Far behind the times, thanks to, well, everything, my partner and I are curious to try this year's Cryptex Hunt. On a lunchbreak I get us set up to compete under the name Secret Squirrels - referring to our D&D characters of a rogue and a blue flying cleric, respectively. Puzzles 11 and 12 have already been released, so we have quite a bit of catching up to do. I'm setting these to be published on April 1, after the puzzle hunt is over, to make it fair for others catching up as well.
I have a brief delay before my next call so dive in after sending the links to register to my partner. The first puzzle is an old text based adventure game. Must not get eaten by a gru!
You start in a room with a rather obnoxious tutorial, which I chose not to deactivate just in case. Find a card, get told that you're going to need to open the microwave downstairs, which is locked. Easy peasy. First, go check out the bathroom. That soap feels pretty heavy... can't break it, but soap dissolves in water, right? Drop it in the apparently VERY CLEAN water, to reveal a key to the southern room, theoretically. However, you've become a germaphobe and can't just reach into the clean water to grab the key. Of course.
Wander downstairs, pick a magnet off the fridge in the kitchen, and some twine from under the sink. Use them together to make a magnetic fishing tool to get the key out of the toilet. Step one complete. Open the door, and you find a remote without batteries, and a working phone (unlike the one in the hallway). Grab the remote and head downstairs.
Have a look at the magnet and the hallway phone. It's not the same alphanumeric set up that you're looking for, but as the magnet image shows, it's got your password. Writing it all out, you have a few options. It's not POLICE or SOLACE, but SPLICE. Using that password, we get the message to Call Jess.
Can't call anyone from the phone downstairs, so back upstairs to call Jess. Thankfully apparently you know her number by heart. She's a bit scattered but eventually tells you to tune the TV to Channel 34. Back downstairs you go. Getting your 10,000 steps in!
Look at your living room couch. It's a mess, and full of useful goodies, like that obnoxious noisy toy. If you open it, it has batteries which you can use to power the remote you picked up from upstairs. Turning to the appropriate channel gets you the image of someone typing in a code on the microwave. Head to the kitchen again, type in the code, and presto!
You get a very cool little ticket to an escape room, with its own coded message. Use the message on the cryptex, which in turn gets you a flyer for a repair shop. What to do now? Much useless 'fixing' of pieces ensues, before a clue makes me realize that the first words when sounded out make a word: ARRAY. No clue what to do with that. It doesn't make any sense.... until I remember we need to actually input an answer for cryptex hunt itself.
So, the answer to puzzle one is: ARRAY
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