One of the ports The City Adventurers visited on our festive cruise was Rouen. A beautiful city with ancient buildings, cobbled streets and lots of history……Talking of history, we were surprised to find ourselves on a time travelling quest to help Merlin the enchanter.
According to Arthurian legend, after King Arthur’s death, Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake by one of his knights, Sir Bedivere.
Recently, we discovered a follow up story that said, although the sword was thrown into the lake, the Lady of the Lake agreed to return the sword to Merlin, but she retained the pommel. This caused Excalibur to lose its powers. To restore its power, Merlin sought a team willing to travel back in time and reunite the sword and the pommel.
Well, how could we refuse? And that is how we ended up at Escape 423.
The Enchantment of Excalibur
A time rift is about to open on Merlin’s laboratory, shortly after the death of King Arthur. Following his disappearance, his legendary sword Excalibur was thrown into the lake of the fairy Viviane, also called the Lady of the Lake. Merlin, the faithful enchanter of the kingdom, decided to go see the Lady of the Lake to convince her to return Excalibur to him. Viviane, in love with Merlin, accepted but on condition that she keep the pommel. Not long ago, in our time, divers discovered a strange ornate pommel at the bottom of the lake of the Château de Compère in Brittany. It seems to date back about 1500 years, and strangely it has not rusted. After several analyses, we were able to determine that it is the pommel of Excalibur. Join the Guardians of Time organization and help us discover what happened to Excalibur. Your mission will be to cross the rift and return its pommel to restore its powers. Ready to take on the challenge and prevent the world from forgetting the Arthurian legend?
Arrival
Despite neither of us speaking french we were keen to try our hand at an escape room in France. After all we had already completed others in Germany, Spain and Belgium. So we checked online to find one that offered an English translation. EscapeTheReview came up trumps and suggested Escape 423 at 35 Rue Alsace Lorraine. We booked in advance and specified “in English only” on the booking.
The morning our ship arrived the Rouen we found its Christmas market was not open. Not only that, it appeared that most things were closed in the old town on Mondays. Even the restaurants did not open until midday so we spent a lot of time exploring the streets. This meant we still arrived very early for our game, in desperate need of a sit down. However, we were not allowed to wait at the venue. Instead we were directed around the corner to the cinema….which was also closed! Luckily we found a restaurant opposite that was open and enjoyed a vegetable soup before our adventure.
Review
Returning to the escape venue we were shown into the waiting area and asked how much we knew about the legend of King Arthur. Obviously we knew the basic story about Excalibur being returned to the Lady of the Lake. The Games master confirmed the legend, and now told us the reason for our quest. It appears that the sword was returned to Merlin without its pommel. Recently the pommel had been discovered at the bottom of the lake of the Château de Compère in Brittany. It was our mission to go back in time and reunite both parts of the sword.
We were given the pommel and told we were being sent to Merlin’s laboratory, where we would visit more than one area while solving various puzzles. As we stowed our coats and bags in the lockers, we asked how dark it would be, and if we would need our phones a torches. We were informed that, unlike other escape rooms, we would not have to use any keys nor open any padlocks, so light should not be a problem. However, we would need to find codes to complete our task and restore the sword.
Entering Merlin’s laboratory we found ourselves in a dimly lit room with a high ceiling. The decor was well themed for the middle ages, with lots of wood etc.
Luckily Merlin had left us instructions for finding elemental stones and using magical objects that would help us in our quest. Also, if we got stuck, Archimedes the owl could give hints via the magic mirror.
We love playing rooms that use a lot of tactile props rather than expecting you to use tech. Sure the tech is there but it is hidden so when you get the right code or right object in the right place the “magic” is released. Wonderful.
The puzzles are fairly linear and some tasks required a good amount of dexterity. There was one particular manual challenge that needed to be solved before we could move on…..And one of us was struggling to complete it (!) Luckily, the Games Master saw us struggling and offered to help. That got us moving on again.
Did we succeed in our mission?
Yes (sort of). We did complete the whole mission and reunite the pommel with the sword but we did go over time. Escape423 were kind enough to let us run over our allotted time to complete the game.
The Enchantment of Excalibur is a fun room to play. The themed decorations hid the magic mechanisms beautifully. This is a great room to play for those who, like us, prefer tactile puzzles. The Games masters a great at helping players who only speak English too.
Recommended
Book your adventure at Escape 423 website
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