0:01

Welcome to Escape This Podcast,

0:03

a show that's a mix between

0:05

tabletop role-playing and escape room

0:20

puzzles. This is the start of a new season.

0:22

It's season 14. Danny,

0:24

are you excited to get back into it? It's

0:27

been a little while since we've done one of these. We

0:29

went in somewhat of a

0:31

workaholic mode through December and

0:33

early January. So yes,

0:36

I think I am. Yeah, well, well, releases

0:38

have taken a break. We have

0:41

not. So this should be

0:43

a very fun episode. Every episode we

0:45

have guests come on and play through

0:47

an audio escape room that Danny has

0:49

created that exists just in our collective

0:51

unconscious, like a strange hive mind of

0:53

puzzles and weird character voices. And this

0:56

episode we have a returning guest. So

0:58

welcome to the show. Welcome back, Tommy

1:00

Haunton. Thank you. I'm happy to be

1:02

here. We're very excited to

1:04

have you on, but you're not alone.

1:06

You have brought a first time guest,

1:08

one of the co-founders of Coin Crew

1:11

and one of the co-creators

1:13

of Escape Academy. Welcome, Wyatt Bushnell. Welcome

1:15

to the show. So happy

1:17

to be here. Thank you for having me.

1:19

Yeah. Hoorah, escape rooms. Am I right? Yeah,

1:21

that's the thing. You two are both

1:23

very seasoned escape room people, which always

1:26

intimidates me because I tend to write

1:28

my rooms with the potential for beginners

1:30

as well. So I always fear that

1:32

you're going to breeze through it. Don't worry.

1:34

The seasoning is just a dry rub. Perfect.

1:37

So why this is your first time on

1:39

the show, but we mentioned Escape Academy in

1:41

your intro, which we have just been playing

1:43

on Twitch and it's fantastic. We had so

1:45

much fun playing through the entire game for

1:47

people who don't know it. Would you like to give a

1:49

rundown of what Escape Academy is? Well,

1:51

also thank you for the kind words.

1:53

Escape Academy is an escape room adventure

1:56

game that's Available for play

1:58

on Steam, Xbox, and Xbox. X

2:00

X Box Game Pass, Playstation and

2:02

Than Ten. oh Switch. You've basically

2:04

play. At way a

2:06

Hogwarts style school. But. Instead

2:09

of magic, it slides. You're. Basically

2:11

training to become a secret agent through

2:13

escape rooms. We. We could have

2:16

noticed as we were playing it that for people

2:18

who know our shows it's got a similarity to

2:20

one of our sort of by connected Ox so

2:22

I think if people need context or that feels

2:24

like it is has eczema it's the sort of

2:26

standalone escape rooms that have a story and character

2:28

and drama and things connecting them all as it

2:30

was really lovely to play through and the design

2:32

of them is really smooth and get like there

2:34

was no point of view on things that make

2:37

sense that he only that it was lovely. We

2:39

have a puzzle game and then you will get

2:41

the like yeah I got it. Yeah yeah. I've

2:43

done a lot of escape rooms and my least.

2:45

Favorite. Escape from puzzle is late.

2:48

A puzzle that difficult only because

2:50

it's not like clued of both.

2:52

Those sorts of puzzles always frustrate.

2:55

Yeah. Love it Any could you to quickly

2:57

add some clues to this room to do

2:59

the bigger than a specific interesting interesting to

3:01

discuss which is why no clue seclude us

3:03

citizens fit his sister from one the up

3:05

or and tommy it's one of would have

3:07

you back on the show to do to

3:09

host appears of as a writer or as

3:11

a player on the so I think as

3:13

a writer I think as a fever dream

3:15

of the strange episode I wrote during the

3:17

lockdown times that you had to us bushwhacked

3:19

to edit.for hims of five hours the as

3:21

I think it was a four hour recording

3:24

but it was a huge. Amount of fun of

3:26

weeks to get people talking about that room to

3:28

be really liked it know I'm to the honor

3:30

like A Responses Nothing I can even say the

3:32

number people at a emailed me about to. they

3:34

put the script online to to follow in your

3:36

condition of like group and sourcing against and I've

3:38

gotten dozens of people sending me they are recording

3:40

play throughs of them running. our one is lovely

3:42

Will Idol It could have you back as a

3:44

player this time. you cited to do not have

3:46

to have design something that you could to actually

3:49

display I am but of course the the pressure's

3:51

on to prove that I'm a human and not

3:53

just a bunch of like kids. Definite trench coats

3:55

as a seizure could dismiss could reveal me to

3:57

be what I really young, the fraud. With

3:59

that. That every time we have just

4:01

don't we asked the same two questions.

4:03

Tommy we've asked this before. The let

4:05

me start with an update on your

4:07

Escape Room experience. Ah yes that a

4:09

few more. I think Emirates Seven Hundred

4:11

is now and then after many since

4:14

then I've since then. I also I'm

4:16

teaching a class Honesty from Designed to

4:18

the second semester that I'm teaching it

4:20

And it's really cool to go from

4:22

the perspective of player to trying to.

4:24

Take the lessons of what you can take

4:27

from building an escape room and applying it

4:29

to all of the different types of design.

4:31

There are. More. It's really fun

4:33

to look at them from a very analytical point of view

4:35

and it's really amazing scene. And. Makes the

4:38

even appreciate more like what and

4:40

Escape Room in terms of gameplay,

4:42

narrative, scenic design, even the when

4:44

operate them and offer a service

4:46

and character interactions. Said. It for

4:49

me, it makes me more appreciative.

4:51

Angela also appreciate that I make

4:53

them listen to your puzzles and

4:55

episode building. episode. Ah wonderful. I

4:57

expect the tech in the mail

4:59

yes and also using and I'm

5:01

the D S style of doing

5:03

a know an odd with these

5:05

games. Before they start building, you

5:07

don't can really mess because he

5:09

is so important to showcase the

5:11

third structure of a game worked.

5:13

before you even start doubling something

5:15

suddenly pump money into something. Yeah

5:17

exactly. And it's cool to be

5:19

a lot of like give them a concrete

5:22

example of like a a fierce hundreds of

5:24

examples of episodes you can listen to with

5:26

a script that shows you how to format

5:28

this wonderful or and then know why it

5:31

is be the first time we've asked this

5:33

question at this is an escape from shown

5:35

what is your escape room experience While I

5:37

don't have a number of how many good

5:40

night I have is affirmative that keeps track

5:42

of never too late August seven hundred right

5:44

markets to it's is like and at his

5:46

say insane asylum carving but notches. On

5:48

the water are don't just

5:51

my not says my noxious

5:53

Missouri accurate figure. It beats

5:55

wallpaper arm. I. Don't know. I think

5:57

of them like over fifty. By. The.

5:59

Happening. We did Escape Academy. We

6:03

played a lot more rooms that we designed

6:05

internally than ended up in the game. Every

6:09

designed room counts as 50 played rooms

6:11

by my mind. Alright,

6:15

well the other element of this show is that

6:18

it is escape rooms mixed with a

6:20

sort of tabletop role-playing style. So maybe

6:22

in reverse order this time. Wyatt, what

6:24

is your tabletop role-playing experience? Yeah, well

6:26

I mean I'm a huge nerd and

6:29

neckbeard so I've definitely like I've done

6:31

a lot of dungeon mastering. Like D&D

6:33

3.5 and 5e and everything. Um,

6:37

like Baldur's Gate is like one

6:40

of my, I mean I know it's not

6:42

tabletop but it's like it's still forgot realms

6:44

and gin and stuff so. So, no

6:47

yeah, I mean I love D&D. I love D&D. Both

6:49

as a player and as I've been playing it

6:52

for like eight years. Tons!

6:54

Tons! So much! Oh I'm

6:56

Don Curcestrana, Thumbedal of Wiser

6:58

Fandova, you can't skip me

7:00

out of these forgotten realms.

7:03

Alright, lovely. Well, Tommy, what about

7:06

you, the final question? What

7:08

is your, or any updates to your tabletop

7:10

role-playing experience? I've played

7:12

a lot of homegrown, beautiful hand-rolled

7:14

things but I've also been a

7:16

participant in some wonderful pre-made campaigns

7:18

that are just lovely. Thank you.

7:20

The DMs are great. I've never

7:22

actually DMed anything except for

7:25

the Dishonored camp because I'm a huge fan of the game

7:27

series Dishonored. And they made a system

7:29

and I ran a couple games from

7:31

that that was really fun. Oh

7:33

nice! But

7:36

the one that I really like is

7:38

a game called Blades in the Dark.

7:40

It was a Kickstarter like in 2015. And

7:43

we have a friend who is an amazing

7:45

DM who wanted to play this and

7:47

it's so much fun. It's

7:49

very much like a heist and what's really, really

7:52

cool is we got super into it. And

7:54

the basic premise is you are a gang

7:56

of thieves and you're doing heists and

7:59

it's very much fun. a story-based campaign

8:01

that doesn't allow a lot

8:03

of setup. So what's cool is

8:05

you just kind of plan early

8:08

what kind of heist you're going to do and then you

8:11

do it. And then what's great is there's a system that's

8:13

a flashback system. So it's like we

8:16

break into the basement and it's like, you

8:18

break into the basement and it's full of guards and

8:20

they all look at you and pull all

8:22

their swords. And then you can basically spin

8:25

points to flashback to explain how you get

8:27

out of that situation. So then you flashback

8:29

to the day before and you put your

8:31

tummy gun into your bag. You

8:35

flashback and it's like you sneak into the building

8:37

and plant gas that knocks them out that goes

8:39

off right then. So it's really cool to be

8:42

able to feel like you're in a heist movie

8:44

with the flashbacks and the twists. So

8:46

it really appreciate the sort of back and

8:48

forth of a good DM who is

8:51

throwing wrenches at you and you're

8:53

kind of throwing back with narrative. All right,

8:55

Danny, I think that is we've got the

8:57

intros out of the way. It is time

8:59

to get into the meat and potatoes of

9:02

the show. Danny, are we ready to play the escape?

9:04

Well, not anymore. Now I need a disclaimer that

9:07

there are no meat or potatoes in this room. I'm

9:09

so sorry. I'm vegetarian. So does

9:11

want to flag that that if there's meat, I

9:13

would prefer it be plant based. You can just

9:15

have the potatoes. Danny,

9:18

would you like to get us started? Let's do this. Let's get

9:20

you into this thing. It's

9:23

been a trying day and it promises

9:25

to be a trying night, but

9:28

you are trying your best not to

9:30

make it all about yourself because

9:32

this is Paul's time. He needs you.

9:35

He got let go from his job this morning and

9:37

your friend group has been doing whatever it can to

9:40

commiserate. And the situation

9:42

was totally unfair. Paul was a

9:44

great realtor, but there's been

9:46

a financial crisis going on for the

9:48

last few months. The agents budgets were

9:50

fracturing and the higher ups decided that

9:53

whoever made the least in sales over

9:55

the last month would be fired

9:57

to save some money. They didn't tell. any

10:00

of the employees there, they just had

10:02

it in the background. And even though

10:04

Paul's sales had held steady by some

10:06

terrible turn of fate, his

10:09

colleagues' sales were all exceptional. Your

10:13

friends tried to make Paul feel better by

10:15

saying the colleagues must have been cheating, but

10:17

Paul waved that accusation away. They'd never do

10:19

that, he insisted. They were all

10:22

good, honest people. Yeah,

10:26

they're still realtors. But

10:28

you know what? Ugly stereotypes are such. You

10:30

met some of these colleagues at a

10:33

trivia night a while back, and they

10:35

gave you some dodgy vibes. They were

10:37

definitely googling answers in the bathroom, and

10:39

one of them accidentally spilled a drink

10:41

on another team's answer sheet. They

10:44

were totally out for themselves.

10:46

And Paul didn't belong there, good riddance to

10:48

the whole place, you say. Except

10:50

Paul really loved his job, and now he feels

10:53

like he sucks at it. And you

10:55

can't stand it, you have to prove that something

10:57

shady was going on to get him fired. Luckily,

11:00

while the agency was very firm on Paul

11:02

getting a box and taking home all his

11:04

belongings, they weren't so

11:06

diligent about making him give back

11:09

office property that he already had,

11:12

including his office door key.

11:15

Well, that made it very easy for you

11:17

to get in, which you did a bit

11:19

after midnight tonight. Paul, still

11:21

no idea, and he won't

11:23

know. Well, unless you find

11:25

something so incriminating that it gets one of his

11:28

colleagues fired and him rehired with the boss's tails

11:30

between their legs. So

11:32

let's take a look at what you see in here. You

11:34

can draw, you can write, whatever your preference. Standing

11:37

by the front door, you survey the small

11:40

office. You've come in from

11:42

the south, near the southeast corner, and

11:44

the rest of the south wall is an

11:46

almost floor-to-ceiling window with property ads that would

11:49

be displayed to the foot traffic outside at

11:51

a normal time of day. The

11:54

entire west half of the floor space

11:57

Is set aside as a conference room.

12:00

Just a big table with a stack of papers on it.

12:04

On. The east wall. Hangs. A

12:07

series of awards, one by

12:09

the agency. And.

12:11

On the north wall is a whiteboard

12:14

with seats and numbers all over it

12:16

and a big title that says Cela

12:18

of the Months. Just.

12:20

In front of that board is the only

12:22

regular work desk in the office. Is

12:25

just got a landline phone and a bowl of

12:27

cheese on it. And

12:30

there's one other table in the middle of

12:32

the floor that it's more a podium than

12:34

a desk. On. It sits a

12:36

big glass case. Inside.

12:39

Which is a gorgeous model

12:41

house. Meal.

12:43

Up. Quietly. Confident that you can

12:45

find something in here to help pull out. If.

12:48

These people when no good at trivia. They can't

12:50

be very good at covering their tracks. Are

12:54

aware of the Woods Avenger friend Paul.

12:56

So. Yep, just to. Recap.

12:59

Poll. Was fired. We.

13:02

Think he was fired without good

13:04

cause. Were. Avenging Pol.

13:07

Pot's. Are you out to Tommy Roka? Yep

13:09

yep for the to find evidence that

13:11

they're of the bad things and the.

13:14

Take. Modem or well, I have a

13:16

them depending on. With. I've

13:18

a feeling we have to use Q bert

13:20

both keys to get him to about little

13:23

mini house. Of. As just one more

13:25

leery. Get

13:27

into our house if if if you don't have

13:29

a. Foods

13:31

we sort of. I'm intrigued. I you know I'm

13:33

the market for a house I would like to

13:36

see a any good listings on the wall of

13:38

it. All the ads in

13:40

the window up pretty much the

13:42

same properties either a sale or

13:45

recently sold, hefty price tags, photos

13:47

that totally haven't been touched off,

13:49

little absolutely not and other details

13:51

like bedrooms, bathrooms, You. try

13:53

to filter out the unimportant bits and see

13:55

if there's anything that you can learn here

13:58

and by the unimportant bit i mean the

14:00

photos because drawing this many houses

14:02

would have been terrible. So

14:04

we've got an image for you here. Yes.

14:07

The people following along at home, you

14:09

can see this image in these show

14:11

notes, but Wyatt will describe what he

14:13

sees to you at home. What I

14:15

see are a bunch of

14:18

listings of different, uh,

14:20

different priced houses with different

14:23

bedrooms, bathrooms. And I don't know

14:25

what a CS, closets. Is

14:27

that closets? I would have gone with

14:29

car space. Car space. Okay.

14:32

And different listings have been sold.

14:36

It is a six

14:38

by three grid of

14:40

listings. They look surprisingly

14:42

like monopoly cards to me. They do

14:44

a bit. Yeah, they do look like

14:46

monopoly cards. Is

14:48

there any pattern with the sold

14:51

signs? I have a

14:53

feeling we're probably going to look at other

14:55

things and correlate. Yeah,

14:57

I think you're right. Okay.

15:00

I'd like you to examine the papers

15:03

on the West wall. On

15:05

the conference table. Yeah. On the conference table.

15:08

You can look at the conference table itself as for

15:10

the papers though. You go straight to the papers for

15:12

now. Up close, you can see

15:14

this is a pile of applications from hopeful

15:16

renters. The sheer volume of

15:19

them intimidates you. You are glad you're

15:21

not in the rental market right now.

15:24

It's intense competition. A

15:26

quick flick through reveals that the applications

15:28

are arranged by property in terms

15:31

of most to least rent that

15:33

they'd be generating and

15:35

every sheet of paper includes, you know, the

15:37

property address, the rent amount, and of course,

15:40

all the contact details of the applicant and

15:42

whether or not it's been accepted yet. Most

15:44

of them have not been accepted yet because

15:46

there are too many to sift through for

15:49

the same properties. Right at

15:51

the bottom of the stack, you also find a

15:53

post-it with a scrolled note that says rent

15:55

price times 1000 equals sales

15:58

price. Okay,

16:02

is there is there any pattern

16:04

to what houses were accepted for

16:06

it? Oh no, it just seems honestly

16:09

just realistically like if there weren't

16:11

that many applicants it might be easier

16:14

to whittle them down. But

16:16

you don't really notice anything important in that. Okay.

16:19

Is there like a stamp that says

16:21

approved or anything nearby? Like

16:23

that's like the physical stamp for

16:25

it. No, you don't get around. Because I was

16:28

gonna just like mess with them and like take

16:30

some stamps and just start stamping things. Yeah. You

16:32

just take out your pen and you do your

16:34

best approximation of it. Tommy, what

16:38

the vigilante, we're getting real tired.

16:41

That'll throw for a loop. You're

16:43

like the get-pull-his-job-back or take the

16:45

whole place down. Exactly. Yeah, currently just

16:48

probably got your job back. I'm just a

16:50

quick company's don't bankrupt. Yeah, we... Okay,

16:55

so that's the Westwall. So I feel like we should everyone

16:57

to keep going in order. Let's look at the Dreyerase

17:00

board. The shapes number

17:02

is sell of a month on the Northwall. The

17:05

board is segmented into four parts.

17:07

One for each of four agents

17:09

who must have been the ones

17:11

involved in this secret competition. There

17:13

are little marks like magnetic sorts

17:15

of things indicating how much money

17:17

they've made selling property this month. Sadly,

17:20

expectedly, Paul has the lowest at

17:22

1.2 million dollars, which sounds pretty

17:24

amazing to you. But somehow someone

17:27

called Tonya edged him out with

17:29

1.3. Hector

17:31

got 1.8 and

17:33

Varin managed 2 million dollars. You

17:37

find it hard to believe they needed to fire anyone

17:39

with numbers like this. 1.2

17:42

for Paul, 1.3 for Tonya. Hector

17:45

is 1.8 and Varin is how much?

17:47

2 million. 2

17:49

million. mission

18:00

that they made off it. Oh then

18:02

Tommy we potentially

18:05

we have to look at the sold things to

18:07

determine who sold which house.

18:10

Yeah, I don't think you're wrong. Let's keep looking at

18:12

it, but I think that's a good thread to pull

18:14

off. Thank you. Are

18:18

the numbers able to be erased from the drainage board? Yeah,

18:21

you can like some of the little magnets that

18:23

were like like magnets for hundreds of thousands of

18:25

dollars. You can just like move them around. Oh

18:29

no, look, Paul was robbed. You don't know

18:31

if anyone will believe you, but yeah, but

18:34

we'll just put the poll sold

18:36

$20 million and walk away to

18:38

that is zero and well, I

18:41

guess we should probably yeah, we're

18:43

done. Yeah, salt. Okay,

18:45

maybe not. So

18:47

let's see. Let's go to the agency awards on

18:49

the east wall. For shiny

18:52

plaques hang from the wall, all recent

18:54

all awarded to this agency, presumably to

18:56

individual agents, but they've just written the

18:58

agency's name on here. You

19:01

don't know much about real estate awards, but

19:03

they sound impressive enough. So for

19:05

people at home, you can also see this in

19:07

the show notes like all the images, but Tommy

19:09

will describe these awards to you. So

19:11

we have four plaques. They're

19:14

all from 2023. And I'm

19:16

going to mispronounce something I'm guessing we have.

19:20

I'm soon this is not named after Nigel

19:22

Farage, but the Faraj award for top agent

19:24

by volume and the agency's

19:26

name beneath that Sullivan Underwood Underwood.

19:28

So we have another

19:30

one hitch an award for top agent

19:32

by value, the Moyer award for best

19:35

rising star and the Cattuck award for

19:37

best innovator of the year. So

19:39

these I mean are very prestigious. So

19:44

why I have an observation about

19:46

the awards. Yes,

19:49

the award names are all

19:51

a letter off from a

19:53

room. So we have Faraj's

19:55

garage, kitchen kitchen Moyer's foyer

19:57

and I think And

20:01

not one letter on that A Don't rhyme. Authorities

20:04

on the other riders are probably makes

20:06

more sense so. Yeah,

20:08

Foyer Roger Roger Volume:

20:11

Kitchen Value. For.

20:14

Year as a stranger. Yep, this disastrous.

20:17

Okada for yeah, Flay arguments.

20:19

Yes, A for yeah yeah.

20:21

foul mouthed foreigners, the upper

20:23

crust and well as silly

20:26

as fast as it's relevance

20:28

to preserve. That's what this

20:30

group big for. Jeffrey Video.

20:33

The sir, I'm. Okay,

20:36

Then. I guess what's to me?

20:38

Examine the model house. Absolutely!

20:40

Said house is enclosed within

20:42

this large glass box, which

20:44

the glass box requires a

20:46

key to unlock. As

20:49

sculpted model front yard with a

20:51

neat collection of flowers before the

20:53

elaborate body of the house itself.

20:56

It must have. Dozens of rooms

20:58

inside this thing. He look as closely

21:00

as you can without pressing your nose

21:02

against the glass and you notice a

21:04

couple more things of interest. One

21:07

of the houses front door itself has a

21:09

lock on it, but it's the digital

21:11

kind like. A cod needs to be held up to

21:13

it. And the second

21:16

is one very strange looking. Rock

21:18

in the past That God. Does.

21:20

Not look like it's made the same material,

21:22

is everything else the you can't quite identify

21:24

at. We don't have a picture. Of what you

21:26

can see of the front of you the south. Are.

21:29

You A Secret looked at least pretty much described

21:31

it. But if you'd like to make any extra

21:33

observations of the people at home about this beautiful

21:35

little house, Mean it's a lot

21:37

of floors. Yeah, dots. It's

21:39

four floors. It does have an

21:42

attic. I think we can

21:44

be pretty clear because there's a top one

21:46

of those will certainly windows, you know, Begun

21:49

Horror movies were like the three biggest always pick

21:51

settlers. Yeah. They love that

21:54

those bloody ghosts. They love that

21:56

I emailed allow women were they

21:58

will lot during that on that

22:00

exile. I don't want my you

22:02

tell us about a wholly like

22:04

those windows on their circles level.

22:06

I'm Yvonne a ghost you know,

22:08

cats me, stared out a window

22:11

into trying to buy up somehow

22:13

others will swim in his diapers.

22:15

The photography journalists insufferable. Nothing. It's

22:17

actually about it. Also there's six

22:19

plants from a from a little

22:21

pushy bus thing. Too. Tall

22:24

flowers too. Short.

22:26

Flowers and one tall flower. Ah,

22:29

in that order, I don't know. It

22:31

looks like too much of a pattern

22:33

for us to ignore it. tommy. And.

22:36

Of the double meanings, and

22:38

as a meaningful books is

22:40

extraordinarily meaningful? Maybe. I'm just really

22:43

bad at drawing plants. Athena,

22:45

you never know. Ah

22:48

another are higher as I

22:50

feel like they're very like

22:52

a healthy uranium green blowing

22:54

yeah yeah, Fitness and. Were.

22:56

Not and this is beyond a glass pane.

22:59

Some were not allowed to interact with that

23:01

Ross How. Rest. You would need a key. And

23:03

auditors are. Well. That's

23:05

a great segue because I would love to

23:08

instead. Of death so

23:10

let's I'll check up as a lonely, there

23:12

was a bowl of sees the somewhere sentiment,

23:14

but we did it go home this know.

23:18

Is this. Ah, right side as the

23:20

desk itself. It's also got assigned but you

23:22

had straits of his bowl of case. Thera.

23:25

Lot of keys and here. Surprisingly.

23:27

Old fashioned looking. a lot of these

23:29

ones on top. they've gotten see straight

23:31

narrow t. Tell differentiate I

23:33

There is a wide variety of colors.

23:36

You. Push them aside you see if

23:38

there's anything at the bottom of know and hoo

23:41

boy. Rights are at the top

23:43

are all these old fashioned case. At the

23:45

bottom is a stack of key cards. With

23:48

up both old and new in here. The

23:50

key cards only identifying features are

23:53

the four digit serial numbers in

23:55

computer like lucky text on the

23:57

backs. And. There are a

23:59

lot of. Than need don't see any

24:01

obvious passion. They seem to be

24:04

like roughly chronological the convenience but.

24:06

No. Thousand. To four

24:09

digits in chronological. Ah

24:11

yes, Each key card has four digits on

24:13

us and they're in a sort of stack

24:15

such if you needed to find one you

24:17

would know where to look in the staff

24:19

for it. Or how many

24:21

teeth? hard cider in total. Several.

24:24

More the you going to be

24:26

able to try one of the

24:29

time and energy been right though

24:31

your stuff deserted. I love I

24:33

love the weirdly specific ambiguity and.

24:36

Pepper have a nice we'll do

24:39

this and not real estate bro.

24:41

The only that no real escape

24:43

Five five five five rooms With

24:45

told me before I will say

24:48

more than one could brute force

24:50

through his veins to hide I

24:52

am my daughter. In Law.i prisoner

24:54

is valid when the puzzle

24:57

best up up up Up

24:59

Up Up. For

25:01

this as the this fun. The. Phone

25:03

is a perfectly normal landline.

25:05

You. Pick up the receiver to see

25:07

if it's working and you hear an

25:10

automated voice that says to access messages

25:12

and make outgoing calls. Please enter your

25:14

security code. I have

25:16

four zero and it's is to see that

25:19

could figure out of there is like a

25:21

timeout or a director as addictive during the

25:23

number of digits in the security code. Actually,

25:26

just putting numbers doesn't seem like at

25:28

works. Such. Curious. Oh

25:30

I talk to have a. Code

25:33

Now after about ten seconds, you just

25:35

hear the same repeated message again. Fidelio

25:38

some thanks nothing for them.

25:41

Kind of drawn back to the awards for

25:43

me to feel like we did. Yes, We.

25:46

Figured out something with them. But.

25:48

They're not. Really? Emmys,

25:51

Of but we haven't really like figured out what their

25:53

for. Ah, Yeah.

25:57

was an award for top aides and

26:00

by volume. kitchen

26:02

for yeah kitchen

26:04

garage so can we

26:06

these relate to the house right like we

26:09

have a garage I think it's the thing on the

26:11

left we have

26:13

the kit don't know what the kitchen is

26:16

the foyer is probably thing on

26:18

the right yeah the

26:22

attic is clearly where our ghost friend is

26:24

going to be so and

26:27

every house has a kitchen you'll

26:31

appreciate this I there's a really amazing creator

26:33

I work with who's done a lot of

26:35

haunts and horror stuff and we had to

26:37

share our fears for a project recently and

26:39

his fear was people looking out of windows

26:42

high up and I like that I'm like

26:46

you know what that is pretty freaky all right

26:48

we'll put a content warning on this so

26:53

okay so would it be if it's

26:56

the garage the garage has patterns

26:59

and then what is that gonna give us that's the big

27:01

thing is what is I giving it I

27:03

like the other thing that I'm like sort

27:05

of thinking is do we try and determine

27:07

who won each award oh

27:11

no this is for the entire real estate

27:13

this is for the realty company not

27:16

it's not like we're applying the

27:18

Faraj ward to Paul or

27:21

Tommy no like probably somewhat

27:23

individual was who it was won by

27:25

but there's no way of connecting

27:28

it yeah so what it

27:30

was here here's a way to look at it is

27:32

what do we have to input we have we

27:34

need to figure out a key card with a four digit

27:37

number so we know we're looking for something that's for just

27:39

the right key card we know we

27:41

need some kind of security code for the phone and

27:44

we're looking those are the two input methods

27:46

the also at the actual key for the

27:48

glass case part yeah key card

27:50

was for the house the key it was

27:52

for the box containing the house that's

27:55

right key card and are there

27:59

any distinguishing marks on any of

28:01

the keys, the non-key card keys in the

28:03

bowl? The biggest differences between

28:05

them are that they have a wide

28:07

variety of colors, and as

28:10

you would expect with these old-school keys, the

28:13

style, like the keys, the

28:16

ends of the key, the bidding, I

28:18

think it's the bidding. Really? But

28:21

they're like old kind of, you know, if you

28:23

picture like a, like what you would see in

28:25

a pirate movie Yeah. Okay.

28:29

Little prongs coming off the side, perpendicular

28:31

to the key itself. Perpendicular prongs. Could

28:33

we examine the lock on the glass

28:35

case? Well, and actually, wait, what

28:37

colors? You said there are colors. Are any of

28:39

the colors like uranium green? Oh, yeah.

28:42

Okay. Oh! What if the flowers

28:44

are missing the bidding? The flowers, yeah, I

28:47

think so. Yeah, agreed. I would love to

28:49

take some of the uranium green keys and

28:51

hold them up to the glass on the

28:53

flowers to see if like the bidding on

28:55

the key matches. You

28:57

do that for a bit, and one of these

29:00

radiant yellow-green keys goes

29:03

from the circular end of the key, then

29:05

up, long, long, short, short, long, and it

29:08

looks like it matches up with those flowers

29:10

pretty nicely. I put my hand out

29:12

for a high five to Wyatt. I

29:15

go too cool, yeah. Oh, he's too cool

29:17

now. I think I had

29:19

him shaking. Yeah. Alright, open

29:21

up the case. I mean, I aren't

29:24

friends anymore, yeah. Now

29:27

you've got another workplace to visit after this. Yes.

29:32

Okay, I pick up the weird rock.

29:37

Yeah, great. So you open up this glass

29:39

case with this key that you've got. The door is large enough

29:41

that you can basically lean over, get your whole head and shoulders

29:43

in this thing, so you can totally

29:45

pick up that rock. Definitely

29:47

not. Beautiful imagery. Yeah.

29:52

You have to feel like a giant. That's great. Yeah,

29:55

this rock is not the same plastic as

29:57

everything else. It feels more like painted, polished

29:59

wood. And there's a little nodule

30:01

on the bottom of it that looks like it

30:04

screws in somewhere. Nodule?

30:07

Yeah, like you have

30:09

found a handle, a small handle of

30:11

some sort. Ooh. Is

30:14

there anywhere to screw it in on the

30:16

house? Not that you see on the house,

30:18

it doesn't look like it belongs. How about

30:20

on the awards? Nah, you

30:22

can't find anything on there that looks like it needs something

30:25

attached to it like that. Hmm. Nodule?

30:32

And nothing else on the house that looks interesting on the outside? Not

30:35

on the outside, no. Well, we need a keycard. One

30:38

thing that is a little weird

30:40

to me right this second is

30:42

the conference table, all we found on

30:44

the conference table was the rent price

30:46

times a thousand. Is that...

30:50

but that was in the stack of papers. Is

30:52

there anything else on the conference table? The

30:55

table is long, imposing, spotless except for

30:57

this pile of papers. And

30:59

despite its size, there are only three

31:01

chairs around it. On

31:04

each one is... alright, there's a cushion on each

31:06

chair. The cushions

31:08

themselves, totally nice. Except

31:11

you think maybe the pictures

31:13

on them, so they've got pictures

31:15

that have been designed into the

31:17

cushions. Each one is different. You wonder

31:20

if maybe a happy client got

31:22

their child to design these cushions

31:24

because... Well, let's take a look

31:26

at them, see what you think of their designs. Yes,

31:29

so for people at home, you can see these

31:31

cushions yourself, but I can't remember whose turn it

31:33

is. Tommy, I think, would you like to describe

31:36

these cushions? Yes, they look

31:38

a little bit like toilet seats. They're

31:40

red and they have three beautiful drawings.

31:43

One of them has what looks to be a

31:45

bee, a happy little bee.

31:47

Another one is a featureless horse

31:50

with an arrow pointing to a

31:53

back hoof and an

31:55

X in front of the right leg or

31:57

right hoof. a

32:00

person who is sitting

32:03

at a table looking bored, staring at a

32:05

window. I think that's our

32:07

ghost on the attic. Oh no, but it's a

32:09

square window. Square window, square window. Yeah, that's the

32:11

attic. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

32:15

Does the nodule fit on the X

32:18

of the chair? No, it doesn't.

32:20

No. Okay. That's a part of the sewn-in design. Throwing

32:23

it out there. And

32:25

there's nothing on it. No, don't worry about it.

32:29

So wait, it feels like B, B,

32:32

feels like the first one. B, it's gotta be

32:34

B. Is that a back? Why

32:36

is the front bad? Is it back? Rear?

32:39

Back. B rear. B

32:42

backboard. B backboard. B

32:45

backboard. B backboard. That does look

32:47

like someone bored, right? I don't know, yeah.

32:50

It couldn't be, or either bored or depressed.

32:54

I mean, that's what I look like when I'm depressed. B

32:56

back depressed. Yeah, B back. It's

33:00

gotta be B backboard, but BBB, what

33:04

does BBB get us? Backboard,

33:06

is there? Hind,

33:09

hind leg. Behind. Behind

33:11

board. Behind board. Behind board. Behind the

33:14

board. We rip off the whiteboard. You

33:18

pulled out good. And

33:21

it's pretty firmly attached to the wall and you are

33:24

pulling and pulling and it's not moving. And

33:26

then you realize, hold on, it's not actually

33:28

like screwed in normally. There are hinges here. So

33:30

you go to the other side of the whiteboard and

33:33

you pull it out, still requires a little bit of

33:35

Hulk force, but the

33:37

whiteboard swings away and

33:40

there's a secret wall safe behind it. Every

33:43

business should have a secret wall safe. So

33:45

you're pretty happy. It's locked, of course. It

33:48

wants a letter password to open. It

33:50

doesn't say how many letters, but it looks like no more

33:52

than six. Is there a nodule?

33:57

Is there a nodule? That's what I was trying to say before I

33:59

had a stroke. Is there room for a nodule

34:01

on the face? There is not. This

34:03

nodule, we're just gonna be rubbing... It's gonna

34:06

feel so chilly when you find the fort

34:08

and it is the most obvious thing in

34:10

the world. We're gonna be rubbing

34:12

it all over this entire room. I think we rock and

34:14

I caress and I say don't worry little guy, we're gonna

34:16

find a place for you. Yeah. It

34:19

is... we don't care about Paul anymore

34:21

little guy. I can't believe I didn't make the

34:24

rock the hero of the room. Yeah.

34:29

Okay, so now we need six letters as

34:31

well. We still haven't used the award... oh

34:33

wait. Would... do you

34:35

think the awards would give us letters? How

34:38

many letters do we need? Do we need six? No

34:41

more than six. No more than six. Hard to say.

34:44

Up to and including six. Up to and including six. Well

34:47

I can say that my initial thing

34:49

is giving us gibberish so probably. Unless

34:53

the password is jookafk. Ah

34:56

man, how did you stumble upon that? I

35:02

try hard not to make my letter ones gibberish.

35:05

So really quick, there's

35:07

nothing else on the conference table. It's

35:10

paper... okay. Just double checking. So

35:12

we still haven't used the

35:15

rent price times a thousand equal sales

35:17

price. We've not used the ads. We've

35:19

not used the Paul, Tanya, Hector,

35:21

Veron list of people. And

35:25

we have not used the awards. We haven't

35:27

looked behind the door. Wait which

35:29

door? In any... all

35:31

the doors. Look behind every door. There's...

35:34

wait. There's

35:36

only one door on the south,

35:38

right? That we came in. Yep.

35:41

Is there any other door? No, not really. Just

35:44

the... well the little one in the house as well. So

35:46

actually the little one in the house, it

35:48

kind of looks like it might have been initially modelled

35:50

on the same sort of design as the front door

35:52

here. Maybe they were just lazy. Maybe they

35:54

only know one kind of door. But

35:57

if you want to look at the real door, you are more than

35:59

welcome. them to. Inside of

36:01

it is nothing special. The outside

36:03

isn't remarkable, but it does have some writing

36:06

on it. Which you can now see

36:08

there's an image linked. Wyatt, would you like to read this

36:10

out and describe it for our listeners at home? Laura

36:13

Sullivan, the L in Laura

36:15

is red. The S

36:17

in Sullivan is red. Laura

36:19

Sullivan is an expert flipper.

36:23

Chris Underwood and

36:26

Olivia Underwood bring

36:28

together families and properties. Both

36:30

the C in Chris, the

36:33

U in Underwood. The first

36:35

letter of each person's name is

36:38

highlighted in green. So

36:40

when it has flipped, should we flip

36:42

the letters, Laura, of Sullivan? Sullivan

36:45

Underwood and Underwood. Should

36:48

we flip those letters and bring them

36:50

together? What does bring them? We make

36:52

them kiss and form new letters. So

36:57

let's see, if we flip

36:59

the L, we get

37:01

a Cyrillic Russian character.

37:03

Flipping an S doesn't do. So

37:06

if we, like, for example, why if we

37:08

bring together, this is crazy talk, but we

37:11

bring together two U's,

37:15

it turns into upside down N or M.

37:22

So what would happen when you put a C in? If

37:24

you do W, then it spells Cal. So

37:31

it says flip. What would

37:34

you flip? Expert flipper.

37:36

Do you just flip Laura?

37:39

Or do you flip Sullivan,

37:41

which is the same letter

37:43

backwards? Scowl. No.

37:47

Yeah, I mean, if we take

37:49

out the two U's and we combine them to

37:51

a W, then and

37:54

the letters are S C O

37:56

W L, you can do

37:58

Cows, you can do Scowls. But

38:01

flippers, so like flipper, what are we flipping? Are

38:04

we flipping the letters? Are we flipping the house?

38:06

We need to flip the house upside down. Ah.

38:09

I think that's not possible. No,

38:12

it doesn't look, it's too bulky. It's

38:14

too heavy to hold it down. As

38:17

you go to the model house again to

38:19

see how flippable it is, again, you

38:21

are struck by how similar the front door

38:24

of the mini house is to the design

38:26

of this front door. Can

38:28

we open the door? It's

38:30

like a key card? Yes, that's right. You need

38:32

the key card to open it. Can I run

38:35

to the safe and try to put the word scowl in?

38:37

It doesn't work. Can I yell

38:39

at the phone? I scowl at the phone.

38:44

I just scowl. The

38:46

ghost acknowledges you. Okay,

38:49

so I'm stuck on flipper. So I think it's interesting the

38:51

word cow is interesting. Because bringing, bring

38:53

it together. Okay, so we

38:56

bring the W.

38:58

So the U, the B, okay. So does

39:00

bringing together also only apply to the last name underwood,

39:03

or does it apply to the C and Chris and

39:05

Owen and Olivia? I don't

39:07

know about that. No, I kind of feel like we're

39:09

red herring ourselves, you know what I mean? I

39:12

can't. And

39:14

the clue that we got several times with

39:16

the front door of the model home looking

39:19

similar. So okay, I'm seeing

39:21

if they're quantimally connected. And

39:24

I take the front door, and I try to slowly open

39:26

and close it while I walk to the model house door.

39:29

That would be so good. But unfortunately, this

39:31

is a mortal room. I

39:33

cry. I cry

39:35

and weep. Why

39:38

do they keep saying that they look,

39:40

the houses look so similar? Because there

39:42

might be something on the back of

39:44

the door that's going to help us

39:48

inside when we get the key cards. And

39:50

maybe they're saying, come back to this later,

39:52

when we have the other door open and

39:54

look on the back. Yeah, but

39:56

that's such a mean hint, you know? This

40:00

is a future-looking hint, not the

40:02

metagame too hard. Okay.

40:09

What have we not? So

40:11

we haven't used the awards yet. Yeah, we've

40:13

used the seat cushion, so I'm going to

40:15

just post that tab. How

40:17

about the podium itself that the model

40:19

house is on? Oh, that's

40:21

very fair. I didn't think about that one. No,

40:23

that podium is completely boring. How about

40:25

the desk where the phone and the

40:28

bowl of keys are on? You've

40:30

looked at the stuff on the top of

40:32

the desk perfectly adequately, but you give it

40:34

a more thorough look and you notice a

40:36

single drawer on the underside. Dodger!

40:40

It's missing its handle. I

40:46

hold the rock and I pet it and I say, Jesus,

40:48

the guy, he found a purpose for you. Now,

40:51

you're consented to being inserted onto the desk. No!

40:54

I was free. Yeah. Oh. I thought you were going to

40:56

do it. I'll be back to you in a house. I

40:58

don't want to be on the desk. Sorry.

41:00

Sorry. I think I called her. I'm

41:03

in love with the ghost. Sometimes

41:06

in life, we got to do things we don't want, but I

41:08

promise you, if you do this for us, we'll put you back

41:10

and you can be with your ghost friend. Oh, it's

41:12

just like the Lion King. Promfully

41:14

forgets after attaching the drawer.

41:16

Yeah. And I

41:19

sing Hakuna Matata as I slowly

41:21

screw the consenting rock to the

41:24

nodule. It's a perfect fit.

41:27

And you can open the drawer and

41:29

inside you find two pieces of

41:31

paper, both quite small. One

41:34

of them says, hey, dummy, you

41:36

forgot to put your best seller in the

41:39

window. Mom, is that you? And

41:44

then the other one has

41:47

handwriting that does not match the last one. It's

41:49

got something that actually has an image with it. Yes,

41:52

if you're people at home, you can see this, but Tommy,

41:54

would you like to read out this

41:56

note that you found? This might be the last image one.

42:00

you cannot say in a listing. You

42:02

can't say small, noisy,

42:05

overpriced, isolated, unrenovated,

42:08

bad area, haunted, death

42:11

inside the house, come

42:13

up with some creative euphemisms. Okay, we cannot say

42:15

any of these words. Creative

42:19

euphemisms. So cozy,

42:21

vibrant, overpriced, great

42:26

value. No, overpriced. No, that's what I

42:28

explained it. It's, you know, it's not

42:31

desolate, uh,

42:38

rugged, haunted,

42:40

I would say spirited. Up and

42:43

coming. Death inside the house has

42:45

a lot of character.

42:53

Part of

42:56

local history. People are dying to

42:58

get in there. Yeah, that's a

43:00

lot of solid.

43:08

Uneviated, historical. Yeah.

43:12

Classic. Classic.

43:15

Okay, so I think all the words we

43:17

just said are all important and, um, so

43:19

do we have a thing to apply this to? What

43:23

can we rub this against? What can

43:25

we rub this against? That's

43:27

classic escape room logic. We

43:29

don't have a nodule to

43:32

rub against anything. Um, well,

43:35

hey dummy, you didn't put your best seller

43:37

in the window. Yeah, that's pretty weird.

43:39

It kind of looks like those ads that they're,

43:41

uh, you know, they're meant to show off and

43:44

it kind of sounds like the agents like

43:46

showing off their good selves and someone didn't

43:49

put their best seller in the window. Weird.

43:52

So that means we can't really know

43:55

the best seller is Varan. He

43:57

sold $2 million worth of stuff. So should you? Either

44:00

the earth. so why a the thing? You point

44:02

it earlier and to be as a the Mcafee

44:04

Grant who sold what. Yeah, so

44:06

I did do the math. There

44:08

isn't enough baron enough numbers to

44:10

make it work. I

44:13

get you've got stuck on Tanya.

44:16

Have the same like do we do

44:18

we do a total of everyone has

44:20

one point three million dollars is messing.

44:24

With that. Cause Salvini

44:26

can get look like they're and

44:28

his two million a season. Get

44:30

it by during nine fifty plus

44:32

seven fifty. Plus. Three hundred,

44:36

Been. Hacked or is one million

44:38

plus eight hundred. And. Paul

44:40

is six hundred Plus six

44:43

hundred. By. Nothing.

44:46

For tommy. And. That that some

44:48

uses up all the. That. Uses

44:50

up all the number and there are

44:52

under oath analysis. Well lead our some

44:55

alternate means that you can like make

44:57

one point two million and things like

44:59

that. Good thing I tried cinema. Okay,

45:02

so. I still

45:04

like the things you cannot enlisting. Creative.

45:07

Euphemisms. As

45:10

of of an euphemism as I confess,

45:12

your so open ended up we need

45:14

a little more guidance, a single and

45:16

something. Okay, so back on the door.

45:18

For to he is is there anything we see on

45:21

the door? Celibacy on the

45:23

door. On the outside door you've seen what you

45:25

say on it. You have all the yes you

45:27

have of a device that. The.

45:29

Little door of the house it is

45:32

just. It's. Clearly a similar design

45:34

doesn't have like the little words don't in

45:36

or anything so the design of the doors

45:38

clearly meant but it all it's got his

45:40

the little Lamb keypad scan and next to

45:42

it. Said. Flipping through the

45:45

key current their numbers as opposed to

45:47

letters right. Yes, They are

45:49

lucky computer like numbers.

45:52

The. Like those as is called a seventy

45:54

seven lot line display. Like the classic sort

45:56

of ah of incitement display, I seven segment

45:58

is right to stop. numbers? So

46:02

why it what if these

46:04

instead of becoming cow scowl

46:06

it becomes numbers like

46:09

so it's seven five seven

46:13

five eight three.

46:16

Why eight three? I am

46:19

looking at them sideways and

46:22

putting the C on top of the

46:24

O and the U

46:26

on top of the U in it.

46:28

Does that make a three or

46:30

my hose? Oh, wow. Yeah, that

46:32

makes a three. Oh, that makes

46:35

an eight. That's not what

46:37

I let not how I intended it.

46:39

But it looks so good. I'm tempted

46:41

to take it. I refuse to

46:43

take it. Okay, so I'm

46:45

not far off on if we flip the L it

46:47

turns into a seven and flip the S it turns

46:50

into a five. Laura Sullivan's an expert

46:52

flipper. And then these people bring

46:54

together. So if I put

46:56

the C on top of so if I'm not

46:59

flipping, if we're just bringing the C

47:01

and the U together

47:03

and some Oh, six,

47:06

six, six and eight, seven.

47:09

Oh, whoopsie. Wait,

47:15

how are you getting six? Put

47:17

a C and a U together in a

47:19

blocky fashion. Oh, yeah.

47:21

And then put an O and a U

47:23

together. So we

47:26

put we do so we do 7568 or 7538. 7568.

47:35

Right? Yeah. Depending

47:39

on which universe we live in. You find

47:41

a keycard with that number on it. Take

47:47

it from the model house. Yeah.

47:49

cigarette after that. So yeah, now now we

47:51

know how many keycards there were there were

47:53

9999 key cards. A lot of cards. You

48:00

hold up this card to the model doors

48:02

receiver and it goes ding you

48:06

pull on the little door handle to open it and

48:10

More than just the door opens the entire front

48:12

wall of the house opens up to you so

48:14

you can see Everything

48:16

it's the neatest most grown-up

48:19

dollhouse you've ever played in it

48:21

can't be based on a real house It must just

48:23

be to get by as excited about all the possibilities.

48:26

It's luxurious You can't even count

48:28

the rooms, but four floors tall and

48:30

there's a room for everything That

48:33

said You do notice Maybe

48:37

this is just some sort of real

48:39

estate agent Filing notation

48:41

system every single one

48:43

of the rooms has a little number

48:46

or symbol drawn on it in pencil.

48:48

Oh Can we

48:50

see what does the garage have drawn on it? You

48:52

look at the attached garage on the house's

48:54

left and on one of the walls

48:56

you see a scratchy symbol That is

48:58

an octa-thorpe or a hash hashtag pound

49:01

sign okay, and then

49:05

Kitchen on one of the little

49:07

plastic counters you see a three and

49:09

then the foyer Around one

49:11

of the light fixtures is a circle.

49:14

Well a bit more ovular than a

49:16

circle you suspect It's a zero and

49:18

the attic. That is a big

49:21

old nine on the floor With

49:23

the light with the line underneath it so you know

49:25

that it's not a six. It's very helpful. Can

49:27

I write? Dash

49:30

and like die for the phone and

49:35

You get a dial tone and not only

49:37

that a little red light next to one

49:39

of the buttons that says there must be

49:41

a voicemail Waiting I order

49:44

first I call the local pizza restaurant order

49:46

a hundred pizzas to this place It's

49:49

great to have the 24-hour pizza places around

49:52

here. Yep. They'll be here within the hour

49:54

Sweet. Okay, and then I dial

49:57

whatever button to get voicemail you press

49:59

that And a voice comes up.

50:03

Hi, this is Valerie Stacy. I

50:05

closed on a house with you two

50:07

weeks ago, and I just heard that Paul won't

50:09

be around to handle any of my future property

50:11

endeavors. I wondered if he

50:13

was looking for references. I have nothing but praise

50:15

for how he handled our purchase. And 600,000 was

50:17

such a good deal. He'd

50:21

better still get all his commission from that. Do pass this on and

50:23

have him call me. Did she leave her

50:25

phone number? Oh, no. It's assumed that

50:27

they would know all of their clients' phone

50:29

numbers. Well, I want to get the

50:31

phone number because I think she's interested in Paul, and

50:33

we want to set him up. That would be a

50:35

great, like, meet-cute, you know. Are there any other voicemails?

50:40

No, that's the only one. So, $600,000 price tag.

50:45

Two houses were listed for 600,000, and they are

50:47

identical. Well,

50:51

also, this would put Paul meeting

50:53

Hector's total because if they're

50:55

cutting his commission or his

50:58

sales down… Oh,

51:00

are you proposing that the $600,000 house isn't one

51:02

of the ads? I

51:06

don't know. If they didn't list the best one.

51:09

So… Yeah,

51:14

you don't know who that dummy note was directed

51:16

to. I had a

51:18

feeling HR should get involved. That's not a respectful way to

51:20

talk to co-workers. So, all that

51:23

gave us was that we know Paul

51:25

sold a $600,000 house. Yep.

51:28

Yeah. And like I said, your massing

51:30

was very good before. Without

51:32

confirmation of a $600,000, it would

51:35

have made it a bit more open. Yeah.

51:37

Well, wait. So, if we know that there

51:40

isn't one of the… If

51:44

we know that one house isn't listed, and it

51:47

was the most successful house, the

51:49

sole… It was that person's most

51:51

successful house, at least. It was that person's

51:53

most successful house. I got stuck

51:55

on Tanya because there

51:58

was only four… There

52:00

was only one four hundred thousand left. So

52:05

we had a nine hundred

52:07

thousand dollar shortfall. So

52:11

I mean I guess, can

52:13

we enter nine hundred thousand into the safe?

52:16

No, it's a letter safe. Okay. I

52:19

typed Tanya into the safe. That

52:22

doesn't work. Fair enough. So

52:25

we've used, so we're looking, what else have we not used?

52:27

We've used the plaques now. Yeah, we've

52:29

used the awards. We've used the model house.

52:32

The key cards. Good model. Things you cannot

52:34

say in a list thing. We haven't

52:36

used that yet. Right. We also have

52:38

to use the rent price times a

52:40

thousand equals sales price. Correct.

52:44

We haven't used rent price times

52:46

a thousand. There's nothing

52:48

else in that stack of paper on

52:50

the conference table. Well, I mean,

52:52

just what you already know about it. There's no...

52:55

Well, what do you know about it? We know

52:57

that there's a post-it note that says rent

53:00

price times a thousand. Oh,

53:03

is there a nine hundred thousand dollar... Is

53:05

there a listing

53:07

for nine thousand dollars that's been accepted?

53:11

What price again? Nine thousand

53:13

dollar, a nine thousand dollar rent price. Nine

53:15

hundred dollar rent price. You take

53:18

a look and you find one, remarkably,

53:22

only one with a nine hundred

53:24

dollar rental price tag. And

53:26

sure enough, the agent in charge of the

53:29

listing is Tonya. The

53:31

property owner is listed as some shell company

53:33

in the Caribbean. Not

53:35

all that unusual, you guess. And

53:38

the person whose details are up for

53:40

the rental is Jenna Causey. It's

53:42

still something in the back of your mind, but you can't think

53:45

what. But what surprises you more is

53:47

that there's only one person who's applied for this property

53:49

and they've been immediately accepted, you

53:52

see. You also take

53:54

a look and, oh boy, the

53:56

picture that they've got on here, it's only little. You can't

53:58

tell much about it from this application. It

54:01

does not look like a $900,000 house. I

54:04

think the most

54:06

unbelievable part of this is that there's a house

54:09

for rent for $900. Well,

54:12

hold on. We're in

54:14

Australia. That's per week. Right,

54:16

oh, God, sure. Okay,

54:20

well now it tracks. Yeah, our

54:22

Australian brethren. I

54:25

type Cozy into the safe.

54:28

It fits but doesn't work. Same

54:30

with Jenna. Anything about the

54:32

listing description? No,

54:35

this application doesn't give you that much information in

54:37

that way. It's more about Jenna

54:39

than it is about the house. Anything

54:42

about Jenna that's outstanding or special? Nothing

54:45

that you can tell, just very normal contact

54:47

details. Can we call her? It's

54:50

a bit late at night, but I reckon

54:52

you could call her. Yeah, let's call Jenna. We

54:54

go put the password in the phone and get an

54:56

outside line. Yeah, if it's

54:58

weird to call a stranger after midnight from

55:00

a real estate agency you've broken into, it's

55:02

not weird enough for you to not try.

55:05

So you dial the number, you wait,

55:07

it rings, and then the ringing

55:09

stops, and a recording comes

55:11

up on the other end. The

55:14

recorded voice is low. It's smooth.

55:17

Slight ASMR goosebumps. They

55:20

don't identify themselves, but you'd be surprised

55:22

if it was this

55:25

Jenna person. They say a

55:27

lot of different things that are meaningful to

55:29

whoever might be calling, like, If

55:31

this is Mother, the begonias aren't growing

55:33

as well as hoped. Sure,

55:36

but you wait as they go through this sort of thing.

55:40

Until you get to... If

55:42

this is Tanya, recall our

55:44

conversation about the property in that up-and-coming

55:46

neighborhood. I appreciated its great

55:49

natural surroundings very much. First

55:51

time on the market in 60 years, didn't you say?

55:54

Such a cozy build. If

55:57

this is Father, and then it

55:59

goes on. Yeah,

56:01

can you do that again? I want to catch all

56:03

those words. Yep. Cozy.

56:08

If this is Tonya, recall

56:10

our conversation about the property

56:12

in that up-and-coming neighborhood. I

56:16

appreciated its great natural surroundings

56:18

very much. I

56:21

like how we got some of these in advance.

56:24

Yeah, totally. First time on

56:26

the market in 60 years, didn't you

56:28

say? And such

56:30

a cozy build. Okay,

56:35

so last

56:38

one is small. First

56:40

time on the market in 60 years, unrenovated.

56:46

Natural is isolated. Yeah.

56:48

And the

56:50

coming is bad area. Up

56:54

and coming is bad area. It's really

56:57

funny. First

57:00

time on the market,

57:03

unrenovated. So, bad area,

57:05

isolated, unrenovated, small. So,

57:09

if we're doing indexing our first letters,

57:12

B-I-U-S, or we

57:15

could do B, if

57:17

we do bad area is two separate, B-A-I-U-S.

57:23

How 100% are you on all of those choices? Okay.

57:28

So, we got cozy. Cozy has

57:30

to be small. Natural surroundings

57:32

has to be isolated. I

57:35

can't really... Yeah,

57:37

what else would that be? What else could that be? Up

57:39

and coming. That

57:41

could also be overpriced. That could also be

57:44

overpriced. Only other one, first

57:46

time on the market, is

57:48

that unrenovated? Or...

57:51

First time on the market... Or

57:53

death inside the house. In 60 years.

57:56

First time on the market in 60 years sounds

57:58

like a person has lost. lived there for a

58:01

very long time. Okay, I think that

58:03

makes sense. That's not a house. That

58:05

makes sense. That feels good. So... Apparently.

58:08

Potentially a real one. So

58:10

if we do that, then we get the

58:13

much more logical word of bids.

58:16

It's somatic in everything. And

58:19

we try rubbing that on the face. Rub

58:23

a dub dub. Rub a dub dub. Rub a

58:25

dub dub. Rub a dub dub. Rub a

58:27

dub dub. Rub a dub dub. ...put

58:30

that into the safe, and

58:33

the safe door swings open. Huzzah,

58:35

and I put out my fist to bump

58:38

Wyatt. And I bump it

58:40

back. Ahhhh! Yes! Boom!

58:44

Redemption! Oh, and then I realized I go grab the

58:46

rock from the desk and I'm like, I'm sorry I

58:48

forgot and I unscrew it and put it back where

58:50

it was, found by the house. And

58:53

you see a ghostly face in the window

58:55

smile. Aww,

58:57

this is going to be boring. I take the rock and

58:59

I put it back and I say, you have a purpose!

59:01

This is your purpose! We

59:05

live in a capitalized society, you're

59:07

not allowed to leisure. I

59:10

whisper and say, don't worry, I'll be the last

59:12

person out on the way back. Oh yeah. Despeaks

59:15

are coming, you'll be fine. But

59:19

anyway, you rub your hands together,

59:21

what do real estate agents keep in

59:23

their secret wall safe? Is

59:26

it cash? More keys. Is

59:28

it celebrity contact information? Is it keys

59:30

to the really good houses? You

59:32

tear inside and all

59:34

you see is a thin stack of manila folders.

59:37

It's all very business-like. It's

59:39

disappointing. Anyway, you grab the

59:41

top one and you open it up. Ooh,

59:44

okay. The first thing you spot is a

59:46

name. A celebrity name? In

59:49

a sense. It's Lee

59:51

Korsy, the most notorious gangster in your

59:54

city since black and white cinema. And

59:57

the folder is full of correspondence between him

59:59

and Tonya. Some from when he

1:00:01

was actually in prison. What is this? And

1:00:04

then, hang on, wait, hold on, Causey, like

1:00:06

Jenna Causey from the rental application. It

1:00:09

must be related. And you know

1:00:11

what? You have a suspicion

1:00:13

that if you looked into that shell

1:00:15

company that bought the property, you'd find

1:00:17

Lee Causey's fingerprints all over it. This

1:00:20

could be an honest deal. But the

1:00:23

way Tonya's gone out of her way to

1:00:25

hide documents and keep the details quiet from

1:00:27

her colleagues somehow, I don't think so. This

1:00:30

smells exactly like what you have

1:00:32

googled about property money laundering. You

1:00:36

grab another of the Manila folders and inside

1:00:38

another name of a big time local criminal.

1:00:40

She's done this before. By the looks

1:00:42

of it, several times over

1:00:44

her career. So the

1:00:46

$900,000 sale that tipped her

1:00:49

over the edge in this office

1:00:51

contest was not exactly what you

1:00:53

would call an honest one. Well,

1:00:56

if anything, you have enough evidence in here to

1:00:58

get an investigation going against her. And

1:01:01

surely that means she'll be fired and Paul can

1:01:03

have his job back. You

1:01:05

just hope you don't make any

1:01:07

significant criminal underworld enemies in the

1:01:09

process. Success, you did it. Congratulations.

1:01:13

Hoorah. I

1:01:15

sit there and I sniff the folder and I

1:01:17

go, smells like fresh

1:01:20

rain scent. I know that laundry deterged

1:01:22

anywhere. This has been freshly laundered. Case

1:01:24

closed. Case closed. Thank you for listening

1:01:26

to Escape This Podcast. Don't

1:01:34

forget to tune in next week for

1:01:36

Podcast This Escape, where we debrief with

1:01:38

our guest and discuss the escape room

1:01:40

that we just escaped from. Thank

1:01:52

you. you