Welcome to the first episode of our exciting new format (which feels remarkably like our original format)! This week, the gang finds themselves trapped in a village hall commandeered by the mysterious and sexually deviant local Rotary Club.
To escape, they must crack Jon's intricate, almost Masonic puzzle and recite the elusive Rotary Club oath.
 
Puzzle design: Jon Saunders
Solvers: Mike Collins, Ben Lavery-Griffiths, Jamie Gibbs
Editor: Jamie Gibbs
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Music from freepd.com
Happy Whistling Ukulele by Rafael Krux
City Sunshine by Kevin MacLeod
SFX from freesound.org
Cell phone vibration: MrAuralization
Knocking: awrecording.it
Creaking door: SkyernAklea
Door slam: adriann
Safety lock: Robinhood76
Clock chime: phantastonia
Creaky floorboard: Soundbysimmons
Hammering nails: InspectorJ
 

Having spent all of their money on a single nights rent the team go out to celebrate their right to exist...in the park, because they can't afford to go anywhere else. Join Jon and Anna as they pick apart Mike's thinly veiled satire of the housing crisis. Digressions include Mike's book, why Mike thinks writing books is easy but putting them together is hard, the absolute Kafka esque hell of the rental sector in the UK and Anna's love of Severance.

In this week's cataloguing of our national decline the team is arrested outside the leafy setting of The Great British Bake Off and returned to their rightful place, a cramped mould ridden maisonette administered by a sadistic estate agent and the sort of landlord that sees the death of one of their tenants as "a real headache."
And like any flatshare, the team are invited to the "house WhatsApp" on their arrival. But why?
And what dastardly villain would come up with such an unrelentingly bleak concept for an escape room?
Mike. Mike would. And he'd do all the voices, too.

Jamie is joined at the Soggy Bottom's Up by Gord and Liz at Review the Room for a chat about last week's episode. We also get into:
Colourblindness in puzzle games
Which city is the best for escape rooms
Why stakes matter when playing an escape room
Which one of them has superhero semen vision
 
Our list of cool shit to check out includes:
Sasquatch Sunset (Gord)
Squatty Potty (Liz)
Powerwash Simulator  (Jamie)

This week Jamie is joined by Gord and Liz from Review the Room to desecrate several British national treasures in quick succession.
There's copious sampling of unknown white powders in this one - completely unintended, promise.

Tuck into some Snail Porridge at Heston F***ing Blumenthal's legally different pub as Ben and Jamie try to make sense of last weeks room. Topics include the psychological harm caused by Anosmia, favourite smells (petrol, bacon), the dangers of writing puzzles with similar ingredients and then relying on the team to distinguish between them, and the Victorian pleasure of Snorting Mummies.
Yep, you read that right.

It's only taken five years but Jon has finally managed to start a recording ahead of time. It lasts thirty seconds and immeadiately fails. This is followed by an intro section that goes completely out of sequence and one of the most obscure puzzles we've ever done. There are no locks, no keys or codes. All that's needed is the answer to a simple question. What's wrong with Heston?
 
This episode features Jon, Jamie, Ben and even Jon's wife Sinead providing some piano for the ending.

Come join us at the "We've put a flag in it, so it's ours" pub, where Jamie, Mairi and Helen chat about last week's episode - The Museum Anti Heist. 
 
We also have a brief chat about weird-flavoured beers, get into just how much stuff the British Museum has stolen over the years, and Jamie leads a call to reclaim Stonehenge for the Welsh.
 
Cool stuff to check out:
A coincidental mammoth meat connection - Cave Escape Nottingham: Project Iceman
Case Closed Edinburgh
Quizzy Dan's Twitch stream
Cerebral Puzzle Showcase (Steam)
Also, our own Mike Collins has co-written a bloody book! Check out the Pedagodzilla book for pop culture and learning deliciousness.