Secret Squirrel: Escape from Yellow Pinkie

Preferred group size: 3 to 6 spies

Time allotment: 30 minutes. This was chosen over 60 minutes due to the involvement of children and the desire to cycle through groups relatively quickly.

You--Secret Squirrel, Morocco Mole, and their spy colleagues--are locked in Yellow Pinkie’s lair. In 30 minutes, a laser will go off and you will be fried squirrel! But maybe there is a way to escape from this impending doom?

Guests are escorted into the room by the cast member and given brief instructions. After the cast member leaves the room, the timer starts (it is displayed on the wall).

Like any escape room, there are items that need to be found and puzzles that need to be solved. The first involves finding the magic decoder ring on the wall and deciphering a message that is found in Yellow Pinkie’s desk (“The first number you need is the minutes on the clock.”--Answer: “35”). Another clue is found in the bookshelf. Among many books about criminal masterminds, there is the children’s book “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (which shows illustrations of Yogi, Cindy, Boo-boo). The color of Goldilocks’ hair (“gold”) is underlined in the book (with a marker), because “gold” is the code-word for a letter-lock of a cabinet. In the cabinet is laminated sheet of the “Two Stupid Dogs” characters with the question, “How many dogs?” (Answer: 2)

The final number needed to escape from the lair comes from a series of three logic puzzles on a screen (little-known fact: Yellow Pinkie had considered becoming a Mathematician before he chose a life of crime). The first question is “How many points is YELLOW worth in Scrabble (without any bonus)?” Conveniently on the bookshelf is a Scrabble game. Inside the game is a laminated point guide for all the letters as well as all of the tiles. Players will discover that the word YELLOW is worth 12 points. The second logic puzzle is the following:

Mr. Pebbles now has 1 animal. After getting his last shipment of animals, he sold 3 to Ranger Smith and then the remaining half to Mr. Twiddle. How many animals did Mr. Pebbles have when he got his last shipment? (Answer: 5)

The third logic puzzle is to count the number of times the word "crime" is found on page 137 of the "best" book on the bookshelf (the book is "How to be the Best Criminal Ever"). The answer is 1. Using the answers to the logic puzzles, spies then complete a final math problem (“YELLOW Points (minus) Count of Mr. Pebbles' Animals (plus) "Crime Count"”) , which gives them the final number for the room escape (“8”).