Subject: Hello again John! Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:17:57 -0500 From: Bruno Vanier To: John Bailey > I just put your note in the correspondence directory. Somehow I failed > to recognize your note when it arrived and I am just lucky I noticed > it. Thanks very much. > > I will send you a couple of thank you notes I have recieved recently > from grateful puzzle solvers who spent years being stumped by Maze. It > is really gratifying to know that some people appreciate what we are > doing. > > Looking forward to your additional posts. > John > > By the way, are you Vanier or Vgnier? Your earlier notes are titled > Vgnier1, Vgnier2 but this time I used Vanier. If I change the older > ones to Vanier, the dates will be wrong (based on the dumb, mechanistic > way the directory display works) but I could easily change Vanier to > Vgnier3. Tell me what you want. > Hi John, This is me again. Here are two other room, which will make out a serie of linked room. room 3 and 33. As for the name, Vanier will be fine, my name is Raphael Vanier. By the way, I have made a mystake in my solution for room 18 in my last message. The right door is door 3, the door with the lost symbol above it. Every other door has musical symbols above them except this one. A little bit like the anagrams in room 1. Well on with the rooms: ------ Room 3 I call this room the all turned around room... The second sentence in the text give the necessairy clue to begin: 'all turned around.'. Every text and numbers in this room are all turned around, the numbers above the doors, the stop sign, the arrow sign, the banner on the floor... The sphinx picture on the back wall is giving an additional clue. Remember the sphinx in the greek mythology, he was that monster that was asking riddles to traveller at the entrance of the town of Thebes. The question mark is backward so it means that the enigma can be read from right to left :) Every writing in the room are turned around the same way except the arrow sign, it is upside-down! The sentence in the text: 'How many sides does that problem have?' gave me a hint... It has 4 sides, up, down, right and left. To figure out the direction, just print the image of room 3, put it upside-down. You should now see the arrow sign in the right turned around way. It is still pointing toward door 18... But wait, if we turn it the right way, the writing will now be pointing toward door 33. The sign is really indicating door 33 in it's turned around way. As for other objects in this room, the banner on the ground which is saying 'What is your sign?', is a clue for the next room, room 33. As for the moon and the sun on the 2 doors, I still haven't figured out that one yet. I haven't figured the caldrons filled with water in the floor either. If anyone can help me about these, I would be gratefull. They may be related to other rooms. ------ ------ Room 33 This is an important room! I have no name for that room yet since I haven't figured completely the riddle in it. But I will give you leads and hints I have. The only right door to take in this room is the door with a drum above the door. I suspect every other doors are leading toward wrong way. Let me explain, in the room 17, the amphorae room, there is a door leading to room 33. In room 33 there is no door marked with a 17. So the drum door can only be leading to room 17. BINGO! This mean I have just found another way toward the center of the maze! certainly a longer way... 1-41-10-34-25-13-18-3-33-17-45. Of course, you could simply go with 1-41-10-34-25-35-33-17-45 or even 1-41-35-33-17-45. This is even a shorter path toward the center of the maze than the original solution! However, this is not satisfying for me. There is something fishy about all those connected rooms... I strongly suspect that the clue to room 33 is hidden in the longest path. These rooms are not all leading toward the others for nothing you know! They are connected by the riddles inside them. If I remember correctly room 3, there was a banner on the floor that was saying 'What is your sign saying?'. This is certainly a the clue to this room. There are a set of 2 sign above each doors. From the left: a ring, a vase, what look like a node, a strange incongruous object that could be a key, another different looking vase, I don't know what this is, a knife and finally a sun in a landspace. I think these signs may be hidden in rooms of the maze. If some people could locate them, it would be helpfull. I also suggest that a message is hidden in this path toward the center room. I can't make it now but I am only catching small part of it. Maybe the author hid more than a message in maze. Have you aver wondered what were doing all those miscellaneous objects in these previous rooms? he he... I will reveal it me theories when I more substance on it. ------ We, here is my theory about the maze, The shortest path to the center of the maze certainly hold a secret. That secret has been discovered and is well known. But I suspect that this is only a very small part of the riddle hidden in the maze. the original solution can be done in 16 step and 16 rooms. But what are all the other rooms for? To fill in the maze? To confuse the reader? to build numbers of wrong path around the right path? No, this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are other ways toward the center of the maze as I have proved. The part of the alternative way I have shown can all be found with logic and knowledge. So they can't be there for nothing. And as I said I may have found part of another message... Thank you for the forwarded message. I appreciate all your gratitude. I would like to have feedback. Some of you may want to proposed alternative solutions to room I have already solved or even add in their theory. It would be nice to see everyone participate! :) The maze is a place of full of undiscovered secrets. You solve a riddle only to discover a much bigger riddle. -Raphael Vanier