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A number pyramid beside the cover of Escape the Cipher Vault, a puzzle adventure gamebook.

Field Notes

Escape the Cipher Vault: The Story and a Look Inside

2 min read
  • Book story
  • Escape gamebooks
  • Paperback

Escape the Cipher Vault is a puzzle adventure gamebook, so do not read it in order. You solve a puzzle, and the answer in the door brick is the page you turn to next.

The story

An ancient vault is sealed, and its door answers to a password written in the Tomb Alphabet, 26 picture signs from Arch to Zigzag. You will learn the alphabet as you go.

Eight cipher chambers give you a key strip of numbered bricks, which spell a password in picture signs, and the brass plate shows the page to turn to. Six treasure rooms hide in the book, and their numbers become the givens of the final vault pyramid.

How it plays

Every chamber is one page: a short story beat, a puzzle, and a Next Door box. Solve the puzzle, find the number in the door brick, and turn to that page. A wrong answer sends you to a dead end that tells you which brick to recheck, so a slip costs you a minute and not the whole game.

A look inside

The front cover of Escape the Cipher Vault.
The cover.
The first chamber page of Escape the Cipher Vault: story text, an empty number pyramid and a Next Door box.
The first chamber, as printed. Nothing is solved.

At a glance

  • 45 chambers, with a password to crack in eight of them
  • A secret picture alphabet to learn
  • Six treasure rooms to find
  • Ages 10 to adult; paperback, 132 pages

Books mentioned

Escape the Cipher Vault cover

Escape the Cipher Vault

A puzzle adventure gamebook, paperback, 132 pages. 45 chambers, with a password to crack in eight of them.

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