My vision for this is less "evil mastermind's corrupting dungeon" and more "fidelity testing double date." There is a reward for the whole team if it escapes within the time limit, but also a reward for the person within each couple who manages to remain more faithful regardless of success.
4 participants - 2 couples - enter. Everyone knows what sort of an experience they're potentially getting into. For the sake of distinguishing them, I'll name the first couple Alice and Aaron, and the second couple Beth and Bob.
Pre-game setup:
Before starting, a hypnotist meets with the group and puts everyone under. Everyone is asked to rate from 1 to 10 how much they like to dictate the pace of a sexual experience, and how much they like it when their partner takes the lead instead. The goal here is to identify for later who should be given suggestions to make some unfaithful moves, and who should instead be made receptive to those advances. For the below descriptions, I'll be assuming that Alice and Aaron tend to be more dominant, and Beth and Bob more submissive in that regard.
Each participant is given the suggestion that two particular types of hypnotic focus are especially hypnotic to them, and will quickly put them into a trance even deeper and even more relaxing than their last; even just thinking about one of these objects will make them want to experience it again. Also, they are told that any sexy or hypnotic suggestions they receive while watching one of their hypnotic objects will feel so very compelling.
Nobody knows at first which objects will hypnotize them so easily, or even that each person has a unique list of such things - but it won't take them long to find out! Here's the list of trance traps by participant:
Alice - swinging watch and glowing crystal
Aaron - spinning spiral and metronome
Beth - swinging watch and flickering "candle" (simulated to avoid a fire hazard)
Bob - spinning spiral and the glowing eyes of a snake statue
Note that the men and the women have a common focus, but each person also has a focus unique to them.
Also, each of these devices could potentially be turned off - if all participants are simultaneously in a trance for more than 5 minutes, the relevant devices will deactivate for 30 seconds to get things going again.
The team is brought back together, still in a trance, and given a couple final suggestions before getting started. First, whenever they hear the sound of a bell, their eyes will relax and open, and their arms will feel heavy for a moment. This, combined with bells ringing at key points during puzzle solutions, is to prevent players from gaming the system by simply closing or covering their eyes. (It's okay if they find some more clever solution to avoiding trance; I just don't want the first thing they'll probably try to work.) Finally, they are instructed that they will find lewd solutions to many of the puzzles, and they should therefore enter the escape room wearing only their underwear. Once they do, the hypnotist wakes them up and leaves through a door that is then sealed with an overly elaborate, puzzle-y lock.
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As a warm-up puzzle, the lights in the room are off to begin with except for the light provided by one flickering candle on a nearby desk. On that desk is a note which reads, "To turn the lights back on, everyone must say 'I'm feeling so horny' several times." In the dark, the participants are unlikely to notice Beth's trance, but that shouldn't stop her from repeating what everyone else is saying!
When the team gets Beth out of her trance, they might reach the conclusion that each person has one unique type of trance trap, which of course is only half of the story. Regardless, the room will now show two obvious avenues for possible progression. There are also two soft mattresses with plush sheets in case the participants find themselves wanting to use them.
The first tier of puzzles:
- Inside a large, windowed box, there is an oversized pocketwatch on a rigid arm. To make it swing, the whole team must use 4 separated left/right controls in tandem with each other; the buttons, of course, are shaped like breasts. The next segment of this area opens only after the team gets it to full momentum, which requires at least a minute of focus as the pendulum speeds up to one swing per second, and the team must keep it there for 20 seconds. Once at full momentum, a bell will chime, and a thin progress ring begins filling along the outer portion so the solvers know. However, at the same time, a message will appear on the watch, fading in and out with one word at a time - "Imagine... having... sex... with... your... friend's... lover..."
Once the puzzle is complete, the watch will continue swinging on its own and will continue displaying its message.
- There is a large hypnotic spiral with some words displayed at fixed locations scattered throughout the spiral, and a highlighted word displayed in the middle. Near the spiral are not-quite-life-size nude statues of a man and a woman. To make the spiral spin, there is a wheel on the inside of the female statue's vagina which can be rotated by using a finger-sized indentation near the edge. As the spiral spins, the scattered words will become highlighted one at a time. To make progress, the penis of the male statue must be pulled when the highlighted word matches the one in the middle, which will cause a bell to chime while that word disappears from its scattered position, and a new word gets added to the growing sentence in the middle. Once the full sentence has been assembled, the next portion of this area will open up. The full message reads "Everything about your friend's lover fills you with desire".
Once the puzzle is complete, the spiral will continue spinning on its own, and the words in the message will cycle their highlights one word at a time for easy reading.
The hypnotic devices in the above puzzles will remain active for the rest of the experience, and as they are in plain view, are likely to occasionally recapture a participant. It will be up to whoever notices the trance to decide how soon to snap them out of it - there are obviously advantages to either being quick or not in that regard depending on who is entranced!
First pair of tier 2 and 3 puzzles:
Behind the first swinging watch puzzle is a wall that comes up to chin height, behind which is another swinging watch, this one a bit more realistically sized. Embedded into the wall is a mold of the female form. There is an entrance into the area behind the wall which opens only once a bra-less woman has fit herself into position, and the puzzles (and lights) back there are only on so long as she stays in position. Likely unheard by the other participants is a quiet message coming out periodically from hidden speakers near her head so long as she is in position: first, a bell chimes, then after a short delay, "The god of love, Eros, has blessed the hands of the men in this room. Their touch makes you magically aroused."
Directly behind the door to the back portion of this puzzle is another swinging watch in front of a sign that says "Getting so horny, getting so naked", an obvious deterrent to sending in the other woman - though, if they find a way to do that, it may be an easier solution. Upon turning the corner, there is a snake statue and a metronome, though both are inactive. In front of these are four joysticks with buttons on them. To proceed, there are two directional sequences that have to be input, one to be displayed next to each of the hypnotic focuses so long as they are active. Of the four joysticks, the buttons on two of them activate both focuses at once so long as the button is pressed, while two activate only one. All buttons also ring a bell when pressed. When active, the space directly behind the metronome's swinging arm will scroll the following messages: "Beth is so hot \ Make out with Beth \ Knead Beth's butt \ Bring Beth to bed \ Make sweet love to Beth". Similarly, the snake statue will scroll these messages through its glowing eyes: "Alice is so sexy \ Fondle Alice's breasts \ Alice is irresistible \ You crave Alice's touch".
Completing the above puzzle releases the watch that was swinging in view of the woman who fit herself into the mold; it will slide into a tray next to her on the wall. Nearby, in plain view since the first watch puzzle was completed but until now not useful, is a spinning spiral behind a mostly transparent mechanism with a gold slot; the watch earned before fits into this mechanism. Once inserted, a bell chimes, then the watch begins to swing (of course), and a nearby speaker will repeat in a soothing voice, "Give your friend's lover an erotic massage." As it swings, the watch's face will slowly display 5 numbers in sequence, then the watch will release from the mechanism. These numbers are the combination for a nearby safe. Whoever sees these numbers will surely have another task in mind first; hopefully they'll have some memory of the numbers, too, or else they'll have to try again. Inside the safe is a snake figurine. On the bottom is a button that can make its eyes glow.
The same, for the other side of the room:
After the first spiral puzzle was solved, a short closed door was revealed in the wall behind it. On either side of this door is a transparent section of the wall with a glory hole. The door only opens when both glory holes have been appropriately filled. Visible through the transparent wall sections are, of course, hypnotic spirals. When the door opens, and shortly after someone goes through the door, a bell will ring. The room behind the door is dimly lit, and the ceiling is too low to stand up inside.
When the men open the door, the side walls of the short room open a compartment with a glowing crystal on the side that features Bob, and one with a flickering electric candle on the side with Aaron. On a short delay after the door senses someone entered, a message is spoken to the occupants: "Come closer... Come closer..." In the same compartment as each hypnotic device is a button; the puzzle will be solved once both buttons are pressed simultaneously. However, once the room detects that Alice has approached the crystal, a speaker positioned such that only she should hear it chimes a bell and gives her these suggestions: "You cannot touch this button until you have given Bob a blowjob. Bringing Bob to orgasm is so arousing. Any time his penis is near, it fills your mind with more things you want to do with it." At this point, the crystal will stop glowing. When and if Alice does start sucking Bob off, a bell chimes for Bob, who is then told: "Alice's mouth is hypnotizing your penis. It is becoming eager to serve her. Your penis pulls you toward Alice like a powerful magnet." Similarly, once Beth approaches the candle, she gets a bell and these suggestions: "You cannot touch this button until you have given Aaron a blowjob. His penis is so very hypnotic. His semen is addictive. Once you have tasted it, you will be putty in his hands." And, like Bob, Aaron gets a bell and a message when and if the blowjob begins: "Your penis has hypnotized Beth. It feels so good to dominate her like this. You want to hypnotize her again and bring her to bed."
When finally the puzzle is solved, each alcove has a hypnotic spiral with a geared edge drop into it, one large and one small. The hypnotic focuses then begin to blink, one brief flash every 5 seconds for a while, then every 2 seconds, then every second, then a quick blinking pattern, before it fully turns back on. If the system detects someone has remained near (or returned to) the object, it will replay its message, minus the part about the buttons.
Elsewhere in the first spiral puzzle's area, visible but until now useless, is a system of gears, but two of the gears are missing. The gears lead to a pair of pairs of figurines which depict a freeze frame of sexual activity - one pair is going at it doggystyle, while the other has the woman riding on top. When a gear is in position, it rotates a wheel near the closest figure, moving, in turn, each possible pair of person-specific hypnotic focuses (the crystal, metronome, candle, and snake) in front of the figurines. Whenever the correct pair of focuses for the current figurines is in position, the figurines will animate. At this point, a rod at the middle of the gear should be pushed in; this will stop the wheel from turning, activate the hypnotic devices for the rest of the escape room session, and ring a bell. If you've been paying attention, it should come as no surprise that the doggystle solution is a metronome and candle, while the cowgirl solution is a crystal and a snake. The figurines will remain in animation as a nonverbal suggestion directly behind the hypnotic devices. Completing both sides will release a crystal which has a button on one side to make it glow.
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That's as far as I've designed so far.
Where things go next:
At this point, the team has access to a pocket watch, a spiral, a crystal, a candle (from the initial desk) and a snake statue. For the rest of the room, I'm looking for one more puzzle that awards a metronome upon completion, with the puzzle set up to be more aggressive toward getting Alice and Bob to go at it, as I think Beth and Aaron have been hit a bit harder thus far. Finally, opening the door involves a puzzle that requires all 6 of these objects to complete, with the puzzle set up to require players to hypnotize each other, with the players also being "encouraged" to put their fellow players in trance unnecessarily and secure some more sexy fun before leaving - hopefully losing track of time in the process and losing the game.
