1941 · about 35 minutes · 4 ropes

The Ninth Name

Four ropes, a peal that nobody was allowed to hear, and a line on a board that is not a name.

Buy the link for your group$5for the whole group
~35 minfor a group that talks1 to 6players, one linkNo appany phone or laptopMedium

Latchkeys › Escape rooms › The Ninth Name

The situation

You are sitting on the bench in the ringing chamber at St Michael's with a painted board across your knees that you pulled out from behind the bell frame an hour ago, face to the wall, where it has been for sixty years. Seven of its eight lines are names and the eighth is not, and the ninth name is what you are here to find, because the bellhangers come at ten to lift the frame and the vicar will not hang a board that cannot name its band. You are the steeplekeeper; you went up into the frame for a dead pigeon and came down with this.

OBJECTIVE  Find the ninth name before the hangers lift the frame at ten.
CLOCK      The bellhangers come for the frame at ten. It is six.
PRIZE      The ninth name, and why a tower with eight ropes had nine.
  • bell tower
  • 1941
  • a peal board
  • an English parish
  • four ropes
  • online escape room
The ringing chamber of a village church tower on a winter morning: eight bell ropes hanging with their striped sallies, a painted chart screwed to the limewashed wall beside a wooden rope box, two spare ash stays hung on nails, and a thick register lying open on a bench under a narrow lancet window. Nobody in the chamber.Five gilt-framed peal boards hung side by side on the stone wall of a ringing chamber, their faces dark, a sixth board leaning against the front of the bench beneath them, its face dark, and a lit lantern on the bench. Nobody in the chamber.Three handwritten letters laid side by side on a scrubbed wooden table in a ringing chamber, a brass handbell beside them, a plain rope coiled at the table's edge, a lit lantern, and a stone stair curving up out of the room. Nobody there.

Play it with your group

$5for the whole groupBuy the link for your group

You get a link. It works for everyone in your group, on any device, and it does not expire.

  • About 35 minutes
  • 1 to 6 players, one price for the group
  • Phone or laptop, nothing to install
  • No account, nothing tracked
  • A key on every step if you get stuck
  • The link does not expire

Questions people ask

Can we play it together over Zoom or a call?

Yes. One purchase is one link, and the link works for everyone in your group at once. Share your screen or all open it; there is nothing to sync, because the puzzle is the pages and the answers you work out together.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. It was built for a phone first: every lock is a text box or buttons you tap, nothing needs a keyboard, a mouse or a printer.

How long does it take?

About 35 minutes for a group that talks; longer if you like arguing. There is no timer and nothing is scored.

What if we get stuck?

Every step has its own key: a nudge first, then a harder nudge, and the answer only if you ask for it. Wrong answers say something in the story rather than just no.

Do we need an account or an app?

No. The link opens in any browser and nothing is installed. Nothing is tracked while you play, either.

Is it suitable for children?

The stories are eerie and never cruel; nobody dies on the page. The puzzles need reading and a little arithmetic, so about twelve and up on their own, younger with an adult.

Can I play it alone?

Yes. It was written in the second person, so it works for one as well as for six.

What if it does not work for us?

Write and say so, and you will have your money back. The link does not expire, so there is no rush to use it.