The spookiest time of the year... Escape goes Halloween

Can you hear the witches cackling?
Can you hear the monsters cursing?
Can you hear the ghosts?

If so, don't worry, it's just the scariest time of the year starting again, or as my friend Maria always says: ‘The worst time of the year.’ Today, Maria will be solving the Halloween edition of the escape game with me for the first time. In this blog, she tells you whether we were able to solve the game or not. As I mentioned above, my name is Maria and Halloween time is knocking on the door again, which means that I just want to hide under the covers and not see a soul. I hate Halloween time because it's all about scary characters and stories. Despite my fear, I'm not going to hide at home today, but instead visit my best friend Seli at work. She works on the escape game ‘The Mystery of the Three Towers’ and I'm going to try to solve it with her today.
The ‘Escape goes Halloween’ campaign has been taking place again since 21st October 2024.
Seli has reserved a game for us at 3.00 pm. I enter the tourist office at 2.50 pm and can already see Seli waiting for me, smiling suspiciously. When I arrive, Seli explains all the rules of the game to me and hands me all the items we need for the game. The aim of the game is to save Radstadt from an evil curse. ‘Right, let's get started,’ Seli says to me with a grin on her face. She hands me a talking stone and emphasises that I should always listen carefully. Just as I put the loop of the stone around my wrist, the stone begins to speak, and my heart literally misses a beat for the first time.

‘So, Maria, this is the first stop. I think we need to open this door,’ Seli says to me. I walk towards the door and see bloody handprints. Although the game hasn't really started yet, I'm already reluctant to enter the first room. ‘Today?’ Seli asks me, looking at me and the door. So, I open the first door and see lots of spider webs in every corner. My spider phobia is on the rise, I just hope we'll be back out here soon. ‘Ahhh Maria, a spider,’ cries Seli.
Because I'm so scared, I start screaming too. ‘Get it off, get it off’, but Seli does nothing but laugh. I don't understand what she finds so funny when a spider is crawling on me. I turn round and see that Seli is holding a rubber spider in her hand. ‘You little scaredy-cat, that spider wasn't real’. ‘Haha, not funny,’ I reply, annoyed. After Seli's unfunny joke, the stone lights up green, signalling to me that we can move on.

There is a long corridor with 3 doors in front of us, lit only by a little light. I walk along the corridor and see lots of pictures that somehow all look creepily after me, at least that's the feeling I get. Next to the doors, I read that each door has a different name. Oh Maria, let's go into ‘Hocus Pocus’. I love the Sanderson sisters, says Seli to me. After talking back and forth for a while, we finally decide in favour of the Hocus Pocus door. Seli opens the door, and I realise that my hands are getting sweatier and sweatier. I was always scared of these three witch sisters as a child, but what won't you do for your best friend? There are lots of pictures of the sisters, a witch's hat and a witch's broom in the room. Just as I'm about to close the door, I read the following saying: ‘Close the door before the witches come’. Believe me, I've never closed a door so quickly. What exactly happened in this room and what topics await you behind the other two doors, you'll have to find out for yourself, but I'll give you a spoiler: The witches didn't get us! 😉

The next two puzzles are scattered around the city, and I feel a bit more at ease, at least for a short time. Now we have to go to the museum tower, the stone said. On the way, we come across the first creepy figures. Many of them look like Beetlejuice, probably because the second part of this film is being shown in cinemas this year. Why isn't there at least one child, dressed up a little cuter, I moan to Seli. Seli looks at me and says ‘It's Halloween, not carnival, isn't it?’.

When we finally stand in front of the museum tower, I hand the stone to Seli and this time say to her, ‘After you!’ The stone tells us what to do and we make our way to the second floor of the tower. We, well Seli actually, have decided to do the Perchten (Devils’) riddle. The puzzle is not easy to solve, so I want to check my notes. Just as I'm about to look in my bag, a Percht lets out such a loud scream that the bag falls out of my hand out of fright. Of course, Seli just laughs again and shakes her head. After about 15 minutes, we finally solve the puzzle and move on to the next station.

It's getting darker and darker outside, and I really just want to go home. Sweating profusely, I arrive at the final game with Seli. So many spiders again and wait, are those bats? I hope the witches haven't been chasing us, otherwise, where would the witches' tower have got its name from?
We hear a haunting melody and we open a door that leads into a large cabin from which a swathe of mist comes towards us. We can hardly see anything, and the melody gets louder and louder but wait, what is THAT...!

What happens in the end remains a mystery 😉.

I can only say that I have never been so relieved to be finished with a game in my life as I am with this one. We go back to the office, and I give Seli back all the utensils for the game. ‘Thank you, Seli, for giving me the chance to solve this game. Even though I often thought we wouldn't be able to save Radstadt, we managed it well,’ I say to her. ’Thank you, Maria. I didn't think you'd make it to the end either, because if we're honest, you almost fell over in fright in the first room,’ Seli replies with a laugh. I shake my head and say goodbye to her. ‘Maria wait, you'll get a little reward. Something scary sweet!’

When I get home, I lie down on the couch and just try to relax after all the scares today, but wait ... Do I hear witches cackling again?

photo credits: Radstadt Tourismus - Julia Winter