Teacher note
Enter the teacher password to see the answers and testing tools.
How it runs
- Teams of 3 or 4 share one Chromebook. The game tells them to pass the mouse after every puzzle so everyone gets a turn to drive.
- Plan on 60 to 75 minutes (it can be split over two class periods with progress codes). Students explore 10 rooms over 4 floors, help 9 characters, collect 9 clues and 5 potion ingredients, then use the clues to find the spell book and brew the potion in the right order.
- The house opens up as they go: the upstairs key comes from the pumpkins in the Kitchen, the basement lantern comes from the cat in the Dining Room, and the garden key comes from the skeleton upstairs.
- Skills: truth and fib logic, mirror symmetry, equal shares with points, elapsed time on an analog clock, number patterns, ordering clues, closed circuits, drawing a figure in one line (Euler paths), step-by-step directions (coding), elimination from 9 clues, and putting steps in order.
- Wrong answers lock that puzzle for a short wait (15 seconds, then 30, 45, 60) so teams talk instead of guessing. A wrong search costs 2 minutes plus a wait that grows each time (1, 2, 3, then 5 minutes), so trying every hiding spot is a bad plan. Hints: 3 per puzzle, one every 45 seconds.
- Bonus: 13 candy corns are hidden in the rooms for teams that like to explore. The count prints on the award.
- Progress codes: after every puzzle the team gets a 10 letter code (like
KDHTM-7XQMP), also shown on the side. Have one student write the newest code on paper. If a browser resets or the team switches Chromebooks, they type it on the start screen and get back their crew name, every solved puzzle (in any order), keys, ingredients, the spell book, hints and time. Made-up codes do not work, and after 3 wrong tries the box makes them wait 20 seconds. Typing their own code again on the same computer keeps any wait that is still running, so reloading the page cannot skip a wrong answer wait. A code always brings its own crew name, and that name prints on the award. - The "Left this page" counter on the side goes up every time someone switches to another tab or window. It does not stop the game. A high number can mean someone went looking for answers, for example by taking a screenshot to an AI helper, so it is worth a quick check in.
Timer
Minutes until midnight: (teams can keep playing in overtime; the award says "Escaped in overtime")
Answers
- Kitchen, the pumpkins: Round 1 (only one tells the truth): Pop. Round 2 (only one fibs): Peep. Each round has its own 3 hints. The Lift buttons stay locked until the whole Truth Tester is filled in correctly (T or F for every pumpkin in every row), so teams cannot just guess a pumpkin. Gives the Upstairs Key and the pumpkin seed.
- Parlor, Wispy: paint the right half as a mirror image of the left half (a white ghost face with purple eyes and mouth, pink cheeks, and a wavy bottom). Gives the ghost giggle.
- Dining Room, Midnight: each bag gets 4 candies worth 10 points: candy apple + lollipop + 2 gumdrops; 2 chocolate bars + 2 gumdrops; chocolate bar + 3 lollipops. Gives the lantern (basement).
- Library, Count Fangsworth: 9:35 PM (6:20 + 15 min + 25 min + 1 hr 40 min + 55 min). Gives the bat whisker.
- Bedroom, Rattles: the pattern is down 2, up 1. The next three notes are 5, 3, 4. Gives the Garden Key.
- Portrait Hall: left to right Ezzie, Pim, Lulu, Mort.
- Lab, Bolt: turn tiles so the glowing path runs right along row 2, down the middle column, then right along row 4 to the plug. The battery allows 11 turns (the best answer takes 5), so teams have to plan instead of clicking every tile. Running out starts a wait and resets the board.
- Cellar, Spinella: Web 1 starts at a bottom corner. Web 2 starts at one of the two lower ring dots that touch 3 threads (bottom or lower left). Getting stuck makes Spinella yawn for a wait that grows (8, 15, 20, then 30 seconds). Gives the spider silk.
- Garden, Howl: exactly 8 steps: Right 2, Down 2, Right 2, Up 2, Right 2, Down 4, Left 6, Down 2. Gives the werewolf fluff.
- The search: the spell book is in the Toy Chest (Bedroom). Upstairs (Howl), wood (Midnight), has a lid (Grandma), a room where someone sleeps (Spinella), and not the coffin (the Count).
- The potion: werewolf fluff, spider silk, ghost giggle, bat whisker, pumpkin seed.