start

Team "The Number Sixes" (we are not a number we are a free man!) gathered to tackle the first problem: a clever puzzle involving sudoku that led us to a code word and forced us to get up and find an ad offering "Secret Lab for Rent." The ad had Star5's phone number. When we dialed it we gave the code word and she gave us the map coordinates for the next checkpoint.

dangerous mind

We were encouraged to dress for the occasion as spies. Because I found this cool hat, Initially I sported a variation on the 70's era CIA contract killer Chuck Barris look. Gray sweater, light jacket, and hat.

en route

here I'm on the way to checkpoint 1. that sweater went away pretty quickly.

team members

Martin & Gwen. We were joined at the next challenge by their friend—whose name I have since forgotten. Perhaps it is for the best. Comrades in arms, we will not be able to rat each other out to the enemy when—not if—they capture us.

ready for anything

Here I am checking the fit of the cyanide tooth. Interestingly, we don't seem to have images of puzzle two which we got from the "laser grid" room. Our team mate Gwen was the ONLY player to get through the grid without setting it off. That was SWEET. The second puzzle was cool it was all these words scattered randomly on the page, it was one of my favorite ones, mostly because I felt like I could see my way through the method for solving it so fast. It really boosted my confidence (and made me convinced I wouldn't need to use the poison gas tooth). The words belonged in sets and by circling them, the remaining words pointed at a solution. It was a tight little rewarding one.

anything could happen

Looking for one of the map points, we found this strange little pipe cleaner object. I took it just in case it was meaningful, or to use later as a distraction against another team. It was not needed. But in this elevated mood, I was prepared to assign meaning to anything...

easy?

Maybe. I felt like I contributed well to the solution here. Some of them, man I just thought and thought and though and drew blanks. . .

wow

thinking so hard the very trees above my head burst into flame...

puzzle five

This checkpoint had a welcome relief--we were given food and drink, which I for one really needed. They had some lovely grape juice and crackers and stuff. We sat down and rested in the cool evening and pondered the puzzle.

ZOMG!

This was probably everyone's favorite puzzle--maybe all the players in the whole game. It required us to use morse code to decode the box. Then the answer said "Wipejuiceinbox." Were confused by this directive and I was in the process of going back through and checking our work when Martin just took some of that courtesy juice we were enjoying so much and wiped it on the paper. The code word appeared! KAPOW! That was awesome. So THAT'S why Star5 kept offering me juice every time I'd empty the cup... The feeling you get when you see those letters emerge is just dizzying.

Go! Go!

In transit toward puzzle six. The night was getting on. The tension was building. The city was alive with potential. I felt like something could jump out, like we were in the midst of something larger than ourselves. That these were my friends and we were going to MAKE it, if we just stick together!

puzzle six

This fountain courtyard area, staffed by Celina, was home to a fiendish puzzle that got us cutting up a sheet of paper and then folding it just so. The folds caused the paper strips to be letters spelling out the code word. It was a risky one because if we'd cut it further, instead of stopping, buying another clue, and realizing we were to fold after the initial cut, we would have been wrong --who knows? would Celina have had mercy on us and given us a new puzzle? Perhaps... fiendish.

to puzzle seven

We walked toward the pedestrian bridge at the UofM. This and the next puzzle simply broke me. I don't even remember how we solved this. We didn't. We just spent our money outright on the answer. I have since lost the paper we were working on. We worked sitting on a bench inside the pedestrian bridge over Washington. It was a hotbox. I flashed on being tortured, trapped in a cell while they extracted information from me. but I didn't know! I don't KNOW! How could I? The puzzle was too much! After all my optimism and sense of excitement, my spirit foundered a little here. In it's own way, that was cool, because it means I felt a real range of emotions. Nobody likes being disappointed, but it was still worth it.

I yanked this image from Star5's proof

This was ridiculous. I have no idea how you get to the answer. I'm going to work on it--I mean, I know the final answer cuz we bought it. So nobody freakin solve it for me, k?

the finish line

super spies Spacebug and r0ck c4ndy. I include their picture here as Spacebug had staffed the last puzzle. That was a totally eerie audio mind trap that was a lot like a numbers station. only crazier. Just this voice reading out zeroes, ones, and some other numbers. We got there very close to the end time, so she closed the checkpoint while we were working on it. We never solved it.

must. refuel.

Team mate Martin enjoys something peppy. Me too! What was so great about this was the bond we formed, all the other team members feel closer to me somehow. I love that pressure cooker environment that makes you draw closer to each other.

meta puzzle

To do this one, you had to have the solutions from all the other puzzles. We just flat ran out of time. As is the way of these things, we agreed in advance that if we ran out of time, we were going to cut the red wire. ALways cut the red wire. Always.

your target...

Seen here in a file photo is Star5. This devilish agent of Dr. Kaiju is a formidable adversary. Agents are discouraged from crossing her, and she is to be handled like a deadly weapon.

gathering

We got yelled at by other pedestrians (we were NOT blocking the sidewalk a-hole!) but it was totally worth it. It was a good turnout of hardy adventurers, including many non-SFZero players! In the near foreground, at left, is JJason. His team beat ours, I think, but I don't know if they disarmed the bomb.

The end

OliverX reads the list of team winners. Ink Tea (in one of the cowboy hats) and her team won—they saved the city from Kaiju's giant monsters! Left of her in this photo is Alis, who graciously helped with Journey to the End of the Night Minnesota as one of the grown ups staffing Stage Three. Cutting the red wire did not work, by the way.