" Why, because it is simultaneously a "signal" and an "FG", of course. A left-turn hand signal to be precise. All of the guests are correct. "

" The hunchback character from the poster on the ground seems to be Pulcinella (a character from comedia dell'arte). In french, his name is "Polichinelle". Which seems to confirm the "Pole"'s theme of the room. Though, I have no idea why the french name should be... "

" I must give myself some grace as this was my second comment ever posted, but this is hilarious. "

" After 4 years, I have one-and-a-half minutes of my Mazecast YTP to show for myself. Watch it and weep. Mazecast never dies! youtube dot com slash watch?v=BqQG3Wez8Xw "

" >Taking that line around the walls to be the equator seems too slapdash to me. It means we’re inside the Earth, looking at the equator So far so good > but also on top of the earth, looking at the north pole You are talking... "

" The "i' has been compared to the bowling pin before, but I like the observation that it could be in line with a series of objects with a bulbous top in here...maybe even including the bulb. Taking that line around the walls to be the... "

" bird in 21, not 12 spare (slash symbol), not strike indeed, i don't see why the north pole and bowling clues couldn't be congruous "

" ...and believe you me, I am not trying to bully vewatkin into accepting my solutions by trying to prove them emphatically (not that I could anyway), the fact is vince is the only one keeping us above board here, so his skepticism is appreciated. Room... "

" > The vaulted ceiling has eight divisions. The idea that it represents a sphere divided into some other number of sections is troubled. Different maps will display different longitudinal lines, but there is nothing standard about placing a line every thirty degrees. Most globes have... "

" This is basically the solution at the bottom of WR's curated list. I'm openminded to the possibility that the pole represents the north pole in some way, but I don't find it terribly persuasive. Everything is worse from there. If the pole is the north... "

" I kind of pieced this together over the last few days after brain storming with the Mazecast crew. I won't take credit for the whole thing because other people came up with the idea that the room hints to the word POLL or POLE, the... "

" It's a door it has a knob, it looks like the other doors...I don't have any issue with it. In terms of including a door that's hiding in plain sight, but undeniable once discovered, I don't know how much better it gets. The fact that... "

" The method oldnslo186 uses is unintended, yeah—it breaks the logic of the book and the officially confirmed contest. (Their misunderstanding the rules of one-way doors isn’t really their fault, though; Maze can be opaque. Maybe we should’ve been more patient with them.) However, I actually... "

" The path from 29 to 17 is totally verifiable. There are too many hints and clues in 29 for it not be. It's the only way to correctly break through to the second half of the path. "

" I forgot Room 11: "It was a big space, but I still felt crowded. I’ve always hated confinement." "

" I had the same thought process, which is why I didn’t mention it. However… it is important to remember that the Guide very rarely criticizes the maze’s rooms. He is usually very defensive of them. This may be some of the most disapproval we’ve seen... "

" If the item is in fact an effigy--or whatever kind of likeness of any person--why would it have only one arm? "

" Poll/pole isn't new, but I agree that it seems necessarily implied. I suspect it's just an alchemist clue for Room 6. "

" "Seeing red" is also an expression with ties to bulls, though the text doesn't make any reference to anger, which I would expect if this connection meant anything. "

" I think this room is called/drawn as a (sort of) backdrop… simply only to evoke the color red. You can argue which comes first, but with the trident, “stop sign,” cushion, and red herring reference, I think it’s all just conveying the color. This also... "

" The guests take a poll "

" oh, we've done all that before, I just realized "

" KING! "

" WING, RING... STRING STING uh THING "

" Hmmm… this room is a pit. A lot of the pictographic symbols can be construed as synonyms for “container.” A drum can mean a container. A flute is a term for a kind of pitcher. I dunno. "

" No, I can’t see anything else whatsoever. Perhaps it’s not meant to be clueing bird, but “wing” or “flight,” based on the pose? But there would be better ways to do so. "

" Do you think it's possible it's something other than a bird? "

" yearly+ 33 musing: bird ring as a contrived phrase seems ripe for the spoonerizing. thing “murdering” orrrr it could be a locket. could be looking at it all wrong, it is a chunky ring with a slightly irregular perspective "

" This discovery is giving me a splitting headache. I can’t tell if it’s a dead end, or genius. "

" "Effigy" is an interesting suggestion here, and I like possibility of reading that as FG; it"s not a phonetic bullseye, but neither are "hurry cane" or "pair'o'dice." I'm not convinced of what the significance of that message would be, but it merits thought. "

" You raise good evidence. I concede that he is more ambiguous than I asserted. "

" Got it. What is a totem, tribal fetish, and work of art, that resembles a person and that you burn? It's an effigy, as in "FG". These are the two clefs in Room 18. We pick the left half of the word:"F", which corresponds to... "

" Will soon! Haven’t logged in there for a while, haha "

" My reading of the Guide is mostly just how I remember his demeanor, and the wondrous-yet-frightening atmosphere I picked up as a kid. I’m going to go back to see if I can substantiate that reading, though. Here are some instances of the Guide being... "

" I read him as more malicious than apathetic. I can't think of an instance in which he was happy about the group's success, but their ultimate failure sends him into fits of laughter. Admittedly, we never see a group's victory depicted (which incidentally is a... "

" Pssssst, ritz, check the MazeCast hangout. "

" "They seem to be watching us..." does just seem to be explaining the joke, which is how I always took it. It is pretty funny if Manson threw that line in because he didn't trust readers to get the point, considering all the arcane things... "

" Reasonable observations here. For me, though, the horror of the Guide comes less from a grand scheme malicious manipulation, and more being led through an unfamiliar, convoluted maze by an apathetic agent—one who gives you a fighting chance, but is entertained whether or not you... "

" Not sure what I was trying to say here—I think it was a loose pun on the aesthetics of this room. Anyways, two off-the-cuff thoughts as I take another look at 31: First, the intended reading of the strange/strangely dialogue is unambiguous. The weird thing... "

" Not the correct door, necessarily. They were close to "something," presumably something the Guide doesn't want them to discover, but I think that could be either A) something that would reveal the correct door, or B) part of the Riddle of the Path. "

" I believe you're correct, though this has been hypothesized on MazeCast before. I'd look up an episode and timestamp for you, but that would require me to watch MazeCast. "

" My thought here is a continuation of my unifying theory that the guide's job is to misdirect the guests, and that solutions can be inferred from the guide's deceptive suggestions as well as his emotional responses to the guests behavior. Much of the discussion amongst... "

" You can do numerology and find letters in the room all day, but when I look at this room, I see everything tumbling to tip the guests away from the only solution. With the understanding that both the maze and the guide seem to want... "

" @vewatkin Good point, I definitely see it as pointing slightly past the F, but the whole theory would be stronger if there were 12 letters about the clockface to be sure "

" @vewatkin I'm not saying the path way the guests are implied to go is always the right way, but in this case the guide explicitly expresses concern that the guests are close to solving the room and choosing the CORRECT door. Thus, I think it's... "