two-keys/content/games/inventors-paradox.yaml

id: inventors-paradox
engine: story
category: escape-room
title: The Inventor's Paradox
tagline: A mad inventor's lab, sealed since 1930. His time machine still hums. So do his traps.
estimatedMinutes: 50
difficulty: 5
players: { min: 2, max: 2 }
theme: { primary: "#7f5539", accent: "#80ffdb", background: "#0a0806", headingFont: "JetBrains Mono" }
rules:
  hintPenaltySeconds: 240
  timeLimitMinutes: 55
  timeLimitLabel: "Reactor stability"
roles:
  A:
    name: Inside the Lab
    blurb: You're in the workshop with the machines. Panels, dials, clocks and vials.
  B:
    name: The Archivist
    blurb: You're in the locked study next door with the inventor's notebooks. You can read his mind, nearly.
intro: |
  **The Halloway Laboratory, sealed since 1930.**

  Professor Edmund Halloway claimed he'd built a working time machine, then vanished. His lab was bricked up.
  Tonight you two are the first people inside in almost a hundred years. The moment you cross the threshold,
  the doors seal and a reactor in the corner starts to hum, louder and louder.

  A gramophone crackles into life with his voice:

  > *"If you can hear this, you've triggered my safeguards. Only a mind that thinks in two places at once
  > can shut them down. Good luck. You'll need each other."*

  ☠️ *Nightmare tier. Long hint penalty. A hard time limit. Some of it is maths. Breathe.*

chapters:
  - id: ch1
    title: The Switchboard
    narrative: |
      A brass panel with four switches (S1–S4) and one lamp. The lamp must light to open the inner door.
      Halloway drew the circuit in his own private symbols.
    clues:
      A:
        - id: a1-circuit
          title: Circuit plate above the switches
          type: diagram
          body: |
            ```
            LAMP  =  ( S1 ⊗ ¬S2 )
                  ⊗  ( S3 ⊕ S4 )
                  ⊗  ( S2 ⊘ S4 )
                  ⊗  ¬( S1 ⊗ S3 )
            ```
            Lock entry: the four switch positions as 1 (on) / 0 (off), S1 first. Only one setting lights the lamp.
      B:
        - id: b1-legend
          title: Notebook, "my symbols"
          type: table
          body: |
            | Symbol | Meaning |
            |--------|---------|
            | ⊗ | AND: true only if both sides are true |
            | ⊘ | OR: true if either side is true |
            | ⊕ | XOR: true if exactly one side is true |
            | ¬ | NOT: flips true and false |
    lock:
      id: lock-switches
      prompt: Set the switches.
      inputType: code
      format: 4 digits of 1/0 (S1 S2 S3 S4)
      answers: ["1001"]
      hints:
        - Every bracket is joined by AND, so every bracket must be true.
        - "(S1 AND NOT S2) means S1 = 1 and S2 = 0. Then (S2 OR S4) forces S4 = 1."
        - "S3 XOR S4 with S4 = 1 means S3 = 0. Check NOT(S1 AND S3): true. Answer 1001."
      successText: |
        **1001.** The lamp blazes. The inner door unlocks onto the workshop proper: a chalkboard grid, a wall of clocks, and a rack of glowing vials.
      keyName: Circuit Key

  - id: ch2
    title: The Chalkboard Grid
    narrative: |
      A 4×4 grid is chalked on the board, half rubbed out. A lock below wants four digits.
    clues:
      A:
        - id: a2-board
          title: The chalkboard
          type: diagram
          body: |
            ```
            ┌───┬───┬───┬───┐
            │ 1 │   │   │   │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │   │   │   │ 2 │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │   │ 1 │   │   │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │   │   │ 2 │   │
            └───┴───┴───┴───┘
            ```
            *Fill with 1–4. Every row, column and 2×2 box has each digit once.*
            *The lock wants the diagonal, top-left to bottom-right.*
      B:
        - id: b2-copy
          title: Halloway's copy of the same grid (different squares survived)
          type: diagram
          body: |
            ```
            ┌───┬───┬───┬───┐
            │   │   │ 3 │   │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │   │ 4 │   │   │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │   │   │   │ 3 │
            ├───┼───┼───┼───┤
            │ 4 │   │   │   │
            └───┴───┴───┴───┘
            ```
    lock:
      id: lock-grid
      prompt: Enter the diagonal.
      inputType: code
      format: 4 digits
      answers: ["1441"]
      hints:
        - Combine both grids into one first. Neither has enough on its own.
        - "Row 1 is 1, ?, 3, ?. Its top-left box already has 1 and 4 (from row 2), so row 1, column 2 is 2."
        - "Solution rows: 1234 / 3412 / 2143 / 4321. Diagonal 1, 4, 4, 1."
      successText: |
        **1441.** A hatch pops open with a letter in it, from the Professor to his wife.
      keyName: Chalk Key

  - id: ch3
    title: The Return Date
    narrative: |
      The time machine's destination panel wants a date: day, month, year.
    clues:
      A:
        - id: a3-letter
          title: Letter in the hatch
          type: letter
          body: |
            *My dearest Margaret,*

            *I go forward tonight. I will return on **the first Friday the 13th after your 60th birthday**,
            so that we may be unlucky together, as we always were.*

            *Your E.*
            *(On the panel: enter DDMMYYYY.)*
      B:
        - id: b3-records
          title: Family records, and a 1931 desk calendar
          type: table
          body: |
            **Margaret Halloway**, born **14 April 1871**.

            | 1931 month | 1st of the month falls on a |
            |------------|-----------------------------|
            | Jan | Thursday |
            | Feb | Sunday |
            | Mar | Sunday |
            | Apr | Wednesday |
            | May | Friday |
            | Jun | Monday |
            | Jul | Wednesday |
            | Aug | Saturday |
            | Sep | Tuesday |
            | Oct | Thursday |
            | Nov | Sunday |
            | Dec | Tuesday |
    lock:
      id: lock-date
      prompt: Set the return date.
      inputType: code
      format: DDMMYYYY
      answers: ["13111931"]
      hints:
        - Her 60th birthday is 14 April 1931. Look for 13ths after that.
        - The 13th is a Friday when the 1st of the month is a Sunday.
        - "After April, the first month starting on a Sunday is November. 13 November 1931."
      successText: |
        **13 11 1931.** The machine shudders, and a drawer marked "FUEL" slides open: empty, with a chemistry note pinned inside.
      keyName: Calendar Key

  - id: ch4
    title: The Fuel Mix
    narrative: |
      The machine needs fuel mixed from the vials, and a colour meter that reads in hexadecimal.
    clues:
      A:
        - id: a4-vials
          title: The vial rack
          type: table
          body: |
            | Vial | Glow colour |
            |------|-------------|
            | 1 | #FFFFFF |
            | 2 | #FF3300 |
            | 3 | #0066CC |
            | 4 | #00FF00 |
            | 5 | #33CC00 |
            | 6 | #9900FF |
            *Meter: "Enter the colour of the mix as a hex code."*
      B:
        - id: b4-recipe
          title: Notebook, fuel recipe
          type: note
          body: |
            *Equal parts of every vial whose number is **prime**. Nothing else.
            The mix glows the **average** of their colours, **each channel separately** (red, green, blue),
            **rounded down**. Hex: two digits per channel, #RRGGBB.*
    lock:
      id: lock-fuel
      prompt: Enter the mix colour.
      inputType: text
      format: "#RRGGBB"
      answers: ["667744", "#667744"]
      hints:
        - Prime vials are 2, 3 and 5.
        - "Red: FF + 00 + 33 = 255 + 0 + 51 = 306. ÷ 3 = 102 = 0x66."
        - "Green: (51 + 102 + 204) ÷ 3 = 119 = 0x77. Blue: (0 + 204 + 0) ÷ 3 = 68 = 0x44. #667744."
      successText: |
        **#667744.** The fuel glows a murky olive green. The Professor's notes call it "perfect". The reactor hum steadies, a little.
      keyName: Vial Key

  - id: ch5
    title: The Brass Clock
    narrative: |
      The last lock wants the true time of the Professor's "departure". There's a clock on the wall behind you,
      but you can only see it reflected in a big brass plate.
    clues:
      A:
        - id: a5-clock
          title: What you see in the brass plate
          type: photo
          body: |
            *The clock face in the plate: the hour hand sits **between the 4 and the 5**, the minute hand points at the **7**.
            It looks like about 4:35.*
            *Lock: enter the time as HH:MM.*
      B:
        - id: b5-note
          title: Notebook, last page
          type: note
          body: |
            *Everything in my workshop is seen in brass. Trust no clock you see in a reflection.
            In a mirror, the 1 sits where the 11 should be, the 2 where the 10 should be...*
    lock:
      id: lock-clock
      prompt: What's the true time?
      inputType: code
      format: "HH:MM"
      answers: ["0725", "725", "1925"]
      hints:
        - In a mirror, each hand points to the reflected position. 1 ↔ 11, 2 ↔ 10, 3 ↔ 9, 4 ↔ 8, 5 ↔ 7.
        - The minute hand at the 7 is really at the 5 (25 minutes). The hour hand between 4 and 5 is really between 8 and 7.
        - "7:25. (Or: 11:60 − 4:35 = 7:25.)"
      successText: |
        **7:25.** The time machine's door hisses open. Inside, one dial left, and a riddle in the Professor's handwriting.
      keyName: Brass Key

finale:
  type: escape
  prompt: The time machine's year dial. Set it to the year of the Professor's birth and the safeguards shut down.
  clues:
    A:
      - id: af-plate
        title: Maker's plate on the machine
        type: photo
        body: |
          *A riveted brass plate:* **"HALLOWAY CHRONO-CARRIAGE · BUILT 1912"**
          *Year dial: 4 digits.*
    B:
      - id: bf-riddle
        title: The Professor's riddle (inside the notebook cover)
        type: note
        body: |
          *The year I built my machine, I was **three times** as old as my daughter Ada.
          **Eighteen years later**, I was only **twice** as old as she was.
          Set my dial to the year I was born.*
  lock:
    id: lock-year
    prompt: Set the year dial.
    inputType: code
    format: 4 digits
    answers: ["1858"]
    hints:
      - "Let Ada's age in the build year be y. The Professor was 3y. Eighteen years later: 3y + 18 = 2(y + 18)."
      - y = 18, so the Professor was 54 when he built it.
      - The plate says 1912. 1912 − 54 = 1858.
  successEnding: |
    **1858.** The reactor sighs into silence. Every door in the lab unlocks at once.

    As you leave, the gramophone crackles one last time:
    > *"Two minds, one problem. That was always the real machine. — E.H."*

    On the doorstep is a letter postmarked **13 November 1931**, addressed to Margaret. It's never been opened.

    **You escaped!** ⚙️🔑
  failEnding: |
    The reactor hum reaches a screech. White light. You wake up outside the bricked-up door, with no memory of
    the last hour. (It's a game. Try again?)