Library Room Escape Series: Hogwarts Escapade

Samma Lynne
Jun 15, 2018
9 min read

All right, this is going to be a terribly long post. With images galore. And a couple of videos. This is one of my more ambitious "from scratch" programs. A couple of notes before we begin:

Don't feel like you have to do this exactly if you run this program! Feel free to simply mine this post for ideas for cool Hogwarts-esque puzzles for any kind of program. I used a lot more materials than I usually do (color-changing paint, a chalkboard that can never be used for anything else, a briefcase, a niffler plush... I got a lot going on in here).

But hopefully this is a good inspiration for some off-the-wall things you can do with escape room kits, or puzzles to include in Harry Potter programs.

Also, if you live in the Palm Harbor, FL area and want to try this escape room, don't read on! Obviously there are spoilers galore and while I ran this for "Hogwarts-aged kids" (11-18) I will be running it again for adults. If you want to play it, don't read this!

And now, on with the show!

(Note: Many of the set dressings came from the RPF, Wikipedia, or Google Image searches. Most clues were created by me. I have no problem with reuse, but if you want to check on other items, check out the RPF and more.

A second note: I will be providing links to items on Amazon. Feel free to shop around! For transparency, I have an account with Amazon that gives me a small commission for any purchase made through one of my links.)

All of the following information can be found in my Google Drive folder for this event here. This is also where you'll find any clues I created to print out for your own escape room or program!

Premise:

Hogwarts classroom, the History of Magic, one of the few classes you don’t need your wand for. While Professor Binns droned on in preparation for your first OWL exam, and you sleepily listened, mischief was afoot – Peeves the Poltergeist stole everyone’s wands!

He locked them in a box and left, cackling madly. Now you have to get into this box and retrieve your wands so you can take your OWL exam – but that’s in only 45 minutes, and you can’t use your magic! At least he’s a little more about mischief than menace, and if you can solve his puzzles, you should be able to open the box. Good luck, witches and wizards!

Setup:

Messy magical classroom. Include any possible bits of homework, Hogwarts class notes, anything to make it seem like they’re inside Hogwarts.

Most important setting items (which will be used in various clues and solutions):

Chalk board with lots of notes and dates
Niffler in a cage
Wooden crate of potions
Pretty UV light (glowscepter)
Herbology plants (mandrake)
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
Quidditch Through the Ages
Bag of practice runes
Professor’s briefcase
Letter cryptex
Bottle of potion water
Exam schedule
Arithmancy test
Blacked out prophecy ball
Astronomy chart
Planets/stars on ceiling
Tarot cards
Marauder’s Map
Boxes and chests to lock
Box with wands locked inside

Solution Walkthrough:

To start, there are three different puzzle paths, which eventually converge.

Branch One

Set of “practice runes” that have the runes on one side and corresponding letter(s) on the other. Message to decode that leads to opening the cryptex (“blue”).
Opening the cryptex reveals another runic message that, when solved, reveals the location of “potion water” to pour into a set of potions to reveal the color combination to a directional lock on a box. (“red, blue, yellow, blue, red”).
Opening the box gives a quiz with the code for the briefcase. (3: 150/snitch points; 7:493/knuts in a galleon)
Opening the briefcase reveals an exam schedule that alludes to each task and shows that the last task involves astronomy. It also has the coded final clue.

Branch Two

Erasing the notes off the black board reveals the title “Fantastic Beasts” and several page numbers to look at with clues.
These pages mention the mandrake and the niffler. The niffler is in a cage locked with a code found in Branch Three to open the cage.
Pulling the mandrake out of the soil reveals a key that opens up a locked box with an astronomy chart inside to be used for the final puzzle. It also has the cipher number for the final clue.

Branch Three

A clue set up in Tarot card orders leads to a clue for the color-changing prophecy ball
The number opens a locked box that has the Marauder’s Map inside. It has notes in invisible ink that they will need the glowscepter for. Folding the map reveals the code to retrieve the niffler.
The niffler has a cipher coin to decode the final clue.

Final Clue

The final coded cipher needs to be solved so everyone turns off the lights and looks up to see glow-in-the-dark stars and planets (in order).
The box with the wands locked inside is locked with a DIY combination lock that has all its “digits” set to planetary symbols.

To see a quick overview of the full room, you can check out my pre-game video here!

Tarot Card Clue: Requires a tarot deck AND a book that can point the solvers to four specific cards. I used a book called Tarot Spells by Janina Renee that has several bookmarked spells. A to-do list clue that is out in the open states “Tarot spell for stress” and is underlined. One of the bookmarked spells is to mitigate stress and gives four cards in a specific order.

At the bottom of EVERY tarot card is a random “prophecy” line, or half of a line. A lot came from just searching “prophecy generator.” The four cards in the order above gave them a “prophecy” in this order:

“Find the dark prophecy Envelope it in your hands Concentrate for twenty counts The answer lies within.”

I made a “prophecy ball” that was “defunct” – all black. It is a plastic DIY clear ornament. Inside, I crumpled up black paper and clear plastic for a wavering look, and then painted “173” on the inside of one half with thermochromatic paint that starts dark grey and goes to pink with body heat. I then mixed some paint to be the shade of dark grey as the “cooled” version of the paint and painted it over the numbers when it dried. This way, when the solvers followed the prophecy and held the ball, when they finished the count to twenty and looked at it, the number “173” was bright and visible.

Marauder’s Map Clue: Requires a 3-digit lock box (either box with built-in lock or container with outside 3-digit lock. Opens with Tarot Card/Prophecy clue. Reveals a Marauder’s Map with a lot of creases and strange silver markings.

When making this clue, print out the included Marauder’s Map printable front and back. Trim white borders. Make up to six sharp folds without unfolding inbetween, with at least several parts overlapping on one side. Write a 4-digit code in silver across these overlaps, then unfold. Use invisible ink to number each fold. Then include other random markings.

This is a bit harder to write out instead of show, so I will include a video.

Chalkboard Clue: A chalkboard filled with notes for History of Magic is prominently on display. This is one of the longer clues to setup and shorter clues to be solved. This clue points to the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and gives two different page numbers.

The easiest way to work with this style of clue is to type out what you would like to write on the board and then go through and bold the numbers and letters that correspond to the book. Make sure all the numbers and letters are available. Then write it all out on the chalkboard with chalk. Erase just the numbers and letters that create the clue, and then paint in white those items. When solvers erase the board, just the clue will be left behind.

Fantastic Beasts Clue: I had to modify the book a little bit. Next to the Basilisk entry, near the bit about the death gaze, is written “indirectly=frozen and frozen=needs mandrake!” in as close as I could replicate to other notes in the book.

Mandrake is underlined in invisible ink.

Under the niffler entry, the letters for marauders are underlined in blue invisible ink, and the letters for map are circled in pink invisible ink.

Niffler Clue: There is a niffler in a locked cage. A clue points to the niffler being important. The cage is locked with the combination from the Marauder’s Map clue.

Inside the niffler’s front pouch is a decoder coin, because it’s shiny and that’s where shiny things go for nifflers.

Mandrake Clue: There is a tray with a number of small plastic plant pots and artificial aquarium plants in the soil. Each one is labeled with a different magical plant from the Harry Potter series.

The one labeled Mandrake has a modeling clay body attached to the aquarium plant and has a key squished inside its body. The Mandrake is labeled as important in another clue.

The key-lock box that this opens has an astronomy chart that is necessary for the final puzzle, the glowscepter (UV light) and the cipher number that is required for the final clue.

Rune Clues: There is a bag of runes in the classroom. They have the rune symbol on one side and a corresponding letter on the other side. To make things easier, I made up a couple of runes to make sure every one of the 26 letters of the alphabet were represented.

The first rune clue is: “Stuck on a word? Try blue.” This is the word that opens a four-letter cryptex (or four-letter lock on a box.)

Opening the cryptex reveals another runic clue that is longer and requires a bit more effort to solve. This one reads: “Potion base locked in supply cabinet. No alohomora necessary. Just manners. Knock thrice!”

Potions Clue: This is where if I had money, I would have bought one of those cool locks that opens with a knocking combination. But I simply have a locked closet.

If a location has a lockable door, place a sign that says “Supply Cabinet” on it and have the key in pocket. When they decode this clue and knock three times, unlock it and provide them with the “potion base” – aka, a clear bottle full of water.

On a nearby table is a set of labeled potion bottles. They are glued onto a base so they cannot be lifted and rearranged or messed with. Either secure the set to the table in some way (and provide a stirring stick with the potion base) or ask the solvers to not move the potions set.

During setup, wrap Crayola Bath Dropz in tissues or other porous or dissolvable material (coffee filters work great). Make a note of the color order. Once the solvers pour in the water, each potion will change the color of the water. These colors correspond to a directional lock that has color dots instead of arrows. This opens a locked student bag. (Which was the hardest thing for them to find for some reason!)

Briefcase Clue: Inside the room is a locked briefcase with two 3-digit locks on either side with silver toggles. Beside each of these locks, on the toggle, is a number (3 and 7). The name Professor Septima Vector is on the briefcase, but solvers may still need help realizing that the practice Arithmancy Exam in the student bag they unlocked is connected.

The exam has 10 questions. 3 is “the number of points a caught snitch is worth in a game of Quidditch (have a pamphlet on Quidditch or the book Quidditch Through the Ages with the reference to points underlined or highlighted – it’s only mentioned once in that book for some reason!). This unlocks one of the briefcase toggles. 7 is “the number of knuts in a galleon.” Have a poster or paperwork somewhere with the current conversion rate for knuts to sickles and sickles to knuts so they can solve this.

Opening both locks reveals an exam schedule with checkmarks for “study progress,” and the only unchecked item is Astronomy. There is also has the final clue coded in a Caesar cipher, which must be solved with the right number and the cipher coin from the niffler clue.

Cipher Clue: I used a Caesar cipher set to 19, so the number 19 was written in large letters and underlined and placed in the mandrake puzzle’s locked box. When solvers set the cipher coin found in the niffler’s pouch to 19, they can then solve the following code: “Kxfxfuxk: tlmkhghfr bl xtlbxlm bg max wtkd tgw paxg rhn ehhd ni!” (Which translates to: Remember: astronomy is easiest in the dark and when you look up!”)

Astronomy Lock: This should prompt the solvers to turn off the lights (or try to cast Nox which will send me over to turn off the lights in the room). If they then look up, glow in the dark planets have been set up on the ceiling. Several have a number of stars next to them. I set up all of the planets and a sun to make it easiest for them to know which was which since glow-in-the-dark planets are hard to make very distinct. (And also including a chart with the planets labeled so prior knowledge is not required.)

The star clusters represent the order in which to input them on the final lock. I bought a DIY lock kit that is meant as a learning toy because it was large and had customizable stickers. Each “digit” on the lock is a planetary symbol. Solvers can use the astronomy chart to know which symbol goes with which planet (and moon) in order to open the final lock.