The Vanishing Exhibit — Printable Escape Room Kit, Ages 9–12

A museum mystery for one birthday afternoon. Six puzzles, one hour, and a host guide that means you never have to solve anything yourself.

The Clockwork Cartographer has vanished from Case 12 at the Marlow Museum. Four members of staff were in the building and every one of them says they saw nothing. Your Junior Curators have six pieces of evidence and until ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

Ages 9–12 · 3–12 players · 15 minutes to set up · 45–60 minutes to play

What happens at the party

Children work through six evidence sheets in order. Each one gives them a word. One letter from each word goes on the Recovery Slip, and the six letters spell where the automaton is hidden. You tape an envelope behind a mirror before they arrive. That is the whole setup.

Try one puzzle first, free

Download evidence 3, the code-breaking puzzle, exactly as it appears in the kit, with its three hints and its solution. It is one puzzle of six, so it will not run a party on its own, but it tells you in five minutes whether the reading age is right for your child.

Download the free sample — A4  ·  Download the free sample — US Letter

The six puzzles

• The Night Log — a sign-in sheet and a process of elimination
• The Locker Note — a floor plan and a route to trace with a finger
• The Curator's Cipher — a coded card and the museum's old shelving key
• The Stopped Clock — two wrong clocks that agree on the right time
• The Acquisitions Ledger — arithmetic that sends the team back to sheets they have already solved
• The Backwards Note — mirror writing, read at a window or a mirror

No two puzzles use the same kind of thinking, so no single child runs away with the game. Two of them check themselves: the team knows it is right without asking you.

What is in the download

• Host guide, 6 sheets — setup, running order, hint policy, the finale, troubleshooting, and how to adjust it for eight-year-olds or thirteen-year-olds
• Player pack, 8 sheets — the case-file briefing, six evidence sheets with space to work, and the Recovery Slip
• Hint cards, 2 sheets — eighteen cut-out hints in three strengths, plus six Curator cards for checking answers
• Answer key, 2 sheets — every answer, with a worked solution
• Party extras, 6 sheets — door sign, invitations, badges, hint tokens, evidence labels, the finale card and certificates
• Start here, 1 sheet — what to print, in what order

Twenty-five sheets in total, as six PDFs, in both A4 and US Letter.

Playtest edition

Every puzzle has been worked through and every sheet has been checked to fit both paper sizes. What has not happened yet is a real party. So this is sold as a playtest edition and priced accordingly. Tell us what dragged and what landed, and you get every later version of this kit free.