by Ute Massow
The puzzle began like this: An abandoned villa on the outskirts of town. A note hangs on the rusty iron gate: "Enter if you dare." You open the heavy gate and enter a long hallway. Musty smell rises to your nose, the old wooden floor creaks. You discover an open metal door, and a voice from a record encourages you to come in. Suddenly, everything happens quickly. The door closes, and only with teamwork will you find your way back to freedom.
Solving a puzzle together and competing with other teams, what could be more exciting—especially when it comes to the capitalization rules of the German language. The collaborative puzzling brought everyone together and provided a wonderful change of pace. Different senses and talents of the students were required to solve the puzzles in as short a time as possible. The task was to crack eight codes. With each solved code, the group gained access to the next puzzle. The corresponding codes of the puzzles could not be shared aloud so that the other teams could continue to puzzle. Therefore, "Whispering" took precedence, ultimately allowing the winner to leave the escape room.
