I saved a unicorn tonight

So I have to tell you about this puzzle I finally got around to finishing. I started it January-ish, in the depths of winter when I very much wanted something light, mindless, and whimsical to do. I couldn’t find a puzzle I wanted to do for art (aka to hang and frame) but I did find a lovely unicorn standing around w some butterflies in a meadow in the woods. Perfect.

The box said it was an Escape Room Puzzle. I had no idea what that meant but happy unicorn so doesn’t really matter. There was a paper story about the unicorn that I read, figured I’d figure out what it was talking about later, and then promptly forgot.

So away I go putting pieces together and I realized fairly quickly the picture that was forming did not match the one on the box. And there were some odd things - random numbers around the edge pieces and symbols in strange places around the puzzle. Wasn’t going to frame it anyways so all good.

Sad unicorn :(. If you zoom in you can see the grey horn.

Except, my unicorn wasn’t standing and definitely wasn’t happy. And her horn appeared to have lost its lustre. Sad. Finished the puzzle, enjoying some of the smaller details that would be hard to notice if you weren’t looking literally at each piece individually. Decided I should revisit the escape room component. Reread the story to learn that she was, in fact, dying. Oh no! But wait! I could save her! Lol

Well now we know why the unicorn is sad...

Except I couldn’t ;-P. It’d been a long day. I was sure saving her had something to do with the symbols and the numbers but no idea what or how. It’s cardboard - it’s not like it’s going to suddenly glow…. I clicked the “hint” QR code and clued in to how the puzzle worked, but decided the three hours of sleep I was working on was not sufficient brain power for me to do that much work (sorry unicorn).

BUT - I was sad for my unicorn friend and really curious what this all was about, so I’m going to freely acknowledge that I cheated and opened the answer envelope. Where I learned that certain pieces, if you took them apart and reattached them together, would, in-fact, rejuvenate our lovely unicorn’s horn. 

Happy and healthy once more

And I have to say in a world of crazy tech, the simple ingenuousness of this really made my night. So if you’re a puzzle person, maybe consider an escape room puzzle some day :)