Hm, I keep wondering about the whole 'another room' theory. It seems unlikely, and not quite sure how well it ties in with the 'cruel' aspect of the surprise. Whilst it would tie in with the clue, I'm just not sure what the logistics would be. Presuming that the tug of war will result in a winning team and a losing team, that means we're going to end up with one team being 'punished' in some way. Which would say that the 'basement' if we can call it that would be some sort of dungeon-like-thing... which would rather make visiting the diary room difficult, so I don't think that's going to be the one.
Oh well, we'll find out soon
