless detail if I'm right, but I want to pry every bit of information out of this thing that I can. With that in mind: I pick Door 21, again.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:05
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The Wizard of Oz posted:Room 20: Turban tortoise tower telephone thunder table. "T" is the 20th letter of the alphabet. That doesn't tell us much, but it has potential as a pattern to look for. I agree that this room seems to shout 'T'. Some more thoughts on what we've seen so far: - The fish over the door in the first picture might be a red herring. - There's a milk bottle on the door of the starting room, and another on the door to room 41. - Story, Fable, Tale, Yarn - only yarn is a physical thing out of these four. Yarn = thread = Ariadne's thread through the maze? - In chess, the tower is called 'rook', another ambiguity. - S on S - in a rebus, this could mean 'sons'. Because of 'yarn' and the letter A I want to try Door 21.
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Oct 24, 2014 21:33
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Old Grey Guy posted:- The fish over the door in the first picture might be a red herring. This is brilliant. I feel dumb for not seeing it now. Old Grey Guy posted:- Story, Fable, Tale, Yarn - only yarn is a physical thing out of these four. Yarn = thread = Ariadne's thread through the maze? A yarn can also be defined as a long, rambling story, so all of those words are synonyms, to an extent.
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Oct 24, 2014 21:39
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Head left into 5.
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Oct 24, 2014 21:53
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ViggyNash posted:A yarn can also be defined as a long, rambling story, so all of those words are synonyms, to an extent. Of course. All four have the same meaning, only yarn is the odd one out. Maybe I should have been clearer.
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Oct 24, 2014 22:32
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Old Grey Guy posted:Of course. All four have the same meaning, only yarn is the odd one out. Maybe I should have been clearer. Oh, ok. Just misunderstood you then. That is a good point though.
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Oct 24, 2014 23:39
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Door 27 has an arrow, let's shoot something with it.
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Oct 25, 2014 00:05
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Door 27 is the one that's calling to me the most.
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Oct 25, 2014 00:56
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LucyWanabe posted:Door 27 is the one that's calling to me the most. Ha Ha Ha Ha! Alright. I had a post waiting and ready to go, but I crafted it before 8:00 Maryland time. Then, Just as I was about to post, I refreshed the page and Boom, your vote snuck in at the last second. This is the last vote for this room, and it valid by its time-stamp. I'll redo my post and come back in about 10 minutes.
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Oct 25, 2014 01:12
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It was Five votes for Room 5 and, thanks to LucyWanabe, Six votes for Room 27 (at the last minute). So, without futher ado, let's go to... Room 27 …a darkened chamber dominated by a large figure. We could see that someone had been working here recently; the entrance I had so carefully hidden had been uncovered. I made a note to return as soon as I could and fill in the hole again. The visitors were so intrigued with the entrance at the bottom of the excavation that they ignored what the figure was trying to tell them. “Where are the workmen?” “They must be ahead of us,” I said. “If we hurry we can catch them…I mean catch up with them.” I herded the group through the door to… Like so much of the Maze, this room speaks of loneliness to me. It's one of the reasons the book scared me as a child. Frightened, but also instilled that sense of... curiosity? Speaking of curious, what does that say? I can barely...  Huh. Is that latin? Well, it's even harder to see in the actual book, anyway. I could only read it after the scan. Here is our current map.  Uh Oh. No back tracking here. You're choices are one or the other. You have roughly 24 hours.
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Oct 25, 2014 01:24
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FATAVIAMINYENIENT? loving hell, I can't decypher poo poo. Anyway, baseball bat in the corner. Seems relevant. Club and heart on top of the doors - card suits, somehow relevant probably. Let's go down number 9 because that seems the most interesting.
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Oct 25, 2014 01:30
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Man, I loved this book but the puzzle even when explained to me left me confused. I'm staying out of this, but going to be watching in hopes of a good explanation.
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Oct 25, 2014 02:20
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