They spend some time discussing the definition of "paces" and trying to decide who should walk them. At this point it is completely dark.
Eddie ends up uncovering the "treasure."
But what does it mean? Someone runs the "code" through Google and they realize that it is a YouTube video ID. It shows a collie retrieving a tissue from a box.
Ray heads over to the box of tissues on my bedside table.
Inside of which she finds a big button that makes a "ding dong" doorbell noise when pressed.
The gang heads outside again and to the main door of the house, which is locked. They poke around and find a piece of paper underneath the doormat. It says, "Find it!" and then gives the license plate number of Miki's car.
Miki recognizes the number and leads everyone over to her car. "When did you hide something in my car??" I didn't get pictures since it was too dark, but she directed them to examine the license plates and wheel wells. Sure enough, there is a Nosework tin hidden in a wheel well. (I knew that Miki, as a Nosework instructor, would get a kick out of this.) Inside is a housekey, which opens the front door.
They entered the house and found a plastic easter egg in the middle of the floor. A quick search (I didn't want this part to take too long, nor for my friends to be getting into my housemate's personal items) yielded 25 eggs, each of which contained a Lindt chocolate and a tiny strip of paper with a bit of writing on it. They assembled the strips, and Allison (a horticulturalist) quickly identified "Helianthus annuus" as the name of the common sunflower. In fact, she had already noticed that one of my sunflowers had had another strip of paper wrapped around its stem, and had put it into her pocket until the appropriate time.
That piece of paper read, "The meat of this animal was the original main ingredient of canned dog food in the US." "Horse!" cried multiple people.
They headed back to my part of the house and Alex picked up a My Little Pony to find a magnet stuck to its leg.
The magnet was to be used to on an invisible maze, which had another magnet behind a piece of cardboard. Laurence pointed out that this would have been very difficult to figure out if he had not already poked at the cardboard and noticed that there was a magnet underneath. I conceded that I hadn't really thought that part through.
Miki tried her hand at the maze.
Then Eddie.
Meanwhile, other people were getting hungry and worn out from the puzzles.
Aaron gave it a try, using a marker to chart the maze.
At this point it was so late that I gave them permission to just pull the maze off the wall.
Eddie and Alex inspected the magnet that had been on the other side. There was a picture of the classic Monopoly pieces on the other side, minus one.
They realized that the missing piece was the iron, and turned over the actual iron I had sitting next to my sewing kit.
"Adorn forgo spit" turned out to be an anagram for "poison dart frog." They used a website to figure this out rather than actually writing out the possibilities, which I had expected. Agnes remembered that I had a green plush frog with magents on its feet, and it was attached to a set of metal shelves. Stuck to one of its feet was a little key. This was what they'd been working toward all along - the key was for a tiny lock which "locked" a ribbon wrapped around the cake box!
Everyone was ready to be finished with the puzzles at this point. We made BLTs for dinner and ate the cake for dessert. Then a few stayed to watch the new epsiode of Doctor Who. Props to Eddie and Alex for washing all the dishes after dinner! (And anyone else who helped - I was watching TV at this point.)
The consensus seems to be that the puzzles were enjoyable, but should have started earlier and there should be fewer per party. It took a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes to finish them. Next year I will have more experience and be better prepared! I said that I wanted my friends to set up a puzzle hunt for me next year, and they said, "Yes, and we'll laugh as you try to figure them out all by yourself!"
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