2.10 Christmas Party

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Name And Address: Paine Memorial High School Teachers' Lounge, actually Highlands Rec Center, 1851 Lexington Ave. San Mateo

Parking: Free lot

Bathroom: Yes

Food: No

GC PoC: Erik & Melissa

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

All evidence of Trenchwood Institute and its timeline has mysteriously disappeared.
Peach Frontier Laboratories has taken its place
Iconoclast scientist Prof. Chronos has attempted to demonstrate her time machine before an audience of VIPs.
But it malfunctioned causing Prof. Chronos to bounce randomly through time
The players have fixed the time machine
The players have figured out that she wanted to be sent to 5/31/1986 at 2:15 PM. Doctor When chose to send her to Paine Memorial High School.
For some strange reason, Prof. Chronos needs the combination to a school locker...and perhaps there are records of old 1986 combinations somewhere at the school in 2012

Props

DVD player + remote
4x Speakers
AV Receiver w/6-channel amp
4x bare-end or banana plug cables for connecting the receiver to speakers
2x 1/8" to dual RCA cables
CD player, OR MP3 player with audio file loaded
Coffee maker
Plastic inbox trays, qty. 5
Plant
Door sign
Hint sheet for Faculty Christmas Party puzzle

Plot Point to Convey

Short Description

Prof. Chronos needs Wesley's locker combo; ghostly voices from 1986 heard at the high school in 2011 help teams find where it might be recorded.

Open Time Period

Sunday, 4 - 6 AM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Peach Frontier Lab Assistant.

What To Wear: lab coat + Peach Frontier Laboratories name badge

What Your Character Knows:

Everything in Plot Setup
- You do not know the stuff about Trenchwood Institute
- You do not know that Prof. Chronos sent the players here to get a locker combination
The laboratory's sensors detected some tachyonic radiation at this high school
You are surprised and delighted that the visitors have arrived because this is all way over your head

Puzzles At This Site: Faculty Christmas Party

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Site Setup:

Set up audio system and set on repeating loop play
Call GC

Handout Instructions:

You may have to "patrol" outside the Teachers' Lounge to intercept teams as they arrive.

'Before 4:45 AM' Welcome teams that arrive before this time into Lounge and say words to the effect of

Thank heavens you're here. The laboratory's sensors detected some tachyonic radiation at this high school of all places. So I was sent to investigate. Now I hear all these strange sounds...but my grad school classes never covered this. Can you figure it out?

'After 4:45 AM' Skip these teams that arrive after this time over this puzzle by intercepting them outside the Lounge and saying words to the effect of

Thank heavens you're here. The laboratory's sensors detected some tachyonic radiation in the principal's office of this high school of all places. So I was sent to investigate. But my grad school classes never covered this Can you figure it out? The office is around the corner.

Hints: Since neither the lab nor your character know that Prof. Chronos wants the players to find a locker combination, you can't really help them.

'Answers: n/a; teams should go off on their own to the "Principal's Suite" (which is around the corner)

Site Close Down:

Turn off the the sound system and carefully dismantle it
Carefully remove the speakers, etc. from the prop enclosures--they are fragile!
Disconnect all cables, and coil the speaker cables nicely
Pack them all up and return to GC HQ
Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

Stay in character.
Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

Detailed Description

Prof. Chronos has been sent to the right time & place, but she's lost her bolt cutters and can't get into Wesley's locker to take the envelope. She thinks the teams might be able to find the combination if they go to the school in the present day - but she doesn't know where the locker combinations are kept. At the high school, the players hear strange, disembodied voices in one room - pieces of conversations from a past Christmas party, made audible in the present by the tachyonic vibrations caused by Prof. Chronos' time travel to the school. It turns out that the voices form a classic logic puzzle (where Mr. Green sits next to a woman but not someone wearing red, etc.), and matching all elements in the puzzle yields a coincidentally useful phrase indicating where the combos are.

How To Give To Teams

If coming from Art History

Use the Boomerang add-on to Gmail to send the following email about 5 minutes after they complete Art History:

While you were investigating the International Museum Of Pretentious Art, we managed to get the View-O-Scope fully working again and can see into the past, not just the laboratory's internal cameras! Enter access code 893416 into the Computer Remote Access Program and you can watch Prof. Chronos in 1986.

If coming from Fix The View-O-Scope

Immediately send the following email after they complete Fix The View-O-Scope:

That did it. With your instructions we managed to get the View-O-Scope fully working again and can see into the past, not just the laboratory's internal cameras! Enter access code 893416 into the Computer Remote Access Program and you can watch Prof. Chronos in 1986.

In either case the video itself tells the players to go to the "high school" (including giving them the address).

Puzzle Answer

CHECK PRINCIPALS SUITE (with a hint to look in picture frame)

Puzzle Solution

The first step is to notice that there are four conversations with the same five teachers, and that there is some sort of standard logic puzzle about these five teachers. Let's label these voices by their personality:

MOUSE: male, mousy, insecure, eager to please
SMUG: male, smug, sarcastic, a southern drawl
CHIPPER: female, chipper, manic, City Girl Squawk
DEADPAN: female, deadpan, bored
ACCENT: male, stuffy, paternal

Also, for convenience, let's number the conversations:

This conversation has SMUG mentioning the room arrangement: numbered 1-9 along the hallway, with odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other.
This conversation has a champagne cork and a chorus "I do not own a watch!"
This conversation has CHIPPER say that the male names are male and the female names are female.
This conversation has ACCENT go into detail about the final message extraction.

By listening to the conversation, we can find out that these are the attributes we must match up:

First names: Alfred, Charlie, Ulysses (all male); Kimberly, Nicole (both female)
Last names: Campbell, Harrison, Iverson, Landau, Peterson
Subjects taught: Endocrinology, Isomorphisms, Robotics, Spectroscopy, Thermodynamics
Room numbers: 5 distinct numbers in the range 1-9, subject to certain restrictions
Break periods: 5 distinct numbers from 1 to 5.

The first step is to match some names with the voices:

ACCENT is Ulysses (SMUG addresses him as such in Conv. #1)
MOUSE is Alfred (SMUG and DEADPAN both addresses him as such in Conv. #2) Landau (he makes an accident with a champagne cork in Conv. #2, and the incident is referenced in Conv. 4).
SMUG is Charlie (by elimination, the only male name left) Harrison (he reacts to ACCENT mentioning "Harrison" in Conv. #1)
CHIPPER is Kimberly (DEADPAN addresses her as such in Conv. #3)
DEADPAN is Nicole (by elimination, the only female name left) Campbell (CHIPPER addresses her as "Campbell" in Conv. #3)
We still have the surnames Peterson and Landau left, but we don't know yet which is Ulysses and which is Kimberly.

The next step is to notice from DEADPAN Nicole's first line in Conv. #3 that one of the teachers is in Room 8 and has a 4th-period break. Who is it?

It's not DEADPAN Nicole Campbell, since she expresses desire for Room 8 in Conv. #3.
It's not CHIPPER Kimberly, same reason.
It's not ACCENT Ulysses, since in Conv. #3 he asserts that his room has a number less and 6.
It's not SMUG Charlie Harrison, since in Conv. #1 ACCENT Ulysses mentions that SMUG Charlie Harrison has two neighbors, and Room 8 would be at the end of one side of the hallway as the numbers only go from 1 to 9.
Therefore, MOUSE Alfred must teach in Room 8 and have the 4th period break.

Now we should look at which five of the nine rooms are used.

From Conv. #1, we can infer that three of the rooms are consecutive on one side of the hall, and the other two are consecutive on the other side of the hall.
Since Room 8 is in use (see above), we can deduce from that and the previous rule that Room 6 is in use and Room 2 is not.
From DEADPAN Nicole's line about multiples in Conv. #2, we can also deduce that Room 1 can't possibly be in use.
This leaves the following possibilities: 56789, 35678, 34568, 45678, 46789.
From DEADPAN Nicole's line about multiples in Conv. #2, we can eliminate 56789 (no multiples) and 34568 (3/6 and 4/8 are both multiples).

Now let's try to figure out the break periods.

SMUG Charlie Harrison is first:
- Although we can't figure out which one of 35678, 45678, or 46789 is correct, we can at least see that Charlie has two neighbors, must be in room 5 or room 6.
- Since according to MOUSE Alfred in Conv. #3, nobody has a break period with a number that is equal to or one away from their room number, we know that Charlie doesn't have break period 5.
- Charlie also doesn't have break period 4 because Alfred has it.
- According to DEADPAN Nicole in Conv. #3, Charlie doesn't have periods 2 or 3 as that's when his favorite soap opera is on.
- So, SMUG Charlie Harrison must have break period 1.
According to MOUSE Alfred in Conv. #2, Kimberly and Nicole have consecutively-numbered break periods. Since the only unassigned periods remaining are (2,3,5), they must be periods 2 and 3, although we don't know which is which yet.
This means that ACCENT Ulysses has period 5.

Now we can determine more about the rooms:

MOUSE Alfred is in Room 8 (previously deduced).
What room is ACCENT Ulysses in?
- From his own admission in Conv. #3, he teaches in a room with a number less than 6.
- From MOUSE Alfred in Conv. #3, nobody has a break period with a number that is equal to or one away from their room number. As ACCENT Ulysses has period 5, this means he does not have any of rooms 4, 5, or 6.
- From our room number analysis, only one of 35678, 45678, or 46789 is correct.
- The only possibility consistent with all three above statements is that ACCENT Ulysses is in room 3, and the five rooms are 35678.
What room is SMUG Charlie Harrison (period 1) in?
- ACCENT Ulysses says that Harrison shares two walls with neighbors, so the only possible room from 35678 that fits Charlie Harrison is room 5.
- The remaining rooms are 6 and 7, which go with Kimberly and Nicole, but we don't know which is whose.

We can figure out the remaining surnames now:

Peterson is in a room number higher than 5 (Charlie's), according to DEADPAN Nicole in Conv. #2.
We already know that ACCENT Ulysses has room 3.
So, the surname assignment must be:
- ACCENT Ulysses Iverson
- CHIPPER Kimberly Peterson

And now we can figure out the remaining rooms:

Campbell has a higher room number than Peterson, according to SMUG Charlie in Conv. #3.
So, Peterson must be in room 6, and Campbell must be in room 7.

A review of our data so far:

SMUG Charlie Harrison, Room 5, Break Period 1
CHIPPER Kimberly Peterson, Room 6, Break Period 2 or 3
DEADPAN Nicole Campbell, Room 7, Break Period 2 or 3
MOUSY Alfred Landau, Room 8, Break period 4
ACCENT Ulysses Iverson, Room 3, Break period 5

Now for the teaching subjects:

Who teaches Spectroscopy?
- According to Conv. #2, Dr. Iverson has a break right after the Spectroscopy teacher's break.
- So, this means that MOUSE Alfred Landau is the Spectroscopy teacher.
When is the Robotics break period?
- Break period 4 is MOUSE Alfred Landau's, and he teaches Spectroscopy. So it's not break period 4.
- According to Conv. #3, the administration is thinking about changing its break period to be earlier in the day. So it's not break period 1.
- According to Conv. #2, Robotics' break period is immediately followed by the Isomorphisms teacher's break. So it's not break periods 3 or 5.
- Therefore, Robotics must be break period 2.
- And so Isomorphisms must be break period 3.
- These are taught by Kimberly and Nicole, but we don't know which is which (yet).
What does SMUG Charlie Harrison teach?
- He asserts in Conv. #1 that he doesn't teach Thermodynamics.
- Therefore, he must teach the remaining subject, Endocrinology.
And by elimination, ACCENT Ulysses Iverson teaches Thermodynamics.

Finally, we can distinguish the last step by using the watch:

According to Conv. #3, CHIPPER Kimberly Peterson has a watch (that she doesn't know how to silence).
According to Conv. #4, the Isomorphisms teacher doesn't have their watch with them.
Therefore, the Isomorphisms (break period 3) teacher must be Nicole, and the Robotics (break period 2) teacher must be Kimberly.

Now on to message extraction. ACCENT Ulysses spells out the steps pretty specifically in the Conv. 4 -- sort by break period, then read out both initials, the first letter of the subject, and the room number indexed into the subject. This results in:

Charlie Harrison, Room 5, EndoCrinology
Kimberly Peterson, Room 6, RobotIcs
Nicole Campbell, Room 7, IsomorPhisms
Alfred Landau, Room 8, SpectroScopy
Ulysses Iverson, Room 3, ThErmodynamics

This reads out to be "CHECK PRINCIPAL'S SUITE". There is also a strong hint from Ulysses that the players should look in the right "frame".

Unnecessary and/or Redundant Information:

Conv. #2: Landau teaches in a higher-numbered room than Charlie.
Conv. #2: MOUSE is being addressed as Alfred twice.
Conv. #2: Kimberly and Nicole teach in consecutively numbered rooms.
Conv. #2: The Spectroscopy teacher does not own a watch.

Budget

Credits

Manager

Dave S

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

Response to Correct Answer

n/a Teams should go off on their own to the principal's office

To Do

Finalize the script
Record final audio
Master loops and burn onto DVD
Test 4-channel loudspeaker arrangement

Other Notes

Candidate for final script:

Media:Script_for_Christmas_Party_--_January_26.rtf

Mockup with non-final script and voices:

See idea genesis at Background Chatter