Escape Reality
with
TM
*Hints are organized in order that they might be needed at each location and range from vague to very specific.
*Be sure to start at the top of each location's hints as you need them to reveal one hint at a time or you might accidentally get a spoiler for a puzzle you haven't started yet.
City Escape:
The Witch of Pungo
Hints Page
Location One
Hint 1 The symbol we recovered from the exchange between those 2 cloaked figures must be important. The other Scholars and I agree you should keep your eye out for it there!
Hint 2 The poem on the page we recovered from the cloaked figure refers to 6 Horsemen. Do you see 6 horses anywhere out there, Investigators?
Hint 3 We found an aerial view of where you are. The poem seems to refer to 4 of those 6 horse hitching posts beneath the large tree in the backyard. Can you use the poem to get the order of the horses mentioned?
Hint 4 From our satellite image, it looks like that mysterious eye symbol is on the outdoor bin in back of the house but it's locked! We think you may be able to use that ribbon in the side compartment on it to help you get 4 numbers for the lock.
Hint 5 Try looping the ribbon through each of the horse hitching post rings, going in the order they're mentioned in the poem. The number in front of each horse in the order the poem mentions might give you the 4 numbers for that combo lock!
Hint 6 "The first toward field of green... " That must be the one facing back the trees, shrubs, and open grass area left of the tennis court! "The next stone fire faces..." The outdoor oven? "Third a green entrance looks..." the door! "Last trust's heart's direction only..." Look around, do you see a heart anywhere that could indicate a direction? Maybe it is different than what our compass shows...
Hint 7 The "heart's direction only" must refer to that weathervane! It doesn't look correct according to our map view. "Westmost window faces true..." Use the West on the weathervane instead of true West from your compass. Which horse points at the weathervane's furthest West window? That's your last number!
Hint 8 Great! You intercepted documents meant for whoever's message we intercepted! Check out the materials you have for Location One! Hmm those plants mentioned in the excerpts from Grace Sherwood's journal sound familiar... I think we've seen those plant names from something there where you are. Look around for them!
Hint 9 That plaque on the ground in the flower bed on the side of the house has Grace Sherwood's name on it. And those are some of the same plants she mentioned in her journal... Maybe that gives us an order for something?
Hint 10 That round wheel with the letters on it also has an hourglass with wings. That shape looks familiar. Have you seen anything like that anywhere around there?
Hint 11 The wheel matches up perfectly with that sundial, the symbols match! Now what to do with it? Can you somehow use it to translate times or numbers into letters?
Hint 12 The tip of the pointed part of the sundial seems to point to a letter on the wheel at the 12 o'clock position when you turn the window on the wheel to a certain time.
Hint 13 It seems like the Shades of Night garden plaque gives you the order of plants. Find each plant's associated time in Grace Sherwood's journal. Then turn the open window on the wheel to that number on the sundial. The letter at the top of the sundial when the open window on the wheel is over the number, will be the letter you need. For example, turning the wheel so that the 4 is in the window on the wheel, makes the H line up at the top. That means 4 o'clock equals H!
Hint 14 First, translate the time for each plant into a letter using the sundial and the wheel. Then, the letters in the order of the plants mentioned on the Shades of Night garden plaque might just spell out a message for you!
Hint 15 "Her Statue" Must be the infamous Grace Sherwood! Look up Grace Sherwood statue in your browser! That must be your next location at her statue off Witchduck Road!
Location Two
Hint 1 Are there any materials for this location in that packet you found? Hmm the pictures on those cards remind me of something we've seen...
Hint 2 Looking at what we can see online, it looks like a lot of those dedication bricks are to a specific person or cause. Can they have anything to do with those pictures on the cards you have?
Hint 3 Online it shows that one brick is dedicated to "Peace with Grace"... And you have a picture of a peace dove! That must go with that corresponding brick!
Hint 4 It looks like one brick says, "Justice is Served" and you have a picture of Lady Justice and her scales! They must go together!
Hint 5 One brick says "Lakesmith Terrace," we see. Do you have a picture of a lake? Those could go together.
Hint 6 Place each card on its corresponding brick. Once all the cards are matched up, those numbers on the back must mean something...
Hint 7 If you stand with all the brick lettering facing the right way, those cards placed on their corresponding bricks might give you the correct order for those numbers. We're in America so be sure to read them left to right, top to bottom to get the order right!
Hint 8 10 numbers... 10 digits.... Could it be a phone number?
Hint 9 What are those beeps at the end of the voicemail? Hmm one of the other analysts here says it might be morse code!
Hint 10 The first sounds are a longer tone and a shorter one. So that would be a dash and then a dot together. Google says that's a N so the first letter is N! Then there's a pause signaling a new letter. Quick, translate the secret message!
Hint 11 NightshadeSocietycom... Must be a web site if we add a dot in there!
Hint 12 Jiminy Cricket! The web site is password protected! Fiddlesticks! Well perhaps we shall come across the password at the next location so we can access this suspicious web site.
Hint 13 That voicemail says to "Stand in the place where Grace looks"... Her statue is right there. Try standing in the spot where her gaze points. Then use a compass app on your phone to find Due East! Then drive over there, that must be your next location, I can almost see it from where you are!
Location Three
Hint 1 Wow that graveyard looks terribly old. Do you have any materials for this location in the packet you found?
Hint 2 Hmm those poetic lines sound like they are referencing certain graves... And you have a map of the graveyard that associates each grave with a letter... Maybe find the graves in the order they're mentioned and those letters might spell something out!
Hint 3 "From nature I came, my shrine she reclaims..." Maybe there is a grave overrun by nature? Perhaps a tree has grown large and overtaken a grave? Check the bases of the larger trees for the remnants of an old headstone!
Hint 4 "SOAR to find everlasting PEACE..." Perhaps a dove? Do you see a dove on any of the grave markers?
Hint 5 A pirate symbol is usually a skull and crossbones. Check the graves well for that symbol, maybe a darker stone, look closely!
Hint 6 Scotland is known for its Highlands... And Fife! That is a county in Scotland! We believe one of the graves here must be for someone born in Scotland!
Hint 7 The Freemason symbol is the compass and square! One of these graves must be marked with that symbol! So you know what you're looking for, you can look it up on your cellular devices if you aren't familiar.
Hint 8 "Innocent one...," "Shepherd..." It is common to mark a child's grave with a lamb on the top of the headstone. There must be one around there somewhere...
Hint 9 "Granddaughter and I with first names the same... share founder's surname..." That is specific. There is obviously a grave that mentions a woman's name and her granddaughter has the same first name. As for founder's surname, it must be one of the ones mentioned on the "Founders & Veterans" sign at the beginning of the graveyard. It looks like some of the older graves, therefore sharing a founder's surname, are those closest to the church, up against the side, check there, field researchers!
Hint 10 Oh that is a sweet line. "Take my hand and enter eternity with thee," it must be a couple. They might share one headstone and perhaps a symbolic holding of hands is on the grave somehow.
Hint 11 "Spectre of death..." a skull perhaps? "...on wings of resurrection I fly." Hmm... Are there any graves with a skull with wings?
Hint 12 "White as a color so clean..." Are there are any headstones that are particularly white more than others?
Hint 13 "On Silverheels!" "Eternal hunt in the sky!" That is very specific. These sound like personal details about the life of someone who might be buried here. Is there a plaque perhaps on some of the graves that might tell a little about the life of the person buried there? Maybe one mentions something about Silverheels and this so called hunt!
Hint 14 Now that you've found all the graves mentioned, those letters must spell out something! Try putting the letters in the order they're mentioned in that poem you have and see if that spells out anything!
Hint 15 Those letters in the right order mentioned seem to spell out, "LEGERDEMAIN." Meaning a slight of hand, trickery, magic, skillful deception... Sounds about right for what we know of these people so far! But what good will that do us? Where do we need a word like that... Oh! The web site! We needed a password for the web site! Try LEGERDEMAIN!
Hint 16 That password worked! Wow it looks like Nightshade is a Secret Society! They've been around a long time it looks like with some quite influential members it seems!
Hint 17 That interesting picture at the bottom of the web site looks suspicious. It says it is a symbol for all those in need... Maybe this will help lead you to your next location somehow! I wonder if that symbol is for a business or something there in Virginia Beach.
Hint 18 How do we find what that symbol means? Do any of you have the Google app on your cellular devices? You could search the image! Maybe try adding "Virginia Beach" as a search term to go with the image. You could also add those italicized words to the search bar after you take the picture on the Google app to see if they help target your search!
Hint 19 What are those 2 orangey yellow ovals on either side of the image? Are those... coffee beans?? If you don't have the Google app to scan the picture, try searching in your internet browser those italicized words and "Coffee" and see if you see anything with that symbol associated??
Hint 20 "Shore" and "Drive" are italicized... Wait, we have pulled up a map of the area and my colleague seems to remember... There! There is a Shore Drive road near you! Maybe it is something on that road!
Hint 21 That's it! It looks like that symbol is the logo for the Lynnhaven Coffee Co on Shore Drive! So that must be your next location! Be safe, field researchers!
Location Four
Hint 1 A Coffee Shop? How lovely! Wish we were with you to enjoy a quick nosh. Anyway, be sure to look around the shop, there might be a clue somewhere around there to draw the attention of other Nightshade Agents- maybe that symbol again.
Hint 2 We've hacked their security cameras. It looks like that's the symbol on a postcard on the table by the door! That must be meant for agents of Nightshade!
Hint 3 That postcard might be important again later. Be sure to take one with you to your next location! You never know when it might come in handy later!
Hint 4 There's an email address on the postcard? Worth a shot! Email something vague and see if we get a hit!
Hint 5 That news article from your packet references a lot of the houses that are on that postcard... Maybe the two together can help us determine where you should go next somehow?
Hint 6 A newspaper from the '50s, hmm that is interesting... 9 members of the Jacobson family dead... 9 historic sites on the postcard... Maybe each person died at one of these locations?
Hint 7 Ben Jacobson was looking out of an upstairs window just above the front door... So he couldn't have died at any site that doesn't have 2 stories and a window above the front door then! That will help rule out a few places...
Hint 8 Hmm... It seems Leah Jacobson was in a former classroom turned guest room... You'll have to do some research online probably to find which of these 9 locations were classrooms at one time and that raised their desks up by pulleys to make room for guest beds. It seems you must use a combination of the images on the postcard, the internet research, and logic to solve who died where!
Hint 9 Ethan Jacobson met his tragic end somewhere you could hear the waves crashing... That limits a few places too far from the ocean!
Hint 10 Once you use the clues in the newspaper article and the postcard images and map, your own logic, and the internet, there should only be one historic site left! THAT must be where Jerome Jacobson died!
Hint 11 That password protected video file link from the email must be important. Maybe we will find the password at your next location.
Hint 12 The email says your next location is the place Jerome Jacobson died. From the work you've done determining each of the places the rest of his family died, it seems that the only place left on that postcard is Thoroughgood House! That must be your next stop on the journey!
Location Five
Hint 1 We've pulled up a satellite view of your location. Do you have any materials for this place? Oh, that must be a map of the grounds but it looks like some landmarks are missing?
Hint 2 That note looks like it gives you directions from one landmark to another. But none of those landmarks are on the map it seems... Hmm...
Hint 3 You must have to search for those missing landmarks! Try to find where those 8 things are at the location and then write them into their marks on the map!
Hint 4 Great work! Now that you've found each of those missing landmarks and have marked them on the map, it looks like that note tells you to go from one specific place to another specific spot. Maybe draw a line from one to the other as that note dictates. So draw a line from the Herb Garden to the Left Lamppost. Now draw a line from the Gate to the Left Arbor, and so on for the other 2 directions!
Hint 5 Now that you have all 4 lines drawn on the map, what do you see? Does it make a shape? Do they all cross at the same point? Hmm... We still need a password for that protected video file, could you get a word out of the map somehow?
Hint 6 Each of the 4 lines intersect the same area of the garden! The Coneflower plantings! Try coneflower written as it is on the map as the password for the video file!
Hint 7 Hmm something looks suspicious about that map image you sent us. Some of the letters look a little strange. Be sure to put the * in front of the password. Could some of those letters be numbers in disguise?
Hint 8 Be sure to put the * in front of the password. It looks like both of the Os are actually 0s. These Nightshade characters are quite tricky.
Hint 9 That video was quite intense! It seems like her last message to you was telling you to use the Reagent on the BACK of the postcard! Maybe it will reveal a secret message.
Hint 10 What strange letters... Is that another language? One of my colleagues says it sounds like Latin. Try looking it up to see the Latin translation to English to see what it says.
Location Six
Hint 1 That looks like the eye symbol on that chest under the portrait of the Black Cat! But it is missing the rest of the symbol... Where's that flower shape?
Hint 2 Try placing the eye on the flower symbol on the glass under the portrait of the black cat! Complete the Nightshade symbol!
Hint 3 Grace Sherwood's ghost! Egads! Gadzooks! She needs us to find the key on the back of the chest and hold it up to where it matches on the front to open it!
Hint 4 Wow! Grace Sherwood's wand! That is too much power for anyone. We must leave it here in the safety of the care of Nightshade. Which it seems we are all now a part of! Thank you for all of your help, my brothers and sisters.
Hint 5 Sign your names in the Book of Nightshade now that you're official members of the secret society! Looks like that QR code is for members only which you are now! Post a photo from your initiation journey and see your fellow Nightshade member initiation pictures and comments!
Hint 6 You've done well, new initiates. Welcome to Nightshade. You completed your first mission and made the choice for Good. But there are many other tasks that need your help. More adventures lie ahead. Stay vigilant and keep your eye out for your next mission when Nightshade may call upon you again!