Room 35

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…what appeared to be someone’s basement. One of them sank gratefully down on an old couch which prompty collapsed.

I tried to hide my smile.

“A totem, or tribal fetish,” said one, walking around the center of the room.

“It could be a work of art,” suggested another.

“Perhaps it’s a signal to us,” the thoughtful one said. “A warning or direction?”

“Not much help when there is only one way to go,” put in another.

“I still think it’s a signal.”

“Yes,” I said right away, “I’m sure you’re right.”

She was immediately suspicious. Still, with no real choice to make, we left the thing standing alone in light and silence, and went into…

  - Images and text copyright 1985 by Christopher Manson
used with permission. [Purchase MAZE from Amazon]

 

Room Type:  LOOP    Doors:  25  29  33  41

Solution Summary: [COLLECTION CURATED BY WHITE Raven. SEE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL SOLUTION PROPOSALS.]

● This room has only one exit. The puzzles in this room help with solutions in other rooms to help a person escape from The Loop. [Independent Credit: 515 | Vewatkin | White Raven] [This room relates to (at least) Room 33, 3, 18 & 13]

● Room 33: There are several unusual 3s in this room. The totem pointing at the exit stands on three legs. The couch has a broken leg, a point emphasized in the text, so like the totem now stands on three legs. The small table to the right is missing the back leg so also stands on three legs. All this is to cue us to choose door 3 in the next room, Room 33. [Independent Credit: 515 | White Raven] A couple other 3s perhaps meant to emphasize the point are: The 3 legged couch has 3 cushions, one of which lay in the exit doorway, and the suit has 3 buttons. Note: While there are plenty of 3s in this room they are all single, not is a set of two 3s (like if there were 6 buttons on the jacket in two rows). Thus 3, not 33 is indicated. [Independent Credit: Aria | White Raven]

● Room 3: The totem is a man made of sticks, a simple drawing of a person like the one on the wall in Room 3 is known as a “matchstick man.” The stick man in this room is pointing the way indicating that we follow the matchstick man in Room 3. [Independent Credit: Mazecast | White Raven] [The book of matches ("matchstick") and the suit ("man") reinforce this solution.]

● Room 18: The blank poster on the wall could relate to the unreadable, barely visible poster hanging inside the correct door in room 18. [Independent Credit: Aria | White Raven] The arms of the couch have a swirl reminiscent of a bass clef, this could be an indication we follow the bass clef meter door in Room 18. [Credit: Aria] The bench to the left has a piece of wood in front of it which makes an “F”. This could be a clue that we take the bass “F” clef in Room 18. [Independent Credit: Vewatkin | White Raven] The matches and flammable materials spread around the room may suggest fire and that we should take the door in Room 18 which is closest to the fire. [Credit: Mazecast]

● Room 13: The single lit bulb in this room reinforces the lit bulb solution in Room 13. [Independent Credit: Aria | White Raven]

● Room 25: The text for this room has the unusual phrase “light and silence” this may be a clue that we choose the well lit not screaming face in Room 25. [Credit: Mazecast]

35path

126 thoughts on “Room 35

  1. If this was raised before, it’s too buried for me to bother finding:

    Notice how this room is laid out very similarly to Room 1? Now, take this with infinite grains of salt, but there are correspondences in objects too: crumpled paper here like trashed versions of the paper in 1; the blank on the wall like the surface of the drawing board; the idol a bundle of boards like the easel was disassembled and transformed.

    We also have a couch in front of what would be the C door in 1; a bench where the B door would be.

    If we’re desperate, the board leaning by the bench forms an upside-down A with the boards of the bench, and points to the A door.

    Lightbulb sun etc.

    I’m not convinced any of this is anything, but I think it’s worth considering whether 35 is meant to mimic 1 in some respect. What’s tantalizing for me about this general concept is that the idol points at the D/drum door (that is, where it would be in room 1), and this leads to a room with a picture of drum that nicely imitates the one in room 1. (Maybe that doesn’t matter, but many recurring objects are not drawn the same way twice.) I don’t know WHY these rooms would be so intent about pointing us to 20, but that’s a secondary issue. It just looks like something’s going on here.

    LIKE(1)
    • there is a LOT of signs that point to people going from room 1 to room 20. i’ve taken this as the start of a “guest’s path,” but i’m not sure that Manson ever intended such a thing as a guest path.

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    • And then Room 3:

      The text says you go down a long flight of steps. Never been able to propose a good reason for that–maybe the point is to implicate the word STORY–as in a floor in a multi-floor building–which again calls back to Room 20.

      LIKE(1)
    • And maybe “some sort of pantry” is referring to the items on the other doors, which are all food related: APPLE, BOTTLE, CUP.

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