Murder in the Maze Part V: The Legend of The Maze Part I

I'm going to ask for a final indulgence from you for this last of bit of maze history.  I thought initially that the following would be one post,  but I forgot that the Legend was so long...four parts in fact.  What follows is a good bit of text and I apologize for it's quality, but I intentionally did not edit it as I wanted it to appear as it did on the maze website.  Please forgive my poor writing, but I do hope you enjoy the story.

At the time I wrote this it seemed like Christmas got a new story attached to it every year, but Halloween was greatly neglected.  I was always fond of the legend of Sleepy Hollow growing up and I will be the first to admit the many elements stolen from that classic tale.  Our goal for throwing all of the Halloween parties in the first place and building the maze was to celebrate the holiday we'd loved so dearly as children, that night of magic and pageantry, the wall thinned world of spirits and legends: All Hallow's Eve.  I wanted the legend to have strange rural legend quality and that creepy edge of dark magic.  Of course it is set on Halloween, of course there is a murder, it is after all...

THE LEGEND OF THE MAZE

PART ONE: THE FESTIVAL AND THE STRANGER

Many Seasons past...

 

In a distant valley, there was a quiet village known as Valleydown.

Each year the townsfolk held a Harvest celebration.

Rivaled by none, all of the people from the neighboring towns attended.

The bonfire they raised each night could be seen from miles away,

and their revelry could be heard echoing off the mountainsides

late into the night.

 

One year, a stranger came to Valleydown.

He observed the festivities tentatively,

But refrained from participating in the merrymaking.

His furtive glances and moody air inspired suspicion in the Townsfolk,

but as the day progressed, a young maiden, Jessica, took a fancy to the stranger.

She decided then that he would be her partner in the evenings dance,

And set about a plan to coax him into obliging.

 

She came to him with a sparkling ale and offered to sit with him...

He was reluctant at first, but her insistent entreaties

and her fiery hair soon got the better of him.

"My name is Jack," he said shyly.

"This is your first time at the festival?" she smiled and sat closer to him.

"Yes, Its all very...Lively."

He took a drink of the Ale and looked away nervously.

"It's almost sunset.  There'll be a dance at the bonfire soon.

That's where I'm going, would you like to join me?"

The drink was very heady and made his face feel warm.

"Perhaps."  He turned towards her,

caught suddenly by the green of her large eyes.

"I hope I can find a partner for the revels.

Perhaps some handsome gentleman will ask me to dance..."

She smiled and looked away coyly.

"Perhaps..." He smiled, and took another drink.

By the time his glass was finished,

he was following her to the Bonfire.

 

Jessica, however, was not without a suitor.

Thom, the stout young farmer to whom she was betrothed,

did not take kindly to Jack's unknowing intrusion.

To Be Continued...

The two pieces of art presented here are some more headers from the previously mentioned Maze website: nexuscentral.net.

{created in Photoshop}

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Murder in the Maze Part IV: The Website

In 2001, My friend Don and I decided we needed something to celebrate the fun of The Maze.  Secretly, while no one was watching, we built a website for The Maze. Don was proficient at code and I was up to my eyeballs in Photoshop, so away we went.

We gave each year its own page and placed photos from the parties and descriptions on each.  I designed a header for each one of the pages.  We created a page to do profiles on everyone who helped construct the Maze and make the party such a success.  We also had a page for all the strange things we had created - like the skull keystone from last post and the "Carrie" trophy for best costume - a trophy with an idol of a prom queen covered in blood!  We threw a huge party on my friend Carol's birthday (Cinqo De Mayo) and premiered nexuscentral.net.

I suppose that is where things went a little crazy.  The party that year was beyond huge.   We had more people than we'd every had at any of the other parties combined.  I believe the cops showed up three times that year.  There wasn't any violence or anything...with that many people, we were just a bit too loud.  I have to claim some responsibility for the tension and recriminations that followed.  That party was TOO big and many boundaries were crossed during and after the party.  That was where things changed.

After the 2001, the luster of the maze fell away and we were left with the stark reality of the effects the parties were having.  After that year, the Maze moved to another location and the parties lost some of their sparkle.  They were still fun mind you, but the honeymoon was definitely over.  The price of the maze had become painfully clear: too much money, too much cleanup, too much arguing, and too little respect.

So the maze parties moved to another location and we all had to grow up a little.  The parties continued, but some people backed out of the preparation phase and all of our efforts were a bit halfhearted now that we knew and understood the price of the maze.  Ahhhhh, but we have the memories of rushing through the darkness, anticipating and fearing the strange touch of our friends and wondering if the trembling hand that reaches towards us is shaking out of communal fear or in preparation for the kill.  Oh the Murder!  The Murder in the Maze!

There are still a couple of pieces left to post from the website and a flyer or two I've missed.  OH, and did I forget to mention the LEGEND OF THE MAZE!  Alas, that is for another post...BWA HA HA HA HA HA!

The website doesn't exist anymore, but I couldn't post about the maze and overlook this essential part of its history. The Carrie trophy was created and photographed by my friend Don and the Skull Keystone was created by my friend Mike and also photographed by Don.

{All the headers were created within Photoshop} 

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Murder in the Maze Part III: The Second Murderer

During third and fourth years of the Maze parties, so many people were playing the Murder in the Maze game that we developed an alternate set of rules for a second murderer within the game.  This was to help the game last a little longer with a large crowd so that everyone would have the opportunity to be "killed".  Also, sometimes the games would run long and people would have to head home to bed and had not had a chance yet to be the murderer.  So we inserted a second murderer to up the ante across the board!  There were several variations on how the second murderer was activated and came into play.  I don't remember them all, but following is the rule we used most often.

During the game, if the first murderer tapped the second murderer on the shoulder, then the second murderer was activated and tapped the first on the shoulder letting him know that he had become a murder victim and was dead.

Once this unknown murder had occurred, it would throw off any theory anyone had developed so far on the identity of the murderer and turn the game intrigue up to 11!  There was always lots of chatting after we were finished playing about who was where when and who secretly or not so secretly was watching or overheard when the murders were committed.  Lots of fun moments in the dark scaring the crap out of each other!  Good Times!  :-P

The first piece of art here is the flyer for the 2000 Maze party.  The flyer was printed on neon green and neon orange paper.  I apologize for my crappy scythe.  The image of Jack here has a MUCH better scythe!  :-)  Over time, Jack kind of became the official mascot for the maze parties.

{Pen & Ink, Text created in Photoshop}

The second piece of art here is the box I created for the deck of cards I created in Photoshop for the game.  During that time I had backed up many of my art files to zip disks and did not realize my error until too late.  I don't remember the exact year it occurred, but rapidly over several months time, all of my zip disks began to scramble and become unreadable.  I found out far too late that this is something that happens with zip disks over time.  I lost two years of artwork due to the scrambling.  The Murder in the Maze deck artwork was on those disks.  I've looked through all my old files to see if I had a hidden copy, but have not found any trace of the cards.

The person on the front of the box is my friend Don.  He let me xerox his face and use it as the cover.  The image from the back of the box is a skull painted by my dearly departed friend Ratboy aka Mike.  It was attached and used as the keystone in a fearsome archway we built for the entrance to the maze.  I'll see if I can find a picture of the archway and post it at some point.  The background is from several photos Don took of the black plastic that we used to construct the maze.  Those photos were used in the website we created to celebrate and advertise the Maze.  The website only ran for a couple of years but is no longer present on the web.  In my next post I will post some of the work I did for the site and give some more background info on it.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

More Maze History and Art:

Blogger Blip

I don't if anyone else had any posts derailed by the maintenance blip earlier this week, but my posts scheduled to post on Sunday did not go up.  It has been a hectic week so I did not catch it until today.  Sorry for the delay.  My previous post should have gone up Sunday.

Murder in the Maze Part II: The Game

The Murder in the Maze game is fairly uncomplicated.  First take a deck of cards and pull out the number of cards equal to the number of people playing, being sure to include the ace of spades.  Second, deal the cards out to everyone face down so that no one can see anyone's  cards.  Everyone then looks at their cards and shows no one.  Whomever has the  ace of spades is the murderer.  Everyone turns off their flashlights and retreats into the maze and the fun begins.

As soon as the lights are out, the player who is the Murderer begins counting to 60 to give everyone a chance to hide.  The Murderer then begins to seek out the other players and when he finds them, taps them on the shoulder to let them know they have been killed.  The Murderer flees and the killed player begins to count to 20.  At 20, the victim screams "Murder in the Maze!"  Everyone turns their flashlights on and proceeds through the maze to the scene of the crime.  The dead tell no tales, so the victim is unable to identify his/her killer and must remain silent.  However, the remaining players can accuse whomever they like as they try to discover the murderer.  The catch is that the murderer is hiding amongst the accusers and could be actively accusing someone else.  This is where the intrigue truly begins.

This is the Trial phase of the game with everyone acting as accused and accuser except the unfortunate dead.  The trial and accusations are based  on who passed who in the dark and how close everyone was standing to the victim when the lights came on.  After official accusations are made, everyone votes on who they think is the killer with majority ruling.  That player is then forced to show their card, revealing that they are the murderer...or not.  Many an innocent man or woman has gone to their death during this phase of the game.  If that player IS the murderer - Great Fun!  You Win!  Start again!  If that player is NOT the murderer (SHIVER) the previous victim and the wrongly accused leave the maze and everyone turns off their flashlights and retreats into the maze once again.  This continues until you find the murderer or the murderer gets everyone.  Many of the games ended with the last survivor and the murderer facing each other after Murder in the Maze had been called and the lights came up!  Good scary stuff!  I do recommend playing this game only with people you trust.  It can get pretty creepy in complete darkness.

The two pieces included here were also part of the planned deck for Murder in the Maze.  The butcher knife was to be the murderer card while the two daggers were to indicate the second murderer.  I will explain the second murderer in my next post!

{Graphite on Paper}

More Maze History and Art:

Murder in the Maze Part I: The Maze

The next few posts  are going to require a little more explanation than normal.  The artwork itself isn't much different from the regular stuff, but the cause for it is.

In 1998-2002 my group of friends threw a series of Halloween parties that were HUGE.  They started out small with just our regular group of friends involved, but by 2001 they had exploded into an uncontrolled tornado of people.  The parties continued well beyond 2002, but that was the end of my involvement with them.

For each party we built a black plastic maze in my friends backyard.  We used black gardening plastic, PVC piping, staples, string, duct tape, nails, 4x4 posts, and anything else we use to keep the construction together.  The Maze was entirely enclosed so that once you stepped inside it was utterly completely dark.  You literally could not see your hand in front of your face once night fell.  You had to move slowly through it lest you slam into anyone else inside or some of the post supports.  It made us all feel like we were young again, playing hide-and-seek in the dark.

The amusing part was that the reason for all this darkness and construction was so that we could play a party game: Murder in the Dark.  We changed the name to Murder in the Maze, because that is where we played it.  It was like Hide and seek and Freeze tag all rolled into one.  We had a great time running around in the darkness.  I'll go into the mechanics of Murder in the Maze in my next post.

These two pieces of art were going to be part of a deck of cards I was creating for Murder in the Maze.  These were two of the victim cards.  My plan was to do a portrait of each of our friends as the murdered victims in the game.  These two are of myself and my friend Don.  My goal was to take flip the images and combine them in Photoshop to create something similar to the face cards of a regular deck of cards.  This deck never happened, but I got several good drawings out of the effort.

{Graphite on paper - scanned and manipulated in Photoshop}

More Maze History and Art: