Subject: The Maze
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 08:16:04 -0500
From: slala@printcafe.com
To: jmb184@frontiernet.net

My guesses as to the clues pointing to the correct doors along the shortest
path. Admittedly, some are pretty weak.
Also, some have been mentioned by others in the messages posted.

Room 1 => Room 26
"silences of the maze are as eloquent as the sounds" implies what is not
there can be as important as what is there
The words over 3 of the doors are anagrammed in the statments by the
visitors:
 "story of my life" - story
 "don't want to be late" - tale
 "nary a soul" - yarn
The one that's not there, fable, or door 26, is the correct choice.

Room 26 => Room 30
We can rule out door 1 since that is where we came from
The devils in the picture point to two of the doors, 36 with the tail, 38
with a pitchfork.
Devils are untrustworthy so we take the door they are not pointing to, 30.
In addition, the word "not" is spoken twice by the visitors, so it's "not"
the two doors being pointed out.

Room 30 => Room 42
"...done so we will not choose this door" implies we should take the door
that is not referenced or pointed to
Door 34 is referenced in the text, and there are arrows pointing to doors 5
and 15. This leaves door 42.
Also, the sign is an anagram for "one five", or 15.
Or
"no matter how many times..." implies we multiply, and also infers we look
at the clock
The arrow points to the F which is the 6th letter in the alphabet, but it is
in the position of the clock corresponding to 7, and  6 x 7 = 42.

Room 42 => Room 4
Eliminate door 30 since we came from there
"You can count on me" implies we look for numbers.
There are two pairs of shoes, plus one odd shoe, so we look for the
"non-pair"
The pictures on the doors show:
 22 a pair of scissors
 25 a pear
 37 a pair of dice
This leaves door 4 as the "odd" or "non-pair" door.

Room 4 => Room 29
In the previous room, door 25 was a different "pear" (pair) then the others.
Adding 25 to this room number, 4, gives 29.
Or
"foolish face", "coin" (heads and tails), "mind" all point to the word
"head", and the head of the hammer points to door 29.

Room 29 => Room 17
This is the famous "hidden door".
"Flip a coin" from previous room, man standing on his head, and the
hourglass indcate you should look at the picture upside down.
1 and 7 are not attached to the candle stand and represent the door number.

Room 17 => Room 45
"easier choice to make". We know our goal is the center of the maze which is
room 45, so this is an easy choice.

Room 45 => Room 23
Don't really know, but some notes:
Eliminate door 17 since we came from there.
Since almost all the items in the room are part of the riddle, maybe the
clue comes from the previous room (17).

Room 23 => Room 8
Eliminate door 45 since we came from there.
The pictures over two of the remaining doors are mentioned in the text:
"my feet crushed" - 19
"realized it could rain" - 28
This leaves the sun door to room 8

Room 8 => Room 12
There are two bowls mentioned in the text, and there are six legs on the
table. "Echo" implies repeating or multiplying, so we multiply 2 x 6 to get
12

Room 12 => Room 39
"feeling of deja vu". Room 12 is almost identical to room 28. The only
difference is the room numbers, and some slight changes in two of the three
paintings. The only painting that is the same shows a man pointing down the
hole to room 39.

Room 39 => Room 4
"hammering" and "chopping" indicate that we should go to the room with the
hammer and the axe, room 4

Room 4 => Room 15
Since we've already been to this room,  the clue must come from the previous
room (39).
The wine cellar, the noise behind the wall, the bricked over door, all come
from the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Cask of Amontillado" which has 16
letters in the title. Since we had to go back one room to get the clue, we
subtract one to get 15.

Room 15 => Room 37
Three seems to be the operative number here; "three of us can sit down",
"three possible choices", "sacrificial tripod".
37 is the only number not divisible by three.

Room 37 => Room 20
"look at this from all sides" implies we look at the dice, which are the
only objects that have sides. They show a 2 and a blank side, or zero which
sends us to door 20.

Room 20 => Room 1
We know our goal is room 1, so this is a simple choice.