Horcrux Hunt Escape Room Part 7: Hogsmeade, Peverell Ring

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 Hogshead portion of the party was in our basement. It consisted of Honeydukes, the Owl Post, the Forbidden Forest, and our bar was the Three Broomsticks. The basement contained the Peverell Ring & Nagini horcruxes.

... and it, arguably, held the two most difficult challenges.

Peverell Ring: Math Challenge

The Peverell ring first made an appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The ring was seen in Dumbledore's pensive, owned by Morvolo Riddle, a descendent of Salazar Slytherin. The ring had the Deathly Hallows symbol carved into the stone. 

We later learn, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, that the symbols of the Deathly Hallows was central to the 'Tale of the Three Brothers' in Tales of Beedle the Bard. 

In the 'Tale of the Three Brothers,' the Deathly Hallows symbol's central line symbolizes the Elder Wand, the circle symbolizes the resurrection stone, and the triangle symbolizes the invisibility cloak. Each of the brothers in the fable acquired their gift from Death himself, and the story was rumored to be a story of three real brothers, the Peverell brothers (the Peverell Ring stone was the fabled Resurrection stone).

We tied our Peverell Ring hunt to the Deathly Hallows and the 'Tale of the Three Brothers.'

The key to this particular horcrux hunt was the Three Broomsticks sign...

The hunt began with a Ministry of Magic incident report where Bob Ogden records his visit with the Gaunts. The report underlines the 'Peverell ring' and includes a sketch of the symbol on the ring... a hint to look for the 'Peverell coat of arms.'

The Three Broomsticks sign had charms with the Peverell coat of arms (Deathly Hallows) tied around each of the broomsticks. Each broomstick had 9 runes along the handle - one in silver, one in gold, and one in copper.

When the blacklight was used on the sign, the light revealed that each of the sticks had a Deathly Hallow Symbol, one a line, one a triangle, and one a circle. Each broomstick handle also had a rune that was highlighted in black light.

Once the remaining clues were found, this would 'decode' the numbers needed, and the order, to unlock the horcrux box.

The groups then continued to look for the Deathly Hallows symbol to find more clues.

There was a box in the Owl Post that had a Deathly Hallows charm. Inside of this box was a key...

This key unlocked a locked box in the Honeydukes area of the room, in the Bertie Botts display...

Inside of this box was a math puzzle - it was missing nine digits, all numbers 1-9 needed to be used, none could be repeated...

The instructions began with, "Witches and Wizards, you have found a copper key..." This hinted that these numbers were the decoded copper runes on the Three Broomsticks sign. Though this correlation was difficult to make with this single clue, it became more clear as additional clues were found.

The next clue was in the Owl Post. There were two books on a cabinet in this room. One of the books had a Deathly Hallows symbol on the sides, in invisible ink. The blacklight helped lead to this book.

Hidden inside this book was a sudoku puzzle with the center column outlined. The text reads:

Ron, a muggle puzzle for you and your dad to do together over the holiday. Silver star to you if you can finish! Love, Hermione.

This reference to a 'silver star' hinted that these numbers were the decoded silver runes on the Three Broomsticks sign.

The final Deathly Hallow clue was much more hidden.

In the Honeydukes area of the room was a pair of innocuous boots. Inside a boot they found a poem (signed 'Beedle the Bard').

This poem required a grille cipher to lead to the next clue.

The grille cipher was hidden in a lampshade.

The decoded clue read: Follow this portkey to the Cupboard Under the Stairs

*Nerdy note: The portkey was a boot!

Last year I made a little reading nook Cupboard Under the Stairs for Little Tomato in the storage area under our stairs. The clue led to this space. The poem's author, Beedle the Bard, was a hint to look at the Tales of Beedle the Bard...

Inside the Tales of Beedle the Bard was a picture of a house, with the corner torn off. The corner of the photo was paper-clipped to the original Bob Ogden report clue. This photo was bookmarking the Tale of the Three Brothers... the story about the Peverell brothers and the Deathly Hallows.

The photo had the words 'Gaunt Home' sketched in the corner... and if you looked closely at the roofline of the house, there were nine numbers written in gold. The numbers are readable if you look closely, but the magnifying glass provided with the Bob Ogden report could be used to magnify the numbers.

When the blacklight was used on the Tale of the Three Brothers, the light revealed the order of the broomsticks as the order of the three brothers in the story...

... tied together...

SO...

Now they had the runes decoded and the order of the broomsticks.

We reinforced that the gold, silver, and copper clues matched each broomstick by putting a blacklight reactive Deathly Hallows symbol on each of the clues - and highlighting that this clue matched the specific correlating broomstick by highlighting the coordinating symbol (ex. the Elder Wand line was highlighted in pink invisible ink on the sudoku puzzle which coordinated with the Elder Wand & silver rune broomstick).

The highlighted rune on each of the three broomsticks were the numbers for the horcrux lock.

From the decoded clues, these numbers were 1, 1, & 6. The horcrux was hidden in a locked box in Honeydukes. Put in the correct order, the key to the lock was #161.

And that concludes the horcrux hunt!