Horcrux Hunt Escape Room Part 3: Diagon Alley, Slytherin Locket

As noted in the overview post, our horcrux hunt party had (3) locations with (2) horcruxes per location. This allowed for the large number of guests to be broken down into smaller groups and rotate between locations.

Each group was given a clipboard with blank paper to take notes, and a blacklight flashlight.

For the party overview, see THIS post.

The Diagon Alley portion of the party contained the Slytherin Locket & the Hufflepuff Cup horcruxes.

Slytherin Locket: Decoy Locket Challenge

We are introduced to the Slytherin Locket in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. If you aren't brushed up on your Harry Potter, I have included a brief outline below.

[Spoiler alert if you haven't read the books...]

• Professor Dumbledore used the Pensive to introduce Harry to the Gaunt family, the descendants of Salazar Slytherin, who inherited the family locket.
• Tom Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt, sold the locket to Borgin & Burkes, where Hepzibah Smith later purchased it.
• Tom Riddle later killed Hepzibah for both the locket and the cup, and made them both into horcruxes when he became Lord Voldemort.
• Dumbledore eventually found where the locket was hidden, in a seaside cave where Tom had tormented his fellow orphanage children when he was on a field trip under Mrs, Cole's charge. He took Harry with him to help find the locket, with the intent to destroy the horcrux.
• Dumbledore was subsequently killed, and Harry learned that the locket they found in the cave was a decoy - someone with the initials R.A.B. had stolen the real horcrux locket and replaced it with a fake. 
• Harry later found the real locket was acquired by Delores Umbridge.

SO... Our hunt began with a Ministry of Magic Incident Report from Bob Ogden who was dispatched to the Gaunt home. The report referenced the Slytherin Locket, which led the group to understand that they were looking for the Locket horcrux.

Inside of the Dark Arts cabinet, we included a receipt from Borgin & Burkes, dated 1925, from Caractacus Burke for the Salazar Slytherin locket. The receipt was written out to Merope Riddle (as Merope had married Tom Riddle Sr. by this point).

The backside of the receipt is blacklight reactive, and noted, "The key can be found in Chapter 9, Comet Trading Company's first broom. Comet ___"

This led to the Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment's shelves where there was a copy of Quiddich through the Ages. Inside Chapter 9, the answer was Comet 140.

The key #140 opened a locked box in the Dark Arts cabinet.

Inside of the locked box, there is a letter written from Mrs. Cole to her sister which referenced a trip where she took the orphanage children to the seaside and the spooked children who only mentioned a cave.

The word 'cave' was underlined and emphasized in blacklight reactive ink.

The box also included a puzzle that needed to be assembled. The puzzle showed the Pigpen Cipher and a message that was written in the cipher. When they figured out how to decode the message it spelled the following three words:

FIVE

NINE

FOUR

This is only part of the information. Under the black light, the numbers 1, 2, & 3 were next to the decoded numbers. This is the order of the decoded numbers that needed to be used on the next box's lock.

With the CAVE clue and the decoded numbers, the groups needed to find a CAVE.

The word 'Cave' was hidden on a book title in the Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment shelving, "The Story of Ab, A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man."

When pulled off the shelf and opened, the book is actually a book safe. The code found with the clue for 'cave,' #945, was the key to open the book safe.

... where they found a decoy locket.

When the locket was opened, they found a folded slip of paper with the initials R.A.B.

Inside of the folded slip of paper was a message that was scratched out in red ink, with a little red heart drawn in the bottom corner.

On the back of the slip of paper, when the blacklight was used, the word 'LUMOS' was visible in pink invisible ink.

'LUMOS' is the spell for 'light.' There were many candles in Diagon Alley. One of the candles was illuminated in red light. Under this particular candle was a red plastic heart.

The red heart can be overlayed on the scratched out message. When this is done, the message is readable. The message is, "I must not tell LIES."

The message had the word LIES underlined and in all caps. This phrase was the punishment that Delores Umbridge required Harry to write using her Black Quill until the message 'sinks in.' There was one last lock in the room, which was a 4 letter lock on the phoenix cage. The word LIES unlocked this cage...

... and achieved the Slytherin Locket!

Stay tuned for Horcrux Hunt Escape Room Part 4: Hogwarts, Ravenclaw Diadem.

THAT one is my personal favorite. 😁