The game is afoot!

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Sherlock Holmes is the world's most renowned fictional "consulting detective". He is normally chasing after the bad guys with Dr Watson. But because Watson's already married, if we follow the track of the Sherlock series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, he gave up his spot as Sherlock's assistant. Hence, the detective is on the look out for his new assistant. At the moment, Sherlock is missing; people aspiring to become his assistants must find where he is and who he's with.

This is the premise of the latest escape room I played with Anna, Biboy, and Joycelyn. We went to Beat The Room in Vacaville (yes, near the outlet stores). We were guided into "221B Baker Street", where the clues to Sherlock's current location and companion were hidden. We had 50 minutes to find the clues and to figure out what they mean, being aware that some of them could be red herrings.

Without a game plan, we spread out, checking out the contents of the room, the details that seemed to be out of place, and the potential riddles we needed to solve. It was a nerve-wracking time because we were trying to piece together the disjointed information we were getting from the clues. But I was so happy to have solved my first encounter with a "Da Vinci Code"-inspired cryptex (actually, it's a combination-lock puzzle cylinder) and a Spartan-inspired scytale (a kind of transposition cipher).

Unfortunately, we didn't solve all the riddles in time. The game masters told us that there were three clues left for us to figure out. They walked us through the remaining clues and we finally found out where Sherlock was and with whom.

It's okay, even if we didn't win bragging rights or a spot in the leaderboard. We all had an enjoyable experience hunting for clues. It's a good binding moment with the family. I wonder how we'll fare next time.

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