Room 23

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…a room with three other doors. Looking out the windows my feet crushed something on the floor.

“Watch your step here,” I warned them. I’m always ready to be helpful with the less important things.

“Look at those two trees out there,” one said, looking over my shoulder, which is not easy to do.

“Must be a real wind coming up.”

Now they realized that it could rain where they were going.

“We should have brought that bumbershoot with us from the coat room…”

“Which room was that?”

“You remember, the one with the animal…”

I suggested that we take the door on my right and they realized they had found the door they had been seeking for so long, the entrance to…

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

 

Room Type:  PATH     Doors:  8  19  28  45

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

● The correct door is 8. [Credit: Unknown - during the 1985 contest.]

● The part of the Riddle of the Path in this room is “shoulder” which is spelled out in letters over the remaining rooms of The Path. [Credit: Unknown - prior to 1990.]

● The phrase “EVERYTHING RIGHT” on the scroll refers to the three items in the room which are in pairs, the stone tablets, the gloves, and the glass doors. And draws attention to the “broken pane” solution below. [Independent Credit: LoMoody | White Raven] The text may reinforce this by mentioning “those two trees” another pair. Each set represents 10 numbers, the right hand stone tablet has the numbers 6-10, the left hand glove has 5 curled fingers, right hand glove has 5 extended fingers, and the left and right hand glass doors each has 5 panes. The extended fingers of the glove suggest counting. [Credit: White Raven] [See related images] The word “NOTHING” on the scroll refers to the broken pane. [Independent Credit: LoMoody | White Raven] [See related images] The 10 panes of glass in door 19 relate to the numerals on the stone tablets, the broken pane corresponds to VIII on the tablet (8) which is the correct door. [Independent Credit: vewatkin | White Raven]

● “Feet” and “wind” are mentioned in the text, corresponding to this above door 19 is a foot and above door 28 is a storm. [Independent Credit: Slala | White Raven] The door with the sun is bathed is illuminated by light which appears to be emitted from the sun in over the picture over the door. [Credit: SP] Over door 45 is a picture of a night sky, over door 8, the correct door, is the sun. In MAZE sun and light are metaphors for correct, while the moon or darkness are metaphors for wrong. [Independent Credit: SP / Dave G | White Raven] Also the bottom line of the scroll says “THE TIME IS”, with the daylight streaming in the window and light illuminating door 8 it is clear it is daytime. [Independent Credit: vewatkin | White Raven]

● The phrases in the scroll “EVERYTHING RIGHT” “NOTHING” and “THE TIME IS” give us the letter O. The solutions being, respectively “O.K.” “0″ (zero) and “O’Clock” [Manson]

● The pole of the hat rack is the same width as the trim on the wall which it crosses. The result is a plus sign. The door on either side has four reveals stacked vertically. The result is a simple equation spelled out as 4 + 4, indicating door 8, the correct door. The gloves on the hat rack with some fingers extended may reinforce this solution by suggesting counting. [Credit: SP]

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23path

114 thoughts on “Room 23

  1. I’ve been thinking about the “seeking for so long” bit. It’s such a peculiar line.

    On its face, you think it’s pointing a giant glowing arrow at room #45. Then when you know the winning path and the canonical “correct exit” for each room, you interpret the line as a willful misdirect. But it’s a misdirect that can’t possibly work on someone who’s actually playing through the book room-by-room in the intended manner!

    That’s because you can only encounter this room after having already passed through #45. The doors to #8 and #19 are one-way, while #28 (and its neighbor #32) also can only be accessed on the back end of the Path. So if you’re playing the book properly, this isn’t your first time seeing a door to #45 and it’s nothing to get excited about. You’re trying to get back AWAY from #45. The misdirect has no substance.

    I wonder if Manson’s purpose with this line, quite apart from just having a bit of fun, was to misdirect readers who AREN’T playing through the book sequentially but are instead trying to reverse-engineer a solution by working their way backward from #45. Such a reader, perhaps, hasn’t found the upside-down door in #29. He thinks there are no doors leading to #17 except for the one in #45. So he assumes that #17 must be the first step back out from the center, and in turn assumes #23 must be the last step in toward the center. The “seeking for so long” line neatly reinforces this impression and sends the reader down a rabbit hole, only for him to eventually realize that there is no route from #1 to #23!

    Again, this could absolutely just be Manson being cheeky, but it’s interesting to think of this as a fakeout specifically meant to counter metagamers, not straightforward players.

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    • 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.

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  2. Not sure if anyone noticed this, but the VIII is the middle number on the stone. And 8 is the middle door on the wall.

    I like also the note someone made that it was the 8th window pane broken.

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  3. Recent poster Germaine’s screen name gave me an idea for this room.

    Seven stars over room 45… could this be a reference to the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades? This constellation is found ON THE SHOULDER of the constellation Taurus the bull. Another minotaur hint? (Difficult to look over guide’s shoulder… would certainly be difficult if he is talking about a constellation!)

    If this is in fact the case, it might also be another hint that 45 is the wrong door here… if you go through 45 you are going back… if you are looking over your shoulder, you are looking back. (The idiom “looking over your shoulder” means being wary of danger or threats…)

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    • ““Look at those two trees out there,” one said, looking over my shoulder, which is not easy to do.”

      Apparently it is difficult to look over the Guide’s shoulder.

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    • Possibly because he has a “chip” on his shoulder. Or a computer chip???

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  4. i mentioned this before but never followed up with a pic. well here it is!
    imgur .com/OQW779l.jpg (remove the space before .com)
    combined with the glove prompting you to count your fingers, is this any good??

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    • I like it! I mean, compared to “everything right” being an in indicator to look for pairs, this seems limpid. ;)

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    • sp,

      I spent some time with this solution assessing the pros and cons. I believe that I was in error not confirming it before. In the woods where I grew up there was an abandoned building with a door just like these with four horizontal reveals. Similar doors were in neighbor’s houses and out buildings. An extensive internet search did not turn up a single example of this style of door. Apparently, though not uncommon where I am from, this style of door is quite unusual. Also this is the only four reveal door in the book, all the others with reveals are single or double. Further helping this solution is that the door to the left is tilted. And, perhaps the clincher, the width of the pole of the hat rack is exactly the same as the width of the chair rail on the wall.

      Congratualtions! And also my apologies for not seeing my blind spot sooner.

      White Raven

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    • If a room is already a 5 and you get another solution does that mean you are the new cluemaster?

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    • Seems fair to me… officially handing over my Cluemaster tiara. I think it will look very nice on you, sp.

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  5. A good candidate for a missing word on the scroll sentences is ‘now’. (I still believe in the 0 solution but bear with me)

    ‘Everything right now’, ‘nothing now’, ‘the time is now’. Maybe ‘nothing now’ is a bit weak but the other two complement the time of day syncing with the sun picture, which reinforces Vince’s idea about now being 8 o clock.

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    • sp,

      I didn’t want to add the O solution until the other ones had been found because I am not sure of the authenticity of the source. Next time I talk to Manson I’ll ask if he did confirm this solution.

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    • i wasn’t aware that asking manson about specific puzzle solutions was kosher? i thought he was reluctant? does this not apply to you?

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    • You’re talking about the email from the John Bailey site, right? That’s a good question, actually; it was very ambiguously written. I tend to assume that the information contained in the email included the corrections that Manson had given, but it’s far from clear. This line of questioning would fit well into that question on the Ask Manson page that nobody seems to like.

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    • sp,

      I believe this is the only case in which Manson himself may have revealed an answer. My question simply is, did you? I do not think Manson would have a problem with this question.

      In regards to questions about solutions. Manson doesn’t want to give hints or talk about ambiguous solutions. Which works great because neither do I.

      He will however discuss solutions which are fairly settled. For instance we have a solution for Room 22, I do not think he would have a problem saying yea or nay to this solution but he would not then speak of it further.

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  6. Since it is pretty obvious I might as well say it. The last puzzle point is for “THE TIME IS.”

    Get this easy riddle and become the new Cluemaster General!

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    • I have a few thoughts on this but haven’t posted them because I don’t adore either of them. But here goes…

      1. The three feet of the coat rack or whatever make the same shapes that 8 o’clock would on a clock. Imagine any of the shoes as the minute hand and the shoe immediately to its left as the hour hand. (Assuming the feet are exactly equidistant. The minute and hour hand on a clock when indicating 8 o’clock divide the clock face into one-third and two-thirds.) Perhaps the “hands” on top of the coat rack further make you think of a clock.

      2. If you read “the time is” as “o’clock” then door 8 is the only one that works. 19 works for military time but you wouldn’t say “19 o’clock,” you’d say “1900 hours.” Maybe the fact that there is sunlight above the 8 shows that it is “8 o’clock in the morning,” which you wouldn’t need to indicate for military time. Ugh… this is incoherent.

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    • Well, the sun picture above 8 is the only one that matches the actual time of day. Over 28 we have the storm, which we are told in the text is just now starting up. Above 45, we see a nighttime scene, and above 19, though it’s just a picture of a damn foot, it’s clearly in darkness.

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    • One of the things that makes MAZE so difficult is that some of the riddles are crazy hard and others are super simple and it is difficult to make the mental transition between the two. I think Vewatkin has this one. The time is day, as in daytime, daylight. Putting it on the board, the room is now topped out and vewatkin is co-cluemaster with Aria (see Room 2).

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    • I think we’ve seen a similar situation before, and regardless of the order of the posts, the order of the acceptance of the solutions is what dictates the succession of Cluemasters.

      So, it looks to me like I am the current Cluemaster, but soon–perhaps before I even finish posting this–Aria will be the reigning Cluemaster.

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    • Vewatkin,

      Fair enough! I bow to the wisdom of the Cluemaster Guardians as best how to dispense their award. It will take me a while to respond to Room 2 (it’s complicated) so you may be Cluemaster for a few hours yet!

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  7. Everything right is everything in the room. There are two tablets, two gloves, two patio doors. On the right side is of the tablets is the number that is with the right side of the patio doors and the right glove is open looking like an open hand tossing a ball.

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    • And NOTHING is the broken pane of glass. It says go with nothing, the hole through the eighth pane.

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    • LoMoody,

      Congratulations! You didn’t every last bit but you had the majority of it right (see the solution summary and related images for details).

      Adding it to the summary and bumping up the solve meter! Good job!

      White Raven

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    • Its not the 5s its 10s and we look at the 5s on the right which are 6 7 8 9 10. He made a picture to show this. This is A LOT better than what I had Im glad he took my solution without it.

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    • sp,

      I have modified the summary to make it more clear, as LoMoody said it has nothing to do with the number 5 itself.

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    • 515,

      I deleted your comment. Make a comment like that again and you are done here.

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    • i’m not sure 515 intended any insult. in fact, aria and i just mentioned that if that finger were up, it would be the 8th. but would also probably make the puzzle too easy.

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    • It’s tough spot to be in when your jokes are too profane for the Abyss and not profane enough for MazeCast.

      Actually, that’s a pretty broad window.

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    • sp,

      I see your point. I thought it was just a random crass comment. I wasn’t objecting to the language but the trolling as opposed to discussing. My apologies to 515 for jumping to conclusions.

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    • The world has no respect for a FORMER Cluemaster. I anticipate the end of my reign with stoic dread.

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    • vewatkin,

      I love the humor on MAZECAST, but a lot of what is said there would seem strange if typed, like if Aria just started posting mixed drink recipes.

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    • Ha, yeah I was referencing the 8th finger and trying to be clever, not profane… or malicious at any rate. But I’ll keep it family friendly from now on ;) . Congrats to all these puzzle hounds and to the recently crowned Cluemasters General!

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    • It’s true, WR, yet coincidentally, I have a new series of MAZE-related cocktails all ready to go. The recipes all start like this:

      take 2 ounces of wood-grain alcohol…

      Tune in to Mazecast to find out the rest.

      ;-)

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  8. Everything Right Nothing The Time Is. Anagrams with letters are not working out too well, but maybe the words could be scrambled. Perhaps “The Right Is Nothing”, suggesting that the two doors on the right are not the correct doors. That leaves Everything and Time. I’m not sure about Time, but forgetting that, it would be only Everything that is left. Everything is LEFT over, so you could say that Everything is Left. The Right Is Nothing, Everything is Left, and the correct door is on the left.

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  9. I apologize if this was mentioned already… In the text, guide says “I’m always ready to be helpful with the less important things.” Meaning the 2 “thing”s on the scroll are not necessary? That leaves EVERY RIGHT NO THE TIME IS. Lots of possibilities here, for example that can unscramble to “THEIR ENTRY MOVE IS EIGHT.” Or maybe there is a more important “thing” hidden in the message (thig from right, and the n from no = thing).
    TIME IS EVERY OTHER THING.
    Doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but I’m new to this thing. Just spitballing.

    Also, NEVERMORE is in there too.

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    • Man, connecting “things” in the text with the “things” on the sign, that seems so reasonable, and we never thought of it! There may be something here indeed. Not in the anagrams, apparently, but it may be the start of something.

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    • 515,

      This is the kind of observation that really gets us thinking, let’s see where it leads. Thank you for sharing! Welcome to The Abyss!

      White Raven

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  10. New Mazecast from last night should be on its way.

    My only contribution of substance: I’m totally on board with the scroll giving us the letter O, but I also noticed that “EVERYTHING RIGHT” could point to 8 due to the digit 8′s resemblance to the symbol for infinity. If infinity is “EVERYTHING”, then it would be “RIGHT” to pick the door with that association.

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  11. This is a very clever room: we have window pane/PAIN in the room. Two tablets/MEDICINE. The coat rack has overshoes/rubbers and gloves/RUBBER GLOVES. The note is a PRESCRIPTION so we can’t read it. The pictures on the one wall are “stormy”, “sunny”, and “partly cloudy”, WEATHER=the correct door is UNDER THE WEATHER. The narrative states “bumbershoot”/a pool SHOT off the cushion of the table with the EIGHT BALL(an eight ball is also a measure of street cocaine-a drug).
    The correct door is Door #8. In Room #8 there is a picture of a STETHOSCOPE.
    An important aside: the picture of the “big foot” is the MONSTER who is very large and it would be difficult to look over his shoulder-he is also a multiple character (another reason not to donate your body to science)one of many that I see visiting MAZE. The Doctor in the room is of course DR. FRANKENSTEIN…(I knew he was visiting here somewhere).

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