Cryptid: Escape Room, by Teen Librarian Cindy Shutts

Cryptids are all the rage right now in some circles. I thought it would be cool to do a cryptid escape room. 

Here is what Wikipedia defines cryptids as: “Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist somewhere in the wild, but whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated by science. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, which primarily looks at anecdotal stories, and other claims rejected by the scientific community.”

The plot of the escape room is: You’ve been trapped in the research room of a cryptid hunter and need to escape before he comes back. Get help from Mothman, Bigfoot, Yeti, the chupacabra, and Nesse.

Supplies:

• Breakout edu Kit 
• Random other decor: We printed out posters on canva we found.Map of Mario World
• Morse Code Guide and word in morse code
• My coworker Elaine Waite created a cryptid hunter character, and wrote an in-character notebook of field notes with facts and dates related to the different cryptids used in the escape room.
• Decor
• Map
• Pencils
• Posters we found on canva

Locks and Clues: 

Directional Lock: West, North, South, East I will use a map 

Elaine hand wrote the names in our to make a checklist to look like creatures the cryptid hunter had caught.

Dark Watchers, Skyland, Dark land, Desert land, Giant land

Four Digit Lock: 

Find the Question: I wrote in more .– …. .- – / .. … / – …. . / -.. .- – . / ..-. — .-. / -… .. –. ..-. — — – ..–..  Which translates to what is the date for bigfoot? 1924 change to lock

Three Digit Lock:

Beads

308 lizard man of scape ore swamp phone code of where he lives I put the phone number in a notebook I had hidden

Work Lock is match

This was too easy because I used the word that was originally on the lock. The lock fit two well together and it was easy to figure out. 

I put a copy of Matched in the room and taped a note Portrety of the Yeti in it. I had a post-it covering the letters ed in Matched in the inside of the cover. 

Key lock hides the key in room 

Put map wall

Final thoughts: Another escape room, another lock jamming. But, I have found if your lock jams leave it on the table and have a piece of paper next to it and tell them to write the combo on it. It works well. My first session did the room very quickly. I wonder if having extra red herrings would have made it longer. The second group took much longer. Everyone had a great time.

Filed under: Cindy Crushes Programming, Escape Rooms