Council Basement (final runaround) by Greg Pliska (based on an idea of Kiran Kedlaya) > Begin at HQ (The Spofford Room). You want to be a free man? Head > towards him. The picture of Freeman in the stairwell facing the front door of the Spofford Room. >Take a left and spiral downward until you see a sign (or most of one) >saying PUSH TO OPERATE. Do it, and do what the results invite you to >do. The automatic door at the Mass. Ave entrance to Building 1. >Continue straight until you get to a tall, multicolored truncated >cone (or nearly cone-ish solid). Turn right immediately past this >solid. This is directly across Mass. Ave. >After you pass a building labeled with a symbol for Saturn on your >left, turn left. The symbol for Saturn is the "H" in the logo of Bexley Hall. >Continue till you hit a wall, turn left. >Turn right (without going through a door). Turn right. Turn left >where you can go down the steps. This takes you between Bexley and the MIT Chapel, then back around to the entrance to the Chapel. >Imagine you're entering a circle. When you reach a point opposite >your entry point, leave the circle (bearing left if you have a >choice). At the next fork, go left. Walk about 2/3 of the way around the Chapel, then bear off towards the entrance to the Student Center (the one further from Mass. Ave.) >Go through the double doors ahead of you (if you have a choice, take >the ones marked "DOOR"), then the next double doors, then take a >right. Towards the down stairwell. >Head east, downstairs as many flights in a row as you can (following >the direction indicated by the sign for a place with a Greek letter >in its name). Alpha Cleaners. >Go left at the bottom of the stairs (through a door if you have to). >Go right, left at the support pillar, through the exit door, left at >the exit sign (not mounted on the wall), past the elevator and take a >right through the exit door. There are two exit signs on the wall; at the end of the hall, there is one suspended from the ceiling. >Go up the stairs, outside, and down the ramp. The ramp turns north at >its end; you turn right and head east. Exit the Student Center from the back, and head back towards Mass. Ave. >Go up a short flight of steps to, but not through, a revolving >door. Turn left. Go down the steps. You'll see a standpipe in front >of you. Turn right. Cross the street (illegally, sorry), turn left in front of Building 9, then turn right around Building 9. >You'll see a sign on your left (****** ******** **** ******). Turn >right when you do. WRIGHT BROTHERS WIND TUNNEL; turn between Buildings 9 and 13. >Bear left and down if you can't go exactly straight. When you get to >a group of mirrors, push the square panel closest to the most >mirrors. Go that way. Enter the Infinite Corridor on the basement level, heading away from Mass Ave. >Pass vending machines on your right. When you reach a wall, go up. All the way to the end of the corridor (Building 8). >Go through the door, turn right. >You'll see the last name of a famous poet on the wall. Turn left. The name is "Cummings". Turn towards Buildings 6, 4, 2. >Turn right when you reach a tree, in the direction of the pay >phones. Pass them on your right. Lobby 2. >Before you get to a portrait, bear left, and go through the double >doors. Then go through the double doors. Then go through the double >doors. Then go through the double doors. Exit Building 4, cross Killian Court, enter Building 3. >Take the nearest down staircase as far as possible. One floor down. >Pass through no doors until you pass a vending machine. >Go through the double doors. >Go through the double doors. Cross through the parking lot from Building 3 into Building 1. >Turn left and pass vending machines on your right. >Stop at the next numbered door on your right. This is room 1-025. No surprise here: the "council basement" is in fact two floors almost directly below Hunt headquarters! >Find the only entrance to this room that is marked with the word >"ENTRANCE." Look behind the fire hose. This instruction cannot be followed as written; 1-025 has only one door and it is not marked with the word "ENTRANCE". (It has a fire hose nearby, but there was nothing there.) Remember that we said that the final meteorite "can be accessed from the basement of the Council building", not that it was actually *in* the basement. What solvers had to realize here is that they used only five of the six superpowers to defeat the supervillians who had hidden the keys to the basement; the sixth superpower, the Power of Ten, was needed to gain access to the coin. Namely, applying the Power of Ten to room 1-025 turns it into 10-250 (the auditorium at the midpoint of the Infinite Corridor); that room has exactly one door marked "ENTRANCE" (the rear entrance, under the seats). Opposite that door is a fire hose, and the meteorite was taped to the wall behind the fire hose.