DELAWARE — Yep, you read that headline right.
Crooked Cottage Escape Rooms and Raven’s Cauldron owner Brian Campbell has thought way outside the box and is bringing an outdoor minotaur-chasing side quest to downtown Delaware starting July 1.
Campbell opened Raven’s Cauldron, a “metaphysical gift shop,” in 2019. They quickly outgrew the 110 S. Sandusky St. location and moved to 6 N. Sandusky St.
Before moving the gift shop, Campbell opened one escape room as part of Crooked Cottage Escape Rooms at 112 S. Sandusky St., above the old Raven’s Cauldron storefront.
Now, Crooked Cottage Escape Rooms occupies 110 and 112 S. Sandusky St., with five total escape rooms.
Campbell’s creative mind and business sense for creating fairy-tale-like experiences led him to the minotaur side quest.
Just like his homegrown, locally-centered escape rooms, the minotaur side quest will feature scenes from across the city of Delaware.
Without giving away any added clues before the three-week adventure begins, Campbell said the “real-world adventure” is loosely based upon local lore all around the city.
“There is some lore about a train derailment that happened years ago at Blue Limestone Park,” he said. “We based the adventure loosely on those kinds of things, hauntings at Strand Theatre, too, and then we added to it. This is a completely fictitious experience.”
In a nutshell, the mystery revolves around an alleged minotaur sighting that occurred in Delaware some time ago, and there are clues in nature to help people solve the case.
“This is the closest thing to augmented reality without tech. For instance, a piece of graffiti might be a clue, something that’s always been there for years,” Campbell said.
“Our tagline is that it’s been there all along, you just never noticed it.”
The mystery logistics
For $29.99, minotaur hunters will receive clues via email for three weeks of puzzle-solving designed to get people outside, off their phones, and interacting with partnering local businesses.
“You could get it done way sooner than three weeks, but we try to space it over three weeks,” Campbell said. “We have leaderboards that are showing up at Crooked Cottage and in Raven’s Cauldron.”
The leaderboard is designed for those gamers who demand competition (we all know that one person).
People who solve a week’s set of clues within seven days and submit certain answers to part of the puzzle can earn points and climb the leaderboard.
Campbell emphasized that this really is a hometown experience, and added how much he enjoys writing the lore for his escape rooms and now side quests.
“I get the framework of an idea, and then I walk the town, go to parks and find things in nature that are boring that you would pass every day. Then I just write a story about it, a clue about it, and it can be very difficult sometimes,” he said.
The arcane-loving mastermind behind the mysteries has already sold about 40 spots, and the puzzle’s website states those who finish this first puzzle will be first in line for the next quest.
“This is a seasonal approach, so three quests will make up Season 1. The first quest is the Delaware Minotaur, the next one is going to be the Dark Unicorn of Delaware and a sasquatch sighting for the third one,” Campbell said.
“We’re going to run this while the weather is good in Ohio, so this will probably run through Thanksgiving.”
