Build, Decor, and Puzzles

Digital Changeling > Game Design > Clerical Error > Build, Decor, and Puzzles

WARNING: This game is the ancestor of the Clerical Error game written more recently by Kathleen De Smet. The newer game has undergone heavy revision. If you read this game you will both spoil some secrets and end up with some wrong information.

I've tried to give all the puzzles relatively unambiguous names, but there are still a lot of them. Since I've grouped them by area they aren't quite in the order that they have to be solved in. Take a look at the flowchart if this gets too confusing.

The Potion

The potion incorporated stuff that the players had to get by solving various puzzles as well as several things they just had to "find" around the house. The text of the potion recipe was given to the players at dinner in the form of many small scraps of paper tucked into their menus.

Kathleen wrote up the text of the recipe and she was kind enough to give me a copy to put here:

Potion To Cure the Disturbed of Mind

Take one Golden Apple and cut it into eight pieces with three strokes only. Take the same and Phoenix Ashes and seethe them together in a pot of Water of Mnemosyne over a Green Fire. Stir all with the Bone of a Witch for several minutes. And when it is well boiled, take it from the fire and let it run through a Virgin's Veil. Let the sick drink the licour lukewarm and she will be made whole and well.

The golden apple could be found in the maze on the dragon's tree. The phoenix ashes could be obtained from the phoenix (see puzzle description below). The fountain of mnemosyne was the fountain down in the maze. The fire could be reached by completing the judge's scale puzzle. The fire could be turned green by throwing some of the seeds of envy (see Merope's task below) into the fire. The bone of the witch could be gotten from the witch (see the witch's game below). The Virgin's Veil could be found on the mother's altar.

The Upstairs


The top of the curtain frame's T.

The Curtains

In order to separate the living room/dining room/kitchen, I made curtain frames out of 1.24" PVC pipe and some plant hangers. I attached the plant stands to the walls and then zip-tied the pipes onto the top of the hangers (which had a convenient groove for this on the tops). The curtain frame basically made a big T, with the top of the T being across the living room. There was also a smaller set of curtains across the stairs which lead to the upstairs part of the house (which was not in play).


The inside of the curtain frame's T
and the maypole/loom.

The curtains were all made of cotton flannel curtain liner, which was cheaper than I expected and not see through. I had to hem and wash them because the formaldehyde they were treated with was giving me headaches. We also used some fabric that Kathleen had left over from decorating for a previous larp. The finished curtains were safety pinned up to the curtain frames.


The dining room before players arrived.

The Dining Room

The living room area of the house was used as a dining room only for dinner in the first part of the game. After dinner the rest of the first floor opened up and I would carefully watch the players until they all left the dining room (Clotho would harass them if they refused to leave) and then draw the curtains closed behind them. Then the dining room would be re-arranged for the Judge and his scales and the curtains would be re-opened when they players were not paying attention to them.


The phoenix cage and nail-board.

The Phoenix and Cage

The phoenix was made of paper and it lived in a very large red cage on the first floor. The phoenix itself was made by Katie as two separate pieces of origami: the body and the wings. The cage was borrowed from Kathleen's mother-in-law on the condition that Kathleen and I paint it. It was originally white. Painting it was probably the worst two afternoons I've spent in a long time. I was ready to beat my head against a wall when we mentioned how hard it was to a friend and he said, "oh, you could have used my sand blaster!" Argh!

Anyway, the whole point of the phoenix was to allow the PCs to get phoenix ashes. Near the center of the maze there was a set of strange runes which were also present on the nail-board which was left sitting by the phoenix's cage. After the first night we didn't let the players take the runes out of the maze so they were down there with their dim flashlights trying to discern the colors. There was also a piece of yarn tied to one corner of the nail-board. Once the players realized that the symbols matched all they had to do was to "connect the dots" as it were and the yarn would form the word "incendio". The players had to say this word to the phoenix to cause it to burst into flame. In the second run and later we tried to force all the players to say it together so that they would all get to see the flashy special effect.


It's on fire!

We had in fact stuffed the phoenix's body full of match heads and Quinn helped us wire it up to a model rocket ignition system. Someone (I think Viv?) had to stand behind the curtain in the kitchen and trigger the ignition when the players said the magic word. It was a very gratifying effect. One night it was even a bright green flame (I blame the matches, since we used different ones each night). We had planned to let the players collect the actual ashes, but in the end we opted for the route less likely to poison Clotho and just handed them a small jar of black pepper once the phoenix burned up.


The magic word (on the
unfinished board).

The mother's altar.

The Mother's Altar

The mother's altar wasn't really important to the game except as decor and a place to conceal the veil. We draped cheese cloth over an particularly lovely icon of the virgin Mary that Katie lent to the cause. Most of the groups figured that one out almost as soon as they realized they needed a virgin's veil, but still it worked very well. The creepy wooden thing on the table is a statue I got at Goodwill for 50 cents.


the scales

The Judge and Scales

Once the living room area was re-arranged and Quinn had time to get into the Judge outfit (Katie's brother's graduation gown!), the curtain was pulled back to show the table turned in front of the fireplace with scales and a small chest sitting on it. In one side of the scales was a feather. Behind the table stood the judge. When the PCs approached the judge would explain that they must weigh their hearts against the feather and only when they weighted the same would they be allowed to pass. The judge would repeat the instructions when asked, but wouldn't give a whole lot more info.

In the chest the players would find seven plush hearts in different sizes and colors stuffed with different materials. The judge would give the players subtly different answers if they put their own heart or someone else's into the scales to be weighed. Eventually the players would get all the hearts in and realize just how awfully different the two sides of the scale were. When asked how they could make them balance all the judge would say was "sacrifice".

Eventually the players would realize that each of them had a special item, which they had to give up in order to balance the scales. Some players had to be cajoled or bullied by the others before they would put their item in with the feather. Since we gave the players their significant items we could control their weights. We still had to stoop to gluing pennies into the back of Lucia's address book before we got everything balanced.

Quinn made and calibrated the scales for us. Kathleen and I added the bowls and chains as well as spray painting everything. We also hung a bunch of the rings we had bought on side of the scales to help get our "empty" balance to be even. Hopefully no one noticed.

I made the seven hearts, one for each player. I drafted the pattern for the hearts myself and sewed them all by hand (because they were so small and curvy). Each of the hearts was made from the color corresponding to the PC who's heart it was. The colors also appeared on the PC's name tags. The hearts came in three sizes: large, medium, and small.

The different characters had hearts as follows:


The fire, with pot.

The Fire

The fire was really Quinn and Kathleen's baby. Quinn did most of the wiring and Kathleen had to come up with the cloth pattern and attachment. I bought some bricks to stack around the fans to help with ventilation and hide the electronics. The awesome part of the fire was that it had two sets of lights in it, one green and one orange. The fire would start off orange and once the players had solved Merope's task and gotten the seeds of jealousy they could cast some into the fire and someone would hit the trigger to switch to the green set of lights. It got ooohs and aaahs all three nights.

On the second and third night the fire was rigged up with a crackling soundtrack being driven by Viv's iPod. It was a neat addition.

The Downstairs


The witch's table with
puzzle and bone.

The Witch's Game

The witch had a sudoku-like board which she would demand that the players solve. She would give little in the way of rules but would be fast to sweep the board clean if they presented her with an incorrect answer. The actual puzzle was stolen from the Google Webquest. Originally we had been planning something more zendo-like, but it just got too hard to figure out what exactly. I found the picture we stole the puzzle layout from and Kathleen made the board. We used sets of blank polyhedral dice as our pieces. We did give the players some seed pieces, so the puzzle wasn't too bad. When the witch cleared the puzzle she would replace the seed pieces for the players.

When the players were able to solve the puzzle the witch would disappear leaving behind the large bone she had been playing with. This was the bone the players needed to stir the potion with. The bone itself was purchased from American Science and Surplus. It's from a rather large expensive skeleton, but they had one which was missing pieces. I was able to talk the manager into selling the bone to me for only a few dollars. It's roughly realistic weight and feels more than a little creepy to hold.


Merope's bowls.

Merope's Task

Merope sat across the den from the witch and was constantly sorting green and copper colored beads. She would beg the players for help and tell them that the only way for her to complete her task was to get a branch from Aproditie's tree, which she claimed was at the center of the maze. She would also push the players to finish the mummy puzzle so that they would be able to get into the maze. Merope's fingers were all stained green and she claimed it was from the seeds of jealousy that she sorted. This was meant as a hint to the players that the seeds could change things green, including the green fire they needed.


The branch.

The beads that Meropy was sorting were of two different types. The green ones were glass and were faux pearls purchased from a bead store. The copper ones were BBs and were in fact only copper coated with a magnet sensitive metal inside. We lucked out that the two were almost the same size and sheen (we had a color blind player who couldn't tell the difference at all!). The branch that Merope had sent them for was a dowel with magnets on each end covered in fake suede and mod-podge. If the players retrieved the branch they could use the magnetic attraction to separate the two types of beads in a snap. Merope would thank them, give them the seeds of jealousy, and disappear off to a more peaceful afterlife.


The mummy's altar.

The Mummy's Puzzle

The mummy had his own diminutive altar decked out with various egyptian things. He also had a scroll describing his dilemma. It was essentially a logic puzzle. We even gave the players a traditional logic grid to solve it on. Once they had determined the correct ordering of the organ removal and jar placement, the mummy was freed from his mortal coil. When his spirit fled it left them a box containing the incantation they needed to approach the sphinx.

The mummy puzzle scroll we gave the players:


The Sphinx curtain.

The Sphinx

The players had to use the incantation given to them by the mummy in order to approach the sphinx, otherwise she wouldn't answer them and they could not pass her. Players had to approach the Sphinx alone, recite the verse, and then she would speak their riddle. They could either guess or walk away. If a given player character returned to the sphinx they would get the same riddle. We figured out one riddle for each PC. Once a PC had gotten their riddle right the sphinx curtain would open and all the players could get into the maze.

The riddles the sphinx asked were:

for Avery:
What does man love more than life
fear more than death or mortal strife
what the poor have, the rich require,
and what contented men desire,
what the miser spends and the spendthrift saves
and all men carry to their graves?

(Answer: nothing)

for Ray:
My thunder comes before the lightning;
My lightning comes before the clouds;
My rain dries all the land it touches.
What am I?

(Answer: volcano)

for Seth:
I can sizzle like bacon,
I am made with an egg,
I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,
I peel layers like onions, but still remain whole,
I can be long, like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole,
What am I?

(Answer: snake)

for Gloria:
Thousands lay gold within this house, but no man mined it.
Spears past counting guard this house, but no man wards it.

(Answer: a beehive)

for Lucia:
What can run but never walks,
has a mouth but never talks,
has a head but never weeps,
has a bed but never sleeps?

(Answer: a river)

for Prem:
There are four brothers in this world that were all born together.
The first runs and never gets tired.
The second eats and is never full.
The third drinks and is always thirsty.
The fourth sings a song that is never finished.

(Answer: Water, fire, earth, air)

for Evan:
Two brothers we are; great burdens we bear,
By which we are heavily pressed;
The truth is to say, we are full all the day,
And empty when we go to rest.

(Answer: a pair of shoes)

The Basement


Inside the chamber.

The Ring Puzzle

The ring puzzle was meant to be an exercise in cooperation. It was an "isolation" chamber made of cloth with a clear vinyl window on one side. On the other side were two sleeves that a player could stick their arms in. Inside the chamber was a gnarled stand with a ruby ring hanging on it. The players needed to transfer the ring to a copper stand which stood outside of the chamber and poked through the chamber's only tiny hole. Unfortunately I neglected to tape the copper stand to the floor... so most of the groups just "fished" around with the copper stand until they got the ring. Oh well. I had originally meant for the two front parts of the chamber (the window and the copper stand) to be separated by a wall, but that got cut when I sewed the chamber incorrectly and we were pressed for time finishing the maze.


Outside the chamber.

Once the players had the ruby ring they could trade it to the dragon in return for permission to pick one of the golden apples.


The fountain.

The Fountain

The fountain was a commercial urn-shaped fountain that we set up in the Obarski's server cabinet. Fortunately we moved their electronics elsewhere because we discovered after the first game that the fountain was spitting water all over the cabinet! We covered the cabinet in cloth and put some tube lights inside so it would be blue and mystical looking (well and visible).

The fountain was meant to be "The fountain of Mnemosyne" mentioned in the potion recipe. The name is a sort of joke for folks who know about classic greek mythology. The river Lethe, which means forgetfulness, is a traditional river in the Greek underworld which causes those who drink it to forget everything. Our fountain of Mnemosyne (which means memory) did quite the opposite as it caused remembrance and a clear (instead of clouded) mind.


The dragon, in tree.

The Dragon's Grove

The dragon was really more of an NPC, but his tree contained the golden apple which the players needed for the potion. He demanded the ruby ring in return for the apple, so the players had to go off and solve that puzzle. The dragon's grove actually contained the entrance to the secret tunnel that allowed the voice of the Sphinx to get over to the grove before the players arrived.

On the second and third nights the dragon had a soundtrack of hissing and breathing powered by my iPod and one of the Obarski's wireless speakers. When Katie left her post as the voice of the Sphinx she would head to the grove and turn on the soundtrack. You could hear it all over the maze and it was remarkably creepy.


Flashlights, in bowl.

Lights (or Lack Thereof)

The general light level was pretty low around the house. We swapped out a bunch of the normal light-bulbs for candle flicker bulbs and covered the dining room chandelier with red cloth (as well as setting it to be dim to start with). The Obarski's turtles' tank provided plenty of light for the mummy puzzle until it shut it self off (at 10 or 11pm, I don't remember which). Then the den was much darker.

We included some lights in the basement/maze (by the fountain, in the ring puzzle, on the dragon's tree), but by and large it was really dark. We put a bowl of small flashlights by the door down to the basement for the players to use. These were very cheap lights and tended to flicker and stop working with no warning. We decided that was a feature. I think all of the Averys got an in character kick out of the flashlights, invariably "collecting" a few in pockets through out the night.

The Endgame


The chest, with cover.

Opening the Chest

Once the players fed the potion to Clotho and collected all seven of the crosses they would invariably want to open the Chest. It had been sitting there at the base of the stairs all night. The top of the chest was covered with a red velvet cushion to make the cross holes a bit less obvious. Quinn built the chest for us and set it up so that the back had a sliding door (it slid up) that would allow Katie-Lachisis to get inside while Clotho was distracting everyone by leading them in a chase around the maze.


The keyholes.

Quinn set up a series of pressure switches around the cross indentations. They were covered with a thin layer of black cloth so they weren't easy to see, but you could feel them. Clotho would encourage the players to all hold down the crosses and when all the switches tripped together the mechanism inside the chest would release the metal bar holding the padlock and the whole thing would swing down with a thump. Well, that was how it was supposed to work anyway. Quinn did a great job, but we still had some problems with the lock sticking (and at one point with a player grabbing the lock when we didn't want them to!). Once the bar unhooked the whole top of the chest could be swung open to free Lachisis.


The weaving, friday.

The Weaving

The final task Lachisis asked of the PCs was that they help her to repair the weaving. Each player had to reattach their broken thread and do a few steps of weaving that Lachisis would direct them in, in order to insure that they were re-worked into the tapestry. Since we couldn't very well make or hide a loom, we settled for a maypole like construction. I made a 10 ft flag pole out of PVC pipe and a metal laundry hook. Katie handled the actual pattern of the weaving and pre-wove some with shorter threads. During the end game Katie-Lachisis directed people over and under to fix the weaving.