3.11 TRASH

Order

3.08

Status

::FINAL::

Location

This puzzle has three locations: Lockers, Dumpsters, Principal's Office

Status: "Paine Memorial High School" -- actually Highlands Rec.

GC PoC: Erik & Melissa

Parking: N/A

Notes: Reserved

Location Notes

High School, 1986.

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

Players have travelled to 1986 only to find the locker and the nearby trash can empty. The trash can has a sign on it directing players to another location at the school, where they find a complicated set of instructions dictating how trash gets moved around by Tiresias. They must figure out Tiresias' system to discover where the envelope currently is.

Props

The envelope, locker hallway garbage can with sign, poster with TRASH rules, whiteboard with the TRASH daily log, pile of blank paper, magnets or other 1"-diameter round objects in sets of 4, principal's office garbage can (with basketball hoop and some garbage inside), 1986-appropriate basketball poster for principal's office.

Lockers

• Props for inside locker, including torn picture of Buffy (these should already be onsite)
• “TRASH Can C” sign (should already be onsite)
• 80 name labels “I gave a gift to a student!”

Dumpsters

• T.R.A.S.H. Poster (should already be in place)
• Daily Log whiteboard (should already be in place)
• 16 T.R.A.S.H. rules handouts
• 16 hint #1 handout
• 16 hint #2 handout
• 1 hint sheet

Principal's Office

• Sign over door, "Principal's Suite"
• Sign "T.R.A.S.H. Can B" (may already be on site)
• Trash can (may already be on site)
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar poster (may already be on site)
• 1986 NBA playoff bracket poster (may already be on site)
• mini basketball hoop (may already be on site)
• 16 Manila envelopes, each with a newspaper clipping inside

Plot Point to Convey

The players need to find the envelope so they can break the infinite time loop in which they're caught.

Short Description

Locate the letter after Chronos discards it.

Open Time Period

When?

Staff Instructions

Lockers

Your Role: Assistant to Tiresias, the high school's head janitor.

Handout Instructions:

There’s no puzzle here. Instead, teams will come here to do two things:

1) To search the locker to find the envelope (these teams will NOT be trying to put an envelope in the locker). To these teams, you should say as soon as they start poking around the locker:

“What is this, Grand Central Station? This is the third time someone’s been poking around this hallway - first the dorky guy in the lab coat, then the woman in the lab coat, then you guys. Just don’t make a mess.”

The teams should use the locker combination that they learned in Act 2 to open the locker, whereupon they will find NO ENVELOPE and a picture of Buffy torn in half. (They saw Chronos do this in Act 2.)

At this point, three things should suggest to the players that the envelope is in the trash can: 1) the fact that it’s not in the locker; 2) your telling that them that a woman in a lab coat has already been here; and 3) the torn picture of Buffy. If they can’t figure out to look in the trash can, however, you can suggest to them that the woman in the lab coat took something out of the locker and threw it in the trash can.

IMPORTANT: do not let players take anything out of the locker - say “that’s the property of a student! Leave it there!”. Do not let them fiddle with any lockers other than 413 - say something like “those lockers are under repair. Please don’t touch them.”

IMPORTANT: after the players have searched the locker, make sure the torn picture of Buffy is still on top, and then close the locker again for the next team.

When they search the trash can, they will find that it’s empty. At this point, they should notice the sign above the can that says “Can C” and also “Lost something? Information about T.R.A.S.H. is located at the main dumpster (near the entrance to the parking lot at the front of campus).” This tells them to go look at the dumpster, where they’ll find the TRASH puzzle.

If teams are confused about how to find the envelope, point out the sign above the trash can, and suggest that they go to the dumpster at the front of the school to figure out what’s happened to the contents of the trash can.

At 2 PM, you will place an envelope with a newspaper in the trash can; teams that do this step at 2 PM or later will therefore skip the TRASH puzzle.

2) To place the envelope with the altered newspaper in the locker. These teams may try to slide the envelope through the space at the top of the locker - it probably won’t fit. Eventually, they’ll open the locker and place the envelope inside. Do not let them take anything in the locker - say “that’s the property of a student! Leave it there!.”

After they’ve placed the envelope in the locker and closed it, give the players name labels that say “I gave a gift to a student!” Then tell them:

“I hear there’s a big science fair going on at the gym. Why don’t you go check it out - and say hello to Tiresias, our janitor?”

When they leave, open the locker, REMOVE THE ENVELOPE, and close the locker.

Site Close Down:

• Clean up.
• Return all materials to GC HQ

Other Instructions:

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

Dumpsters

Your Role: You are Johnny Doe, an assistant to Tiresias, the head janitor of Paine Memorial High School.

Setup Instructions:

• Make sure there is a TRASH poster on the dumpster.
• Make sure there is a “Daily Log” whiteboard easily visible near the poster.
• Make sure there are copies of the TRASH rules for the players. There are two different pages: a list of bullet points, and a grid.
• Make sure there are hint materials for you to give to the players.

Handout Instructions:

Keep track of when each team arrives. You do not hand out anything when teams first arrive. If players ask about TRASH, or mention that they lost an envelope or are trying to find something, tell them that the poster explains the school’s TRASH system.

You will hand a hint to each team at 15-minute intervals (10-minute intervals after 12:20pm). 15 minutes after a team arrives, go to them and say “You guys seem pretty interested in TRASH! My boss invented it - here’s his business card,” and give the team the Tiresias business card.

30 minutes after a team arrives, go to them and say “Wow, you’re really into TRASH. My boss Tiresias wrote this flyer about it - you might find it interesting,” and the flyer called “TRASH and the Fourth Dimension, Volume I.”

45 minutes after a team arrives, go to them and say “Whoops, I forgot to give you this before - here’s Volume II of the flyer,” and hand them the flyer called “TRASH and the Fourth Dimension, Volume II.”

After 12:20pm, reduce these intervals to 10 minutes each.

After 1 PM, give out both flyers 10 minutes after you’ve given the business card.

Our goal is to have teams finish TRASH by 1:45 PM.

If teams get all three hints and it’s after 1:30 PM (or they’re really stuck and demand a hint), you can give them a copy of the maze diagram.

At 2pm, you should give all players the answer: “Wait, are you guys looking for an envelope? I think I saw it when it was going through the TRASH cycle. I think it’s in can B.”

Site Close Down: Clean up.

Other Instructions:

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

Principal's Office

Setup instructions:

• Make sure sign is over door.
• Make sure there is a trash can with a sign saying TRASH Can B. The can should contain a small amount of garbage.
• Make sure there is a small poster showing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the wall.
• Make sure there is a 1986 NBA playoff bracket on the wall.
• Make sure there is a mini basketball hoop above the trash can.
• Make sure you have a stack of envelopes (each one with a newspaper page inside).
• Put one envelope underneath the garbage in the can.

Role: You are an assistant janitor at Paine Memorial High School.

Handout Instructions: There’s no puzzle here. Instead, teams will come here to find the envelope after they’ve solved the TRASH puzzle. When teams arrive and ask to look in the trash can, say:

“You can only go through trash cans in this school if you’re certified in TRASH. To prove to me that you’re qualified, you must tell me the contents of all trash cans in this school.”

The correct answer is:

• Can A (in the detention room) has recycling (after 1pm, “garbage and recycling” is also acceptable)
• Can B (in the principal’s office) contains both garbage and recycling
• Can C (in the locker hallway) is empty
• Can D (in the journalism classroom) contains recycling

If they get it right, say:

“Wow! You must be a TRASH expert. You can look in this can.”

The teams should find the envelope and take it. After they leave, you should place another envelope beneath the garbage.

If a 2nd team enters the principal’s office while one team is there with you, ask the 2nd team to wait outside until the first team has left. After 1:50 PM, DO NOT ask for the contents of the cans; simply let a team look in the can when they ask. Hints: Teams cannot call in for hints, since they’re in 1986. If teams are just “exploring” and don’t know the contents of the cans, tell them they’ll have to get more knowledge of TRASH and that TRASH instructions are available at the dumpster. If it’s before 1pm and teams give the answer:

• Can A (in the detention room) has both garbage and recycling
• Can B (in the principal’s office) contains both garbage and recycling
• Can C (in the locker hallway) is empty
• Can D (in the journalism classroom) contains recycling

Tell them:

“It sounds like you know a lot about TRASH, but you’re not quite an expert. Remember that expert janitors complete a TRASH cycle in as few steps as possible!

Detailed Description

Present at the puzzle site are:

- A poster with some cute graphics, labels and locations for the four cans (A/B/C/D), and the rules of the TRASH (Tiresias Recycling And Sanitation Heuristic) system.

- A whiteboard showing the Daily Log, which describes the starting position of the TRASH cans (can A has garbage, can B has garbage, can C has recyclables, and can D has recyclables. (Can C was empty, but Chronos put recyclables - namely, the envelope - in it.) The whiteboard also shows the daily ending condition, which is that can C must be empty.

- The TRASH rules form a four-dimensional maze. The assistant janitor has a detailed description of the maze. Janitors move from place to place in the maze by moving contents from one can to another.

- The goal of the maze is to get can C empty again. The shortest solution to do so takes 26 steps. Players must find the exact final position (i.e., know the contents of each can) to be allowed to look in one of the cans.

- After solving the maze, players must check the route that the envelope traveled to find its final location, then go to that location and search the can.

- Using the notation E, G, R, B for Empty, Garbage, Recycling, Both, the starting position is GGRR (for cans ABCD respectively). The correct route through the maze is:

0) GGRR (envelope is placed in C and remains here until step 22)

1) GGBR

2) GBBR

3) BBBR

4) BGBR

5) RGBR

6) RGRR

7) RGRB

8) EGRB

9) EGRR

10) EGBR

11) EBBR

12) EBRR

13) EBRB

14) RBRB

15) RRRB

16) BRRB

17) BRRG

18) BERG

19) BEBG

20) BRBG

21) BRBB

22) BRGB (envelope goes to can B and stays there)

23) RRGB

24) RBGB

25) RBGR

26) RBER

The file below contains the mockup for the daily log whiteboard, the graphics for the TRASH poster, hint materials, and (on the final slide) the drawing of the maze.

File:TRASH3.ppt

Puzzle Answer

The envelope is inside the garbage can in the principal's office. To get access to the can, the players will also need to know that can A holds recycling only, can B (the principal's office can) contains both garbage and recyclables, can C is empty, and can D holds recyclables only.

Budget

See props, above - probably about $100.

Credits

Erik Stuart

Manager

Erik

Hints

- This may be a fairly hard puzzle for many teams, so hints have been built in to the structure of the puzzle. Every 15 minutes, the assistant janitor will hand them a clue.

- The first clue is Tiresias' business card, which lists as interests "The Fourth Dimension" and "Mazes", a strong hint that the system is a 4-D maze.

- The second clue is a flyer/brochure on how 4-D mazes can be represented as 4 2-D mazes.

- The third clue gives an example of how to represent the TRASH system as a maze.

- The assistant janitor will be able to provide further guidance for struggling teams.

- One key to the "four-grid" interpretation of the maze is that you don't interpret each grid as a can - you interpret cans A and B as the X and Y coordinates of the dot in the top left grid, and cans B and C as the X and Y coordinates of the dot in the bottom right grid. See the third clue for more context.

- Some teams may find the second-shortest path to the end goal, which is characterized by EGER (cans A and C empty, can B with garbage only, and can D with recycling only and the envelope). A team that suggests this answer should be told that "it sounds like you understand TRASH very well, but you're not quite EXPERTS yet - check the poster for what EXPERT janitors do. (But you're really close.)". If they show any sign of frustration or if they're behind, they should be told that they should back up a few steps from their finish and find a slightly shorter route.

Response to Correct Answer

"Yes, you can look in this trash can". (The players will find the envelope, at which point they can change the writing on the newspaper and place the envelope in Wesley's locker.)

To Do

Create poster, get props