You trepidatiously turn the handle to door number 3. You are confident in your puzzling and your logic, but there is still a fair amount of nervousness and doubt, not knowing what could be lurking beyond the door. You step through the doorway with your eyes shut. Slowly you open them, and you realize you haven’t met your demise, which must mean you have selected the correct door.
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Turn over the envelope labeled Room 2
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You now find yourself in a room with what appear to be electronic sliding doors colored orange, blue, green, yellow, and red. The room resembles a Jurassic Park-style laboratory with large, fluid-filled beakers and jars containing heads, torsos, tails, and other body parts from different exotic creatures. Next to the organs is an enormous machine labeled a “Reanimator.” There are what appears to be associated laboratory notes written by some of the Primordial gods. On the opposite wall is a large blank map of Greece. On the table in front of you is a sheet filled with odd symbols, a GPS device, and another sheet labeled Love and Death.
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You look around in disbelief. Who is this Gate Keeper? How did he create something on this scale?! He must have been working on it for months, if not years. But why? And why you? Before you can think about it any further, his voice breaks the silence.
Listen to the audio file and then open the Room 2 envelope.
​PLAY ME
TRANSCRIPT Congratulations detective, you survived your first room. You have officially begun your journey of salvation. In that way you remind me somewhat of Odysseus at the end of the Trojan War. Once regarded as a hero, but now just trying to find your way home. Will you be like Odysseus and wander in the abyss of my little trap for 10 years or will you find safe passage? I often pity Odysseus—if only he had lived in more modern times! A GPS would really have helped him; that and not angering the gods that is. But perhaps if you relive his journey, you will learn a thing or two about avoiding perils, as well a bit of humility too. On an unrelated note, I am sure you have heard of the Chimera: the ancient beast with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent? If not, there is a convenient summary in your guidebook. In any case, what most people don’t know is that there were other iterations of the Chimera. I have found and supplied you with the lost lab notes from the Primordial gods Erebus, Nyx, and Gaia. Apparently the three of them had a contest to determine who could create the most fearsome chimeric monster. Unfortunately, we don’t have written evidence of the finished products: that is where you come in. Can you decipher the clues and recreate their monsters? Find the right combinations and you will be enlightened. One wrong combination, however, and the consequences could be disastrous. Lastly, detective, I know you find yourself between a rock and a hard place right now. Ironically, that phrase has roots with Odysseus, as he found his ship between two sea monsters known as Scylla and Charybdis. Normally, this is not a position you want to find yourself in, but in this particular situation, I think you need to embrace it.