Thinkabara

👻 Escape room: The “Haunted” House

Google Classroom

A comedy escape room for teens and adults: strange noises, footprints in flour and an Atbash cipher. Find the real “ghost”, no scares.

The story

For a week now, Grandma’s house has had noises at night, creaking doors and something disappearing from the fridge. The neighbors are sure there’s a ghost. Your job: investigate like real detectives and open the cellar lock where the “ghost” is hiding.

Grandma swears she isn’t scared. She just wants to know who keeps eating her tuna.

Run it at home or in class

What to prepare

  • Printed station sheets
  • A tray of flour with drawn footprints (for atmosphere)
  • A printed Atbash table
  • A box with a 4-digit code lock
  • A toy cat for the ending

Tips for the facilitator

  • Spread the stations through different rooms and dim some lights for atmosphere (but not total darkness).
  • Put the Atbash table on its own sheet so everyone can work on it together.
  • At the end, put a toy cat (or a photo of the family cat) inside the code box.

Difficulty level

The story clues stay the same on every level; harder levels add more locks in between. You can ask for a hint at every stage.

0 of 6 stages solved · Easy · 15–25 minutes

Stage 1: The noise clock

1/6

Grandma wrote down when she heard the noises last night: 10:00 pm, then 10:15 pm, then 10:45 pm, then 11:30 pm. Each time, the gap between noises grew by the same number of minutes.

Run it in real life too

Print a facilitator kit for the easy level: a sheet with the opening story, the setup and every answer, plus a big card for each of the 6 stages.

👻 The “Haunted” House: facilitator kit

Teens and adults 13+ · 15–25 minutes · Level: Easy · 6 stages

Opening story: For a week now, Grandma’s house has had noises at night, creaking doors and something disappearing from the fridge. The neighbors are sure there’s a ghost. Your job: investigate like real detectives and open the cellar lock where the “ghost” is hiding. Grandma swears she isn’t scared. She just wants to know who keeps eating her tuna.

Setup

  1. Printed station sheets
  2. A tray of flour with drawn footprints (for atmosphere)
  3. A printed Atbash table
  4. A box with a 4-digit code lock
  5. A toy cat for the ending
  6. Print the 6 stage cards and put them in order, or hide each card around the room so every answer leads to the next one.
  7. Read the opening story to the group and start a timer.
  8. When the group gets stuck, give one hint from the table, one at a time.
  9. Spread the stations through different rooms and dim some lights for atmosphere (but not total darkness).
  10. Put the Atbash table on its own sheet so everyone can work on it together.
  11. At the end, put a toy cat (or a photo of the family cat) inside the code box.

Answers and hints (facilitator only)

StageAnswer / codeHints
1. The noise clock30The gaps are 15, 30, 45 minutes. · What is the next gap? Add it to 11:30 pm.
2. Footprints in the flour4If all 5 were people, there would be 10 prints. · Every cat instead of a person adds 2 prints.
3. The coded notetunaDecode letter by letter. · G becomes T, F becomes U…
4. Three witnesses and a lie4Holly and Jon say opposite things, so exactly one of them is right. · What does that tell you about Grandpa?
5. Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock4Every symbol is a number. What is one symbol worth? · Add: 2 plus 2.
6. The cellar lock3044Put the three answers together in order, with no spaces.

Read at the end: The door swings open, and in the cellar sit four fat cats surrounded by empty tuna tins. The ghost mystery is solved; now someone just has to explain to Grandma why she needs more tuna.

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 1 of 6

The noise clock

Grandma wrote down when she heard the noises last night: 10:00 pm, then 10:15 pm, then 10:45 pm, then 11:30 pm. Each time, the gap between noises grew by the same number of minutes.

How many minutes after midnight will the next noise come?

✍️ Our answer:

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 2 of 6

Footprints in the flour

You sprinkled flour on the kitchen floor. In the morning you counted exactly 18 footprints. Exactly 5 creatures crossed the kitchen in the night, some people and some cats, and each one left one print for every foot it has (people have 2 feet, cats 4).

How many cats crossed the kitchen?

✍️ Our answer:

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 3 of 6

The coded note

Next to the food bowl you found a note: GFMZ. It’s written in the Atbash cipher: every letter swaps with the letter in the same place from the other end of the alphabet. A↔Z, B↔Y, C↔X, D↔W, E↔V, F↔U, G↔T, H↔S, I↔R, J↔Q, K↔P, L↔O, M↔N.

G F M Z

What does the note say? (What does the “ghost” eat every night?)

✍️ Our answer:

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 4 of 6

Three witnesses and a lie

Three family members argue about which room the “ghost” is hiding in. The house has four rooms, numbered 1 to 4. Holly says: “It’s in room 2.” Jon says: “It’s not in room 2.” Grandpa says: “It’s not in room 4.” Exactly one of the three is telling the truth.

Which room is the “ghost” hiding in? (Write a number.)

✍️ Our answer:

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 5 of 6

Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock

On the way to the last clue of “The “Haunted” House” you find another corridor of locks. Every 👻 is worth 2. Add two symbols.

👻 + 👻 = ?

Which number opens the lock?

✍️ Our answer:

👻 The “Haunted” House · Stage 6 of 6

The cellar lock

The cellar door has a 4-digit lock. A note taped to it says: “The code is the answer from station 1, then the answer from station 2, then the answer from station 4.” For example, if the answers were 10, 3 and 7, the code would be 1037.

What is the code?

✍️ Our answer:

Facilitator guide: 👻 The “Haunted” House

What the room practices

Growing gaps in time, a legs-and-heads puzzle, the Atbash cipher and truth-telling logic.

The 5 stations (without the answers)
  1. The noise clock: How many minutes after midnight will the next noise come?
  2. Footprints in the flour: How many cats crossed the kitchen?
  3. The coded note: What does the note say? (What does the “ghost” eat every night?)
  4. Three witnesses and a lie: Which room is the “ghost” hiding in? (Write a number.)
  5. The cellar lock: What is the code?

Age and group size

Best with teams of 4–6 players. With more people, split into two teams racing the clock, each with its own kit.

Giving hints in this room

Online the hints open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit in the facilitator table next to each answer. Give the first hint after a couple of minutes of silence, not at the first wrong guess.

Questions and answers

What age is “The “Haunted” House” for, and how long does it take?

It was written for teens and adults 13+, at medium difficulty, and usually takes 30–40 minutes. It has 5 story stations, and online you can choose between three difficulty levels that add more locks.

What do I need to run “The “Haunted” House”?

A printer and these props: Printed station sheets; A tray of flour with drawn footprints (for atmosphere); A printed Atbash table; A box with a 4-digit code lock; A toy cat for the ending. The printable kit includes a facilitator sheet with every answer and a card for each stage.

What if the players get stuck?

Every stage has graded hints. Online they open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit next to each answer on the facilitator sheet. The first hint never gives the answer away.

Rooms like The “Haunted” House

The Secret Detective FileA classic riddle, three suspects (one always lies) and a safe that opens only to clear logic.Teens and adults · also for families, birthdaysThe Party with the Secret CodeCount the cups, crack a music clue and unlock the night’s playlist, with plenty of laughs.Adults · also for birthdaysThe Hacker Who Locked the ServerBinary numbers, a Caesar cipher and a Mastermind-style code free a locked server.Teens 13+ and adults · also for birthdaysThe Pharaoh’s TombDecode hieroglyphs with a key, solve a number pyramid and find which coffin hides the treasure.Teens 13+ and adults · also for families, birthdaysThe Most Embarrassing Bank RobberyThree robbers locked themselves in the vault: logic, digits and a balance scale get them out.Teens 13+ and adults · also for birthdays, familiesThe Missing ExamThe physics exam papers have vanished: a sequence, a cipher, a clock angle and a logic grid reveal who took them.Teens 13+ · also for birthdays