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Printable escape roomAges 7 to 102 to 6 players, 30 to 60 minutes

The Dragon Who Slept on the Key.

An escape room you print at home. Crumble the dragon has fallen asleep on the key to the toy cupboard, and the Winter Toy Fair opens at five. Only Grandpa Tobias’s music box can wake him, and Grandpa has locked it inside a chain of 8 puzzles. Every answer opens the next envelope.

What you get

Two PDF files of the same 16 pages, one A4 and one US Letter. You print them, fill 8 envelopes and play at a birthday party, a sleepover, in class or on a rainy afternoon. Nothing is shipped.

The game laid out: the title, Crumble the dragon asleep on a brass key, puzzle card 1 with Grandpa's coded note, puzzle card 2 with the wind-up mouse maze, the music box lock, an Apprentice Toymaker badge, three boat picture pieces, the Bell, Star and Apple envelope labels and the paper key to the toy cupboard
The real cards from the game, arranged on one picture.
7.90 €one payment, VAT included

VAT included, nothing added at checkout. You buy the two files once, keep them and print as many copies as your family, party or class needs.

See all 16 pages first

The files unlock right after payment. You can still withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason (our terms, section 5). Terms

  • download buttons appear on this page right after payment, and the links come by e-mail too
  • A4 and US Letter, both in the price
  • no account to make

How the apprentices play.

Four steps, repeated for each of the 8 puzzles. A grown-up reads the story aloud and holds the envelopes; the children do the rest.

How the apprentices play in four steps: solve a card, look the answer up on The Key Ring, ask for the envelope with that picture, and wake Crumble with the page marked Open last
  1. Solve a card. Each card is one puzzle. The first two are a coded note and a maze.
  2. Look it up. Every answer on The Key Ring has a picture. Some pictures belong to no envelope at all.
  3. Ask for the envelope. If the picture is the one on top of your pile, they get it. If not, Crumble is still snoring, so they check their work or take a hint ticket (with two teams, see page 12 of the kit).
  4. Wake Crumble. They open the music box, sing the Wake-Up Song and get the key to the toy cupboard, where you hid a small treat.

What is in the game.

Sixteen pages, the same in the A4 and the US Letter file. Every picture on this page is cut from the real pages.

The eight puzzles as small drawings with their names: Grandpa's coded note, the wind-up mouse maze, the back to front note, Grandpa's toy shelf, Crumble's knitted scarf, the boat picture, the chest of drawers and the music box lock
Eight puzzles in a chain. Codes, a maze, mirror writing, counting, a pattern, a jigsaw, a logic puzzle and a final lock. Only the first two can be solved from the pictures on this page.
Two Apprentice Toymaker certificates signed by Grandpa Tobias, two Apprentice Toymaker badges, the paper key to the toy cupboard and the Acorn and Feather envelope labels
Badges, certificates and a brass key. Each child gets a badge at the start and a certificate at the end. 4 badges and 4 certificates to a page.
  1. 1Start here: three steps for grown-ups and what you need
  2. 2The story, to read aloud
  3. 3A code wheel to cut out, with warm-up codes
  4. 4 to 8The 8 puzzle cards
  5. 9The Key Ring, where the children look up their answers
  6. 1016 hint tickets, 2 for each puzzle
  7. 118 envelope labels, 4 Apprentice Toymaker badges and the paper brass key
  8. 12Plan for grown-ups: what goes in each envelope, a one hour timeline, two teams for 5 or 6 players and a checklist
  9. 13The no scissors version, with a decoder table
  10. 14The Wake-Up Song and the end of the story, to open last
  11. 154 certificates, signed by Grandpa Tobias
  12. 16Solutions for grown-ups, step by step

All sixteen pages, before you pay.

The Key Ring, the song, the solutions and the pictures that hold answers are blurred, and the puzzle text is replaced by grey lines, so nobody can peek.

All sixteen pages of the A4 file side by side; The Key Ring, the song, the solutions, the boat pieces and the drawings on cards 4 and 5 are blurred, and the puzzle and hint text is hidden
Tap the picture to open it large and zoom in.
Page 2, the story: Crumble asleep on the key, a note from Grandpa Tobias and how to play
Page 2. The story to read aloud.
Page 3, Grandpa's code wheel to cut out, with how to make it and how to use it
Page 3. The code wheel.
Page 11, eight envelope labels with pictures, four Apprentice Toymaker badges and the paper brass key
Page 11. Labels, badges and the key.

Who it is for, and what you need.

What you need: a printer, 8 envelopes, scissors and a paper fastener, a small treat; how long it takes and how many can play; and page 13, the no scissors version
Age
7 to 10. 7 year olds may need a grown-up to help with the code wheel.
Players
2 to 6. For 5 or 6, the plan shows how to run two teams at once; print the badge page and the certificate page twice.
Time
30 to 60 minutes to play, as younger children take longer. Plus about 30 to 40 minutes to print, cut and fill the envelopes, or about 10 minutes with the no scissors version.
You need
A printer (print one sided), 8 envelopes or folded paper and clips, pencils, scissors and one paper fastener (brad) for the code wheel, and a small treat to hide. No scissors? Page 13 shows how to play from whole pages.
Good for
A birthday party, a sleepover, a classroom, a club or a rainy afternoon at home.

Two files, the same 16 pages.

FilePaperPagesSize
A4 PDF210 x 297 mm16 pages1.20 MB
US Letter PDF8.5 x 11 in16 pages1.20 MB

Print at 100 percent or actual size, one sided, because one puzzle is read through the paper. Colour is nice but not needed. Keep page 1 away from the children, and put page 14 in the last envelope.

Before you buy.

What age is it for?

Children aged 7 to 10. 7 year olds may need a grown-up to help with the code wheel. Quick 9 and 10 year olds who love puzzles will be at the short end of the time. It is not made for 11 and up: some cards take an older child only a minute or two.

Does the grown-up need to know the answers?

No. The children find their answer on The Key Ring page and ask for the envelope with that picture. You keep the envelopes in a pile in the order of a one page table and hand over only the top one. If they ask for another picture, the answer is not right yet (with two teams, see page 12 of the kit).

To be honest, children can still ask for pictures at random and sometimes get lucky, and skip a puzzle that way. You hold the envelopes, so you see it when it happens.

Can I print it in black and white?

It is designed for that: every shape that matters differs in form, not only in colour. We checked this on the pages, not yet on a real black and white printer. If anything is hard to read, write to support@arling.sk and we fix it or send the money back.

Has it been played with real children?

Not yet, and we would rather say so. Every page was checked at print size by our own check script, and the maze, the code, the logic puzzle and the boat pieces were checked by a computer. The counting and mirror puzzles cannot be checked that way, so we checked that each answer appears on The Key Ring exactly once.

What happens after I pay?

Stripe sends you back to this page, the page checks that the payment went through, and download buttons for the A4 and US Letter PDF appear in place of the buy button. The same links are sent by e-mail to the address you paid with. The links on this page work for 7 days and the ones in the e-mail for 30 days; after that, write to support@arling.sk and we send fresh ones.

The unlock is remembered in this browser, so you can come back to this page later on the same device. Keep the files once you have downloaded them.

How many copies may I print?

As many as you need for your own family, party, classroom or club. Please do not share or resell the files.

Who made it?

ARLing s. r. o. in Bratislava wrote the story and the puzzles and drew the pictures, with the help of AI tools. The drawings are simple shapes drawn in code, and our own program typesets every page.

Do I get a receipt?

Yes. Stripe handles the sale through Managed Payments as the merchant of record, and ARLing supplies the files. At checkout you will see “Sold through Link”, your bank statement will show LINK.COM* ARLING, and Link sends you the receipt.

Can I get my money back?

Yes. As a consumer you can withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason, as our terms say in section 5: write to support@arling.sk or use the withdrawal form, and we refund you within 14 days by the same payment method. If a file is broken or a puzzle is wrong, write to us and we put it right.

That is the law, not our customer service. All sixteen pages are shown above so you can decide before paying. If a file is broken or never arrived, write to support@arling.sk and we will fix it or send the money back. Terms and withdrawal form.

Colophon

Publisher
ARLing s. r. o., Ivanská cesta 32E, 821 04 Bratislava, Slovakia. Company ID 56583486, VAT ID SK2122352100.
Who makes it
Andrej in Bratislava looks after the products and the support and answers at support@arling.sk. The story, puzzle and drawings were made with the help of AI tools; our own program typesets every page.
Payment and delivery
Stripe handles the sale through Managed Payments as the merchant of record, and ARLing supplies the files. Your download links appear on this page as soon as Stripe confirms the payment, and the same links are sent by e-mail to the address you paid with. There is no account to make.

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