Edward's "revenge" on Bob the mute house servant
Edward had enough! This was it! During the yearly sorcerer meet in a hidden cellar in Léon, Edward discovered a red stain on his precious robe. First he thought that it was just blood - but no, it was red wine! If another sorcerer would've noticed the stain he'ld have been the laughing stock of the whole meet! He didn't even drink wine!
No, it was Bob's fault. What did he think? Just because he's a measly house-servant he's allowed to do any mistakes?! He had to pay - but Edward only had a few hours before his own Master would return.
After tricking the mute Bob down into the cellar, Edward trapped Bob's mind with a maze spell. This spell would throw Bob into a featureless labyrinth and force him to attempt and escape. And the best part? While inside the maze, every minute in the real world would feel like an eternity!
But as Edward was just about to start his evil laugh, Bob woke up. He escaped the maze! Edward went back into his room upstairs to draw a new one.
It was perfect. A piece of beauty. This time, Bob would pay for not properly dedusting the wall behind his bookshelf! After trapping Bob in another maze, he confidently left the cellar - just to come back 10 minutes later with Bob already gone! Impossible! And he only had enough astral power left for one more maze spell!
Edward had to figure out what strategy Bob used to escape his mazes, to create one that was inescapable.
When mazed, a person has to decide for one simple rule/strategy on how to deal with every crossing paths. The rule shouldn't be more complex than one if/else statement and be easy to memorize! Only actual crossings are relevant, corners and underbridges are unimportant.
Rules:
- The victim can only turn left or right. Going straight ahead in an "X-crossing" is not an option!
- If the victim runs into a dead end (Entrance) it simply turns around and walks back. Otherwise, the victim is never allowed to walk back.
Due to the confusing nature of the maze, the victim also can only count on two informations only:
- How many crossings the victim already passed (starting with 0)
- The last decision made (left or right)
The victim has no sense of orientation, does not know how long the tunnels are or how many corners they had and cannot leave behind any marks. Everyting is featureless and looks exactly the same!
Example rules:
- "Always turn left." (the classic)
- "Alternate between left and right. Start with left."
- "If the [number of crossings passed > 15] turn left, otherwise turn right."
- "If the [(number of crossings passed + 1) % 3 == 0] turn left, otherwise right."
How to handle "Underbridges" and "T-Sections"
There is no "going straight ahead". It's always "left" or "right"!
How to handle "X-crossings". Always go either "left" or "right", never "straight ahead"!
Analysis
Luckily, Edward is able to analyze Bob's path through another spell. The red line marks the way Bob took but doesn't display how many times he passed through the same tunnel, so the information is of limited use.
While analyzing the second labyrinth, Edward was able to analyze how many times Bob went through a certain crossing (depicted by the number).
1. What simple rule/strategy is Bob using to get through Edwards labyrinths? Bob uses the same strategy for every maze! It does not change between mazes!
2. Is it possible for Edward to create a 2 dimensional, finite labyrinth to stop Bob from escaping a third time?
(I hope I could make everything clear - I'm sadly not a native english speaker and yet have to practice explaining riddle-rules. Let me know if something is confusing and I'll try to clear it up!)